 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
(full image size: 3026kB, resolution: 2560x1440 pixels)
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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.
* * * * *
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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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • About translations... (by Lakines on 2024-09-23 01:24:41 GMT from France)
It may be a nice contribution (instead of giving money when we don't have much) to help translating some less popular software and distributions.
Weblate website has a lot of projects and many languages are not even half translated, and suggestions can be added anonymously (without an account). Also, most distributions allow contributors after creating an account on other tools like Transifex.
Even few minutes a day can really help many people that are not fluent in English/Chinese, like half the world population!
2 • Fedora (by mcellius on 2024-09-23 01:34:23 GMT from United States)
I have nothing against Fedora, but I'm not interested in trying the next version or any of it's spins. I've installed it and tried it quite a few times, but I figure it's no longer for me. I used to distro-hop a lot and tried every new thing that came out, but after so much testing I've settled on a distro with which I feel comfortable that is stable and does everything I need and want.
I love Linux feel very happy with it. For me, the endless search for the "right" distro is over, and the raw bleeding edge just doesn't interest me.
3 • Fedora (by mcellius on 2024-09-23 01:36:46 GMT from United States)
I have nothing against Fedora, but I'm not interested in trying the next version or any of it's spins. I've installed it and tried it quite a few times, but I figure it's no longer for me. I used to distro-hop a lot and tried every new thing that came out, but after so much testing I've settled on a distro with which I feel comfortable that is stable and does everything I need and want.
I love Linux and feel very happy with it. For me, the endless search for the "right" distro is over, and the raw bleeding edge just doesn't interest me.
4 • Expirion 6.0 and Dotfiles (by Vinfall on 2024-09-23 01:44:12 GMT from Hong Kong)
Expirion looks more like a "custom build" than a polished distro (which is fine by itself, albeit a bit confusing). And now their SourceForge page runs like "So what sets this apart from Devuan, not much really the Kernel and LibreOffice has been updated, and some minor software changes, but that is about it". The confusion is solved.
As for dotfiles, backup tools definitely work great and everyone knows how to use them. If you need more power, you can try "sophisticated" solutions like GNU Stow or git (therefore chezmoi). There are also many programs live long enough to arrogantly ignore XDG Base Directory Specification and get away with it, so sometimes you should also take care about home directories other than .config & .local/share. That being said, if you hardly reinstall your system or seldom need to replicate configuration on other machines, you probably do not want it.
5 • Fedora (by Name (mandatory) on 2024-09-23 01:47:37 GMT from United States)
No Fedora for me.
6 • dotfiles in git (by SomeMuppetOnTheInternet on 2024-09-23 01:59:14 GMT from Australia)
Using git to manage my dotfiles across dozens of machines with different distros has changed my life for the better, though I certainly would NOT recommend this approach to folks who aren't already comfortable with git as it's a nightmare to learn and way over-complicated for this usecase alone. I have a dotfiles repo and a single declarative-style pure .sh script which creates symlinks in ~ and .config as relevant. It's simple to maintain. It feels like magic.
7 • Fedora (by AlexZ on 2024-09-23 02:06:14 GMT from United States)
I'm test-driving Aurora (Bluefin with KDE) and I'm liking it so far. I'm planning to switch to Aurora from Fedora Workstation. Fedora let me down when I installed KDE desktop, but the next release upgrade broke KDE completely forcing me to go back to GNOME.
8 • Happy Fedora Workstation User (by InvisibleInk on 2024-09-23 02:33:06 GMT from United States)
Happy Fedora user here. Fedora is mature and stable now. Upgrades from previous version to latest version are safe and smooth. Software is current and up-to-date. It's all good.
Cheers
9 • Fedora Kinoite (by Elcaset on 2024-09-23 03:38:06 GMT from United States)
Kinoite is the spin of Fedora I'm most interested in. It's immutable, & uses the KDE Plasma desktop.
10 • MX Linux 23.4 (by Kleer Kut on 2024-09-23 05:09:32 GMT from United States)
The link in the announcement for Fluxbox 64bit links to the 32bit version and automatically downloads. Didn't pay close attention and had to get the right one. Just a small heads up in case someone else has an issue or has a data limit.
