 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1109, 17 February 2025 |
|
Welcome to this year's 7th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
I think all of us Linux users, at one point or another, want to see how close we can get to the cutting edge, how high we can ride the wave of progress. Sometimes it goes well and it is a thrilling experience, a glorious high from which we can look down on the lumbering world of luddites. Other times the wave breaks over us, dragging us into the cold depths of system recovery. This week we are going to talk about some new developments and projects which are either forging ahead bravely or seeking shelter from the raging storm of innovation. We begin with a look at new features in two projects: Rhino Linux and the Xfce 4.20 desktop (as provided by MX Linux). Both projects are offering new, evolutionary steps forward and we talk about them in our Feature Story. In our News section we report on GhostBSD getting off the progress treadmill. GhostBSD is moving from using FreeBSD's "STABLE" branch to the fixed "RELEASE" branch, to avoid breaking changes and bugs. We also report on Redox stabilising its ABI and porting new gaming software while UBports tests out new alpha snapshots of its upcoming 24.04 "Noble" release. Asahi Linux is undergoing a change in the way it is run and we talk about this below along with an ongoing conflict between Fedora and the OBS project. Back on the topic of progress, most desktop environments are gradually shifting away from X11 in favour of Wayland and, in the process, leaving many related tools behind. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about ways to accomplish the same command line invoked tasks under Wayland as we did under X11. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. To finish this week, we are pleased to welcome the Zenned distribution to our database. Zenned is an Arch-based project which offers a live desktop and the KDE Plasma interface. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
|
| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Rhino Linux 2025.1
Rhino Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution which offers a rolling release model and a customized Xfce desktop the project calls Unicorn. The Rhino distribution ships with several package managers for handling Deb, Flatpak, and Pacstall packages. To unify the software management experience Rhino also includes a custom meta package manager.
I tried Rhino Linux relatively recently, back in September of 2024, and the experience was mostly positive. The reason I mention Rhino today, just five months later, is the project published an update in January and a few items in the release notes caught my attention. I decided to try out the latest snapshot and talk about some of the highlights - things which have changed since my previous review.
The first thing I noticed about the new 2025.1 version is the ISO file has grown from 2.2GB to 2.6GB. I also noticed that, despite one of the highlights in the release notes being a welcome window, no window or wizard greeted me when I booted the live media. I was presented with a mostly empty desktop, apart from a dock, a desktop panel placed across the top of the screen, and a system installer icon. I jumped straight into the installer.
When I tried out the Rhino distribution last year I mentioned the installer worked well, except the "Release Notes" button on the first page failed to show me the notes. Clicking it had produced an error message. This is still the case, clicking the Release Notes button pops up an error which says: "Failed to execute default Web Browser". Unfortunately, no one has addressed this in the past five months.
Then and now
Once I had installed Rhino Linux 2025.1 I dived into the project's release notes and exploring the new features. Below are the key points from the project's notes and then my comments on the new features.
One of our more exciting changes will be the inclusion of our brand-new Hello Rhino application. Written in Rust and using IcedTK, this application serves to help provide useful links to our homepage, blog, Discord community and documentation. Hello Rhino will automatically launch after post installation to help jump start the Rhino journey.
The first time I signed into my account I was greeted by two windows. Both windows display the Rhino logo. The first window simply shows a button labelled "Let's Start". This first-run wizard existed in past versions of the distribution and it walks the user through enabling key features. For example, we're asked if we'd like to install support for various package formats such as Snap, Flatpak, Nix, and AppImage. We're also offered an array of container and virtual machine managers such as Docker, Podman, Apptainer, QEMU, and VirtualBox. Then we're asked if we'd like to install Nala (an APT replacement), GitHub CLI, Apport for reporting crashes, and Redshift for changing the colour temperature of the screen. Each of these items is optional and we can toggle buttons next to them.
After we make our selections, the first-run wizard prompts us for our password and installs the items we chose. Actually, we're prompted for our password twice - once to install items and once more to remove some unneeded items. Then we're asked to restart the computer.
Rhino Linux 2025.1 -- The new greeter window
(full image size: 194kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The second window which greets us is the new Hello Rhino application. It shows us a brief welcome message and then presents us with five buttons labelled as follows: Announcements, Discord, Wiki, GitHub, and Reddit. Clicking any one of the buttons opens Firefox to show the on-line resource. I'd like to note the web browser can open links once the system is installed, it just doesn't work when we click links in the live environment.
We are now shipping our own custom GRUB theme with Rhino Linux. While this is quite a small change, it brings a more modern feel to an often overlooked part of the Linux experience. Our new GRUB theme will make the Unicorn aesthetic more cohesive from the moment you boot up the installer.
The GRUB boot loader screen doesn't appear automatically. We can press and hold a key during system start-up to make the GRUB screen appear. It does look nice, in my opinion. The menu has a sort of 1980s cyberpunk style, but less pixelated. It may be hidden by default, but when it does show up, it looks appealing. The menu still works the same as GRUB on other distributions, this one just has more vibrant lines.
Rhino Linux 2025.1 -- The new GRUB menu
(full image size: 200kB, resolution: 640x480 pixels)
The Unicorn desktop finally has dynamic workspaces, bringing extra efficiency and flexibility to the already powerful Unicorn desktop. Previously, with static workspaces, you were restricted to a maximum of four, or had to manually create and manage the number of spaces yourself. Unicorn will now automatically create a new workspace each time the previous ones have an application open on them, and once there are no applications open on a workspace, it will be destroyed. The decision to incorporate this feature draws inspiration from desktop environments like GNOME, and the expandable workflow they provide.
I feel the above statement from the project over-sells the situation a bit, or at least the dynamic desktops don't work the way people coming from other dynamic workspaces probably expect. All new windows open on the currently active virtual desktop. The announcement says: "Unicorn will now automatically create a new workspace each time the previous ones have an application open on them." However, I found all new windows opened on the same, active workspace and no new workspaces were generated. The announcement says: "Once there are no applications open on a workspace, it will be destroyed." What I found was closing all open windows on a virtual desktop does not destroy it. Or rather, the workspace is not destroyed until we manually move away from it after all windows have been closed, the destruction doesn't happen immediately.
