 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1046, 20 November 2023 |
Welcome to this year's 47th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Every year computers become faster, more capable, and more powerful. Tasks which once took days of processing power can now be achieved in minutes. This is wonderful, most of the time, but there are times when we'd like our computers to slow down. There are any number of reasons for this, from wanting to consume less battery power to leaving some CPU resources available to other tasks. In this week's Questions and Answers column we talk about limiting the amount of CPU resources consumed by a process running on Linux. First though we talk about Slackel, a Slackware-based distribution which is partnered with the lightweight Openbox window manager. Read on to hear first impressions of this live distribution. Slackel's default interface, Openbox, is one of several lightweight window managers; there are several available for Linux. In this week's Opinion Poll we'd like to hear whether our readers run full featured desktop environments or minimal window managers. Let us know about your preference in the comments. Also in this issue we talk about Haiku developers adding new improvements and bug fixes to their desktop operating system while Canonical unveils MicroCloud for automated cloud solutions. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Slackel 7.7 "Openbox"
Slackel is a live Linux distribution based on Slackware Linux and Salix. It is binary compatible with both, allowing it to use packages from these other projects. The Slackel distribution has been made available in a number of different editions with various desktop environments over the years. The project's latest release, Slackel 7.7, ships with the Openbox window manager and is available in 64-bit and 32-bit builds for x86 machines.
Special instructions
Slackel can be written to and run from a USB thumb drive as a normal, live distribution. We can also use a special set of instructions and a script (which is included in the distribution's ISO file) to install Slackel to a thumb drive. This allows us to run Slackel from a thumb drive almost as though it were installed on a hard drive with the option of enabling a persistent storage location. The instructions for doing this are provided on the project's website and included in the ISO.
The special instructions for setting up Slackel on a thumb drive basically involve mounting the ISO file and running a script called install_on_usb.sh which requires two bits of information: the location of the ISO file and the name of the thumb drive where we wish to install Slackel. The command looks like this:
sudo sh install_on_usb.sh --usb path_to_iso_image device
I followed the instructions provided and running the above command resulted in an error message which read: 'install_on_usb.sh: 82: Syntax error: "(" unexpected'. After checking the contents of the script I discovered the problem. The install_on_usb.sh file is a Bash script, it specifically requires Bash features in order to run properly. However, the command we're told to use to run the script says to use sh, not bash. The sh command invokes different shells on different distributions. On some distributions the sh command is its own shell, on some distributions it is a link to bash and on others it is a link to dash. In other words, using sh is unpredictable if you're working across multiple platforms. In my case sh was a link to dash when I needed to be using bash to run the script. Rewriting the command as follows worked:
sudo bash install_on_usb.sh --usb path_to_iso_image device
The script asks if we wish to proceed, performs some basic checks to confirm the drive we are planning to use is a thumb drive and not our main hard drive, and we're asked if we wish to make use of persistent storage. We can then choose to set up storage with the ext3 or FAT filesystems. The ext3 option feels a bit dated, but seemed the reasonable choice in my situation. We're then asked how big the persistent storage space should be with a list of numbers displayed, indicating potential sizes in megabytes. We're also given the chance to encrypt the persistent storage, though I skipped this step.
Slackel 7.7 -- The instructions for setting up persistent storage
(full image size: 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Early impressions
Booting from the thumb drive I had just imaged brought up a text menu where I was asked to select my language from a list. Once I had selected English the distribution booted and, fairly soon afterward, presented me with an Openbox-powered desktop. A panel sat across the bottom of the screen, a few icons sat on the desktop, and there was a Conky status panel in the upper-right corner of the screen.
The Openbox environment uses a light theme and most elements are grey. The application menu is arranged in a classic tree style without any search feature. The icons in the system tray all seem to have a faded, grey look which makes them blur together a bit. One thing I found unusual was the Conky status widget had its own entry in the task switcher on the panel, in other words it is treated similarly to other open application windows.
