 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1045, 13 November 2023 |
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Welcome to this year's 46th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
After a series of delays, the Fedora project unveiled Fedora 39 this past week. The new version includes a number of cutting edge technologies, including GNOME 45 for the Workstation edition. This week Jeff Siegel took Fedora's latest version for a spin and reported on his findings, read on to learn of his first impressions. In our News section we talk about ReactOS being able to boot on machines with UEFI enabled while the elementary OS team plans to make Pantheon running on Wayland the default desktop session. We also report on Canonical adding new features to the Mir display server, including the ability to divide work across multiple video devices. Plus we dive into how to confirm packages that are being installed on a distribution are safe to use. One of the best protections against installing malware is to run open source software. In this week's Opinion Poll we ask whether all of the software installed on your computer are open source or not. Plus we are pleased to share details on the distributions released this past week and share the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jeff Siegel) |
Fedora 39
Reviewing a Fedora release is like watching an aging rock band make yet another farewell tour. Neither Fedora or the band offers many surprises; the latter usually plays the same songs in the same style while the distro's release date gets postponed a couple or three times.
And, just as the farewell tour is only worthwhile as long as the band doesn't get bored, so too is a Fedora release only worth installing if the developers are doing more than going through the motions (as with Fedora 36).
The good news is that the flagship Workstation edition of Fedora 39 -- despite a two-week delay in its release -- is more than just a compilation of greatest hits. The distro offers solid improvements -- more speed, a more nimble desktop, and a smoother experience. Its take on the GNOME 45 desktop is appealing, even to those of us who don't understand the need for GNOME, and its performance should impress even people who swear by KDE Plasma.
Though, Fedora being Fedora, some things never seem to get better. The Anaconda installer remains as aggravating as ever, and the Fedora take on the GNOME software center is no better than Ubuntu's (still awkward, still frustrating). And, of course, a couple of other irritating bits cropped up during the week or so I ran it, because, of course, Fedora.
Still, those were annoyances, but not reasons to discount Fedora 39 as a step forward. Yes, it's still not the first choice for those of us who don't write code, but with this version, I could run my writing business and not keep muttering curses under my breath.
Getting started
Fedora 39 is developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and is sponsored by Red Hat/IBM. The desktop edition comes in 11 versions, or spins, including KDE, Cinnamon, and Xfce. Typically, Fedora releases a new version every six months or so, and each release is supported for about 13 months. So expect this one to reach end of life sometime towards the end of 2024.
The workstation version that I tested comes in a 64-bit 2.0GB ISO, which is quite a bit smaller than similar Ubuntu family releases -- as little as half the size. The minimum system requirements are at lease a 2GHz dual core processor, 2GB of memory, and 15GB of hard drive space. Recommended specifications are a 2GHz quad core processor, 4GB of memory, and 20GB of hard drive space.
My VirtualBox test ended quickly; the live version of Fedora 39 didn't play nicely at all. It performed sluggishly, with lots of lag between mouse movements; the windows were balky when re-sizing; and Firefox was sluggish as well. In addition, there was quite a bit of screen tearing, which I almost never see when testing distros on VirtualBox. Wayland problems, perhaps?
Fedora 39 -- Running the Firefox web browser
(full image size: 198kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The actual installation on my Dell test machine went much more smoothly. Of course, this means allowing for the Anaconda installer, which -- after reviewing three Fedora releases (and installing multiple times for each release) -- still remains a mystery. One day, perhaps, I'll be able to figure how to get through the hard drive selection process without having to hit the Back button over and over. And over.
The actual installation was painless, about five minutes, but for some reason, the machine hung up when rebooting automatically after installation. This seems to be quite common among recent Fedora and Ubuntu releases, but the installation did work. I just had to shut down using the power button and restart.
What's new
Fedora 39 comes with Linux kernel 6.5, GNOME 45, GTK 4.12, LibreOffice 7.6 for the office suite, Firefox 119 as the web browser, and GNOME's new image viewer Loupe. There is still no e-mail client. There is also a desktop sharing app called Connections, Rhythmbox for music, and Boxes (the GNOME equivalent of VirtualBox). In addition, there also some significant under-the-hood changes for the GNU toolchain.
