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1 • How we use FreeDos (by Ben Merembeck on 2024-07-01 01:00:59 GMT from United States)
We use FreeDos to run my wife's old menu system on an old Dos menu system. I know there are newer ones but it would be a hassle to move all those menues to one. I just bring up FreeDos.
2 • Free DOS (by penguinx86 on 2024-07-01 01:07:05 GMT from United States)
I used Free DOS to flash the firmware on a 2.5 inch SATA III SSD. New firmware was needed for a bug fix. That was the only time I ever needed to use Free DOS.
3 • Never had a use. (by uz64 on 2024-07-01 02:14:10 GMT from United States)
Other than to play around a bit here and there, I never really had a use for FreeDOS. It's fun to play around with for nostalgia reasons, but even with gaming DOSBox just seems to make more sense, and most of the games I have these days are from GOG pre-packaged with DOSBox anyway. Although my laptop is old and does support legacy BIOS, I left booting directly to DOS with Win9x decades ago and haven't looked back. I do occasionally run it in a VM, but it usually doesn't last long.
The problem is although free and open source software, it is almost 100% meant to use decades-old proprietary software, which I don't really have any of other than repackaged DOS games. No one in the right mind would write any new software for it, so it will never be useful unless you do have some old DOS programs to use. But here in mid 2024... who the hell still does?
4 • FreeDOS (by LiuYan on 2024-07-01 02:57:21 GMT from China)
In the following cases, I will use FreeDOS.
* Flash firmwares on old computers without EFI.
* Catpure screenshots for some DOS softwares.
* Or, to get old feelings/memories back.
When getting older and older, the times I use FreeDOS or DOS will decreased. But still, it does not fade away completely, I may pick it up once a year, maybe.
5 • Proprietary DOS program & DOSBox (by pengxuin on 2024-07-01 04:17:54 GMT from New Zealand)
a proprietary program, originally designed to run on DOS6.22 or Win95.
Natively, DOSBox does not not support all of its features.
However, running the program on a minimal install of Win95 within DOSBox does allow all the features to be used.
A useful enhancement is it can be made to run at near full processor speed, +3GHz, somewhat faster than the P75/P100 it was originally designed to be run on.
6 • FreeDOS (by Andreba57 on 2024-07-01 04:38:00 GMT from Italy)
I gave FreeDOS a try on my eeePC 701, mostly for kicks. Worked great except for the Atheros network drivers (all the downloads I found were either incomplete or infected), so after a while I wrote it off and installed Void Linux.
7 • FreeDOS (by Memories on 2024-07-01 06:08:13 GMT from Canada)
Discussion of FreeDOS brought back memories some of us old "geezers" here may recall. The hassle of memory management, and using various memory managers. The different competing DOS variants (PCDOS,NovellDos etc.). Anyone remember playing around with replacement command.coms? 4DOS on top of MSDOS was great, but found that NovellDOS/DRDOS did everything I needed without addons, including proper memory management.
Think I have a box of prehistoric DOS programs buried somewhere in a local "black hole". Things like WordPerfect 6.0 or 6.1(?), Alpha4 and Paradox 3 databases, Quickmenu III, etc. Wonder if they would work with DOSBOX running in Linux? And would doing so, allow printing to modern printers via CUPS to LP via a USB cable; or maybe to a network printer? If anyone has tried this, curious about the success, before I tear the place up trying to retrieve that software from the Black Hole. No point risking one's neck if someone has already returned from the event horizon and lived to tell about it!
Anyway, off to the FreeDOS website to investigate how well it it handles running such programs and printing.....(Would prefer to try the linux/DOSBOX combo if it would do the job).
8 • DOS WIndows Word 5.5 (by rb on 2024-07-01 06:12:54 GMT from United States)
I remember using Microsoft Works ( which later became Word for WIndows version 5.5) in high school to type essays. It ran on top of DOS. It was a blue screen with white font, a typical menu bar (File Edit Print View, etc). You had to save often because system crashes were common. It was very simple, yet precise and sophisticated for the times. It did exactly what you needed with no excess. Highly effective, productive software. Anyone that is too young to remember and curious can see screenshots online.
