 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1146, 3 November 2025 |
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Welcome to this year's 44th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
In recent weeks we have seen large numbers of Internet services knocked off-line due to Amazon's and Microsoft's cloud services suffering from downtime. With so many important pieces of infrastructure tied to just a few companies it understandably has people searching for self-hosting options. This week we begin with a look at StartOS, a server distribution for home users which is designed to be easy to set up and use. We report on what features are available in StartOS's latest development release and talk about pieces still waiting to be put into place. StartOS offers users a web-based approach to managing servers and, while this is one popular way to perform system administration, there are other approaches, including remote command line access and even remote desktop options. Let us know your preferred system administration approach in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about Canonical offering official Ubuntu credentials for people who would like to be able to prove to employers they know how to run an Ubuntu system. We also talk about Red Hat and SUSE ramping up their AI-focused product offerings while the Ubuntu Unity project falls behind and requests assistance from developers who like the Unity desktop. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about whether programs connected with a pipe run sequentially or in parallel and how to tell. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: StartOS 0.4.0
- News: Ubuntu Unity calls for aid, Canonical offer Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA to provide access to AI tools, SUSE plans to ship AI agent with SLE 16
- Questions and answers: Do piped programs run sequentially or in parallel?
- Released last week: Fedora 43, TrueNAS 25.10.0, OpenIndiana 2025.10, Bazzite 43, Unraid OS 7.2.0, Besgnulinux 3-1, Sculpt 25-10, AerynOS 2025.10, NebiOS 10.0
- Torrent corner: Fedora, KDE neon
- Upcoming releases: SUSE Linux Enterprise 16, FreeBSD 15.0-RC1
- Opinion poll: Preferred method for managing a server?
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
StartOS 0.4.0
StartOS is a Debian-based Linux distribution intended to be run on personal servers. It facilitates the discovery, installation, network configuration, service configuration, data backup, dependency management, and health monitoring of self-hosted software services. After installation, the distribution boots into a Firefox browser. The server can be accessed locally, across a network, or from anywhere in the world via Tor network's Onion service.
I have been wanting to try out a new version of StartOS for several months, but the latest stable version (0.3.x) was published about two years ago (in November 2023) and I was hoping for something more current, based on Debian 13. While there is not (at the time of writing) any stable release of StartOS which uses the Debian 13 base, there have been regular development releases of the upcoming 0.4.0 branch of StartOS. I decided to test drive one of these alpha snapshots, aware that I was trading potential in-development problems in exchange for a more modern Debian base.
The ISO file for the alpha snapshot I downloaded was 1.7GB in size. StartOS is available in builds for x86_64 machines and ARM processors and it includes download options for Raspberry Pi computers. The builds are split into regular and "non-free" editions. I couldn't find an explanation for what the specific differences were between the editions, but I suspect the non-free builds include firmware or drivers the regular edition does not. I decided to download the non-free flavour of StartOS for x86_64 systems.
Installing
StartOS boots from its ISO image and starts a graphical environment. Then the system launches Firefox and displays a local web page where we are asked to select a disk. The disk we select will hold the StartOS operating system. Once we select a disk to use the web page warns StartOS will wipe the drive and take over the whole disk. It then asks if we wish to proceed. I appreciate that the install process asks before wiping an entire drive, it gives us a chance to "back out and backup" before trying out the distribution.
My first time through the install experience, the process failed and reported that the mkfs.vfat program could not open a partition, though it did not report why. I was asked to pick another disk to use. I picked the same drive and, the second time through, the process completed successfully. Installing StartOS only took about 20 seconds, once my drive had been successfully accepted and wiped. When the distribution had finished copying itself to my drive Firefox displayed a button to restart the server.
Early impressions
The first time StartOS boots it immediately launches Firefox in full screen mode, like a kiosk. The page the browser loads asks if we want to set up a fresh system or restore settings from a backup of an earlier system. Proceeding with a fresh, new approach, the web service then asks which drive or partition to use for the system.
