 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1025, 26 June 2023 |
Welcome to this year's 26th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Open source desktop environments are constantly evolving and shifting, both to adapt to new technologies and to respond to new trends. This week we begin with a preview of the upcoming KDE Plasma 6 desktop. Plasma 6 is expected to be a gentle upgrade from Plasma 5, with some cleaner code and nicer defaults. This week Jesse Smith takes Plasma 6 (running on the KaOS distribution) for a spin and reports on his experiences. What do you think of the plans for Plasma 6? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about Red Hat changing its policy on sharing source code for its Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution. We also share how SUSE is adding support to its distribution to make better use of hardware security features while Funtoo phases out some of the project's infrastructure. Then we talk about what information might be shared or leaked by a desktop environment and how that affects user privacy. Plus we are pleased to provide details of the new releases published last week and list the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we are grateful to be able to thank our readers who sent donations to help us this month. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
|
| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
KaOS with Plasma 6 Preview
The KaOS distribution is an independent, rolling release operating system. The KaOS developers publish regular snapshots of the project's live media. The distribution focuses exclusively on one desktop environment (KDE Plasma) for one CPU architecture (x86_64). Along with the April live media update, the KaOS project included an extra technology preview for KDE Plasma 6 (the next major version of the Plasma desktop).
Not only is there a new stable ISO released, but to look forward to the next ten years, there is also a Plasma 6 preview ISO available. This ISO is not installable, only meant to test in live mode. The installer Calamares is not ready for Qt 6/Plasma 6, nor are there many KDE applications available in their Qt 6 version.
This ISO is only linked in the news item, not available from the Download page. Auto-login is not enabled, since it varies greatly, depending on hardware whether X or Wayland is the better session. So, SDDM will show you an empty username. Login name & password are live/live.
I was curious to see what new features and adjustments Plasma 6 would bring. Would this offer a major shift, as we saw moving from KDE 3 to KDE 4? Or would this be a more gentle transition, as we saw from KDE 4 to version 5? I downloaded the 2.5GB ISO file for the Plasma 6 preview.
Before I dive into my experiences, I want to acknowledge this is an early snapshot of KDE Plasma 6, not a final release. This typically means there will be some bugs which have yet been fixed and some features may not be complete. This is a chance to get an idea of where Plasma 6 is going, but one should expect some bumps along the road.
As stated in the KaOS announcement, the live media boots to a graphical login screen where we can use "live" as both the username and password. We can also pick whether we want to run Plasma 6 as a Wayland or X11 session, with Wayland being the default.
Different behaviour in different test environments
I experimented with the Plasma preview on my laptop and in a VirtualBox environment. These two test environments sometimes produced different results. For example, when running in VirtualBox the Wayland session failed to work at all. Upon signing in as the "live" user, the screen went blank and the system would lock up, failing to respond to keyboard or mouse input. A hard shutdown was required to exit the session. The X11 session worked smoothly when run in VirtualBox.
When run on my laptop, both the Wayland and X11 sessions worked and (for all practical purposes) worked identically. I didn't notice any differences between the two session options when running them on my laptop.
KaOS 2023.04.20 Plasma 6 Preview -- Yakuake failing to load Konsole
(full image size: 241kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Another area where Plasma 6 behaved differently was launching the Konsole virtual terminal. When KaOS was running directly on my laptop, I was unable to launch a Konsole session. The application would simply crash as soon as I tried to launch it, regardless of the method. Similarly, the Yakuake drop-down terminal failed to work, reporting it was unable to load the Konsole component. This happened in both the Wayland and X11 sessions on my laptop.
When I switched over to running KaOS in VirtualBox, the Konsole application ran without any problems. Yakuake still reported it could not find its Konsole component and failed to run properly, but the Konsole application itself ran without any problems. I found this interesting as it wasn't a Wayland vs X11 bug, but a physical vs virtual hardware issue which was preventing Konsole from working.
Before I dive into the list of features and changes I could find for Plasma 6, I'd like to acknowledge that people trying the technology preview will see several programs refer to themselves as being version 5.27 rather than 6.0. In particular, the Plasma packages were tagged with version number 5.27.80 while I was trying this preview. These numbers are likely to bump up to 6.0 rather than 5.28 when Plasma 6 is ready for release.
New features and changes
I had trouble finding an official list of features available for testing, but I did find an overview of features which were either available or works in progress. I'm going to quickly talk about this list of features and give my impression of each one.
To me, the most significant thing about this list is it indicates Plasma 6 is focused on polishing the desktop and improving both its defaults and consistency. This isn't a big overhaul or change in the way the desktop works as a whole. Plasma 6 looks like it is going to be a lot like Plasma 5, with some additional polish and improvements to its workflow rather than a revolutionary adjustment.
