 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1154, 5 January 2026 |
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Welcome to this year's 1st issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Welcome, everyone, to 2026! With a new year we embrace new opportunities, new experiences, and new software releases. We begin this year with an experiment from Jesse Smith in which he attempts to change and upgrade an operating system running on his open hardware PinePhone. The PinePhone has limited specifications, but some Linux distributions are up to the challenge of running well on the low-resource platform. Read on to learn more about the PinePhone and how it works with the postmarketOS distribution. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about making the switch from other operating systems to a Linux distribution along with approaches to learning how to use Linux. When you were new to Linux what was your preferred approach to learning how to use your distribution? Let us know in the Opinion Poll. Then, in our News section, we talk about the FreeBSD Foundation working to improve laptop support and we report on a new X11 server which has entered development. We also talk about a key piece of Unix history which can be downloaded and run in an emulator. Plus we report on the CachyOS team announcing plans to make a server edition. Since we were on vacation last week we are sharing details on new distribution releases from the past two weeks along with the new torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: postmarketOS 25.06 and 25.12
- News: FreeBSD Foundation improves laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, a new X11 server is in development, CachyOS team plans server edition
- Questions and answers: Should you switch to Linux and how to learn how to use Linux?
- Released in the past two weeks: Talos 1.12.0, elementary OS 8.1, postmarketOS 25.12, Besgnulinux 3-2, Gnoppix AI Linux 26, Parrot 7.0, OpenMediaVault 8.0-12, GuideOS 1.0, Pearl Linux OS 13, PorteuX 2.5, Canaima GNU/Linux 8.3, Peropesis 3.1, Exton Linux 260104, Manjaro Linux 26.0
- Torrent corner: BigLinux, KDE neon, Manjaro, Parrot
- Opinion poll: What is your preferred method for learning Linux?
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
postmarketOS 25.06 and 25.12
For the past few years I've been running the UBports operating system on a PinePhone. The PinePhone's hardware is quite limited and so it doesn't actually make for a particularly great smartphone while running UBports. The interface is a bit sluggish and it can't run some of the distribution's default applications. However, the operating system, which is essentially Ubuntu for ARM processors paired with the Lomiri user interface, is quite flexible. I have been able to set up the mobile device to act as a test server and NAS for the home, capable of being placed just about anywhere and benefiting from a built-in battery backup.
With my install of UBports 20.04 nearing the end of its supported life and with the project no longer supporting the device with version 24.04, this left me seeking a new operating system. I recalled that, over three years ago, I had experimented with a few flavours of Linux on the PinePhone. Manjaro running the Plasma Mobile interface had looked promising, but the interface was far too slow and prone to locking up. postmarketOS, on the other hand, had performed quickly when running the Phosh user interface, though I had run into some limitations. I decided to revisit postmarketOS and see how it would compare to my existing, Ubuntu-based installation.
postmarketOS is available in a few different editions, including GNOME Mobile, Plasma Mobile, sxmo, and Phosh. The distribution is based on Alpine Linux and is able to run on a range of desktop computers, netbooks, and smartphones. I downloaded the Phosh edition of the distribution for PinePhones. The compressed download was 526MB in size and, when unpacked, the IMG file was 2.5GB.
Installing
My first hurdle in my trial was my laptop didn't have a microSD slot and my PinePhone didn't have enough internal storage space free to hold the downloaded copy of postmarketOS. This is when having a fully functional distribution on the PinePhone comes in handy. I was able to use the scp command from the Ubuntu-based system on the PinePhone to transfer the postmarketOS IMG file directly from my laptop to the phone's microSD card slot. The command looked like this:
sudo scp jesse@laptop:Downloads/20251212-1055-postmarketOS-v25.06-phosh-25-pine64-pinephone.img /dev/mmcblk0
Early impressions
Once the postmarketOS image was written to the microSD card all I had to do was reboot the phone to have it load the new distribution from the microSD card. postmarketOS started up, displaying its logo and then showing me a lock screen.
I was not sure what the passcode would be, but the postmarketOS documentation came to my rescue. It reports the default credentials used by the distribution set the username to be "user" and the default passcode to be "147147". This worked and I was able to sign in and the distribution then launched a welcome application.
postmarketOS 25.06 -- The welcome application
(full image size: 93kB, resolution: 720x1440 pixels)
The welcome window tells us we can access application launchers by making a swiping gesture "up" from the bottom of the screen. We are also told settings and networking options can be accessed by swiping "down" from the top of the display. Software updates can be found in the Software application. The welcome window warns us postmarketOS is not necessarily ready for use as a day-to-day device and that it is intended to be used by technology enthusiasts who are willing to work through problems. It concludes by telling us how to open a terminal and then displays buttons which can be used to access on-line documentation. At least, in theory, the buttons open Firefox to display documentation, however I had not had a chance to set up a networking connection yet, so Firefox just showed an error page.
