 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1017, 1 May 2023 |
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Welcome to this year's 18th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
About a week ago, Canonical launched Ubuntu 23.04 which is a short-term support release featuring the GNOME 44 desktop environment. Alongside Ubuntu were its ten community editions which mostly function to show off alternative desktop environments. This week Jeff Siegel takes Xubuntu, a community edition of Ubuntu that runs the Xfce desktop, for a spin and reports on his experiences with the distribution. Then, in our News section, we cover the results of the Debian Project Leader election and wish the winner, Jonathan Cartner, the best of luck in his role. We also talk about work the Guix System project is doing to build their operating system entirely from source code from the ground up while systemd works to speed up restarts. Most Linux distributions offer multiple approaches to installing software and, in some cases, install packages to a variety of locations. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about where packages are installed and where manually installed files should be placed. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We're also grateful to be able to thank many generous sponsors this week, we appreciate your help in keeping DistroWatch running. Finally, we're pleased to welcome the Crunchbangplusplus distribution, a lightweight, Debian-based project to our database. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jeff Siegel) |
Xubuntu 23.04
Microsoft's decision to make millions of computers obsolete with Windows 11 left those with Windows 10 boxes in a quandary: what to do with a machine that otherwise worked?
Install Xubuntu, of course.
In this case, the latest release, Xubuntu 23.04 - code named Lunar Lobster. And it did all I hoped it would do - revive an ancient computer, a Dell Optiplex desktop (with an Intel Core 2 processor, no less) that I bought used a decade ago to play Windows games on.
Lunar Lobster runs more quickly and with less lag than the machine did under Windows 10. Booting is still slow (about 70 seconds), but the Snap version of the Firefox browser works more or less efficiently. And, and even at its worst, Firefox is much better on Lunar Lobster than it was under Windows 10. That was so tedious that I sometimes went to the kitchen to get coffee while it was loading.
Most of the annoyances, in fact, had little to do with Xubuntu. The machine doesn't have wireless, so I had to scrounge a drawer to find a wi-fi dongle that was old enough to be compatible. Plus, the numlock key doesn't turn off after booting, which is apparently a common problem with hardware this old.
Otherwise, it's perfectly fine, and I would have no problems running it as my daily driver.
Xubuntu 23.04 -- Exploring the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 304kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
In one respect, this was surprising, but it shouldn't have been. This is Xubuntu we're talking about, after all. Because, regardless of anything that might make hardcore Linux users sigh and offer rude comments about the distro, it usually just works. Which is all I ask it to do.
Getting started
Xubuntu 23.04 is not a long-term release; it will only be supported for nine months, until January 2024. The minimum system requirements are a 64-bit processor, 1GB of memory, and at least 8.6GB of free hard drive space. The recommended specs aren't much more onerous -- a 1.5Ghz dual core processor, 2GB of memory, and 20GB of free space on the hard drive. The ISO download is 3.0GB -- by comparison, it's 4.6GB for Ubuntu and 3.3GB for Ubuntu MATE.
All went well under VirtualBox, which isn't always the case with Xubuntu. The window resized correctly, filling the desktop area and not leaving a border. Tweaking the setup and installing software also went without incident, as did using Firefox and playing music and videos.
Xubuntu 23.04 -- Running the Firefox web browser
(full image size: 429kB, resolution: 1282x951 pixels)
There have been some significant additions under the hood to Xubuntu with this release - the 6.2 Linux kernel; limited Wayland support; PipeWire beginning to take over for PulseAudio; and the Xfce desktop has been upgraded to 4.18 from 4.16. PipeWire runs without any noticeable difference, as does the new kernel (not that we would notice most of the kernel upgrades).
The Xfce update is especially welcome news, since updating this desktop has traditionally been a long, slow process without too many obvious improvements along the way.
In other words, the changes in the desktop are almost revolutionary:
- Searching in the Thunar file manager by folder, which means it's no longer necessary to launch the Catfish search tool and to perform a folder or file search.
- A new bookmark menu, making it easier to bookmark folders to display in the Thunar side panel, as well as a 'recent' shortcut in the side pane to show which folders and files have been used recently.
- A Thunar split view (hit F3 to enable it) as well as new options to change the file manager preferences, including a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts.
- Tweaks to the Xfce panel, such as setting its length in percentages instead pixels, making the Clipman panel plugin much easier to configure, and offering more options for the panel clock look and feel.