The wording on this screen confused me at first because I had already installed the distribution and handed it a storage drive. Further, the screen showed just two options, the server's DVD drive (which was empty) and a partition on the drive StartOS had taken over in the previous step. When I selected the latter option the setup wizard told me the partition (which StartOS had created) was too small to use. The error message did not say how large the partition should be.
Left in the dark, I experimented by using another distribution's live mode to format a partition on another drive and hope it would be detected. Luckily, it was and was deemed large enough by StartOS's wizard to use (it seems to want a partition that is in the range of 64GB or larger).
The setup wizard then asked me to make up a password for the administrator account. The password must be at least 12 characters in length, but there are no requirements regarding the complexity or contents of the password. In other words, "hfe7p4b%9A" is a bad password in StartOS's view, but "password1234" is suitable. The web-based wizard then reports it is setting up the data partition we provided it and, a short time later, a red, Matrix-style series of falling characters appeared on the screen. The browser appears to restart itself and then we are shown a login page.
The login page asks us for a password, but not a username. It seems, for the purposes of web-based access, we can sign in only as the administrator. There is no option for signing into the web portal as a regular user to check the status of the system or run applications.
When we sign into the web portal (either from the local server's copy of Firefox directly or remotely using a web browser), we are shown the distribution's marketplace. This marketplace (or software centre) was empty at the time of writing. I suspect it will be populated later in the development cycle, but for now there are no packages available to download. We can see categories of software which the project plans to provide. These include: AI, Bitcoin, Communications, Data, Featured, and Lightning. There seems to be a particular focus on modern hype (for "AI" and "Bitcoin") while everything else (anything ranging from potential cloud storage to file transfers to an office suite) will be lumped under generic terms like "Data" and "Communications".
StartOS 0.4.0 -- The software marketplace
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Exploring the web interface
The first thing I noticed while using the web interface was that it is unusually slow. There is a noticeable delay when clicking buttons to switch between the web portal's screens, whether we are signed into the server locally or accessing it remotely from another computer on the network.
Along the top of the browser window there are tabs we can use to access information and tools for managing the server. Apart from the (currently) empty marketplace there is a Sideload tab where we can upload packages in StartOS's custom format. These packages will then be installed for us.
There is an Updates tab where we can check for package updates. This tab appears to be checking for custom StartOS package updates only rather than underlying operating system updates. There is an option for checking for system updates under a separate tab.
There is a tab called Metrics where we can see a dashboard that shows us current CPU usage, the system's uptime, sensor temperature, storage usage, and memory consumption. A Logs tab offers to show us log output from the operating system and kernel. These logs mostly display service status and sensor data.
StartOS 0.4.0 -- The status dashboard
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One tab is labelled Notifications. During my trial this tab did not display any information, but presumably it would let us know if something significant happened or an update required our attention. A button in the upper-right corner of the screen offers to show us system settings and server shutdown options.
The Settings page, which can be accessed from the top bar or from the system menu, is the most interesting page of the web portal. It is arranged similarly to the Cockpit web administration interface and presents us with a list of settings categories down the left side of the browser window.
These categories give us access to pages of settings. There is a page for creating and restoring backups and another for changing the system language. One page offers to check for system updates. There is a page for checking domain information and enabling the Tor network service - StartOS is designed to be accessible both locally and over the Tor network using an Onion address.
StartOS 0.4.0 -- Network and domain settings
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One settings page helps us set up e-mail delivery, another handles network gateway and DNS settings, and another provides us with a method for uploading secure shell (SSH) keys for authentication.
One of the configuration pages shows us currently active login sessions and we can terminate unwelcome or stale sessions. Another page gives us the option of changing the server's admin password.
StartOS 0.4.0 -- Managing current sessions
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Something I like about the interface is many sections have arrows next to them which we can click to see documentation about the section. If we are not sure how Tor addresses work we can click the arrow next to the Tor information and it opens the Start9 on-line documentation about this feature. If we are curious about how backups work we can click the arrow on the Create Backup page and the documentation tells us all about the process. This provides convenient information without cluttering the web pages.
