 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1143, 13 October 2025 |
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Welcome to this year's 41st issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
openSUSE Leap is the openSUSE project's stable branch which receives long-term support. The Leap distribution recently delivered a major update in the form of version 16.0 which includes several key changes. This week we take openSUSE 16.0 Leap for a test drive and report on the important differences introduced since the 15.x series. Last week saw the release of Ubuntu 25.10, along with its many community editions, and we report on these below. We also invite people to vote for their favourite flavour of Ubuntu in this week's Opinion Poll. Then, in our News section, we report on the Redox OS project gaining some significant performance improvements across multiple regions of the operating system. We also talk about TrueNAS's new Connect feature which provides a central dashboard for monitoring multiple systems and is now available for testing. Plus we talk about Flatpak bundles not working on Ubuntu 25.10, the Solus project gearing up for big changes, and Kamarada switching its base to Manjaro. Sadly, we must also wish a fond farewell to the Frugalware project, a distribution which has been running for over 20 years. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about the relative security of different software sources and share what makes official repositories comparatively safe. Plus we are pleased to share details on last week's new releases 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: openSUSE 16.0 Leap
- News: 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
- Questions and answers: Safest source for acquiring new applications
- Released last week: Gnoppix AI Linux 25_10, T2 SDE 25.10, Exton Linux 251008 "PuppEX", Ubuntu 25.10, Voyager Live 25.10, Asmi Linux 25.10
- Torrent corner: Kicksecure, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu
- Upcoming releases: Zorin OS 18, FreeBSD 15.0-BETA2
- Opinion poll: Preferred Ubuntu edition?
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
openSUSE 16.0 Leap
The openSUSE distribution has been around, in one form or another, for approximately 30 years. The current project is available in many branches, including an immutable flavour, a cutting-edge rolling release, a semi-rolling release, and a fixed-release called "Leap". The openSUSE team released openSUSE 16.0 Leap on October 1st and the new version includes some interesting changes.
Version 16.0 of the Leap branch features a new, web-based system installer, fixes for the year 2038 time bug, and it offers support through to 2032 for the 16.x point releases. This version also does away with the powerful YaST control panel and introduces parallel package downloads through the Zypper package manager. There have also been some changes to security:
The release comes with SELinux as the Linux Security Module (LSM) . AppArmor remains an option that can be selected post-installation. Changes in Leap related to AppArmor and 32-bit support offer a transition period for users.
openSUSE's Leap flavour is available in builds for the x86_64, aarch64, PowerPC, and s390x CPU architectures. These builds can be downloaded in full DVD or net-install flavours. The full editions are about 4.3GB in size while the net-install ISOs vary from 506MB to 656MB in size. I decided to download the full DVD build for x86_64 machines.
The default action of the boot menu on the ISO is to try to launch an operating system from the local hard drive. This comes in handy after we finish the install process. Other options in the boot menu include performing a self-check on the install media, booting into the system installer, and launching the system installer in failsafe mode.
Installing
When we boot into the system installer openSUSE starts a graphical environment and launches a web browser in full screen mode. The browser connects to a local service running the background and the install process runs through this web interface. There is no live desktop in the typical sense.
The installer begins by asking if we'd like to set up openSUSE Leap or Leap Micro. The former is a general purpose server and desktop operating system while the latter is described as a minimal platform for running containers and virtual machines. I chose the Leap option and the installer worked quietly for a few seconds and then showed a summary of what it thought I might want. In this case the summary suggested I would want a minimal package selection, SELinux support, and English language settings. (One out of three isn't a terrible guess ratio.)
A collection of tabs to the left of the installer window help us browse and change settings. After the summary screen, the tabs are listed as: Hostname, Localization, Network, Storage, Software, and Authentication. The Hostname tab simply gets us to create a name for our computer. The Localization tab asks us to pick our language, keyboard layout, and timezone. The Network tab gives us controls for connecting to local wired and wireless networks and adjusting a few of the network settings. The Authentication tab asks us to make up a username and password and, optionally, create a password for the root account. The root account module also has an option for uploading SSH keys for remote authentication.
openSUSE 16.0 Leap -- Running the system installer in VirtualBox
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The Software screen provides a list of groups of software packages we might want to install. These groups each have a checkbox next to them and include such options as the GNOME, Plasma, and Xfce desktops, a web server, DNS server, an office suite, network directory tools, multimedia support, and virtual machine (KVM) software. I wanted to focus on desktop usage and installed KDE Plasma, the office suite, and multimedia support.
While, on the whole, the new installer does not appeal to me with its flat design and lack of distinction between which elements are static information and which elements are interactive, the real challenge came when presented with the Storage tab. The Storage tab is a confusing mess of drop-down menus, strangely labelled options, and three-dot menus scattered all over the screen. There is no natural flow to the Storage tab and, while it tries to offer guided options, these are not well described. It feels like the designer wanted to jam everything into one page, rather than having a logical, progressive series of steps the way most installers do. It works, barely, but the options are confusing and not organized clearly.
Compared with the classic YaST system installer, the new web-based installer feels like a step (or two) backwards. With YaST, a new user could click Next a few times, make up a password for themselves, and be finished. Each page had options and some had advanced options if we wanted to dig deeper. It was clear which widgets were buttons (or options which could be accessed) and which widgets were displaying information. The new installer does not have good defaults, does not have a smooth flow through the steps, does not clearly display interactive widgets, and feels cluttered as too much is placed on the screen at once.
Despite these drawbacks, the new system installer did work. It showed progress information while 2,100 packages were copied to my drive, and then the installer offered to restart my computer.
More about the installer
I have a few additional notes on the install media and its installer. As far as I could tell, there is no way to abort the install process. Once we boot into the install media it launches a web browser which guides us through the process. If we close the web browser (Firefox), the browser restarts and resumes the install process. There is no live desktop or window manager so we can't shutdown the system in any normal manner. As far as I could tell, the only way to abort the install process is to switch to a text terminal (using Ctrl+Alt+F2), logging in as root, and then running the shutdown command.
While there is no desktop environment, once we have activated a network connection, we can use Firefox to browse the Web. We can press Ctrl+T to open a new tab and navigate the web with Firefox. This presents us with an unusual situation where the install media makes it easy to navigate remote websites, but we can't open a text editor.
Early impressions
My new copy of openSUSE booted to a graphical login screen where I could sign into a desktop session. Since I had opted to install the KDE software bundle I was presented with two session options: Plasma running on X11 (which is the default choice) and Plasma running on Wayland.
Once I had signed into Plasma a welcome window opened. The welcome window provides us with access to documentation and release notes. We can also read tips for installing third-party software, such as Chrome and other applications provided through openSUSE's community repositories.
The Plasma 6.4 desktop uses a light theme by default with soft orange wallpaper. A panel is placed at the bottom of the screen. This panel holds an application menu to the left side, then some quick launch buttons, and then a task switcher. To the far right of the panel we find a system tray. On the desktop we find icons for opening the Dolphin file manager.
openSUSE 16.0 Leap -- The Plasma application menu
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By default the Plasma desktop is set up with two virtual desktops and there is a widget for switching between them next to the application menu. Right-clicking on the virtual desktop widget brings up a menu where one of the options is to configure the virtual workspace. Clicking on this option opens the System Settings panel, but it doesn't display the appropriate settings. Instead we are shown a blank page with no settings. We can search the settings panel for "virtual workspaces" to see the associated settings.
A few minutes after logging in a notification appeared in the bottom-right corner of the desktop. The notification offered to open the Discover software centre so I could see updates. I will talk about Discover and its capabilities later in this review.
I found the Plasma desktop on openSUSE to be too loud and distracting with its default settings. Every pop-up, prompt, warning, and alert made an accompanied sound. To disable sounds I went into the System Settings panel, found the Notifications section, and then System Notifications. This screen displayed a list of possible alert sounds. I had to select each alert or event, one at a time, and then uncheck a box to disable its associated sound. As far as I could tell, there was no option to "mute all" or select multiple alerts at a time. My efforts didn't have any affect once I had applied the changes.
To disable sounds I eventually had to go into another section of the System Settings panel, find the Sounds section, and disable notification sounds. Notifications have their own volume control, alongside our microphone and application sounds. Once notifications were muted on this screen the desktop became quiet.
Hardware
The openSUSE distribution ran smoothly when I installed it in a VirtualBox instance and it also ran well on my laptop. openSUSE was able to boot in UEFI and Legacy BIOS modes and it detected all of my hardware properly. Connecting to wireless networks, audio volume, and screen brightness were all set up properly. My laptop's trackpad worked, though it was set up to use inverse scrolling by default, which I adjusted in the settings panel.
openSUSE 16.0 Leap -- The System Settings panel
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A fresh copy of the distribution used 6.5GB of disk space and, when signed into the Plasma desktop's X11 session, the operating system consumed 1.0GB of memory. This is about normal, or a little lighter than usual, for distributions running Plasma 6.
