 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1076, 24 June 2024 |
Welcome to this year's 26th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
This week we turn our attention to one of the long-lived cornerstones of the Linux community: SUSE. While the SUSE distribution has taken on several different labels, produced many different editions, and has had multiple owners over the years, the core strengths and focus of the distribution have remained much the same. This week we talk about the launch of openSUSE 15.6 Leap and its new system administration tools, such as Cockpit. Then, in our News section, we report on SUSE offering to support CentOS Linux 7 for at least a year beyond the date when Red Hat will kill support for the aging enterprise distribution. At the same time, SUSE is offering up to 19 years of security fixes and support for its own enterprise platform and we link to details below. We also share news about SUSE's new Leap Micro edition, an atomic platform which shares technologies with openSUSE's Leap branch. What is your favourite branch of the openSUSE family? Let us know about your preferred edition in this week's Opinion Poll. This week we also talk about what sets Linux apart from other operating system families, both in terms of practical benefits and philosophical differences. Plus we are pleased to share the new releases of the past week and share the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we are grateful to our readers who have sent in donations and thank them below. 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) |
openSUSE 15.6 Leap
It's been almost exactly a year since the openSUSE team published version 15.5 of their Leap branch, a fixed release distribution which shares source code with SUSE Linux Enterprise. This June, the openSUSE team published a new (and probably final) update to the 15.x series, openSUSE 15.6. After this, version 16 Leap is expected to be next step in the openSUSE branch.
Leap 15.6 is projected to receive maintenance and security updates until the end of 2025 to ensure sufficient overlap with the next release. This will provide users with plenty of time to upgrade to the release's successor, which is Leap 16.
The list of new features in 15.6 was fairly conservative and includes the following highlights:
- The inclusion of the Cockpit package in openSUSE Leap 15.6 represents a significant enhancement in system and container management capabilities for users.
- Note: Leap does not come with a SELinux policy, so SELinux capabilities for Cockpit are not functioning.
- Podman 4.8
- It integrates Linux kernel 6.4, which provides backports for some of latest hardware drivers, which offer performance enhancements.
- OpenSSL 3.1 becomes the new default and provides robust security features and updated cryptographic algorithms.
- KDE Plasma 5.27.11 and Qt 5.15.12.
- GNOME 45
- Audio technologies see major upgrades with the release of PulseAudio 17.0 and PipeWire 1.0.4, which improve hardware compatibility and Bluetooth functionality, including device battery level indicators.
As you can see from the above list, it's a fairly brief collection of features and the version updates are conservative. KDE Plasma and GNOME in particular are each a major version behind, sticking with the tried and true options rather than the latest software from each desktop project. This fits with Leap's 15.x series winding down. Leap 15.6 is focusing on providing a stable platform while users wait for the next big upgrade to version 16.
There are two forms of install media for openSUSE Leap, a DVD-sized ISO file (approximately 4.3GB in size) and a network install ISO which is about 260MB. Along with builds of openSUSE for x86_64 computers, there are also builds for ARM 64-bit machines, PowerPC, zSystem, and s390x powered computers.
Since openSUSE 15.6 is quite similar to its predecessor in terms of the technology and package version numbers it presents, I wanted to mostly focus on what has changed. Specifically, I wanted to look at Cockpit which is a web-based system administration tool. In particular, I planned to see how the web-based Cockpit compared to openSUSE's local administration tool, YaST.
I explored setting up openSUSE in a few roles and used its Plasma desktop a bit (I'll touch on this more later), but my main focus for this review was setting up openSUSE, enabling Cockpit, and seeing how it performs as an extension of (or replacement for) openSUSE's existing tools. For people who are interested in my thoughts on openSUSE Leap from a desktop user's perspective, I reviewed 15.5 last year and my experiences (with the installer, Plasma desktop, and YaST tools) were virtually identical to my experience running 15.6 this past week.
Installing and setting up Cockpit
I downloaded the DVD-sized ISO file for openSUSE. Booting from this medium gave me the option to install openSUSE or start an upgrade process. There is no live desktop option. Picking the Install item from the boot menu brought up a graphical environment and started openSUSE's system installer. I like openSUSE's approach because it's pretty straight forward - we can nearly click "Next" a handful of times to get a working system. However, there are a number of areas where we can choose to open new windows to customize settings or tweak low level configurations if we wish. This makes openSUSE's installer fairly newcomer friendly while also giving expert users a lot of flexibility.
openSUSE 15.6 -- Selecting software to install
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One of the steps when installing openSUSE is selecting the role of the operating system. Available roles include KDE Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, Generic Desktop, and Server. We can only select one option; it's not possible to install two desktop roles or a desktop and the server role. I decided to start my trial with the KDE Plasma role.
