 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 919, 31 May 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 21st issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
This is not only our 919th issue of DistroWatch Weekly, it is also our 20th anniversary! On May 31, 2021 DistroWatch officially turns 20 with nearly 1,000 Weekly newsletters and over 10,000 release announcements published to our front page. We share more on our growing list of features and observations on Linux's evolution over the past two decades below.
Like clouds, Linux distribution often fade away over the horizon only to be replaced by similar ones. This week we talk about a few distributions which have grown up to take the places of similar, discontinued projects. We begin with a look at EndeavourOS, an Arch Linux-based distribution which is the spiritual successor to Antergos. We talk about setting up Endeavour and how well it continues in the footsteps of Antergos in our Feature Story. This past week we added the VzLinux distribution, a Red Hat Enterprise Linux clone, to our database. This makes the third such distribution to be added to DistroWatch since Red Hat announced it was phasing out CentOS Linux in favour of CentOS Stream. In our News section we discuss PureOS introducing user interface improvements for multiple screen dimensions as Kali Linux unveils a new way to package and share applications with difficult dependencies. Plus we share a report on a new Linux-powered device being made by Valve to run Steam games. In our Myths and Misunderstandings column we explore the commonly held wisdom that gaining physical access to a computer provides root access and the limits of this concept in terms of security planning. Do you use any security methods to guard against people who have physical access to your computer? Let us know about your layers of protection in this week's Opinion Poll. Plus we are pleased to provide a list of recent release and share the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: EndeavourOS 2021.04.17
- News: PureOS updates its user interface, Kali provides seamless application containers, Valve plans new Steam gaming device
- Myths and misunderstandings: Does physical access mean root access?
- Released last week: VzLinux 8.3, AlmaLinux OS 8.4, Univention Corporate Server 5.0-0
- Torrent corner: 4MLinux, ALT, Bluestar, KDE neon, MakuluLinux, OSGeoLive, Raspberry Pi OS, Univention, VzLinux
- Upcoming releases: Tails 4.19, openSUSE 15.3
- Opinion poll: Guarding against intruders with physical access
- DistroWatch turns 20 years old!
- New additions: VzLinux
- New distributions: eznixOS
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
EndeavourOS 2021.04.17
EndeavourOS is a rolling release distribution based on Arch Linux. The project started as a spiritual successor to Antergos and offers both on-line and off-line install options which I will discuss later.
At the moment EndeavourOS is available in just one edition with a single build for 64-bit (x86_64) machines, though an ARM branch of the project is under development. Since I last tried EndeavourOS the project has dropped support for the Deepin desktop at install time due to performance issues. A problem with auto-login has been fixed, and there is an option to switch between themes on the welcome window. The latest snapshot of the distribution no longer includes a button to update packages in the welcome window when running from the live media. The welcome application now has a button for seeing recent project news which will provide information on potential upgrade issues or important changes to the distribution.
I downloaded the project's 1.9GB ISO file and launched the live environment. The live media's boot menu gives us the option of starting the distribution in regular live desktop mode or with support for the latest NVIDIA video cards. Starting the live desktop brings up Xfce 4.16. A panel is placed across the bottom of the screen with an application menu, quick-launch buttons, and a system tray. There are no icons on the desktop which features wallpaper that is mostly purple.
Shortly after loading the Xfce desktop a welcome window appears. This window features two tabs. The first tab presents us with buttons that perform actions. These actions include running the system installer, changing the display's resolution, updating package repository information, and running the GParted partition manager. The second tab lists buttons we can click to open the Firefox browser and access key parts of the EndeavourOS website, such as the forums, wiki, and news sections. All of these buttons in both tabs worked and I found the welcome window acted as a pleasant hub for accessing information and settings.
EndeavourOS 2021.04.17 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 161kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Installing
Endeavour offers two approaches to installing: off-line and on-line. These two approaches act very similarly from the user's point of view. In both cases the Calamares installer is launched. In both cases we are walked through selecting our language from a drop-down list, choosing our time zone from a map, and given the option of tweaking locale information. Both versions of the install process offer guided and manual partitioning. The manual version is quite friendly and supports most Linux filesystems. The guided option will set up a single ext4 filesystem for Endeavour and give us the option of using a swap file, a swap partition, or having no swap space at all. We are then asked to make up a username and password for ourselves.
