 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1134, 11 August 2025 |
|
Welcome to this year's 32nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The Ubuntu distribution is a popular and flexible platform which is available in many flavours. While Canonical supports a lot of variants of Ubuntu, it does not have a formal rolling release edition. The Rhino Linux project aims to provide its users with a rolling release version of Ubuntu with a unified package management tool and a customised Xfce desktop. Recently the Rhino project rewrote its unified package manager (RPK) and introduced a Plasma variant of its desktop. This week we begin with a look at these two changes in the Rhino Linux distribution and report on how well the new features are working. Unified package managers and graphical software centres which can work with multiple package formats are becoming more common. Let us know if your distribution includes a unified package manager in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section we report on changes coming to the next version of NetBSD and talk about Ubuntu swapping out commonly used command line tools for new ones. We also talk about AlmaLinux improving NVIDIA driver support as the Fedora project fights off a distributed denial of service attack. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we respond to some questions and thoughts about the malware found in Arch Linux's community repository. Plus we are pleased to talk about new distributions added to our database, share information on the releases of the past week, and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: Rhino Linux 2025.3
- News: Fedora fights denial of service attack, NetBSD unveils new features for version 11, Ubuntu changes some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support
- Questions and answers: Thoughts on malware in the Arch User Repository
- Released last week: Debian 13, Ubuntu 24.04.3, Proxmox 9.0 "Virtual Environment", Gnoppix AI Linux 25_8
- Torrent corner: Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Kylin, Xubuntu
- Opinion poll: Unified package manager
- New additions: AcreetionOS, DebLight OS, secureblue
- New distributions: ShefOS
- Reader comments
|
| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Rhino Linux 2025.3
I have talked about the Rhino Linux project a few times in the past year. This rolling release flavour of Ubuntu has been experimenting and making progress in various directions. The project's developers have recently rewritten their meta package manager (RPK), introduced a Plasma desktop option to co-exist with its Xfce edition, and partnered with UBports to work on the Lomiri user interface for mobile devices.
The first two changes, the new meta package manager and the Plasma desktop option, drew my attention and I wanted to test drive these features using the Rhino Linux 2025.3 snapshot. This quick look at the changes can be considered an add-on to my earlier review so if you're not familiar with Rhino Linux, I'd recommend reading that overview first.
Rhino PKG (RPK)
Let's look at the new Rhino PKG (RPK) meta package manager first. The Rhino documentation describes RPK as follows:
Rhino PKG (command: rhino-pkg, symlink: rpk) is our custom meta package manager. It was designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind. It will allow for you to search, install, remove and upgrade packages from all of our supported package manager repositories.
In short, RPK acts as a front-end to other package managers, including APT, Pacstall, Flatpak, and Snapcraft. The idea is that, instead of managing different types of packages with different package managers, we can perform most package management actions using one unified program.
This means we can run "rpk search vlc" and RPK will return a list of all VLC packages in all our enabled repositories, whether the application is distributed as a Deb archive, Flatpak, or Pacstall port. Running "rpk install vlc" will show us a list of matching packages, again across all formats, and ask us which one we want to install. In a similar fashion, we can run one command to update all of our software across all package formats instead of running "update" commands on multiple package managers.
RPK2 is a rewrite of the original RPK meta package manager, created in Nushell. The result is a new tool with the same features as the original, but it appears to be faster. I'm not sure, but given the speed of the new RPK2, I strongly suspect background actions (such as refreshing database information and performing searches) are now handled in parallel. I also found the output from RPK2 to be cleaner and more structured. Here is a screenshot of the original RPK at work:
Rhino Linux 2024.2 -- Running the original RPK meta package manager
(full image size: 261kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
This is the new RPK2:
Rhino Linux 2025.3 -- Running the new Rhino meta package manager
(full image size: 154kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
You can see the new version doesn't clutter the screen with status messages, has nicer and more consistent formatting, and uses colour to highlight different package formats.
RPK2 also provides nicely structured help text which is displayed whenever rpk is run without any arguments.
RPK2 is an evolutionary step forward. There is no single big change here that is visible to the user; the same command arguments exist and perform the same actions. RPK2 is, from the user's point of view, what we had before, but better. Primarily because it feels faster, but also because it has nicer output and little tweaks to make reading the output easier. I'd like to see other distributions adopt RPK2 as it makes working with multiple package formats (Flatpak, APT, Pacstall, etc) smoother. Any distribution which supports working with multiple package managers should really consider including RPK2 as part of the system.
