 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1103, 6 January 2025 |
Welcome to this year's 1st issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Did you see more advertisements during the holiday season than you would like? Do you find yourself wanting to block ads in all applications and on all devices the way you can block ads in your web browser using extensions? Luckily, there is a tool to do just this. The Pi-hole project creates software which can be set up on one device and used to block advertisements across the entire network, even on devices where you cannot install new software. In this week's Tips and Tricks article we take Pi-hole for a spin, talk about how to set it up, and how to use it to monitor network traffic. First though, we talk about an Ubuntu-based distribution with a distinct look and feel: elementary OS. The project recently published version 8 of its streamlined distribution and we talk about how elementary OS performs. Then, in our News section, we report on Debian testing new system installer changes prior to releasing Debian 13 "Trixie". We also talk about delays plaguing Pop!_OS and its debut with the COSMIC desktop, and we say a fond good-bye to Absolute Linux, a Slackware-based project for low-end hardware. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past two weeks and list the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we are pleased to welcome two new projects to our database: DAT Linux and Ditana GNU/Linux. The DAT Linux distribution is geared toward data analysis and making it easier to install data science tools while Ditana is an Arch-based project with a focus on customization. We share details about both of these projects below. We wish you all a pleasant new year and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
elementary OS 8.0
elementary OS is an Ubuntu-based distribution which features the Pantheon desktop environment; some custom, streamlined desktop applications; and its own software centre. The elementary website says the distribution strives to provide all the key applications most people need without including anything they don't want.
elementary OS 8.0 was released at the end of November 2024 and it includes several tweaks and improvements. The project's release announcement did a great job of highlighting the changes in version 8.0 so I'd like to simply share key elements from the announcement:
On the lock screen, you'll now see a gear menu next to the password field that gives you the option of Classic or Secure sessions. If you select the Secure Session, elementary OS will use Wayland, a modern and secure method for apps to draw themselves and accept your input. In the Secure session, apps will be more restricted and will require your consent for access to system features.
* * * * *
Portals are the standardized system interfaces that apps use to access features in a way that respects your privacy and requires your explicit consent. Four new Portals are now supported in OS 8: Colour Picker, Screenshot, Screencast, and Wallpaper. These Portals are essential for enabling modern apps to work in the Secure session when they don't have direct access to the pixels on your display. Since some apps haven't yet made use of the Portals required to operate under the Secure session, OS 8 will continue to use the Classic session by default.
* * * * *
Application Settings has an all-new design that expands your control over permissions. We now support adjusting the run-time permissions in Flatpak's Permissions Store - these are set when an app explicitly asks for your permission to access a feature while it's running. So if you've previously denied an app access to run in the background or granted an app permission to set the wallpaper, you can change your mind at any time and adjust permissions here.
* * * * *
Since the move to Flatpak, you've always had the option to easily sideload apps directly from developers or use entire alternative app stores. In OS 8 we're expanding your access to apps even further by including the most popular app store for Linux out of the box: Flathub.
* * * * *
In elementary OS there are two different kinds of updates. Updates to the operating system itself are installed off-line, when your computer restarts, to make sure services are restarted correctly and to prevent issues. Updates to apps, on the other hand, are quickly installed while your computer is running. In OS 7, both of these types of updates appear side-by-side in AppCentre, but in OS 8 operating system updates will now appear in System Settings.
* * * * *
[Regarding the Dock:] When an app isn't open yet, a single-click of its icon will still launch it. When an app has a single window open, a single-click will always focus that window, even switching workspaces if necessary. And, when an app has multiple windows open, a single-click will show a window spread so you can quickly select the right window, even outside of the Multitasking View.
* * * * *
Driver management has moved from AppCentre to System Settings -> System. The new design for drivers is more in line with how drivers are managed on other operating systems.
Additional changes and enhancements are listed in the release announcement.
elementary OS 8.0 -- Checking for updates
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Live system
The elementary OS 8.0 distribution is available for x86_64 machines exclusively and is offered in one desktop edition. The project's ISO is 3.0GB in size. Booting from the media brings up a graphical environment where a window open and asks us to pick our region, preferred language, and keyboard layout from lists. We are then asked if we would like to try the Demo/Live desktop mode, erase the local disk and install the distribution, or perform a custom install.
Taking the Demo option brings up the Pantheon desktop. A panel is placed across the top of the screen which holds and application menu and system tray. A dock which holds application icons is placed at the bottom of the screen. A welcome window then appears.
elementary OS 8.0 -- Browsing the application menu
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The welcome window begins by showing us links to on-line resources: a Basics Guide, a link to the project's website, and links to the elementary community. Clicking or double-clicking on any of the entries accomplished nothing. I also tried selecting entries and pressing Enter which also did nothing.
The next page of the welcome window asks us to select a theme. The options are Default (which is light), Dark, or "Sunset to Sunrise". Given the name, I'd assume "Sunset to Sunrise" would be an alias for Dark, but it appears to be a mixture of light and dark, with the balance tipping toward darker windows. We are then asked if we'd like to enable Nightlight to adjust colour "warmth" based on the time of day.
