 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1153, 22 December 2025 |
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Welcome to this year's 51st issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
As we approach the conclusion of the 2025 year this seems like an appropriate time to ask: does software ever really reach a completed state? Does software necessarily keep on evolving, with developers fixing bugs and adding features, or does it reach a finished state? We tackle this query in this week's Questions and Answers column. This week we also take a moment to pause and praise the outstanding releases of the past year. There were some real gems published by developers this year and we focus on four of the best. Which distribution was your favourite in 2025? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section we report on Asahi Linux making the process of installing Linux on Apple M-series hardware easier while Mozilla's new CEO considers adding AI and removing ad-blocking from the default web browser for most Linux distributions. We also report on the Mageia team's plans for version 10 of their distribution. Plus we take a moment to thank the people who kindly donated this month. We wrap up this year with a list of recent releases and details on the torrents we are seeding. We will be off next Monday and will return on January 5th, 2026. We wish you all a wonderful week, a great new year ahead, and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: The best open source operating systems of 2025
- News: Firefox adopts AI components, Asahi Linux works to improve the install experience, Mageia team plans for version 10
- Questions and answers: Is software ever truly completed?
- Released last week: Emmabuntüs DE6-1.00, Kicksecure 18.0.8.7, MidnightBSD 4.0, Rhino Linux 2025.4, Mabox Linux 25.12, RELIANOID 7.8.0, Chimera Linux 20251220, Synex 13 "Server", EasyOS 7.1, Qubes OS 4.3.0
- Torrent corner: Emmabuntus, Kicksecure, Qubes OS, TUXEDO OS
- Opinion poll: Which open source operating system was your favourite in 2025?
- Site news: Donations and Sponsors
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
The best open source operating systems of 2025
As the calendar draws to the end of 2025 I would like to take a few minutes and look back at some of the highlights of this year. Every year I end up trying around 50 to 75 Linux distributions (and other open source operating systems) and writing about around 40 of them. Many of them are good, some perform poorly, and a rare few provide an amazing experience. Here are my picks for the best operating systems experiences I got to enjoy in 2025.
Before diving in, I want to point out that this list includes only projects I used and reviewed myself. Each year a few people e-mail me to ask why one distribution or another didn't make the "best of" list and it's usually because the project in question either did not have a new release during the year or wasn't reviewed in the past twelve months. To see what I have reviewed in the past year, please visit our archive of past articles.
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Linux Mint Debian Edition 7
Anyone who has been a long-time reader of my reviews won't be surprised to hear that, in my opinion, the best Linux release of 2025 was Linux Mint Debian Edition 7. This release, which was based on Debian 13 and featured the Cinnamon desktop, was one of the best experiences I've ever had with a desktop operating system.
Linux Mint combines solid hardware support, a user friendly desktop, a massive collection of software (mostly provided by Debian), great default applications, and solid documentation. The project is constantly refining itself and responding to feedback from its users, resulting in a distribution which is unusually polished and user friendly.
Linux Mint Debian Edition 7 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 731kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
This is the distribution I usually give to non-techie family members and friends, and LMDE 7 was a prime example of why: it not only "just works", it excels in all aspects. This distribution is easy to install, is useful straight way with great default applications, offers several years of support, has a great software manager, and a friendly greeter. The Cinnamon desktop is pleasantly Linux-flavoured, but also has a layout that should be familiar enough for people migrating from Windows.
I also appreciate the Mint team walks a careful line between new features and tested technologies. For instance, Flatpak is available by default, but no Flatpaks are installed out of the box; Cinnamon defaults to X11 while also offering a solid Wayland session; the installer defaults to using the battle-tested ext4 filesystem and Btrfs is available as an option. In short, the distribution regularly defaults to what is known to work, but provides access to newer technologies for people who wish to use more cutting-edge packages.
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MX Linux 25
While I typically recommend Linux Mint to other people, the distribution which best suited my own needs and style this year was MX Linux 25. The MX Linux distribution offers a lot of the same strengths as Linux Mint - it is Debian based, offers huge package repositories, defaults to tried-and-true packages while providing newer technologies as an option, and includes solid documentation.
MX Linux 25 -- The MX Tour application
(full image size: 1.5MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Where the two distributions (Mint and MX) differ is in their specific focus. Mint aims to be beginner-friendly and super easy to learn while MX appears to be aiming at being practical for Linux users who are more experienced. It's not that MX Linux is difficult to use in any way, but the distribution tends to trade out being pretty for being efficient. The default desktop is lighter and faster, there are fewer visual effects, the memory footprint is smaller, and the administration tools leaner.
Where MX Linux really shines is its collection of utilities, called MX Tools, which provide a great range of functionality. These tools make many administrative actions a point-and-click affair. We can backup the distribution, manage user accounts, install packages, repair the boot loader, or clean up temporary files with just a few mouse clicks.
For people who are IT professionals or who have a little bit of experience with Linux distributions, I'd say MX Linux is the more capable, more efficient tool to use while Linux Mint is its more beginner-friendly cousin.
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EndeavourOS
Generally speaking I tend not to use or enjoy rolling release distributions. I like my day-to-day operating systems to be static, predictable, reliable, and to have a low rate of updates. Rolling releases tend to provide a lot of updates, steady changes, and a degree of unpredictability. EndeavourOS was a rare exception and, this year, was one of just four distributions which truly impressed me.
While some rolling release distributions, particularly those based on Arch Linux, seem to pride themselves on being minimal and require more experience to use, EndeavourOS is pleasantly easy to set up. It has a nice, graphical system installer which allows us to select which desktop environment we want to run and what software categories of applications to include.
EndeavourOS 2025.03.19 -- The KDE Plasma application menu
(full image size: 2076kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Once installed, Endeavour ran unusually quickly, provided excellent hardware support, and was pleasantly stable during my trial. I ran EndeavourOS with the Plasma desktop and it provided a friendly, efficient experience. The one element I felt was missing was a graphical software centre; we need to use the command line package manager, at least until we install a graphical software centre. This one missing component aside, EndeavourOS supplied an unusually friendly, efficient, fast, and flexible experience.
I wouldn't hand EndeavourOS to a novice Linux user, but for someone with a little experience and a desire to run a cutting-edge, rolling release, I believe a person cannot ask for better than Endeavour.
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HeliumOS 10.0
Immutable distributions are becoming more popular and, in the past few years, several projects have launched immutable operating systems. While immutable distributions strive to create reliable, predictable environments, they often run into problems and limitations. Immutable distributions tend to struggle with software management, relying on portable packages (Snap or Flatpak) or containers to provide additional applications. This makes most immutable distributions a bit clunky, bloated and awkward.
HeliumOS is a rare exception. The project is built upon a foundation of AlmaLinux OS and strives to create a desktop oriented, beginner-friendly, immutable platform based on AlmaLinux's enterprise base. I went into my trial concerned that using AlmaLinux as a base would result in an outdated distribution with limited application options, but I was pleasantly surprised.
HeliumOS 10.0 -- The application menu
(full image size: 2628kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
To date, HeliumOS is the smoothest, most user friendly immutable Linux distribution I have used. HeliumOS is stable, it offers up to ten years of support, it provides access to a solid collection of applications through Flatpak bundles (via the Discover software centre) and Distrobox containers. The distribution uses Plasma to provide a modern, friendly user interface while running an enterprise grade operating system in the background.
My one complaint about HeliumOS was that it had, during my trial, very little documentation. However, on the technical side, the distribution proved to be friendly, stable, and it managed to avoid the little quirks and problems which plague most immutable distributions. If you are a fan of the immutable concept, then I think HeliumOS is the best of the breed.
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These four distributions were, in my opinion, the best experiences available in the Linux community in 2025. I was pleased to discovered there were a range of base distributions (Debian, Arch, and AlmaLinux OS) represented. It was also nice for me to experience pleasant trials on a range of desktop environments (Cinnamon, Xfce, and KDE Plasma) as well as different styles of distributions (fixed, rolling, and immutable). It's nice to know there are developers creating wonderful distributions, across foundations, across desktops, and across package formats. These projects all delivered fantastic experiences and I happily recommend them.
While I'm enjoying focusing on the top performers of 2025, I want to also acknowledge there were some disappointments and concerns that I ran into over the past year. Some distributions, particularly the commercial projects, shifted focus this year, discarding useful tools and replacing them with AI buzzwords, less capable installers, and broken core packages. We saw Red Hat/Fedora discard an old, functional installer for a limited, broken replacement while introducing a barely functional AI chatbot into Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Ubuntu swapped out its tried and true GNU core utilities for less functional Rust alternatives while also breaking Flatpak packages. Meanwhile, openSUSE threw away its famous YaST system administration tools and brought in a system installer which barely works.
It's been a bleak year if you're a user of commercially-backed Linux distributions. Programs licensed as free software are being replaced by more liberally licensed alternatives, AI slop is being hyped as a main selling point, and powerful administrative tools are being replaced by watered down web-based alternatives. However, I'm not here to malign the direction of commercial distributions.
Instead, I'd like to point out to you, our readers, that there are alternatives. There are plenty of community-backed, user-focused, open source operating systems in the world. And they need your help. Community projects - the Linux distributions which are working for you and not shareholders - need equipment, donations, patches, bug reports, artwork, and documentation. If you want more freedom and more control in your computing experience, please consider giving your time, skills, or money to projects which seek to empower you.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Firefox adopts AI components, Asahi Linux works to improve the install experience, Mageia team plans for version 10
Most desktop Linux distributions have been using the Firefox web browser for the past two decades. The open source browser has continued to be a cornerstone of the Linux community in recent years, despite Firefox's popularity waning on proprietary operating systems with much of its marketshare being lost to Edge, Safari, and Chrome. Mozilla, the organization which develops Firefox, has a new CEO and he has declared that the browser will become an "AI browser". "Firefox will grow from a browser into a broader ecosystem of trusted software. Firefox will remain our anchor. It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions."
The announcement has been met with pushback and criticism. Some alternatives to Firefox, such as Waterfox, have taken the opportunity to present their forks as alternatives: "If these AI features are black boxes, how are we to keep track of what they actually do? The core browsing experience should be one that fully puts the user in control, not one where you're constantly monitoring an inscrutable system that claims to be helping you. Waterfox will not include LLMs. Full stop. At least and most definitely not in their current form or for the foreseeable future."
The change raises an important question for Linux distributions. Will they continue to ship Firefox as-is with features much of the community doesn't want, will they switch to an alternative, or will they disable the AI elements of Firefox and risk a trademark complaint from Mozilla?