Included software
I found Leap 16.0 ships with the Firefox web browser, the LibreOffice suite, and the Dolphin file manager. The VLC media player is included (when we install the media support package at install time) and the Gwenview image viewer is included. I also found the KDE Help documentation application, KMail, and some small games such as KMines and KReversi. The Konversation chat client is installer alongside a system monitor and three different terminal launchers. There is also a launcher in the application menu for the lftp client, which seems strange - both because a command line FTP client is in the menu at all and because the distribution doesn't offer a more user friendly client like FileZilla.
openSUSE provides its users with manual pages, the GNU command line tools, and systemd for service management. By default there was no compiler and no Java support on the system. In the background I found version 6.12 of the Linux kernel.
openSUSE 16.0 Leap -- The Plasma handbook
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While VLC is installed, it is somewhat crippled by the lack of support for popular video formats. I could play audio formats and the audio parts of video files, but VLC reported video codecs were missing and did not display images. I tried to fix this by removing openSUSE's VLC package and replacing it with the VLC bundle from Flatpak. This only made the situation worse as attempting to play any video file in the Flatpak version of VLC would cause the entire Plasma desktop to crash and return me to the login page.
openSUSE does something strange where, if we try to run a program which is located in the /usr/sbin directory, the shell will identify that the program exists, but refuse to run it unless we prefix the command with sudo or specify the program's full path name. For instance, if I want to format a portable file with ext4 I can't run the command "mkfs.ext4 my-vault-file", instead I must type "/usr/sbin/mkfs.ext4 my-vault-file" or "sudo mkfs.ext4 my-vault-file", otherwise the command refuses to run. This is pointless since the command does not require admin access and this check slows down work. There is no benefit to the user, this is a feature which gets in the way with no benefit.
I do think this anti-feature does mean I owe the Linux Kamarada project an apology. Recently I reviewed Kamarada and this weird shell behaviour was something I complained about in that review. I had not realized openSUSE, Kamarada's parent, was responsible for the bad shell behaviour. (Sorry, Kamarada, I did not know this was a problem you inherited rather than created.)
Software management
openSUSE provides a few methods for working with software. The main approach used from the Plasma desktop is through the Discover software centre. Discover smoothly handles fetching applications, removing unwanted items, and updating low-level RPM packages. While Flatpak support is installed on the distribution, there are no Flatpak repositories enabled by default. We can enable the Flathub repository with a click from within Discover, expanding Discover's capabilities to include Flatpak bundles.
openSUSE 16.0 Leap -- Exploring packages in the Discover software centre
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While I was using Discover the software centre worked well for me, though it did not display progress information while working with Flatpak bundles - download and install progress always showed as being at 0%.
When working from the command line we can use the flatpak utility for accessing Flathub and the zypper program handles RPM packages. The zypper tool works well and quickly to find, install, update, and remove packages. I like that it uses a straight forward syntax and the parallel downloads do appear to make fetching updates faster. I haven't done any benchmarks to confirm this impression, but my feeling after using zypper was that it appeared faster than when I used it on earlier versions of openSUSE.
When we are working from the command line and try to run a command which has not been installed the shell will show us the zypper command required to fetch the missing program. This notice appears immediately and does not slow down working within the shell.
Other observations
As I mentioned earlier, the graphical YaST control centre is no longer included by default with desktop flavours of openSUSE. In fact, the graphical front-end for YaST is not available in the repositories either. The console versions of some YaST configuration tools are still available. However, it looks like YaST is being phased out in favour of other configuration tools such as the web-based Cockpit.
openSUSE 16.0 Leap -- Browsing the Web with Falkon
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As with the system installer, this feels like a long step backward for openSUSE. YaST was one of the main features which made openSUSE stand out against its competitors. There are other things openSUSE does well, such as providing Btrfs by default, but YaST was one of the bigger selling points as it made the low-level functions of the operating system accessible to users of every experience level.
Conclusions
Two years ago there was speculation that openSUSE's Leap branch might be dropped in favour of a new branch called ALP. It looked like Leap 15.5 would be the last release and then it was extended to 15.6 and then 16.0 was announced. The project seemed to have decided it is worth keeping Leap around, at least for another major release cycle.
As a fan of the Leap flavour of openSUSE this was welcome news. I like openSUSE's Btrfs-powered boot environments, its control centre, its AppArmor security and powerful installer. Or I did, until Leap 16.0 arrived and it was revealed multiple key elements of the distribution had been dropped. Not only dropped, but replaced with less capable, less user friendly, and less well organized alternatives.
I realize there are reasons for this. The new, web-based installer makes remote setups easier and the Cockpit configuration suite makes remote administration easier. Plus, from what I've read, it would take work to upgrade YaST to use the latest version of its graphical toolkit. There was a maintenance burden to keeping these tools in the distribution and a trade-off in features. At the same time, it feels as though (in making these trades) the openSUSE team is removing most of what made their distribution special. It feels like there is less difference between, for example, openSUSE and Red Hat Enterprise Linux these days and less reason to pick the former with these changes. In short, if openSUSE no longer offers a powerful installer, YaST, and AppArmor and (instead) offers SELinux and Cockpit, then what sets it apart from Red Hat and its clones? "A broken version of VLC and some weird clutter in the application menu," is the best answer I can offer.
I'm not opposed to progress and evolving tools. There are benefits to a more web-focused selection of tools. But, in making these changes, openSUSE has largely scooped out the pieces which made it an attractive alternative to other long-term support distributions like Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It's still fairly capable, it's still a decent distribution once we get pasted the unfortunate system installer, it just doesn't stand out in the crowd anymore.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
openSUSE has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.5/10 from 535 review(s).
Have you used openSUSE? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Solus enters new epoch, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Frugalware discontinued
The Redox OS team has published their September newsletter in which the developers discuss updates to their operating system, highlighting performance improvements: "Jeremy Soller and bjorn3 fixed some key bugs in multi-threading and enabled it by default for x86. This can give a massive performance improvement depending on the hardware specifications. Jeremy Soller implemented inode data inlining for small files which resulted in a massive performance improvement, a reduction of storage I/O operations, size of file caching and frequency of context switches by a factor of 2 in all small file operation types. Wildan Mubarok measured that a benchmark to add packages to an existing QEMU image became 7.5 times faster!" Some steps in the project's system installer have also been made faster, up to ten times faster, in some cases.
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The TrueNAS project is testing a new feature called TrueNAS Connect. The new feature provides a centralized, web-based information panel to help administrators monitor all of their NAS instances. "TrueNAS Connect centralizes system monitoring and management, making it easier to stay in control with predictable workflows and greater visibility across your storage platforms. With real-time health monitoring, customizable alert notifications, inventory management, and more, TrueNAS Connect gives you a single, secure browser tab to see all of your TrueNAS systems and jump straight into action. And the best part - no extra install is required." TrueNAS Connect is available for testing on machines running TrueNAS 25.10-RC1 "Community Edition". Additional information on the TrueNAS Connect feature can be found in this blog post.
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People running the latest version of Ubuntu (and its various spins) may have noticed that Snap packages work on the distribution, but Flatpak bundles fail to install. If you have encountered this problem, it's not just you. It's FOSS reports: "Flatpak installations are completely broken on Ubuntu's latest interim release. When attempting to install any Flatpak application from the command line, an error is shown: 'Could not unmount revokefs-fuse filesystem,' followed by 'Child process exited with code 1.' The bug has been marked as critical on Launchpad, with Canonical developers actively working on a fix."
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The Solus distribution is an independent, rolling release operating system. The project is entering a new phase which will introduce key changes and, as a result, a new "epoch" for the project. The transition will include a merged /usr filesystem, the removal of Python 2, and systemd upgrades: "In this epoch, we will begin using a new stable repository. We've chosen to name this new repository Polaris, after the North Star, keeping with our usual nautical theme. This star is often used for navigation, especially at sea, so the name can be symbolic of us being on the right path. Once users begin using the new repository, they will be able to install updated systemd and baselayout packages which we could not safely push to the old repository. This unlocks several other upgrades that we can then do, such as improved virtual console handling. Importantly, it means we are no longer stuck on an old version of systemd." Details on the upgrade process and the project's timeline for the new epoch are covered in the project's blog post.
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The Linux Kamarada project, which we reviewed last week, will be switching its base away from openSUSE and using Manjaro Linux as its foundation: "Last week, openSUSE Leap 16.0 was released. I didn't give it the attention it deserved, in part because I'm also working on another project, that I want to share today: there will be no 'Linux Kamarada 16.0'. Instead, Linux Kamarada is moving its base from openSUSE Leap to Manjaro." The reasons for the migration and what existing Kamarada users can expect are covered in the project's blog post.
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It is not often we pause to mourn the passing of an individual distribution as dozens of new projects come and go each year. However, the Frugalware Linux project has been around for over 20 years and an ongoing endeavour of that magnitude deserves a sendoff. Frugalware was an independently developed distribution for intermediate users and styled after other "keep it simple" Linux distributions such as Slackware. The project published regular releases from 2004 through to 2016 and then maintained a development branch to the present day. The project is scheduled to shutdown at the end of 2025: "Today I have some sad news. The Frugalware project will be discontinued at the end of the year 2025. Everything will be archived, so if someone steps up and wants to continue where we left: feel free."
