 DistroWatch Weekly |
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 2, value: US$25.47) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • reviews (by Tad Generic on 2025-06-30 00:18:05 GMT from Canada)
I appreciate the reviews for being a good time saver. I gave up on Arch, and all of its derivatives that promise a better user experience, long ago. All eventually ended up with broken updates, or hardware that mysteriously stops working. I just don't care for tinkering with computers any longer - they are more than mature enough technology that they can and should become appliances. I've settled on a couple, and I mean 3 at most, distributions that I can trust to not explode.
2 • post script (by Tad Generic on 2025-06-30 00:20:24 GMT from Canada)
And these ageing eyes find dark mode to be most agreeable.
Cheers.
3 • completely of topic to inform PCLinuxOS users (by Bobbie Sellers on 2025-06-30 00:30:37 GMT from United States)
The building housing the PCLinuxOS Forum computers was burned down.
The original forum has been replaced for the present with
<https://texstar.forumotion.com/> where registration is necessary to
rejoin join the discussions. Hopefully with some luck the original
forum content can be recovered.
The computers which Texstar uses to put together software packages
has not been effected and updates have continued to be made available.
The PCLinusOS Magazine crew is right there with new URL to download
their fine efforts to keep track of changes in the Linux world.
Oh and thanks are owed to Jesse Smith for all the good reviews of good and
bad distributions.
bliss-Dell Precision 7730-PCLOS 2025.06- Linux 6.12.35 pclos1-KDE Plasma 5.27.11
4 • Dark theme (by Pumpino on 2025-06-30 00:34:50 GMT from Australia)
I've been using the Dark Reader extension on my computers (it's available for Chromium and Firefox based browsers), and Vivaldi on my phone (it has a built-in dark mode that can be enabled and disabled per website) for years, so I've not had to worry about DW's light colours.
5 • Thank You Bobbie Sellers @#3 (by Empty_Handshake on 2025-06-30 01:42:13 GMT from United States)
Thank you, Bobbie for getting the news out about PCLinuxOS. I appreciate that!
6 • Dark Mode (by S Sharma on 2025-06-30 02:00:22 GMT from United States)
I like Dark Mode, it looks more appealing.
However I have a suggestion on the link colors --
It would be nice if the color was more contrasted with the background
(light blue on a black ground is not very good with older eyes)
7 • Rankings artificially inflated, toxic popularity contest (by J. on 2025-06-30 02:24:03 GMT from The Netherlands)
This site definitely has a hard-on for CachyOS I see. So many favorable reviews and anyone who brings up their thoughts in the negative- well, those reviews rarely get posted. Definitely biased for sure this site and its owners are. I really think this popularity contest of ranking distorts needs to go away- it gets in the way of the whole experience using this site, and is horribly spammed with bots and proxies used to artificially inflate the rankings. Definitely very toxic I see that being.
I’m sure other distorts have this happen to them too, but I see CachyOS the most .
8 • @7 I agree (by Alexander C. on 2025-06-30 02:28:35 GMT from France)
@7
I definitely agree here. This is not at all helpful to see the toxicity in reviews and insults being spewed at each other.
I’m sure a lot of people would like to see those rankings gone, so this can go back to a Linux info site.
9 • Dark Mode and stuff (by Friar Tux on 2025-06-30 02:37:25 GMT from Canada)
As with @4 (Pumpino) I've been using Dark Reader for as long as I can remember.
As for Flatpak transfers, I only use AppImage as it can be saved, restored, or transferred with the rest of my Home Folder and works every time. I really appreciate the "one file equals one program/app" idea. And it doesn't matter what the base distro is - it still works, including pulling in the system theme, which, I find, Flatpak, and Snaps, never do. All then can manage is that hideous dark grey.
10 • Rankings definitely take away from the site (by Mikey on 2025-06-30 03:11:14 GMT from Canada)
@7 & @8
Yeah, I have seen the same thing too. It really takes away from this site having those rankings. I just tell my friends who are interested learning about Linux to just avoid distrowatch and find the distros websites and forums from a search engine.
11 • Dark mode looks awful (by Fevy7 on 2025-06-30 05:30:36 GMT from Canada)
The dark mode looks awful. Bright green text is definitely not dark mode friendly.
12 • Rankings (by tomas on 2025-06-30 07:31:56 GMT from Czechia)
I disagree with @7, @8 and @10.
