 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1117, 14 April 2025 |
|
Welcome to this year's 15th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
One of the best ways to keep up with the ever-changing world of open source technology is to run a rolling release distribution. Arch Linux is one of the more popular rolling release projects, but it can take a while to set up and properly customize Arch itself. As a result, many Arch-based distributions have appeared over the years to provide friendlier install processes and pre-configured desktops running on the Arch platform. This week we begin with a quick look at two Arch-based distributions: Shebang and EndeavourOS. Both are members of the Arch family, but with different areas of focus and we discuss how these projects perform in our Feature Story. There are ways to keep up with new application versions other than installing Arch and one approach is to use containers. We talk about running desktop software from other distributions in an isolated environment in this week's Question and Answers column. Do you run any of your desktop software in containers? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section we report on Debian getting a major new version of APT while Linux Mint plans to provide an OEM option for Linux Mint Debian Edition. Meanwhile postmarketOS is publishing new GNOME and COSMIC desktop packages and the Redox OS project is seeking volunteers to help test USB support. We share more on these stories below, along with details of last week's releases. 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) |
Shebang 25.0
The Shebang project is one of the more recent additions to the DistroWatch waiting list. The project is a member of the Arch Linux family, specifically an off-shoot of the Artix distribution. The Shebang website tells us:
Shebang is an Artix GNU/Linux based distribution offering a great blend of end user and power user experience. Using the nimble Openbox window manager, it is highly customisable and provides a modern, full-featured GNU/Linux system without sacrificing performance.
This description appealed to me a lot. I think one of the more attractive characteristics of Arch Linux is its lightweight nature. The Arch project is, by default, incredibly minimal. Shebang uses Artix as a base, with its super lightweight runit implementation of init, and could be even more efficient than plain Arch. I like this idea because I've noticed a lot of Arch-based projects start with Arch's small base, but then layer a heavy desktop, lots of services, visual effects, and flashy widgets on top of the distribution. In the end, Arch-based distributions are often heavy and slow, which counters one of the main reasons to use Arch as a foundation.
A distribution which would stick to Arch's minimal nature and focus on efficiency seemed like a nice departure from the norm and I eagerly downloaded Shebang's 1.7GB ISO. The project offers a single edition and runs on x86_64 machines exclusively.
Shebang boots from its media and its boot menu offers options for changing the keyboard layout as well as offering separate boot options for launching from an optical medium or a hard drive.
The live environment boots to an Openbox session and displays a news widget to the right of the screen. A virtual terminal opens in the middle of the desktop and reports it is checking for an Internet connection. This check failed, then was repeated, and repeated again. Clearly, one of the first things I would need to do was enable a network connection.
I started by clicking on the network icon in the system tray. This had no effect. The system tray sits in a panel at the top of the screen. To the left is a regularly updated memory and CPU usage monitor. There are tiny quick-launch icons in the middle of the panel. These are displayed in black and white and do not offer any tool tips, so guesswork is involved in figuring out which icons do what. The system tray is positioned to the right of the panel.
Shebang 25.0 -- The Openbox window manager
(full image size: 590kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
I found a launcher which would open a virtual terminal and activated my network interface, then manually ran the DHCP client to set up an IP address. But I soon noticed the other terminal window continued to show errors about there being no active network connection and I was unable to ping devices on my local network. This problem persisted whether I was using a wired or wireless connection.
What makes this situation almost as funny as tragic is there is almost no documentation for Shebang, but there is a comment at the top of the project's README file which says: "Ethernet is setup automatically and wi-fi is setup with something like...." with instructions for enabling wi-fi connections. Unfortunately, Ethernet connections not only failed to work automatically, both networking options also failed when steps were performed manually.
README file went on to say we can run "sudo setup-shebang" to setup (I think they mean install) the distribution. Running this command did nothing. It immediate returns with no output. I discovered at this time that the sudo command is installed, but "sudo" is an alias to doas. I understand wanting to use doas instead of sudo for simplicity's sake, but it seemed odd to then also install sudo on the system anyway.
I'm getting off track. During my exploration, I realized the network interface was setting up an IPv6 connection only which is not compatible with the local network. I disabled IPv6, set up IPv4, and got a valid address over DHCP. I also confirmed my network route was correct and that my gateway was correct. Still I could not ping other devices on my LAN or reach any outside addresses using IP addresses or hostnames. This seemed especially strange since the DHCP client had received its dynamic IP from my router and the router was in the distribution's default route table, but I could not ping the router or any other local devices.
At this point I noticed the Tor service was running in the background, which was a surprise for me as, so far as I could tell, Tor wasn't mentioned in the project's short list of features. (The Shebang website does mention easy access to a VPN, but does not mention Tor specifically or mention that it runs automatically.) I wondered if this might be affecting my access to local network devices. However, once I'd performed a reboot, disabled Tor, and set up my network connection again, I found I still was unable to ping other computers or perform DNS lookups.