It is true that when all active workspaces are full, the interface always makes sure there is an empty one. However, to make use of the empty workspace we need to manually move a window to that new workspace and then switch to it. (Or switch to it and launch a new window.) So it's a three step process - open new program, move it to another desktop, then switch to that desktop. Later, to remove a workspace, we switch to it, close all applications, and then move away from that workspace.
Rhino Linux 2025.1 -- The workspaces overview
(full image size: 188kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
I feel like the Unicorn approach introduces more steps than the old, static way where a person would just move to a workspace and open the applications they want on that workspace. I'm not sure I see the benefit of the "dynamic" approach, but maybe with time I'll find a way to improve my workflow with the extra virtual desktops.
I found two more problems with the new, dynamic workspace feature.
- The button for showing an overview of active workspaces is in the dock on the left side of the screen. When it is clicked, available workspaces are shown on the far right. This means to switch to an empty workspace and open an application from the dock requires crossing the entire width of the monitor with the mouse at least 2.5 times.
- Applications with unified titlebars (such as Firefox) do not seem to have any option for moving them between workspaces. We can right-click on the file manager or terminal titlebar and switch them to another workspace, but Firefox doesn't seem to have this option. This is not really Rhino's fault, but the inconsistency makes the experience awkward.
Moving on to other topics... "The issue with the Install Rhino Linux icon not displaying on the desktop of the live image has been resolved.
This is a simple and true statement; the installer's icon does appear on the live desktop.
We are happy to announce the release of Rhino Stampede, the Rhino Linux testing meta-package. We hope that by releasing a testing package, we are able to open the door for users and developers alike to test our new features with greater ease. Packages in Rhino Stampede are expected to be work in progress, so installing the package should be done with intention.
The release notes didn't mention which of the many package managers provided this new Stampede package. I searched with APT first and, when that didn't reveal a match, I turned to Pacstall. Pacstall did indeed provide a package called rhino-stampede-dev. I installed it successfully, though it didn't appear to affect anything. My APT repositories appeared to be unchanged, no new updates became available, and Pacstall seemed to be pulling from the same repository. The release announcement did say Stampede would, at some point, offer a new theme and icons, so perhaps they just haven't become available yet. (Or maybe they are available, but I need to manually install new packages to acquire the changes.) At any rate, enabling Stampede did not appear to affect my system.
The Rhino release notes mention Pacstall has been upgraded from version 5.5 to 6.0. Pacstall provides a framework for installing third-party software on Ubuntu and related projects such as Rhino. The version of Pacstall on Rhino 2025.1 is 6.1.0, so it looks like it has been further updated since the release notes were written. Pacstall worked for me and I was able to install a few applications with it.
Rhino Linux 2025.1 -- Checking for updates across all package formats
(full image size: 241kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Conclusions
Rhino is making incremental progress, mostly fixing small bugs and adding small features. There isn't anything big or earth shattering in this snapshot, but there are little improvements and a few new features. I think this is a good sign, it shows the project is maturing and isn't making any drastic changes to its design.
There are still a few minor issues and I think the dynamic workspace feature could be polished further, but otherwise this is a solid release. I particularly like the Rhino meta package manager which unifies software upgrades across all package sources. I'd like to see more distributions adopt it (or a similar tool) to streamline updates.
* * * * *
MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20
A new release of MX Linux, a desktop-focused, Debian-based distribution was published in January. The new version, 23.5, offers one feature in particular I was eager to try: Xfce 4.20.
The Xfce desktop release notes mention several changes, both visible and behind the scenes. The main focus of the 4.20 release (which follows 4.18) was getting the middle-weight desktop ready for Wayland. Most of the changes listed in the notes mention adjustments to make Xfce Wayland-compatible.
The release notes also mention more front-line changes and I'd like to touch on a handful of them.
The release notes mention scaling for icons and, while most things (including icons) looked the same on my screen, the icons on the desktop panel did look wider. Switching from Xfce 4.18 to 4.20 seemed to plump them up.
Also on the topic of icons, the Thunar file manager has a new icon which appears next to mount points. I think the release notes are referring to the icons next to mount points in the screenshot below.
Xfce 4.20 -- Running the Thunar file manager
(full image size: 64kB, resolution: 852x696 pixels)
According to the release notes, file transfers should be faster as no MD5 checksum is performed to confirm the source and destination match. This was using up a lot of time accessing the disk and calculating checksums which didn't seem to be offering a concrete benefit. I usually didn't use Thunar for file transfers so I couldn't give a solid comparison. I will say that, when I tried copying files on Xfce 4.20, the transfers happened quickly.
Xfce's release notes mention settings for screen locking and the screensaver have been simplified. The Security tab has also been dropped from the Power Manager module. This all seems accurate. Screen locking works and the power settings worked in terms of blanking the screen when the system was idle.
Xfce 4.20 -- Power manager settings
(full image size: 40kB, resolution: 617x609 pixels)
The Xfce project has stated that for the 4.20 release the logout dialog will not provide a checkbox to enable session saving anymore. This is accurate. As far as I can tell, there isn't any way to save outgoing sessions anymore. However, the session settings module will give us the ability to choose which programs to launch when we login. This is likely to provide a cleaner environment and avoid poorly acting applications from being resurrected when we logout and login again.
Xfce 4.20 -- The logout confirmation box
(full image size: 294kB, resolution: 1536x864 pixels)
Version 4.20 of Xfce now offers an optional Wayland session and it's possible to start the Wayland session by running the command: "startxfce4 --wayland". When I tried this on MX Linux a message appeared in my terminal saying the labwc package was required and should be installed. This package does not appear to be included in MX Linux.
Alternatively, the user can run "startxfce4 --wayland" and pass a parameter specifying the name of another Wayland compositor. I didn't have one on my system, but it seems as though Xfce is trying to be flexible about which Wayland components we use with the desktop environment.