The next page of the welcome application offers to delete (or schedule to delete) temporary files, including screenshots, items in the trash folder, and downloaded files. This seems like an odd option to enable on live media since we shouldn't have any persistent files.
Next, we are asked if we'd like to connect with on-line accounts. The window's prompt says we can "Connect on-line accounts by clicking the icon in the toolbar below." The problem here is there is no toolbar and no icons on display. There is an "Add" button we can click. This gives us the option of manually typing in IMAP server or calendar URLs to enable e-mail and calendar access. This is a lot less convenient than GNOME's on-line account manager where presets are offered to the user.
We are almost finished with the welcome process at this point. The next screen is titled Get Some Apps. Here there are two buttons, one is for acquiring apps made for elementary OS. This button launches the software centre, which I'll discuss later. The second button says it will help us "sideload" apps from Flathub. Clicking this button did nothing.
The following screen asks if we'd like to enable automatic updates for apps and/or the underlying operating system.
This welcome window feels out of place in the live/demo mode. Some options, like the theme chooser, make sense. But setting up on-line accounts, deleting temporary files, and turning on automatic updates do not make sense when running a live desktop. This tool probably shouldn't run during the live session and appear only after we install the operating system.
Installing
Once I confirmed I could get on-line and the system was running smoothly I launched the project's system installer. This application appears to be unique to the elementary distribution. The installer asks us to select our region, language, and keyboard layout again. We're then offered manual or guided partitioning. The guided approach asks us which disk the distribution should take over. It will also ask if the disk should be encrypted. The next screen asks if the installer should download and install third-party drivers and firmware for wi-fi, virtual machines, and other non-free features. The installer then goes to work copying its files to the local disk and automatically restarts the computer.
When using the manual install process, the experience is similar, but the installer offers to launch GParted to help us manage partitions. Afterwards we can click on a diagram of partitions to assign each section of the disk mount points.
Early impressions
The first time my new copy of elementary OS booted a graphical environment launched and opened a window. This configuration window asked me to pick my region, language, and keyboard layout. (This was the third time in ten minutes I'd been asked to provide this information.) I was then asked to make up a username and password for myself. The window disappeared and I was presented with a graphical login screen. From this login screen we can choose to login under "Secure" mode, which is a Wayland session or the classic X11 session. The X11 session is the default, largely for compatibility reasons.
When I signed into my account for the first time the welcome window appeared - this is the same welcome window from the live media. The steps and screens were exactly the same, except more features worked on my installed copy of elementary. For example, the links to the website and documentation on the first page worked, opening a web browser to display the on-line resources. This time clicking the button to "sideload" applications from Flathub worked. The on-line accounts screen is still limited and requires manually entering resource URLs.
Speaking of the button for accessing packages on Flathub, I'd like to explore this a bit more. When we click this button it doesn't open a local package manager (such as Discover, GNOME Software, or Mint's software centre). Instead the web browser opens and presents us with the Flathub website. From there we can perform searches for applications, click entries to see details of a Flatpak bundle, and click a button to "Install" the software. The Install button actually downloads a resource file which we can then launch from the browser to fetch and install the Flatpak bundle. When the process is finished the system offers to delete the Flathub reference file.
This seems unusually indirect. We're launching a web browser to find an application to download a file which will launch Flatpak in the background to install the application. We could just be running a software centre which uses Flatpak in the background and save a few steps.
When new system updates or drivers are available a notification appears on the desktop. Clicking this notice opens the System module in the settings panel and provides us with access to new drivers, firmware, and base OS updates. The options for fetching new drivers and system updates worked well for me.
On the subject of software management, I'd like to touch upon the AppCentre, a modern software centre which looks a bit like a streamlined contemporary to GNOME Software.
AppCentre begins by showing us recommended items and categories of packages we can browse. These categories nicely match up with the application menu groupings of most desktop environments. Clicking on an application's entry shows us a full page information screen where we can see a description of the application and a screenshot. We can also see where the application comes from (usually Flathub), its size, and its price. We can install a new application by clicking on its price. This might seem counterintuitive because it means instead of clicking a button labelled "Install" we usually end up clicking a button marked "Free".
elementary OS 8.0 -- The AppCentre
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Earlier in my trial the welcome window declared Flathub apps could be sideloaded, and it took me through a roundabout path through using the web browser to fetch packages from Flathub. I was surprised to find, based on this past experience, the AppCentre pulls from Flathub too, so "sideloading" provides access to the same Flathub software. This made me wonder: what is the point of being offered "sideloading" through the web browser if the AppCentre handles Flatpak packages? I could not find any explanation for the weird, unsupported approach to installing packages from Flathub through Epiphany when I could just open the AppCentre and fetch the same applications from the same source.
Speaking of sideloading - the first day I tried to install available updates to runtime packages in the AppCentre. The update failed and claimed the issue was probably the presence of "sideloaded apps" even though I hadn't installed anything yet, except items available through the AppCentre.
Hardware
elementary OS was stable in my test environments. The distribution worked well in, and integrated smoothly with, VirtualBox. The distribution booted in an average amount of time in VirtualBox and was fairly responsive. Performance was good, though not remarkable. When running on my laptop, elementary booted very slowly, but once it was up and running, it performed well. The operating system detected my touchpad, my wireless network card, and audio worked out of the box.
