 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1003, 23 January 2023 |
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Welcome to this year's 4th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
In recent months there have been a few new projects entered into the DistroWatch database which attempt to take the Fedora Workstation distribution and make it more convenient to set up and use right away. One of these projects is risiOS, a Fedora-based Linux distribution which runs the GNOME desktop environment and includes a number of graphical setup and tweak tools to help initialize and customize the desktop experience. This week we begin with a look at risiOS and report on how this young project performs. Then, in our News section, we continue talking about Fedora-related efforts. The Fedora team is working on their new, web-based system installer and the developers are seeking advice from the community about how to best handle disk partitioning. Plus we share news that Debian has entered the long process of releasing a new stable version while Ubuntu 18.04 nears the end of its supported life. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about different types of packages and whether it is safe to mix software from different sources or with different package formats. Do you make use of different types of packages, such as Flatpak and Snap? Let us know in this issue's Opinion Poll. This week we are pleased to add the DynFi Firewall project to our database. DynFi is a FreeBSD-based firewall solution and we share more information on this operating system below. Plus we share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
risiOS 37
risiOS is a young distribution which is based on Fedora. As with its parent, risiOS uses the GNOME desktop by default. Unlike its parent, risiOS uses the zsh command line shell instead of bash. The project also introduces a few key features which set it apart from Fedora in an attempt to make it easier to set up.
One of the main features of risiOS is a graphical utility which helps users set up third-party repositories and add codecs Fedora does not provide:
"risiWelcome helps first time users install drivers and codecs, setup FlatHub and RPMFusion, and find resources related to risiOS. We also have "quick setup" scripts that help you quickly install certain applications you may need for certain tasks.
The distribution also with a tool to tweak the desktop appearance, manage extensions, and adjust interface features like the touchpad's behaviour:
Use risiTweaks to change themes and layout settings, manage GNOME Extensions to make risiOS yours, manage risiScript installers, and enable experimental features from within risiOS.
The risiOS website briefly mentions a tool called risiScript:
risiScript allows us to generate a GUI wizard for bash/shell scripts and make things like installing third-party apps and system configuration easy.
We are also told about a utility to help us set up access to websites and web apps:
Make your favorite web apps feel native using our fork of Linux Mint's web app manager. This fork contains a store with loads of preset web apps to choose from in order to let you discover new web apps and conveniently add them.
risiOS 37 -- Running the GNOME desktop
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In short, risiOS is a Fedora spin with easy to use tools to help the user get started with more software, codecs, and tools to tweak the desktop environment.
In the following overview of risiOS's capabilities, I'm going to focus on the aforementioned features rather than a complete review of the distribution. risiOS, apart from the tools listed above, is basically Fedora. It uses the same core repositories, the same system installer, the same default desktop, and kernel. For an overview of
the parent distribution, I recommend reading Joshua Allen Holm's Fedora 37 review.
First impressions
At first, risiOS looks and acts very much like its parent. risiOS offers to perform a self-check of the install media, boots the GNOME desktop, and pops up a window asking if we want to try or install the distribution. Apart from the custom wallpaper, the experience feels exactly like Fedora at this point.
Likewise, the Anaconda installer offers the same experience on risiOS as it does on Fedora. We're asked to pick our language, then shown a hub screen where we can access modules to set our time zone and keyboard layout, and partition the disk. This stage is quite straight forward and, when taking automated partitioning, we can get through the installer's steps in under a minute.
The one odd aspect of installing the distribution came at the end when Anaconda finished and a notification popped up to tell me the desktop's theme had been changed, though no visual change occurred.
When a newly installed copy of risiOS first boots it starts up a graphical wizard which walks us through enabling location services, optionally enabling problem reporting, asks us if we want to set up third-party software repositories, and offers to connect us with on-line cloud accounts. The ultimate step asks us to make up a username and password for ourselves. So far, risiOS was acting just like Fedora.
The welcome window
The main differences between risiOS and its parent show up after the first-run wizard disappears and the GNOME desktop appears. Once in the GNOME session the risiOS welcome screen launches. Apart from a brief welcome message, the welcome window is divided into four tabs: First Steps, Quick Setup, Join The Community, and Contribute to risiOS.
The Contribute tab offers us links to where we can submit artwork and code to the distribution. We're also provided with a button to access the project's store where we can trade money for merchandise. Clicking any of the buttons in the Contribute tab launch the Chromium web browser to connect us with the on-line resources requested.
The Join The Community tab works the same way. It lists social media accounts and support forums, such as risiOS's Reddit page and user forum. Clicking a button next to each entry opens Chromium to connect us with the requested page. I did run into a problem where clicking the button to view risiOS's Twitter account failed, saying the account doesn't exist. The risiOS project does have a Twitter account so I think the link from the welcome window is simply broken.
First Steps
The First Steps tab of the welcome window includes a lot of options and I feel it deserves its own section. The First Steps page lists a number of options for setting up software repositories and acquiring new software packages. These options include enabling the RPMFusion repository and installing media codecs at the same time; enabling the Flathub repository; launching GNOME Software; creating shortcuts to web apps; and running risiTweaks.
The button to set up RPMFusion does enable the third-party repositories as requested, though reports failure when grabbing codecs. Upon further inspection, the repositories and the codecs had been installed. I believe the error occurs because I requested all codecs, except the "ugly" ones, while the script ultimately reports failure if the "ugly" codecs are not on the system. This seems to happen even if all requested codecs installed successfully. The error is cryptic and this behaviour may confuse users, but it seems the install function is working properly.
The tool to enable the Flathub repository worked without any issues. I find it interesting both this button and the RPMFusion button disappear after they have been used to avoid duplicating their efforts, even if the scripts setting up the repositories return an error.
