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1 • Print to PDF (by Adam Drake on 2021-09-27 00:49:22 GMT from United States)
Perfect ending to a great weekend…Distrowatch Weekly. :)
I use the virtual pdf printer that comes with Debian. I don’t recall the last time I saw a distro that didn’t come with a pdf printer. Most recently, I used it to convert my librecad drawings for the county building code department. It’s always worked as it should for me.
2 • virtual PDF printers (by Guido on 2021-09-27 00:54:42 GMT from Philippines)
Since I still don't have a physical printer, I often use this possibility. Works very easy. Save the PDF on a stick and then print them out somewhere else.
3 • ...Poll (by RoestVrijStaal on 2021-09-27 01:01:47 GMT from Netherlands)
The poll is a bit flawed IMHO.
Because with a few exceptions (including Windows users) everyone and his mom is using CUPS nowadays. Which comes with a Virtual PDF printer by default.
So I think the question "Do you use a Virtual PDF Printer?" would make more sense than "Do you have a Virtual PDF Printer?". Especially since most popular open source programs (like Krita, GIMP, LibreOffice, Firefox, Chromium-based browsers) could "print" (=often, export to) PDF at their own.
4 • "Do you have a virtual PDF printer? (by R. Cain on 2021-09-27 01:04:00 GMT from United States)
No, I do not have a *virtual* PDF printer.
I use a REAL word processor which creates PDF documents.
I have an extremely capable, powerful, and VERY small word processor which saves created documents in twenty-seven (27) different file types, including (among others) EPUB, LaTex, PostScript, Newsgroup Formatted, HTML, XHTML PalmDoc, OpenOffice...and, oh, PDF.
This is an older version, from 2016. Don't know about the latest version.
It's called "AbiWord".
5 • PDF printer (by Paul on 2021-09-27 01:10:33 GMT from France)
I use the print to PDF option frequently because I like to have Linux documentation and articles on a flash drive to read when offline. I do miss the old option to select print to postscript though. I used to have occasion to add pdfmarks to them before converting to PDF.
6 • Print to pdf (by Mike on 2021-09-27 01:14:27 GMT from Australia)
I use for testing when I write new software. Saves a lot of paper. I still rely on a real printer to keep historical records.
7 • csh FreeBSD (by John on 2021-09-27 01:27:26 GMT from Canada)
A bit sad to see FreeBSD drop csh for root, I guess they got sick of all the complaints from newbies. That was one of the things and made FreeBSD standout and be a bit unique.
8 • PDWhat?? (by Friar Tux on 2021-09-27 01:28:45 GMT from Canada)
Nope! I hate PDF. I have always saved any/all documents in RTF format since right from the start of my word processing days - still do today. (All my word processors, over the years, were/are set to RTF as default.) RTF can be read by ALL word processors with no problems. Sending a document from one office suite (using Linux) to a different office suite (using Windows - any version) has never caused me or the recipient any grief in all the years I've done it. (I do receive PDF docs and will use a PDF reader if I must. Mostly though, if given the choice, I request the sender to save themselves the time a just send me the RTF file.)
As for printers - real or virtual - they work beautifully with RTF as well. At least, I've never has issues, yet.)
@4 (R. Cain) My word processor of choice is CherryTree (by Giuseppe Penone). (It will also export to PDF.) It does word processing quite nicely but also allows me to do much, much more.
9 • PDF & stuff (by vern on 2021-09-27 01:55:04 GMT from United States)
Firefox can load my PDF files and then print them out.
Gnumeric can load all my spreadsheets.
I like Abiword though. Haven't the need for it in a while, I got rid of that behemoth Libreoffice suite. Don't need it.
If I need a doc file, I'm sure Abiword is up for the task.
10 • Printing to PDF's (by Curiious on 2021-09-27 02:24:44 GMT from Canada)
Two questions about PDF's that weren't covered by the review:
I often need to save a web page from my web browser to a PDF. This is done using the browser's file, save to pdf function. When saving a web page this way, embedded URL links are not retained. To get around this, I have to save the page as a *.war (web archive page which is tgzed) or *.maff (which is zipped) using a browser plugin, to save the complete page and all contents as a single file. Otherwise, trying to archive thousands of web pages (for research purposes) becomes unwieldy.
