 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1069, 6 May 2024 |
Welcome to this year's 19th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Just over a week ago Canonical launched Ubuntu 24.04, the distribution's latest long-term support (LTS) release. Accompanying Ubuntu 24.04 were its ten community editions. Jeff Siegel took the latest version of Ubuntu for a test drive and reports on his findings and early impressions of Canonical's new release. Learn about Jeff's impressions in this week's Feature Story. In our News section we talk about the systemd project launching its replacement for sudo while the Linux Mint team unveils plans to guard against unverified Flatpak applications. The Mint project is also moving to make development of its cross-desktop applications (XApps) more open and portable to other distributions. We also talk about the highlights in FreeBSD's quarterly news update. Plus this week we talk about how to address installing new software when a partition is running out of space. One workaround in this situation is to expand a storage pool across multiple disks or partitions. Do you use a flexible storage solution, such as Btrfs or LVM? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. We are also 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 Jeff Siegel) |
Ubuntu 24.04
Ubuntu 24.04 could turn out to be the distribution's most important release in a decade, a version as significant as owner Canonical's attempt at convergence with the Unity desktop in the mid-2010s. That's because, as Windows 10 reaches end of life in 18 months and its users either don't want to upgrade or don't have the wherewithal to do so, they'll go looking elsewhere. Given its role as perhaps the most visible Linux distro among the unconverted, Ubuntu is where many will look.
Hence, the focus of this review, using an older laptop with minimum Windows 11-ish specs as the test machine: Is Ubuntu 24.04, codename Noble Numbat, appealing enough - in performance, in simplicity, and ease of use? Is it good enough in its hardware support and appearance to offer those Windows refugees a new home? As such, I tried to use just the App Center to install software and update the system, and tried not to use too many GNOME extensions to tweak the layout or make GNOME easier to use. My goal was to replicate what someone coming from Windows 10 would find and do.
The answer to all of this? Mostly yes. There are, this being Ubuntu, the usual annoyances with Snaps and the GNOME desktop, and my hardware didn't include anything NVIDIA or Realtek, so I can't speak to the common issues with those hardware components.
Ubuntu 24.04 -- Setting up Ubuntu
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But the revamped App Center is a vast improvement over the previous software stores and does what it's supposed to do. Wayland for display and PipeWire for audio worked out of the box while the new Flutter-based installer (Subiquity) lives up to all its hype. In fact, I tested Ubuntu 22.04 and 23.10 on the same laptop in preparation for this review, and 24.04 is just that much better than the very ordinary 22.04 and the surprisingly inconsistent 23.10.
Getting started
Ubuntu 24.04 is a long-term support (LTS) release and will be supported for five years (10 or 12 years with a free, personal subscription to Ubuntu Pro). It comes in a 64-bit 6GB ISO file, which is more than a gigabyte bigger than 22.04. The minimum system requirements are at least a 2GHz dual core processor, 4GB RAM, and 25GB of hard-drive space. This compares to Windows 11, which needs 4GB of RAM and a 64GB hard drive, as well as specific CPUs, the dreaded Trusted Platform Module 2.0, and a Microsoft account. Ubuntu doesn't need any of the latter, and should run without any trouble on any Windows 10-compatible system.
Under the hood, 24.04 comes with the Linux kernel (version 6.8); the GNOME 46 desktop; Netplan 1.0 for better network management; the Mesa 24.0 graphics stack, and a host of technical upgrades to improve security and to make the system work more efficiently. Canonical went out of its way after the xz backdoor emerged to reemphasize its commitment to security, including delaying the 24.04 beta release.
The first noticeable difference between Numbat and previous Ubuntu downloads is the new Minimal install, which includes Firefox, the Nano text editor, a terminal, the App Center and not much else. That means no office suite, no e-mail or camera app, no music or video player, and - as the Internet has been bemoaning since the news broke - no games.
Which, frankly, is a welcome change. There is an expanded install with more apps, but for those of us who don't need all of LibreOffice or Thunderbird, or want specific apps instead of the defaults (VLC instead of Parole or Audacious instead of Rhythmbox, for instance), this is another improvement. And I only play Aisle Riot anyway.