Xubuntu 23.04 -- The Thunar file manager
(full image size: 316kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Again, none of these would be worth writing about in a review of a more cutting edge desktop (and the weather applet still hasn't been updated to reflect actual conditions instead of a forecast). But the 'recent' shortcut, the Clipman changes, and the clock configuration are all welcome. And, frankly, the Thunar split view is mind blowing - we've finally made it to Midnight Commander status.
Parsing the software
Which brings us to Firefox. The controversy about the browser's Snap-only installation and its many failings obscures the other changes Mozilla is making to it, which strike me as more serious obstacles to the browser's survival than it being packaged as a Snap (though not necessarily relevant to the discussion here). Suffice it to say, version 112.0 does what it's supposed to do, but it's awkward looking and not especially user friendly for anyone who has used Firefox for more than a couple of years. But that's not anything the Xubuntu developers can fix.
More impressive is the Thunderbird e-mail client (version 102 here). I gave up on Thunderbird about a year ago after running it since those long ago days of Windows XP. I was worn out by its design failings, its frequent crashes and lockups (let's run two instances for no apparent reason), the missing system tray icon, and all the rest. Having said that, this version seems much improved; the contacts manager no longer looks like it was designed to run under DOS and I was glad to see the updated tasks list, which my new e-mail client doesn't offer.
Xubuntu 23.04 -- Running the Thunderbird e-mail client
(full image size: 134kB, resolution: 1295x745pixels)
Rhythmbox (version 3.4.6), the default music player, reminds me once again that it deserves more respect that it gets, though there doesn't seem to be a way to use it for Spotify (for those who need that sort of thing). Likewise for the Parole media player (version 4.18), which played back a home video -- with soundtrack -- without any trouble. Cheese (version 44), the de facto webcam app, is its usual finicky self; no problem with taking photos, but the videos didn't have any sound.
LibreOffce, the default office suite (version 7.5.2), is a touch slow when loading, thanks to how complicated it has become and how ancient the OptiPlex is. I had some difficulty connecting my Canon MX920 printer and scanner, thanks to the wi-fi dongle issues, but they eventually sorted themselves out. Nextcloud, on the other hand, installed and worked seamlessly, as did Zoom. That, given the Optiplex's age, was a pleasant surprise.
GNOME Disks (version 44) and its Disk Usage Analyzer (version 44), which were first part of the default installation in 22.10, return. Which means a couple of things - I'll (thankfully) no longer have to navigate GParted to format a USB key, and, with the usage analyzer, Xubuntu users can finally look at colorful pictures of their disk drives, just like Windows users can. And this isn't sarcasm; this is a big deal for Xubuntu.
Xubuntu 23.04 -- Analyzing disk storage
(full image size: 361kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
More surprises
Originally, I was going to use the new Xubuntu Minimal install to test this release. It's a stripped down version of 23.04, just 1.7GB in size on the disk, with little more than a terminal and the necessary system tools; there isn't even a browser. But as I worked with it, I realized that I'd have to use more effort to install what I needed for the minimal system than I would have to do to tweak a full install. Which was kind of disappointing.
It's also worth noting that Flatpak support was dropped in 23.04, part of an overall change for the Ubuntu family. But it's only a check box away in Synaptic or a couple of commands in a terminal. The other disappointment? Lunar Lobster doesn't use Canonical's new Subiquity installer. The installer was the same version I've been using for years, and while we appreciate familiarity with Xubuntu, I had been looking forward to trying the new one.
More enjoyable was the way my Trendnet 4-port KVM hub responded under 23.04. It connects my home server and daily driver (both running Xubuntu) and the OptiPlex, and the latter was always slow to come on-line with Windows 10. I'd press the button, but the switch would seem to hold back. I'd get a Windows screen, but no keyboard connection. Eventually, the keyboard would connect - sometimes more quickly, sometimes more slowly. This never happened with Xubuntu 23.04. I'd press the button, and it would switch almost immediately.
Finally, I had tremendous difficulty getting the ISO to load successfully onto a USB key. I used both Balena Etcher and the GNOME Startup Disk tool and got kernel panics five or six times. This has never happened to me, but an Internet search revealed that it was a common problem, particularly for the distro's daily and beta builds. I'm not sure if this was because I was using borked USBs or if it was the ISO (though the checksums matched). This happened in both VirtualBox and with the OptiPlex, which leads me to believe it was probably an ISO problem.
