 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1089, 23 September 2024 |
Welcome to this year's 39th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
New ideas in the field of technology are often conceived of and tested quickly, but they can take a long time to mature. Projects, such as Wayland, might burst onto the scene with good ideas, but it can take years to sort out all the details and polish the rough edges. Real-time support in the Linux kernel is one of these long-running ideas that has taken a long time to develop. Patches to enable real-time support in the kernel have been around for years, even decades, but they haven't been fully adopted upstream. In a recent interview, Linux's creator talked about real-time support in the kernel, Rust development, and aging kernel maintainers. We link to highlights of this interview in our News section. We also talk about Slackware adopting the dracut package for generating initial RAM filesystem data as well as many fixes being worked on in the Haiku project. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about configuration files and offer suggestions of how to make backups of them. First though we begin with a quick look at two projects: Expirion (from the Debian and Devuan family) and openKylin (a primarily Chinese distribution with several custom applications). Read on to learn more about these two projects. Plus, we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. One of last week's releases was a beta snapshot of Fedora 41. With a new version of Fedora scheduled to arrive soon, which edition of the project interests you the most? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. 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) |
Expirion 6.0 (Testing)
Expirion Linux is a Devuan-based (and sometimes Debian-based) distribution which is available in a few desktop flavours:
Expirion-5.0.1-Xfce is based on Devuan 5.0.1 Daedalus and as such has no systemd but uses SysV init - it has Debian Kernel 6.9.7+bpo and LibreOffice 24.8.0.3
Expirion-6.0-Testing-Xfce is based on Devuan 6.0 Testing (codename Excalibur) and has kernel 6.9.9 and LibreOffice 24.8.0.3.
Along with these two main Devuan-based spins there is a Debian-based flavour that ships with the GNOME desktop. There is also a Kali Linux spin which is described as Kali Linux with no penetration software - which I suppose is just Debian. The Debian/Kali editions are both 2.0GB in size while the two Devuan-based main editions are 1.6GB. All four builds run on the x86_64 architecture.
I decided to download Expirion 6.0 (Testing) which is based on Devuan's current Testing branch. Booting from the ISO brings up a boot menu where we are given the choice of booting into the live desktop, booting to the desktop with failsafe graphics mode, or loading the distribution into RAM and then launching the live desktop.
All of these options bring up the Xfce 4.18 interface. A panel is placed across the top of the screen with an application menu to the left and system tray to the right. A single icon on the desktop can be used to launch the Refracta system installer.
Installing
The Refracta system installer is unusual in the realm of Linux installers. It begins by showing us a list of various tasks the installer can perform with a check box next to each choice. The possible actions include tasks such as making a separate /home partition, using a swap file, enabling encryption, and running setup scripts. Usually taking the defaults here will be fine, but we can tweak the installer's upcoming steps a bit from this screen.
Expirion 6.0 -- The Refracta system installer
(full image size: 97kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
Refracta then offers to begin the install process or launch a partition manager (cfdisk and GParted are available) to divide the hard drive. We can then pick where to install the operating system and select a filesystem to use. The choices are limited with just ext2, ext3, and ext4 supported. From there we pick our timezone from a list and pick which locale packs we want, also from a list. Then we pick our keyboard's layout and packages are copied to the local disk.
There are still a few more steps to complete. We're asked whether to install a boot loader and, if so, where. Then we're asked to make up a password for the root account and a username/password combination for a regular user.
Refracta is unusually cryptic in its prompts for a modern installer and often presents several options or paths through the process. This is an approach which is a lot less streamlined than the experiences offered by other installers such as Ubiquity and Calamares. However, I will confirm Refracta worked and left me with a functional install of Expirion.
Early impressions
Expirion boots to a graphical login screen where we type our username and password to sign into the provided Xfce session. Xfce places a single, black panel across the top of the display. The wallpaper is flat, dark blue. The default theme is plain white with dull grey. The desktop is highly responsive, not at all flashy, and offers no welcome window or greeter.
The application menu uses a two-pane approach with categories to the left and launchers in each category to the right. The menu is unusual in that we need to click on categories to browse them; hovering the mouse over a category doesn't show us what is in the highlighted group. The menu has a search bar to help us find launchers based on their names.
Expirion 6.0 -- The Xfce desktop
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As advertised, Expirion ships with the Firefox browser, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, and a few other desktop applications, including VLC. The Xfce settings panel is available to help us customize the desktop environment. In the background we find GNU command line utilities, the SysV init software, and version 6.9 of the Linux kernel.