Believe it or not - the new App Center handles its work without much trouble; I didn't have to install Synaptic to make up for the app center's shortcomings. Frankly, I was stunned. I've been complaining about the various Ubuntu software thingies for as long as they have existed, and there isn't much to complain about here. It updates. It installs - both local Deb files and Snaps. It's much quicker, it looks better, and it didn't crash once. This is the sort of thing that's crucial for someone moving to Ubuntu from Windows, where most people only know the app store approach to installing apps.
Ubuntu 24.04 -- Fetching software updates
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I ran into two quirks. First, the App Center won't update the App Center Snap; it throws an error message since the App Center is open. You'll need to close the App Center and update it through the command line ("sudo snap refresh"). This bug has been hanging around for a while and I'm surprised it wasn't fixed here. Second, the App Center won't install third-party Deb files, so you'll need to install either wget or gdebi (for which the GUI actually works) if you want something that's not in the App Center, like the Vivaldi browser or Ubuntu Cleaner. Know that this is hardly as Windows-user friendly as so much else in the distribution.
Several software changes are worth mentioning. Thunderbird, like Firefox, is now a Snap. Cheese has been replaced by the GNOME camera app, called Camera, and seems to be an improvement. My lips were mostly synced with my voice in a test video. There is also a new firmware updater, accessed through Settings - just like in Windows.
Ubuntu 24.04 -- Firmware updater
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Meanwhile, the Firefox Snap, which has been notoriously slow in opening since Ubuntu switched the Firefox package from a Deb to a Snap, seemed to load as quickly as it always has. The App Center Zoom Deb file, which has been quirky over the past several Ubuntu versions (ibus woes, anyone?), also worked without any trouble.
Bring on Flutter
Even more impressive is the new installer. The Flutter version looks better, is easier to use and understand, and seemed more nimble. Installation, from first click to reboot, took about 15 minutes, which included overwriting Ubuntu 22.04. Best yet, when prompted to remove the installation media and hit Enter, the installer didn't crash. That issue has been all too common in past Ubuntu and community flavour installs.
Also, the GNOME desktop didn't annoy - which isn't as damning with faint praise as that sounds given that sometimes, it seems that "annoying" is GNOME's reason for being. Thanks to a couple of GUI changes, there's less need to install extensions -- and then find out they haven't been updated to the current version of GNOME. The new Quick Settings, which sits in the upper right hand corner, includes action buttons; network, Bluetooth, and battery settings; and volume and brightness controls. The only extension I had to install to make something work was GNOME Tweaks, so I could set the Nextcloud desktop app to run at startup. Nextcloud even connected through Online Accounts, which has been problematic in some previous versions of GNOME, both in Ubuntu and elsewhere.
Ubuntu 24.04 -- The quick settings panel
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In fact, there really wasn't a reason to add the half-dozen extensions I normally install to make GNOME more comfortable to use, including Dash to Panel. On the other hand, those who want the calendar and weather combined in the top panel in some sort of usable fashion will still need to add an extension (such as OpenWeather Refined, for one).
The Nautilus file manager (better known as Files these days) has also seen a spate of upgrades, making it more powerful and quicker: custom folder icons, much better drag and drop, improved text search, and a thumbnail view. Dragging screenshots from the Photos folder to the Nextcloud folder was easier than it has ever been.
Ubuntu 24.04 -- The new system installer
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In the end, Ubuntu 24.04 is the most complete version I've tried since at least 20.04, and perhaps even before that. Its GNOME desktop is quicker and easier to use, and it doesn't penalize those of us who prefer the mouse to phone-style swiping. Its GUI is more modern and more complete, and not having to find the right GNOME extension to add to make up any shortcomings is an added bonus. The new Flutter installer should make it easier to perform dual boots, while the new App Center - if not quite perfect yet - is far more effective than those iterations that preceded it.
Best yet, it just works - and that's despite switching to less tried technologies like Wayland and PipeWire. Windows, for all of its many faults, usually does just that. It works with almost any peripheral or odd piece of hardware users throw at it. Ubuntu still isn't at that point, but what one review of 20.04 called the distro's "steeper learning curve" is pretty much gone. Boot this one up, and anyone who has used a computer before should feel reasonably comfortable.
