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1 • Wayland (by vmclark on 2025-06-16 01:31:39 GMT from United States)
My computer supports Wayland just fine. Also I prefer Dates to releases.
2 • SDesk (by brad on 2025-06-16 01:46:23 GMT from United States)
I did investigate when I was thinking of looking for an Arch-based alternative that wasn't Manjaro, Endeavour, or Cachy, and found that it's probably another one of the myriad "boutique" distros, with only one main developer - Steve of "Steve Studios"(?).
No thanks. I apologize if this comment seems snarky, but in light of recent comments regarding the stability and long-term viability of distros, this ain't it.
3 • gnome... (by Zap on 2025-06-16 01:47:12 GMT from United States)
Good thing I don't have a fondness for desktop environments, especially gnome. bloated eye candy, thats all that is.
But seriously how stupid that they think its okay to make it depend on systemd. That's just an unneeded dependency.
Damn redhat your so arrogant. Same with their partners, corporate or otherwise.
4 • Software version (by TheRanga on 2025-06-16 02:30:22 GMT from Australia)
I really like Ubuntu's system of versioning.
Year of release - month of release - whether it is LTS or not - whimsical name
That way when you manage a large number of linux boxes, you can tell at a glance, which ones are in need of an update.
5 • Nitrux throws a grenade (by Happy_Phantom on 2025-06-16 02:43:39 GMT from United States)
I get the feeling the developers of Nitrux are a restless bunch. It seems like every couple of years they throw a grenade at their distribution and blow it up. I'm really curious what goes into their overall decision making process.
6 • convergence (by J.D. Laub on 2025-06-16 03:28:30 GMT from United States)
Another convergence option to consider is https://pureos.net/ . I was able to get a Librem 5 working with a NexDock 360. Don't expect perfection.
7 • Version numbers? x11, xWayland, Wayland problems. (by Greg Zeng on 2025-06-16 03:43:08 GMT from Australia)
"The Linux Foundation" needs to use the Date format for Versioning? Ubuntu has strict and predictable policy guidelines for version naming. The LTS versions are always very clear.
Eventually, Linux might have naming standards that other systems (Windows, Apple, Samsung, Ford, BSD, etc) might follow.
From the Ubuntu reference in this week’s Distrowatch news: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-25-10-drops-support-for-gnome-on-xorg/62538/25
Conan_Kudo:
"Visio-conferencing (Zoom, kMeet from Infomaniak): impossible to share a screen under Wayland
"Zoom supports Wayland (I use it regularly!), it will automatically use portals on GNOME, and it needs to be lied to for other Wayland environments (XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME is required to allow portal functionality).
"Remote access (I am using Anydesk regularly to help people out, and it seems not to work properly with Wayland, but I need to check it again).
"RustDesk supports Wayland and is aimed as an open source alternative to AnyDesk specifically.
"OpenLP (a Church song projection software)
"It seems to be a normal app, I expect it to work fine on Wayland. Qt5 supports Wayland, as does LibreOffice. VLC should be okay too."
8 • Gnome with strong systemd dependencies (by user on 2025-06-16 04:29:07 GMT from Bulgaria)
The downfall of the Gnome desktop has just begun. Irreversibly.
9 • Versioning (by Cherry Tree Orchard on 2025-06-16 05:32:10 GMT from France)
Date > Sequential number
Anything else requires some level of minor research.
And then there's "how-to"s written for a distro's nickname without naming the version directly... more research.
"Date" only assumes a newer (contemporary) kernel.
I'd really like the naming format to include even more basic information like the kernel version so you can have some idea if it will work on your hardware or what level of work will be required. That information is as, if not more, important than the rest.
10 • Version numbers (by Felix on 2025-06-16 05:49:18 GMT from Germany)
couldn't care less ...
11 • Arch based (by tomas on 2025-06-16 07:26:52 GMT from Czechia)
@2
If I remember well, the first Arch based distro I was running was AntergOS.
Now it is extinct but I am still running it and am glad so.
Still consider it the best, compared to EndeavorOS it gave me a very good start.
Only some time after EOL I have found that changing repositories to pure Arch is enough to keep it updated.
Is it still AntergOS or just pure Arch comfortably installed?
As for the long-term viability I missed this method of change in the comments.