KDE Plasma
Up to this point, Rhino Linux has focused on the Xfce desktop, customising it with a look and style the project calls Unicorn. The developers are expanding, with plans to create a Plasma edition of the distribution which will run KDE Plasma 6. While there is no Plasma edition ISO available at this time, there is a KDE package we can install on Rhino Linux which will provide a preview of what the Plasma edition will look like.
I did a search for the new KDE preview package (using RPK2) and found the new desktop appears to be available through Pacstall only. We can fetch the new Plasma preview by running the following command:
rpk install ubxi-kde-desktop-git
The install process pauses several times to confirm we want to fetch this new desktop and its dependencies. It also warns us it will remove some existing packages, including Xfce and rhino-core. Many KDE packages and libraries are fetched for us and, after a few minutes, the package manager reported it was finished.
I noticed that, during the install process, some of my Xfce icons began to disappear, but otherwise the existing Xfce/Unicorn desktop remained functional while the old components were removed and KDE Plasma 6 was installed. I restarted my system to make sure my new Plasma-powered experience was pristine.
After my reboot Xfce was still a session option on the login screen. Trying to sign into Xfce caused my monitor to go blank for a second and then I was returned to the login screen. There are also two new (and working) sessions listed: Plasma on Wayland and Plasma on X11.
Plasma has a similar layout to the Xfce/Unicorn session. There is a thin panel at the top of the screen with a dock to the left. Here we can see the original, Xfce-based experience:
Rhino Linux 2024.2 -- The Xfce desktop with Timeshift
(full image size: 164kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
This is the new, Plasma-based interface:
Rhino Linux 2025.3 -- The KDE System Settings panel
(full image size: 199kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The Plasma dock has two icons only, one for opening the application menu, which takes up the full screen, and a "question mark" icon that shows an error "unknown application folder" when clicked.
As with the Xfce environment, there is a panel placed across the top of the screen. This panel has logout and lock icons on the left side and a system tray to the right. When application windows are open, the panel becomes a unified menu bar for whichever application has focus.
Rhino Linux 2025.3 -- Navigating the unified menu bar
(full image size: 161kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
By default, not many KDE applications are installed for us. The System Settings configuration panel is available, along with a few small utilities, a virtual terminal, and a process monitor. I noticed the Xfce terminal application remains on the system after we switch desktops - I'm unsure if this was intentional or a leftover piece from the removed desktop that just wasn't deleted.
Rhino Linux 2025.3 -- The Plasma application menu
(full image size: 166kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
When comparing the two desktops, we can see that the layout and theme are very similar. The Plasma dock is mostly empty, but it expands as we add new applications and pin them. From a performance perspective, I noticed the Plasma on X11 session was faster than the Xfce session while the Plasma on Wayland session was about equal to the Xfce experience. I think Plasma's application menu might be a touch snappier and the unified menu bar/panel is a little nicer to navigate.
The new Plasma environment was a little heavier than Xfce. When I was running Xfce the distribution took up about 7GB of disk space and 640MB of RAM. When I installed the Plasma session disk usage crept up to 11GB. The Plasma X11 session required 1,000MB of RAM (360MB more than Xfce) and the Plasma Wayland session needed 1,200MB (almost twice the memory footprint of Xfce).
Despite the extra memory required, based on what I have observed, the Rhino team did a good job of duplicating their Unicorn experience from Xfce onto the Plasma desktop. From what I've seen so far I think the KDE flavour of Rhino Linux is going to prove to be popular, maybe more popular than its existing Xfce edition.
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
Rhino Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 5.7/10 from 30 review(s).
Have you used Rhino Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Fedora fights denial of service attack, NetBSD unveils new features for version 11, Ubuntu changes some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support
Members of the Fedora project are reporting the Fedora infrastructure is currently experiencing a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The attack does not affect Fedora users directly, but it making it difficult to access parts of the Fedora project, including update servers. "This is just information for users to let you know that (and why) several Fedora services are currently not reachable or only with a very bad connection. Note that this issue is not on your side, and you do not need to do anything yourself on your Fedora. Please give the team some time to work on this." An issue report is tracking updates on this problem. Update: The issue appears to have been resolved by adjusting caching for network requests.
* * * * *
The next major release of NetBSD (version 11) is expected to be released later this year, likely in November. The project's upcoming version includes improvements to Linux emulation, new sensor drivers, userland tools for querying UEFI variables, and updates for OpenSSL and OpenSSH. The new release will also split CPU compatibility code into separate package sets: "Compatibility support code, like 32-bit on 64-bit machines, has been separated into special sets, to allow easy installation of machines that do not need to be able to run 32-bit code.
