 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 926, 19 July 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 28th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
While attention tends to be drawn to the big, mainstream distributions such as Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, and openSUSE, there is a lot of interesting work happening in the smaller corners of the open source community. In our News section we talk about Haiku's team working toward a RISC-V port of the small, desktop operating system. We also talk about Redox OS, an alternative Unix-like operating system working on getting a port of the QEMU virtual machine software. Meanwhile Ubuntu and Debian were in the news this past week as a multi-year plan to support Zstandard compression for packages finally reaches its goal. Gamers got some exciting news too this week as Valve unveiled more details about the Linux-powered Steam Deck portable gaming device. We share details and links on the Steam Deck below. Before we share the details on these developments we first look at rlxos, a Linux distribution featuring the GNOME desktop. The rlxos project aims to make multiple versions of both packages and the underlying operating system live peacefully side-by-side and we talk about how this works from a practical point of view in this week's Feature Story. One method for running different versions of the same application is to install portable package formats such as Flatpak and AppImage. Let us know if you use portable packages in this week's Opinion Poll. In this issue's Questions and Answers column we talk about automatic updates and whether it is safe to run updates without supervision. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: rlxos 2106
- News: Haiku works on RISC-V port, Ubuntu adopts zstd package compression, Redox OS porting QEMU, Steam Deck to run Linux
- Questions and answers: Running a distribution with automated updates
- Released last week: EuroLinux 8.4, Tails 4.20, UBports 16.04 OTA-18
- Torrent corner: EuroLinux, KDE neon, Live Raizo, Mabox, PCLinuxOS, Proxmox, Tails
- Opinion poll: Running AppImage, Flatpak, and Snap
- New distributions: Martine OS
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (12MB) and MP3 (10MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
rlxos 2106
rlxos is an independent Linux distribution which currently provides a single desktop edition with the GNOME desktop for 64-bit (x86_64) computers. The project has an interesting approach to working with software packages and different versions of the operating system. "System boots from a single system image file just like a live boot and save unique cache on hard disk. Multiple version of system images reside together on same partition and you can select which version to use from boot menu."
rlxos also offers a digital assistant and an immutable filesystem. This means the base filesystem remains the same while changes the user makes are stored in a separate layer. This, in theory, means we can revert to a working system at any time by simply not loading the layer with our changes or upgrades. The distribution appears to have a focus on portable packages and its website mentions being able to work with Flatpak, Snap, and AppImage bundles.
Version 2106 is available as a 1.2GB download. Before getting started with rlxos, I think it's worth reading the documentation which covers installing the operating system, some key post-install instructions, and offers suggestions regarding how to find additional applications.
Booting from the project's install media loads a graphical environment. The distribution's graphical system installer immediately launches. The installer suggests we set up a single partition for the OS and offers a button which launches the GParted partition manager. Once we close GParted the next screen of the installer lists partitions it can detect and asks which one should be used for the root filesystem. We are then asked to select a boot disk, I believe so rlxos knows where to install a boot loader. Then we confirm we wish to install the operating system and the installer copies its files to the hard drive.
During the install process the screen locked. We need a password to access the desktop and installer again. I didn't find any mention of the default password in the project's documentation or on its website, but discovered the password is "liveuser". Once the installer finished its work, it terminated and turned me over to a GNOME desktop with a panel placed along the bottom of the screen. To logout or shutdown the computer we can click the system tray and select a shutdown option from the menu which appears.
Early impressions
The first time rlxos boots it launches a graphical environment and presents us with a first-run wizard. The wizard asks us to select our language from a list, confirm our keyboard's layout, and asks if we wish to enable location services. We are asked to confirm our time zone and then given the option to connect with on-line account services such as Nextcloud. The wizard concludes by getting us to make up a username and password for ourselves.
After the wizard is finished we are turned over to the GNOME desktop. A short time later another wizard pops up and gives us a tour of some of the distribution's features. We are told about customizing the desktop and the option of running portable AppImage packages. We are told that instead of installing updates in the usual fashion we can upgrade our system by downloading a new OS image from the project and saving this image in the /run/initramfs/rlxos/system directory, then updating GRUB. The tour window then closes, returning us to the GNOME desktop.
