 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 945, 29 November 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 47th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
One interesting cycle the world has entered with regards to computers is the ever-growing capabilities of hardware along with the ever-expanding ways to use our new capabilities. Hard drives grow in size, network speeds increase, and processors get faster. At the same time we come up with more services, more data, and more calculations. When our capabilities outpace our needs, as users, then things run smoothly, but what happens when we start running into our upper limits? What happens when we run out of available resources, like memory? In this week's Questions and Answers column we talk about what happens when a Linux distribution runs out of available memory and why it behaves the way it does. Do you find your system running out of RAM often? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. First though we take a look at a young distribution called LockBox. The LockBox platform is reportedly developed with cryptocurrencies in mind and we talk about its capabilities in this week's Feature Story. Then, in our News section, we talk about Debian adjusting its APT package manager to avoid breaking essential packages and MX Linux releasing install media with updated hardware support. Plus we share a detailed overview on issues facing portable package formats such as Flatpak. We're also happy 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:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (15MB) and MP3 (12MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
LockBox 1.0
LockBox is one of the most recent additions to the DistroWatch database. LockBox (sometimes referred to as LBX) is a Linux distribution derived from Ubuntu and elementary OS. It is especially intended for storing and managing cryptocurrencies. It includes several hardened configuration changes for security purposes, a highly restrictive firewall setup, several applications designed for data backups, a password manager, and the Brave Internet browser. LockBox is available for x86_64 machines exclusively and its install media is 3.4GB in size.
In a curious case of life imitating art, the LockBox website currently describes the project using a quote from the DistroWatch information page about the distribution.
One of the first things I discovered about the distribution is LockBox will not boot in Legacy BIOS mode. A boot menu will appear and begin a countdown from five seconds. When the countdown reaches zero, or when we select any of the boot options, the counter simply resets to five seconds again. The boot menu offers to let us "Try or install elementary OS" or "Check disks for defects" and both options simply reset the boot menu counter. When trying to launch the distribution in UEFI mode, only the Try/Install option is presented and choosing it boots the distribution's live environment.
When the live system boots we are shown a graphical window where we can choose our preferred language from a list. We are given the choice to try the live desktop, which loads the Pantheon desktop. Alternatively we can launch the system installer. I'll talk about the Pantheon desktop later in this review.
LockBox 1.0 -- The Pantheon application menu
(full image size: 616kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Installing
LockBox makes use of the Ubiquity system installer. It's a friendly, graphical installer that should be familiar to anyone who has used a member of the Ubuntu family of distributions. Ubiquity does a fine job of getting our keyboard layout and time zone, setting up a username and password for us, and partitioning the hard drive. Both guided and manual partitioning options are available and I find them quite easy to navigate. Ubiquity worked well and offered to restart the computer for me when it finished.
The only thing that stood out during the install process was, like many Ubuntu-based distributions, LockBox offers us the option of installing third-party software such as media codecs and wireless support. On this screen there is an option to toggle downloading package updates during the install process. This option is toggled on and the control disabled, preventing us from turning off the download option.
Early impressions
LockBox boots to a graphical login screen. Signing into my account brought up the Pantheon desktop. A thin panel is placed at the top of the screen and a dock holding web browsers and a few other applications sits at the bottom of the display. The top panel holds an application menu, clock, and system tray.
Once the desktop finishes loading a welcome window appears. The greeter offers to link us to online support options. Clicking these links opens a web browser and connects to the elementary OS documentation and support resources. The welcome window then offers to enable nightlight support (to adjust the screen colour during different times of the day). The wizard then offers to delete temporary files on the system, which I found odd since I'd just started using the distribution so there shouldn't have been any temporary files to remove yet.
The final two screens of the welcome window offer to launch the distribution's software centre and open the system settings panel. The welcome text refers to the distribution as elementary OS, something most of the screens and tools included with the distribution do, so the LockBox team haven't spent much time rebranding their project.
Soon into my experience with the distribution a notification appeared in the upper-right corner of the screen letting me know new package updates were available. Clicking this notification while it was on the desktop would open the software centre and show a list of available updates. However, if I ignored the notification at first, waiting until it disappeared, I could then click on the notification icon in the system tray to see the same information. I found clicking the entry in the system tray notification widget simply cleared the entry and did not open the software centre.