Other methods of connecting
The StartOS documentation and its web portal mention we can connect to the distribution's web service through the Tor network. StartOS automatically connects over Tor and displays a Onion address which can be used to access the server's web portal from any web browser that works over Tor. At least this is the theory. I tried using the provided Onion address and the connection from my browser to the server failed. My repeatedly browser timed out, reporting the Onion address could not be reached.
StartOS 0.4.0 -- Attempting to connect through the Tor network
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The OpenSSH service is enabled for us automatically and I found root could not login. Since there are no regular user accounts on the system and no user manager in the web portal I was temporarily at a loss as to how to access the server over secure shell. Luckily, the StartOS user's manual has a section on using OpenSSH which tell us the default username is "start9". We can use this and our web portal admin password to login to the server's console.
Other observations
Under the surface, StartOS is running on Debian 13 packages with version 6.12 of the Linux kernel. The underlying operating system is fairly minimal, providing just enough tools to offer a typical Linux command line experience and the web service.
There is one interesting customization to the underlying Debian system I found. When we try to run the apt package manager from the command line a warning will appear, in caps, telling us the distribution is not a normal Debian system and we should "PLEASE TURN BACK NOW!!!" The warning then explains how to disable the warning and use APT anyway, if we really want to do so. I like this approach, it tells us clearly that using standard Debian package management is a bad idea and why, but then it also explains how we can proceed. This is an excellent example of user education and empowerment.
There are not a lot of tools on the system and, at the time of writing, no web-based applications we can run. However, having OpenSSH access to the server means we can run commands, remotely check on the system's status, and transfer files. We essentially end up with a minimal version of Debian which was installed with a few mouse clicks.
Conclusions
I realize that it wouldn't be fair to try out an alpha snapshot of a distribution and then point out that it is missing key features and has some bugs. Though, at the same time, I do need to acknowledge StartOS's current alpha is missing some key features and has a couple of significant bugs. Most of these, like the lack of distro-specific applications and the Tor connection issue, will likely be fixed before the stable release of version 0.4.0.
I do think it's more reasonable for me to point out problems with the distribution which appear to be more along the lines of design concerns than specific implementation problems. A couple examples which spring to mind improve the install process and the user accounts. StartOS seems to be, effectively, a single-user system. There is just one account for accessing the web portal and there doesn't appear to be any approach, other than working from the command line, which would allow us to set up regular user accounts. This hampers our ability to set up services such as shell access, Samba shares, printing support, and cloud services. In short, it feels limiting compared to other home server distributions.
In terms of the installer, I ran into a few problems. The big one, to my mind, is the lack of information. The StartOS installer has very few steps and it is wonderfully fast, but when things go wrong it doesn't tell us why. I ran into two issues, the mkfs command failure was the first and it said it could not work with my drive, but didn't report what the error was. This issue magically disappeared on the second attempt. The other issue was the report that my data partition, which StartOS had created, was too small, but it didn't say how big the partition should be. As it turned out, the original partition would have been more than big enough to handle both the operating system and my data files, so the uninformative error also turned out to be wrong.
Software will always have bugs or limitations; it would be nice when bugs were encountered if the user could be told what went wrong and how to fix it. A cryptic error is hard to troubleshoot (for the user) and hard to fix (for the developer).
Moving from my complaints to the positive aspects of my experience, there were certainly some highlights while using StartOS. Even in its alpha stage, the distribution did install successfully and unusually quickly. The web-based interface is easy to use, and (once I read the handbook) the remote shell was easily accessible.
I also like that the web portal is uncluttered. Some remote access tools pile a lot of controls and functionality into their web interfaces. This can make it hard to find information as it hides functionality. StartOS goes in the other direction, keeping the web interface sparse while focusing on the essentials. We have networking, updates, a status dashboard, and a software manager. For a simple home server the default administration portal doesn't need much more than that. I would have liked to have seen a user manager, but otherwise all of the basics were covered in a handful of tabs. I also liked the links to documentation scattered through the interface.
