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1 • revvived desktops (by Jack on 2026-01-12 01:22:45 GMT from New Zealand)
Too many old memories - aaargh - and to think we used to think those UI designs as the best. At the time, maybe but the world has moved on. Even MATE is a bit dated now. I will take my xfce / plasma / cinnamon today, thank you. Almost anything but NOT gnome!
#1 - Other might be some esoteric desktop not in the list, where None means no ways (like my position).
2 • Poll - Mate(?) (by Brad on 2026-01-12 01:28:09 GMT from United States)
I'm a tad confused regarding the inclusion of MATE in the poll - does this mean it was once abandoned, but revived? I see that it is currently being developed according to the MATEwiki and MATE desktop website, but I can also see that the last release was in 2024 - is this what makes it part of the poll?
3 • @2 (by Brad on 2026-01-12 01:36:19 GMT from United States)
I understand, but Arch derivative Manjaro 6+ Plasma KDE clocks in at just under 1 Gb when first booted (not in a VM).
Debian derivative MX 6+ Plasma is also on the very low end ~1.2 Gb - same as above.
I will say, my laptop is a few years old, and does not have a NVIDIA GPU (Intel only) - perhaps this might explain my numbers? Just a guess.
For myself, I will never purchase a laptop with NVIDIA - I have no use case need for it.
4 • Poll- Other- Katana (by Cameron on 2026-01-12 01:58:13 GMT from Poland)
I vote for one called Katana- a revival of KDE 4. I would love to hear more about this desktop environment and for Jesse to review it.
5 • recomending BSD (by tomas on 2026-01-12 01:58:29 GMT from Czechia)
After reading the recent reviews on BSDs I decided to give it another try.
I have chosen the recommended GhostBSD for desktop use.
Although a fan of Mate desktop I was disappointed with the distro.
It's always the small things that decide.
To configure the audio after each reboot is definitely not my cup of coffee.
6 • Poll - Mate and Trinity (by tomas on 2026-01-12 02:19:38 GMT from Czechia)
@2 I understand this as Mate has been prematurely dropped from consideration by many reviewers because there is no info about porting it to Wayland.
This I do not consider to be correct.
I have mixed experience with Wayland implementation.
Recently tried a new installation of Artix Linux from a live ISO, running on X11.
The installed system rebooted to Wayland with lost cursors on window edges.
The same question as for Mate applies for me to Trinity.
Although I discovered it only last year installing Q4OS I know it has been there all the time (only on a limited number of distros).
The poll shows those two should stay with us.
7 • MenuetOS (by Wedge009 on 2026-01-12 02:41:07 GMT from Australia)
@Jesse The project sounds ambitious and I was curious about the download issue - when I checked the download links at 2026-01-12 ~02:35 UTC, both floppy and CD images appear to be available. I wonder what's in the floppy image, given that it's 1.4 MiB while the CD image download is ~80 MiB.
8 • Ehhhhh… (by Jabroni on 2026-01-12 03:37:14 GMT from United States)
Reboot/revive/remodel/reinvigorate Windowmaker and we’ll talk.
On another topic, somebody mentioned MiDesktop. Having looked it up, it’s associated with “Libranext” Linux. By all means, develop the desktop, but is Libranet resurrected really needed? After the founder passed away Mepis pretty much filled that void and is now MX.
9 • Revived desktops (by Sallaradise on 2026-01-12 04:10:46 GMT from United Kingdom)
Enlightenment, all the way, every day.
10 • Meego desktoo (by Dave on 2026-01-12 04:23:43 GMT from Australia)
Does anyone remember the DE for Meego, designed for Netbooks? Not for phones over the many evolutions of Meego, it was like a aingle page with different tabs and wasn't half bad for small screen laptops.
11 • CDE, I'm still tempted... (by What memories... on 2026-01-12 06:51:38 GMT from Italy)
...for the times I'd used that when working on Solaris, but Debian doesn't provide a packaged one and I'd rather not taint my setup with exotic installations. As of now, XFCE works fine.
12 • Revived desktop (by Keith S on 2026-01-12 07:46:18 GMT from United States)
CDE is ok. NsCDE is a little nicer and more modern (based on fvwm3) and looks just like it. What I like about those old desktops is that they're not like all the others that have been developed since. The Register recently pointed out that KDE and Gnome and Xfce and the seventeen variations on those are really all the same design. There's a menu button, taskbar (top bottom, left, right), maybe a dock, some icons on the desktop. There were other designs like CDE that were different.
The new ones are bigger than entire operating systems were not long ago. Even my favorite of these, Xfce, seems a little bloated these days. Lately I've been using a very simple window manager cwm and loving it. I'm about to try out a real oldie, xdtm, which is a graphical shell for X11. Any revival of the old ones is a good thing.
