 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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| Linux Foundation Training |
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • SLE clones (by a on 2022-07-04 01:20:37 GMT from Austria)
Even if OpenSuse Leap uses the same packages as the latest version of SLE with the latest service pack, it does not offer long-term support, you don't get 10 years of security updates for a stable server base like with real SLE or RHEL or RHEL clone (or 5 years with Debian or Ubuntu).
The reason of complete lack of SLE clones must be elsewhere.
2 • SLE clones (by Rincewind III on 2022-07-04 05:04:04 GMT from New Zealand)
@1 • SLE clones
"The reason of complete lack of SLE clones must be elsewhere. "
I would suggest that cost may be a reason.
Debian / Ubuntu / Arch derivatives all use their upstream "parent" repos, with a very small "derivative specific" repo. Standing on the shoulders of giants?
RHEL / SLE do not seem to permit this.
Therefore the RHEL / SLE clones need to provide this infrastructure at their cost. As they are dependent on the generosity of their users, (whom they just "give" a free O/S to) it just may be a bridge too far.
So, find a host for the master mirror, and maintain all the packages to run a viable distribution (+20k packages), and then beg / plead / cajole the likes of universities worldwide to host a mirror for their distribution.
3 • The take of an IT-Pro on OpenSUSE (by Microlinux on 2022-07-04 06:42:20 GMT from France)
I'm the manager of a small IT company with a focus on Linux and FOSS. On the desktop side, I've been using exclusively OpenSUSE Leap on all my installations. It's running on all desktop clients and laptops in our local school, and also in a few local SME networks I manage.
The concept of Leap is quite unique. The distribution is built upon a stable base derived directly from SUSE Linux Enterprise. Since version 15.3 they even share the same package repositories. On this stable base, you get reasonably recent desktop environments and applications.
And then roughly once a year, you can perform a dist-upgrade, like the recent leap (hence the name) from 15.3 to 15.4. While it's not exactly a trivial operation, it happens without drama. The workstation I'm writing these lines on was installed a few years ago with Leap 15.0 and then went through all the updates and upgrades without a single reinstallation.
The first SUSE distribution was released back in 1994, that's ten years before the first Ubuntu release saw the light of day. Back then it was essentially a Slackware spinoff with a german translation and a printed handbook. SUSE and OpenSUSE are still quite popular in Germany, Austria, Eastern Europe and all around the globe. Remember, Linux doesn't track its users, so you'll never really know except for the sometimes wild speculations of some tech journalists. :o)
I'm old enough to remember the video standard battle between Video 2000, Betamax and VHS in the 1980s. Video 2000 was way ahead of its time, but go figure why, nobody adopted it. Folks went with the shockingly inferior VHS standard with a crappy image quality. And I guess it's the same story with Linux distributions.
4 • SLE (by Charlie on 2022-07-04 06:47:01 GMT from Hong Kong)
@1
Branding is important in medium size companies. Red Hat/CentOS is a big name that many hosting companies would even put them on their website for marketing, while SUSE is really lagged behind in this field. Enterprise Linux clones are having very sepcific mission and usage comparing to other distros, that's why Red Hat clones have their values and SLE wouldn't come to people's mind.
Regarding openSUSE, it's not until the post 9.x era that SUSE changed its development process into a more bazaar model, fewer developers would interested in involving in forking or meddling around with SUSE.
5 • @4 - RHEL, SUSE, etc. (by Microlinux on 2022-07-04 07:01:06 GMT from France)
Red Hat and SUSE are both billion dollar companies. For the record, SUSE runs on critical setups like the New York Stock Exchange servers.
6 • Murena phone (by JeffC on 2022-07-04 07:12:34 GMT from United States)
Went to the Murena website and after looking at the specs of their phones I believe I will pass on getting one.
The Murena One supports 3G bands which are shut down where I live and 4G bands which I consider on borrowed time since 5G has been rolled out.
The Murena Teracube supports 2G bands (shut down), 3G bands (shut down) and 4G bands (obsolescent?).
