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1 • Clear Linux (by Name on 2025-07-28 00:12:29 GMT from United States)
So, Intel just abruptly said goodbye to Clear Linux.
Well, goodbye to Intel.
You won't be missed.
And, btw, Intel Management Engine is pure evil.
"What goes around comes around."
2 • Deepin 25 (by Tixo on 2025-07-28 00:30:01 GMT from France)
Giving how ambitious Deepin 25 is compared to Deepin 23 (which, except DE and few built-in apps, were pretty common), we can all expect few years before being as solid as when it was Debian based.
The user base and community in China seems pretty strong, and I guess many users will switch to it instead of W11, which would help sustaining the whole project/company.
Deepin has changed a lot since 15 and so and it's pretty nice to still going even if it's clearly made for the China market. This won't get as much traction as Ubuntu or Mint as beginner distro, but like written in the review, there is clearly a bunch of neat idea (like pressing space bar to get file preview ala macOS, and subtitle downloading in video player app).
3 • My favourite open source debate is... (by moonwalker on 2025-07-28 00:35:54 GMT from United States)
All of the above. As a contrarian, I just like to argue.
Jokes aside, just about all of those arguments are IMHO a bit silly - each solution has pros and cons, which one to select depends on a specific use case you need a solution for. E.g., my personal use cases call for deb, KDE, neither emacs nor vi, GPL, monolithic, rolling, systemd, and Wayland, my business/work use case calls for RPM, GNOME, vi, monolithic, fixed, systemd, and X11. And my personal/home devices run a mixture of traditional and "immutable" systems, while the managed systems we offer to our customers are all strictly traditional.
4 • Favourite Open Source Debate (by NewUser on 2025-07-28 01:05:45 GMT from Canada)
Under the given choices, I ticked off systemd vs ini.
Completely familiar with sysvinit, and on the very rare occasion there's been a problem; easy to fix.
Have also tried rcunit (with distros such as Anti-X), and really like it.
While I can use systemd, the whole implementation strikes me as corporate and very much NOT in the philosophy that "everything is a file".
This then brings us to your reader response in questions and answers about the disconnect between corporate users, and the rest of the open source community. Your observations about diverging priorities was spot-on. The worry is, key programmers and developers, especially those working on the kernel, work for, and are paid by large corporations. Many members sit on various open source committiees (FLOSS, etc.), and are in a position to directly influence direction.
The systemd debate is one that has recently received much attention here, but there are plenty of others. One particularely irksome one was Microsoft's resistance to the adoption of the open document format as a standard. There is clearly a financial aspect to that.
Then there are others. The release of wayback has sparked some interesting comments on lwn.net re X11 vs Wayland. I thought Wayland was being pushed before it was ready for prime time, but here at least, if I understand the various threads correctly, there are some valid architectural reasons for this path.
At the moment, Linux is all about choice. The fear is, worship of the Holy $ by profit driven corporations will limit choice. Also problematic is how to adequately fund independant developers (such as with the time protocol if I remember correctly - think that was ntp, network time protocol).
Some have suggested the BSD's could offer a "plan B" (hmmm, wasn't that the name os some medical product, maybe for birth control?, that also generated much controversy?).
Back to that Chinese curse about "living in interesting times"....
5 • Debates? (by Arve Eriksson on 2025-07-28 01:07:58 GMT from Sweden)
If the debates would all focus on pros and cons I wouldn't mind more coverage, but when it's all 'this or that project is absolutely the worst' I just check out.
I personally don't notice a schism between commercial and community driven solutions, but I can entertain the idea.
6 • Debate Subjects Poll (by Slappy McGee on 2025-07-28 01:15:33 GMT from United States)
I do wonder how important the debates are to the participants in the debates. I remember taking sides in most of those listed in the poll, and often vehemently so.
But did I align my Linux behaviors with my arguments? Or did I just align myself with a side of the arguments and defend that side for the sake of the argument?
Both, but most often the latter, I confess. Begging the question, do I give a rat's fuzzy fanny about systemD vs other inits? Or about KDE-Plasma vs Gnome? Well, to a point of personal taste.. I guess. But I've got distros of several inits and several DEs and WMs.
It's all good. ... Now I have to argue that point I suppose. ;oD
7 • Open Source Debate (by Lefty on 2025-07-28 02:24:51 GMT from United States)
The slow creep of corporate-backed subsytems invading open source has bothered me for some time. Corporate contributions to open source have been valuable and appreciated, but they are moving Linux away from individual freedom, and this bothers me. I suspect this trend will continue until Linux is no longer Linux.
As an individual user, I have no use for things like systemd and Wayland.I would rather use SysVInit and an updated X11.
I've thought for some time that open source is approaching a crossroads, and might veer off into total corporate control. This is why I think it might be time for at least some Linux distros that are targeted solely to the individual user. Artix and Devuan could lead the movement, but more such efforts are sorely needed.
The Fedoras and Ubuntus can become fully corporate - that's fine. But leave something for the rest of us.
8 • @7 Agreed (by grindstone on 2025-07-28 03:09:40 GMT from United States)
+1 about creep but it seems the inevitable result of maturity after economics found roots. Everyone has their reasons, it's just tiring as a long-term user.
9 • Debates (by Friar Tux on 2025-07-28 03:31:34 GMT from Canada)
I chose the last one as I don't really care one way or the other. In each pair, listed, BOTH have pros and cons - as stated earlier. Both are perfectly good to use. It all depends on personal choice. Nothing else. The debates show me that Linux users are still passionate about the OS, so I don't believe Linux will ever go completely corporate. The diversity of users is what will keep Linux BOTH community AND corporate driven. Just think - and if there is a mathematician out there, help us out - think of all the possible combinations of Linux distros just that list of pairs, alone, can provide. Now throw in ALL the DEs, WMs, etc., and watch that number grow exponentially. (I think DW will need a much bigger website.)