Software management
The Expirion project pulls in software from Devuan's Testing repository exclusively. We can access these packages using the APT command line tools or the Synaptic package manager. No Snap or Flatpak support is installed by default, though Flatpak can be added later.
Expirion 6.0 -- Synaptic and the settings panel
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Conclusions
This exploration of Expirion is, admittedly, short because after a few hours I realized I was, for all practical purposes, running Devuan. I reviewed Devuan a few years ago and this experience was identical in virtually every way. (The title bars in Expirion are blue while past versions of Devuan used red.) Expirion uses the same system installer, runs the same desktop environment, includes almost exactly the same desktop applications, and Expirion pulls from Devuan's repositories only. As far as I could tell, I was running plain Devuan with no notable or practical differences. It seems to be the same software on the same desktop with the same theme, with no documentation or indication on the project's SourceForge page that there is anything to set it apart.
Expirion runs well enough. It played well in my test environment, it was stable, and it was fast. I like that it offered no distractions or hurdles to getting started working. But the same could be said for Devuan. This project doesn't feel like a separate distribution - it doesn't even feel like its own spin of Devuan - it seems to just be Devuan with a new name.
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openKylin 2.0
Since my experiment with Expirion had been familiar and routine, I went in search of something that would feel new and foreign. The latest release of openKylin, a young project on the waiting list, caught my attention.
openKylin is a general purpose, Chinese, desktop distribution. The project's website offers both Chinese and English language support and the distribution appears to support multiple languages - primarily Chinese and English. There are builds of openKylin for x86_64, ARM, and RISC-V devices with the ISO file for the x86_64 edition weighing 4.8GB. This was the build I decided to download.
Live desktop
The project's boot menu is in Chinese and, while there are menu options which I think can be used to switch languages, I found simply taking the default boot option did what I wanted: loading the live desktop environment. By default, the desktop was all in Chinese too, though my US/English keyboard was detected and set up with its normal layout.
The graphical environment features wallpaper with a river flowing through green hills. There are icons on the desktop for accessing the file manager and system installer. A panel across the bottom of the screen holds an application menu, quick-launch buttons, and the system tray. The default desktop appears to be UKUI with some MATE components and I'll come back to the subject of desktop session options later.
openKylin 2.0 -- Watching videos
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Installing
The bottom icon on the desktop launches a graphical system installer. This custom installer first asks us to select our preferred language from a list. Once I had selected English the rest of the install process displayed prompts and options in English. We are then shown a license agreement and asked to pick our timezone from a map. We are asked to make up a username and password for ourselves and the password must be at least eight characters long.
Disk partitioning is handled next. There is a manual option which displays a partition manager similar to Ubiquity's or Calamares' which makes dividing up the disk fairly easy. We also have the option of turning over one entire disk to openKylin to be automatically partitioned. If we take the automated approach we're also asked if we want to make the root filesystem immutable. openKylin's automated option sets up our operating system on an ext4 filesystem. Then the installer shows us a list of actions it will take to partition our disk and waits for confirmation.
While packages are copied to the local disk, we are shown a progress bar and a slideshow of the distribution's features. Some of the slides mention Wayland support, running on multiple CPU architectures, and using a new package format.
The first time I went through the install process I chose to enable the immutable filesystem option which is marked as being experimental. When I did this the installer failed at the 95% progress point and reported some files were missing on the target drive. I went back and tried the install process again, this time without an immutable filesystem, and the installer completed its work successfully.
Early impressions
My new copy of openKylin booted to a graphical login screen. There I was presented with two session options: UKUI and Kylin-wlcom. The login page also offers options for connecting to local networks and showing an on-screen keyboard, as well as a power off button. Kylin-wlcom appears to be the default session and the live environment that was provided on the ISO. This desktop runs a Wayland session and offers average performance. The UKUI session was noticeably less responsive and input lagged a bit. The UKUI session runs the Kwin window manager in an X11 session. During my trial the Kylin session was the better, faster option most of the time. However, Kylin also locked up once when I was trying to logout, and required a hard reset to access the system again. So Kylin seems to be faster and smoother, but perhaps less stable.
openKylin 2.0 -- The Peony file manager
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Both sessions, despite their differences in technology and performance, look exactly alike. They use the same theme, the same layout, the same menus, and appear to be virtually identical apart from their performance.
