 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1085, 26 August 2024 |
Welcome to this year's 35th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The wheels of progress move ever forward, often raising technology (and its users) to new heights. However, along the way, some systems get crushed under those same wheels. This week, in our News section, we talk about positive developments in the FreeBSD community along with new tools used to sandbox background services. We also report on problems with a recent update from Microsoft which breaks Linux installs in dual-boot environments. Plus we talk about open source systems which include their source code as part of the distribution in our Questions and Answers column and how that source code can be used to update the operating system. Do you build or patch your distribution from source code? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. First though we turn our attention to two projects which were released at about the same time: Nobara Project 40 and OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME". These two distributions strive to be on the cutting-edge and we talk about what it's like to explore these two up to date projects in our Feature Story. This week we are also pleased to welcome a new project, PorteuX, to our database. PorteuX is a lightweight, portable operating system and we share details below. Plus, we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Nobara Project 40
The Nobara Project distribution is a Fedora-based operating system. Nobara ships with WINE, extra video drivers, and other third-party packages to supply a more complete desktop experience. The design is geared towards offering a better gaming and media experience out of the box, compared against its Fedora parent. The Fedora system installer, Anaconda, has also been swapped out for the more streamlined Calamares to make it easier to navigate for new users.
The new Nobara Project release, version 40, ships with a number of upgrades, mostly to the GNOME and KDE Plasma desktop environments. GNOME has been updated to version 45 while the new Plasma 6.1.1 desktop is also available. There have also been modifications to the software management tools:
The 'Update System' app has been completely remade into a Python GUI application, no more monolithic Bash script. The 'Update System' app has been better integrated with Nobara package manager (yumex-ng) and now provides a service which runs as a system tray app for receiving update notifications. The system tray app is fully configurable within Nobara Package Manager's settings and includes options to hide the icon completely or change its update check interval timer. Nobara Package Manager can now fully search, install, and remove Flatpaks in a user-friendly way on the GUI, obsoleting the need for KDE Discover or GNOME Software.
Nobara 40 is offered in three editions: Official, which is a modified version of GNOME; GNOME; and KDE Plasma. The available ISO files range in size from 3.4GB for the GNOME edition, up to 3.9GB for the Official edition. The KDE flavour is in the middle, at 3.7GB. I decided to start with the KDE Plasma edition.
When booting from the Nobara install media the boot menu offers us three main options: booting normally into a live desktop, running an integrity check to confirm the media has not been corrupted, and booting into a safe graphics mode.
Taking the option to boot into the live desktop results in an unusually slow boot process. It takes about a minute before the initial status messages and splash screen have been shown. Then Nobara played a boot-up chime and showed me a blank screen. Nothing happened at that point. The screen stayed blank and the system did not respond to input, for example to switch to a terminal screen.
I did the media check, confirming my install media was in good shape. Then tried booting again to the live desktop, with the same result: a blank screen, unresponsive to input. I then tried the safe mode option from the boot menu, with the same result again. Once more the system would appear to boot, play a chime, and lock-up.
Next, I downloaded the Official edition. Here too I confirmed my media's checksum was good. Then I tried booting normally and, when that failed, booted in the safe graphics mode. Each time the system locked up after displaying systemd's status messages followed by a graphical splash screen.
At this point, after several attempts to boot two editions, one might wonder if there was something wrong with the underlying hardware. However, this system was currently running Debian smoothly before I started playing with Nobara. This is also the same workstation on which I ran Fedora 40 (Nobara's parent) just a few months ago. At the time Fedora was also a bit slow to boot, but otherwise worked well. In other words, since Fedora worked properly in this test environment, it seems Nobara has introduced a change which prevents it from starting up properly, making it less capable than its parent.
Sadly, this trial with Nobara was even shorter and less glorious than my previous attempts. I tried running Nobara 36 and 37 last year and, in those trials, the desktop booted, but the Calamares system installer kept crashing. I decided to move on to another distribution which was released around the same time as Nobara 40.
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OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME"
OpenMandriva is a community project which grew out of the Mandriva family. The project is well known for its user-friendly approach and configuration tools. This distribution is also one of the few (perhaps the only) Linux distributions to use Clang as the default compiler, rather than GNU's Compiler Collection.