Something I noticed fairly quickly was Slackel uses fonts that are quite small (9pt) and thin. On a laptop screen at full resolution this makes text harder to read compared to most other distributions I've used this year. I figured it would be a simple matter to adjust the fonts, though I was gradually proved wrong on this point.
Slackel ships with at least three graphical tools which will offer to adjust font settings. There is an appearance module which will offer to adjust fonts for us, though this just works for adjusting font styles rather than size. There is an Openbox settings and customization application which will adjust the fonts of menus and title bars, but not the rest of the desktop. There is also a desktop settings module which will change the size of the text which appears under desktop icons, but no other areas of the interface. As far as I can tell there are no tools which will adjust the fonts for applications and the application menu. There also didn't appear to be any zoom or scaling feature included. Some applications, including Firefox and the virtual terminal, will zoom and adjust font sizes independently of the Openbox environment.
Slackel 7.7 -- Three tools for adjusting fonts
(full image size: 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
At any rate, what had started as a low priority exploration into adjusting a minor feature of the desktop experience turned into about ten minutes of searching and experimenting with some minor success and a lot of frustration. Nevertheless, I decided to reboot the laptop and see if my changes did indeed remain persistent across reboots. They did not.
Persistent storage
The Slackel documentation talks about a persistent area of the filesystem, though it doesn't go into details on where it is. There are also some comments about making our home directory persistent, but the English in the documentation is a bit broken and I'm not clear on whether home directory persistence is a default or under which circumstances it is enabled. I was able to work out through the on-ISO documentation that we should be able to enable persistence at boot time, but it needs to be manually selected.
I restarted my laptop again and this time paid more attention to the boot menu. Along with the language selection section there has a text box for typing kernel parameters. There are also hints saying we can press F1 and F2 to get general information and boot parameter tips, respectively. There are a few tips listed, including one for adjusting power settings and one for enabling persistence.
Here I ran into another problem. The informative parts of the boot menu indicate we can use the arrow keys (Up and Down) to select which language we want to use and we can press Enter to boot Slackel, and we are told we can type boot parameters into the text box, but there isn't any indication of how to select the text box. I've been using computers for close to 40 years and Linux for about 25 years, so I thought this part would be the easiest aspect of my experience with the distribution. I'd just tap Tab, or Shift+Tab, or Page Down, or either the Left or Right arrow key, or use the mouse to select the text box. None of these worked and I couldn't find any tip in the documentation for how to select the text box, only that typing options into the box was expected. I knew my keyboard was working since I could select the information screens and pick my desired language, but no key combination I tried switched between screen elements. This ultimately meant I couldn't make use of persistent storage on my laptop.
I later discovered that when booting Slackel in a VirtualBox instance the boot menu screen was divided into two parts. The first screen asks us to select our language and a second screen shows a menu which asks us to pick kernel parameters. Some experimenting in VirtualBox revealed that the distribution shows the unified (every choice on one screen) boot menu when booting in UEFI mode, but shows the two-phase approach in Legacy BIOS mode. This made it easy to select boot options without switching between on-screen widgets.
I also found that in VirtualBox I was able to simply start typing on the unified screen and text would appear in the boot parameters box. This does not happen when booting the distribution on my laptop. The function keys, arrow keys, and Enter work as expected, but the text box doesn't have focus and doesn't accept typed letters on my laptop, only in VirtualBox.
In short, Slackel provided different experiences and capabilities depending on whether I was booting in UEFI mode or BIOS mode, and depending on whether I was booting in a virtual machine or on physical hardware.
Hardware
While I'm discussing different experiences in different test settings, I feel it important to mention that while the distribution would boot and run on my laptop (though without allowing me to type boot parameters), Slackel was unable to boot in VirtualBox. Whether I was in UEFI mode or BIOS mode, the distribution would start background services and then lock up while trying to launch a graphical environment. The error 'INIT: Id "x1" respawining too fast: disabled for 5 minutes' was displayed on the console. If I waited for five minutes the same error would be repeated again and then again while the system remained unresponsive.