10 • Debates, etc. (by Bobbie Sellers on 2025-07-28 03:37:03 GMT from United States)
I like debates over things I understand enough about to have a sensible view.
I definitely do not care for systemd and its multi-functional approach.
One function at a time is enough for me. Enough for the creator
of Slackel as well.
I love KDE because when I started on Linux in 2006 or thereabouts
it was the default in Mandriva. I was able to recreate a semblance of
the AmigaOS I had been using for a considerable period.
If I was a better typist and not hampered by changes to my central
nervous system I might have moved to Linux earlier.
I have KDE 5 on this desktop replacement in laptop form factor
and have KDE 6.4.3 on my 7450 lightweight laptop as of yesterday
evening. After a bit of struggle because the keyboard on the
7450 is not in a good position for human use at present I was
able to produce something similar but not satisfied yet.
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2025.07- Linux 6.12.40- Plasma 5.27.11
11 • Debates, etc. (by Anarchosaxophonist on 2025-07-28 06:45:51 GMT from Denmark)
It seems to me that the "wars" and "debates" section have an intersect point in the Linux vs. FreeBSD development models. This really needs to be looked at more in depth. In the Linux world, my sympathies clearly lie with the community focused development in opposition to the corporate focused development. That being said, corporate focused development appears to be more focused, systematic and analytical. This dichotomy doesn't exist within the development of FreeBSD. The entire operating system is developed together as one unit, for each release, by the FreeBSD developers.
I would argue that GNU/Linux needs to become "Linux" with a similar development strategy to FreeBSD, with a single community focused on the development of the next Linux base release and what the community wants. I realize that this would be controversial in exactly the community that I am championing, but the alternative is the community being pulled around by the nose, by large corporate interests, with little or no insight as to what their end game is, other than profit.
12 • Beginner's guide and debates (by DeepLurker on 2025-07-28 08:08:53 GMT from Switzerland)
I had a glance at the beginners' guide. I would mention Ventoy in the "Where do I start if I want to use Linux?". Even if you've decided to go with Linux Mint, for example, it might still be interesting to try out the Cinnamon, Mate and XFCE desktops. I would also mention that a benefit of a live version is testing if hardware is detected/compatible. Last I would explain what difference one might expect between a live version and an installed version, e.g. the boot time for older computers. I have also had instances where videos were laggy in the live version but smooth on the installed version.
Debates: I enjoy the debates when they are educative. Less so when they come down to preferences. IMHO emacs-vi, KDE-Gnome, rolling-fixed are part of the latter. Sometimes I enjoy the debates because they are a glance inside the kitchen and see how FOSS is actually created.
13 • Wars, debates, end users interests and the future of Linux and BSD worlds (by OneHue on 2025-07-28 10:09:17 GMT from Mali)
I have only two favourite classic debates which maybe intersects : privacy on personal computers including smartphones and smartwatches, and the world of Linux going nut with corporates needs to be profitable and viable (the war explained by Jesse). Due to that I saw myself settling on Linux Mint Mate with Windows 8.1 in a virtual machine, being more and more curious about NetBSD, and using more and more outdated technologies. That’s just means our new technologies are not for personal computing anymore and we passed a peak in the Linux land. Now Linux is too good to let it in the hands of humans. Corporates needs it on servers for AI, on desktop for secure professional governmental desktops (maybe that explains the 5% users in US) and in drones. And maybe the next operating system that will suffer corporate influence will be FreeBSD. I just wish long life to Pat (Slackware), anticapitalista (antiX) and Clement (Mint) and thanks them for keeping distributions for users who needs strong, private computing platforms. But without Debian and Canonical…:-)
14 • Debates? (by WTF? on 2025-07-28 10:11:47 GMT from Italy)
Debian should join forces more and more to face menaces from tech dictators always arising and behaving as masters, not searching for brawls.
Debates are unavoidable, but we shouldn't grow enthusiasts from their being. This poll is very divisive nowadays.
15 • What am I missing on Deepin? (by Appalachian on 2025-07-28 10:17:23 GMT from United States)
I've never tried the Deepin desktop, but I've heard many talk about how nice it looks. From the pictures in today's review it doesn't look bad, don't get me wrong, but I don't see where it is all that different either. If I didn't know any better I would think that those screenshots came from a Cinnamon session. I like Cinnamon and I'm using it right now. What do we gain from another desktop which looks just like it? I just don't see what the fuss is all about for Deepin.
16 • The corpratisation of Linux (by Tim on 2025-07-28 10:43:42 GMT from Australia)
The corporationisation of GNU/Linux is occurring right at the core (kernel) in the Linux Foundation where there are no community contributors. All they seem to want from the OS is a stable server. There is no interest in 'ordinary' desktop users.
Meanwhile freeBSD, although funded largely by corporates and receiving contributions from them is not controlled by them.
Life has been much more stable since I switched to GhostBSD (essentially freeBSD with a GUI out of the box). Now freeBSD is moving to provide a GUI option out of the box.
My GhostBSD looks for all the world like it's running a Linux distro but 'feels' so much more like a 'real' UNIX (although, ironically, cannot call itself a UNIX because they are not prepared to pay the license to do so!)
17 • Open source Debate - su vs sudo (by Michael on 2025-07-28 11:22:31 GMT from Germany)
Su vs sudo
Due to my personal situation and practice, I prefer systems with a root account.
However, I can certainly understand the arguments in favor of sudo.
Unfortunately, systems without a root account are usually not prepared to provide the optional use of the root Account.
