 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 921, 14 June 2021 |
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Welcome to this year's 23rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
While the capabilities of hardware marches ever-forward, with computers becoming faster and more powerful each year, there is always a segment of the population which appreciates distributions which run on older hardware that continues to function. This week we begin with a look at Bodhi Linux, an Ubuntu-based distribution which features the lightweight Moksha desktop and a small resource footprint. Read on to learn how this distribution balances modern features while remaining suitable for older equipment. In our News section we visit a review of FreeBSD written from the perspective of a NetBSD developer. We also share news on Slackware upgrading its kernel, moving away from the current long-term support kernel while UBports expands to support more mobile devices. We also link to a public discussion with Fedora's Matthew Miller and report on Mageia 7 nearing the end of its supported life. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we explore how to treat multiple storage devices as one, big filesystem. Do you merge multiple drives together on your own computer? Let us know what method you use to combine storage space in this week's Opinion Poll. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Bodhi Linux 6.0.0
- News: FreeBSD from a NetBSD developer's perspective, Slackware updating to a newer kernel, UBports installs on more devices, Mageia 7 nearing its end of life, Matthew Miller answers community questions
- Questions and answers: Combining the storage space of multiple disks
- Released last week: GeckoLinux 153.210608, Redcore Linux 2101
- Torrent corner: Absolute, CloudReady, GeckoLinux, Mabox, MakuluLinux, Manjaro, PakOS, Redcore, SalientOS, Venom
- Opinion poll: Do you have a multi-device filesystem?
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (13MB) and MP3 (10MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Bodhi Linux 6.0.0
Bodhi Linux is a member of the Ubuntu family which features the Moksha desktop environment. Moksha is a fork of the popular Enlightenment window manager which has been customized to better fit with the Bodhi Linux project. The latest release of Bodhi is version 6.0.0 which is based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Bodhi is available in several flavours, including one regular, fairly minimal edition; a hardware enablement (HWE) edition which features a newer kernel; and an AppPack edition with extra applications installed. A Legacy edition is planned which offers support for older, 32-bit machines with no PAE support, though at the time of writing the download link for the Legacy edition is not working.
I decided to download the default edition for 64-bit computers. The ISO I downloaded was 832MB in size. Booting from this media brings up a menu where we are invited to Try or Install Bodhi. There is also an option to try the live desktop environment in safe graphics mode.
Taking the Try option brings up a graphical environment. A window appears and shows us a list of languages accompanied with country flags. We are asked to pick one. Then we are shown another list of country flags and languages and asked to pick one that matches our keyboard's layout. After our selection is made the Moksha desktop loads.
The default theme uses a lot of flat, green icons on a charcoal background while text is mostly white on charcoal. I typically don't like flat icons, but Bodhi tends to make icons rather large and typically matches icons with text or tool tips which make the interface easier to navigate.
The Moksha desktop places a panel at the bottom of the screen with an application menu to the left and a system tray to the right. A list of open windows is displayed in the middle. Icons on the desktop offer to launch the system installer and provide help. Over to the right side of the desktop are two widgets, one for switching between virtual desktops and the other provides clock and calendar information.
Bodhi Linux 6.0.0 -- The Moksha desktop and application menu
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
The Help icon on the desktop opens a web browser to display local documentation pages which explain what Bodhi is, how to navigate the Moksha desktop, and get connected to the Internet. The documentation offers additional helpful information pages and links to an on-line wiki. The documentation provided is clear and nicely laid out.
Installing
Bodhi uses the Ubiquity installer which is used by most Ubuntu-based distributions. The installer asks us to pick our preferred language and offers us a link to the project's release notes. We are then walked through confirming our keyboard layout. We're asked whether we wish to download available updates and third-part packages for wireless networking and media codec support. When it comes time to partition the hard drive we can take a friendly, straight forward manual partitioning screen. Alternatively we can use a guided option. The guided option offers to take over all available free space and set up an ext4, LVM, or ZFS volume. The default is to use ext4 and the guided option also sets up a swap file for us. We are asked to select our time zone from a map of the world and make up a username and password for ourselves. The distribution is then quickly copied to the hard drive and Ubiquity offers to restart the computer. The whole process with Ubiquity was pleasantly painless.