12 • DeGoogling more difficult? (by PalomarJack on 2025-06-16 07:45:40 GMT from United States)
Google does not like DeGoogled devices, do they? Too bad. Hopefully Google locking down their phones will intensify development of Linux phones like the Pinephone. We'll see.
13 • New additions - Exton Linux (by tomas on 2025-06-16 08:06:01 GMT from Czechia)
Is it a new distro or just a remix of existing distros with chosen desktop to live media?
14 • Versioning label (by Kazlu on 2025-06-16 08:14:57 GMT from France)
I prefer a date based label by far. I a using Debian based distros (MX, Peppermint, SpiralLinux, Yunohost) and I rely on Debian oldstable status to keep my systems running as is for as long as possible. I usually skip every other release of the Debian base, going from oldoldstable when stables has come out. Inevitably, I end up asking myself if the release of one of the systems I am using is stable, oldstable or oldoldstable, and a name like Bookworm of Bullseye does not help me, however fun it is to follow a naming convention. The Ubuntu naming is great, a very good balance of clear and not overly compley like a full date stamp (like 2025-06-06-12-36-54) would be. A naming convention that follows alphabetical order for the first letter (like the code names of the Ubuntu versions) can work too. It is not as clear, but it is a passable compromise.
15 • Versioning label (by Cinthia on 2025-06-16 08:58:21 GMT from Czechia)
Either date or something like semantic versioning (like Linux Mint does: 20, 21, 21.1, 22, 22.1 etc.).
16 • versioning (by Chris on 2025-06-16 10:53:56 GMT from South Africa)
Here we use 16th June 2025 for the date. 2025.06.12 (for example) would be confusing. 12/6th or 6/12th?
17 • Version number (by Friar Tux on 2025-06-16 13:09:09 GMT from Canada)
@16 (Chris) This is exactly why I prefer just plain numbering (like Linux Mint). It eliminates that date confusion.
18 • Versioning in AI times (by Use this on 2025-06-16 13:28:03 GMT from Italy)
date +%s.%N
:-P
19 • version number (by ghost on 2025-06-16 13:55:04 GMT from Sweden)
Don't care, rolling Void since 2017 :)
20 • Steve's distro (by Slappy McGee on 2025-06-16 14:25:43 GMT from United States)
@1 @2 etc.. jeesh, in the review I at first misunderstood Jesse's "...SDesk is an Arch-based project which aims to provide a modern, sleek user interface (GNOME)..."
I took it to mean (among other things) that Gnome is a modern, sleek user interface.
Ha ha ha haha ha.. oy vey, yaa zalameh, caramba, etc. It can be with some work on the part of the user, I admit. I've done that. But.. oh never mind.
Anyway.. Yes there are a lot of projects out there, like the tin can of bolts, nuts, and cotter pins etc in the garage, it can all be put together at some point into some sort of work of art I guess.
And the reviewer does provide us with his reasoning for doing that for SDesk. It's just that I am still stuck on the antiquated notion that Linux is in dire need of promoting itself through the substantial qualities of well established, evolved, deep rooted Linux distributions. We see at least 25 of those on the page hit list here, and more if we want to keep going down the list to about, say the 35th (Deepin) which gets over 300 hits per day.
But SDesk? Commending DW for including such a distro in a review page here feels strange this time.
21 • Version number (by Hope on 2025-06-16 14:34:29 GMT from Sweden)
Doesn't really matter that much, I'm using NetBSD development branch with rolling packages and even a few things built from git-HEAD of projects I care about, like my window manager, shell and terminal.
22 • Pixel (by Simon on 2025-06-16 16:05:29 GMT from United Kingdom)
Recently purchased a Pixel 9 with the express point of using GrapheneOS. Regular Android was just getting too privacy-destroying. Fingers crossed they will be able to come up with something
23 • Re: 3 (by grindstone on 2025-06-16 17:21:52 GMT from United States)
+1 to @Zap.
Ignorant of how much IBM/RH (the latter of which has clearly done a *lot* of heavy-lifts for all of us for years) dictate to Gnome, but it's been truly amazing to observe Gnome consistently make such poor decisions over such a long period. It must pay for somebody. Somewhere. Somehow.
Escapes me.
24 • Ver # and GNOME (by John on 2025-06-16 17:25:55 GMT from Canada)
For versioning Iike the default RCS uses, plus can update the Rev # on checkin ($Id$). I miss that with git.