Conclusions
The new Xfce release focuses mostly on background fixes and preparation work for Wayland. As with most Xfce releases, this one is fairly conservative in that not a lot of user-facing changes were introduced. This approach has given Xfce a well deserved reputation for stability over the years, both in terms of not crashing and not introducing big design changes. This means a user can upgrade through the 4.x series without encountering any jarring adjustments to their workflow.
While this release was mostly focused on preparing for the shift to Wayland, there were some streamlining adjustments too. None of them are big, but I think it goes a little ways toward making the system less cluttered and more efficient without removing any key functionality. A few screens have been removed or combined, Thunar should copy files faster, scaling should be a little nicer. And that's about it, a nice, evolutionary change that moves the desktop forward without leaving its users behind.
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
Rhino Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 5.4/10 from 25 review(s).
Have you used Rhino Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
GhostBSD plans move its base to FreeBSD RELEASE, Redox stabilises its ABI, UBports testing new 24.04 snapshots, Asahi Linux changing its leadership, OBS disputes Fedora shipping crippled OBS Flatpak
The GhostBSD project is making a change to its release process, moving away from FreeBSD's development ("STABLE") branch and shifting to using the latest fixed ("RELEASE") branch. "Starting with the next release, GhostBSD will be built on FreeBSD RELEASE instead of STABLE. The upcoming version will be based on FreeBSD 14.2-RELEASEp1. This change brings several benefits: Greater stability - RELEASE versions undergo extensive testing before they are finalized. Predictable updates - RELEASE follows a structured patching cycle, making it easier to maintain. Less troubleshooting overhead - STABLE often introduces unexpected issues, requiring additional time and effort to resolve. By using FreeBSD RELEASE, we can spend less time fixing stability issues and more time developing and improving GhostBSD." Details on the new approach and versioning scheme can be found in the project's blog post.
* * * * *
The Redox OS project published its newsletter for the month of January and it contained a few impressive steps forward. One was the porting of the LOVE gaming engine (and associated tools) which opens up more gaming options for Redox users. The other involves dynamic linking and making the system library's ABI stable: "Thanks to Anhad Singh for his amazing work on Dynamic Linking! In this southern-hemisphere-Redox-Summer-of-Code project, Anhad has implemented dynamic linking as the default build method for many recipes, and all new porting can use dynamic linking with relatively little effort. This is a huge step forward for Redox, because relibc can now become a stable ABI. And having a stable ABI is one of the prerequisites for Redox to reach 'Release 1.0'."
* * * * *
The UBports team is gearing up for a new release of their mobile operating system. The project is currently testing an alpha build of version 24.04 (codename Noble). "The alpha test version of Noble has been released and is available for almost all devices which currently run Focal. We have to remind you that it is just a test version and that at the moment there is no support from OpenStore. Using the terminal you can install apps by signing the path, using root and authorising each install. We can say at this stage that all of the hardware features are working. Apart from the fact that there is no direct way to install apps it already functions really quite well. It has been possible to reduce the size of the image by a small amount and that means that SnapD is built-in by default. Evolution Webserver is built without the webkit GTK dependency. That saves us around 100MB and we will be able to use that space to include more features as standard." Additional details are provided in the project's newsletter.
* * * * *
A dispute between the Open Broadcasting Software (OBS Studio) project and the Fedora distribution is ongoing. OBS had complained to Fedora that the Linux distribution was shipping a Flatpak bundle of OBS in which much of the normal functionality was broken while maintaining OBS's name and trademarks. Further, the broken OBS Flatpak shipped by Fedora was overriding the official OBS Flatpak supplied by Flathub when users had both repositories enabled. This resulted in frustrated users and bug reports being submitted to the OBS project for a package they did not create or support. The OSNews website has a good overview of the events to date: "One of the applications this happened to is OBS, and over three weeks ago the OBS project requested that either the broken, unofficial Fedora Flatpak be removed, or that it be made clear that the Flatpak was third-party. This request seems entirely reasonable to me, and it would be fairly trivial for Fedora to do this. In fact, I think respecting this request is merely common decency. Sadly, the Fedora project thought differently, and just... Ignored the request. And so the OBS project escalated the issue." The broken Fedora package remains in place at time of writing, but with a warning that the package is no longer receiving updates.
* * * * *
The Asahi Linux project, which forms the basis of Fedora Asahi Remix, is a project which makes Linux run on Apple's M-series hardware. The Asahi Linux project's founder, Hector Martin, has decided to step down from leading Asahi. In his farewell blog post, Martin mentions the constant request for new features from users, diminishing donations, and the team's inability to get changes committed upstream in the Linux kernel as key reasons for his plan to leave Asahi Linux.
The Asahi Linux project has announced plans to adjust their governance and funding to continue functioning with seven remaining developers: "Our priority is kernel upstreaming. Our downstream Linux tree contains over 1000 patches required for Apple Silicon that are not yet in upstream Linux. The upstream kernel moves fast, requiring us to constantly rebase our changes on top of upstream while battling merge conflicts and regressions. Janne, Neal, and marcan have rebased our tree for years, but it is laborious with so many patches. Before adding more, we need to reduce our patch stack to remain sustainable long-term. We cannot predict how the process will go, but we are committed to do our part."
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools
Making-the-change asks: I've been testing out moving from X11 desktops to Wayland. I'm most of the way there, but one thing that holds me back are all the X11 console programs to automate things. Under X11 I can use xdotool to script actions and xclip to manipulate the clipboard. Are there any equivalents for Wayland?
DistroWatch answers: First, for people who may not be familiar with these types of tools, I would like to share some background. There are a number of command line utilities which provide ways to manipulate windows, send input to applications, and copy text between programs. It is possible to move the mouse, simulate typing at the keyboard, and click on things - all from the command line. These tools are often used to script common actions.
For example, we might want to open a web browser, set the window to appear "above" other windows, move it to the side of the desktop, and then send the "Refresh" keyboard shortcut to it every minute. This would provide us with a sort of desktop widget that would show us regular updates on a website. Something like this can be accomplished with a half-dozen lines of shell script. Similar tools can be helpful when running command line programs and automatically copying their output to the clipboard to be pasted into a desktop application.