While Ubuntu 24.04 is in good shape, don't try updating from 22.04 to 24.04 until the first point release later this year. Unlike the fresh install used here, upgrades have caused problems which may cause upgraded systems to become unrecoverable.
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Hardware used for this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP EliteBook 850 G5 laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel Core i7-8550U, 4GHz
- Storage: 512GB SSD
- Memory: 16GB of RAM
- Networking: Intel Dual Band AC-8265 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac wireless
- Display: Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620
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
Ubuntu has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.7/10 from 293 review(s).
Have you used Ubuntu? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
systemd creates a sudo alternative, Linux Mint guards against unverified Flatpaks and encourages a distro-neutral approach to XApps, FreeBSD publishes quarterly news summary
The systemd project is adding a new utility to its portfolio, this one designed to replace the sudo and doas programs. Lennart Poettering, systemd's creator, wants to get away from SUID programs (programs that run as another user, such as root, automatically) as a way to elevate access. Instead, he is proposing a situation where the user runs a file which asks the service manager (systemd in this case) to run a new process with elevated access. OSNews writes: "Poettering wants to address this problem [of SUID programs], and has come up with run0, which behaves like sudo, but works entirely differently and is not SUID. run0 asks the service manager to create a shell or command under the target user's ID, creating a new PTY, sending data back and forth from the originating TTY and the new PTY." In other words, instead of the user launching a program (like sudo or doas) that will run a single new process as another user, run0 will get the service manager to create a new process and then pass information between the original shell and the new process. The new run0 command will appear in systemd version 256.
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The Linux Mint team published their monthly newsletter for April and it covers a lot of topics. The team talks about testing new Fastly mirrors to improve package download speeds and reliability, swapping out the discontinued HexChat IRC client for Matrix, and dealing with unverified Flatpak bundles. To protect users against unverified Flatpak packages in the Flathub repository, Mint is taking a few steps: "We've been lucky so far. We really need to take action: We'll update the Software Manager to not show unverified Flatpaks by default. This will be an opt-in. When shown, unverified apps will have a score of 0. The score can help a user build trust towards the application, but the issue here isn't the application, it's the fact that the maintainers aren't who people think they are. When shown, unverified apps will be clearly marked as unverified. We're fully aware this goes against convenience and will hurt Linux Mint a little bit. It might not be a popular decision but we think it's a very important one. By the time malware hits Flathub, we hope these measures and the measures taken by Flathub will have minimized the number of exposed users and raised awareness around the risks which are being taken."
The Mint team also talks about XApps, the Linux Mint replacements for GNOME applications which do not work properly on non-GNOME desktops. The Mint team points out that, while XApps are used almost exclusively on Linux Mint, they could be run on other distributions, such as Xubuntu which currently suffers from running GNOME applications which don't integrate with Xfce. "What should have happened ideally would have been more communication and an independent XApp project, not hosted or maintained by Linux Mint, but by people from various desktop and/or distributions. XApp should be its own organization, with its own GitHub repositories, chat room, website, etc. It should be a space which facilitates collaboration, compatibility and the development of application which works everywhere, not just apps which are needed or maintained by us." People interested in collaborating on an independent XApps suite can visit the new XApp Matrix channel.
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The FreeBSD project has published its quarterly newsletter which highlights work and progress happening in the project. Some of the highlights include work being done on filesystems, wireless networking, and optional notifications from the FreshPorts website when new packages become available. The newsletter also mentions graphical package managers, such as Discover, will now work with FreeBSD's pkg package manager through PackageKit: "PackageKit is a small D-Bus daemon program that serves as a backend for "application store" type of apps - most notably Plasma Discover and Gnome Software Center. The latest PackageKit release features a libpkg backend, which means that you can now use PackageKit-enabled programs on FreeBSD to manage software. Plasma Discover is already switched to using PackageKit, so you will get it working out of the box once you update your ports/packages."
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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) |
Placing packages in alternative locations
Picking-package-placement asks: In Windows when you install software you always have the option to choose which drive to install to (assuming of course you have two or more drives plugged in). It's really handy if your C: drive is getting full but you have loads of space on D: or whatever.
Is there any way to do something similar on Linux?
