 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 988, 3 October 2022 |
Welcome to this year's 40th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Debian is sometimes referred to as the grandparent distribution because so many Linux distributions are, directly or indirectly, based on it. Debian's base offers a great deal of flexibility and it allows the distribution's software to be reformed into all sorts of shapes and for all sorts of purposes. This week we begin with a look at SpiralLinux, a Debian-based desktop distribution from the creator of GeckoLinux. Read on to learn of Jesse Smith's first impressions of the distribution. While GeckoLinux has two main branches, Static and Rolling, SpiralLinux currently has just one fixed release branch. Do you like the idea of a rolling edition of SpiralLinux? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about SUSE showing off prototypes of the new Adaptable Linux Platform (ALP) edition which is expected to replace SUSE Linux Enterprise sometime in the future. We also share news of Fedora dropping some codec support from the Mesa package and the legal rational for this change. Plus we share some new features coming to the Linux Mint distribution and a change coming to Debian's install media. Many people visit DistroWatch in order to find distributions with specific characteristics or which are suited for a key purpose. We offer a number of ways to find all sorts of distributions and we share tips on locating distributions based on common search criteria in this week's Questions and Answers segment. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we welcome the Ubuntu Unity distribution to our database. Ubuntu Unity is the latest official community edition of Ubuntu and features the Unity 7 desktop environment. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
SpiralLinux 11.220628
SpiralLinux is a young distribution which appeared on the DistroWatch waiting list in the middle of 2022. The project is described on its website as follows:
SpiralLinux is a selection of Linux spins built from Debian GNU/Linux, with a focus on simplicity and out-of-the-box usability across all the major desktop environments. SpiralLinux serves as an alternative live installation method for a highly reliable customized Debian system using only official Debian package repositories.
If the description sounds familiar it may be because SpiralLinux is developed by the same person who created GeckoLinux, a desktop-oriented spin of openSUSE which strives to be easy to set up and use out-of-the-box. The two projects, SpiralLinux and GeckoLinux, share a common developer, common goals, and the same philosophy. They just use different parent distributions to provide their packages.
SpiralLinux is available in seven desktop flavours (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce, Budgie, GNOME, LXQt, and KDE Plasma) along with a more minimal Builder edition. The Builder edition offers a minimal graphical interface based on IceWM and is intended to help people start with a small operating system foundation and work up with just a few desktop tools. I decided to try the KDE Plasma edition which is 2.0GB in size.
SpiralLinux (which I'll usually refer to as Spiral) booted from its live media to the Plasma desktop. The wallpaper is green and there are icons on the desktop for handling language support and launching the system installer. A panel sits at the bottom of the screen where it is home to the application menu, task switcher, and system tray.
SpiralLinux 11.220628 -- The Plasma application menu
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The language support icon launches a utility which will offer to install or enable language packs. These two options then help us generate locale information or install new language packages. When we choose to install new language packages the system opens the Synaptic package manager to display a filtered list of language packages. This is a bit of a mixed list as the packages we are shown can be tagged as being related to language in a variety of ways, whether it's for the base system, LibreOffice, Firefox, or another application. In short, we get a pile of unorganized language packs through Synaptic and it's not a user friendly experience or easy to navigate. Still, it is nice to see language support presented front and centre on the desktop.
Installing
Spiral uses the Calamares graphical installer. Calamares is a lot more streamlined than Debian's installer. It's faster, easier to navigate partitioning, and uses about a quarter of the screens required to do a basic install of Debian. The one flaw in the experience, for me, was clicking the Release Notes button on the first page of the installer did nothing.
Calamares quickly helped me set a keyboard layout, pick a time zone, and set up a user account. Manual and automated partitioning options are provided. The manual approach is simple and easy to navigate. The automatic approach takes over all available drive space for a single Btrfs volume. No swap file or swap partition are created. Instead, Spiral sets up compressed memory (zRAM) to be used as swap space.
The installer completed its work quickly and then offered to restart the computer.
Early impressions
My newly installed copy of Spiral booted to a graphical login screen. From there I could sign into the Plasma desktop. The default look uses a simple black on light-grey font and a green background. The fonts are small, but usually high contrast. The green theme often reminded me of using openSUSE or GeckoLinux.
The system is quiet, by default, not displaying much in the way of notifications or pop-ups and there is no welcome screen. I did not see any notification about security updates or offers to configure the desktop.