When elementary's live mode boots it briefly plays a robotic audio clip. I think the audio is coming from a screen reader, but the voice is too fast and too distorted to make out any words.
The distribution booted successfully in UEFI and Legacy BIOS modes and remained stable during my trial. A fresh install used up 11GB of disk space, plus a swap partition. When signed into the Pantheon desktop the system used 925MB memory, a bit higher than average.
Included software
elementary ships an unusual collection of software with many custom applications. The Epiphany web browser is installed for us along with a custom (and minimal) pair of audio and video players. There is also a minimal terminal, a task tracker, and a file manager. A document viewer is included along with a calendar application and a photo viewer.
I found elementary OS could play audio files with no problems, but trying to play video files gave mixed results. I could hear the audio tracks of videos, but the player window was blank and failed to show any visual aspects of the videos I tried to play.
elementary OS 8.0 -- Trying to watch a video
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elementary OS also ships with GNU's command line utilities, manual pages, and the systemd init software. Version 6.8 of the Linux kernel runs the show from behind the scenes.
Something I found odd was the included applications mostly worked and mostly worked well when I was running the installed operating system, but many applications failed to even launch in the live environment. The web browser, video player, and audio player all failed to launch when running the live desktop/demo mode. (This turned out to be the reason the links in the welcome window didn't work during the live session.) The reason for this issue was: none of the applications which were installed as Flatpak packages worked in the live mode. Trying to launch any of them from the command line resulted in the following error: "bwrap: Creating new namespace failed: Permission denied. error: ldconfig failed, exit status 256". It looks like any software on the system which was installed using Flatpak instead of Deb will fail in the live desktop environment.
elementary OS 8.0 -- Trying to launch Flatpak applications from the live media
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On a related note, if we try to run a command line program which is not installed, the terminal will show an APT command we can use to install the missing package. For example, trying to run "gcc" will suggest we run "sudo apt install gcc".
elementary OS 8.0 -- Trying to run a compiler before it has been installed
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The Pantheon desktop
Since elementary OS is the only distribution which uses Pantheon as its default desktop (or even one of a group of top tier desktops) this was a rare chance for me to explore the interface. One of the first characteristics which stood out was Pantheon looked a little bit like the macOS desktop, but with elements from other desktops in the mix. The thin top panel and dock felt a bit like macOS, but Pantheon doesn't use a unified menu on the panel.
The application menu defaults to showing a grid of launchers, spread over two pages. We can switch the menu view to show a two-pane layout with categories to the left and launchers to right.
Everything bundled with the Pantheon desktop seems designed to be minimal. The default applications are all streamlined with few features. They seem to be intended to provide the bare functionality while not distracting users with unnecessary options and menus.
Application windows have an unusual button layout. Applications show the Close button to the left, a Maximize button to the right, and no Minimize button.
Pantheon is fairly responsive. It generally looks nice, in my opinion, with minimal visual effects. Some transparency is used, but it isn't overdone and the transparency tends not to interfere with reading text. (Transparency washing out fonts is a common issue I have when using other desktops.)
I like the settings panel. It uses a classic grid of icons which launch configuration modules. I was able to find the settings I wanted to adjust and had no problems with the panel. I appreciated the user account manager had a single-button toggle for enabling a guest account and this guest account worked well for me.
elementary OS 8.0 -- Exploring the settings panel
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Conclusions
Let's talk about some of the aspects of elementary OS I liked. For me, the main draw of elementary is the combination of pretty desktop and simple applications. This is not ideal for me, personally, but I think the distribution is one I could show to people coming from other operating systems (especially macOS) and they'd be able to pick it up quickly. The applications are named based on their task (Web, Mail, Music, and Calendar), there are not a lot of options, settings, or menus immediately visible in most applications. It's a bit like running GNOME, but more streamlined and with better performance. It's not the sort of experience which appeals to me, but it is the sort of experience I think will appeal to my non-techie friends and family. I like that this approach exists for newcomers.
The main downside for me was the weird way in which software is managed on the system. It is the one aspect which is unusually complex, especially compared with other beginner-friendly distributions such as Linux Mint. On Mint there is one software centre for adding and removing applications and one update manager that, well, handles updates. elementary OS introduces the concept of official elementary applications (which all seem to be pulled from Flathub) along with unofficial "sideloaded" applications which also appear to all come from Flathub. The waters are further clouded by the system separating the "base OS" updates from applications. I think, in this instance, "base OS" refers to anything installed from a classic Deb package. And then there is another application for fetching drivers. In total, there are at least four different categories of packages (based on how elementary organizes them), but all the software can be managed using just two tools (AppCentre and APT). It just seems unnecessarily complicated with no benefit and at odds with the design of the rest of the distribution.
The other downside to running elementary is a bit more abstract. There are a lot of ways people can categorize Linux distributions: commercial vs community, KISS vs automated, full-featured vs minimal, RPM vs Deb, etc. In my mind there is a distinction that I rarely see discussed in Linux circles: projects where the developers use and design their software vs projects where the developers create the software for others to use. (In technology circles, organizations which use their own software are said to be "eating their own dog food" or "dog fooding".)