I don't think I've ever encountered a Linux distribution before which could not function properly over a wired network interface. It was able to receive a dynamic IP address from my router, but that was it. There were other quirks too. For example, if I launched Firefox the Openbox wallpaper would disappear, but the Firefox window never materialized. After a few minutes I killed the firefox-esr process and the wallpaper reappeared. Other applications, such as the Openbox configuration utility worked as expected, it was just Firefox which failed to open successfully.
In short, Shebang was not functional for me and I had to move on. I did note one more quirk, this time in the documentation, which I wanted to share: "Shebang is fast. We don't even use login manager, cause it is bloat. Shebang comes with the ability to play most popular media formats, including but not limited to MP3, DVD playback and Adobe Flash." It is strange that a distribution would consider something as small and ubiquitous as a login manager as bloat, but view a full featured web browser and Adobe Flash support as essential.
* * * * *
EndeavourOS 2025.03.19
I was still hungry for a taste of Arch Linux in one form or another so I downloaded the latest update from EndeavourOS. EndeavourOS is a rolling release Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. The project aims to be a spiritual successor to Antergos - providing an easy setup and pre-configured desktop environments. EndeavourOS offers both off-line and on-line install options. The on-line installer can install optional software components, including most popular desktop environments.
The latest snapshot of EndeavourOS provides Plasma 6.3 and a number of fixes:
A bug in our install script for ranking the Arch mirrors before installation is fixed, that resulted in failed installations in some regions in the world. We removed obsolete NVIDIA options from the NVIDIA boot menu. When choosing systemd in the auto-install option, the installation process will now create a 2GB EFI partition instead of a 1GB partition. This will give the user more space and freedom to install multiple kernels and other desirable options.
The Endeavour project provides install media for x86_64 and aarch64 machines. The ISO file for the x86_64 build is 3.0GB in size.
Live desktop
Booting from EndeavourOS live media brings up the KDE Plasma desktop. A welcome window immediately opens. This window has two tabs. The first tab is intended to help us get started with the operating system. In this tab we find buttons to start the Calamares installer, refresh package mirrors, run a partition manager, change the display resolution, and see tips on installing the distribution. On this tab we can also find links to release notes and project news. There is a second tab in the welcome window with links to project resources, such as the EndeavourOS forum, website, and knowledge base. These on-line resources open in the Firefox web browser.
I decided to dive right in, updating the package mirrors and then launching the system installer.
EndeavourOS 2025.03.19 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 1.9MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Installing
Endeavour uses the Calamares system installer. This graphical installer quickly walks us through the usual steps of selecting our language from a list, confirming our timezone, and choosing our keyboard layout. We are then asked if we would like to perform an off-line or on-line install. The off-line version sets us up with a default set of packages and a pre-configured Plasma desktop. The on-line approach gives us a chance to pick which desktop and applications we want. I decided to use the on-line installer and was asked which desktop I wanted, with the options being: Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE, Budgie, LXQt, LXDE, or i3. I picked Plasma for my trial since it was mentioned in the release announcement.
The next screen of the installer presents us with a list of software categories and we can expand these categories to see packages in them. We can then select which items we want to download and install. Some of the package groups, including the base operating system and core desktop, should probably be left alone. However, there are Endeavour-specific items and "recommended" applications which we can browse and choose to install or ignore.
Calamares next asks if we want to install the GRUB boot loader and offers us guided partitioning or manual disk dividing options. The manual approach is pretty friendly and the guided option sets up an ext4 filesystem with no swap space. We can customize the guided approach a little, picking Btrfs as an alternative filesystem and enabling either a swap partition or swap file. Finally, we make up a username and password for ourselves. Calamares then downloads the necessary packages from Endeavour's repositories and, a few minutes later, it offered to restart my computer.
Early impressions
My new copy of EndeavourOS booted to a graphical login screen. From there I was able to sign into either a Plasma on Wayland session (which was the default), or a Plasma on X11 session. Logging into either session brings up the Plasma desktop with a panel across the bottom of the screen. (More accurately, the panel hovers slightly above the bottom of the screen.) There are no desktop icons and the wallpaper has an outer space theme. The application menu offers a two-pane layout, dividing software categories from the launchers in each category. The application menu also has a search bar at the top to help us find specific programs. By default, Plasma is set up with a dark theme with purple icons which, to my eyes, is pleasant to view.
EndeavourOS 2025.03.19 -- The application menu
(full image size: 2.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Plasma was set up with minimal visual effects, apart from the application menu which had a transparent background. The desktop felt pleasantly responsive and mostly avoided distracting me.
When I first signed into my account a welcome window appeared. This greeter is a bit different than the one displayed during the live session. This time there are new and different tabs - mostly. The tab containing links to the distribution's website, documentation, and forums is still there. There is now also a tab for post-install tasks which presents buttons for performing actions such as updating packages, configuring the monitor settings, and changing the wallpaper. There is a new tab called Assistant which offers to update packages and refresh the package repository mirror list. There is a Tips tab which provides us with quick access to documentation. Finally, there is a tab called Add More Apps which offers to open a web browser to show us which packages are available in the official Arch Linux repositories. There is a separate button for seeing which packages are in the Arch User Repository (AUR). Yet another button offers to open a software manager.