Eventually, I downloaded enough different ISOs and tried enough different thumb drives to get 23.04 installed. And I'm glad I did - it shows, once again, that anyone who wants a simple, efficient, and easy to use operating system that just works can still depend on Xubuntu.
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Hardware used for this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Dell OptiPlex 780 desktop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16 MHz
- Storage: 320 GB HD
- Memory: 4GB of RAM
- Networking: Ethernet only
- Display: Intel GMA x4500
When he is not testing out new versions of Linux distributions, Jeff Siegel can be found writing about all things related to wine at Wine Curmudgeon.
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Visitor supplied rating
Xubuntu has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.9/10 from 66 review(s).
Have you used Xubuntu? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Debian team elects its Project Leader, Guix System building almost entirely from source code, systemd to allow userland-only restarts
The Debian developers hold annual elections in order to choose who will represent the project as the Debian Project Leader. This year the election was won by Jonathan Carter, who ran unopposed. Details on the voting process and the results are presented on the Debian website. Congratulations, Jonathan, on taking the seat.
Later in the week, Debian released refreshed install media for Debian 11 "Bullseye". The new media provided do not represent a new version of Debian, but updated packages with fixes and security updates to lower the burden of updating new installs.
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Having full access to source code, and being able to build an operating system entirely from its source code, are important parts of system security and auditing. These features also offer opportunities for optimizations. The Guix System team are moving closer to the goal of having a system which can be built, from scratch, using just source code. The progress and reasons behind the work are outlined in a blog post: "We are delighted and somewhat relieved to announce that the third reduction of the Guix bootstrap binaries has now been merged in the main branch of Guix! If you run 'guix pull' today, you get a package graph of more than 22,000 nodes rooted in a 357-byte program - something that had never been achieved, to our knowledge, since the birth of Unix. We refer to this as the Full-Source Bootstrap. In this post, we explain what this means concretely. This is a major milestone - if not the major milestone - in our quest for building everything from source, all the way down."
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Linux users who run distributions featuring the systemd init software will soon have access to a new feature which will restart the userland software without rebooting the kernel. This should greatly speed up reboots and even allow services to maintain information across the soft restart. The author of systemd, Lennart Poettering, shared highlights of the new feature: "Here's a fun new feature we are working on in systemd: userspace-only reboot. In order to reduce grey-out times on image-based OS updates to next to nothing we are making a reboot happen where kernel stays as it is, but userspace shuts down as usual, then possibly transitions into a new rootfs, and starts up again with an initial transaction as it would on a classic system boot. During the transition selected services can pass along their [file descriptors] and listening sockets, to pass 'live' resources from the old system to the new system. This means: super-fast switching from one OS version to the next, with all service code restarted cleanly and comprehensively, but with selected resources passed through untouched, so that they can continue to operate."
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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) |
Where package managers install files
Locating-the-files asks: Where do APT, Flatpak, Snap, and AppImage install applications? If I install something manually, where should I put it?
DistroWatch answers: Let's start with the easiest one first. AppImage is a completely portable, self-contained package format. What this means is the entire application and its dependencies are stored in one file, which can be run on virtually any Linux distribution. The application is not installed; no files get placed on our system. We simply run the single AppImage file and everything stays in that one file.
Snap packages are somewhat similar. When we download a Snap package it is stored in a directory under /var, typically /var/lib/snapd/snaps. The package file is a squashfs archive which is mounted temporarily when we run the application. In other words, nothing is really installed on our system, Linux just makes it look like Snap packages are installed through a mount point that is looking inside a squashfs archive. Typically, while Snap packages are being run, we can see the contents of the package under the /snap directory.
Flatpak packages are an oddity in the portable package world in that they are not single archives which get mounted or unpacked when run. Flatpak packages are installed under the /var directory, typically under /var/lib/flatpak/app. User-specific files Flatpak packages need to store, such as logs and saved configuration changes, can usually be found under your home directory in ~/.var/app.
Traditional package managers such as APT, DNF, and pacman are a bit different. While most portable formats, such as AppImage and Snap, keep their files inside one package archive and Flatpak mostly stores package files in one directory tree under /var, traditional package managers are meant to manage files across the entire operating system. Most Linux distributions are, in effect, a large collection of packages. Which means their package managers need to be able to save files in every system directory.
Traditional package managers store most executable files and libraries under the /usr directory, configuration files in /etc, and database files in /var. You can learn more about how most Linux distributions are organized (which files go where) by reading the hier manual page.
