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1 • Fedora39 (by Rich52 on 2023-11-13 02:24:05 GMT from United States)
Downloaded the iso. Installed the gnome version (should have downloaded the KDE and or Cinnamon desktop version) I guess I wanted to see what the hoopla with Gnome is all about. Overall it worked as stated and the iso installation was easy and straightforward. Overall it was good but I decided to re-install my old OS. I think the main reason is that 'Gnome' is too minimalist for me. A desktop computer doesn't need to look or operate like a cell phone IMHO. I'm a Cinnamon fan and that is what I went back too using my original OS. As stated in the beginning I should have tried the KDE or Cinnamon desktop versions. None the less the release is very good.
Rich;)
2 • Open Source software (by Torsten on 2023-11-13 02:31:33 GMT from Germany)
Yes, my OS (Debian) runs with free open source software.
I removed all non-free software and vrms says: "No non-free or contrib packages installed on debian12! You have completed the first step to enlightenment." ;-)
Infact, I really miss NOTHING and everything works.
3 • Free software (by Andy Prough on 2023-11-13 02:53:49 GMT from United States)
I use the Trisquel GNU/Linux distribution which only includes free software. It just works and runs everything I need.
4 • Security of not so commonly used distributions (by Bobbie Sellers on 2023-11-13 03:51:46 GMT from United States)
Here I speak of PCLinuxOS 64.
If any user has a problem of any sort we have the Forum to report it to and there the
publisher of the distribution, coders and other folks respond very quickly. We have some
problems but none that make us stop using PCLinuxOS for more than a moment. Sometimes we have to reboot with the installation media to get our lamentations
online. Most of the time it is trivial.
bliss - Dell E7450- PCLinuxOS 64- Linux 6.4.11- KDE Plasma 5.27.9
5 • Fedora 39 Gnome (by Nigel on 2023-11-13 05:15:20 GMT from New Zealand)
@52 like Rich52, I downloaded Fedora WS 39 (Gnome). I have not had a serious test drive of Fedora for several years. Wayland gets interesting. I found a lot of the UI and icons (File Manager for example) to be sized for pre-K or the retirement village. With Firefox I struggled to hide the Bookmarks bar or customize the icons in the top. Also right-click had no context menu pop up with handy items like Save-As - useful if you're looking for images to put into a presentation (and 1,001 other situations). So Wayland's interfacing with apps is not quite complete, or is proving harder than anticipated to work with? I did not think much of Loupe, being used to gthumb (which is ever so nearly Irfanview for Linux) or its derivatives like pix. Font selection was one of the more sane amongst distros and was "managed" right with the dnf gui tool (with the dnf-something name that breaks your brain/tongue/etc). The overall 'feel' is quite 'corporate' - updates are "applied" and then it reboots to install like Windows. The Cinnamon Fedora 39 spin did not do this and was more "normal" a Linux - quite well finished I must add. F-39 Gnome.ws is currently on my test laptop and can stay there for a while to be studied and dissected, but I do not see it going any further.
6 • Fedora's Anaconda (by verndog on 2023-11-13 05:35:09 GMT from United States)
"Though, Fedora being Fedora, some things never seem to get better. The Anaconda installer remains as aggravating as ever"!
Ain't that the truth! Its a mystery to me why they still havn't upgraded it so the rest of us can understand its implementation.
7 • @2 What Hardware? (by always-curious-about-FOSS on 2023-11-13 07:29:35 GMT from Germany)
Hello Torsten,
great Job! Enjoy your Freedom!
But bye the way? What Hardware do you use for it?
The Freesoftware Foundation are giving a "Respects Your Freedom Certification" to some Hardware producs.
But its really difficult to buy such a Computer or Laptop in Gemany or EU.
Those requested Hardware its told to be very old with less features, but I guess it would be enough for my purposes.
8 • Free except one... (by Nico on 2023-11-13 07:55:49 GMT from Germany)
Since I switched to Manjaro Cinnamon as my full time desktop OS three years ago, I now use FOSS exclusively - with one exception that I have a hard time parting with: Sublime Text. It's just oh so sweet.