As said before, the rankings do not show the popularity of a distribution but a page hit by the users, filtered by IP. Certainly bots can distort this but otherwise they give at least some notion.
I always objected to some distros getting so high rating, not long ago EndeavorOS now CachyOS,
I have tried both of them before and did not find them good enough to deserve such ratings, but in time they will fall down.
The only disadvantage here is that the top ranking makes people want to see what is behind and visit the distros page, which naturally makes the rating higher.
In any case the rating does not give any information about the quality of the distro.
Maybe the ranking could be weighted by the visitor supplied reviews rating.
13 • @7, @8, @10 Are we looking at the same site? (by Alter Furz on 2025-06-30 08:03:49 GMT from Germany)
The Distrowatch, ie. by staff, reviews of CachyOS have been honest and straightforward as always. The last one https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20250505#cachyos plainly stated that CachyOS does not measure up to its promises and if you are looking for something Arch-based making the same claims that you are better off with Endeavor.
So, what are you talking about?
Then I spot-checked the many, many reviews by visitors and lo and behold, it's the usual mishmash of "10, best evar" and "1, total suckage" you get everywhere. I did not stumble on a review where the reviewer attacked or belittled any one with a different opinion. As far as I know there is little to no review process for visitor reviews, either.
So, what are you talking about?
"Toxicity", "bias", "insults" is in your mind, not on this site. I have seen this all before, I recall the PCLinuxOS pissfest. You feel slighted because others do not share your opinion. Grow up.
14 • Opinion Poll Suggestion (by Praveen Kunjapur on 2025-06-30 08:14:13 GMT from India)
I want to have an Opinion Poll for Distrowatch Weekly And/Or Distrowatch Website Main Page where I want the Distro's Splash Screen to be Displayed beside the Distro being mentioned - Both in Distrowatch Website's Main Page And in Distrowatch Weekly's Column Released Last Week As Am Very Qurious To Know How A Particular Distro/BSD/Open Source Operating System's Splash Screen Looks Like. (Will Increase The Count Of Visitors Visiting The Main Page Of Distrowatch Website as Well As The Page Of Distrowatch Weekly).
Thank You,
(Distrowatch Reader Since Last 20 Years).
15 • Dark mode (by eb on 2025-06-30 08:25:03 GMT from France)
More precious than dark mode, I love xrandr :
xrandr --output HDMI-2 --brightness 0.6
when starting X
It can be recorded in .xinitrc :
exec /usr/bin/xrandr --output HDMI-2 --brightness 0.6 &
otherwise, brightness of our screens is too violent.
16 • Dark Mode (by Dave Postles on 2025-06-30 09:27:01 GMT from United Kingdom)
I'm very short-sighted and have lost peripheral vision because of glaucoma. The dark mode works for me. I appreciate its availability.
17 • Dark mode & Rankings (by dachshundman on 2025-06-30 09:40:37 GMT from United Kingdom)
As an older reader I like the dark mode. I found the site easier to read which is odd because usually I do not like dark mode.
I like the rankings. When I am looking to try a new distro I normally work my way down the rankings to find one that I have not tried before. As for visitor reviews in the rankings, I never look at them.
18 • Comment 13...... Totally agree. (by Bof on 2025-06-30 10:10:38 GMT from United Kingdom)
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time. Thanks Ab !
CachyOS.
I tried CachyOS on a Dell i7 8th gen midi tower. Connected to the net eventually. Ran alright, but nothing stood out as a WOW factor !
An honest opinion from a 75 year old Brit !
True story........... several years ago a British travel agent published its new brochure. At one hotel in Egypt it showed fantastic pictures of a childrens water play area and it had several reviews saying ..." how brilliant it was "... " our children had a wonderful time here. Would recommend it everytime " etc. In actual fact the build of the hotel was delayed by over 2 years. People who booked at this hotel were sent 100s of miles to a different resort. It only came to light at a board meeting and several people were sacked.
Do not believe everything you read............... TRY IT YOURSELF !
19 • @3 PCLinuxOS (by kc1di on 2025-06-30 11:03:22 GMT from United States)
So Sorry to hear about David's fire. But glad he is Ok. Hopefully content can be save in the future.
I would remind folks that PCLinuxOS Debian version has been up and running also.
https://www.pclosdebian.com/home
and may be a alternative for those that need one.
But Texstar is still packaging and systems already installed can be upgrade without interruption.
