 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 975, 4 July 2022 |
Welcome to this year's 27th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Linux-based operating systems are virtually everywhere these days. Linux platforms run on many of the world's servers, super computers, and embedded devices. The Linux kernel also powers millions of desktop machines. However, one area where Linux has really dominated is mobile devices. Android phones running the Linux kernel are used by over a billion people. Despite this popularity people are sometimes reluctant to describe Android as a member of the Linux family, partly due to many parts of official Android builds being closed source and tainted by tracking software. This week we open with a project which is trying to overcome those problems and make an entirely open source, privacy-focused platform for smartphones. The Murena project ships "de-Googled" smartphones with proprietary bits replaced with open source equivalents and a handful of useful privacy tools. Our Feature Story this week explores one of these phones, the Murena One. Read on to hear Jesse Smith's first impressions of this device. What do you think of Murena's open source platform? Let us know in the Opinion Poll below. In our News section Fedora developers plan to provide easier access to the Flathub repository of portable Flatpak packages. We also report on last minute adjustments to Linux Mint's upcoming release. Meanwhile we talk about openSUSE seeking feedback on its latest Leap release through a public survey. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about why there are so few distributions based on the SUSE family. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
The Murena One phone running /e/OS 1.0
Earlier this year the Murena team announced the release of version 1.0 of their /e/OS mobile operating system. To accompany this new milestone, the project also announced two smartphones which will be sold with /e/OS pre-installed. These devices are the Murena Teracube 2e and the Murena One. These devices sell for about $330 USD and $370 USD, respectively. (These amounts were converted to USD from the Canadian prices at time of writing and may change over time.)
I currently own a Samsung S9 running /e/OS. I've had it for just over two years and it's been an unusually positive experience for a mobile device. The /e/OS platform is basically Android, but with the Google components, ads, and nag screens removed. The Google cloud services - storage, contact synchronization, and file sharing - have been swapped out in favour of Murena services. These services run on a custom, open source Nextcloud platform. It's a setup which I've found useful, convenient, and unusually trouble-free so far.
I asked the Murena team if I could test drive one of their new phones and they kindly sent me a Murena One. The package, a small black box, arrived containing the Murena One and some useful accessories. Along with the phone is a USB charge cable, a power adaptor which appears to work with both North American and (I believe) European outlets. There is a quick-start guide which explains how to insert a SIM card into the phone, go through the configuration screens and, optionally connect to the Murena cloud service. There is a small widget for opening the SIM bay, a couple of screen cleaning wipes, and a protective case for the phone. The phone, I was happy to note, had a full battery when it arrived.
The Murena One phone and quick start guide
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Hardware
The Murena One's dimensions are 161.8 x 76.9 x 8.9mm (about 6.5 inches tall, 3 inches wide, and a third of an inch thick). It weights 186g, about 20g heavier than my S9. It's about half an inch wider and taller than my S9 too. The device has two SIM card slots and no headphone jack - the device uses Bluetooth for connecting to external speakers.
The phone places its buttons (volume and power) on the right side. This is a rare experience for me as most phones I've used placed the buttons on opposite sides. This actually feels quite natural in my left hand as my index and middle fingers comfortably wrap around to the right side. However, I find taking screenshots (which uses both buttons) slightly awkward. I'm used to squeezing either side of the phone to take a screenshot, but now I need to hold two buttons on one side and squeeze from the other. I also found holding the phone in my right hand to be slightly awkward, which I think suggests left-handed people might find managing the buttons less convenient.
The Murena One phone and power adaptor
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Under the case, the phone offers 128GB of storage (about 121GB is free for user data once the OS has been set up). The Murena One offers 4GB of RAM, 2GB of swap space, and runs an octa-core 2.1GHz CPU. It's a highly responsive phone with good performance and fast app load times.
The phone ships with version 4.14 of the Linux kernel and /e/OS 1.0 appears to be based indirectly on Android 10, through LineageOS. It's compatible with most Android apps and I'll talk more about that later in this review.