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The Asahi Linux team have published a progress report in which the developers talk about improvements going into the project which enables Linux to run on Apple M-series computers. One of the challenges the Asahi project faces is allowing users to install a distribution on Apple hardware without wiping parts of the disk which contain essential information. The project is now working with developers from other projects to hide these key partitions on the disk so they are not wiped during automated partitioning. "In an ideal world, installing Linux on an Apple Silicon Mac should be as easy as using the Asahi Installer to prep the machine, then booting your favourite distro's live image and installing from there. Some distros, such as Gentoo, are already taking this approach. Gentoo can get away with this because the partitioning is entirely manual and users almost always follow the documentation step-by-step; a little guidance and care on the user's part is enough to avoid most partitioning mishaps. However, distros with a graphical installer will typically offer to automatically partition a user's disk with the distro's defaults. These tools are mostly designed around the PC, and will happily wipe out the entire target disk. We obviously cannot allow this to happen, and the fact that it is highly likely means that we cannot support a traditional, mainstream install approach. Yet."
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The Mageia team have published a roadmap for the next version of their distribution. Mageia 10 is expected to launch in April 2026 and include package upgrades across the board. There are also some challenges the team is facing, in particular supporting rarely used CPU architectures. "At the time of the team meeting, creation of 32-bit ISOs was blocked due to a segfault in perl-URPM, which has since been overcome. The problem of manually updating GPG keys and crypto-policies for migration from Mageia 9 to Mageia 10 was raised. The team is looking for a solution to be implemented in Mageia 9 prior to the release. Mozilla and other vendors are abandoning the 32-bit architecture, making it increasingly difficult to maintain full support. There is uncertainty about the status of Chromium as it's currently unmaintained." The distribution's blog post contains list of challenges and plans the team has for Mageia 10.
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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) |
Is software ever truly completed?
Is-it-finished asks: Could there be a fully developed software? Could there be software whose last update was many years ago with no new issues and no new security vulnerabilities?
As examples, I would like to mention tint2 and Openbox. I asked about security and newer versions in forums and was told that this software was fully developed. So there are new distros still coming up with tint2 or Openbox even though their last version was released many years ago.
So are there always only technical reasons for new versions of FOSS software, or could there be other motivations?
DistroWatch answers: Whether software is finished and has completed all of its goals is largely dependent on the developer and their vision for the software in question. Creating software is a bit like writing a book, there are always changes and revisions we could add to a book to make it "more complete", but every book in existence was eventually deemed "finished" by its author. Software is similar in that almost every program could be extended or polished further, but its author can deem software "complete" when it reaches specific goals.
An example I like to use is to imagine a simple program which just accepts two numbers from the user and adds them together, displaying the answer. That is pretty simple, right? It's just two inputs, one operation, and one output. So we could write a program that prompts the user for two integers and then performs the sum and outputs the answer. The program might be only three to six lines of code, depending on the language used to write it.
There are lots of ways we could extend the concept of adding two numbers though. Maybe we want to be able to add decimals, not just integers. Maybe we want to be able to read the two numbers from a file, not just input from the keyboard. Maybe we want to be able to provide the numbers on the command line. Maybe we want to be able to write the answer to a file. Sooner or later someone will suggest we create an option to input and receive the answer in JSON format....
My point is that the program still just adds together two numbers, but it has gone from a simple four or five line program to being dozens of lines with multiple command line options and relying on at least one external library. This is often referred to as "feature creep".
Ultimately, it is the program's author (or their employer, if it is commercial software) who decides when enough features are enough and the program is "feature complete". At that point the program goes from active development to maintenance mode where new features usually are not added, but there may occasionally be new versions released to address discovered bugs or to address changes in compiler standards. Basically no new versions are required unless a problem is found or the technological ecosystem changes enough to necessitate changes to the code.
It sounds as though the software you mentioned, such as Openbox, have reached feature completion; there is nothing else the authors want the window manager to do. They probably won't publish new versions unless a bug is found or they need to tweak the code to handle changes in underlying libraries or the compiler used to build the software.
The original question also asked if it is possible for there to be software without any security vulnerabilities which would need to be addressed. It is possible. It's more likely with small code bases and simple programs. However, it could also be possible with more complex software which has been carefully maintained and checked for issues.
Some people tend to associate "old" or a "lack of releases" with software being insecure or unmaintained. This tends to be a misunderstanding (and a holdover from using commercial software where companies promote new versions to make money). Lots of software in the world gets very few new releases because it is effectively "finished" and only needs to be updated if a new problem is found or a supporting library changes.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Emmabuntüs DE6-1.00
The Emmabuntüs project has announced a new version of their Debian-based distribution. The new release is based on Debian 13 and places a focus on accessibility options: "This new version of our distribution mainly focuses on accessibility improvements, developed as part of our collaboration with our friends at A.S.I. YOVOTOGO and the Togolese Federation of Associations of Persons with Disabilities (FETAPH). The goal is to soon equip specialized centers for people with visual impairments across Togo including the Saint Augustine Multipurpose Center in Lomé and the Maison du Handicap initiated by Mutualistes Sans Frontières. These advancements were made possible thanks to the work and valuable feedback of our blind and visually impaired volunteers. Corrections and improvements: based on Debian 13.2; default sound volume set to 50%; added a Wine installation script; removed Deborah; replaced ZuluCrypt-GUI with LuckyLUKS; fixed the locale bug and re-enabled country and timezone selection...." Details on the new version of Emmabuntüs can be found in the release announcement.
Kicksecure 18.0.8.7
The Kicksecure team has announced the availability of a new version of its security-focused, Debian-based distribution. The new version switches from using the Xfce desktop by default to running LXQt and the base system has been updated to use Debian 13. "port to Debian 13 'Trixie' ram-wipe - Wipe RAM on shutdown and reboot; install USBGuard by default; port to Wayland; port to LXQt; bring back Btrfs support in ISO installer; port to privleap; no longer install xpdf by default (due to port to Wayland); investigated VirtualBox; switch to using deb822 sources; backlight-tool-dist - new privleap, LXQt compatible backlight adjustment tool; keyboard layout new tools - set-system-keymap, set-console-keymap, set-labwc-keymap, set-grub-keymap; disable clipboard sharing by default for VM images (broken by Wayland); VirtualBox Guest Additions - clipboard sharing, shared folder; KVM clipboard sharing; Qubes - unaffected, no changes; GRUB boot menu now has a keyboard selection menu (this is documented in chapter Temporary Kernel Boot Parameter Change); boot performance and RAM savings improvements; consistent naming of meta packages; VirtualBox / KVM - fix auto adjustment of window size in Wayland using wlr-resize-watcher (in vm-config-dist package)." Additional details are covered in the release announcement.
Kicksecure 18.0.6.7 -- Running the LXQt desktop
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
MidnightBSD 4.0
The MidnightBSD project has announced a new major release, version 4.0, which is available for 32-bit and 64-bit x86 machines. A long list of changes to the base platform and ports collection are covered in the project's release notes. "Removed libdispatch from base. rc.subr(8) now honors ${name}_env in all rc(8) scripts. init(8), service(8), and cron(8) will now adopt user/class environment variables by default (excluding PATH). Notably, environment variables for all cron jobs and rc(8) services can now be set via login.conf(5). The default config for newsyslog(8) will now only include files from the /etc/newsyslog.conf.d/ and /usr/local/etc/newsyslog.conf.d/ directories if the filename ends with ".conf" and does not begin with a "." character. The kernel now supports enforcing a W^X memory mapping policy for user processes. The policy is not enforced by default but can be enabled by setting the kern.elf32.allow_wx and kern.elf64.allow_wx sysctls to 0. Individual binaries can be exempted from the policy by elfctl(1) via the wxneeded feature."
Rhino Linux 2025.4
Rhino Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution which offers a rolling-release upgrade approach. the project's latest snapshot improves on its Lomiri interface support and makes Lomiri available for its PINE64 devices: "As mentioned previously, our collaboration with UBPorts stipulated that we would be assisting in the development of Lomiri upstream, as well as the packaging and distribution of Lomiri for Rhino Linux PINE64 devices. We are happy to announce that we have made significant and substantial progress towards these goals with us shipping two new packages: rhino-pine-lomiri-core, and ubxi-lomiri-desktop. The ubxi-lomiri-desktop package is compatible on both PINE64 devices, as expected, as well as our generic images. We have also begun the process of rolling out Lomiri as our default desktop environment for our PINE64 devices. For now, we will be also be continuing the support and maintenance of Unicorn Mobile disk images for PINE64 devices." Additional details about Rhino Linux 2025.4 can be found in the project's release announcement.
Mabox Linux 25.12
The Mabox Linux team have announced the release of Mabox Linux 25.12. The new version includes a series of updates and improvements to the desktop, volume controls, and introduces autotheming to the live session. "The panel configuration menu was recently enhanced to allow for quick configuration of the taskbar's behavior. The menu is available by right-clicking the Mabox icon in the panel or by using the keyboard shortcut W-A-p (Super/Windows + Alt + p). Update notifier/status icon: Now shows the number of updates divided into packages from official repositories and AUR (Arch Users Repository). Quick access to file manager bookmarks: Bookmarks from the file manager are also quickly accessible in the dynamic Places menu W-. (Super + dot). Both local file system and network bookmarks are supported. SSH, Samba shares, and FTP. Autotheming enabled in live session. Just left-click on wallpaper 'icon' in panel to set random wallpaper and see autotheming in action. Have some fun while installing Mabox. Right-click on thumbnail icon for more options. Autotheming is disabled by default after installation." Additional details and screenshots can be found in the project's release announcement.
RELIANOID 7.8.0
RELIANOID, a specialist Debian-based server distribution with network load balancing features to avoid single points of failure, has been updated to version 7.8.0. The new version upgrades the base system to Debian 12 and brings various improvements to its web-based user interface. "RELIANOID 7.8.0 Community Edition represents a significant milestone, bringing a modern operating system base, enhanced upgrade capabilities, and first-class cloud automation features to the open-source community. This release focuses on simplifying lifecycle management, improving usability, and enabling seamless deployments across on-premise and cloud environments. The platform is now based on Debian 12.12 'Bookworm', providing a more secure, stable, and up-to-date foundation. This upgrade ensures long-term support, improved performance, and access to the latest system and networking components. In addition, RELIANOID CE 7.8.0 introduces major version upgrade capabilities, allowing users to perform smoother transitions between releases while reducing operational risk and downtime. As part of this process, automated system cleanup routines are now executed before upgrades to ensure a clean and reliable upgrade path." Continue to the release announcement for more details.