There are two noticeable differences between the on-line and off-line install processes. When we use the off-line approach Endeavour automatically sets us up with the Xfce desktop and a minimal set of applications. A custom theme is installed for us. When we use the on-line process we are shown a list of software groups Calamares can install right after the disk partitioning screen. The package groups include base components for the core operating system, eight desktop environments and window managers, printing support, and accessibility options. We can expand these groups to pick which specific programs in each group we want to install.
When performing an on-line install fresh packages are downloaded from the Endeavour repositories. This approach takes longer than the off-line process where everything we need is available directly from the local live media. During the on-line install process Calamares occasionally appeared to lock up, sometimes for a few minutes, but it eventually finished its work. When the on-line installation is finished the desktop environment we end up with uses a generic theme.
Early impressions
My new copy of EndeavourOS booted to a graphical login screen. Signing in brought back the Xfce 4.16 session. The welcome window appears again, this time featuring an extra option for installing software updates. There are also some options in the welcome window for switching between the generic Xfce theme (which places a thin panel at the top of the screen and a dock at the bottom) and the custom Endeavour theme which places one thicker panel at the bottom of the screen. Attempting to change themes displays a warning that switching the theme requires a restart. This means we are not only logged out, but the computer reboots once we agree to change the theme.
EndeavourOS 2021.04.17 -- Xfce running the generic theme
(full image size: 155kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
The welcome window has another tab which provides access to some additional, popular software. This tabs presents us with buttons which, when clicked, will install such items as LibreOffice, the Chromium browser, the Gufw firewall tool, and a kernel manager. There are also buttons which will open Firefox and display a list of available software in the Arch Linux repositories.
I tried the welcome window's software update button and found it opened a terminal window which then displayed a list of available updates. I was prompted for my password and then the pacman package manager refreshed its information, listed the available updates again, and offered to install them. It then prompted me as to whether it should proceed or abort. I opted to continue and the update process completed successfully.
EndeavourOS 2021.04.17 -- Running Xfce with the custom EndeavourOS theme
(full image size: 151kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Hardware
When I started using Endeavour it was in a VirtualBox environment. The distribution performed well in the virtual machine. Performance and desktop responsiveness were pretty good and the system ran smoothly. The Xfce desktop did not dynamically resize with the VirtualBox window, but I could adjust the screen resolution using the Xfce Display module.
When I switched over to running Endeavour on my workstation, the distribution performed very well. The system was highly responsive, applications opened quickly, and all of my hardware was properly detected. Endeavour was able to boot in both Legacy BIOS and UEFI modes.
The operating system's default configuration is fairly light. The system consumed just 340MB of RAM when signed into the Xfce and a fresh install used 4.9GB of disk space. This gives us a relatively minimal set of applications, but enough tools to accomplish basic tasks and get started.
Applications
When using the generic Xfce theme the application menu has a classic, tree-style layout. This is fairly simple and easy to navigate. When using the Endeavour theme the application menu uses what looks like a tree-style menu to show categories. However, when we select a category the right side of the menu shows a grid of available applications. This 3x4 grid of icons is also fairly compact and easy to navigate, in my opinion.
EndeavourOS 2021.04.17 -- Running Firefox and a text editor
(full image size: 196kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Browsing through the application menu we find Endeavour ships with the Firefox web browser, the Parole Media Player, a PDF viewer, an image viewer, the Thunar file manager, and a text editor. The distribution ships with codecs for playing popular media formats and Parole handled the media files I threw at it. There are some Endeavour-specific tools such as the welcome screen, one for updating installed packages, and one for selecting software mirrors based on our region. There are also several Xfce configuration modules for customizing the desktop.
This is a fairly sparse collection of software and it means we will be installing a lot of extras if we want to do more than browse the web and look at pictures. Digging further we find the GNU Compiler Collection is installed and the systemd init software is present. Version 5.11 of the Linux kernel is installed for us. Apart from some basic GNU command line utilities this is about the extent of the software provided out of the box.