In the future, when we launch rlxos, it boots to a graphical login screen. We can then sign into our account and no welcome or tour window will greet us.
While GNOME Shell has typically placed its panel across the top of the screen with the Activities menu in the upper-left corner, rlxos takes a different approach. The GNOME panel is placed at the bottom. The Activities menu is still placed to the left. Then there is a gap, followed by the application menu, some quick-launch icons, and the system tray. If a lot of icons are placed on the panel, rather than expanding the space icons take, the panel makes it possible to scroll through the icons to the left and right by hovering the mouse over the first or last icon in the list.
The application menu opens a full screen grid of launchers. The icons are somewhat on the small side and the text descriptions under them are truncated if they get longer than a handful of letters. This means the "Clocks" label is always visible, but programs with names longer than Evolution tend to be cut short.
rlxos 2106 -- The application menu
(full image size: 722kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
The rlxos documentation tells us that following a fresh install we should perform a system update and then update our GRUB boot loader. The command to perform an update is "sudo appctl update". Running this command resulted in the system telling me it was already up to date.
rlxos 2106 -- Running the GNOME Web web browser
(full image size: 34kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
The default theme for GNOME uses a lot of white. Text is often grey on a white background and icons are often minimal and flat. This makes the screen bright and text and icons difficult to see, especially in the web browser. Curiously, some programs use a dark theme and are almost entirely black. This can make for a jarring transitioning moving between, for instance, the file manager or terminal (which are mostly white) and the Totem video player (which is almost entirely black).
rlxos 2106 -- White terminal and black video player
(full image size: 30kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Hardware
I started my trial with rlxos running in VirtualBox. The distribution ran smoothly and everything worked well. The GNOME desktop resized dynamically to fit the VirtualBox window and I encountered no stability issues. GNOME was uncharacteristically responsive running on rlxos. Often I find GNOME Shell runs slowly and consumes a lot of memory, but the desktop performed well and used less memory than usual on rlxos.
When I tried the distribution on physical hardware I had poor results. rlxos was not able to boot at all in UEFI mode. When I tried Legacy BIOS mode the operating system would start to boot, but then fail early on and drop to a rescue shell.
Earlier I mentioned rlxos is faster and lighter than most systems running the GNOME desktop I have used in the past. Typically I expect Linux distributions running GNOME to consume between 700MB and 1,000MB of memory. When initially logging in rlxos consumed 650MB. After a minute it would drop to 550MB. Sometimes the system would reduce its footprint to 490MB, about half what I usually see on other distributions (such as Fedora and Ubuntu) running GNOME. A fresh install of the distribution takes up about 1.3GB of disk space, well below average for most desktop distributions.
Applications
rlxos ships with a small collection of applications, virtually all of them from the GNOME family. The GNOME Web web browser, contacts manager, and system monitor are included. The Evolution e-mail client is installed for us along with the GParted disk manager. The Shotwell photo manager and the Totem video player are included. There is also a simple music player. rlxos does not include media codecs for playing audio or video files, though media support can be installed later.
The distribution uses systemd for its init software and runs version 5.8 of the Linux kernel. The distribution does include command GNU command line utilities, but doesn't include manual pages or a compiler.
rlxos 2106 -- Browsing the GNOME settings panel
(full image size: 184kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
While most administrative tasks require using sudo access, there are some tasks the first user can perform without sudo or a credentials prompt. For instance, my regular user could create and destroy user accounts and change the system clock without a password prompt or other form of elevating access. This appears to be a side effect of the user being part of the adm group.
Managing software
The rlxos website talks about using portable package formats, such as AppImage, Flatpak, and Snap. Because of this I was expecting to find a software manager with support for one or more of these technologies included. However, the Flatpak and Snap frameworks are not installed by default and there is no graphical software manager.
The documentation says we can use the appctl command to handle software packages. The appctl software manager is similar to DNF or APT in its style and syntax. We can search for specific software packages, list all available packages, install and remove software all using appctl and some plain English syntax. We can only install one package at a time, specifying multiple packages on the command line with the install keyword causes just the first item to be downloaded.
rlxos 2106 -- Searching for packages with appctl
(full image size: 259kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
There is a limited amount of software in the rlxos repository. There are about 600 packages available at the time of writing. Flatpak and Snap are two of the available packages.
