DistroWatch Weekly |
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1093, 21 October 2024 |
Welcome to this year's 43rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
About a week ago we saw the release of Canonical's Ubuntu 24.10 along with ten community editions of the distribution. One of the more popular members of the Ubuntu family is Kubuntu which ships with the KDE Plasma desktop environment. In our Feature Story Jesse Smith takes Kubuntu 24.10 for a test drive and reports on the experience of running Plasma 6 on an Ubuntu base. In our News section we report on a major Perl update making its way through Debian's repositories while Google prepares to enable GNU/Linux applications running on Android devices. We also report on the UBports adding VoLTE support to their mobile distribution. Plus tackle the topic of the difference between atomic distributions and immutable distributions in our Questions and Answers column. Is your current distribution immutable or atomic? Let us know in the Opinion Poll below. Plus we are pleased to bring you the releases of the past week and a list of the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Kubuntu 24.10
Another October has arrived and, with it, the second Ubuntu release season of the year, where Ubuntu - along with its many community editions and various related projects - publish new versions. It has been a while since I took a solid look at Kubuntu, one of the more popular flavours in the line of community editions, and I wanted to try out some of its new features. More specifically, I wanted to try the KDE Plasma 6.1 desktop environment.
Kubuntu presented a short list of new features for the 24.10 release, which will receive just nine months of updates and support. The project's announcement mentions Kubuntu now ships with version 6.11 of the Linux kernel and uses Plasma 6.1 as the desktop. We're also told Plasma now defaults to using a Wayland session with an X11 session still available as a fallback option. Otherwise, this seems to be a tame release with few big changes - the updated Plasma desktop was the sole focus for Kubuntu 24.10.
Kubuntu is available for computers running 64-bit x86 (x86_64) processors and its ISO file is approximately 4.4GB in size. Booting from the provided media brings up a graphical environment. A window opens and asks us to select our language from a drop-down list. We are also asked to pick a local network to connect to (either a wired network, if applicable, or a detected wireless network). We can then click a button labelled Try to launch the live Plasma desktop or a button labelled Install to begin the install process.
Selecting the Try option brings up the Plasma desktop. A dark panel is positioned across the bottom of the screen. This thick panel holds the application menu, quick-launch buttons, and a system tray. A single icon sits on the desktop and clicking it will launch the distribution's system installer.
Kubuntu 24.10 -- The welcome window
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Once the desktop loads a welcome window appears. This window offers to give us a quick tour of the Plasma desktop and its key elements. It also provides an overview of some important features, such as KDE Connect, the settings panel, and KDE's Vaults for securely storing files. The next page offers to launch the Discover software centre to help us install new applications. After that we're asked if we'd like to enable telemetry to send to the KDE team. By default sending data is turned off and, if we enable it, there is a slider we can move to select which types of data to send. This is a pretty good arrangement, I think, as it protects privacy by default while allowing testers to enable feedback, up to a point.
Installing
Kubuntu uses the Calamares system installer which provides a pleasant, streamlined experience. We're guided through graphical screens where we are asked to pick our language and timezone. We're asked if we'd like to install a Full, Normal, or Minimal set of desktop applications. We can also select from three add-on packages: a virtual machine manager, the Krita drawing application, and the Element Matrix client. This is an odd and small collection and I'm not sure why these three specific Snap packages were chosen as options. During one of my trials I decided to try installing Krita and its Snap was set up successfully for me.
When it comes to disk partitioning, Kubuntu provides a friendly, manual partitioning screen. We can also take a guided approach where we just choose our root filesystem (ext4, Btrfs, or XFS) and whether to enable a swap file. The alternative to having a swap file is to have no swap space, there is no swap partition option unless we manually partition the disk.
Calamares wraps up by asking us to make up a username and password for ourselves and then copies Kubuntu's files to the local disk. The install proceeded quickly and finished within five minutes.
Early impressions
My new copy of Kubuntu booted to a graphical login screen where I could sign into a Wayland session (which is the default) or an X11 session. I mostly stayed with the Wayland session during my trial and found it operated well. This was, in fact, one of the smoother experiences I've had with Wayland to date and it might be the first time I couldn't tell I was running a Wayland session. Usually I experience crashes, odd inconsistencies, problems with the mouse pointer, or lag when running Wayland sessions on AMD and Intel video cards. This was a rare time when the Wayland session worked as well as an X11 session.
The first time I logged into my account the welcome window was displayed again, offering me the tour of Plasma along with the chance to set telemetry options and launch the software centre.
After that, using the desktop was fairly uneventful. Plasma was responsive, though not exceptionally fast, effects were minimal, and the desktop ran smoothly.
Kubuntu 24.10 -- Exploring the application menu
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Hardware
I began my trial by running Kubuntu 24.10 in a VirtualBox environment. The distribution ran smoothly in VirtualBox without any issues. The system was responsive and stable. When I tried running Kubuntu on my workstation I ran into a problem early on as the distribution failed to boot from the live media. When I switched to starting the live media in safe graphics mode, the distribution booted properly. This is the third distribution in the past few months to struggle booting unless it was run in safe mode and, from my initial comparisons, it appears to be an issue with kernels 6.10 and newer (distributions with older kernels have continued to boot fine on the same hardware), though I haven't narrowed the problem down further than that.
Once installed and running, Kubuntu worked well with my workstation. The system was stable, swift, and properly set up wireless networking and audio.
Kubuntu is on the heavier side of middle-weight when installed, taking up 8.5GB of disk space, plus half a gigabyte for a swap file. Memory consumption was a surprise, with Plasma using up 1.4GB of memory. This is about twice the amount of RAM most distributions running Plasma 5 use and quadruple what Kubuntu consumed the last time I ran it for the purposes of a review. This is a surprising rise in memory usage, especially since Plasma 6 is (in terms of daily features and appearance) indistinguishable from Plasma 5.