Chimera Linux 20251220
Chimera Linux is an independent distribution which uses an unusual combination of technologies behind the scenes. Chimera Linux uses BSD userland command line tools, the Clang/LLVM compiler toolchain, Dinit for service management, and APK for package management. The project's latest snapshot introduces a text-based system installer: "This set has been overdue for a while so it mainly comes as an update with new versions. This set is based on kernel 6.18 and comes with latest versions of desktop environments and most other software. Newly, the live images will not automatically import LVMs and ZFS pools, as that was found to be unintuitive and sometimes system-breaking (with ZFS-on-root setups). Additionally, the images now come with an experimental TUI installer. It can be invoked as chimera-installer from the command line. The installer supports the following: Local and remote installs, APK mirror setup, with up to date mirror list fetched from the repo, basic setup (hostname, timezone, root password, user account), installing extra packages, kernel version selection, bootloader setup (GRUB and systemd-boot, including BIOS/EFI/OF). It does not support the following: Disk partitioning and formatting, and probably a lot of other things" Additional information is offered in the project's release announcement.
Chimera Linux 20251220 -- Exploring the KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 243kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
Synex 13 "Server"
The Synex distribution is based on Debian's Stable branch and offers a range of desktop editions along with a server edition. Synex 13 "Server" edition offers predictable networking settings and a custom storage manager which simplifies LVM and encryption management. "ServerHub continues as the modular framework for enterprise application deployment, now with complete CLI interface complementing its TUI. Available with 7 production-ready modules (LAMP, Docker, Nginx Proxy Manager, Zabbix, Nextcloud, GLPI, Odoo), it enables full automation through scripts, CI/CD integration, and remote administration without manual intervention. Storage management is simplified through synex-lvm-manager, an interactive command-line tool designed specifically for Synex/Debian. It reduces the complexity of working with LVM and LUKS2 encryption without sacrificing technical control: allows creating and managing physical volumes, volume groups, and logical volumes in an assisted manner, preparing disks with LUKS2 encryption and integrating them into LVM, reviewing states and available space before applying changes, and automatically updating system configuration." Additional details are provided in the project's release announcement.
EasyOS 7.1
Barry Kauler has announced the release of EasyOS 7.1, an updated build of the project's experimental Linux distribution built from Devuan: "woofQ2-built EasyOS has version numbering starting from 7.0. It is built from Devuan 'Excalibur' (equivalent to Debian 'Trixie') binary packages, with major structural changes, including based on Debian's APT package management and enhanced Easy Containers. It should be noted that version 7.0+ implies improvements and less bugs compared with earlier releases; however, this series is a complete redesign, from the ground-up, and likely there are some brand-new issues. We hope that nothing serious emerges, and anyway, updating is very simple, via the "update" button on the desktop. The latest version is becoming mature, though Easy is an experimental distribution and some parts are under development and are still considered as beta-quality. However, you will find this distro to be a very pleasant surprise, or so we hope.So many 7.0.x releases since 7.0, resolving issues and many enhancements, finally reaching the rock-solid 7.1. Changes since 7.0.34: MSCW restore defaults; SeaMonkey Composer via right-click menu; fix screen brightness in EasySetup; LibreOffice Draw not in menu; Linux kernel 6.12.62; Chromium 143.0.7499.109." See the release notes for a complete list of changes.
Qubes OS 4.3.0
The Qubes OS project has a new stable release, Qubes OS 4.3.0, which updates the project's templates for Fedora, Debian, and Whonix. The project's release announcement shares key changes: "We're pleased to announce the stable release of Qubes OS 4.3.0! This minor release includes a host of new features, improvements, and bug fixes. The ISO and associated verification files are available on the downloads page. What's new in Qubes 4.3? Dom0 upgraded to Fedora 41. Xen upgraded to version 4.19. Default Fedora template upgraded to Fedora 42 (older versions not supported). Default Debian template upgraded to Debian 13 (versions older than 12 not supported). Default Whonix templates upgraded to Whonix 18 (older versions not supported). Preloaded disposables. Device 'self-identity oriented' assignment (a.k.a. New Devices API). Qubes Windows Tools reintroduced with improved features. These are just a few highlights from the many changes included in this release. For a more comprehensive list of changes, see the Qubes OS 4.3 release notes."
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 3,356
- Total data uploaded: 48.8TB
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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) |
Which open source operating system was your favourite in 2025?
This week we talked about some of our favourite distributions of the 2025 calendar year. Which of our picks do you think performed the best? Do you have a favourite that didn't make our list? Let us know which open source operating system had the best release of 2025.
You can see the results of our previous poll on filtering websites in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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What was your favourite FOSS operating system of 2025?
| Linux Mint: | 642 (28%) |
| MX Linux: | 394 (17%) |
| EndeavourOS: | 112 (5%) |
| HeliumOS: | 7 (0%) |
| Another Linux distro: | 1078 (46%) |
| Another FOSS operating system: | 94 (4%) |
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| Website News |
Donations and Sponsors
Each month we receive support and kindness from our readers in the form of donations. These donations help us keep the web server running, pay contributors, and keep infrastructure like our torrent seed box running. We'd like to thank our generous readers and acknowledge how much their contributions mean to us.
This month we're grateful for the $264 in contributions from the following kind souls:
| Donor |
Amount |
|---|
| Patrick M | $100 |
| Používateľ P | $40 |
| Jesus L | $20 |
| David C | $20 |
| Používateľ J M J V P | $10 |
| Jonathon B | $10 |
| Sam C | $10 |
| Joshua B | $7 |
| Robert L | $5 |
| Brian59 | $5 |
| Chris S | $5 |
| Chung T | $5 |
| Joe Football | $5 |
| John B | $5 |
| TaiKedz | $5 |
| Keith S | $2 |
| J.D. L | $2 |
| PB C | $2 |
| aRubes | $1 |
| Colton D | $1 |
| Stephen M | $1 |
| Kai D | $1 |
| Lars N | $1 |
| William E | $1 |
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 5 January 2026. 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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1 • Best OS for 2025 (by andrabt on 2025-12-22 01:39:33 GMT from Indonesia)
For me, of course it will going to my current OS, NixOS. I have no reason to switch, so other given option is good, but not the best for me.
2 • Debian = best OS for 2025 (by Guido on 2025-12-22 01:48:23 GMT from Philippines)
For me, Debian 13 was clearly the highlight of the Linux world in 2025. It remains the basis for countless distributions like MX and LMDE. The live version can be easily installed with Calamares and includes many proprietary drivers.
3 • 2025 Favorite? (by Brad on 2025-12-22 01:59:00 GMT from United States)
First off, I noticed that the poll listed "Linux Mint", yet your favorite was listed as LMDE (which is my favorite, as well).
Secondly, and almost as important, EasyOS came in a close second; even though it is experimental (as labeled by its main developer, Barry), it is very functional, secure (when using containers), and (for me, anyway) is missing nothing that I need in an OS. It can be installed, or used as a live distro on a USB flash drive (with persistence!), and so becomes a rescue tool, as well.
The two distros that I'm a little hesitant to use are Manjaro (which is missing one piece of software important to me) and MX Linux 25 (again, missing the same piece of software, and seems to be leaning towards exclusive use of systemD in the coming years). I do understand that both projects have goals which are slightly different than mine, and many folks could use either one without complaint.
Cachy and Endeavour seem to be more popular Arch derivatives, but I've had issues with both over the years - I won't be using those in the foreseeable future.
4 • Favourite (by Jesse on 2025-12-22 02:07:36 GMT from Canada)
@3: "First off, I noticed that the poll listed "Linux Mint", yet your favorite was listed as LMDE (which is my favorite, as well)."
LMDE is one of the flavours of Linux Mint.
5 • Slackware Current (by jorge on 2025-12-22 02:11:18 GMT from Argentina)
Thanks to Alienbob's liveslak script for allowing me to have an updated image of Slackware Current.
6 • @4 (by Brad on 2025-12-22 02:24:20 GMT from United States)
Correct, but I have always considered the two "separate", because "LM" is more Ubuntu-derivative, whereas LMDE sticks closer to Debian.
I guess I just have a long-standing grudge against Ubuntu, going back to the abandonment of GNOME 2 for "Unity" (My opinion only, I understand that many folks like Ubuntu).
7 • Ubuntu only (by vmc on 2025-12-22 02:36:22 GMT from United States)
Tried most of the top tier distributions, but have always gone back to Ubuntu.
Now I haven't used anything else for years. It just works. Even upgrading to the newest LTS.
I can't remember having any issues with Ubuntu.
8 • Favorite OS of 2025; Firefox Changes (by Jason on 2025-12-22 02:43:40 GMT from United States)
Longtime DistroWatch reader; first time commenter. As of this writing I have been using Linux for over twenty years, using it everyday for over sixteen.
My personal favorite distro of 2025: Puppy, especially "Bookworm Pup64". Although Bookworm Pup was first released in an earlier year, the inclusion of Firefox on the distribution ISO and subsequent changes to its default settings based on real-world user feedback, and inclusion of video card drivers, made this the distro I kept coming back to, no matter what else I tried. Add that to other longstanding features I like: old computer support, live medium with save file mechanism, CTRL-SHIFT-U to enter Unicode, and no automatic connections to online date/time servers.
As for announced upcoming changes to Firefox; I once used Netscape Communicator, later Mozilla/SeaMonkey Suite, then at various times in the past the aforementioned Waterfox and even IceCat; I keep finding myself using stock Firefox as some websites and services require using a major browser. Even changing the user agent on a fork still sometimes leads to an insistence I use Firefox (or Chrome or Edge; no thanks!). Hopefully the overall user base can convince the new Mozilla leadership there's a need and therefore market for a major browser that's just a browser.
9 • 2025 Favorite (by Sam on 2025-12-22 02:53:38 GMT from United States)
Jessie, I have to agree with your choice of LMDE 7. I used it since it's release but just this morning changed back to Gnome on Debian Trixie.
I had no issues with LMDE 7 but I like Gnome better than Cinnamon. Either way, I still have the Debian base.
That said I still send a donation to Linux Mint, and Distrowatch every month to support their work.
10 • 2025 favorite, Firefox (by Keith S on 2025-12-22 03:53:39 GMT from United States)
MX Linux remains my favorite, as it has been for some years. I tried half a dozen others this year, and I liked antiX, Puppy, and EndeavourOS a lot, but MX is the best for me and for the same reasons noted in the review.
I gave up on Firefox many years ago, and almost always delete it and Thunderbird first thing when I install a new distro. Brave works well, it blocks ads very well with no adjustments, and there isn't any privacy gain with Firefox compared to Brave. The addition of AI by Mozilla to their browser is completely unsurprising, and confirmation that the decision to avoid their products was the right thing to do.