Wayland by default - Plasma 6 will attempt to use Wayland by default while maintaining X11 as a backup session option. I confirmed this is the case. As I mentioned earlier, Wayland didn't work in my VirtualBox session while working very well on my laptop. The X11 session worked well in both environments.
Floating panel - I couldn't find a lot of details on this, but it seems as though the desktop panel in Plasma will hover near the screen edge rather than stick hard against the edge of the display. This makes it look like the panel is floating or hovering slightly. On KaOS the panel doesn't float, it sticks firmly to the edge of the display. By default it is placed hard against the right side of the screen, though it can be moved to any screen edge. This might be a feature which is pending or perhaps KaOS is setting its own defaults for panel behaviour.
KaOS 2023.04.20 Plasma 6 Preview -- Changing click behaviour
(full image size: 199kB, resolution: 1536x864 pixels)
Double-click to open - By default, past versions of the KDE desktop have used single-click behaviour to open files and folders, for instance on the desktop or in the file manager. While efficient, it is not the typical double-click behaviour used by most other desktop environments. Some distributions have changed the default behaviour to avoid confusion. With Plasma 6 the desktop will switch to using a double-click from the mouse to open files and folders while single-click will select an item without opening it.
I found KaOS still uses the old behaviour of opening files and folders with a single-click. This behaviour can be changed in the System Settings panel, under the Workspace Behaviour configuration module.
Tinted headers - One small feature I was eager to see was tinted application headers. When using light themes, such as Breeze Light, it can be difficult to quickly tell which of two (or more) windows has focus. A new feature will tint the header area (the menus and button bars) of an application a slightly darker shade. This makes it easier to identify which window is active.
The default theme KaOS uses, while it is light, doesn't support the tinting feature. I switched to a vanilla Breeze Light theme and observed the tinting in active windows. I like the concept and think it serves as an easy visual indicator without being distracting.
KaOS 2023.04.20 Plasma 6 Preview -- Using tinted headers to identify the active window
(full image size: 177kB, resolution: 1536x864 pixels)
Thumbnail grid task switcher - Based on the description, it looks like Plasma 6 will include a task switcher widget which can display thumbnails of running applications. This will help users identify and switch between open windows. This feature is not enabled on KaOS and the thumbnail task switcher is not one of the available task switcher widgets included in the distribution.
Wallpaper switcher in System Settings - While it has long be possible to change the Plasma wallpaper by right-clicking on the desktop, the developers have suggested it could be easier to change the wallpaper from within the System Settings panel. I checked and there is an option for changing the wallpaper under the Appearance section of the panel. It works and offers a straight forward way to adjust the background.
KaOS 2023.04.20 Plasma 6 Preview -- Changing the background image
(full image size: 388kB, resolution: 1536x864 pixels)
Unified desktop view - I think this description sums up the situation with the desktop views and how they are changing nicely: "Currently we have two default desktop plugin types: Folder (the default) and Desktop. Desktop is just Folder without support for desktop icons. This is a bit silly, and internally they're 99% the same because its prior developer also thought it was a bit silly and implemented them with the same backend code. So for Plasma 6, we're going to collapse the distinction in the UI and instead expose a "Show desktop icons" checkbox somewhere. This will make it even easier for people who don't like desktop icons to hide them, avoid putting implementation details in front of the user, and de-clutter the wallpaper choosing view."
I didn't find this setting anywhere yet and perhaps it is still in the works.
Clicking in scrollbar track jumps scrollbar to that location - This feature seems straight forward, allowing the user to jump straight to a specific location rather than moving up or down the displayed document a page at a time. This would also bring scrollbar behaviour on Plasma more in line with other desktops. This change is available on KaOS, but the distribution uses the old behaviour as its default. Scrollbar behaviour can be adjusted in the Workspace Behaviour module of the System Settings panel.
KaOS 2023.04.20 Plasma 6 Preview -- Changing scrollbar track behaviour
(full image size: 199kB, resolution: 1536x864 pixels)
Other observations
I made a few other observations about Plasma 6 while I was exploring its new features. One was the desktop does not appear to have changed in terms of performance and resource consumption. Plasma 6 used about 900MB of RAM on KaOS, which is about the same amount Plasma 5 uses on the same distribution running the same services. This makes Plasma a little heavier than average (when compared against other desktops), but still lighter than GNOME on most distributions.
In terms of responsiveness, Plasma is still in the middle of the pack. It performs well, but isn't as snappy as lighter desktops such as LXQt.
A concern I had was the System Settings panel crashed frequently. About half of the time, when I opened a specific configuration page, System Settings would crash. This was also a problem with later versions of the Plasma 5.x series and it has become worse in the preview of Plasma 6.
On the whole, Plasma 6 looks like it will be a minor evolution forward. There are some nice little touches, some more predictable and consistent defaults, and some streamlining of the experience. Nothing big or surprising, just nice little improvements and a few visual tweaks that I think most people will enjoy.
