 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1148, 17 November 2025 |
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Welcome to this year's 46th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Now that Microsoft's Windows 10 has reached the end of its supported life and Windows 11 requires, in many cases, a hardware upgrade, many people are looking for alternatives. Some former Windows users are exploring beginner friendly Linux distributions and, in particular, looking for distributions which make migrating easier. This week we begin with a look at Zorin OS, a distribution which intentionally mimics other operating systems, such as Windows and macOS, in order to feel familiar to new users. Read on to learn more about Zorin OS and its features. In our News section we talk about postmarketOS unifying its documentation and updating its user interfaces while OpenBSD polishes its upgrade experience. Meanwhile, Canonical extends Ubuntu support to 15 years as a part of its Ubuntu Pro service. We also report on NetBSD experimenting with sandboxing technology to isolate processes. Do you use any sandbox tools? Let us know if you run processes in a sandbox in this week's Opinion Poll. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we discuss how to rename and delete files which contain strange characters in their names. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: Zorin OS 18
- News: NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD makes system upgrades more resilient, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu, Debian publishes updated media for Trixie
- Questions and answers: Deleting a file with a weird name
- Released last week: Volumio 4.067, SparkyLinux 8.1, Nitrux 5.0.0, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.1 and 9.7
- Torrent corner: Debian, Debian Edu, KDE neon, SparkyLinux, Tails
- Upcoming releases: FreeBSD 15.0-RC2
- Opinion poll: Using a sandbox
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jeff Siegel) |
Zorin OS 18
The first thing to know about Zorin 18, the new release of the Ubuntu-based distro, is that the panels have rounded corners.
Which, for anyone who has spent entirely too much time tweaking CSS to get rounded panel corners that never seem to be quite rounded, is reason enough to be excited about the new version. That most of the rest of Zorin 18 is as impressive is just more good news. There are some irritations - related, not surprisingly, to its use of the GNOME desktop - but Zorin 18 is almost all anyone could ask for in a Linux distribution - sleek, good-looking, snappy, and straightforward.
In this, the Zorin developers are betting big on luring Windows 10 users who don't want to waste hundreds of dollars on hardware upgrades to use Windows 11. As such, 18 Core, as it is called, is focused on making the transition as easy as possible, with similar theming and desktop layouts as well as a unique approach to running Windows apps on Linux. How about a Linux installation walk-through that uses a dedicated Windows app installer (based on WINE and Bottles) if they try to install an .exe file? Because, of course, that's what most Windows users will try to do. Sometimes, Zorin even offers suggestions for Linux apps that do the same thing, like LibreOffice in place of MS-Office.
Zorin OS 18 -- The welcome screen
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Can 18 Core accomplish this feat of enticing Windows users? The early returns are good, with Zorin Group reporting more than 100,000 downloads in just over two days, making it the distro's "biggest launch ever." And almost three-quarters of the downloads came from Windows users.
But the long-term answer lies in convincing millions of other Windows users that their computing lives won't end if they leave Windows, which is less about how good 18 Core is and more about Microsoft's stranglehold on its customers' psyche. But 18 Core is well designed and intuitive enough so that it offers them a legitimate chance if they want it.
Zorin OS 18 Pro -- Exploring the application menu
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A Zorin overview
Zorin has long been one of the best Linux distros - always graphically appealing and never hung up on being Linux-y just for the sake of being Linux-y (yes, Fedora, we're talking about you). I've run the Xfce (Lite) edition of Zorin off and on for years and have never been disappointed.
But, to be honest, I had my reservations before running 18 Core, the Zorin flagship. (The Xfce and Education spins are scheduled for new releases later this year). Most of my concern revolved around the GNOME desktop, which strikes me as a solution to a problem that never existed.
Oh ye of little faith.
Yes, the GNOME desktop remains as annoying as a yard crew using its leaf blowers even after the leaves are gone, but 18 Core works around many of the aggravations. It's not seamless - some of the GNOME extensions are as buggy as always - but most users coming from Windows won't know about extensions, let alone try to use them. The basic Zorin OS 18 Core setup, with a bottom panel and menu widget on the far left (just like Windows) will probably be enough for them.
Zorin 18 Core is a long-term release based on Ubuntu 24.04, supported until at least April 2029. The ISO download is 3.5GB, compared to 6.3GB for Ubuntu 24.04.3 and 3.0GB for Linux Mint 22.2 with the Cinnamon desktop, another popular Windows alternative. It's worth noting here that Zorin offers an 18 Core Pro version (with a 7.6GB ISO) for a one-time payment of US$47.99; more on the Pro edition later.
A VirtualBox test failed twice, once with safe graphics mode enabled. Each time it threw an error telling me to use a supported graphics device. However, this wasn't surprising, since Zorin's website documentation says it doesn't play well with virtual systems.
Installation uses a Zorin-centric version of the new, standard Ubuntu installer, and there weren't any problems. I picked language, timezone, and the rest, overwrote my previous test distro - Mint Xfce - and 10 minutes later I had 18 Core up and running. Interestingly, though my Wi-Fi settings were saved, the screen resolution wasn't, and I had to reset it to 1360x768.
Setting up the desktop
Zorin 18 Core uses GNOME 46 with Wayland (which is probably why the VirtualBox session failed) and the 6.14 kernel. Most importantly, for Windows refugees, it comes with a Zorin appearance app, which offers four ways to arrange the desktop. This includes not only two left side Windows 11 look-a-likes, but two GNOME-centric displays. The paid version offers four more, taking advantage of what seem to be built-in GNOME extensions, including Dash to Dock. The appearance app also has settings for themes and effects (even offering a desktop cube).
That's the good news. Unfortunately, when I moved the bottom panel to the top and tried to use Dash to Dock, it didn't act like a dock properly. Sometimes, I got a dock and sometimes I didn't, and it never loaded on startup despite adding it to the startup settings (which seems to be another known Zorin bug). At one point, I got the bottom panel and the dock together -- appearing on top of each other.
The software setup, though, is much cleaner, even when allowing for the GNOME software app's inability to reliably update software, be it Deb, Snap, or Flatpak. The latter two are enabled, though no Snaps seem to be installed out of the box. The software center descriptions note which is which, so while there are three Thunderbirds listed, you can tell which package format you're installing.
