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1 • Hos OS (by Bob on 2022-03-14 00:27:54 GMT from United States)
I'll never use it. SNAP is CRAP!
I do wish someone would create a Ubuntu based minimal openbox system. Arch based would also be welcome because they still have Chromium.
2 • Hos OS (by Mike S on 2022-03-14 01:13:50 GMT from United Kingdom)
Bob take a look at manjaro net installer. You can use that to choose an openbox profile, they used to have a pre-rolled openbox ISO contributed by a community member but that ended in 2020.
3 • Re your poll: "Do any of your computers run-offline?" (by Lost in Documentation on 2022-03-14 01:14:42 GMT from Canada)
Use a mix of both. In music room, I use an old Raspberry-pi (which has no on-board wifi) to play flac, ogg, and mp3's through the stereo - replaces the turntable, tape deck and allows storing entire music collection on a portable drive. Saves space, faster than old media, no tape hiss, and no vinyl "snap-crackle-pop". No need for this to EVER go on-line!
Now in the TV room, a newer raspberry-pi (which does have on board wifi) hooked up do a "dumb" TV does make sense to have on-line. If a security issue comes up, simply update the OS on the Pi. Makes more sense than having a "smart" TV, and hoping the manufacture will continue to provide firmware updates for the thing.
Then I have a box for apps that don't need to be online, so why expose them to the internet? (Rhetorical question - don't bother answering). Which gets back to my comment 30 in Distrowatch 956 about the need to provide easily downloadable documentation for offline access.
Example: The Python Project has an easily accessible page where you can download all their documentation for off-line access. In software updates, today's list of new updates shows a new release of Perl. Perl has tons of online documentation available. Seem to recall there WAS (at least at one time) a link somewhere to download the whole thing, but today, couldn't find it. Yah, after this, will go back and do a proper search; but a download link for docs should be highlighted, not hidden away in some obscure corner somewhere. Unless I'm developing a web app, or some connected project, no need to have my coding box hooked up to the internet.
So it really depends WHAT you are doing as to whether or not you need or should have a particular PC "connected" and "exposed". If you have only one PC, then nowadays, you may be "stuck" having to always be connected. But as you develop more uses and acquire dedicated boxes to provide them, there is less and less need to have all of them connected. It will be interesting to see what happens when cars become more and more "connected with 5G, 6G, whatever. If a server goes down, does all traffic in an area grind to a halt? There are already books written about hacking into cars onboard systems. Imagine someone gaining control of your brakes, steering, and accelerator in future. There may be such a thing as being too connected. Just think of the hacking potential in "smart homes".
4 • Hos OS (by Jeff on 2022-03-14 01:20:10 GMT from United States)
It is only 64-bit?
It does not work with UEFI?
That is a strange set of choices in 2022.
5 • Off line (by Ron on 2022-03-14 01:40:30 GMT from United States)
I have a HP scanner that does not have Linux drivers. Shame double shame HP. So, i use old Windiws computer with cat 5 unpluged for scanning!
6 • HP Linux Driver #5 (by Sam Crawford on 2022-03-14 02:56:52 GMT from United States)
Responding to Ron #5. Have you tried VueScan? The developers have along list of supported scanners on their webiste.
I use the paid version although I don't know if there is a free one but it's worth looking at.
7 • HOS (by Bobbie Sellers on 2022-03-14 02:58:20 GMT from United States)
Well it has been years since I ran a distribution that did not come with a checksum.
When trying out a new distribution first thing I do is look at the Package List and if it includes
systemd it must be special, then I download the checksum. If I cannot find a checksum or if the version of the distribution referred to in the checksum is not evident I will not download or
torrent the distribution. Sometime it seems ok but I get the downloaded package and if it will not pass the checksum, I will try another download but not more than twice.