LockBox 1.0 -- The Pantheon settings panel
(full image size: 575kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Applications
LockBox ships with several web browsers. The Chromium browser is installed along with the Epiphany browser. Then there are two privacy-focused browsers: Brave and LibreWolf. LibreWolf is a privacy-focused fork of Firefox and is a browser I haven't previous found installed by default on a Linux distribution.
The distribution also includes a news feed reader, an e-mail client, the KeePassXC password manager, and a photo viewer. The distribution also ships with the Music and Videos tools provided by elementary OS. The Gufw firewall tool is included along with the elementary file manager.
LockBox includes a nice settings panel for adjusting the look and behaviour of the Pantheon desktop. Manual pages are includes along with the GNU Compiler Collection, the systemd init software, and version 5.4 of the Linux kernel.
I was surprised at first to find software included in LockBox is a bit on the older side. The GNU compiler, for example, was at version 7 which is about two years old. Likewise Linux 5.4 is about two years old at the time of writing. I discovered this is due to LockBox being based on elementary OS 5 "Hera" rather than the more recent release of elementary OS 6 "Odin". In short, most software included on the distribution will likely be close to two years old.
There were a handful of applications I felt stood out during my trial. For instance, this is the first distribution I can remember using that includes the Vorta backup application. This is a front-end desktop tool for creating backup archives and transferring them to remote servers. Vorta has a nice interface with simple, clear options and it feels like a good solution for people who want to schedule and transmit backups over OpenSSH to remote computers.
LockBox is unusual in that it ships with strict firewall rules. It not only blocks all incoming network connections (which is fairly common), it also blocks many outgoing connections. Web traffic is permitted to leave the system, but most other network protocols are blocked. Looking at the Gufw firewall utility we can see the default rules are to block all incoming traffic and all outgoing traffic too, apart from a few exceptions like connections to web servers. OpenSSH and most other network protocols are forbidden by the firewall unless we tweak the default rules. This is an interesting and unusual approach and it meant I had to add new firewall exceptions in order to login to remote servers, send ping requests, and transfer backups.
LockBox 1.0 -- Reviewing firewall rules with Gufw
(full image size: 768kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Perhaps the most interesting item in LockBox's toolbox is OpenSnitch. When OpenSnitch is launched it monitors all network connection requests and pops up a window letting us know when new programs try to connect over the network. We are then given the chance to permit the network connection or block it. The main OpenSnitch window offers a number of tabs with the main one displaying a list of events. This list shows recent connection attempts and their result (allowed or denied). We can then explore the other tabs to see more information about network activity and adjust the rules OpenSnitch is enforcing.
For instance, I might find that my web browser is blocked from attempting to connect to a remote website once I launch OpenSnitch. I can see any outgoing browser requests that are being stopped in the Events tab. I can then switch to the Rules tab, click the browser's entry and toggle its rule to allow outgoing traffic. This will allow the browser to resume working.
LockBox 1.0 -- Using OpenSnitch to block the Brave browser
(full image size: 185kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
OpenSnitch is surprisingly user friendly and does a very nice job of organizing its traffic events, rules, and showing us which applications are allowed or blocked from accessing the network. The pop-ups from OpenSnitch when new programs want access to the Internet can get tedious after a while, but we only need to respond to each program's request once. OpenSnitch remembers our answer and applies our ruling automatically from then on.
The LockBox website mentions crypto tools and cryptocurrency at least twice on the front page. The project describes itself as "security + privacy + crypto" and later states: "Download, burn, and install your way to a more secure operating system for your crypto." So I was surprised when I could find no crypto software on the system. There were no cryptocurrency wallets, recovery tools, or mining utilities as far as I could see. Certainly none in the application menu and nothing came up when I checked the command line for common crypto programs.
Hardware
When I began using LockBox it was in a VirtualBox instance. The distribution provided about average, or slightly worse than average, performance. The desktop resized automatically with the VirtualBox window and the system ran smoothly. When run on my laptop all my hardware was detected successfully, desktop responsiveness was excellent, and the distribution was stable.
