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1 • Too many distros (by vmclark on 2025-05-12 00:14:14 GMT from United States)
Create my own distro? There's too many as it is!
2 • Bluefin (by Npaladin2000 on 2025-05-12 01:14:14 GMT from United States)
Bluefin's KDE version is Aroura, and both are part of the Universal Blue project, along with Bazzite.
3 • Custom file manager actions (by Guido on 2025-05-12 01:40:06 GMT from Philippines)
Custom actions are also possible with Nemo, Cinnamon's file manager. Under "Settings," open "Modules." Here, you can integrate your own scripts. Many modules are already included in Mint.
4 • Thunar Custom Actions (by Vinfall on 2025-05-12 01:58:57 GMT from Hong Kong)
Thunar custom actions are really useful. I once wrote about sending multiple files via KDE Connect (https://blog.vinfall.com/posts/2023/05/file-transfer/#xfce). I also have custom actions to mount ISO images with udisksctl (from udisk2), unpack archives (.zst, .tar.gz, .tar.xz) or verify checksums/signatures etc. Of course all of these can be done in cli, sometimes I'm just lazy enough to open yet another terminal and type commands…
5 • Custom Iso (by David on 2025-05-12 02:45:24 GMT from United States)
I made a backup of a linux partition, restored it on another computer, and eventually got it to boot. Close enough?
6 • Custom ISO + custom file manager actions (by moonwalker on 2025-05-12 03:23:23 GMT from United States)
Krusader (an orthodox file manager) also supports custom actions, just like Thunar. I would argue they are more powerful there too, due to IMHO much more powerful nature of orthodox file managers in general.
As to custom ISO - like vmclark already said, there are too many distros as-is. That said, at some point few years ago all I had at my disposal was an old MacBook Air with 16GiB RAM, a USB DVD burner (by Pioneer, one that only needs USB port for power), and a huge stack of DVD-R disks, so I had to improvise... What I ended up with was an initramfs image that was creating a zram virtual block device and putting swap on it, and then unpacking into tmpfs two XZ archives from the DVD, one containing the whole OS, and another with my home folder, and switching root to that tmpfs. After boot I could discard the spent DVD-R disk, unplug the DVD drive, and use the laptop normally, including installing OS updates, except I had to be vigilant not to let the battery fully discharge and careful about downloading any large files, as they would be written into tmpfs and pushed into zram, consuming precious little RAM shared between OS, my files, and running applications. When I wanted to shut down, I had a hook that would near the end of the process write bootloader/kernel/initramfs and two new XZ archives straight onto the next DVD-R disk that I would use to boot the next time. This served me well for way over half a year that I was stuck in that unfortunate hardware situation.
7 • Custom ISO (by moonwalker on 2025-05-12 03:28:03 GMT from United States)
...actually, it may have been MacBook Air with only 8GiB RAM - IIRC it was one of the later unibody models...
8 • Custom Iso (by moonwalker on 2025-05-12 03:31:54 GMT from United States)
@David
> I made a backup of a linux partition, restored it on another computer, and eventually got it to boot. Close enough?
That doesn't sound too different from installing Linux on one machine, and then simply transplanting the drive into another... I did something like that with Debian some time around 2010, when I couldn't get installer to boot directly on my K-6-III machine, so I had to install it on IDE drive connected via USB adapter to my T61p, install 586 (or was it 486?) kernel version, and only then connect the drive back to the K-6-III desktop.
9 • Custom Iso (by moonwalker on 2025-05-12 03:34:49 GMT from United States)
In fact, that doesn't sound too different from what cloud providers like AWS do with Linux machine images - it's essentially just a snapshot of normal Linux OS with just few extra pieces of software like cloud-init that dynamically reconfigure the system when they detect that it started on a different VM instance than the last time it was running.
10 • Bluefin (by tnt on 2025-05-12 04:23:17 GMT from Sweden)
Immutable, Flatpak, Gnome, Wayland ... thanks but, no thanks.
11 • Custom ISO (by Pete on 2025-05-12 04:29:49 GMT from United States)
Used void-mklive to create a custom ISO with everything I'd want preinstalled and custom configs. It works as a live system, like to build a rescue / disk admin tool suite, or can use it to install the distro with all your customizations. It's a cool project regardless of your choice of base distro. I use Void, BTW.