9 • DOS program (by Devlin7 on 2024-07-01 06:21:41 GMT from India)
Anyone remember the dos game gorilla.bas? You would calculate the angle to throw the banana over an obstacle and watch it fly towards the opponent gorilla. As CPUs got faster so did the banana. I should imagine playing it now would be just one of the gorillas just falling over dead and there would be no visual indication why. Don't underestimate just how far we come, and remember competition has sped up the progress.
10 • DOS (by dr.J on 2024-07-01 07:10:55 GMT from The Netherlands)
I still use the DOSBox for WordPerfect, a word processing program from the late 80s, which I still prefer to the few current pure word processing programs, such as Abiword, even after more than 30 years.
11 • FreeDos et al (by Brian Kelly on 2024-07-01 07:20:46 GMT from United Kingdom)
Take a look at http://dosprograms.info.tt/ if you think DOS is dead!
I still use one of several versions of DOS to probe 'hard to reach' hardware where virtualization makes it difficult to read underlying device registers and to run some programs for generating unusual sized bit mapped graphics. The nice thing about older OS is they gave more freedom to interact with hardware and didn't force you to communicate through restrictive libraries. Looking back, I have published DOS graphics programs for VGA systems dated 1993, more than 31 years ago (yes, I'm growing silver hair) but they still work perfectly.
12 • Free DOS (by DachshundMan on 2024-07-01 09:25:36 GMT from United Kingdom)
I used FreeDos a couple of years ago to try and recover an old Samsung laptop with a corrupted BIOS (known bug). The only BIOS images I could find were intended to run under MSDOS. Unfortunately, although FreeDos was able to read some parts of the BIOS it proved unable to write to it. As the Samsung solution to the bug was to replace the mother board I was not all that surprised that writing proved impossible.
I did feel a small amount of nostalgia for MS Dos which I used when first using desktop computers, probably this was around 1986.
13 • DOSBox Emulator (by Lawrence on 2024-07-01 13:35:05 GMT from United States)
I use DOSBox Emulator to play the Commander Keen game. It is the only game I still play from time-to-time. Even though I have been playing this game since the 1990s, I have never "beaten" it. I never was any good at games (any kind).
14 • FreeDOS (by Based64x on 2024-07-01 13:37:40 GMT from United States)
I still use FreeDOS quite a bit, mostly for gaming, but also to run some old DOS apps. Overall, I find it great and rarely run into compatibility issues. If being used on older hardware with DOS drivers available. The biggest challenge when running on modern hardware is sound drivers (which can sometimes be resolved using SBEmu). Occasionally, when running 3D games there will be some issues, but those seem to be getting better with every iteration. For me, the best solution on modern hardware has been to run dosbox-staging or dosbox-x over Linux, which gives all the driver advantages of Linux while still using a seamless DOS environment. On a raspberry pi, dosbian is the quickest way and easiest way to get setup.
15 • Using DOS (by Robert on 2024-07-01 14:05:05 GMT from United States)
I don't really use DOS.
I have no use for FreeDOS at all.
Some of my GOG games might come prepackaged with a DOSBOX config, but it often doesn't quite work correctly OOB on Linux DOSBOX versions. That pretty much relegates those to the "maybe I'll jack with this later, but probably not" pile.
16 • DOS (by Otis on 2024-07-01 14:13:59 GMT from United States)
- I don't use DOS (any version)
- I don't use my arm to signal left or right turns when I'm driving
- I don't bang my laundry on a rock by the river
Etc.
17 • Unity (by RetiredIT on 2024-07-01 14:28:59 GMT from United States)
You failed to mention the MATE and Cinnamon desktops, released in August and December 2011 respectively by the Linux Mint team, Perberos (an Argentine developer), and Stefano Karapetsas, et al. They were created in direct response to the notorious GNOME3/Unity desktops. To this day I can't imagine why anyone would want to use either of these desktops because they are so radical and memory hogs compared to what came before (GNOME2, KDE and Xfce). I have used GNOME2/MATE exclusively since 2006.
18 • in re DOS (by grindstone on 2024-07-01 16:09:57 GMT from United States)
Yeah--personally, a couple old DOS programs will be with me until I kick simply because there's dedicated measurement hardware that needs them. I hope to use FreeDOS on a partition on one soon so it no longer needs to boot with a floppy. Haven't been in a hurry :)
Not long ago, I loaded MSWD 5 (I think?) just to visit it again. While it indeed screamed, it seemed considerably more confining than memory held.
