 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 960, 21 March 2022 |
Welcome to this year's 12th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Software development occurs all around the world and people are always looking for ways to customize Linux or tailor it to handle a specific task. This week we begin with a look at Pardus, a Turkish distribution that is based on Debian's Stable branch. Joshua Allen Holm dives into Pardus and reports on its features and what makes this Debian-based distribution stand out. Also on the topic of Debian, in our News section we discuss the Debian team preparing for their next release: Bookworm. Debian 12 will enter a development freeze in early 2023 with plans to publish the new Stable branch shortly afterwards. Our News section also shares tips on changing FreeBSD's root filesystem without performing a complete reboot and we talk about a new client management tool available to Univention Corporate Server users. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we discuss how to track changes that happen to local files. Keeping track of how a file changed and when is a good way to detect intrusions and to fix broken upgrades. We share some of the tools which can help with this below. Do you use a tool to detect file changes? Let us know what you use in this week's Opinion Poll. This past week we added two new projects to our database: Armbian - a distribution based on Debian for single board ARM computers, and postmarketOS - an Alpine-based distribution for mobile devices. 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 (15MB) and MP3 (11MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm) |
Pardus 21.1
Pardus is a Debian-based Linux distribution based on Debian's Stable branch. It is developed by the Turkish Academic Network and Information Center. Pardus 21.1 is basically Debian 11.2 with a lot of customization to provide a Linux desktop for corporate environments that meets the needs of various Turkish governmental agencies.
In some ways, Pardus is like Ubuntu. The two distributions are based on different branches of Debian, Stable for Pardus and Unstable for Ubuntu, but the basic idea is similar. Both provide their own package repositories instead of relying on Debian's repositories with additional extra packages like some based-on distributions do, and both provide many configuration changes and a level of polish.
Pardus 21.1 has three versions available for download. Two of these versions are for desktop editions. One features Xfce and the other features GNOME. The third download is for servers. This review looks at the Xfce desktop version, which is the version predominantly featured on the Pardus homepage (the Xfce ISO can be downloaded directly from the homepage, but the other versions are alternate downloads that require a few extra clicks to download).
Installing Pardus 21.1
I downloaded the 2.3GB Pardus 21.1 Xfce image and copied it to a flash drive. (For those interested in the other Pardus versions, the GNOME image is 2.4GB and the server image is 883MB.) I rebooted my computer and started it from the flash drive. The first prompt asked if we wanted Turkish or English. I selected English. The second prompt provided options for a live desktop or going directly to installation. There was also an Advanced Options item that provided options for hardware information and a memory test. I opted for the live desktop.
Pardus 21.1 -- Pardus live desktop with installer
(full image size: 162kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The Pardus live desktop provides a very familiar looking interface. Xfce is customized to have a layout that matches the interface that first appeared in Windows 95 and, with minor variations, continues to be used by Windows. There is a single panel at the bottom of the screen with the application menu on the left, various utilities and clock on the right, and running applications in between. I will look at the desktop environment in more detail post-install, but the first impressions were positive. The Windows-like layout makes the experience familiar and the custom Pardus look-and-feel are nice to look at.
I was now ready to install Pardus, so I clicked on the Pardus Installer icon on the desktop. Pardus's installer asks for the same information as most installers, so there were no real surprises here. I selected a language, set location/timezone, picked a keyboard layout, made the choice between automated installation (i.e., use the entire disk) and manual partitioning (I selected automated), opted not to install updates during installation, configured a user account, and clicked Install on the final screen that summarized the options I had selected. After that, all I had to do was wait and then reboot the computer after the installer had done its job.
Pardus's Xfce desktop environment and default software selection
Xfce is a nice desktop environment, but the upstream defaults provide options for the user to customize their Xfce desktop the first time they log in. This is great for power users, but not so great for a corporate setting. Pardus has preconfigured Xfce to have a very Windows-like desktop experience, which should be comfortable for most users. Sure, it is Linux with an Xfce desktop, not Windows, so there are plenty of differences, but the basic layout and workflow is familiar.
Pardus 21.1 -- Pardus default desktop with welcome application
(full image size: 133kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Like I noted when covering the live desktop, Pardus's desktop has a single bottom panel with the application menu on the left, running applications in the middle, and various utilities and the clock on the right. Clicking the Pardus menu, or pressing the Super/Windows key on the keyboard opens Xfce's Whisker application menu. This menu sorts applications into various categories so everything is easy to find. From simple utilities to web browsers and office applications, a Pardus user should have no problem finding the program for accomplishing their standard office computing tasks.