Wish the all the best as they work to recover from the fire.
20 • Ubuntu move & Reviews (by dragonmouth on 2025-06-30 11:15:53 GMT from United States)
The price of convenience is security and privacy. The more convenient an app is, the less secure it is.
If you cannot stand the flaws of YOUR favorite distro being exposed, stay off Distrowatch. I am glad that DW allows all opinions. What purpose do cookie-cutter, positive opinions that praise a distro to high heaven achieve? They all sound like they were paid for by the developer.
21 • AxOS review (by moulder on 2025-06-30 12:46:40 GMT from United Kingdom)
I had a similar experience to Jesse when trying out AxOS. It insists on booting in UEFI mode, which to be fair, most Arch based systems do on my setup, particularly as I have my bootloader set to BIOS and usually boot from a Ventoy USB stick.
Regarding the installation, I managed to get it installed, seemingly, but it wouldn't boot, and on examining that partition from another OS, the boot folder was empty!
I gave up on it, but the Hyprland version looks really nice.
22 • PCLinuxOS website is down (by ocr on 2025-06-30 14:06:07 GMT from Italy)
PCLinuxOS website is down.
https://texstar.forumotion.com/t1-the-pclinuxos-website-is-down
23 • Alma Linux vs RHEL (by Slappy McGee on 2025-06-30 14:14:02 GMT from United States)
From the review (and to paraphrase my own experiences with Alma): "..Alma does not require account registration, it does not include an AI assistant which spews false information, it does not run as many background services, it does not require newer 64-bit processors, and downloading it does not result in getting spam from Red Hat sales people."
Those points are HUGE for me, and caused me to keep Alma as one of my most reliably enjoyable distros, and real workhorse if you want that, and a plaything if you want that, and as said in the review, Alma accommodates less than bleeding edge hardware just as well as the newer stuff.
24 • Misc topics (by Robert on 2025-06-30 14:22:12 GMT from United States)
Re: Rankings and reviews - It's been stated numerous times that the rankings are simple page-hit rankings. I (*I* as me, not the site owners) would assert there's likely a correlation between them and distro popularity, but it is by no means a direct measure. It says nothing about the quality of the distros, nor does it show any sort of bias on the part of the site owners.
Distrowatch reviews have, if anything, have been slightly overly critical in my eyes. But I'd take that over praising everything. Visitor reviews are very likely superficial and biased, that's just how user reviews tend to be. But again, that has nothing to do with the site owners.
This all just makes so little sense I'd accept if somebody told me this was a paid attack on Distrowatch. Why that would happen I have no idea, but *shrug*
CachyOS specifically - all I can say is that it didn't work for me. It *pretended* to install, but after it ran through is process I rebooted to an empty hard drive. Twice, after re-downloading the iso. It's broken garbage in my eyes, but if it works for someone else then more power to them.
@14 - What? You want a poll with splash screens? What's the question being asked for this hypothetic poll? Like, which splash do you prefer? I think most people probably don't care much and I really don't see why it would drive traffic.
Re: Flatpak - I've never tried to move Flatpaks offline to different computers. Easier to just download them again. But I can understand that for people with metered connections redownloading these massive packages is an unattractive idea. Too bad it doesn't seem to work.
And Flatpak is now unmaintained? What?! This was supposed to be the packaging format of the future, with multiple distros built around it. And it's unmaintained already? Like, what, did they just give up on the idea without telling anyone?
25 • Flatpak future? (by Mark E on 2025-06-30 14:29:50 GMT from United Kingdom)
If Flatpak is no longer "the future of application distribution" as the website still states, then what is?
26 • several quick opinions... (by tom joad on 2025-06-30 16:07:43 GMT from United States)
Flatpak and Snaps....I do .deb and will as long as they are available. If it ain't broke...do not fix it.
cachyOS, etc, etc. etc. I do Mint and will deep into the future. I gotta get stuff done.
Dark Mode. Nope! When I setup a CLI or terminal I always do black on a light yellow background. Always. Just like Distrowatch. It works for my 80 year old, post cataract eyes!
Out!
27 • Fedora dropped dropping 32-bit packages (by Scott Dowdle on 2025-06-30 16:10:42 GMT from United States)
The proposal to drop the 32-bit packages in F43 (or was it F44?) has been withdrawn.
28 • Flatpacks.. (by Slappy McGee on 2025-06-30 16:55:26 GMT from United States)
Most of the angst and controversy about flatpacks (and systemD etc) are erased with BSD operating systems.
