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1 • Ancient bugs fixed (by Keith S on 2025-08-04 01:18:56 GMT from Japan)
The old Debian bug fix reminds me of a few that I've seen in OpenBSD over the years. The most recent I could find was in the 7.7 release notes:
"Fixed a 24-year old bug where various checks for broadcast packets were mistakenly skipped, allowing one to send broadcast packets without the SO_BROADCAST option."
I vaguely remember another that was over 30 years old at the time it was fixed and went back to the 80s Unix code (BSD of course). It resulted in some minor annoyance that everyone had been working around for all those years until it was found somewhat by accident when one of the OpenBSD devs was working on something else. Software is interesting in that way.
2 • Debian Version (by Sam Crawford on 2025-08-04 01:29:19 GMT from United States)
I run Debian "stable" on all my linux machines. I know, I'm boring but I love it because it just works and I don't have to worry about it.
That said, There are some programs, such as Libreoffice, Darktable and GIMP that I install either from backports or Flatpak so I can have up to date versions of those programs.
Also, I use Chrome as my browser and that gets updated with a sudo apt-update as well.
3 • Arch AUR (by Pumpino on 2025-08-04 01:34:15 GMT from Australia)
The malware in the Arch AUR is concerning. It makes me wonder whether the AUR should be totally avoided. The issue is that not all packages are available in Arch's core or extra repos.
4 • Debian Branch (by GT on 2025-08-04 01:44:11 GMT from United States)
I have settled on Debian Stable as my distro of choice and am looking forward to Trixie's release. Now that Debian includes access to non-free firmware in the installation media and includes fresher software in their releases, it is not as rough around the edges as it was in the past, and I no longer feel compelled to use a distro based on it rather than the real deal. I do typically enable the backports repository for access to the testing versions of particular programs. In Bookworm, this was necessary to update to a version of Pipewire that was suitable for pro audio applications. Perhaps I won't have a need for backports with Trixie as the versions of programs important to me are pretty recent per the database.
5 • Arch AUR (by Roger Brown on 2025-08-04 01:47:49 GMT from Australia)
@3 Certainly be aware of the possibility of malware - anyone can contribute to AUR. Reduce your risk by sticking to established packages and check any comments on the package you intend to install before proceeding.
Also subscribe to the mailing list aur-general@lists.archlinux.org to get early notice of any detected malware.
Subject to those precautions AUR is a useful and relatively safe resource.
6 • X11 distro (by historyb on 2025-08-04 02:52:33 GMT from United States)
At least one I know is still using x11 which is OpenMamdriva, and they are testing xLibre right now
7 • Debian branch (by Craig on 2025-08-04 03:04:12 GMT from United States)
Like Sam @2 I’m pretty boring and go with Stable. But I wait to adopt the new Stable at about the point 8 version. So I’ll adopt Trixie in a year or so and be an even more boring Old Stable guy for a while. And I’ll just get work done without worries.
8 • AUR issues (by Dave on 2025-08-04 03:20:29 GMT from Australia)
@3 I anecdotally find that the AUR is a common cause of many issues on Arch and contributes to the reputation as being "unstable". I found that avoiding it altogether - malware aside - I didn't have any issues.
Yeah, maybe people can use flatpak or something else, or help promote a package to official? Not sure.
9 • Debian testing (by Matt on 2025-08-04 03:39:55 GMT from United States)
I've used Debian for more than 20 years. I switch from stable to testing maybe one year or so after a stable release. My sources list is edited to the testing code name rather then "testing". That way, I will eventually be running the stable branch after it is released.
Now I use Devuan, though. My sources list uses "excalibur" branch, which is the Devuan code name for Debian Trixie. Systemd kept hanging during shutdown on multiple machines. Since switching to Devuan, I have not missed systemd.
10 • AUR as never without double checking (by Gusss on 2025-08-04 06:21:25 GMT from France)
Maybe the very first thing I've learnt when starting using Arch is to ensure AUR is disabled because it's not monitored by the security team.
I've encountered many times programs that I could have been installed using AUR but it was too tempting to start being used to just install any software without being too cautious about the security.