As an example, when I'm putting together the Torrent Corner section of our weekly newsletter, I don't create the table of torrents and their checksums by hand. There is a script which cycles through our torrents, calculates the checksum information, and writes the table, dumping it all to a file. The script then runs "xclip -selection clipboard -in torrent-table.html" to copy the result to my clipboard so that I can paste it into the newsletter. It saves me the steps of selecting and copying the output manually.
While not widely used, these tools have been around for a long time and some people, especially those who want to automate aspects of their desktop workflow, have grown fond of the X.Org command line helpers. These tools are usually packaged under the names xdotool and xclip.
There are Wayland equivalents for most of these X.Org command line tools. Many of them can be found in a package called ydotool. This package provides tools for simulating mouse movement, clicking, and typing. There are also tools provided by the wlrctl software. The wlrctl tools offer ways to simulate keyboard and mouse input, while also offering ways to move windows and apply focus to windows.
Wayland users also have their own clipboard utility called wl-clipboard. It can be used to copy text and images between applications and the project's website offers some good examples of the Wayland clipboard in action.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
Netrunner 25
The Netrunner team has announced the release of Netrunner 25, a desktop Linux distribution based on Debian's latest "stable" branch and featuring the KDE Plasma desktop. This version is the project's first build based on Debian 12; it ships with Linux kernel 6.1 and KDE Plasma 5.27: "The Netrunner team is happy to announce the release of Netrunner 25 'Shockworm', a 64-bit ISO image. Netrunner 25 ships with all the latest security updates provided by Debian and a beautiful new wallpaper showing this release's new code name. Netrunner ships with various tools and applications that can be used daily. It features the Linux kernel 6.1.128, KDE Plasma 5.27.5, Qt 5.15.2, Firefox 128.6.0 ESR, LibreOffice 7.4.7 and VLC 3.0.21. As always, we provide our ISO images on our download page. If you need help or want to give feedback, don't hesitate to contact us via our forums." The brief release announcement provides some details about the release and it also includes several screenshots.
Netrunner 25 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 2.2MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
EndeavourOS 2025.02.08
Bryan Poerwo has announced the availability of EndeavourOS 2025.02.08, code-named "Mercury", a significant update of the project's desktop Linux distribution based on Arch Linux: "The 'Mercury' ISO image ships with the following packages for both the live environment and the offline install option: Calamares 25.02.1.4, Firefox 135.0, Linux kernel 6.13.1, Mesa 24.3.4, X.Org Server 21.1.15-1, NVIDIA 570.86.16. New features and improvements: the ISO image now has a memory test for EFI too; the issue with BIOS/Legacy installs is resolved; KDE Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, MATE, Budgie and Cinnamon use a dark theme by default; Xfce theme is now closer to the default setup; GNOME sets dark and light wallpapers on changing mode automatically; replacing empty space with the 'replace partition' option is working again; the installer showing double entries for the EFI selection dropdown is resolved; EndeavourOS branding is easier to find and use for artists and media usage; both mirror lists ranked now before installation will be copied to the target." Read the full release announcement for more information.
Chimera Linux 20250214
The Chimera Linux project has announced a new snapshot of the team's rolling release distribution. "The images come with a fresh version of apk-tools. This version finally supports several features that we began using, particularly variable expansion and being able to migrate most of its files into a system-wide /usr location. That means you finally have a way to properly change your mirror of choice without having to mess with the repository definitions. The process of doing that is in the relevant documentation section. The repository definitions have been updated to use the new v3-style index naming, though backwards compatibility is also provided. Kernel 6.13 is used in the new images. That means updated hardware support and other things. Both the GNOME and Plasma images (the latter is still experimental) come with the latest versions of their respective desktop environments. Various fixes have been made to allow the live system to work better and more seamlessly on more machines. Additionally, 32-bit PowerPC images are now a standard release architecture and included in the batch. We have some plans to also introduce support for the LoongArch64 ISA, which may join them next time." Additional details are offered in the project's release announcement.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 3,156
- Total data uploaded: 46.5TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
What are your thoughts on Xfce 4.20?
This week we touched upon changes to the Xfce desktop as embodied by version 4.20 of the desktop environment. Xfce tends to move slowly and carefully compared to other, larger desktop projects, introducing small changes to the interface. What do you think of Xfce 4.20? Let us know what you liked or disliked in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on introducing more AI tools into Linux distributions in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
What do you think of Xfce 4.20?
| I like it better than 4.18: | 201 (9%) |
| I like and it is about the same as 4.18: | 268 (12%) |
| I like it less than 4.18: | 15 (1%) |
| I like it and have not tried version 4.18: | 9 (0%) |
| I do not like it but it is better than 4.18: | 2 (0%) |
| I do not like it and have not used 4.18: | 9 (0%) |
| I do not like it and it is about the same as 4.18: | 16 (1%) |
| I do not like it and it is worse than 4.18: | 31 (1%) |
| Have not tried Xfce 4.20: | 1611 (75%) |
|
|
| Website News |
New projects added to database
Zenned
Zenned is an Arch-based desktop distribution which runs the KDE Plasma desktop. The project provides a friendly, live environment and the Calamares system installer to help users get started.
Zenned 2025.02.10 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 1.8MB, resolution: 1920x1440 pixels)
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 24 February 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)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Xfce 4.20 (by Kek on 2025-02-17 06:31:05 GMT from United States)
> Switching from Xfce 4.18 to 4.20 seemed to plump them up.
NGL, I'm down with the thickness.
It's nice to see updates for Xfce. Can't wait to check it out.
2 • XFCE 4.20 + wmtile 1.0.1 (by Carlo Alessandro Verre on 2025-02-17 08:47:34 GMT from Italy)
A better alternative to XFCE 4.20 is XFCE 4.20 plus wmtile, on Debian & sons you can install it by:
$ sudo apt install pipx wmctrl xdotool
$ pipx install wmtile
$ pipx ensurepath
close terminal, open another
$ wmtile -L
and for further details see the wmtile User Manual by:
$ wmtile -H
3 • MXLinux (by Kruger on 2025-02-17 09:26:59 GMT from Australia)
Way too many applications installed on MXLinux. Why is there no minimal? I don't want 200 apps which i can't uninstall without breaking dependencies.