13 • MenuetOS (by Any on 2026-01-12 08:27:55 GMT from Spain)
In fact MenuetOS can be downloaded from the given link to GoogleDrive. I've tested it in VBox, but KolibriOS seems more polished and has a 32-bit version.
14 • MenuetOS 64bit (by Michael on 2026-01-12 10:20:52 GMT from Finland)
From the web-page
- Pre-emptive multitasking with 1000hz+ scheduler, multiprocessor, multithreading, ring-3 protection
- Responsive GUI with resolutions up to 1920x1080, 16 million colours
- Free-form, transparent and skinnable application windows, drag'n drop
- SMP multiprocessor support with up to 32 cpus
- Time critical process support: an uninterrupted process execution on any cpu
- Kernel/user mode pre-empting, including SMP
- Up to 100000 hz process scheduler, below millisecond audio latency
- IDE Editor/Assembler for applications
- USB 2.0 Classes: Storage, Printer, Webcam Video and TV/Radio support
- USB 1.1 Keyboard and Mouse support
- TCP/IP stack with Loopback & Ethernet drivers
- Email/ftp/http/chess clients and ftp/mp3/http servers
- Hard real-time data fetch
- Fits on a single floppy, boots also from CD and USB drives
15 • does Unity count? (by A hobbit on 2026-01-12 10:30:14 GMT from Chile)
I know is barely on life support, but the revival of unity as an ubuntu flavor was something cool.
16 • Favourite revived desktop environment? (by Jake on 2026-01-12 11:02:25 GMT from United States)
Does MATE count?: 117 (26%)
I don't know when it went away or was revived because I have used it since it's first release. So I would say no it doesn't count as a revived desktop.
But it is still a popular desktop as you can see from the poll.
17 • MenuetOS (by We all float down on 2026-01-12 11:02:51 GMT from The Netherlands)
The retro idea of a software stack not dependent on C++ (for C compilers and browsers) or worse is a rather attractive one, but as this is closed source I'll pass. OTOH KolibriOS is somewhat functional in qemu but has too few device drivers to run directly, the same with Minix3. Such is life. Furthermore, FAT, in other words DOS-like.
18 • recommended BSD (by DaveT on 2026-01-12 11:27:35 GMT from United Kingdom)
I never got on with FreeBSD or its derivatives.
NetBSD with pkgsrc is fun!
Mainly I use OpenBSD with the xfce4 desktop.
The documentation for OpenBSD is good, they expect you to Read The Fine Manual (RTFM) but the docs can be a bit terse. No! Give me some examples of how I am meant to use this!
Internet searches normally turn up sensible results when the docs seem a bit obscure.
Use Linux for the stuff the BSDs can't do.
The BSDs list the hardware they work with. If your WiFi chip isn't on that list it will not work!
Choose wisely and enjoy.
19 • File managers and DEIs (by Friar Tux on 2026-01-12 13:48:28 GMT from Canada)
Not sure , but I think I'm in the "Other" category. While I like CDE and such, I also like some of the more modern DEs. My favourite being Cinnamon. However, I often pine for the old CDE, motif, Windows 95/98 style. So far, the absolute best is OneStepBack, by jpsb. It's a GTK based theme, so, will work on any GTK based DE. (jpsb does have a more recent TwoStepsBack version but it's a wee bit more complicated.)
There is another one that rarely gets mentioned anywhere, but is quite good for most of us speed freaks. It's called "Eagle Mode". Basically, you zoom in on any file you want to see. By default, you see you desktop wallpaper, but as you zoom in your files and directories come flying out at you. You can stop zooming when you see the directory you want, or keep zooming till you get to see the actual file you want. It's quite unique. I think the "eagle" name comes from the fact that you're swooping down from above - like an eagle swooping down for its prey.
20 • MenuetOS (by AndyVGR on 2026-01-12 14:03:16 GMT from United States)
The download worked for me, just took awhile for it to start.
21 • Does MATE count? (by Kazlu on 2026-01-12 14:09:36 GMT from France)
I assume MATE is mentioned here because is itself a revival of the previously abandonned GNOME2 (by means of a fork), just like Trinity for KDE3.
MATE is an excellent choice of desktop even today. I have also enjoyed Trinity every time I tested it, very good performance/features ratio. Out of the revived desktops, really like those 2. But I still prefer Xfce :)
22 • distro definition (by Jim K on 2026-01-12 14:24:17 GMT from United States)
After reading the review of iDeal, I am reminded that I have long wondered how many "distributions" are really just one guy's preferred theme and a slightly different from the parent's default package selection.
It seems to me that years ago many distributions told you what makes them different and what their goals were. I used to choose versions that claimed to have improved WiFi support or security but they usually told you what they did to support their claims. Now I don't distrohop anymore.