When you install something manually, its ideal location will vary depending on what it is. Usually software specific to you or your organization is placed under the /usr/local directory. Executable files would go into /usr/local/bin, library files would be saved in /usr/local/lib, and manual pages can be saved under /usr/local/man. The hier documentation goes into details on how files should be organized.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Peropesis 2.1
Peropesis (personal operating system) is a small-scale, minimalist, command-line-based Linux operating system. The project's latest release, Peropesis 2.1, introduces a number of new software development tools (including automake and autoconf), the Perl interpreted scripting language, and two new compression utilities. "Peropesis 2.1 Linux OS is released. In the new edition part of the old software was updated and several new packages was installed. Most newly installed packages consist of tools assigned to the GNU Autotools category and additional equipment needed to keep these tools running smoothly. The perl language interpreter and compressors lzip and zstd was also installed in the new edition. New software installed: 1. automake 1.16.5. GNU Automake is a tool for automatically generating 'Makefile.in' files from 'Makefile.am' files. The generated 'Makefile.in' may be used by configure scripts to generate a working 'Makefile'. Automake is written in perl and must be used with GNU Autoconf. 2. autoconf 2.71. GNU Autoconf is a tool for generating a configuration script from a TEMPLATE-FILE if given, or 'configure.ac' if present, or else 'configure.in'. The instructions in these files are written in the M4 language, so producing configuration scripts using Autoconf requires GNU M4...." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
Photon OS 5.0
Photon OS, a security-hardened and enterprise-grade appliance operating system that is purpose-built for cloud and edge applications, has reached version 5.0. The new release brings a large number of improvements and new features: "Photon OS 5.0 provides enhancements in Network Configuration Manager, PMD-nextgen, container runtime security, Linux real-time kernel and TDNF features. The release introduces the Photon OS Container Builder tool. This release of Photon OS also supports XFS and Btrfs filesystems, Control Group V2, ARM64 on Linux-esx kernel, PostgreSQL. It contains installer improvements and critical updates to the OSS packages, including Linux kernel version updates. You can now use Network Configuration Manager to perform the following tasks: configure multiple routes and addresses section; configure WireGuard; configure SR-IOV; create NetDev, VLAN, VXLAN, Bridge, Bond, VETH (Virtual Ethernet), MacVLAN/MacVTap, IPvlan/IPvtap, tunnels (IPIP, SIT, GRE, VTI); create, configure, and remove virtual network devices; generate more flexible netplan like network configuration from a YAML file...." Continue to the release notes for a detailed list of new features, package updates and known issues.
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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: 2,861
- Total data uploaded: 43.2TB
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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) |
Do you ever install software manually or from source?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about where package files get installed and where manually installed software is typically placed. We'd like to hear if you ever manually select the location where software is installed, possibly while building a package from its source code or placing a portable package. Let us know where you prefer to place third-party software in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on monitoring bandwidth consumption in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you manually select where software is installed?
| Yes - for portable packages: | 139 (9%) |
| Yes - for my own projects: | 75 (5%) |
| Yes - for software built from source: | 153 (10%) |
| Yes - for a combination of the above: | 338 (22%) |
| Yes - for other situations: | 116 (8%) |
| No - I never select where software is installed: | 691 (46%) |
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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 $3,877 in contributions from the following kind souls:
| Donor |
Amount |
|---|
| Anonymous | $3750 |
| John T | $25 |
| Clifford C | $25 |
| Patrick U | $20 |
| Frits M | $10 |
| Sam C | $10 |
| Jonathon B | $7 |
| Chung T | $5 |
| Darkeugene7896 | $5 |
| DuCakedHare | $5 |
| Joe H | $3 |
| Urs N | $3 |
| JD L | $2 |
| PB C | $2 |
| Peter M | $2 |
| c6WWldo9 | $1 |
| Stephen M | $1 |
| William E | $1 |
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New projects added to database
Crunchbangplusplus
Crunchbangplusplus, a continuation of CrunchBang Linux which was discontinued in 2015, is a minimalist distribution based on the latest stable Debian release while featuring the lightweight Openbox window manager. It is available for both i686 and x86_64 processor architectures.
Crunchbangplusplus 11.1 -- Running the Openbox window manager
(full image size: 111kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
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New distributions added to waiting list
- PersiaOS. PersiaOS is an Arch Linux-based distribution which claims to be able to run software from a variety of platforms, including Windows and Android.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 8 May 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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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Wine Curmudgeon (by rufo on 2023-05-01 00:23:58 GMT from United States)
Imagine my surprise when I clicked the link to Jeff Siegel’s wine site when I discovered it was about…wine. Not the Windows emulator, but the fermented grape juice.