StartOS 0.4.0 -- The distribution's documentation
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The wildcard, at this point, in the whole experience is the StartOS-specific applications. At the time of writing there aren't any and the categories for the future applications are limited. I think whether StartOS proves to be a useful solution for home (and small business) environments will rely a lot on how many web applications the team can provide and how much functionality they can cover. A wide range, not just AI and Bitcoin apps, would make StartOS an attractive home server option.
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Visitor supplied rating
StartOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8/10 from 1 review(s).
Have you used StartOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Ubuntu Unity calls for aid, Canonical offer Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA to provide access to AI tools, SUSE plans to ship AI agent with SLE 16
Some of our readers may have noticed that in the flood of Ubuntu 25.10 releases, Ubuntu Unity was missing from the collection of community editions. This is because the Ubuntu Unity project did not publish a 25.10 release last month when most other flavours of Ubuntu did. There is a good reason for this: the two developers who were maintaining Ubuntu Unity have, for the most part, stopped working on the project. "With me gone for a longer period and Rudra not having the time, [it] sadly resulted in bugs not getting fixed and things not getting tested properly or at all from my point of view. If I'm not mistaken the ISOs are being automatically generated and tested with no human interaction.
As you all know, we didn't have an Ubuntu Unity 25.10 stable release this time around because we found critical bugs that prevented us from marking the ISO as ready. But these bugs are also present when you upgrade from 25.04 to 25.10 or try to install the Unity desktop on top of another flavor. I also know that there's more going on since the past few releases of Ubuntu Unity from 24.10 onward which needed patching, fixing, but didn't happen due lack of time and man power. In short: It got worse, Unity is broken and needs to be fixed." The project is looking for new maintainers who can help fix the bugs and get the community edition back on track.
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People who know how to manage Ubuntu systems and would like to be able to prove this with official credentials can now get certified through Canonical Academy. "With Canonical Academy, successful candidates receive verifiable digital badges that demonstrate open source competence. Backed by Canonical, these credentials provide credible evidence of technical ability in a competitive job market." Additional information on the courses offered can be found in this blog post.
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Red Hat has announced a partnership with NVIDIA to bring GPU computing tools to Red Hat platforms, making it easier for developers to access NVIDIA video card features. A blog post on the Red Hat website states: "Engineers and data scientists shouldn't have to spend their time managing dependencies, hunting for compatible drivers, or figuring out how to get their workloads running reliably on different systems. Our new agreement with NVIDIA addresses this head-on. By distributing the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit directly within our platforms, we're removing a major point of friction for developers and IT teams. You will be able to get the essential tools for GPU-accelerated computing from a single, trusted source." The NVIDIA tools will be available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat OpenShift, and Red Hat AI.
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SUSE has announced SUSE Linux Enterprise 16, which is schedule for release on November 4th, will be the first enterprise-focused Linux distribution to include agentic AI. "SLES 16 introduces agentic AI, with an implementation of the Model Context Protocol (MCP) standard. The SUSE Linux agentic AI implementation gives enterprises a secure, extensible way to connect AI models with external tools and data sources, while preserving freedom to choose and extend their preferred AI providers without lock-in. It provides a resilient and secure foundation, combining long-term lifecycle guarantees and enterprise-grade automation." SUSE has also stated SLE 16 will receive up to 16 years of support. Further details are provided in the company's announcement.
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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) |
Do piped programs run sequentially or in parallel?
Putting-down-pipes asks: When I run a command and pipe it into another command, like "cat file | sort", does the first command finish and then the sort runs or do they run at the same time? If they run one then the other what happens if too much data gets piped to hold in memory? But if they run together how do they know when to stop reading stuff from the pipe?