12 • About Bluefin, Aurora and the Universal Blue project (by Nick Kats on 2025-05-12 06:09:07 GMT from Greece)
I've been using Aurora for 3,5 weeks now (Bluefin's sister product with KDE Plasma for desktop of the Universal Blue project) and as far as I've seen so far, you're not suppose to sweat it with updates as it's being done for you by default in the background, leaving you with spare time to do something else with your life. The "System update" launcher is just for people who like to spend their time watching their computer updating and it's just a launcher for the "ujust update" command. If you run it from the terminal you can actually see what it's doing and doesn't close on you.
I guess the system tries to mimic chromebooks or android devices, where the system is seperated from the applications and your data and config, making development and troubleshooting of the core OS easier, I guess, removing the "works on my system" cases, something that probably other distros try to accomplish with other approaches. Hence the "streamline software management". Actually, ublue project is kinda like 3 distros, Fedora, Flathub and Homebrew. And if you need to install and old-school deb or rpm or whatever package, just throw it on a distrobox container (hence the BoxBuddy app).
Also, the project tries to have 3 channels, one called gts (Grand touring support) where the system is one Fedora version behind for safety, one called stable, where it's again one version behind but gets upgraded to latest during the current Fedora version, and finally the latest channel where you instantly get the latest Fedora system. And all that is about the core OS only, as the flatpacks are also being updated automatically if you ignore any notifications. The concept is "just use your computer and shutdown when done", leaving me with spare time to do something else. Me personally, I like this approach. Of course, that's my opinion, I just read a lot about the philosophy of the project and I kinda liked it.
13 • file manager/custom actions (by Dr.J on 2025-05-12 06:43:21 GMT from The Netherlands)
the file manager is the basis of my system, a kind of command center.
Formerly emelfm2, today doublecommander. Both with two panels and configurable without limits, which means: I can configure user actions completely freely. That's why I use it for everything, such as all pdf editing (using pdftk in the background), for backups (using rsync or ssh/scp for the cloud), mounting drives, all standard file actions and so on. In short: for everything, except the system administration via the console.
That's why I don't understand the question, because each command can be provided with the path name, so that the actions are only applied there. Some programs, such as find, even allow the processing depth (maxdepth) etc. and can then be combined with corresponding commands (via exec). This makes it possible to design user actions almost arbitrarily (even inside a single path), for example with regard to file extensions, time (older than, newer than, etc.), names or name components, etc.
14 • Bluefin? (by WTF on 2025-05-12 06:47:27 GMT from Switzerland)
Why should you want to avoid choice? Linux _is_ choice, always and for good.
Would you prefer a world in which only emperor penguins are alive?
Long live and prosperity, Linux.
15 • Custom ISO creation (by That Mr B on 2025-05-12 07:43:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
Many years ago I decided I wanted a custom live distro that I could use anywhere on any PC without affecting the host computer. I used Linux Lite 2.8 and RemasterSys to make it. I stripped out all non-essential stuff and added all the useful writing tools I could find - Manuskript, Focuswriter, LibreOffice Writer, the never-finished Linux version of Scrivener (which is still really useful to me) etc and put the ISO on a USB stick. Another stick was set aside for saving files because I didn't want to use persistence on the OS drive. It worked pretty well for me and I would have been happy to share but the prospect of being a one-man distro maintainer was far too daunting a task to take on.
I think Greenie Linux was a similar concept if I remember rightly.
16 • Have your created your own Linux ISO? (by Jake on 2025-05-12 09:35:02 GMT from United States)
No, I have no idea how to do that and at 70 no desire either. I wan to use Linux, not recreate it.
17 • Blufin is my first choice (by Laurent on 2025-05-12 09:58:54 GMT from Belgium)
Blufin is still young, but the review may have missed a point or two. Blufin helped my avoid many choice paralysis by pre-configuring Starship for my shell, Ptyxis emulator to integrate with Distrobox, and BoxBuddy to manage Distrobox. GNOME Shell is also tweaked. HomeBrew and Flatpak are also preconfigured to allow setup of most apps despite the Atomic nature of the distro.