I tend to underestimate the space I'll eventually need for a Linux install and then get in a tricky situation (unable to shrink the main Windows partition to make room for it because I have the Linux partition at the start so I can't then give it the freed up space at the end) so I would have to fresh install both operating systems to change how the drive is split between them.
After the OS is installed, let's say you install LibreOffice, for example. In Windows, you have the option to install LibreOffice to D: if your C: drive is low on space. In Linux, LibreOffice installs to / and if / is low on space then tough.
So you've got AppImages, can dump those anywhere. Similarly, loose binaries not integrated into the package management (maybe something you compiled from source yourself) you could drop on another drive to save space. For Docker maybe you use /var/lib/docker as a mount point for another drive, though I'm thinking of solutions more flexible than dedicating an entire additional drive to Linux.
From a Windows and Linux dual boot perspective it would be nice to have a third drive accessible to both (NTFS so both can see it as standard) for software overflow. Would be great if APT (or DNF or whatever) asked which drive you'd like to install LibreOffice to (LibreOffice is just an example). I realise it would need to create a whole other bunch of directories for that on the other drive but was just wondering what solutions (if any) exist. I'd be surprised if nobody has done anything at all to address it.
DistroWatch answers: One of the interesting things about moving between operating systems is getting to see how the various platforms are organized and how they take different approaches to solving similar problems. This is a great example.
On Windows each storage device - whether it is a hard drive, network share, or optical medium - gets assigned its own drive letter. Each storage device or location is presented to the user as a separate, independent device with its own directory structure.
In a way, the Windows approach makes sense because the separate drive letters for each storage device reflect the real, physical individual devices in the real world. A person's floppy drive is a separate entity from their hard drive which is also separate from their DVD storage. People can see a one-to-one relationship between their drive letters on Windows and their physical devices.
Linux, and other members of the Unix family, take a different approach. On Linux there is one central filesystem that acts like one big tree with multiple branches. We can attach new devices to Linux's filesystem, growing the tree. The individual devices, the underlying storage, is largely transparent to the user. All the end user sees is one continuous filesystem with a seamless collection of directories (or branches).
The Linux approach makes sense in that the end user shouldn't need to think about underlying physical storage. Everything is kept in one big pool and the filesystem takes care of managing the individual devices, RAM-backed directories, and network shares. It's more fluid and the low-level functionality is handled for us so the user rarely needs to think about the physical storage devices.
This difference in how the operating systems handle storage then affects other elements of using the operating system. On Windows we again see that package management is usually a matter of the user dealing with individual application installers. Most people don't use a central software manager on Windows, they go out and grab individual application installers and run them manually. Since Windows splits storage up into different drive letters, the package installers typically need to ask where they should be installed, prompting the user to pick a drive letter and directory.
On Linux most package management is, again, a central, unified experience. Most software is pulled from official repositories and the software manager knows how to organize files throughout the unified filesystem tree. The user isn't expected to go out and fetch packages, run individual installers, know which storage device will hold a specific package, or where executable files are located. On Linux, software management is all supposed to be magically handled for the user in the background.
You might be wondering how this centralized versus independent organization helps you when you are running out of drive space and still have more software to install? I will get to that in a minute.
The reason I brought up the different approaches Windows and Linux use when it comes to handling storage (and installing software) is these core differences in organization naturally affect how we solve problems. Since Windows doesn't really have a central way to organize and manage storage devices, it also doesn't really have a storage-oriented solution to one disk running out of space, other than maybe attaching and using an additional device. And, since Windows doesn't really have a central method for installing new software, each package installer is left to handle asking about where it should be installed. Which is a lot of duplicated work for package maintainers as they are forced to deal with the problem of "What if the user ran out of space on their main drive?"
Since Linux has a central filesystem and (mostly) unified package management for traditional packages, system owners are able to better introduce solutions at the problem areas rather than working around them. In other words, if you run out of storage space on Linux, rather than passing that issue off up the chain to package installers, we can usually deal with the problem at the storage level.
This means that people running Windows, when they think their C: drive might not be large enough, need to manually tell each new package they install to use an alternative drive and hope it works smoothly. (Some third-party Windows software breaks when installed on drives other than C: due to a lack of testing from the developers.) On Linux, the solution to running out of space on the filesystem is typically handled using filesystem options.