11 • Fedora Based Distros On The Rise (by MrDazmo on 2024-09-23 05:31:19 GMT from United States)
I've been a long time Debian user but I've been looking for something more up to date that runs a more recent kernel so I can run on new hardware. Tried Ultramarine Budgie Edition (a Fedora based distro) and was quite happy, Right now though I'm testing the newest official Budgie Fedora Spin and I think it will be staying as my daily driver, and maybe soon my server too. I really like the Atomic edition, but with no ZFS support I'll be sticking to either Ultramarine or Budgie Fedora Spin for now. Also I really have to shout to the Budgie team for making an amazing DE, wish Debian would show them some love.
12 • Fedora editions (by user on 2024-09-23 06:57:50 GMT from Bulgaria)
I am interested to try Fedora Workstation 41, just to confirm to myself that my selection of Ubuntu 24.10 Gnome 47 is much better. Ubuntu with ZFS rocks!
13 • In which edition of Fedora are you most interested? (by borgio3 on 2024-09-23 07:50:42 GMT from Italy)
None
14 • Fedora (by Pumpino on 2024-09-23 07:53:44 GMT from Australia)
@2 Which distro did you settle on?
I've got Xubuntu, Ubuntu Cinnamon, Mint, LMDE, Fedora and Manjaro installed across various machines. I'm currently using Xubuntu as my primary distro.
15 • Fedora interest (by Hank on 2024-09-23 08:12:44 GMT from Germany)
Nil, tried it some time ago, experience was underwhelming to say the least.
Never will go back.
16 • writing and based on his (by Visionihc on 2024-09-23 08:22:04 GMT from France)
Century to a kind of destruction:
17 • Fedora (by Gary W on 2024-09-23 08:43:31 GMT from Australia)
Pity the poll didn't have an option 'No Fedora for me'. So I can't vote. Interesting to see how many respondents this poll has, compared to more diverse poll questions.
18 • Fedora (by Ed on 2024-09-23 09:12:16 GMT from Sweden)
I started my journey with Mint and stayed there several years. Then i tried Xubuntu and Lubuntu and then Debian Stable.I used Debian Stable for a long time, longer than I used Mint.
Then I bought new hardware that wasnt supported well on Debian Stable. I installed Fedora Xfce. I was fairly sceptical because when in the past I had tried Fedora it hasnt impressed me, especially concerning reliability.I thought Fedora would be a temporary solution and that I would return to Debian Stable as soon as the next stable release came out.
I slowly realised that Fedora was in fact very reliable and despite several version upgrades it continued to be so. So I am still on Fedora and dont see myself returning to Debian Stable.
19 • Fedora (by uz64 on 2024-09-23 10:00:29 GMT from United States)
I'm interested in literally *any* Fedora spin that is not the GNOME-based "Workstation" variant. I can't stand GNOME, and literally every "spin" is better than their flagship.
20 • Fedora (by James on 2024-09-23 10:05:16 GMT from United States)
I also have no interest in Fedora, tried it and moved on.
21 • Fedora (by Appalachian on 2024-09-23 10:07:37 GMT from United States)
I have no plans to run Fedora in the near future. Fedora itself runs well enough, but updating it is a pain in the neck. And that's a problem for me, because while it isn't Arch, Fedora pushes a lot of updates.
I don't know if it's the rpm package format, the dnf updater, the servers, or some combination of the above. All I know is that it is painfully slow. I can search for, download, and install packages on Debian and Arch faster than I can even search for them on Fedora. I tried all the tricks to speed up dnf, but they didn't improve things much.
22 • Fedora (by oswald on 2024-09-23 10:08:47 GMT from United Kingdom)
Fedora 40 KDE is working great for me. I'll switch to Fedora 41 when Plasma 6.2 is available.
23 • Fedora (by Josh on 2024-09-23 10:27:10 GMT from United States)
Another vote for no interest at all in Fedora. Give me Debian or LMDE, and I'm happy.
24 • Poll (by dragonmouth on 2024-09-23 10:47:15 GMT from United States)
You left out the 'NONE' option.
25 • expirion (by rhtoras on 2024-09-23 10:53:39 GMT from Greece)
Hello Jesse and thanks for reviewing expirion linux Devuan edition. I've tried expirion in the past (Devuan edition of course :)
I found expirion quite similar to Devuan but a tad slower if i am not mistaken ? I am not sure because Devuan is blazing fast. Refracta installer is easy to use and ...just works. Simple options and intuitive interface. If i want something beyon ext filesystems i can use Devuan net installer or install a Devuan based distro from command line. I think you could show us Crowz or Fluxuan for a different Devuan based os because we rarely see calamares, JWM and Fluxbox polished. I think you have showed Fluxuan if i am not mistaken but i am not sure.