The phone offers three cameras - a front-facing 25 megapixel camera and a 48 megapixel rear-facing camera. A secondary rear camera snaps 8 megapixel shots.
One of my few complaints about this device is that it doesn't seem to be able to charge wirelessly. I've been spoiled by my last few phones which could be placed on a charging platform, removing the need to plug them in. It's a small issue, but I was unable to get the Murena One to charge on a wireless platform.
The device is unlocked and should work (it reportedly works) with virtually all Canadian carriers. A list of European and North American carriers are listed on the phone's information page.
I was pleased with the battery life of the Murena One. When used very minimally, the phone's battery could last over 35 hours. When used in a medium capacity it seems to be able to keep up with me for around 24 hours or so. I haven't done a proper stress test of the device to see how much work it can do with a single charge, but for my medium-level usage it easily makes it through a full day.
Setting up and early impressions
When the phone powers up it begins by asking us to select our preferred language from a list. We can then provide our time zone, also from a list. We're given the opportunity to connect to any wireless networks in the area. The phone then asks if we would like to enable location services - we can later select which applications can use these location services.
The phone then asks if we'd like to set up screen locking security. We can use a fingerprint and/or a PIN to protect the device. We're then asked if we'd like to sign up for (or connect with) a Murena cloud account. I already have one of these and signed in. My files, contacts, photos, notes, and photos were copied over almost instantly. These items were then kept in sync between my two phones during my trial.
Murena /e/OS 1.0 -- The home screen and application launchers
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The phone's home screen places a status bar across the top, above a collection of application icons. At the bottom we find quick-launch buttons for commonly used programs (like the phone dialer and web browser). We also find three buttons at the bottom of the screen. These are used for jumping to the home screen, showing a list of open apps, and there is a button to go back a step.
The phone ships with a pretty common collection of apps. These include a software centre, web browser, phone dialer, SMS messaging, a camera, calendar, and calculator. There are apps for viewing photos, checking e-mail, taking notes, tracking tasks, and managing contacts. There is a comprehensive settings panel too.
Murena /e/OS 1.0 -- Widgets screen showing privacy and storage information
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Swiping over to the left of the home screen we find a screen of widgets. These show commonly used applications, the current weather, usage stats for our cloud account, and a privacy dashboard. At the bottom of the page is an Edit button which helps us add or remove widgets from the screen. I was happy to find the Edit functionality has been updated and we can now remove pre-installed widgets, something I wasn't able to do with past versions of /e/OS.
The privacy widget was especially interesting. Tapping on the privacy widget brings up a settings module. This allows us to check for active trackers in installed applications, manage app permissions (blocking access to key functionality), and hiding our IP address by using the Tor privacy network. The connection through Tor can be activated with the tap of a button from the widget too.
Murena /e/OS 1.0 -- Getting a report on tracker activity in installed apps
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An overview of these privacy features and how /e/OS avoids using Google network time services and DNS lookups can be found on the Murena website.
Performance and settings
The performance of /e/OS on this phone was quite good. The system loads new applications quickly, switches between windows smoothly, and generally offers a snappy interface.
As with many mobile operating systems, /e/OS enables a lot of feedback options. Tapping buttons generally makes a clicking sound and typing on a virtual keyboard provides vibration feedback. The operating system is highly customizable and these features can be adjusted or deactivated. We also have the option of swapping out the default light theme with a dark one; adjusting ringer, notification, and media volumes; setting custom ringers; and adjusting the wallpaper.
Murena /e/OS 1.0 -- The settings panel with dark theme
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Among my favourite settings are the privacy and app permissions. We can block programs from accessing features. For instance, we might want the phone and recording apps to be able to access our microphone, but not the web browser. We might want the map app to know our location, but not the camera. These permissions are easy to toggle on/off. We can also connect to the Tor network to hide our location and IP address with a tap of a button on the widget screen.