2 • Wine and Windows (by Wedge009 on 2023-05-01 01:29:44 GMT from Australia)
Yeah, I made that same mistake a previous time the Wine Curmudgeon site was promoted.
I recognise that for the majority of people outside of DistroWatch readership, desktop computing is 'dead', and even laptops are nowhere near as favoured as mobile phones and other touch-based devices. But I had a feeling Microsoft was heading in a bad direction with Windows since 8, 10, and now 11.
If only laptop hardware didn't depend so much on Windows-specific drivers, I could ditch Windows for just about everything. As it stands I've already running Linux on nearly all my desktops since Window 7 was killed off.
3 • Installing portable linux apps (by Ivan on 2023-05-01 02:09:43 GMT from Italy)
My goal was to provide a home for the portable linux apps (AppImage packages in particular, being there no centralized repository), so I've developed two utilities in bash that can install, remove, update, backup, restore and manage more than 1500 portable applications (more of them are AppImage packages, but there are also standalone applications like Firefox, Blender and Google Chrome). The main one is "AM", it installs everything in /opt (according with the Linux Standard Base), the second one is "AppMan", i.e. a copy of "AM" that allows you to choose where to install all your applications in your home directory and without root prvileges. Each program is installed into its own directory, containing the application itself, a script (named AM-updater) needed to update the application (note that many AppImage packages cannot use the standard tools to be updated, do the script can compare the installed version with the new one from the source), the icon and a text file containing the version of the installed app (this is used by the AM-script I've talked previously). To see the code, videos and more details about "AM", just click my name or visit my repository on github, I'm the user Ivan-HC. I hope you enjoy my project, I'e worked alone on it for two years but I'm looking for cooperators to convert this into a community project.
4 • Screenshots of Xubuntu in Review (by Foss-is Great on 2023-05-01 06:07:55 GMT from Germany)
About 2 weeks ago i did a review on Xubuntu 23.4 here. I wrote :"Well, and there is the look and feel - strictly speaking - no look and feel. Thus, Xubuntu is really only an offer for users who always customize the desktop according to their own taste anyway, or who don't care about the appearance. I guess they could get much more users, if they would spend much more time on a good looking look and feel - there is still a lot possible."
Today i saw the Screenshots in Jeff's review - light theme, transparent panel, also better costomized than the default Xubuntu. So i put the 23.4 iso on a thumbdrive to test it. But the costomizing of the desktop was the same like always, not like the screenshots in Jeff's review.
So let me ask: are the screenshots original from the actually lifesystem or are the from a costomized version?
5 • Crunchbang (by Foss-is-great on 2023-05-01 06:44:55 GMT from Germany)
A legend is back. I going to try it, as soon as I find the time to do it. Main question: what a differents to bunsenlabs. I am really enjoinging the feather lightwight side of the linux world.
6 • where software is installed (by Dr.J on 2023-05-01 06:56:56 GMT from Germany)
I think we have to differentiate here. I couldn't care less where software installs itself. However, this only applies to the actual program files. Something completely different are the configuration files and - of course - the data files. For both, I usually and if necessary, adjust the paths so that they are placed in the directories (such as /home/user) that are regularly backed up.
7 • Fidget Flie Manager (by Trihexagonal on 2023-05-01 07:11:01 GMT from United States)
I'm going to lump changing standard locations of where files are installed in my "Not Leaving Well Enough Alone" category of worst mistakes new people make.
Whether it be ports, pkg, apt or apt-get I stay with the default paths for program builds.
8 • Xubuntu is more a Midwight Distro now (by Foss-is-great on 2023-05-01 08:15:10 GMT from Germany)
Where are the good old times when a Xubuntu iso had a size of 1.3 GB ? Today the Iso got a size of 3 GB! Twice much than in former days! So today Xubuntu must be seen as a Midwight distro.
I am really thinking of lxqt. But there is one big point for xfce - its the whiskersmenu - that is really great!
9 • Crunchbang++ vs Bunsenlabs (by NameyDude on 2023-05-01 08:38:49 GMT from Sweden)
Bunsenlabs is the community continuation. Crunchbang ++ is more of a one-person-thing if I remember correctly. I mean that not at all in a bad way though
10 • Xubuntu is heavy (by Alex on 2023-05-01 13:37:17 GMT from United States)
Xubuntu always seems to use up about 100-200 MB more ram than Debian-based XFCE distros. I don't know what makes it heavier...maybe Snap? These days I find myself on Pardus, PeppermintOS, or Spiral Linux.