DistroWatch answers: There were a few interesting questions contained in this single message and it was tempting to quickly answer them and move on, but this seemed like a good learning opportunity. Instead of answering just the questions I'd like to walk through the process of experimenting and finding out the answers as that will likely be more useful in the long run, and more applicable across multiple operating systems. After all, different operating systems (or even different shells) can exhibit different behaviours when performing similar tasks. Keeping this in mind, I want to walk through the process of how to find out this information rather than providing short answers.
Let's examine the question of whether the commands specified in a piped command run one at a time, passing information along the line as they go, or if they run in parallel. Performing an experiment to find the answer is fairly easy to do, so long as we can find at least one task that will take more than a couple of seconds to complete.
One simple task which will likely take at least four or five seconds is performing a hash on a Linux ISO file. To try this experiment, download a large distribution's ISO file, any distribution will do. Then open two virtual terminal windows.
In the first terminal window we are going to constantly show a list of terminal processes which our user is currently running. This is achieved using the watch command and the ps command. The ps command displays a list of processes we are currently running. The watch command re-runs ps every second so we can see constantly updated process information. The command looks like this:
watch -n 1 ps a
The above command basically tells the shell to run "ps a" to show all terminal commands and to keep doing that once every second. Then, in the second terminal window, we will run a piped command. In this case, I'm piping together three commands: sha256sum to hash an ISO file, sort, and grep. This doesn't do anything useful, I just picked any three commands that will technically work together. The command in the second terminal window looks like this:
sha256sum gnomeos-x86_64.iso | sort | grep gnome
Once we run the above command in the second terminal window, we can switch back to the first terminal and look for any mention of "sha256sum", "sort", or "grep". All three will appear immediately, stay for a few seconds, and then all disappear at approximately the same time. Which tells us that the shell runs the latter commands (sort and grep) while the first command (sha256um) is still running. The commands are run in parallel.
This information also tells us that, since the commands don't run in sequence, there probably isn't a worry about too much data building up in the pipe before it is processed. However, if you are wondering what happens if a lot of data does build up in a pipe, we can see that in action. Again, I recommend keeping two terminal windows open.
In the first window, run the top command. This is another process monitor which, near the top of the window, will display memory statistics. In particularly, around lines four and five, it will show memory usage and swap space usage.
In the second terminal window run a command which will try to accumulate a huge amount of data and hold it in memory. For this example, I decided to use cat to read a file and sort, which will gather all available lines of a file and then sort them in alphabetical order. To make sure the processes gather a large amount of data, I decided to read the /dev/zero file which is a virtual file that provides an endless supply of the value zero. In other words, the file is infinite in size and, since sort will wait until it gets an entire file before sorting it, the data will just build up endlessly.
Here is the command:
cat /dev/zero | sort
Fairly quickly, in probably less than five seconds, we will see memory consumption rise in the terminal window running top. Then, if our machine uses swap space, we should see swap usage rise, and then the second terminal will probably show the piped command has terminated with the message "Killed". This shows, our piped commands have gobbled up memory quickly and the data has eventually grown too large and the system has stepped in to terminate the piped commands.
Our experiment shows that piped commands can use up memory as the data in the pipe (or read from the pipe) grows and, if too much memory is consumed, an out of memory monitor (either in userspace or in the kernel) should step in and terminate the piped commands so that they don't use up all available memory and bring the system to its knees.
Lastly: how do commands know when to stop reading data from a pipe if the processes are running in parallel? We can experiment with this and, this time, we will only need one terminal window. In your terminal window run the following command:
cat - | cat -
This unusual-looking command launches the cat program and tells it, using the "-" flag, to read information in from standard input (our keyboard). Then the pipe sends whatever we type to a new cat command which will read in the data (from the pipe) and output whatever we send it. Basically, we are typing "into" one cat command and whatever we type is passed to the second cat command to be displayed on the screen. In other words, we have just made an inefficient command that copies or "echoes" anything we type. The result looks like this:
$ cat - | cat -
Hello (Enter)
Hello
World (Enter)
World
This echo will continue until we either terminate the cat commands, possibly by pressing Ctrl-C, or we send an end-of-file character. An end-of-file character is created when we type Ctrl-D. In other words, the pipe continues to stay open until the first command in the string either terminates or sends an end-of-file indicator, letting the next command know there is no more data to read from the pipe.