18 • Debates (by dragonmouth on 2025-07-28 11:38:53 GMT from United States)
All of those remind me of the TV beer commercial - "Less filling vs. Tastes great!"
19 • Wars (by dragonmouth on 2025-07-28 11:48:37 GMT from United States)
"Developers typically are not involved in (or swayed by) these on-line debates"
IOW, most developers do not listen to the users. They just go on their merry way towards THEIR vision. They are convinced that THEY KNOW BEST and the users are just a bunch of whiners.
20 • Root account (by Jesse on 2025-07-28 11:50:22 GMT from Canada)
@17: "Unfortunately, systems without a root account are usually not prepared to provide the optional use of the root Account."
All Linux distributions have a root account. Any distro that doesn't make traditional use of the root account can be enabled simply by setting a password for root.
21 • Debates (by user on 2025-07-28 07:11:23 GMT from Bulgaria)
The new Debate that will shape the forthcoming years:
Classic Linux installations vs Immutable Linux installations, i.e the freedom in a design architecture of choice in installations vs the pitfall of restrictive by design and architecture subset of approved only technologies.
22 • Beginner's guide (by tomas on 2025-07-28 12:47:15 GMT from Czechia)
When I started with Linux the first thing I had to do was to make myself clear about what desktop to use.
Luckily one of my first choices of distro was Mint, (because) at the time supporting KDE, Mate, Xfce and Cinnamon. I ran all of them to choose, for other desktops I had to look elsewhere.
The first two mentioned are still my prefered though because of some hickups by Wayland I tend to change my preferences to Mate, Plasma(6).
Recently I discovered Trinity on Q4OS that now comes third.
I think that Beginner's guide should supply some info on desktop environments, not a detailed description how they work, but a beginner user's view of their use and possibilities of customization.
For a newcomer the first impression of the desktop often decides his impression of a distro.
In the time of my distrohopping I often rejected a distro that did not have my prefered desktop configured to my likiing (and the configuration tools were not handy).
23 • Deepin Security (by oldtechaa on 2025-07-28 12:50:08 GMT from New Zealand)
While Deepin sounds really cool, after I read about the OpenSUSE/Deepin debacle I do have some serious concerns about their attitude toward security, especially on something as critical as a DE. I hope they can change their focus and make a secure AND cool environment.
24 • My favourite open source debate is... (by AndyVGR on 2025-07-28 13:11:34 GMT from United States)
My favorite debate is Linux vs GNU/Linux, just because Stallman cracks me up. He's like an open source Tom Bombadil or something.
25 • Debates (by Robert on 2025-07-28 13:47:22 GMT from United States)
The big problem I have with a lot of the Linux / open source debates are that they tend to revolve around gaslighting, misinformation, and conspiracy theories.
Like with X11 vs Wayland. There have been pro vs con arguments on either side, the most recent being accessibility. But they way you hear people talk you'd think Wayland isn't suitable for *anybody's* usecase. Like everyone has accessibility requirements, or everyone needs some utility call xdotool that I'd literally never heard of for 20 years, or something particularly dumb like people who *want* screen tearing for some reason. And then people attack me for saying I have had a good experience with Wayland for 6+ years, like that's somehow impossible.
Or systemd. There are legitimate concerns about its scope creep and consuming of other projects like udev. What do people actually complain about? That this working solution is apparently a corporate Trojan horse designed explicitly so Red Hat can exert more control over the Linux ecosystem.
Deb vs RPM is just a dumb argument. The real argument is why do we even have half a dozen functionally interchangeable package formats in the first place? This is something that should have been standardized decades ago but hasn't due to some purely emotional holy war.
26 • Debates (by DivestOS on 2025-07-28 14:15:37 GMT from Canada)
For debate, I voted "other".
I am surprised at comment ~26, no one has mentioned the Rust vs C++ debate i.e. sudo-rs?
I would have voted SystemD otherwise.
Smart phone debates as mentioned above have less traction. I.e. locked boot loaders or not, proprietary vs open source, Funding of open source projects. Google no longer publishing the device trees of Pixel devices in Android 16 (GrapheneOS).
27 • Classic Open Source Debats (by Fabian Lanzy on 2025-07-28 14:33:34 GMT from United States)
Somehow I think Flatpak vs Snao vs Appimage deserves mention as one of the most discussed Linux Holy Wars of the moment (/s).
28 • Influencing developers (by John Gray on 2025-07-28 14:44:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
@19 Most developers do not listen to the users. They just go on their merry way towards THEIR vision. They are convinced that THEY KNOW BEST and the users are just a bunch of whiners.
With those views, I need to ask:
"You don't work for Microsoft, do you?"
29 • Root account (by Michael on 2025-07-28 15:41:55 GMT from Germany)
@20 "Any distro that doesn't make traditional use of the root account can be enabled simply by setting a password for root."
Of course, but it never solves the problem properly. The system will still ask for a sudoer's password for administation tasks.
30 • Debates (by David on 2025-07-28 15:51:44 GMT from United Kingdom)
I said "not interested" because most of the discussions I've seen have been long on opinion and short on fact. As for the questions raised,
Gnome or KDE — I use Xfce.
deb or rpm — I don't think it matters, but things like Flatpack are just aping Windows.
emacs or vi — I wouldn't touch either.
systemd and wayland — I don't have either, but I don't get emotional about it.
Having had problems in the past with Red Hat, SUSE, and Canonical, these days I'd steer clear of company distros — I've got PCLinuxOS on the desktop and Salix on the laptop and both are just fine.
31 • Beginners Guide (by Slappy McGee on 2025-07-28 16:37:33 GMT from United States)
Wondering if we might begin to see specific troubleshooting queries in here as a sort of expectation by the readers of that new guide.
