 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 948, 20 December 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 50th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Linux is virtually everywhere these days. It's in most smart phones, single board computers, a vast number of servers, and millions of desktop machines. In this week's Feature Story we focus on mobile Linux, taking the open hardware PinePhone device for a spin with its default operating system: Manjaro Linux. Read on to hear about Jesse Smith's first impressions of the PinePhone. This time of year a lot of families are getting new personal computing devices and also have small children at home. Mixing the two can be a dangerous combination and, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about how to protect computers being used by the whole family from data loss. Do you use a shared family computer? Let us know your approach to locking it down in this week's Opinion Poll and in the comments below. This week we are also pleased to talk about how well Wayland works for gaming compared to X.Org display servers. Plus we discuss work progressing on bringing Linux distributions to Apple M1 ARM computers and link to a talk on what it is like to hunt and fix bugs on Ubuntu. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We will be on holiday next Monday and DistroWatch Weekly will return on January 3, 2022. We wish you all a wonderful week and, for those of you who celebrate this time of year, enjoy your holiday!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
The PinePhone running Manjaro and Plasma Mobile
The PinePhone is an open source hardware device created by PINE64. While the PINE64 team has a number of successful creations in their portfolio, the PinePhone is probably the one which has gained the most attention in recent years.
The PinePhone is an inexpensive ($149.99 USD), low-end phone which can be used to run a number of operating systems, including several flavours of mobile Linux distributions. Through most of the PinePhone's life it has shown up as being out-of-stock when I've visited the PINE64 website, but for a brief window last month there were units available and I happily got my hands on one.
The PinePhone took about two weeks to arrive and came in a small, white box with the slogan "Open. Friendly. Community Driven." on the cover. The box contains a user manual, a getting started guide, a USB C charging cable and, of course, the PinePhone. The phone boasts a modest set of specifications. It has a quad-core 1.1GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 14GB of storage space. 4.7GB of that storage is consumed by the default operating system, Manjaro Linux running the Plasma Mobile interface. Of the 2GB of RAM available, around 850MB is taken up by the operating system. The device is about six inches long and around three inches wide, making it almost exactly the same size as my Galaxy S9, though the PinePhone is a few millimetres thicker.
Getting started
I'm getting ahead of myself. The getting started guide let's us know that we need to pop the back off the phone and remove the plastic between the phone's body and the battery. We're also told which software the phone runs by default (Manjaro Linux running Plasma Mobile) and where to find more information about Plasma Mobile, PINE64, and where to find the PinePhone wiki.
Opening up the back of the phone reveals two card slots, one for a SIM card and another for an SD card. One nice feature of the PinePhone is we can copy an operating system image to an SD card and plug it into the phone to boot from it. We do not need to overwrite the internal storage of the device in order to try booting alternative operating systems.
Turning on the PinePhone for the first time brings up a first-run wizard which welcomes us and asks us to select our time zone from a list. We're also given the chance to connect to local wireless networks. The final screen asks us to make up a username and password for ourselves. The password may contain numbers only. I discovered later this password is used to unlock the device each time we want to use it, so I recommend making up a short passcode.
The Plasma Mobile home screen with dark theme
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With these steps completed we are presented with the Plasma Mobile interface. The main screen is mostly blank. The background is made up of tiny, geometric shapes. Near the bottom of the screen we find an Up arrow and three icons labelled: Phone, Phone Book, and Angelfish. For those, like me, who were not aware of Angelfish, it's a web browser.
There are three buttons placed at the very bottom of the display. A square button accesses a list of open applications, a small version of Plasma's logo brings up the Home screen, and an X closes the current application.
Swiping up from the bottom of the screen opens a drawer of application launchers. This drawer mostly fills the screen. Most of the icons have labels I was not familiar with, though with many of them I could guess their purpose just by looking at the icons. For example, I could figure out Discover (the software centre), Index (the file manager), and Wave (the audio player) fairly easily. But I had no idea what Angelfish, Buho, Nota, Kongress or Spacebar were. Most of the default applications present are listed with a short description on the Plasma Mobile website, though some are missing, so there is trial and error involved in exploring the available software.
Using Angelfish to learn about available applications
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We can also swipe down from the top of the Plasma Mobile interface to access a group of buttons and toggles for commonly used settings. These provide quick access to wireless networks, the Flashlight feature, the settings panel, taking a screenshot, and toggling Bluetooth.