I noticed, when the phone was plugged into my laptop using a USB cable, the phone automatically set itself up as a networking device. This effectively gave me a "wired" Internet connection for my laptop when the phone was on-line.
postmarketOS 25.06 -- The home screen
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Something which annoyed me early in my trial was typing with the Phosh on-screen keyboard or launching an application would make an odd sound, like sand being shaken inside a glass bulb. This audio feedback could be disabled in the settings panel. In fact, there are some really well done audio and notification controls in the Phosh settings panel which allow us to set feedback for various actions which can be represented by audio, vibration, or even disabled. It took me a while to hunt down these options, but once I found them I appreciated being able to get feedback for notifications (for example), but not for launching new apps or typing.
postmarketOS 25.06 -- Changing feedback settings
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There isn't any dedicated screenshot tool included with postmarketOS, but it is possible to take a snapshot of the interface by holding the power button and then tapping the Screenshot button which pops up. This works similarly to Android-based operating systems.
Phosh places a terminal application launcher right on the home screen. From the terminal we can access the underlying Alpine Linux command line tools along with systemd utilities for service management. We can change our passcode using the passwd command. Enabling remote shell access can be accomplished by running "sudo systemctl start sshd" to start the OpenSSH service.
I noticed that sudo on postmarketOS is just a script which runs the OpenDoas command, which performs the same function, but with a smaller codebase and a simplified configuration file. I also noticed there are no manual pages installed locally. This lack of local documentation is a part of what makes postmarketOS so small.
Hardware and performance
The distribution requires just 2GB of disk space and, while running the Phosh interface, only consumes about 450MB of RAM. This makes the operating system small enough to run multiple desktop applications at once, including a web browser, even on the PinePhone's limited 2GB of RAM and 1GHz CPU.
I want to clarify that postmarketOS doesn't run quickly on the PinePhone, but it does run faster than any other operating system I've run on the same equipment. Tasks, particularly those involving storage access (such as copying files or launching new applications), are slow. However, the Phosh interface is responsive and postmarketOS is visibly faster at performing tasks with its default applications than UBports and Manjaro's mobile branch.
The phone's networking, speaker, and microphone all worked with postmarketOS. I was especially impressed that networking continued to function even when the phone was locked and the screen was asleep. With UBports I had to keep the screen awake (at a low brightness setting) if I wanted the PinePhone to have network access. postmarketOS manages to let the mobile device mostly sleep while keeping network connections alive.
postmarketOS 25.06 -- Quickly accessing settings through the pull-down menu
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One of the few issues I had during my trial, in fact the only serious one, was that my camera did not work while running postmarketOS. The PinePhone's camera is on the lower end in terms of capabilities and I've never been able to shoot video with it, but I could take pictures with the rear camera while running UBports. While using postmarketOS the camera apps (there are two) would launch, but show nothing and the "shutter" button did nothing. This appears to be a known issue and a work in progress.
Thoughts on included applications
The Phosh interface includes a fairly standard set of applications, most of which look and act a lot like their Android equivalents. The Clock and Calendar applications, in particular, seem very similar to their Android counterparts. There is a simple audio player, a more full featured music player, a video player, the Firefox web browser, a text/SMS application, a software centre, and a phone dialing application. I also found a virtual terminal and a settings panel along with a file manager. Apart from the problem with the camera application I mentioned above, the included software worked well. Launching apps was a bit slow and disk-related tasks, such as scanning my microSD card for music, were slow. Otherwise, the included software worked well.
postmarketOS 25.06 -- The Clocks application
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The Phosh settings panel deserves a special mention. The settings panel feels like a more streamlined and better organized alternative to the Android settings application. It has a lot of options, but isn't overwhelming, and options tended to be labelled clearly. I liked most of the defaults Phosh used, but the few I did not were easy to change in the settings panel. The one exception I ran into was learning the difference between "quiet" and "silent" in the feedback settings. In this context "quiet" appears to mean "no sound, just vibration" while "silent" means "no feedback of any kind". I especially appreciated how easy settings were to manage once I plugged the phone into a dock, but more on that later.
Through the settings panel I was able to set up networking, change my keyboard layout, adjust sounds and alerts, enable OpenSSH access, and set screen time limits. There are also settings for connecting to mobile networks and enable power saving features. There is a second settings application called Tweaks which can be used to further customize the user interface. This helps us adjust fonts, display scaling, and other elements of the interface.
postmarketOS 25.06 -- The Tweaks tool
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I was curious if Phosh's applications would synchronize with on-line services. I was pleased to discover the operating system supports a wide range of cloud services, including Nextcloud, WebDAV, and Microsoft. We can sign into these accounts and then use them to synchronize files, contacts, and the calendar application. This was actually easier and faster for me to accomplish on postmarketOS than it was on Android.