Commercial operating systems (whether we're talking about Windows, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or Ubuntu) tend to fall into the category of software designed and developed by people who don't use it on a regular basis. The developers are working off a design dictated by the business, based on what the business thinks people want or what the company can sell. It's why Windows has at least three distinct interface designs and no good file manager. We also see it in how Ubuntu's community editions all dropped Flatpak in favour of supporting Snap - not because the users or developers wanted to or because it made sense for the design, but because Canonical demanded the editions do it to promote their unpopular Snap technology. When we compare the above projects against others (like Mint or Void) where the designs tend to be logical, consistent, and convenient it becomes clear the latter projects benefit from their developers using the systems they are designing and improving. We might debate the appeal of the designs, but they work and serve clear purposes. Minor annoying bugs tend to be fixed quickly and software tends to evolve smoothly in projects which dog food their own software.
The best way I can explain elementary OS, especially its live desktop (demo) experience, is that it must be developed by someone who doesn't use it. It feels overly messy, none of the Flatpaks work in the live environment, and there are too many tools to basically do the same package management. The demo mode, system installer, and first-run wizard all ask the same questions, resulting in a total of twelve screens asking me to pick my region and keyboard layout. The video player doesn't work, making me wonder why it was included instead of something more polished, such as VLC.
Another example was how the release announcement mentioned there is a Wayland session because Wayland is "secure" and the future of the desktop. But, at the same time, an X11 session is included because people might need all of their applications to actually work with their desktop environment. It feels like the project is acknowledging their want to include the new, shiny technology to appeal to potential customers while admitting it's not necessarily going to work properly. This sort of thing, this lack of healthy "dog fooding", tends to annoy me the more I use a system because it feels like I'm being offered what a marketing department thinks they can sell me rather than what will work best.
Despite this, elementary made a decent impression on me. It certainly has some issues, and a nasty habit of displaying more notifications that interrupt my workflow than I'd like. But it also works fairly well, especially if we can embrace working primarily with Flatpak bundles through the AppCentre. It feels like a somewhat streamlined (one might unkindly say "dumbed down") Linux desktop experience. But more experienced users can dance around that well enough while less experienced users can enjoy the simple approach to application design.
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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
elementary OS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 5/10 from 149 review(s).
Have you used elementary OS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Debian testing its installer for Trixie, Pop!_OS continues to face delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute Linux discontinued
The Debian project is gearing up for a new stable release which will likely be published in the middle of 2025. While the process of making a new Debian version is long we can already see previews of features to come. Debian 13 "Trixie" will prune some old architectures from its system installer and introduce one more: "There are major updates on the hardware support side: We're no longer building an installer for the armel and i386 architectures, even if they remain in the archive at the moment. The mipsel architecture was removed from the archive last year. The riscv64 architecture is brand new!" Cyril Brulebois also writes that 78 languages will be partially or fully supported in Debian 13's installer.
* * * * *
It was nearly a year ago when System76 announced the new COSMIC desktop, a Wayland-only desktop written in Rust, would soon reach alpha status. At the time System76 also reported COSMIC would be the default desktop environment for Pop!_OS 24.04, replacing the distribution's GNOME desktop. It was an ambitious goal and, despite the developers aiming for a release date in the (North American) summer of 2024, the project has experienced delays. Typically, Pop!_OS publishes new stable releases a few weeks to two months after Ubuntu, its parent distribution. However, it has been eight months since Ubuntu 24.04 was launched and over two months since Ubuntu 24.10 arrived on the scene. Meanwhile, the COSMIC desktop is still considered to be in its alpha development stage.
System76 has, so far, been silent on whether Pop!_OS will rebase to newer versions of Ubuntu (such as the upcoming 25.04 release), if they will eventually ship COSMIC on the aging 24.04 LTS base, or if the company will wait to rebase on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS before officially shipping a release of Pop!_OS with the COSMIC desktop.
* * * * *
The Ubuntu Studio team have published a report letting their users know there is an issue with performing upgrades from Ubuntu Studio version 22.04 to 24.04. "In most flavors of Ubuntu in 24.04 LTS, the idea was to have PipeWire completely replace PulseAudio as the primary sound server and would force the installation of PipeWire. However, with Ubuntu Studio, we went with a different approach of having PipeWire be the default, but be replaced by PulseAudio if the user wished to switch back to the classic, albeit unsupported, setup. This meant PipeWire had to be a 'soft' dependency rather than a 'hard' one so that it could be uninstalled by our meta packages without breaking the entire desktop meta package. However, this also made it so that the upgrade resolver (ubuntu-release-upgrader) would get confused when calculating how to perform the upgrade. This is where we are hitting the problem." The developers are working on a solution with Canonical.
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While we usually focus on new distributions and new releases, today we are taking a moment to say a fond farewell to a long-lived member of the Slackware family. Absolute Linux was a lightweight child of Slackware with a focus on reviving older computers. The distribution has been in our database for over 17 years and we covered new releases from the project as recently as June 2024. Unfortunately Absolute Linux is being shut down. A notice on the project's website states: "Age, expense, but mostly lack of time leave me no choice but to give it up. I won't bore you with the crybaby details, but I gotta make ends meet. If someone wants to take the distro over, I would be happy to freely pass it on. I enjoyed tinkering all those years!"
