 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1034, 28 August 2023 |
Welcome to this year's 35th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
There are few more interesting, independent Linux distributions than Void. The Void project offers its own package manager, makes the unusual choice to use the runit init software, and offers builds that use the lightweight musl C library. This unique combination sets the Void project apart and gives the rolling distribution a following of people looking for something outside of the mainstream. How well does this unique distribution function? Jesse Smith takes Void for a test run and reports on his experiences in this week's Feature Story. While most distributions use the GNU C library, Void is one of the few which uses the musl C library. Do you run a distribution that runs musl C? Let us know in the Opinion Poll below. In our News section we talk about the FreeBSD project gaining a port of Linux's NVIDIA DRM driver which should improve Wayland performance. We also talk about Fedora looking to offer better theme handling for Qt-based applications while Canonical plans new features for the Ubuntu desktop. Then we talk about measuring memory consumption on Linux in our Questions and Answers column. Plus we're pleased to share the releases of the past week and share the torrents we are seeding. We're also grateful to the readers and sponsors who continue to support us and thank them below. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Void 20230628
Void is one of the more interesting Linux distributions, in my opinion. It is an independent project, meaning it is not based on other distributions. The Void project offers a rolling release, keeping it up to date, while maintaining a reputation for being more stable than the average rolling distro. The project features the rarely deployed runit init software and a custom package manager called XBPS which can work with both binary packages and source packages.
To make matters more interesting, Void is available in desktop flavours and a minimal, command-line only flavour. Plus, it offers multiple C library implementations: glibc (which is used by most Linux distributions) and musl libc. Void is able to run on x86 machines (both 32-bit and 64-bit) as well as a variety of ARM boards. All of this is to say, Void offers a great deal of flexibility, a unique personality, and a small resource footprint.
The Base (minimal) edition of Void is a 659MB download while the Xfce edition for x86_64 machines is 984MB. I decided to try the glibc build of the Xfce edition. While the musl libc build may be interesting, it's probably best reserved for people who know they specifically need it as some software in the GNU/Linux ecosystem is compatible with glibc only.
The Void live media boots straight into the Xfce 4.18 desktop. A panel at the top of the screen holds an application menu and system tray. A dock with launchers for key applications sits at the bottom. There are icons on the Xfce desktop for launching the Thunar file manager.
Void 20230628 -- Exploring the application menu
(full image size: 553kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
I noticed early on there is an audio mixer in the system tray and sound worked out of the box. The last few times I've run Void audio was muted by default and there was no mixer control available. This feels like a positive step.
Installing
I did not find any launcher on the desktop or in the application menu for the system installer. Instead we can launch the text-menu driven installer from the command line by running the "sudo void-installer" command.
Void's installer walks us through a series of steps which we can perform (or revisit) in the order of our choosing. We're asked to pick our keyboard layout from a cryptic list and given a chance to enable our network connection. We're asked if we'd like to install packages from the local media or install software over the network. There is a note on the Void website which warns us to stick to local packages on the ISO when installing a desktop environment.
We are asked to pick our locale from a list as well as our timezone. We're asked to make up a root password. Plus we are given the chance to create a regular user account and set its groups and password. Plus we can choose where to install a boot loader.
When it comes to disk partitioning, Void's installer will offer to launch either the fdisk or cfdisk partition managers. I used the latter and it worked well for me. We can then use another module of the installer to format these partitions and assign mount points. This also worked well. Finally, the installer copies its packages to our hard drive. The installer worked well - it was unusually fast and it was stable. Void's installer requires a bit of Linux knowledge to navigate, but worked without any issues. It also only took about three minutes to install Void, even when running in a virtual machine.
Early impressions
My fresh copy of Void booted to a simple, graphical login screen. From there I was able to sign into my account which started a new Xfce session. The background is a sort of string-themed, abstract painting with lots of negative space and colourful lines centred around the Xfce mascot. The Xfce is highly responsive, very fast, and its animation is smooth.
The default theme is a bit mixed. The panel and application menu show a dark theme while context menus are light. The virtual terminal is dark while the file manager and text editor are light. As with my experience with Solus a few weeks ago, there seems to be no consistency across the default desktop, even with fairly vanilla settings.