A friend using Apple claims his PDF writing program (I think it might have been called "Preview"?) DOES retain all embedded URLs.
How would one accomplish this in Linux?
Second question concerns the bloated file sizes generated when I create such PDF's. Sometimes the resulting PDF is substantially larger than ones created via other programs. How does one control THAT aspect?
11 • PDF printer use... (by Bobbie Sellers on 2021-09-27 04:01:14 GMT from United States)
Well I use it quite often to save pages of value to me.
This includes but is not limited to my bills, bank statements, ordered products, etc.
This has saved me buying another filing cabinet which might be cheaper than
the 3 TB drive I store them on but all the trees that are not confined to filing cabinets
are of more use getting the Carbon Dioxide out of the atmosphere.
bliss-“Nearly any fool can use a GNU/Linux computer. Many do.” After all here I am...
12 • Airyx with helloSystem (by helloSystem vs Cutefish on 2021-09-27 04:06:22 GMT from India)
Read the review of Airyx with helloSystem. I have a positive feeling towards the helloSystem. Comparing to the Cutefish - another mac OS implementation, helloSystem is more solid and robust.
While exploring both helloSystem, and Cutefish - I felt like helloSystem is more focused on robustness and cutefish is more focused on desktop effects and round corners.
Also, with a BSD distribution running helloSystem, I had same issue with WiFi as the reviewer had. It could be common in all BSD distributions.
13 • Carbonite the Kernel (by Jabba "The Hutt" on 2021-09-27 04:39:36 GMT from Brazil)
"Well, the Martine OS project claims the distribution will run applications written for Windows, Linux and Android."
Not be able to run Android apps first than Windows is historically the worst mistake made by the Linux community ever! Thousands of right quality apps and games, all free, some of then GPL.
History of success or failure in the Computer business world is marked more by who made less mistakes than by who had more successes.
What is more easy, make a Linux kernel Operational System runs Android apps at a good speed or MS Windows make the same thing?
14 • @13 (by Simon on 2021-09-27 08:49:31 GMT from New Zealand)
"Not be able to run Android apps first than Windows is historically the worst mistake made by the Linux community ever!"
LOL! Well, in order not to have made that mistake, we'd have needed a time machine...because Linux started supporting Windows applications (via WINE) before Android even existed.
15 • To fill PDF (by speedytux on 2021-09-27 09:08:58 GMT from Italy)
Anyway, it's a mess on Linux to fill a form. Evince or Okular are not always practical or compatible with governmental or business forms. Of course, it is more a lack of an OpenDocument policy of those institutions rather than a software issue. But the Linux experience in this domain is under par. I should use apps on Android or in VirtualBox on Windows.
16 • PDF Printing (by Otis on 2021-09-27 11:58:23 GMT from United States)
Well... CUPS.
17 • Global menu bar on Openbox (by Kyle on 2021-09-27 13:44:09 GMT from United States)
Jesse, did you happen to notice which panel and/or plugin the Airyx team used to create their top menu bar? That was one of the main things I was lacking when I tried to build my own custom desktop based on Openbox not too long ago.
KDE Plasma has a very nice menu bar applet, complete with keyboard shortcuts and compatibility with GTK applications (assuming the correct support packages are installed), but I wanted to avoid pulling in an entire desktop environment as a dependency of something that I was trying to keep as "lightweight" as possible.
18 • CUPS and Android apps (by Jesse on 2021-09-27 14:09:30 GMT from Canada)
@3: "The poll is a bit flawed IMHO. Because with a few exceptions (including Windows users) everyone and his mom is using CUPS nowadays. Which comes with a Virtual PDF printer by default."
CUPS doesn't ships with a virtual PDF printer by default. The PDF device is almost always packaged separately, requiring the user to manually add it.