Something I had struggled with on other mobile distributions for the PinePhone was music playing. The UBports music player would lock up as soon as it was launched and I had to work around some audio settings to get command line players to function. The Gapless music player that came with postmarketOS worked well. I was able to point it to my music folder and it automatically imported everything and was able to play, create lists, and shuffle music. It was a pleasantly smooth experience.
Software management
We have two main options when it comes to managing software on postmarketOS. The first is to use the GNOME Software application. This software centre is divided into three tabs - one explores available applications, one lists and removes installed items, and the third tab fetches updates. GNOME Software pulls applications from the Alpine and postmarketOS package repositories as well as Flatpak bundles from Flathub.
postmarketOS 25.06 -- Viewing installed applications with GNOME Software
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We also have the option of using the command line apk package manager which may be familiar to people who have used Alpine Linux. (The apk package manager from Alpine should not be confused with the Android apk package format; they are not compatible.)
People who wish to access an even wider range of software can install the Distrobox container manager from the Alpine repositories. We can then install another distribution inside the Distrobox container. That will give us access to a wider range of applications.
Other observations
During my trial I installed the KDE Connect software from Alpine's repositories. At first KDE Connect, a utility for linking two or more devices on a network, failed to connect with my other phone and with my laptop. After some experimenting I tracked the issue to the postmarketOS firewall. The firewall allows outgoing connections and allows incoming OpenSSH connections, but blocks other incoming traffic. Once the appropriate ports in the firewall were opened, KDE Connect worked and I was able to share information between the PinePhone and other devices. This also allowed me to remotely control the PinePhone's media player.
Another problem I ran into was any running tmux or screen sessions would disappear after I had signed out of a shell session. This caused long-running jobs to terminated when I wasn't signed into the phone. This was quickly traced to systemd which kills the processes of a user after they sign out. This can be fixed by prefixing long-running commands with "systemd-run --scope --user". I was able to alias the screen command to "systemd-run --scope --user screen" to keep my shell sessions running even when I was not logged into the phone.
In the past I had tried to get the PinePhone to work with a hub, a type of docking station for phones, which would allow me to control the phone using a mouse and keyboard while displaying applications on a larger screen. When I tried this with UBports the user interface (Lomiri) would crash and enter into a loop of restarting and crashing. With postmarketOS the experience was both successful and automatic. I plugged the phone into my dock, attached a monitor over HDMI, and plugged in input devices. Input and output worked immediately with no configuration on my part.
postmarketOS 25.06 -- A dual display screenshot with the setting panel running on the phone (left) and calculator on the TV (right)
(full image size: 642kB, resolution: 4560x2160 pixels)
Should we wish to, we can open the Phosh settings panel and adjust the display settings. We can either mirror the phone's screen to the larger display or extend the desktop to cover both displays in a side-by-side configuration. We can also choose which display should be considered the main one. The only issue I had was the phone would dim its screen and turn off the external display after a few minutes, but this behaviour could be disabled in the settings panel, keeping the screens on all the time while the PinePhone was docked. When the phone was unplugged it automatically returned to working as a normal phone.
I think this smooth docking experience is significant. Over the years I've tried a handful of different approaches to merge desktop and mobile computing. I've tried containers and VNC, I've tried Android for x86 computers, I've experimented with desktops such as Lomiri/Unity 8 and, while all of them have shown a degree of promise, the experience was always limited or awkward. The experience required some tinkering or technical knowledge and, even then, it was never a great merger of the two worlds (desktop and mobile). Phosh running on postmarketOS is the first time I've encountered a seamless convergence where no technical knowledge was required and the user experience was both automatic and stable.
postmarketOS 25.06 -- Dual display with audio settings on the phone (left) and music player on the TV (right)
(full image size: 774kB, resolution: 4560x2160 pixels)
Using postmarketOS I was able to walk around with my PinePhone and check my calendar, set reminders, and (slowly) check news websites. This was done with one application at a time visible on the screen, as one expects from a phone. I could then plug my phone into the dock and have it display multiple application windows side-by-side, and play music through my TV speakers while editing documents. The Phosh interface accepts touch and mouse input at the same time and we can use an on-screen keyboard or a physical keyboard interchangeably. It's a surprisingly polished experience, even on the PinePhone's limited hardware.