Specifically, if we have a small Linux partition and believe we will need to make use of another drive or partition in the future, then we'd set up Linux on a flexible storage volume technology such as LVM or Btrfs (supported by most installers) or ZFS. Most Linux system installers will do all the work of setting up LVM or Btrfs volumes for us with just a click or two. On some distributions these flexible storage options are even the default approach to filesystem management.
Each of these (LVM, ZFS, and Btrfs) will allow us to start out running Linux on a single partition and then add more hardware storage devices to our filesystem pool over time. This grows the available storage space seamlessly while saving the user from thinking about where files are located. The user and the package manager do not need to know how many disks or partitions we add to the storage pool, that is all handled in the background by the filesystem. The operating system figures out where things go and spreads files out across each of the storage devices for us. From the user's point of view, we don't think about individual drives and partitions, just how much total space the filesystem has.
All of this is well and good if we're setting up a fresh Linux install, but what if you've already set up your distribution and did so without knowing you'd need to add more storage space later? What if you're running a traditional filesystem like ext4 and haven't set up LVM or Btrfs to allow growing of the storage pool across devices? Is there a way to make package managers put files in specific locations?
Yes, most Linux package managers do allow the administrator to install packages to non-standard locations, though it can be a bit awkward. This usually involves basically telling the package manager to unpack new files into a separate "root" location. The APT and dpkg tools have a few options to do this; pacman can do it too; and DNF and RPM have another approach. None of these are ideal as we then need to make sure this new location is in our user's executable path and it may end up duplicating dependencies across multiple partitions.
A more common approach is to use portable packages (like Flatpak) or containers (such as Distrobox) and mounting the location where these portable software bundles will be installed on a separate partition. For example, we might set aside a portion of our home directory or the /var directory to be mounted on another partition. This is a more clean approach than telling a classic package manager to use a separate region for installing software, though not as clean as using flexible storage pools with LVM or Btrfs.
Also, on the topic of sharing a partition between two operating systems: I'd strongly recommend against trying to save both Windows and Linux packages on the same NTFS drive. That's almost certain to end badly and possibly end up with data corruption. It opens up your Linux files to attacks from Windows malware and may break permissions used by the Linux system. For example, special permission bits used by Linux for tools like sudo may not work if they're installed on a NTFS volume.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Garuda Linux 240428
Garuda Linux is a rolling, desktop distribution based on the Arch Linux operating system. The project's latest release, Garuda Linux 240428, ships with a number of upgrades, the most immediately apparent being the new Plasma 6 desktop: "The main focus of this release is certainly the already mentioned Plasma 6 upgrade which already arrived in the Dr460nized edition. Meanwhile, Sway and Hyprland received some major improvements to their respective editions as well. Also, FireDragon was rebased to Floorp, meaning we now profit from its interesting feature set. Lastly, our build system for the garuda repository received major updates, and the pilot phase for Chaotic-AUR infra 4.0 is supposed to start soon. As KDE 6 was released in February, the Dr460nized edition underwent some minor changes to how we create our desktop layout. Multiple plasmoids needed to be ported to KDE 6, which also caused some of them to be replaced with updated forks (eg. the original Latte dock window - title, appmenu, buttons - are no longer maintained and were ported or forked by other people)." Additional information is provided in the release announcement.
Garuda Linux 240428 -- Running the Plasma desktop
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T2 SDK 24.5
T2 SDE is an open-source system development environment (or distribution build kit if you are more familiar with that term). T2 allows the creation of custom distributions with bleeding-edge technology. The project's latest release, version 24.5, runs on 25 CPU architectures and includes updates to the Linux kernel, GNOME, and KDE Plasma. "T2 24.5 was released as a major milestone release not only including the latest and greatest Linux kernel, GCC, LLVM / Clang, Glibc, Musl, uClibc, X.org, Mesa3D, but also the KDE and GNOME desktop packages updated and fixed to finally mostly cross compile. While at it, we also undeleted IA-64 Itanium support! A total of 36 pre-compiled base install ISOs for various Glibc, Musl and uClibc combinations are available for for 25 CPU ISAs: Alpha, Arc, ARM(64), Avr32, HPPA(64), IA64, Loongarch64, M68k, Microblaze, MIPS(64), Nios2, OpenRISC, PowerPC(64), RISCV(64), s390x, SPARC(64), SuperH, i486, i686, x86-64 and x32. On most architectures the release still boots with 512MB of RAM or even less, and are on average just one GB in size. Most vintage Xorg drivers were fixed to actually work again. The rolling release is updated using the scripted source build system and thus optimized for the native system CPU." Additional details can be found in the release announcement and in the release notes.