Software management
When I tried running Endeavour about a year ago, I found the distribution shipped with a graphical software manager. This graphical front end has been removed and now package management relies on the pacman command line package manager. I find pacman to be fast and reliable, but its syntax is a bit unusual and terse. Using a combination of pacman and the tab granting access to some popular applications in the welcome menu eventually gave me access to all the software I wanted.
EndeavourOS 2021.04.17 -- Running LibreOffice after installing it from the welcome window
(full image size: 204kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
By default Endeavour does not ship with support for portable package bundles such as Snap and Flatpak, though the Flatpak framework is available in the distribution's repositories if we wish to add it.
When software updates are available for Endeavour, a notification window pops up in the upper-right corner of the desktop. Clicking this notification does nothing, other than dismiss it, but it lets us know we can install new packages from the command line.
Conclusions
I'm always a little sceptical of on-line installers (also known as network installers) and I frequently had trouble getting Antergos (Endeavour's predecessor) to install properly. I was pleased to find that Endeavour not only supplies an off-line install option, but both its on-line and off-line install processes worked without any problems.
The relatively light default collection of software, along with a friendly welcome window which helps us find information, install a few popular applications, and tweak some settings offered a great first impression of the distribution.
EndeavourOS 2021.04.17 -- Exploring some settings modules
(full image size: 199kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Endeavour ran quickly for me, offered me just enough tools to get up and running, was stable, and worked with all of my hardware. I feel like Xfce is a suitable desktop for the audience Endeavour is reportedly targeting (users with enough experience to be comfortable with the command line) as it balances performance with features. Plus people can install alternative desktops if they wish.
The one piece I felt was missing from Endeavour was a graphical package manager. The distribution previously featured one and I think removing it was unfortunate. When running distributions that start with a minimal number of desktop applications I appreciate the convenience of being able to quickly browse and install popular applications and items I use most days. Thanks to Arch's large collection of up to date software Endeavour can provide everything I want, but installing all of these packages through pacman gets tedious compared to a nice, point-n-click experience.
This concern aside, I really like what the Endeavour team is doing. I'm already finding it faster and more reliable than Antergos was and the project is offering a pleasant, up to date platform without distractions or clutter. I don't think I encountered a bug during my entire time with the distribution, which is a pleasant change of pace. People who like the appeal of Arch's rolling release model while also appreciating a convenient system installer and pre-configured desktop environments will feel right at home with this distribution.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card, Ralink RT5390R PCIe Wireless card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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Visitor supplied rating
EndeavourOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.4/10 from 302 review(s).
Have you used EndeavourOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
PureOS updates its user interface, Kali provides seamless application containers, Valve plans new Steam gaming device
The Purism team is planning a number of important improvements and changes to their PureOS distribution. With PureOS 10 intended to become stable soon there are a number of refinements planned for the user interface. "Aside from the myriad small changes in the various packages in PureOS, a number of rather large changes are worth [a] mention. The most important is the way that GNOME applications have learned to adapt to multiple window sizes. The software library libhandy was built for our Librem 5 phone but works on all our devices. It enables the various chat, email, and other application windows to resize their contents to elegantly present the information inside them. While this has obvious uses on our phone, it can be useful on any device including your car or TV. Simply resize your libhandy enabled app and you'll find you can use your laptop screen real estate efficiently without important info scrolling off the sides. All this magic is called 'convergence'." Details are available in the project's blog post.
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The Kali Linux team is tackling a common problem: difficult to package and maintain software. While many other distributions turn to portable package formats such as Snap and Flatpak, the Kali developers are trying to make use of containers in a way which will be seamless to the user. This approach is balled Kaboxer. "Enter Kaboxer. Using containers we can put in [a] complex non-standard package into a container and integrate it with the rest of the operating system, and bundle it up into the packaging ecosystem. This means you can apt-install a Kaboxer program and use it without needing to take any special steps." More information on Kaboxer is available in the project's announcement.
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Fans of gaming on Linux received some good news this week as Arstechnica has reported Valve is working on a portable gaming platform which is expected to run Linux. "Video game and hardware studio Valve has been secretly building a Switch-like portable PC designed to run a large number of games on the Steam PC platform via Linux - and it could launch, supply chain willing, by year's end. Multiple sources familiar with the matter have confirmed that the hardware has been in development for some time, and this week, Valve itself pointed to the device by slipping new hardware-related code into the latest version of Steam, the company's popular PC gaming storefront and ecosystem." Valve has been working to make its collection of team games work though the WINE-based Proton project which would boost compatibility with any Linux-based device.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Myths and Misunderstandings (by Jesse Smith) |
Does physical access mean root access?