@14: " 'Not be able to run Android apps first than Windows is historically the worst mistake made by the Linux community ever!'
LOL! Well, in order not to have made that mistake, we'd have needed a time machine...because Linux started supporting Windows applications (via WINE) before Android even existed."
The previous poster wasn't saying Linux failed to be able to run Windows applications prior to Windows running Android apps. They were pointing out it looks like Windows users will be able to run Android apps prior to GNU/Linux being able to run Android apps. I presume they were referring to Microsoft's claims that Windows 11 will soon be able to run Android applications.
19 • Trends (by Landor on 2021-09-27 14:11:19 GMT from Canada)
: Trends
I don't believe trends are usually that useful in the computing world. For the enthusiast that wants to "play" with their computer it may be entertaining and eye-catching. For the majority of people grinding it out day to day they want the basics with a focus on functionality and reliability.
In the way of making all package states available to any one distribution I would say the exact same applies. A person can "play" all they want with the option but it brings far too many other variables into play that can be(or become) very problematic which could get in the way of doing things that actually need to be done by the system, instead of focusing on things that are used on an entertainment basis.
If it's expressed that an individual could run a stable, functional system for one instance and play with new features on a second, then that just confirms what I said above.
Keep Your Stick On The Ice,
Landor
20 • Airyx menu bar (by Jesse on 2021-09-27 14:14:17 GMT from Canada)
@17: "Jesse, did you happen to notice which panel and/or plugin the Airyx team used to create their top menu bar? "
Yes, the program is simply called "menubar". It has no manual page and there is no package on the system called "menubar". I'm guessing it's something the Airyx or helloSystem teams put together.
There is a package on the system which I'm guessing is used to make the global menu bar work. It's called "appmenu-gtk-module" which is described as providing a way to put menu bars in a global menu.
21 • @10 • Printing to PDF's (by Curiious) (by whoKnows on 2021-09-27 14:30:58 GMT from Switzerland)
The answer depends on what EXACTLY do YOU need and so. I'll not be bothering answering, but give you few weblinks that my help you in further research.
Do you want local or online conversion, command line or GUI, preserve weblinks only or with searchable text ...
Printing from Chrome and Firefox might or might not work as expected by YOU, depending on the website coding ...
https://superuser.com/questions/809627/print-webpage-to-pdf-with-working-hyperlinks
https://superuser.com/questions/1064579/how-to-convert-a-webpage-to-pdf-with-preserving-its-look-exactly-as-on-web-brow
The simplest way is to use a web browser extension and an online web service.
https://pdfcrowd.com/save-as-pdf-addon/
And yes, Mac does it, because that basically simple HTML to PDF conversion is depending on a proper recognition - PDF print driver matters.
https://www.macworld.com/article/226597/how-to-print-a-web-page-as-a-pdf-with-links-that-work.html
22 • Ayrix (by MacDo on 2021-09-27 15:00:13 GMT from Australia)
Take that, elementary! The BSD boys won't let you keep the market cornered on macOS wannabes.
23 • Print to PDF (by Bobb on 2021-09-27 15:35:12 GMT from Canada)
I've never knowingly used CUPS-PDF.
When I want to generate a pdf, I almost always use markdown -> pandoc -> context/luatex.
To sign and return a pdf, I use the GIMP.
24 • Airyx evolution (by Norbert on 2021-09-27 15:50:14 GMT from United States)
Airyx 0.2.2 is basically just a hellosystem snapshot / fork. But the current developer version introduces several changes, moving towards a Plasma-based desktop and more typical FreeBSD pkg support. So still in a lot of flux, but seems to be blending the hellosystem macOS interface consistency with more focus on existing FreeBSD package support vs. writing all apps in PyQT. Very ambitious.
25 • Timely (by Tad Strange on 2021-09-27 17:04:42 GMT from Canada)
Just a week or so ago I was wondering what the state of android on Linux was, then promptly forgot to look into it.
PDF seems like something mundane to be asking a poll about. I use them all of the time when I need a universal format that is read-only or contains a form.