Hardware
I began my trial by running Spiral in a VirtualBox environment. The distribution ran smoothly and was responsive in the virtual machine. The desktop automatically resized and was stable. Actually, the Plasma desktop was a little too quick to resize itself inside VirtualBox. The desktop kept getting the resolution wrong, even when I was running it in full screen mode. In fact, if I set the Plasma desktop's resolution manually, it would immediately change to another, seemingly random, resolution.
My experience with running Spiral on my laptop went well. Again, the distribution was stable and responsive. All my hardware was detected, including wireless networking (an area where official Debian usually fails due to its stance against non-free firmware), and even my media keys were recognized.
Something I found interesting was Spiral would boot into a live session running the 5.18 kernel when it was launched in Legacy BIOS mode. When I switched to UEFI mode the boot menu offered me two versions of the Linux kernel: 5.18 and 5.10. Shipping with 5.10 makes sense to me as it's the same kernel which Debian 11 "Stable" uses. The 5.18 kernel though is not the same one included in Debian's Testing branch (at the time of writing) and it has reached its end of life. The 5.19 kernel is the current stable kernel at the time of writing.
A fresh install of Spiral consumed 6GB of disk space. When signed into Plasma, the distribution used about 520MB of RAM, putting it comfortable in the mid-weight category.
I ran into an interesting quirk of the distribution when I decided to confirm the system's use of zRAM in place of traditional swap space. Running the command swapon returned the unexpected response that the command could not be found. However, the manual page for swapon was installed. I found out that, unlike many other children in the Debian family, Spiral does not include the directory /usr/sbin in the user's path. This is the location of the swapon command and a number of other useful tools. This means several common utilities are invisible to regular users. The commands do become part of our path when we prefix commands with "sudo". Meaning running "swapon" fails, running "/usr/sbin/swapon" succeeds, and running "sudo swapon" works. This is not a bug in Spiral, necessarily, but it is unusual to hide the /usr/sbin directory contents from the user's path.
Applications
Spiral ships with a handful of popular open source applications, including Firefox, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, and Transmission. The Pidgin messaging software is included along with the VLC media player. Clementine is available for playing audio files. In the KDE Plasma edition of the distribution there are some other members of the KDE family, such as Okular for document viewing, Gwenview for photo viewing, and Dolphin for managing files. The KDE System Settings panel provides access to thousands of configuration adjustments and tweaks.
The distribution includes manual pages for most command line utilities, such as ls, grep, and swapon. The GNU Compiler Collection is installed, however its manual page is not. The distribution runs the systemd init software and version 5.18 or 5.10 of the Linux kernel.
The included applications generally worked well and operated quickly for me. I particularly liked that Konsole is set up with a fairly dark, high-contrast theme without a blinking cursor. It's a classic look which made me feel right at home.
A less pleasant colour combination popped up in the System Settings panel. Almost all of the panel uses black text on a light grey background, which I find easy to read. However, there is a module in the panel for handling systemd services. This screen displays light-blue text on a white background which is difficult to read. The systemd module seems to be the only screen of the panel which uses this unfortunate font colour combination.
I also found that trying to stop a systemd service from within the KDE System Settings application would cause the panel to lock up for a few seconds and then crash. Other settings, such as adjusting the compositor, tweaking visual effects, creating user accounts, and changing the theme worked without any problems.
SpiralLinux 11.220628 -- Browsing systemd services
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
One minor, yet unusual problem I ran into came about when trying to take screenshots. I took a handful of screenshots with the Spectacle utility and it worked properly, at first. After a while, when I tried to save images of my desktop, the tool reported it had saved my image, but the image didn't show up in my Pictures directory, the way earlier ones had. I tried again and again, confirming Spectacle was set to save in my Pictures directory, but the file didn't get created. Or at least it wasn't created in my Pictures directory and didn't show up in ls listings or in Dolphin. I tried closing and relaunching Spectacle, but it continued to fail to create images, despite reporting my screenshots had been saved. Running the find command under my home directory tree also failed to turn up any newly created files.
Software management
At first glance, Spiral appears to ship with a lot of software management tools. The distribution includes the Synaptic low-level package manager, a firmware installer/updater, and the Discover software centre. There is also a tool called Software & Updates which handles which repositories we access and how Spiral reacts to finding updates in the Debian repositories.