When the distribution booted on my laptop I found the base system and the Openbox window manager would consume 540MB of RAM. This is unusually heavy for a minimal window manager, about on par with Xfce or KDE Plasma. It's quite a bit more memory than other instances of Openbox or small window managers I've run lately. The installation on my thumb drive took up about 2.6GB of space.
Most of my laptop's hardware was detected and used properly. Wireless networking functioned out of the box, my touchpad worked smoothly and interpreted taps as clicks. Slackel was unable to produce sound on my laptop and some exploring revealed the distribution was unable to detect my sound card, something other Slackware-based distributions have handled without issue.
Slackel 7.7 -- Unable to play audio
(full image size: 2.5MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Included software
Slackel's live environment provides a nice collection of open source software. Browsing through the application menu we can find popular items such as Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, and the GNU Image Manipulation Program. The FileZilla file transfer application is included along with SMPlayer, Transmission, and Pidgin. The mtPaint drawing program is included along with a series of utilities for customizing the user interface.
Slackel 7.7 -- Exploring the application menu
(full image size: 2.9MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Slackel provides us with the GNU command line utilities, manual pages, and the GNU Compiler Collection. The distribution runs the SysV init software and version 6.1 of the Linux kernel.
By default, the distribution signs us into an account with the username "one" and the password "one". Administrative tasks can be performed through the sudo utility and using the "one" password.
Package management
Slackel uses the slapt-get command line package manager (there doesn't appear to be a graphical package manager). I experimented with slapt-get and it worked quite well. I was able to refresh the package database, search for new packages, and fetch new applications. The slapt-get utility pulls in software from Slackware's repositories and worked smoothly with no problems.
I was happy with slapt-get, especially after recent experiments with other members of the Slackware family where the package manager tended to run into problems or require manual configuration. Slackel handles package management quite well with slapt-get working quickly.
The distribution also ships with the Flatpak framework and enables the Flathub software repository by default. This gives us access to a large selection of up to date desktop applications, something which is usually not a focus of Slackware-based projects. Flatpak bundles can be managed from the command line.
Conclusions
There are some things the Slackel project handles quite well and which made the distribution fun to explore. The Openbox environment has a nice, classic layout; the distribution ships with a lot of useful desktop applications; and I like that Flatpak is set up for us in case we want to use it. I also appreciated how up front the project was with its documentation and access to scripts which make it easier to transfer the distribution to a thumb drive and enable persistence.
On the other hand, I regularly ran into problems (most of them small, a few of them significant) which hint at the project not getting enough testing or not being used by a wide enough audience. Having three completely different boot experiences whether I was using VirtualBox or my laptop, and whether I was using UEFI or Legacy BIOS modes, was a key example. The script for transferring the distribution to a thumb drive failing because the author assumes sh links to bash is another as this isn't true on the majority of the world's Linux installations.
Having my sound card not detected by Slackel while it works on virtually every other Linux distribution was disappointing. A smaller issue was finding three separate utilities which could be used to adjust fonts on the system, but none of them affected the font used by the application menu or desktop applications. Playing audio and changing font sizes/styles feel like pretty standard features of desktop distributions these days.
In short, Slackel does a few things really well, but it also tripped over simple tasks a lot during my trial. I felt like the overall design was good, the style of the project felt as though it could be quite useful, especially for people who want to take their operating system with them in a portable fashion. However, there were several areas which lacked polish, didn't work for me, or which could benefit from broader testing (across more environments and equipment).
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Slackel has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8/10 from 2 review(s).
Have you used Slackel? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Haiku improves font handling and performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud
The Haiku team have been hard at work, introducing new features and bug fixes into their lightweight operating system. The project's monthly newsletter highlights some of the changes, locale bug fixes, and driver improvements. "jscipione fixed Deskbar submenus to all use the 'menu' font. Previously, some of them used the 'plain' font and some the 'menu' font, which made things obviously inconsistent when two different fonts were in use for these; now things should be properly consistent.
apl fixed some minor issues and improved the performance of HaikuDepot a bit, and also fixed a corner-case regarding invalid characters being entered into the username field. He also added more logging to allow for easier debugging of performance issues.
waddlesplash fixed colour name handling in Terminal, which was incorrect for non-English locales and broke adjusting colours entirely. Now things should work properly."