I've not found a native PDF viewer that is good with form filling, though, so I end up using dochub, which google workspace suggested.
26 • Virtual PDF (by cor on 2021-09-27 18:22:38 GMT from United States)
Used extensively in Firefox and LibreOffice.
27 • PDF printer (by Tuxedoar on 2021-09-27 23:01:02 GMT from Argentina)
I occasionally use the "print to PDF" functionality from the Firefox browser, though I'm not sure if that counts as a "virtual PDF printer" (I guess, it does). I found this useful whenever I need to keep some kind of voucher from a web app and it doesn't have the option to generate and downlaod a PDF file.
Cheers!.-
28 • What I think makes a good operating system (by Mike on 2021-09-28 02:40:51 GMT from United Kingdom)
One that is not intrusive and lets me get on with my work after I have set it up to my taste initially. The installer also has to be fairly simple to use and more importantly reliable so it doesn't screw up mid installation.
I'm done with high maintenance rolling distributions for machines I use daily to get work done now. I have dabbled in them in the past but they proved too distracting and the constant stream of updates required more downtime dealing with them than the benefit of bleeding edge really justified.
I also don't want to have to upgrade every 6 months.
Essentially kubuntu LTS nails all of this. When I do have a little spare time, I check out KDE Neon in VM to see what is coming eventually to kubuntu LTS in 22.04 like the new application launcher, default panel layout changes and new settings, and learn how to tame it from an accessibility point of view from virtual terminal when UI settings get removed.
29 • Martine OS and Airyx, and PDFs (by Andy Figueroa on 2021-09-28 03:40:07 GMT from United States)
It seems like such a waste of your and our time to have reviews for two so obviously failing distribution wannabes. Somebody's hobby cluttering up the distro space.
Readers have been inappropriately critical of the printing to PDF article. For all of y'all, CUPS-PDF is a discrete, installable package that adds significant value to a CUPS installation that does not have it. Take more time to read before criticizing. See: https://www.cups-pdf.de
For @17 lxpanel may be the most functional and beautiful panels that work on OpenBox out-of-the-box. It's nothing like Airx' panel. :-)
30 • No printer, no CUPS (by AL on 2021-09-28 06:18:06 GMT from France)
@3:
"Because with a few exceptions (including Windows users) everyone and his mom is using CUPS nowadays."
Well, no! Because i still havenot found a need to print documents at home.
I have never run a printing service on Linux since i have been using it at home (2007). I never had the need for it.
I may sometimes generate PDFs from LibreOffice, and send them by mai, sometimes to my mobile phone.
31 • @21 whoKnows re Printing to PDFs (by Curious on 2021-09-28 07:53:15 GMT from Canada)
@21 Thankyou very much for the links you provided. I simply wanted a saved pdf of a webpage to retain the embedded html links. After reading through the material, began to understand some of the gotchas such as needing different plugins for specific browsers. Have to read through again a few times for all the details to "sink in".
Thanks again.
32 • PDF printing (by Mike on 2021-09-28 08:16:57 GMT from United Kingdom)
I just printed this page to PDF in Google Chrome 94 and the links were saved too. It's a vanilla browser install with no extensions other than the KDE integration one. So it seems Google have learnt that people want to be able to open links from saved PDF files even if Mozilla haven't yet...
33 • Gnome (by penguinx86 on 2021-09-28 10:27:22 GMT from United States)
Wasn't Ubuntu 21.10 supposed to come with Gnome 40 instead of the unpopular Gnome 3.x? Fedora has had Gnome 40 for 6 months already, and openSUSE comes with Gnome 40 too. I am excited to see Gnome 3.x finally go away forever. The sooner the better!
34 • My favorite Desktop is MATE.... with GNOME programs (by Jeffersonian on 2021-09-28 11:40:20 GMT from Poland)
My favorite Desktop is MATE.... with GNOME programs (Fedora 34)
I explain:
* I do like the clean, complete MATE Desktop.