SpiralLinux 11.220628 -- Installing software with Synaptic
(full image size: 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
I did not have cause to use the firmware updater and cannot comment on it. Synaptic is a classic, powerful package manager and it worked well. Synaptic was able to fetch updates and install new packages without any problems. It's not an attractive, modern application, but Synaptic works quickly and without fault, even when asked to install 127 package updates totalling 381MB in size.
Discover appears to be the main software manager. Not only is it featured in the application menu, it's also listed in the Favourites menu (twice). One launcher opens Discover as your own user and the other will launch Discover using root access. The idea here, I think, is launching Discover as our normal user is typically the way to go, but it means we regularly need to put in our password to perform actions (such as installing and removing packages). Launching Discover as root means we put in the root password once, but are not prompted for a password again. This is probably a reasonable approach, but it's somewhat undercut by Discover warning us that running the software centre as the root user is dangerous and should be avoided.
SpiralLinux 11.220628 -- Checking for updates with Discover
(full image size: 1.4MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
This warning aside, Discover worked well for me. The software centre has come of age in the past year or so and works a lot faster and more reliably now than it has in the past. Discover makes it easy to browse categories and sub-categories of software, install new items and remove old ones. Discover can also install software updates.
Discover seamlessly gives us access to both Flatpak packages (through Flathub) and Deb packages from Debian. When both types are available there is a toggle in the upper-right corner of the Discover window to switch between the two package formats. I quite liked using this software centre.
Conclusions
While the creator of SpiralLinux has worked on other projects, most notably GeckoLinux, I believe this is one of the first releases of Spiral. For an early release, the distribution (or at least the KDE Plasma edition of the distribution) performed quite well. The live session worked, the installer helps the user get set up quickly, and the included software was useful. I feel Spiral finds a nice balance between modern hardware support (with a newer kernel) and stability, thanks to Debian's base. The system is stable, responsive, and seems to make a point of staying out of the user's way.
There were a few rough edges, such as the crashes I ran into when trying to manage systemd services through the System Settings panel, the Release Notes button in the installer not working, and the screenshot utility ceasing to save images after a while. However, each of these presented only small issues and were not significant to the operation of the distribution.
In short, I feel SpiralLinux is offering a solid first release where things are mostly going well. However, the flip side of my evaluation is I don't feel SpiralLinux is doing anything innovative or different compared to other desktop-oriented members of the Debian family. At a few points, thanks to the green wallpaper, I forgot I was using Spiral and lapsed into thinking I was running Linux Mint Debian Edition. Running Spiral isn't all that different from running MX Linux, Linux Mint, or SolydXK - all Debian-based projects which offer a nice installer and a polished desktop experience.
I didn't run into anything truly bad that put me off of using Spiral, but I also didn't discover any must-have features. It's good, it's solid, it feels well done the way a handful of other Debian-based desktop systems do these days. I'm hoping to see some feature or gimmick in a future release which will set Spiral apart from its peers.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
SpiralLinux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9/10 from 46 review(s).
Have you used SpiralLinux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Fedora drops support for some codecs in the Mesa package, Mint presents new features, changes to Debian's install media
The developers of SUSE Linux Enterprise and openSUSE have been talking about a new edition of SUSE called the Adaptable Linux Platform (ALP) for a few months now. While details have been vague, it sounds as though ALP will eventually replace openSUSE Leap. Prototypes of ALP are being worked on to give potential users a taste of the new edition. "All of the ALP Workgroups are working towards delivering promised the September ALP prototype with the codename 'Les Droites'. SUSE will continue using a mountain naming theme for all upcoming prototypes, which will be delivered on a three months basis from now.
Adaptable Linux Platform (ALP) is planned, developed, and tested in the open so users can simply get images from OBS and see test results in openQA.
As far as 'Les Droites' goes, users can look forward to a SLE Micro like host OS with self-healing abilities contributing to our OS-as-a-Service/ZeroTouch story. The Big Idea is that the user focuses on the application rather than the underlying host, which manages, heals, and self-optimizes itself. Both Salt (pre-installed) and Ansible will be available to simplify further management.
Users can look forward to full disk encryption (FDE) with TPM support by default on x86_64." Additional details can be found in the openSUSE news post.