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Safest source for acquiring new applications
Going-to-the-source asks: Been wondering - is it safer to use a package from a developer's website or my distro's official repositories?
DistroWatch answers: Going to the website of the original developer and downloading a package from their website (whether it's an RPM file, AppImage, or tarball) and using that probably seems like the safest option. After all, assuming you trust the developer, it makes sense to go straight to the source and get their unaltered version of the program. It's the most direct path between you and the original developer, so it feels like it should offer the least number of pitfalls.
However, statistically, you're safer downloading the package you want from your distribution's official repositories, if it's available. As an upstream developer it hurts a little to admit that, but there are several reasons for this:
- Finding the right website - One of the main problems with fetching software from the developer's website is making sure you are visiting the right website and clicking the right download link. There are scam sites out there pretending to be the source of popular applications and it's not hard to click on a link to one of these malicious websites in your search results. Even if you do land on the right website, there have been cases of websites showing ads which look like legitimate download buttons. People click the Download button on the right website and suddenly find themselves running malware because the fraudulent ad looked like the real download link.
I've had to clean up more than a few machines which were infected when users visited the first link they were shown when they searched for "VLC" or "AVG" or "Office", and while the websites they landed on looked legitimate, the downloads resulted in infection. This doesn't happen when we use our distribution's built-in software centre which connects to official repositories.
- Proper build environments - Solo developers often do not have clean build environments. They usually have multiple projects on the same machine, a machine which is connected to the Internet. It's typically not a sterile environment. Maybe we're linking to old versions of libraries, maybe the compiler isn't patched, maybe a rogue PHP library has been installed. Or maybe it's all fine and clean, but the point is: we don't know. With most major Linux distributions, package building happens in a clean environment. The build environment just contains what it needs to build the requested package. It's up to date, it's untainted, and it might not even have Internet access. Official repositories are usually populated with packages built in a safer environment.
- Proper, signed packages means no man-in-the-middle attacks - Almost all Linux distributions sign their packages. This means if a package is altered on the server or intercepted during the download process, the package manager will warn us and refuse to install the application. While some upstream developers do sign their packages, downloading and installing directly usually means the user is not checking the package's checksum or verification key. Your distribution's signed packages and package manager offer a layer of protection.
- More eyes means fewer bugs - While not all package maintainers look over code changes between versions, many do. They'll look at the patches, check build warnings, and generally be on the lookout for bad behaviour. It's better to have someone checking the work of the original developer than to have no one looking at the code.
- Automatic updates through the package manager - On a longer timeline using official repositories helps us by making sure we stay up to date with patches. Usually going to a project's upstream website and installing a package is a one-time procedure. People tend not to go back to check for updates each week. Or, if the software has a built-in reminder, people will often ignore it and skip updates. Using official repositories means our distribution's package manager will apply updates regularly, whenever new patches become available. We don't need to manually check for updates or fixes.
Ultimately, manually going to a website, fetching software, checking its signature, installing it properly, and then keeping it up to date involves several manual steps and requires higher degrees of trust. It requires that both the user and the original developer are doing everything right, every step of the way, consistently over time. Using a distribution's official repositories and software centre remove these steps where potential hazards lurk.
I will acknowledge there have been a few times when packages in an official repository have turned out to have a problem. But I can count on one hand the number of times I've heard of such problems over the span of 25 years. Security or patching issues can happen in distribution repositories, but it is incredibly rare - in the range of one in a million package builds. Clicking the wrong link or forgetting to update third-party software is something I see regularly, and happens much more frequently, which is why there are so many scam sites dedicated to preying on people who hunt down their applications directly.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Gnoppix AI Linux 25_10
Andreas Mueller has announced the release of Gnoppix AI Linux 25_10, which features the KDE Plasma desktop. While most of the project's previous releases were derived from Debian's "Testing" branch, this one is based on Debian 13 and comes with a redesigned Welcome Screen: "We're thrilled to announce the stable release of Gnoppix KDE 25.10, built atop Debian 'Trixie'. This release focuses heavily on performance and privacy, while also introducing a major overhaul to the user experience and new community features. We've tackled the issue of needing manual tweaks for optimal performance head-on. We've incorporated system and performance patches directly into the operating system. You no longer need to manually install or apply these critical fixes they are now included by default. Enhanced gaming experience - this change significantly impacts gaming. With Steam and Lutris, many Windows games now run exceptionally well, with some titles even performing faster than they do on Windows. The Welcome Screen has been completely redesigned with a modern look and feel, transforming it into a central Control and Command Center." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
T2 SDE 25.10
T2 SDE is an open-source system development environment (or distribution build kit if you are more familiar with that term). T2 allows the creation of custom distributions with bleeding-edge technology. The project's latest release is version 25.10 and the release announcement shares the new version's highlights: "We are pleased to announce the T2 Linux SDE 25.10 release, with over 7000 package updates and more exotic and vintage hardware better supported! This includes major fixes for SPARC64 memory corruption, Altivec-less NXP E5000/E6000 PowerPC support. While still shipping a i486 build, a new i786 build variant with SSE2 optimization was added to better support this later, higher performance 32-bit CPUs. Firefox was fixed to work on big-endian RISC systems again! The installer was improved and more architcutre ISOs ship with a full Wayland desktop. A total of 36 pre-compiled installer ISOs for various Glibc and Musl combinations are available for 36 CPU ISAs: Alpha, Arc, ARM(64), HPPA(64), IA64, Loongarch64, M68k, Microblaze, MIPS(64), Nios2, OpenRISC, PowerPC(64), RISCV(64), s390x, SPARC(64), SuperH, i486, i686, i786, x86-64 and x32. On most architectures the release still boots with less than 128MB of RAM. The release contains over 6500 changesets, over 7600 package updates, 717 fixed issues, 527 packages or features added and 138 removed."
Exton Linux 251008 "PuppEX"
Arne Exton has announced the availability of a new "PuppEX" release of Exton Linux. The project's newest PuppEX is based on the long-term supported Ubuntu 24.04 and uses a recent 6.16 Linux kernel. "This Puppy Linux derivative is made by me. It is built from Ubuntu 24.04 'Noble Numbat' packages and packages built from woof-CE Recipes. I've also compiled a brand new kernel, 6.16.9. This is possibly one of the best PuppEX builds I've ever made. Everything just works. I could run the system very well on all of my six different computers. Among them on a really old Acer Aspire 5102WLMi from 2006. Note: Ubuntu 24.04 will be supported until April 2029. Note also that you can use the apt command (apt update, apt upgrade, apt install MyUsefulPackage) and Synaptic for installing thousands of new Ubuntu packages in PuppEX Noble64. I've installed NVIDIA's proprietary driver 580.82.09. That's because I could not get X.Org to work on one of my computers with the new RTX 4060 NVIDIA card in any other way. The driver will be used if you have a relatively new NVIDIA card. If the card isn't automatically recognized after boot, you should run the 'xorgwizard' command. When choosing a card you should go for 'Auto'. After that restart X.Org and you will hopefully enter the desktop as root." Here is the full release announcement.
Ubuntu 25.10
Utkarsh Gupta has announced the release of Ubuntu 25.10, code-named "Questing Quokka". The latest release of the popular distribution introduces GNOME 49 and Linux 6.17: "Ubuntu 25.10, codenamed 'Questing Quokka', is here. Ubuntu 25.10 introduces GNOME 49 with media and power controls on the lock screen, HDR brightness settings, and enhanced accessibility features in line with the European Accessibility Act. New apps include Loupe, a modern image viewer, and Ptyxis, a lightweight terminal emulator. Built on the Linux 6.17 kernel, this release brings nested virtualization on Arm, early Intel TDX host support for confidential computing, and enhanced support for TPM-backed full disk encryption with passphrase support, recovery key management and better integration with firmware updates. Network Time Security (NTS) is enabled by default for more secure time synchronization. Developer experience advances with updated toolchains for Python 3.13.7 and availability of 3.14 RC3, GCC 15, Rust 1.85, Go 1.25, OpenJDK 25, and previews of .NET 10 and Zig. Ubuntu 25.10 also debuts Rust-based implementations of sudo and coreutils for improved memory safety, and adopts the new RVA23 profile as the baseline for RISC-V, paving the way to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS." See the release announcement and the release notes for further information.