Earlier I mentioned LockBox could boot in UEFI mode only and would not get past the boot menu when run in Legacy BIOS mode. This proved to be true when running both in the VirtualBox instance and on the laptop.
The distribution consumes about 550MB of memory when sitting idle at the Pantheon desktop. The distribution consumed about 18GB of hard drive space for the root filesystem. It also consumed a bit more disk for a swapfile which is automatically set up for us.
Software management
LockBox uses elementary OS's App Centre as its graphical package manager. This application is divided into two tabs, one for browsing available packages and one for viewing, removing, and updating existing applications. The software centre has a fairly simple layout that I found straight forward to navigate.
LockBox 1.0 -- Fetching updates with the software centre
(full image size: 387kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
LockBox pulls in software packages from Ubuntu's repositories, mostly. There are also some repositories set up for the Brave browser and the elementary OS project. As far as I can tell there aren't any repositories and PPAs specific to LockBox, which may explain why most of the artwork still says "elementary OS" on it.
Project goals
I want to talk a bit about the project's stated goals and how well it accomplishes them. The LockBox website currently lists three objectives, which I'll list here along with my impressions.
Fast: Powered by elementary OS, the customized LockBox image has been stripped to bare necessities thus making it lightweight and seemingly fast.
I am divided on this claim. On the one hand, LockBox is fast, at least when running directly on my laptop. It's a little sluggish in a virtual machine, but if we focus on the real life hardware side of things then LockBox is indeed fast. However, the distribution is not at all stripped down or lightweight. In fact, a fresh install of LockBox is a massive 18GB (plus swap file) on the disk, easily three times larger than most mainstream Linux distributions. The memory consumption is about average, around 550MB. This puts LockBox in the medium to heavy range of Linux distributions, quite the opposite of being lightweight or stripped down.
Secure: LockBox is a custom secure operating system leveraging the power of a variety of open source security and privacy tools.
I definitely agree with this description. LockBox may be one of the most locked down (from a network perspective) and privacy-oriented distributions for general desktop use. Putting aside specialty distributions such as Tails or Qubes OS, I'd say LockBox is one of the better desktop distributions for network privacy. There could have been more done to add application sandboxing, beyond what AppArmor provides, which would help, especially with the web browsers. This would certainly lock down the distribution further. Still, I really like the networking customizations like the Gufw firewall rules. OpenSnitch is a great tool for monitoring and blocking specific applications and including privacy-focused browsers like Brave is a nice touch.
Easy: Download, burn, and install your way to a more secure operating system for your crypto.
This claim puzzles me as there doesn't seem to be anything crypto-oriented about the distribution. I didn't find any Bitcoin wallet, crypto-recovery tools, mining software, or even classic crypto tools like KGpg installed. I agree the distribution is easy to install and set up. I like the Ubiquity installer and the easy to navigate settings panel. I just don't see how the project relates to crypto.
Conclusions
I had mostly good impressions of LockBox. The operating system is easy to install, has a fairly friendly desktop environment, I like the settings panel, and Pantheon offers a fairly friendly experience. I'm not a fan of the desktop effects and some of the overly simplified default applications, but I can see why they would appeal to some people. Performance, at least on physical hardware, is good and the distribution can pull from the massive Ubuntu software repositories to add anything we need.
I'm a big fan of the OpenSnitch application. Having it installed and on the dock by default was a nice touch and I'm mostly happy about the strict firewall rules. I did need to open a few gaps in the firewall to allow me to ping and use OpenSSH, but otherwise I think the default "deny in/deny out" firewall policy with exceptions for web browsing is welcome. I also like that a range of web browsers are included, from the privacy-focused Brave to the lighter Epiphany, and the more mainstream Chromium.
There are a few things I didn't like about LockBox. One is that it's basically an older version of elementary OS. The repositories, software, desktop, and branding are all provided by elementary OS 5. The whole distribution feels like we could have accomplished the same thing by installing elementary and then adding a few web browser packages and firewall rules. I don't mind LockBox being close to its parent, but I do wonder if the project (and its users) might be better served with a newer base that will receive longer support. Users may also be confused as to why they installed LockBox, but it keeps calling itself elementary OS and they get directed to elementary documentation.