Void 20230628 -- The Thunar file manager
(full image size: 657kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
The Xfce screensaver locks the desktop after five minutes of inactivity. Even with this timeout removed or extended, the screen still blanked and locked. I discovered this was due to the power settings also blanking my screen during inactivity, so the behaviour needs to be addressed in two places.
Hardware
I tested Void in a VirtualBox instance and on my workstation. The distribution performed well in the virtual machine without any issues. Void ran similarly smoothly on my workstation. All of my hardware was detected, sound worked out of the box, and I had no trouble connecting to local wireless networks.
While I was using Void, everything ran surprisingly quickly. The distribution boots and shutdowns almost instantly (thanks to a smaller number of background services and the runit init software), the distribution was always quick, responsive, and the Xfce desktop was unusually snappy.
The distribution is quite light on resources. A fresh install of Void's Xfce edition requires just 2.3GB of disk space (about a third of the typical mainstream desktop distribution) and Xfce runs in 410MB of RAM, about two-thirds of what KDE Plasma tends to use these days and less than half what GNOME often consumes. This offers extra room for running applications.
Included software
Void ships with a small number of desktop applications. We're given the Firefox web browser, the Ristretto image viewer, and Thunar file manager. The Parole media player is included along with the Mousepad text editor. The Xfce settings panel is provided to help us customize the desktop environment. All of these worked quite well for me. I like the minimal approach as there are enough tools to get us started while virtually no clutter.
Void 20230628 -- The Xfce settings panel
(full image size: 376kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
Void also ships with the GNU command line utilities and manual pages. This snapshot of Void runs the PipeWire media software, though a PulseAudio volume control is included. In the background Void uses the runit init software and version 6.3 of the Linux kernel.
Software management
Earlier I mentioned Void has its own, custom package manager. This command line package manager is called XBPS. XBPS is actually a collection of package management tools with the three key ones for most situations being: xbps-install for fetching new software, xbps-query for finding packages, and xbps-remove for deleting unwanted software. The syntax of these tools, particularly the query utility, is a little unusual, but the documentation does a nice job of offering examples.
The first day I was running Void, XBPS found 41 packages totalling 206MB in size waiting to be updated. These new packages were fetched and installed without any issues.
XBPS is quite fast, matching the rest of the Void distribution in general. It also worked without any issues. There doesn't appear to be any graphical front-end for XBPS which, also matching the rest of the distribution, suggests this operating system is not intended for novice Linux users.
Void doesn't have a lot of software in its repositories, compared next to projects like Debian. What is does have tends to be on the cutting edge though. Should we require a wider range of software, Void includes Flatpak support in its repositories (Flatpak is not installed by default). We can also customize available software using a utility called xbps-src which will build packages from source code. I didn't have cause to use xbps-src, but have encountered people in the Void community sharing source ports in order to help each other install new software without relying on the trust needed to download software from third-party binary repositories.
Void 20230628 -- Looking up steps to add Flatpak support using Firefox
(full image size: 83kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
Conclusions
Void certainly stands out in the Linux community. In a world with dozens of spins of Arch Linux and Ubuntu, Void is a rare gem, trying different approaches and offering an unusually clean and capable experience. The project is light on resources, blazingly fast, and (in my experience) stable.
Since the last time I tried Void, the developers have fixed the sound issues I experienced in the past and managed to keep everything else running well without introducing any new problems. In fact, Void seems to be error-free. I can't recall running into any error messages, glitches, or crashes during my trial and that's quite unusual.
Void is a capable distribution and, while it uses some lighter, custom tools, it provides a great deal of functionality.
I am a fan of what Void is doing and how it is accomplishing its goals. The distribution is light, fast, clean, stable, and well documented. If I had any concerns it would be just two things. First, the distribution requires a degree of familiarity with Linux. This is not a beginner-friendly project. People using Void need to be comfortable with the command line, documentation, and text menus. In this way, Void shares some style elements with Arch or OpenBSD. The other warning I would share is Void has a smaller repository of software. All the basics are there, but there are some niche tools, alternative web browsers, and such which are missing. These can often be supplied through other means, such as Flatpak or a container.
In short, for people with a bit of Linux experience who want a clean, efficient distribution and who don't mind using the command line, Void is one of the best options I've encountered in recent years.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo desktop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Hex-core Intel i5-10400 CPU @ 2.90GHz
- Storage: Western Digital 1TB hard drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 wired network card, Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11ac PCIe wireless adapter
- Display: Intel CometLake-S GT2
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Visitor supplied rating
Void has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.3/10 from 145 review(s).
