 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 992, 31 October 2022 |
Welcome to this year's 44th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Last week we reported on the release of Ubuntu 22.10 along with the distribution's many community editions. One of the Ubuntu family's lighter members is Lubuntu, which features the LXQt desktop. This week we begin with a review of Lubuntu 22.10 from Jeff Siegel. Read on to learn about Jeff's initial impressions and thoughts about the Lubuntu project. In our Questions and Answers column we discuss default permissions on the home directory and how to change these. Home directory permissions determine whether other people using your computer can access your files and it's an important consideration when addressing privacy concerns. Does your home directory allow other users to browse or read your files? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about Linux developers debating whether to phase out support for i486 CPUs. We also report on why the latest Fedora release has been delayed more than usual. Plus we talk about 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 Jeff Siegel) |
Lubuntu 22.10
Few Linux distros have changed their reason for being as much as Lubuntu has since its first release in April 2010. Originally, it was a bare bones operating system, aimed at older and low-end hardware that wasn't even up to running Xubuntu, which had been the low-end edition of the Ubuntu family.
Today, Lubuntu makes no claims to do that, and anyone trying to run it on lower-end hardware will run into problems (more on that later). But anyone installing it on a reasonably modern system will be pleasantly surprised, and will find that what the developers promise -- a "lighter, less resource hungry and more energy-efficient" distro -- is mostly true.
The current release, 22.10 Kinetic Kudu, only comes in a 64-bit download (2.7 GB), includes the 5.19 Linux kernel. The latest version swaps out PulseAudio for the PipeWire sound system. and requires 1024MB of RAM for installation. It will only be supported for nine months, until July 2023.
Perhaps most importantly, Lubuntu now uses the LXQt desktop (version 1.1), which replaced the LXDE desktop several years ago. As such, it's a mix of Qt desktop components, as well as the Openbox window manager (version 3.6.10) and PCManFM-Qt file manager (version 1.1). In other words, a hybrid not often seen and one, at first glance, that might not be easy to cobble together to produce an efficient operating system.
Lubuntu 22.10 -- The live desktop
(full image size: 2.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Further complicating matters is that there are two Lubuntu websites. Go to lubuntu.net, and there are broken links to download 19.04, which was a mix of LXDE and LXQt. This is confusing enough, but it also adds to the confusion about which version of Lubuntu first shipped with LXQt -- remember Lubuntu Next? The official site, lubuntu.me, doesn't expressly say it's official, but it has the most current downloads as well as a first-class set of instructions, the Lubuntu Manual.
About the only thing missing are minimum hardware requirements, which the developers see as a challenge in today's 64-bit environment: "But we will no longer provide minimum system requirements and we will no longer primarily focus on older hardware."
First look
Ah, minimum system requirements. It's one thing to acknowledge the contradictions inherent in building a lighter distro these days, but it's another to face those contradictions in the real world. I tried installing 22.10 on my Dell Inspiron 11 3000 test machine, with its Pentium N3530 processor. No luck. The live version sort of worked, with the emphasis on sort of; the actual installation borked GRUB. It's worth noting that I usually run MX Linux on the Inspiron, and MX works so smoothly that it's hard to believe the machine came with Windows 8.1 all those years ago.
The next step in testing was VirtualBox, and it's here that 22.10 showed its potential. Save for not expanding to fit the window size, it was quick, slick, and easy to use. Even Firefox loaded quickly, and I've had Firefox crash a VirtualBox instance more than once.
Lubuntu 22.10 -- Trying to run the system installer in VirtualBox
(full image size: 266kB, resolution: 1247x925 pixels)
The only real VirtualBox hangup was installation, which lagged. Unfortunately, the same thing happened on the test machine I used next, an Asus UX31A laptop. I did make installation a little more complicated, setting up a dual boot with an already installed instance of Xubuntu 22.04. I did this mostly to give Lubuntu's Calamares installer a challenge; the developers have ditched Ubuntu's Ubiquity for Calamares (which didn't seem necessary). So I wanted to see if it was more amenable to dual booting than Ubiquity (which handles it quite nicely).
And, for the most part, it worked fine. The installer did completely fill the screen despite my best attempts to reduce it, so I had to do a little wiggling and waggling to see everything so I could push the proper buttons. The dual boot setup was straightforward, and if I had problems it was because I wasn't used to the Calamares approach. And the dual boot -- save for both login prompts identifying themselves as Ubuntu and not Lubuntu and Xubuntu -- worked correctly.