Anticipating that, I'm wondering if a mention somewhere in the guide itself that links to each listed distro's home site are provided here, and that is the place to start with issues etc.
32 • debates. something's wrong in paradise? (by dr.j on 2025-07-28 17:00:24 GMT from Germany)
My view of things is this: Microsoft builds cars, Model T in black, all the same. In the Linux world, we have an engine (the Linux kernel) and many teams around the world use it to build very different cars. I choose one or two of them. In my case, Arch and FreeBSD. Are they perfect? No. Is FreeBSD better because it doesn't use systemd? Nonsense. For me, both are a good choice. Do I have to complain that Arch has switched to systemd? No. Because no car is perfect. And I don't want to build one myself (Linux from scratch). And: I accept that car manufacturers have their own views on what is important in a car, why they use component A and not B, etc. This view is sometimes completely irrelevant or even annoying for the driver/user of the car. But that's no reason to go to war! It's simply okay.
33 • Open Source Debate (by John on 2025-07-28 17:45:27 GMT from Canada)
I picked "systemd vs init/OpenRC/Upstart" only because it is closest to my favorite. It is "BSD init vs SYSV"
A close second was "termcap vs termios". In both cases I was on the loosing side ;)
34 • gaslighting (by jorge on 2025-07-28 19:19:52 GMT from Argentina)
@25 xdotool only?
The Holy Church IBM, Rethat and the their Knights Templar have deicide the only one ecosystem is in favor of Wayland, SystemD . Gnome . KDE.,
The devil Openbox, IceWM, XFCE i3 and other software they must kneel before their master and modify all the source for to be blessings and deservingness of the best and the only one superior software. Thank you Redhat, thank you INTEL, thank you IBM for so much good and best things given to us
35 • sudo vs root (by Jesse on 2025-07-28 19:39:57 GMT from Canada)
@29: ""Any distro that doesn't make traditional use of the root account can be enabled simply by setting a password for root."
Of course, but it never solves the problem properly. The system will still ask for a sudoer's password for administation tasks."
Only if you are trying to perform tasks as a regular user through sudo access. If you're logged in as the root user then it will not. Basically if you're not using the root account then _of course_ it will prompt for credentials for your sudo user.
You're confusing two separate issues - availability of root account and how regular users perform admin functions. Basically you're saying if you enable the root account and don't use it, you'll get prompted for credentials. Which is exactly how systems with a root account enabled work too.
36 • debate is healthy and long overdue for one right now (by DR IVAN NEGA on 2025-07-28 19:46:19 GMT from United States)
specially when linux users divided is getting larger in our side from ARTIX COMMUNITY have grown lot more than 10 years since we split up from manjaro community when they decided against users interest for over oligarch red hat systemd made by microsoft employee. My issue is how many are in UNKNOWN 6% gray area that 4% is artix and 2% for others like chimera and BSD distros as counted as UNKNOWN due to our distros don't use systemd GEOIP telemtry services built in through systemd secret unit that is party of systemd-network service host that boots before user login seem illegal in UNIX philosophy that taught us in UNIX 7th edition book about the code we all should respected and followed when making clone unix-like operating system that we see apple and freebsd have not broke any those rules in the code to even allow network boot before user login. What purpose for networking need to boot during init process ?? server tracking ?? potential for malware hacks ?? no systemd devs not gonna discuss this as we are witness users freedom been taking away by company supposed to protect its community and its users from any harm but instead we are following microsoft control in entire PC market to take and sell user data for profitable margins for all websites we visit for ads to know who we are, and what we are , and sites we go will be prey to predators is after our wallets daily online. Dinit makes excellent approach i haven't seen anything like it before that it used APL2.0 license and BSD clause for API usage is written only in C++ init process. Its way advance they made that to user eyes its much much more simpler than i thought than using runit or openrc. It even surpass S6 in performance and skill can be learn in 15 min
37 • Beginners Guide (by Iron Duke on 2025-07-28 19:46:40 GMT from United States)
Don't forget that you can test drive Linux distros online on your web browser! Go to:
https://distrosea.com/
38 • Debates?!? (by Baltazar on 2025-07-28 19:48:22 GMT from United States)
... oh... yeah
Remember when Lindows came out, using root access by default? Funny how there are now a few distros that practically run the user as root in one way or another...
Guess there are times for and against certain uses.
Also, it seems that corporations like to taint OSS one way or another in the name of "safety"... all I want is to stop good functioning hardware from ending up in the landfills.
Asides from all them potential debates, I would like some database for easily opening hardware, as to be able to install linux or anything one wants on it, it is my hardware after all. Am getting tired of damned close boot loaders and BIOS, EFI and UEFI crap...
39 • Debate favorite - Emacs vs. Vi (by Brian Masinick on 2025-07-28 20:18:40 GMT from United States)
I read debates about these two editors because they're both very good and they're both "unusual" to first time users.
Vi is a modal editor, so you can't just start tying because the default mode is edit mode. It is quite straightforward to go into one of the input modes; the easiest is to type an i and then enter. When you're done editing you can type Esc and you'll return to edit mode, where you can learn a few navigation tricks or most versions allow you to use arrow keys to move around.
Emacs is just as confusing to newcomers, but the default version allows you to type immediately. The problem is that editing commands are pretty complex and the classic defaults also are not ideal for their key bindings.
It should be noted that BOTH editors have done a LOT on all counts. Vi in the form of vim and nvim have added many things found in Emacs, and Emacs/vi users should know that there is a Doom Emacs configuration that allows you to change between the two styles of key bindings, plus it adds a few more to modernize the bindings and reduce the requirement to use bindings that put too much stress on the hands.