Having already recently replaced one phone due to the bands no longer being supported, I do not want to end up replacing another in the near future which costs me three times as much.
7 • open suse (by snh on 2022-07-04 07:53:17 GMT from Australia)
What about Gecko linux. Its open suse with a bit more polish and its not bad to use.
8 • De-Googled Android (by Alexandru on 2022-07-04 09:06:06 GMT from Romania)
Apart from additional Google services, which make life better for Google but not necessary for end user, there is one more reason to try out de-Googled version of Android. The battery life usually doubles once I install something like LineageOS or /e/OS.
9 • Latest Fedora (by Romane on 2022-07-04 10:41:18 GMT from Australia)
I recently installed a copy of the latest Fedora, Plasma desktop. Overall found it quite good, even if parts of the system were "older" versions, not the "cutting edge" as the word about it goes., and it was really just to see how "cutting edge" it really was that I installed it
But I wiped it from my computer without any ado when I found that almost every application I wanted to install was a flatpak. Now, there is nothing wrong in general with the whole flatpak thing, but as a purely personal preference do not like having my application-base on flatpak - I would much rather have apps from the distribution's repository - I understand the reasoning and logic behind doing this, but do not like it at all.
Just a random comment, and I fully expect most will leave it, not take it.
Romane
10 • Murena phone (by fox on 2022-07-04 10:54:00 GMT from Canada)
I know a lot of people, myself included, who choose their phone because of the quality of the camera. Jesse didn't comment on the Murena's camera. Anyone have any experience with this?
11 • Murena, eelo, /e., Whatever shell company today, cannot recommend (by NoEelo ForMe on 2022-07-04 11:05:18 GMT from Romania)
If you like Android, and security and privacy are important to you...
...and money is no object, buy a new Pixel and install GrapheneOS.
...and money is tight, use an old phone and install DivestOS.
If you are OK with changing names for trademark issues, like Mandrak-Mandriva, risking your photos and files appearing on some stranger's phone, out of date buggy software, and lining Duval and Co. pockets with money, buy a eelo - /e/ - Murena - brand of the year, from Ecorp, Murena, or whatever shell company they use to hawk overpriced, insecure phones and services.
12 • De-googling (by pierre4l on 2022-07-04 11:12:48 GMT from France)
Interesting to see the review of e/OS on the Murena One. I'd been hoping to get a Pinephone Pro earlier this year but it became clear that there were too many major blockers currently for use as a pirmary everyday phone, and I couldn't wait until the year's end since my old Nokia was on borrowed time. Having been desperate for years to avoid either of the Apple/Google duopoly and their ecosystems I realized I might have to compromise. I looked for a secondhand Fairphone 3+ either with or without e/OS. They sell like hot cakes either way and after missing out on several I bagged one with the regular Fairphone Android OS, which made me depressed looking at it (and thinking about the whole Google invasion into my life).
I'd intended to install e/OS on it but their GUI easy-install tool comes as a snap, not ideal for my openSUSE PC (possible but faff-laden). Then I stumbled upon iodéOS. Based in France, like me, another LineageOS-based de-Googled privacy- and security-focussed option, sharing some traits with e/OS but diverging on others. Install ended up being no easier than the e/OS command line option would have been but I got it done and have done a couple of the monthly upgrades since, which went smoothly and merely required a reboot. Currently based on Android 11 but they recently announced v12 arriving soon.
I'm a very light phone user so I get about five days' or more use on one charge. Fairphones have the added benefit of replaceable batteries and other parts. I mostly just do SMS, have the invaluable KDE Connect running when at home, and am loathe to touch almost anything else that isn't a default app. With iodéOS you can also uninstall even the default apps if you wish. They don't currently offer the cloud sync/storage options like e/OS AFAIK but I think they're working on that. Would be interesting to see a side-by-side comparison of e/OS and iodéOS.
@6 - you might want to consider the Murena Fairphone 4 which has 5G. Fortunately here in France things don't advance so ridiculously tech-wise as in the States, so even 2G still works in places. My FP3+ has 4G which should endure here for a few more years at least.