Applications
Kubuntu sets up an application menu with two panes. Software categories are displayed in the left pane while launchers for applications are positioned to the right. A search bar is placed across the top of the menu to help us locate items by name.
Kubuntu 24.10 -- Playing one of the small games
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I selected the "Normal" collection of software at install time which provided me with a fairly solid array of applications and an uncluttered menu. Firefox is installed for us along with the LibreOffice suite. We find the Dolphin file manager, a remote desktop client, and the Okular document viewer in the menu. The Konversation IRC client is available along with a few small games and a system monitor. The Elisa music player and the Haruna media player are installed for us along with appropriate codecs for playing media files.
In the background we find the GNU command line programs, manual pages for installed software, and the systemd init software. Version 6.11 of the Linux kernel is installed.
When trying to run programs from the command line which are not recognized, the shell will try to find a matching program in the Kubuntu repositories. If one is found the system will offer tips for installing the missing program.
At one point I was running the included GUI system monitor and noticed at least one of my CPUs was almost always running at 100% utilization. Closer investigation quickly revealed the issue was the system monitor itself which almost constantly took up all available CPU resources, for at least one core. Closing the system monitor and switching to another monitor, such as top returned the CPU to near-idle.
While I was using the Dolphin file manager I noticed video files would display previews when the mouse passed over them. I can see the benefit of this, but I found it distracting rather than useful, particularly when traversing directories containing mixed file types. This preview feature can be disabled in Dolphin's settings, though it takes some digging. Going to the Dolphin menu we need to select Configure, then Configure Dolphin, then select the Interface category, then select the Previews tab, and scroll down to the Videos file type. A bigger issue was double-clicking on a file in Dolphin did nothing. I could right-click on a file and select an option to open it from the context menu which would appear. I could also select a file and press Enter to open it, but double-clicking didn't accomplish anything. I know double-clicking could work (ie my mouse and the rest of Plasma were handling double clicking properly) as I was able double-click folders to open them, it was just files that wouldn't respond to double-clicks. This might be the first time in the 30 years I've been using GUI file managers that double-clicking a folder performed a function, but double-clicking a file didn't.
Kubuntu 24.10 -- Diving into Dolphin's settings
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I found the Elisa audio player worked for me. The Haruna player would open video files and I could hear their audio tracks, but no video was displayed. I downloaded the VLC media player and it played videos properly.
Also on the subject of audio/video issues, adjusting the audio volume makes a sharp beeping noise every time the volume is adjusted with the keyboard or mouse. This gets annoying quickly. It took longer than expected to find a way to disable it. There is no feedback control in the system tray volume widget and no toggle for it in the System Settings panel under the Notifications section. I also checked under the Sound page without any luck. I eventually found volume feedback (both audio and visual indicators) can be toggled in the System Settings panel by going to the Sound page, then selecting a 3-dot drop-down menu, then selecting Configure volume controls, and then clicking a box labelled "Play audio feedback for changes to Audio volume".
Kubuntu 24.10 -- Muting volume changing feedback
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Software management
Software is primarily handled by Discover on Kubuntu. Discover makes it easy to browse through categories of software and click on items we want. Discover shows full page information screens and we can install new packages with a click. I like that the software centre makes it possible to fetch either a Deb or a Snap package, if one is available. This is accomplished by selecting either "From Ubuntu" or "From Snap" on an application's information screen.
Discover can also handle software updates and did this smoothly during my trial.
Kubuntu 24.10 -- The Discover software centre
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Kubuntu enables Snap support out of the box and some software, such as Firefox and Krita, will be installed as Snap packages by default. I noticed in the Discover settings panel Snap support is shown as not enabled, the checkbox to toggle Snap support on/off seems to be disabled. However, Discover will download Snaps and automatically check for Snap updates.
If we prefer to use the command line, the APT and snap command line utilities are available.
Conclusions
During my trial I found myself wanting to separate my impressions of Plasma 6.1 from my views on Kubuntu. While they are naturally closely wed, I came away thinking of them as separate components.
Kubuntu, as a whole, worked quite well, especially for an interim release between LTS versions. Apart from a minor setback with my video settings early on, Kubuntu performed well in all aspects. My hardware was detected and functioned properly, the install experience was easy, the system was stable and performed fairly quickly. The Kubuntu project was mostly conservative in its approach to adopting Wayland and this has resulted in me having an above-average impression of the distribution and its Wayland session. (Too many other distributions adopted using Wayland by default quickly, often with poor results.)
With regards to Plasma 6.1, my overall impression was less positive. Yes, it is stable and fairly responsive, but the experience is unpolished in a number of areas. Admittedly I got off to a good start with Plasma - I liked the welcome screen, the soft light theme, and the simple tour. I liked Discover as the software centre too, it was quick and proved to be a solid software manager.
What bothered me creeped in with a dozen little annoyances over a period of several days. It was the little things you don't notice at first, but which start to bother a person after a while. The loud beeping when changing volume levels, the buggy handling of files in Dolphin, and the way the application menu's transparency made it harder to read launcher names leap to mind. For the past 20 years I've been praising how flexible Plasma is and its multitude of options, but I spent so much time wading through the System Settings panel in this trial to disable or fix minor issues that I think I spent more time searching for things to turn off than I did checking e-mail some days.
Kubuntu 24.10 -- The System Settings utility
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It doesn't help, in my opinion, that Plasma has become so huge in recent years. Five years ago Plasma 5 required about 400MB to 500MB of memory. Plasma 5 eventually grew to around 700MB on some distributions. Now Plasma 6, which looks and acts virtually identical to Plasma 5 and offers the same features, is over 1,400MB. This seems like a pretty big ballooning of resource consumption without benefiting the user. And, on that topic, releasing a system monitor which red-lines a CPU seems like an ironic joke.