So the true answer is that both editors are fantastic and there are other editors that mimic or modify a few characteristics of each editor, so there are spinoffs and variations too. The curious and intense editor persons should definitely research and find some of these options; all it takes are a few search commands using any of the terms I've used here, so I'm not offering you links; I'm offering you comments and you can form your own impressions, which include following the ideas or ignoring this; both are your choice and yours alone to make according to your personal preference.
40 • Deepin (by Cor on 2025-07-28 20:19:14 GMT from Germany)
This article made me try deepin, only to find out quickly that for whatever reason, and unlike other distros I tried before, you can't pick language and keyboard layout fully independently. And it's not a matter of either of the options I'd like to use being unavailable. When I changed the language my keyboard layout appeared. But only then.
Unless I totally missed an "other..." or similar somewhere down the list.
41 • Vim v. Emacs (by MattE on 2025-07-28 21:31:27 GMT from United States)
It's like pulling up to the dock with an aircraft carrier (Emacs) when a PT boat would do.
42 • Laughable debates, @19 (by Hercule Poirot on 2025-07-29 00:57:05 GMT from Belgium)
I sometimes follow, and will even contribute to debates, mostly for laughs at how ridiculous they are. Case in point: @19, "most developers do not listen to the users. They just go on their merry way towards THEIR vision. They are convinced that THEY KNOW BEST and the users are just a bunch of whiners" Of course they do, that's because most complaining users ARE just a bunch of whiners, contributing nothing but complaints. Welcome to open source. Developers at Microsoft, et al. have bosses who give direction and expect certain results. Not meeting expectations may have negative outcomes, even to the point of losing employment.. An independent open source developer can choose direction and results as they wish. Anyone can use, not use, alter, fork or do whatever with the developer's product. But instead of a boss, he/she will have hundreds, or thousands or millions of keyboard tyrants telling him/her what he should do, and when and how. At least, at Microsoft, et al. the bosses pay a salary for the privilege of telling the developer what to do. The FOSS keyboard tyrants don't even bother to say "please". Building something, developing, maintaining, take time and effort. Knocking it takes nothing but a little whine.
Running Plasma 6 on Tuxedo OS and enjoying it. No complaints.
43 • Holy wars aka debates (by Keith S on 2025-07-29 02:20:46 GMT from Japan)
Jesse's analysis of the corporate vs community split is great. Since I am "all in" on the community side, I sometimes engage in debates on systemd and Wayland in particular. What bothers me about them is that the corporate interests have worked so diligently to try to eliminate choice in the larger Linux ecosystem. I appreciate the developers of the community distros working hard to preserve choice. Without that, soon there will be no practical difference between Linux and Windows -- take it or leave it will be the one philosophy to rule computing. The only real difference would probably be backwards compatibility for large customers with legacy programs they've developed in-house (Windows) vs breaking things to keep them modern (Linux mostly; and the most extreme example being OpenBSD.)
I think the bigger split coming will be driven by the adoption or avoidance of AI. I have already begun avoiding the use of AI wherever possible, since there are so many hazards involved in using it, including the harvesting and weaponization of personal data and (not least!) the atrophying of the ability to think and reason. I guarantee the corporate interests will continue to aggressively adopt and integrate AI wherever they can.
As for actual ancient holy wars, I was shocked to learn that emacs includes a text editor. Who knew?
44 • Beginner: try Linux on M$Win in minutes, just like any app/game (by Try Vbox on 2025-07-29 08:36:18 GMT from United States)
Another fairly simple way to try lyrics
Esp without disturbing your Microsoft Windows:
Download &install virtualbox.org
(Takes only a couple minutes and is totally safe)
Download the .vdi (virtual disc image) of a pre-installed distro from osboxes.org (needs 7z extract)
Run Vbox, click 'New', for disk: 'Use existing ' (the .vdi you extracted), 'Start' it! Totally safe & can be easily deleted.
Of course, websites and YouTube's explaining this can be found.
The key is that: it's fairly simple, takes only a few minutes, totally safe & easily discarded (unlike a dual boot install 'accident' LoL)
45 • Debate: (semi OT) getting help (by Try Vbox on 2025-07-29 09:04:17 GMT from United States)
(Excuse my above speech_input calling Linux 'lyrics', LoL)
The debate in the Linux world that interests me is: getting help.
That's probably the first barrier for people who haven't tried Linux yet.
(I wonder [poll?!] How many more people would try Linux *IF* they had UNlimited guidance...)
Some people try the reddit or FB etc 'jungle'.
Some try the more sophisticated sites but run into 'GoGoogle/RTFM', esp if questions aren't well formed.
I (@gmail) enjoyed filling my idle retirement time with tutoring beginners remotely over the phone, but the logistics of arranging it and keeping interest going are difficult.
In the last couple years, AI has become a good alternative for unlimited patient hand-holding (though occasionally wrong).
46 • Poll: My favourite open source debate is... (by JustSayingWhatWe'reAllThinking on 2025-07-29 14:03:12 GMT from Finland)
...Free Beer vs Open Cola
Other open source debates are either futile or long settled:
Deb and RPM both have merit
Emacs and vi both lack merit
KDE is objectively worse than GNOME, which itself is horrible
GPL and BSD are frankly as bad as each other
Micro and monolithic kernels are good for different purposes
Rolling and fixed releases both have their own uses
SystemD is objectively worse than init/OpenRC/Upstart
Wayland is objectively worse than X11, specifically XLibre's fork which is still being developed
Rust is objectively worse than C for use in the kernel
Flatpak is objectively worse than Snap, which itself cannot hold a candle to AppImage and Nix
Every Code of Conduct is objectively worse than none
Non-profit developers invariably do worse work than for-profit ones
...