And with the pretty recent popularity boost of Arch and derivatives (like SteamOS), it becomes a much interesting platform for malwares. Success has its price I guess.
11 • Debian version (by Bleach on 2025-08-04 06:21:28 GMT from Italy)
I used to work with Debian testing plus a shot of unstable when required. xz-utils affair made me revert to a rock solid stable. That's what I'm still running.
12 • debian (by Chris on 2025-08-04 06:59:05 GMT from South Africa)
I'm running Kubuntu 25.10 and 'cat /etc/debian_version' tells me 'trixie/sid' (AI tells me: Trixie is a snapshot of packages from Sid that have been deemed relatively stable)
13 • X 11 Debian Version (by Hank on 2025-08-04 07:35:25 GMT from Germany)
After years of distro hopping I run antiX, Runit and the distro remains X11.
Main device is set to use sid repos so latest software is installed.
My experience with Wayland, made me drop it fast. Very buggy on some setups, still many bugs open too. Another case of IBM Red hat forcing unfinished projects in to a multitude of distros.
Why, Embrace and controll, I guess destroy will follow.
14 • Ubuntu is based on Debian (by burgess-m on 2025-08-04 07:42:33 GMT from United Kingdom)
@12 me too on Ubuntu 25/04. I guess all Ubuntu (& derivatives) users should have answered "A combination of the above" in the poll.
15 • Debian version (& @8) (by Simon on 2025-08-04 07:48:45 GMT from New Zealand)
Technically I'm running testing (Trixie) at the moment, but the testing distro becomes rock solid and arguably even more trustworthy than the stable one around the time of the hard freeze (because all the development and bug-squashing has been focused on testing for so long, key packages have been frozen for months, and nothing's being updated any more) so I answered "stable" as I always sit on stable for the bulk of its lifecycle, only switching to testing once it's been stabilized to the point where it's already basically the next stable release. Occasionally I wait for the official release (just a few days away now), but I've had time lately to switch everything over so we're all running Trixie now.
@8: Arch is, objectively, unstable: it's a rolling release. "Stable" means exactly that: not moving. People confuse it with reliability or trustworthiness and call their machines "stable" when they happen to work without issues for long stretches of time... but that's really just luck, if it's a rolling release then it's being continually changed so it's not stable at all, it can break at any time. With a stable distro you can be completely confident that what worked yesterday will also work tomorrow because your software isn't changing: unless your hardware breaks down, you're going to be fine... you know it and can count on it. With a rolling release distro like Arch, you can certainly *hope* that what worked yesterday will also work tomorrow, and if you're lucky that will indeed be the case, potentially for years... but it's a continually shifting pile of software, so things can break at any moment. All it takes is one experience of really seriously needing something to work (e.g. a scanner for an urgent document) and then discovering that some update at some point has broken things and you don't have time to restore from a working backup, and you'll discover the great appeal of a stable distro.
16 • Seeking-Mint-Plasma (by aguador on 2025-08-04 08:26:40 GMT from Spain)
I recall when Mint had one of the best KDE4 experiences around according to a couple of reviewers. When the distro decided to stop offering it on it main and LMDE isos, the maintainer of the latter then started the Solydxk distro that I sampled live and was quite solid. If the poster wanted to change distros, it might be a good option (I have not followed it), as well as the Plasma version of MX Linux.
There is an old post about installing Plasma on LMDE that the poster might want to read: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=372428
17 • debian branch - aur (by thim on 2025-08-04 09:44:44 GMT from Greece)
As of now, i am running Devuan stable. In the future, i ll consider old stable, only if wayland does not improve on it's weakness and X11 won't be an option on stable.
Arch developers have said so: "DISCLAIMER: AUR packages are user produced content. Any use of the provided files is at your own risk."
Nevertheless. any arch user that revisits Arch, mention AUR as one of Arch's biggest pros. Go figure out
18 • AUR as never without double checking (by Pumpino on 2025-08-04 09:57:34 GMT from Australia)
@12 Disabling the AUR sounds fine until you come across a program that's not available elsewhere. For example, Brave Browser is only available in the AUR. I use Manjaro Testing, and Manjaro is maintained by the Manjaro team, so it's not an issue for me. However, if I was using Arch or Endeavour, I'd be considering other options, such as using flatpaks or booting Xubuntu.
