 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1087, 9 September 2024 |
|
Welcome to this year's 37th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
It's not often a new, full featured desktop environment comes along. However, System76, the makers of the Pop!_OS distribution, have decided to create their own desktop, written in the Rust language for added memory safety. The new user interface is called COSMIC and we take an early snapshot of the COSMIC desktop for a test run in this week's Feature Story. What do you think of the new COSMIC interface? Let us know below, in the Opinion Poll. System76 wasn't the only project showing off new applications recently. The UBports team have published a newsletter which highlights new and updated applications and we share some of these in our News section. Meanwhile, the Debian project is taking the opposite approach and is discussing how best to remove old packages and applications from the distribution which may be unused or unmaintained. Plus we cover HardenedBSD working around a compatibility issue with FreeBSD and systemd being ported to the musl C library. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we discuss how to handle daily tasks which are not run at the same time every day. Plus we are pleased to share last week's releases and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: COSMIC Desktop (Alpha)
- News: UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl
- Questions and answers: Running daily cron jobs at variable times
- Released last week: GhostBSD 24.07.1, Peropesis 2.7, Q4OS 5.6
- Torrent corner: GhostBSD, KDE neon, TUXEDO OS
- Upcoming releases: Fedora 41 Beta
- Opinion poll: What do you think of the new COSMIC desktop?
- New distributions: IncreaseOS, ArchianOS, Tucana Linux, AnduinOS
- Reader comments
|
| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
COSMIC Desktop (Alpha)
Pop!_OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution developed by System76. The project has, up to this point, used a custom version of the GNOME desktop which strove to make the experience smoother and more approachable for new users. This custom implementation of GNOME was called COSMIC.
Due to some issues with maintaining and upgrading the GNOME desktop, the Pop!_OS developers decided to create their own desktop environment. The new desktop is also called COSMIC, which tends to cause some confusion on forums. The new COSMIC desktop is coded in the Rust language for memory safety and, while it borrows some from the GNOME layout, provides its own code, applications, and customization utilities. COSMIC also offers a fresh start, shedding legacy code and approaches carried by other desktop environments. For example, COSMIC is a Wayland-only desktop with no X11 session.
The System76 team launched an alpha release of Pop!_OS 24.04 in August and it included the first official development release of COSMIC. While still in its early stages, I was curious to see how the new desktop environment would perform.
I downloaded the Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha media which was 2.5GB in size. Booting from this ISO immediately launches the project's custom system installer. This graphical application quickly guides us through picking our language, keyboard layout, and choosing guided or manual disk partitioning. We're also asked to create a username and password for ourselves and (optionally) we can choose to encrypt our home directory. The installer then shows us a simple progress bar marching across the screen and a spaceship animation while it copies packages to our hard drive.
My new copy of Pop!_OS booted to a graphical login screen. The login page uses a spaced-themed wallpaper and places its controls and buttons in the middle of the screen. Most login screens place small control buttons around the edges of the screen, but COSMIC puts large buttons in the middle, making them easier to spot and identify. The buttons help us pick a user account, pick our session option (COSMIC was the only session available), and there are options for suspending or powering off the computer. This screen also shows us the current time and battery charge.
Early impressions of COSMIC
Signing into our account brings up the COSMIC desktop. The wallpaper has a lovely image of space and the theme is consistently dark. The desktop uses a layout similar to GNOME Shell with a thin panel across the top of the screen and a larger dock placed at the bottom. There are no icons on the desktop. I was not greeted by any welcome window, tour, application or other pop-ups when I first started using COSMIC. This creates a quiet contrast to GNOME's many initial setup steps.
In the upper-left corner of the display we find two buttons. One is called Workspaces which brings up a widget to the left of the screen that gives us an overview of active desktops. The second button is called Applications and it brings up a large window in the middle of the display which looks a lot like GNOME Shell's application grid. Over to the right side of the top panel we find the system tray.
Pop!_OS 24.04 -- The application grid
(full image size: 344kB, resolution: 1488x770 pixels)
I want to talk a little more about the application grid. For the most part, it is like any other application grid we'd find when using GNOME, Plasma, or an Android device. It has a search bar at the top and large icons in the middle. What stands out about COSMIC's grid of icons is a row of buttons across the bottom which are named after categories of applications: System, Utilities, and Office. Clicking these buttons shows us different pages of sorted applications. The default screen is called Library Home and it seems to act as the equivalent to a Favourites collection on other desktops. Another button at the bottom of the window is titled "Add Group" and it helps us create new categories and assign them a name. Creating a new category adds its button to the bottom of the grid. We can click and drag any existing application icons down to the bottom of the window and drop them on a category to sort them into different locations.
Earlier I mentioned the system tray on the top panel and it is full of icons to help us access settings and functionality. The default icons offer us accessing the language and keyboard settings; switching between tiling and floating window management (floating is the default); and adjusting the volume of our speaker and microphone. There are additional widgets for connecting to networks and enabling airplane mode; selecting a power profile (the three options are: performance, balance, or conversing battery); and there is a notifications area with a do-not-disturb button. Finally, in the corner, we find a button for accessing the settings panel and signing out (or powering off) the computer.
Pop!_OS 24.04 -- Checking for notifications in the system tray
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1488x770 pixels)
I like that I can click on one of the system tray icons and then move the mouse over to other icons to select them without needing to click on each one. This smooth click-then-hover approach reduces clicks and feels more fluid, similar to the settings and notification panel used by UBports.
The dock at the bottom of the screen offers us some control buttons and quick launchers. The first icons on the left of the dock is used to open a search and run dialog, the sort of runner we'd get by pressing Alt+F2 on most desktops. The second button opens the workspaces panel to the left of the screen. A third icon opens the application grid in the middle of the screen. In short, there is some duplication of effort between the top panel and the dock, perhaps to reduce mouse movement. There are also icons on the dock for launching Firefox, the COSMIC file manager, and the settings panel.
COSMIC applications
The COSMIC desktop ships with a handful of custom applications. I think these applications are meant to showcase and test the new desktop's abilities as much as replace the utilities provided by other projects and desktop environments. I will share a quick overview of the COSMIC apps here.