See? There's no point in debating these. So let's instead worry about the important stuff: beverage wars!
47 • Those who fight about vi/vim and emacs are fools... (by Drangleic hobbit on 2025-07-29 22:14:18 GMT from Chile)
...The right answer is obviously nano.
48 • Aurora Linux (by Toran on 2025-07-29 23:42:58 GMT from Belgium)
After distro hopping since 1999 I finally found my perfect distr, being Aurora Linux.Say it is Fedora Kinoite on steroids.Fast, secure, beautiful, and very complete for an immutable distro. I can even run my scanner. Besides, also Fedora Kinoite does provide scanner support. The thing is, Aurora is ready to go, while Kinoite is less complete (drivers, codecs) and takes time to setup. I highly recommend Aurora Linux.
49 • freeBSD and BSD vs GPL (by Tim on 2025-07-30 02:42:32 GMT from Australia)
@32 freeBSD does not use the Linux kernel. The BSDs have their own separate kernels.
The BSDs create complete operating systems which you can then run applications on. It means that the base operating systems are much more stable.
OTH Linux distributions tend to be a 'collection of bits'.
As for the licensing, the BSD license allows companies to add in proprietary bits and not contribute back to the source but they do tend to contribute to the non-proprietary base.
With the GPL (and therefore Linux) they can't keep the proprietary bits.
I think something between the two licenses would make sense where companies could keep their proprietary bits for a set period of time so they can get the return on their investment and then it reverts to GPL. Just like copyright and patents (are meant) to work.
50 • Issues disputed in Linux. (by Greg Zeng on 2025-07-30 05:45:53 GMT from Australia)
Current Linux adherents seem happy with being the Two Percenters of computer users. Occasionally, only 94%, rather than 98% of computer users, REJECT LINUX.
The preferred operating systems remain Windows, followed by Android, and then iOS. Users and application writers want applications for Linux. Their preferred binary Linux formats are TZ codes, followed by Debian, Appimage, RPM, Flatpak, and finally Snap. Most applications choose to pretend that Linux does not exist.
Much confusion exists within Linux about the importance of standard compiled code for applications. Ubuntu Snap wants to do the iOS version of proprietary scrutiny, only. Linux installations have unpredictable variations in desktop, user, and hardware settings for installation, reliability, and upgrading.
As usual, the newest versions of all software have many bugs and imperfections. Older versions cannot cope with demanding users, nor demanding and evolving hardware. Until Linux settles on either Appimage or Flatpak, the application users and writers will stay away from Linux.
51 • Beginner's guide and Issues disputed in Linux (by tomas on 2025-07-30 07:11:45 GMT from Czechia)
I would like to know how many companies sell hardware with Linux installed (not locally).
One of the reasons for low percentage of Linux users is that it is not easy to buy PCs with Linux installed.
I would object to saying users "REJECT LINUX" (@50), they generally do not know it exists.
Most of them would then ask how to get it and then would not want the risk of installing it themselves on a new PC.
Maybe the requirements of W11 will help here a bit though I am afraid that the majority involved will go the way of buying new hardware.
52 • Other engaging dicussion (by eb on 2025-07-30 07:34:27 GMT from France)
Desktop Environment versus Window Manager ?!:-)
53 • Debian other inits support dropped (by Hank on 2025-07-30 09:23:38 GMT from Germany)
Regarding init.
Debate is very badly needed on the just do it policy of the new Debian leadership.
Despite a clear General Resolution mandate to support alternative inits both that and the Debian code of conduct are being violated.
Systemd evangelist devs seemingly led by Michael Biebl [biebl@debian.org] [mail] are removing support for alternative inits, the process started in Grub but is advancing to blocking or removing anything that assists alternative init usage.
Very negative for Debian, Image, Transparancy and Accountability are being damaged while the distro is becoming more and more enslaved by blindly following corporate interests.
54 • Do users really prefer WIndows? (by picamanic on 2025-07-30 09:26:19 GMT from United Kingdom)
@50: I am not concerned, for myself, that Linux adoption is low single digits [AI search came up with 4%]. However, it is wrong to assume that users "prefer" MS Windows: Microsoft go to great lengths force PC vendors to pre-install it [the so-called Windows tax], and make it difficult to replace with Linux/BSD etc.
Despite this, there are many vendors that will sell you PCs with Linux pre-installed. I am typing this Comment on a Starlabs BYTE computer that was much less expensive than Windows based equivalents.
55 • Debate subject (by Whattteva on 2025-07-30 13:47:59 GMT from United States)
I think it is missing BSD vs Linux. Not the listed GPL vs BSD as that is more about the license model, but more about them as distinct Operating Systems.
56 • Beginners Guide & Opinion Poll (by Jupiter on 2025-07-30 14:21:23 GMT from United States)
Great to see the Beginners Guide being built up! Looking good so far plus giving them the general direction of Mint seems like a wise choice.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Personally enjoyed watching the X11 vs Wayland Debate, I have just enough knowledge to know what they are but don't really play favorites for either one on the grounds of "Eh I'll just use whatever works", in my case, Wayland. I'll just Eat my Bagel and laugh at the firestorms. Never really saw the whole systemd debate though.
57 • Opinion poll (by Reefsoft on 2025-07-30 15:04:04 GMT from France)
That's an easy one: Stability (ex Debian) vs Cutting-Edge (Arch)
58 • Clear Linux (by Crackly Old Man on 2025-07-30 15:08:25 GMT from Canada)
This Reader Supplied Review for Clear Linux gave me a chuckle (dated Feb 3, 2025)
-I run Clear Linux with their LTS-kernel and it works very well for me.
