 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1144, 20 October 2025 |
|
Welcome to this year's 42nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The hype over AI-related technologies is everywhere. Elements of large language models (LLMs) are being introduced, whether users want them or not, into virtually every piece of commercial software. While sales people love to push the AI label, open source developers tend to be wary of LLM-based technologies due to licensing, environmental, and accuracy problems. This split is particularly evident in communities where business and open source ideals collide, such as inside the Fedora team. This week, in our News section, we talk about how Red Hat is putting pressure on Fedora to adopt AI-related technologies while the community is resisting the spread of tools they see as bringing more problems than solutions. Also in our News section we report on the Free Software Foundation working to bring open source drivers to mobile devices in an effort to create a "free software only" phone. Then we talk about ReactOS evolving to support newer driver models. We also report on an attack on the Xubuntu project. Before we dive into those details, we begin with a look at Kubuntu 25.10. The Kubuntu distribution was the preferred flavour of Ubuntu in last week's Opinion Poll and we share the new developments in this KDE-focused flavour of Ubuntu. Then, in our Tips and Tricks column, we discuss encrypting backups, both through a desktop application and from the command line. Do you encrypt your file archives? Let us know in the Poll below. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: Kubuntu 25.10
- News: Fedora community debates inclusion of AI, Free Software Foundation plans to bring free software drivers to select mobile devices, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to attack
- Tips and tricks: Creating and restoring encrypted backups
- Released last week: Peppermint OS 2025-10-12, FunOS 25.10, Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", Zorin OS 18, Mobian 13.0, AnduinOS 1.4.0
- Torrent corner: AnduinOS, KDE neon, Linux Mint, Tails
- Upcoming releases: FreeBSD 15.0-BETA3
- Opinion poll: Encrypted backups
- Reader comments
|
| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Kubuntu 25.10
A little over a week ago Canonical published Ubuntu 25.10 and, in its wake, the many community editions followed. I wanted to try out one of the flavours of Ubuntu, mostly to test the distribution's migration to Rust-based utilities. Specifically, the sudo command has been replaced with an equivalent written in Rust and the core GNU command line utilities (coreutils) have been replaced with Rust-based alternatives.
Some people see the move to utilities written in Rust as a positive move toward avoiding common software bugs by using a memory-safe language (Rust instead of C). Others view the move as an opportunity by Canonical to replace GPL-licensed software with more liberally licensed alternatives. Whatever the motivation, I was curious to see if the new utilities would be good drop-in replacements for the GNU core programs and the original sudo tool.
I was not picky about which flavour of Ubuntu I used for my trial. I was not planning to focus on the desktop environment and, under the surface, most of the Ubuntu editions are similar. Ultimately, I ended up installing Kubuntu - it was one of the earlier community projects to publish a release announcement and its announcement was one of the few which provided useful details about what was in version 25.10.
Kubuntu 25.10, like the other flavours of Ubuntu, provides just nine months of security updates. The latest Kubuntu release offers users KDE Plasma 6.4 on the desktop and version 6.17 of the Linux kernel. Kubuntu switched from offering Plasma running in a X11 session to Wayland with this release. Wayland is not only the default session in version 25.10, it is the only session option as X11 has been dropped from the default install.
Getting started
The ISO file for Kubuntu 25.10 is 4.6GB in size and the medium boots to a graphical environment. A screen appears which offers two drop-down menus where we can select our language preference and an available Internet connection. Buttons at the bottom of the screen invite us to try the live desktop or install the distribution.
The Try option launches Plasma and opens a welcome window. This welcome window shows us an overview of features where we can hover the mouse over common desktop widgets to see what they are. The welcome window then offers to tell us about powerful Plasma features, such as security vaults and KDE Connect. It then offers to open the Discover software centre to help us install applications. The welcome window also asks how much telemetry Plasma should send home to its developers, with the default being set to not transmitting any information.
The live Plasma desktop places a dark panel across the bottom of the screen. On the panel an application menu is located to the left and a system tray to the right. On the desktop we find a single icon which launches the system installer.
Kubuntu 25.10 -- Browsing the application menu
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Installing
Kubuntu uses the Calamares system installer. On the first screen we are asked to pick our language from a drop-down list. There are buttons on this first screen for accessing on-line support and sending donations to the project. Neither button does anything when clicked.