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A change to the Mesa graphics library has highlighted a potential legal problem for the Fedora distribution. Namely, the Mesa package can enable access to media codec code which is covered by patents in the United States of America. Since Fedora does not have a license for these patents and is backed by the American company Red Hat, the project is looking at disabling support for the patent-encumbered code which, in some instances, will reduce video playback performance. As Frantisek Zatloukal wrote: "Since this Mesa change in F37 and rawhide, the Mesa package lost support for vaapi accelerated encoding and decoding of h264, h265 and decoding of vc1. It seems like a big regression from F36 for users with GPUs with open source drivers (mainly AMD, maybe NVIDIA/other non x86...), that affects common use-cases of Fedora Workstation, like watching videos, in-house game streaming, attending online meetings and many more." The change and discussions around the patent encumbered issue can be found on the Fedora development mailing list.
The openSUSE distribution has followed Fedora's example and disabled patent-encumbered codecs in the project's Mesa package.
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The Linux Mint distribution is making it easier to verify install media and acquire new hardware drivers. The project's September newsletter explains how the ISO verification tool works and shares updates to the Driver Manager utility. "We made the manager run in user mode so you no longer need a password to launch it. Debconf is now properly supported. This was an issue for NVIDIA drivers when Secure Boot is enabled. This scenario was fixed. PackageKit was patched to receive the ability to purge packages (i.e. to not only remove them but to also remove their configuration files). The driver manager now purges removed drivers. This fixes a niche issue with NVIDIA drivers when switching between different versions of the drivers. The user interface was improved. Offline support was redesigned. The Driver Manager now shows a dedicated screen if you are offline: And a different screen if it detects a live USB stick (or DVD). The way it mounts the live USB stick and adds it as a source to install drivers is more robust than before. These improvements make installing Broadcom wireless drivers easier than before."
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The Debian project has been debating whether the official Debian install media should include non-free firmware, bits of code required to make some hardware work. Up to this point Debian has provided two sets of install media: the official media without non-free components which often would not work with certain wireless cards and other key devices, and unofficial media which included the necessary code. Following a debate and vote on the subject it looks as though future versions of Debian will allow non-free firmware to be installed as needed from the official media.
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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) |
Finding distributions for older equipment and other purposes
Recently we've recently received a number of e-mails from people looking for specific types of distributions, or different ways of sorting popular distributions. In particular, we've heard from people who want to know which distributions are the highest rated, which ones still support 32-bit computers, and which do not run the systemd init software.
DistroWatch provides a number of ways to find distributions and to sort projects by various criteria. Most of our tools for discovering distributions can be found on our Search page. From this page you can find distributions with specific versions of a package, find projects dedicated to certain tasks, or search for projects that run on a specific architecture.
As an example, you can find all Linux distributions that support the 32-bit i686 CPU architecture using this search. Projects which either do not include systemd, or which offer alternatives to it, can be located using this search. If you want to find Linux distributions which place a strong focus on supplying free software only, you can use this search. Distributions which are known to ship the latest version (5.19.x) of the Linux kernel can be found with this search.
Some people have asked us about finding projects which are highly rated in reviews, or which have been reviewed frequently. Those projects can be found on our Project Ranking page. The drop down menu changes how the results are ordered, based on the number of votes or the average rating.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
CRUX 3.7
CRUX is a lightweight, Linux distribution for computers running on 64-bit x86 processors. The distribution is targeted at experienced Linux users. The primary focus of this distribution is "keep it simple". The project's latest release is CRUX 3.7 which features version 5.15.55 of the Linux kernel along with updates for the X.Org display software and for Wayland. "CRUX 3.7 comes with a multilib toolchain which includes glibc 2.36, gcc 12.2.0 and binutils 2.39; CRUX 3.7 now includes Wayland 1.21.0; ports continue to default to X.Org, but Wayland can easily be installed alongside and run in either pure Wayland or Xwayland mode; if you decide to run a Wayland session, you will need to enable the 'contrib' collection and rebuild a few ports (for example xorg/mesa) to make it fully available; the ISO image is processed with isohybrid and is suitable for burning on a CD and putting on a USB drive; UEFI support is available during installation with dosfstools, efibootmgr and grub2-efi/syslinux is available during installation; because all bootloaders are in our opt collection now, no bootloader is installed as a core port by default; to give the possibility to select a bootloader we have added a new menu to setup." Additional information is provided in the project's release notes.