4 • Asahi Linux Project Leader (by anamezon on 2025-02-17 09:35:52 GMT from Finland)
DW, there is much more to the quitting of Asahi Linux project leader besides the few reasons mentioned in your news section post, and it has to do with Rust 4 Linux ... a link to start getting informed https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/13/ashai_linux_head_quits/
5 • OBS Studio / Fedora managed flatpack - security threat or theatre? (by Dob on 2025-02-17 09:45:42 GMT from United Kingdom)
Fedora’s policies for sharing flatpack code / dependencies down stream may have necessitated some tweaking.
The only question is…
were the apparently borked changes made in the best security interests of computer systems
- or perhaps to address a higher priority (greater good)
I.e, for the surveillance and interception needs of governments / society.
While nobody here wants back door vulnerabilities (stealth access) to their computer systems
- most people expect and accept some degree of safeguards for minimising the social impact of harmful content generation / broadcasting
Be it disinformation propaganda or sadistic content or predatory in nature.
6 • Questions (by thim on 2025-02-17 10:39:06 GMT from Greece)
I think that xfce 4.20 has some minor but noticeable improvements over it' s predecessor. Overall, xfce remains a sane option for a desktop environment, at least if you vslue predictability and stability. Does not make controversial and disrupting changes. Does not releases every 1, 2 or 3 months.
@5, you can try antix base or antix coreor antix net
@2, so why do we read distrowatch at first place? Let us ask AI to review Rhino or any distro
I
7 • XFCE 4.10 (by dragonmouth on 2025-02-17 11:43:28 GMT from United States)
Have not tried it and will not.
8 • @2, What year is it? (by TheTeacher) @5, MXLinux (by Tumbleweeds on 2025-02-17 11:53:48 GMT from United States)
@2, "Go ask ChatGPT, Gemini, perplexity.ai or whatever" I'm an old fossil who likes those AI whatchamacallits. Before that, I used search engines, but the chat thingies are better, and so nice and polite. I haven't asked a question in a forum of DW-like website in ages. But, that's not because asking questions in such places is not a good and valid way of getting answers. It's simple: I figure that if I have problem or question, someone has had the same problem or question before, and answers will be out there. This is true almost every time. (A few times I just resolved it on my own.)
You have the wrong idea about the AI chat tools. They don't create answers. They find them just like I do, only they are much more efficient and faster. They are internet crawlers with complex learning algorithms and huge, expanding databases. If no one has asked the question and no NI (natural intelligence) has answered it, the AI will have nothing to show.
Then there's GIGO. If someone in a forum gives bad info, it's very likely someone else will point it out. But it your AI get it's information from a garbage source, you will be swallowing garbage unless you check it out somewhere else. Which is why I always double-check.
9 • Asahi Linux leadership change (by Jesse on 2025-02-17 11:57:44 GMT from Canada)
@4: "DW, there is much more to the quitting of Asahi Linux project leader besides the few reasons mentioned in your news section post, and it has to do with Rust 4 Linux ... a link to start getting informed..."
Instead of linking to an article in the Register in our News post, I linked directly to the blog post from the developer stepping down which explains it without outside commentary. We like to link to original sources whenever possible.
10 • MX Linux (by moulder on 2025-02-17 14:10:37 GMT from United Kingdom)
A couple of people have said "@5" to what I'm guessing was supposed to be @3 regarding the MX Linux comment.
Anyway, @3.
How about getting a community respin of MX and making it your own instead?
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mx-linux/files/Community_Respins/
I installed both minimal and cli respins recently. The minimal has 1295 packages(not very minimal in my opinion) and the core has 303(no desktop, xorg etc).
Personally, after a lot of years of distrohopping, I find building up from cli/minimal much better than stripping down something bloated and risking breaking dependencies.
11 • Xfce 4.10 (by Barnabyh on 2025-02-17 15:56:27 GMT from South Africa)
I would not try XFce 4.10 either, it's obsolete -:).
12 • wayland... (by kokomiko on 2025-02-17 19:35:59 GMT from Germany)
Fifteen years of development, and Wayland still isn't as good as X11.
13 • @3 MX (by grindstone on 2025-02-17 20:18:59 GMT from United States)
If it's performance you seek (and not package count alone), antiX is the light co-project with MX and there are several "weights". If you poke-around on the antix forum, you will find that work has been conducted to run xfce 4.20 on antiX. As always, if thin-thin is what you want, something has to give. DSL is thin-thin or you could start from the -core antiX and make your own.
14 • @12 Not only that, but... (by grindstone on 2025-02-17 20:22:44 GMT from United States)
...diverting resources from maintaining X has left both bumpy rides. Figured it would take a while, but... It's increasingly impossible to run older machines (shout out to the TC people keeping tinyX limping along!)
15 • MX Linux (by J. Bonsey on 2025-02-17 20:25:26 GMT from United States)
I love MX Linux. Lots of apps installed and some cool tools. Seems to work with just about any hardware, particularly the MX Fluxbox edition. Keep -Up the awesome work MX Linux team!
16 • Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases (by rhtoras on 2025-02-17 23:26:37 GMT from Greece)
This list has some very nice and niche projects to check.
MidnightBSD 3.2.2 is a nice fork of free bsd whic i watch closely
openmamba GNU/Linux 20250212 unfortunatelly has systemD otherwise i would look at it closely
Linux From Scratch 12.3-rc1 i like the idea, i have to try, fatdog64 based on it is nice
Alpine Linux 3.21.3, 3.20.6, 3.19.7, 3.18.12 I like how it works, musl, openrc and kiss principles
FreeBSD 13.5-BETA2 (Announcement) i still prefer openbsd but freebsd works too and is quite similar
Calculate Linux 20250215 gentoo for the new user... nice project based on Russia
Venom Linux 20250216 i like this distro which is source based... scratch is a nice package manager also i would love to see runit back again )
although sysV init works too) btw it's creator made Alice linux, so go check it
Refracta 12.2 is a great project based on Devuan with great tools... this is what i suggest to new users and i hope for a new review... btw nodbus iso is the only one available these days ootb
17 • @10 MXLinux (by Kruger on 2025-02-17 23:40:12 GMT from Australia)
How do you trust a community spin which is not officially affiliated by MX?