I think this answers all of the questions. Piped commands are run in parallel. They keep reading from the pipe until they are terminated, they finish their work, or they receive an end-of-file indicator. When a pipe (or the data read from a pipe) gets too large, the command is terminated to prevent the system from running out of RAM.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Fedora 43
Jef Spaleta has announced the launch of Fedora 43. The key highlights of the new release are a new system installer which was tested in the Workstation edition of Fedora 42 and is now available for all spins, and Wayland-only sessions on the Workstation edition. "There are, however, a few notable user visible changes in this release. For those of you installing fresh Fedora Linux 43 Spins, you may be greeted with the new Anaconda WebUI. This was the default installer interface for Fedora Workstation 42, and now it's the default installer UI for the Spins as well. If you are a GNOME desktop user, you'll also notice that the GNOME is now Wayland-only in Fedora Linux 43. GNOME upstream has deprecated X11 support, and has disabled it as a compile time default in GNOME 49. Upstream GNOME plans to fully remove X11 support in GNOME 50. Beyond the user-visible changes, there are a couple of significant bits of plumbing that should go unnoticed for most users but are a big deal, nonetheless. Fedora Linux 43 will be the first release with RPM 6.0." Additional information is presented in the release announcement and in the release notes.
Fedora 43 -- Running the GNOME desktop
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TrueNAS 25.10.0
TrueNAS 25.10.0, a specialist, Debian-based Linux distribution designed for NAS (network-attached storage) computers, has been released. This major new version introduces the NVMe over Fabric (NVMe-oF) protocol and OpenZFS 2.3.4 performance improvements: "Building on the success of TrueNAS 25.04 'Fangtooth', we're proud to release TrueNAS 25.10 'Goldeye' to deliver a powerful and user-friendly experience, cutting-edge features for enhanced performance, and simplified operations. TrueNAS 25.10 breaks free from the limitations of traditional storage protocols with NVMe over Fabric (NVMe-oF) support. NVMe-oF enables direct, high-speed access to data stored on remote arrays, effectively letting you treat storage on your TrueNAS 25.10 system as if it was a locally attached NVMe device. By removing the protocol overhead inherent in older block protocols like iSCSI and Fibre Channel, you can unlock unprecedented levels of I/O performance and significantly reduce latency. TrueNAS 25.10 integrates the latest fixes available in the OpenZFS filesystem, with a suite of substantial enhancements crucial for optimizing data management and system performance." See the release announcement and the release notes for more information.
OpenIndiana 2025.10
OpenIndiana is a community-run continuation of the open source OpenSolaris operating system. The project has published a new snapshot, OpenIndiana 2025.10, which introduces new Rust-based tools, fixes for OpenSSH, and updated web browsers. "In the last half year the following notable Changes have been made: Introduction of several Rust based utilities with the Packaged directly from crates.io. Utilities like lsd, mergiraf, ripgrep, fd and other fancy tools. Helix Editor and IDE. (Note: there may be issues in getting LSP servers but the rust one is available). Multiple Prolog Interpreters/VM's. SunRay Maintenance work and improvements. (It's still a popular way to run Desktops for Families). CVE Fixes for OpenSSH and OpenSSL (people usually get those via updates but important to mention that we keep an eye out for them). A huge number of automated Python and Perl package updates. Availability of Python 3.14 3.13, 3.12 and also 3.9. Availability of Distributed storage offerings Seaweedfs, garage and minio. SPARC support for Zabbix-server. Librewolf 144, Firefox 144, Thunderbird 144, Fish 4.0 (the one rewritten in Rust), Libreoffice 25.8.2...." A complete list of changes and fixes can be found in the project's release announcement.
