 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 954, 7 February 2022 |
Welcome to this year's 6th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
It's not often we see new distributions in the Fedora or Void families. These projects, while popular on their own, rarely produce new child distributions. This week we explore two young projects from these families, PlagueOS and Ultramarine Linux, and talk about what features they bring to the desktop experience. Our Feature Story offers an overview of both projects. Then, in our News section, we discuss new office features coming to elementary OS and link to an explanation as to why Linux Mint has two separate bases (Ubuntu and Debian). Plus we share a new tool from the Pop!_OS community which improves desktop responsiveness. This week we also talk about setting up a home server, using a PinePhone running UBports as an example of a home server for backups and media sharing. Are you interested in hearing about the various mobile distributions which can be run on the open hardware PinePhone device? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. This week we are also pleased to share a list of recent releases and provide links to the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (15MB) and MP3 (11MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
PlagueOS R3
This week I decided to dive into the DistroWatch waiting list and try out two projects selected at random. The first project my mouse pointer jumped to was something called PlagueOS. According to the project's website, PlagueOS "Is designed to run as a hypervisor and launch guest virtual machines (VMs). The OS is designed to be a minimal build and have a restricted userspace. The guests are launched from virt-manager."
The PlagueOS documentation lists a number of security features the project provides. These include kernel hardening, driver blacklisting, hiding process IDs, locking the root account, using doas in place of sudo, randomized MAC addresses, more restrictive file permissions, and encrypted DNS. While other open source projects may provide many of these security options, most do not enable them out of the box.
The ISO download for PlagueOS R3 is 959MB. This download can be verified using both a SHA512 checksum and a signature. The steps for fetching the verification key and checking the ISO file are laid out in detail and it's nice to see this attention paid to security.
I tested PlagueOS in a VirtualBox instance and on my laptop. In Legacy BIOS mode the operating system failed to boot with an error which read: "Failed to load ldlinux.c32". When trying to start in UEFI mode the system began by displaying a GRUB prompt and was unable to continue.
It's difficult to argue against the security of an operating system which fails to boot on my test systems. However, it's also difficult to accomplish anything with it, so I moved on to another project.
* * * * *
Ultramarine Linux 35
The next project I selected was Ultramarine Linux. This distribution is essentially a re-spin of Fedora which strives to be better suited for desktop use out of the box. To this end the distribution enables RPM Fusion repositories by default, swaps out the GNOME desktop in favour of Budgie, and includes a wide range of multimedia codecs. The project can be considered a spiritual successor to Korora Project.
Ultramarine is available in four editions: Budgie, GNOME, Pantheon, and Cutefish. The Budgie edition is recommended and the download is 1.9GB. Booting from this media brings up a menu asking if we'd like to launch the live environment or run a self-check on the media. If we take the self-check option the system will boot after it confirms the media has not been corrupted.
When the Budgie desktop loads a window appears and offers to launch the system installer. If we dismiss this window we can explore the live Budgie session. There are icons on the desktop for opening the file manager and launching the Anaconda system installer. A panel is placed across the bottom of the screen. An application menu sits on the left end of the panel, a task switcher sits in the middle, and the system tray is placed to the right end.
Ultramarine Linux 35 -- The Budgie application menu
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The application menu uses a two-pane layout with categories of software on the left and launchers on the right. I'll talk about the contents of the menu later. For now I just want to acknowledge the categories of software and the search feature at the top of the menu make it easy to find applications we wish to launch. The live session was responsive and seemed to be working well so I soon jumped into the install process.
Installing
Ultramarine uses the Anaconda system installer. This provides us with a graphical application which will help us set up the operating system. The first Anaconda screen asks us to pick our language from a list. The following screen presents us with a hub where we can select configuration modules in any order (or skip most of them). These modules help us pick our keyboard layout, partition the hard drive, set up a user account, choose our time zone, and enable networking.
Most of the screens are fairly straight forward. The partitioning section is the exception and seems overly complex without a clear benefit to the extra screens and unusual placement of the controls. However, if partitioning this way seems overwhelming we can use an automated option which will set up Ultramarine on a Btrfs partition with a separate swap partition.