I'd like to note that most of the buttons I've mentioned above launch a terminal window where the Pacman package manager will handle syncing the package database or fetching new updates. Any on-line resources, such as documentation and forum links, open in Firefox.
About a paragraph ago I mentioned the welcome window will launch a software manager for us. This application is called the EndeavourOS QuickStart Installer. It's a single-screen application which shows us a tree list of package groups. The groups are in alphabetical order and offer us applications to handle audio files, web browsing, office software, torrent clients, and video players. There are about 20 categories in total. Expanding one of the categories shows a handful of applications in the category - each category usually has about half a dozen entries.
Each application entry is shown with a name, a single-line description, and a checkbox we can click to mark the item for installation. Clicking a button labelled Install Now at the bottom of the window opens a terminal window and shows Pacman fetching the desired applications.
While there are not a large number of applications offered through this QuickStart Installer, many of the more popular applications in each category are listed and this makes for an easy way to get a lot of programs we will likely want without needing to use the command line or opening a full featured software centre.
Hardware
I tested EndeavourOS in a VirtualBox instance and on my laptop. The distribution worked well in VirtualBox, performing quickly and smoothly. When running on my laptop Endeavour detected all of my hardware and worked well with it. The distribution was able to boot in UEFI and Legacy BIOS modes, it worked with my wireless card, and my keyboard's media keys worked as expected. Taps on the touchpad worked as clicks on the desktop and the Plasma desktop was responsive.
EndeavourOS 2025.03.19 -- Running the Falkon web browser
(full image size: 895kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
When I booted the live ISO on my laptop a warning popped up to tell me there was no Internet connection. The pop-up window then offered to open network settings. This, in turn, brought up the KDE System Settings panel for networking, but this page was of no help because it only showed (and managed) active network connections. It doesn't help create new network connections. Since no connection existed yet, nothing was shown in the System Settings window. To connect to a local network we can instead click on the network icon in the system tray and select our preferred network.
Endeavour running Plasma is a relatively heavy distribution, using about 990MB of RAM and taking up 9GB of disk space, not including swap space. This is, to Endeavour's credit, the lightest implementation of Plasma 6 I have seen to date, but it's still quite a bit larger than most other desktop environments in RAM (apart from GNOME and COSMIC).
Included applications
The software included in EndeavourOS changes depending on which applications we select from Calamares. Since we can pick our desktop, office suite, audio player, web browser, and so on it is difficult to say definitely what is included. I will say that, with the default settings mostly left alone, Endeavour installed the Firefox web browser for me, KDE Connect, the Dolphin file manager, and the Kate text editor. There were a few multimedia applications, including VLC, mpv, and the Haruna media player. These all worked for me and the distribution provided media codecs for video and audio formats.
EndeavourOS 2025.03.19 -- The KDE System Settings panel
(full image size: 1.7MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The distribution was also equipped with the Okular document viewer and a system monitor. There was an application in the menu called Reflector Simple which was described as "A simple GUI for Reflector". (Note to software developers: please don't do this. Describing an application by rewording its name helps no one.) Reflector Simple is an application for selecting in which countries/regions we want to access mirrors when fetching software packages.
Digging deeper we find the GNU command line utilities, manual pages, and the GNU Compiler Collection. EndeavourOS runs the systemd init software and version 6.12 of the Linux kernel.
Software management
Earlier I mentioned the QuickStart software installer which we can access from the welcome window. Apart from this curated collection of applications, software management on Endeavour is handled on the command line using Pacman. The Pacman utility works quickly. Its syntax is unusual, but it is efficient and worked for me without any errors. There is no Snap or Flatpak support available by default, though Flatpak can be installed through the project's repositories.
EndeavourOS 2025.03.19 -- Running the Discover software centre
(full image size: 1.6MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
At one point I tried installing a popular front-end for package management, specifically Discover as I thought it would fit in well with my Plasma desktop environment. Upon launching Discover the application reported it could not be used to install classic packages on EndeavourOS. Discover did report it could manage Flatpak bundles for me, if Flatpak support was first installed. In short, it seems Discover won't use Pacman as a back-end, but it can work with Flatpak.
EndeavourOS 2025.03.19 -- Setting up a firewall
(full image size: 1.9MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Conclusions
EndeavourOS turned out to be pretty close to what I was hoping to experience this week - a capable, well performing, stable distribution based on Arch. It wasn't the distribution I set out to explore, but I liked where I found myself at the end of the week.
Endeavour does a nice job of sticking close to Arch's key strengths (a rolling release, with a flexible design, and minimal tools installed by default) while making it incredibly easy to set up and customize the distribution. Calamares helps us get Endeavour installed in just a few minutes and gives us a great range of desktop environments and additional applications. I also like that, with Endeavour, we have the option to either install a full featured desktop (like Plasma), a minimal desktop (like LXQt), or a window manager. This helps people find the right balance of features and efficiency.
I would have liked to have had a graphical software centre installed by default, but otherwise Endeavour was an excellent companion this week. It worked perfectly in both of my test environments, it was quick, it was stable, and (thanks to Flatpak) I had access to a wide range of software. I couldn't really find fault with Endeavour, with its technology, its visual style, or its custom tools. It was a pleasantly calm, pleasantly functional experience.
