 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 921, 14 June 2021 |
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: 8.9/10 from 57 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.
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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 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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P!tux Linux
P!tux Linux was an operating system of the Linux family, based on Slackware Linux distribution and on kernel 2.2.x. It can be installed both on an ext2 filesystem (on a dedicated partition) or on a DOS filesystem (as a loopback device). It can be installed from DOS, Linux, in umsdos mode or via FTP. Basic installation requires a 486 PC with 8 MB RAM and 105 MB minimum hard disk space. During the installation another 150 MB will be used.
Status: Discontinued
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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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