 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 990, 17 October 2022 |
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Welcome to this year's 42nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The open source community is full of people who tinker, hack, and dream. Some projects take on lofty goals, wanting to solve complex problems or take computing to new heights. This week we begin with two projects (ravynOS and Lion Linux) that have grown from the minds of dreamers who want to make using computers more efficient, easier, and more open. Read on to learn of the first impressions from these two projects. In our News section we also explore some new ground, talking about the COSMIC desktop from Pop!_OS, an attempt by System76 to replace GNOME on their in-house distribution. Plus we share information on Debian developers gearing up for a new stable release in 2023 while Murena launches a new phone. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we explore restrictions on low numbered network ports and how common services work around the restrictions on these ports. Plus we share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. In our Opinion Poll we'd like to hear if your most recent computer purchase shipped with Linux pre-installed. Let us know what was on your computer's hardware when you bought it below. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
There are all sorts of reasons I will review an open source operating system. Sometimes I'll encounter a distribution doing something interesting that I want to share. Other times I will write about a Linux distribution just because it is popular and I suspect many people will be affected by its features and bugs. Other times I believe a project is doing something remarkably well, such as being unusually easy to set up or offering improved stability. There are also projects I will explore simply because they have such amazingly lofty goals that there is no realistic expectation they will succeed and I just want to observe the spectacle of the developers' reach exceeding their grasp. Which brings me to the topic of ravynOS.
ravynOS 0.4.0
The ravynOS project starts out with a popular concept, the idea of providing a macOS-like experience on a FreeBSD base. It is a concept shared by a few other projects, such as helloSystem. The ravynOS project's website states:
We love macOS, but we're not a fan of the ever-closing hardware and ecosystem. So we are creating ravynOS - an OS aimed to provide the finesse of macOS with the freedom of FreeBSD.
They go on to expand on the idea a little, offering specific elements the team wants to implement:
We intend to bring many of the features you've come to love from macOS to ravynOS like clean design, global menus, and drag-and-drop installs.
So far, so good. A few projects are making similar attempts and it appears, based on the ravynOS frequently asked questions page, that the team is working with other developers to make this macOS-like desktop a reality. The ravynOS website then swings for the fences with this statement:
Many FreeBSD ports and apps, Linux apps, and even trivial Darwin & macOS binaries can run on ravynOS. And we're actively working on improving it!
It was at this point I decided to download ravynOS to see how wide the chasm would be between the project's goals and the current implementation.
The project's install media is a 1.4GB ISO. The MD5 checksum is provided in a separate file. Verifying my download revealed the first hurdle of my experience. The filename in the MD5 text file the project provides is incorrect, meaning running "md5sum -c ravynOS_0.4.0pre4_f14_amd64.iso.md5" to verify our download always fails. However, if we manually run the MD5 check against the hash listed in the file, ignoring the included filename, we can confirm the media is uncorrupted. This was an early warning for me because it demonstrates no one on the ravynOS team is going through the process someone would take to install their operating system step-by-step.
At first, ravynOS appears to boot from its install media just like FreeBSD would, but with the key exception that the operating system uses launchd to manage services rather than FreeBSD's default service manager. The system boots to a text console and displays a login prompt.
I found login credentials and install instructions in the project's wiki. The instructions are unusually long and performed entirely from the command line. Presumably this will change in the future, but for now the initial setup process is definitely not emulating the easy point-n-click experience which made macOS famous.
Something which annoyed me about the install process is virtually all of the commands listed in order in the wiki just need to be copied verbatim to the ravynOS terminal and run. The only choice or information we need to insert into the process is the name of our first hard drive, which could be easily detected by a script. Which means instead of having the user copy each of the 30+ commands, one at a time, from the wiki into the terminal the project could have provided a script with the same instructions, avoiding the manual work and the chance of typos.
The install process, while tedious, mostly went well. The one issue I ran into came when trying to use the pkg package manager to remove software that would no longer be needed after the install was complete. Trying to run pkg resulted in errors which seem to suggest the package manager's database has been corrupted. Since the media checksum was correct, this again suggests a lack of testing. At least, I thought, the issue was only with removing old software that would be no longer needed and the rest of the process went smoothly.