* * * * *
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
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
EndeavourOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.5/10 from 404 review(s).
Have you used EndeavourOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Debian and its children get APT upgrade, Linux Mint introduces OEM option for LMDE, postmarketOS packages new GNOME version and COSMIC desktop, Redox testing USB support
People who run Debian or one of Debian's many derivative distributions will soon have a chance to try out a major new version of the APT package utility. APT 3.0 features a faster dependency solver, improved cryptography support, and coloured text to highlight important changes. "There are the new colouring changes that show up when installing, removing, or upgrading a package. As you can see below, when installing a new package, all its dependencies are shown in a familiar green colour. I also checked out some other APT commands, such as the one for removing a package and all of its related dependencies. It showed me all the dependencies to be removed in red. I also ran the list command, which listed all the available packages for installation in a paginated list. These additions, coupled with the column padding, have definitely improved the readability of APT outputs by a big margin, and the slick progress bar at the bottom is like the cherry on top." An article on It's FOSS has a detailed look at APT 3.0.
* * * * *
The Linux Mint team has published their monthly newsletter for March which includes some enticing new features: "The Nemo file manager was improved. Its search functionality was enhanced. A new filter was added to find files using regular expressions matching their filenames. We're working on adding support for keyboard layouts and input methods to Cinnamon in Wayland. Will this be included in the next release? Hopefully. It's functional but it's not fully ready yet. Although it's great news for Wayland compatibility, it can impact toolkit compatibility and input methods for Asian languages. We need a little bit more time to finalize it and properly test it. LMDE 7, which will be based on the next version of Debian Stable, will come with full support for OEM installations." Additional details and screenshots are provided in the newsletter.
* * * * *
The postmarketOS team have announced a series of updates to their mobile distribution. Some of the key changes involve an upgrade to GNOME 48, packages for testing the COSMIC interface, and ports to new devices. "GNOME 48 is now in Alpine edge and it brings massive performance improvements with dynamic triple buffering and more, new fonts, notification stacking and many other great changes! Shortly afterwards, GNOME Shell on Mobile has been rebased as 48.mobile.0 (skipping 47 with a jump from 46-mobile.1). Compared to the last release, it brings window placement and input improvements. The seek buttons were removed, if you want to get involved to bring them back see #4900. Since the rebase the accent colours are now working (as it can be seen in the title image of this blog post). Thanks Jonas, Achill and all GNOME contributors!" Further information is provided in the postmarketOS newsletter.
* * * * *
The Redox OS project has put out a call for testing its new and improved USB support. "Jeremy Soller has made substantial improvements to our USB xHCI driver, USB 3.x support and completed a USB hub driver. Our USB HID implementation has had some issues, and was not working in the 0.9.0 version. It is much better now, and can support more real-world hardware.
We would love your help testing external USB mouse and keyboards, as well as the keyboard and touchpad on your laptop, especially if they use USB internally instead of PS/2. You can do this by following the instructions below to download the daily images. Please be aware that we are bumping into a few other issues, so if the daily images don't boot for you today, they may work better in the next few days." A list of improvements to Redox OS is presented in the project's March newsletter.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Running applications from another distro on the desktop
Mix-them-together asks: I've been running WSL and using it to run Linux applications on my Windows desktop. I'm looking to make the jump to Linux full time, but I want to know is there a way to seamlessly run apps from another distro on my desktop like how WSL works on Windows?
DistroWatch answers: Welcome to the Linux community! Yes, you can run applications from one distribution on the desktop of another distribution. You can also share your files, the files in your home directory, with the applications from another distribution.
There are a few ways to do this. The approach which requires the least amount of resources and will allow for the easiest integration of the applications from multiple distributions is to use a container. A container is basically an isolated environment where we can run a minimal distribution and its programs without affecting the host operating system. The container holds just the applications and dependencies needed to run the software you want from the guest distribution.
While the programs and libraries of the guest distribution and the host distribution do not mix (they do not interfere with each other) you can share your personal files between the two environments. This makes for a fairly seamless experience without muddying your host system with programs from another platform.
There are several container technologies available for Linux. The more popular ones for setting up guest distributions and guest applications are Distrobox and Toolbx. Both are command line tools which assist the user in creating containers and putting guest Linux distributions inside them.
If you'd like a more point-and-click solution, there is an application for Linux called BoxBuddy. BoxBuddy acts as a friendly front-end for Distrobox and makes it simple to install guest distributions with a few clicks.