Install media for some architectures has been split in small (CD/R) images (w/o debug and compat sets), and full (DVD-R) sets. This is also useful on hardware that came with a CD drive (instead of a DVD drive) and can not boot from a USB stick.
Manual pages come in two flavors, HTML and mandoc. Both have now their own sets, so one or the other can easily be left out of an installation.
All mac68k and macppc ISO images are now bootable." The NetBSD blog has additional details.
* * * * *
Ubuntu users will see a few changes to their command line tools with the launch of Ubuntu 25.10 in October. The wget utility for downloading files is being replaced by wcurl which offers most of the same basic functionality. It's FOSS reports: "Ubuntu Server 25.10 will no longer include wget by default, switching to wcurl instead. Fresh installations will see this change when 25.10 releases in October. wget has been the standard command-line download tool on Linux systems for years. Most server administrators and scripts rely on its straightforward syntax for file downloads. On the other hand, wcurl is a simple curl wrapper that lets you download files without remembering curl parameters, using curl under the hood with sane defaults." The report goes on to note another GNU utility, the screen command, will be dropped in favour of Tmux.
* * * * *
The AlmaLinux project is announcing improved support for NVIDIA hardware. "AlmaLinux OS 9 and 10 now ship with packages enabling native NVIDIA driver support, including CUDA and Secure Boot. Thanks to ALESCo, NVIDIA, and this approved RFC, AlmaLinux 9 and 10 solves that for NVIDIA users by shipping NVIDIA's open source graphics driver as a kernel module, along with a repository config for many of the common userspace and CUDA components. With AlmaLinux 9 and 10 and the new NVIDIA packages, a few DNF commands are all that stand between users and a fully-integrated NVIDIA experience.
When AlmaLinux started just 5 years ago, this wouldn't have been possible. With NVIDIA's open source version of their graphics drivers things have changed. This open source version is slowly becoming the flagship driver, with new products being added exclusively to it." Instructions for enabling the NVIDIA driver and its features are available in the AlmaLinux wiki.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Thoughts on malware in the Arch User Repository
Keeping-it-separated asks: With the constant news of compromised packages in AUR, I would like to know if this issue will also affect the use of Arch in containers? I use Arch in a container with Distrobox and install many packages from AUR. Will my system be safe from possible infections and attacks? Do these apps have full access to my system?
Yes, the malware which was found in the Arch User Repository (AUR) would affect copies of Arch which are run in containers if you installed the malicious packages.
Please note that the AUR itself and the tools to access it were not affected. Your systems wouldn't be compromised just from having the AUR community repository enabled. You'd need to install one of the four compromised packages in order for your system to be infected.
With that said, the malware would have free reign over your virtual machine or container once installed. Since Distrobox containers typically have access to your home directory, this means the malware would have access to your files and possibly be able to change your settings and start-up scripts. If you installed one of the four compromised packages you should assume the container it was installed in is compromised and any data in your home directory may have been accessed or even altered.
* * * * *
What-about-the-applications asks: 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.
While Brave (and other applications) might not be available in Arch Linux's official repositories, there are a lot of methods for installing software on Linux these days. Most of them do not require downloading and running unverified scripts from a repository where anyone can upload content without oversight. The Flathub repository, for example, has verification and package screening and it includes a copy of the Brave browser. The Nix repository works across distributions and offers one of the largest collections of open source software of any repository with over 120,000 packages.
It is also possible to install other distributions in a container, such as Distrobox or BoxBuddy, and install the software you are missing from the guest distribution's main repository. This would provide a layer of protection while the AUR offers none.
In short, there are a lot of options for getting software onto Arch Linux that are safer and have more oversight than the AUR, which (as its website states) contains content provided by the community rather than the Arch development team.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
Proxmox 9.0 "Virtual Environment"
Proxmox is a commercial company offering specialised products based on Debian GNU/Linux, notably Proxmox Virtual Environment, an open-source virtualisation platform. Proxmox 9.0 Virtual Environment has been released and it uses Debian 13 "Trixie" as its base. "Some of the exciting new features we've packed into Proxmox VE 9.0: Snapshots as volume chains provide vendor-agnostic support for snapshots on any storage system that supports block storage. This includes iSCSI and Fibre Channel-attached SANs. High-Availability (HA) rules for resource-to-node and resource-to-resource affinity. Fabrics for the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) stack. Modernized mobile web interface written in the rust programming language using the Yew web framework. Comprehensive upgrade guide from 8 to 9. ZFS 2.3.3 with support for adding new devices to RAIDZ pools without downtime." The release announcement and release notes offer additional information.