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
KaOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 5.5/10 from 24 review(s).
Have you used KaOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Red Hat changes the ways it provides source code to the public, SUSE offers a range of support for confidential computing, Funtoo trimming its infrastructure
Red Hat is making an effort to reduce the number of different ways the public accesses the source code which goes into Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The company explained through a blog post that source code for the RHEL family will be provided to the public through CentOS Stream repositories only. "CentOS Stream will now be the sole repository for public RHEL-related source code releases. For Red Hat customers and partners, source code will remain available via the Red Hat Customer Portal. To be clear, this change does not signify any changes to the CentOS Project, CentOS Stream or source availability for CentOS Stream or CentOS SIGs. Why make this change? Before CentOS Stream, Red hat pushed public sources for RHEL to git.centos.org. When the CentOS Project shifted to center on CentOS Stream, we maintained these repositories even though CentOS Linux was no longer being built downstream of RHEL. The engagement around CentOS Stream, the engineering levels of investment, and the new priorities we're addressing for customers and partners now make maintaining separate, redundant, repositories inefficient. The latest source code will still be available via CentOS Stream." In other words, the source code for RHEL will no longer be publicly available, but will be provided to Red Hat customers.
* * * * *
SUSE is taking a step toward providing additional security and verification to their SUSE Linux Enterprise distribution. The company announced this week their plan to support an entire range of "confidential computing". The Register reports: "SUSE's latest release of SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 Service Pack 5 (SLE 15 SP5) has a focus on security, claiming it as the first distro to offer full support for confidential computing to protect data." Confidential computing refers to using hardware features to verify and restrict the software running on a platform. "Confidential computing relies on hardware-based security mechanisms in the processor to provide this protection, so enterprises hoping to take advantage of this will need to ensure their servers have the necessary support, such as AMD's Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Secure Nested Paging (SEV-SNP) and Intel's Trust Domain Extensions (TDX)."
* * * * *
The Funtoo Linux project has published a newsletter for April and May which outlines a number of changes to the project. Multiple entries in the newsletter talk about aspects of the project being phased out. Specifically, Funtoo Linux 1.4 will reach the end of its supported life at the end of 2023, the support forums will likely be discontinued, and the documentation wiki is being removed. "The wiki has historically suffered from massive amounts of unmaintained pages which confuse users. Also, at its heart, MediaWiki (what we use) is a MySQL database with a very complex schema which is used to store documents. I don't like dumping our documentation in there. There are more modern ways to do documentation. Using MediaWiki is essentially locking all our valuable community and official content in a black box where we don't have a great programmatic way to interact with it. Yes, MediaWiki has an API -- but it's cumbersome. It just takes a valuable resource and doesn't give us quite enough power to manage it properly. It's just not the right solution for the future. It's time to build some new tech to serve our project. MediaWiki will continue to linger around like an old appendage until we announce its retirement and start publishing on a new system. So that's what we're doing."
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
What information is shared from different desktop environments?
Protecting-privacy asks: In terms of privacy, are all Linux desktops the same? Will it matter if I run GNOME, Xfce, or KDE?
DistroWatch answers: Most of the time, for most actions and daily usage, you probably won't experience any more telemetry or data leaking out of one open source desktop or another. They all tend to be respective of your privacy and avoid data collection.
With that said, there are some edge cases where one desktop may end up sharing information where another would not. For instance, on some distributions KDE Plasma's telemetry may be enabled. Plasma has a number of telemetry options which are normally either disabled entirely at build time or turned off in the settings, requiring users to opt-in to any information gathering. However, distributions may choose to enable these features so it's worth checking if your Plasma applications have any reporting enabled.
The Unity desktop, or at least the build supplied by Canonical for Ubuntu, famously enabled sending searches for local files and applications to Canonical and third-party organizations. This led to some people, particularly the Free Software Foundation, labeling Unity as spyware. This label may have been a bit harsh as it was possible to disable the on-line search feature through the Unity settings panel, but it was unfortunate Canonical chose to include the sharing of information by default rather than making it opt-in.
GNOME has a tool called gnome-info-collect which can gather some data about the system. Again, this tends to be an opt-in experience, similar to KDE's approach. GNOME also offers the user an opportunity to connect with cloud services, such as Nextcloud, Google, and Microsoft services. This is, again, opt-in and only a matter of concern if you voluntarily connect to the cloud services offered.