It's also true where I've worked that a lot of old industrial machinery and equipment still has "industrial pc's". Replacement cost of the equipment is prohibitive (think 0.3-0.5 million USD ea). The "frames" on the old equipment are preferred over the newer replacements, as well--things that wont be made again, etc. So they live. And live. Funky timing things happen when trying to replace old with USB, etc--in operations where communications issues are costly. Seems simple. Everyone thinks it is. Stuff that a raspberry pi is overkill for. Yet there are old ftp servers and dos pcs and buffer boxes to drip feed bits to old machinery...at exactly the right rate and w/o errors. Guess which choices bosses prefer.
The world is a bigger place that moves more strangely than is always comprehensible. My hunch is that DOS'll be around another 30.
19 • @ 18--Your hunch is, in all probability, correct, (by R. Cain on 2024-07-01 17:54:08 GMT from United States)
For those of you who are open-minded enough who would like more--and highly readable--information on FreeDOS, the following are suggested--
"How FreeDOS Grew Up and Became a Modern DOS"
https://www.howtogeek.com/devops/how-freedos-grew-up-and-became-a-modern-dos/
“Get started with FreeDOS”
https://opensource.com/article/21/6/get-started-freedos
“30 years later, FreeDOS is still keeping the dream of the command prompt alive”
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/06/30-years-later-freedos-is-still-keeping-the-dream-of-the-command-prompt-alive/
And, of course, there is Jim Hall's FreeDOS website itself--
"The FreeDOS Project"
https://freedos.org/
20 • Unity history (by Chris on 2024-07-01 18:32:23 GMT from New Zealand)
I recall there was a version of what then became Unity, called Ubuntu Mini - it was very good on minimal systems. Lovely layout too, It would good to see it come back. .
21 • The best init system... (by Tech in San Diego on 2024-07-01 19:04:11 GMT from United States)
autoexec.bat
config,sys
22 • @21 (by grindstone on 2024-07-01 19:38:11 GMT from United States)
:)
23 • DOS emulator (by O M on 2024-07-01 22:51:33 GMT from United States)
In 1991 I hired a professional programmer to write a program to replace the way I calculated a hobby of handicapping and rating football teams, which for the previous 20 years I had to calculate with pencil and paper then later calculator and notebook. Not knowing any programming myself is why I turned to a professional. I wanted a program that not only would execute my algorithm but wanted a program I could easily learn and modify and where I could expand upon my algorithm. The professional chose qbasic as the language that would meet my needs. Since qbasic has its limits it required 5 different qbasic programs to accomplish and complete all I wanted it to do. Since then I have expanded my hobby to 12 different sports, and the algorithm has become much more advanced. Of course a qbasic written program needs DOS to make it work. When I gave up on windows in 2012 and went to Linux I needed a DOS emulator to continue with my hobby. Dosbox was my choice. Freedos will also work but Dosbox does a bit better. I'm sure if my programs were rewritten in a more modern language today I could probably reduce several thousand lines of code, but I haven't the time to learn a new language and certainly not the time to rewrite these many thousand lines of code. Since my programs do exactly what I want and need I will stay with these primitive programs that need a DOS emulator. If it ain't broke...well just leave it be.
24 • @21 DOS init (by a DOS init on 2024-07-02 00:36:40 GMT from Australia)
try
io.sys & msdos.sys / kernel.sys
config.sys / fdconfig.sys
command.com
autoexec.bat
:)
25 • Ubuntu Unity (by David on 2024-07-02 03:18:57 GMT from United States)
I have Ubuntu Unity 24.04 installed on a small capacity SSD that I switch in and out of my refurbished Dell mini PC. Unity was the default desktop for the Ubuntu that came on a Dell laptop around 7/8 years ago (16.04?), but it soon was replaced as Jesse described.
I was curious when I read that Unity was making a come-back, built by a 14-year-old, so I read. It's better than I remember from years ago in the Ubuntu ancestor version.