The following steps of the installer ask us to pick our timezone and keyboard layout. Then we are asked if we want to set up a Minimal, Full, or Normal install. This determines which sets of packages will be installed on the computer. A Minimal install includes the base system, plus a bare bones version of Plasma. A Normal install adds some common applications on top of the Minimal layer, such as a web browser, office suite, and media players. The Full package set includes everything from the Normal group, plus a Matrix chat client, the Krita graphics editors, and a virtual machine manager. I took the Normal option.
Partitioning is handled next. We can use a manual approach where we can manipulate partitions and assign them mount points using a point-and-click interface. There is also a guided partitioning approach which will set up Kubuntu on a single ext4 filesystem with a swap file. We can ask the installer to use XFS or Btrfs instead of ext4 if we wish. There is an option to disable swap space entirely, but no option to use a swap partition.
The final step of the installer asks us to make up a username and password. With this information provided the installer quickly copies its packages to our system and then it offers to restart the computer.
Early impressions
Kubuntu boots to a graphical login screen. From there we ca sign into the Plasma desktop running on Wayland; this is in the only login option. The same welcome window from the live session appears the first time we sign into our account, offering a tour and quick access to the Discover software centre.
The desktop was fairly calm and quiet when I started using it. There was a little lag occasionally, but nothing too serious. The Plasma desktop worked well for me and mostly stayed out of the way while I was using it.
Kubuntu 25.10 -- Changing power settings
(full image size: 999kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Hardware
I found Kubuntu ran well in VirtualBox. The distribution integrated well into the virtual environment and the system was responsive. When running on my laptop the distribution was able to boot in both UEFI and Legacy BIOS modes. While Kubuntu's live environment booted quickly inside VirtualBox, it was unusually slow when booting on my laptop. I was able to solve a Rubik's Cube in less time than it took Kubuntu to boot from a thumb drive, though it was eventually successful.
On my laptop all of my keyboard shortcut keys worked, as did my touchpad, networking, and audio. Taps on the touchpad were recognized as clicks and scrolling used the "normal" mouse behaviour/direction, which was appreciated. My screen was set at a light level which was too dim to start, but I could adjust the brightness using my keyboard shortcuts or through the desktop's System Settings panel.
Kubuntu 25.10 -- Running Firefox
(full image size: 960kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
A fresh install of Kubuntu uses about 8.1GB of disk space, plus some space for a swap file if we enable it. The Plasma desktop uses an unusually large amount of RAM, about 1.4GB just to sign into the desktop. This puts Kubuntu's memory usage at about double what distributions running Plasma 5 consume and around triple what lighter desktops (such has LXQt) tend to use.
Included software
Kubuntu, when it is installed with the Normal software set, provides users with Plasma 6.4, the Firefox web browser, and Thunderbird e-mail client. We are also given the NeoChat Matrix client, the LibreOffice suite, and KDE's Help browser. The Dolphin file manager is available along with multiple system monitors and a couple of small games.
Plasma's powerful System Settings panel is provided to help us customize the desktop. I found an image viewer and a document viewer installed on the system. Kubuntu ships with the Haruna video player and Elisa audio player. Elisa worked for me, it was a little slow to load and start playing new files, but otherwise the player was fine. Haruna was unable to play video files properly, showing a blank screen with audio in the background. This is a common issue I have with a few (though not all) video players running on Wayland.
Kubuntu 25.10 -- KDE Help and the manual page for ls
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Digging into the lower levels of Kubuntu we can find manual pages for installed software and systemd for managing the system. Version 6.17 of the Linux kernel is installed for us. Some of the command line tools are provided by GNU and some are provided by the uutils project which re-implements the GNU core utilities in Rust. I'm not sure why there is a mixture, as opposed to using all the tools from uutils. On Kubuntu 25.10 the copy and move (cp and mv) commands are provided by GNU, but many others (including date, dd, ls, and cat) are from uutils.
When we try to run a program from the shell which is not available on the distribution (but is available in the project's repositories) the shell will display the appropriate APT command for installing the missing package. This happens quickly and does not noticeably slow down interactions on the command line.