Something which bothered me while using Anaconda is the installer will complain about some settings, like passwords it doesn't deem complex enough. The warning comes in the form of a tiny error message that appears at the bottom of the window. Usually I didn't notice the warning at first and, once I did, just wanted to dismiss it as it wasn't helpful.
In the end I was able to get through Anaconda's steps fairly quickly and it completed its work without error. Once it finished I was returned to the Budgie desktop.
Early impressions
Ultramarine boots to a graphical login screen where we can sign into the Budgie desktop. The Budgie session looks the same as it did in the live session with the exception of the install icon being removed from the desktop. There is no welcome window, no pop-ups, or configure options which request our attention.
The desktop was pleasantly responsive in both my test environments and the application menu has a lot of standard tools, but isn't particularly crowded. The theme is somewhat dark without going overboard with the concept, making most screens and menus easy to read.
Budgie locks the desktop after just five minutes of inactivity and I don't like this. It took me a while to find the proper configuration tool to extend the lock delay. At first I looked in the Budgie settings panel and did not find it there. I then looked in the GNOME settings panel and didn't find the option under Displays or Power settings. I eventually located it under the Privacy group of modules in the Screen Lock sub-category.
Ultramarine Linux 35 -- Exploring the Budgie settings panel while GNOME Settings crashes
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Software management
Since I didn't see any notification letting me know when package updates were available, I went looking for a software manager. I found Ultramarine ships with GNOME Software. It's a modern-looking software centre which is divided into three tabs: Explore, Installed, and Updates. There were lots of updates the first day I was using the distribution - a few dozen applications along with lower level items bundled together as a single operating system update. These items installed cleanly and I was asked to reboot the computer to apply the new versions.
Browsing for new packages and installing them went smoothly for the most part. I was able to track down and install the items I wanted. Some software, such as Firefox, is shown with multiple entries. This appears to be due to there being an RPM package and a Flatpak available for the same program. I didn't find an easy way to consistently tell Flatpaks from RPM archives apart from checking the download size of each item. For instance, the Firefox Flatpak is 534MB while the RPM is 86MB.
Ultramarine Linux 35 -- The GNOME Software centre
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The Flathub Flatpak repository is enabled by default, giving us easy access to a wide range of software, including some items not available in Fedora's repositories. Snap support is not included by default, though it can be installed from the Fedora repositories.
Hardware
I began my trial with Ultramarine in a VirtualBox environment. The distribution ran smoothly in VirtualBox with no problems. The desktop automatically resized to match the VirtualBox window and the Budgie environment was pleasantly responsive.
I ran into some odd behaviour when I tried running the distribution on my laptop. The screen was dimmed to the lowest possible level which make it hard to see anything. Fortunately the media and screen brightness keys worked and so this was easy to adjust. I found tap-to-click didn't work by default. The trackpad was also slow to move the mouse pointer and natural scrolling (which feels unnatural to me) was enabled. All of these trackpad characteristics could be adjusted in the Budgie settings panel.
Ultramarine takes up about 660MB of RAM when we first sign into the desktop. Memory usage generally climbed a bit over time, sometimes rising above 700MB. This is higher than average, but not by much and it's lower than what I experience with GNOME, the parent distribution's default desktop. Ultramarine takes about 3.3GB of disk space for a fresh install, plus any disk we set aside for swap space.
Included software
The system ships with a number of popular open source applications, including Firefox, LibreOffice, the GNOME Files file manager, and the Totem video player. Media codecs for audio and video files are included. There isn't any dedicated audio player, but Totem can handle playing audio files as needed.
There is a firewall tool (Firewalld) which is unusually complicated compared to most other firewall tools for Linux, though it does offer the ability to switch between zones. This allows us to quickly apply different firewall rules for different locations.
Ultramarine Linux 35 -- Exploring the firewall settings
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There are some smaller applications such as a text editor and weather utilities. We can also find a system monitor and document viewer in the application menu. One tool, called WallStreet Control, I didn't recognize. It manages wallpaper and switching the background at a set interval.