For people who would like something even more integrated, something which merges together the applications from multiple operating systems into one united filesystem, there is another option. The Bedrock Linux meta distribution can combine multiple Linux distributions into one platform, all on the same filesystem. This allows users to run package managers and programs from multiple distributions without needing to use containers to manage the separate pieces. Bedrock can take a little while to get used to conceptionally, as it merges different operating systems together, but it offers a completely fluid experience without boundaries between applications from separate distributions.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
Proxmox 8.4 "Virtual Environment"
Proxmox is a commercial company offering specialised products based on Debian GNU/Linux, notably Proxmox Virtual Environment and Proxmox Mail Gateway. The company has announced their release of Proxmox 8.4 "Virtual Environment" which introduces new hardware support, an API for third-party backups, and Virtiofs passthrough. "We are excited to announce that our latest software version 8.4 for Proxmox Virtual Environment is now available for download. This release is based on Debian 12.10 "Bookworm" but uses the Linux kernel 6.8.12 and kernel 6.14 as opt-in, QEMU 9.2.0, LXC 6.0.0, ZFS 2.2.7 with compatibility patches for kernel 6.14, and Ceph Squid 19.2.1 as stable option. Proxmox VE 8.4 includes the following highlights: Live migration with mediated devices; API for third party backup solutions; Virtiofs directory passthrough." Additional information is provided in the distribution's release announcement and in the release notes.
Regata OS 25.0.3
Josué Vicente has announced the release of an important update of Regata OS, an openSUSE-based distribution with KDE Plasma 6.3, focusing on desktop and gaming. The latest version is labelled as 25.0.3 and carries a code name "Maverick": "Regata OS 25 'Maverick' is now available for download. Initially, the new version of the operating system was released gradually via system updates for existing users. However, an updated ISO image file is now available for those who wish to make new installations. Among the highlights is KDE Plasma 6.3, which arrives with new fixes and improvements, such as the fractional scaling feature that has been reworked to better adjust the image to the screen's pixel grid, reducing blur and producing sharper, more defined images. In addition, for those who love to customize the desktop, leaving everything their way, the new Plasma 6.3 makes it easier to clone panels when the user is in edit mode. Other changes include improvements to the System Monitor application, which now uses less CPU resources." Continue to the release announcement for more details.
Pardus 23.4
Pardus is a GNU/Linux distribution jointly developed by the Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and National Academic Network and Information Centre (ULAKBİM). The distribution's latest release is version 23.4 which is available in GNOME, Xfce, and Server editions. The project's release notes offer details on version 23.4: "Improvements have been made to the Pardus Software Center. New applications have been added. Updates have been made to the information and images of some applications. Enhancements have been made to Pardus Gnome Greeter. Bluetooth quick access extension has been included. Enhancements have been made to the Pardus Xfce Login Screen and its settings. Enhancements have been made to the Pardus My Computer application. Latest versions of corporate applications have been added to repository. Contributed to debian-installer, cinnamon-spices-extensions, Bluetooth-Battery-Meter, thunar projects. External applications available in the repository (Android Studio, PyCharm, Google Chrome, AnyDesk, TeamViewer, VS Code, etc) have been updated, and new ones have been added. The default internet browser, Firefox, has been updated to version 128.9. The default office application, LibreOffice, has been updated."
Feren OS 2025.03
Dominic Hayes has announced the release of Feren OS 2025.03, a significant update of the project's desktop-oriented Linux distribution with KDE Plasma as the preferred desktop, now based on Ubuntu 22.04: "Today, it is time I announce the release of Feren OS 2025.03, a minor rebase update for Feren OS that takes the existing, delayed, work on what was originally meant to be 2023.07 but was delayed due to requiring work on a new Store to conclude, and packages what is currently complete from it into a new stable release of Feren OS, while also porting 2023.04’s missing applications, to fill in the gaps the new Store will soon fill, for the time being. Feren OS finally uses an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS base in this release, bringing with it a whole slew of improvements and software updates, making the Feren OS experience even better than before. Previous versions of Feren OS were based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, and with this rebase comes support until the end of April 2027." Continue to the release announcement for a detailed list of all changes and improvements.
Feren OS 2025.03 -- Running the Plasma desktop
(full image size: 3.9MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
SparkyLinux 7.7
Paweł Pijanowski has announced the release of SparkyLinux 7.7, the latest update of the project's set of lightweight distributions based on the current stable release of Debian: "The 7th update of SparkyLinux 7 – 7.7 is out. It is a quarterly updated point release of SparkyLinux 7 'Orion Belt' of the stable line. SparkyLinux 7 is based on and fully compatible with Debian 12 'Bookworm'. Changes: all packages updated from Debian and SparkyLinux stable repositories as of April 8, 2025; Linux kernel PC 6.1.129-LTS (6.14.1, 6.12.22-LTS, 6.6.86-LTS in SparkyLinux reposistories); Linux kernel ARM 6.12.20-LTS; LibreOffice 7.4.7 (25.2.2 in Debian backports repositories); KDE Plasma 5.27.5; LXQt 1.2.0; MATE 1.26; Xfce 4.18; Openbox 3.6.1; Firefox 128.9.0esr (137.0.1 in SparkyLinux repositories); Thunderbird 128.9.0esr; fixed an issue of SparkyLinux CLI installer which was breaking installation if choosing other desktop to install." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details.
* * * * *
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: 3,195
- Total data uploaded: 47.0TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Do you run any applications in containers?