So, having the pick the right ISO (based on CPU and GPU), isn't really a choice to be analyzed and made, I have an Intel with iGPU, so I pick the right ISO. The maintainers had a different kind of choice in mind. But of course they target more power users at the moment.
I also had little trouble with updates. Every Sunday, the new base image is pushed and the system is picking it up. The computer is updated after a reboot. This may shock some, but for a workstation (not a server), I prefer to start fresh and control when that happens. They could add a notification when the new base image is ready though. I don't think that HomeBrew was auto-updated however.
It made me save a lot of time. The system just works out of the box, and is very stable, and even allows me to switch between half a dozen atomic distros (including KDE variant) in a single command line, without a full system reinstall. I only wished that the swap was better configured.
18 • Custom ISO (by Hank on 2025-05-12 10:43:03 GMT from Germany)
Over years I have created a number of custom ISO for local users, all based on antiX full, most important and successful variants, a university students edition, another with many added applications for kids in secondary school. Application choices were made together with users and parents. The number of changes resulted in a medium ISO size but kept the speed of antiX in focus.
Presently an experimental unofficial version for local age and cognitively impaired older persons is in the pipeline, it will automate updating of hosts lists for ad and nuisance blocking and system updates using standard linux tools.
All can run live from USB stick or installed, for better support on very new devices xanmod kernel is provided as a boot choice.
For those who do not know, antiX is a lightweight linux flavour based on Debian but systemd free. Presently SysV and Runit versions are available, personal preference Runit.
19 • Help! Too Many Distros! (by Slappy McGee on 2025-05-12 11:48:41 GMT from United States)
@1 Linux is not about the right number of distos. Are there too many M&Ms? Too many donuts? Too many trees at the park, fish in the sea, stars in the sky?
lmao
20 • Have you ever created your own distribution ISO? (by Bof on 2025-05-12 11:54:48 GMT from United Kingdom)
Here's another Oldie - seventy five years old that has no intention of creating his own ISO.
I totally agree with Jake - ( 16 ) - I want to use Linux, as I have done for close to 25 years.
Pclos for the last 20+ years..... starting with P91. Marvellous !
21 • File Managers (by crayola_eater on 2025-05-12 12:10:48 GMT from United States)
Add SpaceFM to the list, as well as the fork zzzFM.
Not only do they give you creating new actions, but also allow you to edit/create the properties of right-clicked menu items. A nice cutomizable file manager that has been my goto for many years.
22 • Custom ISO (by crayola_eater on 2025-05-12 12:22:32 GMT from United States)
I always said that when I retired I was going to greate my own, via LinuxFromScratch. 13 years later, still never started.
But close, for the past 5-6 years I've been using daily drivers that I 'create' using core/cli ISOs from others and building my own from there. Never had the need to acually remaster a physical iso, or even create a script that even somewhat automates the process. That way each 'build' is unique in its own way.
23 • Custom file manager actions (Caja) (by Bernhard on 2025-05-12 12:55:21 GMT from Germany)
For Caja simply do the following:
- create a script, which performs the desired action (e.g. encrypt and then copy files to USB-drive)
- save it under /home//.config/caja/scripts
24 • Custom file manager actions (Caja) EDIT (by Bernhard on 2025-05-12 12:58:48 GMT from Germany)
somehow the brackets were messed up. So to clarify:
- create a script, which performs the desired action (e.g. encrypt and then copy files to USB-drive)
- save it under /home/USERNAME/.config/caja/scripts
25 • Best immutable, maintenance-free distribution (by Ottomane on 2025-05-12 13:51:21 GMT from Germany)
I have looked at most of the immutable, maintenance-free distributions out there and Aeon (https://aeondesktop.github.io/), an openSUSE offshot, just destroys them all. Review it ;)
26 • Thunar customized action and sendto tool (by always_curious_about_FOSS on 2025-05-12 14:23:10 GMT from Germany)
For this especially case to move some files in thunar to an other directory, there is an oohter possibility in thunar. Its the sendto tool. The config file of sendto is located at
/usr/share/Thunar/sendto
You can create a .desktop file with the comand mv %F /home/user/Musik/
27 • Custom ISO (by Always_curious_about_FOSS on 2025-05-12 14:49:40 GMT from Germany)
I guess there are two main questions in this discussion:
1. are there too many distros and is there a need for more distros?