SpiralLinux 11.220925
SpiralLinux is a selection of desktop spins built from Debian GNU/Linux, with a focus on simplicity and out-of-the-box usability across all the major desktop environments. The project has published an update which introduces usability and hardware support improvements. "Built from the latest Debian Stable 11.5 release. Users with prior installations of SpiralLinux can simply update their system to receive the 11.5 release directly from Debian. Firefox ESR from Debian Stable now at version 102.3. Smoother two-finger scrolling with touchpads enabled in Firefox via environment variable. Realtek r8168 WiFI theoretically supported out-of-the-box. Testing and reporting by users with any Realtek WiFI hardware would be appreciated. Substituted newer firmware-iwlwifi package from Debian Testing to fix major connection problems with the Debian Stable firmware version on AX20x Bluetooth hardware. Bitmap fonts disabled to avoid poor font rendering, such as in HTML emails. SecureBoot support. Note: SecureBoot support may not work out-of-the-box on all systems due to variations and quirks in different UEFI implementations." Additional details are listed in the release announcement.
Linuxfx 11.2.22.04.3
Rafael Rachid has announced the release of Linuxfx 11.2.22.04.3, an updated version of the project's Ubuntu-based Linux distribution featuring a KDE Plasma desktop themed to resemble either the Windows 10 or the Windows 11 user interface. This version is based on Ubuntu 22.04: "It is with great pleasure that we announce the release of Linuxfx version 11.2.22.04.3. This release is based on Ubuntu 22.04.3 'Jammy Jellyfish'. Support for .exe and .msi applications has been improved with Wine 7.18; Linux kernel 5.15 is also present in this release, improving support for more modern hardware. We updated KDE and the entire application base which is now downloaded directly from the Neon repositories. WxDesktop, all its tools and themes have also been updated. Support for Android games and apps has been improved. What's new in this version: system base up to 22.04.2 LTS; Linux kernel up to 5.15; KDE up to 5.25.5; Wine (Windows .exe/.msi application support) up to 7.18; WxDesktop tools is updated to 11.7; all system packages updated." See the distribution's news page to read the release announcement.
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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: 2,775
- Total data uploaded: 42.4TB
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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) |
Should SpiralLinux offer a rolling release edition?
This week we talked about SpiralLinux, a Debian-based project from the creator of GeckoLinux. GeckoLinux is based on openSUSE and there are two main branches of the distribution, a static release based on openSUSE Leap and a rolling release from openSUSE Tumbleweed.
At the time of writing, SpiralLinux offers a fixed release only, based on Debian's Stable branch. Do you think SpiralLinux should also have a rolling release branch, perhaps based on Debian Testing or Debian Unstable? If you like the idea of a rolling version of SpiralLinux, let us know which branch you think it should be based on (Testing or Unstable) in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running openSUSE's MicroOS in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Should SpiralLinux have a rolling release?
| Yes - based on Debian Testing: | 319 (37%) |
| Yes - based on Debian Unstable: | 131 (15%) |
| No - focus on one edition: | 401 (47%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to database
Ubuntu Unity
Ubuntu Unity is a flavour of Ubuntu featuring the Unity desktop environment (the default desktop environment developed and used by Ubuntu from 2010 to 2017). Unity debuted in the netbook edition of Ubuntu 10.10; it was initially designed to make more efficient use of space given the limited screen size of netbooks, including a vertical application switcher called "the launcher" and a space-saving horizontal multipurpose top menu bar. Ubuntu switched from Unity to GNOME in 2017, but the desktop was resurrected again as an unofficial "Ubuntu Unity Remix" in 2020. It became an official flavour of Ubuntu during the development cycle of Ubuntu 22.10 in 2022.
Ubuntu Unity 22.10 Beta -- Running the Unity desktop
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Crystal Linux. Crystal Linux is an Arch Linux based distribution featuring a custom GNOME session.
- Loc-OS Linux. Loc-OS Linux is a Debian-based distribution which features the LXDE desktop.
- CachyOS. CachyOS is an Arch-based Linux distribution featuring the KDE Plasma desktop and a custom kernel for improved desktop performance. The distribution can be installed using a text installer or the graphical Calamares installer.
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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, 10 October 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)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Linux Comfusion (previously known as Uberyl) was a desktop Linux distribution that combines an Ubuntu base system with the latest 3D desktop technologies on a live DVD.
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