The button to open GNOME Software works, though the software centre immediately reports a problem with a broken digest on a package. I also had GNOME Software crash a few times while it was working, though I suspect this was due to another issue I'll discuss later. Installing updates through GNOME Software also results in the system insisting on restarting the computer and performing a long upgrade process during the next start-up sequence. This feels like a step backwards from the way virtually all other Linux distributions handle upgrades.
risiOS 37 -- Browsing Flatpaks with GNOME Software
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The button to add web apps opens a tool which walks us through creating a launcher for websites. Basically we make up a name and provide a URL for a website, optionally set an icon for it, and we've created a launcher. It's like making a web browser bookmark for your desktop. The tool included in risiOS works almost exactly like ICE does in distributions like Peppermint OS.
risiOS 37 -- Creating shortcuts to websites
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Last, but not least, there is a tool which can be launched from the First Steps page called risiTweaks. This tool offers customizations for the appearance of the desktop, customizations to GNOME extensions, and the option to add more web browsers. I'm not sure why installing more browsers is a function of risiTweaks instead of the Quick Setup section of the welcome window where we fetch other types of software, but the option is there to fetch the Brave, Vivaldi, Edge, Opera, and Chrome browsers. These fetch functions worked for me without any issues.
risiOS 37 -- Adjusting the interface with risiTweaks
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The risiTweaks took works, but its interface is crowded. There are four tabs across the top of the window listing types of adjustments we can make. There are then sometimes four or five tabs down the left side of the window inside these top tabs for more fine-tuned access to settings. It's a bit overwhelming visually and I think it's going to be hard for newcomers to navigate.
This cluttered appearance aside, I did like the customizations the risiTweaks tool offered. Being able to adjust the clock, hot corners, touchpad settings, and desktop theme from one location was convenient. Some of these options can also be adjusted through the GNOME settings panel, but there isn't a lot of overlap between the two utilities.
Quick Setup
Earlier I mentioned a tab in the welcome window called Quick Setup. This tab lists categories of software we might want to install. These categories include gaming, office productivity, video production, audio consumption, and audio production. (As I mentioned earlier, web browsers are not a listed option. Browsers are handled separately in the risiTweaks tool.) Clicking a button next to these categories opens a window which offers to fetch specific applications. For example, the Gaming category offers to fetch the Steam client, a GOG launcher, Lutris, RetroArch, and DOSbox, along with a few other packages.
risiOS 37 -- Installing productivity software
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Selecting the other categories offer related choices too. The Office category will fetch LibreOffice or OnlyOffice. We also have the option of installing Zoom, Teams, Geary, Evolution, and Thunderbird. The first time I tried to grab office software (LibreOffice and Thunderbird) the system reported it had run a bash script, but not successfully. I went back and tried to install just LibreOffice, but it was already installed so the script reported success. I then tried to install just Thunderbird and it was also already installed and the script concluded with a successful message. I later confirmed the requested applications had been installed so the initial error appears to have been incorrect.
The scripts for fetching other collections of software worked for me without further issues.
Other observations
On the risiOS website one of the key features mentioned is a technology called risiScript which is intended to make it easier to add graphical elements to scripts. I couldn't find much information about this, but it looks like this is the technology which provides us with prompts and options when we install new software through the risiOS tools. For example, when we install a web browser or office suite, it seems the action is handled by risiScript.
While this is not specific to risiOS necessarily, I noticed after installing the first wave of package updates through GNOME Software that the distribution was slow to shutdown. Any time I brought down the system after performing this initial batch of updates, I'd run into the notorious issue of systemd waiting for a job to stop. When I first installed risiOS, the distribution would shutdown in two or three seconds, after the upgrades shutdown times increased to about a minute and forty seconds. When new system updates were being installed, start-up times would increase too.
Earlier I mentioned I ran into a number of session crashes. These mostly happened when I was using GNOME Software and, at first, I thought the underlying package manager was causing my GNOME session to crash. The crashes would usually close my applications and session, returning me to the login page. A few times the system simply showed me a blank screen and refused to respond to input. In both scenarios my work was lost.
This issue continued, showing up when I wasn't engaged in package management. Sometimes it happened when launching programs, other times it happened when browsing the GNOME settings panel and I began to suspect the crashes were random. At any rate, it was rare for me to be able to stay logged in more than 15 minutes and sometimes my GNOME session would bail out and return me to the login screen within 5 minutes. I tried switching from the default Wayland session to GNOME's X11 session. After this, the crashes stopped entirely.
Conclusions
There have been many Linux distributions over the years which have been based on Fedora. Several of these have tried to tackle common complaints with their parent distribution, particularly the lack of media codecs and certain desktop programs in the official Fedora repositories. Atomix, BLAG, FoX Desktop, Fuduntu, Fusion, and Korora being some of the prime examples.
Fedora, for all its cutting edge options and interesting technologies has tended to be a hassle to set up and turn into a full featured desktop operating system, at least when compared to other mainstream Linux distributions, and its derivatives reflect that. risiOS appears to be the latest project to try to take Fedora and make it easier to get up and running with popular repositories, media codecs, and desktop software. It's a popular concept and one which always seems to be in demand.
The implementation of this idea mostly works well. risiOS manages to provide a number of simple point-n-click solutions for accessing RPMFusion repositories, Flathub, fetching codecs, and tweaking elements of the GNOME desktop. These tools, mostly accessed through the welcome window, tend to work and make it quick and easy to fetch popular software packages.
In my mind, while risiOS mostly works well, there are two problems the distribution currently faces with its initial release. The first is some of the scripts could be polished. They sometimes report errors after succeeding. It seems the scripts expect a certain set of options to be selected or to be skipped and, if the user's choices do not match these expectations, the script will throw errors or bail out. This leads to some confusing messages that I think will throw off new users.
The second concern I have is that the tools risiOS provides are, well, full. The welcome window and risiTweaks have four or five tabs each, those tabs sometimes have four or five tabs. Some of those tabs have multiple sections for different options. It's as though the developers were so intent on making as many options available as possible they ended up with a giant collection that then got buried in the clutter.