13 • Open Suse (by kc1di on 2022-07-04 11:41:43 GMT from United States)
I've always like OpenSuse. Used it off and on through it's many changes of hands. It's mostly preformed well.. Only grip I have is a lack of a good installable live image. Why in our day won't SUSE provide a good live install disc is beyond me. I think that keeps many from giving it a try.
I seem to remember at one point that they had a good live disc set. But unless you go for Gecko it's not easy to find now a days.
14 • Names (by Any on 2022-07-04 12:44:45 GMT from Spain)
Murena like Fedora has a name that backs me off. Can not they invent a fancier, more attractive name?
15 • Networks (by Jesse on 2022-07-04 13:20:03 GMT from Canada)
@6: You probably don't need to worry about 4G networks disappearing in the next ten years. Even in the USA. The new 5G network towers have a range of about 1,500 feet (according to Verizon). Much of the USA is wide open spaces and wilderness and farm fields. Many people have backyards wider than that. I don't think 5G is going to be feasible outside of densely populated areas. Meaning 4G support will need to stick around, if for no other reason than to allow people to travel outside of cities.
https://www.verizon.com/about/news/how-far-does-5g-reach
16 • Not to De-Google (by gplcoder on 2022-07-04 13:36:06 GMT from Switzerland)
A de-Googled phone is just that. It still retains the Android OS. Lots of us are of the opinion that the best privacy phone is no Android and no iOS. Examples are UBPorts and Librem 5, which are Linux phones. This also means that all those tracking apps that you love so much don't exist but that is the point.
17 • SLE clones (by Ankleface Wroughtlandmire on 2022-07-04 14:00:24 GMT from United States)
Good writeup on openSUSE and SLE. However the parallels with RHEL clones like AlmaLinux and Rocky aren't quite applicable to the situation with the eventual demise of openSUSE Leap. Although CentOS changed direction, the upstream open source product (RHEL) did *not* change, and for the foreseeable future Redhat will continue to maintain it as the same general sort of product and offer the source code packages. This will apparently not be the case with SUSE and its SLE product. Although the communication from SUSE and openSUSE has been absolutely terrible in this regard, SUSE employees have confirmed that after SLE SP5 / Leap 15.5 they will no longer share the binaries or sources with openSUSE, and even more significantly, SUSE will work to eventually transition its main product to a radically different next-generation sort of Linux OS (immutable and containerized with nuclear updates). So projects that want to continue the current openSUSE Leap paradigm of a fixed-release traditional Linux system from SUSE will not have a current upstream to base it on after a few years, and their only option would be to fork SLE SP5 / Leap 15.5. But that would be an insane decision for a group of volunteers or even a fairly large company to take on all the work of maintenance and backporting security patches. Again, AlmaLinux and Rocky get all that "for free" directly from the Redhat RHEL sources, whereas that will *not* be available from SUSE in a few years.
Of course, for users that actually want a buzzword-compliant new-age Linux OS this is all irrelevant, as there will be an openSUSE offering based on SUSE's eventual new ALP product.
18 • @17 "The demise of OpenSUSE" (by Microlinux on 2022-07-04 14:43:45 GMT from France)
"Although the communication from SUSE and openSUSE has been absolutely terrible in this regard, SUSE employees have confirmed that after SLE SP5 / Leap 15.5 they will no longer share the binaries or sources with openSUSE, and even more significantly, SUSE will work to eventually transition its main product to a radically different next-generation sort of Linux OS (immutable and containerized with nuclear updates)."
Could you please name your sources for this information?
("Some guys at SUSE" is *not* a valid source.)
We've had quite a heated discussion on the subject on the OpenSUSE-users mailing list. And it seems so far that the *only* available source is the article on Distrowatch Weekly a few weeks ago.
19 • Murena phone (by Otis on 2022-07-04 14:52:09 GMT from United States)
Heck yeah. I'm on a carrier that is not included in their supported list, but I'm willing to dedicate a second carrier to that phone. I'll be looking into this. Thanks for the thorough review. Intriguing looking device and love the deGoogled aspect.