If it's to show us a distro you can show us AgarimOS which is based on Void and is preconfigured and quite simplified. A lot people are scared of void and this might help them.
A nice (or niche shall i say ?!) distribution is fatdog 64
(nosystemD). It's not puppy althought it has it's roots back to the puppy linux. You can review this in the next episode. I liked when i tried it. And not many distros are shipped with minimum profit text editor or two clicks away from installing chrome.
26 • Fedora 41 (by César on 2024-09-23 11:33:11 GMT from Chile)
Buenos días.
I use Fedora Workstation 40 (installation via server edition, because have more options to configure) in my HP laptop, works really fine and faster, the only problem is the battery life (drinks energy like my Durango V8 drinks fuel), but in the other hand, works really fast and stable.
Saludos desde Santiago de Chile.
27 • Fedora 41 spins (by Gerardo on 2024-09-23 11:52:36 GMT from Italy)
@19
Fedora KDE spin is particularly interesting. More responsive than GNOME. Want something similar to Synaptic? There is dnfdragora and dnfdragora-updater. Want to uninstall software? With DNF you avoid deleting shared libraries and all other software will continue to run normally. Want Wayland? KDE spin works well on Wayland.
28 • Fedora (by pepa65 on 2024-09-23 12:07:16 GMT from Thailand)
Tried Fedora close to 2 decades ago, but since it's rpm-based, it didn't last long. Simply no interest now. For the desktop I'm happy on Linux Mint's Mate spin.
29 • Fedora (by twodogs on 2024-09-23 12:25:32 GMT from United States)
Not interested.
30 • Fedora (by Friar Tux on 2024-09-23 13:37:55 GMT from Canada)
I'm with the "No Thanks" crowd. It was the very first distro I tried (around 2004, I think), and it scared me back to MSWindows. I've tried it off and on over the years but found it consistently breaks. I DID read somewhere that it was RedHat's lab rat, to experiment on, so I dropped it. Haven't actually touched it in the last ten years. Also, I don't want to use anything that the mother-ship can suddenly cancel (like they did with CentOS).
31 • @18 Fedora (by Linux Revolution on 2024-09-23 14:27:02 GMT from United States)
Very similar journey. I was mainly a DEB distro user. Zorin for a few years. My one must have in a distro is the ability to seamlessly upgrade. For the last 4 years or so, I've settled on fedora. fedora is not like it once was in the early 2000's. In terms of ease of use, workflow, configuration, it is on par with the *buntus. Fedora checks the stability, upgradability, cutting edge (but not bleeding edge), latest kernel, checkboxes. All while remaining stable. My one and only concern about fedora is being connected to RedHat (IBM). I no longer have trust in RedHat and IBM.
fedora has been nothing short of excellent so far.
32 • Fedora (by David on 2024-09-23 15:20:46 GMT from United Kingdom)
Fedora (version 1) was the first Linux I installed myself. I fled to CentOS when Fedora adopted Gnome 3 and I can't envisage ever going back.
33 • Fedora Silverblue and Universal Blue/Blue-Build (by CorpSouth on 2024-09-23 16:57:24 GMT from United States)
I've been using a custom image based on Fedora Silverblue for a while now. I had initially used Silverblue through the official install ISO, now I'm using the tools and resources available I've put together a specifically modified variant using vanilla GNOME, plus some helpful additions and subtractions to adjust things exactly how I want them to be.
34 • Fedora (by GreinNC on 2024-09-23 19:21:45 GMT from United States)
Strange there was no option saying not interested in any. One must wonder if there is a reason for that choice being left out.
35 • Fedora spinning in circles (by Europe on 2024-09-23 19:22:14 GMT from France)
I have voted / workstation. But honestly, I have no interest in Fedora at all. Zero.
There is many distributions-operating - systems, I have no interest in.
Fedora is one of them..
(There is one Fed. Based i did like to use. And it was Nobara L.
Hmm. I departed from that to.. Go figure. What a mystery that is..)