To be fair, the clutter is usually organized, at least once the user gets to explore a little. But there are times when it feels inconsistent. For example, installing almost every form of software (gaming, office, and audio consumption) happens in the Quick Setup section of the welcome window. However, web browsers are installed from the risiScript section of the risiTweaks tool. I'm unaware of any logical reason for the exception.
These little issues can probably be attributed to risiOS being young and the developers trying to get it launched to test the waters. I think the distribution is young enough that users should expect a few rough edges and for things to shift and settle into a more polished product over the next release or two.
I suppose the important question here is whether the changes risiOS introduces improve upon its parent distribution. To that, my answer is: yes, a little. It's not a big shift, but risiOS makes the distribution a little easier to set up and makes GNOME a little more customizable. This is an improvement. Unfortunately most of Fedora's underlying issues (such as slow package manager, awkward updates, and problematic systemd shutdown delays) still shine through the patches offered by risiOS. I'm hoping risiOS will attempt to further improve upon its existing work in step with new Fedora releases.
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Visitor supplied rating
risiOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.8/10 from 8 review(s).
Have you used risiOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Fedora seeks feedback on web-based installer, Debian 12 enters development freeze, Ubuntu 18.04 nears end of life, SparkyLinux image writing tool offers persistence
As work continues on the new Fedora system installer, the team is hoping to gather feedback on how the new web-based installer should handle disk partitioning. "In general, partitioning is one of the most complex, problematic, and controversial parts of what Anaconda is doing. Because of that and the great feedback from the last blog, we decided to ask you for feedback again to know where we should focus." More information on the new installer and a link to the feedback form can be found in the Fedora Magazine blog post.
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The Debian project has a policy of waiting to publish new stable releases until they are ready and for taking a relatively long time between releases. Debian 12 "Bookworm" will likely be released around the middle of 2023 as the project has just entered its first stage of development freeze. Paul Gevers wrote to the Debian development mailing list: "We're pleased to announce that the freeze for Debian 12 'Bookworm' has begun. On January 12th we stopped accepting transition requests and we are working to complete the transitions in progress. We ask the maintainers of packages that are part of the toolchain to stop uploading those packages without prior approval from us. We remind everybody to stop uploading large or disruptive changes to Unstable, from here on Experimental is the place to do that." Further information on preparation for Debian 12 can be found in the mailing list post.
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Version 18.04 of Ubuntu is nearing the end of its supported life. After April this version of the distribution will no longer receive fixes and security updates. "Ubuntu 18.04 'Bionic Beaver' is reaching End of Standard Support this April, also known sometimes as End Of Life (EOL). This distribution of Ubuntu was installed by millions of users and powers up thousands of devices. From kiosks and appliances to IoT devices and robots, 18.04 helped many companies deploy innovations to the world. As with all other Ubuntu LTS releases that reach their end of standard support, Bionic Beaver will transition to Extended Security Maintenance (ESM). This blog post will help developers and companies evaluate their options for devices currently running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. It will also cover how you can enable ESM in case you choose to extend the support window with this service." The announcement provides further information.
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The SparkyLinux project is offering a new feature which will make portable computing easier for its users. The Sparky utility which writes USB disk images now includes the ability to offer persistent storage on the USB thumb drive: "The Sparky tool that creates Live USB disk (sparky-live-usb-creator) has gotten a new feature which lets you make a live USB disk with persistence. It means, you can boot Sparky Live system from a USB disk and save your work, new installed applications, etc. to the same USB disk. The sparky-live-usb-creator 0.2.1 is available to Sparky rolling users so far, and it works with Sparky 2023.01 MinimalGUI ISO image only so far." Details are offered through the project's blog post.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Mixing package management methods
Mixing-and-matching asks: Can I install multiple software package utilities such as: GNOME Software Centre, snapd, and Flatpak? I want to be able to draw in apps from each, but don't want to break my system.
DistroWatch answers: In this specific example, using GNOME Software, snapd, and Flatpak together will not cause conflicts or break your system.
Stepping back from this specific example, this seems like a good opportunity to talk about the various elements of package management and why some combinations can cause conflicts which will break an operating system and some will not.
When it comes to managing software there are, generally speaking, two types of packages: traditional packages, such as Deb and RPM files; and portable packages, such as Flatpak, AppImage, and Snap bundles.
Traditional packages are typically pulled from a distribution's official repositories. These packages are the foundation of most Linux distributions and are usually tested to work well together. However, if you introduce another source of traditional packages or introduce another type of traditional packages, then your system is at high risk of being damaged.
For example, if you are running Debian, you'll find your system uses Deb packages, pulled from Debian's repositories. Any packages in Debian's repositories should work on the system. However, if you introduce packages from another Deb repository, such as from Ubuntu, then it may introduce a conflict and break things.
Also, if you are running Debian, which uses Deb packages, and you try to install an RPM package from Fedora or a package archive from Arch Linux then it's also likely to cause conflicts. Different types of packages will have different ways of declaring dependencies and may overwrite existing files on your operating system.
In short: avoid mixing different types of traditional packages (such as RPM and Deb) and avoid mixing sources of these packages.
Moving on to portable package formats. These include Flatpak, Snap, and AppImage bundles. Portable packages are designed to sit atop the operating system - they are additional pieces on top of the distribution rather than the foundation supplied by traditional packages. Portable packages are also intended to be somewhat self-isolating, meaning they should not conflict with each other or any traditional packages.
Put another way, while it's often dangerous to mix together traditional packages of different types and sources, it's almost always safe to add portable packages (of different types and sources) to your distribution. You can safely use both Flatpak and Snap on the same distribution and they won't conflict with the underlying traditional packages.