Conclusions
I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with how good the experience with postmarketOS running Phosh has become. Running this operating system felt like getting a hardware upgrade compared to every other mobile operating system I've run on the PinePhone. The interface was smoother and more responsive, more applications were able to run, the resource usage was minimal, and everything (except the camera) worked out of the box. (Some people might be wondering about making phone calls; the PinePhone's frequency range is outside of my cell carrier's range. Text messages and phone calls cannot work due to physical limitations rather than software limitations.)
Admittedly the PinePhone is a low specification device and, as a result, it struggles under the weight of some heavier applications. GNOME Software, for example, and the Firefox browser ran slowly and I switched to a lighter browser while also doing most of my package management from the command line.
Despite the struggle with some larger applications the PinePhone feels more like a proper (low-end) phone running postmarketOS rather than a low-end single-board computer (such as an early Raspberry Pi) as it did when running UBports or Manjaro. This is the first time it's felt usable as a mobile device or even as a desktop-style device. In the past it was more of a low-end server or embedded device which had a touch screen.
It's hard to overstate how impressed I am with how well postmarketOS performed for me during my trial. It's unusually light, it has a good collection of polished applications, the operating system supports working with Alpine packages, Flatpak bundles, and Distrobox containers. Most of the PinePhone's hardware worked out of the box without any effort on my part, and the operating system seamlessly mixes mobile applications with command line tools. The experience breathed new life into my PinePhone.
What really impressed me though was how well Phosh handled convergence. The experience it offers is surprisingly smooth and Phosh has a highly polished interface that somehow manages to bridge the gap between desktop and mobile computing without making either feel awkward. It was easy to use my finger to push a new window from my phone to the TV screen, then use the mouse to interact with the application window.
A few times in this review I've pointed out the PinePhone has low hardware specifications (2GB of RAM and a 1GHz CPU), which makes sense as it was developed as a proof-of-concept, not intended to be a device used on a day-to-day basis. By the time my trial was over I found myself lamenting that PINE64 no longer has an up to date model of the PinePhone, perhaps with a 2GHz CPU and 4GB of RAM. If they did I could possibly replace my desktop computer with an upgraded PinePhone, postmarketOS, and a docking station. Phosh running on postmarketOS really does bridge the divide between desktop computing and mobile smartphones and I hope the few remaining rough edges are addressed because this could be the full powered, convergent phone distribution the Linux community keeps seeking.
Upgrade to 25.12
As I finished writing this article over the holiday, postmarketOS published an update, version 25.12. Fortunately the postmarketOS team makes it straightforward to upgrade across releases and provides an upgrade script which walks us through the process. The upgrade process runs live and fetched 1,166 new packages for my PinePhone. When it finished, and I had rebooted the device, the PinePhone came back on-line without any immediate problems. My initial impressions were that the wallpaper was different, but the applications, performance, memory consumption, and capabilities were the same in 25.12 as they were in 25.06.
I did notice the OpenSSH had become disabled during the upgrade and the firewall enabled, preventing remote connections and blocking KDE Connect from working. I'm unsure if this is a mistake or if it is a security feature. Once I had updated the firewall rules and enabled the sshd service everything was back to normal. The packages fetched during the upgrade had consumed about an extra 700MB of disk space and running "doas pkg cache purge" freed up this space.
Earlier in this review I mentioned neither of the camera applications worked with postmarketOS 25.06. After the upgrade the Megapixel application continued to fail, reporting when launched it could not create a "GL context" and then closing. However, the Camera application did work and, in a first for my PinePhone, was able to take photos using both the front-facing and the rear-facing cameras. It seems hardware support has improved slightly from 25.06 to 25.12.
Apart from this change, the upgrade did not appear to change anything significant. The same applications were included and the phone worked the same as before, which was a pleasant experience. The upgrade only took about 15 minutes and ran live, which is quite good for a device with limited hardware. I was happy with the upgrade, which isn't something I can usually say about updates to Android-based distributions.
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Visitor supplied rating
postmarketOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.5/10 from 2 review(s).
Have you used postmarketOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
FreeBSD Foundation improves laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, a new X11 server is in development, CachyOS team plans server edition
The FreeBSD Foundation announced at the end of 2024 that the organization would be sponsoring and coordinating work on FreeBSD to make the operating system function better on desktop and laptop computers. How has the work been progressing? The Foundation has reported positive success across a variety of tasks, including wireless networking support, suspend/resume, and graphics drivers: "In 2025 we added support for Wi-Fi 4 and 5 on key hardware and made a start on Wi-Fi 6. Wi-Fi 4 and 5 drivers for Intel and Realtek are available in 15.0, with support for additional Realtek and Mediatek drivers in progress. Thanks to Bjoern Zeeb and Tom Jones for their work on this. Graphics drivers have been upgraded to Linux 6.9, which is available in 15.0 (note: to use this driver you need to adopt the drm-latest-kmod port as it's a non-LTS version). Linux 6.10 is in progress, and this is the minimum version required for the latest Framework laptop (16-inch AMD Ryzen AI 300 series). Thanks to Jean-Sébastien Pédron for all the hard work." Additional information on the improved laptop support can be found in the Foundation's blog post.