-I like how if you type a command it tells you which bundle to add.
-So far among distros, none matches Clear Linux' speed
-I was hesitant at first to install this distro because I don't want it to be discontinued since it seems underground but it's actually Intel's own distro so a giant like them will not likely fall tomorrow lol
-The tweaks they've done to the kernel are so nice that Clear Linux' kernel is available in other distros such as Arch Linux
-I found myself a new home and my distro-hopping should be over for a very long time
59 • Debates (by GT on 2025-07-30 16:39:24 GMT from United States)
The thing that gets me about the systemd 'debate' is the correlation between how passionately someone hates it, and how little understanding they demonstrate of how things actually work. They could choose to use a systemd-free distro, assist those projects, and carry on with life, but instead they feel it necessary to spend their energy spreading misinformation and/or vitriol at every opportunity, as if on some crusade to 'prove' to the world that Red Hat is actively trying to destroy computing for everyone. I don't know what feeds that mindset, but for some reason, systemd triggers it in a number of users. The debate is over. Projects have made their decisions about systemd. Choose a project that aligns with your wants and needs and move on. No one cares what others think about software they themselves don't use or understand, and no amount of hyperbole shouted from the sidelines is going to change that.
60 • debate (by jc on 2025-07-30 17:33:26 GMT from The Netherlands)
GT, #59, is correct: the only thing for [evil] systemd to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
Developers, be they corporate or community, have their own agenda. Many times the agenda agrees with what their product's users want, but not always. Corporate users want minimum software life cycle costs while maintaining tight control of the software ebvironment. Community users, variers with the community, typically want minimum software life cycle costs (their time to install, update, etc. is money) and either no config required or maximun configurable environment (i.e., ala cart type system). There is no such thing as a linux user, there are many different linux users. Hence one linux does not fit all.
I have written off Red Hat and derivatives and systemd distros as unsuitable for my use and therefore avoid them like a plague.
I use Devuan, MX Linux, Slackware, PClinux, etc. Should all linux distros fall prey to systemd, I will migrate to BSD.
Systemd has one major advantage, it provides a unified attack surface for hackers, state or otherwise.
61 • ...favourite open source debate is... (by R. Cain on 2025-07-30 17:59:53 GMT from United States)
...BSD vs Linux on the desktop.
__Personal__ opinion is that BSD, with its VERY-well-disciplined, tightly-controlled, highly-locked-down development structure (vs Linux's "Hey, ANYBODY can write a distro; you can too. Jump in!" approach) will win this for BSD. No contest. None at all.
You will notice that BSD is _NOT_ a "distro"--it is a single (that's a highly operative word) PRODUCT---as opposed to almost all Linux distros, which can only--charitably--be referred to as 'projects".
You will also notice that most all (> 500, and counting, at last count) Linux distros were "Vanity ("Hey; look at ME!") Distros".
At the end of the day, the only Linux distros which will be left standing are those very few which are backed by corporate entities with deep pockets (even that doesn't guarantee success; simply consider the CERN-backed 'Scientific Linux').
BSD will win this one simply because 'everyman' s Linux', as we would like to know and remember it, is killing itself; it will not--because it simply CANnot--survive.
62 • BSD versus Linux @61 (by picamanic on 2025-07-30 18:52:05 GMT from United Kingdom)
@61: I don't agree that only the small number of Corporate Linux distros will survive. Yes, the one-person Vanity Projects will come and go, but distros like Devuan, Void, Alpine and Tiny Core will persist until the Linux kernel becomes so bloated that even Redhat/Microsoft will wash their hands of it, and walk away. I can't see that far into the future; you know, getting old. Of course, that precludes a hostile act from the Redhat/Microsoft camp!
63 • anti-GNOME army (by John Doe on 2025-07-30 19:29:40 GMT from Italy)
@46
KDE is objectively better, faster and lighter than GNOME.
64 • Nvidia vs amd/intel/everyone else. (by (mandatory) on 2025-07-31 04:51:46 GMT from United States)
Seriously, how do we have "software for humanity," freedom for the masses... and LiveDVD GNU/Linux operating system images which are too big to fit on actual DVDs??!
What is wrong with these corporations which are supposedly democratic, community centered institutions? Nobody has DL DVDs anymore! (Nobody even uses Bluray DVDs!)
65 • Also, x86-64-v1 vs v2 vs v3 (by (mandatory) on 2025-07-31 04:55:43 GMT from United States)
These red hat operating systems are mostly for the privileged: those who can afford the latest processors/motherboards only.
66 • Beginner Guide Ideas (by Adrien on 2025-07-31 05:58:56 GMT from United States)
One feature that I think would be great not just for beginners, but for anyone always 'on the watch' for distro info would be to re-work your rankings column into multiple parts:
Best (simplest, friendliest, easiest) for New Users (Ubuntu, Mint, Zorin, ...)
Novel Approach (Qubes, NIxOS, ...)
Special Focus (Ubuntu Studio, DragonOS, OpenSense, TrueNAS, ...)
Lite & Modern (Lubuntu, Lite, Peppermint, ...)
Ancient Hardware Friendly (Puppy, TinyCore, Q4OS, ...)
Tinkerer Havens (Gentoo, Arch, Slackware, ...)
Privacy Focused (Tails, ...)
(examples not meant to be definitive, those would all be from the same rating system that exists, just broken up into groups, with some distros in multiple groups of course depending on their overall rating)
The idea here is to give more visibility to aspects of a distro that aren't readily apparent from the current list structure. Some distros that don't make the overall list now, might end up on one of these focused lists and get some attention, testing, feedback for improvement, etc.
