 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 930, 16 August 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 32nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Over the past six months there have been a lot of new Red Hat Enterprise Linux clones created. Following the announcement CentOS Linux 8 was going to be discontinued at the end of this year, several new clones, duplicating CentOS Linux's goal, have been released. These clones, while very similar, are not identical and you may be wondering why we have so many. We talk about CentOS Linux replacements and why so many of them exist in this week's Questions and Answers column. Have you picked a CentOS replacement? Let us know which new Red Hat clone is your favourite in this week's Opinion Poll. We also talk about Zorin OS unveiling a new Pro edition with a number of interesting features. Plus we report on the Debian team breathing new life into the Debian support forums while Parabola adds new accessibility features to its install media. First though we take a look at two dissimilar distributions: EasyNAS and Solus. EasyNAS has reached its 1.0.0 milestone and we talk about the distribution's first impressions. Meanwhile Solus has published a small update for the desktop distribution and we talk about the changes and polish the new version brings. 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: EasyNAS 1.0.0 and Solus 4.3
- News: Zorin OS to offer Pro edition, Debian breathes new life into its forums and releases new Hurd version, Parabola adds accessibility feature
- Questions and answers: Comparing CentOS replacements
- Released last week: Debian 11, Debian Edu 11.0.0, elementary OS 6.0
- Torrent corner: ArcoLinux, Debian, EasyNAS, elementary OS, FuguIta, KDE neon, Mabox, Septor, Snal, Tails
- Upcoming releases: Zorin OS 16
- Opinion poll: Have you picked a favourite CentOS alternative?
- New distributions: Predator-OS
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (14MB) and MP3 (11MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
EasyNAS 1.0.0
EasyNAS is a network attached storage (NAS) operating system based on the openSUSE distribution. The latest version of EasyNAS uses openSUSE 15.3 as its base. Apart from mentioning the updated foundation the project's release announcement does not talk about any specific features or improvements. There is mention of some increased stability from openSUSE Leap. The project's documentation is also a little vague on specific features, other than mentioning EasyNAS can work with Btr filesystems and share files across a range of network protocols.
The latest version of EasyNAS is available for x86_64 machines exclusively and is presented in a single edition. The distribution's ISO file is relatively small at 378MB.
Installing
After confirming the ISO file's hash I booted from it and was presented with a menu asking if I'd like to load an existing operating system from the hard drive or install EasyNAS. Taking the latter option loads a menu-based installer on the terminal. When running EasyNAS in a virtual machine the installer reported there was not enough space on the available hard drive to install the distribution. The project's documentation says 3GB are required, but my virtual disk was 16GB, so the documentation and installer are not in sync with each other. Upping the virtual drive space to 32GB coaxed the installer into proceeding.
The installer really only has one step. It asks if it should wipe the entire hard drive and then, once we confirm it may proceed, it formats the drive and the EasyNAS image is copied over to the disk. The distribution then reboots.
Early impressions
My fresh copy of EasyNAS booted to a console interface. A welcome message says we can connect to EasyNAS through a web browser by visiting the address "https://:1443". (Note the lack of a domain name or IP address in the URL.) We are then automatically signed in as the admin user. The admin user is not the same as the root user in this instance, they have different user identification numbers and permissions. A menu is then displayed which prompts us to perform an action. The available actions are: reset the admin password, restart the network interface, reset the NAS to its default settings, check for updates, restart, shutdown, and run a shell.
Resetting the admin password turned out to be awkward. The new password must be complex, long, and not based on a dictionary word. Sometimes what qualified as a "word" was a bit flexible. For instance, the password "wtf123" is rejected because it's "based on a dictionary word", but "wtf123#!" is fine.
Since it seemed the NAS did not yet have an IP address I tried resetting the network connection. The system appeared to hang for about 20 seconds and then returned to the menu without displaying any status update or asking any questions.
The menu option to run a shell presents us with a bash prompt. A quick check of the command line environment revealed EasyNAS runs Linux 5.3, uses systemd as its init software, and offers the standard collection of GNU utilities. There are no manual pages included. We can perform actions as the root user by prefixing commands with sudo, otherwise the admin account appears to act like a regular user.