Managing software
The Murena phone ships with a unified software centre called App Lounge which appears to connect us with multiple repositories. We are given anonymous access to the Google Play app centre packages along with the F-Droid open source repository of Android apps. These apps are all presented seamlessly with each other. We can search for items based on a description or a name.
Murena /e/OS 1.0 -- The App Lounge
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Each item in the software centre is given a rating supplied by users. Apps are also given a privacy rating. The information screen for each application provides a list of known trackers included in the app along with a list of permissions an application requires. This way we can check to see if a game or a utility will want to access our location, contact list, or other sensitive bits of information.
One of the few issues I ran into with /e/OS occurred when I tried to check for app updates in the App Lounge. The first time I did this the App Lounge crashed. It did this again the second time and third time as well. But then I left the phone alone for a bit, did a few other things, and came back to it. When I tried to check for updates again the App Lounge displayed the available updates and installed them without any issues. This happened again the next day and the next. The base operating system hadn't been updated so I'm not sure what changed. Maybe there was a time-out on the update server or a memory issue. Whatever it was, the problem only happened in a short window that first day.
Murena /e/OS 1.0 -- App Lounge struggling with its first update
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Later in the week I updated my S9 to /e/OS 1.0 (it had been running the previous version) and one of the things I checked right away was how well the App Lounge would function. It installed items and performed updates without any problems.
As a phone
One of the important questions to ponder when trying out a modern, mobile operating system is whether it can function as a phone. The good news is this one can. It has a built in phone dialer, SMS messaging, and rings when calls are coming in. It does all the usual things we'd expect of an Android-powered phone. It also has hardware compatibility with most European and North American cell networks.
Conclusions
I'm quite happy with the Murena One. For me it checks virtually every box I desire in terms of features, plus a few extras. It works as a phone, its interface is responsive, and it is easy to customize the interface. The system handles light and dark themes well and the battery lasts longer than most phones I've tried recently.
This phone is a little larger (wider and taller) than my previous phone, though still a fairly comfortable size and almost the same weight. This is a pretty good size for fitting in my pocket or my hand.
Murena /e/OS 1.0 -- Connecting to my laptop using KDE Connect
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I really like the focus on privacy and the ability to lock down application permissions. The operating system makes it easy to toggle permissions and will let us know what trackers applications have. It can even try to help discourage trackers and IP tracking by using the Tor network and alternative DNS settings. All of this can be toggled with a switch on the widgets screen or customized further in the settings panel.
One of the biggest issues I hear people complain about on phone forums is they want a phone that isn't connected to a big company (like Google or Apple), but they do want app compatibility so they can use their usual banking and messaging software. They also don't want to jump through a lot of steps to get the phone unlocked and a new operating system installed.
Murena is one of the only options I can think of which accomplished all three. The Murena phones ship with /e/OS pre-installed and if you want to install /e/OS on a phone you already own, this can be done with a simple, graphical installer. This allows people to perform point-n-click installs from both Linux and Windows. This sets Murena apart from some similar projects, such as LineageOS, which have longer, manual install processes.
The Murena phones have been de-Googled and do not run Google applications or services. Yet they run virtually all Android applications out of the box. There are some apps which rely on Google infrastructure which might not work by default, but they can be made to work using microG. The microG software can be configured in the settings panel.
Something I've heard privacy-focused people raise concerns about on forums is whether they should trust Murena with their cloud services package more than Google. Which is fair, I suppose. While Murena is a privacy-focused company, trusting them is still trusting a third-party. Luckily, one of the nice features of Murena's cloud services is it uses a customized Nextcloud installation. With /e/OS we can connect our phone to alternative Nextcloud services, including one we self-host if we wish. Or we can disable the cloud services entirely - we don't need to use Murena's services if we want to use our own, another company's services, or none at all.