Pop!_OS 24.04 -- The COSMIC terminal and file manager
(full image size: 303kB, resolution: 1488x770 pixels)
- File manager - This is a fairly straight forward, no-frills file manager. The application presents us with two panes by default. Folders are placed to the left, files and folders in the selected area are on the right. The file manager can show icons in grid or list format and we can hide the left pane if we want to streamline things further. We can right-click on a folder to add it to the left pane and right-click items in the left pane to clear them from the list of shortcuts. The exception to these actions is the Trash folder which is always visible in the left pane as it cannot be removed.
The file manager supports a tabbed interface and can help us with deleting, moving, and copying files.
- Terminal - As with the other COSMIC applications, the virtual terminal is clean and light on features. It uses a dark background and light text by default and, like the file manager, offers tabs. The settings and profile options in the terminal mostly deal with the size and colour of the terminal's fonts. The terminal also supports zooming in/out to change the size of the text in our console.
- Text editor - The text editor is similar in style to the terminal in terms of layout, colours, and options. It offers the option of displaying line numbers, copying and pasting text, and opening new files/projects. Unlike the terminal, the text editor cannot zoom in/out on the fly. There is a spell check option in the View menu which did nothing during my trial.
- Screenshot - There is a COSMIC screenshot utility installed, but it fails to launch. I tried running it from the application menu and from the Print Screen button on my keyboard. In either case it wouldn't launch.
Software centre
I believe the COSMIC software centre deserves special attention. This software centre has a similar style to KDE's Discover. There are categories of applications displayed in a pane to the left of the window while specific applications are shown to the right. The default category is called Explore and it showcases featured or promoted items. There are also entries for showing installed applications and new software updates. The rest of the categories have odd names that do not match with classic application menu sections. Some of the entries are called Create, Learn, Relax, and Socialize. I find these less clear than browsing categories such as Office, Games, Multimedia, and Internet.
Pop!_OS 24.04 -- The software centre
(full image size: 532kB, resolution: 1488x770 pixels)
Clicking on an application's entry brings up a page showing a description of the software. The software centre appears to pull applications from Flathub mostly, though I did spot a few items that had a drop-down menu near the top of the page that allowed me to switch between using Flathub as a source or fetching classic Deb packages. The Deb packages are called "System" packages. While no Flatpak packages are installed by default they seem to be the focus in the software centre with most featured items coming from Flathub's repository.
The software centre responds quickly and I found it easy to search for and install new items. The update feature worked for me and I was able to remove a couple of applications from the default install I wasn't going to use. The software centre prompts for our password before each action, which can get tedious after a while, but the centre worked well for me.
Settings and options
The COSMIC settings panel seems to borrow inspiration from the GNOME and Budgie settings applications. It currently offers a fairly small selection of options with just six categories: Desktop, Displays, Power and Battery, Input Devices, Time and Language, and System and Accounts. These categories are displayed in a panel to the left of the window, like GNOME's settings panel does. Specific options are displayed to the right.
Pop!_OS 24.04 -- The settings panel
(full image size: 602kB, resolution: 1488x770 pixels)
Something I enjoy about the COSMIC settings panel is the options are clearly labelled. Some desktops display vaguely named options or use double negatives in their descriptions which can be confusing. COSMIC explains settings in plain language.
I especially appreciate that we can customize the desktop layout easily. From the settings panel we can change the background, the shape of input boxes (round or rectangular), and change the size and position of the dock and panel.
A problem I ran into was, when the settings panel was open, it constantly used around 20% to 25% of my laptop's CPU. This eventually caused the fan to run as the laptop would heat up. No other COSMIC applications had this problem, only the settings panel would constantly gobble up available CPU cycles.
Resource consumption
On the subject of resource consumption, Pop!_OS running COSMIC is a bit on the heavy side. A fresh install of the distribution took up 6.7GB of disk space. Logging into COSMIC, without launching any applications, takes up 1080MB (approximately 1.0GB) of RAM. This makes COSMIC heavier than Xfce or Plasma, and a little bit lighter than GNOME on most distributions. The CPU on my system was close to idle, around 1% most of the time. Except, of course, when launching new applications or when exploring the settings panel.
Observations and overall feel
Now that I have talked about what is included in COSMIC, I'd like to talk a bit about what it feels like to use the desktop for a few days.
I like COSMIC's dark theme. It feels consistent and high-contrast. Text is easy to read and it's usually easy to identify controls. There is a light theme for people who want a brighter alternative. The settings panel also allows us to adjust the colours used, making the basic look of the desktop flexible.
On a related note, I like how thick the window borders are, making it easier to grab and resize them. This is something some desktops, such as Xfce, make harder than it needs to be.
COSMIC offers both floating and tiling window management, depending on what kind of workflow we want to explore.
The interface feels quiet and calm. There are no welcome windows, not much in the way of distractions, or visual effects. I'm not sure I saw a notification at all during my days with the new desktop. This makes it easier to focus on the tasks at hand.
COSMIC is a little large in terms of RAM usage, but lighter than the GNOME desktop it is replacing. This, combined with the desktop's Rust core, should make it a good and memory-safe alternative to the pervious GNOME-plus-extensions combination Pop!_OS was running in previous versions.
I would have liked it if there were tool tips displayed when the mouse is hovering over a launcher or system tray icon. As it is, if we don't recognize an icon then there isn't any way to tell what it does without clicking on it. Some icons are easy to identify, such as the file manager and settings buttons. On the other hand, I wasn't sure if another icon was a notepad (indicating it would launch a text editor) or a calculator.
COSMIC applications do not recognize Alt shortcut keys for accessing menus. For example, pressing Alt+F or Alt+V will not open the File or View menus in COSMIC-specific applications. These shortcuts work in other applications, such as Firefox, but are ignored in COSMIC's apps. I find this jarring when switching between, for example, the COSMIC text editor and Kwrite.
Like other desktops, COSMIC uses Alt+Tab to switch between open windows. However, the order in which we cycle through windows is different. With most window managers, Alt+Tab starts by switching between the most recently used windows and then cycles through the list to applications we've used less recently. COSMIC seems to assign each window a number as it is opened. Then pressing Alt+Tab cycles through the list of open applications in the order we launched them. If we open the terminal, the file manager, and a text editor (in this order) then pressing Alt+Tab once will always jump to the terminal, even if it is already the active window. Pressing Alt and then tapping Tab three times will always raise the text editor into focus.
This approach to switching between windows is unusual and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I can see the logic as a person can develop muscle memory to quickly jump to specific applications (assuming we always open them in the same order). I can see this being beneficial if we only have a few windows open at a time. On the other hand, if we use many applications at once and we're often switching between windows #5 and #7 then it is going to require hitting Tab 12 times every time we want to switch back and forth where it would require just 2 Tab taps in other desktop environments.
