 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 943, 15 November 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 45th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
One of the great frustrations many Android and GNU/Linux users face is that it is difficult to get traditional desktop Linux applications running on Android and it's even less likely an Android application will run on Linux desktop distributions. There are a few projects which attempt to address this issue of applications built for different Linux-based ecosystems not being portable. One such project is called Waydroid. The Waydroid team develops compatibility software designed to run Android applications on Linux distributions that are running a Wayland display server. We have more details on what Waydroid is and how it works in this week's Feature Story. In our News section we talk about the System76 team planning to develop their own desktop environment for Pop!_OS. At the same time the UBports team has published a report on various projects they are collaborating with to make Linux on mobile devices more viable. Meanwhile one OpenBSD developer is working to port more games to the secure-by-default operating system. Then we answer questions about lightweight desktop environments, comparing the LXDE, LXQt, and Xfce desktops. Of these three resource-friendly desktops which is your favourite? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Waydroid
- News: Pop!_OS plans own desktop environment, UBports collaborates with other mobile operating systems, porting games to OpenBSD
- Questions and answers: An overview of LXDE, LXQt, and Xfce
- Released last week: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5, Raspberry Pi OS 2021-10-30, 3CX Phone System 10
- Torrent corner: 3CX Phone System, Alpine Linux, ArcoLinux, kodachi, openmamba, Raspberry Pi OS, SparkyLinux
- Upcoming releases: FreeBSD 12.3 RC2
- Opinion poll: Preferred lightweight desktop
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
First impressions of Waydroid
The goal of being able to run Android apps on a laptop computer or on a GNU/Linux distribution has been the driving force behind several projects. The Android-x86 project seeks to run Android itself on common laptop and workstation hardware while projects like Anbox try to run Android apps on a GNU/Linux desktop using container technology. Today I'd like to look at another project which has the goal of running Android apps on both desktop and mobile GNU/Linux distributions. This young project is called Waydroid and its website suggests we can run many Android apps as though they were regular desktop applications.
There are some caveats to this wonderful plan of running Android apps on a desktop Linux distribution. One of the limitations is Waydroid needs to run in a Wayland graphical session. This essentially limits Waydroid to running on systems running recent versions of KDE Plasma or GNOME with compatible hardware. Though I had trouble finding specifics, it seems as though Waydroid needs specific kernel options to be enabled at build time - options which I'm told are incompatible with the Fedora family of distributions, unless we want to build a custom kernel.
Getting set up
According to the Waydroid website the supported options are to run Debian 11 "Bullseye", Ubuntu 20.04 "Focal", or Ubuntu 21.04 "Hirsute" with a Wayland session. We also need to have Python 3, cURL, and the LXC Linux container software installed. Most mainstream distributions include Python 3 these days, but cURL and LXC usually need to be installed through the package manager.
The distribution I was using this week was running MATE 1.24 which does not offer Wayland support so I had to look elsewhere. For the sake of my test I decided to install Kubuntu 21.04 which includes a KDE Plasma session running on Wayland. (Wayland is not the default session, but it can be selected from the login screen.) Once Kubuntu was installed I added the LXC and cURL packages, then confirmed Python 3 was available. Finally, I confirmed I really was in a Wayland session and began installing Waydroid.
The Waydroid website has step-by-step install instructions at the bottom of the main page. These walk us through setting up a new package repository, installing a Waydroid package, and then using that to download what appears to be a copy of an Android build. The Android software is installed by running "sudo waydroid init" and worked smoothly for me. The initial package is tiny, less than 1MB in size. The Android image is quite a bit larger, about 750MB in size. I feel it worth mentioning the Android image is unpacked in the /var directory so we should make sure we have plenty of free space in that part of the filesystem.
At first, when I tried to start the Waydroid service and launch a new session, the software claimed it could not start because it was not running on a Wayland session. I confirmed again my session was Wayland (provided by KDE Plasma's Kwin window manager). I then got the idea to restart the computer and, when Kubuntu came back on-line, I was able to start the Waydroid service and launch a session. The "waydroid status" command confirmed it was up and running, correctly identified my user ID, and that I was running a Wayland session.