In short, I had a very good experience with the Murena One. It does a lot of things well - such as permissions, app installation, warning users about trackers, and having a solid core of default applications. It also makes improving our privacy fairly easy and it is highly configurable. The phone I tested had great battery life and was a nice size & weight for me. The cost is pretty reasonable, nicely mid-range by local standards. I had a brief issue with the App Lounge which worked itself out without my help. I was a little disappointed wireless charging didn't work, but otherwise it's been a great experience. It prompted me to upgrade my earlier S9 to use /e/OS 1.0 and I've been happily running this operating system on both devices.
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Visitor supplied rating
Murena has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.5/10 from 15 review(s).
Have you used Murena? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
openSUSE seeks feedback, Fedora to provide unfiltered access to Flathub, plans for Linux Mint 21
Last month the openSUSE project published a new version of the distribution's fixed "Leap" branch. We reviewed openSUSE 15.4 Leap two weeks ago, reporting on some of the perks and problems with the distribution. Would you like to share your thoughts on the new openSUSE 15.4 release? The openSUSE project would like to hear from you. "We are seeking feedback regarding the release of openSUSE Leap 15.4, which was released to the general public on June 8. With this survey, what we're looking from you is both positive and negative feedback related to the availability and individual experience with openSUSE Leap 15.4. Your participation is very valuable for us." People interested in taking part can start the survey.
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The Fedora distribution currently ships with support for Flatpak packages and offers some access to Flatpak packages in the Flathub repository. Currently only specific, approved Flatpak packages are available by default, but this may be changing for Fedora 37. "Fedora includes a Flatpak repo definition for Flathub in the fedora-flathub-remote package. So far, this remote was filtered by an allowlist that only made a limited subset of software from Flathub available. We've been told that it is OK for us to remove the filtering and make all of Flathub available.
The filtering mechanism itself will still be there, and it will be possible for us to reinstate a filter via a package update, should the need arise in the future.
The Flathub remote is available to users who opt-in to enabling third-party software repositories in either GNOME Initial Setup or GNOME Software. Users who do not opt in will not see anything from Flathub.
In case of overlaps, GNOME Software will prefer Fedora Flatpaks over Flathub Flatpaks. It is always possible for the user to manually select a different source for individual applications." The change proposal points out the current, filtered approach has not been popular: "The filtered Flathub has not been popular with users. Users have been confused and displeased that our Flathub remote contains only a small subset of Flathub, rather than the full Flathub. Dropping the filter will resolve this criticism."
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The Linux Mint developers are gearing up for the launch of Linux Mint 21. Some final adjustments are being made prior to the release of a beta snapshot, including more considerate Timeshift backups and dropping the systemd out of memory process terminator. "Last month we got negative feedback about systemd-oom. After investigating some of the issues we decided not to add it to Linux Mint 21. Home directory encryption continues to be available in the installer. The decision was made to keep os-prober enabled by default to guarantee proper dual-boot detection out of the box. Webp support was added to xviewer and thumbnailers. Blueman 2.3 is in and replaces Blueberry. In rsync mode, Timeshift now calculates the required space for the next snapshot and skips it if performing that snapshot lead to less than 1GB free space on the disk." These and other news items from the distribution can be found in the project'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) |
Where are all the openSUSE distributions?
Your review of openSUSE 15.4 Leap got me thinking. I know there are a few distributions based on openSUSE, but when compared to distros like Debian, Arch, and Fedora, their number seems to be quite small. In addition, whereas there are distros based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I haven't been able to find a single distro that is a spin of SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE). Why is that? Is it lack of interest from developers and/or end users or is there some other reason? I've used the evaluation copy of SUSE Linux Enterprise in the past and found it to be quite stable and a pleasure to use. Certainly, I would be interested in a spin in much the same way CentOS did for Red Hat.
DistroWatch answers: There are several questions and separate topics bouncing around here, so let's try to take these one at a time, and in order of asking...