Applications provided by Flathub which I installed from the software centre did not respect COSMIC's theme. This resulted in most of my applications using the default dark theme, but a few GNOME applications displaying bright, white windows and this made for a jarring experience.
COSMIC crashed on me twice in three days. The first time I was minimizing the software centre and suddenly found myself returned to the login screen, losing whatever files I was working on at the time. The second time COSMIC locked up while logging in and, after I restarted and tried logging in again, it locked up again, and then again. I found deleting the directory ~/.config/cosmic would reset the desktop's options and allow me to sign in.
Pop!_OS 24.04 -- Moving the dock to the left
(full image size: 568kB, resolution: 1488x770 pixels)
We can move the panel and dock around the desktop and this works well. We can also resize both the panel and the dock. I appreciate this flexibility. There doesn't appear to be any way to move the window buttons (close, minimize, and maximize) around the title bar. Perhaps that will come later.
Conclusions
My experiment with COSMIC had two distinct phases. During the first several hours with the desktop I was focused on exploring the layout, taking in the visuals, changing settings, and getting a feel for the style of the interface. This phase of my time with COSMIC went really well. I like the design a lot. There is a strong focus on making it clear where controls are and what they do. The key elements we are going to use are not tucked away, hidden, or flat. Everything seems to be set up to be easy to spot, text is easy to read, the spacing between elements is comfortable.
In short, the desktop feels clean, it feels easy on the eyes, it isn't distracting, and it feels like an interface I'd be comfortable looking at for many hours a day. In other words, it feels like a desktop by professionals for professionals in terms of its layout and visual style. I find visual effects on other desktops are wasted on me as they are distracting and slow down the actions of the window manager. COSMIC feels lean and responsive. The COSMIC applications are all streamlined, focusing on doing one thing well rather than being weighted down with options and additional features.
I think COSMIC blends some of the best elements of mobile interfaces and desktop environments. I like that the layout looks like a desktop most of the time, but it also borrows the application grid from mobile operating systems and the fluid system tray from UBports.
The second phase of my experience came when I stopped actively exploring the desktop itself and shifted to trying to work and perform my daily tasks. In the second phase I ran into a few issues. Earlier I mentioned COSMIC crashed on me once while working and this took down the whole desktop, which seems to be a common problem with Wayland compositors. In all fairness though, this was an alpha version of COSMIC, not a stable release.
Earlier I pointed out Flatpak applications don't respect COSMIC's theme and this resulted in a rough visual experience, especially when switching between GNOME applications and COSMIC applications. Likewise, COSMIC applications not recognizing menu keyboard shortcuts made for a jarring transition between programs.
COSMIC, whether in tiling or floating mode, appears to be set up to work best with a small number of windows open; it feels like a desktop for running just one or two applications at a time. Once I had added more windows it became more time consuming and awkward to switch between my programs. I often leave my computers running for days or weeks at a time, often with around 10 to 12 applications open on my desktop. COSMIC's window switching and arrangement doesn't seem well suited to this. On the other hand, COSMIC also seems to forget window placement and dimensions so I had to resize and move newly opened applications each time I launched them. Therefore, it was awkward to have too many windows open, but it was also inconvenient to close windows and relaunch them later.
In general, I think COSMIC is doing a lot of things well. In fact, I'd say it's running surprisingly well for an alpha release with just a handful of applications. The design looks really nice and I like how responsive and smooth the desktop feels. There are a few rough points, particularly when using applications developed for other desktops or when a lot of windows are open. However, I suspect those concerns will get sorted out in the coming months. COSMIC appears to be starting with a good desktop that has its own identity while borrowing useful features from other interfaces. Best of all, the desktop uses sane defaults while offering flexibility through the settings panel.
I'm not ready to recommend it yet as a daily driver, but I suspect I will be suggesting it to new users in another year.
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
Pop!_OS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.9/10 from 305 review(s).
Have you used Pop!_OS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl
The UBports team have announced a series of updates to their project's operating system and applications. "There is a new app out for testing. It is designed to handle Odoo timesheets. It is at an early stage and the direction and shape will follow feedback from the first users. It is being developed by Synconics Technologies, friends of UBports. Another new app is Browser Leak, again by Lucstay11. His app is designed to show up any fingerprinting of your phone. The app will show up any weaknesses but of course use a good quality VPN to protect yourself. Sturm Reader has been updated. This was one of the first and best apps on UT and it allows you to read ePub books, comics, PDF files etc. We thank Emanuele Sorce for his work." There is also a new app called Amazfish which communicates with smartwatches. Further information is provided in the UBports news post.
* * * * *
The HardenedBSD team have published their monthly newsletter for August. One of the updates mentions an incompatibility with one of FreeBSD's changes along with a temporary fix: "FreeBSD recently made changes to the in-kernel heap implementation (see malloc(9)). Those changes are incompatible with our hardening.kmalloc_zero feature. I have not had ample time to address this incompatibility, but hope to soon. As such, users who run 15-CURRENT and have set hardening.kmalloc_zero=1 should temporarily disable the feature prior to upgrading to the 01 Sep 2024 build."
* * * * *
Usually any discussions about packages included in distributions revolve around getting new software added to a distribution's repositories. However, sometimes it's important to prune the tree of available software. Debian's Project Leader, Andreas Tille, talked about trimming old packages that are no longer maintained or useful in this month's Bits from the DPL newsletter. "Helmut Grohne argued for more aggressive package removal and sought consensus on a way forward. He provided six examples of processes where packages that are candidates for removal are consuming valuable person-power. I'd like to add that the Bug of the Day initiative (see below) also frequently encounters long-unmaintained packages with popcon votes sometimes as low as zero, and often fewer than ten.
Helmut's e-mail included a list of packages that would meet the suggested removal criteria. There was some discussion about whether a popcon vote should be included in these criteria, with arguments both for and against it. Although I support including popcon, I acknowledge that Helmut has a valid point in suggesting it be left out."
