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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • POLL (by Reyfer on 2023-11-27 03:51:49 GMT from Venezuela)
What is the purpose of the last option on this week's poll?
2 • @1. Poll (by Sam Crawford on 2023-11-27 04:09:18 GMT from United States)
Commadore 64 users.
3 • SWAP space (by Alexandru on 2023-11-27 07:15:36 GMT from Romania)
The last option is for something else than is listed. And in my case (I did not vote however) is "it depends on the hardware".
4 • GhostBSD 4GB RAM (by vermaden on 2023-11-27 08:09:46 GMT from Poland)
Hi.
> These requirements, especially the 4GB of RAM, may seem unusually high for a FreeBSD-based operating system.
Its because installer first unpacks files to ramdisk and then does the installation.
If you want to install GhostBSD on a computer with - for example - 2 GB RAM then do the following:
1. Install GhostBSD in VirtualBox with 4 GB RAM on some other computer.
2. Install latest FreeBSD STABLE snapshot on a computer with 2 GB (Auto ZFS).
3. Enable sshd(8) on 2 GB machine.
# vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config (PermitRootLogin yes)
# service sshd enable
# service sshd start
4. From 4 GB machine do bectl(8) export like that to 2 GB machine.
# bectl export ghostbsd | ssh root@2GB bectl import ghostbsd
5. Activate new ZFS BE on 2 GB machine.
# bectl activate ghostbsd
6. Reboot 2 GB machine into GhostBSD using 'ghostbsd' ZFS BE.
Hope that helps.
Regards,
vermaden
5 • zRAM (by NULL on 2023-11-27 08:46:06 GMT from Germany)
Switched all my devices (servers and desktops) to utilize zRAM instead of swap and could not be happier with the results.
It reduces read/write cycles on SSDs, is faster to begin with and allows even my cheap 4GB netbook to be a machine used for light development with the GNOME desktop.
Of course there might be situations where a partition/file swap is more appropriate or a mix between zRAM and partitions/files.
For regular users, IMHO zRAM should be the default on desktops nowadays, because the benefits easily outweigh potential drawbacks .
6 • swap (by fenglengshun on 2023-11-27 10:25:39 GMT from Indonesia)
Most distro I use (including the one I use currently) use zram. I usually add swapfile on top of that, juuuuust in case when it's needed. And it is needed, sometimes reaching 10GB if I've used my device for particularly long times without rebooting.
7 • GhostBSD (by Otis on 2023-11-27 12:19:30 GMT from United States)
Thanks for the GhostBSD review. It's been my little "pet hope" distro (I still call BSD projects "distros" even though that term is most commonly used for Linux projects) since I first noticed it and tried it a few years ago.
I keep running into the wifi issues, along with sound workarounds instead of "just working out of the box" no matter the hardware I try the installation on. I'm somewhat spoiled by most Linux installations which see the hardware and you're fully up and running to see if the distro is compatible with your way of doing things. BSD projects seem to need a lot more extra work to do that... still; it's been a long time of hope that they'll catch up to Linux.
I do love the no systemd aspect of BSD, along with a certain sort of snappiness of operation that is only in a few Linux distros.
8 • GjostBSD (by Borgio3 on 2023-11-27 13:05:48 GMT from Italy)
I'm using GhostBSD since May of 2023, after a year with NomadBSD, and i'm very satisfied of both. I like very much their reliability, and ligtness, and all operations run quickly and smoothly. So i had abandoned the Linux world.
9 • GhostBSD: small issue (by Nathan on 2023-11-27 13:31:19 GMT from United States)
I used GhostBSD on my "play" desktop for about 5 months.
I had no issue with WIFI using the Panda USB stick.
My only issue was the sound device.
I set the sound to the desktop speaker but after each power down, G. reverts to
no sound device. The "save" selection did not function.
Other then that, GhostBSD worked like a charm, speedy, no popups or other "noise"
That machine is now running Peppermint 12 while my daily laptop is running MX "KDE".