Early impressions
One issue I ran into early on was that the phone's screen tended to go to sleep, even sometimes while I was using it. Each time the device went to sleep and I woke it again the phone would prompt me for my PIN, something I don't have enabled on any of my other mobile devices. At first I tried increasing the screen sleep delay, but even with it set to being five minutes, the screen still shut off after ten seconds of inactivity. It would also occasionally shut off while I was interacting with it.
I went into the settings panel and brought up the PIN module and found that it would allow me to set a new PIN, but not remove my PIN entirely. My PIN had to be at least one digit in length. As I often do when trouble-shooting Linux issues, I turned to the terminal application which is very slow and tended to lock-up while I was using it. However, I was able to disable the password on my account using the passwd command. Unfortunately, even with no PIN or password set, I'd still see the PIN prompt each time I picked up the phone. I could simply press Enter to gain access the device, but this is an extra (and unnecessary) step which I have not been able to find a way to skip despite browsing the PinePhone and Plasma Mobile documentation.
The Plasma Mobile settings panel
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The Plasma Mobile interface is slow and not particularly responsive. This is probably the most sluggish mobile experience I've had to date. It feels as though Plasma Mobile is too heavy for the PinePhone's hardware. There's often a second or two of delay between typing a key on the virtual keyboard and getting a response. Dragging the settings panel down or the apps drawer up feels choppy. Taking a screenshot takes three or four seconds. Sometimes the device seems to lock up and not respond to any input for a few seconds. Typically getting around this requires turning off the screen, turning it back on, then going through the PIN unlock screen.
Included software
The Manjaro mobile platform ships with several applications. Earlier I mentioned the Angelfish web browser, which seems to work well enough for some basic browsing, though I struggled to find a way to type in specific URLs I wanted to visit. Alternative browsers are available in the Discover software centre which I'll talk about later in this review. The Buho note taking and task list app is included along with the Calindori calendar app. Calindori will display a calendar and it seems to be designed to show tasks and events on the calendar. I was unable to find a way to add events to the calendar so perhaps it is meant to offer a read-only view of existing shared calendars.
Adjusting audio settings
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The KDE Connect application is present. This program makes it easy to connect with desktop Linux systems and share files, remotely control media players, and share clipboard information. I like KDE Connect and it is one of the few programs included which feels like it has a truly polished and mobile-friendly design.
There is an app called Keysmith which appears to be a password generator, but its purpose isn't explicitly stated. Likewise the Kongress app doesn't have a clear purpose. It seems to be designed to keep track of meetings or presentations, though without any clear source of information or an indication of what assistance it provides.
There is an app for planning trips around European public transit systems called Ktrip and the mpv media player is included. There is a Matrix client called Neochat and a camera application called Megapixels. The cameras are relatively low-resolution by modern standards, but they exist and can be used to take front-facing or back-facing snapshots.
Digging through the list I found the Okular document viewer, a contact editor called Phone Book, and the Koko photo manager. There is a simple text editor called Nota, and a dialer which is plainly called Phone.
Something that took me a while to get accustomed to is different applications use different methods for navigating the interface and accessing features. The Plasma Mobile interface doesn't have a Back button the way some other mobile platforms, such as Android, do. Most native members of the Plasma Mobile family use breadcrumb navigation at the top of the window. For instance, if I'm in the Settings panel and select the Audio module, the top of the screen will read "Settings > Audio" and I can return to the top level of the panel by tapping the word Settings.
The Plasma Mobile settings panel with breadcrumb navigation
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Navigation is sometimes complicated by the fact some apps will hide the Home button along with the Open Windows and Close buttons at the bottom of the screen. This means if a full screen app locks up it can be hard to get rid of it. We usually need to open the settings drawer and launch something which will take over the screen and restore the navigation buttons.
Another curious quirk is that many applications have multiple menus. One will be represented by three dashes and another by three dots. These buttons are usually placed near the bottom of the app window. Often both menus only have a few entries and it's usually not clear which of the two menus I want to use to find a particular option. Maybe there is a pattern to what goes into each menu, but it wasn't clear. Some menus are really sparse, for example the camera tool simply has a menu which says "Settings aren't functional yet."
To make matters more unusual, a lot of the applications we can install from the software centre use classic, desktop style menu bars across the top of the window rather than the three dash/dot style menus. This means we're regularly switching between navigation approaches, menu styles, and menu locations since the desktop menu bars are placed at the top of windows and the dot/dash menus are typically placed at the bottom.