9 • It's Just a Release Per Fedora's Release Schedule (by joncr on 2023-11-13 09:29:43 GMT from United States)
Re: Fedora -- I don't agree with the near-universal tendency of online reviewers to assess a new version of something by assuming we're all entitled to Something Amazing And New in every release. Software gets updated. Linux distributions that have reasons to follow a fixed release schedule create new install images per that schedule. That's it. That's all that's going on.
10 • Anaconda (by NULL on 2023-11-13 09:38:32 GMT from Germany)
Seriously, I do not understand the complains about anaconda, especially compared to other installers.
My main distro is Debian, and the installer is flexible but very cumbersome: Prompts, wait a few seconds to minutes, more prompts.
Anaconda asks all questions at the start, with defaults I personally like and just does it thing. One has to use Anaconda one or two times to get the hang of it, but once the understanding is there, it is fast and comfortable to setup a machine. It takes me less than a minute and then I can go and grab a tea.
Compare that to most other installers in the Linux world:
- Unflexible
- Super cumbersome to setup alternative root file systems, if possible at all
- No sane defaults for desktop users
- Wizzard style setup which makes it cumbersome to change some settings which where three screens to the left or look ahead for future settings to the right
Anaconda is IMHO the perfect installer for desktops, especially if you have to take care of more than one machine.
11 • Yes except (by AdamB on 2023-11-13 10:10:06 GMT from Australia)
After checking whether Virtualbox is open source, I was able to vote "Yes - except for firmware" - This applies to my Linux computers.
On my Mac OS and Windows 10 laptops, I use Firefox, Thunderbird, and LibreOffice.
I run KeePassXC on everything.
12 • Free except… (by SuperOscar on 2023-11-13 12:14:00 GMT from Finland)
I admit using quite some non-free software just because they work far better for me than the free alternatives: Softmaker Office (because LibreOffice is bug-infested), Sublime Text (I never could get VSCode work with TeX), Vivaldi (customizable just the way I like it), and SpiderOak One (for cloud backups).
13 • Work Software (by Alex from the USA on 2023-11-13 14:34:11 GMT from United States)
I prefer open source software whenever I can choose it, but pragmatically my employer requires I use a lot of Microsoft, Oracle, and Citrix products in my workday. I am not a free software zealot - I think closed source products can be powerful, useful, and secure.
14 • Fedora 39, and Free Software (by Donnie on 2023-11-13 15:04:17 GMT from United States)
I haven't tried Fedora 39 yet, but I am writing this on my Fedora 39/LXDE workstation. I use LXDE primarily because I want something simple, with an easy-to-use Start menu. (I consider Gnome 3 as the Windows 8 of the Linux world, and refuse to use it unless I have no other choice.) I'll upgrade this machine to 39 in a few months, once I'm sure that all the bugs have been worked out.
Although I'm a big believer in the Free Software concept, it's not practical for me to completely abandon proprietary software. For a long time, I had to use Windows to teach on-line Linux classes, because my client required me to use a web meeting service that wasn't compatible with Linux. I no longer teach online classes, but if I did, I would likely be able to use a Linux machine to do it, since the web meeting services have vastly improved their compatibility with Linux. Also, I pretty much have to use the closed-source FreeOffice to write Linux books, because my publisher requires me to submit the chapters as .docx files. LibreOffice kind of works with Microsoft formatted documents, but it's not always perfect. At least though, FreeOffice is available for Linux, and works perfectly on it. (The next time they run a good sale on the commercial version, I'll thank them by buying a licensed copy.) And then, there's the matter of hardware drivers. There's no open source driver for my Brother printer, so I have to download the proprietary driver from the Brother website. Open source video drivers work well for normal desktop usage, but for GPU mining or scientific computing, only the proprietary video drivers will work.
In short, even though I'm a big Free Software enthusiast, I have to be pragmatic enough to use closed source software when there's no other good choice.
15 • Fedora 39 review (by Otis on 2023-11-13 15:12:31 GMT from United States)
Thank you for that comprehensive (and entertaining) review. That about the Gnome Tweaks and Gnome Extensions app not being included has always been a bit of an irksome issue for me.. but not huge. What has been (almost) huge for me has been the clunky nature of the installer, and then clunky again as a desktop in general.
