 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1008, 27 February 2023 |
Welcome to this year's 9th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Technology is constantly changing, evolving, even accelerating as people strive to find new ways to solve problems. Some developers seek to simplify software, removing variables, choices, and complexity while others strive to provide more flexibility, solve more corner cases, and automate features. This week we look at a number of new developments and changes, from all over the spectrum. In our News section we talk about Purism selling a lapdock for their Librem 5 smartphone which strives to make the mobile device look and act more like a laptop. We also discuss Haiku's robust package management system and new beta test releases coming out of the SUSE community. This week we also talk about Canonical directing its community flavours to drop Flatpak support in favour of Snap packages in order to streamline users' options and experiences. Plus Christine Hall takes elementary OS 7.0 for a test run and talks about how this distribution strives for a minimal, simplified interface and package management. Then, in this week's Questions and Answers column, we talk about boot environments, why they are useful, and why so few Linux distributions have adopted this handy feature. Does your operating system supply boot environments out of the box? Let us know in the Opinion Poll below. Plus we're pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. This past month we were thrilled to receive more support and donations than usual and we share the details below - thank you to everyone who helps keep our website running. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: elementary OS 7.0
- News: Purism unveils new lapdock for the Librem 5, an overview of Haiku package manager, openSUSE and SUSE test beta releases, Ubuntu community flavours scrap Flatpak in favour of Snap
- Questions and answers: The benefit of boot environments
- Released last week: Athena OS 2023.02.20, TrueNAS 22.12.1 "SCALE", GParted Live 1.5.0-1, Ubuntu 22.04.2
- Torrent corner: Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Xubuntu
- Upcoming releases: FreeBSD 13.2-RC1
- Opinion poll: Does your main operating system offer boot environments?
- Site news: Donations and sponsors
- New distributions: Luberri Linux
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (by Christine Hall) |
elementary OS 7.0
Although elementary OS was first released a dozen years ago, back in 2011, I've paid it scant attention. Like many other Linux distributions, the project introduced itself as an entry level platform for those making the move to Linux from Windows or macOS. It also planned on being a commercial distribution that would pay its bills, and hopefully turn a profit, by selling downloads and software on a "pay what you want" basis.
Surprisingly, this plan worked, and both of the project's co-founders were eventually able to leave their day jobs to work full time on the distro, until the pandemic came along and the money stream went dry. Last year, that lead to a very public breakup within the organization, with one co-founder, Cassidy James Blaede, walking away from the project, leaving ownership in the hands of the other co-founder, Danielle Foré.
The brouhaha also led to a very late arrival for elementary OS 7.0, the first major release under the new ownership, which was originally scheduled to ship many months ago. It was finally released on January 31st under the codename "Horus."
The 'Pay What You Can' Model
When downloading Horus from elementary's website, it's not readily apparent that "pay what you can" means that the software is available for free for those who don't want to pay anything, and I've seen confusion over this on Twitter and Mastodon.
The download section on elementary's homepage says, "Pay what you can," and offers buttons for $10, $20, and $30, and "Custom" as choices, with $20 selected by default, and the button that leads to the download page is labeled, "Purchase elementary OS." Clicking that button opens a payment page for entering payment information. Payment can be made by credit card or using Alipay, a China-based payment system associated with Alibaba.
To download the software for free requires selecting "Custom" and entering "0" into the field that opens. This causes the download link button to relabel as "Download elementary OS," and prompts you to either download from a mirror or via torrent. Having fiber to the door and and excess of bandwidth, I chose to download from a mirror.
Installation
Installation was pretty straight-forward and much like it is with other distros. At disk partitioning time, however, the installation software didn't note the distro already on the machine and offer the user the option to install the distro alongside an existing installation without the user needing to know anything about partitioning, a pretty common option with Linux installation media. Instead, the user is offered the choice to run the distro live, erase the disk and install the distro, or "Advanced Custom Install," which requires the user to partition the disk manually using an included partitioning tool.
This surprised me, because most new-to-Linux users coming from Windows or macOS are likely not going to know how to partition a hard drive manually, no matter how easy the installation medium makes it.