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People interested in the history of Unix and Unix-like operating systems (such as Linux and the BSDs) have the chance to experience a piece of computing history. An archive tape containing an early version of Unix was discovered and transferred to the Computing History Museum. The tape containing Unix v4 was recovered and is now available through Archive.org. Some people have managed to run the early version of Unix in an emulator, giving people a chance to have a taste of early Unix history.
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The Wayland protocol and associated display technologies have been in development for just over 15 years. Wayland is intended to replace X.Org as the primary display server on Linux (and some other members of the Unix family). While Wayland does offer some attractive features, particularly in terms of security, it is less efficient in terms of performance and memory when compared to X.Org and some applications still do not play well with Wayland sessions. Proponents of Wayland often state that users need to move away from X.Org as the legacy graphics server will no longer be maintained in the future as no one is willing to work on it. Despite those claims, there are multiple projects which strive to provide ongoing support for applications and desktop environments which run in X11 sessions.
Wayback is an effort to provide compatibility for X.Org desktop environments so they may run on top of Wayland sessions. Meanwhile Phoenix is a completely new X11 server which seeks to continue where X.Org left off: "Phoenix is a new X server, written from scratch in Zig (not a fork of X.Org server). This X server is designed to be a modern alternative to the X.Org server." At least one other project has forked X.Org with intent to keep it running in case X.Org developers cease to provide updates. People worried about X.Org support have multiple options, depending on their needs.
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CachyOS is a desktop distribution which is based on Arch Linux. The project includes customized desktop environments and kernel optimizations. This style of distribution (desktop oriented, rolling, and with a customized graphical interface) might seem like an unusual match for server environments, but the CachyOS team have announced plans to create a sever edition in 2026. "In addition to our ongoing PGO and AutoFDO optimizations, we are developing a specialized Server edition for NAS, workstations, and server environments. We intend to provide a verified image that hosting providers can easily deploy for their customers. This edition will ship with a hardened configuration, pre-tuned settings, and performance-optimized packages for web servers, databases and more!"
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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) |
Should you switch to Linux and how to learn how to use Linux?
Making-the-switch asks: Should I make the switch to Linux as someone interested in cyber security?
DistroWatch answers: Linux, in one form or another, powers a great many computers. Linux is at the heart of literally billions of devices, including most smartphones, a large percentage of the world's servers, countless embedded devices, and probably about 1 out of every 20 desktop computers. Since it is so widely used, in so many fields of computing, it certainly makes sense to study Linux if you are interested in the field of computer security.
Some Linux distributions specialize in improving their own security and others are designed to help test the security of other machines, making those distributions well suited to helping you in your studies.
With this said, I'd like to point out that while I certainly advocate in favour of adopting Linux distributions as tools in your toolbox, doing so doesn't require that you make a "switch" from another operating system. Most Linux distributions can run from thumb drives, dual boot alongside an existing operating system, or run in a virtual machine. You can start using and learning Linux (and using it to explore cyber security) without making a leap off of your existing operating system.
Admittedly I'm biased in this field, and I think using Linux full-time is a great experience. However, you don't need to give up any of your existing platforms in order to enjoy the tools Linux provides.
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Seeking-knowledge asks: What's the best way to learn Linux?
DistroWatch answers: There are a lot of ways. The two approaches I personally found the most useful were:
- Get a book on Linux basics. Maybe Linux Bible or How Linux Works and read the first few chapters to get a handle on the terminology.
- Download a beginner-friendly distribution, such as Linux Mint, and copy it onto a thumb drive. Then boot from the thumb drive and start exploring. This gives you a chance to try out some basic Linux concepts without replacing your existing operating system, at least until you are ready to make the switch. Gradually try to do more and more of your computing tasks using Linux instead of whatever operating system you have been using.
Between the book providing concepts and the hands-on trial-and-error providing practical experience, you will quickly learn a lot.
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Missing-the-good-times asks: What happened to your Questions and Answers column?
