 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 955, 14 February 2022 |
Welcome to this year's 7th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Just over a week ago the Linux community celebrated the release of Slackware Linux 15.0. This new version of the world's oldest surviving Linux distribution is the first to come out of the Slackware project in over five years. What has changed, what has stayed the same, and how does Slackware compare to other distributions these days? Our Feature Story shares observations on setting up, using, and maintaining Slackware's new release. The Slackware Linux distribution has been around for a long time. When did you first get to run Slackware? Let us know when you got your first taste of Slackware in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about a solution being worked on which helps Raspberry Pi owners overcome the necessity of having another computer to help install operating systems to a new Pi. Then we share a tool which can be used to gather system information for debugging purposes. We also talk about the differences between Fedora's Flatpak repository and the Flathub repository and the goals of both projects. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about making clones of a disk and compressing the disk images. Read on to learn which tools are helpful when imaging storage disks. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (19MB) and MP3 (14MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Slackware Linux 15.0
Slackware Linux is the world's oldest surviving Linux distribution. The distribution is a slow moving project, often with several years between releases. The gap between Slackware 14.2 and the latest 15.0 release was about five and a half years, for example.
Slackware has a well deserved reputation for stability and for having a simple technical design. A design which frequently ignores modern approaches to system management. Slackware still uses a text-based system installer, has 90s-era approaches to package management, and prefers editing text files over graphical tools when it comes time to adjust most configuration settings. The distribution's official media does not offer a live desktop environment, though there is a community branch which provides live media for people who wish to test the distribution on their hardware. The project's official release announcement acknowledges this slow-to-change style, noting Slackware is just now adopting PAM authentication (something most other Linux distributions have used since the 1990s) and continues to use the classic SysV init software instead of systemd: "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."
In other words, while Slackware runs a lot of modern software such as KDE Plasma 5.15, version 5.15 of the Linux kernel, and PipeWire the underlying style and approach are still very much the same as they were 25 years ago.
Slackware 15.0 is available for 32-bit and 64-bit builds of the x86 architecture. There is also an ARM branch of the project, though install media for it was not available on release day. The 64-bit (x86_64) build is a 3.6GB download.
The Slackware media boots to a text screen where we can select kernel options. This is followed by a second text screen where we are given the chance to select a keyboard map. The install media then drops us at a console login prompt where we can sign in as root without a password. Above the login prompt is a helpful message letting us know we will need to format the disk and set up at least one partition, then run the setup command in order to get started.
Installing
Before running setup we may wish to run either fdisk or cfdisk to begin partitioning the hard drive. These console partition managers provide simplistic, yet functional tools for formatting the drive. We can then dive into the installer.
Slackware's installer uses a series of text-based menus and prompts which guide us through the process of selecting our keyboard layout, picking a swap partition, and choosing source media. Typically the source media will be the local DVD/USB drive. We are given the chance to select which partition to use as the root filesystem and we can select how to format this partition. Most Linux filesystems are supported, including ext2/3/4, Btrfs, Reiserfs, F2FS, and XFS.
The installer will ask us which categories of software we wish to install. The categories range widely from the base system, basic networking functionality, a graphical environment, and games. The KDE Plasma and Xfce desktops are available and I decided to keep the former. By default all categories are selected. I kept most things I figured I would need, excluding only the Xfce desktop, games, development tools, and Emacs. We are then given the chance to further select which specific packages to install or simply install everything in the chosen categories. Taking the automated selection of everything which can take up around 15GB of disk space. I went with the "terse" option which basically installs everything in the selected categories with minimum output. I then waited as package names scrolled across the screen and files copied to my hard drive.
The installer finishes copying its files and then offers to make a USB stick to boot from. The installer next offers to set up the LILO boot loader, a technology that has largely been replaced elsewhere in the Linux ecosystem by GRUB. We are then asked to set up a hostname and choose to use a static IP, DHCP, NetworkManager, or SLAAC to configure the network.
The next installer screen offers us the chance to enable certain services, such as Samba, syslog, network time, e-mail services, CUPS printing, and OpenSSH. Most services, apart from cron (for scheduling tasks) and OpenSSH (for remote access) are disabled. We then pick our timezone from a list. We're then asked which vi-like editor we would like to use: elvis, nvi, or vim. We can then choose which window manager to run when we're not using KDE Plasma and set a root password. We're then told we can reboot the system to start using Slackware. It's a long install process and it defaults to placing a lot of software on the hard drive.