11 • Favorite distro (by Toran on 2025-12-22 04:14:06 GMT from Belgium)
I go for two distros, being my number 1: Aurora Linux. My number 2 is KDE Distro.
12 • Several Best (by Tomadom on 2025-12-22 04:20:15 GMT from United States)
Mint MATE and MX XFCE and Ubuntu accomplish what they intend and are easy enough for inexpert users. My personal preference is Mint MATE. Ubuntu MATE would compete in this group except the 3 year support period excludes it from consideration.
Best pleasant surprise was Pardus.
Biggest disappointment among Distros was openSUSE Leap 16. Not because it was terribly bad, but because it represented a large degradation from typical past openSUSE releases.
Biggest disappointment among all software was Flatpack. Management and security need help. Still. Worthy of experimenting but not using on a daily driver. Is Package Forge a future solution? It's purpose is "Improving Package Management & Security".
13 • What was your favourite FOSS operating system of 2025? (by Much Derper on 2025-12-22 04:38:54 GMT from United States)
Definitely Debian. Has been since 2008 when I picked it as fitting my use cases the best after distrohopping across the whole of DistroWatch. Have been using Stable on my servers and testing/unstable on my laptops.
14 • What was your favourite FOSS operating system of 2025 (by Devlin7 on 2025-12-22 05:08:18 GMT from New Zealand)
Alpine Linux for me. Fast, light, SystemD free. Up to date packages. Tried Bazzite, it felt like a complete dare I say it Windows alternative, I liked the look and feel but speed wise it felt like a lumbering elephant compared to Alpine. (ironically, it felt like lightening compared to my WIndows 11 machine :-)
15 • Best OS is PCLinuxOS at least for me... (by Bobbie Sellers on 2025-12-22 05:25:40 GMT from United States)
Well I have stated my preference above.
I started using PCLinuxOS in 2014. Switched to Mageia and in 2016
back to PCLinuxOS. I am a hobbyist and I find this distribution to suit me
to a T.
Jesse Smith does not like rolling releases but I do after using Mandriva
for about 6 years until they turned out 2011, a fixed release that I paid
for. I could not get comprehensible help with that so I had to find a new
release that not only worked on my machines but worked a bit like
the Mandriva with KDE that I was familiar with. I tried some distributions
like KAOS and other KDE using distros that I encountered. After using
Mageia for a couple of years I was unhappy with it. I came back to
PCLinuxOS when I read that they had learned to use UEFI.
Compared to fixed releases I have far fewer problems updating PCLinuxOS.
Good luck to all you distro jumpers and Thanks to Jesse Smith for much
useful information.
Happy Holidays to All according to your Tradition...
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2025.12 Linux 6.12.63-pclos1- KDE Plasma 6.5.4
16 • LMDE & Firefox (by Aegeo on 2025-12-22 06:04:03 GMT from Italy)
I second the positive views on LMDE, it is the distro I have used most in the past 10 years. After installing and tweaking the latest release, I can safely state it is the best and most pleasing install, ever since my first experience with Mandrake Linux.
Whichever distribution I have used, I have always found that something breaks at one stage and it becomes very hard to fix, so I take it as an opportunity to practice distrohopping every 2 or 3 years.
Firefox with AI, I feel this move is going to be user hostile and will probably switch to Waterfox, I already enjoy it on Android.
A big thanks to Jesse.
Cheers
17 • Best distro (by Chris on 2025-12-22 06:29:25 GMT from New Zealand)
MX Linux for me is the best distro of 2025, it has an uncanny, ability to reliably replay flac files without stopping. Mint though is a close second and deserves praise for being super user friendly and great for every day use. Accolades to both !!
18 • TOP3 2025 (by Jyrki on 2025-12-22 07:23:22 GMT from Czechia)
Most of my installs at home have FreeBSD, which would be number 1 this year too.
But I have also two installs of Artix Linux for things where Linux makes sense and BSD cannot handle and in my workshop I have HTPC running OpenBSD - no reason to change it, rock solid, running for years happily so this would be number 2.
19 • A dead tie (by Chu g if fjfh on 2025-12-22 07:45:48 GMT from France)
For me I can't choose between NixOS, which is my daily driver, and Void which I align with better in terms of resources. Both great, maybe I just need a second machine...
Also been playing with Haiku quite a lot which has been a very fun experience!
20 • your favourite FOSS operating system of 2025 (by user on 2025-12-22 07:46:11 GMT from Bulgaria)
My is Devuan 6 Excalibur - on 1st, 2nd and 3d place. No other contenders
21 • My favourite 2025 FOSS OS is Void Linux (by Samuel on 2025-12-22 08:16:57 GMT from Slovenia)
Given my underpowered Intel N4200 laptop and the distros I have tested this year (mostly systemd-free), I have settled on Void Linux with the XFCE desktop environment, and I have learnt a lot along the way. It works super fast, and I haven't encountered any problems yet.
Happy holidays!
22 • Longitudinal reviews (by Keithpeter on 2025-12-22 08:41:33 GMT from United Kingdom)
The rolling and immutable distributions are interesting. I'm wondering if anyone out there has been using e.g. EndeavourOS for, say, six months to a year for most of their tasks and has been through the upgrade of major system components, say Plasma? Same with immutable distributions. Anyone out there been through updates and has installed local applications such as RStudio, Octave or sound production stuff like Ardour and such?
Season's greetings to all and for those of us well up in the Northern hemisphere the Sun is coming back.
23 • Favorite distro : Fedora (by Adrien Linuxtricks on 2025-12-22 09:12:01 GMT from France)
For me, my favorite is Fedora.
Because it just works. And used by Linus Torvalds :)
It works well, recent software and GNOME without tons of extension.
Second place to Ubuntu, which I install for others, because Ubuntu supports lot of hardwares, no need disable secure boot (with NVidia drivers) and easy to use for everyone.
24 • favourite FOSS operating system of 2025 (by Charles on 2025-12-22 09:27:41 GMT from Belgium)
Have been running Pclinux os for years now, but discovered Artix a year back and have been running this on another laptop and might make the full change over. Both systemd free and free off silly politics. GhostBsd is the 3rd one on my list, have been running this on a vm for learning the Bsd way.
25 • Best OS (by borgio3 on 2025-12-22 09:36:22 GMT from Italy)
For the 2025 my favourite OS is GhostBSD.
26 • Best OS (by Carlo Alessandro Verre on 2025-12-22 10:13:09 GMT from Italy)
IMHO the best OS on the planet is Debian 13 XFCE with compositing turned off (settings -> window manager tweaks -> compositor -> enable display compositing = off) plus WMTILE (https://pypi.org/project/wmtile)
27 • My favourite X has enshittified itself and ballooned in size (by We all float down on 2025-12-22 10:34:23 GMT from Germany)
For instance, Flagellantrix evolved to resemble a Linux distro based on a NetBSD-derived kernel: in 2005 base37.tgz was 34MB, while its parent a year later still had a 22MB base.tgz; in 2015 base58.tgz grew to a modest 53MB; now, after another ten years, base78.tgz is a staggering 498MB while it is officially stated that "You MUST install this distribution set. It contains the base OpenBSD utilities that are necessary for the system to run and be minimally functional. This includes parts of the toolchain required to relink a kernel". Why not randomize all sectors on a disk from a cronjob as well, just to be sure?
More or less the same goes when you try to revisit other, formerly sane, distros (Debian, Porteus=Slackware, Void if you're nodding at the helm, even busybox/router distros, but to a lesser degree still).
28 • Best distros of 2025: Manjaro and NixOS (by Luca on 2025-12-22 11:14:21 GMT from Italy)
I have been using Manjaro on my PC, that I daily use for work (I'm a developer) and personal usage, for 10 years, and I confirm it is still my favourite distro in 2025. My current OS has been installed more than 5 years ago (when I bought the PC), it is perfectly up-to-date, and it works without any issues. Some updates required minimal manual intervention, like in any Arch-derived distribution, but I haven't had any major issues.
For my parents' PCs I use NixOS: the distribution is relatively easy to setup and keep updated (even if you skip some updates), rock-solid (you can rollback to a previous generation of the entire system or of a specific package if you have issues), and enjoys a huge package repository.
29 • Best OS.... (by Marc Visscher on 2025-12-22 11:21:14 GMT from The Netherlands)
Well... I use different distros with different origins, but it seems I drifted away from Arch-based desktops in 2025, in favour of Debian-based systems. While Linux Mint stays my number one distro (because of it's liability), Debian Trixie is a steady runner-up. This year I installed Debian Trixie (with the KDE desktop), and I like it a lot. It's relible, it's stable, and it just works. No funny quirks or a (unpleasant) surprise after updating the system. KDE Neon also worked fantastic, so I'm happy about that too. Number 4 in my list is Fedora. Pretty stable also, no strange quirks there. Number 5 is Q4OS. But that is because it runs beautifully on very old hardware.
30 • MX praise (by Jeffrey on 2025-12-22 11:37:41 GMT from Czechia)
Let's also not forget that the MX folks also provide deb packages for many "commercial" packages, including commercial VPN applications, and unlike the packages offered by the upstream vendor, they made it work with Sys V init as well. (Vendros mostly distribute systemd-only packages.) It might look like a small thing, but these kinds of small things make a huge difference. Long live the MX folks!
31 • Firefox to become an 'AI Browser' (by Ghost Sixtyseven on 2025-12-22 07:49:47 GMT from United Kingdom)
In the Linux community of which I've been a denizen since 2008 we have seen a few controversies over the years. I remember the fuss when ALSA was capped-off with Pulseaudio and the screams in the night which that brought, but things settled down and for the most part the community learned to live with it.
Then there was the almost heretical move to systemd as first an init system but later as a jack of all trades. Again, for the most part this 'init' seems largely unavoidable now, with most applications and services requiring it just to function. We adopted and adapted, however exasperatedly and under intense protest.
Now it seems that our beloved 'alternative to Chromium-based browsers' Firefox is jumping on the AI bandwagon, just like apparently everything else is - seemingly right on the back of its most recent privacy breaking telemetry 'features'.
What are they hoping to do with this move? Compete with 'the big boys'? I fear that they are long ago well and truly out of that race - or at the least lagging so far behind in terms of global adoption as to be negligible.
No. Firefox was the browser of choice for 'Free as in freedom' software enthusiasts but it seems like Mozilla are about to throw that out the window too now. I won't use it any more when AI finally lands as a component part of it and I'm certain that I'm not alone in that.
Thank God (for the moment) for Waterfox and Librewolf. They will be my 'go-to' browsers from here on in. At least for as long as they can continue to build trusted browsers from the firefox base.