* I prefer to use from CLI the gnome-GUI based system programs, like gnome-disks, gnome-control-center, gnome-books (when it works!), gnome-gmail etc...
* Likewise for documents browsing I found KDE based OKULAR the best program, by far.
---
Conclusions:
1) KDE, and GNOME obviously created very good libraries, useful for great apps... but their design of the destop, blotted and overly big, does not please everone (incl. me). Ideally when Installing Linux, or post-install with an easy to use GUI for apps install, would go a long way to make Linux Desktop more accepted than it is today.
2) However comfortable with most CLI (Command Line Interface) based applications, I found among my aquaintace a strong reluctance to lear and use the CLI, so a common install (now there is one) along with clean, common Desktop Interface (Like Sun did with CDE) would go a long way to make Linux more usable for the non-nerds.
Actually, even some CLI commands are specific to one distro or another, which is not so great !
3) Packages: There would it be too much to ask the two RPM based distros, to have fully compatible RPM packages ? Fedora/REDHAT/IBM and SUSE to you hear ? To this end a validation program could be very helpful.
35 • helloSystem Menu Bar (by Kyle on 2021-09-28 18:06:41 GMT from United States)
@20 Sure enough, I found the code for the menu bar at the helloSystem's GitHub repository: https://github.com/helloSystem/Menu
It is written in Qt and requires some of the KDE framework as a dependency. The developers seem to be keeping their promise of minimizing the need for the latter, though, based on only two KDE-specific packages appearing in the dependencies list, neither of which have any KDE dependencies of their own (at least on Arch Linux).
Most of the recent activity has been in adding translations for various languages, though the readme and Issues page indicate that the developers are at least aware of the menu's limitations. I am surprised that "libdbusmenu-gtk{2,3}" are not listed as dependencies, since GTK applications remain completely unaware of external menu bars without them. Firefox is especially stubborn regarding menu bars, but there is a patch originating from the days of Ubuntu's Unity which makes it work. It can still be found in the OpenSUSE Build Service and Arch User Repository, to name a couple of places.
36 • PDF' "Poor DAMN Format" (by Walt on 2021-09-28 18:19:49 GMT from United States)
Prefer text files. Nothing turns two K of text into 250K of worthless quicker than PDF. The other problem is PDF is difficult to edit.
37 • Filling PDF forms (by K.U. on 2021-09-28 19:13:00 GMT from Finland)
Try flpsed.
38 • My sentiments, exactly. (by Friar Tux on 2021-09-28 19:13:23 GMT from Canada)
@36 (Walt) My sentiments exactly. I didn't go into detail in my comment above (@8), but you said it perfectly. Thanx.
39 • print to pdf Firefox (by Dave Postles on 2021-09-28 19:34:32 GMT from United Kingdom)
I've used Print>Save to PDF in Firefox and it has saved the functional links when opened in qpdfview. All the links are, however, surrounded by a red box, which looks ugly.
40 • CUPS-PDF sometimes useful (by AdamB on 2021-09-28 22:15:41 GMT from Australia)
I usually install CUPS-PDF; I don't use it all that often, but it is occasionally the perfect solution to a problem.
Having been secretary or treasurer of a couple of associations, I used to export LibreOffice documents using the PDF Archive format, and, from memory, it is possible to configure CUPS-PDF to create PDFs in that format.
41 • @36: Perhaps you are not aware of the reason(s) for PDF's creation... (by R. Cain on 2021-09-28 22:48:51 GMT from United States)
"...The other problem is PDF is difficult to edit."
You are exactly, precisely, 100% correct. This is just as it was DESIGNED to be---EXACTLY as it was designed to be.
Just exactly, precisely why a lot of people---as a matter of fact, a lot of people to whom you may be submitting a job application, or to whom you may be applying for a loan---think that sending a PDF document is *almost* as secure as sending a FAX. It will, however, never be *as completely* secure.
One last thing: your viewpoint hinges only on what is "worthless"---or not---to you. Not, certainly, to a potential employer, or legal counsel, or home-mortgage provider, or...