Have you used Void? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA DRM driver, Fedora considers proposal for improved Qt theme handling, Canonical's plans for desktop Ubuntu
People who run FreeBSD with NVIDIA video cards received some good news recently. There is an ongoing effort to port the Linux NVIDIA DRM driver to FreeBSD which should improve compatibility and performance for desktops running Wayland sessions. "The most important use case of this is Wayland compositors. Namely, a sway desktop is fully usable on NVIDIA hardware when running with this driver. Wayland compositors primarily use the DRM-KMS API for advanced display features and for importing GPU buffers from clients without performing a copy. Please note that this is currently in the testing stage." People running FreeBSD can install this experimental driver using the project's port and package.
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There is a proposal up for discussion in the Fedora community which would improve theme handling for Qt applications. "Fedora Workstation has been using QGnomePlatform and Adwaita-qt projects to apply GNOME-like configuration and styling to Qt applications to match the environment. These projects are now in a state where they are outdated and semi-occasionally broken for some applications and it would be better to default to what Qt upstream has to offer."
The proposal goes into more detail: "With this change we would like to stop shipping and using these projects by default on Fedora Workstation and default to Qt default theming and styling. Also, because the GTK Platform Theme in Qt doesn't support everything we have support for in QGnomePlatform, we would like to contribute it to Qt instead. With this work, there shouldn't be any drawbacks when using Qt's GTK Platform Theme and we believe we would even get broader usage and more contributors for things like Client-Side Window Decorations. For Adwaita-qt replacement, we would default to Fusion style or possibly to Breeze style for KDE apps. Both styles have benefit of active upstream and broader usage than our custom style that is only used by Fedora Workstation and not tested by developers."
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Canonical has laid out plans for future versions of its Ubuntu distribution. The company has ideas for future versions, including an immutable desktop edition and improved security controls for applications. "Ubuntu Desktop must hold itself to the highest standards of security for both daily users and organisations with specific compliance requirements. Ubuntu's recommended security configurations should be easy to understand and available as the default experience. Ubuntu 23.10: We are currently working on a highly experimental implementation of hardware-backed full disk encryption as an option in the Ubuntu installer and the newest release of software-properties improves security for PPA key management." Additional plans and details can be found in the company's statement.
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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) |
Types of memory usage and running Linux on older computers
Forgetting-things asks: My Linux distro uses a lot of memory compared to Windows, but I heard Linux was supposed to work well on older machines? When I brought this up people told me "unused memory is wasted memory". But how is Linux considered good for older machines if it gobbles up so much memory?
DistroWatch answers: I think this is a good example (actually two examples) of how bits of wisdom tend to get boiled down into slogans and soundbites. In the proper context, snippets of wisdom are useful shorthands to guide people, but outside their specific context the soundbites of wisdom lose all value, and may be entirely wrong.
Outside the realm of computers, consider the phrase "You need to spend money to make money." This is helpful advice for an entrepreneur considering whether they should advertise or an investor planning their retirement. However, it's absolutely terrible advice to give someone entering a casino or a person deciding whether to engage in a multi-level marketing scheme. In a similar fashion, the line "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," is a great reminder to not judge others too harshly because we all make mistakes. On the other hand, it is a stance which will get you fired from a job at a rock quarry.
Getting back to the original question, for most of its existence Linux has been offered up as a lightweight alternative to commercial operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and a good option for keeping older machines running. This is in large part because Linux can be configured to use very minimal amounts of resources. Some Linux distributions can run a lightweight graphical interface using just 100MB of RAM and a 32-bit CPU.
While some Linux distributions are quite minimal and will run with very few resources, not all Linux distributions are geared toward minimalism. For every Linux distro which runs a light window manager and functions well with 512MB of RAM and less than 2GB of disk space, there are three which run full-featured desktop environments with lots of background services, widgets, and conveniences which will gobble up 1,000MB of RAM before you open a web browser.
Over time people have boiled down the true observation that there are some Linux distributions which work well with minimal computer hardware to simply declaring "Linux runs well on older machines." It's true, in the proper context, but it's also true that a lot of popular, mainstream distributions will consume more resources to provide a more modern, convenient experience.