For GNOME, I am at the point of "who cares what they do". With the way thins are going in the Linux world, I expect in 5 years or so I will be 100% BSD.
25 • versioning labels (by Simon Plaistowe on 2025-06-17 01:53:06 GMT from New Zealand)
My preference is Dates, named sensibly using ISO standard YYYY-MM[-DD] or simply YY.MM as Ubuntu does. Using a date format like MM.DD.YY or similar makes no sense because the numbers aren't sequential when placed in an alphanumeric list.
26 • F0SS (by JohnMclaine on 2025-06-17 04:27:42 GMT from Australia)
1) SDESK
Although I commend Jesse for reviewing small one man distro operations, the SDESK review grinds my gears because this is really just a vanity project from the dev (Steve). It has a place of course in the hundreds of linux distros available, but, as a one man project which is just another Gnome spin of Arch, it really has no place getting reviewed when there are actually serious projects on the waiting evaluation list. I would suggest to Jesse and team, to stop reviewing projects with less than 10 devs. Longevity of a distro is important for us and the active number of devs is a deciding factor. Vanity projects have no place there. Maybe have a new category for these in the search?
2)Gnome and Systemd
Well, it should be no surprise to anyone that systemd continues to gain and ever stronger place within Linux when it is being actively pushed by Redhat/IBM and Linus himself. I am not going to go into pros and cons of this but, we can all see where this is going; that systemd will replace ever more parts of Linux. The only thing to do for those people who object is to seek alternatives in systemd-free Linux distros or considering the development with Wayland and X11, perhaps even leave Linux and go over to BSD. FreeBSD has come a long way and offers a great selection of ports and programs. Of course if you want to game, FreeBSD isn't suitable, but then you can just go buy a playstation or something.
3)F0SS
The recent fork of XII has shown me one thing; Linux and the F0SS world is way too p0litical. The personal attacks on the dev who forked X11 because of his beliefs or opinions should not matter in the slightest. What should matter is that he found an issue with XII, he wants to fix this issue, and thankfully in F0SS he can fork the project and continue development. Whether people agree or not also shouldn't matter. The only thing that does matter at the end of the day is; does it work, is the code good, are there any bugs or regressions, is there a willingness to fix bugs and regressions
People sadly are so caught up in p0litics in F0SS and fail to see the merit in what the dev is trying to do. I hope his fork succeeds and more devs come onboard to make it a better version of the original XII fixing all the issues which prompted the development of Wayland in the first place.
People also forget that XII is a fork of Xfr3386. The server which is used by FreeBSD; Xenocara, is also a fork. Forks are what make FOSS so amazing and why there is so much choice available.
FOSS is about choice. If there is only Wayland, what kind of choice is that? If people want to fork a project they should. The reason doesn't matter.
27 • Custom Android ROMs. (by Tuxedoar on 2025-06-17 13:27:02 GMT from Argentina)
I wish people (part of them) working on making custom Android ROMs, would rather join efforts on improving GNU/Linux compatibility with mobile devices and also on running Android apps on the former. In this regard, my hopes are with the "PostmarketOS" project.
AFAIK, most of the Android components have never been FOSS anyway!. So, I think it's time to dedicate Google's Android a giant F* and move on with FOSS-based OSes for the mobile ecosystem.
Cheers.
Have a nice week.
28 • GNOME will soon hardly run without systemd (by Mario on 2025-06-17 13:45:56 GMT from Italy)
GNOME is an increasingly tight cage. The only defense is to use alternative desktop environments (e.g. KDE Plasma).
29 • Alternatives to Gnome... (by Friar Tux on 2025-06-17 17:37:58 GMT from Canada)
@28 (Mario) I would think an "alternative" to Gnome would be Cinnamon DE, or Mate DE, and such. KDE Plasma would be a whole different DE as opposed to an alternative. Or am I nit picking, here?
30 • "alternative" to Gnome (by 32298 on 2025-06-17 20:21:51 GMT from United States)
XFCE 4 !!!!!!!!!
31 • @26 3)F0SS (by GT on 2025-06-17 20:24:59 GMT from United States)
"The only thing that does matter at the end of the day is; does it work, is the code good, are there any bugs or regressions, is there a willingness to fix bugs and regressions"
The dev who is forking X11 had a history of submitting merge requests that were broken or bug-prone without providing justification for the code changes. He declared some of the X11 code 'obsolete/no longer used' only for the NVIDIA dev to chime in to say they still use some of the parts he was looking to remove. He was wasting considerable time of other developers who were reviewing his requests and finding issues he had missed because he didn't complete thorough testing himself beforehand, leaving it to others to find any problems with his code.