GhostBSD is my BSD go to, and is fast becoming my non-Windows go to as we see it evolving nicely over the years. 15 years to be pretty close to exact. Eric Turgeon has turned out to be quite the steady hand with this amazing FreeBSD based distro. It's not Linux, and does not have to be.
I've followed GhostBSD for several years now and the old hardware (driver) issues are being taken care of nicely. Audio, printers, etc do just work, and any issues one may have are addressed in an informative and friendly manner in the GhostBSD online forums.
29 • @28 - Flatpaks and systemd (by Scott Dowdle on 2025-06-30 17:36:15 GMT from United States)
More for me. Yeah! My family was quick to adopt indoor plumbing and electricity... and refrigerators. I see systemd and flatpaks akin to those basic things in life... but admittedly I do feel like throwing my cell phone (that I've only had for 3 years now) into the nearest body of water and moving into a wood cabin in the woods... and hey, I already live in Montana.
30 • DW dark mode (by Appalachian on 2025-06-30 17:36:28 GMT from United States)
Someone commented that the blue color used for the links was difficult to read due to a lack of contrast. Perhaps, being in my 50's, my eyes are not yet old enough, but I don't have any problem with that color being used.
What does look absolutely awful to me is the borders around the content, and this is especially true on the site's home page. The "Latest Distributions" and "Page Hit Rankings" have such prominent borders around everything that I find myself focusing on those over the actual site content. While I generally prefer dark mode, in this case the color choices are driving me back to light mode.
31 • Dark Mode! (by Luke on 2025-06-30 18:00:09 GMT from United States)
I see lots of complaints but I'm loving the dark mode!
32 • Modern vs Jagged Rock in Shoe (by Slappy McGee on 2025-06-30 18:17:33 GMT from United States)
@29 Well, I guess we can pretend like it's simply modern open source tech vs primitive.
It isn't that simple of course. Either way I doubt very much there are those whose computing is 100% non-flatpack or non-systemD or non-etc. The etceteras and all that are what makes Linux and BSD a robust world; I have several distros of all leanings and yeah it's largely a mood thing.
Plus I have a modern home and a cabin on property out in the boonies. Both have merit, mood depending.
33 • dark (by grindstone on 2025-06-30 19:05:03 GMT from United States)
Eyes over 60-something will appreciate Dark Reader and Redshift.
34 • flatpak hegemony (by vlad the impaler on 2025-07-01 00:23:31 GMT from United States)
"I doubt very much there are those whose computing is 100% non-flatpack..."
That's where you're wrong. First thing I did after installing the xfce version of Ultramarine 41 was to remove the three included flatpaks and replace them with rpms.
We don't HAVE to take this crap from IBM.
35 • Flatpaks and their ilk (by WhenWolf on 2025-07-01 00:49:08 GMT from Australia)
Flatpaks.
Great way to "Windownize" Linux and introduce the same problems that plagues Windows namely viruses and malware.
By using Flatpaks from untrusted sources; meaning not from the original devs but compiled by 3rd parties and listed on Flathub, this is a great way to introduce malware and actually has already happened dozens of times.
The entire concept of Appimage, Flatpak, Snap means that security if fundamentally broken.
Flatpaks are not individually scanned for malware. If the package is not coming direct from the original developers there is a security risk.
Flatpaks policy to just say it is unverified and that's it.
Go check. Open Flathub, look for Google Chromium. Unverified. NOTE: This wrapper is not verified by, affiliated with, or supported by Google.
But a new user will not understand and probably install this Flatpak.
Worst idea in Linux so far aside from systemd.
Repos have their issues too, don't get me wrong, but much much less than Flats/Apps/Snaps
36 • Flatpack & friends (by Alessandro di Roma on 2025-07-01 08:43:39 GMT from Italy)
I use Debian 12 XFCE, I install only .deb from trusted repositories, I happily keep away from Flatpack Appimage Snap and from similar induced needs
37 • Flatpack (by truth on 2025-07-01 09:02:36 GMT from Germany)
100 never used never will, that IBM Monstrosity means huge downloads and huge disk space needed for even tiny packages,
Debian has apt
Arch pacman
Both work very well thanks.
On rare occasions I use appimage always unpacking to carefully check the package content before usage. add.zip to end of package name then unzip normally,
38 • Dark Mode (by Joe Beer on 2025-07-01 09:33:43 GMT from United States)
Looks really bad. Light mode for the win.