Early impressions
At this point I tried to launch the Waydroid software from the application menu and, after a lot of disk activity, nothing happened. When I tried running the command "waydroid show-full-ui" which is suggested on the project's website, again nothing happened.
My system monitor showed the Waydroid container software was running and I could access the Android filesystem by running "sudo waydroid shell", giving me the chance to run commands in the Waydroid container. However, I could not get any graphical applications or controls to show up.
I next tried installing a package, the F-Droid software centre, which the Waydroid documentation recommends. The software installed and I could confirm the package was on the system by running "waydroid app list", but anytime I tried to run F-Droid nothing happened.
I went digging further through the Waydroid documentation and discovered that while both GNOME and KDE Plasma desktops should work, Waydroid recommends versions of Plasma "after 5.21". I was running version 5.21.4, which seemed likely to qualify, but perhaps the documentation meant the latest version of Plasma (5.22) was required? The documentation mentions GNOME running on Pop!_OS, Fedora, or Ubuntu should work. Earlier I mentioned there were comments on various forums that Fedora's kernel was not compatible with Waydroid, so I decided to try Ubuntu 21.04.
Starting over with a clean slate
I wiped Kubuntu from my system, set up Ubuntu 21.04 with GNOME, installed the LXC and cURL software, and confirmed I was running a Wayland session. Once again I installed the Waydroid software and once again its service failed to start until I had rebooted my computer.
Once again I was able to confirm Waydroid was running, I could access its shell and filesystem, and I could get the F-Droid software centre package to install. I then tried to run the Waydroid launcher from the application menu and nothing happened. I also tried running "waydroid show-full-ui" which results in a lot of disk activity, followed by nothing.
Checking on Waydroid's status and processes
(full image size: 361kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
The Waydroid documentation explains how to install a new Android package from the command line, but is unclear about what should happen when we try to launch the same package, or whether we should refer to the app by its full name (org.fdroid.fdroid) or its simple name (fdroid). I tried both and, in both cases, nothing appeared to happen. However, I could confirm the software (along with several default Android apps such as the settings panel and clock) were installed in the container by running "waydroid app list".
I tried running the clock, settings panel, and software centre - all without any visual results. I did see these programs show up in the list of processes when I ran top or ps, meaning the programs were running somewhere, I just couldn't see them.
Conclusions
Waydroid seems like a good idea and a useful concept. It's even relatively easy to set up, assuming you are running a distribution with the necessary kernel features and a modern Wayland session. The command line syntax for Waydroid is quite straight forward and it even has little helpful blurbs on what options are available. In short, the Waydroid project seems to be doing several things well.
While I could install Android apps into the container and even run them (according to my system monitor), I was unable to ever see any Android apps or interface. Perhaps I'm missing a key component, perhaps it's a bug. I looked through the Waydroid log (kudos to the team for making logging and debugging a key feature right from the start), but I was unable to find any problem. There was a warning at times about Waydroid not being able to identify the "host_user", but the "waydroid status" output also showed it correctly found my username and ID.
I've browsed through the project's issue reports and discovered several other people with the same problem, though we do not appear to have a common distribution, video card, or error messages. In other words, Waydroid seems like a good idea and (based on other reports I've read) Waydroid is working for some people. However, it's not ready for general use yet. It's close, but most people will probably need a more friendly installation process, a little more specific documentation on installing and running apps, and (in my case) to be able to see the apps we're running in the container.
Waydroid is close and I've heard it's already running pretty well on some distributions on the PinePhone, but it still has a little ways to go before I can recommend it to people who want to run Android software on their laptop or GNU/Linux phone.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Pop!_OS plans own desktop environment, UBports collaborates with other mobile operating systems, porting games to OpenBSD
In a response to a poll about whether Pop!_OS users would be interested in seeing the distribution offer a KDE Plasma edition alongside the project's default GNOME flavour, one of the members of the Pop!_OS team revealed System76 is working on a custom desktop environment. The desktop, which will be called COSMIC, is not a fork of GNOME, but a new project written in Rust which will offer the same desktop layout and design as the one Pop!_OS already ships. When asked why System76 would put development effort into a new desktop environment, the response was: "What are you expecting us to do? We have a desktop environment that is a collection of GNOME Shell extensions which break every GNOME Shell release. Either we move towards maintaining tens of thousands of lines of monkey patches, or we do it the right way and make the next step a fully fledged desktop environment equal to GNOME Shell." This announcement comes about two months after the Solus team revealed plans to drop the GTK+ development library which the Solus team says is negatively impacted by GNOME's management of the toolkit.