36 • My distro journey (by RJA on 2024-09-23 19:56:36 GMT from United States)
2002=I tried Mandrake 8.1 and I was back to Windows 98 SE so fast! Because, lots of hardware wasn't supported, of course.
2005=Finally got to get Ubuntu, even when on a 56K modem, LOL. It was an external-serial 56K modem, of course. 2008=I was happy with Intrepid Ibex and just a major struggle with installing the software I wanted.
2010=This was when I tried Gentoo, which has excellent documentation and got it successfully installed. Arch, on the other hand, which I tried early that year, required me to play "mirrorlist musical chairs", some mirrors had the required files that another mirror didn't have, and vice-versa! I had to keep changing the servers in the mirrorlist, just to complete the install of KDE! That left me a bad taste in my mouth!
Then in the very-early-2010s or shortly after, I tried SliTaz and it was excellent!
-Randy James Anderson
37 • Fedora (by Robert on 2024-09-23 21:23:10 GMT from United States)
Not particularly interested in Fedora. I'm happy on Arch and don't see myself leaving any time soon.
BUT - strictly speaking the poll says "most" interested. So if I was forced to use Fedora, I would pick either the KDE spin or Sway spin.
38 • Fedora (by RJA on 2024-09-23 22:58:01 GMT from United States)
About Fedora? Well, I have been trying Nobara, because I'm a gamer as well, so I still got stuff to test out. It's the only Fedora-based distro I ever booted.
-Randy James Anderson
39 • Where's the "I'm not interested in any edition of Fedora" option? (by Zed on 2024-09-24 01:03:35 GMT from United States)
Nuff said.
40 • UKUI (by Arve Eriksson on 2024-09-24 01:31:14 GMT from Sweden)
About UKUI... I've seen it before, but I don't quite remember where. Was it some middleware on my Huawei phone, maybe? I remember something about Android updates through a possibly UKUI-branded tool...
(About Fedora: I'll cheer for 'em, but the distribution as a whole just isn't my jazz.)
41 • Fedora (by Simon Wainscott-Plaistowe on 2024-09-24 03:20:01 GMT from New Zealand)
Hmmm... well this week I didn't vote because there's not an option for "not interested in Fedora". Happy with Mint for my desktop and LibreELEC for my multimedia box. Servers are another story but still no Fedora involved.
42 • @25 AgarimOS (by GT on 2024-09-24 08:07:42 GMT from United States)
It is stated on the official AgarimOS project page:
"Please do not submit to DW."
43 • agarimOS (by rhtoras on 2024-09-24 09:52:10 GMT from Greece)
@42 Yes this is correct but to be more specific i was talking for a review not a submission. The dev of agarimOS doesn't clarify which one he means (submission, review or both).
On the other hand crowz os is a nice project to review. If i remember correct it was present on Distrowatch but i am not sure.
44 • CROWZ distro (by Jesse on 2024-09-24 11:22:42 GMT from Canada)
@43: "On the other hand crowz os is a nice project to review. If i remember correct it was present on Distrowatch but i am not sure."
Yes, CROWZ is on DistroWatch and has been reviewed in this space:
https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=crowz
45 • Fedora (by penguinx86 on 2024-09-24 12:12:48 GMT from United States)
I like the idea of Fedora Silverblue. But the reason I don't use it is because of the Gnome desktop environment. How about something else besides Gnome, like maybe Xfce or LXQt?
46 • Fedora opinion poll (by Gennaro on 2024-09-24 14:35:09 GMT from Italy)
@34
"Strange there was no option saying not interested in any. One must wonder if there is a reason for that choice being left out."
It is understandable that many are not interested in Fedora (although it drives the entire Linux development). But this week's poll question should be interpreted as:
‘if you were forced to use Fedora, which version would you install?'
47 • Fedora poll (by Jesse on 2024-09-24 14:42:39 GMT from Canada)
@46: "But this week's poll question should be interpreted as:
‘if you were forced to use Fedora, which version would you install?'
Alternatively, and perhaps more accurately, you could interpret the poll to read: We're going to be reviewing an edition of Fedora 41 in a couple of weeks. Which one would our readers prefer to hear about?
We're going to be test driving some flavour of Fedora, so "none" isn't an applicable answer.
48 • Reading Comprehension (by Friar Tux on 2024-09-24 15:55:59 GMT from Canada)
@47 (jesse) Not to worry Jesse, most of us read that right. I think the "No Fedora For Me" folks just got a wee too passionate.