Ubuntu 24.04.3
Paride Legovini has announced the release of Ubuntu 24.04.3, a minor update to the project's 24.04 LTS series which includes security fixes and updates to address bugs. "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (Long-Term Support) for its Desktop, Server, and Cloud products, as well as other flavours of Ubuntu with long-term support. As usual, this point release includes many updates and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates and corrections for other high-severity bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS." The release announcement and release notes have additional information.
Gnoppix AI Linux 25_8
Andreas Mueller has announced the release of Gnoppix AI Linux 25_8, a major new update of the project's Debian-based distribution with focus on privacy and security, and with integrated artificial intelligence frameworks, libraries and development tools: "Gnoppix 25.8 is built on the foundation of Debian 13 'Trixie' and incorporates new features and improvements from the latest Gnoppix beta release. This new version brings significant updates in security, privacy and performance. Core system enhancements: Gnoppix 25.8 inherits the stability and updated packages from Debian 13, this includes over 11,294 new packages and updated versions for key software; new security hardening features against ROP and COP/JOP attacks are included; this release adds HTTP boot support for compatible UEFI and U-Boot firmware; the system now includes next-generation AI integration and has replaced the Bottles application with Lutris to address security concerns; Gnoppix now prioritizes privacy by default; Firefox-ESR as the main web browser; search-us.gnoppix.org is now the default anonymous search engine...." See the full release announcement for further information.
Gnoppix AI Linux 25_8 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 1.8MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Debian 13
The Debian project has published install media for Debian 13 "Trixie". The project's latest release introduces RISC-V support, begins phasing out i386 packages, and offers Plasma 6 desktop packages. The new release also carries many more software packages in its repositories: "This new release of Debian comes with a lot more software than its predecessor Bookworm; the distribution includes over 14116 new packages, for a total of over 69830 packages. Most of the software in the distribution has been updated: over 44326 software packages (this is 63% of all packages in Bookworm). Also, a significant number of packages (over 8844, 12% of the packages in Bookworm) have for various reasons been removed from the distribution. You will not see any updates for these packages and they will be marked as 'obsolete' in package management front-ends; see Obsolete packages. Debian again ships with several desktop applications and environments. Among others it now includes the desktop environments GNOME 48, KDE Plasma 6.3, LXDE 13, LXQt 2.1.0, and Xfce 4.20. Productivity applications have also been upgraded, including the office suites: LibreOffice is upgraded to version 25; GNUcash is upgraded to 5.10." The release announcement and release notes have additional details, including a section on known issues.
Debian 13 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 513kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 3,262
- Total data uploaded: 48.0TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Unified package manager
In our Feature Story this week we talked about Rhino Linux and its unified package manager (RPK). These days Linux distributions often pull in packages from multiple sources, not just official, distribution-supported repositories. These tend to include portable packages (Flatpak or Snap), a community repository (Pacstall or AUR), traditional packages (RPM and Deb), and maybe Nix or pkgsrc. Relatively few distributions have addressed the complexity and confusion having so many separate package management tools and sources can cause.
Rhino Linux, with its RPK command line tool, offers one solution. Some other distributions, such as Linux Mint, try to streamline a few packaging options by having a graphical software centre which handles traditional and portable packages. Discover, mintInstall, and GNOME Software can all handle traditional packages and one portable package format, easing the maintenance burden a little from the user's shoulders.
Does your distribution offer a unified package manager or graphical software centre? Let us know which solution you are using in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running one of Debian's branches in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Does your distro provide a unified package manager?
| Yes - a unified command line package manager: | 78 (7%) |
| Yes - a unified graphical software centre: | 242 (22%) |
| Yes - both a unified command line and graphical solution: | 287 (26%) |
| No - neither: | 343 (31%) |
| Unsure: | 157 (14%) |
|
|
| Website News |
New distributions added to database
AcreetionOS
AcreetionOS is an Arch-based, desktop-oriented Linux distribution that aims to be user-friendly, approachable and stable. It has a policy of holding back new packages for a week of testing to provide a buffer against potential upstream issues. It uses the popular Calamares installer with sensible defaults to get a working system up and running quickly. The preferred desktop environment of AcreetionOS is Cinnamon, but an alternative image with the GNOME desktop is also available.
AcreetionOS -- Running the Cinnamon desktop
(full image size: 3.1MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
DebLight OS
DebLight OS is a French Linux distribution based on Linux Mint Debian Edition, which combines the user-friendliness of Linux Mint with the stability of the Debian's latest stable release. It uses the lightweight LXDE desktop environment. The project's goal is to develop a general-purpose operating system and a productive desktop which would be both light on resources and easy to use for even less experienced Linux users. DebLight OS comes in three editions: Old (a very light variant built for 32-bit processors), Classic (a relatively light variant with a selection of commonly used applications), and Studio (the most complete system with an extensive list of software for a variety of computing tasks).