As an aside, I have a close to end-of-life Chromebook (convenient when I am 'out and about' due to the long battery life - little else) which recently installed its own Gemini AI in an update. This notebook will stop getting updates next June so I asked Gemini how I could write enable it so I could install Linux and thus extend its life. Gemini flatly refused to tell me how 'for my protection'. If that is the level of control we're about to see in Firefox soon they can forget it.
They're about to lose another previously faithful - even evangelical user.
Dammit, AI is a malignancy that seems to be spreading everywhere. Even Duckduckgo uses it now.
I would much rather use human intelligence and continue to research and think for myself.
32 • Best Linux of 2025 (by Tony Harbour on 2025-12-22 11:57:20 GMT from United States)
For me it's PCLinuxOS. It gives me every thing i need and then some. It is systemd free and is a rolling release distro which i prefer. Everyone has their favorite. That is the beauty of Linux.
33 • Favorite distro? (by Fred on 2025-12-22 11:59:42 GMT from United States)
SecureBlue. If you have to settle for the limitations in desktop Linux security, SecureBlue is the one. It's also a perfect partner to GrapheneOS on a Pixel.
"Who is secureblue for?
secureblue is for those whose first priority is using Linux, and second priority is security. secureblue does not claim to be the most secure option available on the desktop. We are limited in that regard by the current state of desktop Linux standardization, tooling, and upstream security development. What we aim for instead is to be the most secure option for those who already intend to use Linux. As such, if security is your first priority, secureblue may not be the best option for you."
https://secureblue.dev/
34 • HeliumOS cannot be recommended yet (by Laurent on 2025-12-22 12:26:26 GMT from Poland)
I'm sorry but you can't recommend HeliumOS yet. Last image published was 1 month ago. It means zero security updates since. Look at the makefile https://github.com/HeliumOS-org/HeliumOS
My Bluefin, a Fedora atomic distro which also rely on Flatpak, distrobox, and O
bootable OCI images releases an image on a weekly basis!
35 • Best OS of the year (by John on 2025-12-22 12:35:58 GMT from Canada)
For me - PikaOS. Based on Debian, but cutting edge, designed for gaming and yet still stable :-)
Has been working flawlessly since I discovered it in the spring on both my laptop and gaming desktop.
36 • Favorite Distro (by npaladin2000 on 2025-12-22 12:43:11 GMT from United States)
I'm a little surprised Bazzite and CachyOS didn't make the list. SteamOS being updated to support other devices should make that work of consideration too, given how much they've contributed to Linux.
37 • Favorite Distros (by kc1di on 2025-12-22 12:44:14 GMT from United States)
I Too used many Distros during 2025.
This is my list of favorites.
1. Mint (LMDE7)
2. Debian Trixie
3. MX- 25 (KDE)
4. Fedora (KDE)
you might guess my favorite DE is KDE :)
5. PCLinuxOS.
38 • Other options (by Jesse on 2025-12-22 12:55:40 GMT from Canada)
@36: "I'm a little surprised Bazzite and CachyOS didn't make the list."
Both provided pretty poor experiences during my trails. Would definitely not recommend either of them.
"SteamOS being updated to support other devices should make that work of consideration too, given how much they've contributed to Linux."
You can't download an ISO for SteamOS so it's not something I can test let alone recommend.
@34: "I'm sorry but you can't recommend HeliumOS yet."
I mean, I wouldn't exactly say I did recommend it. It was the least bad of the immutable distributions I tested. I think it has promise and offered a decent experience. I wouldn't recommend any immutable distro, but HeliumOS has the smoothest experience of the ones I've tried.
39 • Favorite Distro (by Joseph on 2025-12-22 13:10:10 GMT from United States)
MX Linux has been my favorite distro this year - has all the benefits of being based on Debian, low-flow of updates so I can leave my PC off for a week at a time without worrying about updates piling up, and the distro makes it relatively easy to install some newer Nvidia drivers - something I tend to struggle with on Debian-based distros. Have had no major issues with it, and it being built with XFCE in mind puts it at the top of my list.
I also really like Linux Mint and LMDE, but like Jesse, for myself I have to give it to MX.
40 • Best OS (by dragonmouth on 2025-12-22 13:20:13 GMT from United States)
Picking/naming the "best OS" is an exercise in futility. It's like picking/naming the "best fruit juice." "Best" for whom? Best" according to whom? "Best" in what respects? There can only be "favorite(s)."
Personally, I would not touch any OS with systemd with a 10 foot pole. Similarly, I would not touch Ubuntu or any of its derivatives. I use PCLinuxOS Trinity but I would not have the audacity to claim it is the BEST.
41 • Best Distro (by rich52 on 2025-12-22 13:35:16 GMT from United States)
I've been using Linux for about 29 years and have distro hopped the entire time. I've settled on one that has been a star over the last couple years. EndeavourOS has been my answer for all these years of trial and error. It is my one and only hands down go to Linux OS. Nothing else comes close in my opinion.
42 • "Modernization" and AI vs Tried and True (by Slappy McGee on 2025-12-22 13:42:26 GMT from United States)
Jesse Smith said:
"It's been a bleak year if you're a user of commercially-backed Linux distributions. Programs licensed as free software are being replaced by more liberally licensed alternatives, AI slop is being hyped as a main selling point, and powerful administrative tools are being replaced by watered down web-based alternatives. However, I'm not here to malign the direction of commercial distributions."
"Instead, I'd like to point out to you, our readers, that there are alternatives. There are plenty of community-backed, user-focused, open source operating systems in the world. And they need your help. Community projects - the Linux distributions which are working for you and not shareholders - need equipment, donations, patches, bug reports, artwork, and documentation. If you want more freedom and more control in your computing experience, please consider giving your time, skills, or money to projects which seek to empower you."
And it's very very well worth repeating.
43 • Jesse's review - Favorite 2025 (by Linux Revolution on 2025-12-22 14:53:31 GMT from United States)
Best commentary of 2025...LAST PARAGRAPH in Jesse's review. This cannot be overstated!
IMO, 2026 will be the year we see the major linux distributions (Canonical, RedHat/IBM, Suse, etc...) continue to push the open source community out and bring shareholders in.
I've already started to prepare by testing out Solus (GNOME) as a daily driver. I've used Fedora as my daily driver for 3 years now. Speaking of...If you haven't tried Solus latest release, you'd be remiss if you didn't. I'm not much of a Budgie fan, but Solus with GNOME has to be one of the best setups out there. Please give it a go. You'll be pleasantly suprised. I know I was.
44 • Prefrred Linux (by jc on 2025-12-22 16:03:16 GMT from The Netherlands)
1. Devuan 2. Mx 3. Slackware
Software is complete when it satisfies the design requirements, excluding security issues due to poor implementation. "New" features are changes in the design requirement. One issue with software development is clearly defined requirements. The "software" to find square root of real N was developed several thousand years ago by Chinese and Greek mathematicians; it is complete, excluding implementation issues.
45 • Best linux distro 2025 (by Marciano on 2025-12-22 16:11:24 GMT from Italy)
1. Kubuntu 25.10
2. Fedora KDE 43
3. OpenSUSE 16.0
46 • Favourite Distro (by Alex Patterson on 2025-12-22 16:12:50 GMT from Canada)
My favourite Linux distrobution continues to be Manjaro with KDE Plasma. I have been running it for over five years without any issues (continuously update including between major versions of KDE). I now run it on four machines including a 10 year old Macbook Air.
I have never had as troublefree experience as I have had with Manjaro (including Mint, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Sabayon, Mandrake/Mandriva, Mageia, Fedora, Debian, Windows and MacOS).
47 • The "Best Distro" (by Jupiter on 2025-12-22 16:17:17 GMT from United States)
I've gone around quite a bit myself this year in terms of distros, I've been to Cachy, Debian (Stable and Testing), Fedora for a brief minute, Mint (Still amazing btw), and the whatnot.
Personally I still think the best distro is the one you design and modify according to how you like it, and realistically the only times I still "distro-hop" is changing how often I get new software and some other minor things. Did a bit of hopping with DE's whilst I was on Debian, and recently finished up with a Hyprland Experiment on CachyOS,
I'm not quite willing to go down the absolute madness of doing Gentoo or even installing Arch myself, so in the end, I think I'm just gonna go with Solus. Seriously, its actually pretty good. It doesn't have exactly daily updates like Arch does that can potentially break your system, whilst not taking several months for new software to arrive, the weekly updates balance things out to still have enough testing to get any important bugs out whilst not taking ages for new software.
So yeah, personally I like Solus. Thats my personal favorite, but hey, everyone has their own tastes. Just please don't force me on GNOME, cause I do not like it!
48 • Underdog favorites (by InvisibleInk on 2025-12-22 16:28:32 GMT from United States)
If you like Linux Mint Debian Edition's polish/batteries-included nature, but you prefer KDE or its ancestor (now called Trinity), then Q4OS is worth strong consideration.
If you are a rebel by nature, then antiX is the perfect hill to die on for your principles.
49 • Favourite distro (by David on 2025-12-22 16:30:28 GMT from United Kingdom)
I'm still happy with PCLinuxOS. Last Saturday I reported a problem with Gnucash (a beast of a program to maintain) which didn't like some updated Python files. Today I've just downloaded a working version. A two-day solution over a weekend is pretty good!
50 • Best Distro 2025 (by vw72 on 2025-12-22 17:24:55 GMT from United States)
For me the best distro is one that doesn’t get a lot of press — openSUSE Tumbleweed. It’s boring because it simply works and has great engineering behind it. Gnome, KDE, XFCE all get top rate support and their BTRFS/Snapper implementation should be the standard for all distros.
While other distros have fans promoting them wherever, openSUSE simply keeps out of the way letting work (and/or gaming) get done.
51 • Favorite Distro (by Steve K on 2025-12-22 17:39:07 GMT from United States)
I’ve been testing and using many, many linux distros for around 20 years now and my favorite one, and my daily driver, is Linux Mint MATE. In the decades I have been using Linux Mint I have never had a single issue or problem as I have had in many other distros. It has been totally stable and reliable the whole time.
I also love Linux Mint MATE because it is extremely well organized and well laid out. With its Control Center it’s easy to find what you what your are looking for, unlike some other distros in which you often have to hunt and peck for sometimes way too long to find what you want. That’s totally aggravating and time-consuming.
I also prefer Linux Mint MATE over the Linux Mint Cinnamon edition. Cinnamon is way too basic for my needs and doesn’t have the endless customizing and tweaking ability that MATE has. Cinnamon is more suitable for Linux beginners.