11 • Default locations (by Friar Tux on 2023-05-01 14:35:42 GMT from Canada)
@7 (Trihexagonal) I'm with you on leaving well enough alone. And, yes, I've messed up many an OS trying to put stuff where I wanted it to be. I now use the default locations for everything. EXCEPT AppImages... I have a folder in my Home directory for those, to make it easier to back up and restore if need be.
As for Xubuntu, or even just XFCE, I find both to be about the same size as Mint/Cinnamon. I think it's because of the desktop Applets/Widgets. I use these a lot so I prefer a desktop that offers them. Since XFCE started offering them I've noticed a steady climb in size. (The bigger the pipe, the more water it holds.)
12 • Xubuntu size (by AloofBrit on 2023-05-01 21:01:22 GMT from United States)
@8 the 23.04 Minimal is 1.7GB, which doesn't seem too bad for a usable DE
13 • Xbntu Min (by eight.bit.al on 2023-05-01 23:54:23 GMT from United States)
Xubuntu Minimal. Nice, clean slate to build on.
https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/daily-minimal/current/
14 • Installing manually (by fenglengshun on 2023-05-02 05:28:53 GMT from Indonesia)
If I install stuff manually, and I can't 'hide' it inside Conty, Distrobox, Nix home-manager, or Flatpak, then I just put it in ~/.local/bin or /opt, mostly the former. You do need to add it to PATH, but I think that should be done automatically by most distro when it detects ~/.local/bin exists. But I still sometimes install stuff at ~/Applications, following AppImageLauncher convention, as a convenient *visible* place to put some random apps in.
Though, for games, following old Lutris convention, I put them in ~/Games, which might just be linked to another folder. I didn't know /usr/games is a thing though, I was surprised when I saw gamescope from a ppa I installed was located in /usr/games.
15 • Xubuntu 23.04 (by Carlos Felipe on 2023-05-02 14:00:07 GMT from Brazil)
"Finally, I had tremendous difficulty getting the ISO to load successfully onto a USB key. I used both Balena Etcher and the GNOME Startup Disk tool and got kernel panics five or six times."
I used Fedora Media Writer (all 23.04 family) to create a live usb, for the first time didn't work well.
16 • Install ISO (by vmclark on 2023-05-02 16:17:52 GMT from United States)
For getting ISO's installed, use Ventoy. Works every time.
17 • Burn an ISO (by Marco on 2023-05-03 00:40:44 GMT from United States)
sudo dd bs=4M if=/path/to/some.iso of=/dev/sdb conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress
has never failed me. Ever. Just make sure /dev/sdb is your USB thumb drive. Really sure.
18 • Crunch me (by Cruncher on 2023-05-03 04:34:56 GMT from Germany)
@5:
No one is preventing you from installing Openbox and/or Fluxbox window managers in most Linux distributions. Crunchbang was interesting, but one can easily whip up something similar in a short time.
19 • Crunchbang++ vs. BunsenLabs (by ICHwersonst on 2023-05-03 18:12:49 GMT from Germany)
biggest difference: BunsenLabs has a lot of additional software pre-installed, which one may not use at all. So if you like it light, choose Crunchbang++.
20 • Thunar 2-panel (by F3-help on 2023-05-04 03:25:45 GMT from New Zealand)
Have to agree - mindblow, Thunar arrives at Midnight Commander level. This (previously missing feature) was setting my impression of the whole DE as "amateurish". This is an encouraging step forward.
21 • @5 Crunchbang++ (by vmclark on 2023-05-04 17:26:13 GMT from United States)
Works very well, but as there is only one author, developer, is a concern. Yet, its debian, so no issue, just use debian repositories, regardless what happens.
22 • Use Ventoy (by Mr.Sahay on 2023-05-05 06:49:57 GMT from India)
@15 I am using ventoy with multiple distro in it just need to set it up once only that's it. all you need to do is copy paste the iso and delete the one not needed.
Number of Comments: 22
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| • 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 |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
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StressLinux
StressLinux was an openSUSE-based minimal Linux distribution that runs from a bootable CDROM or via PXE. It makes use of some utilities such as stress, cpuburn, hddtemp, lm_sensors, etc. It was dedicated to users who want to test their system(s) entirely on high load and monitor the health of these systems.
Status: Discontinued
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