DebLight OS 1.12.9 -- Running LXDE
(full image size: 3.5MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
secureblue
secureblue is an immutable, security-focused desktop and server Linux operating system based on Fedora Atomic Desktop's base images - Silverblue, Kinoite and Sway Atomic. The project's goal is to build a maximally secure Linux operating system by proactively increasing defenses against the exploitation of both known and unknown vulnerabilities, while avoiding sacrificing usability for most use cases. Some of the security hardening features include a global hardened memory allocator developed by GrapheneOS, a security-focused Chromium-based browser called Trivalent, and Linux kernel hardening via sysctl and kernel arguments.
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
- ShefOS. ShefOS is a Manjaro-based, Russian-language distribution which strives to provide a desktop operating system suitable for gaming, office work, and home use.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 18 August 2025. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Rhino (by vmclark on 2025-08-11 00:16:48 GMT from United States)
I'm strictly using Ubuntu. Have been for years, so any alternative such as Rhino doesn't apply, or for the Opinion Poll.
2 • Ubuntu (by Jesse on 2025-08-11 00:21:42 GMT from Canada)
@1: "I'm strictly using Ubuntu. Have been for years, so any alternative such as Rhino doesn't apply, or for the Opinion Poll."
Why would it not apply for the opinion poll? Ubuntu uses a unified graphical software centre, which is one of the options.
3 • package managers (by Ned on 2025-08-11 00:22:37 GMT from Australia)
Why every "distro" had to reinvent the wheel and create their own package manager?
Is this some kind of flex?
Why Rhino doesn't use Apt?
4 • Ubuntu Server (by Hudu on 2025-08-11 00:25:55 GMT from France)
The removing of wget and screen only affects Ubuntu Server, and not Ubuntu Desktop. Every year or so, Canonical devs remove some duplicate packages to keep Ubuntu Server as light to download as possible (since it's still a very popular distro with docker and so).
Ubuntu Desktop must be about 5GB, so wget and screen would certainly be included forever.
5 • Rhino Linux (by Toran on 2025-08-11 00:29:57 GMT from Belgium)
I used Rhino some 2 weeks ago. The system is just great, but has a big problem. I could not install snap or flatpak packages, while snap and flatpak were correctly installed.
6 • Rhino (by Jesse on 2025-08-11 00:33:23 GMT from Canada)
@3: "Why Rhino doesn't use Apt?"
It does. RPK is a meta package manager, as explained in the article. It's not a new package manager, it doesn't replace APT. It unifies APT, Flatpak, Pacstall, etc.
7 • Ubuntu moving away from Gnu/GPL (by aardvark on 2025-08-11 01:04:20 GMT from United States)
Back in March when they announced they were going to replace Gnu core-utils with the Rust equivalents (MIT licensed), they said the license wasn't the reason.
Now, with every new announcement like this, it just so happens that they are replacing GPLed software with something that is non-copyleft.
It's getting to where it doesn't look like a coincidence anymore.
8 • Unified Package managers (by Bobbie Sellers on 2025-08-11 01:15:11 GMT from United States)
On PCLinuxOS we used Apt-Get RPM and Synaptic as standard for the repositories and mirrors but we have separate tools for Flatpak and a few other of the late comers to the
package management solution attempts. A unified package manager that lets us select
our traditional RPM would be fine but I am happy with the separate tools to achieve
the same result.
By the way so far the version of Plasma 6 which I have installed on my 7450
lightweight laptop is far from the desktop environment I want to use.
PCLinuxOS Users Forum remains top of the line...
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2025.08- Linux 6.12.41- Plasma 5.27.11
9 • pkgsrc, what else? (by bones on 2025-08-11 04:30:31 GMT from United States)
Not running any "distros," just NetBSD. pkgsrc is the one true god of package managers! ;-) It's portable, you should try it: runs on the BSDs, Linux, macOS, etc.
10 • Ubuntu removing "screen" (by Fabio on 2025-08-11 05:54:28 GMT from Italy)
To my opinion this information is misleading. In Ubuntu "screen" can be easily installed
with a simple command "apt install screen" and I suppose will be the same in the future.
It is possible that in the list of applications installed by default (in ubuntu-server)
"screen" will be substituted by TMux but the user can restore "screen" immediately and remove
TMux if he wants or use both.
To my knowledge, no one of these two package are installed by default in
ubuntu-desktop. "screen" is one of my preferred packages for working in a terminal.