The Windows software installer does sort of work. The catch is that the Windows software has to work under WINE and you need a legitimate .exe file. The former means only the best-known Windows apps stand a chance of installing; I tried a couple of lesser known word processors without any luck. The latter means that an older .exe - say Outlook - probably won't work even if it installs (which happened to me), either since Microsoft doesn't support it anymore or there's something goofy with WINE or just because it's a Windows application. In fact, testing the Windows installer was problematic, since I haven't used a Windows app in more than 15 years. Hence, I don't have a subscription to whatever Microsoft calls Office these days (as well as access to other popular Windows software), so I had difficulty finding current .exe files to try.
Zorin OS 18 -- Enabling Windows application support
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Two things do work almost flawlessly: First, the installer will tell you if there is a Linux version of the Windows app, like Firefox or Thunderbird, so you don't have to mess with the .exe file. Second, when you search in the left-side menu for an app that isn't installed, like the VLC media player, the result links to the software center for installation. Which saves a lot of aggravation and is much more effective than the way it works in Windows.
Zorin OS 18 -- Offering suggestions for alternative applications
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What about the browser?
This raises the question of Zorin's new default browser, Brave, which replaced Firefox. Since the distro's goal is to make Windows users feel comfortable, it seems like an odd choice (even allowing for the privacy concerns given for the change). In my experience, Brave works as well as the rest of the world's Chromium-based browsers, but it seems entirely too geeky for wooing Windows users, who will wonder where Chrome and Edge are (in the app store as Flatpaks, actually).
Most of the rest of the software is standard for Linux distros with the GNOME desktop - LibreOffice, Files (aka Nautilus); Rhythmbox for music; the Brasero CD ripper; GNOME Camera; GNOME Videos; and the Evolution e-mail client.
Perhaps most impressive: Zorin Connect, the distro's reworked version of KDE Connect, which allows users to link their phones and computers. It worked at first try, without any problems, just like apps are supposed to work - text messages sent and accessed on the computer, sending files back and forth, and all the rest. Adding my printer worked on the first try too - no need to go through the CUPS website to find it, which I've had to do for almost every review for the past several years.
Zorin OS 18 -- Linking devices with Zorin Connect
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In addition, I was able to connect to my local Nextcloud server using Zorin's Online Accounts wizard. I can't remember that working quite that well ever before, and I didn't need to install the Nextcloud desktop app; the link to the server was in Files' shortcuts, just like any other folder.
Finally, a word about the Pro version, which Zorin's developers let me use for this review. It installed in more or less in the same manner; the biggest differences are the extra desktop layouts, more installed software, and a left-hand side window close button. The first allowed me to use a top panel and bottom dock without any problems, while the third was irritating until a bit of searching sent me to the Zorin appearances app, where I could move all the window buttons to the right. The paid version also comes with free installation support and free upgrades for the entire Zorin 18 life cycle.
Zorin OS 18 Pro -- Adjusting the layout of the desktop
(full image size: 918kB, resolution: 1368x768 pixels)
The additional software in the Pro edition is an interesting mix of the esoteric - the Blanket ambient sounds app - and the specialized, like the Handbrake video transcoder, the Darktable digital photo editor, and the Apostrophe markdown editor. These are present as well as the usual suspects, like GIMP, Audacity, and Homebank. Most don't seem to be installed in the free version, though a menu search sends users to the software app, where they can be downloaded.
Is all of this worth $47.99? Those of us who absolutely, positively must have a top panel and bottom dock will certainly think long and hard about it, though the paid version is more likely aimed at small companies. They're used to paying subscription fees, for one thing, and a one-time charge of $47.99 is nothing compared to paying $32 a month for Windows 365. Plus, the idea of support and not having to install apps like Ardour will also be appealing, especially for companies making the switch from Windows who may not be quite sure how this Linux thing works.
Zorin OS 18 Pro -- Displaying the top panel and dock
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In fact, the Zorin developers have done such a good job of making Windows users feel comfortable in switching that I was annoyed when I started using the distro. I just wanted my top panel and the Plank dock; what did I care about Windows? That 18 Core won me over after 10 days of use speaks to how well thought out it is and that it actually speaks to the ordinary computer user, whether a grandmother e-mailing pictures to her family or a cubicle worker staring at spreadsheets all day. And even the stuff that doesn't always work, like installing .exe files? They're probably used to that too, given Windows is Windows.
Perhaps the highest praise of all? Windows users who try 18 Core could easily assume that it's just a fancier version of their operating system and not something as terrifying as Linux.
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Hardware used for this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a HP EliteBook 840 G5 laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel Core i7-8550U, 1.80GHz
- Storage: 512 GB M.2 SSD
- Memory: 16GB of RAM
- Networking: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 Combo
- Display: Intel UHD Graphics 620
When he is not testing out new versions of Linux distributions, Jeff Siegel can be found writing about all things related to WINE at Wine Curmudgeon.
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Visitor supplied rating
Zorin OS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.6/10 from 337 review(s).
Have you used Zorin OS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD makes system upgrades more resilient, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu, Debian publishes updated media for Trixie
The NetBSD project may soon be gaining new sandboxing features, thanks to a Summer of Code project. Vasyl Lanko provides some background on this effort: "As of the time of writing, there is no real sandboxing technique available to NetBSD. There is chroot, which can be considered a weak sandbox because it modifies the root directory of the process, effectively restricting the process' view of the file system, but it doesn't isolate anything else, so all networking, IPC, and mounts inside this restricted file system are the same as of the system, and are accessible.
There has already been some research on implementing kernel-level isolation in NetBSD with tools like gaols, mult and netbsd-sandbox, but they haven't been merged to NetBSD. Other operating systems have their own ways to isolate programs, FreeBSD has jails, and Linux has namespaces.
The goal of this project is to bring a new way of sandboxing to NetBSD. More specifically, we want to implement a mechanism like Linux namespaces. These namespaces allow the isolation of parts of the system from a namespace, or, as the user sees it, from an application." Details on bringing sandboxing to NetBSD can be found in Lanko's report.