2. What is the purpose to use a custome ISO ?
to the first question:
if have installed a new distro, i am going to change it many ways. Deleting a lot of software I don‘t need and installing other software I need. Adding a panel or a dock. Deleting a lot of icons. Changing wallpaper, changing the theme. Creating aliases. Creating some custome actions in thunar.
So is this a new distro? There are a lot of distros with less changings then my. But there is no need for me to spread it out in the world. Its only mine induval customize.
So is a new distro only made for itself to be proud to have created an own new distro or was it created for an especially purpose? For example for an especially group with an especially need for a software, or an experimental one to find a new way to use Linux ?
to the secound question:
if the custome ISO is used for a distro of someone who want to proud about creating his own distro, i guess its should not have been created.
But case the individual customize going to move to new computer or from desktop to the laptop.
Well, in this case a custom ISO could be helpfull.
28 • Bluefin, Advertizing Hype Immutable (by Bono on 2025-05-12 15:21:11 GMT from Germany)
10 Bluefin tnt from sweden posted
Immutable, Flatpak, Gnome, Wayland ... thanks but, no thanks.
One addition, systemd which still is mutating and its metastasen enveloping further parts of the linux ecosystem.
Immutable, even if the disk is encrypted any accessible so called immutable distribution can be manipulated at runtime, often over a network. Only one exception, no power, locked in as safe which is situated in the depths of the oceanic trench.
Do not be lulled in to a false sense of security, immutable is a buzzword, and intended to embrace and controll users. Flatpack Fat, propriety and not easy to open for inspection of contents. Gnome an overweight monster, wayland, way off production readiness..
29 • @28 (by tnt on 2025-05-12 16:35:54 GMT from The Netherlands)
True, I was considering it as well but, it's more than 5 years since systemd livet in one of my laptops. It went too far for my like back then and, it didn't stop since. So, to me that's the first criteria, not the last.
30 • Custom ISO (by David on 2025-05-12 16:36:24 GMT from United Kingdom)
PCLinuxOS comes with a tool to do this as standard. It generates a live DVD/USB that looks like the normal installation medium but which will install an exact replica of your existing system.
31 • On OpenSUSE campaign. (by Tuxedoar on 2025-05-12 17:11:24 GMT from Argentina)
While I've never been a user of OpenSUSE, I appreciate that they're advocating for trying GNU/Linux distros in general as a Windows alternative, and not OpenSUSE exclusively. They could've pretended that OpenSUSE is the only valid alternative, but they didn't. Kudos to the authors of the campaign!.
Have a nice week!.
Cheers.
32 • Custom actions for XFE (by bgstack15 on 2025-05-12 19:47:28 GMT from United States)
Xfe file manager supports custom actions.
/home/bgstack15/.config/xfe/scripts]$ ls
irfanview test1.sh touch
The name of the script is the contents of the menu entry (including the .sh), and it passes the files as parameters to the script.
33 • Custom actions and custom ISOs (by MikeOh Shark on 2025-05-12 20:15:28 GMT from United States)
I use custom actions to encrypt or decrypt files to my GPG keys and to mount ISO files.
I used to make custom ISOs with tools to recover deleted files, make backups, and other system tasks when helping others with their computers. Less need for it now that more distros allow you to run live and with Ventoy.
34 • Custom distribution (by Microlinux on 2025-05-12 20:26:34 GMT from France)
Ten years ago, I had my own Slackware-based MLED (Microlinux Enterprise Desktop).
http://web.archive.org/web/20161027055015/https://www.microlinux.eu/
Eventually I moved to CentOS and then to Rocky Linux as a base. Today all my customizations are handled by Ansible. No more custom ISOs.
35 • Linux ISO erstellt (by Stefan on 2025-05-13 08:32:10 GMT from Germany)
Hallo
ich nutze Linux mx als iso.
Das Mutter Iso angepasst (Oberfläche, WLAN Passwort diverse Tools) dann das ISO zurückgeschrieben auf anderen Stick.
Dann kann es losgehen
36 • Distribution ISO (by penguinx86 on 2025-05-14 00:57:42 GMT from United States)
No, I haven't ever created a distribution ISO. But I have a comment. I'd like to see more ISO distibution files for ARM based systems. Most ARM distributions only have IMG files available. Debian is just about the only distro with an ISO file that works well with Virtualbox on my Mac. Why aren't there more ARM ISO files available?