19 • X11 (by kc1di on 2025-08-04 10:15:37 GMT from United States)
There are may distros that still offer x11 and I hope they will be around awhile yet. I currently use PCLinuxOS that offers both x11 and wayland at least with kde 6. I use to use Mint KDe years ago and remember it as a good solid distro for kde but alas the choice was made to drop it from it's offering and i think adding kde to mint now is a lot of work, when there are so many other distros that offer KDE as a main choice. Debian is a fine distro always stable and very usable now that they offer the drivers needed. in any even enjoy the journey!
20 • AUR / Brave Browser (by deedub on 2025-08-04 10:16:43 GMT from United Kingdom)
ref @18, I use Brave on Manjaro and am pretty sure I installed it without the AUR (I keep it disabled). That was some time ago, but I see the Brave website now advises Arch based systems need an "AUR helper" to install Brave. Presumably enabling AUR is a pre-requisite for using an AUR helper?
21 • The Debian "bug" is not a bug (by Anthony on 2025-08-04 10:30:06 GMT from Czechia)
Has anybody looked at the "bug" and its "fix"? It is nothing more than another task-sel option, namely to install a pre-defined set of packages. It has absolutely nothing to do with any kind of "bug". It was a "feature request", nothing else. Pretending it was a bug, and that this "bug" was present for 20+ years is objectively wrong.
22 • AUR / Brave Browser (by Pumpino on 2025-08-04 11:47:47 GMT from Australia)
@12 Yes, that was my point - that Manjaro builds Brave and has it in its repositories, but Arch doesn't. I assume an AUR helper is something like yay, which means that AUR packages can be downloaded and built using yay -S . Without that, you have to manually download the PKGBUILD from the AUR website, unzip it and run makepkg to build it.
23 • AUR / Brave Browser (by Pumpino on 2025-08-04 11:49:06 GMT from Australia)
Sorry, that was directed @20, not 12.
24 • Linux Mint KDE (by Marc Visscher on 2025-08-04 12:02:49 GMT from The Netherlands)
@16:
Installing KDE Plasma into Linux Mint - albeit possible - is a "waste of time" and ends up with a lot of extra packages on your HD. Yes, it's still Linux Mint, but I think you'll end up with a very cluttered system.
The closest to Linux Mint, but with KDE Plasma installed is Kubuntu. To a certain degree they are pretty much the same (80 to 90% perhaps?) The only "issue" is that Kubuntu sticks to the KDE version that came along with the distro the whole life cycie (which isn't a bad thing, don't get me wrong!). But for the rest, you'll end up with a much cleaner system.
You could also look at KDE Neon, which is basically Kubuntu, but with the latest KDE packages installed, and it keeps updating that through it's life cycle. KDE Neon is also a derivative from Ubuntu and Debian, but they use the "pkcon" command instead of "apt" or "apt-get". You can still use the latter mentioned, but for updating and stuff, "pkcon" is recommended on KDE Neon. Besides of that, it's almost the "same ride" as Kubuntu and any other Debian derivative with the KDE Plasma desktop.
This week I saw the release of "KDE Linux", which I think it's similar to KDE Neon, but only with an Ach base. If you are known with Pacman, you should also consider that. The choice is yours. :-)
25 • Debian Branch (by DaveT on 2025-08-04 12:04:12 GMT from United Kingdom)
Devuan of course!
I always used to run debian sid and am considering moving on to devuan unstable 'Ceres'.
26 • AUR / Brave Browser (by deedub on 2025-08-04 12:11:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
@22, thanks that makes sense - I had missed that Manjaro maintains Brave in its own repositories.
27 • Expirion... (by Marc Visscher on 2025-08-04 12:25:42 GMT from The Netherlands)
I'm always "game" for a lightweight distro, especially because I still have some old hardware which are working fine, but are too old for a full blown Linux experience. And besides of that, some of my computers are 32-bit machines.
It's really too bad that finding a lightweight distro for 32-bit machines is getting harder and harder over times. Some distros still provide 32-bits Linux, but it's getting less and less over time.