There are relatively few distributions in the openSUSE family, this is true. Apart from openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise themselves, there are only four active distributions with their own websites and infrastructure which are based on openSUSE or SUSE Linux Enterprise. Of those, two (GeckoLinux and Regata OS) are desktop distributions. The other two (EasyNAS and Rockstor) are storage-focused operating systems. Why are there so few distributions based on openSUSE/SLE?
Interestingly enough, someone asked me the same question last year about Fedora. I believe the same responses apply:
- Most community members work within openSUSE's infrastructure to make spins rather than creating their own separate distribution and infrastructure.
- openSUSE's release cycle is relatively quick and short compared against Debian and Ubuntu LTS while being slow compared to Arch. It sits in an awkward middle ground which is a lot of extra work for developers.
- openSUSE, like Fedora, has a relatively strict license policy developers need to work around.
- SUSE is a company, like its Red Hat cousin, but it changes direction more quickly and gets bought out occasionally. This regularly puts the distribution's future path in question. We saw this earlier this year with the open, vaguely answered questions about the future of openSUSE Leap.
So that answers why most developers don't want to put the extra effort into making their own, openSUSE-based distributions. Moving on to the next question: Why are there so many distributions based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), but not SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE)?
I think there are two main reasons for this. One is the RHEL-based projects are a bit of an illusion. There are virtually no distributions based on RHEL the way we tend to think of separate distributions. For instance, MX Linux is Debian, plus its own repositories, desktop configuration, and default applications. Manjaro Linux is Arch, plus an installer, its own testing repositories, its own configuration, and design choices. These projects have a parent distribution, but have a lot of their own tools, quirks, and design decisions.
Almost every distribution which is based on RHEL is a clone. These projects are intentionally virtually identical to RHEL, minus the trademarks, support, and licensing. AlmaLinux OS, EuroLinux, Rocky Linux, and so on are binary compatible and intentionally almost identical to RHEL. They don't ship with a bunch of custom compiler flags, their own control panel, or their own installer. That would defeat the point. They aren't RHEL, plus some extras and philosophical design changes. They're pretty strict RHEL clones.
Many of these RHEL clones exist because Red Hat decided to phase out CentOS Linux. Up until that point most members of the Linux community turned to CentOS Linux when they wanted a free, unsupported version of RHEL. When CentOS was phased out in favour of CentOS Stream it created a vacuum and suddenly a half dozen new RHEL clones sprang to life. That is why we have so many RHEL clones, but we still don't have any RHEL-based distributions with their own design, custom desktops, or independent vision.
Now, let's compare this situation against what we see with SLE. SLE also doesn't have separate child distributions with their own vision and tools. It also doesn't have clones, the way RHEL does. What it does have is openSUSE Leap, which uses the same packages as SLE. The openSUSE Leap branch is basically SLE without the support and licensing. If this sounds familiar, it's because openSUSE Leap is to SLE what CentOS Linux was to RHEL. There hasn't been, up to this point, any reason for the community to make their own SLE clones because it already existed in the form of Leap.
This may change in the coming years. SUSE has stated SLE is changing and Leap, if it exists at all, will likely look completely different. In other words, it sounds like SUSE is phasing out Leap over the next few years the same way Red Hat phased out CentOS Linux. Given the creation of this new vacuum and this lack of a clear future for openSUSE Leap and SLE in their current forums, we may very well see new community-created distributions to fill in the gap.
While we may, and I wouldn't be surprised if we do see a new community-driven distribution to replace the current SLE/Leap duo, I don't think we'll see nearly as many clones/spins as we did of RHEL. The openSUSE Leap community looks to be a lot smaller than the RHEL/CentOS Linux community was and less profitable. I think SUSE completely changing direction with SLE will mean it'll be difficult to create a clone that accomplishes what openSUSE Leap currently does, discouraging people from filling in the gap with five or six replacements the way the CentOS Linux community did with their RHEL clones.