10 • GhostBSD (by Barnabyh on 2023-11-27 14:08:58 GMT from United Kingdom)
I like the traditional GNOME 2 set up on the FreeBSD base. Been watching this project since you Jesse reviewed it here first.
Unfortunately not being able to use Steam is still a deal breaker.
11 • Swap for Suspend (by Stan R on 2023-11-27 15:26:42 GMT from United States)
I believe swap might be necessary for a system to suspend or sleep. Maybe even needed when drives or partitions get above 80 or 85 percent full; so that the kernel can move things to keep down data fragmentation.
12 • @11 Swap (by Denethor on 2023-11-27 17:17:50 GMT from Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Dear Stan R, swap is not necessary for sleep/suspend, only for hibernation.
13 • Swap (by David on 2023-11-27 17:20:39 GMT from United Kingdom)
The reason why a computer uses swap when there's plenty of RAM available is that it does so when the the free memory falls below a certain limit. The limit depends on the type of memory, where in the memory the program is loaded (RAM is spit into two or three zones), and how enthusiastic about swapping the kernel has been set to be. The only thing you can control is the last factor, "swappiness". That is usually set to 60, but can be anything from 0 to 100 — the higher it is, the more likely the system is to use swap..
14 • Swap (by DaveT on 2023-11-27 19:06:06 GMT from United Kingdom)
I never use swap on desktops and laptops. No need for it.
If the software you are using starts running dog slow then install more RAM or buy a new laptop!
I only use a swap partition on servers.
15 • Swapping. (by Friar Tux on 2023-11-27 20:47:41 GMT from Canada)
I use what ever is default on my daily distro. I don't care to twiddle with what's under the hood, I just want to get my stuff done. Also, I figure the developers of the distro have optimized it to what works best, so if it ain't broke, I don't try messing with it.
As for anything BSD, I gave up on that a long time ago. I could never get one installed or working on any machine. I find it takes way too much extra fiddling - as Otis (@7) stated above.
16 • BSD = being self-debaring (by BSD was something in the 80s on 2023-11-28 00:06:16 GMT from France)
@7, @15
No surprise.
FreeBSD IS DESIGNED to require lots of fiddling.
It's all stated loud and clear in its very motto "the power to serve". Its a server OS, that means it's to be run by sysadmins. It's not to be used as workstations...
Except sysadmin's workstation maybe (but i know so many Unix sysdmins who prefer using Windows or more rarely Macs).
Have ever seen a FreeBSD install tutorial? They explain that managing lots of things by shell commands and editing /etc files is "better to learn how things work"...
But i'm always nagged by this impression they're just hiding by that, that they don't have the ressources, neither the know-how to make things easier.
At any rate, iIf you're no computer pro, no luck.
But if you seriously want to train as a sysadmin, well, maybe you'd be better off installing a Linux server, actually, and deploying web services on VMs or in Docker containers.
Come to think about it, BSD used to be a source of non-conformity, back in the days it was Unix 1BSD, 2BSD, ...4.3BSD, developed at University of California in Berkeley. Then 4.4BSD was released, it didn't bear the Unix name anymore, the UCB washed their hands of it, and strangely, it was adopted by guys who have since then proven to be so conservative the BSD systems have kept receding everywhere...
There may be companies just embed most of FreeBSD's kernel in commercial products,but just don't follow any of BSD folk senile principles (Sony PlayStation, Apple devices...).
17 • @15 (by Simon on 2023-11-28 00:20:41 GMT from New Zealand)
The developers of the distro have not optimized it to what works best for you: they've attempted to set it up in a way that's going to work for the largest number of people, which usually means that it can work much better for you if you take the time to understand it and improve on the default setup.