Devuan still deliver 32-bits, but it's not a pretty distro for the eye. Expirion looks nice with the LXQt desktop, but it's only 64-bits. The same applies for the lightweight Ubuntu derivatives Lubuntu (official Ubuntu) and FunOS (unofficial Ubuntu).
I guess I have to stick with Q4OS with the Trinity desktop on my 20 year old IBM Thinkpad, which works fine, but I wanted to try something else on that machine.
28 • Debian branches (by Slappy McGee on 2025-08-04 12:36:47 GMT from United States)
No need to take chances with branches, those devs craft one hell of a great stable release. Also, now that the whole thing is easier to install it's just a no-brainer to go for it rather than those distros inspired by Debian, imnsho.
29 • Re: Seeking Mint-Plasma (by Fabian Lanzy on 2025-08-04 13:09:27 GMT from United States)
TLDR: I would suggest trying Feren OS, current version 2025.03, It has a KDE 5.27,1 desktop and is based on an Ubuntu LTS very much inspired by Mint Cinnamon.
I was an overall happy Mint user for the last 4 years, had some critical hardware issues which caused my old HP tower system to give up its ghost almost a month and a half ago. My current POTATO is a Dell Optiplex 990 which did not play nicely with the SHTF Ventoy USB drive I'd prepared with the latest mint and other ISOs, Somehow I got it to load an ISO containing Feren 2025.03 and I've been using Feren as my daily driver on this machine since. Its been my daily driver for over a month, and I very much appreciate what the devs have done with this distro. Its fairly snappy on 4 gigs of Ram with a lumbering old Seagate Hard drive (had SSD on my old machine). I'll give it that..
I am very happy with how KDE is implemented on this distro. If I have one complaint, Feren has put together a 'store' to speed up package installation rather and locked down the installation of third party repositories and :ppas. The intent may be good but the store can be 'buggy' and has crashed this Potato a couple of times when I've used it. Thankfully, a new STORE app written from the bottom up is one of the new priorities the Feren Devs have going forward. As Feren is approaching its 10th anniversary as an independent distro, they put out a memo of soon to be released features HERE: https://medium.com/feren-os/celebrating-10-years-of-feren-os-what-to-look-out-for-in-the-future-58d3d0768350
Note that Feren is still on KDE Plasma 5 and the current version runs X-11. Plasma 6 and Wayland will hopefully come in the 10th anniversary release the Feren team is currently working on, as noted in that memo. Plasma 5.27 is rock solid in this release and considering that they are a small indipendent distro.
One thing Feren does that some will find controversial but I actually like: Currently Vivaldi is the defalt browser with a widget to make choosing other browsers easier on installation. I can hear the Richard Stallman crowd lighting torches and looking for pitchforks as I type over Vivaldi having a proprietary UI, I do get the whole support open source software argument. Still, I had resorted to using Vivaldi as my go-to browser when I was using Mint specifically because its customizability makes it easier for me to use do to accesibility issues- I have severe astignatism and am developing cataracts and I live in part of the world (The United States) that is rationing health care access based on ability to pay-- not trying to get political here, just saying I like a browser that I can make conform to my visual handicap. Sorry for going off on a tangent but I had to use this soap box to say that UI matters to those of us getting up there in years to whom the screen might be just a touch fuzzy in the wrong way
Anyways, Feren meets my needs well, I'm sure I'll revisit Linux Mint sometime and try other distros, but if you want a Minty KDE distro I would strongly recommend giving Feren OS a look.
30 • Debian branch and a review suggestion. (by Tuxedoar on 2025-08-04 14:08:14 GMT from Argentina)
I voted for "A combination of the above". However, I wasn't sure what it meant exactly. For instance, if a user has "APT pinning" configured (a combination of installed packages from two Debian branches) or whether a user might have some Debian installations with "stable" branch and "testing" on others.
In most cases, I run the Debian "stable" branch. Occasionally, I do a Debian "testing" install or an upgrade from "stable" to "testing". On the latter, an approach I find reliable in most cases, is to wait until the "testing" Debian branch reaches a certain "freeze" status (e.g: "soft", "hard", etc), to do an upgrade from "stable".