In the background I found Ultramarine ships with Java, the GNU Compiler Collection, common GNU utilities, and manual pages. The systemd init software is installed for us along with version 5.15 of the Linux kernel.
Most things worked and worked well on this distribution. I ran into one notable problem while browsing the software included with Ultramarine. When I was browsing the GNOME Settings tool, I found closing the settings panel and re-opening it would bring me back to the last screen of options I'd been looking at. GNOME Settings remembers what we were doing, which is normally convenient. However, I found selecting the Multitasking module in GNOME Settings caused the panel to crash. When I tried to re-open it, the panel remembers where it was, tries to open the same module, and immediately crashes again. This effectively blocks us from ever using GNOME Settings again until we find and clear out its configuration/settings file.
Something I always find interesting when trying out young distributions, especially ones which appear to have small development teams, is it gives the user an inside look at what the developers believe will be useful for other people. What is included, or what is omitted, reflects what a small development team feels is useful. A few things stood out while using Ultramarine. For example, there is no backup utility included and there is no snapshot manager (like Timeshift or Snapper) even though Ultramarine defaults to using the Btr filesystem. Since one of the primary reasons for using Btrfs is the ability to work with snapshots this seems like an odd gap. On a similar note, there is no dedicated audio player, but there is a video player. There aren't any image editing tools, but there is an office suite. There are two settings panels and no torrent client.
I don't really have a larger point to make here other than I appreciate getting to see what gets included in a young project and how that may reflect what the developer feels is important. Oh, and I feel distributions which enable Btrfs by default should include a snapshot manager.
Conclusions
This week my trial started off with a project, PlagueOS, which sounded like it had a lot of promise. It has an interesting concept and a lot of security hardening. However, I couldn't get it to work at all.
Ultramarine Linux, on the other hand, sounded quite dull - a Fedora spin with the Budgie desktop. Despite the underwhelming sales pitch, Ultramarine turned out to be a mostly pleasant experience. The distribution had a few quirks related to my hardware, particularly screen brightness, but otherwise offered good performance, a nice desktop layout, and some friendly configuration tools courtesy of Budgie.
The distribution offers some extras not included in Fedora and generally makes it easier to get started using the distribution as a desktop system. There were a few issues, like the GNOME Settings panel crashing, but otherwise Ultramarine provided a solid experience. Budgie is responsive, the distribution is a good, medium size, and I like that it offers a classic desktop layout with a modern style.
I'm not sure I'd recommend Ultramarine to newcomers. I will say though that if you typically run Fedora and would like to save some time during the initial setup phase (which is typically the most frustrating part of running Fedora) then Ultramarine makes the first day more pleasant and then mostly acts like Fedora running Budgie after that.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Ultramarine Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.6/10 from 15 review(s).
Have you used Ultramarine Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
elementary OS introduces office improvements, Mint explains benefits of LMDE, Pop!_OS introduces new tool to make desktop more responsive
The team behind elementary OS has published an update report which outlines changes to the distribution. In particular, elementary OS will be gaining a number of improvements to the mail and calendar functions. "An update to Mail brings support for the unified Inbox view to Microsoft 365 accounts, enabling more users to mix e.g. their work and personal inboxes into one super view. We also fixed a few rare freezes and crashes, and fixed duplicate sender addresses when composing messages. As a nice detail, the compose window now uses the subject as the window title to make things easier to find in the Multitasking View and the window switcher. We added a confirmation dialog for deleting in Calendar to prevent accidentally wrecking your events - especially helpful for shared and recurring events. You can also now Ctrl+Click links and email addresses in event descriptions to visit them or send a new message."
* * * * *
The Linux Mint project is unusual in that it supplies a similar user experience using two separate distribution foundations. The main branch of Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu while an alternative edition is based on Debian. In the project's January newsletter the rationale for having two bases is explained: "The LMDE project continues. LMDE stands for Linux Mint Debian Edition and consists in making a distribution which is almost identical to Linux Mint but based on Debian instead of Ubuntu. It's an interesting exercise because it forces us to test the compatibility of our own software stack with Debian and it shows us exactly why and how we rely on Ubuntu and where we find ourselves without it. Ubuntu, as a package base, but also as a set of improvements, additional packages and bug fixes on top of Debian, is a major component of Linux Mint. Although LMDE shows us why Ubuntu is the best alternative for us it also shows us how easy it is to port our work to a different base and how close to Linux Mint that gets us. We work on LMDE primarily for us, to get that information. It is not a priority, certainly not compared to Linux Mint itself, but it is an important project nonetheless."