The preinstalled software included in Pardus 21.1 includes a selection of common utilities (mostly from Xfce, but some are from GNOME), Firefox ESR, LibreOffice 7.0, GIMP, VLC, and, somewhat oddly, both Thunderbird and Evolution. Thunderbird is the default when opening the generic Mail Reader shortcut in the application menu. In the era of web-based email, where the email client for many people is a tab in their web browser, I am not sure why there are two desktop applications for managing email. Picking either Evolution or Thunderbird as the only preinstalled email client would have probably made a little more sense. Picking just one email client would free up about 200MB of disk space on an installed system.
Pardus 21.1 -- Pardus utilities
(full image size: 174kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
One nice thing about Pardus is a small selection of Pardus-specific utilities that come with the distribution. The first Pardus application users will experience is a first-run greater application for changing some settings and picking the wallpaper. This greeter application is listed in the application menu so it can be re-run at any time. There are applications for power management, managing the installed Java version, formatting USB drives, writing images to USB drives, installing individual Deb files, and an About This Computer program that can generate reports about the system. There is also a Pardus GUI package manager application, but more about that in the next section of this review.
Overall, the software selection is good and well-rounded. There are applications for performing most basic computer tasks. The only thing on my essential must-add list was installing the fonts-noto package and its dependencies. Some of the Noto fonts were preinstalled, but there was still a lot of "tofu" when browsing the web. Installing all the Noto fonts cleared this up, so maybe fonts-noto should be installed by default.
I should note that the default package selection is not entirely stable. It can change when a Pardus meta package is updated. While I was working on this review, an update removed galculator, replaced it with GNOME Calculator, and also installed Audacious. One calculator being swapped for a different one and one additional application being installed is minor, but that does not mean larger changes could not happen in the future. I have mixed feelings on the issue, but so far Pardus has not done anything to mess with my software selection beyond those minor changes.
Installing additional software
Being based on Debian, Pardus has plenty of other software available. I have yet to find anything that I usually install on Debian that is not also available in Pardus's repositories. Though, being based on Debian Stable does mean the software can sometimes be a little outdated.
Pardus 21.1 -- Pardus Software Center
(full image size: 194kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Installing addition software on Pardus is something that can be accomplished in many, many different ways. Honestly, too many different ways. Aside from the standard command line apt and dpkg utilities, Pardus comes with a lot of graphical utilities for managing packages. There are three applications for installing software from repositories: GNOME Packages, Pardus Software Center, and Synaptic Package Manager. Each of these applications offers different experiences, but ultimately perform the same basic task. GNOME Packages (and the associated Package Updater application) come from the use of GNOME PackageKit, while Pardus Software Center provides the most branded and user-friendly package experience, and Synaptic provides a tool for power users. There are also two different applications for installing individual Deb files: GDebi and Pardus Package Installer. Again, they differ slightly in function, but overlap in what they accomplish.
Choice is good, but there are too many choices when it comes to how to install software on Pardus. A power user can easily install Synaptic on their own if they want more control, so eliminating that from the default software would maybe make things more streamlined. By providing clear categories, editor's picks, most download, and most rated information, the Pardus Software Center application provides a nice, easy to use application for managing software, so the entire package installation experience should be focused around that.
The Pardus website
The number one barrier to using Pardus, at least for those who do not read Turkish, is the Pardus website. The entire site is in Turkish without even a minimal alternate site in English or some other more commonly spoken language. One small section of the Pardus Forum is dedicated to English language questions, but that is it. Turkish, while a lovely language and the language of the primary users of Pardus, does not rank very high on the list of languages people pick when learning a foreign language. This means that for most people, the site is only readable using Google Translate or a similar tool. An increased English language web presence would probably help bring in more users, which in turn means more people reporting and fixing bugs.
Pardus 21.1 -- The Pardus website
(full image size: 256kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Final thoughts
Pardus 21.1 is a very nice, polished distribution and well worth checking out. It provides the benefits of Debian with a more focused selection of preinstalled software to create a cohesive, corporate-friendly user experience. Do not get me wrong, I love Debian and the fact that I can have Debian with GNOME, KDE, Xfce, or a large list of other desktop environments, but that is sub-optimal for a corporate environment. GNOME is the default in Debian when selecting a desktop environment without specifying a particular one, but Debian can also easily be so many different things, which leaves it up to the person installing it to pick what the end result of a Debian installation will look like. Pardus picks one desktop environment (two if you count the GNOME alternate download) and provides some opinionated default settings. The end result is a user experience that would work well for its target audience. There are some minor oddities, like having way too many pre-installed GUI tools for managing packages, and some major drawbacks, namely the language barrier for people who do not read Turkish, making Pardus less accessible to non-Turkish users than other distributions, but those issues do not stop Pardus from being excellent software.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an ASUS VivoBook E406MA laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel Pentium Silver N5000 CPU
- Storage: 64GB eMMC
- Memory: 4GB of RAM
- Networking: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
- Display: Intel UHD Graphics 605
Visitor supplied rating
Pardus has a visitor supplied average rating of: N/A from 0 review(s).