Early impressions
Bodhi boots to a graphical login screen with green wallpaper. Signing into the account we make through Ubiquity quickly loads the Moksha desktop. The desktop is pleasantly responsive, uses large icons, offers tool tips for most things, and features a classic tree-style application menu. There are not many applications installed, but I will explore what is available later in this review.
Hardware
I started my trial with Bodhi Linux in a VirtualBox environment. Bodhi ran quickly in this test environment. The distribution offered short boot times, the desktop was unusually fast to response, and tasks completed quickly. My only concern was that the Moksha desktop did not automatically resize to match the dimensions of the VirtualBox window. There is a display settings module in the application menu which will change the resolution of the desktop. This display resizing module appears to be available only through the application menu; I did not find it in the settings panel.
When I tried Bodhi on my laptop the distribution ran smoothly. All my hardware was detected, the distribution could boot in UEFI and Legacy BIOS mode, and the operating system was perfectly stable the entire week.
The Bodhi distribution is unusually lightweight. It requires about 160MB of RAM to login to Moksha and a fresh install only consumed 3.6GB of disk space, plus any swap area we enable. This makes Bodhi one of the smallest (in RAM) distributions I have used which also offers a feature-rich desktop environment.
The Moksha desktop
The Moksha desktop is different in a few ways from most other modern desktop environments. Some aspects, such as the panel, application menu, and system tray are similar. Unlike most other desktop environments clicking on the desktop opens an application menu.
Moksha makes use of desktop widgets, which it calls gadgets. These gadgets can be placed on the panel or around the desktop. Right-clicking on a widget usually provides access to settings and the option to move or close the selected widget. Sometimes when a widget is near the edge of a screen its menu is not displayed properly and this can make it difficult to adjust or remove the target gadget.
At first I had trouble finding a way to add new gadgets to the desktop. I never did find a way to do this directly. I discovered I could right-click on the desktop panel, then click "start moving gadgets", then select Contents, and then select a new widget to add to the panel. Then I could right-click on a gadget to move it to the desktop. This is quite indirect and I suspect there is an easier way to perform this action, but it was not immediately obvious.
Bodhi Linux 6.0.0 -- Adjusting the clock gadget
(full image size: 899kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Menus and options screens, particularly those for gadgets, work differently on Moksha than when using other desktop environments. Such windows often do not have a Close button. Instead, clicking outside of a widget usually closes its options window. However, if we end up clicking on an empty part of the desktop then it will open the application menu without closing the options window and then we end up with two components cluttering the screen. This takes some getting used to and I often found exploring application and widget menus awkward as a result. It's not that Moksha's approach doesn't work, but it works differently from virtually every other desktop interface and that takes a period of adjustment.
Applications
Bodhi ships with a small collection of applications. The Chromium web browser is included along with the Leafpad text editor and the Ephoto image viewer. The Thunar file manager is installed for us along with a bulk file renamer. The distribution provides manual pages and the GNU Compiler Collection. In the background Bodhi runs the systemd init software and version 5.4 of the Linux kernel.
The applications which ship with the distribution all worked for me. I did make a few notes during my trial of interesting aspects which stood out. For instance, the Terminology virtual terminal flashes red when the terminal bell sounds. This visual and auditory notification gets annoying quickly as it happens any time the terminal wants attention or the user presses Backspace one too many times at a prompt.
When running software from the command line, if a program we tried to run is not found on the system, Bodhi will try to find it in the distribution's repositories. When the proper package is found we will be shown the command required to install the missing package. This happens quite quickly and there is almost no delay most of the time.
Chromium's default home page shows local copies of the project's documentation. The provided documentation offers tips for, among other things, setting up network connections. This is a thoughtful touch - making sure people can get on-line when they want to use the web browser, and gives a good early impression of the distribution.
Bodhi Linux 6.0.0 -- Opening Chromium to find documentation
(full image size: 659kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Settings panel
The Moksha desktop includes a settings panel. This panel places categories of options across the top of the window. These categories include such items as Look, Screen, Windows, and Language. Clicking one of these category buttons shows settings modules listed below for that category. Clicking a module in the list opens a separate window to display the individual options.
Bodhi Linux 6.0.0 -- The settings panel
(full image size: 621kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Modules usually use text to convey information with check boxes to toggle a feature on/off. The modules have a sort of classic look to them which I think would feel at home in an operating system from the 1990s. It took me a while to get accustomed to the way some modules display information. There were times I wasn't certain if an indicator was meant to be clicked or was showing me status and was non-interactive. Despite these initial stumbles once I got used to the settings modules they all worked quickly and functioned properly.