* * * * *
System76 has unveiled a new utility to improve the Linux desktop experience. The new tool is called System76 Scheduler and strives to improve desktop responsiveness by increasing the scheduling priority of foreground tasks while lowering the priority of background processes. This makes applications being actively used more responsive. The project describes itself as follows: "Scheduling service which optimizes Linux's CPU scheduler and automatically assigns process priorities for improved desktop responsiveness. Low latency CPU scheduling will be activated automatically when on AC, and the default scheduling latencies set on battery. Processes are regularly scanned and assigned process priorities based on configuration files. When combined with pop-shell, foreground processes and their sub-processes will be given higher process priority."
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
UBports as home server with media sharing
A little while ago I talked about running an open hardware device called the PinePhone. I experimented with the PinePhone, running the default Manjaro distribution and then tried out UBports on the mobile device. In both scenarios I came away with the impression the PinePhone is a very interesting, inexpensive, open platform. However, I found the device wasn't particularly good at being a modern telephone; it was more of a portable computer. The PinePhone, in my opinion, works best as a mobile version of a single board computer, like the Raspberry Pi, with the added advantage of having both a battery and touch screen built into it.
This observation got me wondering about how much effort it would take to set up UBports on the PinePhone to act as a server. I have a Raspberry Pi and, while it is quite useful as a home server, the older model is getting noticeably harder to maintain as distributions drop support for it. The Pi also lacks an uninterruptible power supply. I started to wonder if my new PinePhone could take over for the Pi, performing such tasks as running some simple services, sharing files on the local network, and acting as a backup for files I was currently modifying.
Preparing the phone
There are some challenges in the home server arena to overcome. One is UBports will drop its wireless connection when the screen goes to sleep. This means we need to force the screen to stay awake (and preferably at a low-light level) to keep the wi-fi connection running. To do this we can pick up the phone, go into the Settings panel and select the Battery module. There is a setting called "Sleep when idle" which can be set to a number of minutes. I changed this field to be "Never". I then adjusted the screen brightness down to its lowest setting.
The UBports project offers documentation explaining how to enable OpenSSH. We can follow along with these tips on the phone to open the phone to secure shell connections from another computer. Enabling OpenSSH both makes it easier to work on the phone from a computer with a full-sized keyboard and it enables file transfers between devices. While the provided documentation is good and works, I slightly modified the steps to be easier.
Enabling remote access
First, on my workstation I ran the following command to generate a new set of security keys. These keys are used to authorize users who want to access the PinePhone:
ssh-keygen
The above command will ask if we want to set up a different location for the key or set a password on the key. For my purposes I took the supplied defaults. Then on the desktop I looked up my IP address. There are two commands which will do this on most Linux distributions, ifconfig and ip. My distribution uses ip:
ip -c a
The above command gives me my workstation's IP address. Now I have a fresh security key and my workstation's address. In this case my computer's IP address is 192.168.2.25 and I'm logged in as jesse. We will use this information in a moment. First though we need to make sure OpenSSH is also running on the workstation. Most distribution can do this by running either the systemctl command or the service command:
sudo systemctl start ssh
or
sudo service ssh start
We next move over to the PinePhone running UBports. On the phone I can open a terminal and transfer the new security key over from my workstation. This key file needs to be saved as .ssh/authorized_keys in my user's home directory. What we are going to do is create the .ssh directory, then copy the key file from my workstation. Here are the commands to make this work:
mkdir .ssh
chmod 700 .ssh
cd .ssh
scp jesse@192.168.2.25:.ssh/id_rsa.pub authorized_keys
chmod 600 authorized_keys
The chmod commands we see in the above example make sure the security permissions are properly set on the key file and its .ssh directory. Please note I'm performing these steps on a fresh install of UBports and there is no existing authorized_keys file. On phones where this file already exists the steps are shorter:
scp jesse@192.168.2.25:.ssh/id_rsa.pub ./
cat id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
Now, to enable secure shell logins we need to start the OpenSSH service. On the PinePhone we can run the following command in a terminal:
sudo service ssh start
The above command starts the service and we can now log into the phone from another computer. It will help if we know the phone's IP address. We can get this with the following command:
ifconfig
The ifconfig command tells me the phone's IP address is 192.168.2.21. The default user is called phablet on UBports. Using this information we can return to my workstation and log into the PinePhone using this command:
ssh phablet@192.168.2.21
Allowing filesystem changes and enabling services
Something to keep in mind about UBports is it defaults to mounting its root filesystem in read-only mode. This means we cannot make changes to the main operating system, only files in our home directory. This is a useful security measure and helps avoid accidental damage to the operating system. It also means we are blocked from installing new software or enabling services at start-up time. We can temporarily switch the root filesystem into read-write mode, allowing us to make changes, by running the following command on the phone:
sudo mount -o remount,rw /
With the root filesystem now allowing edits we can do things like start the OpenSSH service (or other services) when the phone boots. For instance, I can add the following line to the top of the /etc/rc.local file to turn on the secure shell service:
/usr/sbin/service ssh start
Installing new software
With the root filesystem open for editing and secure shell running we can do just about anything we want with the PinePhone that we could do with a single board computer or small VPS. I decided to play around with setting up a web server which would fetch songs from YouTube and let me play them in my workstation's web browser. (It's not a particularly useful project, but it gave me a way to test what the PinePhone could do with minimal effort.)
UBports is a member of the Debian/Ubuntu family of distributions. As such it uses the same command line package manager: APT. We can use APT to update existing packages and install new ones. This enables us to install tools like screen which can be used to run programs even after we logout of the phone. I downloaded the screen package on the phone and ran it to start a permanent session:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install screen
screen
Now we have a session which will survive after we logout. My next step was to enable a simple web server. We can run a very basic web server using the operating system's built-in Python packages:
cd ~/Public
python3 -m http.server
Now all files in our Public directory can be viewed by anyone else on the network. I can leave the web server running and return to a command prompt by pressing Ctrl+A and then pressing the "D" key. From my workstation I can open a web browser and visit the URL http://192.168.2.21:8000 and see any files in my phone's Public directory.
Next I decided to install the youtube-dl script which will download videos from streaming websites, including YouTube. We can do this, along with getting supporting utilities by running the following commands:
sudo apt install ffmpeg
sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
Now we can run the command youtube-dl and pass it the URL of a video to download the video. I have a script called youtube-audio which goes a step further. It downloads a video and extracts just the audio track from the video. This effectively turns music videos into MP3 audio files. I placed the youtube-audio script in the /usr/local/bin directory of my phone. This is the script:
#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -lt 1 ]
then
echo "Please provide the URL of the video/audio to download."
exit 1
fi
youtube-dl --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 "$1"
Should I wish to download an audio track and share it on the local network over my phone's web server, I can run the following two commands on my phone:
cd ~/Public
youtube-audio "URL-to-video"
The audio tracks show up in my workstation's web browser when I visit the URL http://192.168.2.21:8000. In theory I can also install other services such as the Transmission command line package (transmission-cli) and grab torrents to save on the phone and share these over the local network. UBports is now essentially running basic file storage and web server services for my home from the low-power PinePhone.
This is just a small sample of what we can do with UBports running on the PinePhone. There are lots of other services and automation we can set up. This is just an example with relatively few moving parts and I hope it inspires others to try out devices like the PinePhone or a Raspberry Pi for home services.