The question brought up the idea of using GNOME Software and I'd like to address that too. GNOME Software doesn't provide a specific type of software (RPM, Deb, or Flatpak) and it doesn't access a specific source of software, such as Flathub, Debian's repositories, or Fedora's repositories. GNOME Software is a graphical front-end package manager and it, like many package managers, are neutral when it comes to the source and type of software they handle.
Basically, package managers like GNOME Software and Discover are designed to provide a friendly way to manage software on your distribution. They are not tied to a specific type of package or source, but will manage any source or types of packages your system knows about.
Since these graphical utilities only put a user friendly face on top of the lower level software management tools, you can use multiple software centres on the same system. You can run GNOME Software, Discover, and other graphical front-ends on the same system without causing a conflict.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Plop Linux 23.1
Elmar Hanlhofer has announced the availability of version 23.1 of Plop Linux, an independently-developed distribution for desktops, servers and Raspberry Pi computers, designed primarily for advanced Linux users: "Version 23.1, release date 2023-01-16. Changelog: Linux kernel not updated because of hang problems with NVIDIA graphic cards; fixed 32-bit size of time on 32-bit systems - problems with GnuTLS causing 'The certificate has not yet been activated' on wget; build tools / update-os.tar.gz - to update glibc, also a static build for ARM added; Filezilla removed from 32-bit builds because of compile problem with the current GCC - float16 is not supported on this target; EFI directory to upper case; added EFI image to the ISO image - EFI/efiboot.img; build scripts updated; 183 packages updated." Here is the complete changelog. Plop Linux 23.1 is available for i486, x86_64 and armv6l architectures in "Standard" (live, with Xfce 4.18 as the default desktop), "Small" (without X.Org, GCC and Pythong) and "BRL" (for blind and visually impaired users) variants.
Lakka 4.3
Lakka is a lightweight Linux distribution that transforms a small computer into a full blown game console. The distribution is based on LibreELEC and runs the RetroArch console emulator. The project's latest release is Lakka 4.3 which updates RetroArch to 1.14.0 and adds support for the Orange Pi 4 platform. "New version of Lakka has been released! We are happy to announce the new and updated version of Lakka. Release summary - changes since version 4.2: RetroArch updated to 1.14.0. Cores updated to their most recent versions: fake-08 added new libretro core (Pico-8); mojozork: added new libretro core (Z-Machine); puae2021 added new libretro core (Amiga, less demanding version of the core). Mesa updated to 22.1.7. Added image for Orange Pi 4 LTS (Rockchip RK3399). Added support for more Nintendo Switch variants (Hekate 6.0.1+ is required, on Nintento Switch Lite use touchscreen to change the default input device: Settings - Input - Port 1 Controls - Device Index - top most item)." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
Legacy OS 2023
Legacy OS, a distribution targeting older hardware, has returned after several dormant years. The distribution was once a member of the Puppy Linux family, but has shifted its base to antiX while maintaining the same IceWM user interface. A release announcement on the project's home page reads: "After a six year hiatus Legacy OS is back! Now based on antiX/Debian Bullseye 64-bit. After a long development period LegacyOS 2023 is now available for download. As with previous releases Legacy OS uses the Ice Window Manager (IceWM) and ROX/PCmanFM File Managers. All included Ice Window Manager themes have been created for this release. A useful selection of applications are included by default. VLC, MPV, Strawberry, Peek, FreetuxTV, OnlyOffice, Scribus, GIMP, Inkscape, Firefox-ESR, Thunderbird, and Transmission just to name a few. Also available for download through the Synaptic package manager are the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge web browsers. Unlike previous releases Legacy OS 2023 will receive regular updates."
Legacy OS 2023 -- Running IceWM
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ArchLabs Linux 2023.01.20
Matt Dobson has announced the release of ArchLabs Linux 2023.01.20, an updated build of the project's minimalist, Arch-based distribution featuring the dk window manager (a tiling window manager similar to bspwm): "ArchLabs Release 2023.01.20 is now available. This is our first release of 2023 and it comes a couple of weeks after our 6th birthday. There isn't a lot new with this release; we have added dwm back to the installer and you will see that booting the ISO image no longer will take you to a live session. The live session was always just an experiment and to try something new, really. Our live session still exists, so for those of you who want to check out dk in all its glory, just type startx and hit enter. We have given the live session a nice tweak and some improvements. Also, an epic new default wallpaper from our own Will. We have tweaked the themes, updated the ArchLabs iconset, Tint2 has had some tweaks. Nate has been chipping away at dk making it better and better with each update. We now offer downloads from Cloudflare R2, please be aware that the download will start instantly. As usual, if you encounter any bugs or issues, please seek help at ArchLabs Forum." Visit the distribution's home page to read the complete 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: 2,819
- Total data uploaded: 42.8TB
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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) |
Mixing portable package types
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about mixing different types and sources of packages. Portable package formats, such as Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage, make it safer to mix different software sources. The self-isolating mature of these packages means we can mix them together without endangering the underlying operating system.
We would like to hear if you use portable packages and, if so, do you mix multiple types to gain the functionality you want?
You can see the results of our previous poll on methods used to copy files between computers in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you use portable package formats?
| No: | 718 (49%) |
| Yes - one type: | 412 (28%) |
| Yes - two types: | 243 (16%) |
| Yes - three types: | 69 (5%) |
| Yes - more than three types: | 31 (2%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to database
DynFi Firewall
DynFi is a firewall platform based on FreeBSD. The project provides utilities for VPN, IDS, proxy, anti-virus, and packet filtering. Support is provided in several languages, including French, English, and German. DynFi is designed to be deployed on both physical hardware and in virtual environments.
DynFi 2.00.000 -- A sample of the web portal
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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, 30 January 2023. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. 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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| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Debian freeze (by Pumpino on 2023-01-23 02:55:10 GMT from Australia)
It looks like the majority of Debian packages are current now that the freeze has started. It's a shame that today's point release of XFCE (4.18.1) won't make it in though.