Moving on to the claim that "unused memory is wasted memory", this is another statement which can be true under the right circumstances, but it's not always true. To provide the proper context, let's talk about the different states of RAM.
There are basically three states of memory on a modern operating system, though admittedly I'm simplifying things a little here for the sake of brevity. The first is "free" memory. Free memory is not used at all, in any way. It's effectively empty and unused. The second state is "active" memory, which is RAM currently used by running applications. Active memory typically holds running programs and any data they are currently using to function.
The third state of RAM is "cached". Reading information from a storage disk is relatively slow compared to accessing RAM. For this reason, open files are typically loaded into RAM and a copy of the data is kept in memory for quicker access. Operating systems typically keep files in RAM, even after they have been closed, in case we want to open them again. This is why, especially if you have a spinning hard drive, opening a large file or application once might take several seconds but opening the same file later in the day might happen almost instantly - the file is still cached in RAM.
Some memory statistics programs treat both active and cached memory as being "used" and combine their total amounts together. For example, if we have 1GB of active memory and 2GB of cached memory, a lot of system monitors will report 3GB of memory are being used. This isn't exactly wrong, but it is a bit misleading. The reason it is misleading is cached memory is just mirroring information on our storage drive. Cached memory can be dropped (freed) at any time and used for something else.
In other words, while cached memory is being used for something (keeping copies of files for quick access) it can be quickly repurposed and used as active memory as needed. Active memory can only be freed up if a program uses less memory or terminates. Active memory is somewhat "locked in" and not available for use by anything else. Cached memory, by contrast, is basically still available for other purposes as needed.
Linux tends to fill up free memory with cached data in order to make file access faster. Over time, memory on a Linux system will gradually fill up with cached files. These cached files improve performance and, since cached data can be dropped at any time, cached memory does not prevent us from using the memory for something else. This is where the phrase "unused memory is wasted memory" comes from. There is no benefit to having memory be "free" instead of "cached" because both can be repurposed for "active" use as needed. Meanwhile, having data in cached memory speeds up file access.
This approach to caching, taking over free memory to be used as cached memory, often results in people seeing their memory as being entirely used by Linux and conclude Linux is heavy in RAM. In fact, Linux typically uses fairly small amounts of active memory and it is only the unfortunate method of reporting used by a lot of system monitors (which add active and cached memory together to show them as "used") that gives this impression of Linux being heavy. Linux usually consumes a small amount of active memory and will immediately dump cache to make room as needed.
The free command does a better job than most of showing how memory is being utilized. Here we have an example:
$ free -m
| total | used | free | shared | buff/cache | available |
| Mem: | 7599 | 1248 | 521 | 185 | 5829 | 5839 |
In the above example we can see the system has 7,599MB of physical RAM available. Of that, just 1,248MB is currently being actively used. In other words, about 16% is being consumed by applications and services. However, only about 521MB of RAM is free. This is what tends to make people concerned and think Linux is memory hungry. However, we shouldn't focus on how much memory is "free", we should look at how much is still "available" for use. In this case 5,839MB (76%) of the computer's memory is still available to be used by applications. All the system needs to do is dump some of its cached data and repurpose the memory for active use.
Getting back to the phrase "unused memory is wasted memory", that can be true. Memory which is currently "free" instead of "cached" is wasted. It's simply sitting there doing nothing and offering us no benefit. Since memory is available for applications to use whether it's free or holding cached data, it is almost always better for the operating system to cache files in RAM.
However, some people misunderstand the slogan "unused memory is wasted memory" and assume it applies everywhere. Ideally, an operating system won't eat up a lot of space with active memory, because active memory cannot be used for other tasks. The phrase "unused memory is wasted memory" occasionally gets used to justify heavy applications or desktop environments which should be made more efficient and improved to consume less active memory which could be better utilized by cache or other applications.
In short, the phrase makes sense when applied to free memory which could be cached. It is incorrect when talking about active memory which can be used to our benefit elsewhere.