20 • SLE/openSUSE (by Jesse on 2022-07-04 14:54:49 GMT from Canada)
@18: If you read the original news post we published you'l see that we linked to two sources and another person referenced statements from openSUSE members discussing the transition on Reddit in the comments. SUSE has been quite up front for months in the mailing lists and on Reddit about transitioning SLE away from the current model.
21 • @18 (by Ankleface Wroughtlandmire on 2022-07-04 15:10:13 GMT from United States)
Well, they are all Reddit comments, which is why I said that their communication has been atrocious regarding this matter. But these comments are from a well-known SUSE employee, who has made no attempt to allay fears that Leap is going away and that SUSE is changing direction with their products, and in fact has very emphatically confirmed it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/openSUSE/comments/vb4268/is_opensuse_leap_really_on_its_deathbed/ic71zta/
https://www.reddit.com/r/openSUSE/comments/vb4268/is_opensuse_leap_really_on_its_deathbed/ic7znsw/
https://www.reddit.com/r/openSUSE/comments/vb4268/is_opensuse_leap_really_on_its_deathbed/ic7mvdv/
https://www.reddit.com/r/openSUSE/comments/vb4268/is_opensuse_leap_really_on_its_deathbed/ic7jwmn/?context=3
22 • /e/os has a philosophical flaw (by zetabeta on 2022-07-04 15:51:34 GMT from Finland)
/e/os has a philosophical flaw
/e/os try to build own cloud services which imitate google services. /e/os may provide privacy protection, but why store at the cloud at the first place. basically /e/os try to be google replacement with google-like services. i think relying on cloud storage at the first place is a problem. most information should be stored locally, and no accounts. /e/os may not have google play services, but it uses android and android api more or less.
i tend to think that even average lineageos is better than /e/os.
in my view, android is abused linux. (and ios is abused freebsd).
23 • lte won't disappear (by zetabeta on 2022-07-04 16:01:28 GMT from Finland)
>>"6 • Murena phone (by JeffC on 2022-07-04 07:12:34 GMT from United States)
Went to the Murena website and after looking at the specs of their phones I believe I will pass on getting one.
The Murena One supports 3G bands which are shut down where I live and 4G bands which I consider on borrowed time since 5G has been rolled out.
The Murena Teracube supports 2G bands (shut down), 3G bands (shut down) and 4G bands (obsolescent?).
Having already recently replaced one phone due to the bands no longer being supported, I do not want to end up replacing another in the near future which costs me three times as much. "
i don't think lte/4g will go out anytime soon, at least for ten years. even with overhyped nr/5g, it's non-sa mode, which is basically continuation of lte with some added nr bands and technology. current nr-non-sa does not work without lte. because of continuation of lte, why carriers are shutting down 2g (gsm, cdma) and 3g (umts, cdma2000) technologies.
24 • /e/OS (by Jesse on 2022-07-04 16:09:53 GMT from Canada)
@22: "/e/os may provide privacy protection, but why store at the cloud at the first place."
If you don't want to use cloud services then you can simply not enable the Murena online account. Nothing requires you to use it.
"i tend to think that even average lineageos is better than /e/os."
/e/OS is LineageOS with privacy features, optional microG service, and optional cloud storage.
25 • openSUSE (by Otis on 2022-07-04 16:19:56 GMT from United States)
@3 @5 @18 Yes okay we get it you use and like openSUSE and, like nearly every Linux distro, it is deployed here or there by some large entity successfully.
But OpenSUSE has not been able to settle down in well over 20 years of development and hot potato hand offs from one company to another. I think that fact is showcased in the difficulties many users encounter trying to install and use it as a simple desktop daily driver.
OpenSUSE can run and even look good, but too many users end up with something like a very pretty Cuban 1958 Chrysler Imperial with a Russian tractor motor and Peugeot drive train and lots of pride as they try to get it running for the next days drive. A lot of people find openSUSE to be a bumpy ride, and again, I think that is an expression of the distro's handling over the many years it's been around; the focus is blurry, so the experience can be too much of a challenge for those of us who just want to install and get going.