This is because I do this to have a comprehensive library for the LUG and I being an ancient of days, may not have the time to waste on distributions without checksums. A few years back I
did not always observe this protocol and wasted too much time because a distribution sounded
good.
bliss - brought to you by the power and ease of PCLinuxOS
and a minor case of hypergraphia
8 • Offline machine use (by Trihexagonal on 2022-03-14 03:45:38 GMT from United States)
I keep at least one FreeBSD machine offline that serves as a dedicated .mp3 player and have a screenshot of my Thinkpad X61 .mp3 player at 306 days uptime.
9 • @ 1 Openbox, no Hosing around (by Dr.Hu on 2022-03-14 06:36:19 GMT from Philippines)
ArcoLinuxB openbox, or just about anything else you heart might desire. Intallation is a snap! :)
10 • ON- and OFF-line (by Someguy on 2022-03-14 07:52:42 GMT from United Kingdom)
The industry is determined to trash prior art, notably 32bit HW. Old motherboards can be used for endless non-connected (sometimes even connected) tasks. Don't even need to put them in boxes (hang them on the wall?), flying leads to whatever, [NB - even old PSUs are, despite copious warnings, safe outside the big tin box provided there are no infants poking metal toys through the slots, which is no different to most other kitchenalia & co!]. Along with early RPi they can all serve, even to run e.g. the devil's OS which might even contain, inter alia, HP printer drivers - cf. No.5 supra. And when you eventually finish with them can donate to one of the many local computer clubs some of which maintain a working museum! Even some some MBs converted into artwork or recycle-ware. Limited only by the imagination. 'Connection' is all in the mind...
11 • Mabox Linux (by Any on 2022-03-14 08:16:39 GMT from Spain)
@1 Bob, you can try Mabox : https://maboxlinux.org/
"Mabox is built on top of Manjaro stable branch, powered by LTS kernel, featuring 100% complete and stable Openbox window manager."
Also Slackel: http://www.slackel.gr/forum/about.htm offers an Openbox edition.
"Slackel is a Linux distribution based on Slackware and includes tools borrowed from Salix. It is fully compatible with Slackware but the difference is that it includes the current version of Slackware. So Slackware users can benefit from Slackel repositories. It is available in three editions, KDE, Openbox and MATE. "
12 • Offline computers & Hos OS (by Magda on 2022-03-14 08:36:24 GMT from Germany)
While I do occasionally use two towers that lack WiFi and thus remain disconnected, my considerably weak main machine - currently dual-boot - is only connected to the internet when booting Archcraft (Openbox); Windows 10, which is still needed for Lightroom, is permanently disconnected. I don't need internet connectivity and Windows 10 wasting resources to download updates I don't need and never asked for in the first place just to edit shots.
My usually-connected laptops often run without internet, as not all rooms in my home allow WiFi, even when repeaters are installed. This is quite beneficial when needing to focus on specific tasks that don't require me to be online (i.e. learning programming the old-school way). While I do own a "Smart" TV, I keep it "dumb" - and not just because I hardly ever watch TV.
Regarding Hos, it's always a bit of a warning sign to me when a distro is based on, yet not endorsed by Ubuntu. More often than not, they only offer different DE's and a poorly configured base. No checksum is another one, yet the lack of UEFI is just strange, given that Hos only supports 64-bit architectures. The homepage is just a website hosted on Google Sites with no information regarding the developer and zero external links but poor grammar. So... I don't know, it could not seem any more fishy to me. Overall a rather questionable project, to say the least.
13 • Ethernet network USB adapter for Sony VAIO for Going-off-line (by LinuxSlantFan on 2022-03-14 08:45:53 GMT from United States)
If your Sony VAIO has a working USB 2.0 or 3.0 or 3.x port, you can get an inexpensive USB to Ethernet jack adapter.
The USB 2.0 ports will only support up to 10/100 Mb/s Ethernet but the USB 3.x ports will support up to Gigabit Ethernet.
Not all USB to Ethernet adapters support Linux, but many of them do. They work fine and are faster and more secure than wireless USB adapters.