Software management
Apart from the APT command line tools, Bodhi ships with two utilities for managing software packages. One is the Synaptic package manager. Synaptic is a classic package manager which gives us low-level access to working with software. It offers tools for updating, installing, and removing packages. It can also manage repositories. Synaptic mostly pulls software from Bodhi's package mirrors and it also grabs security updates from Ubuntu's repositories. Synaptic is a little awkward to use because of way it defaults to displaying massive amounts of low-level packages. However, it did work quickly and successfully.
The second tool included in the distribution is the Bodhi AppCentre. Clicking the AppCentre's launcher opens a web browser and brings us to a website that features 19 categories of packages, each one containing just a few applications. This website offers a mini curated repository with popular desktop applications. Available items include LibreOffice, Firefox, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, and the Transmission bittorrent client.
Bodhi Linux 6.0.0 -- The Bodhi AppCentre
(full image size: 676kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
We can click a category, then click an entry in the category, then read its description and click an Install button to download the item. Once we click the Install button, the browser asks us to confirm we want to open the item, then we are asked to confirm we want to install the package, and then we are asked for our password. This happens with each download and we cannot queue downloads. We need to wait for each one to finish before installing the next item. This makes working with the AppCentre slow, but the minimal number of programs and the clean interface means it is quite easy to navigate. One of my few complaints with the AppCentre is its text tends to be grey on white (or sometimes bright orange on white) which I find difficult to read.
The AppCentre appears to include programs available through Synaptic (and APT) so it doesn't offer additional software, just a more user friendly way to browse and find popular applications.
Conclusions
In the past, when I have reviewed Bodhi Linux, I've typically stated that whether you enjoy the distribution or not will depend largely on what you think of the Enlightenment (or these days Moksha) desktop. If you like Moksha, like its quirky approach, its super lightweight nature, and its unusual green-focused style then you will probably love Bodhi Linux. However, if you find using Moksha frustrating or just too alien compared to other desktops, then Bodhi will probably leave you with an unpleasant feeling.
I believe the above statement is probably still true - whether you enjoy Bodhi will depend largely on whether navigating Moksha feels like coming home or like you're trying to learn an alien language from a Martian with a lisp. However, maybe I'm warming up to Bodhi or maybe the distribution has polished some of its features because I found myself more at home with it this time around. I liked that Bodhi was so lightweight (with a surprisingly small resource footprint). I like that the distribution is easy to install, thanks to Ubiquity, and I like that an effort is made to provide access to popular applications through the AppCentre. I'm still not a big fan of Moksha, but I do think the new theme and default widgets are making it more appealing than the last few times I ran its parent desktop, Enlightenment.
All in all, Bodhi offers a lot of good things - ease of use, easy to install, light, fast, good hardware support - while having few negative points. I had a mostly good experience with the distribution and, apart from wrestling with Moksha's unusual approach to some tasks, enjoyed my time with the operating system. I especially think it is a good option for resurrecting older computers.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a de-branded HP laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: Intel i3 2.5GHz CPU
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 700GB hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Wired network device: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast
- Wireless network device: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless network card
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
Bodhi Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.2/10 from 81 review(s).
Have you used Bodhi Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
FreeBSD from a NetBSD developer's perspective, Slackware updating to a newer kernel, UBports installs on more devices, Mageia 7 nearing its end of life, Matthew Miller answers community questions
Most of the time we talk about differences in technology and style between Linux distributions. It is less common for us to read comparisons of the various flavours of BSD. This week we are able to share a rare treat of a NetBSD developer test driving FreeBSD and comparing the two. "FreeBSD Jails are very nice. NetBSD doesn't really have a comparable feature, although it does have hardened chroots which are commonly used as sandboxes. On NetBSD, there is a surprising amount of tooling for working with chroot sandboxes - my favourite is sandboxctl. It is really quite amazing for what it is, with a few commands you have a NetBSD/i386 8.0 shell on a NetBSD/amd64 9.2 host machine. It even automatically handles downloading the operating system. With FreeBSD it seems recommended to use the bsdinstall tool (this is just the normal FreeBSD installer program) to set up jails, which is quite surprising." The full article has several more comparisons between the two operating systems.