18 • gigs (by Iohannis on 2023-11-28 01:07:49 GMT from United States)
My current computer is an off the shelf "gaming" machine. It replaced my custum power hog second best of everything. It came with 32 GIG, the minimal configuration. If my OS ever touches swap, something has gone terriby wrong.
19 • Swap Space (by Simon Plaistowe on 2023-11-28 02:16:42 GMT from New Zealand)
Well that mainly depends upon the hardware. If it's on SSD then I tend to use a file, which is easy to resize or recreate if I wish to. If it's on HDD then I tend to use a partition to avoid fragmentation, and physically place that partition as close as possible to the beginning of the drive where access is faster. And I tend to keep /tmp/ in RAM, using tmpfs so it'll use RAM when possible then swap space thereafter.
20 • swap space (by Will on 2023-11-28 04:35:22 GMT from United States)
When I saw this poll, I scratched my head and thought to myself, swap, sheesh, how long has it been since I thought about swap... at least a couple of years now. So I looked and apparently, somewhere along the lines of installing mint, I wound up with a 2.0gb swapfile. Apparently, it's been enough for my needs. I do have 32gb of ram on the desktop and 16 on my laptops. I do a lot of dev work and vms, but I can't remember running out of memory or crashing for years, so I'll stick with mint's defaults and keep not worrying about it :).
21 • Why these BSD variants? (by Greg Zeng on 2023-11-28 04:42:10 GMT from Australia)
Comments made so far explain much. BSD for servers, originally, like Linux, but free of the Unix legalities. Supposedly trimmer, & better than Linux, but only in the opinion of a very small minority. Varieties of user applications?
The next puzzle in Distrowatch is the reason for living of the hundreds of different brand names. It is similar to the human population. So newborn babies, with varying degrees of ability & ambition. Some babies stagnate in their growth, with some never reaching teens or adulthood. There are dinosaur versions, stuck in traditional ways, such as the Linux (Unix) From Scratch variants, denying the existence of the common later changes & innovations. No systemd, no Wayland, no BTRFS, no zRAM, etc.
There are many rebellious forks as usual, unable or unwilling to partner with existing development communities. These forks are based usually on Debian, Red Hat, Arch, or the derivatives of these derivatives. Most forks have daring and adventurous innovations. These include early use of the inevitable. Is Wayland ready to be incorporated into the conservative parent, upstream versions of these forks?
End users like myself are watching for the fear and clumsy attempts by these coders. The "Discover" package manager was invented to try to improve the Synaptic Package Manager, designed for the Debian compiled applications. Discover is trying to better handle snap, flatpak and Debian packages. Discover cannot yet handle AppImage, nor the many incompatible versions of the RPM-compiled applications.
My preference for PC Linux OS. PCLOS is trying to match the original Synaptic for its versions of their unique RPM compilations. This variant of Synaptic includes essential applications usually neglected by other application package managers; Slimjet, Grub Customizer and Freefilesync. This isolated PCLOS community however has yet to debug Onboard and other applications into their application package manager. PCLOS is not yet able to use other package managers, including Discover, flatpak and snap.
BSD has yet to be accessible for application end users. Most of the hundreds of Linux operating systems are unavailable. Too dangerously youthful, too staid & conservative, or too geeky. PCLOS is my preferred Unix-based system, despite its small coder base, and use of an antique version of RPM.
Since my computer needs are not just Linux limited however, only Windows has the full range of user options, for applications and devices used in the real world. The many Unix variants (BSD, Linux, Apple and Android) cannot yet have the user sensitivity required by the general public. My medical impairments are better treated with Logitech products, and Windows software etc.
Hopefully the many Unix derivations will be mature enough for the general computer user. Meantime, these Unix derivatives stay the domain of professional coders and their geek dependents.
22 • Swap, Scratch or Proxy; it's a MUST have (by why-oh-why on 2023-11-28 08:06:50 GMT from The Netherlands)
There are people who will tell you things like "if you need swap, you need more RAM" or "I have 32 GB of RAM; I can't see why I would need swap." Well, that only shows their half-knowledge and how they actually really can't see. Please let me give you an example from the past.