This was made more worrisome by what seems to be a glitch in the installer's partitioning software.
When I initially looked at the "custom install" feature, I was brought to a screen that showed no graphical representation of the current partitions on the machine, just a partial representation of a GParted screen with no instructions for the user, which I found confusing and backed down from the install completely. Later, on the same machine (and with the same underlying Linux Mint taking up the entire hard drive), choosing "Custom Install" brought up something more familiar -- a screen showing colour-coded sliders for sizing partitions.
Keep this in mind before you hand a bootable elementary OS USB drive to a friend who's not tech-savvy if they're going to want to keep Windows installed as training wheels.
First Look
On first login I found the distro to be snappy and responsive, which I expected since it uses Ubuntu as its base. I also didn't find any obvious bugs or glitches; everything worked well out-of-the-box. elementary's homegrown, GNOME-based Pantheon desktop environment's default wallpaper is attractive, and the DE looks and feels enough like vanilla GNOME to make any Linux user feel at home.
elementary OS 7.0 -- A view of the default desktop
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The apps that are installed by default all employ a basic interface design that, while not unattractive, looks somewhat dated and reminiscent of Windows in the 1990s. However, they're all legible, functional, and intuitive and work as intended.
Wireless connected seamlessly, and Bluetooth found and paired with my BOSE speakers without issue, which is not always a given with those speakers.
Default Software
elementary OS installs very little software by default. There's no LibreOffice, Firefox, or Thunderbird. Instead, there are some home grown apps, such as a calculator, calendar, file manager, a simple text editor (called "Code"), terminal emulator, music player, email client, and the like, which I presume are based on GNOME projects. In a sense, these apps are generic, since looking through the apps' settings doesn't bring-up an "about" option with information such as the name and version of the software being used. This even includes the web browser, which is GNOME Web, the browser formerly known as Epiphany.
For anything other than these default system apps the user must turn to AppCenter, the distro's Flatpak-based app store, or open a terminal and use APT. No graphical app for installing software natively, such as Synaptic, is included.
Software Management
According to elementary's developers, the preferred way to install software on Horus is through Flatpaks, although packages from Ubuntu's repository can be installed using APT, which I did when I first installed the distro to get LibreOffice on the test machine. This makes AppCenter, the distro's app store and the easiest way to find and install Flatpaks, an indispensable part of the operating system for most users.
elementary OS 7.0 -- The software centre
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It appears that elementary OS 7 was released before its AppCenter was fully ready for prime time, however.
When I first installed the distro a few days after its release, AppCenter was pretty empty. Searching through the store's 17 categories revealed a paltry number of apps under each category. In the "Finance" category there were two apps, for example. One was a pay-what-you-want app for monitoring cryptocurrencies, and the other was a free app for monitoring exchange rates. Conspicuously missing were well known open source financial apps such as GnuCash or HomeBank.
This is what had necessitated my use of APT to download LibreOffice. Under "office" there were 24 apps listed, all little-known apps, with essential applications such as LibreOffice, Calibre, and Evolution nowhere to be found. Using AppCenter's search function to find these apps produced the result: "No apps found. Try changing search terms. You can also sideload Flatpak apps e.g. from Flathub."
elementary OS 7.0 -- Sideloading a package
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I noticed a change a couple of days later, just as I was preparing to submit this overview. Suddenly, when bringing up a category in AppCenter, in addition to sections headed "recently updated," "paid apps," and "free apps," which had been there since I installed the distro, there was a new section called "non-curated apps," which is filled with all of the apps you'd expect to find in a Linux app store.
I'm assuming that one of two things happened here. Either the developers of elementary OS 7 were scrambling to make AppCenter software able to use Flathub's APIs, or a glitch in the software had gone unnoticed for a week or longer. The latter is a distinct possibility. On January 8, eight days after elementary 7 was released (and after I was already evaluating the software), the elementary team posted the following to Mastodon:
A new release of AppCenter has been published that resolves a reported crash and adds a Flatpak Repair feature. Plus a new Files [elementary's file manager] release is out with fixes for reported issues. Grab those now! And keep sending us your feedback so we can keep making elementary OS better.