The ROME branch of OpenMandriva is a rolling release distribution. As with Nobara, the main highlights of the new OpenMandriva snapshot are the updated desktop environments:
OM-Welcome, the new Startup and Configuration tool for OpenMandriva Lx is now a merge of modules from the historical brand-name applications oma-welcome and om-control-center features. It aims to be a convenient centralized all-in-one starting point both to configure the system and to install software....
Switch to the KDE Plasma 6 desktop by default. Spins featuring LXQt (2.0.0 [with] Qt 6) and GNOME (46.3). Also provided is a ROME Plasma 6 Wayland ISO, however we believe Wayland still not to be mature enough to replace X11 by default for most users.
There are a few editions of OpenMandriva, mostly geared toward different desktop environments. There is a GNOME edition (2.9GB), a Plasma edition (2.9GB), and an LXQt edition (2.0GB). I decided to try the LXQt edition. There are also some ISO files for a series of special builds called znver1. These builds are described in the release notes as follows: "We have also built a version specifically for current AMD processors (Ryzen, ThreadRipper, EPYC) that outperforms the generic (x86_64) version by taking advantage of new features in those processors. znver1 is for the listed processors (Ryzen, ThreadRipper, EPYC) only, do not install on any other hardware."
OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME" -- Exploring the LXQt desktop
(full image size: 825kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
I started out trying OpenMandriva's new ROME snapshot on my workstation. A GRUB menu is displayed, offering us a few boot options - a live desktop or a series of safe mode selections. Regardless of which option I took, the system would start to boot, display a truncated message about "Spectre v2" (I suspect this is in reference to the CPU flaw), and then the system locked up. There were no init messages and the graphical environment never loaded.
For some reason I assumed the system was truly locked when it only showed the initial CPU-related message and nothing else, but after a few attempts at booting I thought to try switching to another terminal and discovered doing so presented me with a text login prompt. I could then sign into one of two accounts, "live" or "root", both unprotected by passwords. I could then navigate the console and the OpenMandriva filesystem in the live environment. When I tried launching the LXQt desktop though, as a regular user, I was shown a series of error messages which said "Could not resolve keysym", and then the X11 session would crash. When I tried launching the desktop as the root user, the graphical environment would start to load, display a red background, and then the session would crash with an error saying "Unable to connect to D-Bus." At this point I stopped trying to run OpenMandriva on my workstation directly and switched over to a VirtualBox environment.
When running in VirtualBox, the distribution booted directly to the live LXQt desktop. A panel was placed across the bottom of the screen. This panel held the classic application menu, quick-launch buttons, task switcher, and system tray combination. On the desktop were three icons. One launches a system installer and a second opens a web browser (Falkon) to show us the project's donation page. The third icon is labelled "Join" and it opens a web page which tells us the various ways we can contribute to OpenMandriva.
The LXQt interface was quick and uncluttered, making for a good live experience. The one unusual feature I encountered was when I clicked on the system installer icon a warning message appeared, telling me this was an executable program and it asked if I was sure I wanted to continue. This was an accurate message, but it struck me as odd the developers would choose to give this warning about the system installer on their install media as the message seems designed to warn people away.
Installing
OpenMandriva uses the Calamares system installer. The installer offers to show us some information about the distribution, such as the release notes. These notes open in a web browser. The installer then asks us to select our timezone, keyboard layout, and to partition the hard drive. Calamares offers friendly manual partitioning and also a few guided options. When taking the guided approach we can pick one of four root filesystems (ext4, XFS, F2FS, and Btrfs) with ext4 selected by default. We can also choose whether to use a swap file, a swap partition, or forego swap space. The final screen of the installer asks us to pick a username and password. While the installer copies its files to the local disk it shows simple progress information. We can click a button to show a detailed log of the actions Calamares is performing.
Early impressions
Once Calamares had finished setting up the system, I rebooted and was soon presented with a graphical login screen. From there I could sign into my regular user account and begin exploring the LXQt desktop. No welcome window or configuration wizard greeted me. LXQt was pleasantly calm, quiet, quick to respond, and devoid of distractions. The panel and application menu have a deep blue theme which, while not as high contrast as I might usually enjoy, looks nice.
The OpenMandriva release announcement mentioned a custom program which should be available to help new users learn about the system and configure the desktop. This tool, referred to as Startup and Configuration, does not seem to be available in the LXQt edition of the distribution.