One of the challenges in reviewing a distribution is people often ask for a simple recommendation or thumb-up/thumb-down summary. People want to know if a distribution is good or bad. Kubuntu is a complex mixture of some features which work really well along with a desktop that feels bloated and annoying, but the desktop is also stable and with an unusually polished Wayland session.
Usually, at this point, I'd say something like "If you are already a fan of KDE Plasma then you will be happy to know Kubuntu is one of the purest Plasma experiences and it is backed by Ubuntu's vast software repositories and strong hardware support." However, that doesn't feel true. I've been a big fan of KDE for 24 years, even the questionable KDE4 releases where things were more intriguing from the design possibilities than for the overall experience. But Plasma 6.1 broke my fandom. Maybe people who want to tweak and configure in depth will appreciate what Plasma 6 has to offer, but for me it was just too much - too many features enabled, too may bugs, too resource hungry, and too many options buried too deep.
Technically speaking, Kubuntu is a fine distribution with a lot to offer. It's just a shame it's saddled with this overly complex and overly noisy desktop environment.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo desktop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Hex-core Intel i5-10400 CPU @ 2.90GHz
- Storage: Western Digital 1TB hard drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 wired network card, Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11ac PCIe wireless adapter
- Display: Intel CometLake-S GT2
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Visitor supplied rating
Kubuntu has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.3/10 from 111 review(s).
Have you used Kubuntu? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to get option to run GNU/Linux applications
Niko Tyni has announced that the Debian project has started adoption of Perl 5.40 packages. These new Perl packages will start out in Debian's Unstable branch before making their way into Debian's Testing branch and, probably next year, into the next release of Debian. Tyni writes: "I have uploaded Perl 5.40.0 to Debian Unstable, starting a 600+ package transition. Wide uninstallability is to be expected in Sid for the next few days until the necessary rebuilds have been completed. Please avoid unnecessary uploads of affected packages until the transition is over and Perl has migrated to Testing. There is no need to submit bug reports about the uninstallability of related packages during this transition. Information on Perl's 5.40 release, along with new features in the language, can be found in this overview.
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The UBports team has been working towards supporting VoLTE which is now required for devices working on some cellular networks. "VoLTE: In GitLab we made some changes to Qualcomm device audio pass-through so that audio calls will work. Work has been done to the ofono plugin and one of its dependencies, OfonoXMTK. It benefits all newer Android devices but with Mediatek devices it implements VoLTE! Notkit and others have been very busy with this. Volla Phone X23 in particular. A tweak in the indicators now flags when VoLTE is live. There will soon be a switch to turn VoLTE on and off." Coverage of additional work happening in the UBports project can be found in the distribution's newsletter.
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The next major version of Android, Android 16, is likely to provide a new feature for fans of GNU/Linux. According to Notebook Check, future versions of Android will ship with a terminal application where GNU/Linux packages can be installed and run. "The new Terminal app will allow running a full Linux distro in a VM and interfaces with it via a local IP address to pass Linux commands from the Android host. Currently, the Terminal app requires you to manually provision a Debian image and create a vm_config.json file. However, Rahman expects that the shipping version will make things much easier for users by including a LinuxInstaller app that does this automatically. Google apparently also has plans to make this currently bare bones Terminal app into a full-featured one by adding features such as the ability to resize disks, port forwarding, and partition recovery." The news story has additional details and speculation on future plans for the Android terminal.
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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) |
Atomic systems vs immutable distributions
Unmoved-and-unmoving asks: What is an atomic distro and how does it differ from an immutable distro? Is it possible to be both?
DistroWatch answers: A distribution which is said to be atomic, or which is offering atomic package operations, is claiming to always be in complete state.
Traditionally, one of the challenges to working with packages (and package managers) is dealing with unexpected situations where the system fails halfway through an operation. Imagine you're in the middle of installing some updates to the core system when, suddenly, the power goes out. Some files on your drive would then still be the old versions while some are the new versions, and they might not all work properly together. Or maybe, due to the power outage, some files were only half written to the disk and are now worthless. When you turn your computer back on, your system may not work properly. It might not even boot.
Atomic operations seek to fix this problem, guaranteeing that the system is either entirely running its old copy of a package or the new copy of a package, and it is never halfway between states. This means, unless there is something wrong with the update itself, the system should always be in a condition where it can be considered whole and bootable.
There are a number of ways to achieve atomic operations. Filesystem snapshots are one way, making sure we always have a good, bootable copy of the operating system in a snapshot before the update begins. openSUSE and FreeBSD take this approach. Another way is to install new packages inside a separate directory from the old packages and then use symbolic links to point to the "active" or latest version of a package. The NixOS project does this. There are other ways, but these are two of the more straightforward approaches.
Basically, when you hear the term "atomic" it means the packages on a system should always be whole, always in a situation where they are at version A or version B, but never in a halfway state where they could be a bit of both.
An immutable distribution is quite different. An immutable distribution (otherwise known as a distribution with an immutable filesystem) is one where the core of the operating system is read-only. Typically, core programs, libraries, and low-level configuration are stored on a filesystem which is read-only. In other words, regular users and (in many situations) the root user are unable to make changes to the core operating system.
On an immutable distribution users and system services can create files and install packages only in either their home directories or in the /var directory. Other locations, such as /etc and /usr, are off limits and cannot be altered.
Immutable distributions usually make use of portable packages, such as Snap and Flatpak, to provide applications since they are typically installed under the user's home directory or under /var. Classic packages, which are typically stored under /usr, are usually not available to users of immutable distributions. Updates to the underlying operating system usually involve downloading new packages (or an image of the core operating system) and then rebooting to put the new versions in place.