Finally, my last issue is that LockBox was pleasant enough to use, but its description on the website doesn't appear to match what the project is actually accomplishing. The goals of being stripped down, lightweight, and good for crypto are not reflected in this distribution. This feels like elementary OS with a few more browsers and network security tools, not something light, minimal, or crypto-oriented. In short, LockBox is a decent desktop distribution and has some good tools for the security-minded people of the world, but it feels like it has an identity crisis where what it sets out to be is not what it is.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a de-branded HP laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: Intel i3 2.5GHz CPU
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 700GB hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Wired network device: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast
- Wireless network device: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
LockBox has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.3/10 from 3 review(s).
Have you used LockBox? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Debian makes APT safer, an overview of Flatpak problems, MX Linux releases Advanced Hardware Support editions
The Debian team has made a change to the APT package manager which should make working with low-level packages safer. In the past, an attempt to remove packages essential for the operating system to function would result in a warning which the user could override. Now APT will simply refuse to take action which would break the core operating system. The change was reported on Twitter: "The solver will no longer try to remove Essential or Protected packages, any dependency problem that would need such a solution will have to be resolved manually. The 'Yes, do as I say' prompt for removing essential packages has been replaced by an error message. The appropriate command-line option needs to be used instead."
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In recent years there have been a number of new initiatives to create universal package formats for Linux distributions. Canonical has championed Snap packages, particularly for Ubuntu while most other distributions have shown interest in portable Flatpak packages. The Fedora team in particular has been strongly advocating Flatpak, especially for Fedora's Silverblue edition. Flatpak declares itself "the future of apps on Linux", but some people have concerns about its design and whether these issues can be overcome. Ludocode has a detailed look at portable packages in general and Flatpak in particular. The article covers a number of issues with portable packages and why they may not be the best option for developers or users. "Snap and Flatpak in their current incarnations have been around for at least five years. AppImage, Steam and Docker have been around even longer. None of the above is new. The problems with alternate runtimes were known from the very beginning, yet little progress has been made in fixing them. I don't believe these are growing pains of a new technology. These are fundamental problems that are mostly not fixable."
* * * * *
The MX Linux team have published new install media which includes updated hardware support. These new ISO file includes newer versions of the Linux kernel and drivers. "MX-21 AHS (Advanced Hardware Support) ISO is now available. The release features all the updates and goodness packaged up with the other MX-21 releases, but with a 5.14 kernel and updated Mesa, X.Org and Vulkan drivers to produce a graphic stack more in line with newer hardware, along with a few recompiled applications that utilize the later kernel. AHS by design is a little more on the edge, and not as tested as our primary releases, and the idea is that it will receive updates to the graphics stack over time, so for those that don't need the newer open source graphics stack, there is little point is using AHS."
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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) |
Dealing with out of memory issues
Running-out-of-RAM asks: I moved to Linux a few months ago. Whenever RAM reaches its full amount the computer just stops, locks-up. What causes this, is there an update or something I can do?
DistroWatch answers: Welcome to Linux! It sounds like one of two things is happening. It could be your RAM is filling up and your computer does not have anywhere else to place data in the moment. When this happens the kernel will usually terminate one or more programs. The kernel doesn't always pick something non-essential and this could be what is bringing your computer to halt: the death of an essential process when the kernel is out of RAM to use.
The second, and in my opinion, more likely scenario is your system does have a place to store information when it runs out of RAM. This alternative data storage space is called "swap". Swap space is a special area of the disk drive (either a file or a partition) where data is placed when RAM gets full.
Often what will happen is RAM becomes full, data is (slowly) copied to the disk to free up space in memory. Then the data that got copied to swap is needed by another program and so the system needs to copy something else from RAM to the disk and read the original swapped data back into memory. This movement back and forth as different processes save information to the disk and load it back will quickly kill system performance and make it look like the system is entirely locked up. Usually the system isn't actually locked (non-functioning), it's just very very slow due to how slow accessing swap space is.