In short, if you tried SLE and liked it, you can use openSUSE Leap, which offers the same packages without the support and licensing features. However, it'll likely only be another two years before you need to consider an upgrade path to something else if the openSUSE community decides not to keep Leap, in its current form, running.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
UBports 16.04 OTA-23
UBports is a community-run comtinuation of Canonical's Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system. The project has published a new update: UBports 16.04 OTA-23. The new release offers improved video decoding, better MMS message handling, and fixes a problem where known wi-fi passwords would sometimes be prompted for again. "Initial support for FM radios (@mardytardi): If you own any of those devices: BQ E4.5, BQ E5, Xiaomi Note 7 Pro - you are lucky: Connect your headphones, download the FM Radio App and enjoy the show. Several improvements are planned, and consider it more like a proof of concept. Also it will not work on other devices since the kernel needs a few options set. More devices to come... Messaging App (@lduboeuf): Some smaller improvements for MMS handling for bigger attachments. Also text messages with special characters from the HTML specification (&, <, >) are no longer truncated. Jingpad A1 (@fredldotme): Support hardware video decoding in the Media Player App." Details are available in the project's release announcement. A list of supported devices and download options can be found on the project's devices page.
Univention Corporate Server 5.0-2
Univention Corporate Server (UCS) is an enterprise-class distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. It features an integrated management system for central administration of servers. The distribution's latest update includes improved virtual local area network (VLAN) management: With version 5.0-2, RADIUS now also allows administrators to assign dedicated VLANs to specific user groups. For example, visitors can be assigned access to a dedicated guest VLAN that allows access only to the Internet, but not to the organization's internal network. This is an important feature for increasing network security. For more info, see the blog article Service-specific Password for RADIUS. Minor enhancements and bug fixes have been released for the App Center, which in detail can be found in the release notes. Here, we have focused on porting more apps to UCS 5 as well as the deployment of new apps." Additional information can be found in the distribution's release announcement and in the release notes.
Condres OS 1.0
Calogero Scarnà has announced the release of Condres OS 1.0. Condres OS is a Debian-based distribution featuring the KDE Plasma desktop. This release is based on Debian 11 and it comes with a customised Plasma 5.20.5. Other popular applications include Firefox 91.11.0, LibreOffice 7.0.4 and VLC 3.0.17.4. Linux kernel is the long-term supported version 5.10.120. "Announce - Condres OS Plasma 1.0. With great pleasure we announce the release of Condres Plasma 1.0 based on Debian 11. This first release will be followed by a full online Calamares-based installer. We will integrate the Control Center that was previously available in the old releases on the new Debian-based edition. The new implementations will be available in September / October 2022. Release Notes for Condres Plasma 1.0. Today we are proud to release Condres OS 1.0 with the KDE flavour. This release comes with the name '1.0'. New features: add snapper btrfs; new theme for Plasma (ant-dark, icon tela, playmouth splash)" Here is the brief release announcement.
Condres OS 1.0 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
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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: 2,738
- Total data uploaded: 42.2TB
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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) |
What do you think of the Murena smartphones?
This week we talked about the Murena One smartphone, one of a handful of phones which ship with /e/OS pre-installed. We'd like to hear your thoughts on this product which offers the Android experience with extra privacy tools and without Google software included.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using Red Hat Enterprise Linux and its clones in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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What do you think of the Murena phones running /e/OS?
| I have used one and like it: | 52 (5%) |
| I have used one and did not like it: | 4 (0%) |
| I want to try one: | 631 (62%) |
| I do not want to try one: | 327 (32%) |
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|
| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Lion Linux. Lion Linux is a desktop distribution based on Devuan. It is intended to be used on lower-end personal computers.
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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, 11 July 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 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 |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
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RaspBSD
RaspBSD was a special build of FreeBSD for small, single-board computers such as the Raspberry Pi, Banana Pi, Pine64 and BeagleBoard Black. The project provides a live image of FreeBSD with Openbox and the LXDE graphical desktop, along with pre-configured FreeBSD package repositories. RaspBSD was based on the -CURRENT branch of FreeBSD.
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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