Ubuntu 25.10 -- Running the GNOME desktop
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Ubuntu Budgie 25.10
The Ubuntu Budgie team have announced version 25.10 of their distribution is now available. The latest release offers nine months of support and take a step forward in Wayland support. "The key focus for the team for this cycle has been the conversion of our distro to a Wayland based distro. We have been working closely with our fellow Buddies Of Budgie maintainers. Excellent progress has been made towards this huge effort. We have been testing via a PPA for both 25.04 and 25.10 during this cycle. We will be continuing this for the early part of 26.04 until all the new packages have been integrated in the repository. Note - we intend to ship v10.10 of budgie-desktop as a stable release for 26.04; this will be wayland only. For 25.10 budgie-desktop is Xorg-server based and this PPA will give 25.10 and 26.04 users an easy way to try and give feedback - help fix issues etc. More information soon on how you can help with this testing effort. We have uplifted to a new version of budgie-desktop, v10.9.3 which is compatible with GNOME 49." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
Ubuntu Kylin 25.10
Ubuntu Kylin is a Chinese language variant of Ubuntu. The project's 25.10 release provides nine months of security updates and supports new hardware through version 6.17 of the Linux kernel. "On October 10, 2025, the Kylin Team officially released Ubuntu Kylin 25.10, which will be supported for 9 months. Based on the Linux 6.17 kernel, Ubuntu Kylin 25.10 introduces significant upgrades to fundamental libraries, subsystems, and core software, enhancing system stability and compatibility. Additionally, a brand-new software store has been launched, delivering a smoother and more reliable user experience! Ubuntu Kylin 25.10 includes the new 6.17 Linux kernel that brings many new features." The release announcement (Chinese, English) also highlights the project's new software centre: "The revamped software store, with its upgraded UI and restructured functionality, offers a cleaner and more intuitive user interface. It improves page space utilization, making application management more straightforward. Users can now download applications more easily, and the app management features have been optimized for greater convenience." Download (MD5): ubuntukylin-25.10-desktop-amd64.iso (4,580MB, torrent, pkglist).
Ubuntu Kylin 25.10 -- Running the UKUI desktop
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Xubuntu 25.10
The Xubuntu team has published version 25.10 of their distribution. The new release offers nine months of support and runs the Xfce 4.20 desktop, along with components from other desktop environments. "The Xubuntu team is happy to announce the immediate release of Xubuntu 25.10. Xubuntu 25.10, codenamed Questing Quokka, is a regular release and will be supported for 9 months, until July 2026. Xubuntu 25.10 features the latest Xfce 4.20 and GNOME 49 updates. Xfce 4.20 updates feature stability improvements and enhanced Wayland support, for those adventurous enough to use it. GNOME 49 apps have received further polish and are well-suited for Xubuntu. MATE 1.26 apps are still included to round out Xubuntu's office suite." Additional changes and a list of known issues can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
Lubuntu 25.10
The Lubuntu team have announced the release of Lubuntu 25.10, which is a community edition of Ubuntu featuring the LXQt desktop. The new release provides nine months of security updates and runs the LXQt 2.2 desktop. "XQt 2.2 is now shipped by default. More information on its release can be found here: 2.2.0. Starting in Ubuntu 25.10, Ubuntu now uses the uutils Rust implementation of coreutils in place of the standard GNU coreutils. uutils is intended to be fully GNU-compatible, but reimplements the entire suite of OS components in Rust, providing better memory safety and (hopefully!) more robust code where the OS needs it most. As with any major change, this is not entirely without risk, and it is possible that users could see core system tools behave differently than they used to. If you notice a core system utility break or behave differently than expected, please file a bug report against rust-coreutils. Note that findutils and diffutils have not been replaced with their Rust equivalents from uutils yet. find, xargs, and diff are still the original GNU versions, written in C." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
Lubuntu 25.10 -- Running the LXQt desktop
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Kubuntu 25.10
The Kubuntu project has announced the availabilityof Kubuntu 25.10. The new reelase runs Plasma 6.4, defaults to using a Wayland session by default, and introduces Rust-based core utilities. "Here are three standout enhancements that Kubuntu 25.10 brings to your desktop, designed to make your workflow faster, more secure, and visually stunning: KDE Plasma 6.4: A Refined and Responsive Desktop Dive into the fifth feature release of Plasma 6, complete with Qt 6.8 and Frameworks 6.17.0. This update refines the desktop with smoother animations, improved widget customization, and better multi-monitor handling. It's a big win for productivity, letting you tailor your environment like never before while enjoying the stability of Ubuntu's core. Plasma Wayland as Default Session Say goodbye to legacy X11 limitations - Wayland is now the go-to session for superior graphics rendering, reduced latency, and enhanced security. With hardware-accelerated compositing baked in, you'll notice snappier video playback and app responsiveness. (X11 fans, no worries: it's still available via a simple package install.) This shift future-proofs your setup for the next era of Linux desktops. Rust-Powered sudo-rs for Safer System Management Leveraging Ubuntu's new memory-safe implementations, Kubuntu defaults to sudo-rs - a Rust-based reimplementation of sudo. It slashes vulnerabilities common in traditional tools, making privilege escalation quicker and more secure without compromising usability. Paired with NTS-enabled NTP for tamper-proof time syncing, your system stays locked down while you focus on what matters." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
Ubuntu Studio 25.10
The Ubuntu Studio team has announced the release of Ubuntu Studio 25.10. The release, which offers nine months of security updates, also introduces a few new applications and updated PipeWire support: "This release contains PipeWire 1.4.7. PipeWire's JACK compatibility is configured to use out-of-the-box and is zero-latency internally. System latency is configurable via Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration and can now be configured on a per-user basis instead of globally. Speaking of Audio Configuration, we have added a number of options for configuring the PipeWire JACK compatibility, as can be seen in the image below. Additionally, buffer size can now be configured from within any JACK application that supports it, such as Patchance, Carla, Ardour, and more! Ardour 8.12 - This is, as of this writing, the latest release of Ardour, packed with the latest bugfixes. To help support Ardour's funding, you may obtain later versions directly from ardour.org. To do so, please one-time purchase or subscribe to Ardour from their website. If you wish to get later versions of Ardour from us, you will have to wait until the next release of Ubuntu Studio, due in April 2026." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
Ubuntu Studio 25.10 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
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Edubuntu 25.10
Celebrating 20 years of the project, Amy Eickmeyer announced the availability of Edubuntu 25.10 earlier today. As an official Ubuntu flavour, Edubuntu brings the freedom of the Linux desktop and the vast library of open-source education software into the classroom. "We are happy and proud to release the 25.10 version of Edubuntu for your continued enjoyment and learning. This release includes GNOME 49. Geary has been replaced with Thunderbird which is used in Ubuntu as a feature-complete email, calendar, and contacts suite. The disadvantage is that it doesn't integrate well with the GNOME desktop via GNOME Online Accounts; however, during testing, we ran into problems with the latest versions of Geary and Evolution when it came to Microsoft 365 accounts, which are in use in a great deal of schools. GNOME Music has been replaced with Rhythmbox. This is because GNOME Music has ceased development. This release includes some additional educational games. We worked with Jonny Eickmeyer, our lead student advisor, to research games that already existed within our repository, and added them to the default installation! You may even notice gm-assistant has been added. This is an application to assist, for example, 'Dungeons & Dragons' dungeon masters with facilitating a game." Continue to the release announcement for more information and known issues.
Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.10
Joshua Peisach has announced the release of Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.10, the latest release from the project that integrates the popular Cinnamon desktop with Ubuntu's core system. The new version uses the 6.4.12 version of Cinnamon and updates the default desktop theme: "I am proud to announce the latest release of Ubuntu Cinnamon, 25.10 'Questing Quokka'. Whether you are setting up a new, fresh installation, or you are upgrading from 25.04 (updates will be enabled in a few days), this release comes with the latest features. This release stays on the latest Cinnamon 6.4x line of releases: Cinnamon 6.4.12, Cinnamon Control Center 6.4.1, Cinnamon Screensaver 6.4.0, Cinnamon Session 6.4.1, CJS 128, mozjs 128, Cinnamon Settings Daemon 6.4.3, Muffin 6.4.1, Nemo 6.4.5, XDG Desktop Portal (XApp) 1.1.2. Other software: GNOME Calculator 48.0.2, GNOME Calendar 48.1, GNOME Screenshot 41, Evince 48.0, gedit 48.1, gThumb 3.12.7, Rhythmbox 3.4.8, Deja Dup 49, File Roller 44.5, LibreOffice 25.8.1, Simple Scan 48.1. The Yaru-Cinnamon theme has been updated." Continue to the release announcement and the release notes for further information.
Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.10 -- Running the Cinnamon desktop
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Voyager Live 25.10
The Voyager Live project has published a new release. Voyager Live 25.10 ships with the GNOME 49 desktop environment, offers nine months of support, and ships with a ChatGPT client pre-installed. "I present to you Voyager 25.10, based on Ubuntu Questing Quokka. A new version with the latest GNOME 49 - a lightweight, fast, modern, fluid, secure and efficient desktop in a hybrid environment for PC and Tablet. This version is based on the Linux kernel 6.17 and the Ubuntu distribution Questing Quokka with its new features. This version includes integrated ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that runs in the terminal without the need for API key version 3.5. Plus it has an ChatGPT4o mini GNOME extension and an option to remove AI from the terminal. Voyager 25.10 is an intermediate version of 9 months for security updates and it prepares for the next release,the future LTS of 5 to 10 years of updates." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
Asmi Linux 25.10
Tony George has announced the release of Asmi Linux 25.10, the latest version of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution that uses a highly customised Xfce desktop with a plethora of user-friendly touches. "Asmi Linux 25.10 is now available, based on Ubuntu 25.10. Highlights: based on Ubuntu 25.10 'Questing Quokka'; Xfce 4.20 desktop; Linux kernel 6.17. Note: Ubuntu 25.10 will reach end of life (EOL) in July 2026. If you are doing a new installation, it is recommended to use Asmi 24.04 as it is more mature and stable." The release announcement also highlights changes, improvements and known issues in the release: "You can now save and load your own desktop layouts using the Asmi Settings app; Thunar's toolbar and titlebar was updated for a better look. The titlebar uses CSD to save vertical space while still keeping the menu bar. Known issues: Flatpaks are broken on Ubuntu 25.10 due an issue with AppArmor profiles; SSH-Agent does not display a GUI password prompt; setting the wallpaper does not work sometimes in Thunar and Ristretto, you can use one of the commands below to set the wallpaper manually. As a workaround, a context menu entry was added to Thunar that you can use to set the wallpaper."