14 • Offline running (by Hank on 2022-03-14 08:53:36 GMT from Germany)
a screenshot of my Thinkpad X61 .mp3 player at 306 days uptime.
I gave a 64 GB device slightly larger than a USB stick, it plugs in to a phone when needed, that surely saves 365 times more energy than running a laptop non stop just to be able to play MP§.
15 • Scanner HP and VueScan (by Jean on 2022-03-14 09:03:56 GMT from United Kingdom)
Vuescan is somewhat "free". You can download it and use it for free BUT it will apply a watermark of the scans. Hence the need to use the pay version.
However, it's not too expensive, works superb on Linux and Windows and the license is lifetime.
16 • Ethernet network USB adapter for Sony VAIO for Going-off-line (by Luc on 2022-03-14 10:33:41 GMT from France)
If you have:
- a Android smartphone;
- a phone plan with enough internet data and permitted tethering;
- a USB data cable;
- an OS supporting network connections on USB;
then it's enough to connect the smarthone to the PC with a USB data cable, enable USB tethering and perform updates.
17 • off line computing (by Cris from Romania on 2022-03-14 10:44:13 GMT from Germany)
hey all Linux and pc lovers and nostalgic people..!!!
i have 2 pentium 4's,
one with win xp ,..a noname pentium 4 dual core 2.8 ghz and 1 gb ram ,
..and the other with win 2000 , a IBM machine single core pentium 4 3 ghx, and 256 mb
both are very rarely conected to a usb-wifi-adapter...
i have a Fujitsu i5 3570s 8gb ram main pc, with a 2 gb nvidia video card,
..a mainly offline Dell 9010 i3 3220 pc with 4 gb ram, buit from spares, wich i use with a 24 inch monitor for moovies, ..
,.. and a second gen i 5 lenovo laptop , mainly for pre 2010' games, i use it for when i wana relax.
and ...a n270 atom laptop wich is as performant as a brick...
18 • off line (by eee on 2022-03-14 13:38:19 GMT from Poland)
http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:philosophy
Slackware is:
- A distribution that can be installed entirely offline with the CD/DVD set.
(...)
19 • Poll (by Otis on 2022-03-14 15:09:23 GMT from United States)
Well, several of my computers are phones and tablets. Some are laptops. I got rid of my iPod and stupid "readers" so I'm online 99% of the time.
20 • free ereader (by Vito Torleone on 2022-03-14 15:32:54 GMT from Luxembourg)
I use a 100% offline Galaxy Tab 2 7" with Replicant 6 as an e-reader. Lots of good book software on F-Droid. Works great.
21 • dual boot laptop (by Ron (Canada) on 2022-03-14 18:01:29 GMT from Canada)
I have tried all the mainstream distros as well as pclinuxos on a Asus Windows 10 laptop. Every distro works fine the first boot. After that they start having long lists of actions speeding past on a black screen. Some i can see the word error but to fast to see anything else. If the sysem does boot the desktop freezes and only alt f8 stops it and you need to turn off the power. The system is UEFI intel I 5 500G SSD 8G RAM. Been using Linux for 20 years. Had some issues but none like this.
22 • Off Line Computer (by marty on 2022-03-14 19:00:35 GMT from United States)
I use an old Dell Win XP laptop to run a planetarium program on my telescope for pointing. I have no need of internet for it because the program is no longer supported or updated.
23 • Offline (by Roger on 2022-03-14 20:49:21 GMT from Belgium)
I have older computers and laptop that don't need internet.
Some are for reading out older diesel engines and parts CD's.
One PC runs Win 2000 Pro and is used for an old game which dose not need connection and so on.
24 • Off Line... (by Friar Tux on 2022-03-14 21:07:02 GMT from Canada)
I have several laptops. Only one is offline. It is a 10 - 15 year old HP laptop (with Lubuntu) hooked up to some speakers to play my vast music collection from older CDs/DVDs. All my other laptops pull music off the Internet using "FreeTube". (I use FreeTube as it is the only one that works the way I like it to. I tried the Spotify apps but Spotiy interrupts the music with ads, so out it goes.)