@Jesse: I wonder if you already plan or you could do a review of a recent "Postmarket OS" release, on a supported mobile device. I'm aware that you did such a review in the past, but I'm quite interested on an upgraded one. Thanks!.
Have a nice week!.
Cheers.
31 • Debian and AUR (by Robert on 2025-08-04 14:11:42 GMT from United States)
While Debian was the very first distro I ever installed back around 2005, this was before you could install a desktop by default (or I downloaded the wrong ISO) and I had no idea how to use bash. It didn't last long.
Since then I've never properly tried using Debian or any of its derivitives.
It's really unfortunate that the AUR is having this recent outbreak of malware. While for me it is the last resort, it is a great resource for software you just can't get anywhere else (without manually compiling it of course).
I go for main repos first, flatpak second, then AUR. Still there are several PKGBUILDS I use from there - something to control the LEDs on my keyboard that I forget the name of, Wayfire, and clipman (why is this not in the main repos by now???) are the immediate ones that come to mind. And in the recent past there have been more, including QtGreet before I switched over to SDDM, a few other wlroots-desktop utilities before they were promoted into the main repo such as waylock, and more.
But yeah, as has been mentioned, it's always good to spot-check the PKGBUILDS from the AUR before installing them, stick to established ones whenever possible, and even check over the source repo. I do all that sometimes, but I'd be lying if I said I do it every time. I'm sure there are many who never think to check at all.
32 • Q4OS alternatives (by AloofBrit on 2025-08-04 14:51:58 GMT from United States)
@27 you might like BunsenLabs - it's Debian with OpenBox on top, and they still do a 32-bit version
33 • @27 - 32-bit options (by Uncle Slacky on 2025-08-04 17:22:38 GMT from France)
antiX, Exe GNU/Linux (another distro with Trinity DE) and Void still offer 32-bit ISOs (antiX apparently will still do so even once it's based on Trixie). There's also Alpine and Slackware if you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty.
34 • @27 32-bit / old / thinkpad (by grindstone on 2025-08-04 17:38:32 GMT from United States)
In additon to what @32 mentioned, take a look at antiX and DSL as supporting 32-bit. There are many, many flavors of the former (including spins which fit on CD and boot legacy BIOS if that's needed on your laptop).
35 • Debian and other matters (by Bobbie Sellers on 2025-08-04 18:11:10 GMT from United States)
I have tried Debian in the past and was not comfortable with it.
However there is a PCLinuxOS version based on Debian repositories.
You will have to go the PCLinuxOS Users Forum to discover where
you can download it.
In other news PCLinuxOS has produced a set of new ISOs using
KDE's Plasma 6.4.3 (so far) but it can also be upgraded to that
version using Apt-get commands. Again the Users Forum has
that information. The original Forum's hosting computers were
destroyed in a fire but the information was largely recovered
from a backup to the Cloud. And package updates never
stopped. I have a Latitude 7450 happily running Plasma 6.4.3.
The present computer in use will have some modifications
before I move to that version of Plasma
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2025.07- Linux 6.12.41- Plasma 5.27.11
36 • EXPIRION LINUX, 32bit and other news.... (by rhtoras on 2025-08-04 18:21:48 GMT from Greece)
I am glad expririon linux is moving forward improvings it's core elements. It is a nice distribution and i can see people using this distro which is not niche by any means. I won't judge a distribution by it's userbase but by it's goals. It free and this means NOsystemD. I like runit so i am using Void but i can see them coming to sysV init since runit works better on Void rather than Debian/Devuan and Venom linux (btw Venom is a nice distro to show us again Jesse). ALice linux is also a nice project but that's a more personal project tbh. I like expirion and it's approach and i don't find refracta installer to be that bad. OK i have seen better installers (please NOT ubiquity come on!) but it's an option to have and i feel ok.
Devuan MINIMAL text installer feels a better option to be honest so is Void text installer. Simple and works!!!
I am glad to see openbsd proting CDE. It was about time. There is also NsCDE BUT this is a different project that mimics the ® one. Also i could make on my openbsd fvwm look like CDE since motif is common on both wm's. I might try CDE although it seems so 90's.