A common piece of computer-related wisdom which gets shared a lot is the idea that if a person has physical access to a computer then they can gain administrative (typically called root) access. The idea is that if someone can gain physical access to a laptop, workstation, or server then they will be able to take control of the computer and its data. Perhaps the intruder will be able to take their time guessing a password, install a key logger, remove the hard drive, or boot from a thumb drive to gain access to files. One way or another there is a belief the intruder will ultimately get access to whatever they want.
This bit of common wisdom is frequently used to explain why someone feels complex passwords are a waste of time, that putting safeguards on system files, or that locking down home directories are pointless endeavours. After all, if someone is able to gain physical access to a computer and take it over then why bother putting effort into protecting against someone invading your server room or stealing your computer?
The truth is the idea that physical access automatically leads to root access is overly simplistic and often incorrect. The concept comes from a specific type of hypothetical scenario where an attacker with nearly infinite time, knowledge of computers, and resources is determined to break into the system. Such a person could, in theory, try guessing common passwords, use a USB thumb drive to try to access the system with root privileges, and (if that didn't work) move on to more complex approaches like installing a hardware keylogger or removing the hard drive to make a copy of it and then put it back to cover their tracks. In such a scenario the attacker can reset the BIOS, has lots of specialized equipment readily on hand, and hours of time in which to try various approaches.
In other words, unless trained government agents are trying to break into your computer while you're away at the office for the day, this scenario is highly improbably. The level of skill and equipment involved in the scenario mentioned above is rare to find outside of an IT professional's workshop.
The truth is computer security is not binary, a system is not either entirely secure or insecure. Proper computer security is made up of layers, with each layer attempting to be good enough to thwart common avenues of attack.
For instance, most average computer users at home will be successfully denied access to a computer's root account using a complex password. Most people don't know how to use a live disc to mount an internal hard drive and browse its files or install programs covertly. Most people don't know how to change GRUB boot parameters in order to change the administrator's password.
There are people who can do these things, or easily teach themselves with some web searches, which is why it is common to encrypt hard drives these days. This deflects the next level of attacks, those involving live discs and removing the hard drive from the computer to copy it.
There are additional steps concerned users can take, such as password protecting their boot loader and placing sensitive files inside an encrypted volume. To take things a step further, someone might use an encrypted file vault which is unlocked using a key on removeable media, making keylogging attacks less effective. Each of these adding another layer of protection against common attacks someone might try.
At this point in the thought experiment we have reached a level of computer security which is difficult to overcome through technical means and it becomes more likely social or legal methods will be employed in order to gain access to the computer's files.
The bottom line is that gaining physical access to a computer does not mean an intruder will gain access to its contents. Primarily because an attacker must not only have the skills and equipment with them to pull off a successful attack, they must also have enough time in which to do it, which is typically unlikely. Usually computer security only needs to be good enough to deflect common, basic attacks. We might use disk encryption to guard against personal files falling into the hands of laptop thieves or we might use password protected boot loaders to avoid an IT professional gaining root access using kernel parameters. It is very rare for someone's computer to be attacked using more sophisticated methods than these and so, for all practical purposes, physical access does not imply gaining root access.
My advice to people who are concerned about security is to figure out what type of attack they are guarding against (curious family members, laptop thieves, corporate espionage, etc) and then put security into place to protect against those specific threats. There is no absolute security just like, in most situations, there is no perfect, well-equipped intruder trying to break in.
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Tips and answers to misunderstandings can be found in our Tips and Tricks archive.