37 • Custom ISO (by Vukota on 2025-05-14 13:18:07 GMT from Serbia)
I did create custom ISO installation of the existing distro, just to make the installation do what I needed it to do (and redo tomorrow if something goes wrong). At the time I needed proper ZFS support with proper installation configuration on live/install ISO that was not present on distribution's provided ISO.
38 • Choice paralysis (by Simon on 2025-05-15 01:28:33 GMT from New Zealand)
As always I appreciate Jesse's detailed review (of "Bluefin" in this case), and as usual it's more than enough to let me know the distro in question is not for me. The project's claiming to simplify things and remove "choice paralysis" while then offering seven package managers (!) is hilarious: I can't imagine what would motivate any project to attempt to work with so many different package managers, let alone a project that claimed to be all about eliminating unnecessary choice. Bizarre.
39 • @38 • Choice paralysis (by Mr. Kibbitz on 2025-05-15 02:25:04 GMT from United States)
"more than enough to let me know the distro in question is not for me." While I may learn some things from Jesse's review, I'd never let it determine what distros I will choose or reject. I've been running Bluefin for several months on a KVM VM. Running it sporadically, and it's kept itself up to date without my intervention. Too many package managers? Perhaps. Do you need to use them? No. Can you switch to manual updates? Yes, it's Linux after all, but would defeat the purpose.
I just updated for the first time using System Update. Takes a good long while, but the download was only just over 25 MB. No Flatpaks are updated, just what's in the Fedora repos. "Flatpak update" gives me "nothing to do". The Firefox flatpak is the latest, so I assume it has updated at some time.
At the risk of adding even more complication, there is another way to install/uninstall apps. One can use rpm-ostree to draw from the repos. I did that after installing because I wanted some non-Gnome apps, and just to experiment. Worked fine. An aside: After at least one snapshot is created, Grub does pause long enough to let one choose.
40 • @39 (by Simon on 2025-05-15 11:15:25 GMT from New Zealand)
If you would never let one of Jesse's reviews determine which distros you'll try then you haven't used Linux enough to develop any strong preferences. If you have strong preferences for particular release models, init systems, and so on and so on, many of the new distros can be dismissed immediately from a glance at their description without even reading a review (e.g. if you value stability then "based on Debian stable" sounds promising while "Arch-based" sounds unlikely to be worth a look): most of the others can be dismissed from the details of the review (e.g. if the reviewer encounters lots of bugs and broken features, why on earth would I waste my time installing that sloppy disaster onto my own systems?). On the rare occasions when a distro ticks all the boxes not only in its basic description but also in the review, then it's something I might consider downloading and testing myself. There are hundreds of distros on Distrowatch and time is a precious resource: I'm ce rtainly going to let Jesse's reviews save my time by giving me additional info so I can tell if it's worth my time to try a distro myself. In Bluefin's case it isn't.i
I think defending Bluefin with "Too many package managers? Perhaps. Do you need to use them? No" misses Jesse's point. This is a project that explicitly says "We remove choice paralysis for users" and then provides a comically absurd range of choices for package management. Making empty marketing claims and then doing things in the exact opposite way suggests a lack of integrity and/or vision and gets an instant "no thanks" from me. I don't understand why Bluefin would appeal to anyone more than Silverblue, but my not understanding it doesn't make it a bad distro: maybe it's a great distro, it's just definitely not for me.
41 • @40, choice paralysis reply (by Mr. Kibbitz on 2025-05-15 11:54:02 GMT from United States)
"I don't understand why Bluefin would appeal to anyone more than Silverblue," Perhaps because it can be more complete, with access to more repos, and including software such as virt-manager, distrobox, boxbuddy, etc. With Silverblue I had to spend time finding out how to install software I use, while Bluefin Dx had just about everything I needed.
'"I think defending Bluefin with "Too many package managers?"' Not defending Bluefin. Explaining that in my experience, the package managers do not have to be updated singly and manually, as claimed in the review.
Also, as per the review: "The System Update program is unusually unfriendly and unclear about what it is doing. Presumably it is fetching and installing new base system images, but there is nothing on the screen to confirm its success or report its failure." Not in my experience. System Update went through a detailed process, listed what it was doing, noted what it was downloading, and when it was done suggested entering "systemctl reboot."