39 • Alma (by wprking_crass on 2025-07-01 11:14:18 GMT from United States)
I think, and I imagine this applies for all redhat based distros, that the install media should have the options of dark mode, and the abilty to increase font size.
40 • Dark mode. Flatpack. Ratings. CachyOS (by Frankletit on 2025-07-01 12:08:33 GMT from Australia)
I'm a casual Linux user and even more casual DW visitor. I'm not the hardcore security focused details conscious space minimiser or OS optimiser that most other commenters appear to be.
I am still shocked in 2025 that people need content via web browser not filtered through dark reader or similar. I used MS Edge in android and arch so I'm possibly an outlier.
Flatpack/appimage/snap only really got under my skin when trying out Fedora, Ubuntu (and variants) and a few other OS spins through the years but if it's the only way I can get an app I'm after and run it then I'd do it.
I don't think the ratings mean much. Personally I look at update frequency and latest updates when considering trying something new.
I'm giving CachyOS a try on my laptop and can't fault it yet. It's doing all the basics I need and was simple (if not slow) to install. I still prefer vanilla arch but thought it was worth a try.
41 • Flatpaks continued (by WhenWolf on 2025-07-01 21:43:59 GMT from Australia)
Think about this scenario:
Right now, only a handful of distros are immutable/atomic. Recently reviewed was Bassite as an example and more and more distros are going immutable/atomic.
From Bassite, the way to install software is as follows:
ujust (Convenience Commands) - Custom scripts maintained by Bazzite & Universal Blue contributors that can install applications.
Flatpak (Graphical Applications) - Universal package format using a permissions-based model and should be used for most graphical applications.
Homebrew (Command-Line Tools) - Install applications intended to run inside of the terminal (CLI/TUI).
Quadlet (Services) - Run containerized applications as a systemd service.
Distrobox Containers (Linux Packages & Development Workflows) - Access to most Linux package managers for software that do not support Flatpak and Homebrew and for use as development boxes.
AppImage (Portable Graphical Applications) - Portable universal package format that relies on specific host libraries at a system-level, usually obtained from a project's website.
rpm-ostree (System-Level Packages) - Layer Fedora packages at a system-level (not recommended, use as a last resort)
Flatpaks preferred for everything. Using rpms from repos is not recommended.
Sure for the tech savvy, there are ways like distrobox where you can setup a traditional repo download/install.
I think Flatpaks are a good idea but they should come signed directly from the devs on Flathub and be available with signed files on the devs github.
Otherwise, packaged by 3rd party script kiddies will lead to all kinds of misery for linux users. This situation has to be addressed instead of being relegated to future me's problem.
This is a huge security red flag for me and only download Appimages from the devs website.
42 • Distros and stuff (by Mykel Wayne on 2025-07-02 06:23:15 GMT from United States)
I have tried a variety of distros during my multi-decade use of Linux based operating systems. Many fall into the 'MeToo' category. Now, I understand the need for different distros and the ideas that they bring to the free software community. New ideas need to, and should be, studied and developed when (and if) they provide useful utility, better fuctionality, improved security or other percieved benefits.
What I do not understand is the need to release a distribution into the wild just because I (whoever) created it and think it is cool or happens to have some interesting ideas. Personally, I think that time and effort could be put to better use improving and expanding the existing options, but who am I to judge.
What I see in these distro variants is someone using their new found technical skills and a need to show off to others just how smart (they think) they are, I consider this to be similar to the multitude of text editors, file managers and other wares, et.al. that burgeoning programmers create. Great, you created yet another version something that currently exists.
In reality, these created works are sometimes useful to a few people, but more importantly, the creation of these programs mark the progression of skillset development of a particular programmer. Good on you, please keep learning and honing your development skills. In this process you might consider devoting some of these skills to the improvement of existing software. Sure, you may not be creating the next, best craze in software, but you are providing useful code AND improving the quality of existing, usable software.
Perhaps there is a need for this new software or distro. The benefits are not always visible and only time will tell. We cannot or should not tell these foundling developers that they shouldn't create or expand on their, often brilliant, ideas. Doing so could inhibit or even prevent the next useful application
43 • @42: (by dragonmouth on 2025-07-02 10:58:04 GMT from United States)
What you are overlooking is human nature, in this case vanity. If and when these individuals gift us with a new MeToo distro, they want their 15 minutes of fame. Were they to apply themselves to improving an existing distro, their contribution(s) would be merged in with all the other contributions. They would not get much, if any, name recognition, their ego would not be stroked.