Have you used Pardus? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Debian prepares for Bookworm, Changing FreeBSD's root filesystem live, Univention offers new client management tool
The Debian project is famous for not having fixed release cycles, preferring to launch new versions "when they are ready" rather than at a specific date. Debian usually sticks to an approximate two-year release cycle and, despite Debian 11 being published just over six months ago, it looks like the distribution is already preparing for Debian 12's arrival next year. Paul Gevers posted to one of the project's mailing lists: "We are currently considering the following dates as our freeze dates. If you are aware of major clashes of these dates with anything we depend on please let us know. We also like to stress again that we really would like to have a short Hard and Full Freeze (counting in weeks, rather than months), so please plan accordingly. If serious delays turn up during any of the Freeze steps, we rather (partially or completely) thaw Bookworm again than staying frozen for a long time." The dates for the freeze points are listed as being in the first three months of 2022, though that is likely a typo with freezes expected to come in early 2023 with a final release likely by mid-2023. Update: A new message has been sent out with the correct dates.
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One popular feature of FreeBSD is the ability to create new filesystem snapshots, install new software packages in the snapshot, and then restart the system using the snapshot. This allows us to install new software without interfering with the running system. One hurdle in this process is the need to reboot in order to test out the new software we have installed in the new snapshot. A change to the way snapshots are managed is improving this situation and will allow the operating system to be effectively rebooted without actually shutting down the kernel. This reduces downtime and makes it easier to test changes while leaving us the option of rolling back to the previous configuration. The Vermaden blog explains how this works: "I do not know any downsides of ZFS boot environments but if you would stick a gun to my head and make me find one - I would say that you still have to reboot(8) to change to the other BE. This is about to change... What is reroot? It's the ability to switch to other root filesystem without the need for full system reboot. The loaded and running kernel stays the same of course - but this is the only downside. This feature is implemented in the reboot(8) command with -r argument." The blog post walks through how to perform these rapid restarts into a new boot environment.
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The Univention team have announced the arrival of a new tool in the Univention App Centre: opsi. What is opsi? It's a tool for managing client machines on a network. "opsi (Open System Integration) is an open source client management system for Windows, Linux and macOS clients. The core component is a Linux server which takes care of the clients' OS installation, the distribution of software, the inventory of hardware and software as well as patch management. All major components are free software, published under the AGPLv3 license. On top of that, there are paid modules available which add some extra features. opsi allows you to manage clients at different locations in one single administration interface. The configuration is stored at a central location, the depots for the clients' software packages can be located at different sites. The company uib gmbh from Mainz develops and maintains opsi; they also offer professional support." The opsi software runs across multiple platforms and details on the software can be found in Univention's blog post.
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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) |
Tracking local changes
Keeping-track-of-everything asks: What tools or methods can you recommend to track all the changes that happen on the system? I want to have a way to audit every configuration change and package update.
DistroWatch answers: This can be a pretty comprehensive list of things to track. If you plan to keep track of every file change, including logs and configuration files, the audit trail could get quite dense, producing a lot of information. This is going to cut into your storage space. The easiest way to do what you're suggesting is probably to make sure you're using an advanced filesystem such as Btrfs or ZFS. Then enable regular (probably daily) snapshots of the filesystem.
What this will do is maintain lightweight images of your system each day. You can then compare the snapshots from one day to the next to see what changes have taken place. Since the snapshots will maintain an image of the state of your system each day, you can do simple comparisons between files and directories to see what changes have happened. You will then be able to restore altered files, reverting changes you don't want.
You may be interested to know that openSUSE does a lot of the initial work for this sort of change tracking for you. openSUSE defaults to using Btrfs and its YaST system administration suite is tied into Btrfs snapshots. Each time you make a configuration change - adding a user, updating a package, changing your printer settings - YaST will create a filesystem snapshot. You can then browse and compare the snapshots using the built-in Snapper tool. There is a lot of detailed information on Snapper in the openSUSE wiki.
Other distributions can use Btrfs too. Snapper works on most of the major distributions and is probably one of the easiest ways to audit system changes.