The sky’s the limit in what you can do in MATE. With the CompizConfig Settings Manager, the Emerald Theme Manager and a gorgeous KDE Breeze icon theme I not only have a totally stable and reliable linux distro but also one that has a totally awesome appearance!
52 • 2025 Distro of choice (by JNFoo on 2025-12-22 18:12:27 GMT from United States)
CachyOS, by long mile. And across significantly different laptops and desktop hardware configurations.
53 • FOSS OS (by Julien on 2025-12-22 18:20:19 GMT from France)
What are FOSS linux OS? Debian?
54 • Favorite Distro (by vortex59 on 2025-12-22 19:12:13 GMT from Romania)
Linux Mint since Elyssa (2008). First Gnome, Mate and now Cinnamon. My great surprise was in 2025 LMDE7. Until now I never tested this variant. Now I have LMDE7 on dual boot with "classic" Linux MInt and had no problems. Thanks to all members of the teams!
55 • Favorite Distro (by nobody on 2025-12-22 19:50:12 GMT from Bulgaria)
It is the year 2025, and I have no Favorite Distro, nor Favorite Hardware.
For getting some serious work done. I am thinking about the greedy Mac..
For basic (and perhaps, not so basic) tasks. Anything based on Debian is just awesome.
For Gaming, and some content creation CachyOS is coming strong.
Not far behind, the new Fedora..
For Music. I wish the AV Team would depart from the Enlightenment Desktop.
As it is just shiny useless, something nothing. AV Xfce, that's it..
56 • Fav/Best Distro of '25 (by Slappy McGee on 2025-12-22 20:18:09 GMT from United States)
Debian edged out MX for me. And that I thought would never happen.
About Mozilla's AI Pledge of Allegiance, I'll remove it from every OS I use and go with one of the many alternatives now boasting "no AI" if Mozilla follows through on their creepy pledge.
57 • Best Linux distros (by picamanic on 2025-12-22 20:24:48 GMT from United Kingdom)
In my opinion, best distros are Void and Devuan. I want to explore EasyOS and Chimera Linux, but the latter needs much work to get it installed.
58 • Best of 2025 (by BlueIV on 2025-12-22 20:51:30 GMT from United States)
Like Jesse, I like both Linux Mint and MX Linux. Generally Debian/Ubuntu distros have worked the best for me. Q4OS (both Trinity and Plasma) is another good one that I have used this year.
59 • My Favorite Linux Distro 2025 (by redhotpink on 2025-12-22 21:38:42 GMT from United States)
I first worked with an open-source OS (Linux Mint) in February 2024.
Linux OSs offer a fairly challenging learning curve compared to MS Windows. Yet, I'm finding this experience enjoyable as well, thanks to its customizable features and special animation effects.
So, almost two years later, MX Linux IS my favorite operating system. Thank you all!
P.S. To me, XP was the best Microsoft version in terms of graphical features (transparent windows & taskbars, special animations). Sadly, when my PC went dead in 2013, I researched intensely for WinXP -- with no results.
60 • Favorite Linux Distro (by Don s on 2025-12-22 22:52:09 GMT from United States)
I have always thought MX linux was at the top of my favorites and before that it was Mepis.
But recently I've started using a spin of MX linux with the Moksha desktop and I am very impressed. It comes with a liquorix Kernel that works well with my aging nvidia geforce 710 graphic card.
My number two favorite is EasyOS which I think of as a kind of Swiss Army knife of linux distros.
I do agree though, if I install a linux distro for family or friends it's Linux Mint
61 • poll (by dolphin oracle on 2025-12-22 23:26:22 GMT from United States)
I'm pleased more than I have a right to be to see MX as a choice in the poll! :)
62 • Firefox kill switch (by vmc on 2025-12-23 00:41:44 GMT from United States)
Mozilla is adding a global "AI kill switch" to Firefox, giving users a single option to permanently disable all AI tools in the browser.
Developer Jake Archibald confirmed on Mastodon that the new toggle will remove every AI component.
He also explained that all AI features will be optional by default.
The kill switch is for users who want a 100% assurance that the AI is no longer in use.
63 • Best OS (by OneHue on 2025-12-23 00:51:44 GMT from Mali)
Thanks Jessie for this post ! Everything is said and well said. Specifically the to last paragraphs. Happy holidays to you and to everyone.
In the poll I choose “Another FOSS operating system” and it is NetBSD. Why ? Because it is simple. The second one is #!++ for everything I can’t do with the first one. And the 3rd one is AV Linux for music production (Ardour, Hydrogen and LMMS on a suitable kernel).
For serious business work Windows 10 IoT LTSC. I just took the ownership of Defender folders and denied its use by the system. It is stable and predictable. And I still prefer the OpenOffice.org 3.3 for fonts size reliability.
64 • Firefox (by Jesse on 2025-12-23 01:01:34 GMT from Canada)
@62: "Mozilla is adding a global "AI kill switch" to Firefox, giving users a single option to permanently disable all AI tools in the browser."
It's a bit too little too late. There are already AI components in Firefox which require manual work and toggling multiple hidden configuration options to disable. Also, the idea of a "kill switch" means the AI options will be enabled by default, which is terrible. If they are firmly set on including AI garbage, it should be opt-in only. The existence of a "kill switch" means the slop is enabled by default and therefore Firefox is not making their users their priority.
65 • Linux Mint (by Sebastian on 2025-12-23 01:57:00 GMT from Canada)
Too bad Linux Mint doesn't play too nice with newer hardware. I had to switch to Fedora otherwise my graphics card would make the system unusable.
66 • Firefox AI / MX Linux (by Keith S on 2025-12-23 04:59:44 GMT from United States)
@62 "The kill switch is for users who want a 100% assurance that the AI is no longer in use."
No, the way to achieve 100% assurance that there is no AI is to use a browser that doesn't implement it to begin with. Waterfox, surf, ungoogled chromium, etc.
@61 Thank you for all your hard work! Very much appreciated!
67 • Top distro/Firefox AI (by John C on 2025-12-23 05:34:17 GMT from United States)
I will deal with Firefox and its artificial ignorance, and any trademark issues, by simply using forks of it until such time as Ladybird is ready for prime time.
I'm another regular user of PCLOS, but that's not for everyone. Suggesting LMDE or MX Linux is a winner. They both do a great job.
68 • Disabling Altman Inside? (by We all float down on 2025-12-23 07:38:17 GMT from Germany)
But first you'll have to download and start the recommended 420GB browser. Not enough money to buy extra mobile/SSD/RAM? Tough. No bank for you, I guess.
Well, you all just couldn't wait to kill 32-bit, so now lie in the bed you made.
69 • Favorite distro (by Kelly G. on 2025-12-23 11:02:24 GMT from Canada)
It was so hard to choose between the option for Linux Mint and other. I use both Linux Mint and NixOS and they both have been great.
70 • Void, Gentoo (by Lukasz on 2025-12-23 11:17:28 GMT from Poland)
For me this two. Although there was no release from them for obvious reason's, I started to use both this year. Void as daily driver,Gentoo as a backup. As both serves musl versions and are for now systemd free, their fit me best.
71 • Linux Mint is my favorite, but (by Amanda on 2025-12-23 11:19:02 GMT from The Netherlands)
I say Linux Mint, but I don’t like the trend of what it has done over the years of going to minimalism and flat design. Tbh, that reminds me of the chaos of the Covid pandemic- the sterilization and whitewashing and dulling down of color and life in general. I hope skeuomorphism comes back exactly how it was- that didn’t take much resources then to run compared to how flat design and minimalism is a resource hog- which makes no sense, you think something more detailed would be more resource intensive, but it wasn’t.
72 • @ 61--"poll, by dolphin oracle" (by R. Cain on 2025-12-23 20:18:17 GMT from United States)
To dolphin oracle--
You have *every* right to be proud, given the tremendous reviews you have been getting, for years, from Jesse Smith and Igor Ljubuncic.
Example, from Jesse Smith (MXLinux 23):
"...Not only did MX Linux work well with my hardware, it worked quickly, was stable, and *I can't think of a single time I saw an error message during my trial*....
"...I'm of the opinion MX Linux is one of the most capable, friendly, reliable desktop distributions currently available. It runs on a wide range of hardware, from older computers to more modern machines. It offers an experience which improves from its parent on multiple fronts without introducing any problems..."
Suggestion: take, VERY seriously, all of Igor's suggestions and 'wart-reports' to heart.
73 • Firefox (by Rufus T. Firefly on 2025-12-23 21:34:39 GMT from United States)
After reading their AI announcement, I deleted Firefox. Currently using several Firefox derivatives. I hope they will remove the AI slop from of the browser in the future.
Its amazing how tone deaf Firefox has become. Almost as tone deaf as Microsoft. I guess when money is your priority, users mean nothing.
74 • Jesse's choice for top two (by Buster on 2025-12-23 22:19:02 GMT from Canada)
Jesse, your top two choices are perfect. This does not surprise me, because Canadians have a lot of cold and snow and common sense. Mint is easy and reliable. MX had a great ancestor and continues the legacy. Sometimes we install a distro because we want a computer, and not because we need a hobby.
75 • distros (by Mike on 2025-12-23 23:26:33 GMT from United States)
I think i have tried 90% of the dristros that have been produced over the last 2 1/2 decades. Great fun. Anyway my current favorites are Cachyos and Artix. Artix is running on my slightly underpowered laptop and cachy is on the workstation.
I almost avoided Cachyos because I am not a fan systemd, but the speed improvement is pretty awesome. If only Artix had a version that took advantage of modern CPU features I would be a happy camper.
Unlike Jesse I have had not problems with Cachy and it has worked flawlessly from the moment of installation. My desktop system is actually a Frankenstein computer. I have upgraded the system for years. Current hardware ranges from 1 to 4 years old. I have a combination of electronic and hard drives with at least 4 terabytes of storage, 24 GB RAM and a huge monitor that doubles as a TV. It really helps my tired old eyes when I need to read something.
One nice thing is Cachy instantly recognized a new wifi USB adapter with no restart. I did have to apply the security for the network, but that was it.
Well, cheers all and a happy holiday season whatever your beliefs.
Cheers,
Mike
76 • fav linux os 2025 (by pugo27 on 2025-12-24 03:51:58 GMT from New Zealand)
MX 25 and Puppy
77 • TOP DISTRO (by pietravulcanica on 2025-12-24 09:22:43 GMT from Germany)
I fill good with void linux. With bspwm, picom and polybar it takes few ram at idle time.
78 • Top 2025 Distros (by Mike W on 2025-12-24 14:57:59 GMT from United States)
With all the distros out there that one needs to sort through to narrow down to these four, I can't fault Jesse's picks at all. 4 distros that fill a space in the FOSS universe in different ways, each with a great track record across a significant installed user base. Well done!
