 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1044, 6 November 2023 |
Welcome to this year's 45th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Slackware Linux is the world's oldest surviving distribution. The project has been around for 30 years and, in that time, has given rise to a number of derivative projects and spins. This week we begin with a look at Porteus, a live desktop distribution which is available in a range of editions. Read on to learn about the highlights of this portable distribution. In our News section we discuss changes and enhancements coming to the FreeBSD project and to the Murena mobile operating system. We also celebrate bcachefs, an advanced filesystem with a focus on performance, being accepted into the Linux kernel while OpenELA reaches an important milestone. Then we discuss how to adjust network settings to disable IPv6 connections when they are not needed. Do you currently use IPv4 or IPv6 connections? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. Plus we are pleased to share an overview of last week's releases and share the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we give a warm welcome to a new distribution which has been added to our database: Skudonet. The Skudonet project offers a load balancing distribution which continues on the work done by the Zevenet project. We hope you enjoy the week ahead and wish you happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Porteus 5.01
Porteus is a fast, portable and modular live CD/USB distribution based on Slackware Linux. The distribution started as a community remix of Slax, another Slackware-based live CD, with KDE 3 as the default desktop for the 32-bit edition and a stripped-down KDE 4 as the desktop environment for the x86_64 flavour. There are now several desktop flavours of the distribution, which include editions running Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE Plasma, LXQt, MATE, and Xfce.
Proteus 5.01 is based on Slackware 15.0 and is available in i586, and x86_64 builds. The distribution offers Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE Plasma, LXDE, LXQt, MATE, Xfce, and Openbox editions. I opted to try the 64-bit build of the LXQt edition. The release announcement mentions there are a few different ways to manage software included in the distribution, including the slapt-get package manager which offers APT-like syntax and dependency resolution.
Early impressions
The Porteus media begins by displaying a boot menu. We're given a series of choices, including Graphics mode, Text mode, and running the distribution from RAM. By default, Porteus will try to save changes and fetched packages on the live media (assuming the media is writeable). There is a boot menu option called Always Fresh which prevents data being written to removable media. It also blocks the reading of custom settings and packages from it. This gives us the ability to reset our Porteus experience.
The live media boots to the LXQt 1.3.0 desktop environment. A panel is placed across the top of the screen. This panel features the application menu, two quick launch buttons, the task switcher, and the system tray. The tray features icons for adjusting the audio volume, connecting to networks, and changing the keyboard layout. I especially liked seeing language and keyboard options presented in an easy to access manner on the live media. I was off to a good start with Porteus.
Porteus 5.01 -- Browsing the application menu
(full image size: 1.8MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
When the Porteus live media is not writable (for example, if we use a CD or a read-only image) then the distribution displays a notice in the bottom-right corner of the desktop letting us know any changes we make will not be saved.
While exploring the live desktop, I found LXQt was responsive and I liked the default, dark theme. Everything seemed uncluttered and the colourful icons make it easily to quickly identify features and applications. With a little experimenting I found the default password for performing administrative functions was "toor".
Applications
Digging through the application menu we find the Transmission bittorent software, the qpdfview document viewer, and the FeatherPad text editor. The PCManFM-Qt file manager is included and I think it wins my award for the application with the hardest name to pronounce. The distribution includes a few media applications, including the Audacious music player, the Celluloid video player, and the mpv media player. These applications include codecs for playing popular media formats.
Porteus 5.01 -- Running Firefox and browsing with the file manager
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The LXQt settings panel is included which helps us configure the desktop and customize it to our liking. The GNU command line tools are included and Porteus runs the SysV init software. In the background we find version 6.5.5 of the Linux kernel.
There is no graphical web browser, though the Lynx console web browser is included. There is a utility called the "Browser Select and Upgrade Tool" which I will discuss later.
Porteus does not include any manual pages on the live media. Instead, running the man command launches a console web browser and displays any matching page from the https://man.cx/ collection of manual pages. This saves on disk space, though it means we need to be on-line in order to read the documentation.