Software management
There are a few approaches we can take to managing software packages on Kubuntu. Most people will probably find the Discover software centre is suited to the job. Discover provides a nice, graphical interface for managing Snap packages and applications provided by classic Deb packages. Oddly enough Snap bundles are handled through Discover even though the Snap repository is not shown as being enabled on the Discover Settings screen.
Kubuntu 25.10 -- Finding new applications in Discover
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
In the Settings tab, Discover offers to install/enable Flathub support too. I clicked the button to enable Flatpak/Flathub, but Discover still only showed Deb "From Ubuntu" packages and Snap packages once Flathub had been enabled. There is no option for downloading software from Flathub once we've asked Discover to enable the Flathub repository. I discovered this is because Discover does successfully install the Flatpak software, but does not complete the process by enabling the Flathub repository. To enable Flathub I had to close Discover, re-launch it, then return to the settings tab and click another button to connect with Flathub. Then, once we have enabled the Flathub repository, Flatpak packages cannot be installed. This appears to be an issue with Ubuntu's AppArmor profiles and Canonical is working on a fix at the time of writing.
Alongside Discover, we can also manage software from the command line using APT (for Deb packages) and snap for Snap packages. Firefox and Thunderbird are both installed as Snap bundles. In a circular bit of packaging, the snapd service for managing Snap packages is also installed as a Snap bundle.
Kubuntu 25.10 -- Getting a list of Snap packages
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Other observations
After using Kubuntu for a while I started to notice a few things that I'd like to share. Most of these observations focus on running the Plasma desktop on a regular basis.
One feature of Plasma which I found to be a problem was the way the desktop kept dimming if it was left inactive for five minutes. This meant if I was reading, studying, comparing code, or taking notes of things on the screen the screen would go dark while I was using it. This is an annoying feature and, while it might save some energy on laptops, it's not a good default for people who use their computers for work. Fortunately this feature can be disabled in the settings panel.
In Kubuntu's release announcement it states: "Wayland is now the go-to session for superior graphics rendering, reduced latency, and enhanced security." I'm not going to weigh in on the security issues Wayland does (or doesn't) address, however I do want to point out Plasma's Wayland session introduces visible latency and worse rendering. There is visible lag when using the Wayland session compared to Plasma running X11. Also, using Wayland introduces visible artifacts on the screen. This is particularly noticeable when moving the mouse quickly as it results in a "mouse tail", like people might have experienced when running early versions of Windows.
Kubuntu 25.10 -- Trying Plasma's dark theme
(full image size: 860kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Further, sometimes there would be two mouse pointers on the screen, one in the classic arrow shape and, when moving the mouse over text, a second text cursor shape. These two pointers would then move around the window together. This looks terrible and it's not just a side-effect of one type of video card. I tested Kubuntu on another machine, with a different brand of video card, and encountered the same janky behaviour. Plasma's Wayland implementation is not ready for mainstream use - it is too slow and visibly looks worse. Making it the default for Kubuntu 25.10 was premature.
Earlier I mentioned some command line tools have transitioned from GNU to their Rust-based equivalents. This move appears to have been completed successfully. Apart from having different manual pages, the new commands look and work the same as the GNU tools they are replacing.
Conclusions
Throughout my trial with Kubuntu I found my thoughts swinging back and forth, pendulum-like, between being impressed with some of the technical work which has gone into the 25.10 release and being dismayed that some of these issues made it through the beta phase. Perhaps no one is using the new "snapshot" development releases Canonical has implemented this year? That would explain some of the obvious bugs, like the inability to install Flatpak bundles which was reported within hours of the stable version becoming available.
On the one side, we have some tricky migrations such as the move from GNU's core utilities to the new Rust-based alternatives. The migration of sudo and the core utilities both seem to have gone well and I didn't encounter any issues at all with this change. There may be little incompatibilities lurking under the surface, but if they are there, I didn't run into them.
On the other side of things, Plasma 6.4 is one of the heaviest desktop environments I have ever used and its Wayland implementation is one of the buggiest I have run in the past five years. This isn't a hardware compatibility issue with Wayland, in case you're wondering. While writing this I'm also running Linux Mint Debian Edition 7 with Cinnamon running in a Wayland session; its Wayland implementation is virtually flawless and smooth on the same hardware. These issues are specific to Plasma, or at least the Plasma packages available through Kubuntu.