Early impressions
Slackware's boot menu pauses for two minutes to give us time to set boot parameters and then prints out status messages while the system starts up. We're then presented with a text console and a login prompt. When we sign in as the root user we are shown the kernel's version number (5.15.19) and left to do whatever we want. The system is text-only, using about 100MB of RAM. With my mostly-default collection of software installed the system used an unusually large amount of disk space: 11GB, plus swap space. So Slackware is, when using the default settings, unusually large on the disk - in part because so many dependencies are installed - and quite small in RAM.
There is no welcome message, no first-run wizard. Slackware expects us to know what we're doing, or to have an alternative method to accessing documentation. We can make use of locally installed manual pages and GNU command line utilities.
As a veteran of Slackware I knew the first thing I'd want to do was create a new user account. I did this by running adduser. Things went well at first with me providing my name, default shell, and groups. But then the terminal went into an endless loop, asking me for my new password and immediately declaring I hadn't typed anything. This happened over and over, soon taking up 100% of my CPU and forcing me to kill the session from another terminal as my main one had locked up.
I discovered the new account had been created, just the password had not been applied. I logged in as root again and set the password using the passwd command. My next step was to get a graphical environment. There are a few ways to do this. One of the better approaches is to set Slackware to boot into a graphical mode instead of a terminal. We can do this by editing the /etc/inittab file and switching the default runlevel from 3 to 4. The next time we boot, a colourful login screen appears.
Slackware Linux 15.0 -- Running KDE Plasma with a dark theme
(full image size: 825kB, resolution: 1600x1200 pixels)
The login screen offers a number of session options. The default is Plasma running on X11, but Xsession, Plasma Failsafe, Plasma Wayland, and Plasma Full Wayland are offered. I was not sure what the difference was between Wayland and Full Wayland, but it looks like Wayland enables the XWayland display server for compatibility with X11 applications while Full Wayland forces an exclusive Wayland environment.
Hardware
I experimented with both the Slackware live image and the install ISO. The live disc was able to run in VirtualBox (when using BIOS mode) and provided a KDE Plasma session which worked without any serious problems. The live session was unable to operate in EFI mode. The live ISO was unable to run on my laptop and would get only as far as the GRUB boot prompt.
The official Slackware media worked both in VirtualBox and on my laptop. The official media appeared to have no trouble navigating the classic BIOS mode or UEFI mode.
Slackware Linux 15.0 -- The KDE System Settings panel
(full image size: 957kB, resolution: 1600x1200 pixels)
As I mentioned before, when Slackware was sitting at the command line it used about 100MB of RAM. When signed into the KDE Plasma desktop memory consumption rose to around 350MB. This makes Slackware's Plasma session one of the lightest in memory I've run. The system ran quickly on the laptop and detected my all my hardware. The distribution was a little sluggish to respond in the virtual machine when running the Plasma desktop, though not to the point it became a problem while operating the distribution.
Included software
Slackware ships with a lot of software. Even after I had removed items like games, development tools, and the Xfce desktop the application menu was still unusually crowded. Virtually every KDE application is included, ranging from the Falkon web browser to the Marble globe application, painting tools, image viewers, the KTorrent client, the K3b disc burning software, multiple audio players, and the Calligra productivity suite. The list goes on, covering printer settings, multiple text editors (there are at least three in the application menu), multiple web browsers (I counted at least four), and there are a few dozen games included despite my explicitly removing them as a category.
The distribution ships with so many applications it's difficult to find anything in the menus because each category in the twin-pane menu holds pages of launchers. Many of these programs I haven't used before, or have not used in a long time.
Slackware ships with media codecs for playing video and audio files. When I tried to open audio files they would play in the distribution's copy of XMMS 1.2.11 (which was released about 15 years ago). When trying to play video files the distribution would open the file in QtAV. Audio could be heard in the background, but QtAV was unable to display the visual components of the videos I tested.
Slackware Linux 15.0 -- Playing music and writing a document in Calligra
(full image size: 779kB, resolution: 1600x1200 pixels)
In the background we find the SysV init software (version 3.01) running along with version 5.15 of the Linux kernel.
Most of the included software, at least the items I got around to using as there were a lot, worked well for me. Some of the selections were odd - for instance Calligra is offered in place of LibreOffice and the QtAV & Dragon Player applications are used instead of VLC). However, I suspect this was at least in part due to the focus placed on KDE software. Slackware officially just has two desktop environments (KDE Plasma and Xfce) and so it seems wherever KDE can provide functionality it replaces other, more popular options.