44 • Filter by "Years Active"? (by MattE on 2025-07-02 11:24:47 GMT from United States)
Thank you for weeding through all the distros. Would it be a good idea to be able to filter distros by "years active" to help users sort out all distros that come and go?
45 • Too many distros (by WhenWolf on 2025-07-02 23:06:12 GMT from Australia)
As per the comments above, add a new search filter for "narcissist vanity distros"
Too many of those flying around. Worse, 99% are just reskins with nothing added to them. So innovative.
46 • Distros and stuff (by H. Bianchi on 2025-07-03 02:46:02 GMT from Brazil)
@43 @45
If I correctly understood the meaning of Mykel Wayne's comment (@42), then let me add my own opinion about "distros and stuff":
As stated by himself, we should not tell anybody to not create "yet another copycat distro", even though it would be much better for the progress of the FOSS world that smart coders employed their knowledge to create new and "innovative" software, or at least to improve existing software that is still buggy.
The fact that a million and a half distros exist, when there are only a small number of base distros, is just a side-effect of how "generic" those base distros are. I myself always make a lot of improvement tweaks __ and also a lot of cosmetic configurations __ in every distro I install and test. (Last month, my newbie brother asked me to install balenaEtcher in his "Windows-face" Kumander just because he's affraid of using 'dd'.)
So... Who are us to criticize all those nice guys who spend time and money to make a crude and horrible Debian behave like a feature rich and highly usable MX, Mint, Sparky, etc? I see no "vanity" in such a friendly attitude. They certainly contribute to our community much more than the childish people who insult them in DistroWatch.
47 • Too many distros (by WhenWolf on 2025-07-03 04:07:29 GMT from Australia)
Anybody can use Cubic to make a respin. This requires no coding. It does not progress FOSS in anyway shape or form. Respins serve no purpose. They usually don't even host or maintain their own repos.They don't contribute other than adding to the astronomical number of distros available.
If you disagree, show me how a small respin contributes anything to the community.
I for one, don't care how many respins there are, vanity projects or what not. People can do what they want with FOSS. That's the point.
But these shouldn't be reviewed unless they bring something to the table other than what can be modified by Cubic. They can be listed here on distrowatch, but should be in their own category from the search.
Innovation requires more than respinning Debian, Arch etc.
48 • @46: (by dragonmouth on 2025-07-03 10:46:12 GMT from United States)
It is a great myth of Linux that each and every distro contributes something to the progress of FOSS Maybe 1 out of 50 or 1 out of 100 distros advances the progress of FOSS.. Most of the distros are Vanity, MeToo, Look How Smart I Am projects. If all those smart coders employed their knowledge to improve existing software that is still buggy, instead of trying to create new and "innovative" software, FOSS would progress much faster. One can be as creative when optimizing old code as when working on a new project.
49 • AppImage, security? (by Jan on 2025-07-03 11:24:02 GMT from The Netherlands)
In Q&A I read about AppImage, to be favoured above Flatpack.
Because Flatpack is not really maintained any more (and the risk of unverified Flatpack-apps).
However when I roam internet on AppImage and Flatpack, I read that AppImage is less secure than Flatpack.
So what is the best for security?
50 • AppImage and Flatpak (by Jesse on 2025-07-03 12:57:10 GMT from Canada)
@49: "I read that AppImage is less secure than Flatpack."
This sentence doesn't really make sense. Less secure how? AppImage and Flatpak are just package formats, there isn't anything secure or insecure about them. It would be like saying a tarball is less secure than a zip file. What matters is how you use the software it contains. Both Flatpak and AppImage have easy sandboxing options so I suspect the people saying one was less secure just were not familiar with the technology.
51 • Respins of established distros (by Slappy McGee on 2025-07-03 15:46:34 GMT from United States)
@47 It's an interesting aspect of open source operating systems, and I find myself wanting to see The Big Guys in Linux promoted more so that we can position ourselves as ready and waiting for more slough off from Windows (and perhaps iOS) users. "We're just as good and ready for you to migrate way from Microsoft and Apple" seems like something we'd have a difficult time saying from the standpoint of a Nitrux or Ultramarine etc user.