DistroWatch answers: It hasn't gone away. We typically publish a new Q&A every week. You can browse an index of our Questions and Answers articles or visit our Tips and Tricks collection to explore past columns.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Talos 1.12.0
Talos, a specialist Linux-based operating system for running Kubernetes, has been updated to version 1.12.0. This release introduces new network configuration documents, new user volume types, and updates to disk encryption: "Welcome to the v1.12.0 release of Talos. What's new? The Kubernetes API server in Talos has been updated to use a more secure set of TLS cipher suites by default. This is in line with a set of best practices documented in CIS 1.12 benchmark. New field in UserVolumeConfig - volumeType that defaults to partition, but can be set to directory. When set to directory, provisioning and filesystem operations are skipped and a directory is created under /var/mnt/'name'. The directory type enables lightweight storage volumes backed by a host directory, instead of requiring a full block device partition. Talos versions prior to v1.12 used the state of PCR 7 and signed policies locked to PCR 11 for TPM based disk encryption. Talos now supports configuring which PCRs states are to be used for TPM based disk encryption via the options.pcrs field in the tpm section of the disk encryption configuration. Component updates: Linux kernel 6.18.1, Kubernetes 1.35.0, CNI Plugins 1.9.0, cryptsetup 2.8.1, LVM2 2_03_37, systemd-udevd: 257.8...." See the release notes and the what's new document for more information.
elementary OS 8.1
elementary OS is an Ubuntu-based distribution which runs the Pantheon desktop environment. The project's latest release is version 8.1 and it incorporates several small improvements and enhancements all across the desktop, package management, and display stack. Support for ARM hardware has also improved: "Today, we are proud to announce that elementary OS 8.1 is available to download now and shipping on several high-quality computers. For the first time we now also offer ARM64 builds for devices that boot with UEFI. This means you'll be able to run OS 8.1 on M-series Apple Silicon and devices where you can load UEFI-supporting firmware like Raspberry Pi. This version of Linux also supports certain Qualcomm and Rockchip processors, for example. Many notebooks and tablets now ship with displays that aren't quite HiDPI, but are more pixel dense than traditional displays. In OS 8, we only supported integer display scaling which left these devices in an awkward position with an interface that is either too large or too small. In OS 8.1, we now support fractional display scaling in the Secure Session." Additional information is provided in the release announcement.
postmarketOS 25.12
The postmarketOS team has announced a new version of its operating system for mobile devices and desktop computers. The new version, 25.12, is based on Alpine Linux 3.23 and includes several improvements from the upgrade, along with updates to the distribution's user interfaces. "As always we target the most recent Alpine release. In case of v25.12 it is the excellent Alpine Linux 3.23 and it comes with the new major version 3 of the Alpine Package Keeper, which has been released after five years (!) of development. It includes some really nice changes, such as downloading packages before installing them (which we enabled by default in postmarketOS), so that a flaky internet connection can't ever break your system again while installing updates. Another long awaited feature is logging all changes to /var/log/apk.log. See the apk3 release notes for more information." Additional information is provided in the release announcement. A list of supported devices and install instructions can be found through the project's Install page.
Besgnulinux 3-2 -- Running the JWM interface
(full image size: 3.6MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Besgnulinux 3-2
Besgnulinux, a Debian-based Linux distribution with the lightweight JWM window manager as the preferred desktop user interface, has been updated to version 3-2. The new release is available in three separate editions - "Full", "Simple" and "Core". While the first two come with a full graphical environment (the "Simple" edition lacks some applications), the "Core" variant is command-line only. "A lot of work has been done and important changes have been implemented in this version. First, let's talk briefly about the procedures performed. As in the previous version, the classic and modern menu were adapted together. You can switch between these menus or use them jointly with the 'Add to Menu' tool. Added some important elements to the welcome screen. The 'Add Key' tool has been restructured. Added conversion from PNG to SVG format to the 'Image Editor' tool. The 'Change Keyboard Language' tool has been rearranged. A total of 21 colors, dark and light, were added to the 'Change Theme Color' tool. The 'Window Control' tool has been reworked. The 'Panel Control' and 'Third-Party Software' tool has been adapted again. Some adjustments have been made to ensure stable operation of the system." Here is the full release announcement with screenshots.
Gnoppix AI Linux 26
Andreas Mueller has announced the release of Gnoppix AI Linux 26, an updated build of the project's Debian-based Linux distribution with integrated privacy and artificial intelligence features. This version replaces Firefox with LibreWolf as the default web browser and Thunderbird with Betterbird as the preferred email client: "As we celebrate the holiday season, the Gnoppix team is excited to bring you a special gift: the early release of Gnoppix 26. This version is packed with groundbreaking features, brand-new services, and a total commitment to your digital freedom. We've taken bold steps to ensure your digital footprint remains yours alone, moving away from restrictive environments. Infrastructure migration - we have officially migrated our core operations to Japan, benefiting from privacy laws that are significantly more robust than those in the EU or US. Tor gateway enhancements - fixed IPv6 issues within the Tor gateway. New Tor bridge - we've moved away from German-based servers (IONOS) due to EU speech restrictions, ensuring a more resilient connection. Gnoppixctl 0.5.7 - added a dedicated 'exit' option to Tor control for ultimate anonymity management. Browser evolution - we have removed Firefox as the default browser due to unacceptable telemetry data sent to Mozilla." See the complete release announcement for more information.