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The postmarketOS project has published a newsletter with highlights of progress made during the month of October. Some of the key changes being introduced are a new version of the Sxmo user interface and a new, unified documentation portal. "Previously, documentation was spread over many different places such as our website, the wiki and the various repositories of projects. This made it both hard to locate documentation when looking for it and it wasn't always clear which parts of documentation were authoritative and which ones weren't. So, what can you expect to find there? User-contributed advice and knowledge will remain in the wiki. Documentation for governance, policies and processes is now on the new website. You can also find the documentation for projects under the postmarketOS umbrella there, such as pmbootstrap or BPO, our build queue manager. Amongst other things, we've also started to add packaging documentation to pmaports and documented how to contribute to the new docs.postmarketos.org repository itself." Additional information can be found in the project's blog post.
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In the past, OpenBSD's system upgrade tool could be overly optimistic about how much disk space it had to work with on the /usr partition. A change has been introduced which will cause the upgrade tool (sysupgrade) to gracefully fail rather than fill up a partition that is too small. "If 'df /usr' says the filesystem is over 90% full, rather than potentially completely breaking the system, fail the sysupgrade. This comes with a message pointing people to read a new Sub-Section PRUNING in the manual page which will softly lead them to understand all the nuances involved and that their best choice is to reinstall with a bigger /usr." Additional information about this change is covered by the OpenBSD Journal site.
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Canonical has announced the company will extend support on long-term support (LTS) versions of Ubuntu to supply security updates for 15 years. "Today, Canonical announced the expansion of the Legacy add-on for Ubuntu Pro, extending total coverage for Ubuntu LTS releases to 15 years. Starting with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr), this extension brings the full benefits of Ubuntu Pro - including continuous security patching, compliance tooling and support for your OS - to long-lived production systems." The extended support is provided as part of Canonical's Ubuntu Pro service.
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The Debian project has announced refreshed install media for Debian 13 "Trixie". The new media is not a new version of the distribution, but contains security fixes that have become available since the original release. "The Debian project is pleased to announce the second update of its stable distribution Debian 13 (codename Trixie). This point release mainly adds corrections for security issues, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories have already been published separately and are referenced where available. Please note that the point release does not constitute a new version of Debian 13 but only updates some of the packages included."
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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) |
Deleting a file with a weird name
Cleaning-the-closet asks: I've got this file I downloaded that has a weird name, it has a bunch of symbols in it. Whenever I try to move or delete it I get the error "No such file or directory." How can I work with a file if I can't type its name?
DistroWatch answers: When dealing with a file that has strange (or unprintable) characters in its name, there are a few approaches we can take to manipulate the file.
One of the easier workarounds in these situations is to use a graphical file manager, such as Nemo or Dolphin. They will usually allow us to select the file and then rename or move it, fixing the issue of the strange characters in the name.
When working from the command line we can try using wildcard characters. In the Linux shell, the * character refers to any/all characters in a sequence. Let's say I have three files:
Abc?%??^123
Abc?%%^^456
Xyz?%%^^456
Running the following command will match (and display) the first two files in the above collection:
$ ls -1 Abc*
Abc?%??^123
Abc?%%^^456
This means we could use a wildcard symbol to move the original file with the unusual name. Continuing with our example, I can rename the first file from "Abc?%??^123" to "abc_123" by replacing the unusual characters with a single *:
$ mv Abc*123 abc_123
In the above example the * replaces the strange symbols, allowing the move command (mv) to see the file.
If the above approaches are not working, we can try to remove the file using its unique identifier, called an inode number. We can find a file's inode number with the ls command. Here we find the inode numbers, displayed in the first column of the output, for two files:
$ ls -li
4332149 -rw-r--r-- 1 jesse jesse 0 Oct 4 15:04 abc
4340815 -rw-r--r-- 1 jesse jesse 0 Oct 4 15:04 def
We find that the file abc has the inode number 4332149 and the file def has the inode number 4340815. Next, we can use the find command to match a file with its inode number:
$ find . -type f -inum 4332149
./abc
The find command accepts the inode number and returns the filename, confirming we have a correct match. Now that we have confirmed we have the correct inode number for the file abc, we can delete this file with the find command:
find . -type f -inum 4332149 -delete
One (or all) of the above options should provide a way to either rename or delete the file with the strange characters in its name.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Volumio 4.067
The Volumio team has announced the release of Volumio 4.067, a major update of the project's single-purpose Debian-based Linux distribution designed and fine-tuned exclusively for music playback. This release updates the underlying system to Debian 12: "Today marks something special for us and for everyone who loves what Volumio does. After nearly a year of work, we're releasing Volumio 4 for Raspberry Pi and PC platforms. You might fire it up and think, 'Wait, it looks the same.' And you'd be right. We didn't redesign the interface or move buttons around. What we did was rebuild the foundation. Why this matters? Think of Volumio 4 like replacing the engine in your favorite car. From the driver's seat, everything feels familiar. But under the hood, we've swapped in something more powerful, more efficient, and ready to take you places the old engine simply couldn't go. We've moved to Debian 'Bookworm', which is the technical way of saying we've given Volumio a completely modern foundation. Here's where things get exciting. Volumio 4 works hand in hand with our new Volumio app, which just landed on the app stores. This is the first step in our vision - one seamless ecosystem for music playback, everywhere, for every kind of digital music." See the full release announcement for further information and screenshots.
SparkyLinux 8.1
Pawel Pijanowski has announced the release of SparkyLinux 8.1, the latest stable release of the project's set of Linux distributions based on Debian 13: "This is a quarterly update of the SparkyLinux 8 'Seven Sisters' stable release. SparkyLinux 8 is based on and is fully compatible with Debian 13 'Trixie'. Main changes: all packages updated from the stable Debian and SparkyLinux repositories as of November 10, 2025; Linux kernel PC 6.12.48-LTS; Linux kernel ARM 6.12.47-LTS; LibreOffice 25.2.3; KDE Plasma 6.3.6; LXQt 2.1.0; MATE 1.26.0; Xfce 4.20; Openbox 3.6.1; Firefox 140.4.0esr (145.0 in repositories); Thunderbird 140.4.0esr. SparkyLinux 8 'Seven Sisters' is available in the amd64 BIOS/UEFI + Secure Boot with Xfce, LXQt, MATE, KDE Plasma, MinimalGUI (Openbox) and MinimalCLI (text mode) and arm64 with Openbox and CLI. If you have SparkyLinux 8 installed, simply keep it up to date, there's no need to reinstall it. Known issue: arm64 Wi-Fi may not be active after the first boot, you must restart the system to automatically enable Wi-Fi." Continue to the release announcement for further details.