EasyNAS reportedly had an active Internet connection, but could not find a route to the Internet or perform DNS lookups. The EasyNAS documentation does not appear to address how to configure the network and the openSUSE documentation says to use YaST for configuring network and DHCP options. The YaST tools are not installed on EasyNAS. I then tried the backup method using wicked, which is mentioned in the documentation. I still came away with no valid IP address or route. I had the same result after I tried assigning an IP address using the command line ip command: I could not ping other machines and other computers on the network could not reach the NAS web interface, despite having an active network interface and a manually assigned IP address.
This experience is in contrast to five years ago when I reviewed EasyNAS 0.6.2. At the time the installer did not have strict hard drive size requirements, IP addresses were assigned easily from the console menu, and it was painless to connect to the web portal remotely. With EasyNAS 1.0.0 these things did not work and every time I rebooted the operating system EasyNAS would fail to load properly, dropping the user to a rescue console. Rebooting a second time always worked to bring up the usual console menu.
EasyNAS five years ago was not a mature project; it had limited functionality. However, it worked and provided some simple storage options. Version 1.0.0 barely installs and has a number of issues relating to password reset, minimum requirements, and networking.
* * * * *
Solus 4.3
Since my experience with EasyNAS got off to a rocky start, I decided to take a look at the latest snapshot from the Solus project. I already reviewed Solus 4.2 earlier this year and I was not expecting any huge changes. However, I was curious to see if there were any clear improvements or adjustments, especially with regards to a few issues I ran into when running Solus 4.2.
The Budgie edition of Solus hasn't changed much in its size. Version 4.2 was approximately a 1.7GB download and 4.3 is 1.8GB. The live media worked well, showing off the Budgie desktop which has a pleasant, dark theme. The Solus installer worked well for me this time (as it did before). In fact, I'd venture as far as to say the Solus installer is one of the nicest looking, fastest installers currently available. It makes for a very nice first impression of the distribution.
Solus 4.3 -- The Budgie desktop and application menu
(full image size: 465kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Comparisons between 4.2 and 4.3
When I ran Solus 4.2 earlier this year the Budgie desktop would sometimes spike its CPU usage. This usually wasn't noticeable on physical hardware, but it could cause the desktop to lag when running in VirtualBox. During my time with Solus 4.3 the Budgie desktop behaved itself, not consuming too much CPU. The desktop remained responsive without any hiccups, even in a virtual machine. Budgie also appears to be using slightly less memory now, compared with five months ago. Solus 4.2 consumed about 575MB of RAM when logged into Budgie while the latest version used about 535MB.
When I ran Budgie earlier this year the screenshot utility sometimes wouldn't respond. Pressing the Print Screen key would sometimes simply not work, other times a screenshot would be taken but no shutter sound effect would play, and sometimes a screenshot would be taken with the accompanying sound as confirmation. This time around the screenshot tool always worked and always notified me with the shutter sound. Both the memory consumption and screenshot fixes are small, but it's nice to see progress.
Solus 4.3 -- The Budgie settings panel
(full image size: 190kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Software management
My biggest issues with Solus when I tried it earlier in the year revolved around the software centre. I mentioned previously that the software centre often locked up when prompting for a password, and sometimes failed to install new packages. In total, 75% of the actions I tried to take with the software centre in Solus 4.2 failed. I was hopeful the experience would be smoother this time.
Things got off to a good start. I installed a handful of applications from the official Solus repositories. The password prompt always worked properly and each package installed without any problems. It seems any software coming from the official repositories will install and work as expected.
Solus 4.3 -- The software center
(full image size: 153kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Last time I tried to install a few third-party packages from unofficial repositories and these tended to fail earlier in the year. I mentioned in my previous review especially that Slack and Spotify would give me errors when trying to install them, so I tried these again. Here the experience still has some rough edges.