Parrot 7.0
Dario Camonita has announced the release of Parrot 7.0, a major update of the project's Debian-based Linux distribution designed for security specialists, hackers, developers, system administrators and network engineers. The new version is based on Debian 13 and comes with KDE Plasma as the default desktop: "The Parrot Security team is pleased to announce the release of Parrot 7. Parrot 7 represents a major milestone for the project. Its development required a complete rewrite of the system and introduced many changes that follow our mission to keep the system modern and innovative. Parrot 7 has switched to KDE Plasma 6, features our own plasma ricing and theming to make it very lightweight, and uses Wayland by default along with the many changes introduced by Debian 13. The new build scripts now offer easy support to community-driven spins, and we plan to offer official support and sponsorship programs to community-curated editions, featuring more desktop environments and configurations. Many of our scripts were created and assembled through several stages. We use live-build to generate ISO images, while for virtual machines we chose to adopt a custom-built system...." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information and upgrade instructions.
Parrot 7.0 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 754kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
OpenMediaVault 8.0-12
Volker Theile has announced the release of OpenMediaVault 8.0-12, a major update of the specialist Debian-based Linux distribution for network-attached storage (NAS) servers. The 8.x series of OpenMediaVault is based on the stable Debian 13 release: "Since no critical errors were reported during the RC phase, it is now time to release the final version (8.0.1) of OMV8 (Synchrony). Due to technical reasons, only AMD64 and ARM64 architectures will be supported from this version onwards. Since this circumstance had been known for some time, many features planned for OMV8 were already implemented in OMV7 so that the discontinued architectures could also benefit from them. That's why the list of new features in OMV8 is quite concise. Nevertheless, switching to Debian 13 offers newer software, bug fixes and improvements. The changelog will list all improvements in this version alongside the following: upgrade to Debian 13 'Trixie'; replace cpufrequtils with linux-cpupower; improve several user and group related RPCs; display updated modules in notification after configuration changes have been applied; display old versions of upgradable packages on the update page; use pool instead of server directive in chrony configuration by default...." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
Pearl Linux OS 13
The developer of Pearl Linux OS has published a new release of the project's Debian-based desktop Linux distribution with a macOS-like user interface called PDE: "Our second release running on Debian 13 'Trixie' as the base. This release uses our own desktop environment called PDE. PDE is a mix of LXDE and Xfce components with Compiz as the default window manager. This release is a ready-to-go, out-of-the-box complete desktop with all the software needed to keep most users set from the get-go. Pearl also has many of our own tools modeled after Linux Mints tools. This PDE release varies a little at the beginning as to not get confused when setting up things for the first time because of all the customizing available to the user we recommend." The README file contains a warning about the first boot: "The default PDE session is PDE-FX which is the session using Compiz by default. After instalation at login screen it defaults to Openbox unless you change this before logging in. Unless you are familiar with an Openbox system meaning, one that has nothing visible until right-clicking on the desktop, it's best to click the round logo next to where you enter your name, and change that to PDE which is one of three separate sessions available."
Pearl Linux OS 13 -- Running the PDE interface
(full image size: 582kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
PorteuX 2.5
PorteuX is a Linux distribution based on Slackware Linux. The project has published a new version, PorteuX 2.5, which introduces Flatpak support and updates the available desktop editions. "This release brings Flatpak to PorteuX. On the first run, the user should provide a valid path where the Flatpak files will be stored, for example 'sudo flatpak /mnt/sda1' (or 'flatpak --force-setup /mnt/sda1' if re-setup is required). The setup will configure the path and add the Flathub repository. After that, usage follows the standard Flatpak workflow, for example to install Furmark, 'flatpak install flathub com.geeks3d.furmark'. And to run it, 'flatpak run com.geeks3d.furmark'. This release also completely drops the stable spins. PorteuX is now based exclusively on Slackware 'Current'. Fixed Vulkan not working properly (this fixes some Steam games that were not working); fixed cheatcodes that use UUID and LABEL...." The distribution's "cheatcodes" have also been more clearly documented. Further details can be found in the release notes.