Who knows if there are any backdoors in these spins. There isn't even any sourcecode or Git repo.
Fedora spins are officially associated with Fedora.
Manjaro has spins associated with Manjaro.
Antix suffers from the same overloaded apps as MXLinux. Sure, it is smaller, but i don't need 4 ugly and outdated horrible windows managers. Antix-core requires too much command line shennanigans to get going.
All the major distros imo, should release a minimal version which a person can build on, not just a fully loaded distro with apps you don't want.
In the end i went with Debian 12, Gnome, gutted it and now have it running at 580Mb ram on boot without any Gnome software except the shell, session terminal and disk utility + the apps i want on it.
18 • XFCE4 (by Devlin7 on 2025-02-18 03:10:30 GMT from New Zealand)
The great thing about Linux is there is choice. I don't use XFCE, I am surprised that it is one of the standard desktop options for so many distros, I have tried it in so many distros over the years and it doesn't tick the boxes for me. I get why people use it, it is stable, lighter than most other desktop enviroments and is still being updated. Most distros offer Desktop environments in some vanilla form and often it doesn't reveal the desktop environments full potential to the user at first glance. It is important that you try and find what works for you.
19 • @17 MX minimalist spins (by Andy Prough on 2025-02-18 05:18:57 GMT from United States)
@17 - >"How do you trust a community spin which is not officially affiliated by MX?"
>"Who knows if there are any backdoors in these spins. There isn't even any sourcecode or Git repo."
I'm pretty sure the spins you are referring to are created by one of the MX lead developers. If you need to see the source to be assured there are no backdoors I'm sure you could reach out to that lead developer on the MX forum. If you had a support question, I'm pretty sure you could get developer support on the forum. I would imagine they are called community spins because the MX devs probably want the average user to use their robust versions, of which there are many, and for mostly advanced users to use the minimalist respins. Of note, MX already officially supports a minimal Fluxbox version, so you do have official minimalist options already.
I haven't personally tried MX in a few years and focus my time on Trisquel GNU/Linux, but your questions are pretty basic and have even been written about here on Distrowatch to some extent, so this is not esoteric knowledge. The MX team seems quite open and accessible, I think you would find their forum to be a welcoming place for any inquiries.
20 • Xfce (by honest joe on 2025-02-18 06:57:11 GMT from United States)
Xfce is good to use whatever version. it's not too minimal, or too bloated -.just an honest straight talker of a DE.
21 • Backdoors / Source Code (by Dob on 2025-02-18 11:46:35 GMT from United Kingdom)
@17 @19.
With such a large code base requiring audit,
Short of building an os from source.
No individual stands a chance. Best you can hope for is a checksum match to packaged distribution.
The harsh reality:
The most perverse threats are hiding in plain sight as everyday services.
Citizens have been diminished to the status of subjects,
- conditioned to be willing accomplices in the oppressive surveillance of themselves and others.
It would have been unthinkable to submit a single fingerprint to access an important service in the 1990s.
Today people often wear a gps tracker about their person,
Drive a vehicle monitoring their overly manoeuvre.
while making a phone call requiring submittion to a biometric check (potentially a face map and or recorded voice print) - often stored or processed overseas / beyond legal jurisdiction and regulatory oversight.
22 • @ 17 MX Linux (by moulder on 2025-02-18 12:30:58 GMT from United Kingdom)
Regarding trustworthiness and backdoors, pretty much what @19 an @21 said.
I'd still rather use any version of Linux over anything from Microsoft or Apple.
23 • Linux Market Share (by penguinx86 on 2025-02-18 12:54:31 GMT from United States)
According to Statcounter, Linux market share reached an all time high of 4% this month:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/03/linux-continues-growing-market-share-reaches-4-of-desktops/
24 • Xfce (by David on 2025-02-18 16:57:23 GMT from United Kingdom)
I remember an Xfce developer, many years ago, saying that their aim as "to just do the job, without getting under your feet or in your face". And that's why the oldest Linux desktop is still here. When PCLinuxOS upgraded to version 4.20 I held my breath, but then released it in a happy sigh — normal service was still there!
25 • AntiX rather than MX (by Happy_Phantom on 2025-02-18 18:54:10 GMT from United States)
I'm more interesting what's happening with AntiX than MX Linux. I've seen some rumors that some users have gotten the LXDE desktop environment (at least) working without systemd or elogind. Not that any of the included window managers aren't just fine the way they are, but if they have at least one desktop environment working without those two controversial components, that would be a milestone.
I've seen claims that some flavor of PCLinuxOS is working without systemd and elogind, but I haven't tried that one yet.
26 • often polls on new tech... (by Pete N. on 2025-02-18 19:29:01 GMT from New Zealand)
All to often "polls" on new tech, like this week the release of Xfce 4.20, are immediately after the devs release it. You have to wait until several distros roll it out, and people other than the bleeding edge specialists can form an opinion. It is very much like when you order an item online and 3 minutes later arrives a survey in your email asking to rate the product. I think I have one system with Xfce and I don't recall seeing 4.20 in in the updates yet.
27 • @25 - Desktop environments without systemd, elogind on antiX (by Andy Prough on 2025-02-18 19:43:31 GMT from Switzerland)
@25 >" I've seen some rumors that some users have gotten the LXDE desktop environment (at least) working without systemd or elogind."
Here's what the lead developer for antiX said in comment #55 in last week's Distrowatch Weekly:
>"You are behind with the times - antiX-23 is now able to provide the following desktop-environments without any trace of systemd/elogind"
>"Xfce, LXDE, LXQT, MATE and Cinnamon"
So, lots of desktop options without systemd or elogind on antiX.
28 • XFCE (by Gilb on 2025-02-18 22:07:47 GMT from Germany)
I like XFCE because it's light, reliable and stable: no surprises, but steady advancement. I'm running version 4.20 on Manjaro and I'm completely satisfied; same thing on Mint.