Nitrux 5.0.0
Uri Herrera has announced the release of Nitrux 5.0.0, a major update of the Linux distribution that aims to be "disruptive by design". This is the project's first build featuring an immutable base and the Hyprland Wayland compositor (dropping KDE Plasma in the process). Although Nitrux is built on Debian, it does not ship the traditional Debian package management utilities, relying instead on AppImage, Flatpak, Distrobox and similar utilities to install new software. "We are pleased to announce the launch of Nitrux 5.0.0. This new version combines the latest software updates, bug fixes, performance improvements, and ready-to-use hardware support. Given the massive changes in this release, we recommend a fresh installation using the latest media. There's no planned update path from Nitrux 3.9.1 to 5.0.0; nonetheless, update archives for 5.0.0 and onwards will be available through the Nitrux Update tool. As announced back in June, Nitrux no longer uses the KDE Plasma desktop; beginning with this release, we transition fully to Hyprland. The transition took more than a few weeks, it wasn't just a matter of installation." Read the detailed release announcement for information.
Nitrux 5.0.0 -- Running the Hyprland interface
(full image size: 1.8MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.1, 9.7
Red Hat, Inc. has released two updated versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) - 10.1, the first point release of the distribution's latest stable release, and 9.7, an updated build of RHEL's legacy 9.x branch. "During the excitement of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 (RHEL) launch at Red Hat Summit, I kept hearing one question from customers and partners: When would an offline version of the RHEL command-line assistant be available? Today I can announce that it's on the way. As part of the RHEL 10.1 update, an offline, locally available command-line assistant is officially in developer preview. For customers with a Red Hat Satellite subscription, it offers AI-powered RHEL guidance based on decades of enterprise Linux experience. Companies and agencies in finance, government, defense, industrial control, and other heightened-security industries will find it particularly useful. A key advantage of this design is its ability to function in completely disconnected, offline, or air-gapped environments, eliminating the need for external network connectivity." See the What's new in RHEL 10.1 and Introducing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.7 blog posts for more details, with release notes for both RHEL 10.1 and RHEL 9.7 now also available.
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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) |
Using a sandbox
In our News section we talked about NetBSD gaining the ability to sandbox applications. This isolates an application from some elements of the host operating system, protecting access to files, networking, or other capabilities. Running a program inside a sandbox is a useful way to guard sensitive files form untrusted applications or prevent a program from leaking data on-line. This week we would like to hear whether our readers use a sandbox to isolate any of their applications.
You can see the results of our previous poll on preferred flavour of Fedora in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you use a sandbox?
| Yes - I use a sandbox: | 133 (11%) |
| No - but use another isolation tool like containers/VMs: | 321 (26%) |
| No - I do not isolate programs: | 764 (63%) |
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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, 24 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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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Zorn (by vmc on 2025-11-17 01:13:03 GMT from United States)
No thanks. If its Linux why would I pay near $50 for it
2 • Drawing Windows (by vmc on 2025-11-17 01:15:30 GMT from United States)
Another thing, this hype about Windows 10 users coming to Linux when they have never used it before is just pipe dream. They'll have a way to use Windows 11 or there are ways to extend Windows 10.
I use both Windows 11 and Linux. End of story
3 • removing weirdly named files (by J.D. Laub on 2025-11-17 01:25:28 GMT from United States)
Another possible solution to deleting a file with a weird name: run " rm -i * " to be asked whether each file should be deleted, and simply hit return (thus taking the default answer of "n" meaning "no") until the desired file is shown, then answer "y" meaning "yes" for that file.
4 • Nitrux (by Devlin7 on 2025-11-17 01:30:42 GMT from New Zealand)
Always keen to try distros. Loaded Nitrux but struggled to find any documentation regarding the keyboard shortcuts. I worked my way through all the usual shortcuts, ended up with a lot of open windows that didn't seem to want to close. Looked on the website and found a lot of KDE documentation but not much on Hyprland. Will have another when I find the docs.
5 • Regarding the poll Answer (by InvisibleInk on 2025-11-17 01:51:05 GMT from United States)
I've used Firejail on and off, and I have a couple of flatpaks installed. What then would be my answer to the poll question?
6 • Hype... (by Friar Tux on 2025-11-17 01:51:26 GMT from Canada)
@2 (vmc) Ain't no hype mate. When Windows 10 shut down the work The Wife was doing (on Windows 7) and decided to install itself, I shut THAT down fast. I installed Linux Mint/Cinnamon and, 15 minute later, she was back to work. She had never touched Linux before that (I toyed with it off and on). That was about 10 years ago. She has not had any issues at all since. Mint, to me, is the best starter distro for someone coming in cold turkey from Windows. It beats even Zorin OS. Clement and team have done a fantastic job putting Mint together.
7 • Zorin (by BlueIV on 2025-11-17 02:25:15 GMT from United States)
#1, Nobody said you had to pay for it. Outside of enterprise, I don't recall many distros actually charging as a requirement for basic usage. I get the impression that support of any kind is outside of your experience- but I could be wrong.
8 • Giving up on Windows (by winsnomore on 2025-11-17 02:40:35 GMT from United States)
I had linux on my desktop for 10 years, but I had to keep a bunch of Windows VMs around , even now I still have to have a windows machine.
In case you didn't notice, Adobe has done more harm to open software nd Linux than any evil force in Redmond could.
Adobe has closed acrobat, sold some junk softare to government, and there are zillion files you can't open on Linux -- only Adode acrobat can read them.