This time when I tried to install Slack the software centre showed it was working, but then nothing appeared to happen. The progress bar kept up its steady slide back and forth while the top system monitor showed no disk or CPU activity related to package management. I closed the software centre and when I re-launched it the Slack package was shown as installed. Slack was also present in the application menu. In short, the software centre had successfully installed Slack, but never reported it had completed its task and its interface had never unlocked.
When I tried to install Spotify the package did install and the software centre reported it had finished successfully. Spotify did not show up in the application menu though as other programs had. I tried to close the software centre and Budgie locked up. In fact the entire operating system stopped responding to keyboard input, preventing me from using the terminal or killing any processes. A hard reset was required. When the distribution had been rebooted Spotify showed up in the application menu.
In short, the software centre performed better, but only when installing official packages. There were still serious issues which arose when trying to acquire third-party software. This is a lot better than what I experienced earlier in the year, but still not ideal.
Conclusions
In my opinion, Solus 4.3 is an evolutionary improvement over version 4.2. The performance feels a little better, the installer felt faster, the memory consumption was a little lower, and the software manager was a little friendlier. None of this is a big leap forward, but it is a sign of progress and an indication the Solus team is working to polish their distribution.
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
Solus has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.4/10 from 169 review(s).
Have you used Solus? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Zorin OS to offer Pro edition, Debian breathes new life into its forums and releases new Hurd version, Parabola adds accessibility feature
The Zorin OS team have announced a new edition of their distribution. Zorin OS is a Linux distribution aimed at people migrating from other operating systems and specializes in providing familiar themes, desktop layouts, and compatibility software for people moving from other platforms. The new edition, Zorin OS Pro, will be replacing the team's Ultimate edition and features eight desktop layouts; a utility to help share a mouse, keyboard and clipboard between devices; and a note taking application which can record audio and on-screen drawings. "Use one mouse and keyboard to control all of your computers with the built-in Barrier app. Simply move the cursor to the edge of the screen to switch between devices seamlessly. It even shares the clipboard, so you can copy text from one computer to paste into a document on another computer." The distribution is funded by sales of the Pro edition, but is also available in free editions. Further details can be found in the project's blog post.
* * * * *
The Debian project is breathing new life into its user forums in an effort to provide a better experience. "Several issues were brought before the Debian Community team regarding responsiveness, tone, and needed software updates to forums.debian.net. The question was asked, 'who's in charge?' Over the course of the discussion several Debian Developers volunteered to help by providing a presence on the forums from Debian and to assist with the necessary changes to keep the service up and running. We are happy to announce the following changes to the (NEW!) forums.debian.net, which have and should address most of the prior concerns with accountability, tone, use, and reliability." Changes made to the forums are listed in this news post.
While most of the focus on the Debian project this week has been aimed at the release of Debian's GNU/Linux branch, the project maintains other branches which use alternative kernels. This week the Debian GNU/Hurd team published a new snapshot which mostly uses the same software as the Linux branch, but with the Hurd kernel. "It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2021. This is a snapshot of Debian Sid at the time of the stable Debian Bullseye release (August 2021), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." New features and download links can be found in the release announcement.
* * * * *
The Parabola GNU/Linux-libre project has announced the distribution is adding accessibility options and a simple installer from the project's parent distribution, Arch Linux. "Last year Arch integrated the features from the TalkingArch project into archiso and some months ago they added an installer into their installation medium. As a result, and with some delay, TalkingParabola was deprecated and we added these features to our ISOs too. They are available in out download page as well."
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Comparing CentOS replacements
Bringing-in-the-clones asks: I just had a suggestion for an article you could do comparing all potential CentOS replacements, thought it would be interesting. Maybe Alma vs Rocky vs Oracle vs Navy Linux - maybe there are others? What's the final word on replacing CentOS, and why so much duplication of work? Is one better than the other or doesn't it matter?
DistroWatch answers: When Red Hat announced it was phasing out support for CentOS in favour of CentOS Stream it caught a lot of people off guard. Since Red Hat did not have any solid migration plan or alternative to offer at the time (Red Hat has since offered a limited number of free subscriptions for their Enterprise Linux platform), it left a big hole in the ecosystem. CentOS Linux was one of the most commonly used server operating systems in the world, especially for large deployments that didn't require commercial support such as web hosting platforms. This gave rise to a sudden explosion of CentOS Linux alternatives such as AlmaLinux OS, Rocky Linux, VzLinux, and Navy Linux, along with the other clones of Red Hat Enterprise Linux which already existed like Oracle Linux.