When I started using image manipulation programs, the "supercomputer workstations" had 32 MB of RAM and were costing as much as a small house. Computers had 32 MB of RAM, but we were working with 128, or 512 MB of images. That was possible only because of "proxy images." Check out the "Alias Eclipse" history for more.
Eclipse Paint was the best professional image manipulation program until the "bargain cheapo" Adobe Photoshop came out. For a peanut (about $600) of the price ($3500), it could do almost everything ("warping") better. (I do not remember the exact price anymore, but the approximate difference in the price was as written.)
Except for one thing: Photoshop struggled with files much larger than the amount of RAM. The "scratch disk" was born. Try opening a 512 MB or 1 GB image in Photoshop (to get the idea, GIMP will do too) and try making 100 layer copies and see what happens.
Technology changed, but nothing changed in the sense of "no swap, no work."
Swap is absolutely necessary in modern times too. Swap is necessary for hybernation, swap is necessary for badly programmed websites (the infamous thumblr's "infinity scroll"), swap is necessary for HQ audio, video, and imaging applications, etc.
No swap, no fun, you could say, even today. Once, it was a 128 MB image on a 32 MB RAM computer, and today it is a 4 TB RAM computer struggling with 365 GP (gigapixels). "Post-processing and stitching the 46 terabytes afterwards took 2 months, and the resulting 365-gigapixel photo would be as large as a soccer field if printed out at 300 dpi."
Search for "365-Gigapixel Panorama of Mont Blanc Becomes the World’s Largest Photo" (PetaPixel) for more.
So yes, "if you need swap, you need more RAM" or "I have 32 GB of RAM; I can't see why I would need swap" is the truth for most people, but far from the truth in general.
23 • BSD (by DaveT on 2023-11-28 10:19:24 GMT from United Kingdom)
I use OpenBSD as my daily driver.
It works very well indeed.
You DO have to read the manual at times to get things how you want them.
Choose your hardware carfeully!
I only use Devuan Linux for those things the BSDs don't do such as music composition.
A suitable vanity project now I am retired would be to port Csound to OpenBSD - that should keep me quiet for a bit!
24 • Fiddling by design (by Otis on 2023-11-28 13:49:05 GMT from United States)
@16 I don't think so. In the first place not every BSD version/distro/project has the same vision, some, notably the BSD at hand in this week's review section, seeks to not only be "elegant," as stated on Eric's homepage for GhostBSD, but also to basically be a Linux distro replacement or at least alternative, fully functional out of the box and ready to fire up and go to work.
It, like other BSDs out there, is evolving with each release, and also has a thriving community of contributors to those ends.
I do see many BSD, and some Linux, projects that appear a lot like my old motorcycle kit years ago; basically a garage build and tinker endeavor designed just for that purpose. But, not, some BSD is about trying to be as good and finished as the best Linux distros out there.
25 • Typo correction (no editng here) (by Otis on 2023-11-28 13:52:19 GMT from United States)
@24 "But, not, some BSD is about trying to be as good and finished as the best Linux distros out there" should be:
"But, no, some BSDs out there are about trying to be as good and finished as the best Linux distros out there."
26 • ZRAM (by GT on 2023-11-28 15:44:45 GMT from United States)
ZRAM is super easy to setup on Debian 12. I use it instead of a partition and have no complaints.
27 • Swap space (by Bob McConnell on 2023-11-28 16:23:51 GMT from United States)
With 8GB of RAM, I have a 16GB swap partition active on every drive in each system. The only applications that use it on a regular basis are Firefox and the news reader pan2. Both are memory hogs and seem to forget to call free() when the allocated chunks are no longer needed. In at least one case, I have seen Firefox use 3GB for one tab after keeping the NOAA regional radar on it for several days. Terminating that process from the system monitor will free up that memory, and then restoring the tab restarts it with much less memory use. Pan2 simply keeps using more memory for each group, apparently without reusing or releasing any of it. The header download is the worst case. I sometimes have to shut the app down halfway through the list, in order to finish in a reasonable time frame. I always shut it down and restart between downloading headers and scanning through them.