The live session and installer are well done on Kubuntu and the distribution is easy to set up. On the other hand, there were multiple problems with package management. Flatpak doesn't work at all, Discover pulls in Snap packages even when they are disabled in Discover's settings, and the Snap bundles of Firefox & Thunderbird are massive. I don't want to fetch a few hundred megabytes of packages every time my e-mail client updates; this is just a waste of bandwidth and disk space.
Plasma has a great settings panel and I like that System Settings makes it fairly easy to change the behaviour of the desktop. On the other hand, I wish Plasma used better defaults so I didn't need to keep going back to the settings panel to change screen dimming, disable annoying sounds, and reduce visual effects.
In short, Kubuntu does some things well, but it has some obvious bugs which should have been caught in testing and the Plasma implementation here is sub-par. I enjoyed getting to test drive the Rust-based utilities, but I wouldn't recommend this desktop experience for a regular computer user.
* * * * *
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
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
Kubuntu has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.2/10 from 126 review(s).
Have you used Kubuntu? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Fedora community debates inclusion of AI, Free Software Foundation plans to bring free software drivers to select mobile devices, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to attack
Earlier this year Jesse Smith talked about debates and conflicts in the open source community, in particular the growing rift between commercial interests in the Linux ecosystem and how they conflict with community interests. Then, about a month ago, we talked about how to avoid distributions which include AI tools and pointed out one of the easiest ways to do this is to use community distributions instead of commercial ones. As if to drive home this point, the Fedora project, which is sponsored by Red Hat, is engaged in a long debate about the use of AI and the inclusion of AI tools. The LWN publication reports: "There appears to be a growing tension between what Red Hat and IBM would like to see from Fedora versus what its users and community contributors want from the project. Red Hat and IBM have already come down in favor of AI as part of their product strategies, the only real questions are what to develop and offer to the customers or partners. The Fedora community, on the other hand, has quite a few people who feel strongly against AI technologies for various ethical, practical, and social reasons. The results, so far, of turning people loose with generative AI tools on unsuspecting open-source projects has not been universally positive. People join communities to collaborate with other people, not to sift through the output of large language models. It is possible that Red Hat will persuade Fedora to formally endorse a policy of accepting AI-assisted content, but it may be at the expense of users and contributors."
The LWN article includes several quotes, including one from Graham White of IBM, who claims to have never come across an example of "AI slop" despite claiming to have 20 years of experience in the AI field. There are also a few quotes from Mike McGrath of Red Hat who claims he wants Fedora to have "a more aggressive approach to AI." Since IBM, through Red Hat, controls the flow of money into Fedora, it seems likely the reluctant Fedora developers will eventually need to adopt Red Hat's push to include AI in their work.
* * * * *
The Free Software Foundation has announced plans to improve the state of free software on mobile devices. The Foundation hopes to find phones with relatively low reliance on non-free drivers and firmware and then replace those elements with free software alternatives. "Triaging existing packages and device compatibility to find a phone with the fewest, most fixable freedom problems is the first step. From there, the FSF and Savoye aim to reverse-engineer and replace the remaining non-free software. Librephone will serve existing developers and projects who aim to build a fully functioning and free (as in freedom) Android-compatible OS." Additional details can be found in the FSF's announcement.
* * * * *
The ReactOS project develops an open source, binary-compatible alternative to Microsoft Windows. One of the challenges the project faces is the fact Windows continues to evolve and so ReactOS must also decide which elements and which versions of Windows to emulate. In an interesting dive into this evolution and display drivers, one of the ReactOS developers talks about compatibility with the Window Display Driver Model (WDDM). "As ReactOS gazes towards the world of Vista and beyond, a few questions about how hardware works emerge. Vista introduced massive overhauls to how hardware drivers are written and maintained. Gradually we're trying to handle many of these overhauls with great success. Today we talk about WDDM, or the Windows Display Driver Model." The fun, technical details are in the project's blog post.