Slackware Linux 15.0 -- Trying to play a video
(full image size: 800kB, resolution: 1600x1200 pixels)
When it comes to managing the system, we can use the su command or login as the root user directly. The sudo utility is included in the base system, however it is not set up to allow any users to authenticate by default. We can adjust the sudo configuration as needed.
Software management
Managing packages on Slackware is a tricky subject and one that the project's website seems to go out of its way to avoid addressing. Visiting the Packages section of the website simply provides web access to a repository of packages, but no instructions for accessing them with a package manager. The Slackware Book offers some basic tips on adding, removing and upgrading local packages (ones we have already downloaded), but does not talk about gaining access to new packages or repositories.
Long-time Slackware users will probably be familiar with the Slack Builds project which provides recipes for building third-party software. This is somewhat akin to the ports system used by the BSD family of operating systems, though with more manual work involved in fetching and building the packages. I was sorry to note that the Slack Builds website hasn't been updated to support Slackware 15.0 at the time of writing.
There is a page on the Slackware documentation site which talks about package management and briefly talks about repository-aware tools like slackpkg which is included in the distribution and third-party package managers like slapt-get which are intended to work more like the package managers in mainstream distributions like Fedora and Ubuntu. Of these, slackpkg is probably the one available which will be most familiar to people coming from other Linux projects.
There are still hurdles to overcome when using the default slackpkg utility. As an example, slackpkg is only available in the root user's path, regular users won't even see its executable by default. Trying to run slackpkg as the root user produces an error saying we first need to select a package mirror. We can do this by editing the /etc/slackpkg/mirrors file. I went with the default Slackware server to start.
When trying to fetch package information from the main Slackware repository, slackpkg failed, reporting the server's security certificate was not recognized. I was advised to use the "--no-check-certificate" flag to get around this. I attempted this workaround and it failed, reporting the error again, that the Let's Encrypt certificate was not recognized.
Slackware Linux 15.0 -- Trying to fetch update with slackpkg
(full image size: 934kB, resolution: 1600x1200 pixels)
I tried two other mirrors, one in Canada and one in Europe. Both of these passed the certificate test, but then failed the checksum for the repository information slackpkg downloaded. In both cases the error from slackpkg reported the checksum failing meant either the repository data was out of date or had been tampered with. In short, slackpkg failed to even fetch repository data and could not update or install new packages.
Slackware does not ship with support for portable package formats such as Flatpak or Snap by default. To summarize my experience: portable packages aren't available, the default binary package tool fails to fetch repository data successfully, and Slack Builds hasn't been brought up to date with the new 15.0 version yet, effectively blocking most attempts to update or install new software.
Conclusions
One of the curious - some might say comforting - things about using Slackware is that the underlying approach doesn't change. If you set up Slackware 20 years ago, the process is virtually the same today as it was then. The service management is the same, the package management has some more options now, but the classic tools are still there. A lot of the documentation looks to have been left unchanged for at least a decade.
Slackware has updated packages mixed in with its blasts from the past. It runs a modern kernel with modern versions of two popular desktop environments; it provides access to modern web browsers. However, these modern packages are mixed in with ancient versions of software like XMMS and less popular applications like Calligra. Meanwhile the design, the underpinnings, the approach Slackware takes to accomplishing tasks has remained almost unchanged during the entire time I've been running Linux distributions.
This can be either a welcome comfort, if you came into the Linux community by way of Slackware. It can also be a regular source of frustration, or ever increasing puzzlement, if you're more accustomed to the way other distributions work.
There were things about Slackware which really stood out during my trial, not just with the operating system itself and its classic approach to software management and its text-based installer. The project's main website still uses HTTP instead of the more commonly used secure flavour of HTTPS. The main download servers and the release announcement offer FTP links, despite the fact most modern web browsers no longer support fetching files over FTP. The live media failed to run in UEFI mode and the Slackware documentation refers to Freshmeat as a popular third-party website for finding new software. Freshmeat changed its name in 2011 and stopped being updated in 2014. When we add in the broken repository information and failing Let's Encrypt certificate it seems as though Slackware's infrastructure has been left to rot for years.
The point I'm trying to make is that Slackware has remained stubbornly, firmly in the past. Even the new changes available in this release, like PAM, have been available to most other distributions for around 25 years. It's a distribution which, for better or worse, still regards things like portable packages, automatic software dependency resolution, secure websites, downloads over HTTPS, and graphical installers as being unnecessary. And, if you're a die-hard Slackware fan, I suppose this focus on 1990s era computing has an appeal. There is a simplicity in Slackware's design, a hail back to a time before systemd timers, Flatpaks, and web-based administration tools. Slackware invites us to get our hands dirty doing things "the old way", ignoring both the unpleasant complexity and the modern conveniences of the past 25 years.