When we get to the last page of the installer we are shown a summary of how openSUSE will be configured. This includes software to be installed, filesystems to be used, and network ports which will be open. I noticed Cockpit was not listed in the Software section alongside OpenSSH, which makes sense since Cockpit is intended for use on servers. I clicked the summary page's Software link which opened a package manager. This package manager shows groups of packages we can install. Groups include desktop environments, server roles, and development tools. None of the server roles included Cockpit. I switched to another tab in the package manager, searched for Cockpit, and found it. I selected the Cockpit package which, in turn, selected dependencies and supporting items. Satisfied, I proceeded with the installation.
openSUSE 15.6 -- Searching for the Cockpit package
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When installed with the KDE desktop role, openSUSE boots to a graphical login screen and offers three session options: Plasma on X11 (which is the default), Plasma on Wayland, and IceWM which serves as a lightweight backup. When we sign in we are greeted by a welcome window which provides information about the distribution.
I confirmed early on that the Cockpit package was indeed installed for me when I set up the distribution, though it was not enabled. The service (or rather its socket) needs to be enabled or started manually. Once the service is enabled we can access Cockpit on port 9090 using any full featured web browser, at least from the local machine. openSUSE runs a firewall by default with most ports closed (apart for the port for OpenSSH) and we need to open port 9090 before remote computers can access Cockpit through a web browser.
openSUSE 15.6 -- Starting the Cockpit service
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Using Cockpit
When visiting the Cockpit server through a web browser on port 9090, we are shown a login page. From there I was able to sign in with my regular user account. Cockpit shows us a simple overview of the system, sharing resource usage and some hardware related information. I soon found that I was unable to view logs, manage services, and check for updates because I was signed in as my regular user, not as an administrator. This makes sense as, even though my user had sudo access, it's not a good plan to let the user mess with system settings at will. For convenience there is a button near the top of every page which invites us to "Turn on administrative access."
Clicking this button to gain admin access resulted in an error which read: "Sudo: unable to run /nonexistent/libexec/cockpit-askpass: No such file or directory sudo: no password was provided sudo: a password is required."
openSUSE 15.6 -- Unable to raise access
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None of this was particularly useful as it seems to include multiple errors messages in one line. After trying again and receiving the same error I decided to sign out of my regular user account and access Cockpit as the root user. I'd assigned root a password during the initial install process. When I typed in root's credentials into the Cockpit login page, my access was denied. An error was displayed which said, "Wrong user name or password."
I switched to a local terminal on openSUSE and confirmed I could use the su command to switch from my regular user to root, indicating the root account was active and I had the right password. I returned to Cockpit and tried signing in again, which again failed. Cockpit's login screen has a "show password" button so I knew I wasn't making any typos, yet the login page insisted my credentials were not valid. This may simply be a matter of Cockpit not allowing direct root access. If that is the case, then my regular user account not being able to elevate its access to perform admin actions is a terminal flaw as it locks the user out from any and all Cockpit controls.
openSUSE 15.6 -- Logging in as root is blocked
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Cockpit in a Server role
I was starting to suspect there was something missing from my desktop installation of openSUSE which was preventing Cockpit from working properly. I decided to start fresh, installing openSUSE with the Server role.
I restarted the install process and selected the Server role instead of KDE Plasma. I was surprised to find, once I arrived at the installer's summary screen, that Cockpit was not selected as a package to be installed as part of the Server role. Once again I manually selected Cockpit from the installer's Software screen.
When my pristine copy of openSUSE booted it brought up a console screen where my IP addresses were displayed along with a login prompt. Once I signed in I found the Cockpit service was not enabled, so I activated the service using systemctl and opened the appropriate port in my firewall.