26 • Fedora: how to avoid flatpak (by Passante on 2022-07-04 17:08:25 GMT from Italy)
@9
"I recently installed a copy of the latest Fedora, Plasma desktop. But I wiped it from my computer without any ado when I found that almost every application I wanted to install was a flatpak."
Install and use "dnfdragora". All the packages installed via dnfdragora are normal rpm, while Discover could install flatpak without your knowledge.
27 • Fedora (by MrSparkleWonder on 2022-07-04 17:31:01 GMT from Mexico)
So Fedora....abandoning BIOS install option... nice, thanks but no thanks. Fedora may be "cutting edge" but it is just the frontman pimp for RedHat, pushing terrible use policy such as abandoning BIOS installs and pushing the plague of Systemd on the linux community.
If you want to sell your soul, choose Fedora/RedHat
28 • Murena One app centre (by Jesse on 2022-07-04 17:36:49 GMT from Canada)
Quick update on the Murena One review. I heard from one of the Murena team and they report /e/OS 1.1 was released a few days ago with a fix for the app centre crash I experienced. In fact, this may be why I didn't experience it on my second phone (the S9) during testing because the issue was already patched.
29 • @25 (by Microlinux on 2022-07-04 18:42:06 GMT from France)
If you want to compare OpenSUSE to a car, it's more like a Mercedes. Of course you're supposed to drive it.
If you find OpenSUSE "bumpy", just try and connect it to a 389 Directory Server for authentication, over an encrypted connection. And now do the same thing with pretty much any other distribution (Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, whatever). And then draw your own conclusions.
This being said, the beauty of Open Source is also that you're free to prefer whatever distribution you prefer for your own good reasons. For the record, up until 2017 I ran Slackware Linux exclusively on all my servers and desktops.
30 • Going to try installing e/OS on an older phone (by Andy Prough on 2022-07-04 20:20:58 GMT from United States)
I found out from their website that e/OS should install on my previous phone, a Motorola G7. I'm going to have to try that out this week. Looks pretty cool. I've been testing their "Ecloud" and e.email for a couple months now and they've worked pretty well.
31 • Fedora (by Pass on 2022-07-04 21:31:06 GMT from Italy)
@27
"Fedora is abandoning BIOS installs and pushing the plague of Systemd on the linux community." The problem lies in the fact that IBM/RH/Fedora are the only commercial entity introducing innovations in the Linux world, the other distributions have no choice but to chase Fedora.
32 • I love my Terracube phone (by Matt on 2022-07-04 21:38:05 GMT from United States)
It has a REMOVABLE BATTERY, which is a feature nearly impossible to find on any new phone. The phone is small enough to fit in your pocket. The price is reasonable. Most of the Google evilness has been removed. The warranty is excellent. The phone comes with a protective case as well.
I replaced a Moto G7 Power running LineageOS. The Terracube makes it easy to avoid stuff you don't want and easy to install stuff you do want. You can use F-droid and your own Nextcloud server if you don't want to use the services run by the manufacturer. It is easier to set up than on any phone that has been locked down by the manufacturer and google.
If you don't like Google, I don't understand why you would ever consider buying a Google Pixel and installing GrapheneOS or any other Android variant on it. Why give companies money that empowers them to do stuff you are opposed to?
33 • @27, @31 Fedora (by a on 2022-07-04 23:45:23 GMT from Poland)
According to https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=14569 , they dropped their plans to stop supporting non-UEFI machines.
34 • @2 SLE clones (by a on 2022-07-05 00:05:00 GMT from Norway)
Why the creators of a clone would maintain 20k+ packages? I assume that almost all will be just identical copies of the upstream ones. As for problems with mirrors/bandwidth, the situation is not special, every RHEL clone does this successfully.
I hope SUSE does not use contractual clauses to somehow hamper redistribution of their packages like grSecurity does.
35 • Redhat (by Justin on 2022-07-05 21:37:30 GMT from United States)
Looks like there are changes at Red Hat as well: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Lennart-Poettering-Out-Red-Hat
I wonder what this means for the future. I know some software is controversial, but the Red Hat team is one of the major (and few) desktop innovators solving real problems, even if many don't like the solutions.