Too bad about the Fedora religiosity about Gnome, as KDE (available) and a few others are certainly superior. But, as mentioned in the review, Fedora's Gnome is being improved from that of yesteryear. As it is I've never had Fedora on any machine for more than a month or so, preferring MX Linux (nothing seems to be able to tear me away from this distro, although I do explore).
16 • Correction to Post 14 (by Donnie on 2023-11-13 15:27:15 GMT from United States)
I stated that I was writing this on my Fedora 39/LXDE workstation. I meant to say "Fedora 38/LXDE".
17 • A bit of this, a bit of that... (by Friar Tux on 2023-11-13 18:56:52 GMT from Canada)
I don't really care about open source and proprietary. I use whatever the distro provides. I think one of the "non-free" things my present distro provides are the music codex, I think. It doesn't matter to me as my only priority is that I can use the distro as I want and it does what it's supposed to do.
As for Fedora, it was my first sojourn into Linux and it just would not work. It scared me right back to Windows. Now, I still can't get it to work. I think my second attempt was Mandrake 3.1 which was abit better. I even bought the disc from some company in California. It was nice to work with but it, too, ended up sending me back to Windows.
18 • New Fedora Installer in Works (by joncr on 2023-11-13 22:19:16 GMT from United States)
Fedora has been working on new installer. Maybe in F40?
People do not like what they are not used to. Anaconda is very different from all the other installers that, more or less, look and work like Ubuntu's and, very often, are in fact Ubuntu's installer. (Exception: Debian's classic installer). Whether or not they have the functions of Anaconda is debatable.
What Anaconda has always needed is an option to avoid its complexity if you just want to devote all of a single disk to an install. That's always been simple enough, once you knew how.
19 • Fewdora 39 (by Romane on 2023-11-14 08:13:08 GMT from Australia)
Aggree wholly with the reviewer regarding the inststall program - horrid, horrid, horrid, but did get 38 installed (eventually, thank to horrid horrid, horrid), then upgraded to 39 when it was released. Upgrade process went well, so now on 39.
39 appears to be a solid system, even compared to 38 which found quite good. One can even say happy with 39. Been running Wayland on all my systems (triple-boot) for a good 12 to 18 months now, preferring it muchly to X, and without (many) hiccups. This has continued with 39.
Not my daily driver, but a system that boot into regularly.
If "they" ever improve or replace good old horrid, horrid, horrid, (unlikely, as that would be too big a departure from Red Hat) would easily recommend 39 to anyone. But not while "they" continue to use horrid, horrid, horrid.
Romane
20 • Fedora installer (by Jan on 2023-11-14 13:20:29 GMT from The Netherlands)
I also struggled with the installer. Because I had the habit for linux-try-outs to prepare a partition with / and /home and swap.
However I finally found that Fedora does not need a swap partition. Simply reserve an unformatted partition and let Fedora automatically do the partioning and installing. This is very simple, opposite to defining to do the partioning for Fedora youself. This simple procedure is not communicated easily.
21 • @20 • Fedora installer (by Jan on 2023-11-14 13:32:14 GMT from The Netherlands)
Addition
I make the unformatted partition with GParted.
Before choosing the automatic install, define a user-name and password and select the disk-drive where the unformatted partition is.
22 • Open Source or ... (by Bob McConnell on 2023-11-14 14:24:14 GMT from United States)
No, I run mostly free software. Linux itself uses the GPL, which is my preferred option. There are too many ways to pollute code released under any of the open source licenses.
23 • Fedora 39 strong points & weak ones (by Jeffersonian on 2023-11-14 15:09:45 GMT from Poland)
1) Overall agree here wirth the "reviewer" it is a great solid distro, I upgraded from F38
2) Still, MATE works better than KDE PLASMA, but KDE Plasma is better that before.
But KDE Plasma with Wayland give better graphics (AMD Ryzen 5 pro)
Hopefully some time soon, MATE and XFCE will support MATE
GNOME Desktop is stil... a bad joke, but many gnome apps are very good (gnome-disks, gnome-boxes, gnome-commander: just install them using dnf)
3) Annaconda is just... as bad a before, sorry but this is not Fedora strong point, especially if you need a custom install, with BTRFS, separate partitions of you choice.
4) GPARTED is still not that great.... Wondering if Fedora should not consider something better.