I accessed the Cockpit service from another computer using my web browser and, once again, found I was unable to login as the root user. I was able to login as my regular user though. Unfortunately, once again, I found when I clicked the "Turn on administrative access" button, the same error appeared: "Sudo: unable to run /nonexistent/libexec/cockpit-askpass: No such file or directory sudo: no password was provided sudo: a password is required"
openSUSE 15.6 -- Exploring Cockpit's interface
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Clearly the system's role wasn't a factor. I thought maybe I was missing a package dependency or a configuration step, though I hadn't needed to do anything special when running Cockpit on Fedora. Since nothing else was working, I decided to try reading the directions. I checked the openSUSE wiki and found no documentation about using Cockpit. I also checked the openSUSE documentation and found no information about setting up or using Cockpit on the distribution.
Eventually, I discovered a reference to Cockpit not granting admin access in openSUSE's issue tracker. It turns out the problem I was running into with Cockpit not being able to use sudo to provide admin access is a known issue which was originally reported back in April 2024.
This adds a layer of frustration to my experience because it means openSUSE had been aware for two months prior to release that Cockpit doesn't work on Leap and still hasn't (at the time of writing) fixed it. It also means that some of the openSUSE team knew Cockpit wasn't working on Leap and yet the project decided to make it one of the first highlights of the distribution's release announcement. This suggests both a lack of testing of key new features and a lack of communication between the team members working on packages and those working on documentation.
Conclusions
As I mentioned before, I reviewed Leap version 15.5 last year and found it to be a solid operating system, especially for users who want something with more power and flexibility. openSUSE feels like a unified, powerful distribution that is suitable for both desktop and server use. Last year one of my few complaints about Leap 15.5 was that, at the time, openSUSE appeared ready to cancel future versions of Leap. Now the Leap series has received an extension and version 16 is planned for next year, so there is plenty of time (probably) to try and enjoy this distribution.
On the other hand, openSUSE Leap 15.6 is virtually identical to last year's 15.5 release. It has the same version of the Plasma and Xfce desktops, the same installer, the same YaST configuration tools. It doesn't look like much has changed over the past year. GNOME has received an update from version 41 to 45 and a broken Cockpit service has been added.
In short, if you've run openSUSE 15.x in the past and liked it, then it's still the same stable, powerful distribution with fantastic Btrfs and boot environment integration. But if you tried an earlier version of the 15.x series and weren't a fan, then nothing has changed in the past year or two.
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Visitor supplied rating
openSUSE has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.7/10 from 437 review(s).
Have you used openSUSE? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
SUSE Liberty program to extend CentOS Linux support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition, SUSE Linux Enterprise receives 19 years of support
At the end of June 2024, version 7 of CentOS Linux will reach the end of its officially supported life. CentOS 7 is the last stable version of the distribution. This leaves the administrators of thousands of CentOS machines in a position where they need to either migrate to CentOS Stream (a development branch) or jump to another enterprise distribution such as AlmaLinux OS or Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The SUSE team is offering an alternative through their Liberty Linux support program: "With SUSE Liberty Linux there is no risky migrations or lengthy upgrades needed. You simply change your software channels from CentOS to SUSE, and you get fully compatible maintenance updates and security patches at the application binary interface level with CentOS 7. This makes June 30, 2024 just another day for your data centre." SUSE's offer gives CentOS 7 users at least one extra year of support and security updates after Red Hat has discontinued support for the distribution. Details can be found in the company's announcement and support for CentOS can be purchased from SUSE's Shop.
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The openSUSE team are currently beta testing a branch of the distribution called Leap Micro. "Leap Micro 6.0 is a rebranded SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 6.0 which is an ultra-reliable container and VM host by SUSE. This is the first publicly released product based on the fresh code base 'SUSE Linux Framework One' (previously known as ALP). Leap Micro 6.X is available for x86_64 and aarch64, released every 6 months, and supported until the next-next release is out. That means that Leap Micro 6.0 will become EOL once Leap Micro 6.2 gets released." Additional information about Leap Micro can be found in the SUSE documentation while download options are available through the openSUSE appliances repository.
Note: Updated media, labelled Leap Micro 6.0 Release Candidate along with refreshed media for Leap 15.6 have been published on the openSUSE website. The latter refresh fixes an issue with Secure Boot on the openSUSE Leap install media.
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Finally, rounding out interesting news from the SUSE community this week, we have a report from ZDNET which points out SUSE Linux Enterprise is raising the bar for long-term support. SUSE is now offering up to 19 years of support and security fixes for their distribution. "SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15 Service Pack (SP) 6 is at the heart of these upgrades. This update future-proofs IT workloads with a new Long Term Service (LTS) Pack Support Core. How long is long-term? Would you believe 19 years? This gives SLES the longest-term support period in the enterprise Linux market. Even Ubuntu, for which Canonical recently extended its LTS to 12 years, doesn't come close. "
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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) |
Linux's unique and special features
Searching-for-the-special-sauce asks: What are some unique or weird features Linux has that other operating systems don't?