As for 32 bit distribution Puppy and Tinycore also offer 32 bit options. OPENBSD, FREEBSD, MIDNIGHTBSD, DroaghonflyBSD and Netbsd do the same. Last but not least Adelie linux offers a 32 bit iso.
OH i almost forgot sabotage linux offers a 32 bit version too!!!
Hope to see a review of the following projects: EWEos linux, Noir Linux, kwort.org and ...Mere linux!!!
37 • @ 35 PClinuxOS debian (by kc1di on 2025-08-04 21:11:49 GMT from United States)
You can download the ISOs for pclinuxos debian version from here
https://www.pclosdebian.com/home
The ISO for KDE6 is here
https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/pclinuxos/pclinuxos/iso/
Note the debian version is still based on Bookworm but will be upgrade shortly after Trixie is officially released.
Enjoy!
38 • Debian Version (by Story Toy on 2025-08-04 21:28:40 GMT from United Kingdom)
Debian are currently encouraging users to install Trixie to iron out any final bugs in the installer. So like many people I had to click Testing in your survey, but will stick to Trixie when it becomes Stable. Nowadays I find that Debian Stable seldom lacks an up to date version I need, so I will probably stick with Trixie longer term.
I have mostly used Debian since installing Woody. Given modern computing slang it is a deep regret that I never got to install Potato.
39 • Debian Version (by 32298 on 2025-08-05 01:13:24 GMT from United States)
Sid !
You folks might wish to run Sid with the XFCE desktop.
It's very reliable, using it as my daily driver
( Siduction)
Especially the Arch people who like bleeding edge, this is Debian at it's best.
40 • Deepin live network settings weirdness (by eco2geek on 2025-08-05 08:21:29 GMT from United States)
I'm trying Deepin from live media, and noticed that, for some reason, I couldn't log in to Google. I could access YouTube, but not log in to it. I could not access Gmail because you have to log in before you can access it. The web browsers (I tried two of them) timed out trying to access accounts.google.com.
After some investigation, I found the following line in /etc/hosts:
# rclone 上传镜像到google云盘使用
10.20.64.89 www.googleapis.com accounts.google.com objects.githubusercontent.com github.com
Redirecting accounts.google.com to 10.20.64.89 would certainly make it inaccessible! I'm no expert when it comes to networks, but I do know that the range 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255 is reserved for private usage.
I found this very odd, indeed. Maybe it has something to do with their web browser, which is a clone of Google Chromium, and their desire for you to sync it using Deepin's cloud services. But I don't know.
41 • Wishing there was a Mint KDE (by Mr B on 2025-08-05 13:59:33 GMT from United Kingdom)
@16, @24 & @29
Have you considered TuxedoOS at all? It's based on Ubuntu with KDE Plasma desktop and it doesn't use snaps which puts it above Kubuntu in my book. I tried it in a virtual machine and I really liked it. I'm a long-term Mintophile and I'd like to use KDE rather than MATE. In another recent poll a handful of people hankered for a a KDE version of Mint too.
42 • Debian PClos (by rhtoras on 2025-08-05 14:39:47 GMT from Greece)
i like pclinuxos and devuan however the pclos debin edition is not to my likes because it uses systemD...
i would love to use it with sysVinit but NO systemD
if you guys know any way to use it without the poettering crap i am here to listen...
Thanks anyway!!!
43 • @42: is pclosdebian really systemd-free? (by picamanic on 2025-08-05 21:39:23 GMT from United Kingdom)
@42: if you look at www.pclosdebian.com, it claims that it is systemd-free. I am sure that if you actually installed it, possibly in a VM, it would quickly become obvious if they lie.
44 • SystemD is the Future (by Anonymous on 2025-08-05 22:25:09 GMT from United States)
@42, Poettering is a coding genius whose immense contributions to open source software have improved the Linux ecosystem as a whole.
45 • pclosdebian (by rhtoras on 2025-08-05 23:09:16 GMT from Greece)
Yes i have asked in their forum... problem is they don't use systemD but they use elogind something pclos is not doing. I would love to see them using nosystemD repos from mx and antix because it containes software which is not elogind dependant. That was my concern with pclos debian...