Lubuntu 22.10 -- The PCMan file manager
(full image size: 260kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
My biggest concern with the LXQt desktop was whether the Qt bits (which are usually associated with the larger KDE Plasma desktop) would fit within a lighter, more efficient desktop. And, for the most part, the desktop is light and efficient, following in the footsteps of the Ubuntu family. Click on something, and the something does what it's supposed to do.
The PCManFM-Qt file manager does most of the right-click things that file managers do, and also offers drag and drop to add a file as a bookmark in the left-hand lists pane. The LXQt session manager bears more than a passing resemblance to the one in Xubuntu, and the Openbox settings manager is also full featured. Plus, there's an LXQt Configuration Center that puts everything in one place. And, yes, it recognized my networked Canon printer.
Lubuntu 22.10 -- The LXQt configuration center
(full image size: 285kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
I do wish the monitor settings offered proportion equivalents as part of the resolution settings. Otherwise, save that the individual widgets look a little bare bones, all is first class and works as it should.
What's included
The software assortment is surprisingly minimal -- no email client, no music player, no webcam client, and no weather widget (blasphemy given that this is the Ubuntu family, where weather tools are a constant preoccupation). Most of the utilities are KDE/Qt -- the Quassel IRC tool, the Qlipper clipboard, the Qterminal, and the QPS process manager. VLC doubles as both video and music player, while LXImage offers basic picture editing and the venerable ImageMagick handles more complicated chores. LibreOffice is the office suite, and it was a pleasant surprise to see the HomeBank finance software included.
Lubuntu 22.10 -- Changing the Openbox theme
(full image size: 239kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
Firefox 106 is the default browser, and yes, it's the Snap package version. I didn't notice any lag or hangups when it loaded the first time -- seemed pretty much like any instance of Firefox. I also didn't see the perpetual Snap upgrade notification that sometimes shows up and makes users crazy.
The Lubuntu developers are aware of the controversy: "After careful consideration, taking into account the fast-paced technical improvements in modern web technology, the work required to keep Lubuntu users secure after the release, and Canonical's commitment to Firefox as the default web browser for Ubuntu, we made the decision to keep this as-is." Would that other distros were as upfront.
Lubuntu 22.10 -- The Muon package manager
(full image size: 441kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
One thing that puzzled me was the upgrade manager, called "Apply full upgrade." Given that most of the rest of the upgrade managers in the Ubuntu family are called something simpler, like "software updater," this was a bit confusing. It almost sounds as if it's there to apply a distro upgrade, instead of just updating packages. Muon, the KDE package manager, is also installed, as is the Discover software center. Discover allows users to install via traditional packages or Snap and you can choose one as the default package. Thankfully, there's only one version of the Thunderbird email client -- the traditional Deb package -- in Discover, and not competing Snap and traditional packages.
Lubuntu 22.10 -- Enabling software sources in Discover
(full image size: 342kB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
I spent a couple of days running Lubuntu as my daily driver; that meant adding the Nextcloud desktop tool, Thunderbird, Shotwell for photos; and Cheese for the laptop's camera. I wasn't able to add Zoom for web meetings and interviews; there was a missing dependency. So I had to use the web version, which was a bit annoying. Battery life was fine, a couple or three hours with email, web browsing, and writing stories, and especially for a laptop as old as the Asus. The experience wasn't quite as seamless as it would have been on Xubuntu or Zorin's lighter Xfce version, for example, but it worked well enough. And, frankly, that I was easily able to use Nextcloud -- so I could access notes and the HomeBank data from my desktop -- was both surprising and pleasing.
So yes, a top-notch and professional distro that doesn't get in the way. In this, I think Lubuntu has found a niche currently filled by Chromebooks, but for users who want more privacy and more control over their system -- and who don't want to pay for new hardware. Lubuntu is more nimble than a low-end Chromebook, less irritating to use, and installation bears no comparison to Google's Chrome OS brain whacking.
Finally, a kind word about what Lubuntu 22.10 looks like and its default desktop wallpaper. I don't usually care about that stuff; if something annoys me, I just change it. Dark mode and all of that doesn't do me much good working in a room with the Texas sun coming in through two sides. So blue wall paper and blue icons. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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Hardware used for this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an Asus UX31A laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel Core i5-3317U, 1.7GHz
- Storage: 128 GB SSD
- Memory: 4GB of RAM
- Networking: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless
- Display: Integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000
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Visitor supplied rating
Lubuntu has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.8/10 from 40 review(s).
