 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1008, 27 February 2023 |
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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 170 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 |
|---|
| 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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| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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| Random Distribution | 
Pie Box Enterprise Linux
Pie Box Enterprise Linux was a Linux distribution that was derived from the open source software made available by Red Hat, Inc. It was built from the source RPMs of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Only a small number of packages are modified in order to remove Red Hat's trademarks from relevant images and to skip the RHN registration step immediately after installation. All other packages remain unchanged from those released by Red Hat and there are no packages added or removed. This results in a product that was fully compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The updates and repository service was very similar to the up2date service offered by Red Hat, Inc. It was a subscription-based service under which errata are distributed that have been compiled from source RPM packages that have been released by Red Hat, Inc.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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