While I was working on this review I spent some time on social platforms like SlashDot and the Slackware Reddit forum where people were talking about the new 15.0 release. One thing which I kept noticing was people celebrating the new release kept talking about how they got their first start with Linux by installing Slackware from floppy disks. People remembered fondly running Slackware in school back in 1997 or seeing a boxed copy of Slackware for sale in 1995. Something eventually occurred to me: no one in any of these discussions mentioned having their first start with Slackware after the year 2001. It suggests to me not many new people have wandered into the Slackware community in the past 20 years and, given the project's apparent intent to avoid evolution, I suspect not many newcomers are going to try out Slackware and stick with it.
Slackware appeals to me in some aspects. I did a lot of my early computing with DOS and a Slackware-based distribution in the 1990s. It feels familiar. I like the classic init software, the intention to keep the foundation of the operating system simple. There are times when Slackware's classic approach certainly appeals when I compare it next to GNOME's heavy resource usage or Anaconda's complexity. I like how stable and familiar Slackware can be. But then I try to get something done - like installing a game I want, setting up video conferencing software, removing unnecessary packages and their dependencies, building a utility that's only available through source via Slack Builds, viewing a video, or installing a library using slackpkg and I am reminded why I use more modern tools.
There is an appeal to Slackware for use on servers where the desire is for everything to be stable, static, predictable. Especially when running classic network services. But for modern desktop use, or even modern server usage, Slackware has long since fallen behind to the point where I find it too much effort to get common tasks done with this distribution. There is a lot of manual work involved and very little, if any, benefit to being forced to do this extra work.
I know some people in the Slackware community will argue that not all change is progress. And I agree. However, I would also argue there can be no progress without change. Slackware refuses to accept almost all change and, while it side-steps a few problems this way, it also misses out on all the progress made in the past two decades.
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Visitor supplied rating
Slackware Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.1/10 from 122 review(s).
Have you used Slackware Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Installing OS on Raspberry Pi without another computer, what sets Fedora Flatpaks apart from Flathub, gathering system information
Fans of the Raspberry Pi single board computer received some good news this week. To date, setting up a Raspberry Pi computer has typically required the owner to either purchase a microSD card with a stock operating system on it or, more commonly, to download an operating system using another computer and use the second computer to write the operating system to the Pi's microSD card. In short, most people needed a second computer in order to use their Raspberry Pi. This is changing as work is going into the Raspberry Pi boot loader which will allow the device to download new operating systems and write them directly to the Pi's storage drive without requiring another computer to be part of the process. "Until today you've always needed to use another computer to run Raspberry Pi Imager, or to run something similar, to let you flash your operating system onto an SD card when you get a new Raspberry Pi. But how do you get the operating system onto an SD card if you don't have another computer in the first place? It's the classic chicken and egg problem, and we've just solved it." This should allow people to download operating system images, like those for Raspberry Pi OS, directly to the Pi. A post from Peter Harper shares the details on this work in progress.
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The Fedora project maintains its own repository of Flatpak packages. In an overview of how Flatpak packages are used on Fedora, Fedora Magazine explores what sets Fedora Flatpaks apart from other repositories such as Flathub. "Fedora Flatpaks and Flathub share the same goals but differ in motivation. The goal is to make applications accessible in their respective field, maximize convenience and minimize maintenance. Fedora Flatpaks's motivation is to push RPMs that come directly from the Fedora Project and make them accessible throughout Fedora Linux regardless of the versions, spin, etc. So, in theory, it would be possible to get the latest and greatest applications from the Fedora Project without needing to upgrade to the latest version of Fedora Linux. Of course, it's always advisable to keep everything up-to-date. Flathub's motivation is to simply make applications and tools as accessible as possible regardless of the distribution in use." The article highlights some differences between the repositories and what makes them both useful for Fedora users.
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One of the hardest aspects of reporting a bug (and helping people who have reported problems) is knowing what information is relevant. Trying to figure out why a computer is slow or why an operating system is crashing can take people working on the problem down a series of paths. One tool which is designed to help this process is the UbuntuForums system-info script. This script gathers system information from a variety of sources and offers to upload the results to Pastebin as well as saving the results in the user's home directory. While the script is designed to work on Ubuntu, it can also function on most other mainstream distributions, such as Fedora, with only a few gaps appearing in the information.