* * * * *
Additional tips can be found in our Tips and Tricks archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Tiny Core Linux 13.0
Tiny Core Linux is a 16 MB graphical Linux desktop. It is based on a recent Linux kernel, BusyBox, Tiny X, Fltk, and Flwm. The core runs entirely in memory and boots very quickly. The project has published a new update, version 13.0, which provides new kernel and userland utilities. The release announcement states: "Changelog for 13.0: kernel updated to 5.15.10; glibc updated to 2.34; gcc updated to 11.2.0; binutils updated to 2.37; e2fsprogs base libs/apps updated to 1.46.4; util-linux base libs/apps updated to 2.37.2; busybox updated to 1.34.1; 50-udev-default.rules: add media permissions; select: require that "break" used in awk scripts; filetool.sh: prevent gratuitous change to .filetool.lst's timestamp from bdantas; tce-update: if no directory specified for 'list' or 'query', default from bdantas; tc-config: Move nodhcp static_ip earlier, from andyj. Note: some older versions of firefox will not start with 13.0."
Linux Lite 5.8
Linux Lite is a beginner-friendly Linux distribution based on Ubuntu's long-term support (LTS) release and featuring the Xfce desktop. The project's latest update is Linux Lite 5.8 which includes new wallpapers, Neofetch, and an easy to use USB writer. "Linux Lite 5.8 Final is now available for download and installation. This release includes updates to the Help Manual - our extensive, easy to follow Linux Lite guide, Lite Widget has caught up with the latest Conky syntax, there's an updated Papirus icon theme, Neofetch has been included, we've added Mintstick to our Accessories, there are 9 new wallpapers, and a host of bug fixes and enhancements for our target audience. If you're coming from Windows, you'll find this to be a solid, stable release that will help make your transition to a Linux based operating system, user friendly. If you're coming from another Linux based OS, you'll come to understand that this lightweight OS is the feature complete desktop you've been searching for. We've been repeatedly described as underrated, here's your chance to find out why." The release announcement offers additional details and screenshots.
Trisquel GNU/Linux 10.0
Rubén Rodríguez has announced the release of Trisquel GNU/Linux 10.0, a major update of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution recognised as fully libre by the Free Software Foundation. The new release is based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and is available in MATE, LXDE and KDE Plasma flavours. It also adds support for the ARM architecture: "Trisquel 10.0, code name 'Nabia' is finally here. This release will be supported with security updates until April 2025. Additionally, an upgrade to the 'Etiona' release (version 9.0.2) is also being published today, providing updates and corrections to the installation ISO images. The news is the culmination of months of work towards fixing, cleaning, and reviewing hundreds of packages and tickets with close feedback from the community at large. We are happy to announce the addition of support for ARM devices, incorporating armhf as a newly supported architecture for Nabia. The changes done to the development system to achieve this will make it much easier to expand to other architectures soon, targeting 64-bit ARM and PowerPC next." Continue to the release announcement for further information and screenshots.
Trisquel GNU/Linux 10.0 -- Running the MATE desktop
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Peppermint OS 2022-02-02
Joseph Dickson has announced the availability of a brand-new Peppermint OS release, the first one in over two years. The user-friendly distribution is now based on Debian 11 and uses the Xfce desktop; it is available for 64-bit architectures only. The new release comes without a version number, but the download folder includes a BuildDate.txt file, so we'll use the "build date" as the version number. From the release notes: "Team Peppermint is happy to announce our latest release. New features: our new Welcome to Peppermint application allows you to quickly customize Peppermint by installing software we think you'll like - we allow you to choose your default packages and web browser; the new Peppermint Hub combines Peppermint Settings and Control Center for managing your system; hblock is a terminal based ad-blocker, it can be enabled or disabled at anytime. Additional changes: LXDE components have been removed in favor of Xfce 4.16; Calamares replaces Ubiquity for system installation; a minimum set of desktop wallpapers is included during installation; a streamlined set of icons and Xfce themes are included; Nemo replaces Thunar as the default file manager...."