That one might avoid it because of a small development team seems somewhat dismissive after a rather complimentary review. Couldn't the same thing be said about DistroWatch?? ;-) Yes, that's apples vs. oranges, but still ....
26 • so much advertising and BS (by johny on 2024-07-03 02:58:59 GMT from Portugal)
so much advertising and stuff that doesnt matter.
this turns the site much less appealing and to recommend
don't waste it.
why this all of a sudden!?!! stop!
27 • Advertising and BS (by Otis on 2024-07-03 11:07:31 GMT from United States)
@26 Many users here are willing to put up with the occasional misfire in content here. Hell, many of us misfire our own content in this comments area.
But yeah, this week's subject matter etc seems as you say. But I do disagree with you as to how appealing Distrowatch is; the appeal of this site is solid, and the maintainer(s) here are appreciated every week, every day.
28 • So much advertising and BS -2 (by Kevin on 2024-07-03 12:18:23 GMT from United States)
@26 - People need to get food and other essential things in order to live. What would you do if you were in their place trying to your job well by legal means and get an income at the same time?
Have you ever bothered to take a look at the donations lists when they are published? 99% percent of the times they look ridiculous and shameful at best. The vast majority of us just open our web browsers and enjoy reading DW weekly FOR FREE. Donate, what's that?
29 • Advertising and BS? Really? (by Mr. Moto on 2024-07-03 12:58:42 GMT from Philippines)
@26, "so much advertising and stuff that doesnt matter." What advertising? If you're bothered by ads, get an ad blocker. I have one. Other than that, websites cost money to maintain. Ads are income. Are you a big donor?
@27, What "subject matter"? Unity? Lomiri? Freedos? Specialty distros? What's objectionable about those? I don't use Unity, Lomiri or Freedos, but it was interesting to read about them. I even tried Lomiri to see for myself. Not ready for prime time, as I believe Jesse expressed.
As for distros that do what others don't, I have Armbian x86 (Ubuntu 24.04) on a flash drive, and with some configuration it can do what I used 3 different flash drives to do previously: bootable, installable, writable, upgradable, security apps, anonymity, repair utilities, et al. I wasn't going to comment on it, but since I'm here, I'll do a little of my own advertising for them.
All in all, a good weekly.
30 • Find Out How to Keep Visitors on distrowatch.com Longer! (by Karry Zuniga on 2024-07-03 20:33:04 GMT from United States)
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31 • "Subject Matter" (by Otis on 2024-07-03 20:56:05 GMT from United States)
@29 lmao.. a-HEM: DOS zzzzzzzzzzz....
Enjoy. Enjoy your DOS.
But I agree that "subject matter" is lesser than most here. No matter, I love DW and will as long as it's not passed into the hands of (fill in the blank with nefarious entity vying for another yacht or trophy wife),
32 • @31 Otis, "Subject Matter" (by Mr. Moto on 2024-07-04 01:26:26 GMT from Philippines)
"Enjoy. Enjoy your DOS." You seem to have trouble reading posts. This is not the first time. I don't use DOS, enjoyably or otherwise. Can't remember the last time I used it. But, judging by the comments, other people do use it and some "enjoy".
33 • DOSZZZing off. (by Kilroy the Great! on 2024-07-04 02:09:26 GMT from United States)
@31 "nefarious entity" Funny thing, but without the monetary funding and contributions in-kind and manpower to Linux by some of these "nefarious" entities, you might be tussling with BSD, or still waiting for GNU Hurd to be ready, or ReactOS or some other dream project, while reading "Tiddlywinks Today" for entertainment.
34 • Unity Lacks Tap-To-Click Touchpad (by joncr on 2024-07-04 11:20:48 GMT from United States)
Unity is too keyboard dependent to be my style of desktop but I did boot the 24.04 live image to discover Unity still doesn't offer a way to enable tap-to-click, natural scrolling, etc., on a touchpad. I don't believe it ever has. That might have been acceptable ten years ago but it is not today. I'd think since so many chunks of Gnome are in the thing, that would not be a problem.