* * * * *
The Xubuntu project suffered from an attack this weekend which some users reported caused the download link for Xubuntu 25.10 to redirect to an archive containing Windows malware. The Xubuntu project has since taken down the link and redirected their download page to point to the Xubuntu front page. At the time of writing the project has not posted about the incident on their blog or website.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
Creating and restoring encrypted backups
Someone asked if we would provide a tutorial for creating (and restoring) encrypted backups. Having a backup of important files is a good idea as storage drives can be damaged, stolen, or erased without warning. Ideally, we should keep multiple backups - at least one locally for convenience and another remotely in case of theft or a natural disaster.
I would like to talk about two options for creating encrypted backups. One approach will use a simple, easy to use desktop application called Deja Dup. The second approach will utilize commonly available command line tools to both compress and encrypt the backup.
* * * * *
Deja Dup a member of the GNOME family of applications, though it can run on any desktop environment. The Deja Dup application is available in most distributions' repositories and can also be installed as a Flatpak bundle.
The Deja Dup application is designed to be streamlined and easy to use. Deja Dup will prompt us to select a directory we wish to backup (it defaults to our entire home directory) and we have the option of excluding directories we do not wish to archive. This allows us to backup almost everything while ignoring our Trash folder, cache, and miscellaneous downloads. The only other information we need to provide is to select where we want to send our backup, for example to a local folder or to a cloud storage provider.
We will not see any information or prompts about encryption while we are selecting what to backup and where to send the snapshot of our data. Once we click a button to start the backup process Deja Dup will ask if we want to protect our data with an encryption password. We will be asked to enter the password twice (to confirm we typed it correctly) and then the backup will be created, encrypted, and (optionally) sent to the cloud storage provider of our choosing.
Running Deja Dup
(full image size: 50kB, resolution: 650x460 pixels)
To restore a backup later we can launch Deja Dup, click the Restore tab at the top of the window, and select the snapshot we want to retrieve. If the backup was protected by a password then we will be asked to type it. Since the data in the archive is unreadable without the password we should make sure the password is something we can remember or retrieve easily.
Once we have provided the correct password we will be shown a list of files in the backup and we can select the ones we wish to restore.
* * * * *
Next, let's look at a command line approach to working with encrypted archives, which is helpful if you want to work in an environment without a desktop or want a solution you can script.
Before we get started, we will need to create a text file and put our password it in. Open your preferred text editor, write your password on a single line, and then save the file. In this example, I will assume the text file containing our password is called password.txt.
Now we can run a shell command to create a backup archive and encrypt it. The following command uses the tar program to create an archive of a directory. This archive information is then sent through a pipe (|) to the gpg program which will encrypt our data with a password. The gpg program finishes by creating a new backup file called backup.tar.gz.gpg. This file's long extension is intended to reflect the layers of the process - a tar archive (.tar), which has been compressed (.gz), and then encrypted (.gpg). Here is the full command:
tar czf - MyDirectory | gpg -c --batch --passphrase-file=password.txt > backup.tar.gz.gpg
This command is long and complicated which is why I recommend putting it in a text file and treating the whole command as a script.
Once the backup.tar.gz.gpg archive has been created, we can copy it or upload it to wherever we wish. Later, to restore our backup, we can perform the reverse process. We first use gpg to decrypt the backup and then pass it to tar (through a pipe) to output the contents of the archive. The command looks like this:
gpg -d --batch --passphrase-file=password.txt backup.tar.gz.gpg | tar xzf -
The above command will unpack the archive into the current directory. Because of this, I recommend running the command in a sub-directory or temporary directory, not in our home directory where the archive might overwrite something important. We can then browse through the files and copy the ones we need. Since it's a long command, it's probably worthwhile to save it as a text file and run it as a shell script.
The above extraction method assumes we want to unpack the entire backup into our current directory. However, if we want to just decrypt the archive and browse it using any archive manager of our choice, we can run the following command:
gpg -d --batch --passphrase-file=password.txt backup.tar.gz.gpg > unprotected.tar.gz
The above command does not unpack the archive, it only decrypts the archive so it may be browsed and files may be extracted using any common archive manager.
There are a few additional points I want to mention about the command line encryption and decryption processes. The first is that it's important to keep your password.txt safe, or even delete it between uses. Make sure it is deleted or saved somewhere only you can read it. If your password falls into the wrong hands it will undo all the protection of encrypting your files.