29 • @12: Wayland compared to X11 ? @8: Creativity of AI. (by Greg Zeng on 2025-02-19 00:32:55 GMT from Australia)
Wayland compared to X11.
Could someone explain what is wrong with either system? At the extreme edges of hardware & software, we should expect some differences. But most users, most times, are happy?
For example, using my seven-inch notebook (One Mix 3 Pro) links to my 32-inch monitor, wired and wirelessly? But not into gaming, nor instant timings, and color accuracy.
@8: Creativity of AI.
There are now comparisons on the newest AI engines. The very latest has creativity & prediction. The voice & user sensitivity are becoming better adjusted, daily. Each day, the testers are showing the results of these comparative tests. It is no longer GIGO.
YouTube: "xAI’s Mind Blowing Grok 3 Demo w/Elon Musk & Team (full replay)" 42:10
"Testing Grok 3 on Physics and Math and Comparing with Other Models (o1/o3, DeepSeek-R1, etc)" 2:33:37
Some Distrowatch users here might ask the engines to explain the differences between Linux display managers. Then try to predict when X11 will stop being used.
30 • @29, Creativity of AI. (by Tumbleweeds on 2025-02-19 01:49:35 GMT from United States)
@29, "The very latest has creativity & prediction. . . It is no longer GIGO." I don't think you have any idea what GIGO means. The original post (since deleted) was about searching for facts. You don't get creative with facts (unless you're into 'alternative facts). What you need is a comprehensive database and the ability to verify your sources. Chinese young people are using DeepSeek for therapy, claiming it's very good and a lot cheaper that human therapists. If you need therapy, go for it. But if you are looking for facts, verify your results no matter what super-creative AI you use.
31 • @4 Asahi / Rust for Linux ; Xfce / MX Linux and antiX / Wayland vs X (by Keith S. on 2025-02-19 02:59:44 GMT from United States)
@4 So the Rust for Linux crowd has failed to push their way into the kernel with their hobby language ("Memory safety is everything when you don't know how to code!") and now they're quitting? Good news indeed.
The rest: I've been using MX Linux as my daily driver for about four years and obviously like it a lot. Recently I had to reinstall to 23.x since 19.x was EOL. It was rough because the network manager was unstable until 23.5, but now seems fixed. Xfce is my preferred desktop, and I haven't really noticed much difference with 4.20.
Because of the buggy behavior with earlier 23.x versions of MX, I have also recently revisited a number of distros for the first time in four years. AntiX is very good, light, quick, and usable. It is unfortunate that they wear their politics on their sleeve, but that's my only complaint.
I dislike that MX Linux is preparing to move to Wayland, though thankfully they promise to keep systemd, elogind, and the rest out. I agree that Wayland is an unfortunate use of resources that would have been better used to improve X. Fifteen years and still not as good as X should be the end of the argument, but it is open source after all so I know that's basically impossible.
32 • MX Linux bloat (by Keith S. on 2025-02-19 03:08:13 GMT from United States)
I don't notice much bloat on MX Linux but I'm not running it on any hardware more than five years old. Bloat on OpenSUSE bothered me a lot some years back, but I recently tried it again and was pleasantly surprised by how they have changed the installer so you can limit somewhat the default packages included.
Also, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed (and other distros' rolling releases) make me wish that MX Linux would create a rolling release offering, since upgrading every two or four years is so painful and really my only serious complaint about MX. That would likely take more resources than they have available though, so it is not a deal-killer, especially since they have continued to fight the good fight against systemd.
33 • @31 MX and init (by MX and antiX fan on 2025-02-19 08:27:27 GMT from Australia)
I see on the latest MX blog that they are considering whether they should make two ISOs of MX25 due to changes in systemd possibly affecting their shim which allows both SysV and systemd on the same ISO. Personally I've never booted using systemd - the SysV version is fine for my needs - but appreciate they present this choice.
I also use antiX, I think between these two communities they do everything possible to make desktop computing pleasant for the user and I don't know where we'd be without them.
Thank you to @anticapitalista and @dolphin_oracle (who both comment here from time to time) and everyone else involved in a pair of truly great distros.
And I agree with @anticapitalista last week - another review of antiX is well overdue.
34 • @28: correction (by Gilb on 2025-02-19 09:34:59 GMT from Germany)
I wanted to say "…, same thing on MX Linux." as Mint Xia XFCE is still running 4.18 (and doing so very well). Sorry for the error.
35 • Year of the Linux Desktop? (by penguinx86 on 2025-02-19 15:34:02 GMT from United States)
2024. was supposed to be The Year of the Linux Desktop, but nope. According to Yahoo, 2025 won't be either. But Linux is increasing in desktop market share, up to a record high of 4%. One thing holding back Linux is non tech savy users, like my parents. They can barely use a Windows PC or even a Smartphone. It will be interesting to see if Linux increases in market share in October, when support ends for Windows 10.
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/2025-wont-linux-desktop-either-211514709.html
36 • @4, Rust developer leaving (by Critter on 2025-02-19 15:55:12 GMT from United States)
@4 Here's my thoughts. a bunch of whining crybabies are mad because the person who started the project and maintains the end control of the kernel, told them that their patches need to be in the original language so they can parse it and see what the code is doing. Plus, apparently there is a serious lack of Rust documentation (it occurs to me, that Rust has been heavily pushed by MS...wonder why??). So, the Rust devs get their feelings hurt after they push Torvalds and don't win, and get snapped at ("Hey, man, words HURT!!", and take their marbles and go home.
Rust might be a better language, or it might be more secure, I don't know. But it doesn't matter. THE HEAD OF THE LINUX KERNEL CALLS THE SHOTS. If they think he's an old fuddy-duddy, that's fine. It's irrelevant. Linux calls what goes into the kernel. What they SHOULD do, I think, is fork the project completely. If they want a Rust-based linux, then they can scratch their own itch and MAKE ONE.