DistroWatch answers: One of the first things that jumped into my mind when I read this question was the spinning desktop cube. It may not be particularly useful, but it looks cool and I haven't seen it demonstrated on other platforms.
In "big picture" terms, there are not a lot of useful things that one fairly mainstream operating system can do that other mainstream operating systems cannot. Operating systems may specialize, focusing on one area over another, but people can usually get the same tools and the same effects, or near equivalents, running with a little effort on other platforms. For instance, people running Windows may point out the latest version of Microsoft Office may not run on Linux distributions, but we have LibreOffice which offers most of the same features. We also have access to web-based versions of Microsoft Office and older versions of the locally run suite through WINE. So the same tasks can be completed, sometimes with the same software, or at least close equivalents.
Coming at the question from the other side, most Linux distributions have package management which is superior to anything offered on Windows or macOS by default, but it's possible to add improved package management to those commercial platforms. The same could be said for other key features of Linux (and the BSDs). Virtual desktops, shell scripting, advanced filesystems, and easy access to development tools all come to mind as areas where Linux shines. These features aren't unique to Linux - they can be acquired on other platforms like macOS and Windows - but they're areas where Linux makes life a lot easier.
I think where Linux (and related operating systems such as the BSDs) really stand out with a sense of uniqueness is in their licensing. Most software programs developed for Linux and the BSDs are released under open source licenses which allow users to read, audit, edit, and (usually) redistribute the code. This may not seem like a particularly eye-catching feature for end-users, particularly if you're not a coder, but it can have a meaningful and practical impact.
As an example, a little while ago I got to be part of a troubleshooting task. In short, a user account on a FreeBSD machine was consuming 60GB of disk space, but the quota utilities reported only 30GB was being used. In other words, quota was reporting the user had consumed about half of their allotted disk space, while tools like du were reporting the user was over their allowed consumption.
I went looking for the problem, assisted by a few peers. We confirmed file ownership was correct, that no filesystems were mounted over top of the user's files or directories, that other tools were also reporting 60GB of space was taken up by the user's home directory. We made a fresh backup to another machine to confirm the files really did add up to 60GB in size when measured on another filesystem. Eventually we confirmed beyond a doubt that quota was wrong, but we still didn't know why it was reporting only 30GB of space was being consumed by the user.
I removed and re-created the quota accounting file, checked the configuration, and still quota insisted our user was only taking up 30GB of space. We considered filing a bug report, but were pretty sure this was a one-off type of bug and the maintainers, if they had time to look into it, would eventually report they couldn't duplicate the issue.
I'm getting to the point, I promise.
FreeBSD's disk quota utilities, like the rest of the operating system, are open source and I was able to easily find and browse the source code for quotacheck. There I found the following quote in the source code:
If we are using soft updates, then we can trust the cylinder group inode allocation maps to tell us which inodes are allocated. We will scan the used inode map to find the inodes that are really in use, and then read only those inodes in from disk.
The last line caught my attention. I checked and confirmed the server's filesystem was running with soft updates enabled. We then quickly discovered something had corrupted our soft updates and disabling soft updates or fixing the corruption would cause quotacheck to report the correct amount of disk usage for every user.
Even though we didn't end up changing the quotacheck code (we didn't need to alter it to fix our problem), the only reason we found the problem and a solution was because the source code was available to us. The issue was solved within a few hours. Had we been running an operating system where the source code was proprietary we couldn't have looked for mistakes or shortcuts in the code that were leading to disk quotas being reported incorrectly. At best, we would have been engaging in trial and error, at worst probably trying to get a support team to look into our issue and then waiting days for their response.
It may seem like an abstract idea, but what Linux, FreeBSD, and other open source operating systems do is place power and control in the hands of the people using it. People can audit their programs for security issues and tracking, people can fix bugs and share them with colleagues, people can look for errors and work around them, people can add new features. All of this without the permission or assistance of the company providing the software.
In the software industry this makes Linux (and its open source cousins) weird, or at least unusual, because most modern operating systems are closed source, subject to the whims of the companies creating them. Most modern operating systems - whether they are running on your smartphone, desktop computer, or smart TV - are basically tracking devices and advertisement platforms that cannot be meaningfully modified. They are commercially focused rather than user-centric.