On that note, I'm excited to see a TinyCore derivative just made the db. I downloaded it and will start playing with it right away. I have several 32 bit machines that I've been distro hopping in the hopes of breathing new life into them and this looks promising! (I once rescued an near ancient ThinkPad running win95 on a K6 with TinyCore proper. It eventually got a web browser, and a word processor too!) I also revived an ancient IBM with an original Pentium 1 using Puppy Classic. So this new derivative might be just the 'Spirit' it needs to modernize a bit.
67 • Debates (by Bob on 2025-07-31 07:50:01 GMT from United States)
Gnome went down the toilet when they discontinued Gnome2 14 years ago. KDE? I just don’t get it. There are plenty of other desktop environments I’d rather use.
68 • favourite Debate... (by rhtoras on 2025-07-31 09:29:31 GMT from Greece)
There is only one debate and that's why it is in the #1 position. Correct: i am talking for the systemD vs real init systems. This is the most important of all the debates not only because it will shape how linux looks in a few years, but mainly because linux existance depends on it. SystemD is hungry and sooner or later will be bigger than the whole kernel. Nowdays we say: linux with systemD but the plan is to speak for systemD with linux. EVERY other debate even bsd vs linux is a matter of prefference.As for desktop debates i.e Gnome vs KDE even there systemD is hidden behind the titles. Because Gnome is essentialy systemD. A real dictatorship in which init, logging, timers, network configuration, and many more are being controlled by a few people working for IBM and Microsoft.
please read:https://without-systemd.org/wiki/index_php/Arguments_against_systemd/
69 • PHR by type of distro (by Slappy McGee on 2025-07-31 12:07:41 GMT from United States)
@66 Those aspects of the list are inherent in the list as it is. Just look at it with an eye toward the type and you'll see which one of that type is higher on the list, and keep going down the list looking for that type.
As explained in the link in the upper right of DW pages, it's only about popularity at this site, not world wide as to usage: Pate Hit Ranking.
70 • Lines Of Code (by Pottering on 2025-07-31 16:05:20 GMT from United States)
@68
Systemd lines of code = 1.3 million
Linux Kernel lines of code = 40 MILLION
End of discussion!
71 • Distro Types (by Adrien on 2025-07-31 19:57:59 GMT from United States)
@69, I'm well aware it is just a Page Hit Ranking, it can continue to be that.
But for folks who do not know what the focus or purpose of each distro is, that info is NOT 'evident' just looking at the list. I have to click each one to get a light description, that *maybe* sheds some light on that topic. But DW already has them classified that way in the db. So it would be a matter of separating the big list by that dimension. (or really, reporting that dimension separately, as all distros would be in the list)
The 'type' info is not displayed. That's the problem. Having separate lists by 'type' would highlight those distros that folks might be interested in for those particular reasons.
72 • order in the rank(ing)s (by speckledbeard on 2025-08-01 00:18:23 GMT from New Zealand)
Funny how I was going to come here and rant a little about "certain highly-rated distros" that are fluff, magick, smoke and mirrors - but can't even properly install/function....
...and I see the discussion has already been there. Great minds think alike.
Page hits can be easily crowd-inflated, nothing new to DW. As can the 1-10 ratings be, easily misdirected in both directions. Getting a real feel for what's truly a good distro comes down to reading many sources. One very very good page is the DW page on Major Distros, and the new section for people beginning their Linus journey.
Click-ratings, yeah-nah. I'll pass.
73 • @71rankings (by picamanic on 2025-08-01 08:05:10 GMT from United Kingdom)
There is a more useful ranking of distros here, based on actual Reader Reviews:
https://distrowatch.com/dwres-mobile.php?resource=ranking
This is complicated to navigate to, which is way I give the full URL. It presents a very different top 32 distro list. I am not sure why Jesse has made it so difficult to get at this.
74 • systemD (by rhtoras on 2025-08-01 08:43:51 GMT from Greece)
@70 YES... so everything should be big. SystemD is a large attack surface because linux kernel is biiiiiig. So because linux kernel is big then desktops should be big too. 4 gigs of ram at least on idle should be the proper way to go. You are correct.
Story never ends because linux is in the hands of IBM and Microsoft... i am against!!!
75 • Lines of code (by picamanic on 2025-08-01 09:36:15 GMT from United Kingdom)
@70,@74: not everything is big: the Runit init system is only about 6k lines of C, and not growing [I am writing this from a distro that uses it].
The Linux kernel has grown that big because of support for more and more hardware. The code actually used by a typical desktop is probably sub 1 million lines of C [still a far cry from its early days, 20k lines of C].
In an era when AI is used to write large scale systems software, spotting the errors in codes that are beyond human review will become a problem.
76 • Debates / favorite (by Ken Paul Siegel on 2025-08-01 13:52:01 GMT from United States)
Jesse Smith, thank you for your time. Favorite debate of mine is "downloadable drivers VS. drivers included in Distro ISO". We need the drivers; however, not all of us can successfully install them. Stay safe, Ken Paul Siegel
77 • Beginners guide (by John on 2025-08-01 22:46:26 GMT from Canada)
@Jesse - maybe for the guide - explain disk partitioning, file formats and file system layouts?
Number of Comments: 77
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| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Full list of all issues |
| 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.
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| Random Distribution | 
Nova
Nova is a user-friendly, desktop-oriented Linux distribution developed by the University of Computer Sciences in Havana, Cuba. In the product's early days the operating system was based on Gentoo Linux and Sabayon Linux, but starting from version 2.1 the developers have chosen Ubuntu as the base system. The project releases three separate editions - "Escritorio" (with GNOME Shell), "Ligero" (with a Nova-developed lightweight desktop called "Guano") and "Servidor" (a variant for servers).
Status: Dormant
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| 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.
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