5) Calibre still has bugs... (on other distros it seems too)
6) Packages using TexLive are still problematic, there is an old RPM (from TexLive) but I have not yet reinstalled it : it would be great if so valuable : Latex, TexLive, Miktex etc... could work out of the box with F40, because frankly this is a pain in the neck to deal with.
7) DNF5 is not yet available, no need to rush just wait until it is ready... (I tried the beta, liked it)
8) BTRFS may need special attention, for gparted, and GUI support for subvolumes, a challenge from the CLI, a better documentaion with examples would be great.
9) RpmFusion still does not always have recent packages, even if this is getting better.
Conclusion: Fedora remains my distro of choice, even if Manjaro gets my attention on one machine
It is very functional, one of the best with Open Suse in my view.
24 • Fedora 39 strong points & weak ones (Addendum) (by Jeffersonian on 2023-11-14 15:14:38 GMT from Poland)
Sorry,
Read :
#4 GRUB2 still not that great.... Wondering if Fedora should not consider something better.
25 • Free and Open-Source Software (by Steve Pepperridge on 2023-11-14 16:21:22 GMT from Moldova)
personally, i am legally unable to say i have a proprietary-less system simply because of one thing: i like gaming.
sure, i am aware of FOSS games, but that is but a fraction of the market.
Steam has been a god-send in making gaming on Linux a lot more hassle-free, thanks to advancements made with Proton.
in other cases, if a specific problem can be solved by using a FOSS product, you bet i will prefer the FOSS option.
26 • Fedora 39 (by Hernandez Piras on 2023-11-14 17:14:23 GMT from Brazil)
When I started using Linux, around the year 2000, Fedora, Suse, Debian, Gentoo, Slackware, Conectiva and Mandrake were still the dominant distributions. I regret to this day the fact that Conectiva and Madrake disappeared and I celebrate each new successful version of those others that survived. I'm glad the Fedora team is in good shape and they've released a compelling version of this venerable distribution. I won't stop testing it on my notebook. Congratulations to the Fedora team!
27 • Ventoy for linux USB-installing (by Jan on 2023-11-14 22:37:16 GMT from The Netherlands)
Last week I mentioned a nuisance in using Ventoy (in Windows10, for making USB-installer for linux).
I have had further problems with the Ventoy USB-stick.
When I plug in the Ventoy USB-stick in the Win10-PC, it takes minutes to recognize (it seems as if all USB-related programs are stalled).
After recognizing, there is no problem any more. Also not after repeated plug-out and plug-in.
I even had a BSOD with Win10 (at 16-bit applications disabled)
The problem is wider experienced, see this info:
https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/1975
There seems to be no cause and solution found for the problem.
I found that the Ventoy-prepared USB-stick has a big exFAT partition and a small FAT16 Ventoy-system partition.
Maybe the problem is caused by the fact that there is FAT16 partition, which is possibly not very well digested by Windows10 on some PC's (even when 16 bit applications are enabled).
I can work with the Ventoy USB-stick. However does anyone have a solution?
28 • Unintelligible tangents (by Cheker on 2023-11-14 23:45:33 GMT from Portugal)
I thought I was running only free stuff with the exception of Intel and Nvidia stuff but I actually have a few non-free programs like unrar. Not much else.
I gotta say contrary to most people I do happen to like Anaconda. There are some steps that are dependent on others but they mostly are not and you can put your options in in any order. I also think, and I could be wrong on this 'cause I haven't looked at it in a minute, you can feed it a file with your answers and it'll just go off.
I have GNOME on my tablet and that's the sort of environment where it shines, you couldn't pay me enough to use it on a PC though.
29 • RE to #23 by Jeffersonian (by Pierre on 2023-11-15 14:57:11 GMT from Germany)
@ 1) F39 was delayed and misses a lot of features that were in line for F39 but got postponed to F40. Think that's quite a disappointment and makes this release a quite boring one. There are some improvements under the hood but nothing that would be able to impress me.
@ 2) I don't think that GNOME desktop is a joke. The only downsides I see about GNOME is, that you are limited to the predefined workflow. In the last two decades I am running Linux I used KDE 3, KDE 4, KDE Plasma 5, GNOME 2, GNOME 3, Xfce, LXDE, LXQt, OpenBox, i3, awesome, sway and I am not sure I didn't miss one DE or WM I used over the years. And every option has it's advantages and it's downsides. Haven't seen anything perfect yet. So to call a whole DE a joke is a joke for itself, to be honest.