Included software
openKylin has an unusual application menu, by Linux standards. It's laid out more like a modern Windows Start menu with one long list of applications presented down the left pane of the menu. Software is grouped into categories and these categories are presented in one scrollable page of launchers. The right pane of the menu has two tabs which show us Favourite launchers and Recent files, respectively. The menu also has a search bar to help us find items based on their names.
Browsing the application menu we find the Firefox web browser, the WPS productivity suite, a video player, and a music player. The default file manager is called Peony and it resembles other Linux file managers such as the GNOME Files utility or the Nemo file manager. I found a weather checking application. There is an application called Messages which is clearly a chat program that can also share files, but I'm not sure which network or protocol it uses. It might be a custom tool just for openKylin users, but I wasn't able to confirm this.
openKylin ships with the GNU command line utilities though there are no manual pages available. The GNU Compiler Collection is installed for us, along with the systemd init software. Version 6.6 of the Linux kernel runs in the background.
There is a settings panel which, at first, presents us with a grid of modules and looks similar to the Cinnamon or Xfce settings managers. Clicking these modules though usually opens another settings panel which looks and acts like GNOME Settings with categories of options to the left and specific settings to the right. This gives the impression of two distinct groups of settings tools.
openKylin 2.0 -- Trying the dark theme
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There are some applications included in openKylin which appear to be unique to the distribution, or at least are rarely used by other distributions. One of these is called Kylin OS Manager. It's a system administration tool with a few tabs listed down the left side of the window. These tabs display tools or information in the right pane of the window. One tab automatically searches for faults or diagnostic issues on the operating system. The headers on this page are in English, but the diagnostic information is all in Chinese. This meant I knew 22 items had been checked and 2 issues were found, but I wasn't able to read any of the information about the checks to determine what the issues were.
openKylin 2.0 -- Scanning for problems
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The OS Manager has a tab called Junk Clean that offers to find and delete old files, such as logs, cookies, and browser cache. This seemed to work well for me. There is also a ToolBox tab which offers two functions. One is to shred/wipe any given file. The other option is to send/receive files with another computer on the network. I think both computers performing the transfer need to be running Kylin OS Manager in order to complete the transfer, as it looks like standard services such as FTP and OpenSSH are not supported.
openKylin 2.0 -- Setting up a transfer of documents and settings
(full image size: 413kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The OS Manager also offers a tab for detecting hardware and managing drivers. This page was mostly blank, I think it was unable to find drivers specific to my hardware.
Another unique tool is called Kylin AI Model Manager. This application's interface was entirely in Chinese and I wasn't able to find any documentation explaining its functions.
Kylin Connectivity appears to link a mobile phone to openKylin, much like KDE Connect on other distributions. However, it requires an app to be run on the phone and I didn't have the mobile app. I also didn't know what the necessary app was called.
UKUI Intelligent Data Manager - This application's interface was in English. Still, I was unable to figure out what it does. It seems to track or organize documents, but I couldn't find any explanation for it and clicking the Help option in the application did nothing.
A utility called Services and Supports caught my eye. This application connects us with on-line reporting/feedback tools for sending information to the developers.
The launcher for ToolKit opens the Device Manager tab in the Kylin OS Manager application. I found it odd the ToolKit launcher opens OS Manager to the Device page, not the ToolBox tab.
All of these applications and tools take up quite a lot of disk space, about 13GB. This puts openKylin on the heavy side, compared to most Linux distributions. I noticed when openKylin was installed using the automated partitioning option the system set up a partition called /data along with the root partition. This /data partition is just another name for the /home partition. One mount point aliases the other.
Software management
Software is mostly managed on openKylin using an application called Software Store. This software centre has a modern layout that reminds me of KDE's Discover. Five tabs are displayed down the left side of the window:
- Home - shows featured and promoted items.
- All classification - shows tabs of categories at the top of the page and we can browse through all available software.
- Mobile apps - this page is displayed in Chinese, unlike the others which obeyed my language settings. I think this page is meant to let us install either custom mobile or Android applications, but I'm not certain.
- Drive - this tab shows third-party hardware drivers. These are mostly drivers for scanners and printers.
- Software manager - this page has three tabs: Update, Uninstall, and History. These tabs. as one probably could guess, show us available updates and help us install them; display a list of installed applications and gives us the option to remove selected items; and the History tab lists past install/remove actions we have performed.
openKylin 2.0 -- The software centre
(full image size: 552kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
An interesting challenge for me when using the Software Store was its interface (buttons and tabs) were displayed in English, but the descriptions of applications were in Chinese. I mostly tried to navigate what I wanted based on application names (which were in English) and looking for familiar icons.