37 • Year of Linux (by Friar Tux on 2025-02-19 16:08:08 GMT from Canada)
@35 (penguinx86) I don't think there will ever be a "year of the Linux desktop". Mainly because of the non-techie users, of which I am one. I hated Windows 10 so I switched to Linux Mint. Fortunately, I had played with Linux off and on and Mint was the best with the least amount of issues. I AM, however, one of these people that just wants to get my work done and not have to bother with the innards of the system. (That's why Windows works so well for most.) Mint is pre-configured to just work. I have never had to mess with it for any "lost time" issues. It just works, just like Windows, but without the intrusive ads and hour-long updates when it's most inconvenient. While I don't believe there will ever be a "year of the Linux desktop", I do believe Linux will slowly "seep" into more prominent use over the years. Especially if/when developers realize that non-technical uses far outnumber techies. I drive a car, but have no idea how the various parts work. I use small appliances at home, but cannot repair any of them. I don't even know how to repair the shoes I wear. And the same is true for my laptop - I have no clue. THAT is why Windows and Apple have a high user base, they cater to non-techies. If you really want to increase usage, cater to the non-techies out there.
38 • @37 YOTLD (by Critter on 2025-02-19 16:35:10 GMT from United States)
I agree with you, but maybe not exactly for the same reasons. This Year of the Linux Desktop thing was our rallying cry 25 years ago, when we were fighting MS for survival. Ballimer was threatening and screaming, SCO was smack-dab getting into legal trouble, linux was just coming into it's own on the dekstop, and MS was making one misstep after another. Many of us kind of felt that if we DIDN'T win the corporate and desktop space, the project would fizzle. The war cry kind of died out after Windows 7 came out and the corporate uncertainty went away, and at the same time, Torvalds said that he wasn't interested in what space the project won in, or anything about the desktop. MS "won" what a lot of people considered to be "the war".
But then something unexpectedly pleasant happened - we realized that it wasn't a race.
Time has proven that it's like me watching my children fighting over who is growing taller faster, and me being a grownup and knowing that it doesn't matter, in a few years, they will be fully grown. It's not a race. And the same with the linux project - we realized over time, that there's no achievable "goal" - the goalposts keep moving all the time.
But now, with Windows 11 being kind of a cluster with them killing off Windows 10 support, and so many getting caught up in that battle, it seems like the next generation is doing exactly what WE did when MS did the same thing - the rallying cry of "THIS WILL BE THE YEAR OF THE LINUX DESKTOP!!!", all over again. And it will be the same result - they will eventually figure out that it STILL isn't a race.
39 • Wayland or X11? (by Aronne on 2025-02-19 19:08:39 GMT from Italy)
@12
Even for me (Devuan 5.0.1) Wayland creates problems with KDE Plasma. So much so that I switched back to X11.
40 • The Rust Diatribe (by Brian on 2025-02-19 19:41:23 GMT from France)
@4 Challenged by Danilo Krummrich, a Red Hat software engineer involved in the Rust for Linux project, Hellwig makes clear that he's just not keen to deal with Rust code: "Don't force me to deal with your shiny language of the day. Maintaining multi-language projects is a pain I have no interest in dealing with. If you want to use something that's not C, be that assembly or Rust, you write to C interfaces and deal with the impedance mismatch yourself as far as I'm concerned." And I agree with him.
41 • 39 • Wayland or X11? (by Wally on 2025-02-19 22:58:06 GMT from Australia)
"(Devuan 5.0.1) Wayland creates problems with KDE Plasma." Devuan/Debian stable is still on Plasma 5. KDE was not working properly with Wayland until version 6. I'm running Plasma 6.2.5. Runs fine on Wayland or X11, and I don't see any difference.
42 • Year of the Linux Desktop, again? Really? (by Wally on 2025-02-19 23:12:01 GMT from Australia)
@35, @37- There will be a Year of Linux when the major PC manufacturers have it preinstalled as default, which will be never. Nothing to do with geeks vs non-techies. It's all about monetizing of the OS and/or apps. For making money there's the MS way, the Google way and the Apple way. There is no Linux way.
43 • Tails usb through Rufus (by Jan on 2025-02-20 01:14:48 GMT from The Netherlands)
https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=19948
So if you want to have an emergency-OS-USB-stick, you now are advised to use Rufus, so you need a MS-Windows-PC !!
44 • @43 • Tails usb through Rufus (by Wally on 2025-02-20 03:00:35 GMT from Australia)
"We replaced balenaEtcher with Rufus in our installation instructions for Windows" So you need a "MS-WIndow-PC" to copy Tails to a USB stick if you're running Windows. What a surprise!
45 • @26 (by Simon on 2025-02-21 06:07:39 GMT from New Zealand)
So just click "haven't tried it" like most people did. Yes, more people will have opinions for or against after it's had time to trickle down to stable distros... but it's just been released, so this is the time of greatest interest in what it has to offer. Plenty of people have been testing it already prior to release, and now that the official release is available, many others have installed it, either from their own packages or as a preview from their distro's bleeding-edge variant (or from an independent repo or whatever). People like yourself who tend to wait for packages to arrive in standard distro releases may be curious about the experience of early adopters, and might even decide to give it an early go themselves if a poll like this shows a great majority of users prefer the new version.
I'm in that camp myself: seeing that a majority of the hundreds of people who've tried it aren't particularly impressed makes me happy to wait, like you, for it to trickle down via updates. If the people who'd tried it had been more enthusiastic I might have given it a go myself: there are a few things in the release notes that look good to me, but now I'm happy to wait.
46 • xfce and systemd (by Dave on 2025-02-21 23:00:44 GMT from Australia)
Just saw a few comments regarding xfce and lxqt without systemd. I'm not sure about specific versions, but I believe these are running on Artix - the systemd free version os Arch
Number of Comments: 46
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
| | |
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • Ussye 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Greenie Linux
Greenie Linux is a Slovak desktop distribution based on Ubuntu and optimised for users in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Created as an operating system designed for every-day use and focusing on the needs of book readers and writers, Greenie Linux combines a set of applications for home use, out-of-the-box functionality and Ubuntu repositories. It also includes a set of tools for reading, writing and modifying books and documents. The goal of the distribution is to create a user-friendly desktop system and a useful live CD.
Status: Dormant
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