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
Filtering ads with a Pi-hole
A great deal of the World Wide Web runs on advertising. Selling advertising space makes up the bulk of the income for many on-line publications, personal websites, streaming content and social media networks. Unfortunately, advertising tends to be as disliked by readers as it is necessary to keep free content available. As a result a sort of cold war has evolved between advertisers and the developers who strive to block the visible ads on websites and embedded in videos.
There are a lot of ad-blocking tools, including web browser extensions, content downloaders, and parental controls. This week I want to look at an open source project called Pi-hole. The Pi-hole project provides "network-wide ad blocking". The idea behind the project is we install the Pi-hole software and then configure our network router (or individual devices) to use the Pi-hole as our DNS provider.
Pi-hole will then look at each domain our devices wish to contact. If the domain is associated with advertising, it is blocked. Domains not associated with advertising are resolved (the domain name is translated into an IP address) and the client computer is able to access the requested content. Pi-hole is a bit like an adblocker extension for your web browser, except that it works for all devices and all applications on the local network, not just web browsers on devices where we have installed an extension. Ideally, we should be able to set up Pi-hole once and then all devices on our network will automatically cease to load ads.
There are some limitations. For instance, the Pi-hole software only filters requests by domain, not specific addresses or parts of a website. This means ads served directly from websites rather than from a third party will be shown. Likewise, ads or short videos embedded in full length videos will probably show up too. This technology is focused on blocking third-party advertising, which makes up the bulk of ads on the web.
Getting started
As the name suggests, the Pi-hole software is often run on Raspberry Pi computers, though it can be run on just about any device which meets the prerequisites. Pi-hole should function successfully on any device which can run a member of the Fedora or Debian distributions. This includes CentOS Stream, Ubuntu, and Raspberry Pi OS. The documentation goes on to say most distributions running either systemd or SysV init should work with Pi-hole.
The computer running the Pi-hole service should have at least 2GB of free disk space and 512MB of RAM to spare.
A static IP address is required to use Pi-hole effectively because other devices on our network need to be able to find it without performing DNS queries (since the Pi-hole will be taking over supplying DNS information). We're also told a few network ports should be opened (and not blocked by the firewall) on the device running Pi-hole. These ports include numbers 53 (TCP and UDP) for DNS lookups and port 80 (TCP) if we want to use the Pi-hole's web interface. Ports 67 and 547 (both UDP and TCP) supply optional DNS features and I decided to open these too.
I decided to install the Pi-hole software on a PinePhone running UBports which provides an ARM build of Ubuntu.
Installing
According to the Pi-hole documentation the install process is quite straight forward. We need to download a Bash shell script and run it. There are a few ways to do this, I performed the following two-step process:
wget -O basic-install.sh https://install.pi-hole.net
sudo bash basic-install.sh
The script starts off by performing some checks on the host system, making sure SELinux isn't going to get in the way and making sure the script is running as root. Then the script installs some packages, such as the Bind DNS service. The script also reminds us that having a static IP address on our Pi-hole server is important.
The install script then uses a series of text menus to ask us to select a network interface (I imagine to listen for incoming DNS requests), and we are asked which upstream DNS service the Pi-hole software should use. Options include Google, Cloudflare, Level3, Quad9, and a few others. We can also manually input the IP addresses of a DNS service. The script next offers to set up a web admin interface and enable logging. I decided to enable both the web admin interface and logging.
The script went to work fetching Lighttpd (a web service), some PHP modules, and cURL. This process took a few minutes while the new packages were installed and configured.
Results
All of the Pi-hole install steps finished successfully, according to the status messages displayed on my terminal, except for the last one. A final message reported "DNS resolution is not available". A few quick checks showed that the Pi-hole software was running and no programs on the system could perform DNS queries. I could ping and connect to remote systems by IP address (the network connection was still active), but DNS failed to work.
I decided to try running the re-configure/repair tool. This is done by running the command "sudo pihole -r". I tried a different upstream DNS provider, otherwise stuck to using the defaults, and the install script failed - reporting it couldn't download an package called FTL. I tried restarting the Pi-hole's DNS service, but the failure to resolve hostnames persisted.
I next tried un-installing Pi-hole and this immediately restored working DNS queries on my PinePhone. I tried performing a fresh install of Pi-hole, switching the DNS provider and once again DNS name resolution broke when the install was finished.
The Pi-hole documentation doesn't offer any troubleshooting steps, so I took to forums looking for solutions. I found a lot of similar reports from people who said the install script had broken their DNS capabilities on Pi-hole servers. The issue appears to be the Pi-hole software wipes out existing DNS settings without enabling the new one we select at install time. The solution is to manually add our preferred DNS provider, either through a tool like Network Manager or by editing the /etc/resolv.conf file.