"I hope his fork succeeds and more devs come onboard to make it a better version of the original XII fixing all the issues which prompted the development of Wayland in the first place."
I doubt his fork will ever function better than the original project, if at all. Given how many developers got tired of cleaning up his messes, getting good long term help from others on his fork is probably not in the cards. Regardless of where his project goes, I don't see any distros adopting his forked project over the official X11 project given there is no benefit to using it, but there is a strong likelihood of serious breakage if it is adopted in place of the official project.
Some bloggers have spun the situation about it being about his beliefs, or about "politics" as you call it. It sounds like he rubbed some people the wrong way using mailing lists intended for code discussions to spout his personal beliefs, which isn't professional. However, if you read through X11's Git history, there is none of that. What is recorded there is the frustration and criticism about the quality and purpose of his merge requests that didn't improve the user experience of X11 and put additional work on other developers who eventually couldn't trust any of his requests wouldn't break something.
32 • FOSS (by JohnMclaine on 2025-06-17 22:55:17 GMT from Australia)
@31
>>The dev who is forking X11 had a history of submitting merge requests that were broken or bug-prone without providing justification for the code changes.
--He declared some of the X11 code 'obsolete/no longer used' only for the NVIDIA dev to chime in to say they still use some of the parts he was looking to remove.
--He was wasting considerable time of other developers who were reviewing his requests and finding issues he had missed because he didn't complete thorough testing himself beforehand, leaving it to others to find any problems with his code.
Really what you are describing above is no different to what happens with any large project. Take the Linux kernel. How many times has Linus rejected code and taken a stick to a dev for submitting bunk? So this is no different from what i can see. Dev makes changes, proposes merge, code inspected by other dev, rejected for reasons. Dev continues coding.
>...I don't see any distros adopting his forked project over the official X11 project given there is no benefit to using it, but there is a strong likelihood of serious breakage if it is adopted in place of the official project.
The official X11 is dead, hence the fork. There will never be another X11 release from the official Xorg. Everything is focused on Wayland and XWayland compatibility.
Considering he just forked the code, how can you say there is no benefit? I think you are jumping the gun a little here. Give it some time and see what happens before you shoot down this fork and say there is no benefit to it. After all, the time between X11 releases was usually about 2 years. The last X11 release was X11R7.7 (Released: 2012-06-06). Prior to that: X11R7.6 (Released: 2010-12-20). Sure, modules
If X11Libre can produce a release in the next couple of years, that would be amazing.
Even if he fails and never releases anything, it doesn't matter. There is still a benefit overall to the FOSS community showing all of us that any project regardless of size can be forked with the intention to improve upon it.
I can see several distros who might pickup this fork. Devaun and other systemd-free distros. Arch will probably offer it also. Of course this is dependent upon whether the new release (when it comes) works. Time will tell. Patience.
There is still a need for X11 because Wayland still has issues, a lot of issues. General use cases may work, but even as of June 6 there is a problem with Nvidia under Wayland. Also SSH.....
Regardless of any of this above, if someone wants to fork a project, let them. Why should anyone care? Why try to dismiss it before it even has a chance to prove itself? If it works people will use it, if not, they will not. No harm no foul.
33 • Version-Date (by Walt R. on 2025-06-17 23:54:05 GMT from United States)
Sir,
Version names are meaningless. Use ISO standard date and version number. IE: 2025-06-17-15.0
or version number makes more sense than a version name
:-),
34 • Gnome, X11 and systemd (by matt on 2025-06-18 04:07:16 GMT from United States)
I don't understand the motivation behind Gnome forcing wayland and systemd. It is as if they want to self-immolate. The Gnome foundation is operating with a budget deficit. In response to the budget problems, they hired a spiritualist who was selling flavored Shaman water to be executive director. The developers seem to hate their users. They have largely ignored feedback on usability. The development has been done with the attitude that they know better than their users. The suck of the Gnome desktop was the primary reason Cinnamon, MATE, and Gnome Flashback desktops were created. Now they are going to make it impossible for some distributions to use Gnome unless they also adopt unrelated software. Who benefits?