I suspect your Linux distribution of choice probably doesn't require more memory than Windows did, the memory statistics are probably just being displayed differently. Usually when people see a big gap in resource usage in favour of Windows they're comparing "active" memory usage on Windows versus "active + cached" on Linux. That's likely why people are telling you unused memory (free memory which could be used for cache) is wasted.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Bodhi Linux 7.0.0
Robert Wiley has announced the release of Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, a major new update of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution featuring the Moksha desktop (a fork of Enlightenment). This version introduces a special "s76" variant with a cutting-edge Linux kernel (version 6.4.6): "The Bodhi team is thrilled to announce the long-awaited release of Bodhi Linux 7.0. Built on the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS base, Bodhi 7.0 is a momentous step forward. With a strong commitment to improving user experience, performance and adhering to its core values of minimalism and customization, this release marks a significant milestone in the evolution of Bodhi Linux. Bodhi Linux 7.0 comes with an array of improvements and updates. Most notable are: introduction of a new 's76' release which features a more advanced Linux kernel for those seeking cutting-edge performance; Linux kernel updates are now enabled by default; EFL and Terminology are updated to the version in e-git; Moksha no longer relies on deprecated libraries; the login screen boasts an upgraded slick greeter with a password reveal feature, complemented by a new Plymouth theme." See the release announcement and the release notes for further information.
Bodhi Linux 7.0.0 -- Running the Moksha desktop
(full image size: 2.0MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Kali Linux 2023.3
Kali Linux is a Debian-based distribution with a collection of security and forensics tools. The project's latest release is Kali Linux 2023.3. "Today we are delighted to introduce our latest release of Kali, 2023.3. This release blog post does not have the most features in it, as a lot of the changes have been behind-the-scenes, which brings a huge benefit to us and an indirect positive effect to you as end-users. It always goes without saying, but there are a number of new packages and tools as well as the standard updates. If you want to see what's new for yourself download or upgrade if you have an existing Kali Linux installation. The highlights of the changelog since the 2023.2 release from May: Internal Infrastructure - Major stack changes are under way; Kali Autopilot - The automation attack framework has had an major overhaul; New Tools - 9 new tools added this time round! With the release of Debian 12 which came out this summer, we took this opportunity to re-work, re-design, and re-architecture our infrastructure. It is as massive as it sounds, and should not be a surprise that it's not yet complete! This is where a good amount of our focus has been for this release-cycle (and also the next one unfortunately)." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
Mageia 9
Mageia is a general purpose, independent desktop distribution from the Mandriva family of projects. The project's latest release is version 9 which includes improves to the installer, package management, and minimal install size of the distribution. "Smaller disk footprint: The size of the minimal install (when disabling the recommended packages) has been reduced. - It's the smallest since Mageia 4. The RPM DB has switched to SQLite: The RPM database no longer uses the old and unmaintained Berkeley DB. It now uses the modern SQLite. Conversion is performed during upgrade from Mageia 8. Major developments: Installation - NFS support is done using system tools rather than our 15 years old forked NFS code, thus gaining support for NFSv4 and co... When using an HTTP server, it's now possible to specify a port different than the default "80". The stage1 images are compressed with Zstd instead of gzip. Lots of bug fixes and improvements in the partitioner. Add 'downloader=curl' in order to switch from wget to curl for downloading packages. Rescue - The rescue system has been enhanced. Live ISO: The NetworkManager system service is now enabled by default on the Plasma Live ISO (this was already done for the GNOME and Xfce Live ISOs in previous releases). This allows network connections to be managed via the Plasma system settings tool as well as by the traditional Mageia network management tools." Additional details can be found in the project's release notes.
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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: 2,901
- Total data uploaded: 43.5TB
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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) |
Running software on the musl C library
In our overview of the Void distribution this week we mentioned the project offers two separate builds. One build uses the popular glibc library while the other build runs on the musl C library.
While the musl library is less commonly used, it does have some attractive features such as being lightweight, fast, and with a focus on standards compliant behaviour. Do you run the musl C library on any of your systems? Let us know which distro provides your musl library in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on the number of user accounts on an operating system in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Does your distribution run the musl C library?
| I run a distro that uses musl C: | 90 (9%) |
| I do not run a distro that uses musl C: | 623 (62%) |
| I do not know if my distro uses musl C: | 284 (28%) |
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| 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 $188 in contributions from the following kind souls:
| Donor |
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| Thomas S | $25 |
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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, 4 September 2023. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 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 |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Issue 985 (2022-09-12): Garuda Linux, using root versus sudo, UBports on the Fairphone 4, Slackware reverses change to grep |
| • Full list of all issues |
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