With an immutable distribution the idea is to prevent users, even the root user, from changing the configuration of the core operating system or damaging any files needed to keep the system running. All applications, containers, and user files are essentially a "layer" on top of the unchanging core. This not only prevents accidental damage to the running distribution, it also makes it harder for classic viruses and rootkits to install themselves in key areas of the filesystem. An unchanging core system is, ideally, also easier to test and distribute because every customer or end-user should end up running the same operating system - just with their own data on top of it.
While immutable distributions and atomic distributions are not the same thing and the concepts can (and do) exist separately, they can also be wedded together. On the atomic side of things, NixOS has atomic package management, but it is not immutable; its root filesystem is open for writing. Fedora, on the other hand, has a series of atomic editions and sections of the filesystems of these atomic editions are immutable.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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Released Last Week |
Clonezilla Live 3.2.0-5
Clonezilla Live is a Debian-based live environment for cloning and restoring disks and partitions. The project's latest release is Clonezilla Live 3.2.0-5 which updates the Debian base and drops support for ReiserFS utilities. "The underlying GNU/Linux operating system has been upgraded, this release is based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2024-07-15; the Linux kernel has updated to 6.11.2; removed wireless-tools from live system since it's not available in package repository; the iw package should have same function and it is already included in live system; the reiser4progs package was removed from live system; ocs-scan-disk - use lsblk so the code is neater; the block device with file system (e.g. sda with the NTFS file system) can be correctly shown now; merged zstd and zstdmt, use 'zstd -T0' by default; some extra_zstdmt_* variables are dropped, including extra_zstdmt_opt, extra_zstdmt_dc_opt, extra_zstdmt_opt_onthefly and extra_zstdmt_dc_opt_onthefly; it will be easier for user to customize that using boot parameters; now only available variables for zstd are extra_zstd_opt, extra_zstd_dc_opt, extra_zstd_opt_onthefly and extra_zstd_dc_opt_onthefly." The list of changes and bug fixes can be found in the release announcement.
Solus 4.6
Solus is an independent, rolling release distribution which uses Budgie as its default desktop environment. The project has published a new snapshot, Solus 4.6, which makes changes to the multimedia applications and includes a merged /usr directory. "All our editions feature: Firefox 131.0.3, LibreOffice 24.2.5.2, Thunderbird 128.3.1. For audio and video multimedia playback, we offer software out-of-the-box that caters specifically to our desired experience for each edition. Budgie and GNOME editions ship with Rhythmbox for audio playback, with the latest release of the Alternate Toolbar extension to provide a more modern user experience. Budgie and GNOME ship with Celluloid for video playback. Xfce ships with Parole for multimedia playback. Plasma ships with Elisa for audio playback and Haruna for video playback. Over the summer, the Solus team has been tackling the Usr-Merge conundrum; read Evan's excellent blog post for the full story. We have now reached the end of Stage 3 on our rollout plan: All users with an updated system now have a Usr-Merge'd system. Any users that create a fresh installation with today's ISOs will also have a merged system." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
Voyager Live 24.10
Rodolphe Bachelart has announced the release of Voyager Live 24.10, the latest release of the project's Ubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution that combines GNOME and Xfce into one unified desktop user interface. It is based on Ubuntu 24.10 and ships with the Linux kernel 6.11. "I present to you Voyager 24.10 in final version. A 2-in-1 variant with GNOME and Xfce desktops unified in a single distribution. All completely redesigned in a colorful style, the GNOME 47 desktop coupled with the Xfce 4.19 desktop. In summary, two unified systems, GNOME and Xfce, light, fast, modern, fluid, secure and efficient in a hybrid environment for PC and tablet. The two desktops are very distinct and their respective applications are mostly invisible, in one or the other environment. Once installed, you can also completely remove GNOME or Xfce, or re-install. This version is based on the Linux 6.11 kernel and the Ubuntu 24.10 distribution 'Oracular Oriole'. Voyager 24.10 is built around the official Ubuntu repositories and structures to avoid any security issues and confusion." See the complete release announcement for further information and screenshots.
Voyager Live 24.10 -- Exploring the application menu
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Murena 2.4
The Murena team have announced the launch of /e/OS 2.4 which introduces a number of improvements for cameras and updates to the mobile operating system's privacy features. "This release also brings a number of useful updates. The Account Manager is now updatable via the App Lounge, which itself can now auto-update for your convenience. Additionally, we've moved the browser's ad-blocking filter to GitLab, ensuring continuous protection as the previous domain was about to expire. Our browser's ad-blocker is now hosted on GitLab, and you can easily import multi-event ICS files into the calendar. Fairphone 4 and 5 users will enjoy full functionality of the default camera app, and the UX on Murena Two's privacy switch has been improved. Updates include LineageOS bug fixes, faster Fairphone 5 charging, smoother launcher transitions, and improved parental controls. Plus, this release includes Android security patches as of September 2024." The release announcement and release notes offer additional information. Download and purchase options can be found on the get /e/OS page and the project's documentation provides a list of supported devices.
PorteuX 1.7
PorteuX is a portable Linux distro based on Slackware, inspired by Slax and Porteus. The project's latest release, version 1.7, introduces several fixes and updates most of the supported desktop environments. "Many optimizations, fixes and updates have been made, resulting in a very exciting and, hopefully, fast and stable system for everyone. Fixed run-pipewire and gui-cheatcode-loader scripts to avoid running in the background indefinitely. Fixed LXDE error/freezing when dragging a file from Engrampa over the file manager side panel. Fixed Xfce 4.18 'sticky keys' notification issue. Improved kernel config file to remove debug and other optimizations to reduce size without sacrificing performance. Improved GCC/Clang flags to use LTO when it's possible. Improved stripping in GNOME current -- localsearch binaries have been removed due to random full load. Improved rc.6, rc.M, rc.S and rc.services to be simpler and a bit faster. Improved xzm converter scripts to include -o [path] syntax, among some other minor improvements. Improved stripping in all base modules -- smallest 001-core of all time! Improved run-pipewire script to avoid executing pipewire if it's already running." A complete list of changes can be found in the project's release notes.