23 • @3 NVIDIA (by Much Derper on 2026-01-12 14:58:00 GMT from United States)
I took a plunge and got RTX5070 module for FW16, thinking that perhaps with the new nvidia-open driver things got better than they were in 2010, as I do make use of GPU for both work and leisure. Turns out it's two steps forward, three steps back - while the driver is open source and finally supports kernel-mode setting, it still requires a bunch of nvidia-specific integrations, it's buggy as hell, and while with proprietary driver on ThinkPad T61p back in 2010 hibernation took something like a minute or two of just sitting at a black screen completely unresponsive during resume, making it a moot point, at least suspend worked and overall experience was pretty stable. With the new driver both suspend and hibernation are completely borked despite me enabling all the necessary nvidia-specific systemd units, and the overall experience is incredibly buggy and unstable, especially around external display handling. So yeah, your position regarding Nvidia GPUs is 100% justified.
24 • Fun with pkgsrc/NetBSD (by We all float down on 2026-01-12 15:23:02 GMT from The Netherlands)
@18 pkgsrc: shell script horror beyond my comprehension and eating more disk space than I could afford.
NetBSD: there was some Linux program I wanted, too difficult to port, so I started mucking around with the Linux emulation layer, another failure, before facing reality and going back, why use both.
SEE ALSO: I prefer the accurate and relevant output of file, ldd, locate, strace, dmesg, htop, netstat.
25 • Revived Desktop (by Robert on 2026-01-12 17:09:58 GMT from United States)
For me it's MATE, mostly because that's the only one I've used. I did like it surprisingly enough, since I did not like GNOME2.
I find it surprising that so many people don't seem to know that MATE is a fork of the GNOME2 desktop. I guess I'm just old and it's been that long since it happened.
If I ever gave it a try, Trinity would likely take the crown for me in this category. KDE3 was the best and I miss it in a way, but I'm also happy where I'm at now with Lxqt.
26 • CDE on Sparky (by InvisibleInk on 2026-01-12 17:10:47 GMT from United States)
I actually tried the exact same thing a while back and had the same thing happen; Sparky minimal simply failed to boot. That they still haven't fixed that doesn't inspire much confidence in that distribution as a whole.
27 • @2 and others re: why MATE is a revival of old desktop (by rb on 2026-01-12 17:41:48 GMT from United States)
"The MATE Desktop Environment is the continuation of GNOME 2." Mate was a revival of the older Gnome desktop when Gnome completely abandoned its traditional Gnome 2 desktop model and began its migration to what it has become now, starting with Gnome 3. Many users were not accepting of the new Gnome desktop and Mate was created as a fork to keep the abandoned Gnome 2 experience alive. This is the reason that it is included in the poll. While Mate has evolved into its own desktop experience, it is technically a progression of Gnome 2.
28 • Fave retro desktop and BSD recommendation (by Jyrki on 2026-01-12 19:37:38 GMT from Czechia)
I wanted to say Trinity. But then I realised, that there is a fork of KDE1. This sound even more interesting. I would definitely give it a try.
As for BSD, seems like DragonFlyBSD has been skipped. I understand they seems to be too quiet now (no major release for few years, last snapshot a month old) but for a long time I kept an eye on this one and there were times when it not only performed better than FreeBSD but it also managed to star compared to Linux.
OpenBSD is absolutely adorable one if you don't need file system like ZFS or virtualization.
If on is looking for something as close to Linux as possible then it's FreeBSD.
29 • Mate (by Roger on 2026-01-12 21:10:23 GMT from France)
Mate always Mate on Linux Mint.
And one machine running Ubuntu Mate sometimes testing other distro with Mate.
30 • BSD (by Hubert on 2026-01-12 21:42:57 GMT from United States)
I am using FreeBSD from late 2007 or early 2008 (I forgot) for desktop, no Linux, no Windows and it works. Python, GIMP, Inkscape, FreeCAD, LibreOffice are applications which I am using the most.. Installation is easy and good documented and if you need a help there is forums.freebsd.org.
31 • Fave retro desktop (by anticapitalista on 2026-01-12 23:03:57 GMT from Greece)
ROX Desktop
32 • Reviews (by Bobbie Sellers on 2026-01-13 06:25:34 GMT from United States)
Thank you Jesse Smith for your reviews which will save some of us a lot of time
and your News which is helpful.
I have seen CDE, and the forks of KDE from Trinity onward.
I would rather that KDE had released Plasma 6.6.x with more fixes
and working features as KDE's Plasma 5 was way ahead of the
game. It seems as though every time KDE reaches a level of
utility if not perfection it decides the whole thing must be
revised in accordance with some idea that is only slightly
different but which disables previous compatibility.
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2026- Linux 6.12.64-pclos1- KDE Plasma 6.5.4
33 • @10 Meego Desktop (by Tran Older on 2026-01-13 06:26:49 GMT from Vietnam)
Meego was reborn as Sailfish OS.