2 • risiOS & portable package (by fenglengshun on 2023-01-23 03:29:42 GMT from Indonesia)
It's interesting that risiOS' gaming tweaks includes some of the Nobara things like IIRC the modified kernel. If anyone is not familiar with Fedora, I'd definitely want to recommend them to try risiOS first, to get their feet wet first without going full vanilla Fedora and the hassle that can come with that.
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For portable package, my hierarchy goes Flatpak > AppImage > Snap (bauh is pretty convenient for that). Not sure if Conty counts as "portable package" but I like the concept so I'm looking into it, and I wonder if "install AUR via distrobox/Junest" I'm doing, to move away from AppImage and Snap, counts as a "portable package".
3 • Portable packages and risiOS (by Josh Smith on 2023-01-23 03:44:57 GMT from Australia)
I don't use portable packages anymore, because I don't need to as I use Arch and its vast repositories (including the AUR), combined with ease of building your own packages, makes it so that using portable packages is simply not necessary even when you have very niche software needs like I do. I used them back when I used NixOS to play OpenRA, but that's just because packaging for NixOS is more challenging (at least for me) than Arch so I couldn't get the OpenRA packages I wanted on NixOS (they have some OpenRA packages, but they are woefully outdated and it's unclear to me how to update them myself).
Pity the Korora project died, I liked their attempts to make Fedora more accessible. I suppose risiOS seems like a reasonable successor.
4 • portable packages (by Chris on 2023-01-23 05:33:35 GMT from South Africa)
I use Kubuntu 22.04 and its (default) snaps. I also use Balena Etcher appimage. Is that considered as a second portable package type?
5 • portable package formats (by msp0323 on 2023-01-23 05:33:48 GMT from Sweden)
Will never use any of these.
6 • System Restarts (by M.Z. on 2023-01-23 05:51:44 GMT from United States)
"Installing updates through GNOME Software also results in the system insisting on restarting the computer and performing a long upgrade process during the next start-up sequence. This feels like a step backwards from the way virtually all other Linux distributions handle upgrades. "
This also seems to be the way KDE Neon handles many larger upgrades in Discover. It isn't too insistent on when it is done, but it wants to do 'offline updates' or some such thing during a reboot. I think I found some info about this being a bit safer, hypothetically at least. I't one of the ony defaults in Neon that I don't particularly like, though it may be avoidable using pkcon refresh && pkcon update from a terminal.
7 • Debian Freeze (by Bin on 2023-01-23 07:04:10 GMT from United Kingdom)
@1....unless of course you use MX Linux which is now on 4.18 :)
8 • RE: System Restarts (by Operius on 2023-01-23 08:36:56 GMT from Netherlands)
@6 "I't one of the ony defaults in Neon that I don't particularly like"
I believe there is a setting in discover to enable or disable offline updates.
It is a foolprove way to update the system, and one that I like actually. Because 99% of the time updates requires me to restart a program, a service or the system anyway. Zypper on OpenSUSE is the only packagemanager that I know of that warns you after an update that you still using out of date software.
On other systems there are ways to figure this out too, but why bother? A reboot takes just a minute.
9 • portable packages, mixing types of packages (by Dr.J on 2023-01-23 08:47:36 GMT from Germany)
there was no use of portable packages for me until today, so I never bothered with them.
As for the mix: It is very rare that something is neither in the official Arch repos nor in the AUR. But in this case it mostly can be done manually or there are tools in the AUR, like "debtap" for installing Debian packages.
10 • Debian freeze (by Pumpino on 2023-01-23 09:08:57 GMT from Australia)
@7 Yes, it's great that MX includes the latest XFCE. Pity about every other package though. ;)
11 • @4 & @5 (by kc1di on 2023-01-23 11:34:37 GMT from United States)
@4 yest appimage is a portable image. and one I often prefer over snap or flatpack.
@5 You may not have a choice in the future with some packages as to the devs this make a lot of sense you create one package system that works across multiple Distros and your done.
I find I use a few portable packages here. As I still do a far amount of distro hopping. And they are easy to setup. Works for me.
12 • debian freeze (by rc on 2023-01-23 12:03:41 GMT from United States)
I'm running Debian testing and I've been on XFCE 4.18 since 1/11/23.
13 • Do you use portable package formats? (by James on 2023-01-23 12:20:13 GMT from United States)
No, with one exception, Etcher, which I like but can no longer find in .deb.
14 • Portable package formats (by Hank on 2023-01-23 12:52:23 GMT from Poland)
Portable packages do depend on appropriate system library's so not truly portable in many cases.
i use only appimage as in most cases reasonably easy to open and inspect, just rename with .zip and unpack.
Some packs like LibreWolf can be unpacked and used that way for faster start.
Regarding shutdowns on systemD, one reason I never want to use any setup with it again, dependency hell was second reason.
15 • portable packages (by crayola eater on 2023-01-23 13:36:27 GMT from United States)
For wgat it is worth ...
I voted no, as I do not use the mentioned portable package formats. I do use a couple of self-built portable packages for programs that are no longer available, but that I prefer to newer alternatives. For 2 I used the (in itself an obsolete tool) CDE portable package creator. The results while a bit large, but since the program is small, are not unsustainalbe. They however are not fully integrated into running system, though you can tweak them. Then I learned about a technique using 'LD_PRELOAD' that allowed me to do approximately the same thing, in a much smaller footprint, having them fully integrated into the running system.
While the CDE packages (actually directory structures) seemed to work without fail on the programs I experimented with (it ran the old xom web browser flawlessly), the 'LD_PRELOAD' sytems have not been as successful.
Of the 2 programs (1 of each type) that I currently use, they have been run on a number of different distro installs, needing if anything, only tweaks to the .desktop files.
I suspect that more might be in my future, as there are a number of packages that I prefer much older versions over the current versions. When I can no longer install and lock an old version in dpkg/synaptic/apptitude, I guess I will attempt to build my own portable packages.
