 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 992, 31 October 2022 |
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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 65 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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Is your home directory open to other users?
| Yes - completely open (even for writing): | 203 (18%) |
| Yes - for reading and access: | 169 (15%) |
| Yes - for just reading: | 84 (7%) |
| Yes - for just accessing: | 33 (3%) |
| No - it is locked down: | 649 (57%) |
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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 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
IndLinux
The goal of the IndLinux project was to create a Linux distribution that supports Indian languages at all levels. This "Indianisation" project will strive to bring the benefits of Information Technology down to the Indian masses. We want to make technology accessible to the majority of India that does not speak English. The task of localisation has several pieces that need domain expertise. Some examples are I/O modules, development of fonts, kernel enhancements, word translation etc. The project was looking for experts and volunteers to champion the cause of Indian language computing. You may volunteer and participate here. The Indian Linux project was open source and completely free. It was licensed under the GNU General Public License.
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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