I tried Snap first and, while it did install, the Snap command line tool failed to work. Trying to find or install packages or list available items just caused the command line Snap utility to lock up. I suspect part of the backend for Snap is either missing or not enabled, though the documentation implies we should be able to simply install and start using Snap.
Flatpak worked much better. The Flatpak package automatically sets up the Flathub repository and makes it immediately possible to search for, download, and run Flatpak packages. The syntax of Flatpak is still cumbersome, but it gives us access to a wide range of software. Flatpak packages could be run right away from the command line, but would not be added to the GNOME application menu until I had signed out of my account and signed back in.
The rlxos documentation mentions AppImage and appears to link to two AppImage repositories. One repository turned out to be a catalogue of software which had been packaged as AppImages elsewhere without links to download the listed items. The other repository contained a single AppImage for Firefox. In short, neither of the linked repositories was useful.
I also tried installing the man command and the manual database package from the appctl repository. These installed, but failed to find any manual pages.
Conclusions
I tend to be wary of distributions which reportedly place their focus on one style or type of technology. Whether it's a toolkit, package format, coding language, or philosophy I tend to see distributions with a singular focus as preferring idealism over practicality. There is nothing wrong with idealism, right up to the point where it makes my work more difficult.
For the most part, considering how young rlxos is (its release file says this is version 0.1.0), the distribution feels like it is off to a good start. It's relatively light, has a working package manager (though a sparse repository), and its implementation of GNOME is one of the best performing and least annoying I've encountered. There are certainly points in the distribution's favour and some of the theme issues or security quirks are probably items which will get polished over time.
Where I feel the distribution lacks somewhat is in the areas where, oddly enough, it claims to focus. Its focus is on portable packages and single-file upgrades. As far as I can tell there have been no system-wide upgrades yet for the theory to be tested and there is no portable package support installed by default. Once installed, Flatpak works fairly well, though could be better configured to add application launchers to the menu right away. I never did get Snap running.
The project's website also mentions providing a digital assistant, but this does not appear to be implemented yet. I never found evidence of a digital assistant and the tour wizard suggests it is a feature which is coming later.
There were a few false starts to begin with, but this is a very early release. To the project's credit, what I appreciated about rlxos the most was the documentation. A lot of developers add documentation as an afterthought, but rlxos seems to take documenting key features seriously. Setting up portable packages, installing system upgrades, and installing the operating system are all covered. It was nice to be able to try some of the proposed features without resorting to guesswork.
This project doesn't feel quite ready for daily use yet, but there is some promise in its style, documentation and easy installation process. I'm hoping that, in another year or two, this distribution will be worth visiting again.
* * * * *
As I was finishing this review the developer of rlxos e-mailed to say new install media has been published. The new media, called version 2107, reportedly fixed issues some people had with the boot process. I had hoped this new media would correct the issues I had trying to get rlxos to boot on my laptop. However, the operating system was still unable to boot on physical hardware. At a glance appears to have the same strengths and weaknesses as version 2106.
* * * * *
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
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Haiku works on RISC-V port, Ubuntu adopts zstd package compression, Redox OS porting QEMU, Steam Deck to run Linux
The Haiku team has been working towards a new beta release of their lightweight, desktop operating system. Some of the work being done currently improves support for the RISC-V hardware architecture. "Haiku Inc recently funded RISC-V hardware for two Haiku developers, X512 and kallisti5. They have both been working on the RISC-V port and X512 got it booting to the desktop on virtual machines. The next step is getting it to run on real hardware, and, as expected (if you already have done similar things), the virtual and real hardware don't behave in exactly the same way. Anyway, you can find progress reports on the forums if you want to know more about the low level details of this." The project's latest newsletter offers details on other aspects of the project, including better driver support and error recovery.