16 • Portability (by Someguy on 2023-01-23 13:43:57 GMT from United Kingdom)
Maybe one? Been using Mint for years, not interested in code details, etc. only that I can get my work done. Then, upgraded to LM21.1. Don't like it one bit, but pressed on regardless. Last week noticed something 'flatpack' floated in during an update. Hoping it won't interfere. If it does, it'll be MX, despite the pain and anguish always encountered when transferring twenty+ years of data...
17 • portable packages (by nsp0323 on 2023-01-23 14:17:50 GMT from Sweden)
@11 writes, "@5 You may not have a choice in the future with some packages as to the devs this make a lot of sense you create one package system that works across multiple Distros and your done."
As long as it's open-source, I don't care, I can package it myself. I'm already maintaining hundreds of packages anyway, one more, one less makes no difference.
If you are talking closed source stuff, that's a different story but, I want to avoid these anyway.
18 • Flatpack once, but by accident (by not an mp, honestly on 2023-01-23 15:04:34 GMT from United Kingdom)
I was searching for tractors online and didn't realise it was a flatpack app
19 • Etcher (by Cheker on 2023-01-23 17:36:33 GMT from Portugal)
To the lads using Balena Etcher, know that it was caught phoning home.
https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/2497
I use USBImager now
20 • Portable packages (by Robert on 2023-01-23 19:29:11 GMT from United States)
I went all-in on flatpak as much as possible. I like the idea of one universal package manager, and Flatpak seems to be the one with traction. There's not much sense installing the runtime and whatever else for only one package, so I tried to switch anything I could. Browser, video player, file manager, whatever I could to get more value out of the huge runtime. I did go back to Arch's Steam package sine the flatpak gave me trouble, but everything else has been good.
Don't see any need to use a secondary portable format. Flatpak covers most of my desktop needs, and Arch handles everything else.
21 • Legacy OS (by JeffC on 2023-01-23 20:10:42 GMT from United States)
A new release this week, the home page says:
Make an old Pentium 3 and 4 PC or laptop useful Again!
but it is only in 64 bit?
They base it on antiX, which is available in 32 bit and can be used on those old computers. So why does it even exist?
22 • Package formats (by Microlinux on 2023-01-23 22:46:30 GMT from France)
All my installations are RHEL clones, so stuff is usually RPM packages managed by DNF or RPM. I'm using Flatpak occasionally for the odd proprietary and/or kitchen sink app like OmegaT, Teams, Skype and Spotify. But most of the time, I prefer building crisp and clean RPM packages myself and putting them in my own repo.
https://www.microlinux.fr/pub/rockylinux/8/x86_64/packages/
For mysterious reasons many distributions go down the all-portable path, so it's a good thing RHEL and Debian keep some sanity.
23 • Portable packages (by Jimbo on 2023-01-23 23:40:16 GMT from New Zealand)
Portable packages have been hit and miss for me - especially with game emulators or server builds (e,g, Nextcloud) - the permissions were too rigid and not modifiable.
I can recommend 'nala' as a good command line front end to apt in Debian and Ubuntu. Its multi-threaded so downloads are faster.
24 • Mixing package management methods (by ANN ONAMOUSE on 2023-01-24 00:03:01 GMT from United States)
AFAIK, (or understand), the BEDROCK Linux Meta Distribution (https://bedrocklinux.org/index.html) can provide a decent solution to using varied package types from multiple distributions, albeit with its own learning curve.
25 • AppImage, Flatpak, and Snap: Linux's universal package managers. (by Greg Zeng on 2023-01-24 00:58:18 GMT from Australia)
Confusing discussion so far this week, on sizes, types, ranges of application packages. Most 3rd party application creators are also very confused. "The Linux Foundation", like most, only releases uncompiled source code.
If 3rd parties dare to compile this, most choose, in order of preference: DEB, RPM, AppImage, flatpak, snap, pup, etc. The RPM followers usually only prepare the official Red hat version of RPM, and not the many incompatible RPM variants.
Some Linux enthusiasts create "compiling scripts" to assist source code tedium and risk. Arch and Debian have their versions of these compiling scripts: AUR, etc.
"Grub Customizer" is sometimes available in some "repositories", including sometimes snap Flatpak repositories. Often, the Ubuntu based systems need to use the Ubuntu PPA system to install this application.
"Free File Sync" and Slimjet web browser are also missing from most "repositories", so either frantic hunting, or searching other sources for the compiled code is needed. Most educational, business and scientific applications are available only for Microsoft Windows. WINE, Crossover and Virtualization are the only way to try to use these applications with Linux.
Computer users devote most of the computer to data, rather than applications and operating system. The hazard of having so many "repositories" of Linux applications are numerous. So much incompatible updating required. So many unavailable "latest" versions of applications are missing. So many applications not being available at all, in any or all repositories.
26 • I like simple statically linked binaries (for mll which is just busybox!) (by Mll lover on 2023-01-24 04:54:22 GMT from United States)
I love playing with MLL (in virtualbox). But I have to hunt for static binaries because I'm not sophisticated enough to build them myself. I found a static bash .deb & even a tcpdump that worked!
I realize something like file(1) needs some extra data files.
And esoteric niche, yes!!!
27 • portable packages (by EireLinux on 2023-01-24 09:23:13 GMT from Ireland)
KDE Neon here.
All uportable packages -- flatpaks and appimages.
Snaps are abominations are should be illegal
Even removed VLC and Firefox from repos and put flatpak versions.
For Etcher and Linux Air combat appimage.
28 • old computers (by eee shepherd on 2023-01-24 09:38:04 GMT from United Kingdom)
more than half the world needs up to date free 32 bit software
empower and educate, don't 64-bit bait. Don't 32-bit hate. Compile that distro for 32-bit now, m8.