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There are a number of Linux-based mobile operating systems currently available. Some of these strive to provide an open, GNU/Linux platform while others are children of the Android family. Some of these projects are able to collaborate to share code and progress. The UBports team have published a blog post which outlines various ways the developers work with other distributions and mobile platforms. One key component that gets shared is called Halium. "Halium provides a Hardware Abstraction Layer that allows GNU/Linux to run on mobile devices that come pre-installed with Android. Halium contains the device-specific Linux kernel with drivers, as well as Android services needed to talk to the hardware and the telephony stack oFono. Thanks to the Halium abstraction layer, Ubuntu Touch, Droidian, LuneOS and other mobile Linux platforms have the same way to use the Android source code, launch Android services and flash images to devices. So Halium makes sure that all these projects are able to boot on a phone. By collaborating on these low-level components, these distributions have a common Linux base. This allows each project to focus on the development of the higher layers, where they differ from each other in their user interfaces."
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The OpenBSD operating system is well known for its security, clean design, and accurate documentation. Something it is less known for is being used as a gaming platform. The OpenBSD Webzine interviewed one of the OpenBSD developers who is working on bringing games to the platform: "Working on games on OpenBSD has a very pioneering feel to it because it seems so outlandish at first sight. The advantage for me is that there is lots of (relatively) low-hanging fruit and little risk of breaking something that's critical to many users and developers. There is a certain purist take on using OpenBSD that I disagree with. Like that certain applications are frivolous and not worthy of developer attention - games, watching videos, social media... or even a graphical user interface. Instead, I hope to increase the scope of use without sacrificing the core ideas driving the project." The rest of the short interview can be found in Issue 4 of the OpenBSD Webzine.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
An overview of LXDE, LXQt, and Xfce
Untangling-desktop-differences asks: Firstly, thank you so much for your many years dedicated to DistroWatch and the advancement of Linux.
I am really confused about the desktops Xfce, LXQt and LXDE as they all say 'lightweight' and are a similar mix of letters. There may be more than just those three - all 4-letter "l" "x" something something. It seems like every few months a new one appends itself to this list.
Could you maybe one week illuminate the subject and write about the points of difference, purpose (target audience), etc about each of them?
DistroWatch answers: First, I appreciate your kind words, thank you. I have a great time working on open source software and DistroWatch.
Regarding the desktop environments, let's talk about Xfce first. Xfce describes itself as follows:
Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.
While Xfce describes itself as being lightweight, most people would probably refer to Xfce as being a middle-weight desktop environment. As the project's description says, Xfce strives to balance speed and low resource consumption with visual appeal and user-friendly features.
Xubuntu running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 239kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
In a lot of ways Xfce finds a middle ground. It offers lots of features, customization options, friendly tools, and desktop utilities. On the other side, Xfce manages to maintain a fairly small CPU and memory footprint. The desktop typically consumes less than 500MB of memory and practically idles the CPU. Xfce has a well deserved reputation for being relatively small (compared to KDE Plasma, GNOME, Cinnamon, Budgie, and Deepin) while offering most of the key features and options people want to see in a modern desktop environment.
While Xfce may not ship with as many in-house applications as KDE Plasma or GNOME do, the project ships some useful key components. Xfce includes its own capable settings panel, the top-notch Thunar file manager, a bulk file renaming tool, screenshot utility, virtual terminal, and a number of other small tools which fill out the desktop experience.
The Xfce desktop is built with the GTK+3 toolkit and tends to evolve slowly and steadily. The project has a reputation for taking its time implementing changes, giving users a slowly evolving desktop experience (in contrast to GNOME and Plasma which make rapid, breaking changes).
Xfce has its own, highly capable window manager, Xfwm, which performs well and has very little overhead.