Fedora 39 -- Exploring the live desktop
(full image size: 202kB, resolution: 1137x705 pixels)
Most of it not only just works, but works very, very well, almost giving a new meaning to the phrase, "snappy desktop." When LibreOffice doesn't balk on loading, there have definitely been speed improvements. There was no problem recognizing my networked Canon printer or its scanner function, either. In addition, it looks good -- clean, functional, and focused. And this comes from someone who really doesn't care about that sort of thing.
Among the most noticeable features:
- No problems at all with Wayland, the default display session. I didn't even realize it was the default until I checked the system settings. In addition, the installation defaulted to the 1366x768 screen resolution, which I prefer.
Fedora 39 -- The Settings panel
(full image size: 184kB, resolution: 976x642 pixels)
- Firefox was so lively that it didn't seem like Firefox. I haven't seen this responsiveness in what seems like years; I have the same version of Firefox on my desktop and it takes so long to load that I don't use Firefox anymore.
- The sign-in screen is, well, nifty. No messing around with any LightDM sort of thing. Instead, the screen just pops up after the desktop loads. Enter password, and you're set.
- Loupe is simple, straightforward and effective. I didn't think I would be so impressed by such a simple piece of software.
- The set-up feature that loads after the first boot, following installation, which ticks off wireless settings, privacy options, on-line accounts, and so forth, remains first-rate. The only catch? It locked up when I tried to set up my Nextcloud account and I had to force quit. This happened several times. When I installed Nextcloud through the desktop package in GNOME Software, I wound up with two instances of Nextcloud listed in the networking part of the left hand panel in Files (though there was just one folder).
- The About screen, reached through Settings, offers a pop-out called System Details -- in other words, no more need for Neofetch. Plus, there's a copy button that sends the listing to the clipboard.
Fedora 39 -- Gathering system information
(full image size: 46kB, resolution: 662x485 pixels)
A few words about GNOME
This isn't the place to rehash whether GNOME is a proper desktop or a phone interface adapted to the desktop. It's enough to know that it works smoothly and efficiently here, and I even, sort of, kind of, got used to the counter intuitive hot corner thingy, as well as the way GNOME handles open windows. And, surprisingly, I grew to appreciate the search bar -- though I did install Dash to Dock to get a more desktop-oriented look and feel.
Fedora 39 -- Unlocking the keyring
(full image size: 481kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The problem with GNOME in Fedora 39 is that it needs extensions that aren't pre-installed (and neither are GNOME Tweaks or the extension manager, for that matter). For example: Why isn't a clipboard already there? Or something to control the number of desktops, since not all of us need more than one of them?
Which brings us to GNOME Software -- still the app everyone loves to hate -- and with good reason. I haven't really noticed any improvements since I reviewed Fedora 34, and after trying it out, I mostly used the command line to install software and update the system. And this comes from someone, again, who would prefer to use a GUI.
After almost a week, though, I figured out how to work around the complications and make Fedora 39 work for me. That included writing a variety of notes and taking the screenshots for this review, and sending them to my desktop using Nextcloud. Which, in the end, is what matters and not the occasional aggravation.
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Hardware used for this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Dell Latitude E7440 laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel i7-4600U
- Storage: 256GB SSD
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Networking: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485
- Display: Intel HD Graphics 4400
When he is not testing out new versions of Linux distributions, Jeff Siegel can be found writing about all things related to wine at Wine Curmudgeon.
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Visitor supplied rating
Fedora has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.3/10 from 462 review(s).
Have you used Fedora? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary plans to make Wayland the default Pantheon session, Mir gains ability to split work across video cards
The ReactOS team develops an open source operating system which strives to be binary compatible with Microsoft Windows. The developers have been hard at work on a few problems, including porting their code to alternative compilers and getting ReactOS to boot on UEFI-enabled computers. "Thanks to the work of Timo Kreuzer (tkreuzer) our AMD64 builds are now capable of booting on an increasing number of hardware. Thanks to Timo's and Justin's work, we are working towards supporting modern devices with UEFI class 3 firmware. Work has been underway since the beginning of the year to transition FreeLoader, our default bootloader for ReactOS, to support UEFI on x86 and AMD64, as well as ARM32 and ARM64. Hermès has been developing a system for passing the UEFI framebuffer information in a fashion that allows Windows XP to run on UEFI systems, while Justin Miller (TheDarkFire) has been developing the UEFI freeloader build. On top of supporting booting ReactOS, other features are being built such as EFI chainloading and a bootmgfw-compatible build of FreeLoader. These features would add boot management capabilities and allow modern Windows systems to bootstrap our favorite bootloader." Additional details can be found in the project's newsletter.