One reason that I like to stay online most of the time is that it keeps me connected to family. I'm looking after my parents who live 2700 km away. I pay their bills and utilities electronically. My daughter and her family live 310 km away, but we talk/message almost daily.
My own siblings are spread out throughout Canada and the US, as are The Wife's, but we all communicated daily. (Yeah, even The Wife and I communicate with each other.)
25 • Getting updates without network connection ? (by Roger on 2022-03-15 00:21:05 GMT from Belgium)
There is a much easier way, take the HD out install on an other PC and put the HD back in.
Problem solved, I do that many times, never fails.
Or use a USB WiFi or USB network card, they don't cost much.
26 • Working Off-Line (by Tech in San Diego on 2022-03-15 04:13:56 GMT from United States)
What a very informative article! With the authors help I have been successful installing 3 applications on a non-networked computer using YaST to first identify the necessary dependencies required and then configuring each application to work flawlessly.
This 20 year old PC now has new life as a secondary, directly attached NAS (without he network), Backup and Multimedia Server using the old 2.0 USB interface.
Besides, it was state of the art in it's day!
27 • Package Management Cheatsheet (by Tech in San Diego on 2022-03-15 05:32:45 GMT from United States)
I forgot to mention that the Package Management Cheatsheet is also a great resource. DistroWatch is my go-to resource for all things Linux. There are so many useful tidbits of information for the Linux Geek like me.
https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=package-management
28 • HP won't update drivers (by Bob on 2022-03-15 12:29:25 GMT from United States)
Ron,
I have several HP scanners and printers that HP doesn't support. Apparently they want us to throw away some of their best hardware and waste money on the latest gadgets. I won't buy nor recommend HP products any more because of that. I do keep an older laptop with Windows 95 that has some of the scanner drivers, but it has to be online so I can upload those images to a NAS box. My bigger issue is that the Linux driver for the color laser only supports PCL3, while the printer itself has PCL6. I don't think they like Linux much.
29 • Debian 11 issues (by Bill Donnelly on 2022-03-15 15:38:56 GMT from Canada)
Looking for some ideas to keep me using Debian. Bullseye has numerous issues such as no printing allowed in Evolution mail. Printing issues with libreoffice as well. I have a older HP-laserjet P1102w printer that works well with debian 10 but not 11. With Fedora 35 everything works well and far more polished than the latest Debian. Limited fonts and icons with Debian 10 and especially 11, but Fedora has them all. Attention to detail seems to be lacking with the Debian iso's.
30 • Offline PCs (by PhantomTramp on 2022-03-15 20:42:49 GMT from United States)
MX Linux for a daily driver and most all online tasks. Mac Pro cheese grater for running older ProTools and doin' it offline. 3rd gen i7 PC running MX-AVL, offline. XP with many old paid audio tools, offline. Lately, ParrotOS online.
31 • Debian 11issues (by Sebastien on 2022-03-15 22:05:58 GMT from France)
@29 Could MXLinux suffer from this ? I am currently running MX18 (which is great). I will have to upgrade version soon and I was wondering if MX latest release was still as reliable. Maybe I should consider swiching to Linux Mint instead.
32 • @31--Debian 11 issues... (by R. Cain on 2022-03-15 23:21:48 GMT from United States)
MX Linux 18 Continuum was, and still is, the best MX *ever*. STILL! !
You will be making a VERY serious mistake switching to Mint. Why would you EVER EVEN consider doing such a thing? Are you forgetting that MX-LINUX is *THE* distro which toppled Mint Linux from its vaunted #1 position which it had held for all those years? And this happened when Mint went from v. 17.3 to 18. THAT'S HOW LONG MX-Linux has been Number One.
To paraphrase Clement Lefebvre, the originator of what USED TO BE the world's Number One Linux Distribution---MINT---YOU DO NOT HAVE to upgrade if MX-18 does everything you need it to do; as a matter of fact, he recommends against doing so. Period. End of discussion.