So, unless someone takes a 2x4 to Adobe HQ and put some sense into them, the world will stay tied to windows -- this is just one example, there are million others where people release software for Windows and maybe Mac now, but for linux they will pick Ubuntu, a number of 3D printers are like that --- so Linux doesn't have a bright, but has a bleak future and no one seems to be interested in this.
Those who make money on Linux, don't care about desktop, they are only interested in server!
9 • Zorin and Linux Mint (by Steve K on 2025-11-17 03:03:03 GMT from United States)
I agree with Friar Tux’s assessment regarding Linux Mint. After having downloaded, installed, played with, and used many dozens of linux distros over the past 15+ years my favorite distro of all time, and the one I use as my daily driver, is Linux Mint. Through my experience I consider Linux Mint be the best and most reliable one. I’ve never had any problems or failures with any version of Linux Mint over the past 15+ years.
The version I use is Linux Mint MATE because it is the most comprehensive and configurable one. I totally customize it to my personal preferences, especially aesthetically. The Cinnamon version is more basic and would be good for new users.
I’ve tried Zorin distros over the years but I’ve never liked it nearly as much as I do Linux Mint. Plus Linux Mint is always free. There is no paid-for version with more features as with Zorin. In Mint you get all the features totally free.
10 • Zorin and End of 10 (by Keith S on 2025-11-17 03:14:48 GMT from United States)
I've never tried Zorin but it sounds interesting. I don't really like GNOME (or KDE for that matter) but I certainly appreciate every distro that has a clear focus and puts a high polish on their product, which Zorin apparently has done. It's encouraging that they've had 75,000 downloads by Windows users in one week.
My mom is very frustrated with Windows 11 and the intrusive AI. I have helped her turn it off wherever possible but she still is unhappy. She's very old and mainly uses email and surfs a bit on Chrome. (She sometimes tells me about a news article she saw on the "start of the internet.")
I've shown her Mint before and explained that I could install it for her, but it's too scary for her to consider. (She's very old.) Maybe I'll show her Zorin and see what happens. She's certainly not tied to any Windows-specific programs (all she really uses is a browser, including for email), but as noted in the review, Windows has a grip on her psyche.
As far as many millions migrating to Linux from Windows, I think that's a pipe dream. There are too many programs that many working people require that run well only on Windows. Wine has gotten much better over the years, but I still have an old Win10 laptop to update maps on a GPS unit that requires proprietary software that absolutely will not run on Wine. Not a big deal, and I plan to move Windows 10 or 11 to a VM on a newer machine soon just for that purpose.
11 • Sandboxes (by Keith S on 2025-11-17 03:22:12 GMT from United States)
I've never used sandboxes for very long. When I tried them, they were very fiddly and I ran out of patience. When I feel a little paranoid about someone getting my data, I will run a VM. I pretty much stopped doing that since I do pretty much all of my sensitive transactions on an Android phone now. I do plan to get a KVM/QEMU VM running on the new release of MX Linux though, but mostly because I have the itch to try out some new distros. If I ever go full paranoid again, I will either try out Qubes or put OpenBSD on a VM.
12 • Moving Windows users to Linux is my job (by Microlinux on 2025-11-17 06:18:51 GMT from France)
Among other things, my company installs Linux desktops for professional users migrating from Windows.
The standard desktop is based on Rocky Linux with KDE from EPEL and a myriad of small improvements like codecs, plugins, TrueType fonts, etc.
https://www.microlinux.fr/poste-de-travail-linux/
This is running on every client PC in our local school, a perfect testbed for general usability. Everybody's using it (students, teachers, staff) and there's some folks that don't even know that it's Linux under the hood.
Boring, intuitive and reliable.
13 • Files with weird names (by luvr on 2025-11-17 10:03:59 GMT from Belgium)
Weird that escapes aren't mentioned, i.e., a backslash character to remove the special meaning of the character that follows it - e.g.:
ls -1 Abc\?%\?\?^123
where each question mark is preceded by a backslash, to remove the special meaning of the question mark; in other words, '\?' stands for a literal question mark, while just '?' is a wildcard.
Another option is to enclose the filename in single quotes - e.g.:
ls -l 'Abc?%??^123'
where all characters are taken literally, without special meaning.
The only character that you cannot use in a string that is enclosed in single quotes, is the single quote itself; for that, you'll need to use double quotes - e.g.:
ls -l "Abc'123"
Also, if both single quotes and double quotes appear in the filename, then either use backslash escapes, or enclose the single quotes in double quotes and vice versa.
By the way, this works not only in file names, but in any string you want to produce; you can even mix and match the various escape methods - e.g.:
echo This' 'is\' a' single 'quote:' '"'",' and th'is\ is' 'a\ double' quote: "'.
Granted, this easily gets hard to understand, but it does work.
14 • Escape characters (by Jesse on 2025-11-17 10:26:03 GMT from Canada)
@13: "Weird that escapes aren't mentioned"
They weren't mentioned because (A) it's a more complicated solution and (B) it will only work if the characters are ones you can type on your keyboard. If you have a bunch of symbols in a filename that you can't type then escape characters can't help you.
15 • Zorin Pro and Grid (by Dave on 2025-11-17 09:31:03 GMT from Australia)
I've heard people say negative things about Zorin, because of charging for pro etc. But as mentioned this is aimed at business users, who would benefit from some sort of support.
Jesse, as you have contact with the developer, did you get an opportunity to quiz them about Zorin Grid? It's been on the cards for ages but difficult to track progress.
16 • @1 Zorin cost. (by Jake on 2025-11-17 10:32:02 GMT from United States)
Zorin core is free. That is what an experienced Linux user would use. Pro is for new converts.
17 • Zorin (by Jesse on 2025-11-17 10:34:12 GMT from Canada)
@1: "If its Linux why would I pay near $50 for it"
You don't need to pay for Zorin OS, unless you want extra layouts/themes. It's free. As to why you might want to buy the Pro version, well, the money to develop Linux distributions needs to come from somewhere. Donations, sales, support contracts, corporate backing. If you want Linux to continue to be an option, then someone needs to pay for it.
@14: "did you get an opportunity to quiz them about Zorin Grid? It's been on the cards for ages but difficult to track progress."
We've never discussed it. I usually don't look at (or ask about) technologies which haven't been released yet.