"Sometimes while using Bluefin the desktop would become sluggish. This was usually due to a process called rpm-ostree running in the background and using 100% of a CPU core." Could have been updating in the background, although I haven't experienced high CPU usage.
I'm not recommending Bluefin, nor do I intend to use it as my main distro, but since I find it interesting, I'd rather form my opinions from my own experience rather than take them directly from Jesse's reviews.
42 • @41 (by Simon on 2025-05-15 12:44:44 GMT from New Zealand)
Re "I'd rather form my opinions from my own experience rather than take them directly from Jesse's reviews": it's because I've already have well-formed opinions from my own experience that I can rely so much more now on Distrowatch reviews. For example, I already know that I hate the unpredictability of rolling-release distros, and greatly prefer the dependability of stable occasional-release models, so I'm not getting an "opinion" from a review if I learn from it that a distro is rolling release: I'm simply learning that it's not worth my time trying it, based on my own experience and what the review has informed me about the distro.
Of course this does require the review to be accurate, so the things you're pointing out, where your experience differed from Jesse's, could be useful for others who find Bluefin more interesting than I do. Thanks for explaining why you prefer it to Silverblue: those reasons don't motivate me to give it a spin myself, but I can see how it might tick someone's boxes somewhere.
43 • Deepin but not in OpenSuse (by FledermausMann on 2025-05-16 01:02:32 GMT from Australia)
"The Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) is being removed from openSUSE's repositories, due to issues with security...."
I would recommend everyone to stop using Deepin unless you are happy with their dubious practices that has gotten their repo banned from OpenSuse.
Some people want _hina having a backdoor into their system. To each their own I guess.
44 • @42 choice paralysis and reviews (by Mr. Kibbitz on 2025-05-16 01:25:15 GMT from United States)
"For example, I already know that I hate the unpredictability of rolling-release distros, and greatly prefer the dependability of stable occasional-release models, so I'm not getting an "opinion" from a review if I learn from it that a distro is rolling release: I'm simply learning that it's not worth my time trying it, based on my own experience and what the review has informed me about the distro." A bit of a stretch, ain't it? I certainly don't need to read a review to figure out if a distro is rolling or not, or whether it will be unpredictable.
For the record: I found the idea of immutable distros interesting, so I've downloaded and run several. Some I found unusable for my purposes, such as Nitrux and Vanilla. Slverblue/Kinoite, Bluefin/Aurora, and Aeon/Kalpa worked ran well and could adapt to my use with not a lot of tweaking. I still have Bluefin and Kalpa running on VMs. I like Kalpa, but Bluefin/Aurora, were the most complete and easiest to set up as I like, offering the most and best choices preinstall with less fuss. In the end, for the present, I will not run any of them on my PCs simply because they don't play well with others, and multi-booting is essential in my case. That's my "well-formed opinion" and decision, and I don't need anyone's review to tell me that.
45 • Rolling releases.. (by Slappy McGee on 2025-05-16 14:00:37 GMT from United States)
@44 etc.. Am I the only one who sees a rolling release aspect in pretty much all distros? The ones labeled as rolling release continue updates, often quite frequent but not always, as the "stable" release distros do the same. The differences seem to be in the label/name/number designation of the distros as they move along in software updates and upgrades. It's almost as if there is a spectrum of rolling to stable/non-rolling.
"Occasional release models" seem to benefit from the rolling model until the number/nickname designation has changed, then they encourage a full distro upgrade by the user. Is it necessary to do that? Or can we treat the stable releases the same? Well, not always, of course as some of the changes will not update/upgrade as a software download with the old release.. but to me the differences are smaller and I am thinking that most distros could well to the work to remain in a rolling model rather than have us cover/destroy the older number/named one for the upgraded one.
I of course see the (rather slight) differences. But.. are those differences needed?
Number of Comments: 45
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Adamantix
The Adamantix project (formerly known as Trusted Debian) aims to create a highly secure but usable Linux platform. To accomplish this, the project will use currently available security solutions for Linux (like kernel patches, compiler patches, security related programs and techniques) and knit these together to a highly secure Linux platform.
Status: Discontinued
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