PrimTux 8
PrimTux is a French distribution from the language Debian and Ubuntu family. It is developed by a small team of school teachers and computer enthusiasts in educational environments. The project's latest release, PrimTux 8, is based on Linux Mint 21.3 and features a new application menu along with a new visual style. The distribution uses Xfce as the preferred desktop environment. The brief release announcement, in French, reads: "The PrimTux team is proud to announce the release of version 8 of its system, based on Linux Mint 21.3, with: a new menu, organized according to school programs; a search for applications by keywords; and a complete overhaul of the graphic charter, improving the user experience. The site of documentation, totally rewritten, has three sections: the first steps, the manual of the administrator and the student documentation. Primtux8's ISO and the transfer instructions for transferring to USB key (8GB minimum) can be found on this page. 2GB of RAM (4GB for optimal use), an SSD with 30GB of free space and a 64-bit processor are required to install Primtux 8."
LibreELEC 12.0.0
The LibreELEC development team has announced the release of LibreELEC 12.0.0, a major new update of project's multi-platform Linux distribution featuring the Kodi media centre. The new release ships with Linux kernel 6.6.28 and Kodi 21.0: "LibreELEC 12.0 has released as final release, bringing Kodi (Omega) 21.0. With the new release cycle we changed many devices to 64-bit architectures, including Rasberry Pi 4 and 5. If using Widevine DRM (required for various copy-protected video add-ons like Prime Video, Netflix) on one of these devices and updating from LibreELEC 11, Widevine DRM will need to be re-installed on these devices due to the changed architecture. LibreELEC 11.0 installs will not automatically update, but you can manually update. LibreELEC installs from before LibreELEC 10.0 must make a clean install due to the Python 3 changes since Kodi 19. The Generic image runs the same GBM/V4L2 graphics stack we have long used with ARM devices." See the release announcement and the changelog for further details.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4
Red Hat, Inc. has announced the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.4, the latest stable release of the company's enterprise Linux platform available for the x86, ARM, IBM Power, IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE platforms: "Red Hat, Inc. today announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4, the latest version of the world's leading enterprise Linux platform. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 brings a wide range of new and enhanced capabilities to better manage the complexity of hybrid cloud computing in an increasingly AI-centric world, including refined management and automation and proactive support in building standard operating environments (SOEs) for distributed systems. Automation is increasingly a critical part of an operation team's toolbox, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 continues Red Hat's drive to make automation an integral part of modern Linux platforms. 9.4 further extends Red Hat Enterprise Linux system roles, deployment-ready Ansible content collections that help configure and launch common administrative tasks." See the press release and the detailed release notes for more information.
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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: 2,993
- Total data uploaded: 44.3TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Do you use a storage pool that can be grown?
In our Questions and Answers column this week we talked about ways to address running low on space in a disk partition. One solution to running out of room in a partition is to use a filesystem which can be expanded across additional partitions or other storage devices. LVM, Btrfs, and ZFS are examples of storage solutions which can be used to easily expand storage space across devices. Do you use one of these flexible storage solutions?
You can see the results of our previous poll on which Fedora spin should be used as the main Workstation edition in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you use a flexible storage solution?
| Yes - Btrfs: | 214 (14%) |
| Yes - HAMMER/HAMMER2: | 7 (0%) |
| Yes - LVM: | 124 (8%) |
| Yes - ZFS: | 102 (7%) |
| Yes - Other: | 30 (2%) |
| No: | 1007 (68%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 13 May 2024. 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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Dizinha Linux
Dizinha Linux was a Brazilian Linux live CD based on Debian GNU/Linux and Kurumin Linux.
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