Either way (or if it's for some other reason) this doesn't reflect well on elementary OS.
Software Installation
The big bugaboo with elementary OS 7 among many Linux users will be its reliance on Flatpaks, which although gaining acceptance, remains somewhat controversial.
Personally, I have no problem with Flatpak. Although elementary's almost total reliance on them probably means I wouldn't consider the distro as my daily driver, I think that putting "containerized" schemes such as Flatpak or Snap front and center is a smart move for a distribution that wants to compete directly with Windows and macOS.
Not only does this mean that new-to-Linux users won't have to learn the intricacies of finding and installing software using a traditional package manager, Flatpak and Snap also offer a solution to what's been the biggest stumbling block to widespread Linux adoption since desktop Linux started to become easy-to-use 15 or so years ago, and that's the availability of software.
Flatpak and Snap also ease security concerns overall, even though they bring new security issues to the table that are already being addressed. In addition, they do away with most issues having to do with dependencies, making it less likely that installing an app will create the situation known as "dependency hell."
Installing free software from AppCenter is an easy one-click affair. Simply find the software you want to install, click the "free" button at the top of the screen (clicking on the software's name brings you to a page with a description of the software, including versioning, along with a screenshot), and the software is installed.
To "sideload" a Flatpak from Flathub or another Flatpak repository, click "install" in the repository and the file will download to elementary's "Downloads" folder. In the file manager, find the file and double-click on it, which will bring up a warning that the app hasn't been checked for "security, privacy, or system integration." Tic "I understand," then click "install anyway," and the application is installed.
The process for installing paid software varies only slightly. Here, the labeling of the installation button has been changed from "free" to a dollar amount, with prices ranging from $1-$25 dollars.
elementary OS 7.0 -- Purchasing software from AppCenter
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Clicking the dollar amount button calls a pop-up, with the default amount already populating a price field that includes plus and minus buttons for adjusting the price to any price the user desires. This price field sits alongside three buttons to adjust the "pay what you want" amount to fixed prices, in the amounts of $1, $5, or $10 (these suggested fixed prices remain the same, whether the default price is $1 or $25). Below that is an email field ("only used to send you a receipt -- you will not be subscribed to any mailing list"), and fields for entering payment information. The "payment" button that initiates the download remains deactivated until the payment information is entered.
If the payment amount is reduced to zero using the minus button, the payment button immediately activates, with wording that changes from "Pay X dollars" to "try for free."
Interestingly, nearly all of the "paid" software in AppCenter is labelled "outdated."
GNOME-based Pantheon Desktop
Like most (but certainly not all) desktops based on GNOME, Pantheon is more of a reimplementation of GNOME rather than a desktop of it's own, and any user of GNOME should have no trouble navigating the environment.
The most obvious changes have to do with navigation. For example, hitting the "super" (or "Windows") key, which brings up the Activities Overview on GNOME, brings up a list of keyboard shortcuts on Pantheon. Navigating through workspaces can be accomplished by holding the super key along with a right or left arrow. Many of the keyboard shortcuts are exactly the same as on GNOME, however.
elementary OS 7.0 -- The application menu
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Conclusions
Because elementary OS 7's focus is on relatively unskilled new Linux users, most people who have been using Linux for a while are probably not going to be interested in the distribution. That includes users who prefer so-called easy-to-use distributions such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, or Pop!_OS, mainly because of the distribution's almost total reliance on Flatpaks for software packaging.
This release also has some rough edges that need to be refined, which isn't necessarily surprising since this first of the 7.x series was developed during a time when the elementary project was going through turmoil. Hopefully, most of these issues will be gone by the time version 7.1 is released, likely later this year.
However, if they get the installer fixed so that the OS can be easily installed alongside an existing OS by a novice user, this release might be just the thing for not only for those new to Linux, but for casual users in general who just want to use a computer for fun or work, without having to understand what's going on under the hood.
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Christine Hall is a writer and the Managing Editor for FOSS Force, a publication dedicated to covering news and events in the software world, with a focus on open source software.
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Visitor supplied rating
elementary OS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 5/10 from 119 review(s).