35 • Gnome (by Augen on 2025-06-18 07:03:49 GMT from Australia)
When you're down, you gotta double down and then some more. Gnome is suffering from a sunk cost mentality. This is how I see their situation.
The Gnome devs believe with all their heart that they are right and everyone else is wrong and nothing anyone says will convince them otherwise. They are so heavily invested mentally and emotionally that changing course is just impossible. It's not even a consideration. They will go down with their sinking ship rather than admit they have made the wrong decisions regarding design, workflow, systemd integration etc.
Thankfully, there are plenty of desktop alternatives in the FOSS world.
Who knows, maybe Gnome will be forked again, just like Mate.
36 • GNOME is popular (by Bjerrk on 2025-06-18 07:43:43 GMT from United States)
The truth is that a lot of people like GNOME. And do not care about its dependencies. It really is that simple.
37 • codebames (by Dave on 2025-06-18 08:41:04 GMT from Australia)
I hate codenames. Debian is the worse offender, I have to lookup that table every time to make head or tail of what means what. It's not cute, it's not interesting, it's just confusion and meaninglessness for it's own sake.
38 • Is Gnome popular? (by Valerio on 2025-06-18 10:46:32 GMT from Italy)
@36 "The truth is that a lot of people like GNOME." Some may probably like Classic Session, but the default interface is counterintuitive and awkward to use. The only strong point are the colour calibration profiles.
39 • Yes, just not for you ... (by Bjerrk on 2025-06-18 12:26:54 GMT from United States)
@38 It may be counterintuitive to you, but your opinion is not representative. I assume that you understand that. Some minority of users like tiling window managers, some like MATE (myself included), but you have to acknowledge that GNOME is very popular. That's (primarily) why it is so ubiquitous.
You can pretend that it isn't so by elevating your own personal preference to a general law, but it doesn't change the facts.
40 • Gnome (by Friar Tux on 2025-06-18 13:32:57 GMT from Canada)
@39 (Bjerrk) I'm not sure how long ago this was done, here, but, maybe, Jesse, and company, could have a poll to see who uses which DE. I'm one of the "gave-up-on-Gnome" crowd. In fact, after Gnome, I switched to KDE, until THAT went belly up a few years back. When that happened I found, and fell in love with, Cinnamon. I find Cinnamon to be a cross between early Gnome and early KDE - the best parts of both. (As a second choice, I MAY consider XFCE, but only if Cinnamon ever becomes unusable.)
41 • Desktop poll (by Jesse on 2025-06-18 14:07:04 GMT from Canada)
@40: The first poll we ran was about desktop preference: https://distrowatch.com/polls.php?poll=1
We have done several polls on desktops and window managers since then, either discussing customization or Wayland or specific desktops like Deepin and Unity. They are all in our Poll Archive: https://distrowatch.com/polls.php
Incidentally, Xfce and KDE tied for first placein our desktop poll, each with 22% of the vote. Cinnamon was third, MATE was fourth, GNOME was in fifth place.
42 • Representativeness (by Bjerrk on 2025-06-18 14:59:18 GMT from Switzerland)
A poll is good, but as with everything else here, Distrowatch users are far from representative (and the poll is very old). Although I use MATE, I do recognize that it is not currently among the most popular desktops broadly speaking (despite what the poll said at the time).
43 • Version / Google (by Keith S on 2025-06-18 15:39:50 GMT from Japan)
I prefer date versioning, but sequential numbering is OK too. OpenBSD's version number (adding .1 every six months or so) is not great but at least predictable. Anything is preferable to silly names like Bookworm or planet names or whatever.
Google's mask is finally all the way off with their latest move. Their overall strategy of making it impossible for users to avoid surveillance with alternative products extends to software like NewPipe as well, where now that program cannot play back age-restricted YouTube videos. But I knew they were bad many years ago when their motto was "Don't Be Evil."
If GrapheneOS can't make it work, I will probably just have to stay on the last version of Android that does work until I can retire and entirely quit using a smartphone or the battery gives out on my Pixel (usually only about two years).
44 • Version numbers (by Robert on 2025-06-18 15:40:18 GMT from United States)
For versions I want numbers. Don't really care what the numbers are, as long as the new version has a bigger number than the old version.
Date? Sure.
Browser-like integers? Sure.