I think the dot/dash menus are placed lower down on the display to make accessing the menu with a thumb easier and I'd say this approach mostly works. However, some app interfaces are not well designed for the layout. As an example, the calendar app looks (at first) as though it doesn't have a zero button. The "0" is mostly covered by a menu button.
Earlier I mentioned Plasma Mobile ships with the Angelfish browser. This browser is functional for simple browsing, but doesn't have many features and it's on the slow side. I tried some alternative browsers I found through Discover. They offered more features, but were also slow and tended to flicker while displaying content. Browsing was sometimes made harder because the PinePhone seemed to drop its network connection whenever its screen was off. The device would automatically reconnect to my wireless network, but it caused a hiccup in connectivity.
Software management
Earlier I mentioned the Plasma Mobile interface uses Discover as its software manager. Discover looks and works the same on mobile as it does on the desktop. It's a bit complicated in its approach for a mobile app store. For instance, if we want to browse for a new program we first need to filter our searches based on whether the item we want is an application, an application add-on, or a Plasma add-on. We can search for items by name, but this doesn't always seem to be accurate and I got a lot of search results where I think the word I was looking for must have been in the program's detailed description as it didn't match the program's name or short description.
Browsing software categories in Discover
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Whether we browse for items in categories (and sub-categories) or search for key words, available programs are listed along with their name, icon, and a short description. A download button is placed to the right of the program's entry. Sometimes the download button is disabled and I think this indicates a program is available for other architectures (such as x86_64), but not ARM. For instance, I was unable to install the Signal client or Firefox. When an entry has already been installed the download button turns into a trash button, allowing us to remove the item.
Discover, as awkward as I found it to navigate at times, worked as expected. Newly installed applications were added to my application drawer on the home screen. One of the few serious problems I ran into came when I tried to check for updates. Discover seemed to lock up for a while after showing me an update was available. After several seconds it resumed working and I suspect it had been calculating the size of the available updates. These turned out to be one single bundle of many packages that was presented as a 1.1GB download (about a quarter of the size of the entire operating system). Given the performance issues I'd experienced I decided to put off applying this update for a few days. When I did try to fetch the update, Discover immediately reported an error saying "Dependency resolution failed: libcanberra." Unfortunately until this is resolved I'll be stuck with the existing versions of packages since Discover takes an "all or nothing" approach to updating the base system.
Running Android applications
One of the most common questions I hear when people talk about GNU/Linux distributions running on mobile devices is "Can it run Android applications?" Many people, perhaps even most people, feel locked into their existing iOS and Android ecosystems and are hesitant to migrate to another platform which doesn't provide the same apps.
In theory it is possible to run Android applications on GNU/Linux systems using software called Waydroid. I reviewed Waydroid running on desktop distributions in an earlier article. The Plasma Mobile interface reports it is running a Wayland session and so I checked for Waydroid in the Discover software centre. I found it and was able to install the Waydroid package.
Once Waydroid was installed its icon was added to my app drawer. Trying to launch Waydroid simply brought up the Waydroid logo and then the app locked up. Even after waiting several minutes, nothing happened. I tried launching Waydroid a few more times, but nothing happened apart from seeing the project's logo. It seems there is still a ways to go before Waydroid will make it possible for users to easily access and run Android applications.
Other observations
After a while I started getting used to the way Plasma Mobile handled on the PinePhone. The interaction was a little jerky, but I got into a rhythm with it on the second day. The device sometimes locked up, especially when running two or more applications, and this usually required turning off the screen and turning it back on. Getting the phone to wake up sometimes required pressing the power button two or three times.
The battery indicator doesn't seem to work. While the phone was charging it stayed at 65% for about an hour, then suddenly jumped to 73%, then up to 94%. When I unplugged the phone it almost immediately fell to 68% battery, then back up to 74% (without being plugged back in). I'm guessing this is a software bug coupled with a slow refresh rate on the status bar.
I want to give special credit to the Weather app. This program worked well, automatically detected its location and has a polished look above and beyond what most of the other pre-installed apps offer.
Earlier I mentioned the camera app works, though the images it takes are lower resolution and tend to look unusually dark. Despite this limitation, the Megapixel camera application worked as well as can expected with the available hardware and has a more familiar style to it than most of the programs available.
I usually use a wireless charging pad for my phone. This doesn't work with the PinePhone and it required I plug it into a charge block or the USB port on my computer to recharge the battery.
Also on the subject of the battery, the PinePhone sometimes reported its battery was running low when the charge was over 80%. When this would happen it would regularly send "low battery" notifications via KDE Connect and refuse to turn on the display for more than two seconds at a time. This generally required either a restart or leaving the phone plugged in until it stopped reporting its low battery status.