Have you used Lubuntu? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Linux may drop i486 support, Fedora pushes back release date
A discussion on legacy CPU support is taking place on the Linux kernel mailing list. The discussion primarily focuses on the i486 CPU architecture which is a 32-bit flavour of the x86 family. As i486 is over 30 years old at this point, and has since been replaced in almost all environments by Pentium and then 64-bit processors, maintaining the old i486 support has largely ceased. Linus Torvalds has suggested i486 support could be dropped from new versions of the Linux kernel and people actually using i486 CPUs could probably get by using older versions of Linux.
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The Fedora distribution is infamous for delaying new releases, often by two or three weeks. The latest version, Fedora 37, has been pushed back repeatedly and Ben Cotton explains why the latest delay was an additional two weeks: "Fedora Linux 37 is going to be late; very late. Here's why. As you may have heard, the OpenSSL project announced a version due to be released on Tuesday. It will include a fix for a critical-severity bug. We won't know the specifics of the issue until Tuesday's release, but it could be significant. As a result, we decided to delay the release of Fedora Linux 37. We are now targeting a release day of 15 November.
Most decisions happen with imperfect information. This one is particularly imperfect. If you're not familiar with the embargo process, you might not understand why. When a security issue is discovered, this information is often shared with the project confidentially. This allows the developers to fix the issue before more people know about it and can exploit it. Projects then share information with downstreams so they can be ready.
Ironically, Fedora's openness means we can't start preparing ahead of time. All of our build pipelines and artifacts are open. If we were to start building updates, this would disclose the vulnerability before the embargo lifts. As a result, we only know that OpenSSL considers this the highest level of severity and Red Hat's Product Security team strongly recommended we wait for a fix before releasing Fedora Linux 37." Further details can be found in the Fedora Magazine 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) |
Setting permissions on home directory
Shutting-the-door asks: I've been reading up on file permissions. This got me wondering what the best permissions for the home folder are. A lot of distros have a default where you can see inside other users' homes, but that seems insecure?
DistroWatch answers: File and directory permissions on Linux determine what users can do with files and directories. These permissions are typically referred to as read, write, and execute/access. The shorthand we typically see on the command line is rwx (x standing for execute, in this case).
On Linux, permissions for each file and directory are configured with respect to three user categories. These are for the user who is the owner of the file, a group associated with the file, and everyone else. These are sometimes referred to as owner/user, group, and other.
We can see the three sets of permissions if we check the properties of a file or directory in a file manager or if we run the ls command from a terminal. In the following example we see two directories:
jesse@stacey /home $ ls -l
total 24
drwx------ 53 jesse jesse 4096 Sep 24 11:38 jesse
drwxr-xr-x 4 jesse root 4096 Dec 12 2021 shared
In the above listing we see two directories, my home directory (jesse) and a second directory called shared. This second directory has been set up for me to store files which might be useful for other people to access.
At the start of both lines of ls output we see a "d" which indicates both entries are directories rather than files. My home directory, jesse, is set up with full permissions (read, write, and access) for its owner, me. However, nobody in my group and no one else on the system are allowed any access at all. This is why there are six dashes after the "drwx" in the listing, the rest of the permissions are empty or locked. My home directory is not accessible or readable to anyone else.
The shared directory is a little more open. The owner, jesse in this case, can read, write, and access this directory. In other words, I can create or delete files in this directory. Everyone else, members of the root group and anyone else on the system, have read and access permission (rx). This means other people can look in the directory and see what is in there, but they cannot create new files in the shared directory. People can look at my shared material, but not erase it, because they lack write (w) permission.
While most Linux distributions make it possible to browse and often read the contents of home directories belonging to other users, taking an open approach, I recommend locking down the permissions. In most situations the only person who needs access to your home directory is yourself (the owner). In other words you should have read, write, and access permissions for your home directory and no one else should. This can be achieved with a single command using the chmod program to change permissions:
chmod u=rwx,g=,o= ~
In the above example, we grant full permissions (rwx) to the user who owns the home directory and strip away all permissions for everyone else.
There are some situations where it can be useful to grant limited access to your home directory. Some network services, for example, and the finger command will want to access key files or directories in your user's home. If you decide to set up these services then you may want to provide a little bit of access to your home directory. Usually, in these circumstances, you want to just allow users the ability to access (but not read or write content in) your home. You can then grant more access to one specific file or directory.