36 • @7 What about Gecko linux (by Suzy on 2022-07-05 23:25:02 GMT from United States)
I really liked Gecko. The problem is, its a one man show. He gets hit by a bus, end of distro. I guess the update links are still valid though.
37 • @36 (by GeckoLinux on 2022-07-06 14:07:32 GMT from United States)
@36 Hi there, GeckoLinux creator/maintainer here. The whole point of GeckoLinux is to *not* be dependent on me. That's why I went to great lengths to only use GeckoLinux and Packman repos, no modified packages, no add-on "GeckoLinux repos". GeckoLinux is *not* a fork of openSUSE; once installed it's a legitimate customized openSUSE system that can be infinitely updated as from the main openSUSE and Packman infrastructures with all of their extensive human and technological resources backing it up. The entire GeckoLinux project has an annual budget and annual expenditure of $0.00, even the website is a free subdomain on Github and the ISOs are hosted for free on Sourceforge.
38 • Yelling from the bus window (by Otis on 2022-07-06 15:48:38 GMT from United States)
@37 .. Nice to see that clarification. I wonder if it'll cause Suzy to continue with GeckoLinux instead of installing openSUSE and customizing it herself.
39 • @37 GeckoLinux (by Suzy on 2022-07-06 16:30:58 GMT from United States)
Thanks for clarification. I'm going to re-install Gecko today. Its a beautiful distribution. Thanks! "Keep it green", and look before you step off the curb :).
40 • OpenSUSE (by Mike Simms on 2022-07-06 17:53:26 GMT from United Kingdom)
There's very few projects based on OpenSUSE because it is so highly polished already there's little room for improvement. Even if you want extra codecs for media support they are a single click installer away.
I am using Tumbleweed with KDE desktop and it's a joy to use even on my older hardware. Everything renders nice and crisply, the text is ultra clear and crisp. OpenGL acceleration is spot on and it's frugal on resources.
41 • Gecko rocks too! (by Mike Simms on 2022-07-06 18:00:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
@37 - nice to see you responding here. I have tried Gecko before too a couple of years ago and appreciate what has been done with your distribution by you and your team of maintainers. I ended up going back to OpenSUSE Tumbleweed this week via a brief dalliance with Mint Cinnamon again.
Given what I see with Tumbleweed, the future of the OpenSUSE ecosystem is in strong hands and looks bright. No doubt you guys also contribute to OpenSUSE project too so I thank you for all your work collectively.
42 • Nav features? (by Will on 2022-07-06 23:21:40 GMT from United States)
Does the phone have decent nav/location apps. I couldn't make UBPorts work for me cuz it sucked at Nav.
43 • @39 @41 (by GeckoLinux on 2022-07-07 00:36:52 GMT from United States)
@39
> Thanks! "Keep it green", and look before you step off the curb :)
Well said. ;-) Thanks!
@41
> your distribution by you and your team of maintainers
Thanks! Glad you like it. It's actually just me. It is indeed a one-man project. But as I mentioned, I recognize I'm standing on the shoulders of giants and I happily leave the infrastructure and packaging to the openSUSE project, which leaves me with more time to polish GeckoLinux and eliminates the typical small-distro problem of lack of human and economic resources.
44 • Maps (by Jesse on 2022-07-07 01:03:17 GMT from Canada)
@42: Yes, the Murena One has a navigation/map application. Plus it can run any navigation app you want from the Play store.
UBports, for what it's worth, also has some good navigation apps in its collection. I've used them. The first time it takes a minute for the GPS to "warm up" and get an accurate location on some models, but after that it works great.
45 • @27, MrSparkleWonder (by Dr .Hu on 2022-07-07 01:47:19 GMT from Philippines)
"If you want to sell your soul, choose Fedora/RedHat"
I suppose you can make anything into a religion or cult. Me, I don't sell my soul for conveniences, but I do lease it. Payments are quite affordable.