I found new applications could be installed with the click of a button and old items removed the same way. I was only prompted for my password the first time I performed an action in the Store. For the remainder of the session, my credentials were remembered.
Sometimes, when fetching new packages, the install would fail with an error saying a problem occurred while trying to remove an essential system package. This seemed odd as I was trying to install new software, not remove anything. This error didn't pop up all the time, just for some packages, but for those ones it blocked installation consistently. I was able to install GIMP and Zenmap, for example, without any problems. Brave and LibreOffice always failed to install.
I was able to launch freshly installed applications from within the software centre. This was usually quicker than searching through the long-form application menu. One persistent problem I faced was the software centre took up 100% of my available CPU cycles all of the time. Even when I wasn't actively using the Store, it would cause my laptop's fan to run from the constant CPU consumption. Closing the Store would fix the issue, temporarily, until I opened the software centre again.
openKylin does not ship with Flatpak or Snap support. I think the software centre taps into its own, custom repositories and packaging format. The naming convention of some applications look a lot like Flatpak's org.company.Name format, but this seems to be managed by a custom tool or maybe a fork of Flatpak, not Flatpak itself. openKylin ships with the command line APT utility for working with Deb packages. This allows us to install, remove, and update low-level packages.
I think, though am not sure, that the Software Store handles its own custom package format only and not Deb packages. I say this because APT found 74 new updates when the software centre reported no updates were available. So that's either a bug in the Store or it is dealing with different package sources. As with many aspects of the distribution, I was unable to find appropriate documentation to confirm my ideas about what utilities did.
Other observations
I made a few additional observations while exploring openKylin. One aspect of the distribution that I soon changed was window transparency. Most application windows appear to be set up to have semi-transparent backgrounds and I found this, along with the bright white theme, made it hard to read text in the top window. I was able to turn off transparency in the settings panel under the Themes section.
The distribution has some features which struck me as strange. For example, when the screensaver activates it shows a clock in the corner of the screen that keeps track of how long the computer has been locked/idle. This can be turned off, but it felt like a tool designed by a micromanaging boss rather than something which would be useful for the person using the computer.
openKylin 2.0 -- Adjusting the lock screen and its timer
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Sounds were often, but not always, distorted. When I logged in or tried to watch YouTube videos the audio would sometimes echo or sound like there was static in the recording. This did not happen all the time, but enough to notice.
Conclusions
I was looking for something different when I downloaded openKylin and I definitely felt like I was in unfamiliar territory much of the time I was running it. The mixture of English and Chinese languages in the interface kept me on my toes and guessing through parts of my trial, especially when I was exploring the software centre. Most of the interface displays in the user's selected language, but data provided by other sources (package descriptions and status checks) tend not to be translated.
The distribution ships with several applications I haven't used previously. Some were useful, some were not, or at least not without installing openKylin tools on additional devices. I didn't find any tools that I felt were must-haves for other distributions, but I did like the file sharing utility for syncing files and settings between openKylin installations.
The desktop environment seems to be set up specifically for people migrating from Windows 10 and 11. This wasn't to my taste, but the style of windows, the application menu, and the transparent theme will likely make former Windows users feel at home.
On the whole, I could get work accomplished with openKylin. There were some bugs and some translation issues, but it was a functional desktop distribution with most of the tools I wanted. I wasn't a fan of the custom package format which sometimes failed to install successfully, but I could usually find what I wanted using APT (which pulls from openKylin mirrors).
I'm not sure I'd recommend openKylin yet. It's an ambitious project and it does some things well. But there are some bugs (in the installer, in the software centre, and in the desktop's stability) that give me pause. I also hope the project places a focus on adding documentation - both for its custom tools and classic manual pages for command line work. Some of the Kylin utilities are possibly useful for me, but I won't know if I can't find out how they work.
In short, there is some promise here, and I like a lot of the desktop and utilities. But there are gaps in the documentation, some translation fixes which need to be added, and a few bugs to correct.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
openKylin has a visitor supplied average rating of: N/A from 0 review(s).