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Canonical has announced a new technology for people interested in deploying their own cloud infrastructure. The new software, called MicroCloud, is intended to be set up with a single command, reducing the amount of human interaction involved in setting up new cloud instances. Support for MicroCloud is included in Ubuntu Pro subscriptions. "Canonical announced today the general availability of MicroCloud, a low-touch, open source cloud solution. MicroCloud is part of Canonical's growing cloud infrastructure portfolio. It is purpose-built for scalable clusters and edge deployments for all types of enterprises. It is designed with simplicity, security and automation in mind, minimising the time and effort to both deploy and maintain it. Conveniently, enterprise support for MicroCloud is offered as part of Canonical's Ubuntu Pro subscription, with several support tiers available, and priced per node." Additional information is provided in the company's announcement.
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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) |
Restricting CPU usage
Pick-a-core-any-core asks: Is there a command I can use to determine how many CPU cores a process uses? When I compile or convert something, I want to be able to limit its CPU usage.
DistroWatch answers: There are a few different ways you can limit the amount of CPU resources a process can use at a time. Which approach makes the most sense will vary depending on the situation. Below, I'll cover three options for restricting a process's CPU access.
When what you are doing is specifically related to compiling, you can usually set the maximum number of jobs/cores to use at a time through your build tools. For instance, if you're compiling any software which uses the GNU make build tool then you can specify the number of jobs to run at a time using the "-j" flag. For example, the following would limit your build process to executing one job at a time, presumably requiring just one core:
make -j1
The compile job that is running may move between different cores as the Linux scheduler sees fit, but only one would be in use at a time. To run up to two jobs (using two cores) at a time, you could run the following:
make -j2
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In situations where you want to lock one process to using a specific CPU core (and just that core) you can use a command called taskset. Let's say I want to run the make command again and only allow it to run on one of my eight CPU cores. I can force make to run on CPU #3 by running the following:
taskset -c 3 make
in this instance the make command might use up all of its single core, but it won't spread to others.
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A third option is: we might not care on which or how many CPU cores are being used, just the total amount of CPU resources a process consumes. For these situations we can use a program called cpulimit which will throttle back running jobs to only consume a certain percentage of our available CPU resources. For instance, we can run Firefox and limit it to only using up to 50% of our CPU time by running the following command:
cpulimit -l 50 -- firefox
Using this approach, the launched program can run on any cores, it just can't use more than half (50%) of our processing power. This can be useful when running long jobs which we may want to run more slowly in the background.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
AlmaLinux OS 9.3
AlmaLinux OS is a Linux distribution built using the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The project has published version 9.3 which introduces security improvements and updates to the web-based administration tools. "AlmaLinux 9.3 aims to improve flexibility and reliability, as well as to enhance security across hybrid environments. This release continues simplifying automation and system management. Web console enhancements simplify management tasks. Additionally, users can configure health check actions for Podman containers and vsock devices in virtual machines. Application Streams updates provide developers with flexibility and customization options without affecting the platform's stability. The 9.3 offers enhanced security and compliance. Additionally, it provides enhanced flexibility, stability, and reliability needed to support hybrid cloud innovation. You can read more about this release by checking out the Release Notes." Additional details on the new version can be found in the project's release announcement.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.3
Red Hat has announced the release of a new update to its 9.x Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product line. The new version, RHEL 9.3, introduces a few changes, including supporting UEFI environments in cloud instances. "Previously, RHEL image builder created EC2 AMD or Intel 64-bit architecture AMIs images with support only for the legacy boot type. As a consequence, it was not possible to take advantage of certain AWS features requiring UEFI boot, such as secure boot. This enhancement extends the AWS EC2 AMD or Intel 64-bit architecture AMI image to support UEFI boot, in addition to the legacy BIOS boot. As a result, it is now possible to take advantage of AWS features which require booting the image with UEFI." The new release also makes it easier to select a specific kernel when installing on ARM processors. Additional information is provided in the company's release notes.