29 • Legacy OS (by Shakey on 2023-01-24 10:50:16 GMT from United States)
@21 -- I have an old laptop that uses a Celeron M and I wanted to try Legacy OS, but to my surprise they only produced a 64 bit image. How disappointing!
Is this a mistake or intentional?
I would like to hear from the Legacy OS folks for an explanation.
30 • package mixing & alien (by ET on 2023-01-24 13:49:36 GMT from United Kingdom)
I used alien to convert rpm to deb before.
Seemed to work OK, whether it was lucky or is alien clever to manage dependencies?
31 • How to exclude Firefox frrom MX auto-update list (by MXgogo on 2023-01-24 17:52:50 GMT from South Africa)
Saw a couple of compliments for MX and keeping up to date. I have the reverse problem..:
I don't want Firefox to be updated automatically (I use Brave) and so don't want it holding up the automatic update process every week or two. It seems that their new updates often aren't supplied to to our main saix server for a couple of weeks after everything else is - all the other packages get downloaded fine, but the installation process gets stalled until Firefox eventually puffs up to the starting line. Which means I may be missing out on using some other update that I do need urgently.
Fear not, I'm quite happy to download and install the latest Firefox manually every 2 or 3 months, but in the meantime I would like to know where to find the dynamically refreshed list of files waiting to be updated, and if possible how to blacklist Firefox from it. Any offers?
32 • Bedrock Linux (by Otis on 2023-01-24 18:00:59 GMT from United States)
@24 That's the way it should be with open source! IMO.
From the site:
Debian's stable coreutils
Arch's cutting edge kernel
Void's runit init system
A pdf reader with custom patches maintained by Gentoo's portage
A font from Arch's AUR
Games running against Ubuntu's libraries
Business software running against CentOS's libraries
All at the same time and working together mostly as though they were packaged for the same distribution.
33 • more than three types. (by borna on 2023-01-24 19:52:10 GMT from Moldova)
To clarify there are a lot of options to use updated versions of some software on linux, which are not present in the repos or outdated(even on arch):
1) snap
2) flatpak
---------------
3) skdman -> best option for java and tools based on java, but not only
4) homebrew -> yes it works on linux too
-------------------------------------
tools to use with specific programming language:
5) npm -> obviously, this is the way for Javascript libs
6) rustup -> this is the way for rust
p.s:
AppImage is very convenient if you wanna set up an up in 5 minutes, BUT IT SUCKS cause nobody did a decent package manager and updater for it.
34 • sofware hopping (by Trihexagonal on 2023-01-24 20:19:49 GMT from United States)
I only use what apt gives me with Linux, never getting a program somewhere else.
On FreeBSD i only use software that comes from the ports tree of pkg built from ports, mixing ports and pkg as I see fit to conserve time and energy.
35 • portable package && (@24, @32, BEDROCK) (by lincoln on 2023-01-24 20:31:31 GMT from Brazil)
My preferred order of software sources is:
- .deb packages provided by Debian;
- web versions;
- AppImage;
- Flatpak and Snap.
--------------
@24, @32 excuse the naivety, but if Debian's stable coreutils are preferable, why does Business software prefer CentOS's libraries over Debian's libraries? I wonder because to me coreutils is part of both systems' libraries and Debian applies the same quality control to its critical packages. Furthermore, the amount of packages in Debian's repositories is greater than in CentOS.
36 • @31: (by dragonmouth on 2023-01-24 20:35:49 GMT from United States)
You can LOCK the FireFox version you want in place, if you are using Synaptic. Then update it manually on your schedule rather than MX's.
37 • %31 (by Basil Fernie on 2023-01-25 01:29:56 GMT from South Africa)
Sounds plausible, it could become quite a useful technique.
Thanks!
38 • NOT more mainstream desktops! (by steelt03dgal on 2023-01-25 02:25:23 GMT from United States)
Real nice for a few of us that some current distros listed here have lighterweight desktops available by default, even available for the masses. Getting tired of the heavily-promoted big distros invariably foisting upon us primarily 1) GNOME variants such as MATE or Cinnamon, 2) KDE (Plasma), and then 3) XFCE.
39 • Locking Package Versions & Updates (by M.Z. on 2023-01-25 04:03:49 GMT from United States)
@31
Similar to what @36 says, I lock my grub version in LMDE after every install, on my laptop I use the Grub Customizer that KDE Neon points to & don't want Mint Debian Ed. messing around & taking over the boot menu after every possible Grub upgrade. It is super easy in Mint Update to right click the package & tell it to ignore all future updates. Synaptic has a similar hold function if you select up what you want to hold & go to 'Package > Lock Version' in the menu at the top. I think it should work in all Debian related Distros like MX.
@8
I'll have to do some poking around in Discover, thanks for the tip.
40 • portable packages (by hulondalo on 2023-01-25 08:55:27 GMT from Hong Kong)
i use appimage apps because it's a better and easier way to install crypto wallets (imagine having to download tons of deps just to compile them), but i hate snap and flatpak and would never use them :)
41 • ported packages and insane nerdism (by EireLinux on 2023-01-25 09:46:06 GMT from Ireland)
Yet again, fanatical hordes and insane "elitists" are destroying all chances for Linux to become much more popular on the desktop.
Main reason why Linux is not significant on the desktop is fragmentation.
When AppImages and later Flatpaks arrived, there was a hope that this fragmentation will become irrelevant.
And then many commercial software will be ported to linux, facilitating Linux penetration into desktop.
In order for that to happen, Appimages and Flatpaks must be accepted by vast majority of users (like 80%+).
But no.
Just read the comments
"I only use packages from the repos"
"I would never use Flatpaks because I hate them" (seriously, go seek professional help)
So again, self defeating nerdism and fanatism is the main detriment to wider adoption of Linux. You people will never learn
42 • @41: (by dragonmouth on 2023-01-25 14:09:03 GMT from United States)
Why is your nerdism of "AppImages and Flatpaks must be accepted" any better than "I only use packages from the repos"? (BTW - you forgot Snaps) It's just a different kind of opinionated bovine manure.