The second point I want to mention is that, if we are running the gpg program on a computer with a desktop environment, we do not need to specify the flags "--batch --passphrase-file=password.txt". When these are omitted, gpg will pop-up a window on our desktop asking us to type our password. This makes for a shorter shell command, but it only works when we have a graphical interface. If we are working on a server with no desktop environment, we need to use the longer version of the command with "--batch --passphrase-file=password.txt", otherwise an error will be shown indicating gpg was unable to collect a password from us.
When we provide a password to gpg it will, by default, save our password in its cache for later use. This means gpg will remember our password and use it automatically if we try to restore the backup later on the same computer. This is convenient, but some people might not feel comfortable having gpg remember their backup password.
We can tell gpg to forget the password we made up by passing the flag --no-symkey-cache to gpg when we create our backup. The full command, run on a system with a desktop environment, looks like this:
tar czf - MyDirectory | gpg -c --no-symkey-cache > mybackup.tar.gz.gpg
This way, when we decrypt the backup file, we will need to provide the password, even if we are logged into the same computer which created the backup.
* * * * *
Additional tips can be found in our Tips and Tricks archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
Peppermint OS 2025-10-12
The developers of Peppermint OS, a minimalist, Debian-based Linux distribution with Xfce as the preferred desktop, have announced the release of a new Peppermint OS build, now based on Debian 13: "We are very happy to announce the release of Peppermint OS 'Flagship' based on Debian 'Trixie'. The flagship Peppermint OS is an Xfce desktop that lets you choose the applications you need. This keeps your system efficient and uncluttered. It is 64-bit, featuring the familiar Peppermint experience with only the essentials pre-installed. Changes: added icon recognition in pftech, it display the icon theme name; removed the transition message from fetching to pfetch; upgraded Calamares to use Qt 6 and well as QML 6; the 'Suggested Packages' GUI was adjusted to use switch toggles to install applications, no more terminal interaction; the community requested to have the Brave browser added, as an option in the Browsers category for install in 'Suggested Packages'; the base operating system is now Debian 'Trixie', all of those updates and changes have been applied; the new feature introduced in hBlock version 3.5.1 is the addition of the ability to retry multiple times when running; this is controlled via the new options -n or --retry which allow hBlock to attempt its operation multiple times in case of failure or interruption." See the release announcement and the release notes for further information.
Peppermint OS 2025-10-12 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 2.1MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
FunOS 25.10
A new version of FunOS, an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution featuring the lightweight JWM window manager, is now available. FunOS 25.10 is based on Ubuntu 25.10 and it brings Linux kernel 6.17, new wallpapers and splash screen, and Rust-based system components: "FunOS 25.10 is the latest release of the FunOS GNU/Linux distribution, based on Ubuntu 25.10 'Questing Quokka'. This release brings performance improvements, modern system components, and new Rust-based implementations of core system tools for improved security and stability - all while maintaining the lightweight, fast, and elegant experience FunOS is known for. What's new? FunOS 25.10 inherits the stability, updated packages and core improvements from Ubuntu 25.10, with refinements for speed and simplicity; this release ships with the Linux 6.17 kernel, offering enhanced hardware support, improved power efficiency, and performance optimizations for modern processors and GPUs; the latest Firefox Extended-Support Release (ESR) provides a stable and secure web browsing experience, ideal for users who value long-term support and reliability; FunOS 25.10 introduces 5 new wallpapers sourced from Adobe Stock, giving your desktop a fresh and elegant visual style...." Continue to the release announcement for more details.
Linux Mint 7 "LMDE"
The Linux Mint project has announced the release of Linux Mint Debian Edition 7, codename "Gigi". The new release is based on Debian 13 "Trixie" and includes the same Cinnamon desktop and applications as the regular, Ubuntu-based Linux Mint edition. "The team is proud to announce the release of LMDE 7 'Gigi'. LMDE is a Linux Mint project which stands for 'Linux Mint Debian Edition'. Its goal is to ensure Linux Mint would be able to continue to deliver the same user experience, and how much work would be involved, if Ubuntu was ever to disappear. LMDE is also one of our development targets, to guarantee the software we develop is compatible outside of Ubuntu. LMDE aims to be as similar as possible to Linux Mint, but without using Ubuntu. The package base is provided by Debian instead. Important info: the release notes provide important information about known issues, as well as explanations, workarounds and solutions. Linux Mint 7 comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop experience more comfortable." Additional information and a link to upgrade instructions for LMDE 6 users can be found in the release announcement.