{This situation is somewhat humorous for/to me---I'm thinking about *INSTALLING MX-18 Continuum* on a new computer, simply because it is still the very best MX-Linux available; and, arguably, still one of the best Linux distros, all things considered. }
Oh...and, uh. take a look at DistroWatch's Distribution Rankings, next chance you get.
33 • DistroWatch Rankings (by Tech in San Diego on 2022-03-16 01:59:17 GMT from United States)
Debian is rated 14th with an average rating of 8.78. MX Linux is rated 18th with an average rating of 8.61. Both distributions are very capable as a daily driver.
https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=ranking
As far as printer issues between Debian 10 and Debian 11 go you may want to review this article.
https://openprinting.github.io/
Printer issues are a bit tricky with Linux and without knowing your exact configuration it may be difficult to troubleshoot remotely.
I hope this helps.
34 • HOS (by Andy Figueroa on 2022-03-16 03:07:57 GMT from United States)
That was absurd. There is no use-case something like that.
35 • Problems with HP printers and using scanners which the manufacturers abandoned (by LinuxSlantFan on 2022-03-16 08:22:38 GMT from United States)
I want to second the earlier recommendation for VueScan as a scanner for Linux, Windows, and Mac. VueScan supports more than 6500 scanners. Many of them are models which have been “abandoned” by the companies that made them. The drivers that the manufacturers refuse to update, the VueScan father and son developers have reverse engineered so, as long as the scanner hardware works, you can still use them with the latest versions of Linux. I have no connection with VueScan, other than having used it for 20 years. You can download the trial version for free to try it out with your hardware. It’s not free but considering that you can continue to use your old scanner as long as it runs, it’s much less expensive than buying a new scanner.
On the issue of HP printers, I’ve recently run into problems with one of the inexpensive HP laser printers on a friend’s PC. It was working just fine printing via the built-in wired Ethernet connection which is the way I prefer to connect to printers assuming the printer has a wired Ethernet port. I recently upgraded the installed Linux distro and all of a sudden, the printer won’t print. The computer can “see” the printer but it won’t print. I haven’t had a chance to try printing to the printer using a USB cable, but I suspect it will work fine with the USB cable. I suspect that something has changed in the way the printer driver interacts with the network firewall.
The computer is close enough to the printer that, if the USB cable connection works, I will just leave it at at, although it annoys me that it has suddenly stopped working via the Ethernet port.
This is strange because this machine has gone through three or four previous distro upgrades and the printer worked fine with each of them. The printer prints a self-test just fine.
I’ve tried using the latest HPLIP HP driver software to no avail.
I tried printing when logged in as root but that didn’t work either.
I tried several other distros and the printer worked using the wired Ethernet port with some of them but not others. I don’t want to have to switch to a different distro just to get the HP printer working over the Ethernet port.
These days I prefer to use Brother or Canon laser printers with Linux. Their drivers are a bit harder to install but they seem to have fewer problems than HP drivers and they always seem to work with the wired Ethernet connection unlike the HP printer. None of the Brother nor Canon laser printers have ever stopped working over Ethernet after doing a distro upgrade like the HP printer has.
36 • Printers (by Dachshundman on 2022-03-16 09:45:52 GMT from United Kingdom)
Personally I have found Epson sx printers to be a good option for Linux. Cups has support for a lot of models. Unfortunately since going to mint 20.04 I can only get low functionality scanning working as the Epson suggested 3rd party scanning app does not install. Maybe I should look at the sw recommended above.
37 • HP printers (by James on 2022-03-16 11:20:31 GMT from United States)
I to move to a Brother printer. The tarball with the driver was not hard to install, and I am mostly a GUI guy. The instructions were easy to follow.