Throwing around terms like "empowering users" and being "user-centric" may seem abstract in terms of features, so let me approach the subject from a more practical angle.
There are three things I tend to notice when I use other people's devices, whether it's a work computer, smart phone, smart TV, or laptop:
- Most of my friends and peers tend to use newer devices with higher hardware specifications.
- Despite the higher specifications, their devices tend to be slower and drain their batteries faster, often due to unnecessary services, toolbars, update widgets, and other commercial bloatware.
- Their devices constantly try to distract them and grab their attention. There are ads in the Start menu, there are notifications for new features on their phone, there are pop-ups demanding updates, there are requests to activate or register their apps. My friends and colleagues are regularly pestered with alerts, notifications, and requests for their focus.
To them it is normal - annoying, but normal - while to me it's an alien experience. I'm so accustomed to using laptops, servers, and phones that do what I want and only do what I want that using other people's proprietary devices feels like wading through a bog filled with flashing lights. To me that is what sets Linux and its open source peers apart from other platforms - my Linux systems are working for me, not giving a company access to me.
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Additional queries and answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP6
SUSE has announced the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) 15 SP6, the sixth service pack of the company's enterprise-class Linux distribution. Service Pack 6 includes several performance and security improvements: "he SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP6 family features a major kernel update to version 6.4, providing significant enhancements in performance and security. This update includes a comprehensive hardware and drivers refresh and optimizations for Intel, AMD, ARM, NVIDIA, IBM Power, and IBM Z platforms. Memory management upgrades and filesystems improvements: SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP6 offers advanced memory management upgrades and file systems improvements, ensuring more efficient resource utilization and better performance for your critical workloads. Networking performance improvements: Networking performance has been significantly enhanced in SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP6, providing faster and more reliable network operations across various environments. Support for Intel's Eagle Stream and Birch Stream platforms: The latest Intel Eagle Stream and Birch Stream platforms are fully supported, ensuring you can leverage the latest advancements in Intel technology for your IT infrastructure." Additional details can be found in the company's release announcement.
Easy OS 6.0
EasyOS is an experimental Linux distribution which uses many of the technologies and package formats pioneered by Puppy Linux. The project's latest release is EasyOS 6.0. "The packages in 6.0 were compiled in OpenEmbedded (OE) Scarthgap-release, with my 'meta-quirky' layer. The Scarthgap release of OE/Yocto is a new LTS series, supported until April 2028. See their announcement. My meta-quirky layer adds an additional approximately 240 package build recipes, not in the official OE/Yocto project, as well as many patches for the official build recipes. EasyOS 6.0 continues the practice of including a very large number of packages built-in, including Celluloid, Chromium, Dia, Flowblade, Geany, Gimp, Gparted, Grisbi, Inkscape, LibreOffice, NoteCase, Osmo, Planner, SolveSpace, Symphytum, as well as myriad smaller applications and utilites." Additional information can be found in the distribution's release announcement and in the release notes.
Tails 6.4
The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The distribution's latest version, Tails 6.4, introduces a random seed to help strength cryptographic functions: "Tails now stores a random seed on the USB stick to strengthen all cryptography. Having a secure random number generator is critical to some of the cryptography used in Tails, for example, in the Persistent Storage, Tor, or HTTPS. This random seed is stored outside of the Persistent Storage so that all users can benefit from stronger cryptography. Changes and updates: Switch to using HTTPS addresses instead of an onion addresses for the Debian and Tails APT repositories. This makes the Additional Software feature more reliable." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
SysLinuxOS 12.4
Franco Conidi has announced the release of SysLinuxOS 12.4, the latest stable build of the project's distribution, based on Debian's "stable" branch, designed for system integrators and network administrators. This version continues to be based on Debian 12 and includes the Linux kernel version 6.7, along with some bug fixes. "SysLinuxOS is updated to version 12.4. In this version, several bugs have been fixed and it also brings with it several improvements to make it much more intuitive and easy to use. Solved problems with the repository and the new 6.7 Linux kernel are the biggest news items. Many changes are under the hood, while others are purely aesthetic and they improve the menu in both GNOME and MATE desktop environments. SysLinuxOS is a distribution for system integrators and network administrators, it must be chameleonic and therefore have tools that help to interface in a mixed Windows/GNU/Linux environment. Added: Linux kernel 6.7; solved problems with the repository (https); upgraded conky.conf; menu improvements; bug fixes. Removed: Teams-for-Linux." See the release announcement, the release notes and the changelog for further information.