* * * * *
One of the aspects of systemd which made the software controversial when it was first launched was the project's narrow focus. systemd was designed to work on Linux-based distributions only, ignoring the BSDs, Solaris, and other Unix-like systems. The systemd software was also closely tied to the GNU C library (glibc), making it impossible to run systemd on many smaller Linux distributions which use alternatives, such as the musl C library. This may be changing as the developer of Adelie Linux has managed to get a port of systemd running with musl C. "I have completed an initial new port of systemd to musl. This patch set does not share much in common with the existing OpenEmbedded patchset. I wanted to make a fully updated patch series targeting more current releases of systemd and musl, taking advantage of the latest features and updates in both. I also took a focus on writing patches that could be sent for consideration of inclusion upstream. The final result is a system that appears to be surprisingly reliable considering the newness of the port, and very fast to boot. Details on the porting process and work remaining can be found in this blog post.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Running daily cron jobs at variable times
Delicate-timing asks: I have a cron job that downloads information at midnight about when the sun rises and sets for that day. Then I want to edit a line in my crontab file to execute another script at those times. Been having a hard time finding out how to dynamically schedule cron jobs. Any tips?
DistroWatch answers: It sounds like, around midnight each night, you are running one script which is looking up data on-line. Then, based on what it finds, you want to schedule two additional scripts (or one script run at separate times) to be run later in the day.
There are a few challenges to this approach. One is that the crontab command, which is usually used to edit and enable new scheduled tasks, normally launches an interactive editor to create or modify jobs. Cron jobs are organized in text files which are stored under the /var filesystem, typically in the /var/spool/cron/crontabs directory. We could, in theory, write changes directly to our crontab file at /var/spool/cron/crontabs/username, removing old entries and creating the new ones to run your scripts. However, the /var/spool/cron/crontabs directory is usually only readable by the root (administrator) user and by the crontab service. We need to find a less direct approach.
Luckily, we can use the crontab command to overwrite our cron file with any other text file of our choosing. Running the command crontab and passing it a text file will overwrite our old cron file with the entries in our text file. Here we overwrite our old scheduled jobs with the contents of a file called cronny:
crontab cronny
At this point we will still need to figure out how to remove the old crontab entries each day at midnight and write the new jobs to our crontab file, cronny. We could do this by having a copy of our original crontab file in our home directory and then appending the new jobs each day. This is a crude example of a script which will overwrite our crontab file with one stored in our home directory and add two new scheduled tasks to it:
cp ~/cronny ~/cronny-with-script-times
echo "15 6 * * * ~/sunrise" >> ~/cronny-with-script-times
echo "12 18 * * * ~/sunset" >> ~/cronny-with-script-times
crontab cronny-with-script-times
Having dug this far down the rabbit hole of dynamically scheduled cron jobs, I feel it's now important I suggest that this is not an ideal approach. The above method requires us to adjust our copy of our ~/cronny file if we ever plan to schedule additional jobs (or prune old jobs) in the future. In short: this approach is a bit messy as it means we're maintaining at least two copies of our cron file (the main file used by cron, plus our copy called cronny).
What would probably be a better plan is to have the script which runs daily (around midnight) calculate how long the gap is between midnight and the jobs which are to run later in the day. Then that job can sleep until the specified time and execute the scripts we want to run at dynamic times.
Let's assume for a moment that, as in our above example, we download information in our midnight script that tells us we should run the sunrise script at 6:15 and we should run the sunset script at 18:12. We know our starting time (midnight) so we can sleep until sunrise, run our first script, then sleep again until sunset and run the second script.
Here is a bash script sample which should do this, assuming the variables sunrisehour and sunriseminute tell us when the first script should run, and sunsethour and sunsetminute tell us when the second script should be run. The script calculates the appropriate number of seconds to sleep and then snoozes until it is time to run our scripts.
sunriseseconds=$(($sunrisehour*3600))
sunriseseconds=$(($sunriseminutes*60+$sunriseseconds))
sunsetseconds=$(($sunsethour*3600))
sunsetseconds=$(($sunsetminutes*60+$sunsetseconds))
sunrisetoset=$(($sunsetseconds-$sunriseseconds))
sleep $sunriseseconds
~/sunrise
sleep $sunrisetoset
~/sunset
The above script sample will consume almost no additional resources during the day since it is sleeping most of the time. It'll terminate after running the sunset script, and can then be run again at midnight. This avoids editing the user's crontab file and avoids the risk of overwriting new changes to our crontab that need to be duplicated in our cronny file. It also means we're running just one cron job instead of three, which (to me, at least) feels cleaner.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
GhostBSD 24.07.1
GhostBSD is a desktop-oriented, FreeBSD-based operating system featuring the MATE desktop (a community build offers an Xfce alternative). The project's latest release is version 24.07.1 which now draws on FreeBSD's base system packages - low-level components built the same way as third-party packages. "This release, though a bit delayed, brings a significant change. We have transitioned from building our OS packages from our OS ports to building them from FreeBSD PKGBSD. This change, while involving extensive testing, promises improved performance and stability. If you have not updated to 24.04.2, a backup and reinstallation with 24.07.1 is recommended. Please note that the change to PKGBSD and the OS update to 24.07.1 could cause issues, as the update manager was only set to upgrade GhostBSD to PKGBSD from a minor version. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause." A full list of changes is presented in the project's release announcement.
Q4OS 5.6
Q4OS is a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution designed to offer classic-style user interface. The Q4OS project has published a new version, Q4OS 5.6, which introduces a desktop profiler and some upgrades to the Calamares system installer. The distribution's release announcement states: "The Q4OS project is pleased to announce the sixth update of its stable edition Q4OS 5, codename Aquarius. The new Aquarius 5.6 series receives the recent Debian Bookworm 12.7 updates, updated Debian stable 6.1.0-25 kernel and important security and bug fixes. This release brings along a few Q4OS specific improvements, fixes and a cumulative upgrade covering all the changes from the previous stable Aquarius release. Calamares installer now features custom desktop profiles loader see the Documentation. A native Q4OS Setup tool as well as Desktop profiler have been enhanced with new features. All the Q4OS live media receive brand new Debian Shim and Grub bootloader binaries, they revoke signatures across older versions of Shim in the UEFI firmware."