After I finished the listed tasks, I restarted the computer. The system then failed to boot, reporting no boot device could be found. At this point I wasn't sure if there was a problem in the ravynOS instructions, or the command that copies the operating system, or if I'd made a typo which caused a command to fail without warning. It's hard to say and, given the amount of time and manual typing involved in trying again, I wasn't about to go through all the steps again hoping for a better result. Instead, I turned my attention to another project.
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Lion Linux 3.0
While ravynOS has a website which shares its lofty goals and beautiful screenshots of what the operating could be someday, Lion Linux takes the opposite approach. There is almost no information on the Lion Linux website regarding what it is or how it works. There is a brief blurb which claims the project's intention is to work on both 32-bit and 64-bit machines, but that is about it. There are multiple desktop editions available, but otherwise the style and goals of the distribution are left up to the imagination.
Something I found curious is the Lion Linux home page says it is based on Debian 11 with the Cinnamon and Xfce desktops: "We use Debian 11.4 in its 32-bit and 64-bit versions." However, the project's download page says Lion Linux is based on Arch Linux and is available in eight desktop flavours. Since Debian and Arch are not at all related, I did some more poking around to see if I could find out what the project's base is.
I found a text file in the distribution's SourceForge repository which clears up most of the mystery. It explains Lion Linux 1.0 is based on Debian 10 while version 2.0 is based on Debian 11. The release of Lion Linux 3.0 was based on Devuan. The next version is reportedly going to be built on Arch Linux, but is not yet available. I'm not sure why the team keeps changing bases, using three different parent distributions in three releases; the reasoning isn't explained.
Version 3.0 of the distribution is available in GNOME, Trinity, Cinnamon, MATE, LXQt, LXDE, Xfce, KDE Plasma, Xfce, and i3 editions. I decided to try the MATE edition which is 1.8GB in size. The various editions range in size from 1.3GB for the i3 ISO to 2.7GB for the Cinnamon edition.
The distribution's live media boots to a graphical login screen. Both the boot menu and the login screen are displayed in Spanish. Once I got signed into the live desktop by using the credentials on the project's SourceForge page, I found the desktop menus and applications also displayed in Spanish and I was unable to find a tool to change the language to English. The System menu and the settings panel do not appear to include tools for changing the preferred language.
Lion Linux 3.0 -- Running the MATE desktop
(full image size: 245kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
I looked around for a system installer and eventually found it in the System section of the Applications menu which is located in the upper-left corner of the MATE desktop. Lion Linux uses the Calamares graphical installer. We are asked by the installer to pick our preferred language and time zone. We can opt to use guided partitioning which sets up a root partition with the ext4 filesystem and a huge swap partition. Alternatively, we can manually partition the local disk using a friendly, graphical partition manager. The installer then prompts us for a username and password.
The installer began copying its files to the hard drive, but soon aborted with a Python crash report which said: "Boost.Python error in job 'unpackfs'." I restarted the machine and went through the install process again, only to be greeted by the same Python error. This quickly brought my trial with Lion Linux to a close.
In short, neither of these open source operating systems would install successfully. One is aiming for the stars while delivering a poor, command line driven experience. The other defines almost no goals, but has a lot of editions while regularly changing bases. Neither project appears to have tested its download verification or install process which leaves potential users in a difficult situation.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Debian prepares for next stable release freeze, Murena launches new phone
The Pop!_OS developers announced last year they would begin work on their own desktop environment which would eventually replace GNOME on their distribution. Development of the new desktop environment has been making progress and Michael Murphy has published an update with a video of the new desktop, called COSMIC. "I've just implemented client-side window drag resize support in Winit for X11/Wayland and Iced. Direction of the resize is based on window coordinates relative to the window. The cursor change on hover isn't yet implemented, but the changes needed in Winit are functioning."