In this week's Questions and Answers section we talked about running applications in a container. Launching an application from a container allows the user to launch programs packaged for one distribution on the desktop of another. Containers can also provide clean testing environments and a way to test multiple versions of applications without affecting the software installed on the host system.
These days containers are also commonly used on immutable distributions to allow for the installation of low-level programs without affecting the read-only host filesystem.
Do you run any applications in containers? Let us know which container technology (Toolbx, Docker, Distrobox, Podman, etc) you use in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on hardware add-ons for single-board computers in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
|
|
| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 21 April 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 • Containers (by tfirkins on 2025-04-14 01:14:09 GMT from United States)
I use LXC containers under Proxmox to run a PlexMediaServer and an instance of Nextcloud. One uses Fedora, and the other uses Debian. Updates are simple and fast with DNF and APT respectively.
Both are containers are stable and reliable.
2 • Containers (by Sam Crawford on 2025-04-14 01:18:36 GMT from United States)
I run my Unifi cloudkey in a container on my NAS.
Other than than no,
3 • Containers @2 (by Sam Crawford on 2025-04-14 01:19:58 GMT from United States)
I meant Unifi Controller--not cloudkey.
4 • RE: ArchBang (by CorpSouth on 2025-04-14 02:16:11 GMT from United States)
Yeah the fact this distribution comes in outta nowhere trying to ride the coattails of CrunchBang++ is a slap in the face, especially if it doesn't "just work" out of the box.
Just do yourselves a favor and install Artix, or Arch Linux proper.
5 • EndeavourOS seems kind of the opposite of Arch (by Andy Prough on 2025-04-14 03:40:06 GMT from Switzerland)
This EndeavourOS review makes it sound like an easy installation and a default setup of a big, heavy desktop environment and popular applications - which sounds a lot more like Mint or MX or Kubuntu. I thought Arch was supposed to be about starting from a minimal base and configuring your own system one piece at a time, instead of this click-click-click-click approach.
6 • ArchBang (by mardimus on 2025-04-14 03:49:45 GMT from Finland)
@CorpSouth
You claimed that ArchBang is a distribution which come in outta nowhere? If I'm not totally wrong it has been around here since 2011...
7 • Containers (by Cheetah Haven on 2025-04-14 04:42:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
Containers? I run a slew of docker containers on my container-based atomic server. I run podman containers on my laptop. I use distrobox on my server and my laptop. My Android phone is currently running the containerized linux terminal newly available on Android 15. I think I run containers, yes.
8 • EndeavourOS (by bin on 2025-04-14 05:53:21 GMT from United Kingdom)
@5 Quote:-
"EndeavourOS is a rolling release Linux distribution based on Arch Linux."
Note 'based'.
The default install of KDE Plasma gives you a working DE, a browser, media player and a few utilities. You do the rest. Nothing like Mint or MX
Custom install you can chose your DE and cut out the minimal applications if you wish.
Should you wish to don a hair shirt you can of course start with Arch.
Endeavour makes Arch accessible and it works. Having tried various other attempts at that I can say that Endeavour have got it just right. IMVHO
9 • Shebang (by Hank on 2025-04-14 07:02:43 GMT from Germany)
Shebang is one example of a linux plague, take a working distribution, that is the hard work of others, in this case Artix.
Follow the instructions on the Artix wiki to install open Box WM.
Mess up the job by creating a non functional version, make loud claims of having developed a new and greatest distribution.
Frustrate users old and new. Is this all a destructive tactic from big tech or just stupid schoolkid stuff.
10 • containers (by Felix on 2025-04-14 07:02:57 GMT from Germany)
I use FreeBSDs Linuxulator to run a Linux Browser with widivine support to be able to watch drm content.
11 • EndeavourOS (by Tom Darais on 2025-04-14 08:19:43 GMT from United States)
Thanks for the review of EndeavourOS. I run EndeavourOS LXQT on both new and old PCs/laptops alike and it works great. It has been my mainstay distro for months. I'm glad a graphical installer isn't installed by default in EOS because I much prefer Octopi over Pamac, and it's a simple matter to type "yay octopi" from the onset and then use that for pretty much everything else. I have discovered that Snaps work well in EndeavourOS as well (for that oddball program not found in the AUR). Since Octopi is based on Pacman it works flawlessly for installing and updating packages.
Thanks for mentioning the memory footprint of Plasma, It makes me even happier I'm using LXQT. I find LXQT to be very functional and efficient. It does everything I need it to do. Plus, LXQT gives me all of the Wayland and compositor options I could dream of, and they just keep getting better and better!
12 • EndeavourOS (by Markus on 2025-04-14 08:49:54 GMT from Germany)
In order to use Discover with pacman, you have to install packagekit-qt6.
One thing I love about Arch Linux is its very good website, including the Packages section, where you can find every detail of a package including dependencies that are optional:
packagekit-qt6 (optional) - to manage packages from Arch Linux repositories (not recommended, use at your own risk)
I prefer using pacman in a terminal, so I can't tell how well this works, but it's not like this isn't possible at all...