But then, I'm no longer so sure that "the Linux community" is not also the Windows or the Mac community (at least by a high percentage). How many, honestly, Linux or BSD users have left Windows and/or Mac and really never went back (perhaps factoring in those who MUST use Windows at their jobs). I've not seen a poll on it, and trying that here at DW may not speak to my point as this is after all a Linux/BSD clearing house, so we'd have a sample but it might be a tainted one.
The reason I bring that up is that moving away from Windows/Mac may not be a permanent condition for very many users, and that speaks to a lot of things, including distro hopping which keeps the many choices dynamic of Linux/BSD alive (and thus the proliferation of spins and respins). If distro hopping were only about Debian, Fedora, Arch, Gentoo, 1BSD and Slackware, no respins, siblings, children of those, where would Linux/BSD be right now in the home computing world? Honestly, it's hard to admit I guess, but I think the respins and other relatives of The Big Guys serve an important purpose for us, whether we've also got Windows and Mac or not.
52 • AppImage, security (by WhenWolf on 2025-07-03 22:42:57 GMT from Australia)
@49
The order of installing apps should be like this imo:
1) Install apps from your distros repo whenever possible
2) install binaries (either tar or other) from the devs repo on Github/Codeberg/Sourcehut etc
3) install Flatpak/Appimage/Snap at your own risk
If you need up to date apps. use a rolling distro.
The security of Flats/Appimages/Snaps is only as good as the source they come from. If they are packaged by 3rd parties not connected to the project, but just by some dude on the net, it doesn't matter what the security features are of the containers technology itself when malware is added.
It's a security risk windownizing linux with the equivalent of .exe files
Research the source of these packages, if there is a Github account, how many people are on that project, if any, are there issues, are issues being resolved......
Apps from distro repos should always be your main goto for installing apps. If there really is something that isn't available, try a rolling distro, perhaps it is there like in Arch's Aur. Ask yourself if you really need it, and lastly follow the advice above.
Also, backup your data regularly just in case.
53 • Respins of established distros (by WhenWolf on 2025-07-03 23:09:32 GMT from Australia)
>>If distro hopping were only about Debian, Fedora, Arch, Gentoo, 1BSD and Slackware, no respins, siblings, children of those, where would Linux/BSD be right now in the home computing world?
When I talk about respins, I am talking about things which are mentioned in "New distributions added to waiting list" section. Mostly, 99% of these are respins.
I am not talking about the 100 distros listed in the rankings section. These distros are not just respins. They are for the most part doing something, adding some features, providing some additional usability and usually maintain their own repos.
Ubuntu is not a respin.
Manjaro is not a respin.
Artix is not a respin.
and so on and so on.
So there is a massive difference between these and one-off vanity respins.
You conclusion is based on a misunderstanding.
If we removed all of the actual respins, Linux would be exactly in the same place as it is now. Whether something like SDesk exists or not makes no difference.
Look at the Linux family distro tree. So many have come and gone, but the ones which remain, the real distros, these are what matter at the end of the day. The continual development of the kernel is what matters. Windows managers, desktops come and go. Whether Gnome 2 or Gnome 3 or Gnome 10, it doesn't matter if they disappear. Many which were once popular are relegated to the trash now.
What I'm saying is if I take Debian, respin it with Cubic and slap Openbox onto it and add a wallpaper, use a cool icon pack and rebrand it is SuperAmazingOpenboxDebian.....upload it on Sourceforge, this adds nothing for anyone .
Sure maybe someone will use it, but it using adds nothing of value that cannot be obtained by someone using Debians netinstall and customizing it themselves.
Respins like this do not make the Linux space stronger.
If however I added something unique to it, like a hardened locked down kernel privacy. and provided kernel updates for it regularly, that is different. That is unique and does add value.
I think most people would agree.
54 • Multitude of distros (by Keith S on 2025-07-04 02:21:24 GMT from United States)
Many years ago when I was new to the open source world of BSD and Linux, the multitude of distros was confusing indeed. This website in particular was, and remains, the greatest help in sorting through the amazing variety of distributions.
There was a long and sometimes difficult learning curve for me in figuring out what was important to me and what was not, but now that I know pretty much what I want, when I'm looking for a new distro to try I can find potential matches in minutes with the resources here. I am very grateful to the folks that maintain this site for that.