49 • Fedora (by Jan on 2024-09-24 16:10:57 GMT from The Netherlands)
On my old hardware I found that Fedora WS gives a very smooth and snappy browser behaviour, better than Mint funny enough.
With Fedora-KDE the browser behaviour is a little less. Sad because the KDE-monitor-user-interface is more usable than that of Gnome.
50 • Fedora (by FreeBee on 2024-09-24 17:01:19 GMT from The Netherlands)
If you were forced to use Linux (in 2024), you'd take Gnome 47 and Fedora (aka Workstation) as anything else doesn't even deserve to be called "Operating System".
Thankfully nobody is getting forced and has free choice.
51 • Fedora (by g on 2024-09-24 17:16:48 GMT from United Kingdom)
@47: I kind of gathered that tho the thought that came to me was none of the above. For personal use, I've moved on from RH offerings, we've got RHEL at work. I started RHL 2.1 way back in '96 or so. Did a bit of Fedora Core until it became very tedious to run KDE stable and unstable versions on the same machine. I moved to OpenSuSE and stayed with the regular OpenSUSE offerings until 15.2 before switching to Tumbleweed. Stayed with that until my KDE/nVidia got b0rked, twice. I then installed Tumbleweed fresh on a new partition and ran with that until an update b0rked it again. I switched to KaOS and I'm still learning that. What really made me stop using Tumbleweed was the fact that updates would take hours using zypper. This on an AMD FX(tm)-8150 Eight-Core Processor with 32GiB of RAM. Hard drive is a 1.82 TiB Samsung SSD 870, with a 238.47 GiB SAMSUNG SSD 830 and a 931.51 GiB WDC WD10EADS-00L for company. I do download the KDE spin but I've yet to try it.
52 • @46 Gennaro: (by dragonmouth on 2024-09-24 19:14:53 GMT from United States)
‘if you were forced to use Fedora, which version would you install?'
I would go back to Windows although the last version I used was XP. :) :) :)
53 • Fedora (by kc1di on 2024-09-24 21:00:27 GMT from United States)
I voted for Other spins as I like the KDE spin. Installed 41 beta and is working well.
So give it a spin.
54 • Fedora (by Otis on 2024-09-24 22:23:29 GMT from United States)
Nobara and Alma were two Fedora inspired distros that had my attention for a while. Fedora itself always seem clunky over the years. My first exposure to Linux was Fedora 5.2 decades ago.
So, "None of the above" would have been my choice in the poll.
55 • Almal/RHEL (by Otis on 2024-09-24 22:26:03 GMT from United States)
Alma isn't Fedora, of course, but in RHEL. I consider Red Hat and Fedora pretty close to the same. And, yes, that was Red Hat 5.2 decades ago. ;o)
56 • Fedora (by grindstone on 2024-09-25 00:50:08 GMT from United States)
Enthusiastically no Fedora.
57 • MX release links (by Dolphin Oracle on 2024-09-25 00:57:15 GMT from United States)
@10 thank you, now fixed.
58 • Crowz and... (by rhtoras on 2024-09-25 10:18:48 GMT from Greece)
@44 thanks Jesse... i have read that...i was just not sure i did... and it was nice of you to add crowz...
now if it is to add a new distro for review you know: tinypaw is actively developed and specialized for you know pentesters
59 • Fedora opinion poll (by Gradus on 2024-09-25 13:16:43 GMT from The Netherlands)
At the moment I see that only 46% would install Fedora GNOME, while a robust 40% are interested in one of the ‘spins’. I am biased, because I have always hated GNOME, but the numbers speak for themselves. Silverblue is also doing badly (11%)...
60 • @59 Fedora Gnome (by Jan on 2024-09-25 13:27:19 GMT from The Netherlands)
@59 Because Fedora Gnome is their flagship.
And my experience with Fedora-testing is that Fedora-WS (Gnome) get all the best attention.
That is with all distros, the flagship is the best and get the best maintenance, the rest (spins) lag behind.
61 • In which edition of Fedora are you most interested? (by Petar on 2024-09-25 16:19:07 GMT from United Kingdom)
You missed the "I'm not interested in Fedora at all" option, where the most voting would go.