Slackware Linux 15.0
Patrick Volkerding has announced the release of Slackware Linux 15.0, the project's first stable release since July 2016. The new version of the world's oldest surviving Linux distribution comes with a number of new features, such as PAM, ConsoleKit2 and PipeWire. Also, unlike most other distributions, Slackware continues to support the x86 architecture. "We are very happy to announce the availability of the new Slackware 15.0 stable release. There have been way too many changes to even begin to cover them here, but for our dedicated user base suffice to say that you'll find things modern but also familiar. We've gone with the 5.15.19 Linux kernel (part of the 5.15.x kernel series that will be getting long-term support from the kernel developers). You'll also enjoy a refreshed desktop experience including the KDE Plasma 25th Anniversary Edition with support for Wayland sessions. We adopted PAM (finally) as projects we needed dropped support for pure shadow passwords. We switched from ConsoleKit2 to elogind, making it much easier to support software that targets that Other Init System and bringing us up-to-date with the XDG standards. We added support for PipeWire as an alternate to PulseAudio, and for Wayland sessions in addition to X11." See the full release announcement for further details.
Zenwalk Linux 15.0-220204
Jean-Philippe Guillemin has announced the release of Zenwalk GNU Linux 15.0-220204, a new stable build of the project's Slackware-based distribution featuring a customised Xfce desktop, a simplified system installation, and support for Flatpak and AppImage applications. It is available for 64-bit systems only. "Zenwalk 15.0 'Skywalker' milestone is ready. Following the release of the so-long-awaited Slackware 15.0, here we go for the Zenwalk 15.0 'Skywalker', aka 'It must be very stable after all this time' milestone. As usual for a milestone release, most packages have been rebuilt down here or upstream. The desktop is the latest Xfce 4.16, with the special Zenwalk layout - this unusual NEXT/WindowMaker inspired dock system, with unique panel placement for ergonomic user access to the whole desktop area. This one-of-a-kind desktop is optimized for modern wide screens. What you get is a pure Slackware system with the following main changes: optimized for Xfce; Flatpak and AppImage ready (any existing app can be installed); simplified setup; focused on desktop usage; optimized for size and RAM footprint." Here is the full release announcement.
Zenwalk Linux 15.0-220204 -- Running the Xfce desktop
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Qubes OS 4.1.0
Andrew David Wong has announced the release of Qubes OS 4.1.0, a major new update from the project that focuses on Linux operating system security by isolating computing tasks into separate "qubes". This version brings a variety of improvements, bug fixes and component updates: "At long last, the Qubes 4.1.0 stable release has arrived. The culmination of years of development, this release brings a host of new features, major improvements and numerous bug fixes. The GUI domain is a qube separate from dom0 that handles all display-related tasks and some system management. This separation allows us to more securely isolate dom0 while granting the user more flexibility with respect to graphical interfaces. Qrexec is is an RPC (remote procedure call) mechanism that allows one qube to do something inside another qube. The qrexec policy system enforces 'who can do what and where.' Qubes 4.1 brings a new qrexec policy format, significant performance improvements, support for socket services and policy notifications that make it easier to detect problems." Read the rest of the release announcement for a complete list of new features.
Absolute Linux 15.0
Paul Sherman has announced the release of Absolute Linux 15.0, the new stable release of the project's desktop-oriented distribution designed for home use and based on Slackware Linux, but with a number of interesting modifications. It features the lightweight IceWM window manager with a custom control centre, adds the latest LibreOffice, updates the Firefox browser to the latest stable version and includes other popular applications such as Google Chrome or Google Earth. Unlike Slackware, Absolute Linux is developed for 64-bit processors only. "Absolute Linux 15.0 released. Six years from 14.2, version 15 of Slackware arrived a couple days ago. Still rock-solid. Still without systemd. Still crazy after all these years. I'm giddy. I still love the approach Slackware takes toward a solid, bare-bones system. I like to dress it up just enough to make it quickly productive and up-to-date for myself. I will keep the 'rolling update' going with the roughly monthly snapshots; the next release of Slackware might be a while." Visit the distribution's home page to read the brief release announcement.
* * * * *
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: 2,679
- Total data uploaded: 41.5TB
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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) |
Exploring more distributions on the PinePhone
In recent weeks we have shared reviews of the PinePhone running Manjaro Linux and Ubports. While the device has, thus far, not been practical as a phone, it has proved to be a useful, low-power device with similar computing capabilities as the Raspberry Pi series of devices. It can be used as a low-powered home server, as demonstrated in this week's Tips and Tricks article.