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In the past Slackware Linux has typically shipped with versions of the Linux kernel which were tagged for receiving long-term support. For instance, Slackware 14.2 shipped with version 4.4 of the Linux kernel which was expected to be supported from January 2016 through to February 2022. Originally it was thought the next stable release of Slackware would ship with Linux 5.10 (supported from December 2020 through to December 2026). However, issues with the 5.10 kernel have caused this approach to be reconsidered. "Probably the highlight of this update set is that we've decided to abandon the 5.10 LTS kernel in favor of following the latest one. We've never really had a policy that required LTS in a stable release although that is how it has been done for years, but based on comments from the Slackware
community it seems like 5.10 LTS isn't getting a lot of love and lacks hardware support that people need now. Conversely, the reports on 5.12 have been almost entirely positive, so we're going to provide what we think is the best available kernel. It's unlikely that we'll see another LTS prior to release, so the plan for maintenance is to keep following the latest kernels as needed for security purposes." Further information on this situation can be found in the Slackware changelog.
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The UBports team has published a new blog post in which the developers talk about efforts and hurdles involved in upgrading UBports to version 20.04. There is also some information on new phones being added to the list of devices the UBports automated installer can handle. "Some new devices are starting to come onstream. Six in total in the installer, in the past couple of weeks. Ari has ported the LG G4. The Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL are both now in there. Those are courtesy of Florian. The Pixel 3aXL was done by Alfred. The OnePlusFive/5T has been done by Vince. Also the Xiaomi Poco F1 by Joel is in, together with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 by Nikita." The growing list of ported devices can be found on the project's Devices page.
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The Mageia team have announced that, following the release of Mageia 8 earlier this year, Mageia 7 will soon reach the end of its supported life. "Mageia 8 was released Feb 26th, 2021.
Mageia 7 will receive updates up until the 30th of June, including security updates. It is then highly recommended upgrading to Mageia 8 as soon as possible. As usual, before the upgrade, do a thorough backup of your data and documents." Upgrading tips are offered in the announcement.
* * * * *
Matthew Miller is the Fedora Project Leader. In what has become a semi-regular tradition, Miller has taken to Reddit to answer questions put forward by the community. Questions put to him along with his answers are available for viewing in this thread.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Combining the storage space of multiple disks
Bringing-it-all-together asks: I have a 1TB SSD and a 750GB mechanical drive. Is there any way I can combine the storage of the two so I've got 1.75TB of space without fussing about with which files are on which drive?
DistroWatch answers: Yes indeed, you can merge the available storage space from both drives into one filesystem volume. On Linux there are two main approaches to treating multiple drives or partitions as one collective storage space that is accessed as one big disk.
The first approach is to use Logical Volume Management, which is typically referred to as simply LVM. LVM is the traditional way to treat multiple storage devices as one big disk on Linux and it's relatively complex. LVM essentially consists of three layers. These three layers are physical volumes (PV) which are the actual disks or partitions you want to use. We initialize these and then combine them into Volume Groups (VG). A Volume Group is a bit like one big, virtual hard drive you can then partition into sections. These sections are called Logical Volumes (LV). A Logical Volume is like a regular partition, but it can span across multiple devices inside the Volume Group.
In short, LVM allows us to group a bunch of separate physical devices together into one big, virtual hard drive. Then divide that merged drive into separate filesystems, like we would normally divide a single drive into partitions. You can see tutorials on how to set up LVM and install Linux on a LVM in past articles we have published.
If LVM seems unnecessarily complicated, by modern standards it is. Some Linux distributions have system installers which make the process of using LVM easier, but it's still more complex of a concept than most people need to deal with.
Modern systems are typically better off using a filesystem specifically designed to handle working with multiple storage devices. Btrfs and ZFS are both advanced filesystems which can easily span multiple hard drives and do not require several special commands or extra layers to manage.
The system installers of some distributions will handle setting up ZFS for you, but for those that do not, it's possible to set up multi-disk volumes with relatively little effort. With ZFS all we need to do is run the zpool command like this:
zpool create pool-name /dev/device-name1 /dev/device-name2
Where device-name1 and device-name2 are the names of the disks or partitions we want to add to the ZFS storage pool. Then the pool is treated as one big directory on your system and can span as many disks as you like. The FreeBSD Handbook has some great examples for working with ZFS.