Peropesis 2.7
Peropesis (personal operating system) is a small-scale, minimalist, command-line-based Linux operating system. The project's latest version is Peropesis 2.7, introduces archive and ISO management tools. "Peropesis 2.7 is released. In the new edition part of the old software was updated and several new software packages were installed. The newly installed software is designed to perform file system archiving and ISO image creation tasks. In parallel with the 2.7 release, a new user manual chapter - Editing ISO image content was created. New chapter provides an example of how to edit the Peropesis file system using the newly installed tools. New software installed: 1. cpio 2.15. cpio is a command-line-based tool for creating, extracting and copying archives. 2. Squashfs-tools 4.6.1. Squashfs-tools is a tool for creating Squashfs type file systems. Squashfs is a compressed read-only file system for Linux. 3. xorriso 1.5.6.pl02. xorriso - creates, loads, manipulates and writes ISO 9660 filesystem images with Rock Ridge extensions." The release announcement offers additional information.
rlxos 2.0
rlxos is an independent Linux distribution which runs on an immutable filesystem and features the Xfce desktop. The project's latest release is rlxos 2.0 "Sankalpa" which introduces a number of new features and tweaks to the user interface. "We've improved various theming components like, drop-down menus and panel with better spacing and translucency. We've also switched to Fira Code for monospace fonts, a great choice for developers with stylish coding ligatures. Finding and opening apps is now simpler with the new grid-based app menu. It's more organized, visually appealing, and works well on both desktops and touchscreens. Default shell is replaced to zsh configured with auto-suggestions and other help full plugins for easy to access shell commands. rlxos now comes with a graphical software manager, making it super easy to install, update, and manage Flatpak apps with just a few clicks." Additional information can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
rlxos 2.0 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1920x1200 pixels)
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| 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: 3,067
- Total data uploaded: 45.3TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
What do you think of the new COSMIC desktop?
We began this week with a look at the COSMIC desktop environment, created by System76 for its Pop!_OS distribution. The new desktop is intended to replace Pop!_OS's customized GNOME desktop. What do you think of COSMIC? Have you tried it yet? Let us know what you liked or didn't like about the young desktop environment in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on trying Vanilla OS in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
What do you think of COSMIC?
| I have tried it and like it: | 182 (8%) |
| I have tried it but did not like it: | 780 (35%) |
| I plan to try it later: | 484 (22%) |
| I have no plans to try it: | 762 (35%) |
|
|
| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- IncreaseOS. IncreaseOS is a lightweight distribution which is based on Debian. It runs the Xfce desktop by default.
- ArchianOS. ArchianOS is an Arch-based distribution featuring its own, custom system installer script. While several desktop environments are available, none is enabled by default, allowing the user to install only the tools and desktop software they want.
- Tucana Linux. Tucana is an independent distribution, originally developed using Linux From Scratch. The project aims to provide a lot of options and control over the operating system. It offers the Calamares system installer, lib32 and Steam packages, and easy package repository hosting.
- AnduinOS. AnduinOS is an Ubuntu-based distribution featuring the GNOME desktop, automatic updates, and a theme designed to be familiar to users of Microsoft Windows.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 16 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)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 1, value: US$9) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • POP OS Cosmic (by Scott on 2024-09-09 01:16:53 GMT from Australia)
I pretty much agree with Jesse's review. Although Cosmic did seem to have some quirks that seemed intermittent and sometimes would appear and other times not. One quirk was with the menu sometimes it would open but only after numerous clicks. Also had a problem during boot when the screen would come up but hitting enter would boot the OS, but would launch with a mouse click. I used POP for about 4 or 5 days and had 3 kernal panics, one at boot and 2 while Pop was running. At no time did I lose anything, just rebooted and off we went. Other than that everything worked. the look was nice as well although I would make a few changes but that's just me. I'll look forward to it final release.
Thanx.
2 • Cosmic DE (by Woodstock69 on 2024-09-09 01:33:30 GMT from Australia)
Any DE that tries to turn my desktop interface into a mobile phone interface will be immediately rejected. Call me old fashioned. YMMV.
3 • Cosmic DE (by jim on 2024-09-09 05:09:00 GMT from Australia)
The older DE looked better.
4 • Cosmic reinvents Gnome - why?! (by Kevin on 2024-09-09 05:53:23 GMT from New Zealand)
WHY?!
Of all DE's to go and copy, Gnome. This was an opportunity to really shine and innovate. I guess twin 4K displays can "act" like a giant tablet, right? I am really, really disappointed.
5 • Cosmic (by Ali on 2024-09-09 07:41:41 GMT from Iran)
Jessy, How does Cosmic deals with applications from other toolkits regarding appearance and theming. Do gtk and qt apps follows desktop theme without manual configurations?
6 • Running daily cron jobs at variable times (by Henrik on 2024-09-09 08:45:10 GMT from Sweden)
Call at command with sunrise and sunset times from midnight cron job?
7 • What do you think of COSMIC? (by James on 2024-09-09 09:51:18 GMT from United States)
I will never use any desktop based on the current Gnome desktop.
8 • Command to add line to start of file (by Lisa on 2024-09-09 10:10:15 GMT from Australia)
Thanks Jesse and Distrowatch team for another great read this week.
Further to last week's Q&A, a reader offered this sed command to add a line to the start of a file:--
sed -i '1 s/^/line_to_be_added\n/' file
While this works, a simpler sed command is:--
sed -i '1 i\"Line to be added"' file
Note the difference between sed's insert command i\ and sed's -i option for overwriting files in place. Always run sed commands _without_ the -i option first, until you're sure it'll do what you want.
9 • Cosmic DE (by Danny on 2024-09-09 10:42:48 GMT from United States)
Please note: I HATE Gnome DE, I really do. I also don't like the devs 'always break it' approach for extensions (why there is a Cosmic).
However, I see lots of potential and even like Cosmic. It's not bad an early DE, especially for it's tiling and stacking (imo). However, I don't see it being at all impressive for a floating DE (at least yet). So if you want KDE, don't compare to Cosmic ;)
10 • Tucana Linux (by Toran on 2024-09-09 11:33:06 GMT from Belgium)
Tucana Linux looks interesting. Looking forward to a review, honestly...
11 • COSMIC (by Jesse on 2024-09-09 11:34:44 GMT from Canada)
@7: "I will never use any desktop based on the current Gnome desktop."
COSMIC isn't based on GNOME. That's one of the key points of its development. System76 needed a desktop that wasn't going to have the upstream issues GNOME kept having so they developed their own desktop.
@5: "Jessy, How does Cosmic deals with applications from other toolkits regarding appearance and theming. Do gtk and qt apps follows desktop theme without manual configurations?"
I wish I could tell you. Unfortunately around the end of the week I was using COSMIC the latest series of updates broke the system and I wasn't able to login to it anymore.