One application I almost overlooked as it's tucked away in the full "System Tools" category of the application menu was the Porteus Settings Centre. This application is a sort of catch-all for various functions. The Settings Centre will help us check for module updates, enable a firewall, change boot settings, encrypt a directory, and save current settings to a file on the removable media. There is also a tab for gathering system information, providing data about our kernel and the hardware on which the distribution is running.
The Porteus Settings Centre isn't flashy or modern. But it does clearly explain most of its functions in plain text. I like this aspect as it's not always easy to intuit what a custom tool will do, but the Porteus Settings Centre is organized well and its functions are clearly explained.
Hardware
Porteus worked nicely for me in VirtualBox. The distribution's LXQt desktop was unusually responsive, the system booted quickly, and Porteus was pleasantly stable throughout my trial. Applications loaded quickly and the small collection of software worked well.
Porteus 5.01 -- Playing music files
(full image size: 1.4MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Porteus did not boot on my laptop, the same laptop I successfully used to test Slackware Linux 15.0 (the parent of Porteus). A little investigation revealed that Porteus was unable to boot in UEFI mode on the laptop. When I tested Porteus in VirtualBox with UEFI mode enabled, the distribution could not boot in the virtual machine either, it ran in Legacy BIOS mode only. As I mentioned, Slackware works on the same laptop so its child distro failing to boot was a surprise.
Package management
Earlier I mentioned an application called the Browser Select and Upgrade Tool. This desktop application displays a list of web browser names and their icons. Entries in the list include Firefox, Chromium, Opera, Chrome, and Vivaldi. There are a few others, along with a video downloading script and AnyDesk. Clicking on one of these entries opens a terminal window where we can see some checks being performed and then we're offered a chance to download the selected browser. Sometimes we're asked which version of a browser we wish to fetch, such as the latest version of Firefox versus an extended support release (ESR). Once the package has been fetched we're told that to keep the selected browser across reboots, it should be placed in our modules folder.
Porteus 5.01 -- Fetching new web browsers
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This instruction presented an interesting question because I was not sure at that point where my modules folder was. There isn't a directory with that name in the root directory or in my home folder. I eventually found what I believe to be the proper directory, located at /mnt/live/porteus/modules.
Once I had downloaded a few browser packages I went looking for their entries in the application menu, and did not find the newly fetched applications. I clicked the buttons for the same browsers again (I'd started with Firefox and Opera) and the terminal window announced these browsers had not been installed and offered to fetch them again.
After a little looking around, I found what the missing piece of my experience was. After I downloaded a browser, its package wasn't installed, merely placed in the /tmp directory. I could click on a button labelled File in the Browser Select and Upgrade Tool, then select the downloaded package, and it would be installed. At that point the browser's icon would show up in the application menu. I'm not sure why this final step isn't more clearly indicated or even automated, but ultimate it worked for me and I was able to run a variety of browsers.
I had less luck with the slapt-get package manager. To use it I first had to synchronize slapt-get with remote repositories using "slapt-get --update". This seemed to work. I could then search for packages and check for updated packages. Whenever I tried to fetch new packages, whether desktop software or command line tools, slapt-get would fetch the selected item and then throw an error which said "sh: line 1: /bin/spkg: No such file or directory". This happened with each package and I confirmed that the spkg file was, in fact, not on the system. So it appears slapt-get is missing a dependency on the live media.
Porteus 5.01 -- Attempting to fetch new packages
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Conclusions
In a lot of ways, Porteus was a breath of fresh air this week. The distribution strives to provide an easy to use, Slackware based, live desktop experience. It does this and does it with a very minimal (under 400MB) ISO file. I think this is impressive and I like how fast, how stable, and how clean the Porteus desktop experience is. For someone who wants to listen to music, perform some basic system recovery, or take their operating system with them on a thumb drive with the option to save files on persistent media, Porteus is a good option.
There were some problems in key areas though. Porteus was unable to work in UEFI mode, in both VirtualBox and on my laptop, limiting the experience to machines with Legacy BIOS mode enabled. Installing new web browsers worked, but the process of transitioning from the packages being downloaded to being installed was not obvious. Likewise, the slapt-get package manager did not work to fetch new software. One of the key points in the project's release announcement was the package handling options, and having what was probably the most commonly used option not work was a disappointment.