46 • @41 TuxedoOS (by Sam Crawford on 2025-08-06 01:19:18 GMT from United States)
I read your comment and installed TuxedoOS on a spare laptop I keep just for things like this.
The install was a bit more difficult than usual as I had to make sure the USB key was set for a BIOS install and had to disable secure boot.
After installing I installed a signed key for TuxedoOS in order to reenable secure boot. Afterward I switched to a local mirror for the Ubuntu base and finished my installation.
I’m extremely impressed with the polish and stability of the distribution. Everything works and it seems very responsive.
There are no extra junk apps and there are no Snaps.
Thanks for the recommendation. I second it.
47 • @44: Poettering (by picamanic on 2025-08-06 08:24:17 GMT from United Kingdom)
@44: Poettering produces large quantities [2 million lines of C] of unnecessary software, and, by dubious methods, forces it on the Linux community. I watched this happen in 2015, when Debian 8 development was the subject of what I can only call a Hostile Takeover. Systemd is 300 times bigger than Runit that performs the necessary init functions.
His loyalties to Microsoft, Redhat and IBM tell you something about his intentions with systemd. Genius?
48 • but for whom the linux is (by thim on 2025-08-06 09:45:25 GMT from Greece)
gnome/redhat camp are seeing masses as potential customers. They want to produce systems, designed on there own views and to push these to the masses. These devs know what is good, what is bad, these devs cannot go wrong: that's the moto. The masses are too illiterate to judge them: their only duty is to clap the enlightened devs and adjust their workflows to those devs whims.
Compare this with the history and the initial targets of the gnu project, or even to the linux landscape up to 15 years ago.
49 • Poettering's SystemD (by Slappy McGee on 2025-08-06 13:15:06 GMT from United States)
@42 @44 It is what it is, and some care and some don't. The fact that Torvalds cares is what I pay attention to, despite his rather sharp-edged reputation (personality mainly I guess). It's his kernel.
Whose kernel is next if/when Microsoft (via evils of Peottering?) goes from influence to ownership of Linux's heart? BSD? Something new altogether? And how long before the billionaires at MS take that too?
It's a futile game. But getting off systemD could help extend Linux integrity. It isn't just about the millions of lines of code vs the cleaner and just as efficient sysV and runit et al. It's also about that very thing: Linux integrity.
50 • systemd: @44, 47, 49...et. al. (by R. Cain on 2025-08-06 14:22:04 GMT from United States)
"Dev nonsense: netstat and ifconfig"
Updated: August 18, 2018
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/dev-nonsense-netstat-ifconfig.html
"...Thus we got systemd. Does it serve any real purpose? No. It's complicated, it's difficult to use, and the only reason it's there is to replace init, which was doing a good job. But you may say: "wait, init wasn't doing a good job!" Really? The Internet was invented, we got mega-super-computers and data centers filled with hundreds of thousands of servers long long BEFORE there was systemd. IT WAS DONE WITH init. [emphasis added]
Just compare how simple - and intuitive - it is to list running services with systemd compared to init. For instance, it's service --status-all with System V init. What can be simpler than that? With systemd, you have systemctl list-unit-files --state=running (or any relevant state). What. Or perhaps with chkconfig --list, you'd get a list of all services, both ON and OFF for each runlevel, listed nicely. With systemd, you need systemctl list-unit-files | grep enabled. Do you get more functionality? No. Do you get better functionality? No. Do you get better or simpler commands? No. Is list-unit-files logical? No. Everything happened with init in place. If init was so bad, this would not have happened..."
----------------------------------------------------------
"Modern software development is cancer"
Updated: March 17, 2017
https://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/software-development-cancer.html
"...Then, suddenly, we have this new binary diarrhea with a hundred million modules, and for the past five years, this unstable, half-baked, undebuggable nonsense is the backbone of most Linux distros. The invasive and pervasive nature of the systemd framework has also affected the stability of the user space, the very thing it should never have touched, and pretty much all problems with the quality of the Linux desktop nicely coincide with the introduction of systemd. The development continues, of course, and for no good reason than trying to reach the level of stability, maturity and functionality that we had half a decade ago. Someone landed themselves a lot of monthly pay checks by writing complex code to solve a problem that did not exist..."