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The Debian project moves slowly and takes its time setting up new stable releases. Paul Gevers has sent out a notice, letting people know what milestones to expect for the next version of Debian, with the first stages of the repository freeze starting in early 2023. The upcoming Debian 12 will carry the codename "Bookworm": "On 12 January 2023 we're hitting the first milestone of the Bookworm release: the Transition and Toolchain Freeze. If you made plans for the Bookworm release, now is the time to evaluate if it's realistic to go ahead or if time is running too short. Keep in mind that others may have less time to work on your plans than you do. Remember you always have experimental to stage changes. If there is an unfixed bug that is nagging you, remember to fix it (e.g. via an NMU) now rather than later. When the Transition and Toolchain Freeze starts, we'll be expecting maintainers to not start new transitions, and to avoid large and/or disruptive changes in their uploads."
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The Murena team develops a de-Googled version of Android for smartphones. This privacy-focused operating system already runs on several Android devices and such sustainable devices as the Fairphone. The Murena team has announced the availability of a new device called the Murena One which ships with their operating system pre-installed. "This 4G LTE smartphone perfectly completes our Murena phones range together with Teracube, Fairphone and Gigaset. Murena One is the perfect balance between privacy and a all-round smartphone that offers you the full habitual experience without trading off your data." The Murena One device can be purchased through the organization's website. We shared a preview of the Murena One back in July of this year.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Accessing low numbered network ports
Learning-to-network asks: I've read that network ports up to 1024 are privileged ports and can only be opened as root. Then why can certain software run on them as non-root users? Like Apache runs as the www-data user, not root.
DistroWatch answers: You are correct, in Unix and Linux tradition, low-numbered network ports are reserved for the root user. The idea is that certain ports which are commonly used for well known services (such as website hosting, e-mail, remote administration, and file transfers) should be reserved for the system administrator to use. Other users who want to run their own services should not be able to interfere with these commonly used ports.
While a program that wants to use low-numbered ports needs to be run as the root user (or make use of special privileges granted by the root user) it's considered a bad idea to let programs that provide network services to run as the root user. Network services, like e-mail and web hosting, are vulnerable to attack over the network and having one of these services compromised by a remote attacker could be devastating if the services are running as root.
This appears to set up a difficult contradiction. On the one hand, only services running as the root user can use ports numbered up to 1024. On the other hand, any service running on these network ports should not be running as root.
The common solution is to run network services as the root user when they first start up. These services can open a low-numbered network port. Then the service typically changes which user it is running as. This is called changing the effective user ID. In other words, the Apache web service may be started as the root user, but as soon as it does some initial tasks and opens a network port it drops its root access. The service then runs as though it were the www or www-data user, not root.
In short, network services are usually started as the root user to enable them to attach to low network ports. But as soon as they have connected to the port they can drop their level of access and become another user. This insures only the root user can run services on low-numbered ports while also minimizing damage from compromised services. This is why, if you look at a process listing on Linux, it looks like network services are running as non-root users. They are, when you're looking at them, but they were probably started by root initially.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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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) |
Did your computer ship with Linux pre-installed?
These days it is relatively easy to purchase a computer which ships with a Linux distribution pre-installed. While retail stores still usually sell computers bundles with proprietary operating systems, there are several companies which offer Linux options. These Linux-friendly companies include, but are not limited to, Dell, Tuxedo Computers, System76, and ThinkPenguin.
We'd like to hear if your most recent computer purchase was one which came bundled with Linux. If it was, let us know where you acquired it in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on the past default desktops of Ubuntu in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Did your computer come bundled with Linux?
| Yes - Linux was the bundled OS: | 159 (8%) |
| No - it shipped with a proprietary OS: | 1122 (57%) |
| No - it shipped with another free OS: | 38 (2%) |
| No - it shipped without an OS: | 654 (33%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 24 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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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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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| Random Distribution | 
AriOS
AriOS was a user-friendly, Ubuntu-based distribution containing extra applications, multimedia codecs, Flash and Java plugins, many tweaks and a unique look and feel.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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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