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| 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: 3,310
- Total data uploaded: 48.4TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Preferred Ubuntu edition?
This week we saw the release of Ubuntu 25.10 and its many community editions. Ubuntu is a common entry point to Linux for a lot of newcomers and it, along with the various community spins, tend to be the first impression of Linux many people have. We would like to hear which of the many flavours of Ubuntu is your favourite.
You can see the results of our previous poll on openSUSE's YaST control panel and its alternatives in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Which is your favourite flavour of Ubuntu?
| Edubuntu: | 3 (0%) |
| Kubuntu: | 441 (27%) |
| Lubuntu: | 132 (8%) |
| Ubuntu: | 308 (19%) |
| Ubuntu Budgie: | 35 (2%) |
| Ubuntu Cinnamon: | 95 (6%) |
| Ubuntu Core: | 8 (0%) |
| Ubuntu Kylin: | 13 (1%) |
| Ubuntu MATE: | 200 (12%) |
| Ubuntu Studio: | 41 (2%) |
| Ubuntu Unity: | 32 (2%) |
| Xubuntu: | 347 (21%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 20 October 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)
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If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Will not use Ubuntu (by BigMike on 2025-10-13 00:17:55 GMT from United States)
I have refused to use Ubuntu since the time they were sending local file searches to Canonical. Spyware OS? No thanks. Plenty of other options that work great.
2 • Re: Will not use Ubuntu (by Much Derper on 2025-10-13 00:34:00 GMT from United States)
It all depends on a use case and feasibility. At home - I'm with you, no Ubuntu for me. At work, where Ubuntu is the only InfoSec-approved alternative to Windows and macOS, the only Linux distro I can install on my laptop without getting fired? Thanks, I'll take it.
3 • Ubuntu Not Used Or Wanted (by LittleNickey on 2025-10-13 00:50:46 GMT from United States)
Why no option in the ubuntu opinion poll to answer that we prefer something else? At least that option was given in the previous poll for opensuse. The world does not revolve around ubuntu, ubuntu does not make the world go around, and in my opinion it just sucks compared to other distros available! Why settle for meh/boring when one can have something better such as Void, Arch, PCLinuxOS, RedHat or even Slackware? You all dropped the ball on this weeks poll!
4 • Ubuntu (by Slappy McGee on 2025-10-13 00:58:54 GMT from United States)
@1@2 @3 Ubuntu is also the base for several distros with names that do not rhyme with Ubuntu.
Watch out.. It's everywhere I tell you! ;o)
5 • No Ubuntu used here (by Pete22 on 2025-10-13 00:59:59 GMT from New Zealand)
Haven't voted this time as I am against Ubuntu too.
No Leap 16 here either - had been hanging out for it to be released but it was a let down as you have reported so have hopped to Solus Plasma.
6 • @3 - Lack of 'Prefer Something Else' Option (by AdrienM on 2025-10-13 01:07:04 GMT from United States)
Perhaps maybe the goal is to see which is the preferred flavor of Ubuntu, among those who do, or have used it, without regard to any other distro? It isn't a general 'what distro do you like amongst all the possible distros' sort of question.
7 • Another "I don't use this" point (by AdrienM on 2025-10-13 01:12:53 GMT from United States)
I just saw the last SUSE poll. I disagree that it should have included that option. Now the math is skewed to see the true percentages of which config method is preferred, *by those who use that distro*. There's no point in answering you don't use it, just skip that poll. Yes, a viewer can still see the relative preferences, but the percentage math is now wrong because of that option. The same would happen if that answer were included in this flavor-preference poll.
8 • No use for buntu (by flyingalone on 2025-10-13 01:13:25 GMT from Australia)
100% agree with No. 1 *spyware* no thanks ever since the phone home back then and No. 2 *Ubuntu is the only InfoSec-approved alternative to Windows*, why use the Microsoft Linux disrto = ubuntu, plenty of other and better distros out there.
9 • Flatpaks on Ubuntu (by Pumpino on 2025-10-13 01:19:25 GMT from Australia)
Releasing a new version of Ubuntu with the installation of flatpaks being broken is ridiculous for a distro created by a company as large as Canonical. That said, I updated from Xubuntu 25.04 to 25.10 on my spare partition, and I can install flatpaks fine.
10 • Poll (by Jesse on 2025-10-13 01:19:49 GMT from Canada)
@3: "Why no option in the ubuntu opinion poll to answer that we prefer something else?"
This poll is for people who have used (or continue to use) Ubuntu. If you don't have a preference between the Ubuntu flavours then this poll isn't for you and there is no reason to vote in it.
"Why settle for meh/boring when one can have something better such as Void, Arch, PCLinuxOS, RedHat or even Slackware? You all dropped the ball on this weeks poll!"
This poll is about Ubuntu, there is no reason to drag other distributions into the discussion.
11 • Ubuntu (with variant) (by Redy Basuki on 2025-10-13 01:27:14 GMT from Indonesia)
Why I can't vote for the pool?
I am not using it at all, or any of Ubuntu based (such as Mint). I use something else better that suits my need, but not Ubuntu.
12 • ubuntu (by Dave on 2025-10-13 01:37:10 GMT from Australia)
I'm not Ubuntu's biggest fan either, but, I'm glad they exist. Maybe not as much as they used to, but they do innovate which is a good thing. Rpi support, experimenting with Snapdragon arm support, experimental riscv support, experiments with zfs in the installer, using Rust utils. I know some people hate this stuff, but it's good they do it because if nothing else something is learned or improved, even indirectly. Other smaller distros don't (or couldn't possibility) do any of this stuff.
Out of the *buntus, I like Xubuntu as a good all rounder.
13 • Kubuntu (by Arve Eriksson on 2025-10-13 01:47:09 GMT from Sweden)
I'm a happy Mint user, but I'll see what Kubuntu is like in VBox. I don't get as much KDE these days as I would like...
14 • Poll criticism (by Dave on 2025-10-13 01:58:21 GMT from Australia)
I wish people wouldn't always sook about the options in the poll. "Why don't they include an 'I don't use a ubuntu' option?"
If this was included, someone would complain, "Why include a non-Ubuntu option when asking about Ubuntu, it doesn't make sense?"
Just say nothing at all and don't use the poll if it bothers you that much.
15 • Poll (by Friar Tux on 2025-10-13 02:12:13 GMT from Canada)
Like a few others. I don't actually use Ubuntu per se. I use Linux Mint. I read somewhere that Ubuntu took Debian and improved on it and Mint to Ubuntu and improved on it. Seems true as I haven't had any issues in the decade I've used Mint. At least, none that have ever been touched on here. (I've tried both parent distros but they HAVE presented problems.) Kudos to Clement Lefebvre. Great work, mate.
16 • Leap review... that installer! (by thatguy on 2025-10-13 03:06:14 GMT from United States)
Really great review this week - pulling no punches, and for good reason.
I hadn't tried Leap in years so recently gave 16 a try. I have Tumbleweed installs so am familiar with the suse way of doing things, but I couldn't even make it through the truly awful installer for fear of nuking one or more of my other installed distros. Agama makes Fedora/RHel's anaconda seem like a miracle of logical user friendliness, by which I mean it really REALLY sucks. I can deal with some of suse's idiosyncrasies but not an installer this bad. Crazy that they think it's good enough for anyone, let alone those new to Linux.
I don't really care about yast being retired (aside from the software management components, which are weird anyway). This installer, however, may prove to be a deal breaker for many. Hopefully it improves before 2032...
17 • Ubuntu, Leap (by Dan on 2025-10-13 03:57:33 GMT from United States)
I haven't used Ubuntu (other than trying it out from time to time just because I'm a distro junky from a long time ago) ever since they left the debian repos and went to that Gnome unified thing back in 2009 or so. And now, this issue with flatpacks that they are "working furiously" on? Right. And Steve Jobs accidentally left out the floppy drive on Macs. This move to making Ubuntu a kubernetes-based thing that is immutable and uses snaps...fine, if that's your thing, go for it. Not for me. Canonical was awesome back in the brown days, especially for dial-up connections and ease of configuring drivers.
Suse was my go-to from about 2000 to 2004. Then they went to OpenSuse and it went to crap. And now they've gotten rid of Yast, leaving only 20 confusing ways to attempt installing software. The installer now absolutely BLOWS...I used to love the levels of configurability, but now...nope. And it's not gotten any lighter or more stable. Sad.