As an example, on one system I have a web service running and it needs permission to access the public_html directory in my user's home. In that instance I grant limited access to my home directory for "other" users followed by opening up my public_html directory for access and reading its contents by running:
chmod o+x ~
chmod u=rwx,g=,o=rx ~/public_html
The first command allows people besides the owner and members of my group (in other words, all "other" users) on the system to pass through my home directory without reading its contents. The second command assigns the owner (me) full permissions to the public_html directory. Anyone in my group is assigned no permissions, and everyone else is given read and access permission to the public_html directory. These above two commands prevent users on the system from browsing my home directory while still allowing services, like the web server, to see inside my public web directory.
Getting back to the original question, it is true many distributions leave home directories open, to prevent security measures from getting in the way of some services and sharing files. It is insecure and insecure intentionally. The idea being that users will probably either be working on single-user systems where no one else will have access to the system (as is common with laptops) or they will lock down their home directory to prevent access from other users. I recommend, in almost all cases, making your home directory accessible only to you, its owner, and blocking all other access. You can always open up the permissions a little, as needed, if you want later.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Voyager Live 22.10
Voyager Live is an Ubuntu-based distribution which offers Xfce and GNOME desktop environments. The project's latest version is Voyager Live 22.10 which offers nine months of support. "I introduce you to Voyager 22.10 in its final version. A two in one version with, for the first time, the GNOME and Xfce desktops unified in a single distribution. Voyager, Everything has been redesigned for this new duo edition. The GNOME 43 desktop coupled with the Xfce 4.16 desktop and a part of version Xfce 4.17, still in development. With the promise finally realized, to have two unified systems - GNOME and Xfce - light, fast, modern, fluid, secure and efficient in a hybrid environment for PC and Tablet. The two desktops are quite distinct and their respective applications are for the most part seamless, for one or the other environment. This release is based on Linux kernel 5.19 and Ubuntu distribution 'Kinetic Kudu' with its novelties." The release announcement has further details.
Voyager Live 22.10 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 2.0MB, resolution 2560x1600 pixels)
Zorin OS 16.2
The Zorin OS distribution is based on Ubuntu and provides utilities and an environment which is designed to be familiar to people migrating from Windows. The project's latest release is Zorin OS 16.2 which provides nicer fonts in documents, improved document compatibility, and offers the option of more visual effects on the desktop. "When documents are created on other platforms, they often use the default fonts from Microsoft Office/365 or Windows. However, these fonts are under a proprietary license, so they can't be pre-installed in Zorin OS for all users. Because of this, documents may display with incompatible fonts instead. This can cause documents to not only look different than intended but also to shift their layout and corrupt their formatting. Because of how prevalent these proprietary fonts are in documents, this issue became a significant barrier to those hoping to switch to Zorin OS for their work environment. Zorin OS 16.2 comes with an updated font selection to help solve this problem. We've introduced Open Source metric-compatible alternatives to some of the most popular fonts. They appear similar to their proprietary counterparts and have the same character dimensions, so documents display with the correct formatting." More details are available in the project's 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: 2,785
- Total data uploaded: 42.5TB
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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) |
Can other users on your system access your home directory?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about home directory permissions. A lot of distributions leave home directory access open by default to make it easier for services and users to share files. However, this open approach has privacy implications, especially on shared computers. Does your computer leave your home directory open for reading and/or accessing by other users?
You can see the results of our previous poll on firewall tools in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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| Website News |
Donations and Sponsors
Each month we receive support and kindness from our readers in the forms of donations. These donations help us keep the web server running, pay contributors, and keep infrastructure like our torrent seed box running. We'd like to thank our generous readers and acknowledge how much their contributions mean to us.
This month we're grateful for the $54 in contributions from the following kind souls:
| Donor |
Amount |
|---|
| Sam C | $10 |
| Michael A | $10 |
| Brian R | $7 |
| Chung T | $5 |
| DuCakedHare | $5 |
| Matt | $5 |
| Ross M | $3 |
| Vory | $3 |
| J.D. L | $2 |
| PB C | $2 |
| c6WWdo9 | $1 |
| Stephen M | $1 |
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New distributions added to waiting list
- MyBee. MyBee is a FreeBSD-based platform for managing jails and virtual machines.
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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, 7 November 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 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
GNOBSD
GNOBSD was an OpenBSD-based live DVD which boots into a GNOME desktop and which includes a graphical system installer (written in Ruby) for transferring the system to a hard disk or a USB storage device. The system includes some popular desktop applications, such as Mozilla Firefox and MPlayer.
Status: Discontinued
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| 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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