Bazzite 43
Kyle Gospodnetich has announced the release of Bazzite 43, a major update of the project's Fedora-based immutable distribution designed for gamers, with a choice of GNOME or KDE Plasma desktops. This release adds support for several new handheld gaming devices, including Xbox Ally, Xbox Ally X, Legion Go 2, OneXPlayer X1 Air and SuiPlay0X1: "Today's update brings Bazzite up to Fedora 43, with new device support and under-the-hood fixes from our team. This update adds full support for the Xbox Ally, mirroring the one we have for the original Ally and Ally X units (RGB, fan curves, back buttons). For this to happen, we had to coordinate with AMD to fix sleep (as it uses the same chip as the Steam Deck), tweak the amplifier driver to drive these new amazing speakers, and fix some RGB quirks caused by the dynamic lighting feature in Windows. This support extends to the new Ally X unit as well. However, this unit features an even more powerful dual amplifier speaker setup, and we find some of you have clipping at above 80% volume. We are waiting a reply from the Texas Instruments (the company that made the amplifier) maintainers about this, so until then, exercise some restraint and stay at around 80% volume." Read the full release announcement for further details.
Unraid OS 7.2.0
Unraid OS 7.2.0 has been released. Unraid OS is a Linux-based commercial operating system designed to provide an easy-to-use and flexible platform for building and managing a Network-Attached Storage (NAS). The new version delivers a fully responsive web interface and expanded filesystem support: "Building on months of testing and feedback, this release brings major quality-of-life improvements for new and seasoned users alike. Whether you're upgrading your home lab or deploying at scale, this release brings more control, compatibility, and confidence to every system. Unraid now adapts seamlessly to any screen size. The redesigned WebGUI ensures smooth operation across desktops, tablets and mobile devices, making it easier than ever to manage your server from anywhere, with any device. You can now expand your single-vdev RAIDZ1/2/3 pools, one drive at a time. Alongside XFS, Btrfs and ZFS file systems, Unraid now supports ext2, ext3, ext4, NTFS and exFAT out of the box, making it easier to import data from external sources or legacy systems. This means you can create an array or single device pool with existing drives formatted in ext2/3/4 or NTFS, and you can format drives in ext4 or NTFS." Continue to the release announcement for further details and screenshots.
Besgnulinux 3-1
An updated build of Besgnulinux, a lightweight Debian-based distribution featuring the JWM window manager, has been released. The 3-1 version comes with a new and modern desktop menu, and a smaller set of software packages in its default state: "In this version, the base design was kept as it was, but many changes were made. Some regularly-added software has been removed from the system upon request. The ISO image file has been reduced to around 2,500 megabytes. LibreOffice, Inkscape, Games, Printer are some of the software that will not install. The installation of these software is left to the user's discretion. The ability to add items to the menu has been adapted. Users can add or remove items from the menu. A relatively modern menu has been added to the JWM menu. An image of this menu, called App Finder, can be seen below. A second menu is not required, it's simply for user preference. Another significant change is the change to the default file manager. The latest version of the PCManFM file manager, which we've been using for years, is riddled with bugs. Therefore, it has been replaced by the Nemo file manager. Nemo works well with JWM and is quite lightweight, consuming an average of 25 MB of memory. This time, the desktop is active. Spacefm is managing the desktop." See the rest of the release announcement for further details and screenshots.
Besgnulinux 3-1 -- Running the JWM interface
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Sculpt OS 25-10
Norman Feske has announced the release of Sculpt OS 25-10, the latest version of the project's independently-developed open-source operating system that combines a microkernel architecture, capability-based security, sandboxed device drivers, and virtual machines in a novel operating system for commodity PC hardware and the PinePhone: "Sculpt OS 25.10 improves performance, updates device drivers, and accepts a new human-readable configuration format. In the light of this year's roadmap focus on rigidity, clarity, performance, Sculpt OS 25.10 looks the same as the version 25.04 but might feel different as it includes countless under-the-hood improvements of the two preceding framework releases 25.05 and 25.08. User interaction on performance-starved platforms like the PinePhone has become visibly smoother thanks to our recent CPU scheduling advances. The streamlined block-storage stack combined with various refinements of the package-installation mechanism make the on-target installation of 3rd-party components a bliss. Regarding supported hardware, we steadily follow the tireless work of the Linux kernel community. All PC driver components using Linux kernel code are now consistently based on kernel version 6.12." Here is the brief release announcement.