18 • For me, no Ubuntu anymore.... (by Torsten on 2025-10-13 03:59:35 GMT from Germany)
Ubuntu ONCE was a great and excellent distro. I started my Linux journey with Ubuntu....but then, Canonical became a bit "mad" and introduced snap - and since that time, I switched to Debian. Debian is a Linux as it should be without any unwanted and crappy software.
19 • UBUNTU (by Evan on 2025-10-13 04:37:41 GMT from Barbados)
Why all the Ubutu hate? If you don't use Ubuntu based distros why are posting here? I have Ubuntu, Debian and Arch based distros and they all work fine.
20 • Flavour of Ubuntu (by user on 2025-10-13 05:06:35 GMT from Bulgaria)
Canonical is the only distro creator that treats desktop flavours equally. It is difficult to chose one flavour over the other, they are so good all and polished. My answer to the poll is not very correct, my primary picks are two - Lubuntu and Ubuntu, installed in parallel and switching between them, double maintenance actually, but with pleasure.
21 • Ubuntu (by Brad on 2025-10-13 06:04:49 GMT from United States)
No longer using, but when I was still using Ubuntu, the pre-2009 flavor was my favorite (agree with Dan@17). I did try out other "flavors" from time to time after I left Mint - Xubuntu was a good one.
22 • Ubuntu (by Dave Postles on 2025-10-13 06:38:52 GMT from United Kingdom)
I disliked Ubuntu when it introduced the Amazon lens on the desktop. Amazon is anathema to me. I do now (perhaps temporarily) have Lubuntu on one of my desktops. I always prefer to have a Plank dock. I have different distros on the kit which I have accumulated. The main fault I discern in Ubuntu is its continuous increase in the size of the download file. My phone company has a higher rate for connection over an hour, so I tend to connect for short periods and we still do not have a fibre connection here.
23 • OpenSUSE and the Sisyphus complex (by Microlinux on 2025-10-13 07:35:01 GMT from France)
Some Linux distributions like OpenSUSE or Solus suffer from what I call the Sisyphus complex. Once everything reaches a state of perfection and usability, the project leaders decide to let that rock roll down the hill and start all over again, making things worse.
OpenSUSE Leap has been great until 15.2 and 15.3. And then some neurotic project leader decided that this state of stability was unacceptable and that things had to be wrecked.
24 • ubuntu (by Josh on 2025-10-13 07:57:01 GMT from United States)
Another hard pass on Ubuntu or any of it's derivatives. I'll stick with vanilla Debian or another distro directly based on it like LMDE or MX.
25 • Preferred Ubuntu editiion (by borgio3 on 2025-10-13 08:02:27 GMT from Italy)
Ubuntu is the Windows clone of the Linux world, that's why I don't use it even under threat of gunfire.
26 • Ubuntu "meh boring" (by Richmond Mathewson on 2025-10-13 08:57:39 GMT from Bulgaria)
It is only 'meh boring" if you are not dependent on it: I have been running my EFL school with Ubuntu/Xubuntu for 20 years without so much as a single glitch: and for that I am profoundly grateful.
Sometimes 'meh boring' = 100% reliable.
So, stop and think before you are so childish to write things such as 'meh boring'.
27 • pool (by hollyeodeureoga on 2025-10-13 09:43:19 GMT from Poland)
Since majority misses this: you aren't forced in any way to participate in this pool - you can totally skip it till next issue if you don't like choices. Jesse doesn't keep a knife under your neck...
Also what's this thing @1 talks about? Did Canonical introduced some data harvesting in 25.10 release? Or is just some late complain about lenses feature that doesn't exist anymore?
28 • Weekly Poll (by Jake on 2025-10-13 09:44:43 GMT from United States)
There is literally a hundred Linux OS's I don't use. I don't whine about that every time Jesse reviews one of them. Get over it.
If you put 5 Linux users in a room and asked a question you would get at least 10 different opinions
29 • Poll choices (by Jimmy the Geek on 2025-10-13 10:21:14 GMT from Mongolia)
The poll today was missing the following choices: 1) I don't use Linux 2) I don't have a computer 3) What the hell is an Ubuntu? Please fix next time. Thank you.
30 • Ubuntu and Leap (by Hank on 2025-10-13 10:21:25 GMT from Germany)
Which Ubuntu version do I use None, which would I contemplate using None.
I tried to like Ubuntu, gave up and left it forever.
Had been looking forward to latest Open SuSe Leap, sadly it was a bad experience from the start.
No live version for testing, near unstoppable install, did ms write the process, it felt so much like their buggy update process rather than well thought out software.
Dropping yast was maybe the reason, in any case the experince and resulting discussion left us Leap ing away. Debian based antiX, MX remains our local choice.
31 • Favourite Unbuntu Flavour. (by DachshundMan on 2025-10-13 10:34:07 GMT from United Kingdom)
I voted for Ubuntu Mate but I only use it on my Raspberry Pi and only because there is no Mint OS available for the Pi.
32 • Best Ubuntu... (by A hobbit on 2025-10-13 10:58:59 GMT from Chile)
...Is obviously Uwuntu. The lack of anime girls and cat ears in any official flavor shows Ubuntu is not a distro serious devs should gravitate towards.
Jokes aside, I have nothing but admiration towards the Lubuntu team. Even finding distros that offer an lxqt flavor is on the rarer side, let alone one where they actually polish the desktop experience. They also have gone against the grain where it made sense, as it was the case a few releases back with their choice of installer and not ramming essential desktop components inside a snap package.
I also really like Unity, but at this point I doubt the desktop will get enough work as to make it actually viable, which is a shame because it solves almost ll my grips with gnome.
33 • Ubuntu (by Ed on 2025-10-13 11:13:57 GMT from Sweden)
Ubuntu gets a lot of criticism these days and for good reasons. I don't use Ubuntu on the desktop. But Ubuntu is still a good server OS. Even if Canonical has taken many decisions that are very questionable they still offers good solutions for differing use cases.
34 • UBUNTU (by MK on 2025-10-13 11:27:52 GMT from Israel)
...interesting poll results with Kubuntu in the lead, and Xubuntu not far behind. ...good choice.
...and what happened to Ubuntu-Mate? ...no release notes, just a download link?
35 • Lubuntu 25.10 dekstop wallpaper (by Jeffrey on 2025-10-13 13:04:23 GMT from Czechia)
Am I the only one who, when looking at the Lubuntu 25.10 desktop wallpaper, cannot help but immediately think "what a piece of AI-generated fake junk"?
36 • Why Ubuntu ? (by OneHue on 2025-10-13 13:22:00 GMT from Mali)
Nowadays, I always use an Ubuntu flavor or an Ubuntu based distribution (Mint), the one that suits my needs of the moment. Nowadays I use Kubuntu 25.04. Very good, never crash. X11 is faster than Wayland on it, so I use X11. I did the minimal install to avoid snaps. I don’t like snaps not for philosophical reasons but because they start slowly. Why Ubuntu ? Because it has the best drivers support and I can install the NVIDIA driver through a GUI. Kubuntu flavor now, because it is more responsive than Mint Mate nowadays. That is the reason I don’t use Gnome. I don’t like waiting my computer after a double-click.In the past I used Red Hat Linux (2001), Suse (shipped on a HP computer), Debian and its derivatives like Knoppix, #!, Antix, MX 16, so I always prefer a fast OS that can print, scan, connect to many devices through all kind of slots (thanks to the work of Canonical Taipei Office on kernel drivers), and that support professional, commercial softwares for Linux. Many scientific softwares have Linux and Unix flavors..
People can hate Ubuntu, but Canonical is doing a good job for people who use their computer intensively for work and who are not developers. Maybe that use case is a minority.
Canonical added a good font (Ubuntu font), included drivers for all devices they know, added a GUI for drivers management and improved Gnome responsiveness (work of Daniel Van Vugt from Canonical). Many people forget that and support the claim that Canonical doesn’t support the Linux landscape. Without Canonical nobody will use Gnome 3 and it will be dead, Linux distributions will continue to be ugly, and many external devices won’t work.
After that, nowadays, I don’t understand the Rust things, so I value diversity. With the hundreds distributions, you will always find one that suits your needs. So thanks to developers and keep forking and developing, that is the only way to survive the software turmoil we are facing.
I really like the Mark Twain citation 😂.
37 • Ubuntu (by Just4fun on 2025-10-13 13:25:57 GMT from Sweden)
I abandoned Ubuntu when they started with the non-open source 'snap' and have never looked back. (But I miss the 'No Ubuntu at all' option in the poll).
38 • Preferred Ubuntu Edition (by Kevin on 2025-10-13 13:28:29 GMT from United States)
My preferred Ubuntu edition is Debian. If I'm going to run a Debian based distro, I prefer to just run Debian. At the moment, I'm only running Debian occasionally as a VirtualBox guest. My main desktop is running Slackware.
39 • Favourite Ubuntu Flavour (by j20 on 2025-10-13 13:32:57 GMT from United Kingdom)
I voted for Kubuntu. I use another distro, but my second choice would be Kubuntu.