28 • news reader (by jc on 2023-11-28 20:28:31 GMT from The Netherlands)
Comment 27: Why not use a better news reader than pan2?
29 • Nitrux passwords (by signior on 2023-11-28 23:24:53 GMT from Germany)
"Nitrux: Calamares will now enforce a stricter password check...to increase security... the 'system administrator,' must use a password over 8 characters long."
Dinosoar moment? Security experts were recommending passwords 12 or more characters long years ago. Win & MAC now offer built-in 2fa / mfa. The only Linux distro that offers something similar is SystemRescue via a built-in security key client - and it's just a rescue system. Login method is one area where Linux has fallen behind.
30 • Nitrux passwords, @29 (by Wally on 2023-11-29 01:56:44 GMT from Australia)
When I run into an installer that demands a password to its specifications, I quit the installer and install something else. I guess I'll skip Nitrux. Nothing against security. I just detest people and things that try to save me from myself. I'm retired and my computers reside at home. The only person with access is my wife, who knows all my passwords. Since I boot a few times a day, I don't want or need to be bothered with complex logins. In the unlikely event that someone breaks is and steal my computers, anything any of importance or value requires its own authorization for access. Burglars are welcome to my porn.:-)
Security people puzzle me sometimes. I have a phone with fingerprint sign-in, but once in a while it wants my 4 digit PIN "for security reasons". I'd think it'd be easier to steal my PIN than my fingerprint, but what do I know? Windows 11, by the way, can do with just a 6 digit PIN if signing in with an MS account.
31 • @14 Swap (by Inspector Barnaby on 2023-11-29 20:11:55 GMT from Denmark)
So, fellow-me-lad, why don't you just install more ram or buy new servers?
Toodle-pip!
32 • GhostBSD (by Todd on 2023-11-30 01:46:25 GMT from Italy)
GhostBSD proves that, with a little work, FreeBSD is also suitable for the desktop. It may lag behind Linux on hardware recognition, but it is a "real operating system" (not a kernel + GNU userland). It also evolves slowly to provide more stability, instead of frantically introducing new features and new problems.
33 • news reader @28 (by Bob McConnell on 2023-11-30 06:10:44 GMT from United States)
I would like to, but I haven't found one. I used Agent early on, then PAN for many years. pan2 is mostly a big disappointment after both of those. If I could find something else in free (libre) software that had a similar look and feel, I would switch to it very quickly. I even used Perl scripts to download everything in a few groups for several years. But that became a problem with all the noise that is being generated.
34 • BSD (by Trihexagonal on 2023-11-30 16:57:17 GMT from United States)
@16 "Have ever seen a FreeBSD install tutorial?"
Yes, I wrote one for people who had never used the command line.
https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/27708765
"They explain that managing lots of things by shell commands and editing /etc files is "better to learn how things work"..."
Right you are.
"But i'm always nagged by this impression they're just hiding by that, that they don't have the ressources, neither the know-how to make things easier."
https://web.archive.org/web/20220411175907/https://trihexagonal.org/
Posted from my FreeBSD 13.2-RELEASE-p3 box.
Ghostbsd is a fine OS and been faithfully maintained for many years.
Kudos to Jesse for reviewing it.
Number of Comments: 34
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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BlankOn
BlankOn was an Debian-based distribution developed by the Indonesian Linux Mover Foundation and BlankOn developer team. It was an Indonesian distribution that includes a variety of software that was widely used by consumers in general, such as office programs, financial applications, Internet applications, drawing (both vector and bitmap), support for various multimedia file formats, as well as other interesting programs.
Status: Discontinued
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Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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