11 • Package Manager (by Ned on 2025-08-11 06:20:49 GMT from Australia)
@6
Issue tracker shows 7 bugs open for Rhino Package manager RPK
This is something to keep in mind if users want to use Rhino and its RPK manager
TBH, this issue of so many different package managers, each with their own syntax may be great for freedom of choice but it does not help usability if switching distros or distro hopping.
12 • Does your distro provide a unified package manager?Ye (by Jake on 2025-08-11 09:52:34 GMT from United States)
Yes software center and synaptic. I use synaptic.
13 • package managers and repositories (by picamanic on 2025-08-11 09:54:58 GMT from United Kingdom)
I don't think enough has been made of the distinction between package managers and repositories. Typically, there is ONE package repository for a distro, but there can be multiple package managers. For example, Debian has the dpkg, APT, Aptitude and Synaptic package managers, all accessing the same repositories.
It is rare for there to be multiple, distinct repositories for a single distro, especially as dependencies [eg shared libraries] might clash. I exclude different development branches.
14 • @3 Flexing your muscles (by Alter Furz on 2025-08-11 10:07:29 GMT from Germany)
Hi @3 I mean this in the most respectful way possible. Maybe you weren't around in the GNU/Linux world the late 1990s and early 2000s. I was (but it is a little fuzzy, so take it with a grain of salt ;)). Packaging and esp. dependency resolution weren't solved problems back then and we had several approaches. The dpkg (aka .deb) and the RPM package formats were mostly stabilized around then but the package managers were in flux.
For example, Debian was using dpkg (it still does under the hood) and dselect. In the late 1990s Project Deity worked on replacing dselect. With Potato (ca. 2000) Deity was first released under its new name "apt-get" (and related tools such as apt-file) as an option. IIRC, in Woody (ca. 2002) dselect went away and apt-get remained. Around 2015 the apt tool was released to give a unified user interface for the many apt-tools. So it's only around for 10 years now. apt-get, however, is still in Trixie. Something similiar played out in the Red Hat world, up2date, urpmi, yum, dnf, yast, zypper, and so on.
So, what I'm trying to say is we are looking back at 30 years of package management development. It wasn't clear how to do it and several parallel developments started. Of the dozen or so, 3 remain: the deb-way, the rpm-way, and the tgz-way (Slackware and Arch, but before I'm pelted by negative comments, pacman ist much more advanced than anything Slackware does). It's not "reinventing" it is "trying different things to solve a common problem". You see that a lot in the open source world, and frankly, that's great!
15 • Does your distro provide a unified package manager? (by rhtoras on 2025-08-11 10:50:03 GMT from Greece)
Yes and no. My distribution is void linux simply because it is #1 in distrowatch for some reason. It provides both graphical and text-based tools if i want unified package manager sollutions. 1. It has package manager called xbps but you can install with a simple command vpm script which simplifies the package manager itself. An exmple to give you an idea. If i want to install chromium i should do: "sudo xbps-install chromium" and with vpm is more simple: "sudo vpm i chromium" or "sudo vpm install chromium" to check what works just type "vpm" in a terminal.
There is also another unified solution via gui which happens to be octoxbps. It is a version of octopi/octopkg for the void linux system. Obviously it is a similar approach to synaptic but mostly qt based and of course designed for the void system itself.
You can also use appimages, flatpak and some scripts like deb2xbps or xdeb to use deb packages. I don't suggest the use of flatpak though.
Last but not least Void linux was the one of the very first linux distributions to make use of nix package manager and repos. So you can use these.
These were the unified sollutions but you have to be sure void provides more tools which are void linux exclusives. And be sure to check Void because it is #1 for a reason. For those intereste it was the first distro to adopt systemD after fedora and was also the first distribution to abandon systemD before even Debian was split to Devuan.
A friend is creating a fork with different tools of Void so be on the line to check this too.
As for Jesse... please show us eweOS, mere linux and Noir linux we want the new stuff.. new ideas.. new era new line...
also you could show us pclinuxos debian edition since you are a traditionalist but you might have showed this (my memory doesn't serve me well)
Keep the good job guys!!!
16 • @14: (by picamanic on 2025-08-11 10:52:57 GMT from United Kingdom)
@14: how does XBPS [Void Linux] fit in with your "3 ways"? The only distinction would appear, to me, to be is whether dependencies are resolved or not.
17 • @8 unified package management (by kc1di on 2025-08-11 11:12:16 GMT from United States)
Just for your information PCLinuxOS is experimenting with DNF5 and easy flatpac installer and DNF 5 may soon replace apt4rpm and synaptic. Though they are still available as of this writing.
easy flatpak installer is simple to use but is not unified that is it does not present other packages than flatpacs.