While Btrfs uses a slightly different approach, the overall concept is similar. With Btrfs usually the system installer sets up the initial disk volume for us on one device and then we can add new disks to the storage volume as needed. For example, if the system installer set up our root partition on the first disk (/dev/sda), then we could add our second disk to the volume by running the command:
btrfs device add /dev/sdb /
At this point you would have two disks both acting as one big filesystem. We can also add new disks as desired or swap out old disks for newer ones using Btrfs and ZFS's built-in commands.
Whichever approach you take, LVM or an advanced filesystem like Btrfs, the operating system will treat your two physical storage drives like one big disk, allowing for seamless 1.75TB storage in one joined filesystem.
* * * * *
Answers to other questions can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
GeckoLinux 153.210608
GeckoLinux is a Linux spin based on the openSUSE distribution, with a focus on polish and out-of-the-box usability on the desktop. The project's latest release is based on openSUSE 15.3 which offers binary compatibility with SUSE Linux Enterprise. "GeckoLinux is pleased to announce the 153.210608 update to its full range of STATIC and NEXT editions. These updated editions are now based on the new openSUSE Leap 15.3 release, which in turn is built from SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) packages. The Linux kernel is still at version 5.3.18, but additional backports are included for better compatibility with newer hardware. GeckoLinux in turn continues to refine its package selection and unique configuration to provide a simple, clean system that works out of the box. For this GeckoLinux STATIC release, the Calamares installer is now at version 3.2.36, and has been configured to use the Btrfs filesystem with LZO transparent compression by default for the guided partitioning options, although of course all other modern Linux filesystems are also available with the custom partitioning option." Additional information can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
Redcore Linux 2101
Ghiunhan Mamut has announced the release of Redcore Linux 2101, the latest stable release of the project's Gentoo-based distribution whose goal is to "bring the power of Gentoo Linux to the masses": "More than a year after our previous stable release, I'm happy to announce that Redcore Linux Hardened 2101 ('Orion') has reached the stable milestone. Changelog: rsync with Gentoo's testing tree as of 2021-05-31; built using Gentoo's new profiles, for details read here; Linux kernel 5.11.22 as the default, 5.10.40 LTS and 5.4.122 LTS Legacy in repositories; glibc 2.32, GCC 10.2.0, Binutils 2.35 and&& LLVM 12.0.0 toolchain; Mesa 21.1.1, libdrm 2.4.106, X.Org Server 1.20.11 graphics stack; ALSA 1.2.5, PulseAudio 13.0, GStreamer 1.16.3 audio stack (no pipewire, as per our testing it breaks audio or bluetooth or both); KDE Plasma 5.21.5, KDE Frameworks 5.82, KDE Applications 21.04.1 desktop stack; rich web browser selection with Firefox 89.0, Chromium 91.0.4472.77, Google Chrome 91.0.4472.77, Opera 76.0.4017.154, Vivaldi 3.8.2259.42, Microsoft Edge 91.0.864.37, Falkon-3.1.0; Flatpak is supported out of the box, just enable Flathub in Discover (do not follow any 'flatpak on Gentoo' guides you find online, Flatpak support is built-in in Redcore); no more passwords for the live environment, the ISO image will boot straight into Plasma...." Continue to the release announcement for a full changelog and errata.
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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: 2,483
- Total data uploaded: 38.3TB
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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) |
Do you have a multi-device filesystem?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about a few approaches to spanning one filesystem across multiple storge devices. These days using multiple hard drives as one big storage pool is often accomplished using advanced filesystems like ZFS and Btrfs. However, there are other approaches. Do you have a filesystem that extends across multiple drives? Let us know about your setup in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on writing ISO files to thumb drives in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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To span multiple devices I use
| Btrfs: | 104 (8%) |
| LVM: | 131 (10%) |
| HAMMER: | 7 (1%) |
| ZFS: | 80 (6%) |
| Another approach: | 98 (7%) |
| I do not have multi-device filesystems: | 906 (68%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 21 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 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Full list of all issues |
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AlmaLinux OS
AlmaLinux OS is an open-source, community-driven project that is built from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). AlmaLinux is a completely binary compatible fork of RHEL and it is maintained by AlmaLinux OS Foundation which is a register non-profit.
Status: Active
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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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