18 • Zorin and Gnome (by Axel on 2025-11-17 12:06:36 GMT from United Kingdom)
Really good review of Zorin bar the reviewer's obvious dislike of Gnome.
Did they experience any Gnome bugginess? No.
Did everything work? Yes.
Bit of a shame that personal dislikes of a DE is tainting an otherwise good review.
I have installed Zorin Core on my in-law's old Windows laptop and they are very happy. Actually, I receive fewer requests to fix things now than I used to get when it was running Windows. They have a habit of clicking "Yes" on anything they see on pop-ups. Much safer on Linux.
19 • Poll (by Slappy McGee on 2025-11-17 13:15:08 GMT from United States)
Sandbox. Isolate programs. No "I Wonder What the Freak Flamin' Hell They're Talking About Now?" choice. ;o)
Some of us Linux users have long awaited the current state of things wherein we have the choice to ignore technical things beyond how to get the iso bootable then how to run through the installation steps, and a few terminal commands now and then.
Probable a lot of us, given the popularity of (the reviewed) Zorin and so many other distros which strive to be "Windows-like" or some such. BSD devs also seem to be naturally heading in that direction over the years as we watch GhostBSD evolve, etc.
20 • Zorin (by Geo. on 2025-11-17 13:38:36 GMT from Canada)
Thank you, Zorin team, for rescuing so many Win10 refugees. Your system works excellently right out of the box - even better than Mint in my experience. And that's saying something since I started way back with Slackware.
21 • Yes i use sandbox, in my case I use snapped apps (by tolik on 2025-11-17 13:56:46 GMT from Moldova)
AFAIU snap and flatpak and appimage are using sandboxes
so it is fair to say that because I use exclusively "snap" apps instead of pacman/deb packages in most cases – i use sandbox.
I like snaps cause they work with both command line apps and GUI apps and are fast while at the same time more secure than system apps, especially on arch based systems.
also sometimes i use "bubblewrap" with some manually written scripts, mostly to isolate something from net access.
22 • Zorin (by Johhny H on 2025-11-17 14:30:54 GMT from United Kingdom)
If you pay for the Pro version, you are paying for the support, not the extra layouts, as it's easy for you to configure any layout you want fro free anyway!
I'm still on Zorin 17** and have used it for my daily driver for last 2 years.
I configure the Task bar to the top and Dash to dock on the bottom
*Top tip - to insure Dash to Dock works Faultlessly, and works on boot up, make sure that you uncheck "Zorin task bar" in the Extension application. Happy liux!
23 • Sandboxing is Ubiquitous because of Universal File Formats (by Fabian Lanzy on 2025-11-17 16:39:59 GMT from United States)
As others have pointed out, Flatpaks Snaps and AppImages all default to sandboxing applications, probably less for security than to make the apps load the same way across diverse distros and architectures and to keep the dependencies current.
I would further add that most casual Linux users who default to installing programs through the Universal File formats probably don't give much concern about how such instalations run desktop elements, dependencies, etc in isolation. Therefore, Sandboxing as a practice is often ubiquitous rather than by user design or intention, subject to the use of these tools by default in the main depositories many distros.
24 • Zorin 18 (by Sandy on 2025-11-17 17:34:05 GMT from Germany)
No matter how you look at it, Zorin 18 is a disaster. Visit their forums.
You'll immediately notice the extremely outdated GNOME version (46!), the abundance of outdated components, and the numerous bugs, not to mention the poor design.
If they had tried to make it as bad as possible, they couldn't have done a worse job. Try setting the red theme and see what happens.
It's one of the worst distributions I've ever seen — more of a curse than a blessing.
Zorin 17 wasn't the best, but at least it looked good as long as the default settings remained unchanged.
25 • Portable package formats (by Jesse on 2025-11-17 17:37:43 GMT from Canada)
@23: "As others have pointed out, Flatpaks Snaps and AppImages all default to sandboxing applications,"
They do not.
You can easily add sandboxing to portable package formats, but don't expect it to be there by default, you will be painfully disappointed. Some distributions or bundles may voluntarily add sandboxing to their portable packages, but it's not there automatically, especially with AppImages.
26 • Sandboxing (by John on 2025-11-17 19:11:29 GMT from Canada)
I ended up selecting "another isolation tool", but I do not use containers or VMs,
What I use is OpenBSD's pledge(2) and unveil(2), which is so easy to implement that I have it enabled in programs I write. But I "#ifdef" these for use on other Operating Systems.
So far, I think pledge/unveil is the best method of "sandboxing". With that said, I will keep an eye on NetBSDs solution to see how easy it works.
27 • Migration Method (by Consultant on 2025-11-17 21:07:36 GMT from United States)
Thanks for the Zorin review. I enjoy efforts to woo Windows users to the light side of the Force. Most are dying to come over.
I recently configured a dual-boot system for an elderly lady on Windows 10. She makes a living in Adobe apps. She might use Scribus.net after exploring it, an underrated Linux app that runs on Windows too. Many stuck on Adobe haven't tried alternatives. Scribus is really, really good.
She is already happy with SimpleX.chat on her phone and computer. It runs on everything, so it's not a Linux vs Windows story. I'm unfamiliar with Zorin/KDE Connect, but wonder how they compare. SimpleX can replace SMS text, e-mail, and Zoom. Its "link to mobile" feature turns the phone into a server, such that a PC can run its SimpleX profile.
People depend on mobile handsets as much as Windows PCs. That data can enter a migration project. Dealing with PC data is not as hard. Mobile apps often make data extraction impossible. To export old SMS messages, you often must root the phone, then hack around. Fossify.org is a good suite that makes SMS import/export easy. Of course SimpleX is far superior to SMS for a variety of reasons.
Migration initiatives have misplaced emphasis on visual theming and docks. Average folk can figure out Linux desktops. The issue is data and daily patterns, sometimes special apps. Where did my files go? Where are my pictures? For dual-boot, I focus on NTFS compatibility. I put /home on the Windows NTFS C:\ drive, configuring /etc/fstab accordingly. So one sees the same user files in Windows or Linux. It's an unconventional layout, but works.