@ 3) Anaconda, too, just like DEs has it's strengths and weaknesses. Though I have to admit, especially customizing the install or partitioning your drive with BTRFS and subvolumes is a real weak side of Anaconda. Still, it's a useable installer that gets the job done.
@ 4) Gparted is quite ok. What I love most is the Guided Partitioning option in Yast during the openSUSE install. Would love to see something comparable in the new Fedora installer.
@ 5) It's more a Calibre related problem than something that would have anything to do with Fedora.
@ 6) I mainly use openSUSE Tumbleweed, but used Fedora a few years ago as my daily driver at work and since Fedora 36 on my old Thinkpad. On both installs TexLive worked good for me in the few times I had to use it.
@ 7) DNF5 is not yet ready, the biggest disappointment in my eyes. As I said, I mostly use openSUSE Tumbleweed and zypper simply performs much better than DNF for years now. I had loved to finally see how DNF5 performs.
@ 8) Agreed.
@ 9) Didn't use RpmFusion for ages since Flatpak is available and offers what I would have needed from third party repositories in the last few years.
@ Your Conclusion) I will stay with openSUSE Tumbleweed. Fedora 39 missed to deliver the most anticipated features and postponed them until F40.
I will continue to updated my Fedora install on my old Thinkpad, but for any other machine I will stay with what is installed. Fedora 39 does not feel like it would be able to deliver anything worth to dare the switch on any of my machines that do not run Fedora already.
30 • @27 Ventoy (by Sam Crawford on 2023-11-15 17:07:18 GMT from United States)
Try Rufus for making a USB stick from Windows. It's a free download and works well.
If using Linux then Balena-Etcher or Mint Stick are great USB writers.
31 • @30 Ventoy (by Jan on 2023-11-16 00:35:03 GMT from The Netherlands)
When I use Rufus for making a Fedora install/try USB-stick, at booting an error occurs and halts further booting. Several times tried, same result.
The Fedora USB-stick program (for Windows), after a few different Fedora versions, makes the USB-stick unusable (repair with GParted).
Ventoy (Windows-version) was the only USB-maker at which I succeeded to make a bootable USB-stick (but with nuisances as described)
32 • Rufus NEVER fails (by why-oh-why on 2023-11-16 06:56:21 GMT from The Netherlands)
Rufus works ALWAYS if one knows how to use it and what for.
Writing a Fedora ISO to a USB stick with Rufus in ISO mode is also 100% reliable. If it doesn't work for you, it's either the USB media, your motherboard or you (choosing the wrong option at boot).
Some MBs do not show all possible options by default, only the first few, and in such cases you need to configure the MB boot options first.
As a side note, there is a bug with UEFI and some motherboards that happens in Fedora 37 and later, and you either have to boot in (fake) MBR mode, or copy and paste some of the F36 files onto F39 installation media.
https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/install-media-dont-boot-in-uefi-mode-on-certain-motherboards/71376
There are different types of ISO installation images, and there are two different ways Rufus can prepare the USB boot media.
The first way is to create installation media in ISO mode, which copies the ISO file to the USB stick. The USB stick remains visible to Windows.
The second way to create installation media is in dd mode, which does the same as the dd command, but is made for normal people.
In this second case, which works like Balena Etcher, Fedora Media or Rosa Image Writer, the USB stick is reformatted.
As it is not FAT, exFAT or NTFS, the USB key becomes unrecognisable ("unusable") for Windows.
You don't need to "fix" it, because it was never broken, and you don't necessarily need GParted to reformat it.
The Windows GUI can do it, and command line freaks can do it in the Windows Terminal with fdisk. Another option is to reformat it with Rufus, or just use Rosa Image Writer, which also writes images in dd mode, and also has a "clean to recover USB" option.
http://wiki.rosalab.ru/en/images/0/0b/RosaImageWriter-2.6-eng.png
It does the same as Windows GUI, Windows cmd, Rufus, GParted, etc. -- it erases all partitions on the USB stick, after which you can re-initialise it and create a fresh exFAT partition. One, because Windows can only recognise one (first) partition on USB media.