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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: 3,095
- Total data uploaded: 45.6TB
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Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Atomic or immutable?
In our Questions and Answers column this week we talked about the differences between immutable distributions and atomic operations. While these concepts are relatively new in the Linux community, a handful of distributions are working to make their systems atomic, immutable, or both. Is your distribution embracing one of these concepts?
You can see the results of our previous poll on sharing files between computers in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Is your main distro atomic or immutable?
Atomic: | 185 (9%) |
Immutable: | 82 (4%) |
Both: | 63 (3%) |
Neither: | 1710 (84%) |
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Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 28 October 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 • Immutable (by Miko Bootstraps on 2024-10-21 00:26:50 GMT from United States)
I run SteamOS, so my distro is an immutable distro
2 • review (by grindstone on 2024-10-21 01:24:01 GMT from United States)
Thanks for the work and taking the time to really examine your impressions of the distro. While I'm very-much not a KDE-person (I last-liked 2.2), that's exactly why I appreciate info on what I'd never consider loading, myself.
3 • Atomic vs. Immutable (by Immutable Mr. T on 2024-10-21 01:44:29 GMT from United States)
Thank you for the explanations. Now, I understand the difference!
I have two HP desktops. One runs Endless OS (Immutable), the other Fedora Silverblue (Atomic). Both are daily drivers, running for the last year. My favorite is Endless OS, Silverblue took more effort to setup, but has many more options and features.
I like the security features these distributions offer on a wired network. I run Whonix XFCE in VirtualBox in a wireless network on a USB 256GB drive for wifi security.
4 • review (by kubuntu fan on 2024-10-21 01:58:07 GMT from Australia)
Thanks for the review as always Jesse - I am an LTS guy so this doesn't give me any motivation to move off 24.04 which I really like (still on Plasma 5 thankfully). Have always found Kubuntu to be the best distro for me and wouldn't dream of using anything else so hopefully these issues are ironed out by 26.04.
5 • Kubuntu 24.10 review (by Wedge009 on 2024-10-21 02:38:53 GMT from Australia)
Good to know that Wayland integration has improved - admittedly it was a long time ago but the last time I tried Wayland in Kubuntu it was broken for me.
A shame your experience with Plasma 6 was rough - like #4, I'm using Kubuntu 24.04 which stayed with Plasma 5.
Some typos: * Usually I *experiences* crashes... * During my *trail* I found myself...
6 • review of Kubuntu 24.10 (by Bobbie Sellers on 2024-10-21 03:30:14 GMT from United States)
Thanks for your cogent remarks. Only quibble is how do they get all the 1400 MB into the Live Distribution of porteux-v1.7-current-kde-6.2.1-x86_64.iso (551 MB)
I understand compression but this is not that much bigger than the other versions of Porteux. Of course Porteux is using KDE Plasma 6.2.1 maybe it was put on a diet?
Thanks again for cooling our lust for Plasma 6.?
bliss
7 • Q4OS (by InvisibleInk on 2024-10-21 03:35:16 GMT from United States)
Conclusion: "Usually, at this point, I'd say something like "If you are already a fan of KDE Plasma then you will be happy to know Kubuntu is one of the most pure Plasma experiences and it is backed by Ubuntu's vast software repositories and strong hardware support." However, that doesn't feel true. I've been a big fan of KDE for 24 years, even the questionable KDE4 releases where things were more intriguing from the design possibilities than for the overall experience. But Plasma 6.1 broke my fandom. Maybe people who want to tweak and configure in depth will appreciate what Plasma 6 has to offer, but for me it was just too much - too many features enabled, too may bugs, too resource hungry, and too many options buried too deep.
Technically speaking, Kubuntu is a fine distribution with a lot to offer. It's just a shame it's saddled with this overly complex and overly noisy desktop environment."
Her, here! Newer is not always better. Please review Q4OS with its legacy Trinity desktop environment.
8 • KDE (by Punpino on 2024-10-21 05:31:07 GMT from Australia)
Major new versions of KDE tend to be like beta software, and it's only when a couple of minor updates have occurred that it becomes usable. Kubuntu shipped with 6.1, though the current version is 6.2.1.
If you compare KDE to Xfce, a new release of Xfce is typically rock solid. I find Xfce so much more responsive than KDE and Cinnamon, regardless of the distro.
9 • KDE 4 vs Plasma 6 (by BlueIV on 2024-10-21 05:51:35 GMT from United States)
I can't fault someone for there honest opinion, however I find it amusing that Plasma 6 was the straw that broke Jesse's back in regards to his "fandom." My feeling was that KDE 4 was simply far more of a disaster than Plasma 6, regardless of any design possibilities of the former. But again people have different perceptions; thanks for the review.
10 • Kubuntu (by rhtoras on 2024-10-21 07:48:30 GMT from Greece)
I don't really know what's the point of kubuntu... i mean what's the new thing bringing to the table ? I would say nothing... Ubuntu is @#$% so is KDE and in combination we get a full mess. That's it guys! OK KDE is a matter of choice and preference, i can see that, but anyways... why starting with wayland, why the need of so many packages and why it forces udisks2 and other systemD components ? In that regard trinity desktop is far better (PCLinuxOS and exegnu linux use it). Trinity is based back on KDE 3 version which better than both 4 and 5 versions. For those interested there is Katana Desktop based on KDE 4 but i don't see any benefit since KDE 4 might be the worst version ever. Why sacrifice the freedom for some bells and whistles is my question. And till now KDE has no answer! Hope to have better days as FOSS, because linux is dying slowly everyday.