62 • Fedora KDE (by David on 2024-09-25 19:28:40 GMT from United States)
Given that it used to be one of two alternatives along with GNOME when Fedora Core started in 2003, given that the term "flagship" did not apply back then, and given that it now is relegated to a "spin" in the bafflingly huge and confusing Fedora warehouse of specialty versions, I would like to see a review of Fedora 41 KDE.
63 • @ 62 by David (by David on 2024-09-25 19:34:55 GMT from United States)
Never mind. I see you reviewed it in April. Virtually.
64 • Fedora 41 KDE (by Cobe on 2024-09-25 20:38:33 GMT from France)
@62
I would like to see a review of Fedora 41 KDE, also because it is one of the few spins that use Wayland by default.
65 • 61 has it right (by Clarence Perry on 2024-09-25 23:17:41 GMT from United States)
You left off the critical answer: None of the Fedoras
I would have selected it instead of ignoring all of the selections.
66 • No Interest in Fedora (by Frank Newburn on 2024-09-26 00:03:29 GMT from United States)
When I started out using Linux on New Years Day of 2000, I flipped a coin to decide: Red Hat or Mandrake. Mandrake won the toss and I have had Mandrake-based OS's as my main daily driver ever since.
Oh, I have distrohopped for the first 15 years but always went back to Mandrake (PCLinuxOS) because it always worked. And have PCLinuxOS on a dedicated hard drive and testing other OS on other hard drives.
I'm recently retired and 70 years old and looking for some adventure so I downloaded and installed FreeBSD14.1 with KDE. Success! Lately, I have been looking at Solaris.
I'm just not interested in Fedora, it just doesn't look inviting to me for some odd reason I can't explain.
67 • Fedora (by Bob on 2024-09-26 00:30:36 GMT from United States)
Comments: My interests are the A/V and content creation Studio type distros. Run Ubuntu Studio as my daily driver even. Also run or keep tabs on Fedora Jam and AV Linux and others like those.
68 • Fedora (by Andy Prough on 2024-09-26 01:46:43 GMT from Switzerland)
@47 - >"We're going to be test driving some flavour of Fedora, so "none" isn't an applicable answer. "
I'm not interested in Fedora at all, but if you reviewed the Fedora Sway spin I would like your viewpoint on the Sway window manager.
But, based on the poll results you'll probably be reviewing the Gnome workstation spin, which I don't have any interest in. Rather unfortunate, at least Sway would be something a bit different.
69 • Fedora (by distrospinner on 2024-09-26 02:25:20 GMT from United States)
Fedora spins are just different DEs, but it has a good selection of specialist "lab" editions. Prefer the Security one (it's mostly pentesting, but has some security & rescue apps,) Fedora is stable, snappy, and pragmatic in its default app selection.
70 • Fedora opinion poll (by Bill on 2024-09-26 16:13:33 GMT from The Netherlands)
It seems that only 45% of those interested in Fedora use the Workstation. There is food for thought.
71 • Fedora (by humaniod on 2024-09-27 12:54:57 GMT from United Kingdom)
I'm not interested in Fedora. I have it on all my laptops, it just works and keeps out of my way.
Nothing else seems to do that.
I feel many distributions are used as a visible litmus test to prove look at me I'm a Linux maestro, I use such a complicated frustrating operating system I must be intelligent, yet I cant get it to connect to my HP printer/scanner....
72 • For those who dislike GNOME on Fedora Workstation (by InvisibleInk on 2024-09-27 15:28:15 GMT from United States)
Look, if you don't care for the latest GNOME desktop environment on Fedora Workstation, you can always select "GNOME Classic" instead. Problem solved! No need to look elsewhere, unless you really prefer KDE, XFCE, or something else, to GNOME Classic.
Number of Comments: 72
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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LinuxDefender Live! CD
LinuxDefender Live! CD was a BitDefender re-mastered Knoppix distribution. It was designed to provide users of both Windows and Linux computers with virus incident rescue tools. Whether your Linux mailserver just got rootkited or your Windows gamestation just got Slammer'd, it's LinuxDefender to the rescue! Just put the bootable CD in your drive to start a turn-key Linux OS which comes packed with almost 1.5 gigabytes of utilities. This distribution contains two world premieres: the world's first ever SAMBA 3 compatible commercial antivirus and FULL NTFS write support - available using the captive NTFS write project.
Status: Discontinued
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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!
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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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