The LXDE project is the most lightweight of the three desktops we are talking about today. LXDE is built using the depreciated GTK+2 toolkit and typically uses the third-party Openbox window manager.
LXDE, in comparison with other Linux desktops, has a tendency to be viewed less as a unified, complete desktop, and more as a collection of desktop tools running on top of Openbox. The LXDE components, like the panel and file manager, tend to be updated independently rather than as a whole.
The LXDE desktop usually offers the best performance and lowest memory footprint of the popular Linux desktop environments. It probably also ships with the fewest components and tools as people who run LXDE tend to want performance and minimal resource consumption over features.
LXLE running the LXDE desktop
(full image size: 768kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Unfortunately, LXDE is mostly unmaintained these days. The LXDE project has shifted focus to working on LXQt (more on the latter desktop in a moment). The LXDE website and wiki largely consist of out of date information and broken links, a reflection of the lack of maintenance the desktop components receive these days. Some Linux distributions still ship LXDE, but most are moving on to its successor, LXQt.
The LXQt desktop started as a merger of the LXDE-Qt and Razor-qt desktop projects. It strives to provide approximately the same look and experience as LXDE, with two key differences. The first is that LXQt uses the Qt toolkit as its base (opposed to GTK+ which is used by LXDE and Xfce). The second is LXQt is actively maintained and continues to put out regular releases.
The LXQt desktop has approximately the same tools, features, and layout as LXDE. Like its sibling, LXQt uses the Openbox window manager under the hood and piles desktop components such as a panel and application menu on top. The desktop components of LXQt offer most of the same functionality and minimal approach of LXDE, but have a distinct Qt style to them that will look familiar to people who have run KDE Plasma. In fact, LXQt might be viewed as a sort of minimal cousin of the KDE Plasma desktop with many applications and options removed.
SparkyLinux running the LXQt desktop
(full image size: 289kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
While all three desktops (Xfce, LXDE, and LXQt) describe themselves as lightweight and (by modern standards) they are, there is a bit of difference in the weight of each. In my experience, Xfce tends to be the heaviest of the three with the highest number of features and conveniences. LXQt, in my tests, is smaller than Xfce, but requires about 50% more memory than LXDE while offering approximately the same features as its sibling. LXDE requires the least amount of memory and CPU but is using an outdated toolkit and is largely unmaintained.
As to who is the target audience for each desktop, that is a matter of taste. In my opinion, Xfce is a desktop for people who want a full-featured desktop environment, but who don't want the overhead of all the widgets and visual effects that comes with KDE Plasma and GNOME. LXDE is a super-light desktop that manages to run on older, less capable hardware - in part because it is so minimal and built using obsolete technology. The LXQt project fills in a middle ground. It offers modern technology and a minimal interface. It tends to be heavier than LXDE by a notable amount while usually being smaller than Xfce. The LXQt project is really ideal for people who like the look and style of KDE Plasma components, but who want a minimal interface with fewer options and features.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Raspberry Pi OS 2021-10-30
Raspberry Pi OS is a Debian-based distribution custom built for Raspberry Pi computers. The development team have published a new version of Raspberry Pi OS which carries the code name "Bullseye". The new version is based on Debian 11 and upgrades a number of desktop components. "All of the desktop components and applications are now using version 3 of the GTK+ user interface toolkit. GTK+ is a layer of software that applications can use to draw standard user interface components (known as 'widgets') such as buttons, menus and the like, so that all applications have a consistent look and feel. Up until now, most of the desktop has used version 2 of the GTK+ toolkit, but increasing numbers of Debian applications are using GTK+3, so to try and keep things consistent, we've upgraded all our software and the desktop itself to the newer version. GTK+3 has been around for several years now, and people have occasionally asked why we didn't move to it before now. The simple answer is that many things are much easier to do with GTK+2 than with GTK+3, particularly when it comes to customising the appearance of widgets - GTK+3 has removed several useful features which we relied upon. It has ended up being necessary to find work-arounds to a lot of these - hopefully no one will notice them and everything will still work as before!" Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
3CX Phone System 10