* * * * *
The Ubuntu distribution has been working toward getting its APT package manager to support Zstandard (zstd) compression for Deb packages. The work, which has been ongoing for a few years, should allow for smaller packages which can be installed faster. "When Julian Andres Klode and I added initial Zstandard compression support to Ubuntu's APT and dpkg in Ubuntu 18.04 LTS we planned getting the changes accepted to Debian quickly and making Ubuntu 18.10 the first release where the new compression could speed up package installations and upgrades. Well, it took slightly longer than that. Since then many other packages have been updated to support zstd compressed packages and read-only compression has been back-ported to the 16.04 Xenial LTS release, too, on Ubuntu's side. In Debian, zstd support is available now in APT, debootstrap and reprepro (thanks Dimitri!). It is still under review for inclusion in Debian's dpkg." The zstd compression for packages is expected to be used in Ubuntu 21.10 later this year.
* * * * *
The Redox OS project is a lightweight, Unix-like operating system written in the Rust language. The project is currently working to get the QEMU virtualization software running on Redox. This would allow Redox to host other operating systems, such as Windows and Linux distributions, making daily tasks and development easier on one machine without the need to dual-boot. A news post on the Redox website explains the situation: "QEMU: It is an emulator that is capable of emulating various hardware (like Intel or ARM processors) within a software environment (your OS) in order to help run software, that runs only on the above-mentioned hardware. It is capable of emulating entire machines, so that you can test your software in the emulator rather than using the actual machine. I am retrofitting it so that it is capable of running on Redox OS. 'Why?', you ask? It's because, I feel that every OS developer has the dream of making their OS 'self-host' capable. What I mean by that is, currently, the Redox OS toolchain uses one of a few supported Linux distributions to compile the OS code into a binary, after which it can either be run on QEMU or on one of the supported machines. What you cannot do (at the moment), is compile and run Redox OS on QEMU ON Redox OS."
* * * * *
Valve has announced a new portable gaming platform called the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck is expected to run SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system that runs the Steam software and community portals. While previous versions of SteamOS were based on Debian, it looks as through the Deck will run an Arch-based operating system with a KDE Plasma user interface. It has been reported the Deck will run Proton, enabling the Linux-powered device to run games originally developed for Windows.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Running a distribution with automated updates
Leaving-it-running asks: Many users can't be bothered to click a button or run a command to install updates. Is there a distro you can recommend which is stable enough to set up for family and have it auto-update without it breaking?
DistroWatch answers: Most of the major, long-term support distributions such as Debian, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (along with its clones), Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and openSUSE (along with SUSE Enterprise Linux) should all be stable enough and unchanging enough to set them up to automatically update for your family without introducing any surprises or breakages. You can typically do this by running a daily or weekly cron job in the background.
Before you do this though I would suggest stopping to consider a few things. One is that any operating system, no matter how stable, eventually runs into trouble during upgrades. It may not happen often, but virtually every operating system I've used (Linux-based or not) has eventually run into a glitch during an upgrade. Having a plan in place to recover when a system breaks may be more helpful in the long-run than picking a specific distribution and hoping it will remain running steadily.
Some approaches you might consider when it comes to recovering the distribution and files are filesystem snapshots (which are automated during package upgrades in openSUSE), and performing regular data backups to a remote location. Being able to rollback a system update or restore data files back to a fresh re-install of the operating system can save a lot of time.
Something else to consider is educating the people using the computer rather than finding a purely technical workaround to their lack of engagement. Explaining why updates are important and encouraging your family to install new packages when they become available might be better for them in the long term than looking for ways to make sure the system stays up to date in spite of them. The Linux Mint team announced a few months ago a new approach to notifying the user of updates to encourage them to keep the system up to date with security patches. This may be a tactic which will work for your family too, regardless of which distribution they run.