There are about 20 operating systems which will run on the PinePhone. We'd like to know if our readers are interested in hearing about any of these alternatives, some of which will run on other mobile devices, like Android phones. Let us know which, if any, PinePhone operating systems you'd like to see reviewed in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on Linux certification in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Would you like more PinePhone reviews?
| Yes - with general purpose distros: | 216 (21%) |
| Yes - with mobile-specific distros: | 428 (42%) |
| No: | 376 (37%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 14 February 2022. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Issue 985 (2022-09-12): Garuda Linux, using root versus sudo, UBports on the Fairphone 4, Slackware reverses change to grep |
| • Issue 984 (2022-09-05): deepin 23 Preview, watching for changing to directories, Mint team tests Steam Deck, Devuan posts fix for repository key expiry |
| • Issue 983 (2022-08-29): Qubes OS 4.1.1, Alchg Linux, immutable operating systems, Debian considers stance on non-free firmware, Arch-based projects suffer boot issue |
| • Issue 982 (2022-08-22): Peropesis 1.6.2, KaOS strips out Python 2 and PulseAudio, deepin becomes independent, getting security update notifications |
| • Issue 981 (2022-08-15): Linux Lite 6.0, defining desktop environments and window managers, Mint releases upgrade tool, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 980 (2022-08-08): Linux Mint 21, Pledge on Linux, SparkyLinux updates classic desktop packages, Peppermint OS experiments with Devuan base |
| • Issue 979 (2022-08-01): KaOS 2022.06 and KDE Plasma 5.25, terminating processes after a set time, GNOME plans Secure Boot check |
| • Issue 978 (2022-07-25): EndeavourOS 22.6, Slax explores a return to Slackware, Ubuntu certified with Dell's XPS 13, Linux running on Apple's M2 |
| • Issue 977 (2022-07-18): EasyOS 4.2, transferring desktop themes between distros, Tails publishes list of updates, Zevenet automates Let's Encrypt renewals |
| • Issue 976 (2022-07-11): NixOS 22.05, making a fake webcam, exploring the Linux scheduler, Debian publishes updated media |
| • Issue 975 (2022-07-04): Murena One running /e/OS, where are all the openSUSE distributions, Fedora to offer unfiltered Flathub access |
| • Issue 974 (2022-06-27): AlmaLinux 9.0, the changing data of DistroWatch's database, UBports on the Pixel 3a, Tails and GhostBSD publish hot fixes |
| • Issue 973 (2022-06-20): openSUSE 15.4, collecting distro media, FreeBSD status report, Ubuntu Core with optional real-time kernel |
| • Issue 972 (2022-06-13): Rolling Rhino Remix, SambaBox 4.1, SUSE team considers future of SUSE and openSUSE Leap, Tails improves Tor Connection Assistant |
| • Issue 971 (2022-06-06): ChimeraOS 2022.01.03, Lilidog 22.04, NixOS gains graphical installer, Mint replaces Bluetooth stack and adopts Timeshift, how to change a MAC address |
| • Issue 970 (2022-05-30): Tails 5.0, taking apart a Linux distro, Ubuntu users seeing processes terminated, Budgie team plans future of their desktop |
| • Full list of all issues |
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rPath Linux
rPath Linux was a Linux distribution built with the new Conary distributed software management system. Conary was designed, based on many years of Linux software packaging and distribution development experience, to automate many of the tasks that have made it difficult to build Linux distributions. rPath's mission was to provide system software that was easily tailored to suit unique application needs. rPath Linux, built with the Conary distributed software management system, was not only a distribution in its own right, but also a base technology explicitly designed to enable you to create purpose-built operating system images using the rBuilder Online technology.
Status: Discontinued
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MALIBAL: Linux Laptops Custom Built for YouMALIBAL is an innovative computer manufacturer that produces high-performance, custom laptops for Linux. If your MALIBAL laptop is not the best Linux laptop you have ever used, you can return it for a full 100% refund. We will even pay the return shipping fees! For more info, visit: https://www.malibal.com
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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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NEW! Learn Linux in 5 Days
In this FREE ebook, you will learn the most important concepts and commands and be guided step-by-step through several practical and real-world examples (a free 212-page ebook).
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