Problems with package management aside, I quite liked Porteus. It's light, fast, stable, and clean. There are some unusual design choices at play, some nice custom tools (like the Porteus Settings Centre). I wouldn't use this distribution as a daily driver, but I do think it is an attractive option for testing or rescuing older equipment, especially computers running old i586 processors.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Porteus has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.5/10 from 17 review(s).
Have you used Porteus? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
FreeBSD publishes status report, Murena improves app compatibility, Linux kernel merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available
The FreeBSD team have published their quarterly status report, covering changes and improvements to FreeBSD from July through September of 2023. Some of the key changes improve making it easier to set up a desktop environment, mounting SquashFS archives, and taking filesystem snapshots of UFS. "This project has made UFS/FFS filesystem snapshots available when running with journaled soft updates. The details of this project were described in the 2022 fourth quarter report. This project had two milestones: The first milestone of this project was to make it possible to take snapshots when running with journaled soft updates and to use them for doing background dumps on a live filesystem. Background dumps are requested by using the -L flag to dump(8). This milestone was completed in Q4 of 2022 and was made available in the 13.2 release as described in the 2023 first quarter report. The second milestone of this project was to do a background check using a snapshot on a filesystem running with journaled soft updates."
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The Murena project has updated its /e/OS operating system and placed a focus on improving app compatibility. The new release, version 1.16, attempts to bridge the gap in app compatibility with official, Google-supported Android devices. "In our mission, it is vital to ensure the seamless functionality of all applications in /e/OS. However, some applications seek to know whether they are running on an official, commercial, Google Android phone, before authorizing the user to access some or all of its functions. That is why we've dedicated significant effort to ensure that on /e/OS third-party apps perform just as well on our community-supported devices ('dev') as they do on our official Murena devices ('stable'). In recent /e/OS updates for community-supported phones, we have extended the compatibility techniques we have developed for official Murena devices to community-supported devices so that they now can have a better third-party app support. For example, NFC payment that didn't work so far in some apps, will now function seamlessly."
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The bcachefs advanced filesystem is a relatively young filesystem which provides several modern features while striving to provide better performance than over advanced filesystems. The bcachefs project offers copy-on-write (CoW), built-in compression, filesystem snapshots, and encryption. The filesystem has been merged into the Linux kernel and is expected to be part of Linux 6.7, the next major release of the kernel.
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OpenELA is a joint effort by SUSE, Oracle and CIQ to provide open access to source code required to make distributions compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The project has announced source code packages are now available, making it easier for others to create their own RHEL compatible distributions. "OpenELA is excited to announce that the source code for all packages necessary for anyone to build a derivative Enterprise Linux operating system is now available. The initial focus is on EL8 and EL9, and packages for EL7 are forthcoming. The project is committed to ensuring the continued availability of EL sources to the community indefinitely. To access repositories, visit: https://www.github.com/openela-main."
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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) |
Disabling IPv6 and distribution-specific applications
Turn-it-off asks: I've run into networking problems with connecting to my home server since my desktop started setting up both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. How can I disable IPv6?
DistroWatch answers: You can usually disable IPv6 networking on your desktop machine by using Network Manager. The Network Manager application is typically the utility used on most distributions to set up and configure networking.
Typically, you can right-click on the networking icon in your desktop's system tray, then select Edit Connections from the context menu. In the window that pops up, highlight the active network connection and click the Settings button. (The Settings button usually looks like a gear.) This will open a new window which displays a series of tabs, each one containing settings specific to the selected network connection. The last two tabs will be labelled IPv4 and IPv6.
Disabling IPv6 in Network Manager
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At the top of the IPv6 Settings tab is an option called "Method". Set the Method field to "Disabled" (it should be the last entry in the drop-down list). Then click the Save button. If you then disconnect and re-connect to the network, you should no longer have an IPv6 address.
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Exclusive-club asks: Are there software applications that are unique to, and usable on only specific distros?
DistroWatch answers: There are applications which are specific to one distribution or operating system, though they are rare. Platform-specific applications are usually closely tied to a specific component or aspect of the operating system, or developed in-house for a distribution by its own team.