Finally, if you do choose to perform automated updates, try to keep your family's schedule in mind. Updating once a day or once a week in the background may work out just fine until the day someone restarts the computer mid-update. Find out how often they restart the machine and if they leave the computer running at night and maybe run upgrades then. Scheduling an update for when the machine turns on will work great for families who shut down their computer every day, but it will be terrible for people who leave their system running for months at a time. Likewise, people who restart their computer every day are more likely to interrupt daily updates.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
EuroLinux 8.3
EuroLinux is a commercial clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The project's latest release, EuroLinux 8.3, introduces no-cost download options and more open access to information with regards to updates. "EuroLinux 8.3 introduces a number of significant improvements over version 7. We have added new, key functionalities (such as the module streams) and distinguishing features in the form of the possibility of rebuilding the system from sources, or 1 to 1 compatibility with the RPM packages of the RHEL system. EuroLinux technological advantages and distinguishing features. We have modernized our software sharing model. From version 8.3, EuroLinux is available both as a paid subscription and for free in the Open Core model. The advantage of such a solution is to deliver as much value as possible to users and communities. It is a modern, transparent and responsible business model. From version 8.3, every user of EuroLinux and EuroLinux containers receives full system with updates released at the same time for both, paid and free users. The paid version of the system additionally provides: direct manufacturer support, access to errata files, access to additional intermediate packages (if the support service so requires) impact on product development." Further information can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
EuroLinux 8.3 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x080 pixels)
Tails 4.20
The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The project's latest release, Tails 4.20, introduces a new way to connect to the Internet using the Tor Connection Assistant. "Tails 4.20 completely changes how to connect to the Tor network from Tails. After connecting to a local network, a Tor Connection assistant helps you connect to the Tor network. This new assistant is most useful for users who are at high risk of physical surveillance, under heavy network censorship, or on a poor Internet connection: It protects better the users who need to go unnoticed if using Tor could look suspicious to someone who monitors their Internet connection (parental control, abusive partner, school or work network, etc.). It allows people who need to connect to Tor using bridges to configure them without having to change the default configuration in the Welcome Screen. It helps first-time users understand how to connect to a local Wi-Fi network. It provides feedback while connecting to Tor and helps troubleshoot network problems. We know that this assistant is still far from being perfect, even if we have been working on this assistant since February." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
UBports 16.04 OTA-18
The UBports team has announced a new version of the project's mobile-focused operating system. The project, which continues the work of Ubuntu Touch, has published a new update: UBports 16.04 OTA-18. The new update focuses on improved efficiency. "Despite the seeming will of the internet to always have the latest and most powerful technology, we still have a lot of people using devices with just 1GB of RAM. The BQ E4.5 and E5 HD are old devices, sure, but they still work and make a lot of people happy. OTA-18 almost always feels faster than OTA-17 on the same device. Unless you know what to look for, though, it's hard to say why. We've made Lomiri's wallpaper rendering far more efficient in this release. Without going into gorey details, we've managed to coax QML's image loader into only loading one copy of your wallpaper. We've also made it scale down the wallpaper to reduce the number of pixels in RAM at any time. The amount of RAM saved by these changes varies depending on your device and whether you've set a custom wallpaper or not. If you have a custom wallpaper, you save at least 30MB of RAM on any device by upgrading to OTA-18. A larger-resolution wallpaper will use far less RAM on OTA-18 than on OTA-17, but the savings are greater for devices with a low screen resolution, so on an older device like the E4.5 with the default wallpaper, expect to save about 60MB of RAM. You'll also see better performance across the board. With a smaller background image, it's easier for Qt to put together the scene that is displayed on your phone. Faster scene rendering means higher frame-rates no matter what is happening on screen." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
* * * * *
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: 2,525
- Total data uploaded: 39.0TB
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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) |
Running AppImage, Flatpak, and Snap
A few years ago we ran a poll asking whether our readers used portable package formats or if people preferred to use the software in their distribution's traditional package repositories. We've been asked to re-run this question to see if there has been any change in portable package popularity in the past few years.
Do you use any Flatpak, Snap, or other portable packages on your system? Let us know if you've found portable packages to be helpful in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on your favourite branch of Debian in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Running AppImage, Flatpak, and Snap
| I use AppImage: | 312 (15%) |
| I use Flatpak: | 316 (15%) |
| I use Snap: | 119 (6%) |
| I use another portable package: | 21 (1%) |
| I use a combination of the above: | 363 (18%) |
| I use none of the above: | 918 (45%) |
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|
| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Martine OS. Martine OS is a Debian-based distribution which strives to run native Linux, Windows, and Android applications.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 26 July 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 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 |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
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