There are ways to avoid both of these scenarios. Typically what we need is an out of memory (OOM) service which runs in the background and kills off processes which are consuming too much memory. This prevents RAM from getting too full and swap from being used. Most Linux distributions do not ship with an OOM service enabled by default (though Fedora is an exception). You may want to look at installing an OOM service, such as EarlyOOM, which is fairly straight forward to set up to terminate applications when memory or swap gets too full.
You might be wondering why, given how badly the system performs when it runs out of memory, more distributions don't ship with an OOM service running by default. It's a bit of a philosophical issue.
The reason most distros operate the way they do by default is they're trying to avoid any unexpected behaviour (like killing a running process) which is considered risky. Instead the OS "hopes" the processes sort themselves out eventually and try to take a "hands off" approach to let them do that.
In some cases this is a good idea as it avoids data loss. This is especially a good thing if you're running server software in a bank. But in practice, these days, it usually makes more sense to kill or restart the offending process if you're running a desktop system. Since many Linux distributions still take the traditional "behave correctly, not quickly" approach and since many major Linux projects are server-oriented, most stick to letting processes sort themselves out, hoping they will finish their work eventually and free up memory.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Alpine Linux 3.15.0
Alpine Linux is a community developed operating system designed for routers, firewalls, VPNs, VoIP boxes and servers. The project's latest release is Alpine Linux 3.15.0 which provides version 5.15 of the Linux kernel along with updated desktops, development tools, and disk encryption from the system installer. The Alpine team have announced the sudo tool is being migrated to the Community repository and OpenDoas is now the recommended tool to use for privilege escalation. "We are pleased to announce the release of Alpine Linux 3.15.0, the first in the v3.15 stable series. Highlights: Linux kernel 5.15 (LTS), llvm 12, nodejs 16.13 (LTS) / nodejs-current 17.0, postgresql 14, openldap 2.6, ruby 3.0, rust 1.56, openjdk 17, kea 2.0, xorg-server 21.1, GNOME 41, KDE Plasma 5.23 / KDE Applications 21.08 / Plasma Mobile Gear 21.10. Support for disk encryption in installer,s support for out-of-tree kernel modules via AKMS (inspired by DKMS), initial support for UEFI Secure Boot on x86_64." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
Endless OS 4.0.0
Endless OS is a Linux-based operating system which provides a simplified and streamlined user experience using a customized desktop environment forked from GNOME Shell. The project's latest release is version 4.0.0 which introduces long-term support. With Endless OS 4, we are introducing a long-term support version of the OS, which will be supported for a number of years even after Endless OS 5 is released. By default, Endless OS 4 systems will automatically update to Endless OS 5 when it is released, as with all past versions of the OS. However, it is now possible to remain on Endless OS 4 and continue to receive critical bug fixes and security updates even after Endless OS 5 is released, keeping the same OS functionality and appearance for several years. Please see the Long-Term Support documentation for more details, including how to configure a system to use the LTS version of Endless OS. We have updated our low-level software platform, for improved hardware support, performance, and stability Linux kernel 5.11 and updated linux-firmware, bringing support for the latest PC hardware and several fixes to existing drivers and core kernel code." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
Endless OS 4.0.0 -- The default Endless OS desktop
(full image size: 2.1MB, resolution: 1919x1079 pixels)
deepin 20.3
deepin is a Debian-based distribution which features its own, custom desktop environment - the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE). The project's latest release is deepin 20.3 which includes an updated kernel and better support for NTFS partitions. "In deepin 20.3, the Stable kernel is upgraded to version 5.15 with better compatibility, system security vulnerabilities are fixed, some deepin applications come with new features and optimizations to meet the needs under different scenarios, and DDE issues are fixed and optimized to improve the overall user experience. The Stable kernel is upgraded to version 5.15 with better support for Intel 12th Gen processors and NTFS file systems, and better system compatibility. Both LTS and Stable kernels can be installed and manually upgraded in deepin. Album provides a better batch selection of photos and new buttons for quick actions, supports importing, previewing, and searching videos, displays the number of photos and videos separately in the status bar, and improves the interactions of main functions, making photo and video management more convenient." Additional information can be found in the distribution's release announcement (Chinese, English).