With that said, GTK apps don't even follow the desktop theme on GNOME half the time, so you can be pretty certain the answer is "no".
12 • COSMIC DE (by RetiredIT on 2024-09-09 12:03:57 GMT from United States)
Who needs another desktop? More fluff! I've been using GNOME2/MATE for almost 20 years and there is no reason to change to anything else. Why do developers waste so much time and effort trying to get us to use something we do NOT need?
13 • systemd and "adelie way" (by Cassio Longino on 2024-09-09 12:28:39 GMT from Italy)
"One of the aspects of systemd which made the software controversial when it was first launched was the project's narrow focus. systemd was designed to work on Linux-based distributions only, ignoring the BSDs, Solaris, and other Unix-like systems. The systemd software was also closely tied to the GNU C library (glibc), making it impossible to run systemd on many smaller Linux distributions which use alternatives, such as the musl C library. This may be changing as the developer of Adelie Linux has managed to get a port of systemd running with musl C."
systemd was a (badly designed) attempt to standardise init, but imho the problem is not adapting the 'musl C library' to systemd. The real target is having Linux distributions completely independent of systemd and fully-functional. The biodiversity of the Linux ecosystem is very important.
14 • Cosmic (by penguinx86 on 2024-09-09 12:30:44 GMT from United States)
I have not tried Cosmic yet, but I like the looks of it. It fixes some of the things I don't like about Gnome. But I'll hold out for the Beta version before I try it in a VM.
15 • Canaima Linux 8.0 Beta "Kavanayen" becomes a "rolling release" (by Pedro Machado on 2024-09-09 13:10:32 GMT from The Netherlands)
Canaima GNU/Linux 8.0 'Kavanayen' (debian based) is now available in Beta version. One of the most important features of this new version is its new Rolling Release approach. It will allow users to receive constant updates, ensuring that their system is always up-to-date with the latest security fixes and new features available. The distribution works on old (32-bit) and new (amd64) PCs. Available desktop environments: GNOME, XFCE, KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, LXDE, Mate. Canaima also includes a new 'Software Shop', developed by Venezuelan programmers.
16 • COSMIC DE (by Justin R. on 2024-09-09 14:18:19 GMT from United States)
I have no plans on trying COSMIC, but am very interested in seeing it's development.
17 • Cosmic & Human Interfaces (by Thomas on 2024-09-09 14:12:39 GMT from France)
@jesse: you didn't cover much Cosmic's screen estate configurability but I suspect Cosmic User Interface is really similar to Ubuntu's Gnome flavor.
But Gnome (and so Cosmic, even if it's not a fork, it feels like a HIG copy of it) isn't configurable. Really. I understand newcomers need to feel at ease with a known environment. But for efficiency-looking users, having a configurable desktop is a "must have".
It all boils down to the difference between KDE and Gnome/Windows/MacOS : either you limit yourself to what the developpers of those environments think you can do or, in the case of KDE (and older window managers), you can adapt your environment to your own specific needs. That is, IMHO, the minimum of respect developpers should have toward their users : not everyone is a sheep :)
As a developper myself, I really need a lot of vertical screen estate on a landscape monitor. More lines of code, more documentation to see and write. With 2 or more windows side to side... The freedom KDE/Plasma and others offers (compared to Gnome, Windows etc) while still proposing sane defaults for newcomers is the best of both worlds.
So, what's the point of Cosmic ? Just a reimplementation of Gnome/Unity in Rust ?
18 • AnduinOS (by Lee S. on 2024-09-09 14:45:17 GMT from United States)
Looks interesting. Has anyone tried this out yet? Might try using it for some older laptops I use etc...
19 • Gnome desktop (by Bob on 2024-09-09 14:47:17 GMT from United States)
I'm not a fan of the Gnome desktop, however, the one Gnome-like desktop I would like to have will probably never get released as a stable operating system...Cutefish OS.
20 • Cosmic (by rhtoras on 2024-09-09 14:57:28 GMT from Greece)
There are new desktop environments...
i.e Lumina Desktop (qt based, poettering free, bsd licenced)
Katana desktop (qt based, kde4 like)
Calla desktop (based on awesome wm, minimal and usable)
ydesk (based on fvwm, minimal and usable)
and last but not least cafe desktop (fork of mate, ctk instead of gtk)
I do not get what cosmic brings to the table...instead of a crazy dev and copying what gnome offers i do not get it really...it will be a bloat and frustrasting experience and i won't try it, sorry!
If i want something new i can try lumina or ydesk or if i like what other desktops look i can try katana and cafe...
because all these offer something different to the table...
some linux dev's in the systemD era tend to reinvent the wheel
sorry i'll go otherwise!!!
21 • Cosmic (by David on 2024-09-09 15:51:55 GMT from United Kingdom)
So you are left looking a a screen-full of icons with no tool-tips, wondering what some of them do. Why not a conventional menu? You need to run a widget to switch work-spaces. Why not a switcher on the panel? So many of these innovations make me think of a car designer saying "We've had steering wheels since the 1890s — why not try a joystick instead?"
22 • Celebrate the richness of Linux (by New on 2024-09-09 16:30:00 GMT from Sweden)
I cant fathom why people express dissatisfaction with new DEs or new distributions. If you really think Linux is worse off because of the many different DEs that exist you could go back to Windows. The freedom of choice is one of the most compelling reasons to use Linux. Celebrate the richness of Linux dont decry it.
23 • Cosmic DE (by Marti Martinson on 2024-09-09 16:32:52 GMT from United States)
Bravo, @2 Woodstock, bravo! LXDE, IceWM, and Equinox were fantastic DEs, even just the PLAIN Openbox WM. I loathe smartphone/mobile looking interfaces.
24 • Cosmic for Pop_OS! (by Maximax on 2024-09-09 18:22:54 GMT from France)
Cosmic has been created as the default DE for Pop_OS!, so to be installed on System76 computers. It makes perfectly sense from System76 as a company to offer their own experience for customers, and for customers to go directly to System76 when they've found some bugs and have some requests.
Gnome-like DE being not my cup of tea at all, I've only spend about an hour testing Cosmic, found some bugs (exactly what I could expect from an Alpha version) but as Jesse noted, it's pretty coherent and even dull but that's exactly what a paying customer would expect in a company environment.