To be honest, I don't think a comparison of these platforms will be all that interesting. Mostly because they are designed to all be virtually identical to each other. All of the above-mentioned distributions are clones of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). They use the same source code, kernel [1], package manager, system installer, and have the same support cycle. They are, by nature, supposed to all be virtually indistinguishable from each other, apart from the branding.
Since the various clones run basically the same code with the same installer, support cycle, and utilities there aren't many differences in the actual running of the distributions. The differences tend to lie elsewhere, such as the infrastructure and support options. Here the older clones, such as Oracle Linux, tend to have an advantage as they have had time to build up documentation. The younger clones, such as AlmaLinux OS and Rocky Linux, lag behind in this regard, but will probably catch up in the coming years.
The other area where the RHEL clones tend to show some differences is in hardware support. According to the AlmaLinux wiki, both Alma and Oracle support Secure Boot while Rocky Linux is still working on it. All of the clones run on x86_64 processors and most can run on ARM-powered devices, but more niche CPUs may only be supported by one or two RHEL clones.
In short, for all practical purposes, I'd say there isn't really any benefit to running one clone of RHEL over another. Which is largely the goal - these distributions strive to be binary compatible, after all. If there were large differences in their style, performance, or utilities then they'd be doing something wrong.
In light of this, let's go back to the original question which asked: why the duplication of effort? Why did we end up with so many CentOS alternatives? The community could have put its weight behind one CentOS Linux alternative, but we ended up with at least seven (at time of writing) RHEL clones. In my opinion, the answer is money.
Earlier I pointed out CentOS Linux was one of the most widely deployed, Linux-based server operating systems. When the plug was pulled on the distribution it left a large vacuum which many system administrators, developers, and companies wanted to have filled. Some were willing to put money behind their desire for a CentOS replacement.
Oracle, of course, already had Oracle Linux in production and uses their distribution to maintain a controlled, customized platform for Oracle's database software. This makes it easier and more efficient for the company to support and optimize its database business. Plus Oracle, like Red Hat, sells support subscriptions for its Linux distribution.
The team at CloudLinux thought AlmaLinux OS was important enough to put some serious money behind it. The company claims it will invest a minimum of one million dollars per year into AlmaLinux for eight years. Presumably they do this because CloudLinux reportedly runs on tens of thousands of servers [2] and they also sell Linux-based products and subscriptions.
Rocky Linux similarly has many big name sponsors and EuroLinux sells copies of their RHEL clone for over 100€ per server. In short, almost every RHEL clone that has come along in recent years is in a position to make thousands, potentially millions, of dollars by offering an alternative to CentOS Linux. Red Hat cutting life support to CentOS opened up a market for alternatives which people are willing to pay for and several organizations want to fulfill the demand.
* * * * *
- Oracle Linux offers an alternative kernel. The distribution ships with both the RHEL kernel and another custom kernel maintained by Oracle.
- The CloudLinux website reports the distribution runs on more than 60,000 servers which powers "more than 20 million websites."
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
elementary OS 6.0
elementary OS is an Ubuntu-based distribution which features a custom desktop environment called Pantheon. The project's latest release, elementary OS 6 "Odin", features sandboxed applications via Flatpak bundles, a new dark theme, and multi-touch gestures. "elementary OS 6 leverages cutting-edge sandboxing technology to enforce privacy and security protections at a technical level. In OS 6, all AppCenter apps are now packaged and distributed as Flatpaks, a modern container format that keeps apps siloed away from each other and your sensitive data. Several default elementary OS apps are now being distributed as Flatpaks as well. In addition, elementary OS 6 utilizes Portals to keep you in control of how apps interact with each other and your data. Apps must explicitly request permission in a well-defined way e.g. to get access to files or launch other apps. A new Permissions view in System Settings -> Applications exposes all the permissions apps have requested and gives you control to override or revoke them." Further information can be found in the project's release announcement.