My problem with HP was not drivers, but ink cartridges. Brand new ones would say they were damaged or not HP originals. Even after hours of work to get on installed it would then use almost the whole ink cartridge to align and clean the heads before it actually worked. I contacted HP about the problem, and they said they never heard of that problem. Yet I went online and looked for a forum on HP printers, and there were pages of people with the same complaints. I then switched to Brother. It prints a bit slower, but I have no problems and the ink is less expensive.
38 • Debian 11issues (by Sebastien on 2022-03-16 14:03:06 GMT from France)
@32: DW ranking is surely one thing to consider. But it is not the only one I guess: some very capable distros stand beyond top 3. Pick Fedora for instance which Jesse praised in his last review). I recently installed 2 notebooks, one with LM 20.3 (it was already LM so I kept the same distro for the user to feel at home) and a brand new one with MX-21 (because of my personal good feeling on MX-18). And I found that LM 20 was runnnig better out of the box. That's why I thought I should consider moving to the to-be-released LM-21 instead of sticking to MX-21. I would have chosen LMDE to stay on Debian but there is no XFCE flavour with Debian editon. Plus: a recent post of Clement Lefevre tends to say that their Debian Edition is still behind their Ubuntu Edition not due to lack of will but mostly because Ubuntu bring some tangible improvements over Debian. Hope the MX Team will be able to bring those improvements to Debian as well in order to raise the Debian desktop quality at Linux Mint level preventing me to switch to Ubuntu.
39 • Fedora (by Jesse on 2022-03-16 14:43:42 GMT from Canada)
#38: " Pick Fedora for instance which Jesse praised in his last review"
I did not. In fact, I've found Fedora so frustrating to try to use lately I haven't brought myself to write a full review of it in the past few years. Ivan, Jeff, and Joshua have taken up the task.
40 • Rankings (by Tech in San Diego on 2022-03-16 16:31:32 GMT from United States)
Sebastien,
Your point is well taken. I mistakenly looked at the Page Hit Rankings, or hits per day (HPD), when I first joined the DistroWatch community . However, if you look a little deeper into the statistics pages you will find much more useful information which will give you the big picture. The in depth reviews are also a great source of information as well as the Questions and Answers section.
HPD is a useful starting point to see which distros are the most popular at any given point in time based on the click count. The author has also taken the extra step by providing us with how the readers rank each distribution based on the visitor-submitted ratings. I have found these comments to be extremely useful when narrowing down which distros that I'm interested in exploring further just to see if there are any outstanding issues that I need to be aware of upfront.
I've been using openSUSE Tumbleweed for several years now as my distro of choice and all the newcomers get relegated to a VM.There is an abundance of useful information that exists on the DistroWatch website for the Linux enthusiast at every level from the curious to the consummate professional which I also find appealing.
41 • The curious case of.. (by archie on 2022-03-16 20:09:54 GMT from New Zealand)
The curious case of Hos OS 3.1
Now this is entertainment, Linux style! This week's review made me expect something like a sleuthing tale - Poirot or Hardy Boys. Hos OS sounds like a basement test project, riding through that hard drive desert on a Hos with no name... we could spend all week finding jokes here.
Hats off to anyone who has ever tried and succeeded in building a working ISO. We need tinkerers to improve the whole landscape. If nobody ever tries and we just surrender to IBM/RH and Canonicomical we will eventually get what we deserve (another android, ios or fenestration). Already part of the way there with systemd and snaps / flatpaks. OTOH those 'features' make it 'easier' for companies to adopt Linux instead of that other draughty thing.
Number of Comments: 41
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Hybryde Linux
Hybryde Linux was an Ubuntu-based distribution for the desktop. Its most unusual feature was an option to switch rapidly between multiple desktop environments and window manager without logging out - the list includes Enlightenment 17, GNOME 3 (GNOME Shell and GNOME 3 "Fallback" mode), KDE, LXDE, Openbox, Unity, Xfce and FVWM. This was achieved via a highly customisable Hy-menu, which also allows launching applications and configuring the system. All open applications are carried to any of the available desktops. The system offers an interesting way to work fluidly in a multi-desktop environment.
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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