In situations where you don't want to use an advanced filesystem like Btrfs you still have some options. One approach would be to identify specific files (like configuration files and package databases) you want to monitor. Then add these files to a local git repository. You can then update/commit any file changes daily and use the git utility to check for differences between files. This will be less efficient than working with filesystem snapshots and I wouldn't recommend using git to track a lot of binary files as it is typically used to track text file changes. However, a lot of people use git to monitor configuration files, source code, and other small data files they wish to audit or copy to other computers.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Lakka 4.0
Tomáš Kelemen has announced the release of Lakka 4.0, a major update of the project's lightweight Linux distribution that transforms a small computer into a full-blown retro-gaming console. This new release updates the distribution's build system to LibreELEC 10.0.2: "We are happy to announce the new and updated version of Lakka. Changes since version 3.7: build system based on LibreELEC 10.0.2; RetroArch updated to 1.10.1; cores updated to their most recent versions; superbroswar - added new libretro core; sameduck - added new libretro core; Mesa updated to 22.0.0; mainline Linux kernel updated to 5.10.103 (PC, Amlogic, Allwinner, NXP); Raspberry Pi Linux kernel updated to 5.10.95; most arm devices switched to Aarch64; Rockchip RK3288, RK3328 and RK3399 switched to mainline Linux kernel 5.10.76; added support for additional Allwinner and Amlogic devices; Nintendo Switch - complete rewrite of the port with many fixes and enhancements; Tinkerboard and MiQi now use common system RK3288 (hence the change of the image names); dropped support for RPi4.arm. This is our first release with the updated build system." See the release announcement for a full list of changes and known issues. As usual, Lakka 4.0 is available for a variety of popular hardware platforms.
Linux Mint 5 "LMDE"
Clement Lefebvre has announced the release of a brand-new version of Linux Mint's Debian edition, better known as LMDE. The new release is based on Debian 11 and uses the Cinnamon desktop: "The team is proud to announce the release of LMDE 5 'Elsie'." The release announcement contains a brief introduction to LMDE, while the release notes provide a list of known issues: "To launch the installer in expert mode, run the following command: sudo live-installer-expert-mode. To install LMDE on an existing LVM partition you must first remove it from the LVM volumes and groups to which it belongs. In manual partitioning mode, note that the installer will auto-mount all swap partitions. These partitions will also be placed in /etc/fstab in the installed system. The LMDE ISO images and the live installer use a different structure than the ones used by other distributions. Do not use Yumi or multi-boot technologies with LMDE as it won't install properly. The root account is locked by default. To use the recovery console (from the Grub menu) or log in as root, you first need to give root a new password: sudo passwd root."
Linux Mint 5 "LMDE" -- Running the Cinnamon desktop
(full image size: 775kB, resolution: 1920x1200 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: 2,698
- Total data uploaded: 41.7TB
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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) |
Tracking changes to local files
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about tracking changes to local files. Knowing which files change and how is useful when troubleshooting new problems and detecting intruders on the operating system. This week we would like to hear whether you track changes to your filesystem. If you do, what tool do you use to monitor and revert changes?
You can see the results of our previous poll on using computers which are running off-line in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Tracking filesystem changes
| I manually check files using snapshots: | 24 (2%) |
| I use a snapshot tool like Snapper: | 41 (4%) |
| I use version control software like git: | 45 (4%) |
| I use off the shelf monitoring software: | 19 (2%) |
| I use custom/homemade monitoring tools: | 18 (2%) |
| I use another method: | 53 (5%) |
| I do not monitor filesystem changes: | 819 (80%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to database
Armbian
Armbian is a Linux distribution designed for ARM development boards. It is usually based on one of the stable or development versions of Debian or Ubuntu and it supports a wide variety of popular ARM-based devices, including Banana Pi, Cubieboard, Olimex, Orange Pi, Odroid, Pine64 and others. Armbian includes a menu-driven configuration tool along with stock Debian utilities, the Bash shell, and a choice of Cinnamon or Xfce desktop.
Armbian 22.02.1 -- The Armbian desktop and application menu
(full image size: 248kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
postmarketOS
postmarketOS is an Alpine-based Linux distribution for mobile devices. The project offers three mobile interfaces: Phosh, Plasma Mobile, and Simple Mobile X Interface (Sxmo). The project aims to provide long-term support for a range of mobile devices, key among them the Librem 5 and the PinePhone, though other, traditionally Android devices, are supported.
postmarketOS 21.12 -- The Phosh home screen
(full image size: 124KB, resolution: 720x1440 pixels)
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Asahi Linux. Asahi Linux is a special build of Arch Linux for running on Apple M1-powered computers. The distribution is installed using a shell script which is launched from the macOS platform.
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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, 28 March 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 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 |
| • Issue 969 (2022-05-23): Fedora 36, a return to Unity, Canonical seeks to improve gaming on Ubuntu, HP plans to ship laptops with Pop!_OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
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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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