EuroLinux 9.3
The EuroLinux project publishes and supports an enterprise-focused distribution based on source code from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The EuroLinux team have published version 9.3 of their distribution which introduces a number of updates to server software as well as new utilities. "Major changes in EuroLinux 9.3. Security - key security-related highlights: Keylime was rebased to version 7.3.0. OpenSSH was further migrated from the less secure SHA-1 message digest. The pcsc-lite-ccid USB Chip/Smart Card Interface Device(CCID)) and Integrated Circuit Card Device (ICCD) driver was rebased to version 1.5.2. SEtools, the collection of graphical tools, command-line tools, and libraries for SELinux policy analysis, was rebased to version 4.4.3. OpenSCAP was rebased to version 1.3.8. Programming languages, web and database servers - later versions of the following application are now available: Redis 7; Node.js 20. Furthermore, the Apache HTTP Server has been updated to version 2.4.57." The project's relesae announcement and release notes offer additional information.
pfSense 2.7.1
Bill Rathbone has announced the release of pfSense 2.7.1, un updated build of the project's FreeBSD-based specialist operating system for firewalls and routers. This version uses the FreeBSD's 14-CURRENT branch as its base. "Netgate is pleased to announce the release of pfSense Community Edition (CE) software version 2.7.1. Major changes and features: OpenSSL upgraded to 3.0.12 - this change was essential because OpenSSL 1.1.1 has reached end of life (EOL) and will no longer receive security patches for vulnerabilities; the Kea DHCP server is available as an opt-in feature, basic functionality is present in version 2.7.1, but it is not feature-complete; support for SCTP has been improved in PF for firewall rules, NAT and logging, and rules can now act on SCTP packets by port number; IPv6 Router Advertisement configuration has been relocated to Services, Router Advertisement as a part of the ongoing Kea DHCP server integration; PHP upgraded to 8.2.11; the base operating system upgraded to a more recent point of FreeBSD 14-CURRENT...." See the release announcement and the release notes for further information and upgrade instructions.
Oracle Linux 9.3
Simon Coter has announced the release of Oracle Linux 9 Update 3, an updated build of Oracle's distribution built from the just-released Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.3: "Oracle Linux 9 Update 3 for the 64-bit Intel and AMD (x86_64) and 64-bit Arm (aarch64) platforms is now generally available. This release continues to be application binary compatible with the corresponding Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Update 3 release, as has been the case since the first release in 2006. Oracle Linux 9 Update 3 ships with the newest Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Release 7 Update 2 (UEK R7U2) and Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) packages. Oracle Linux now supports automatic reboot of systems after patches are installed through DNF. With enhanced DNF, automatic reboot with different options (never, when-changed, when-needed) can speed-up patch management operations. The enhanced DNF utility introduced two new options: dnf leaves - to list the installed packages that aren't required by any other installed packages; dnf show-leaves - to list newly installed leaf packages and packages that have become leaves after a transaction." See the release announcement and the release notes for further details.
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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: 2,928
- 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) |
Window manager or full desktop environment?
In this week's review of Slackel we touched on the Openbox window manager. Some distributions ship with a minimal window manager with just a handful of features. This makes them lighter and often faster than distributions which offer full featured desktop environments such as GNOME and KDE Plasma. This week we'd like to hear how many of our readers have gone the minimal route and run plain window managers rather than full desktop environments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using open source applications exclusively in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Window manager vs full desktop environment
| I run a window manager: | 372 (21%) |
| I run a full desktop environment: | 1423 (79%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- AZOS GNU/Linux. AZOS GNU/Linux is an Arch-based distribution which strives to provide all necessary desktop functionality without relying on a command line. The project aims to be suitable for both office work and gaming, as well as other common desktop activities.
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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, 27 November 2023. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Full list of all issues |
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iQunix OS
iQunix OS was a 64-bit Linux operating system based on the popular Ubuntu distribution. Its unique design offers to experienced Ubuntu users a bare-bone operating system in which nothing was pre-installed.
Status: Discontinued
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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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0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