elementary OS 6.0 -- Running the Pantheon desktop
(full image size: 1.8MB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Debian 11
The Debian project has published a new version of the distribution's Linux-based operating system. Debian 11 (code name "Bullseye") includes over 11,000 additional packages and a number of interesting new features, including driverless document scanning, exFAT filesystem support, and a generic "open" command which can launch default applications from the command line. "The official SANE driverless backend is provided by sane-escl in libsane1. An independently developed driverless backend is sane-airscan. Both backends understand the eSCL protocol but sane-airscan can also use the WSD protocol. Users should consider having both backends on their systems. eSCL and WSD are network protocols. Consequently they will operate over a USB connection if the device is an IPP-over-USB device (see above). Note that libsane1 has ipp-usb as a recommended package. This leads to a suitable device being automatically set up to use a driverless backend driver when it is connected to a USB port. A new open command is available as a convenience alias to xdg-open (by default) or run-mailcap, managed by the update-alternatives(1) system. It is intended for interactive use at the command line, to open files with their default application, which can be a graphical program when available." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement and release notes.
Debian Edu 11.0.0
Debian Edu is the Debian-edu's Debian Pure Blend distribution. It is aiming to provide an out-of-the-box localised environment tailored for schools and universities. The project has published an update in step with Debian 11, bringing new software and features to the Debian Edu distribution. "New version of Debian Installer from Debian Bullseye, see its installation manual for more details. New artwork based on the Homeworld theme, the default artwork for Debian 11 Bullseye. The Debian Installer doesn't support LTSP chroot setup anymore. In case of a combined server installation ('Main server' + 'LTSP server' profiles), setting up thin client support (now using X2Go) happens at the end of the installation. Generating the SquashFS image for diskless client support (from the server's file system) is done at first boot. For separate LTSP servers, both steps have to be done via a tool after first boot inside the internal network when enough information is available from the main server. Software updates: Everything which is new in Debian 11 Bullseye, eg: Linux kernel 5.10. Desktop environments KDE Plasma 5.20, GNOME 3.38, Xfce 4.16, LXDE 11, MATE 1.24, LibreOffice 7.0, Educational toolbox GCompris 1.0, Music creator Rosegarden 20.12, LTSP 21.01. Debian Bullseye includes more than 59,000 packages available for installation. More information about Debian 11 Bullseye is provided in the release notes and the installation manual." Further information can be found in the project's release notes.
* * * * *
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: 2,551
- Total data uploaded: 39.4TB
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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) |
Have you picked a favourite CentOS alternative?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about alternatives to CentOS Linux. There were already several clones of Red Hat Enterprise Linux available, and several more have popped up since it was announced CentOS Linux will be phased out in favour of CentOS Stream. Which CentOS alternative has become your favourite?
You can see the results of our previous poll on defragmenting Btrfs in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Favourite CentOS alternative
| AlmaLinux OS: | 2292 (46%) |
| EuroLinux: | 10 (0%) |
| Navy Linux: | 4 (0%) |
| Oracle Linux: | 49 (1%) |
| Rocky Linux: | 2001 (40%) |
| Scientific Linux: | 44 (1%) |
| Springdale Linux: | 10 (0%) |
| VzLinux: | 12 (0%) |
| Other: | 54 (1%) |
| None: | 521 (10%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Predator-OS. Predator-OS is an Ubuntu-based distribution designed for penetration testing and ethical hacking and also privacy, hardened, secure, anonymized use.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 23 August 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 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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SmartOS is an open-source UNIX-like operating system based on illumos, a community fork of OpenSolaris. It features four technologies - ZFS (a combined file system and logical volume manager), DTrace (a dynamic tracing framework for troubleshooting kernel and application problems), Zones (a lightweight virtualisation solution), KVM and bhyve (two full virtualisation solutions for running a variety of guest operating systems, including Linux, Windows, BSD and Plan9). SmartOS is designed to be particularly suitable for building clouds and generating appliances.
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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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