Have you used elementary OS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Purism unveils new lapdock for the Librem 5, an overview of Haiku package manager, openSUSE and SUSE test beta releases, Ubuntu community flavours scrap Flatpak in favour of Snap
Purism, the organization behind the Librem 5 free software phone has announced the launch of a new accessory for their mobile device called a lapdock kit. "A lapdock is a docking station (or 'dock') combined with a laptop shell. A lapdock has no CPU, RAM or storage, instead, it uses the Librem 5 or Librem 5 USA as the computer. Once docked, the Librem 5's screen extends to the lapdock screen, and you can use the keyboard and mouse on the lapdock to drag windows back and forth between screens. All of the applications are running on the Librem 5 and once docked, it behaves like a laptop running PureOS. Even better, the lapdock's battery charges the Librem 5 while it's docked, extending its run time." Further details on this laptop-like experience can be found in the announcement.
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The Haiku project does not attract the same level of attention as its open source peers in the Linux and BSD communities. However, Haiku offers a lot of polished and modern features on a platform that is remarkably responsive. One rarely talked about feature of Haiku is its package management system. Mark Dastmalchi-Round takes us on a tour of Haiku package management, exploring what makes the lightweight operating system interesting and robust. "The way Haiku handles package management and its alternative approach to an 'immutable system' is one of those ideas I find really cool. Here's what it looks like from a desktop user's perspective - there's all the usual stuff like an 'app store', package updater, repositories of packages and so on. It's all there and works well - it's easily as smooth as any desktop Linux experience. However, it's the implementation details behind the scenes that make it so interesting to me. Haiku takes a refreshingly new approach to package management...."
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Development work is heating up in the SUSE community this week. openSUSE's stable branch, Leap, has entered its beta testing phase for version 15.5 with updates to the kernel, Plasma desktop, and Mesa codecs. "An update for KDE users will happen with the Desktop Environment for Leap 15.5 set to have Plasma 5.27, Plasma 5.27 is a Long Term Support version until the next LTS rolls around in 2024. It provides excellent stability along with bug fixes."
Meanwhile, SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) is also testing a new update. The fifth service pack for SLE 15 is now available for customers to test. "SLE 15 SP5 is a 'Consolidation' Service Pack. And so, the focus is on bug/security fixes as well as improving our existing features however you will find new selected features in this release but we have not made any major updates of our stacks compared to SP4."
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Around the same time Flatpak portable packages landed in the Linux ecosystem, Canonical announced their own portable package format: Snap. The two package formats basically provide the same solution: portable, dependency-bundled packages. Flatpaks have typically focused on desktop software, supporting multiple repositories, and being more cross-platform compatible. Snap packages are more focused on offering both desktop and server packages, are all supplied by one repository run by Canonical, and only run on Linux distributions that use the systemd init implementation. Thus far, Canonical's Ubuntu distribution is one of the few places support for Snap packages has been enabled by default while most of the rest of the Linux community, including Ubuntu community editions, have tended toward supporting Flatpak.
Canonical is working to change this by getting community editions to support Snap packages exclusively out of the box. "As part of our combined efforts, the Ubuntu flavors have made a joint decision to adjust some of the default packages on Ubuntu: Going forward, the Flatpak package as well as the packages to integrate Flatpak into the respective software center will no longer be installed by default in the next release due in April 2023, Lunar Lobster. Users who have used Flatpak will not be affected on upgrade, as flavors are including a special migration that takes this into account. Those who haven't interacted with Flatpak will be presented with software from the Ubuntu repositories and the Snap Store."
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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) |
The benefit of boot environments
Taking-a-snapshot asks: There is one important Linux functionality that I like very much and I think is very useful, mainly for new people in the Linux environment, that can undo mistakes with its "system recovery". I'm speaking about the Btrfs integration with Snapper or Timeshift and the GRUB boot loader. Some distributions create a very well integrated product that, during the installation, if you choose Btrfs everything will be done automatically for you (sub-volumes, etc) and work out of the box. So if you update your system a snapshot will be made automatically and if your system breaks and doesn't boot, you go to the GRUB menu and boot the operating system from a snapshot. You know much better than me all the possibilities.