51 • 50 • systemd: @44, 47, 49...et. al. like cancer metastasen everywhere (by Kerplunk on 2025-08-06 15:48:12 GMT from Germany)
Someone landed themselves a lot of monthly pay checks by writing complex code to solve a problem that did not exist..."
And Debian has not only adopted the cancer, their system d evangelist devs are also removing support for alternatve init systems. That despite a general resolution.
Running antiX Init is Runit, boots as fast as any system d distro, if not faster and has non of the quirky madness introduced by Mr P first Red Hat now Microsoft.
The paychecks are still coming for one of the most useless invasive complicated unnecessary pieces of non innovation on the planet.
52 • LXQt search box (by Kleer Kut on 2025-08-06 16:29:57 GMT from United States)
The search box is in the screenshot in the review. I don't use it much, but it's been in LXQt for more than a few years now. You can open the menu and start typing, which works fine in Lubuntu.Unless they broke something I'm guessing it should work there too.
53 • (Free)BSD coming with a rescue from the Linux upheaval ? (by Jan on 2025-08-06 19:44:58 GMT from The Netherlands)
There are some remarks that BSD could be the way out of the Linux-systemd rampage.
There is at present only one BSD-version which installs with a GUI-desktop (Mate/XFCE), so suited for "simple" users: GhostBSD.
Seems very nice, however if the boss of it gets an accident it seems to be over.
Now there is an initiative to give FreeBSD a full blown KDE desktop at the installation (so a multi-person-management ?).
https://ostechnix.com/freebsd-15-kde-plasma-desktop-install-option/
54 • @53: BSDs (by picamanic on 2025-08-06 21:04:59 GMT from United Kingdom)
@53: I don't plan on abandoning Linux before Void and Devuan are long gone [hopefully, not in my lifetime], but I did once take a look at the BSD landscape. In particular NETBSD not only runs on a wide range of architectures, bit its PKGSRC package manager has a broad selection applications. PKGSRC is also available for Linux, but I suspect it doesn't play well alongside native Linux applications.
The are probably more sensible BSDs, but what the hell.
55 • Oh no, malware in Linux? (by videoY2K on 2025-08-07 03:34:04 GMT from New Zealand)
Bleeping computer ran an article on a serious malware attack named 'Plague'. Seems to attack deep and remain hidden, survive system upgrades, etc. Nasty stuff. No doubt a result of 90% of the internet being on Linux servers. How does this affect us desktop users? How can Joe Linux test their system at home and confirm they are safe (for now)?
56 • GhostBSD (by Slappy McGee on 2025-08-07 19:26:42 GMT from United States)
@53 yes, being a fan of GhostBSD and it's "boss," Eric Turgeon, I do recommend GhostBSD to those who are fire p.o.ed at the systemD section of the Linux World. The Mate desktop and the XFCE are offered and maintained well, as is the OS itself, based on FreeBSD but polished and prepared very well for users to just install and run as they please. The iso is live, so it can be tried on machines for compatibility.
As to the "one man project" aspect of it.. heck, many used to feel that way about Linux distros that are new well established, PCLinuxOS comes to mind first. There are others of course.
57 • 32bit (by JNFoo on 2025-08-08 03:38:15 GMT from United States)
Don't sleep on PeppermintOS 32bit version. Even comes without systemd if desired in devuan variants. https://peppermintos.com/download-and-install/
58 • Poll: Debian Branches (by Jupiter on 2025-08-08 19:02:19 GMT from United States)
Running Debian Testing on ye Ol Laptop rn, works pretty good since Debian is stable, even in the testing branch! Less bugs than Ubuntu and its Variants so things have been going well. Customized with KDE Plasma (After leaving GNOME) I think this works quite well.
Number of Comments: 58
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| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
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| • 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 |
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| • 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 |
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| • 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 |
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Maryan Linux
Maryan Linux was a desktop oriented distribution featuring the lightweight and visually appealing Enlightenment 17 desktop environment. LXDE, Fluxbox and pekwm are also available as alternative desktops. The project's first release (version 1) was based on Ubuntu, but the developers expect to switch to Arch Linux as the base system for future versions.
Status: Discontinued
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