The in-kernel NTFS driver has issues, so I load the reliable FUSE driver and blacklist the kernel one. (Confusingly, a third driver is in the works.) The distro selected here was Artix Linux runit XFCE edition, complete with PipeWire audio. It runs like a champ and gives the latest software releases, bug fixes, and security patches.
28 • Zorin (by canttakeitnomore on 2025-11-17 21:07:55 GMT from Australia)
Muppets paying $50 to use opensource Linux? LOL
Linux Mint is a better experience than Zorin
29 • Zorin OS, You just can't beat Mint! (by Jupiter on 2025-11-17 21:33:11 GMT from United States)
I seem to have an opinion that most other folks today do, and that is that Mint still is better than Zorin. Personally in my own time I've found Zorin not very customizable and in the wrong way. Like, sure, at this point it is made for folks coming over from Windows or wherever on the Internet, but why can't you just let me move my panel or even dock (should I want one instead) wherever?
Another note: You have the settings basically split up into 2 apps. (One for Theming, one that is the GNOME settings) That's will confuse the users coming over from Windows quite a bit. There's a reason I don't recommend Budgie to new people, even if I am quite fond of it.
I go over to Mint meanwhile, and I can do all of the things I want just fine without any issues via a simple GUI that is simple and yet very efficient whilst still looking good!
Only real reason I can figure out in personal use as to why you would use Zorin over Mint is if you think Mint looks "dated" with its design, which, is fully a matter of opinion and quite frankly I don't agree with it. (I doubt the folks who do hold that opinion have messed around with the themes, extensions, and all of those sorts of things)
GNOME just isn't very customizable out of the box compared to Cinnamon.
Side Note: Yes you COULD install a different desktop environment on Zorin or whatever, but realistically a Linux Newbie isn't going to know how to do that (or for the matter that they can!) and at that point they may as well just go ahead and install Debian or even Arch and do it themselves.
30 • Gnome (by BlueIV on 2025-11-17 21:48:21 GMT from United States)
@18 I could be wrong, but I think that Jesse's main objection to GNOME in Zorin is the traditional Windows style format that Zorin uses. In doing so it requires the use of extensions that can be buggy- which he observed. There are other DEs that start out with that style to begin with.
31 • Zorin (by Jesse on 2025-11-17 21:52:30 GMT from Canada)
@30: "I could be wrong, but I think that Jesse's main objection to GNOME in Zorin..."
You may have the right logic, but the wrong reviewer. I didn't write the Zorin OS review, Jeff Siegel was kind enough to contribute his thoughts on the distribution.
32 • Zorin 18 (by Frank on 2025-11-17 22:56:28 GMT from United States)
I would love to pay for Zorin pro if it was $20 as a way of helping them, but $50 is way to much!
33 • Gnome (by BlueIV on 2025-11-18 00:15:34 GMT from United States)
Well, I was definitely wrong in at least one way. Sorry, Jeff and Jesse.
34 • Not Zorin (by MattE on 2025-11-18 02:47:35 GMT from United States)
I always try to get old people off Win10 onto ChromeOS Flex. It is by far the most trouble free Linux based OS. I install it and check back a couple years later to make sure they're still using it. "Yeah, I never have any problems so I don't call you." Nice!
ChromeOS Flex is not for the paranoid who think Google is out to get them.
35 • Got me into linux (by Deacon St John on 2025-11-18 08:21:32 GMT from The Netherlands)
Just works, never breaks. Got into linux because of this distro. Started out dualbooting and after 6 months made the full switch and never looked. 2 years into linux now thanks to ZorinOS.
@28 the pro version is totally optional you muppet. The pro version is mostly just a fancy donation button. Everything the pro version has can be achieved for free if u spent some time downloading the apps and ricing your DE.
If you enjoy a FOSS project, then support them!!! Linux users sure have an allergic reaction to helping the people responsible for giving them such awesome tech. I have bought 17 pro and will buy 18 pro again. It's a small price for something I will be using everyday for years to come.
36 • Sandboxing (by Willemijn on 2025-11-18 11:02:42 GMT from The Netherlands)
If only sandboxing were easy to do, I'd use it all the time for most programs and apps. Playing a game that doesn't need internet access? Run it in a sandbox! Downloaded a tarball without (valid) GPG signature? Launch it in a sandbox! Grabbed an AppImage from an unverified package maintainer on AppImageHub? Throw it in a sandbox! A FlatPak requiring permissions it really doesn't need for your use-case? Sandbox that bitch! Etc.
But unfortunately, even FireJail, the most user-friendly option, is incredibly convoluted and opaque to manage. If you don't know exactly what you're doing, sooner or later you will create problems with your system, likely related to changes with the permissions of users and groups. And if you're like me, those problems will very quickly become irreversibly complex, thus requiring the fiftieth clean install of the year. It's just not worth the pain and hassle.
As for manually configuring sandboxes in AppArmor, let alone SELinux, the average user can just forget about it, and beginners shouldn't even stop to consider attempting to do so. It's an uphill battle trying to set it up, and then after you've inevitably failed to do so (and you will!), it's an even steeper uphill battle to try and undo all the havoc you've wreaked.
One would hope that the exponential increase in Linux malware, will eventually lead to someone bothering to design an easy-to-use just-werks out-of-the-box method of sandboxing on Linux.
But given that no increase in Linux gaming, influx of former Windows users, or critical vulnerability discovered in the kernel, has ever triggered any serious effort, I doubt it... Hell, ClamTK and MetaDataCleaner aren't even maintained anymore, and nobody's jumped in to fill the voids they've left. Maybe the greedy corpos over at Kaspersky, Xcitium, ESET or Sophos can save us, because the Linux "community" has not only dropped the ball but completely lost the plot.
37 • Zorin (by Hans on 2025-11-18 12:50:57 GMT from Germany)
> A VirtualBox test failed twice, once with safe graphics mode enabled. Each time it threw an error telling me to use a supported graphics device. However, this wasn't surprising, since Zorin's website documentation says it doesn't play well with virtual systems.
Sounds strange and somewhat suspicious. Why did they deliberately remove the graphics drivers for VMs from their Ubuntu-based kernel? It is impractical for their internal testing too.