11 • Atomic? (by David on 2024-10-21 08:28:42 GMT from United Kingdom)
PCLinuxOS has a utility to make a custom installation medium that will boot to a replica of your system and reinstall it if necessary. Does that count as atomic? Obviously you have to choose to run that program before updating, but it does ensure that you can always boot,
12 • PorteuX (by Linuxist Revolution on 2024-10-21 08:48:22 GMT from Canada)
--- i have just tried PorteuX (as introduced here on this forum by Distrowatch) which i truly would like to thank to, as I found PorteuX highly fascinating! My only wish is that PorteuX integrate great features of SlatAz, too into itself, as SlatAz, is an extremely speedy, and very lite Linux distro.
13 • Kubuntu vs. KDE Neon. Latest "bugless" Linux kernel, 11.4" (by Greg Zeng on 2024-10-21 09:09:29 GMT from Australia)
Both are based on the last Ubuntu LTS, but claim to have trials on the latest KDE system. Both avoid Synaptic Package Manager, which can allow a GUI-type Neon, installation of Flatpak, and appimage. Both avoid Gparted, since it is not standard KDE. Most (all?) other Ubuntu-based distros choose to avoid so many (inferior) KDE applications, if possible. Personally, I found that the very regular updates given in recent KDE Plasma are buggy in KDE Neon, so prefer avoiding bleeding edge updates on my main working systems. This week's Distrowatch review shows some bugs in this non-LTS version of Ubuntu. Unfortunately, Ubuntu is no longer providing a compiled version of the latest Linux kernels. Tarballs can be user-compiled from the raw source code instead. Today's latest is ver 11.4, which might correct ver 11.0, released by Ubuntu, "2024-09-15 16:44". Another way to get the latest Linux kernel: "Steven Barrett has released another Liquorix kernel based on Linux kernel 6.11.4. "There are improvements to Bluetooth and Netfilter in the new version. For example, but can now handle external suspend requests, xtables can now stop NFPROTO_UNSPEC, Bluetooth will reconnect after suspension, and typos that stopped IPv6 targets from loading have been fixed. "The Liquorix Linux kernel is an enthusiast Linux kernel that is optimized for low latency computing in audiovisual production, reduced frame time variations in games, and unparalleled responsiveness in interactive systems. It is available for Debian, Ubuntu, and Arch Linux. ". Another Kernel update is also frequently available with "XanMod Linux Kernel".
14 • Re: Kubuntu vs. KDE Neon. Latest "bugless" Linux kernel, 11.4 (by Pumpino on 2024-10-21 09:40:05 GMT from Australia)
@13 I use Xanmod's kernel on my Xubuntu and LMDE installations. I find it receives updates slightly faster than Liquorix.
15 • Is your main distro atomic or immutable? (by James on 2024-10-21 09:46:47 GMT from United States)
I want neither. The reason I use Linux is to have full control of my machine. I also don't want flatpaks or snaps, but will run an appimage if I absolutely have too.
16 • Kubuntu 24.10 review (by Carlos Felipe on 2024-10-21 11:04:02 GMT from Brazil)
I think KDE is beautiful, but I can't use it. I don't know, it doesn't seem fluid, a bit heavy, I remember that every time I restarted it asked for the wifi password, that was quite annoying, I don't know if kwallet still has this behavior. My first contact with Linux was with KDE (Kurumin Linux), in 2005, but in the last decade I haven't used it for more than 2 or 3 days.
17 • Kubuntu 24.10 and Plasma 6.1 (by Nicola on 2024-10-21 13:00:20 GMT from Italy)
On another distribution with KDE Plasma 6.2.1, the reliable 'LXTask' indicates me 1153 MB of used RAM (with no open application) on 8000 MB of total RAM. It seems to me quite normal for Plasma Desktop.
18 • KDE Plasma Desktop (by Ruggero on 2024-10-21 13:11:55 GMT from Italy)
@8 (KDE by Pumpino) "If you compare KDE to Xfce, a new release of Xfce is typically rock solid. I find Xfce so much more responsive than KDE and Cinnamon, regardless of the distro."
You should compare KDE to GNOME (on Wayland), and you should compare Xfce to LXQt/LXDE (on X11).
19 • KDE (by HeroicPenguin on 2024-10-21 14:03:57 GMT from Croatia)
kde is so awesome I don't know why other desktops exist at all, they are useless because of KDE
20 • KDE (by Tony Hopscotch, Sr. on 2024-10-21 15:03:26 GMT from Denmark)
Nice review Jesse.
I share your frustration with KDE. In my eyes 4 was a disaster, 5 was really good and so far 6 is a disappointment. Maybe they'll clean it up, we'll just have to wait and see.
21 • Immutable, atomic (by Robert on 2024-10-21 15:47:28 GMT from United States)
Are immutable distros not a subclass of atomic distros? As the main root filesystem is read only it can only be updated as a single unit, so atomic. Atomic distros are not necessarily immutable as you say, but it seems to me that immutable distros are necessarily atomic. Unless of course they just can't be updated at all, but who wants that?
For me, I use Arch which is by default neither. I do make use of LVM snapshots when updating though, so I suppose you could consider my personal install atomic.
22 • KDE, Poll, etc... (by Otis on 2024-10-21 15:53:03 GMT from United States)
Thank you for that thorough and clear explanation of "atomic" vs "immutable" systems. It also gave me a better understanding of what is going on when updates happen. I have no preference 'tween the two though.