Agathoklis Prodromou has announced the release of 3CX Phone System 10, a major update of the company's specialist Linux distribution designed for VoIP telephony. The new version is based on Debian 10 "Buster" and it comes with the latest version of 3CX telephony software, build 18.0.1.237, released last month. From the release announcement: "Our latest 3CX ISO is now available bringing the latest version of Debian 10 and 3CX v18 Update 1. The new ISO image supports Microsoft Hyper-V Gen2 virtual machines with 'Secure Boot' enabled for additional protection. Debian 'Buster' version 10.11. Keeping your instance as up-to-date and secure as possible is a key priority for us. That is why, unlike other PBXs, we make sure that our ISO image files support the latest operating system. This means that you receive regular updates to strengthen security, increase performance and reduce resource requirements." Further information about the latest version of the 3CX telephony software is available in the changelog.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5
Red Hat has announced the availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.5, the lates update of the company's commercial, enterprise-class Linux distribution with bundled customer support: "Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.5 is now generally available. It brings new features and improvements to help streamline deployments, optimize performance and help mitigate risk in your environments. RHEL 8.5 continues the tradition of new features and improvements for running Linux containers. This release brings tooling that will add flexibility and reduce friction in running Podman in a wider range of environments. Containerized Podman - the RHEL 8 Podman container image (rhel8/podman) is now GA and can help unlock the usage of Podman in cloud CI/CD systems, on WSL2 on Windows, under Docker Desktop on macOS, and (of course) on RHEL 6, 7 and 8. You can use the Podman container image to help develop and run other container images. Verify container image signatures by default - in RHEL 8.5 users can pull container images with confidence." Read the press release, the What's New blog post and the release notes for more information.
AlmaLinux OS 8.5
The AlmaLinux OS team have announced the release of a new point release in the distribution's 8.x series. The new version is built using upstream's 8.5 sources. "Hi, Community! The AlmaLinux OS Foundation is thrilled to announce that AlmaLinux OS 8.5 Stable is now available. This stable release for x86_64 and ARM architectures is ready for production installations and to power all your computing needs and workloads. So grab it from the nearest mirror and join us on the AlmaLinux Community Chat to discuss. The Raspberry Pi image is also updated to the newest version. Our Live Images, Cloud and Container images updates are in process and will be updated shortly as well." Further information on AlmaLinux OS 8.5 is available through the project's release announcement with technical information provided in the distribution's release notes.
Lakka 3.6
Tomáš Kelemen has announced the release of Lakka 3.6, the latest stable version of the project's lightweight Linux distribution that intends to transform various popular computing devices into full-blown game consoles. From the release announcement: "We are happy to announce the new and updated version of Lakka. Changes since version 3.5.2: RetroArch updated to 1.9.13.2; option to control the menu by all users is back; new option for automatic frame delay (accessible via Settings, Latency and also via Quick Menu - Advanced Settings must be enabled to access this option); cores updated to their most recent versions; beetle-fce - added new libretro core (exists besides beetle-fce-fast); ecwolf - added new libretro core; fbneo - added highscore.dat to RetroArch system folder; mame2003-plus - added artwork, cheat.dat and history.dat to RetroArch system folder; scummvm - added engine files, themes, soundfont and basic scummvm.ini file to RetroArch system folder; Mesa updated to 21.2.5; mainline kernel updated to 5.10.78; Raspberry kernel/firmware updated to 1.20211029; fixed issue with older Intel GPUs...."
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Peers connected: 1,797
- Total torrents seeded: 2,648
- Total data uploaded: 40.9TB
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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) |
Preferred lightweight desktop
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about the differences between three popular, lightweight desktop environments: LXDE, LXQt, and Xfce. Which of these three is your favourite? Let us know why you like your desktop in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on predictable release schedules in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Which is your preferred lightweight desktop?
| LXDE: | 276 (11%) |
| LXQt: | 250 (10%) |
| Xfce: | 1260 (48%) |
| Other: | 354 (14%) |
| I do not use a lightweight desktop: | 472 (18%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 22 November 2021. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
AnduinOS
AnduinOS is an Ubuntu-based distribution which provides a GNOME desktop which has been themed and styled to resemble Windows 11. The project provides a smaller ISO file than its parent with each supported language split into a separate ISO. Snap support, which is included in Ubuntu, has been removed from AnduinOS.
Status: Active
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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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