For example, when it was first released, the Unity desktop only ran on Ubuntu and members of the Ubuntu family because the desktop was developed specifically for Ubuntu and used specially modified versions of libraries. As another example, I once worked on an application which would create and manage swap files on FreeBSD. This application used FreeBSD-specific features that wouldn't run on Linux distributions. Snap packages, which have become more commonly used on Ubuntu, are tied to the systemd init software so distributions which use other init implementations cannot make use of Snap packages.
While it is possible for an application to work on one Linux distribution (or flavour of BSD) and not others, it is rare. Most applications are created with a more general-purpose functionality in mind. In addition, Linux distributions share a lot of low-level components and so most applications will either work across most distributions or can be made to work with some minor adjustments and patches.
While most applications can run on most Linux distributions, this does not mean most applications are packaged for most distributions. Each distribution team has finite resources to use toward packaging and maintaining software in their repositories. This means that a lot of mainstream applications, such as Firefox, are available on virtually all distributions while some lesser known applications might only be packaged for a few distributions or packaged in unofficial (and unverified) community repositories.
Unfortunately, most packages and package formats are tied to specific distributions. This means a copy of the Thunderbird e-mail client packaged in RPM format for Fedora will not install and run on Arch Linux which uses the pacman package manager. Even if the RPM package is reformatted to be recognizable to pacman, the dependencies (mostly libraries) which are required might not be the same across both distributions and the application will not run.
This is largely why portable package formats (such as Flatpak). which include dependencies, are becoming more popular. They allow most applications to be installed and run on most distributions without worrying about the distribution's native package format or platform-specific dependencies.
In short, while it is rare, it is possible for some software to run on one Linux distribution, but not another. What is more common is an application can run across most distributions, but might only be packaged for a few of the larger distributions and not yet packaged to run natively on others.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Garuda Linux 231029
Garuda Linux is a rolling distribution based on the Arch Linux operating system. The project has published a new snapshot which facilitates the handling of updates and streamlines the distribution's install media. "As of now, garuda-update should be able to handle any conflict that recently occurred mostly due to the already mentioned Arch package name changes. In case you missed it, please read the announcement to understand what is going on. Furthermore, it applies the Archlinux repo migration which happened since our last release, and fixes a few more update potential update blockers. For everyone still using 'pacman -Syu' without being able to work around issues like this manually, please ensure always using garuda-update as it was made exactly for this purpose :blush: A few editions have been dropped from our line-up. The reason behind this is quite simple - they are not getting necessary maintenance or are missing a maintainer. The logical choice is to no longer offer them to the public." Additional details and highlights are presented in the project's release announcement.
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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: 2,923
- Total data uploaded: 43.8TB
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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 use IPv4 or IPv6 connections?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about disabling IPv6 connections which were causing network issues. While IPv6 has been slow to replace the aging IPv4 addresses, it has slowly gained ground and been adopted all around the world. This week we'd like to hear whether you currently access the Internet over IPv4, IPv6, or use a hybrid of both.
You can see the results of our previous poll on whether an application's toolkit plays a role in how appealing an application is to use in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you use IPv4 or IPv6?
| IPv4: | 888 (60%) |
| IPv6: | 46 (3%) |
| Both - together on the same network: | 381 (26%) |
| Both - on separate networks: | 12 (1%) |
| Unknown: | 151 (10%) |
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|
| Website News |
New projects added to database
Skudonet
Skudonet is a load balancer and application delivery system based on Debian. Originally forked from Zevenet, the platform provides HTTP and HTTPS connections for web applications as well as load balancing services for TCP and UDP traffic. Skudonet is available in community and commercially supported editions.
Skudonet 7.0.1 -- The Skudonet web console
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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, 13 November 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 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 |
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Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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| Random Distribution | 
Antergos
Antergos was a modern, elegant and powerful operating system based on Arch Linux. It started life under the name of Cinnarch, combining the Cinnamon desktop with the Arch Linux distribution, but the project has moved on from its original goals and now offers a choice of several desktops, including GNOME 3 (default), Cinnamon, Razor-qt and Xfce. Antergos also provides its own graphical installation program.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