Zorin OS 18
The Zorin OS distribution has a new update and a new look. Zorin OS 18 features new themes, new layouts, OneDrive integration, and includes a Web Apps tool to integrate web-based software into the desktop. It also includes a new, improved way to tile application windows: "Multitasking just got a whole lot better. Zorin OS 18 introduces a powerful new default window tiling manager that helps you work more efficiently, while being simple to use. Simply drag a window to the top of the screen, and a pop-up will appear where you can drop it on one of the predefined layouts to arrange your windows. It's that easy, no need to memorise complex keyboard shortcuts. Create your own tiling layouts. Customise tiling behaviour from Zorin Appearance, Windows, Advanced Window Tiling. Enable optional auto tiling and smart window suggestions. Use powerful key bindings and set custom keyboard shortcuts. This feature makes advanced window tiling intuitive for both newcomers and power users, boosting productivity for everyone." Additional information and screenshots can be found in the release announcement.
Zorin OS 18 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 4.4MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Mobian 13.0
The Mobian team has announced the release of Mobian 13.0, a major update of the project's port of the Debian distribution, running the mainline Linux kernel, to smartphones and tablets. It comes in two user interface variants (Phosh and Plasma Mobile) and is available for various popular devices as well as standard 64-bit computers. "Over two years in the making, and with a small delay following the Debian release, we're proud to finally announce that Mobian 'Trixie' has just been released and is therefore our new stable. This release offers images based on Phosh 46.0 and Plasma Mobile 6.3, running a 6.12 kernel for almost all supported devices (the Librem 5 is still using a 6.6 kernel), the list of which is growing as we now provide stable images for the following phones and tablets: PINE64 PinePhone, PinePhone Pro and PineTab, Purism Librem 5, Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL, OnePlus 6 and 6T, Xiaomi Pocophone F1. 'Trixie' images are also available for the following devices, although important hardware features (such as e.g. WiFi or audio) are not working: Fairphone 4 and 5, PINE64 PineTab 2, SHIFT6mq." Read the release announcement and the installation instructions for more information.
AnduinOS 1.4.0
The AnduinOS team has announced the release of AnduinOS 1.4.0, the latest version of the project's Ubuntu-based Linux distribution that offers a familiar and easy-to-use experience for anyone moving to Linux. The new version is based on Ubuntu 25.10 and uses GNOME 49 as the preferred desktop. "AnduinOS has always been built on Ubuntu and one of our core commitments is to keep pace with Ubuntu's release cycle. Whenever a new version of Ubuntu is released, we synchronously roll out a new version of AnduinOS. Now, just over a month after the release of Ubuntu 25.10 'Questing', this version brings a massive number of user experience improvements, such as the complete removal of X11, the new Pytxis terminal, GNOME 49, Linux 6.17, and sudo-rs, among others. These exciting changes significantly enhance the user experience and now, they have fully landed in AnduinOS. Therefore, we are extremely proud to announce the official release of AnduinOS 1.4. This version is built on the latest compilation of Ubuntu 25.10 and is designed to catch up with the latest upstream changes." Read the rest of the release announcement for further information and upgrade instructions.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 3,315
- Total data uploaded: 48.5TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Encrypted backups
This week our Tips and Tricks column talked about encrypting archives. This is a useful technique for protecting backups, especially if we plan to store them in remote locations. This week we would like to hear whether our readers encrypt backups. Let us know which backup and/or encryption tools you use in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on preferred Ubuntu flavours in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Do you encrypt your backups?
| Yes - all of them: | 201 (15%) |
| Yes - just the ones going offsite: | 171 (12%) |
| No - none: | 765 (56%) |
| What backups?: | 241 (17%) |
|
|
| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 27 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)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 2, value: US$17) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Star
Star is a desktop-oriented Linux distribution based on Devuan GNU+Linux. Star is available in a range of editions, each featuring a lightweight desktop environment. Star is small enough to fit on a CD and uses SysV init software.
Status: Dormant
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