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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) |
Imaging a drive and compressing it
Creating-clones asks: I've set up my computer the way I want. Now I want to image the disk so I can restore it or copy it to another machine. My issue is only a few GB of space are used, but if I use dd to image the drive the image will be the whole 256GB. Is there a way to shrink the image so it's only as big as the data used?
DistroWatch answers: You're correct that if you use the dd command to make a straight copy of the disk then the resulting image will be just as large as the disk itself. There are two fairly straight forward ways to avoid this.
The first, and probably easiest, way to work around this limitation is to use a tool like Clonezilla Live. With Clonezilla you can compress the image of a disk as the image is being created. Clonezilla will then give you the chance to transfer the image to another local drive, network share, or OpenSSH-capable machine. The resulting image file will be around the same size as the amount of data you've stored on the disk.
Another approach would be to read and compress the data from the drive with your preferred compression tool. This might not be quite as effective, but will probably be nearly as good. This operation should be performed from an operating system or disk which is separate from the one you are archiving. In other words, run this process from a live disc if you are making an image of your operating system. In the following example I read the contents of a disk called sda, compress it using gzip, and save the result as my-image.img.gz:
dd if=/dev/sda | gzip --best > my-image.img.gz
The "--best" flag tells the gzip compression tool to use its best (slowest) compression method.
Later, when we want to restore the compressed image or write it to a new disk we can perform the same operation in reverse. The following command decompresses the image archive and writes it to the sda hard drive.
gunzip -c my-image.img.gz | dd of=/dev/sda
Using common tools such as cat, dd, and gzip has the benefit of being portable, and it works in a variety of environments, including single board computers and phones, where running Clonezilla Live may not be practical.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
OpenMandriva Lx 4.3
Cristina Sgubbi has announced the release of OpenMandriva Lx 4.3, the latest stable version from the project's independently-developed desktop Linux distribution featuring the latest KDE Plasma desktop: "We are pleased to announce the latest release of the OpenMandriva distribution, OMLx 4.3. This release comes with the very latest KDE applications. Included in this release are: LibreOffice suite 7.3.0, Krita 5.0.2, Digikam 7.5, SMPlayer 21.10.0, VLC 3.0.16, Falkon browser 3.2, SimpleScreenRecorder 0.4.3. PipeWire has become our default sound server in the current system release, thus replacing PulseAudio. However, PulseAudio is still in our repository and you can return to it at any time. A port to RISC-V - an open-source processor architecture - is in the works, but not yet included in the 4.3 release. For more technically adept, you may find interesting that this version also includes Linux kernel 5.16.7, KDE Frameworks 5.90, Plasma Desktop 5.23.5, Applications 21.12.2, Qt 5.15.3, LLVM/Clang 13.0.0, systemd 249, Java 17 (and 18 beta, 19 dev), Calamares 3.2.39, Binutils 2.37, GCC 11.2." Continue to the release announcement for more information and screenshots.
OpenMandriva Lx 4.3 -- Running the kDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 864kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
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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: 2,681
- 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) |
When did you become a Slackware user?
In this week's review of Slackware Linux Jesse Smith made the observation that many people celebrating the release of 15.0 are people who got their start with Slackware prior to 2002 - over 20 years ago. Are you a Slackware user? If so, we'd love to hear when you first began using the world's longest lived distribution.
You can see the results of our previous poll on reviewing operating systems for the PinePhone in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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I first tried Slackware around...
| 1993-1995: | 169 (7%) |
| 1996-1998: | 558 (24%) |
| 1999-2001: | 135 (6%) |
| 2002-2004: | 155 (7%) |
| 2005-2007: | 81 (3%) |
| 2008-2010: | 82 (3%) |
| 2011-2013: | 54 (2%) |
| 2014-2016: | 62 (3%) |
| 2017-2019: | 46 (2%) |
| 2020-Now: | 54 (2%) |
| I have not tried Slackware: | 947 (40%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Nobara Project. Nobara Project is a Fedora-based spin which is customized with third-party software to improve gaming and graphical performance.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 21 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 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 |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Taprobane GNU/Linux
Taprobane GNU/Linux was a distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. It was a live CD with a primary focus of bringing convenience to the user. The word "Taprobane" represents an ancient name for Sri Lanka, a beautiful Indian Ocean island also known as Ceylon.
Status: Discontinued
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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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0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