Hardware
While I ran into difficulties getting OpenMandriva to run properly on my workstation, the distribution ran quite well in VirtualBox. The desktop was highly responsive, audio and networking functioned out of the box, and LXQt would dynamically resize to match the virtual machine's window.
OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME" -- Running QTerminal and FeatherPad
(full image size: 688kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The distribution was relatively small on the disk, taking up 4GB of space. On the other hand, it was heavier than I'd expected in memory, consuming about 580MB for the usually mid-weight LXQt desktop. This puts it close to level with Xfce and Plasma in terms of memory consumption.
At install time, I had requested that Calamares set up a swap partition for me. This was done. I also found a zRAM device had been created, extending my swap space with a compressed swap device in memory.
Included software
Along with the minimal LXQt desktop, OpenMandriva ships with a small collection of software. The Falkon web browser is included along with NeoChat, and an image viewer. The mpv media player and QMPlay2 are featured to play media files. FeatherPad is available for editing text, and the PCManFM-Qt file manager is installed for us. QTerminal is included for accessing a command line shell.
OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME" -- The Falkon browser and PCManFM-Qt file manager
(full image size: 432kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
In the background we find the GNU command line utilities, manual pages, and the systemd init software. Version 6.10 of the Linux kernel provides up to date hardware support.
When working from the command line, if we enter the name of a program which does not exist on the system, the shell will try to find a package which provides the missing software. Then it will offer to install the necessary package using the DNF package manager. This can be annoying if we are prone to making typos which happen to match the names of programs in the repository, but the helper script runs quickly so there is usually little impact to the workflow.
Though not installed, the default compiler for OpenMandriva is Clang. Both Clang and the GNU Compiler Collection are available in the project's repositories.
Something I found interesting by its absence was the OpenMandriva Control Centre. This is a key element of most members of the Mandriva/Mageia/PCLinuxOS family and I was surprised the LXQt edition does not ship with this unusually friendly and capable configuration manager.
Instead of the Control Centre, the distribution ships the LXQt settings panel which provides tools for customizing the behaviour and appearance of the desktop. For the most part, the settings modules worked for me as I would expect. The one exception was the Appearance module. I could not get it to set an alternative theme (I was trying to switch from a light to dark theme) and was unsuccessful. The desktop simply seemed to ignore any theme or colour changes. Back in June I mentioned LXQt 2.0.0 handles themes a bit differently than other desktops, so I was expecting to do more work than usual to make changes. However, I was unable to get the Appearance module to effect change at all.
OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME" -- The LXQt settings panel
(full image size: 693kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Software management
Apart from the DNF package manager which is available to install, update, and remove packages from the command line, OpenMandriva ships with two graphical software utilities. The first is called the Software Repository Selector. This desktop application provides a way to enable OpenMandriva's repositories and a few third-party repositories. By default only the distribution's Main repository is enabled. This Main collection of software contains the core packages of the operating system. There are three other official repositories: Unsupported - containing open source add-ons; Restricted - free but patent encumbered software; and Non-Free - contains software which is not open source.
OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME" -- Selecting software repositories
(full image size: 727kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
There are also checkboxes we can toggle to enable repositories for web browsers and other popular applications. These include (but are not limited to) repositories holding packages for applications such as Brave, Chrome, Edge, Vivaldi, Skype, Teams, and Visual Studio. Clicking a checkbox next to any of these repositories gives us access to the third-party software, though it is not installed for us by default.
The other software-related application is called dnfdragora. This is a classic package manager, like Synaptic in the Debian family. dnfdragora shows a few dozen categories of software down the left side of the window. Low-level packages in the highlighted category are shown on the right. When we double-click on a package its description appears in the bottom half of the window. Some of the categories strike me as being redundant or poorly organized. For example, there is an Internet category which contains a sub-section for "Web browser". This sub-section contains one entry, the Qutebrowser package. There is also a Networking category with a "WWW" sub-section which contains other browsers like Falkon and Firefox, but "WWW" also contains the Thunderbird e-mail client. I would have expected an e-mail client to be under Communications or perhaps Office. Then there is another "internet" category (note the lower-case "i") which contains one item, a weather app. So there doesn't appear to be much consistency to the naming and organization.
OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME" -- The dnfdragora package manager
(full image size: 563kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Despite the questionable organisation, we can mark items we want to install by clicking a checkbox and then click an Apply button at the bottom of the window to fetch new packages or remove old ones.
The distribution ships with Flatpak support enabled and will pull from the Flathub repository. This gives us access to a wide range of portable packages. Snap support is not installed and is not available in the Main repository either.
Conclusions
I've run OpenMandriva (and other members of the Mandriva/Mageia family) several times in the past. It's a distribution, a whole family of distributions, I tend to feel quite comfortable using, maybe because one of my first distributions was a member of the Mandriva/Mandrake Linux family. I think this was the first time I have used an LXQt edition, as opposed to a KDE or GNOME edition, of this family. This time felt different, in a few ways.
In general, the LXQt edition feels like a second-class citizen compared to my previous experiences running OpenMandriva's KDE Plasma edition. There is no welcome window, no control centre, no convenient utilities for managing the low-level operating system features. This is a much more bare bones experience. Having a few tools not work properly, such as the LXQt Appearance module, deepened this perception. I also found using dnfdragora felt like a step backward from the usual polished software centre.
Despite the missing features, or (in some cases) maybe because of them, I enjoyed my time with OpenMandriva. I tend to prefer distributions which provide a minimal desktop experience and allow the user to build on top of a small foundation of desktop software. I think I actually prefer the LXQt edition's small, fast, and clean approach over the heavier and sometimes less stable Plasma edition I used last year. The Plasma edition has so many utilities, a welcome window, a full application menu, and its Discover software centre didn't work well for me last year. There was a lot to wade through. LXQt, while it had a few rough edges, mostly worked well, worked quickly, was stable, and stayed out of my way. I like desktop environments that are uncluttered and let me get straight to work.
For newcomers, I'd still recommend the Plasma edition of OpenMandriva - it has lots of beginner friendly tools, a greeter, and great configuration tools. But, to be honest, I don't need those. I like that LXQt feels like a forgotten third option, a light and unencumbered flavour of the distribution. It's not perfect, but it has a sort of rough charm.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo desktop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Hex-core Intel i5-10400 CPU @ 2.90GHz
- Storage: Western Digital 1TB hard drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 wired network card, Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11ac PCIe wireless adapter
- Display: Intel CometLake-S GT2
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Visitor supplied rating
OpenMandriva has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.1/10 from 46 review(s).
Have you used OpenMandriva? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
FreeBSD project publishes quarterly update, Microsoft updates breaks booting Linux on systems with Secure Boot enabled
The FreeBSD project has published its quarterly newsletter which outlines work going into the FreeBSD operating system and its ports. One of the highlights is the implementation of service jails, a mechanism which provides some automated sandboxing of background services with minimal effort from the administrator. "Service jails extend the rc(8) system to allow automatic jailing of rc.d services. A service jail inherits the filesystem of the parent host or jail, but uses all other limits of the jail (process visibility, restricted network access, filesystem mounting permissions, sysvipc, [etc]) by default. Additional configuration allows inheritance of the IPs of the parent, sysvipc, memory page locking, and use of the bhyve virtual machine monitor (vmm(4)). The base system infrastructure and the base system rc.d services are committed to 15-current, and the handbook / rc article updates are committed to the documentation. Next steps are to extend services in the ports collection to be able to make use of it." Information on changes to other elements of FreeBSD can be found in the newsletter.
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An update from Microsoft has broken dual-boot setups for Linux users on machines where Secure Boot was enabled. Arstechnica reports: "Tuesday's update left dual-boot devices - meaning those configured to run both Windows and Linux - no longer able to boot into the latter when Secure Boot was enforced. When users tried to load Linux, they received the message: 'Verifying shim SBAT data failed: Security Policy Violation. Something has gone seriously wrong: SBAT self-check failed: Security Policy Violation.' Almost immediately support and discussion forums lit up with reports of the failure."
While Microsoft claimed the update should not affect Linux distributions, or would only affect older distributions, the latest versions of Ubuntu and Mint are affected as well as several others. The solution at the moment is to disable Secure Boot on affected machines or rollback the update from Microsoft.