Classic semantic version? Also totally fine.
Not a fan of the idea of taking a git commit hash and using that as a version. No way to tell at a glance what it means.
45 • BSDs and Xorg forks (by bsduck on 2025-06-18 22:34:12 GMT from Switzerland)
@26 "The server which is used by FreeBSD; Xenocara, is also a fork."
A few observations:
- Xenocara is developed and used by OpenBSD, not FreeBSD
- As stated by its own developers, it isn't a fork - see https://xenocara.org
- On the other side, NetBSD does maintain its own fork of Xorg - see https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/x_org_on_netbsd_the
46 • Gnome and systemd (by Tony Agudo on 2025-06-19 00:13:00 GMT from United States)
Color me unsurprised, considering that the Gnome Foundation is backed by Red Hat, Debian, and Suse(all using systemd). Probably the best route for distros who don't ship systemd but want to keep Gnome would be to offer it as a containerized desktop. Otherwise, major code surgery ahead.
47 • Systemd -Gnome @46 (by kc1di on 2025-06-19 10:43:05 GMT from United States)
Too me I don't use gnome and haven't other than to try it out occasionally here and there and I try to avoid systemd. Not because it does not work but because I have choices. and just don't like the direction systemd is going in so far PCLinuxOS has managed to avoid it. and there are others also. Just have not liked gnome since the days of gnome 3. But that is just my choice and it may not be for everyone. What ever you choose to use enjoy!
48 • DE's & co. (by Sondar on 2025-06-19 11:06:59 GMT from United Kingdom)
Gotta use something familiar and proven matched to requirements. But there's always a little space and time to investigate a few others provided main system is not compromised.
Suggest anyone/everyone takes a few minutes to look at EasyOS run from a USB stick. Almost completely different and is always a running work-in-progress. Capable of saving (or deleting!) everything. Updates/rewrites, etc. are part of the 'game'. Is a development of Puppy which still has its own website & following.
Worth reading Barry's regular discourse on his Newsletter. Clearly a master of his craft (much of his writings outa my ambit!).
49 • SDesk (by Kanuk on 2025-06-20 11:26:47 GMT from Germany)
Confirmed:
set language to Canadian English could then no longer pick a UK or US keyboard.
Test Over.
Number of Comments: 49
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1171 (2026-05-04): Xubuntu 26.04, extending memory with VRAM, Ubuntu plans AI features, Devuan developer forks GTK2, Mint introduces hardware enablement builds, Linux running on a PlayStation 5, local kernel exploit found in Linux |
| • Issue 1170 (2026-04-27): ENux 5.2.1, picking a second distro, AlmaLinux expands CPU support, FreeBSD publishes Status Report, Ubuntu MATE skips 26.04 release |
| • Issue 1169 (2026-04-20): Lakka 6.1, free software and source-based distributions, FreeBSD Foundation publishes compatible laptop list, Debian holds Project Leader election, Haiku progresses ARM64 port, Mint to extend development cycle, Linux 7.0 released |
| • Issue 1168 (2026-04-13): pearOS 2026.03, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, which distros are adopting age verification, Arch adjusts its firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its release cycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves its scheduler |
| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
| • Issue 1166 (2026-03-30): NetBSD jails, publishing software for Linux, Ubuntu joins Rust Foundation, Canonical plans to trim GRUB features, Peppermint works on new utilities, PINE64 shows off open hardware capabilities |
| • Issue 1165 (2026-03-23): Argent Linux 1.5.3, disk space required by Linux, Manjaro team goes on strike, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA driver support and builds RISC-V packages, systemd introduces age tracking |
| • Issue 1164 (2026-03-16): d77void, age verification laws and Linux, SUSE may be for sale, TrueNAS takes its build system private, Debian publishes updated Trixie media, MidnightBSD and System76 respond to age verification laws |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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StartCom Linux
StartCom Enterprise Linux, which was based on the Red Hat AS source code, was the ultimate solution for middle-size servers to large data centres. The current version supports the largest commodity-architecture servers with up to 16 CPUs and 64GB (on x86 systems) of main memory, Global File System - for highly scalable, high performance data sharing in multi-system configurations. Included in this distribution was a comprehensive collection of open source server applications like mail, file (SMB/NFS), DNS, web, FTP, and a complete desktop environment.
Status: Discontinued
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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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