42 • CUPS-PDF, LibreOffice Writer (by Alessandro di Roma on 2021-09-29 08:32:30 GMT from Italy)
Yes, CUPS-PDF is very useful with apps lacking an export-PDF facility. But if I have a LibreOffice Writer document with a TOC (table of content with links to chapters), then with "File -> Export as -> Export directly as PDF" the TOC is preserved in PDF result, while exporting by CUPS-PDF the TOC links are lost.
43 • @PDF (by anticapitalista on 2021-09-29 09:58:17 GMT from Greece)
I remember the day when you couldn't edit a PDF file. It was designed that way.
44 • pdf (by mandog on 2021-09-29 12:44:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
Master pdf Editor Does it all
45 • PDF (by Cheker on 2021-09-29 21:25:57 GMT from Portugal)
Funny that the topic of the comments this week ended up being PDFs, because I needed to figure out a way to slap my scanned signature onto PDFs. So I went looking for programs that could do this, including the one mentioned by @44.
I tried OpenOffice's Draw after I read that LibreOffice's can do it, but that didn't work at all, so I moved on to Scribus.
Scribus deleted some elements of the existing PDF, changed the font and made existing pictures look worse.
I settled on Xournal++. With Xournal++ it looks exactly the same as it did, just with my sig added, so I recommend that one if you need to do the same. Of course, maybe try the others that didn't work for me, they might for you.
46 • PDF sig's (by vern on 2021-09-29 23:17:12 GMT from United States)
Now they electronic signatures for PDF's. I used one recently.
47 • PDF's with LibreOffice Draw (by Andy Figueroa on 2021-09-30 03:15:11 GMT from United States)
@45 For LibreOffice to be able to read PDFs, it needs to be compiled with pdfimport feature. It works very well. Ask your distribution's packager to consider adding that feature.
48 • Carbonite is "cool" :) (by Jaba "The Hutt" on 2021-09-30 03:52:45 GMT from Brazil)
"LOL! Well, in order not to have made that mistake, we'd have needed a time machine...because Linux started supporting Windows applications (via WINE) before Android even existed. "
If you mean that don't pay the due attention to Wine was the first big mistake commercial Linux Distros made I have to agree with you.
But forget the Android echo system is worst because Android is a "Linux" and the Java "virtual machine" is open source. What is easier? Linux running Android apps using KVM/Xen or MS Windows running the whole thing emulated?
49 • editing pdfs (by Dave Postles on 2021-09-30 15:28:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
Yes, MasterPDFEditor will do it all (@44), but will leave a watermark unless you buy the full product. Depends whether the watermark is acceptable for your use.
50 • OCR to PDF (by honourabletech on 2021-10-01 00:14:57 GMT from Canada)
@36: "...The other problem is PDF is difficult to edit."
@41: Perhaps you are not aware of the reason(s) for PDF's creation...This is EXACTLY as it was designed to be."
@43: "I remember the day when you couldn't edit a PDF file. It was designed that way."
Everything gets hacked eventually...
You can also use OCR software - online, installed, or as browser plugin - to print/convert a document to PDF. Some also claim their PDFs are editable and can include signatures as well. At least one distro - Deepin Linux - has its own OCR software preinstalled.
----
--- free Britney & others from tech spying - it's anti freedom and anti open source.
51 • masterpdfeditor (by peer on 2021-10-01 07:07:54 GMT from Netherlands)
masterpfeditor 4.3.89 is the last version that does not leave a watermark.
Number of Comments: 51
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| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
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| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
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| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
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| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Aurox Linux
Aurox Linux was a Linux distribution with emphasis on support for several European languages, as well as multimedia and education. It was based on Red Hat Linux - version 9.0 of Aurox Linux was fully compatible with Red Hat 9. Aurox was a completely free distribution, released under the GPL license, and available for free download via FTP. The CDs are also published with the "Aurox Linux" magazine available in several language versions (Polish, Czech, German, French, Spanish) in 9 countries of Europe.
Status: Discontinued
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