SysLinuxOS 12.4 -- Running the MATE desktop
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SKUDONET 7.1.0
Antonio Rendón Ruiz has announced the release of SKUDONET 7.1.0, the latest build of the project's specialist Debian-based distribution whose primary purpose is to serve as a load balancer and application delivery system. This brand-new release is based on Debian 12.5 and uses version 6.1.90 of the Linux kernel. "New SKUDONET release 7.1.0 Community edition. New features: added DHCP to NIC and VLAN; added support for FQDN as backend IP in HTTP farms; added a new directive TLSv1.3 for HTTPS farms. Improvements: added more 100Continue modes; added QEMU hypervisor in the dashboard; added a UDP check using nc; added CSR Key Get call; move the migrating scripts to old version; sort logs files and reverse content; add retries when restarting farms in Let's Encrypt renewal action; disable TLS versions logic has been improved; HTTP proxy uses SSLv3 libraries. Bug fixes: fixed nftables package dependency; fixed Farm graphs when the farm name starts with 'dev'." The project's release announcement offers details while full changelog is available on the project's GitHub page. Additional documentation and installation instructions are provided on SKUDONET's SourceForge page.
SDesk 2024.06.22
SDesk is an Arch-based Linux distribution which strives for an easy to use, modern approach to desktop computing. The project's latest snapshot is version 2024.06.22 which introduces a number of performance improvements, including a new kernel build. The release announcement shares details: "SDesk now uses the "linux-zen" kernel by default - bringing scheduler improvements, multiple optimizations, and more kernel modules that are shipped by default. I've also removed the "Blur my Shell" extension because - while it looks great - I found that it made SDesk a gigantic resource hog by default. I have made some SShell UI adjustments, too. A new version of the Swirl browser has been released with improved toolbar shortcuts (e.g: The magnifying glass now finds text) and countless bug fixes. You'll also notice that Swirl now supports localization. The calamares installer and octopi packages have also been updated to their latest versions."
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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: 3,020
- Total data uploaded: 44.8TB
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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) |
What is your favourite branch of openSUSE?
This week we talked about openSUSE Leap, the fixed release branch of openSUSE. While Leap is a popular flavour of the distribution, there are several others which provide various approaches to package and system management. Leap is the fixed release branch, focusing on tried and true software. Tumbleweed is the project's fast-moving, rolling release branch. MicroOS is a young branch of the project which offers a read-only (immutable) filesystem and atomic updates. (MicroOS has two desktop branches, Aeon and Kalpa which run the GNOME and Plasma desktops, respectively.) There is also a Slowroll edition which is a lot like Tumbleweed, but with a slowly update process. Finally, there is Factory, the testing branch of openSUSE which is mostly used internally by its developers. Which of these editions of openSUSE is your favourite?
You can see the results of our previous poll on Redox OS in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Which is your favourite branch of openSUSE?
| Factory: | 6 (0%) |
| Leap: | 236 (9%) |
| MicroOS: | 35 (1%) |
| Slowroll: | 58 (2%) |
| Tumbleweed: | 482 (18%) |
| I do not use openSUSE: | 1875 (70%) |
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| Website News |
Donations and Sponsors
Each month we receive support and kindness from our readers in the form of donations. These donations help us keep the web server running, pay contributors, and keep infrastructure like our torrent seed box running. We'd like to thank our generous readers and acknowledge how much their contributions mean to us.
This month we're grateful for the $100 in contributions from the following kind souls:
| Donor |
Amount |
|---|
| J S | $50 |
| Jonathon B | $10 |
| Sam C | $10 |
| Brian59 | $5 |
| Chung T | $5 |
| surf3r57 | $5 |
| TaiKedz | $5 |
| Anonymous | $2 |
| J.D. L | $2 |
| PB C | $2 |
| c6WWldo9 | $1 |
| Stephen M | $1 |
| Shasheen E | $1 |
| William E | $1 |
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Deblinux. Deblinux is a stable Debian GNU/Linux-based distro, with a focus on simplicity and out-of-the-box usability.
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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, 1 July 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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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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| Random Distribution | 
Metadistro-Pequelin
Pequelin was a Knoppix-based Spanish live CD distribution designed specifically for children and educational use.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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