13 • EndeavourOS and Arch (by thatguy on 2025-04-14 09:17:11 GMT from United States)
The key difference between EndeavourOS and Arch for me, aside from the obvious ones, is that EOS uses dracut rather than mkinitcpio for building the initrd, rendering those parts of the archwiki irrelevant and possibly leading to confusion if using plymouth or anything else that might expect mkinitcpio to be there, i.e. plymouth-set-default-theme -R won't work.
I really like EOS. It works as advertised and installs a fairly lean plasma setup, free of the pim stuff among other things. Not a huge fan of the purple theming, but whatever. It's the distro I turn to when I want to expunge Windows from a machine as quickly and easily as possible.
For gui package management, I've always liked pamac much better than octopi, and since yay is preinstalled, pamac-aur is trivially easy to install.
As for containers, no, I have not used them and don't foresee doing so. My pc is an entertainment center more than anything else. As long as I can organize and enjoy my media collections I'm happy. VPN and Linux's security through obscurity is all I find necessary for my use case.
14 • EndeavourOS (by rich52 on 2025-04-14 12:09:32 GMT from United States)
Been using it for about 4 years. . . .I'm a satisfied customer. No complaints. KDE works well. Kernel updates work. . Overall a very good distro. Been Distro-hopping for 25 years and finally settled on this one. Couldn't be happier with it and the community support is very good.
Rich ;)
15 • EndeavourOS (by mh3g on 2025-04-14 16:27:30 GMT from Italy)
EndeavourOS mi piace molto ma ho sempre avuto problemi negli aggiornamenti dei pacchetti che con altre distro arch non succedono tranne che con Cachy. In piu versioni recenti. Di solito si rompono le dipendenze e non si riesce più ad aggiornare neppure manualmente. Ho fatto dei test utilizzando contemporaneamente Manjaro e le dipendenze e gli aggiornamenti e le dipendenze hanno funzionato.
16 • distrobox from the command line (by Scott Dowdle on 2025-04-14 16:58:03 GMT from United States)
I don't routinely run software from other distros but when I do, distrobox works well... and its command line interface is easy enough to use. Don't fear the CLI. It is also easy to add entries for GUI applications to your desktop applications menu making them very easy to access.
17 • Endeavour (by ambrose the bunny on 2025-04-14 17:29:37 GMT from United States)
I've had Arch and Arch-based distros installed in the past, but my concern with them has always been the breakage on updates. That, and the size of the updates, since my isp occasionally puts on data caps.
I tried Endeavour last week, and so far I'm really impressed.The installation was smooth, as have been the updates, at least so far. I've had some problems with AUR packages not building (cryptmount), but that's an Arch problem, not Endeavour. I can usually make the fixes, but I'm retired and really don't want to do that anymore if I don't have to. Almost all the packages I use are there, and the ones that aren't I can probably grab from debian.
Frankly, I think Endeavour deserves a 9.0 rating. I've noticed over the years that the guys from the Netherlands usually put out pretty solid distros.
18 • Containers (by John on 2025-04-14 18:07:43 GMT from Canada)
At home on Slackware, no. When I had FreeBSD I would have items running in a Jail, which I still think is better than anything Linux currently have. Someday I may give Linux Containers a try.
FWIW, unveil/pledge on OpenBSD is now my favorite type of container type environment.
19 • Shebang != Crunchbang (by Will on 2025-04-14 18:44:09 GMT from United States)
I saw, shebang and thought, wow, are they reviving Crunchbang? But, alas, that's not the case Crunchbang was fun and worked. Shebang is pretty far from working.
20 • EndeavourOS and applications in containers (by if the chips are united on 2025-04-14 20:21:45 GMT from Sweden)
Maybe EndeavourOS is the best OS for (VM) testing (many) up-to-date desktop environments and software. Side by side.
budgie, enlightenment, gnome, lxde, lxqt, mate, ... and many more.
Optionally there is still Nix to use newer versions of software ... and many more.
Btw., there are Snaps, Flatpacks ... and many more,
Docker ... and many more.
More forks?
>9.000 good ideas (and many more) - but no cooperation, communication, concept ...
Far behind the good ol' new ways.
21 • most of systemd services are run as containers (in namespaces) (by enihcam on 2025-04-15 02:27:25 GMT from Hong Kong)
so everyone should have run their applications in containers already.
22 • Containers (by Ed on 2025-04-15 09:49:03 GMT from Sweden)
I run one Fedora-based container on Fedora Silverblue with a couple of CLI tools and GUI applications. It is working ver well.
23 • @19 Will: (by dragonmouth on 2025-04-15 10:13:19 GMT from United States)
I believe Bunsen Labs Linux is the successor to CrunchBang.
24 • SystemD and Containers (by Slappy McGee on 2025-04-15 13:41:24 GMT from United States)
@21 I read some material provided in here by Jesse the other day wrt SystemD functionality etc. Other inits were covered and compared. I learned a lot. What did not occur to me is that notion, "..so everyone should have run their applications in containers already."
I'm assuming what's meant is that those other inits, SysV, runit etc, do not require containers and that SystemD does. Am I correct?
25 • Containers (by Penguinx86 on 2025-04-15 14:26:46 GMT from United States)
I don’t run any applications in containers. Instead, I run whole operating systems in Virtualbox.