KDE has reminded me of Gnome from time to time. Not because they resemble one another much, but because both have given me over the years the impression that each project is unstable, at least unreliable as to what to expect of them from version to version.
KDE is pretty and can be configured nicely. Gnome has both of those qualities, but with a different approach. I've had to abandon both more than once and go scurrying back to XFCE, which has never, in my experience, shown that lack of predictability and well-grounded stability. XFCE has always made me wonder why I tried those two others in the first place.
23 • Kubuntu (by RetiredIT on 2024-10-21 15:57:49 GMT from United States)
Kubuntu has always been in a different world of Linux. One has to go through a steep learning curve in order for it to become their daily driver. I tested it a few times through the years but always went back to the GNOME2/MATE desktop which I believe is the easiest and most efficient way to use the Linux OS and get work done.
24 • KDE 4,5 and 6 and K/Ubuntu (by vw72 on 2024-10-21 16:07:30 GMT from United States)
I know the general consensus was that KDE 4 was a disaster, but to be fair, distros pushed included it even though it wasn't yet a production release. That was in the days of trying to get the latest version of software in a distro come hell or high water.
When KDE 5 was released, the distros listened to the developers and didn't really push it out until the developers said it was ready. But still, there were several point releases needed before it was solid.
KDE 6, I think, was pushed out to quickly, similar to KDE 4, however, since it was less of a paradigm shift, still functioned fairly well with most bugs being related to switching to QT6 and a lack of widgets available for it.
That said, it hasn't really become stable until KDE 6.2.1. I think Kubuntu's problem is that they have to ship what Ubuntu has in the repositories at the time of it's feature freeze. So, we get a buggy lack luster KDE. In the past, to get around this, Kubuntu would maintain a backports ppa to get the current version, but that doesn't seem to be the practice anymore.
In the end, Canonical is focused on Ubuntu. The users of the other flavors have to live with the decisions made for Ubuntu. As can be seen in the review, those choices often lead to a lackluster experience.
25 • Atomic and immutable (by Jesse on 2024-10-21 17:08:55 GMT from Canada)
@21: "Are immutable distros not a subclass of atomic distros?"
No, these are different concepts.
"Atomic distros are not necessarily immutable as you say, but it seems to me that immutable distros are necessarily atomic."
This is not the case.
"Unless of course they just can't be updated at all, but who wants that?"
This is, certainly, one example of a distribution which is immutable, but not atomic.
Running UBports in some environments is another example. The filesystem is, by default, read-only, but the package management actions are not atomic. The admin can disable the immutable (read-only) feature, install packages with APT, then turn the immutable flag back on. This demos a situation where the OS is immutable, never atomic, and it is also upgradable.
> I do make use of LVM snapshots when updating though, so I suppose you could consider my personal install atomic.
That's sort of atomic, or at least adds an atomic layer. The pacman package manager's operations are not atomic so it can bork an update. LVM snapshots give you the power to roll back, so it is a recovery option and it's in the family of atomic operations. You've basically added an atomic layer on top of a non-atomic system.
26 • KDE 6 (by NiftyBottle on 2024-10-22 05:54:01 GMT from United States)
It’s interesting to see that you had so many issues with Plasma 6.1; my experience has been pretty different - most of your issues did not occur with any of my installs running KDE 6.1, including my primary daily driver of Arch with KDE. The only issues I’ve encountered were trying to do more esoteric things, like making custom menu entries for running scripts (fixed an issue with a second of poking) or trying to make the pinned quick launch distinguish between instances of the same program running with different launch parameters (I got it to launch ok but I’m still working on it not grouping the instances together while they’re running). A couple things do occur but don’t bother me - beeping to show the new volume is pretty standard and for me reassures me the volume changing is working (aka I’ve not broken my sound driver).
27 • atomic and immutable (by andrabt on 2024-10-22 08:50:46 GMT from Indonesia)
Imo, atomic is always refers to system behaviour when applying changes on their data, especially update or upgrade. For example, NixOS builds new generation when run nixos-rebuild and home manager switch. The newest state (profiles) is always independent (which is special when we talk about its feature, rollback) from the previous state (although they can share same libraries).
Doing some snapshot or create new installable image is not atomic since the newest update can overwrite the previous file (while snapshot of entire previous state is a clone and can be reload automatically/manually). Cmiiw
28 • Kubuntu and Plasma (by JS on 2024-10-22 11:16:52 GMT from Germany)
As always, a nuanced, fairly written review. I've had the best experiences with Kubuntu; the LTS version in particular is very trustworthy. With KDE, the number of options is actually a bit too much for me, but on the other hand, I don't change anything, don't play around, and just deactivate all effects. It runs quickly and the search function is excellent. What I really like about Plasma 6.1.5 in Kubuntu 24.10 is the stress-free Wayland experience. I don't know if it's exaggerated, but for security reasons I wouldn't want to miss Wayland anymore. When Xfce or LxQt eventually support Wayland in a stable way, things might look different, but at the moment that's just Gnome and KDE. Window managers aren't enough for me personally.
29 • Kubuntu KDE Plasma transparency (by Daniel on 2024-10-23 14:36:16 GMT from Czechia)
Transparency is not feature, it is upstream mesa bug since 23.2 if you use software LLVM for graphics acceleration. On real HW or in virt-manager with virgl that is not transparent.
30 • Great advert for Cinnamon (by Plasma 6 overdoing it on 2024-10-23 16:37:54 GMT from United Kingdom)
I haven't tried it, but it sounds like Plasma 6.1 is a great advert for the oven ready simplicity of Cinnamon.