I really don't care if someone decides to publish a new distro that I don't care for. Who am I to judge how others spend their time and effort when it costs me nothing -- literally NOTHING? The majority of the major distros have some "features" that make it unlikely that I'll ever try them. Why discourage people who want to do something different? Are you planning to profit somehow if suddenly 96% of consumers switch to Linux? Do you actually realize what a disaster that would be? Suddenly it would be worth big money and it would likely wreck the things most of us love about it.
I am very thankful for the people who put together certain systems, and especially OpenBSD, antiX, MX Linux, Artix, Puppy and variants, Void, and others. I like OpenSUSE best of the big budget distros, but feel some real antipathy toward RHEL/Fedora, Ubuntu, and Oracle (yes I know...) for what I consider to be toxic behavior. The politics at Debian are also horrible, but I can't even blame that on raw greed, unlike the others, and at least they still make it possible for others to build better systems from the stuff they supply. Not a big fan of FreeBSD either, because of some of the decisions they've made over the years trying to please Netflix and others.
But again, why complain about any of it? The only money that flows from me to any of them is purely voluntary and frankly less than the value I receive. Compare that to Microsoft, who we all subsidize every time we buy a laptop or a prefabbed desktop because no one will build any without paying the Bill Gates tax.
TLDR: Why does anyone complain about what others do for pleasure as if they were their boss?
55 • @24 Opinion Poll Suggestion (by Praveen Kunjapur on 2025-07-04 05:50:43 GMT from India)
For you, Splash Screen does not matter but for Me, being an openSUSE 11.1 Operating System (OS) Contributor, how an OS looks matters as that's the Unique Selling Point (USP) of any OS. For geeks, they work with Command Line Interface (CLI). For elderly people or some one habituated to Windows and Mac, more than CLI, Graphical User Interface (GUI) matters. As long as the GUI with Splash Screen looks Best in any Open source OS, it will drive Users (More Laymen or Laywomen) to the OS and will replace Windows and Mac with any Open source OS for sure and so will also drive Users to Distrowatch Website.
I feel bored when a Splash Screen is not displayed beside an OS in either DistroWatch Main Page or DistroWatch Weekly Newsletter. So I want Splash Screen Poll to be conducted as I want opinion of not just you and me but many visitors of DistroWatch Website Main Page and DistroWatch Weekly Newsletter.
Thank you.
56 • Dark screen (by Clarence Perry on 2025-07-04 17:45:38 GMT from United States)
I have often wondered why so many people built dark screen apps,browser themes, etc. I think the comments here show it is just a matter of opinion for most. A physical requirement for the few.
Light screens are the same, a matter of opinion for most and a physical requirement for a few.
I've had cataract surgery and ever since, I've required more light to be comfortable.
Must turn on a light, which my wife immediately turns off when I leave the room.
Hunt for a light screen to be visible on computer and shun the dark screens.
A Distro with dark screens is an automatic turn off for me.
57 • Re-spins / 'Me-too' / Vanity distributions (by R. Cain on 2025-07-04 20:21:27 GMT from United States)
Facts:
After ALL these years, Linux has between 2% and 3% of the desktop, as of 2024 (cf. Statcounter; TrueList).
Because it is so __very__ easy to create Re-spins / 'Me-too' / Vanity distributions, the following statistics apply, and have been gathered right here on Distrowatch, via its efforts over the years (simply see Distrowatch's menu to access these figures)--
"Projects Waiting": 35
"Projects not Yet Ready": 70
"Dormant and Discontinued Projects": dormant; ~44; dormant; approximately 700.
[Interesting comment from Distrowatch: “Linux distributions come and go. Only the most determined ones survive and these pages list the victims of the game. In the Linux development world, everybody is equal - large corporations with experienced programmers spending millions of dollars on the development often fare no better than a single developer working out of thier spare bedroom. Thank you all for your contribution and we bid you farewell.”]
It seems as though there will never be a "Year Of Linux On The Desktop" unless and until that--or those-- Linux distribution(s) which brings this about comes from the likes of IBM or Microsoft.
Number of Comments: 57
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
| | |
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • 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 | 
DesktopBSD
DesktopBSD was an operating system based on FreeBSD and the FreeSBIE live CD. Its main goal was to provide a desktop operating system that was easy to use, but still has all the functionality and power of BSD. In the long term, DesktopBSD wants to build an operating system that meets most requirements desktop users have, like installing software, configuring power management or sharing an internet connection.
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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