33 • @32 Rufus, USB (by Mr. Moto on 2023-11-16 11:54:46 GMT from Japan)
"Writing a Fedora ISO to a USB stick with Rufus in ISO mode is also 100% reliable." I no longer find it so. I've been using Rufus for quite a few years without problems. On this same PC for about 4 years. Used to be able to write Debian and derivatives with persistence. That stopped working a some time ago, Now the lates version (4.3 insists on formatting the USB stick in NTFS when in ISO mode. The live systems won't boot. This may not be all due to Rufus. I tried an older version formatted in FAT32 and that also didn't work. I went back to Unetbootin, and that also failed to boot. Maybe something changed in the way the Linux ISOs are done, but that's beyond my paygrade. If I have to write in dd mode, I have Balena Etcher on Linux and I don't need to move to Windows.
"Windows can only recognize one (first) partition on USB media." That is not accurate. I'm on Windows 11 right now and I have a USB stick inserted with 3 partitions. The first 2 are in ext4 and hold an Armbian image. Windows mounts the third partition as "D:" and it works fine. The first 2 are not seen unless I open the disk utility, but they are there and recognized, just cannot be mounted unless reformatted..
34 • @33 (by Mr. Moto from Japan) (by why-oh-why on 2023-11-16 17:58:05 GMT from The Netherlands)
"I'm on Windows 11 right now and I have a USB stick inserted with 3 partitions [...]"
Well, above I wrote about Rufus and I assumed that some people would store the data on the persistent partition and then try to mount it under Windows.
Yes, of course I know that before Windows 10, Windows couldn't start anything at all with multiple partitions on a USB drive. Since Windows 10, it sort of can, but many people still have problems with it, and Windows Disk Management still can't repair or reformat just one selected partition. Trying to reformat a second partition wouldn't 'just work'. Multi-partitions on USB are still a mixed bag in Windows.
https://postimg.cc/jnw5yJVB
"That stopped working a some time ago, Now the lates version (4.3 insists on formatting the USB stick in NTFS when in ISO mode. The live systems won't boot. This may not be all due to Rufus."
https://postimg.cc/qgzgPWtQ
As for Rufus 4.3, writing Debian 12-2 to FAT32 USB with persistence still works like a charm. [No, it wouldn't work with the settings as in the screenshot.] There are a few caveats to be aware of in the Rufus settings themselves, and later when trying to live-boot under Windows, but as I said, Rufus will always work if you know how to use it and for what.
https://postimg.cc/K4w4xQBb
Not sure if Rufus is to blame. ;)
35 • @34, Rufus, USB sticks (by Mr. Moto on 2023-11-17 06:52:59 GMT from Japan)
"Trying to reformat a second partition wouldn't 'just work" Again, that is inaccurate. Just to try, I reformatted two partitions on an 8 GB stick. Worked like a charm. Never had a problem. No mixed bags.
On Rufus: I'll stand partly corrected. The persistence problems were real, and documented. Rufus needs to format the persistence partition, and this would result in an interruption.
https://superuser.com/questions/1467957/rufus-gets-interrupted-by-explorer-exe-almost-every-time
This stopped happening a short time ago. Rufus would finish writing, but then my live systems would not boot unless written in dd mode as recently as 2 weeks ago. I just tried today and it does work, so one point to you. No special settings or knowledge needed. I slide "persistence" on the bar where I want, and keep all the rest of the defaults. No changes have been made except regular WIndows updates.
I don't "live-boot under Windows". I boot Windows from the grub menu (rarely) or on a VM (frequently). I live boot by bringing up the menu on UEFI, (F10 on my machine) and scrolling down. I also don't use Debian live. I either install Debian or use a derivative like Linux Mint.
In any case, the newer distros that I might want have become too slow and cumbersome to run live, especially with persistence, so now I use an Armbian Generic Intel image, which is persistent and boots and runs almost as fast my installed distros.
BTW: Couldn't see your posted images. Tried disabling blockers, but all I saw were hair growth and skin care ads
36 • USB pendrives (by Ken on 2023-11-17 12:29:46 GMT from United States)
I also experienced the same behaviour as described in @34.