40 • Snaps still sneaky (by Raphael on 2025-10-13 14:04:16 GMT from Morocco)
Forced transition of existing packages to snap makes apt completely unreliable. Im all for reducing mutability of the base system since thats what increases its reliability but snaps cause fracturation of the desktop and shouldve remained focused on servers and IoT since that was its prime audience anyway.
Whats absurd is that system asks you to confirm the installation of packages, but if an app is a snap, it will immediately (re)install snapd if it was removed and then that app without even asking you to confirm if thats what you wanted. Even worse, system upgrades between ubuntu versions reinstall the removed snaps and cause some loss of data since (very limited) migration of app data flows only from deb to snap and not the other way around at all
41 • OpenSuse (by Slappy McGee on 2025-10-13 14:09:17 GMT from United States)
Like many I've tried suse in its various iterations over the years and like said in the review did come away from it with a sense of its unique approach. My take on it was mostly neutral but with a slight lean in the direction of that distro feeling "off," for want of a better word. I remember liking 9.2 for a while.
YAST seemed kind of nice, but not as nice as some other maintenance and tweaking offerings by other distros out there. It was its own thing and a part of the suse experience.
Now that they've come around to making suse generic, so to speak, I'm a bit conflicted; there's a feeling disappointment of sorts along with "that's more like it, they finally got a clue."
If they're doing the changes as a sort of marketing strategy, it'll probably work; they'll likely get more users to stay with them. We'll see.
42 • Trisquel (by Dave on 2025-10-13 14:18:00 GMT from Ireland)
I used the free Trisquel derivative of Ubuntu for many years for ethical reasons, but have since abandoned distros of Debian ancestry and haven't looked back. Secureblue for me now.
43 • OpenSUSE (by David on 2025-10-13 16:15:22 GMT from United Kingdom)
OpenSUSE exists to develop and test material for SESE Enterprise Linux, just as Fedora exists to develop and test material for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Why does anyone expect such distros to make things comfortable for their users? If you use them, even if you actually like them, you are essentially a guinea pig — get used to the idea!
44 • Yet another I don't use Ubuntu anymore (by nekosama on 2025-10-13 16:34:13 GMT from Mexico)
Yeah, Ubuntu stopped being the "go-to" distro for everyone during the Amazon/Unity controversies that were deepened with the Mir and snap episodes. I'm using different distros in my 4 or 5 boxes, but none of them run *buntu anymore. At that time, I have to say Xubuntu and Linux Mint got my back. I still trust Xubuntu, therefore, my vote goes for them.
45 • @27 (by Tyler B. on 2025-10-13 18:34:07 GMT from United States)
The spyware still exists in ubuntu, stop spreading misinformation.
46 • Favourite Ubuntu (by Simon Wainscott-Plaistowe on 2025-10-13 19:18:34 GMT from New Zealand)
Yes, why indeed... why no options such as "I don't use Ubuntu" or "I use an Ubuntu derivative"? I use Linux Mint because I find it more stable than Ubuntu. I like the Cinnamon desktop and prefer Flatpaks to Snaps.
47 • Ubuntu Love (by mike on 2025-10-13 20:21:12 GMT from United States)
"I use Debian because Ubuntu sucks" is like saying "I hate Honda but love Acura." They are nearly the same.
48 • Faltpak on Ubuntu (by Tyler M. on 2025-10-13 20:58:39 GMT from United States)
Flatpak on Ubuntu isn't entirely broken. I maintain separate root and home partitions and install my flatpak apps for just my user and am apparently unaffected by the flatpak issue because of this.
49 • Lubuntu because it's light (by Johannes Rexx on 2025-10-13 21:18:38 GMT from United States)
My favorite edition is Lubuntu because it's a fairly light distro measured with `free -h`.
Alas, it seems that as time goes on, every Linux distro is getting heavier and heavier in terms of RAM use. For example, Voyager uses almost 2 GB RAM in live mode, again according to `free -h` which is rather on the high side.
My guess is that the Linux kernel is the culprit here. The kernel's lines of code just keeps on increasing. See https://www.stackscale.com/blog/linux-kernel-surpasses-40-million-lines-code/ for the data.
50 • Opinion Poll (by Marco on 2025-10-13 22:03:35 GMT from Italy)
I think this week's opinion poll should be understood this way: "if you were forced to use a Canonical distro, which would you prefer?" I use Kubuntu and voted for Kubuntu: a distribution that considers Canonical's interests but also the user's interests. It's not perfect, but the only one truly usable for beginners. Is Debian better? Yes it is, but not for all users.
51 • Yast (by Nate on 2025-10-13 22:52:05 GMT from United States)
OpenSuse dropping Yast? Now that's some...interesting? decision making? Yast was basically what made Suse unique and worthwhile. It wasn't perfect (no software is) and I'm sure that there was a technical debt burden, but I doubt that a ground up rewrite helps with the latter. More than likely what you wind up with is the sort of mess that occurred for both Gnome 3 and KDE 4. You get a few years of pain, alienate a *lot* of your user base, and then have to try to convince people to come back in a few years once things are sorted. Meanwhile the replacement takes even more years to reach feature-parity with what it's replacing.
I liked Suse. I used to recommend it to new users over Ubuntu or Mint because it was just really solid and conservative while still being up to date. Yast made it so that those types of users could configure things without a bunch of config file editing. I'm not going to be recommending it anymore I think.
52 • Trisquel - based on Ubuntu but without all the proprietary nonsense (by Andy Prough on 2025-10-13 23:42:43 GMT from Switzerland)
The Ubuntu-based distro I use is not on the list - it's Trisquel GNU/Linux, the FSF-approved, totally libre distro. Runs fantastic, even on modern hardware.
53 • Poll. The CCP achieves what western activists can't even dream of: usable Ubuntu (by Usability requires a clean UI on 2025-10-14 00:02:05 GMT from United Kingdom)
It pains me to say it, but of the "flavours" listed, (which are only a very small subset of all Ubuntu spins - oh sorry, "flavours" - out there,) the one that is the least unusable, is Ubuntu Kylin. Since UKUI is actually a well-designed desktop environment.
Xfce and LXQt are also decent, but the way they have been implemented, respectively, by Xubuntu and Lubuntu, is rather poor and requires hours of tinkering and customizing to get in a usable state.
GNOME and Cinnamon are even worse: they literally cannot be fixed natively, i.e. without installing Shell Extensions and "Spices", respectively.
MATE is the same, but without even having the saving grace of Shell Extensions/"Spices" to make it usable.
Budgie and Unity took one look at the disaster that was GNOME 3, and went "Hold my beer!"
And KDE... Oh KDE... KDE, as always, manages to be just the worst of the worst desktop environments ever created. And it's somehow still getting more unusable with every update.
54 • OpenSuse, Ubuntu (by Keith S on 2025-10-14 00:39:31 GMT from United States)
I agree with @51 Nate on Leap. It's sad. I tried OpenSuse Leap earlier this year and found it to be surprisingly pleasant and stable and not as bloated as in years gone by. I actually considered making it my daily driver, but ended up going back to MX Linux. Jesse's review is great in the sense that I have a very good idea of what they have screwed up, so I don't have to waste time finding out for myself.
Regarding Ubuntu, I used Ubuntu Studio some years ago and found it to be pretty good but a little overly complicated for what I needed. Linux audio and video have become good enough for my needs on many different distros these days, including my go-to MX. Maybe it still fills a need for a niche audience that needs a realtime kernel, etc. I have not tried other flavors of Ubuntu for many years, but sometimes consider trying Xubuntu and Lubuntu because I really like Xfce and LXQt. But I haven't for quite a while.
Mint seems too much ... something, but I can understand why people would use it since it seems very reliable. That is probably the Ubuntu I would default to these days.
55 • Ubuntu (by nobita on 2025-10-14 02:01:58 GMT from Australia)
Question; is Ubuntu still relevant?
Why use such a corporatized distro even when you can just use Debian?
56 • Ubuntu (by Pumpino on 2025-10-14 03:44:40 GMT from Australia)
@55 Ubuntu is released every six months. Having a six-monthly snapshot of Sid provides more up to date packages than Debian, which can be up to two years old.
57 • Ubuntu (by The Catboy on 2025-10-14 03:53:29 GMT from United States)
Haven’t used Ubuntu since that time they made a deal with Amazon. Glad I don’t use it these days
58 • ubuntu (by Josh on 2025-10-14 04:56:36 GMT from United States)
@47 Yeah, that's not even close. Saying Debian and Ubuntu are nearly the same is like saying Google Chrome is nearly the same as Chromium. I mean one's based on the other, right.....?
59 • Unbuntu (by Bobbie Sellers on 2025-10-14 05:45:31 GMT from United States)
I am sad that many people will start using Linux with a Ubuntu distribution.
i started with Mandriva 2006. I did not see Ubuntu until I tried to help someone
who used Ubuntu as though it was Windows and had gotten it messed up.
The idea of sudo as seen in those days was a very bad idea and I could
probably find an article about how badly it was implemented.
Mandriva had Dophin and Midnight Commander so that as I had done with
AmigaOS 1.3-3.9 explore the file system and figure out the structure.
Ubuntu of the same time was far less well supplied with tools and installed
without separate partitions for root and home.