35 • Inzako467279 (by Alberthew on 2024-07-04 23:31:10 GMT from Slovakia)
http://ceicag.org/
36 • Unity (by De Schatberg on 2024-07-05 08:44:42 GMT from The Netherlands)
Unity in Ubuntu 14.04 had a Maclike Global Menu and a very nice Start Menu,
but usability-wise, it was inferior to Gnome 46.
https://ibb.co/5sk7wkQ
https://ibb.co/MGBZc8D
Including the Amazon App-Store was a great idea and an attempt to "make Linux great",
but it didn't get much love and acceptance, and it failed on its users.
Linux users hate good products.
37 • Linux users hate good products??? (by probably-a-user on 2024-07-05 10:17:08 GMT from Germany)
If the users for whom a product is made hate the product, then the product is obviously BAD.
No amount of theoretical acrobatics will change this. A product that is hated by its users can only be "good" for people who don't need to use it - maybe because it is designed not in the way the users want, but in the way some theoreticists want to impose. There is nothing "good" about that.
38 • @37, Unity (by Mr. Moto on 2024-07-05 11:00:57 GMT from Philippines)
"Unity in Ubuntu 14.04 had a Maclike Global Menu and a very nice Start Menu,
but usability-wise, it was inferior to Gnome 46." Since Gnome 46 has the advantage of 6 or 7 more years of development and the backing of big money and manpower, that may be so. However, there are some young developers who have just barely started on Unity anew. Let's see in a few years.
39 • @38, Unity (by De Schatberg on 2024-07-05 11:54:22 GMT from The Netherlands)
@38 (by Mr. Moto from Philippines) Since I can't see the future, I don't know if things will get better or not, but I can analyze the past. Unity is worse now than it was 10 years ago, and most open projects get abandoned at some point. Those who didn't like it before, and those who don't like Gnome 46, probably won't like it in the future--unless it gets the taskbar and even more configuration options than KDE. But then it wouldn't be a Unity anymore, so why have Unity at all? ;)
40 • @41, Linux (by De Schatberg on 2024-07-05 12:16:46 GMT from The Netherlands)
@41 (by Kilroy the Great! from Germany) That was discussed last week. (20240624)
41 • @39, Unity (by Mr. Moto on 2024-07-05 12:32:28 GMT from Philippines)
"Since I can't see the future, I don't know if things will get better or not, but I can analyze the past. Unity is worse now than it was 10 years ago, and most open projects get abandoned at some point." You do go on! You're saying nothing that was not said in Jesse's review, like an echo. So Unity was abandoned. Now it's been picked up by some young developers. Maybe they'll improve it. Maybe not. Maybe they'll drop it at some point. So what? If they enjoy doing it, and it doesn't affect my life or yours in any way, what's the problem? If some people enjoy using it as it is and waiting for more, why does that bother you? Does it diminish you in any way?
You've said that Linux will never be anything but a "hobby" OS. Maybe that's correct, due to the nature of its license. Fine. A hobby is about enjoyment, not mass market. Yes, it only has 2%, but that's millions of people using, developing and generally enjoying it. As a side effect, some people make some money, large corporations like MS, Amazon, IBM, Huawei see enough uses and benefit to themselves to keep contributing to it. I don't need Linux. I don't need it to be perfect. I don't need it to have over 50% of the market. I just enjoy using it and tinkering with it sometimes. Call it a hobby then.
42 • @41, Unity (by De Schatberg on 2024-07-05 12:39:22 GMT from The Netherlands)
@41 (by Mr. Moto from Philippines) I actually did say something that Jesse didn't, and it was one of the biggest, if not the biggest objection un Unity at the time. Maybe reread.
Number of Comments: 42
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| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Predator-OS
Predator-OS is a Debian-based Linux distribution designed for penetration testing, ethical hacking, privacy and anonymity. It features customised KDE Plasma, LXQT, MATE and LXDE desktops with tailored menus. Predator-OS has over 1,200 pre-installed tools in 40 categories; these tools have been sourced from both Debian repositories and GitHub pages. Most kernel and user configurations are customised by default to prevent hacking attempts, to restrict non-privileged access, and to reduce the chances of an attack. Additionally, numerous built-in firewalls and defensive tools enable end-users to have full control over the system. Predator-OS also supports various privacy and security tools, and it can be run as a live medium or from a USB drive, as well as in installation mode.
Status: Active
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Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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