Could you make a section considering this subject? From what I know there are only two distros that offer this functionally out of the box, they are Manjaro and openSUSE Tumbleweed. Do you know about others? For sure many users can implement this by themselves with many different distributions, but from my point of view when it works out of the box and you can choose this functionality I see it as a higher quality product.
DistroWatch answers: The feature being discussed here, which describes being able to boot into a snapshot of the operating system from the boot menu, is called boot environments. When the operating system is using an advanced filesystem, such as Btrfs or ZFS, we can take a frozen snapshot of the operating system in its current state. Later (for example, after a package update) we can reboot the operating system and select an older snapshot of the system to boot.
What this does for us is rollback any changes made since the snapshot. It allows us to recover files, undo changes, or attempt to fix configuration problems - especially ones which caused the operating system to no longer boot.
Boot environments have been available on FreeBSD and some of its children for about ten years at the time of writing. FreeBSD uses ZFS snapshots and integrates these snapshots with the boot menu to make it easy to load previous versions of the operating system. openSUSE has offered boot environments for around six years through Btrfs snapshots and this is especially useful when running the distribution's rolling edition, Tumbleweed. openSUSE takes the feature a step further and integrates the filesystem snapshot tool with the YaST control centre. This means any time the user makes a configuration change or updates a package, a new snapshot is automatically created. This is convenient and helps in situations where the administrator forgets to make a snapshot before rebooting.
One of the other rare distributions to include boot environments is Ubuntu and it only works when ZFS is selected as the main filesystem during installation. At the time of writing I haven't confirmed Manjaro Linux offers boot environments, the feature doesn't seem to be documented. However, Manjaro can use tools like Timeshift to create snapshots of systems running on Btrfs.
As the question's author pointed out, the boot environment feature is powerful and useful. It can essentially undo any change to the system that doesn't destroy the boot loader itself or the computer's hardware. Any other change in the operating system should be reversible via rebooting and selecting an older snapshot.
Not many Linux distributions enable automatic snapshots or boot environments. I think there are a few reasons for this and why snapshots have been more widely accepted in the FreeBSD and Solaris communities.
- Linux distributions have generally been reluctant to adopt advanced filesystems such as Btrfs and ZFS. The former mostly because of its perceived instability issues and the latter due to licensing restrictions which prevent it from being included in the Linux kernel source code. Since boot environments rely on advanced filesystems, and most Linux distributions still default to using traditional filesystems such as ext4, this has resulted in most projects ignoring boot environments.
- Most of the time when a configuration change or upgrade breaks a Linux system the issue is a kernel or driver update. Almost all Linux distributions keep old copies of the kernel which can be selected from the boot menu. This usually provides the user with a way to at least get the operating system running with a few minimal tools. It's not as complete or convenient as a boot environment, but being able to boot older versions of the kernel will often get the user to a point where they can recover the operating system.
- Most Linux distributions provide live boot media, such as DVDs or USB thumb drive images. Booting from live media allows the user to recover files, change configurations, usually reset the root password, and rollback package changes. Again, this isn't as convenient or elegant as boot environments, but it's a solution that works for almost any disaster.
In short, while boot environments are very convenient, especially when filesystem snapshots are automated, they require advanced filesystems which the Linux community has been treating with a good deal of caution. Boot environments also provide a way to rescue broken systems which can be achieved in alternative ways, such as using live media. Boot environments are usually easier to use and require fewer steps, but a lot of Linux users see them as just another alternative to live media and booting older kernels.