79 • HeliumOS (by Jesse on 2025-12-24 15:08:26 GMT from Canada)
@34: "I'm sorry but you can't recommend HeliumOS yet. Last image published was 1 month ago. It means zero security updates since."
I just checked and the last update was two days ago, so it looks like any delay you were seeing has been reolved.
80 • Void Linux (by Slappy McGee on 2025-12-24 16:08:26 GMT from United States)
@78 etc Void is one of those distros that may throw off the ratings accuracy quite a bit, as it is only dared attempted mainly by those attracted to such a thin project. Void's home page alone is quite the red "caution" sign, as we navigate around trying to find sense in the whole thing as compared to other distro websites.
So, those who are attracted to such things give it a nice big "10" rating, while the few others who have tip-toed around with it have to rate much lower, often a "1." Thus the average is 9.1 at this writing, much higher than the most popular and functional distros out there that "work out of the box" and are generally hassle free. Debian is now hassle free on my machines.
I have no desire to construct an operating system, and then deal with update malfunctions, as I'd rather just install and get to work and play.
81 • best OS of 2025 (by hotdiggettydog on 2025-12-24 18:32:17 GMT from Canada)
Another Mint lover here. It is my daily driver and workhorse. Yes, it "just works".
I've been using linux since 1999. Cut the microsoft cord in the early 2000s. Tried most every distro. Nowadays I rarely try something new and when I do I'm usually disappointed.
I still try different flavours in Virtualbox. Keep them for a while till I find flaws or upgrades go bad. It's good fun.
Merry Christmas Everyone!
82 • Void TOP DISTRO (by rhtoras on 2025-12-25 00:04:38 GMT from Greece)
I wonder why people with minimum knowledge judge void linux as a bad one. Everyone can say whatever he likes or what happened in his case, under certain circumstances. On the other hand Vpid use to be (for years) #1 on Distrowatch based on user reviews. This means ot works just fine for so many people and you all should read these reviews. In my humble opinion Void is user friendly or at least friendlier than arch or gentoo or even fedora. You judged this distro based on its installer or it's minimal approach. Ok you can check a distribution based on void and you can see it is as easy as it gets. Check for example AgarimOS. There is a nice Dracula theme, there are preinstalled drivers and software. It offer KDE and Xfce and even more desktop choices. Even those thinking sound could not work with this Distro it works ootb. I still suggest official Void distro but there are still options outbthere for the lazy or the curious ones.
So to sum it up. Don't judge a book by its cover. And don't try distros based on rumors.
83 • My choices (by arnoldus on 2025-12-25 02:45:54 GMT from Thailand)
After a long distro-hopping period, I choose MX-linux-cinnamon DE as my No1 !
Pclinuxos-debian-cinnamon is my No2
I have tried the whole list and 90% are technicak OK
Its usually a personal preference that makes one decide.
Do you like eggs, or cheese, or chocolate for breakfast ? ?
:-)
84 • Why MX is driving me nuts. (by Arron on 2025-12-25 11:53:15 GMT from Australia)
I build a workhorse for playing music and general pottering every 15 years or so. My Slackware H/W finally died so I moved on. After 12 months of MX I am about to try another non systemd distro.
The VLC player keeps feeding into MX and being muted at random. Nothing seems to bring it back. My mate's "farm MX" does the same thing. The killer - my old Win7 toy runs VLC and Foobar - neither mutes and Foobar sounds way better than VLC anyway.
So I am open to suggested options (i.e. back to Slack, Arch. a BSD unix, etc. I don't do shoot em ups, speed not and issue, H/W dates from 10+ years to 1 year old, several choices.
Murphy: Interchangeable parts wont.
85 • @84 - AV Linux? (by Uncle Slacky on 2025-12-25 14:55:18 GMT from France)
Maybe try AV Linux, based on MX but optimized for audio and visual uses?
https://www.bandshed.net/2025/11/27/av-linux-and-mx-moksha-25-released/
86 • Distro choice @ 84 (by eb on 2025-12-25 14:59:25 GMT from France)
"suggested options (i.e. back to Slack ..."
If you already experimented and enjoyed Slackware, I advise you to come back !
In 2005, after several tests (Mandrake, Mepis, Suse, Debian ...) I eventually adopted Slackware which never disapointed me. I think it is a perfect general purpose OS, surprisingly efficient on (very) old hardware if you do not use any desktop environment, but only a window manager. With Slackware and Fluxbox or Joe-window-manager, I can do *all* what I want !:-).
Merry Christmas !
87 • Best distro 2025 (by JTR on 2025-12-25 18:15:34 GMT from Latvia)
1. Debian 13 Trixie
2. openSUSE 16.0
3. Fedora 43
88 • Essential distro 2025 (by Aquas on 2025-12-25 18:23:48 GMT from Poland)
Debian, openSUSE, Fedora. Are there any other Secure Boot-compatible, well-maintained, and well-documented distros? I really don't think so.
89 • Essential distro (by jc on 2025-12-25 18:40:30 GMT from Sweden)
Slackware.
90 • distros (by Dave Postles on 2025-12-25 19:01:34 GMT from United Kingdom)
I don't think that I'm competent to distinguish a 'best' distro. I have several different ones on different kit. On two, I'm running distros for the sake of nostalgia. I began using Linux about 2003 with SUSE and then Mandriva, so I'm now using OpenSUSE and OpenMandriva on two pieces of kit (incidentally, both rpm, but I do also use debs on other kit). There are many downsides to both distros, but I get by. On elementaryOS, which I have just run in live mode, it seems to me to have very little installed software (apps) for such a large download. Since the problems with the AUR repository, I avoid Arch-based distros. I like Endeavour xfce, but I'm liable to make mistakes with installing apps.
91 • Bluefin (by Pedro on 2025-12-26 03:07:42 GMT from Brazil)
Bluefin gave me the best experience OOTB. I use it everywhere: at my law firm, at home, on the go...
92 • End of Year 2025 Distros (by The Distrowrite Project on 2025-12-26 13:19:50 GMT from United Kingdom)
I am approaching the end of 2025 with just three distributions on bare metal:-
1. Kubuntu 24.04.3 (Noble Numbat)
2. FreeBSD 15.0 (KDE Plasma)
3. BRGV-OS (Void-Based)
93 • CachyOS (by Michel on 2025-12-29 00:03:08 GMT from France)
CachyOS, wow, what a letdown. Not helpful community, pretty unstable and slow. I chose other distro.
94 • no more 'Hopscotch' (by Dr. Michael Heafner on 2025-12-29 04:04:49 GMT from United States)
I no longer 'hop', just stayed with Ubuntu. Never fails.
95 • Best Distro of 2025 (by Hank on 2025-12-29 09:37:13 GMT from Germany)
1/antiX
2/MX
3/Mint
Writing this from antiX 25 Beta 2 Release fully customized ICEWM.
antiX, light, fast, distraction free desktops, and importantly does not have two million plus lines of brainrot crap code to start the system.
Can be run Live just as easy as installed, making it a take anywhere operating system.
I do it for months at a time.
MX and systemd eath.
Changes by Debian sysd evangelists (primarilily employed by Microsoft and Ubuntu) to make usage of alternative inits difficult (intent Impossible)
were the reason for present setup.
Meanwhile thanks to Prowler Gr and anticapitalista as well as other devs antiX 25 Beta2
4 modern systemd-free init systems – runit (default), s6-rc, s6-66, dinit plus the ever reliable sysVinit
Icewm Fluxbox JWM and herbstluft
Still some bugs but have had it in daily usage since Dec 18. The setup is enjoyable.
96 • best distro of 25 (by Nik Reid on 2025-12-29 13:10:03 GMT from United Kingdom)
Well it has to be Arch, as this is my only daily and has been for years, however I want to shout out to JaKooLit and others who share their Hyprland dot files. Though not acknowledged as a full distro, if you install any Arch-based distro, any way you want, then run the single line curl command, similar in nature to ArchRiot, Omarchy and others, the resulting desktop is brilliant, powerful and customisable. As a base for Arch / Hyprland, it can't be beaten. Why are some installation scripts, such as Omarchy, held up as a full Distro, whereas others, such as JaKooLit, are not? Just a thought. Personally, I install Arch the old way then use the JaKooLit package on top and modify from there. Works for me, and as far as I am concerned, this is the best distro of 25.
97 • agree with Dave (90) (by Nik on 2025-12-29 13:24:03 GMT from United Kingdom)
Actually, just to agree with Dave (90) and add that I use multiple distros on different laptops as meets the need of the user. I have installed Mint on my daughter's PC as she likes it, Debian Gnome on my dad's 2 in 1 laptop as it is easy for him to use as a tablet, Debian Cinnamon in a VM on my wife's Apple Mac as I am trying to win her over to Linux, and as mentioned earlier, I use Arch, mainly because I am used to it and comfortable with the syntax. My backup laptop has Mint cos it just works (and I have a soft spot for Mint as my first love). You use what you are used to and what you like, so none of these are the best, just the best for the job at the time.
98 • Thx to Uncle Slacky and EB (by Arron on 2025-12-29 15:15:19 GMT from Australia)
Thx for the thoughts guys.
FWIW, this is the first time I have had intermittent reliability problems in a nix.
BTW, MX's other issue - I run two 27" vertical / one 42" horizontal monitors. The only prog I use that doesn't screw up the screens (i.e. wrong progs in the wrong places) when I suspend seems to be Thunar. Using a second workspace (my usual under 'nix's) and it is even worse.
Uncle Slacky: Damn, the new AV is now on sysd. Unless I know exactly how my OS is starting, it is off the list.
Looks like 3rd time around for Slack or play with Arch or a BSD. Why is it so hard to get a secure OS that just gets out of the way so I can work?
Mencken: For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
99 • Linux Mint is my favorite (by Jack T. on 2025-12-29 15:40:51 GMT from United States)
Linux Mint FTW! Easy to use, stays out of your way, and you have a helpful and big community here.
100 • @65 mint current hardware (by Tim on 2025-12-29 15:41:59 GMT from United States)
We're 4 months away from a Ubuntu 26.04 and thus probably 6 months away from a mint 23. If there's any issues with Mint, it's in this time frame as the Ubuntu 24.04 base is getting old
Try installing the OEM kernel, it worked for me.
101 • I haven't seen my 2nd favorite mentioned (by Clarence Perry on 2025-12-29 16:30:32 GMT from United States)
My favorite and daily driver is Linux Mint Mate. I've been on Mint Mate since my wife retired. I set her computer up with it because of all the good reasons mentioned and had to make my computer match hers in order to support her. The only support needed has been on Thunderbird.