AerynOS 2025.10
AerynOS is an independently-developed, rolling-release Linux distribution designed for general desktop use. The project has published a new snapshot, version 2025.10, which updates its three desktop environments (GNOME, COSMIC, and Plasma). This snapshot also reverts the C++ library from LLVM to the GNU implementation. "The GNOME packaging team has updated our GNOME environment to 49.1. The team has also expanded the number of available GNOME packages in our repository, and we now include Showtime and GNOME-contacts in our GNOME pkgsets accordingly. For clarity, these were added in September but were not mentioned in our previous blog post. GNOME continues to work very well on AerynOS and remains as our default live installation environment. Reilly Brogan has done a fantastic job landing KDE Plasma 6.5, KDE Gear 25.08.2 and KDE Frameworks 6.19.0 into our repository over the last month. The overall KDE Plasma experience continues to improve with users providing largely very positive feedback on its performance and fluidity on AerynOS. Over the last couple of months, KDE Plasma has now also been promoted as a recommended installation option alongside GNOME." Additional details can be found in the project's blog post.
NebiOS 10.0
NebiSoft has announced the release of NebiOS 10.0, a major new version of the project's general-purpose, Ubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution with a custom-built NebiOS Wayland compositor and various user interface enhancements. "NebiOS X 10.0 is the final release following RC4 and delivering a more stable NebiDE Wayland environment, simplified OOBE, and a migration to kisak-mesa stable drivers. This version represents the maturity and balance of the NebiOS X platform. NebiOS X arrives with the most mature and stable form of NebiDE Wayland to date. This release not only introduces refined interface elements but also brings deep, structural improvements aimed at reducing complexity and improving overall performance compared to previous builds. With NebiOS X, the X11-based NebiDE legacy era has officially come to an end. In RC4, the 'Bookmarks' section would still appear on some systems even when no directories were actually bookmarked. In 10.0, this has been corrected - if no bookmarks exist, both the group and its icon are now hidden. This change eliminates the confusion between the file manager shortcut icon and the bookmarks group within the Utility Panel. The panel now shows the group only when user-defined directories exist, resulting in a cleaner and more logical layout." See the complete release announcement for further details.
NebiOS 10.0 -- Running the NebiDE interface
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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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 method for managing a server?
This week we began with a look at StartOS, a server distribution which can be remotely controlled using a web interface. This week we would like to hear what your preferred method of managing servers is. Do you prefer the classic command line approach, a web-based interface, or something else? Let us know your favourite server management tools in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on the End of 10 event in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Favourite approach to managing a server
| Command line/OpenSSH: | 467 (34%) |
| Desktop/Remote desktop: | 112 (8%) |
| Web-based: | 142 (10%) |
| Management tools (eg Ansible): | 48 (4%) |
| Other: | 12 (1%) |
| I do not manage any servers: | 590 (43%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 10 November 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.
(Tips this week: 1, value: US$30.89) |
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| 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.
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| Random Distribution | 
IPCop Firewall
IPCop Linux was a complete Linux Distribution whose sole purpose was to protect the networks it was installed on. After seeing the direction certain Linux Distributions were heading in, a group of dissatisfied users/developers decided that there was little reason for the idea of a GPL Linux Firewall Distribution of such potential to be, simply, extinguished. By implementing existing technology, outstanding new technology and secure programming practices IPCop was the Linux Distribution for those wanting to keep their computers/networks safe. The IPCop Linux Team was dedicated to doing the very best job possible to keep your systems safe, as you can see on our site. "The Bad Packets Stop Here!"
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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