I am hoping more distributions adopt boot environments. It is one of my favourite features of FreeBSD and openSUSE (especially when running a rolling release flavour). Boot environments make operating systems nearly bulletproof and I'd like to see more projects adopt the concept, especially when paired with a snapshotting tool like Timeshift.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Athena OS 2023.02.20
The developers of Athena OS, an Arch Linux-based distribution designed for penetration testing, bug-bounty hunting and InfoSec students, have announced the release of version 2023.02.20. The long changelog includes the following items: "Hacking roles - added new roles for your hacking activity, Black Hat Omniscient and OSINT Specialist; integrated Hack The Box VIP contents for playing retired machines; HTB Tools now manage the API key, shell prompt and target host according to user preferences; implemented Tool Recipe viewer for having at hands all the productivity commands; implemented OpenAI ChatGPT Desktop client, mainly intended for users that need to understand how the security tool works; implemented browser choice between Firefox and Brave; implemented browser quick access graphical interface to hacking web resources (Hack The Box, TryHackMe, PWNX, Offensive Security) an online tools (evShell generator, GTFOBins, CyberChef, CrackStation) by NightTab; added more security bookmarks; implemented Penetration Testing Kit in browser; implemented PyWhat; implemented a note-taking app choice (CherryTree, Notion App Enhanced, Obsidian) and a utility app choice at installation time...."
Athena OS 2023.02.20 -- Running the GNOME desktop
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TrueNAS 22.12.1 "SCALE"
iXsystems has announced the release of an update to the company's TrueNAS "SCALE" product, a network attached storage solution based on Debian. "TrueNAS SCALE 22.12.1 is the first maintenance update to 22.12.0, with over 300 improvements and bug fixes. Users still on the previous version (Angelfish) also have a simple update when using the same features and following the release notes. After a couple of weeks of community testing, we expect to recommend users to update their Angelfish and Bluefin systems to this latest release. TrueNAS SCALE Bluefin inherits all the functional capabilities of Angelfish and adds many new features. This first update (22.12.1) includes many significant improvements and bug fixes that are listed in the release notes. Highlights include: Performance improvements to further optimize various storage protocol workloads. SMB Share Proxy provides a redirect mechanism for making many TrueNAS SMB shares available in a common namespace presented by one TrueNAS system. This reduces the configuration needed for each SMB client. Sudo fields are added to replication tasks to provide the correct privileges on remote targets. Kubernetes pass-through is provided with an Enterprise license and enables external orchestrators to control the Kubernetes API functionality within a node. SSH key upload simplifies administration on TrueNAS via multiple users. Rootless login bug fixes & improvements simplify administration by non-root users. Validate host path in the SCALE UI is improved for the specific safety belt that warns of possible conflicts between apps and sharing. ZFS hotplug fixes and other improvements are provided through an update to OpenZFS 2.1.9." The release announcement and release notes offer additional information.
GParted Live 1.5.0-1
GParted Live is a live distribution with a single purpose - to provide tools for partitioning hard disks in an intuitive, graphical environment. The project's latest release is GParted Live 1.5.0-1 and includes fixed for handling Btrfs and NTFS filesystems. The project's release announcement reads: "The GParted team is happy to announce a new stable release of GParted Live. This release includes GParted 1.5.0, updated packages, and other improvements. Items of note include: Includes GParted 1.5.0: Fix path used to resize btrfs needs to be a directory. Fix crash when copying NTFS to starting beyond 2 TiB. Enable repair when checking exFAT file systems. Based on the Debian Sid repository (as of 2023/Feb/223). Linux image updated to 6.1.12-1. This release of GParted Live has been successfully tested on VirtualBox, VMware, BIOS, UEFI, and physical computers with AMD/ATI, NVIDIA, and Intel graphics." The release notes and changelog offer additional information.
Ubuntu 22.04.2
A new point release of Ubuntu 22.04, along with its community editions, have been announced. The release announcement states: "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (Long-Term Support) for its Desktop, Server, and Cloud products, as well as other flavours of Ubuntu with long-term support. As usual, this point release includes many updates and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates and corrections for other high-severity bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. 22.04.2 also brings new RISC-V platform support, providing fresh images for the LicheeRV and PolarFire Icicle Kit boards. Kubuntu 22.04.2 LTS, Ubuntu Budgie 22.04.2 LTS, Ubuntu MATE 22.04.2 LTS, Lubuntu 22.04.2 LTS, Ubuntu Kylin 22.04.2 LTS, Ubuntu Studio 22.04.2 LTS, and Xubuntu 22.04.2 LTS are also now available." Additional information is provided in the release notes.