46 • Linux, faster than a snail... (by Tech in San Diego on 2022-07-07 04:49:47 GMT from United States)
@37: I've been enjoying your new foray into the Debian GNU/Linux world for the past two weeks. Nicely done!
Care to share what's next on your bucket list with the DW community?
https://spirallinux.github.io/
47 • SpiralLinux (by Haes on 2022-07-07 12:21:27 GMT from Indonesia)
@46 Thanks for the information.
This is exactly what I've been looking for.
I've been testing GeckoLinux many times and really enjoyed it. But I am more familiar with Debian based distros.
@37 Hi, many thanks for creating SpiralLinux.
I believe it will have the same superb quality as GeckoLinux :)
48 • Spiral, Gecko (by qwerty99 on 2022-07-08 16:40:00 GMT from United Kingdom)
Strange idea of what 'quality' means shown here. Let's try them:
SpiralLinux, extra complications to Debian, not clear why. File system setup for btrfs? Stick with the tested long term system, Debian.
GeckoLinux, usual Yast setup with umpteen repos, no clear explanation of which to enable and which not. Why not stick with zypper? Don't know if this is smoother than OpenSUSE but it's certainly not smoother than Ubuntu.
Next!
49 • Murena (by MrSparkleWonder on 2022-07-08 18:31:09 GMT from Mexico)
".....I was a little disappointed wireless charging didn't work,..."
So you got to nit pick and find some issue with an otherwise flawless privacy phone which is Google free!?
I suppose it is not possible to please anyone in this world, even when a company like /e/ get it right.
Please continue to find faults where there are none. Tech snowflakes are crying and screaming because.....no wireless charging. Wow. Man the fck up
50 • @49 "Privacy phone" (by poster on 2022-07-08 19:48:30 GMT from Austria)
MrSparkleWonder, your comment made me think about what the real "privacy phone" would be.
The world needs opportunistic encryption, the phone calls should go through the PSTN only as a last resort, they should be routed normally through Wi-Fi and use "garlic routing" and end-to-end authenticated encryption.
The phone should have hardware switches to turn the radio, camera and microphone on and off. The OS should be something like Qubes with Waydroid for compatibility with Android apps.
51 • @50 Privacy Phone (by MrSparkleWonder on 2022-07-08 20:09:01 GMT from Mexico)
Nice points.
I think the privacy phone does exist but the software isn't quiet ready.
I am talking about the Pinephone Pro, successor to the Pinephone. It has much improved hardware, physical kill switches for modem, wifi, microphone, rear camera, front camera and headphone.
The only issue is the software, but once all the bugs are ironed out of Postmark OS, the phone can be encrypted, and you can install all your favourite linux security apps such as VPNs, DNS tools, ecrypted messengers, TOR etc etc.
I hope, within the next 6 months to 1 year it will be ready.
I am in need of a new phone.
52 • @48 (by Dev on 2022-07-08 23:26:27 GMT from United States)
@48 Hi there, GeckoLinux and SpiralLinux creator here.
> SpiralLinux, extra complications to Debian, not clear why
Whether you are in agreement or not, please take the time to read the website, which directly answers your question in great detail.
> GeckoLinux, usual Yast setup with umpteen repos, no clear explanation of which to enable and which not
There is no need to enable or disable the repos, they are all pre-configured. I'm not going to try to convince you to use it or like it, but please don't comment about something that you don't understand simply because you've never used it.
Number of Comments: 52
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| • 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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GALPon MiniNo
GALPon MiniNo was a lightweight, Debian-based distribution designed for PCs that are 10 years old (or more), though it's also perfectly usable on modern computers and netbooks. It contains a carefully tuned selection of applications that try to maintain a balance between features, ease of use and speed. IceWM with ROX-Filer and PCManFM provides the desktop. The distribution has full support for three languages (English, Galician and Spanish) and it also comes with "magic icons" - a set of tools that automate repetitive or system tasks (e.g. rotate or resize hundreds of digital images, convert audio or video files into other formats or burn an audio CD with a simple drag & drop).
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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