31 • KDE (by Andy on 2024-10-23 20:20:45 GMT from United States)
I have been a longtime KDE user but am also getting disillusioned with it. Buggy and overly complex, IMO. Gnome is, of course, unusable without installing and configuring a bunch of extensions to restore a sane workflow. I've found myself gravitating toward XFCE. Fast, stable, predictable - YES PLEASE!
32 • YES!!! (by falcon52 on 2024-10-24 00:07:15 GMT from United States)
Andy @31 I couldn't agree more. XFCE has every thing I need!!! It just works and has never let me down.
33 • KDE Plasma 6 (by Wally on 2024-10-24 02:40:07 GMT from Australia)
Been running Plasma 6 on Tuxedo OS for a few months now and it's been flawless, first on KVM and then on disk. I had dropped KDE 5 after Latte was abandoned. I like my desktop set up in my pwn way. Even with KDE's many settings, Gnome gave me better options. KDE 6 has made it easier, so I'm back using it along with Gnome.
I'm puzzled by some of the complaints. The "beeping sound" can be muted by clicking on the panel sound icon and going to sound settings from there with another click. Doesn't seem overly complicated. Have to do the same more or less in Gnome and others. I suppose it could have been muted by default, but it's not a big deal. The file handling and transparency issues must apply to Kubuntu's own defaults. I didn't encounter them. RAM use is heavy, especially on Wayland. In my case, with 16 GB available, I really don't notice. Just tried the Newest Neon with Plasma 6.2 on a VM, and it also works fine so far.
34 • Kubuntu 24.10 review (by Luau Lou on 2024-10-24 06:46:06 GMT from United States)
"Technically speaking, Kubuntu is a fine distribution with a lot to offer. It's just a shame it's saddled with this overly complex and overly noisy desktop environment." If it weren't, then it would be Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, Unity or some other 'buntu, since Kubuntu is just Ubuntu with the KDE DE, no more and no less.
35 • Recensione di Kubuntu 24.10 (by Derrick on 2024-10-24 12:33:45 GMT from Italy)
@34 Luau Lou It sounds strange to me to hear that KDE Plasma is heavy. I use Kubuntu 24.04 LTS on a 9 year old PC and I find it lighter than Lubuntu 24.04 LTS. I think the problem with KDE is the configuration: surely you have to disable file indexing to improve performance.
36 • immutable use case - in another role (by Rik on 2024-10-24 13:59:40 GMT from United States)
In a weather related role, we used to network boot and run the OS from a readonly NFS share. This was for both Solaris and Linux. Everything that could be was from the RO filesystem. /tmp and parts of /var was local storage. /home and a couple other directories under /var were read write NFS.
37 • @35, heavy KDE (by Wally on 2024-10-24 14:30:56 GMT from Australia)
@36, I was the one who mentioned KDE being heavy (@33). The reference was not to performance issues like lagging or CPU usage. I was referring strictly to RAM use. KDE 6.1 uses 1.3 to 1.5 GB at idle on Wayland, and around 1.2 in X11 on my PC. Yes, the file indexer is enabled, but it's idling. No difference if I suspend it. KDE 5 was up to around 1 GB on X11 last I used it. Can't speak about Lubuntu since It's not something I'd use.
38 • KDE 6 (by Explosive Sheep on 2024-10-24 15:55:41 GMT from Argentina)
I'm surprised about KDE taking 1,4 GB of RAM. I'm using KDE on Opensuse TW, and it never goes beyond 750 MB idle...And the Suse folks are on KDE 6.2 already.
39 • Sticking with KDE (by nightflier on 2024-10-24 18:08:08 GMT from United States)
I found the transition from KDE 5 to 6 to be quite trouble free. Most things look and work the same. Performance seems to have improved. As far as memory used, that seems very dependent on the total amount of RAM available. On a 32G system, it will show more used than on a 4G system. In any case, my web browser will use a lot more than the system itself.
Kubuntu seems to be on the heavy side in the KDE world. When I was installing 22.04 I thought it was not working, it took so long to boot from USB. It finally loaded after about 15 minutes. After that, it ran fine.
If you want a solid, lean and fast KDE, use Q4OS Plasma. Based on Debian and not on the cutting edge, it is beautifully boring.
One of the reasons I like KDE is that it can still give me old fashioned scrollbars with fixed width and up/down stepper buttons. Those narrow overlays without buttons are not nearly as useful.
40 • Sticking with KDE 5 (by Bulatox on 2024-10-24 20:41:29 GMT from Italy)
Htop in Kubuntu 24.04 LTS indicates 992 MB of RAM consumed (with no active applications). I will stay on KDE 5 until April 2026: it seems stable and responsive even on an old computer like mine. As for KDE 6 I'd steer clear of it for the time being.
41 • @39, Sticking with KDE (by Wally on 2024-10-25 00:28:19 GMT from Australia)
@39, "As far as memory used, that seems very dependent on the total amount of RAM available." Not in my experience. KDE 6 running on a VM with 4GB RAM uses pretty much the same as on my 16 GB PC.
42 • KDE RAM use follow-up (by Wally on 2024-10-25 10:24:04 GMT from Australia)
Had some time and was curious, so went looking for RAM hogging culprits on KDE 6. Started with Settings>Autostart and removed anything not essential. Then to /etc/xdg/autostart. Discover updater and accessibility got moved. I don't use KDEConnect, so out it went. I suppose there are other things there one can do without, but I quit there. RAM use is down to 917 on "top" and 998 on "top". More like old times.
Number of Comments: 42
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• 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 |
• Full list of all issues |
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Random Distribution | 
Thisk Server
Thisk Server was a Debian-based Linux distribution designed for PBX (Private Branch Exchange) environments. It uses Asterisk - a free software implementation of PBX.
Status: Discontinued
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TUXEDO |

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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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