I find there is a push in most distros to offer a graphical unified package manager. IE discover in KDE distros and others it others in other distros and it is good progress for the future. Enjoy!
18 • XBPS (by rhtoras on 2025-08-11 11:17:26 GMT from Greece)
@16 I am not sure if you are talking about me but also APK and PKG are old and great package manager sollutions. PKS also works on void linux too. APK might work with androids apk format too (i am not really sure some say yes some no).
The oldest package manager is apt of course but not necessary the best.
19 • A "Started In:" Field? (by MattE on 2025-08-11 11:25:51 GMT from United States)
I enjoy your excellent distro search database. Would it be a good idea to have a "Started in" field someday? This would help guide a person to more orthodox distros. I guess it would need to scroll back to 1992?
20 • Repositories (by Jesse on 2025-08-11 11:33:09 GMT from Canada)
@13: "I don't think enough has been made of the distinction between package managers and repositories. Typically, there is ONE package repository for a distro, but there can be multiple package managers."
This is almost never true. Almost all distributions have both multiple repositories and multiple package formats they support. Debian, as you suggested in your example, can use multiple package managers. Debian also has multiple repositories: main, contrib, non-free, multimedia, etc. And that's not including backports or other branches of Debian. Plus you might also have add-on repositories for stuff like Brave or Chrome or Steam or VirtualBox.
Plus Debian can use third-party, non-Deb repositories like Flatpak, Snap, Nix, pkgsrc, etc.
21 • Unified package manager (by Robert on 2025-08-11 13:47:33 GMT from United States)
I voted no, but the answer is also kind of yes.
Arch does not provide a unified package manager by default, hence the vote.
But you could install yay or similar to unify base packaging and the AUR.
Or to unify base packing and Flatpak you could install KDE's Discover or whatever Gnome's solution is.
22 • Unified package manager (by Dave on 2025-08-11 13:54:45 GMT from United States)
How do I know?! I use the CLI. If there's a GUI, I don't know and don't care!
23 • AUR and malware (by Nicola on 2025-08-11 14:39:06 GMT from Italy)
AUR Community Repository should not exist. Disabling the AUR repository is a great idea.
24 • Operating Systems Review (by Praveen Kunjapur on 2025-08-11 18:12:18 GMT from India)
I want the review of very recently launched Debian 13 "Trixie" because as Debian Stable is a fully tested, release when ready software, I compare it to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0, SUSE Linux Enterprise 15, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Slackware Linux 15, Oracle Solaris 11, FreeBSD 14, NetBSD 10 and OpenBSD 7.7.
I would love to have all the Operating Systems I mentioned in this comment to be reviewed excluding RHEL as I know RHEL has been reviewed in previous DistroWatch Weekly.
25 • Many programs have their own apt repository (by Andy Prough on 2025-08-11 21:48:38 GMT from Switzerland)
Many individual programs have their own apt repository. Off the top of my head, I can think of Brave, Mullvad Browser, Mullvad VPN, Librewolf, OnlyOffice, ProtonVPN, Firefox. Pale Moon has a couple of community run apt repositories. There's probably many others. Once you've added the apt repository, then you can install and update the program as part of the normal 'apt update && apt upgrade'.
I prefer these types of installations over flatpak or the AUR, both of which allow submissions from unverified authors.
26 • Packaging Optional (by Carl on 2025-08-12 00:05:20 GMT from United States)
Package management is sometimes needless. So is source building like AUR. Many apps distribute binaries with validation. My script for Brave (CC0 license): https://dpaste.org/aeUHR
It isn't necessary to "trust" AUR or its -bin packages. Do not beg your distro for an app. Just download straight and run it.
Desktop integration only happens the first time, not each update. Write or download a .desktop file and icons. Put these integration files anywhere. Let the system package manager have its area, while you keep your own, both recorded in $XDG_DATA_DIRS. Ditto $MANPATH and the like.
27 • Meta package managers (by Dave on 2025-08-12 04:30:37 GMT from Australia)
I don't love meta-package managers, but I'm sure a lot of people would find them useful. It's almost a command line version of Discover, Gnome Software etc. These can also show and install from whatever repos you have available.
Personally I love apk, it's very fast and very simple.
28 • @16 Void Linux xbps (by Alter Furz on 2025-08-12 15:27:21 GMT from Germany)
Hi @16 I was responding to a poster who wondered why we have this diversity. We have diversity because people try different solutions to a common problem when it wasn't at all obvious how to solve this problem. The three ways are what remains from that time, that's what I meant.