Manually adding new DNS servers on my PinePhone worked and I was able to proceed to the next step. This involves setting other client machines on the network (or our network's router) to use the Pi-hole as the DNS server. The idea being that any device on the network which wants to access remote services will ask the Pi-hole to perform DNS lookups and the Pi-hole can choose what to filter.
I ran a status check on the Pi-hole service and confirmed it was running. Pi-hole reported it was enabled and its blocking feature was running. I then started switching over the DNS settings on my Murena phone and my laptop to use the Pi-hole.
Testing the filtering
To test the filtering on these two test devices (the laptop and phone), I cleared DNS caches and web browser caches. Then I used the built-in Android browser on the phone and Firefox with no extensions on my laptop. I visited a series of websites, ones I knew provided content free of charge in exchange for showing ads. Both devices were set up to use IPv4 exclusively to simplify the test environments.
The results were immediately obvious: Pi-hole was not blocking any ads. Sites were completely plastered with sidebar ads, pop-ups, and flashy banners. This happened on both test devices. After making sure my devices' DNS settings were drawing lookup information from the Pi-hole and confirming the Pi-hole service was running this left me to wonder why nothing was being filtered. I had, after all, selected a pre-made blocklist during the install process, so why wasn't it working?
Visiting Slashdot without any ad blocking
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Visiting Slashdot through the Pi-hole
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Visiting Phoronix without blocking
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Visiting Phoronix through the Pi-hole
(full image size: 666kB, resolution: 1488x839 pixels)
To the logs!
Earlier I mentioned the Pi-hole software will log DNS requests for us and its install script offers to set up a friendly web interface for us. I couldn't find any documentation on using the web interface, but the documentation does say it's accessible on network port 80. I pointed my web browser to the PinePhone's IP address and was shown a placeholder page for Lighttpd. This meant the web service was running, but it was only showing a static page about Lighttpd which had nothing to do with Pi-hole.
I went poking through my PinePhone's filesystem, found the default web page under /var/www and discovered pages related to Pi-hole were stored under a directory called admin. So to access the Pi-hole's information we need to visit, for example, http://192.168.0.10/admin, not just http://192.168.0.10. This brought me to a login page where I was asked for the admin password.
The password is not, as one might suspect, the password for the server's admin account and it wasn't anything obvious (like "pihole" or "pi-hole" or "admin"). Fortunately the login page will tell us we can reset the password by running "sudo pihole -a -p" on the server's command line. With this accomplished, I was able to login.
The web interface is nicely laid out and offers quick access to information on connected clients, managing blocklists, and query logs. Its dashboard presents us with some key statistics. These include how many queries Pi-hole is handling along with how many requests were blocked and how many domains are in our blocklists. The problem was immediately evident looking at this status page: the number of domains in my blocklist was "-2". I'm not sure how one gets a list with a negative number of domains it in, but it seems the list was not properly fetched/installed during the initial setup process.
Pi-hole -- The web interface
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I went into the Adlists panel and clicked a button to update my copy of the adlist I had selected during the install process. A quick download later and the dashboard showed I was blocking 121,860 domains, not just -2.
I tried my tests again, browsing to a variety of news and tech websites. While I did this I was able to refresh the Pi-hole dashboard and watch the statistics change. Around half of the new queries coming into the Pi-hole were blocked. This indicated the system was working and correctly stopping some content (probably ads) from getting through.
Pi-hole -- Blocking some DNS requests
(full image size: 117kB, resolution: 1488x839 pixels)
The effect on my client devices was mixed. Some websites suddenly became clear, showing few or no ads. Others continued to show some ads, though fewer than before. Some sites continue to be covered with ads, even after my browser and DNS caches had been cleared to provide a fresh experience. A limitation of Pi-hole is that it can only block websites or domains it knows are unwanted. This means it either needs to be trained to block more domains (which can be done through the web portal) or we need to download more blocklists.
Visiting Phoronix with Pi-hole working
(full image size: 290kB, resolution: 1488x839 pixels)
Still seeing ads on Slashdot
(full image size: 1.8MB, resolution: 1440x2960 pixels)
In short, Pi-hole can do its job and block ads for the entire local network. However, it does require some setup, some manual intervention, and we will need to train it on which domains we want to block to get really good results. The end result is approximately on par with using a browser extension like AdBlock Origin or Brave's Shields feature. Using Pi-hole is more work up front, but the good news is that once it is done, every client device on the network will get the same filtering benefits, without installing any new software, extensions, or blocklists.
Removing Pi-hole
After playing with Pi-hole for a few days I decided to run the uninstall command to see how well Pi-hole would clean up. The removal script does erase Pi-hole from the system and it offers to also remove dependencies. We need to be careful at this point because the uninstall script will remove anything Pi-hole uses, including essential items which were already on the system when we started. This includes low-level, commonly used tools like grep, cURL, the cron service, and even sudo. This is a major problem because not only were these programs all installed before Pi-hole, they are also essential for running the operating system. Removing sudo is especially a problem because it would prevent the user from performing admin functions (such as re-installing the removed packages). The uninstall script can really mess up someone's operating system if they are not careful. In short: if you uninstall Pi-hole, tell it not to remove any dependencies if you want a functioning system.
I also noticed some information got left behind. For example, I allowed the script to remove Lighttpd, but its landing page was left on the system.