Hardware switches
The PinePhone's documentation mentions there are hardware switches which will toggle key components on/off. The camera, microphone, headphone jack, modem, Bluetooth, and wireless card can all be toggled with these switches. It took me a minute to find them. These are very tiny switches located under the back cover, just above the SIM card slot. Given their small size, I needed a tool (like a set of tweezers or pocket knife) to toggle the switches. Once toggled this should prevent software from enabling the camera, wi-fi, etc in order to provide better privacy.
Conclusions
A thought which kept coming to mind while using the PinePhone with its default operating system was that the experience feels really rough, like an early beta. Which, upon reflection, is appropriate since that's exactly what it is. I was running what's essentially a beta platform with young software on it and the mixed experience is to be expected. These are still early days for the PinePhone and for mobile branches of distributions such as Manjaro. Plasma Mobile has only been running on the PinePhone for about a year and I was running a version which, since I was unable to install updates, was out of date.
With all of this in mind I'd like to say that I don't think Manjaro and Plasma Mobile running on the PinePhone is a good experience yet - it's not something I'd use on a daily basis like I have /e/ OS or UBports. But the pieces are all there. Plasma Mobile on Manjaro has a phone, text messaging, an app store with most of the same software we can run on desktop distributions, a minimal yet functional settings panel, and similar key features. At the moment this combination (Plasma Mobile and the PinePhone) is probably only going to appeal to Linux enthusiasts who want to tinker, who want to push the limits of the hardware, who want to set up hobbyist projects to see if they can run a web server on the device, or who want to help polish open source solutions.
This is all fine and good. This is an early offering and a modest one and it's paving the way for more polished and more advanced options down the road. As I said, right now it isn't ready to replace my existing phone, but all the right pieces are present and, with slightly better performance and a little more RAM, I could see the next generation of PinePhones running Plasma Mobile being suitable as a daily device.
I'd also like to acknowledge there are other Linux distributions which can run on the PinePhone. The PINE64 wiki lists over 20 flavours of Linux which can run on this device and I'm eager to try out the alternatives.
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Have questions about the PinePhone running Manjaro? Let us know via e-mail or in the comments. Queries will be answered in our next issue of DistroWatch Weekly.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
How good is Wayland for gaming, running Linux on Apple M1 computers, finding and fixing bugs on Ubuntu, Debian updates Bullseye media
Last week we reported the Fedora Workstation distribution will begin using Wayland as the default display software for all video cards, including NVIDIA cards. This has raised some questions about how effective Wayland is, particularly in situations which require low latency, like gaming. Xaver's blog has a detailed look at Wayland and X.Org with a special focus on gaming. "A considerable amount of people assume Wayland isn't particularly suitable for gaming, usually because you can't turn off the compositor. This post will challenge that assumption and see how the current state of gaming on Wayland is, with a focus on KWin, KDE's compositor."
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The arrival of Apple's M1 class of computers last year sparked a lot of interest in tech circles. Though Linux was not supported when the M1 series arrived, work has been progressing on getting the Linux kernel (and related components) running on the new Mac hardware. The Asahi Linux project has been making progress in this regard and have published an update: "Over the past year, we've seen lots of development happening in separate kernel branches, but there wasn't any 'official' kernel branch collecting work before it is upstreamed. Now that many drivers are landing upstream and platform device trees are settling down, it's time to start collecting our ongoing work into a common branch. Say hi to the linux-asahi kernel branch!" Details on the history and progress of the project can be found in the Asahi Linux progress report.
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Finding and fixing bugs is an important part of software development. Sometimes issues can be mysterious, even for the people who are accustomed to exploiting and patching bugs. Kevin Backhouse shares a look inside the process of working with software vulnerabilities, using an unusual example of an unexpected bug in Ubuntu. "As a general rule, you would expect the author of an exploit to understand how it works, even if it might seem like magic to everybody else. Well, not this time. This is the story of how I successfully exploited CVE-2021-3939 in Ubuntu's accountsservice, then spent the next two weeks trying to figure out how my own exploit worked. It seemed like magic, even to me!" The full write-up can be found in Backhouse's explanation of the issue.