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A few weeks ago we reported the Linux Mint team is working to make their Cinnamon desktop environment run on a Wayland session. This week we share similar news from the elementary OS project as the distribution's developers seek to make their Pantheon desktop run a Wayland session by default for the next major release. "One the largest and most ambitious goals we have for OS 8 is to use the Wayland display server protocol by default. This is a transition that we have been planning and working towards for several years and we're finally in the home stretch. Folks in our Early Access program know that we have an experimental Wayland session of Pantheon available to test right now. We're currently tracking issues related to completing the Wayland transition in this GitHub project. Wayland will bring us improved performance, better app security, and opens the doors to support more complex display setups like mixed DPI multi-monitor setups.
As part of the Wayland transition, Pantheon needs a new Dock. Plank was written in a time long before many modern APIs and depends on a window matching library that is both incompatible with Wayland's security model and has proved to be increasingly inaccurate with some sandboxed apps." Additional plans for the upcoming elementary OS 8 are outlined in the project's overview of features for version 8.
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While the Mir display server started out as a technology for Ubuntu with its own protocol, the software has been extended to also act as a Wayland display server. This could allow Mir to act as a desktop-neutral Wayland implementation for desktop environments which have not created their own display server. One of the latest features of Mir is the ability to split work across multiple video cards. "But, even without multiple platforms we can already run compositing on a different card than we render on. This means, for instance that I can use an integrated GPU to render and display via a dock using DisplayLink. (DisplayLink creates a virtual evdi 'card' that doesn't support rendering.)" Additional information on the efforts going into Mir can be found in this discourse post.
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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) |
How to trust provided software packages
Verifying-trust asks: I am new to running Linux and wondering something. How do you know you're not installing something malicious? I've installed a lot of packages, how do I know if they're safe or not?
DistroWatch answers: When it comes to matters of trust and software it is difficult, maybe impossible, to be absolutely sure and guarantee the software we are receiving is not malicious in any way. There are all sorts of ways the original author, the person packaging the software, the compiler author, or someone with the ability to intercept software as it moves between the package maintainer and the end user's computer could compromise a software package.
The are several ways to make it less likely a package is malicious or compromised. When these methods are combined it offers layers of protection against malicious actors and makes it much more likely a software package is trustworthy. Generally speaking, the more checks or filters a piece of software goes through between its author and the end user, the more likely it is we can trust the package is safe.
On one extreme end of the spectrum we can consider a pre-built executable package provided by a third-party which we are asked to download and install without any security checks. This approach to sharing software has long been popular in the Windows ecosystem, but it provides no checks and balances. There are no checks at any point in the distribution process to protect us or verify that the software is trustworthy and uncompromised.
Most software developed in the Linux ecosystem is open source which offers one major benefit. Anyone with the necessary skills can read through the source code, along with recent changes to it, and look for malicious behaviour or exploitable code. The more popular an open source software project is, the more people tend to browse through its code and identify potential problems.
Another layer of protection is popular software is typically reviewed and packaged by Linux distributions. This means commonly used utilities are often monitored and reviewed by package maintainers in all of the major distributions (such as Fedora, Debian, openSUSE, and Arch Linux). Any change in the original source code which looks suspicious or vulnerable can be flagged by one of these maintainers and the rest of the community is warned.
Packaged software is then passed around to mirrors, often run by third-party volunteers. How can we make sure these copies of the software, sitting vulnerably on the mirrors, is uncompromised? Most distribution maintainers digitally sign their packages. The signature acts as a method to confirm who the author is and that the contents of the package have not been changed since the developer signed it. Verification keys included with the distribution's package manager can check the signature and confirm who made the package and that it hasn't been compromised in transit.
In addition to these checks, the tools used in this process are generally open source too. The compiler, the package build utilities, the package manager, and the digital signing tools are all open source. This makes it possible to verify the good behaviour of the tools which will be used in the package creation, distribution, and installation process.