38 • @36 Sandboxing (by picamanic on 2025-11-18 15:22:24 GMT from United Kingdom)
@36 Sandboxing. I started out with Firejail+Firefox many years ago, but switched to custom Bubblewrap [bwrap] commands. I ditched bwrap when it became too messy to keep up with changes in Firefox. I still like the idea of using a Container with Firefox, but will probably look to AppArmor, if I can figure how to use it.
EasyOS has its own Containers, but they are built in to that Linux distro. I am more interested in using Qemu+KVM virtual machines, much like a simpler Qubes, sans systemd.
39 • Moving Windows users to Linux (by historyb on 2025-11-18 21:55:05 GMT from United States)
@12 Boring, intuitive and reliable.
As it should be me thinks
40 • Zorin (by canttakeitnomore on 2025-11-19 02:16:15 GMT from Australia)
>>If you enjoy a FOSS project, then support them!!! Linux users sure have an allergic reaction to helping the people responsible for giving them such awesome tech.
The F in FOSS is for Free....so....you know....it isn't PGADFOSS (Please Give A Donation for Opensource Software.
Trying to guilt trip users into giving money to FOSS projects is ridiculous. Nobody asked them to create anything; they did it voluntarily, so why should we feel obliged to support them? Most people who want to contribute, do so by writing code.
If Zorin in particular wants money, then they should just be honest about it and make their whole system a paid model like Red Hat. But just paying them for a "Pro" version of their Ubuntu spin reeks.
"Zorin OS Pro brings together the best apps and most advanced features, so you can unleash the full potential of your computer to do your greatest work. It's the ideal choice for power users and creative professional"
what does that even mean? All the apps in Linux are essential FOSS, so what best apps are they even talking about? Is there is a better Gimp? A better Firefox or Chromium?
Premium desktop layouts? What? Is that worth $50 to theme your desktop which you can do yourself? Curated abstract wallpaper, Tint2 panel or some free Gnome extensions are worth $50.....what a joke.
But they go even further; Professional-grade creative suite of apps? But they don't say what these amazing apps even are. These days there are plenty of equivalents for Windows apps, so this doesn't even make sense. Besides $50 can't even buy a licence for MS Office. How would that even work, you pay Zorin $50 and then they register the Professiona grade creative suite in your name or in their name? Why do i need a Pro version of Zorin? I can buy my own licence for Adobe.
Zorin is a joke. It lost a lot of respect from the Linux community years ago with their data collection incident. Now charging users for a useless Pro version is just taking the proverbial pee.
Look at Linuxfx to see the future of Zorin
41 • @26 @36 & @38 Sandboxing (by Keith S on 2025-11-19 03:41:44 GMT from United States)
This is exactly what I meant when I said it's too fiddly. You fiddle with this and that and the next thing you know your installation is broken and you have to start over. It gets to be very tiresome very fast.
@26 is right, OpenBSD works hard to be secure by default, and when Theo introduced pledge and unveil it was great. It works out of the box. But then there's the fiddling to get it set up the way you want it, and the fiddling to try to get certain packages to work (though their package maintainers really are excellent), etc. Selene recently wrote a very good analysis of why it just isn't that practical -- she left OpenBSD and went to Qubes.
So, Qubes -- yeah, lots of fiddling with setting up and getting it to work the way you want to....
For @picamanic, you can set up KVM with QEMU on both antiX and MX with no systemd. And it's pretty easy with virt-manager. I just taught myself again yesterday without having to fiddle with it much at all.
42 • @40 Paid support (by Keith S on 2025-11-19 03:46:23 GMT from United States)
If you don't want to pay, you don't have to. If you don't like Zorin, don't download it. There's plenty of free software available all over the place. If you can't afford to support the projects that you benefit from every day, don't send them any money. Most people don't. I do a little when I can, because I appreciate the products and I want to encourage people to keep going so I can keep watching YouTube without ads and surfing the web without ads and reading Linux news with minimal ads.
Don't get mad when I don't tip you, though.
43 • @40 • Zorin, free (by Tasio on 2025-11-19 10:12:04 GMT from Philippines)
@40, "The F in FOSS is for Free....so....you know....it isn't PGADFOSS" The "F" in FOSS is for freedom to use, modify or fork, not for freeloading. Any developer is free to set a price on their work, and any prospective user is free to pay it or move on. You don't like Zorinn? Fine. Your carping doesn't taint Zorin, but it speaks volumes about you.
44 • Zorin (& other paid/donate etc distros) (by Slappy McGee on 2025-11-19 14:54:56 GMT from United States)
@40 What a strange post. Diatribe about "free" and "guilt tripping" etc, then ending with "Zorin is a joke.. blah..."
@42 and @43 explained things a bit for you.. I just wanted to respond with my experience with Zorin and with Linux and BSD in general, which has been an amazing journey of diversity and ongoing improvements in the user friendliness and overall functionality of FOSS OSs.
I noticed right away that there are choices. Lots of choices. As to not just types of distros with different approaches to computing, but also as to user relationships with those offerings. Heck we come here for "free" and derive knowledge as well as other aspects of the site, namely this comments forum for a bit of siblinghood with other Linux/BSD users. Some of us donate, some do not. Same as with this or that distro you may want to support.
Zorin's choices are pretty clear; use the distro fully for free, or pay fifty bux and support their efforts. It's right on their front page. And it's not a joke. It's a choice.
45 • Ubuntu Legacy Addon (by RoestVrijStaal on 2025-11-20 22:33:10 GMT from The Netherlands)
I feel sorry for the poor souls working at Canonical for backporting fixes to a 10+ years old distribution release.
Number of Comments: 45
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| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Swecha
Swecha LiveCD was a Debian-based Linux distribution localised into Telugu, one of the official languages of India. Common tasks such as writing and printing documents, browsing the web, sending and receiving emails, chatting and editing graphics can all be accomplished in Telugu directly from the live CD. The system also contains a Telugu text-to-speech software integrated with the desktop; this makes it possible for even illiterate persons to use the operating system, access the Internet, read documents, etc. While Swecha LiveCD can be run directly from the CD, an option to install it to a hard disk was also provided.
Status: Discontinued
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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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