26 • containers (by Jesse on 2025-04-15 14:50:53 GMT from Canada)
@24: "I'm assuming what's meant is that those other inits, SysV, runit etc, do not require containers and that SystemD does. Am I correct?"
systemd doesn't really run services in containers. It can run services in their own namespace, which is kinda, sorta similar if you squint and don't think about it too much.
The poster in @21 was stretching the idea of what a container is a lot, probably for humour purposes.
As to the various init software - systemd makes it easier to run services in separate namespaces and/or cgroups. The other init implementations _can_ do this, they usually just don't. Mostly because there isn't much of a practical benefit to doing so. It's one of those cases where fans of systemd see this as a nice feature systemd offers. People who don't like systemd see it as unnecessary bloat.
27 • Containers (by Just4fun on 2025-04-15 17:20:49 GMT from Sweden)
I try to run as much as possible in containers to avoid data leaks. On my Framework laptop I therefore use Qubes OS, and on the home network basically everything runs in VMs and containers (Proxmox), even the firewall.
28 • Once Bitten... (by Tad Generic on 2025-04-15 20:45:53 GMT from Canada)
I wanted to like Arch. I tried every distro that tried to make the install and maintenance easier, since I'm long past any desire to geek out over an operating system.
One by one they all ended up failing, with my having to search forums in order to fix broken updates. Manjaro lasted the longest, but it, too, ended up testing my patience past rational limits.
Now I run LTS/stable versions of Debian derivatives and stay away from anything "bleeding edge". The PC is supposed to serve Me, not the opposite...
29 • Endeavour and Manjaro, no live testing (by Jan on 2025-04-15 22:15:42 GMT from The Netherlands)
I have tested the latest Endeavour and Manjaro (again) from a Ventoy USB-stick (my preference is KDE).
Both give me a screen without task-bar or actions-window, the only possibility it gives is to install to the HDD/SSD.
So obviously there is no live-testing possible.
In the past both succeeded in live-testing (if I remember well), however the KDE-based distros suffered from fatal freezing (some KDE-distros have/had that).
MY only normal (easy) ARCH-based live-USB experience was with REBORNOS.
I think I better stick to MX-KDE / Fedora / Mint-Cinnamon / Ubuntu / Debian-testing (with big management teams).
30 • Correction (by CorpSouth on 2025-04-16 01:44:21 GMT from United States)
I guess I was so flabbergasted by SheBang that I got the names mixed up, my bad!
But yeah I think we've been down this road before, hopefully SheBang course corrects before it dies a laughingstock.
31 • Live testing vs Hard Install (by Slappy McGee on 2025-04-16 14:43:18 GMT from United States)
@29 I have noted over the years that many distros offering live CD/DVD to test the OS do not necessarily behave the same once installed. Yes it is good to ferret out hardware incompatibilities, but sometimes my hopes were dashed as I ran the live environment then installed. Manjaro was perennially the worst offender for me on my machines, several of them. But there were others, too.
I'd say that half of the distros I first ran live off disc ended up causing me to feel betrayed after seeing it run so well prior to installing to my hard drive or SSD/NVME.
32 • Manjaro (by Slappy McGee on 2025-04-16 14:45:49 GMT from United States)
Just to clarify my live experiences with Manjaro were on bootable USB, not CD/DVD. I'm not a fan of VM, so I always created discs or bootable sticks.
33 • Arch and Postmarket (by CronJob on 2025-04-17 13:24:44 GMT from Belgium)
Endeavour performance is better than many other distros, but it cannot reach Arch performance, just the lack of unnecessary packages in Arch installation already make it fast enough to run in a lot of older machines with just a Window Manager.
Also, Arch isn't so difficult to install, people can just use the installer: "archinstall" just write it and press enter after the system boots from your desired installation media, if you are using internet by cable you just need to do that, if using wireless you need to connect to it by the command line before writing "archinstall" and pressing enter. Of course, it is still a more technical distro than Linux Mint and such, but not close to the impractical idea that people think of when they imagine the installation.
Changing the subject, PostmarketOS have a lot of potential, people talk a lot about Linux phone and all, but they seem to be the only project that are putting the work to adapt the existing hardware and provide a OS that's community oriented, things aren't perfect at all, but it does remind of the starting stages of CyanogenMod and Lineage OS. I hope their potential can be reached, there is not many options for an OS that is distant from Big Tech and comunity oriented for phones.
34 • Containers (by Tuxedoar on 2025-04-17 19:27:58 GMT from Argentina)
I use pure LXC containers in Debian. Most of them, to run some HTTP service. I seldom use them to run some GUI app.
Cheers.
Number of Comments: 34
| | |
| 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 |
| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • 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 | 
Linux Live Game Project
LLGP was a Knoppix-based live CD that makes it easy to play games on Linux. It includes a solid collections of free and open source games, such as TuxRacer, Cube, Egoboo, FreeCiv, Pingus, Chromium, Foobillard, Frozen Bubble, Power Manga and many others.
Status: Discontinued
|
| 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