Have you used openKylin? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Future plans for Linux, bug fixes in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut
At the Open Source Summit Europe event Linux creator Linus Torvalds engaged in an interview where he talked about the Linux kernel, the Rust development language, real-time operations, and aging kernel maintainers. "Shifting back to another contentious subject -- maintainer burnout and succession planning -- Hohndel [who was conducting the interview] observed that 'Maintainers are aging. Strangely, some of us have, you know, not quite as much or the right hair colour anymore.' (Torvalds interjected that 'Gray is the right colour.') Hohndel continued, 'So the question that I always ask myself: Is it about time to talk about there being a mini-Linus?' Torvalds turned the question around. True, the Linux maintainers are getting older and people do burn out and go away. 'But that's kind of normal. What is not normal is that people actually stay around for decades. That's the unusual thing, and I think that's a good sign.'" ZDNet offers more highlights from the interview.
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The Haiku project has published its monthly newsletter for August. In the post, the team lists their accomplishments of the past month. Many of the updates are bug fixes and they cover a wide range, from network drivers, to filesystems, to interface improvements. One of the changes users are most likely to notice concerns audio: "waddlesplash fixed a number of time computation bugs in the media mixer (uncovered by the BTimeSource assertions change mentioned below), which fixed many (if not most or all) of the cases of the 'no audio immediately after boot, only some time later' bug. He also improved its event scheduling efficiency, fixed some of its logic around disconnecting/reconnecting to outputs, and fixed some crashes in the multi-audio node caused by certain audio devices reporting invalid control types. (He also experimented with adding logic to switch sound outputs without restarting the media services, but this doesn't work quite yet.)" The newsletter has a complete list of changes.
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The Slackware project is introducing a new tool, or at least a new-to-Slackware tool. The package, called dracut, is already used in the Red Hat family to generate an initial RAM filesystem. This information is loaded into memory during the boot process. The Slackware changelog documents the new dracut tool: "This is Red Hat's tool to generate an initramfs (aka initrd). Around here, we try not to suffer from Not Invented Here Syndrome (some might say the less we invent, the better. It never hurts to have additional options, and it even looks like our old friend David Cantrell is on the 'authors' list. I've had good luck here with: 'dracut --hostonly --force /boot/initrd-6.10.11-generic.img'. Thanks to Didier Spaier for convincing me to try it out."
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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) |
Managing configuration files
Taking-it-with-you asks: Can you offer any tips on managing dotfiles? I'm not sure how best to backup and transfer my configs between systems.
DistroWatch answers: The term "dotfile", for any readers curious about the word, references configuration files. These are usually plain text files that are stored in the user's home directory or in the ~/.config directory. The term dotfile comes from the fact that configuration files are often hidden or stored in hidden directories. Since the names of hidden files and directories on Linux start with a dot ("."), these hidden configuration files are often collectively called dotfiles.
The nice thing about Linux configuration files is they can be backed up just like any other file. Assuming you're already using a backup tool, such as Deja Dup, tar, or rsync to archive the files in your home directory, it's no big deal to also add in additional directories, such as .config, .steam, or .thunderbird.
With that said, I usually only create backups of files and directories where I know I have made changes. For instance, I know I have a few customizations in my shell's ~/.bashrc file so I include it in my backup scripts. However, there is virtually nothing under .config that I have modified directly. This directory mostly contains automatically generated configurations for applications and I'm not worried about losing them - these files will mostly be automatically recreated the next time I run the associated application.
In short, I'd recommend just using whichever backup utility you currently use for backing up your Documents and Pictures directories to also keep copies of your dotfiles. When in doubt, backup your ~/.config and browse through your home directory and backup any directories which match the names of applications you know you use, such as .thunderbird and .mplayer. Add these to your usual periodic backup process and your dotfiles will get archived, just like your documents, photos, and videos.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
MX Linux 23.4
The MX Linux team have published an update to the distribution's 23.x series. The new version, MX Linux 23.4, includes several updates to the MX Tools suite and includes updated firmware for added hardware support. "Some highlights since our 23.3 release include: Update Xfce 4.18 core packages (Xfce ISOs and Oi respin). MX PackageInstaller now shows all installed packages in Enabled, test, and backports tabs, not just those available in a configured repo. Installed and repo version numbers are shown in table, not just tooltips. The Flatpak tab has an optional filter to show only Flathub verified Flatpaks. (MX-)live-usb-maker defaults to luks2 encryption for those making encrypted live usb devices. MX-USB-unmounter has UI improvements, plus an option to only show on tray if a removable device is inserted. pipewire-setup-mx updated to make pipewire/wireplumber startup under SysV init more reliable, especially for KDE users. MX Tweak has a KDE option to disable/enable plasma-discover's autostart systray updater notifier. AHS users have updated firmware packages (backported from Debian Sid). Fluxbox ISO now includes job-scheduler, a front end for cron (already included on other ISOs). Conky and panel should be exempt from hiding with Alt+D (show desktop). New mxfb-quickshot_delay script that does a screenshot with a pre-configured delay." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
SDesk 2024.09.16
SDesk is an Arch-based Linux distribution which strives for an easy to use, modern approach to desktop computing. The SDesk project ships up to date software and uses GNOME running on a Wayland session for its default desktop environment. The project's latest snapshot adds new drivers, especialy for touch interfaces, and shifts user creation from Calamares to the GNOME first-run wizard. "SDesk includes a massive amount of new drivers for touchscreens, fingerprint readers, and more. It now supports fractional scaling, too. The latest version of the Swirl browser is now shipped with a gorgeous new UI and a bunch of new features, and Plymouth, the Calamares installer, and both Octopi and the GNOME Shell extensions we ship by default have all been updated to their latest versions. It's also worth noting that Calamares no longer handles user creation, locales, or keyboard layout configuration, and all of this is now done by the GNOME Initial Setup application." Additional information is presented in the project's release announcement.