Canaima GNU/Linux 8.3
Canaima project, which produces a set of Linux distributions, based on Debian "Testing" and designed for use in Venezuela's public sector, has announced the release of Canaima GNU/Linux 8.3: "Canaima GNU/Linux, a project of the National Center for Information Technologies (CNTI), launched its new update, Canaima GNU/Linux 8.3 'Kavanayén', strengthening digital inclusion and technological independence in the country. This update includes innovative tools that break down language and technical barriers, directly benefiting students, teachers and people with disabilities. The Canaima Transcriptor is the main tool in this version. It converts speech into editable text and instantly translates it into any language using advanced speech recognition. It is ideal for accessible classes, conferences and videos, especially for people with hearing impairments. The Canaima Media Creator is another new tool that offers an intuitive graphical interface that automates the creation of multiboot USB drives with Ventoy." Read the release announcement (in Spanish) for more details.
Peropesis 3.1
The minimal Peropesis distribution has a new release which introduces the PHP development language which is commonly used on web servers: "In the Peropesis 2.9 release the lighttpd web server was installed. In the Peropesis 3.1 release, an init script (/etc/init.d/lighttpd) was created, which is intended for managing the lighttpd web server. Instructions on how to use this init script have been placed in the newly created chapter of the User manual - Web Server lighttpd. Since the PHP programming language was installed in the Peropesis 3.1 release, the FastCGI module was activated in the lighttpd server, which creates an interface between the server and the PHP language. In addition, the CGI module was activated, which creates interfaces between the lighttpd server and programming languages such as Perl and Python." The distribution's team have also added new fielsystem tools, a command line AI chat program, and new support libraries. The release announcement offers additional details.
Exton Linux 260104 "ArchEX"
Arne Exton has announced the release of a new version of the "ArchEX" line of Exton Linux. Based on Arch Linux, build 260104 comes with the MATE desktop environment and includes the Calamares system installer: "I've made a new extra version of ArchEX with the MATE desktop environment. This ArchEX version replaces version 240101, which had Pantheon as DE. At the moment (260104) Pantheon doesn't work in Arch Linux. After a full system upgrade, the Pantheon menu is gone and you can't get it back. This ArchEX version has Calamares installed. Using Calamares means that you can install ArchEX MATE in any language. Everything will then be in your chosen language when the installation has completed. ArchEX with MATE works very well when running live on my six computers. Calamares is now installed also in build 260104. When the boot process is ready you will end up at LightDM's login page. Log in to the MATE desktop as the ordinary user 'user' with password 'live' or as 'root' with password 'root'. ArchEX build 260104 is now also for UEFI computers; before you can run ArchEX live you don't have to go into BIOS and change boot mode to 'Legacy Support'." Continue to the release announcement for more information and relevant links.
Manjaro Linux 26.0
Philip Müller has announced the release of Manjaro Linux 26, a major update of the project's set of rolling-release distributions with a choice of GNOME, KDE Plasma and Xfce desktops. Besides updates to GNOME 49 and KDE Plasma 6.5, the release introduces the latest long-term supported Linux kernel, version 6.18: "Manjaro 26.0 'Anh-Linh' released. Since we released 'Zetar' in April 2025 we have worked hard to get the next release of Manjaro out there. We call it 'Anh-Linh'. The GNOME edition has received several updates to GNOME 49 series. This includes a lot of fixes and polish when GNOME 49 originally was released in September 2025. The Plasma edition comes with the latest Plasma 6.5 series, Frameworks 6.21 and KDE Gear 25.12. It brings exciting new improvements to your desktop. Plasma 6.5 includes a number of highly-requested features. With our Xfce edition, we have now Xfce 4.20. Linux kernel 6.18 is used for this release, including the latest drivers available to date. With 6.12 LTS and 6.6 LTS we offer additional support for older hardware as needed." Read the rest of the release announcement for further information.
* * * * *
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: 3,363
- Total data uploaded: 49.0TB
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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) |
What is your preferred method for learning Linux?
Learning a new operating system is a challenge and one for which there are a lot of resources available. There are countless books, videos, on-line forums, and documentation sources which explain how to perform tasks on Linux. We would like to hear what your preferred approach was to learning about your distribution.
You can see the results of our previous poll on favourite distributions of 2025 in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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What is your favourite resource for learning Linux?
| Books: | 162 (12%) |
| Classes: | 13 (1%) |
| Documentation (local): | 64 (5%) |
| Documentation (on-line): | 608 (43%) |
| Forums: | 189 (13%) |
| Videos: | 212 (15%) |
| Other: | 160 (11%) |
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|
| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 12 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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| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • 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 | 
ArtistX
ArtistX was a Ubuntu-based bootable DVD containing many free multimedia software packages for audio, 2D and 3D graphics, and video production. The goal of this project was to showcase the variety of multimedia software available on the GNU/Linux platform and to enable creative individuals to accomplish their tasks with the help of Free Software.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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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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