Conclusions
Installing and running Pi-hole is not for the faint of heart. The project's website makes it seem like a simple, two step-process: run the Pi-hole script, change your DNS settings, and (ta-da!) no more ads. However, it's not this straightforward. Even if everything goes smoothly (which it very much did not during my trial), there are several configuration steps, setting a password, fetching updated adlists, and training the Pi-hole service regarding which domains to block. This isn't a two minute "download and go" experience. With the configuration steps, fetching package dependencies, and changing DNS settings it's probably more of a 20-30 minute process, depending on how quick one's hardware is.
Pi-hole -- Adding new domains to the blocklist
(full image size: 172kB, resolution: 1488x839 pixels)
Another area which raised issues for me was the documentation. Now, to be fair to the Pi-hole project, there is some really good documentation provided. There is a command line reference page, there is a good overview of system requirements, and there is some good information on the internals of the Pi-hole database. This is great, especially for people who want to develop and add to the project. But I didn't find any documentation on accessing the web interface and the install instructions basically just say "run this command" without mentioning what the installer does, what its multiple steps do, or the effects of picking one option or DNS provider over another. I didn't find any reference to troubleshooting DNS settings, making sure the blocklists are up to date, or what to do in case of errors.
I will say that, once I got through the issues and updated the blocklists, Pi-hole did work fairly well. I can direct a computer, smart TV, or the router to use the Pi-hole as a DNS service and cut out a lot of the advertisements (or other unwanted content) from the network. This is certainly helpful, especially if you have locked down devices which don't allow you to install adblockers on them. It took a little trial and error on my part to get everything working, but once it did work, the Pi-hole did do what it set out to do. I still had to train it a little, updating the blocklist, but a day or two of that, and it cleaned up my web traffic.
Most of my devices already filter content I don't want to see, through one approach or another, but this works because my devices mostly run open operating systems - systems designed to work for me. People who run locked down devices or appliances will get a lot more out of the Pi-hole experience.
If you are in an environment with a lot of iPads, smart TVs, or Windows computers it will be more beneficial to run Pi-hole to monitor and filter down the ads. People who already run Linux desktop systems and open source phones can still benefit, but won't see as much improvement from Pi-hole's filters.
Again, I want to underline my earlier warning: if you uninstall Pi-hole from your system, don't let it remove dependencies. Removing tools like cURL, sudo, and cron can seriously break a system, requiring rescue work or a re-install. I'm not sure how this removal action has survived in the uninstall script this long, but it's dangerous.
* * * * *
Additional tips can be found in our Tips and Tricks archive.
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| Released Last Week |
postmarketOS 24.12
postmarketOS is an Alpine-based Linux distribution for mobile devices. The project's latest release, version 24.12, introduces some key changes, specifically functioning cameras on Android phones. "One thing that people have been asking us over and over is, will it be possible to use cameras with postmarketOS on Androids? While of course we all would like to see that, this is a significant challenge for postmarketOS and other Linux Mobile projects that prefer using the mainline Linux kernel and don't use the proprietary Android userspace blobs for interacting with cameras. But as you can guess from the headline, there has been a significant breakthrough: the Pixel 3A and Fairphone 5 both have front and a rear camera working now, and somebody even reported being able to record video on the FP5. One of the two rear cameras of the Pocophone F1 also works now. As you would expect, this is not on-par with Android's implementation yet and some of the media has a bit of a retro appeal at the moment. Nevertheless, this is a major achievement! Thanks to Robert, Richard, Luca, Joel, Alistair as well as the libcamera and Megapixels folks!" Additional details and changes can be found in the project's release announcement.
siduction 2024.1.0
The siduction distribution is a desktop-oriented operating system and live medium based on the "Unstable" branch of Debian. The rolling release project's latest snapshot, version 2024.1.0, provides several desktop upgrades, including KDE Plasma 6. "The flavors we offer for siduction 2024.1.0 include KDE Plasma 6.2.4.1, LXQt 2.1.0, Xfce 4.20, Xorg and noX. GNOME, MATE and Cinnamon have not made it again, as there is no maintainer for them within siduction. They may return one day or not. Of course, they are still installable from the repository. Plasma 6 has now nearly fully arrived in 'Unstable' and 'Testing' and will be available for Debian 13 'Trixie'. Although Wayland is the default session type in Plasma 6, we have opted for X11 as the default, as Calamares currently does not take the desired keyboard layout under Wayland. This could have severe consequences in encrypted installations. However, you can at any time switch to Wayland in SDDM. As existing users, you've likely already upgraded to Plasma 6 and now the current Plasma generation is also available for fresh installations." Further details can be found in the release announcement.
siduction 2024.1.0 -- Exploring the Plasma desktop
(full image size: 1.4MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
MakuluLinux 2024-12-22
Jacque Montague Raymer has announced the release of a brand-new version of MakuluLinux, a user-friendly distribution integrating the Cinnamon desktop and various Artificial Intelligence tools with the "Testing" branch of the Debian distribution. The latest release, labelled as version "2022-12-22", is part of the project's "LinDoz" range of products: "Welcome to MakuluLinux LinDoz 2025, our most ambitious release to date. This version marks a significant shift in the LinDoz ecosystem, introducing a new foundation, enhanced features and cutting-edge AI integrations. For the first time, LinDoz is built on a Debian base instead of Ubuntu. This change enhances stability and opens new doors for advanced functionality. Running on the Cinnamon 6.2.0 framework and Linux kernel 6.10, LinDoz 2025 offers improved performance and compatibility. Highlights: a complete overhaul of the core system for improved stability and flexibility; extensive testing to ensure a smooth experience for users; redesigned themes with light and dark modes; subtle UI changes to improve readability and visual appeal; introduction of powerful AI tools directly within the OS." See the release announcement (with a video introduction) and the release notes for further information.