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| Released Last Week |
OSGeoLive 14.0
Astrid Emde has announced the release of OSGeoLive 14.0, the latest version of the project's specialist, Lubuntu-based distribution featuring a collection of open-source geospatial software and free world maps: "The OSGeoLive team is proud to announce the release of version 14.0 of the OSGeoLive GIS software collection. We would like to dedicate this version to our friend Malena Libman who passed away shortly before OSGeoLive 14.0 was released. Highlights for this release include: based on Lubuntu 20.04.1 'Focal'; new applications - pygeoapi, Re3gistry, GeoStyler; version updates to most of the included packages; the Virtual Machine edition now includes applications that could not fit into the ISO image; additional Python modules like Fiona, rasterio, cartopy, pandas, geopandas, mappyfile, Jupyter; improved documentation and four new translations, now supporting: English, Deutsch, Español, Suomen kieli, Français, Italiano, 日本語, Magyar; 100% translation to Hungarian and Spanish; improved Quickstart for OpenStretMap."
OSGeoLive 14.0 -- Running the LXQt desktop
(full image size: 4.9MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Univention Corporate Server 5.0-0
Univention Corporate Server (UCS) is an enterprise-class distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. It features an integrated management system for central administration of servers. The distribution's latest release is Univention Corporate Server 5.0-0 which is based on Debian 10 and uses a new dark theme for the web interface. "The fifth major release of Univention Corporate Server is ready and available for download. UCS 5.0 contains new features, has a fresh look, comes with several improvements and bug fixes. The new version also uses a new core: UCS 5.0 is based on Debian 10 (Buster) and Python 3. In this blog post, I would like to introduce the most important changes, give tips for the upgrade process and reveal what we're planning for future releases. Univention Corporate Server features a new dark look, also visible during the installation, which gives the distribution a modern and elegant, yet tidy touch. The clean look is also present in the web interface: many areas have been visually reduced. The tiles in the portal, for example, now appear in a new colour theme." Further details can be found in the release announcement and in the release notes.
AlmaLinux OS 8.4
AlmaLinux OS is an open-source, community-driven project that is built from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). AlmaLinux OS introduces support for Secure Boot. "You can read more about it by checking out the Release Notes. The biggest change you'll notice is that the #1 most requested feature, Secure Boot, is now fully supported in this release. Other changes include OpenSCAP support, the release of a devel repo and some new module streams and some compiler updates. You can also find a link to the upstream release notes there, which will provide you with a complete list of changes and updates to this release. Changelog: Secure Boot is now fully supported; OpenSCAP security profiles are now ready for production; the 'devel' repository released with extra packages and build dependencies not included in upstream distribution; the 'PowerTools' repository is now disabled by default to match upstream distribution and moved to separate file...." While not yet available, a ARM port for AlmaLinux OS. Further information can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
Oracle Linux 8.4
Simon Coter has announced the release of Oracle Linux 8.4, the latest update from the project that develops an enterprise-class Linux distribution supported by Oracle and built from source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL): "Oracle is pleased to announce the availability of the Oracle Linux 8 Update 4 for the 64-bit Intel and AMD (x86_64) and 64-bit Arm (aarch64) platforms. Oracle Linux brings the latest open-source innovations, business-critical performance, and security optimizations for cloud and on-premises deployment. Oracle Linux maintains user space compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and CentOS, which is independent of the kernel version that underlies the operating system. Oracle Linux 8 Update 4 includes the UEK R6 Update 2 on the installation image, along with the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK). For new installations, UEK R6 is enabled and installed by default and is the default kernel on first boot." Continue to the release announcement for a list of new features and improvements. The detailed release notes provide further technical details.
VzLinux 8.3
VzLinux is the latest of the growing numbers of Red Hat Enterprise Linux clones and another potential alternative for those thinking to migrate away from the abandoned CentOS 8 distribution. It is a completely free and open-source product developed by Swiss-based Virtuozzo International GmbH and it compliments its range of specialist commercial solutions based on VzLinux. Yesterday, the company announced the release of VzLinux 8.3 to the general public: "Virtuozzo, a global leader in high-efficiency virtualization and hyperconverged software solutions, today released its latest VzLinux operating system (VzLinux 8) to the general public. VzLinux - an enterprise distribution - has been used by Virtuozzo as a base OS for the company's OpenVz virtualization solution and other commercial products as well as a guest OS for more than 20 years. Web hosting service providers and other end customers deploying the technology gain the immediate benefits of a stable, long-term supported Linux distro maintained by the open-source community. VzLinux 8 is a free, multi-purpose distro optimized to run in containers, virtual machines or on bare-metal servers." Here is the full press release.