So I'm pretty glad they've released it so anyone can use it for free (and on any computer), even getting testers and some fixes for free, and I'm hoping that System76 will be more open minded than Gnome team about changes. I will certainly try it in a year once they've added many fixes and functionalities that users are looking for, and hoping that it won't becoming a bloat DE too soon!
25 • Ventoy usb-stick, with MX-KDE and AntiX: problem (by Jan on 2024-09-09 22:05:32 GMT from The Netherlands)
I have a big Ventoy USB-stick, with several distros for live testing. A.o. MX-KDE-august and AntiX.
I found that AntiX on a Ventoy-usb-stick does not work, it needs to be prepared with RUFUS, then the live-session works (same for PCLinuxOS-KDE).
I decided to install MX-KDE from the Ventoy-stick, with AntiX still on this Ventoy-stick. The insttall started but repeatedly failed.
Finally, at the media check of MX (on the Ventoy-stick) I found that AntiX was media-checked. After I deleted the AntiX-iso from the Ventoy-stick, I succesfully intalled MX-KDE from the Ventoy-stick.
Possibly something to be corrected by the MX/AntiX people?
26 • new desktops (by Kevin on 2024-09-09 22:31:39 GMT from New Zealand)
@22 - why people show dissatisfaction? Well, that is also part of the freedom and multitude of options and choices we have in the Linux ecosystem. I see it as part of what should be a healthy discussion (not like StackOverflow and other forums). In general the tone one gets from the posts so far is that nobody likes Gnome or things that look or smell like Gnome. A bit like England being the greatest producer of Independence Days, Gnome has caused the creation of several desktops which are more traditional - MATE, Cinnamon. Maybe COSMIC from here evolves into something usable from this Alpha state, hopefully yes. Let's see what they get done by the Beta release.
27 • Antix (by rhtoras on 2024-09-09 23:27:17 GMT from Greece)
@25 i tried antix and pclos on three computers i own (laptop i5 4th gen) a desktop i3 6th gen and a ryzen amd ge 200.
Both distros worked fine. Antix is different from mx!!! It is not only nosystemD but also elogind free so is pclinuxos with a difference being it uses consolekit instead of plain seatd. I would say if you are on a search for a nosystemD distro you can check void (or agarimOS based on void) and maybe refracta if you like apt/debianbased things.
But then again i would download an older iso of antix to try.
28 • Factual Error (by Anne E. Mouse on 2024-09-09 23:38:36 GMT from Canada)
"making it easier to grab and resize them. This is something some desktops, such as Xfce, make harder than it needs to be."
The usability of the window handles in Xfce is entirely dependent upon the size of the window borders that were chosen by the xfwm4 theme author.
If you have trouble grabbing and resizing windows in Xfce, that's a theme author problem, not an Xfce issue.
29 • Xfce (by Jesse on 2024-09-10 09:56:49 GMT from Canada)
@28: "If you have trouble grabbing and resizing windows in Xfce, that's a theme author problem, not an Xfce issue"
I disagree,for two reasons
1. The default Xfce theme has this problem. Which means itis a problem by default the theme authors need to fix, not something they cause.
2. It shouldn't be possible to make a window border so small it becomes a usability problem. That is a design flaw in Xfce.
30 • COSMIC (by Gary W on 2024-09-10 11:24:10 GMT from Australia)
Sounds promising. I'd embrace a new DE if it had all the features and comfort of my favourite, XFCE, and offered tangible benefits. I'll try it when it appears in the repository of an init-freedom distro.
31 • @30 Gary W: (by dragonmouth on 2024-09-10 12:01:45 GMT from United States)
"if it had all the features and comfort of my favourite, XFCE"
Then it would no longer be Cosmic, it would be XFCE.
32 • HELP LINUX STAY ALIVE (by rhtoras on 2024-09-10 16:13:53 GMT from Greece)
i almost forgot about adelie problem... someone (really who ?) sponsored a very small linux distribution called adelie linux to adopt systemD
who are these sponsors and what are their goals ? what are going to achieve ?
Maybe linux sheikh article was right 100%
systemD is a "virus" and i am glad i left it behind...
this is the way microsoft could control linux 100% and finally destroy it
gates knows
i belong to the resistance
when systemD started they claimed it was faster than sysV init
nowdays the same people tell you speed times doesn't matter (systemD analyze wtf?!)
they were saying compatibility with sysV won't stop
the same people abandoned systemD-sysV-init shim recently
they were saying microsoft is bad
now systemD creator works for microsoft and ported systemD to WSL
a bunch of liars saying a bunch of lies to the masses
even if it was good i won't use it
no no no!
33 • @32 re. "linux sheikh" article (by picamanic on 2024-09-10 20:17:48 GMT from United Kingdom)
@32 I couldn't find a reference to the "linux sheikh" article: clues?
34 • redox OS (by distroViewnior on 2024-09-11 07:04:18 GMT from United States)
redox 0.9 mini review:
Pros:
* ISO file boots from Ventoy
* loads to RAM
* has Orbital DE
* basic apps - browser, text editor, periodic table, calendar, calculator, games
cons:
* no full Cosmic DE yet
* no network or usb yet
* still in demo mode
Looks promising, but devs seem to still be working on the system / kernel functionality.
35 • Cosmic (by ThomasAnderson on 2024-09-11 09:30:13 GMT from Australia)
Can Cosmic desktop function properly without systemd?
36 • COSMIC (by Jesse on 2024-09-11 11:48:50 GMT from Canada)
@35: "Can Cosmic desktop function properly without systemd?"
I'm pretty sure every desktop can function properly without systemd. The sticking point with some environments is the login screen. rather than the desktop itself. As long as your display manager doesn't rely on systemd then you should be able to launch just about any desktop session, including COSMIC, from it.
37 • UNIX Sheikh article (by rhtoras on 2024-09-11 11:48:56 GMT from Greece)
@33 unix sheikh changed his name to unix digest the article is called: "the real motivation behind systemD" You can see there a different approach as to what systemD really is. There are other thecnical arguements from various sources but these stand mostly to the technical part rather the parts unix digest mentions. All arguements are wellcome. In a war everyone plays an important role. On the other hand sysd.wordpress is a place for hardcore nonsystemD people on a day to day basis.
@35 I have not tried it to be honest. nosystemD dev's are better in most distributions and i am sure if they like cosmic they would port it...systemD can work to nosystemD if we'd like to not the opposite (musl cough couch). I could try it on void but i promised not to. We will see...