SDesk 2024.09.16 -- Running the GNOME desktop
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FreeBSD 13.4
The FreeBSD team have announced the release of FreeBSD 13.4, a maintenance release for the 13.x series which features mostly security improvements and bug fixes. "The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 13.4-RELEASE. This is the fifth release of the stable/13 branch. Since this release is occurring late in a legacy stable branch, there are few new features; rather, the focus is primarily on maintenance. As such, changes since 13.3-RELEASE consist mostly of bug fixes, driver updates, and new versions of externally-maintained software. For a complete list of new features and known problems, please see the online release notes and errata list.... FreeBSD 13.4-RELEASE is now available for the amd64, i386, powerpc, powerpc64, powerpc64le, powerpcspe, armv6, armv7, aarch64, and riscv64 architectures. The release announcement offers further details.
Zorin OS 17.2
Zorin OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution designed especially for newcomers to Linux. It has a Windows-like graphical user interface and many programs similar to those found in Windows. The project has announced the release of Zorin OS 17.2 which makes it easier to install new themes, customize the look of application windows, and includes updated hardware support thanks to the Linux 6.8 kernel. "We've also made it easier to install additional themes in Zorin OS by adding a link to our new Third-Party Theme Installation Guide within Zorin Appearance. This guide also includes instructions for applying custom styling to native libadwaita apps, which is available thanks to an exclusive patch to the interface library in Zorin OS 17. You now have easy access to a plethora of settings to personalise how app windows behave on the Zorin Desktop. The new Windows section of Zorin Appearance has been neatly organised and thoughtfully designed to simplify changing window placement behaviour, how titlebars act, and how you can move the focus between open windows." Further information is provided in the project's release announcement.
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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: 3,080
- Total data uploaded: 45.4TB
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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) |
In which edition of Fedora are you most interested?
The release of Fedora 41 is approaching. Fedora offers a wide range of editions, speciality builds, and spins. When the new version becomes available, in which edition are you most interested? If you prefer one of the official spins, let us know which one in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on recommended distributions for beginners in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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I am most interested in Fedora....
| Cloud: | 9 (1%) |
| CoreOS: | 21 (1%) |
| IoT: | 4 (0%) |
| Server: | 22 (1%) |
| Silverblue: | 172 (10%) |
| Workstation: | 666 (38%) |
| Another spin: | 841 (48%) |
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| Website News |
New projects added to database
DragonOS
DragonOS is a Lubuntu-based desktop distribution which is focused on software defined radio (SDR). The distribution provides a pre-installed suite of the most powerful and accessible open source SDR software. DragonOS has verified support for a range of inexpensive and powerful SDR hardware, including RTL-SDR, HackRF One, LimeSDR, BladeRF, and others.
Title -- Description
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New distributions added to waiting list
- eLxr. eLxr is a Debian-based distribution designed to run in server environments where long-term support is required. eLxr offers both regular Linux kernels and a kernel with real-time capabilities.
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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, 30 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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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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| Random Distribution | 
Batocera.linux
Batocera.linux is a minimal distribution dedicated to running retrogaming software. The distribution is able to run on most desktop computers, laptops and several single-board computers, including the Raspberry Pi. batocera.linux can be run from a USB thumb drive or SD card, allowing it to be transferred between computers. batocera.linux is based on RecalboxOS.
Status: Active
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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