Clonezilla Live 2.8.0-27
Steven Shiau has announced the release of Clonezilla Live 2.8.0-27, the latest stable version of the project's Debian-based specialist live CD designed for partitioning, backups and disk-cloning jobs: "Stable Clonezilla Live 2.8.0-27 released. This release includes major enhancements and bug fixes. Enhancements and changes since 2.7.3-19: the underlying GNU/Linux operating system has been upgraded - this release is based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2021-11-17; Linux kernel has been updated to 5.14.6; Partclone has been updated to 0.3.18; the ezio package has been updated to 1.2.0; the de_DE, hu_HU, es_ES, fr_FR, ja_JP, pl_PL, sk_SK and tr_TR language files have been updated; the ocs-live-netcfg program has been improved - wireless network can be configured using nmtui and boot parameter ocs_nic_type can be used to assign if wired or wireless when configuring network in ocs-live-netcfg; update-efi-nvram-boot-entry - improved to refer to saved nvram data (efi-nvram.dat); suppress the error message about 'setterm -blank 0'; add a cache mechanism to speed up device scanning; allow reserved image names to be used in TUI and the description about reserved image names is shown in TUI." Here is the full release announcement.
EuroLinux 8.5
EuroLinux is a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The project's latest release is EuroLinux 8.5. The distribution's release announcement offers highlights on the latest version: "We have released universal migration scripts. They are available at https://github.com/EuroLinux/eurolinux-migration-scripts. What's important is that these scripts update all packages of the distribution you are migrating from. No packages from the previous vendor remain after migration. This is the implementation of one of the popular requests made by our customers. In addition, the scripts have options that allow you to customize their operation to individual requirements. The migration process is described here. (New) HA and RS Repositories: EuroLinux 8.5 is the first release that includes High Availability and Resilient Storage repositories from the beginning. They significantly increase the system's capabilities and allow for easier migration, especially from very expensive cluster solutions from other vendors." The release notes for EuroLinux 8.5 offer additional details.
GhostBSD 21.11.24
GhostBSD is a desktop-oriented, rolling release operating system based on FreeBSD. The project's latest snapshot adds a new tool for tracking the version of the rolling release operating system. "This new ISO contains kernel, OS, and software updates. In addition, I added a new command-line software called ghostbsd-version that gives you the GhostBSD version, FreeBSD version, kernel version, and OS version. At the date of this release, if you run ghostbsd-version or ghostbsd-version -v, it should output 21.11.24. This version number will be increment by the date of new packages built on packages every update performed. The ISO version is now following the last package's build version instead of an ISO's build date in the hope of removing confusion about the ISO version." Additional information on the new GhostBSD snapshot can be found in the project's release announcement.
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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:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,655
- Total data uploaded: 41.1TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Running out of space in memory
In this week's Questions and Answers column we discussed how Linux distributions typically handle running low on available memory and why. The default behaviour of most desktop distributions when running out of RAM is notorious and tends to lead to poor performance. But how common is it for a modern computer to run out of RAM? Do you find you regularly run low on memory in your day-to-day operations? Let us know how you handle low-RAM situations in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running custom login scripts in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Running out of space in RAM
| I frequently run out of RAM: | 68 (4%) |
| I sometimes run out of RAM: | 163 (10%) |
| I rarely run out of RAM: | 417 (26%) |
| I never run out of RAM: | 933 (59%) |
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|
| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- CalinixOS. CalinixOS is an Arch-based Linux distribution which features a desktop layout similar in style to macOS.
- Debianissimo. Debianissimo is an Italian distribution which is based on Debian. Its goal is to provide a platform for the Ordissimo desktop environment.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 6 December 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 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Amber Linux
Amber Linux was a Latvian Linux distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. It aims at being the first business desktop Linux distribution that was tailored specifically to the needs of Latvian users. Features include automatic hardware detection and storage device mounting; GNOME as the default desktop environment; OpenOffice.org as the default office applications suite; Hansa Financials accounting software.
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