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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) |
Source code included in a distribution
Going-to-the-source asks: I was curious if there is a distro which keeps its source code on the filesystem for easy patching and rebuilding? Like instead of downloading the package's upstream source code, could I just update my system, apply a development patch, and rebuild?
DistroWatch answers: Keeping source code for the operating system on the system itself is a feature of classically designed Linux distributions, MINIX, and the BSDs. These projects typically have a directory dedicated to holding the project's source code (or at least the code for the base system). This directory is traditionally /usr/src and is typically populated with source code at install time. Whether to install source code on the filesystem is usually an option in the system's installer. You probably shouldn't try to edit code found in this location, rather make a copy of the source code found in this location and work on it under your own home directory.
The Slackware's source README file shares tips for finding out which package provides a specific file and then how to find the source code for that package. Some other projects, such as FreeBSD, also use /usr/src and share tips on building the project's software from source code. Gentoo is a famously source-focused project and you can learn about working with its source-based ports system in the Gentoo Handbook.
While source-based and classic distributions (and the BSDs) make integrating source code into the base operating system a part of their design, other distributions do typically provide source code in some form, usually through the package manager. Linux distributions which use RPM and Deb package formats provide access to source code through source packages which can be accessed through optional repositories. The Fedora project shares information on source packages on their website. Debian offers tips for accessing source packages on Deb-based distributions. On RPM- and Deb-based distributions source packages can be downloaded separately from binary packages, unpacked, and their source code managed independently.
This approach of having separate, source packages is slightly less seamless than the integrated approach of the classically designed operating systems mentioned above, but it's designed to make it easy for us to access the source of specific packages without filling our filesystem with the source code for thousands of applications.
Whichever method your distribution uses to provide source code, I recommend making a copy of the source and manipulating it and building it in a separate directory, ideally under your user's home. This will avoid damaging the original source code (which you might want later) and prevent future official updates from overwriting any changes you make to your copy.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
OSMC 2024.08-1
OSMC is a Debian-based minimal Linux distribution that brings the Kodi media centre software to a Raspberry Pi, Apple TV and Vero devices. The project has published a new update, OSMC 2024.08-1, which introduces a few fixes and features the Kodi media centre, version 21.1. "We've been very busy behind the scenes and we're now happy to announce the availability of Kodi v21 (codename Omega) for all OSMC supported devices. All devices supported by OSMC on Kodi v20 remain supported for Kodi v21. To ensure that this was a stable release and that the user experience stays at the highest level you would expect from OSMC, we waited until the first point release of Kodi v21 before making a release. Kodi v21.1 (Omega) is now available as standard on OSMC, and release details for Kodi v21.0 can be found here. On the OSMC side, we've made a number of changes to keep things running smoothly. Fixed an issue with backing up user data via My OSMC to an SMB share. Fixed an issue with playback of some VC-1 content on Vero 4K / 4K + and V." Additional details are available in the project's release announcement. A list of supported devices and download options can be found on the OSMC downloads page.
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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: 3,056
- Total data uploaded: 45.1TB
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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 build or patch your operating system from source code?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about building or updating part of an operating system from its source code. Some projects, such as Gentoo and FreeBSD, make it easy to update the core operating system or third-party applications by building source code. We'd like to hear if you update some or all of your operating system using source code. Let us know which source-focused operating system you are using in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on disk versus home directory encryption in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Building the OS from source code
| I build core OS software from source: | 22 (1%) |
| I build third-party (ports) from source: | 67 (3%) |
| I build my whole OS from source: | 56 (2%) |
| I build from source in some special/rare situations: | 509 (22%) |
| I do not build any components from source: | 1709 (72%) |
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| Website News |
New projects added to database
PorteuX
PorteuX is a Linux distro based on Slackware, inspired by Slax and Porteus and available to the public for free. Its main goal is to be super fast, small, portable (run from a thumb drive), modular and immutable (if the user wants so). It's pre-configured for basic usage, including lightweight applications for each one of the 7 desktop environments (Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE Plasma, LXDE, LXQt, MATE, and Xfce) available. No browser is included, but an app store is provided so you can download the most popular browsers, as well as other applications.
PorteuX 1.5 -- Running the LXQt desktop
(full image size: 342kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
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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, 2 September 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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JoLinux
JoLinux was a Brazilian desktop Linux distribution for x86_64 platforms based on Slackware Linux.
Status: Discontinued
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0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