4MLinux 47.0
4MLinux is a minimal distribution which ships tools for four types of tasks: servers, gaming, multimedia and system rescue. The project's latest stable version is 47.0 which comes with upgraded applications for the Internet, including Firefox 133.0, Chrome 131.0 and Thunderbird 128.5, besides various other improvements: "The status of the 4MLinux 47.0 series has been changed to STABLE. As always, the new major release has some new features. GNOME CD Master (GUI frontend for cdrdao), Dia (program for drawing diagrams), GLiv (OpenGL image viewer), XRoar (Dragon and Tandy 8-bit computer emulator) as well as many command line MOD/MIDI players are now available out of the box. Gnubik (famous puzzle game) and GNU Backgammon have been added to the 4MLinux GamePack package (downloadable extension). Support for hundreds of old image formats is now provided by RECOIL (Retro Computer Image Library with its GIMP plugin). And finally, it is now possible to install 4MLinux on virtual KVM block devices (/dev/vda1, /dev/vda2, and so on)." A complete list of package updates is presented in the release announcement.
Nobara Project 41
Nobara Project is a modified version of Fedora Linux with user-friendly fixes added to it. The project's latest version is based on Fedora 41 and ships with an updated system installer, new accessibility options, and updated video drivers. "Calamares installer: Rebased on top of KaOS Linux fork for more feature options as well as on-screen keyboard functionality. Toggle added for on-screen keyboard. On-screen keyboard now comes up within the installer instead of taking up half the screen Network check has been removed. Nobara can be installed completely offline from any ISO downloaded. Mesa: We have noticed with a few benchmark videos throughout the past year that sometimes games may not run with Vulkan at all (very rare). This can happen as a regression because we shipped Vulkan built from git. Moving forward we have changed that. Nobara will now ship with the latest stable Vulkan drivers that come with the latest Mesa release, however, we've added mesa-vulkan-drivers-git to the driver manager so users can easily swap back and forth between the two whenever they please. This should allow benchmarkers on a fresh install to have more stable results while still allowing users the choice of using drivers regularly built from git." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
Nobara Project 41 -- Exploring the live media
(full image size: 2.5MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
* * * * *
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: 3,132
- Total data uploaded: 46.1TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Do you use Pi-hole?
In this week's Tips and Tricks column we talked about Pi-hole, a software package for blocking ads for all devices on a network. We'd like to hear from our readers: are any of you running the Pi-hole software at home? Let us know how effective you found it to be.
You can see the results of our previous poll on the best distribution of 2024 in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Do you run Pi-hole at home?
| Yes - and it is effective: | 230 (11%) |
| Yes - but it is not effective enough: | 34 (2%) |
| No - I did in the past and it worked: | 99 (5%) |
| No - I did in the past but it was not useful: | 49 (2%) |
| No - I have not tried it: | 1702 (81%) |
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|
| Website News |
New projects added to database
DAT Linux
DAT Linux is a Linux distribution for data science. It provides an automated package manager for fetching dozens of open source, data science tools and apps. It's based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and runs the LXQt desktop. The custom DAT Linux Control Panel provides a centralised one-stop-shop for running, updating, and managing many of data science programs.
DAT Linux 2.0 -- Running the LXQt desktop
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Ditana GNU/Linux
Ditana GNU/Linux is an Arch-based Linux distribution that bridges the gap between user-friendly systems and highly customizable environments. It aims to empower Linux enthusiasts with unprecedented control over their computing experience while maintaining a strong focus on security and performance. The project provides a flexible, text-based system installer with extensive customisation options, an Xfce desktop environment with pre-installed enhancements, a modular structure, pre-configured security features and kernel settings, and intelligent hardware and system optimisations for peak performance.
Ditana GNU/Linux 0.9.0 Beta -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 3.1MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
- iDeal OS. iDeal OS is a Linux distribution which is based on MX Linux. The project provides a respin of MX Linux with additional security and parental controls. iDeal OS also offers a commercial edition with more developer tools and utilities for content creation.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 13 January 2025. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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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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| Random Distribution | 
ChaletOS
ChaletOS was a beginner-friendly Linux distribution based on Xubuntu and featuring the Xfce desktop. It provides a simple and intuitive desktop interface, modest hardware requirements and five years of security support. The name ChaletOS was derived from Swiss mountain houses whose concepts of simplicity, beauty and recognisability inspired the creation and design of ChaletOS.
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 - 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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