38 • Canaima surprise (by DrangleicHobbit on 2024-09-11 12:23:42 GMT from Chile)
@15 are you part of the dev team of canaima? I remember trying it in a friend's canaimita back in like 2010 or so, briefly, since he nuked it and installed windows 7. It was my first impression with linux, I wasn't big on the government involvement, though. I've got a beater laptop that I keep on my truck and could use a lxde distro. I will try it there, if just for old times sake.
39 • Cosmic DE (by Vlaad on 2024-09-11 13:14:01 GMT from Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Does new Cosmic DE feels fast and snappy compared to previous Gnome Cosmic? How does it compare to KDE or XFCE in responsitivity?
40 • COSMIC (by Jesse on 2024-09-11 13:20:41 GMT from Canada)
@39: "Does new Cosmic DE feels fast and snappy compared to previous Gnome Cosmic? "
In my opinion, just about everything feels snappy compared to GNOME. COSMIC's responsiveness was pretty normal/average. I think COSMIC _looks_ more responsive than some other mainstream desktops because it doesn't do a lot of visual effects during transitions.
"How does it compare to KDE or XFCE in responsitivity?"
About the same as Xfce. About the same or faster than KDE, depending on your visual effects and compositor settings.
41 • SystemD (by Friar Tux on 2024-09-11 14:31:29 GMT from Canada)
Hmmm... looks like we're mired back in the SystemD swamp. I've read the article mentioned by rhtoras (@37), and while I found it a great article **, quite thought provoking, it IS the author's opinion. I've also read "Open Letter To The Linux World" by Christopher Barry. Again, it is HIS opinion. And both are perfectly entitled to express those opinions. However, that doesn't mean the rest of us can't disagree. We can. And then there are those of us, and I dare say, a much larger majority, that just don't give an 'at's rass, one way or the other. I am one of those. I joined Linux because, 1) Windows was getting way too intrusive and pushy, interfering with the stuff I needed to do, and 2) MacApple was way too expensive to be a viable solution. Linux (Mint) afforded a clean, inexpensive, stable, solution that hasn't failed me yet. I didn't/don't care what init system it uses. I don't even care who makes it or where. What I DO care about is that when I turn on my laptop, I know it will work perfectly for the duration of my day and I can "get stuff done". That's it. If that takes SystemD to work, so be it. It is takes some secret behind-the-scenes-voodoo-ritual, so be it. It works, period.
** unixdigest.com "The Real Motivation Behind SystemD"
42 • SysVinit defends your freedom to choose (by Nicola on 2024-09-12 14:48:57 GMT from Italy)
@41
"What I do care about is that when I turn on my laptop, I know it will work perfectly for the duration of my day and I can "get stuff done". That's it. If that takes systemd to work, so be it."
But without Devuan, and other distributions ... you would not have the freedom to choose between "SysVinit" and "systemd" (both of which work well, but have two different philosophies).
43 • Choice (by Friar Tux on 2024-09-12 21:31:32 GMT from Canada)
@42 (Nicola) I totally agree about having a choice of different distros, DEs, init systems, etc., and being able to mix and match to your liking. In fact, that is one of the many things that attracted me to Linux. However, that being said, my point was that the average user doesn't REALLY care what makes Linux tick, so long as, it works and they can be productive.
44 • Linux "average user" (by Otis on 2024-09-12 22:14:10 GMT from United States)
@43 There have been times, off and on over the years, when I felt that I had a handle on what the average Linux user was. What they did. What their reasons were for coming to Linux. What they cared about as to tech specs, environment, etc.
I feel clueless about all that now. One reason for that is that Linux users are not tied to one notion for very long, it seems, as they move through distros and WMs and DEs and init systems.
Perhaps an average Linux user cares very much about those things and it's reflected in their movement through distros and desktops over time, each settling for a while or even for a long while. But to say that the average Linux user cares about none of it seems very naive to me.
45 • Cosmic not bad idea (by Dave on 2024-09-13 07:06:30 GMT from Australia)
Lots of negativity, why another desktop. A couple of possible reasons:
- System76 also make hardware and want their own specific experience. Just doing it yourself is better than retrofitting something else - Gnome in particular
- Starting from scratch with current modern standard is mind is a good idea. But for a DE not a WM for a change
- Middle ground customisable. Not as rigid as Gnome, not as do whatever as KDE. Easy to change colours and icons for dramatic differences, but not too many options in the genera workflow
46 • @43 and 43 (by leopard on 2024-09-13 16:59:28 GMT from United States)
Yes you have the freedom to do what you wish with open source, run what you wish. systemd or wayland or whatever. Nobody is forcing you to do anything. Software evolves, version 2 supplants version 1, systemd replaces systemV, it is called progress. Progress will happen no matter your opinion.
But with freedom comes responsibility, you have the responsibility to maintain the code and you do not have the right to tell others what to run or the developers what to support.
There are too many distributions and options as it is now, you can't possibly expect upstream developers to maintain code that runs on all these distros from debian stable to arch and every dated piece of software in between. This is why we have snaps and flatpack.
But you can't keep adding, now what they have to support X, Wayland, Upstart, MIR, systemd, systemv, and the list goes on.
The various distros take up this burden, and we are thankful they do, but even Debian can not maintain systemV and systemd or X and Wayland. Sure the old code in Debian Stable will be around for many years, use it if you wish, better support it financially as developers need to feed their families too.
So, yes run what you want, no one is forcing you to do anything, but you have to step up and support the software you desire, either maintaining it yourself or paying for support.
47 • Support for Linux, software etc (by Otis on 2024-09-13 23:26:25 GMT from United States)
@46 I know you're addressing another user here, but your "you have to step up and support the software you desire, either maintaining it yourself or paying for support" jumped out at me.
Linux users do not have to do anything other than use the software as they see fit, supporting financially or technically if they so desire.
The most oft repeated advantage of Linux over MacOS and Windows is that Linux is free.
Free in that context meaning no cost, as Microsoft and Apple soak us. Linux does not.
If you feel like sending money, fine, I do at times. But no, you do not have to.
Number of Comments: 47
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
| | |
| 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.
|
| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • 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.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Flonix
Flonix USB Edition was a light-weight GNU/Linux operating system for personal computers, desktop-oriented. Flonix USB Edition run from USB key drives.
Status: Discontinued
|
| 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