My second favorite is SparkyLinux with MATE It would be my fav if not for needing to stay current with my wife.
102 • 100% Mint (by Claire on 2025-12-29 19:42:48 GMT from France)
Linux Mint has been wonderful over the years using it, so I choose that. I do disagree with the minimalism and flat design style of it though- I echo others and see it reminds me of the sterilization and blanding down in operating system design and look. I’d like skeuomorphism back please, and for it to stay and for flat design and minimalism to go to the dustbin of history and be forgotten.
103 • I vote for Linux Mint (by Jessica on 2025-12-29 22:22:15 GMT from Canada)
Linux Mint, it just works, is easy to use and has a great community.
104 • nixen in 2026 (by future hopper on 2025-12-29 23:58:02 GMT from United States)
What distro developments will be worth watching in 2026? Maybe
* Chimera Linux: efficient cross-platform build system
* AerynOS: MOSS packaging system, stateless design, self-healing
* Redox OS: has good development momentum
* RISC-V: development has slowed somewhat
105 • DWW Fedora 43 review in November (by terminal-upgrades on 2025-12-30 15:24:56 GMT from United States)
When JS mentioned his disappointment in Fedora this year, I jumped back to the DWW November issue ( https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20251110#fedora ) to read about it. Having gotten my Linux start with Red Hat Linux 7.2 and then Fedora Core 1, I was sad to read about these steps taken backward by a distro that I still think of fondly.
Regarding package management, I've had the same problem with Discover on Debian Bookworm with KDE, which I installed on my Dell Latitude e5450 from a Debian KDE live ISO just over a year ago. Discover "rolls up" multiple updated packages (sometimes hundreds, if I didn't run the laptop for a long time, for example) into one monolithic update, requires a reboot to install even the most trivial updates, and then pauses midway between reboot and arrival at the SDDM login screen in order to "apply" new updates, leaving me with a system I can't log into and use until the update finishes in the foreground. All very distressingly Windows-y behavior! So after a couple of updates like that, I decided to stop using Discover for my update process, and much sanity ensued. When the Discover tray icon notifies me that there are updates available, I launch Konsole and run "sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y". The process runs as you'd expect, very efficiently in the background, and without unnecessary reboot prompts. Once the upgrade command has completed, the Discover "updates available" tray icon disappears and I've already been carrying on with my own PC activities uninterrupted. If the upgrade included a new kernel version or other valid reason for a reboot, I can simply do the reboot when I choose, or indeed just shut the PC down and boot it again whenever I want to.
106 • Distro for 2025 (by Victor on 2025-12-30 15:48:04 GMT from Canada)
I voted for Linux Mint, mostly because I was happy enough with LMDE to have it as my daily driver on my primary device for most of the past year.
I wanted to also throw in an honorable mention to the Bluefin project. I've been playing with an install as the primary OS on a secondary laptop and the experience has been nothing short of solid and quite pleasant to use. There's so far no reason to replace with anything else in that device. I'm even contemplating moving a copy over to my new primary travel laptop, because even though working with an immutable distro has had some limiting situations I've had to find work arounds to over come, as a whole it's performed so consistently that it's earned a place in my lineup of go to distros. Also of note was how responsive the lead developer was when I was looking to have a few small packages added to the base. He was quite quick to help and accommodate the small request. 🙂
107 • Evaluating 2025 (by Carl on 2025-12-31 17:53:23 GMT from United States)
Answers to the poll have not addressed its topic, 2025. The people qualified to answer are distro-hoppers who tested several this year. Instead, answers emerged to the effect, "X is still my fave distro." These say nothing about 2025 changes per se.
Some discussion is more about desktops. However DEs can be installed across distros.
One pleasing 2025 *distro* development was antiX adopting Artix init choice; antiX was already fantastic, and is now better still. That said, I do not use antiX. Its devs should adopt the ROX File Manager. To my knowledge, no one hacks it any more.
I also prefer non-Debian packaging systems; the Debian/Ubuntu family suffers overfull complexity with backports and all that. What's worse, 2025 saw Debian, the "stable" distro, boarding the Rust fad-wagon to rewrite its working C/C++ packaging system. Meanwhile, Ubuntu, based on Debian, adopted alpha-quality core utils ported to Rust. So the whole Debian/Ubuntu family started spinning wheels in 2025 for no functionality gain and only marginal speed/security boost by 2030 once Rust ports stabilize.
108 • worst of 2025 (by tomas on 2025-12-31 20:38:50 GMT from Czechia)
I do not want to dispute any of the "best" propositions here.
As Carl @107 said one should think of what 2025 brought, so for me it was Q4OS Trinity.
On the other hand, this year I got one unpleasant surprise by the developers of Arch based distros with KDE Plasma desktop (including Manjaro).
Making a fast switch from Qt5 to Qt6, from X11 to Wayland and Plasma 6, they forgot to take into consideration what the transition will bring and thus made many systems unstable.
For me, to a point of considering to drop distros I liked before.
109 • Shebang Linux Novel Ideas on Solid Base (by Carl on 2026-01-01 00:13:55 GMT from United States)
Shebang Linux emerged in 2025 (I think?) with a novel design. Firstly it's based on Artix Linux with runit. That buys security over systemd off the top. Then fresh packages from Artix handle emerging CVEs and such. Shebang uses ephemeral sessions and network mods for privacy. It runs a fork of X11 not Wayland, but OpenBox is solid. One could hardly go wrong with this distro. Artix is solid these days, and Shebang session mods mirror my own tricks with other distros over the years. Shebang's default gray theme disagrees with my taste, but OpenBox re-themes with ease. It's been around long enough to enjoy good theme choices. So if I have a favorite distro for 2025, Shebang is it: solid base platform with novel engineering initiative.
110 • It's high time... (by El carnicero on 2026-01-01 10:07:39 GMT from Italy)
...to summon up worst OSes rather than best one, since it's quite clear as of today problem is no more what Linux or BSD or whatnot are, but what they may become in the short.
It's not only a matter of AI, it's quite a matter of unpleasant and backfiring choices: how come so many unuseful distros like "take Debian, change language to Thai, put an absurd package manager and a fancy DE noone else has" keep rising? Or BSD steady distros which go on sticking to 20-years old models (FreeBSD doesn't install a default X server again? What the...?!?). Or any kind of OS still in alpha after 15 years or more (it's an OS, not Cheops' Pyramid)?
Microsoft is definitely killing its golden eggs' goose, but open source community is too dispersed and fragmented in a billion distinct projects, way most of which will live less than an anti-matter particle in our universe. Each time a developer is disappointed with what its own creature is going towards, a new fork starts and more and more resources are wasted. And this way, the only distros that can survive are the industrial ones, paid for and not always so different from "Big Tech"'s dictators' standards, even because some of them are theirs in the first place.
"Divided, we fall"
111 • Poll (by Broder Salsa on 2026-01-01 14:57:47 GMT from Denmark)
1. Antix
2. MX
Re Firefox AI: This decision may kill Firefox, Which is too bad.
112 • Best OS (by Friar Tux on 2026-01-01 21:00:40 GMT from Canada)
First off, Happy New Year, everyone!!!
If you been on DW long enough, you'll probably know my vote already - Linux Mint/Cinnamon. Just can't find another that I would consider better. This one has worked perfectly for me, and The Wife, for a little over a decade. I've tried so many others but none seem to work like Mint.
113 • Keep it simple… (by Jabroni Prime on 2026-01-01 21:33:38 GMT from United States)
Currently on Debian 13 with XFCE and loving it.. solid as a rock, just have to tweak the theme and whisker menu for my liking. Also, threw Virtualbox and VMware into the volcano; loving kvm.
For the wife: she’s happy on Mint and virtualizing Windows when her job calls for it.
As an aside, Patrick said that Slackware releases were hopefully going to be more frequent once 15.0 was released. I would love to go back, but we are at almost four years since the since the last release, and many don’t have time to deal with software that old. I’m pulling for him though..
Number of Comments: 113
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| • Issue 1173 (2026-05-18): Sylve on FreeBSD, the benefit of BleachBit, Debian commits to reproducible builds, Debian publishes updated install media, Haiku introduces SMP support on ARM64 processors, Rocky Linux creates opt-in security repository, Fedora reconsiders AI tools, KDE receives generous donation |
| • Issue 1172 (2026-05-11): Fedora 44, dealing with extra fonts, Fedora plans to provide AI tools, problems with Ubuntu's new coreutils, TrueNAS extends its development cycle, postmarktetOS improves the boot splash screen, Redox ports tmux |
| • Issue 1171 (2026-05-04): Xubuntu 26.04, extending memory with VRAM, Ubuntu plans AI features, Devuan developer forks GTK2, Mint introduces hardware enablement builds, Linux running on a PlayStation 5, local kernel exploit found in Linux |
| • Issue 1170 (2026-04-27): ENux 5.2.1, picking a second distro, AlmaLinux expands CPU support, FreeBSD publishes Status Report, Ubuntu MATE skips 26.04 release |
| • Issue 1169 (2026-04-20): Lakka 6.1, free software and source-based distributions, FreeBSD Foundation publishes compatible laptop list, Debian holds Project Leader election, Haiku progresses ARM64 port, Mint to extend development cycle, Linux 7.0 released |
| • Issue 1168 (2026-04-13): pearOS 2026.03, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, which distros are adopting age verification, Arch adjusts its firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its release cycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves its scheduler |
| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
| • Issue 1166 (2026-03-30): NetBSD jails, publishing software for Linux, Ubuntu joins Rust Foundation, Canonical plans to trim GRUB features, Peppermint works on new utilities, PINE64 shows off open hardware capabilities |
| • Issue 1165 (2026-03-23): Argent Linux 1.5.3, disk space required by Linux, Manjaro team goes on strike, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA driver support and builds RISC-V packages, systemd introduces age tracking |
| • Issue 1164 (2026-03-16): d77void, age verification laws and Linux, SUSE may be for sale, TrueNAS takes its build system private, Debian publishes updated Trixie media, MidnightBSD and System76 respond to age verification laws |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • 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 | 
AlterOS
AlterOS is a Russian, general-purpose Linux distribution based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It is developed by ALMI PARTNER, a Russian software development company, and available for personal and professional workstations and servers. Some of the features of AlterOS include optimisation of the Linux kernel and the core libraries for modern hardware, the Cinnamon desktop environment, and pre-installed certificates from the Russian Ministry of Digital Development to ensure integration with government systems and compliance with cybersecurity requirements.
Status: Active
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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.
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| 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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