Redcore Linux 2301
Ghiunhan Mamut has announced the release of Redcore Linux 2301, an updated build of the project's "hardened" distribution based on the "testing" branch of Gentoo Linux: "I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of Redcore Linux Hardened 2301 (code name 'Sirius') stable ISO image. This cycle was mostly about fixing bugs. Since our previous release in October, many of you have flocked to our bug tracker and reported many issues, which I appreciate. Sisyphus, our package manager, saw a massive benefit and it is now more reliable than ever. We also added minor features, such as coloured output support. Changelog: resync with Gentoo Linux testing tree as of 2023-02-23; Linux headers 6.1, glibc 2.36, GCC 12.2.1, Binutils 2.39, LLVM/Clang 15.0.7 toolchain; improved hardening; Mesa 23.0.0, X.Org Server 21.1.7, Xwayland 22.1.8 graphics stack; Linux kernel 6.1.12 LTS as default (6.0.19, 5.15.95 LTS, 5.10.169 LTS available in the repositories, if you need an older kernel); KDE Plasma 5.27.1, KDE Gear 22.12.2, KDE Frameworks 103 default desktop stack...." See the release announcement for a compete changelog.
TUXEDO OS 2
Vinzenz Vietzke has announced the release of a new version of TUXEDO OS, an Ubuntu-based distribution tailor-made for TUXEDO Computer's line of laptop and desktops. The new version upgrades the Linux kernel to version 6.1 and the KDE Plasma desktop to version 5.27.1: "TUXEDO OS 2 finished and ready for use. The version impresses with consistent continuation of development work. This includes the latest version 5.27.1 of Plasma Desktop as well as the current Linux kernel 6.1 with long-term support. Further innovations are: KDE Applications 22.12.2, KDE Frameworks 5.103.0, Mesa graphics stack 22.3.6, Firefox 110.0, PipeWire audio 0.3.66, Qt libraries 5.15.8; functional settings for a desktop firewall; extended range of functions of TUXEDO Autorepair. The new version of TUXEDO OS is automatically installed via continuously provided updates. There is no need to back up data or go through a lengthy installation process. TUXEDO OS has a hybrid release model consisting of rolling and point releases, the classic versioning model." Further information is provided in the release announcement, available in German and in English.
TUXEDO OS 2 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
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EasyOS 5.0
Barry Kauler has announced the release of EasyOS 5.0, code-named "Kirkstone", a major update of the project's lightweight, experimental Linux distribution: "EasyOS 'Kirkstone' series version 5.0. Almost all of the packages in EasyOS 'Kirkstone' series are compiled from source, using a fork of OpenEmbedded (OE) 'Kirkstone' release. Almost all package versions are updated, compared with the 'Dunfell' series. Apart from new package versions, many bug fixes and many improvements, there is one other major improvement - the abandonment of 'langpack' language translation packages, as well as abandonment of language-specific builds. Now, there is just one file to download, the required language is chosen at first bootup, and the user interface is then rendered in that language. More or less, French is just about complete, second is German. MoManager is a GUI translation tool, that has its roots ten years ago in Puppy Linux; it has been extensively rewritten to make it an easy experience for anyone to contribute translations." See the release announcement and the release notes for more details.
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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: 2,836
- Total data uploaded: 42.9TB
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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) |
Does your main operating system offer boot environments?
In this week's Questions and Answers section we talked about boot environments, why they are so useful, and why many Linux distributions do not use them. Does your main operating system offer boot environments out of the box?
You can see the results of our previous poll on where we should place news stories in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Does you main OS offer boot environments?