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The Debian project is publishing refreshed media for Debian 11 "Bullseye". The new media carries the version number 11.2. "The Debian project is pleased to announce the second update of its stable distribution Debian 11 (codename Bullseye). This point release mainly adds corrections for security issues, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories have already been published separately and are referenced where available. Please note that the point release does not constitute a new version of Debian 11 but only updates some of the packages included. There is no need to throw away old bullseye media. After installation, packages can be upgraded to the current versions using an up-to-date Debian mirror."
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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) |
Protecting our computers from children
Kids-in-the-machine asks: Is there a distribution I can use that will protect the operating system from my kids if they use the command line? I'd like to be able to restore the system if they break anything.
DistroWatch answers: The good news, in your situation, is that you can use virtually any mainstream distribution for this task. Almost all Linux distributions are designed to be multi-user systems, which means it's fairly easy to set up the operating system to survive accidents and mischief from its users.
The easiest approach to take is to give each person in your family their own user account. Then make one user account (yours) the administrator. This should be the only user who can perform significant changes on the system and run commands through privilege-raising tools such as sudo. Every other user account you create (for your kids or friends) should be regular user accounts. These are user accounts which can be used to create documents, browse the Internet, play media files, and so on. However, they cannot install new packages, delete important system files, or otherwise cause havoc for other users. Creating users is handled a little differently on each distribution, but the Ubuntu family makes this fairly easy and the steps are documented in the Ubuntu Help pages.
Simply making separate accounts for your kids will do most of the work required to protect your operating system from their actions. There are a few other security steps you might want to consider. One is locking down the permissions for each user's home directory. Many modern Linux distributions make it possible for other users to view the files of other users, probably in an effort to make collaboration and document sharing easier. However, this also raises the issue of privacy. You can check to see what the home directories on your system are using for permissions by running the ls command as follows:
$ ls -l /home
drwxr-xr-x 44 jesse jesse 4096 Nov 6 11:04 jesse
In the above example we can see that the jesse directory is owned by the jesse account, which is good. However, there are a lot of permissions applied to the directory we do not want. These are represented by the "rwxr-xr-x" series of characters. I won't go into the details here, but this string of letters means that the user has full access, referred to as "read, write, and execute" (or simply rwx) for their own directory. Other users have read and execute permission (r-x). Ideally we don't want other users to have any access to our home directory and its files. We can lock things down by using the chmod command:
chmod 700 /home/jesse
The above command gives the directory owner (jesse, in this case) full access while granting no permissions to anyone else. Now the directory listing looks more secure:
$ ls -l /home
drwx------ 44 jesse jesse 4096 Nov 6 15:57 jesse
When people who have access to our system have regular user accounts (ie. are not administrators) and home directories are locked down with "700" permissions, it's difficult for them to cause any damage or snoop on us. There is one other thing I recommend doing and that is making backups.
Regardless of the computing environment, backups are critical if you have any files at all that you want to keep. Computers can be broken into, or simply broken. Hard drives fail, people pour juice on sensitive components, even relatively secure systems can be hacked. The bottom line is, if you want to save yourself heartache down the road, make sure you keep backups of important files.
One of the easier backup utilities to use is, in my opinion, Deja Dup. This graphical tool makes it possible to select which files you want to back up, set an automated schedule for backups, and save your backups to a local device (like an external hard drive) or a cloud storage service. That way if someone does manage to damage your system you can copy your files back from the backup.
One other thing you can do is use a distribution, such as Linux Mint, which supports installing with the Btr filesystem and ships with Timeshift installed for you. Timeshift will take snapshots of your filesystem periodically and can be used to revert most damage to the operating system (or a user's personal files) with a few mouse clicks. This allows you to roll back most changes or damage done to the system.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Kaisen Linux 2.0
Kaisen Linux is a rolling release, Debian-based desktop distribution. the project has published Kaisen Linux 2.0 which moves the base to Debian's Testing (Bookworm) branch. The project has also dropped the LXDE interface for LXQt. "Kaisen is now based on Debian Bookworm (Debian 12), also justifying the version number change. Among the most important things done on this new release, a complete overhaul of the menu with new, nicer and more modern icons, simplification of the menu and removal of about 15 launchers among the basic commands (such as mount and umount for example), new implementation of Btrfs snapshot tools, new tools dedicated to Cloud engineers! Many new packages have been packaged for the distribution for this, software such as Terraform, Trivy, Kubernetes, k6, k9s... LXDE has been replaced by LXQt because it is more modern and more compatible with Kaisen configurations such as Conky (which is now unique for all interfaces). LXDE is still installable, but will no longer be provided by default via an ISO or installed via the net-install ISO. The kaisen-lxde metapackage will no longer be installable and will be removed from the repositories when Kaisen Linux is upgraded to 3.0. This will leave at least 1.5 years for users to migrate to another interface." Further details are available in the project's release announcement.