Then the adoption of systemd by Ubuntu left it completely outside the realm
of my hobbyist interest.
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2025.10 Linux 6.12.51-pclos1- KDE Plasma 6.4.5
60 • Farewell Frugal! (by Alter Furz on 2025-10-14 08:05:06 GMT from Germany)
Thank you for your contribution. I used Frugal for a few weeks during the Rigel times, when I was still distro hopping.
61 • Ubuntu Version (by rhtoras on 2025-10-14 11:30:24 GMT from Greece)
Well i hate Ubuntu. It is not user friendly as some folks still believe (at least the flagship version) and has systemD and snaps. Also the code is not 100% free. What is to like ? For me personal nothing. Not to mention the need of ppa repositories for software that does not exist or simply does not work out of the box. If you like Ubuntu the old way then MX linux is the closest (sysV version tbh).
As for Suse Leap review. There is nothing that sets Suse Linux leap apart other distributions. I agree with Jesse on this. Even in the systemD side there are better more polished options.
62 • Poll (by Slappy McGee on 2025-10-14 12:41:17 GMT from United States)
@10 .. Well, maybe some here have had one of the many distros which self-describe as "Ubuntu-based." Most seem to be Ubuntu with a tweak here and there and a branding of their own.
That would have been a very long list of choices.
63 • "... very long list of choices..." (by Friar Tux on 2025-10-14 13:32:21 GMT from Canada)
@62 (Slappy) "... very long list of choices..." You're not kidding...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg/2220px-Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg.png
64 • Opinion Poll (favourite flavour of Ubuntu?) (by nobody on 2025-10-14 14:24:00 GMT from Germany)
Opinion Poll
Which is your favourite flavour of Ubuntu?
My non voting answer is: None
I did not vote
65 • Ubuntu with other names (by Slappy McGee on 2025-10-14 14:31:18 GMT from United States)
@63 Wow. Now we see why Jesse crafted the poll the way it is. "If you use Ubuntu, which version?"
Not which of the eleventy-billion Ubuntu inspired distros. And, the no-brainer, not for those who use other than Ubuntu.
66 • Ubuntu fav (by pepa65 on 2025-10-14 14:39:54 GMT from Thailand)
My Ubuntu desktop favourite was MATE (and before that Gnome2), until the snapd became too pervasive, then I switched to Mint MATE (which I love). On servers I always use Ubuntu LTS (except for a few cases of Debian) and Ubuntu is very comfortable on servers, especially with the ESP support (free for 5 machines). I wish Ubuntu well, also because Mint depends on it, but I am glad that Mint also has a Debian Edition that keeps improving, which is reassuring to me. Clem Lefebvre and team are doing an awesome job managing the Mint project wisely, and this is crucial for any good distro.
67 • ubun... (by jc on 2025-10-14 14:51:48 GMT from The Netherlands)
“ ’I use Debian because Ubuntu sucks’ is like saying ‘I hate Honda but love Acura.’ They are nearly the same.”
This is an absurd position. The thesis is that if a parent is loved then the child must also be loved. The world is filled with counter examples to disprove the thesus. A parent may be loved and the child despised, particularly wjen the chile may be a spawn of hell.
68 • Featured version is a best version (by Dhoni on 2025-10-15 03:33:17 GMT from Indonesia)
Even im not an Ubuntu user, i vote for the OG Ubuntu. Reason is simple, Ubuntu is the one that this distro featured as their main star.
When distro hopping, i always pick their main ISO with their recomended DE.
69 • Ubuntu poll (by @1,2,3,etc on 2025-10-15 04:02:55 GMT from United States)
Jesse is a long standing Ubuntu fanboi , for example he lists all the variations, but refuses requests to list the various spins for Fedora with flimsy reasoning. Nor does he list the variations of Linux Mint. Or Debian.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander . If you are going to Break Ubuntu into all the options, you should do the same for all distros.
You just have to accept the fact he is inconsistent, favors Ubuntu in this regard, and can not fathom anyone using anything else nor is he open to change.
70 • Ubuntu poll (by Alamedated on 2025-10-15 04:31:38 GMT from United States)
I have an old laptop in my greenhouse for reading kung fu novels and listening to music. Kubuntu works great for me. It is light weight and everything mostly works. Spotify causes system lockups every now and then. Puppy linux works on the computer but I am not tech savy enough to get spotify to run.
71 • Ubuntu Studio (by DaveT on 2025-10-15 09:46:21 GMT from United Kingdom)
I voted for Ubuntu Studio because of all the audio stuff it has.
Getting JACK etc to play nicely can be ... difficult at times! It has given me many headaches over the years.
Ubuntu Studio makes it easy.
72 • Ubuntu and other projects (by Jesse on 2025-10-15 12:41:37 GMT from Canada)
@69: "Jesse is a long standing Ubuntu fanboi"
You've never read anything I've written about Ubuntu, have you?
"for example he lists all the variations, but refuses requests to list the various spins for Fedora with flimsy reasoning. Nor does he list the variations of Linux Mint. Or Debian."
How we organize flavours of distributions is well explained in our FAQ: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=faq#ubuntusplit
it's not favouritism, it's just consistency. Arch spins are handled the same way and no one has ever complained about the way we handle Arch-based projects.
"What is good for the goose is good for the gander . If you are going to Break Ubuntu into all the options, you should do the same for all distros."
Again, read the FAQ, it explains how projects are organized and why. And we do handle all projects/spins the same.
"You just have to accept the fact he is inconsistent, favors Ubuntu in this regard, and can not fathom anyone using anything else"
This is just silly. As I pointed out above, the way we treat all projects i consistently. Also, if you've read anything I've written you know I don't use Ubuntu myself.
"nor is he open to change."
I literally use a different distro every week.
73 • just say 'no' (by Nobuntu on 2025-10-15 18:11:58 GMT from Canada)
Canonical is not a community; it's a corporation that puts corporate goals in the way of its users.
With the exception of Mint 22.2 (very recently), I haven't used anything based on Canonical products for years. Now that Gigi is out of the gate, it'll be LMDE 7 all the way (and Arch at home).
Real Linux is about user communities, not corporations. Why wasn't there a "no thanks, Ubuntu" choice in this?
74 • Ubuntu Poll (by Slappy McGee on 2025-10-15 21:14:22 GMT from United States)
@73 "Why wasn't there a 'no thanks, Ubuntu' choice in this?"
Gads, man.. BECAUSE THE POLL IS AIMED AT UBUNTU USERS. For gawd sake!
75 • Mobian headline (by That Mr B on 2025-10-16 11:51:00 GMT from United Kingdom)
Did anyone else read the headline about the Mobian 13.0 where it said "important hardware features (such as e.g. WiFi or audio) are not working?" Seriously, WTH? A mobile OS with no wi-fi or audio is as much use as a chocolate teapot or a motorcycle ashtray.
76 • Zorin 18 (by Geo. on 2025-10-16 13:41:55 GMT from Canada)
Bravo Zorin. My whole family is on Zorin now. I'm on Mint, but I love Zorin's simplicity so I may switch over after they're upgraded to 18.
77 • Happily Mint, but.... (by tom joad on 2025-10-16 16:30:53 GMT from United States)
Way back in the day as some say, I cut my teeth as it were on Ubuntu. After a few years or so I fled. Nope, I never went back.
Why? Remember back some years when Canonical just lost its collect mind? Remember that period? That lunacy drove me to distro hop and I landed on MX Linux. Later I moved on to Mint. I am Mint now in the hope it does not have a period when it, too, 'wigs out' as Ubuntu did.
I have 'tried' Ubuntu Mate, though, but I quickly kicked that to the curb. No more Ubuntus for me.
78 • Silly responses to an ordinary straightforward poll (by Buster on 2025-10-16 17:23:21 GMT from Canada)
The intent of the poll is obvious. Jesse, I would like to extend my sympathy that you face this sort of thing when doing such a harmless and enjoyable thing for us each week. Apparently some think monumental disruptions to civilization itself are at stake. Most of us skip automatically questions that don't concern us, such as restaurants in Iceland.
79 • Rational responses to silly responses (by That Mr B on 2025-10-16 17:37:28 GMT from United Kingdom)
@78 - There speaks the voice of reason.
80 • Ubuntu poll (by historyb on 2025-10-16 20:10:52 GMT from United States)
I like both budgie and unity though I use Mint
Number of Comments: 80
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| • Issue 1169 (2026-04-20): Lakka 6.1, free software and source-based distributions, FreeBSD Foundation publishes compatible laptop list, Debian holds Project Leader election, Haiku progresses ARM64 port, Mint to extend development cycle, Linux 7.0 released |
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| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
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| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
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| • 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 |
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| • 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 |
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| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Progeny Debian
Founded in March 2000, Progeny Linux Systems develops Linux-based software and services for networking computing environments. Progeny Componentized Linux was a new kind of Linux "distribution", built bottom-up as a set of interchangeable parts that closely track their counterpart "upstream" open-source projects, rather than top-down as a monolithic, difficult-to-change whole. By being constructed in this fashion, the componentized Linux was easier to customise and modify than traditional Linux distributions.
Status: Discontinued
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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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