All of the above features result in an ecosystem that is fairly safe. It is generally accepted that software included in the repositories of major Linux distributions is usually safe to install as it has gone through multiple checks. This doesn't guarantee safety, but it greatly improves our odds.
Where people tend to run into trouble is when they step outside of the software officially curated and signed by their distribution. Connecting to third-party repositories, using personal package archives, installing closed-source software, fetching unsigned software, or using packages that haven't been reviewed by a neutral maintainer all introduce potential risks. This isn't to say software which falls into one of these categories is malicious or vulnerable, but it would be easier to insert malicious software onto a system which doesn't go through the normal distribution-approved series of checks.
There aren't many guarantees with software, but the more filters, the more checks, and the more verification steps a package goes through the more likely it is to be safe. Any software which skips steps, isn't reviewed, or is closed source increases the odds it could be compromised before it reaches your computer. This is why I recommend trying to use software provided by your distribution's official repositories as much as possible and only using packages from third-parties, community repositories, or unknown sources if absolutely necessary.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Fedora 39
The Fedora project has published a new release, Fedora 39, which includes GNOME 45, an updated version of Inkscape, and updated development tools. This release is also offered in a new atomic desktop flavour which uses the Budgie desktop and is called Fedora Onyx. "On November 6, 2003, the Fedora Project released the Fedora Core 1. One day and twenty years later, we're pleased to bring you Fedora Linux 39, our complete, community-built operating system for desktops, laptops, servers, the cloud, edge devices - and just about anything else you can think of. Fedora Workstation now features GNOME 45, which brings better performance and many usability enhancements, including a new workspace switcher and a much-improved image viewer. If you're looking for a different desktop experience, our Budgie Special Interest Group has created Fedora Onyx, a Budgie-based 'Atomic' desktop in the spirit of Fedora Silverblue. Of course, that's not all - we also have updated desktop flavors featuring KDE Plasma Desktop, Xfce, Cinnamon and more." Additional details are offered in the Fedora Magazine release announcement.
Fedora 39 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 4.3MB, resolution: 2880x1800 pixels)
Clonezilla Live 3.1.1-27
Steven Shiau has announced the release of Clonezilla Live 3.1.1-27, a new stable version of the project's Debian-based specialist live image designed for partitioning, backups and disk-cloning tasks: "Stable Clonezilla Live 3.1.1-27 released. This release includes major enhancements and bug fixes. Enhancements and changes since 3.1.0-22: the underlying GNU/Linux operating system has been upgraded - this release is based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2023-11-02; Linux kernel has been updated to 6.5.8; updated the ca_ES, de_DE, el_GR.UTF-8, es_ES, fr_FR, ja_JP, pl_PL, sk_SK and tr_TR language files; Partclone has been updated to 0.3.27, options '--read-direct-io' and '--write-direct-io' are available; the ezio package has been updated to 1.2.0, some improvements from 2.0.3 include show version when running, show save_path instead of name, torrent is larger than 4MB; the acpitool, ntfs2btrfs, zfsutils-linux and vim (not vim-tiny) packages are now included in the live system; the mlocate package has been replaced by plocate...." Read the complete release announcement for a full changelog.
Relianoid 7.0
Relianoid is a Debian-based, load balancing operating system. The project has published a new release, Relianoid 7.0, which is based on Debian 12 "Bookworm", and includes OpenSSL 3. "This release provides a huge step in regards of big upgrade of the Operating System as it is based on Debian Bookworm 12.2 with Linux Kernel 6.1 which is very significant in regards to bootup speed and drivers improvements for a better system resource usage. Also, the Linux the kernel has continued to evolve with ongoing codebase cleanups and maintenance, ensuring stability and reliability in the Linux ecosystem. OpenSSL version 3 (OpenSSL 3.0.0), which is a significant update to the widely-used cryptographic library, brings several key improvements, including enhanced modularity, improved security, and better support for modern cryptographic algorithms and protocols. OpenSSL 3 introduces a modular architecture, allowing developers to more easily customize their builds and reduce the attack surface. It features better support for the latest TLS versions, like TLS 1.3, as well as post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, addressing emerging security concerns." The project's release announcement offers additional information.