| Yes - they are created automatically: | 233 (28%) |
| Yes - they are created manually: | 102 (12%) |
| No - they are not offered: | 487 (59%) |
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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 $3,997 in contributions from the following kind souls:
| Donor |
Amount |
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| Anonymous | $3,925 |
| John S | $20 |
| Sam C | $10 |
| Jonathon B | $7 |
| Chung T | $5 |
| Darkeugene7896 | $5 |
| DuCakedHare | $5 |
| Matt | $5 |
| Joe H | $3 |
| Vory | $3 |
| JD L | $2 |
| PB C | $2 |
| Peter M | $2 |
| x6WWldo9 | $1 |
| Stephen M | $1 |
| William E | $1 |
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
- Luberri Linux. Luberri Linux is a Linux Mint-based distribution with a focus on use in educational environments.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 6 March 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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| Archives |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Issue 985 (2022-09-12): Garuda Linux, using root versus sudo, UBports on the Fairphone 4, Slackware reverses change to grep |
| • Issue 984 (2022-09-05): deepin 23 Preview, watching for changing to directories, Mint team tests Steam Deck, Devuan posts fix for repository key expiry |
| • Issue 983 (2022-08-29): Qubes OS 4.1.1, Alchg Linux, immutable operating systems, Debian considers stance on non-free firmware, Arch-based projects suffer boot issue |
| • Issue 982 (2022-08-22): Peropesis 1.6.2, KaOS strips out Python 2 and PulseAudio, deepin becomes independent, getting security update notifications |
| • Issue 981 (2022-08-15): Linux Lite 6.0, defining desktop environments and window managers, Mint releases upgrade tool, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 980 (2022-08-08): Linux Mint 21, Pledge on Linux, SparkyLinux updates classic desktop packages, Peppermint OS experiments with Devuan base |
| • Issue 979 (2022-08-01): KaOS 2022.06 and KDE Plasma 5.25, terminating processes after a set time, GNOME plans Secure Boot check |
| • Issue 978 (2022-07-25): EndeavourOS 22.6, Slax explores a return to Slackware, Ubuntu certified with Dell's XPS 13, Linux running on Apple's M2 |
| • Issue 977 (2022-07-18): EasyOS 4.2, transferring desktop themes between distros, Tails publishes list of updates, Zevenet automates Let's Encrypt renewals |
| • Issue 976 (2022-07-11): NixOS 22.05, making a fake webcam, exploring the Linux scheduler, Debian publishes updated media |
| • Issue 975 (2022-07-04): Murena One running /e/OS, where are all the openSUSE distributions, Fedora to offer unfiltered Flathub access |
| • Issue 974 (2022-06-27): AlmaLinux 9.0, the changing data of DistroWatch's database, UBports on the Pixel 3a, Tails and GhostBSD publish hot fixes |
| • Issue 973 (2022-06-20): openSUSE 15.4, collecting distro media, FreeBSD status report, Ubuntu Core with optional real-time kernel |
| • Issue 972 (2022-06-13): Rolling Rhino Remix, SambaBox 4.1, SUSE team considers future of SUSE and openSUSE Leap, Tails improves Tor Connection Assistant |
| • Issue 971 (2022-06-06): ChimeraOS 2022.01.03, Lilidog 22.04, NixOS gains graphical installer, Mint replaces Bluetooth stack and adopts Timeshift, how to change a MAC address |
| • Issue 970 (2022-05-30): Tails 5.0, taking apart a Linux distro, Ubuntu users seeing processes terminated, Budgie team plans future of their desktop |
| • Issue 969 (2022-05-23): Fedora 36, a return to Unity, Canonical seeks to improve gaming on Ubuntu, HP plans to ship laptops with Pop!_OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Slackware Linux
The Official Release of Slackware Linux by Patrick Volkerding is an advanced Linux operating system, designed with the twin goals of ease of use and stability as top priorities. Including the latest popular software while retaining a sense of tradition, providing simplicity and ease of use alongside flexibility and power, Slackware brings the best of all worlds to the table. Originally developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991, the UNIX-like Linux operating system now benefits from the contributions of millions of users and developers around the world. Slackware Linux provides new and experienced users alike with a fully-featured system, equipped to serve in any capacity from desktop workstation to machine-room server. Web, ftp, and email servers are ready to go out of the box, as are a wide selection of popular desktop environments. A full range of development tools, editors, and current libraries is included for users who wish to develop or compile additional software.
Status: Active
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| MALIBAL |
MALIBAL: Linux Laptops Custom Built for YouMALIBAL is an innovative computer manufacturer that produces high-performance, custom laptops for Linux. If your MALIBAL laptop is not the best Linux laptop you have ever used, you can return it for a full 100% refund. We will even pay the return shipping fees! For more info, visit: https://www.malibal.com
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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