Kaisen Linux 2.0 -- Running the new LXQt edition
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Pop!_OS 21.10
Pop!_OS is a desktop Linux distribution based on Ubuntu and developed by Sysetm76. The distribution's latest version is Pop!_OS 21.10 which includes initial support for Raspberry Pi computers. The release announcement shares other changes and features: "Previously when navigating to Applications, a full screen Application Wall would appear. In Pop!_OS 21.10, the Application Library opens in a small, searchable window over your current workspace. Like the former view, the Application Library can be opened from the top bar, a 4-finger swipe right on the trackpad, or by using Super + A on your keyboard. What this means for you: Better multi-monitor experience: The Application Library will launch on the display that has your mouse focus. This way, you can keep your eyes on your current workspace and launch the application on the display you intended. Easy scanning: Alphabetical listing makes it easier to scan and find the application or folder you want. Simple app organization: Drag and drop applications into custom folders. The new folders are always visible, and act like tabs to move between your personally organized applications. Search: Quickly filters your installed applications as well as apps available to install from the Pop!_Shop. Just the right size: Achieves the same information density while using much less space. The Application Library provides the optimal experience, especially on ultra-wide monitors." Pop!_OOS is available in Intel/AMD, NVIDIA, and Raspberry Pi editions.
Univention Corporate Server 5.0-1
Univention Corporate Server (UCS) is an enterprise-class distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. It features an integrated management system for central administration of servers. The project's latest release is an update to the 5.x series which improves user account management. "Administrators can specify an activation date when creating a new user account. User accounts with an activation date in the future are deactivated after creation and are only activated on this date. Thus, user accounts can be created in advance and UCS automatically takes care of the staggered activation. For the creation of users, there is a wizard in UCS that asks for all the required information. Administrators can specify additional attributes as required for a user account in addition to those already required, such as last name, user name, and password, for example, the e-mail address. As soon as additional attributes are defined, they are now also displayed in the UCS 5.0-1 wizard when users are created. This guarantees that administrators can also assign customized values for these attributes and not only the default values are used." Additional details can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
ReactOS 0.4.14
The ReactOS team has announced the release of ReactOS 0.4.14, the latest stable build of the project's open-source operating system whose goal is to be able to run Microsoft Windows programs and drivers. The new version is a "maintenance" release that fixes various regressions and does not introduce many new features: "The ReactOS Team is pleased to announce the release of version 0.4.14. As with every other release, we're regularly noting improvements and updates to keep you in touch with what is being done in ReactOS. In this release, improvements range from FreeLoader fixes, Shell features, kernel fixes, NetKVM VirtIO bringup, further work on the Xbox port and support for NEC PC-9800. One of the main highlights of this release is the amount of improvements done to the Shell component, which makes up a vital part of the ReactOS user experience. Katayama Hirofumi MZ is the pioneer of the 'Send To' implementation, a feature of the Shell that can be used to send files or directories to a certain predefined location. In addition, 'Open File Location' and 'Open Command prompt here' were also implemented thanks to him. Apart from the aforementioned features, let's not forget the bug fixes that affected the operability of the Shell." See the complete release announcement for further details.
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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: 2,663
- Total data uploaded: 41.3TB
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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) |
Sharing computers with family
In this week's Questions and Answers column we discussed ways to lock down a distribution in order to prevent it from being harmed by family members. Do you share a computer in your household? Do you take any steps to lock it down? Let us know what keeps your data safe on your shared devices in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on the year of the Linux desktop in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Protecting a shared computer
| I share a computer and lock it down: | 187 (12%) |
| I share a computer and it is the wild west: | 126 (8%) |
| I do not share a computer: | 1279 (80%) |
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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, 3 January 2022. 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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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| 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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| Random Distribution | 
Nitrux
Nitrux is a Linux distribution based on Debian's Unstable (sid) branch with additional packages pulled in from Ubuntu LTS repositories. Nitrux strives to be a distribution suitable for laptops and desktop computers. Its main desktop environment is NX Desktop, a KDE Plasma desktop enhanced with "plasmoids" to create a special blend of aesthetics and functionality. The project also focuses on using redistributable, portable applications using the AppImage format. Registration with an e-mail address was required to download this distribution, however public downloads have been available since mid-2020.
Status: Active
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| 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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