My two Windows machines behave differently. The one on which the Ventoy USB was created only mounts the first partition, but under Disk Management there are two. The other one mounts both.
It also won't let me format the second partition, instead everything is greyed out, as in the picture in @34.
37 • Rufus, USB (by Kato_san on 2023-11-17 13:30:35 GMT from Japan)
I can't really agree with both statements in @35 because, as described and shown in @34 and @36, different Windows machines behave differently, and in the case of "no special settings or knowledge required", "special" is debatable.
In addition to @36, I would like to say that my machine shows exactly the same behavior with Ventoy's second partition, but on a Debian Live USB with a persistent partition, Disk Management does not allow reformatting either, but it does allow deleting the second partition. In theory at least, it should be possible to delete the second partition, create a new one, format it and give it a letter, but I haven't tried this.
Rufus has never failed me either, but I can see how it might be a problem for some. I have noticed that when I try to create a persistent Debian 12 live-USB, using GPT and the UEFI (no CSM) option, the USB boot works correctly, although the first attempt always fails, but the second boot works correctly.
However, when I try to create the same persistent Debian 12 live-USB using the default settings (MBR), it fails. I suspect this is what most people here are trying to do, otherwise it wouldn't boot on their old hardware.
All that said, this is actually the "special settings or knowledge".
Number of Comments: 37
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| • Issue 1175 (2026-06-01): PineTab2 with various distros, less common words of wisdom, Canonical shutting down Ubuntu's Pastebin, Murena nears 100k users, DistroWatch turns 25 |
| • Issue 1174 (2026-05-25): Solus 4.9, Linux tablets, Haiku boots on Apple M1 machines, Fedora drops Deepin packages, Mint improves Nemo performance |
| • Issue 1173 (2026-05-18): Sylve on FreeBSD, the benefit of BleachBit, Debian commits to reproducible builds, Debian publishes updated install media, Haiku introduces SMP support on ARM64 processors, Rocky Linux creates opt-in security repository, Fedora reconsiders AI tools, KDE receives generous donation |
| • Issue 1172 (2026-05-11): Fedora 44, dealing with extra fonts, Fedora plans to provide AI tools, problems with Ubuntu's new coreutils, TrueNAS extends its development cycle, postmarktetOS improves the boot splash screen, Redox ports tmux |
| • Issue 1171 (2026-05-04): Xubuntu 26.04, extending memory with VRAM, Ubuntu plans AI features, Devuan developer forks GTK2, Mint introduces hardware enablement builds, Linux running on a PlayStation 5, local kernel exploit found in Linux |
| • Issue 1170 (2026-04-27): ENux 5.2.1, picking a second distro, AlmaLinux expands CPU support, FreeBSD publishes Status Report, Ubuntu MATE skips 26.04 release |
| • Issue 1169 (2026-04-20): Lakka 6.1, free software and source-based distributions, FreeBSD Foundation publishes compatible laptop list, Debian holds Project Leader election, Haiku progresses ARM64 port, Mint to extend development cycle, Linux 7.0 released |
| • Issue 1168 (2026-04-13): pearOS 2026.03, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, which distros are adopting age verification, Arch adjusts its firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its release cycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves its scheduler |
| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
| • Issue 1166 (2026-03-30): NetBSD jails, publishing software for Linux, Ubuntu joins Rust Foundation, Canonical plans to trim GRUB features, Peppermint works on new utilities, PINE64 shows off open hardware capabilities |
| • Issue 1165 (2026-03-23): Argent Linux 1.5.3, disk space required by Linux, Manjaro team goes on strike, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA driver support and builds RISC-V packages, systemd introduces age tracking |
| • Issue 1164 (2026-03-16): d77void, age verification laws and Linux, SUSE may be for sale, TrueNAS takes its build system private, Debian publishes updated Trixie media, MidnightBSD and System76 respond to age verification laws |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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| Random Distribution | 
Bella OS
Bella OS was a beginner-friendly Linux distribution based on Xubuntu's latest LTS (long-term support) release and featuring a customised Xfce desktop. The project's primary goal was to provide a curated suite of high-quality web, office and entertainment applications on top of a desktop that combines some of the best features from several popular operating systems.
Status: Discontinued
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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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