UBports 20.04 OTA-3
The UBports project develops an Ubuntu-based, mobile operating system. The project has continued the work on its 20.04 branch and introduced improved support for PINE64 devices. "OTA-3 is the first Ubuntu Touch based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS that will become available for the PinePhone, the PinePhone Pro and also the PineTab and PineTab 2. We consider 20.04 OTA-3's state of the PinePhone adaptation a beta release. For now you still need to flash the Pine{Phone,Phone Pro,Tab,Tab2} upstream images as usual. Please test and give feedback to our developers. A great thanks goes to Oren and Luigi for working on the 20.04 Pine{Phone,Phone Pro,Tab} ports and esp. fixing sensor dependent rotation of the Lomiri shell and bringing back Location Service (GPS et al.) support from Ubuntu Touch 16.04 (aka Xenial). This release of Ubuntu Touch is based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, so latest Ubuntu 20.04 LTS security updates have landed in this OTA." A list of new features and bug fixes can be found in the project's release announcement. A list of supported devices and download options can be found on the project's devices page.
BackBox Linux 8.1
Raffaele Forte has announced the release of BackBox Linux 8.1 un updated build of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution with an extensive collection of the most popular and best known ethical hacking tools. The new release continues to be based on the long-term supported Ubuntu 22.04, but includes an updated Linux kernel 5.15 and some bug fixes: "BackBox Linux 8.1 released. The BackBox team is happy to announce the updated release of BackBox Linux, version 8.1, code name 'Sara'. In this release, we have addressed a few minor bugs, updated the kernel stack and base system, and enhanced our hacking tools. What's new: updated Linux Kernel 5.15; updated desktop environment; updated hacking tools; updated ISO Hybrid with UEFI support. System requirements: 64-bit processor; 1,024 MB of system memory (RAM); 30 GB of disk space for installation; graphics card capable of 800x600 resolution; DVD-ROM drive or USB port. The ISO image for 64bit architecture can be downloaded from the official web site download section." Here is the brief release announcement.
BackBox Linux 8.1 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 497kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
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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: 2,926
- 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) |
Are all of your applications open source?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about methods for verifying an application is safe to install and run. One of the key steps in verifying software has not been compromised is using open source applications. This week we would like to hear if you use open source software exclusively or if you run some closed source applications.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using IPv4 or IPv6 Internet connections in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you run all open source software?
| Yes - it is all open source: | 229 (15%) |
| Yes - except for firmware: | 422 (28%) |
| No - I run some closed applications: | 878 (57%) |
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| Website News |
Donating to favourite distributions
One of the more common concerns we hear from Linux distribution projects is a lack of funding. A lot of Linux distributions, particularly community-run projects, struggle to keep the lights on and the servers running.
To help out we are adding a new entry to each distribution's information page on DistroWatch. We've had a "Buy or Try" field on our information pages for years, providing links to websites where people can purchase distribution's on physical media or try a distro through a web-based virtual machine.
We're expanding this field to be called "Where to Donate, Buy, or Try". This field will, where applicable, include a "Donate" link which will take the visitor to distribution's donations/sponsorship page.
A project's donation page is not always easy to locate. So if you have a favourite project which does not yet have a Donate link on our website, please send us an e-mail with "Donation link" in the subject line and a link to the distribution's donation page.
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New projects added to database
Lernstick
Lernstick is a mobile and secure learning and working environment for school and at home that can be installed on external storage media (e.g. USB sticks, USB hard drives, SD cards, etc.). The distribution is based on Debian's stable branch. The distribution is intended to perform so that almost every computer can be started from this storage media. Basically, a hard drive with an installed operating system is no longer required. (Optionally, the system can still be installed on the hard disk.) As a result, the learning stick is a platform for so-called Bring Your Own Device scenarios, in which students can also use their private devices for school purposes.
Lernstick 12 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 210kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
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New distributions added to waiting list
- SavageOS. SavageOS is an Arch-based project which configures the AwesomeWM graphical environment, sets up the paru community repository handler, and offers to replace sudo with doas.
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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, 20 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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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
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 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Full list of all issues |
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OpenBSD
The OpenBSD project produces a free, multi-platform BSD 4.4-based UNIX-like operating system. Its efforts emphasize portability, standardisation, correctness, proactive security and integrated cryptography. The project also develops the widely-used and popular OpenSSH (OpenBSD Secure Shell) software, which provides encrypted communication sessions over a computer network using the SSH protocol.
Status: Active
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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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