In short, these desktops do not report back on your activities or track you, by default. But they do provide some services and functions which can upload information if the user (or their distribution) enables these services.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP5
SUSE has announced the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) 15 SP5, the fifth service pack of the company's enterprise-class Linux distribution designed mainly for developers and administrators to deploy business-critical workloads. The company's new release streamlines the install media and provides wider support for IPv4 addresses. "The Unified Installer and Packages DVDs known from SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop/SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 15 SP1 are deprecated and have been replaced by the following media: Online Installation Media - all SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 products can be installed with this stand alone media, after entering a registration key. The necessary packages are fetched from online repositories only. For information about available modules, see Section 3.1, 'Modules in the SLE 15 SP5 (prerelease) Product Line'. Full Installation Media - all SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop/SUSE Linux Enterprise Workstation Extension 15 products can be installed without network connection with this media, for offline installation scenarios. The media contains all necessary packages." The release notes offer additional details.
Univention Corporate Server 5.0-4
Univention Corporate Server (UCS) is an enterprise-class distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. It features an integrated management system for central administration of servers. The project has published a new update to its 5.0 series which streamlines the Management Console Server and Web Server programs. There have also been a number of Samba updates with a focus on improved performance. "Univention Management Console Server and Web Server are now merged into a single program and the implementation uses Tornado instead of the UCS specific Python Notifier. The integration of Keycloak has been improved for operation with accessibility from the Internet, for outgoing passwords and for the migration of existing SimpleSAMLPHP based connections. We will inform you about details of the upcoming Keycloak developments in a separate blog article. At radius it is now possible to add the user name mailPrimaryAddress to register, which guarantees more flexibility when registering. Samba has been updated to version 4.18.3. The latest version of Samba contains numerous optimizations that lead to improved performance. Upstream maintenance is also ensured by using the latest Samba version." Details can be found in the release announcement and in the release notes.
Proxmox 8.0 "Virtual Environment"
Proxmox is a commercial company offering specialised products based on Debian GNU/Linux. the company's latest release is Proxmox 8.0 "Virtual Environment" which is based on Debian 12. The release announcement lists new features in the distribution: "We're very excited to announce the major release 8.0 of Proxmox Virtual Environment! It's based on the great Debian 12 "Bookworm" but using a newer Linux kernel 6.2, QEMU 8.0.2, LXC 5.0.2, and OpenZFS 2.1.12. Here is a selection of the highlights of the Proxmox VE 8.0 final version Debian 12, but using a newer Linux kernel 6.2, QEMU 8.0.2, LXC 5.0.2, ZFS 2.1.12. Ceph Server: Ceph Quincy 17.2 is the default and comes with continued support. There is now an enterprise repository for Ceph which can be accessed via any Proxmox VE subscription, providing the best stability for production systems. Additional text-based user interface (TUI) for the installer ISO. Integrate host network bridge and VNet access when configuring virtual guests into the ACL system of Proxmox VE. Add access realm sync jobs to conveniently synchronize users and groups from an LDAP/AD server automatically at regular intervals. New default CPU type for VMs: x86-64-v2-AES Resource mappings: between PCI(e) or USB devices, and nodes in a Proxmox VE cluster. Countless GUI and API improvements." The release notes offer additional information.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| 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: 2,881
- Total data uploaded: 43.3TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
What do you think of Plasma 6?
We began this week with a look at a preview of the Plasma 6 desktop running on KaOS. The Plasma 6 experience closely resembles that of the Plasma 5 series, with a few tweaks, some streamlining, and some effort to improve the desktop environment's default behaviour. We'd like to hear what you think of the upcoming Plasma 6 release.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using protective scripts and aliases in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
What do you think of Plasma 6?
| I like the preview: | 182 (14%) |
| I do not like the preview: | 21 (2%) |
| I think it is too soon to tell: | 378 (30%) |
| I do not use Plasma: | 689 (54%) |
|
|
| Website News |
Donations and Sponsors
Each month we receive support and kindness from our readers in the form 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 $143 in contributions from the following kind souls:
| Donor |
Amount |
|---|
| Manjeet S | $47 |
| Christopher E | $23 |
| Jeffrey S | $20 |
| Sam C | $10 |
| Jonathon B | $7 |
| Ross M | $6 |
| Chung T | $5 |
| Darkeugene7896 | $5 |
| DuCakedHare | $5 |
| Joe H | $3 |
| Skye F | $3 |
| PB Coleman | $2 |
| J.D. L | $2 |
| Peter M | $2 |
| c6WWldo9 | $1 |
| Stephen M | $1 |
| William E | $1 |
* * * * *
New projects added to database
Kumander Linux
Kumander Linux is a Debian-based distribution featuring the Xfce desktop. The distribution's key feature is a Windows 7-like theme and desktop behaviour designed to make the migration from Windows to Linux easier.
Kumander Linux 1.0 -- Running the live Xfce desktop
(full image size: 262kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 3 July 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)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
|
| 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.
|
| Archives |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • 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.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Ging
Ging was a live CD distribution based on Debian GNU/kFreeBSD (which was based on Debian, GNU and the kernel of FreeBSD). Ging consists entirely of free software as per Debian Free Software Guidelines, and has a commitment to remain this way.
Status: Discontinued
|
| 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