VzLinux 8.3 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 2.3MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
ALT Linux 9.1 "Simply"
Michael Shigorin has announced the release of ALT Linux 9.1 "Simply" edition, a variant of the project's independently-developed distribution aimed at home desktop and available for several popular processor architectures. It comes with the Xfce 4.14, desktop and Linux kernel 5.10. The supported architectures include x86_64, i586, aarch64, armh (armv7a), mipsel, riscv64, e2kv4/e2k (beta). The i586 flavour can be used on systems with just 512MB of RAM. The 9.1 release has Vulkan support on x86 and UEFI compatibility on ARM boards (e.g. Raspberry Pi 3 and 4), while OBS Studio is available as an installation option. The system comes with version 4.13 of the RPM package manager, systemd 246.13, Chromium 89 on x86, Firefox ESR 52.9.0 on e2k* and 78.10.0 on other architectures, Thunderbird 78.8.0, LibreOffice 7.0.5, GIMP 2.10.18, Audacious 3.10.1, Pidgin 2.13.0, VLC 3.0.11.1, Wine 5.20, X.Org Server 1.20.8 and Mesa 20.3.5. See the release announcement (in Russian) for further information.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,460
- Total data uploaded: 38.0TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Guarding against intruders with physical access
In this week's Myths and Misunderstandings column we discussed various ways people guard their computers and files against an intruder with physical access. What measures do you have in place to protect your operating system and files against unauthorized users? Do you encrypt your data, use boot loader passwords, physical locks? Let us know about how your guard your data in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on self-hosted network services in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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I guard my files with
| File/vault level encryption: | 64 (6%) |
| Disk encryption: | 142 (13%) |
| Boot loader password: | 22 (2%) |
| Complex account password: | 153 (14%) |
| BIOS/start-up password: | 37 (3%) |
| Physical locks: | 8 (1%) |
| A combination of the above: | 246 (23%) |
| All of the above: | 10 (1%) |
| None of the above: | 378 (36%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch turns 20 years old!
This week (on May 31st) DistroWatch turns 20 years old! We have been publishing package information, news highlights, and announcements about new distribution releases for 20 years! Along the way we've added many new features, including user reviews of distributions, search features to help people find specific operating systems, a list of vendors selling Linux-compatible hardware, and articles which answer questions from our readers.
These days we seed torrents, provide examples of common Linux commands in action, track releases of over 200 open source packages, and provide updates on nearly 300 active Linux distributions (along with a few other open source operating systems).
The computing landscape has changed quite a lot in the past twenty years. When DistroWatch was started we didn't have smart phones, ARM processors, Raspberry Pi computers, desktop environments with 3-D effects, and Microsoft seemed more inclined to wipe out Linux than support it on its cloud servers. Actually, come to think of it, we didn't have cloud computing yet (in the modern sense) when DistroWatch first launched.
In the previous two decades we have kept track of Linux distributions as they grew from niche operating systems used by a small number of people, mostly on servers, to one of the world's most widely used pieces of software. Linux now powers the majority of phones, web servers, super computers, the Internet of Things (IoT), and tens of millions of desktop machines. We are excited to see what the next two decades brings in terms of computing and evolutions in Linux. We hope you'll continue to join us on the adventure!
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New distributions added to database
VzLinux
VzLinux, a product of Virtuozzo International GmbH, is a free and open-source distribution built from the source code for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is available in three different flavors - optimized for running in high-dense system container, virtual environments and as a bare-metal image. It is also supported as a guest operating system under different hypervisors (Virtuozzo, OpenVZ and KVM) with templates in hyperscaler marketplaces. The project also provides a ready-to-use conversion utility for simple and on-the-fly conversion from CentOS 8 to VzLinux 8, plus the possibility to convert CentOS 7 directly to VzLinux 8.
VzLinux 8.3 Beta -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 2.3MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
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New distributions added to waiting list
- eznixOS. eznixOS is a Debian-based spin which features the Xfce desktop and some custom build and customization scripts.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 7 June 2021. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Pear Linux
Pear Linux was a French Ubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution. Some of its features include ease-of-use, custom user interface with a Mac OS X-style dockbar, and out-of-the-box support for many popular multimedia codecs.
Status: Discontinued
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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