Today we have a good grasp how package management works and IMO xbps is mainly an attempt to pour the experiences of the previous two decades into a new, clean and legacy-free software, because, unlike Nix or Guix, it is rather traditional. Conceptually it looks a lot like apt/dpkg, but with rpm-like tooling (the UNIX way, distinct tools for distinct jobs) and a few modern ideas, e.g. atomic operations like rpm-ostree. Obviously implementation details differ, e.g. how hashing is done, but in the end it is just a traditional package manager. Nothing wrong with that, quite to the contrary. I don't think the last word in package management has been spoken.
29 • Brave Browser Script Fix (by Carl on 2025-08-12 17:03:11 GMT from United States)
Minor copy-paste human error on my part, fixed here.
https://dpaste.org/yzN8V
30 • Beginners guide (by tomas on 2025-08-13 16:52:32 GMT from Czechia)
In last week's comments I have noticed something like "I do not like Devuan because of its ugly appearance (desktop)". I could not agree with this statement, but it was too late to comment on that.
This made me have a look at the current progress of Beginners guide.
For a start, the description is OK, though I miss Mate desktop in the list; there might be much more, I know, but Mate should be mentioned IMHO, it is one of the more used (even in GhostBSD).
For me, with the changes that came with Wayland and Plasma 6.4, it gained in popularity.
Coming back to Devuan, the user, by no means a beginner, was disappointed by the desktop of the Live ISO (at least I think so), not realizing that during the install process he can choose almost any desktop, and depending on his choice can even tweak it to his liking.
31 • Debian 13 Release and Ubuntu Falling (by Jupiter on 2025-08-13 20:33:27 GMT from United States)
@7
Agreed, Ubuntu is flying straight into the sun called Proprietary Death and with how they are going one may as well just let Microsoft install spyware on your device, thats why ya always prefer Distros that are either backed by only a Small Company that is close to its users or just Full on Community Like Debian & Arch.
---------------
Glad to see Debian 13 is out fully! Been using testing for the past month and the device is now just on stable automatically, great day to watch as Debian advances forward. I'll be content with KDE 6 for a while, quite simply if it ain't broke don't fix it! May eventually still go to testing once we get in the final few months to Debian 14 just to get some of the newer software up and for experimentation, but otherwise, pretty happy with Debian!
32 • Shani OS (by John W on 2025-08-13 23:51:57 GMT from United States)
Please consider adding Shani OS. I have found it very impressive.
33 • Ubuntu-Mint relationship (by B. Marley, Esq. on 2025-08-14 12:32:39 GMT from Denmark)
@31
'Agreed, Ubuntu is flying straight into the sun called Proprietary Death'
Which could make Mint shift their focus to LMDE I guess.
34 • @33 - Ubuntu Mint relationship (by Clarence Perry on 2025-08-15 01:56:21 GMT from United States)
I have no problem with LMDE except Cinnamon. I know it's possible to install different desktops, except being truthful, I'm lazy and want someone to install, test, and tweak MATE,KDE, Gnome, etc. for me.
I can always say I'm too busy, which is true right now.
Lacking a good backup, I lost a lot of STUFF. I am now in process of building a robust, reliable backup system for my local home network.
35 • AUR and malware (by Vukota on 2025-08-15 18:27:04 GMT from Serbia)
I wrote many years ago here that AUR is a security disaster waiting to happen. Anyone can throw things over there, and there is no way you can inspect something before installing it. As Arch is a very raw system, to have anything useful, you need to get something from AUR. Good old code review and trustworthiness of author/reviewer/code source does not have alternative.
I know other distributions may have its flaws too, but they do have often better review/approval/trustworthiness evaluation process. Also, not rolling distributions usually have time to wet rogue actors and validate code committed. Bigger distributions, have more people to preform reviews, thus inherently are safer. Choice is yours.
36 • AUR (by Jesse on 2025-08-15 18:31:31 GMT from Canada)
@35: "there is no way you can inspect something before installing it"
You can inspect install scripts and sources before installing software from the AUR. In fact, most clients will explicitly ask if you want to inspect files before installing. The problem is almost no one does inspect the scripts and sources.
Number of Comments: 36
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
| | |
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • Issue 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.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Knoppix 64
The Knoppix 64 project provides a 64-bit development system with an up-to-date gcc 3.4 and with -march=k8 flag for AMD64 optimisations, 64-bit linker and debugger (gdb), and a very stable 2.4.21 Linux kernel. It was suitable for benchmarking 64-bit machines. It includes a fully functional KDE desktop.
Status: Discontinued
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