Everybody should agree on one "universal" format, be it AppImage, Flatpack or Snap.
43 • @41 (by Cheker on 2023-01-25 15:35:27 GMT from Portugal)
Universal packages will solve nothing because every camp will race to have their own universal packages. It defeats itself.
Gnu+Linux will never not be fragmented, its very nature prevents it. I suspect in the coming years you will see a bigger ravine form between the corporate and the community distros, with the community ones possibly struggling a little to keep due to lack of manpower, but it will never fully go away.
44 • Fedora seeks feedback on web-based installer, (by Jeffersonian on 2023-01-25 15:57:01 GMT from Poland)
Could not find the ISO file anywhere as I had to reinstall F37 with MATE-Compiz (new large SSD)
Not in the usual places, the most common being :
https://torrent.fedoraproject.org/
And like many, I don't dig GNOME 3 !
For me, XFCE and MATE offer frugal simplicity where "everything just works".
J-
45 • @31 Exclude Firefox update (by Jeffersonian on 2023-01-25 16:04:43 GMT from Poland)
If you use Fedora, in /etc/dnf/dnf.con you may exclude one or many packages, which is exactly what I do. Once in a while I comment out the line with the usual # to update, etc...
--
Other distros may have similar mechanism, just search for them.
--
At some pint, at least for debian and rpm packages, some commonality would be welcome !
---
46 • @41, 42, 43 Universal packages (by Jeffersonian on 2023-01-25 16:28:42 GMT from Poland)
I understand the frustration.
Still, there is about ONE linux kernel.
What would prevent "us" to have a universal, clean, simple "specification file" for each application?
With LSB and Posix compliance, like makefiles, that could do the job, and even allow an automated process to build several packages like rpm, deb etc...
--
Linus Torvald there has showed, great unifying leadership, keeping the system calls limited, git etc...
--
SuseLinux has done some good work there, but it does not always work: RPM packages for OpenSuse don't always work on Fedora...
If only all the RPM based distros could have a common validation procedure...
--
Ubuntu had a great start, but "windowing" the Linux Desktop was a bad idea: it destroyed the simplicity of Unix, and CDE, and provides an unmanageable mess.
--
With one exception (KDE) simplicity usually wins !
KDE took many years to finally work... it was a vaillant effort.
KDE libraries provides great GUI apps though, like GTK+ by the way.
--
J-
47 • Portable software (by pepa65 on 2023-01-26 11:44:33 GMT from Thailand)
I use the Ubuntu and Mint deb repositories, I do not use snap or flatpak (I don't consider them properly portable, they're just a separate packaging system requiring its own infrastructure). I do use AppImages, they are more-or-less standalone binaries. Other software that I like to run more and more of are Go(lang) packages, all standalone binaries, and Rust packages built with cargo. I also compile C(++) software that doesn't come with loads of libs (usually none) that link into the deb/dpkg installs and -dev packages -- not really stand-alone, but often well-enough that I can use them on other systems as a standalone binary.
48 • Packaging (by AlexGuveenen on 2023-01-26 22:13:49 GMT from Russia)
@33
If I count packages:
Deb - First
HOMEBREW - Second (*)
AppImage - Third (some from bauh, and need to useit more, some desktop fies tweaked with LD_PRELOAD, -style=Fusion and firejail --appimage --protocol=someproto)
Flatpak - 4th (good, but my ElementaryOSHera's AppCenter and I installed app in different ploaces (with or without sudo) and sometimes I lose control and get duplicated frameworks)
Snapd - 5th (good)
If AppImage doesn't work/glitchy I searching tui-replacement in homebrew, or using alternative packaging (by priority Flatpak->Snap->Deb).
If Homebrew doesn't work/glitchy -> PR or use AppImage version.
* I use `brew services re-/start tor/redis/postgres@14` and forgot commands such as `sudo systemctl status nnn`
49 • Packaging (by AlexGuveenen on 2023-01-26 22:13:49 GMT from Russia)
@33
If I count packages:
Deb - First
HOMEBREW - Second (*)
AppImage - Third (some from bauh, and need to useit more, some desktop fies tweaked with LD_PRELOAD, -style=Fusion and firejail --appimage --protocol=someproto)
Flatpak - 4th (good, but my ElementaryOSHera's AppCenter and I installed app in different ploaces (with or without sudo) and sometimes I lose control and get duplicated frameworks)
Snapd - 5th (good)
If AppImage doesn't work/glitchy I searching tui-replacement in homebrew, or using alternative packaging (by priority Flatpak->Snap->Deb).
If Homebrew doesn't work/glitchy -> PR or use AppImage version.
* I use `brew services re-/start tor/redis/postgres@14` and forgot commands such as `sudo systemctl status nnn`
50 • New Debian Sid-based distro I'm working on (by Bear Dogg on 2023-01-27 02:22:29 GMT from United States)
I'm the sole developer of what used to be known as Zoonity Desktop. Well, had to change the name because it was taken by - of all things - a furry fetish social media site. Anyway, I have moved away from basing my work on Ubuntu and now base on Debian Sid. I just released MontaninIX ("Montani" is latin for "mountaineer" as this is developed in WV) on my official Twitter page at @MontaninIX. Check it out.
Number of Comments: 50
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| • Issue 1181 (2026-07-13): Artix 20260419, making migrating to Linux easier, Google locking down Android, TUXEDO switches to Debian base, Mint improves Cinnamon on Wayland, OpenMandriva recovers from repository deletion, OSNews compares Windows and Linux |
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| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
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| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Resulinux
Resulinux was a Brazilian desktop distribution and live CD based on Debian GNU/Linux. Among its unique characteristics are TexasFlood boot system, which dramatically shortens the operating system's boot time, and a software update utility called LiveUpdate.
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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