All you need would be a (used/refurbished) Xiaomi Pad 6 tablet and to follow VerdandiTeam Website https://verdanditeam.com/device/pipa
34 • KDE 2.2.2 with Osiris toolkit from MiDesktop (by ZKjorvezir on 2026-01-13 09:27:53 GMT from North Macedonia)
For me KDE 2.2.2 was and still is the most functional and optimized desktop environment for Linux.
I have one question: Is KDE 2.2.2 available for installation, compiled and supported by the Osiris toolkit (QT 2.3.2 fork) from MiDesktop?
Considering that KDE 2.2.2 used QT2 this should be possible.
It would be interesting to work in KDE 2.2.2 again after a long time.
35 • Mate (by Mike Sonic on 2026-01-13 17:05:52 GMT from United States)
I can load Mate DE on a 14 year old laptop with a Intel i5-2520M CPU @ 2.50GHz × 4 and 8 gigs of memory in 35 seconds. I have not optimized anything. KDE Plasma is a beautiful DE but it takes well over a minute to load on this old test unit.
The closest in time is a LMDE Cinnamon, 42 seconds. Cinnamon is a nice DE but not enough customization.
I will give Trinity a try. and perhaps something with an Enlightenment DE
36 • Menuet32 & Google Drive issues (by AdrienM on 2026-01-14 01:14:50 GMT from United States)
@13, Menuet32 is available if you scroll down on the Download page.
I tried to download the 64bit ISO, it took Google Drive about 30 seconds to start the download, but before doing so, warned me that due to some un-described problem, they couldn't run a virus scan on it. I opted to bail at that point though it may indeed be fine.
37 • MATE & Molasses (by AdrienM on 2026-01-14 01:19:48 GMT from United States)
I'm not certain which is slower than the other. I've found MATE to be quite syrupy compared to the old Gnome2 and as bad as watching paint dry compared to other DEs. I've only tested it with an Ubuntu MATE spin and via Mint, so maybe a snappier underlying OS would be the ticket. But I voted MATE in the poll because of all the former DEs I've used, save Unity, I liked Gnome2 the best. (I have never been a KDE fan, but I must say Q4OS is none too shabby) (for current DEs, I'd rank: XFCE/LXQT as a close tie, followed by Cinnamon)
38 • @4 (by Jerry on 2026-01-14 02:03:50 GMT from Canada)
@4, I second Katana.
39 • Password complexity (by TRex on 2026-01-14 03:58:04 GMT from United States)
Absolutely agree with Jesse regarding password complexity — many, many times I've run into a website doing the same stupidity: require password complexity but provide ZERO information as to what the requirements actually are. And many of those requiring complexity refuse to accept extended characters and won't say which characters cannot be used.
Jesse has more patience than me. No way I'd have made more than four or five attempts to create a password before kissing the distro a permanent good-bye.
40 • Menuet32 (by We all float down on 2026-01-14 12:32:55 GMT from The Netherlands)
@36 there's nothing left there, only add-ons, but some version should be still available at sourceforge. It seems abandoned after the Kolibri fork, just look how old it is (supposed to be), compared to the 64-bit version.
41 • Revived desktop environments (by White_Wolf on 2026-01-14 16:06:49 GMT from Poland)
Best one missing with doesn't have any good development ongoing is Enlightenment
42 • ROX Desktop (by Keith S on 2026-01-14 17:58:31 GMT from United States)
@31 It's interesting that I didn't really think of ROX as a retro desktop because antiX is such a great implementation of it. Super fast, stable, responsive. Thanks for that and the great tools!
43 • @41 - Moksha (Enlightenment 17 fork) (by Uncle Slacky on 2026-01-14 19:22:09 GMT from France)
The Moksha fork is still under active development - see the new MX Moksha spin for example:
https://www.bandshed.net/mx-moksha/
44 • Unify (by ro0t on 2026-01-15 08:10:08 GMT from Germany)
I really do not understand for years, why people are making spins of main linux distros, instead of making a new gtk/qr theme?
Whats the point of having 1000-buntus or x-manjaro.
People should be focus on unifying linuxes in one LINUX. ofc with 1000 themes.
Imagine, you have a Linux, and its repo has it all.
45 • MenuetOS (by FASM on 2026-01-15 10:07:32 GMT from France)
I downloaded M64CD15800. ISO Raw CD image 83.9 MB and I made the installation media on the flash drive using GNOME Disk Utility, also known as GNOME Disks, but the installation media didn't work. I was using Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie), Linux 6.12.63+deb13-amd64, Gnome desktop, RiseupVPN, Mullvad Browser.
46 • Desktops and Window Managers (by Memories on 2026-01-15 12:58:34 GMT from Canada)
Speaking of Desktops and Window Managers (not quite the same thing):
Going back to the dawn of the computer age, Xerox developed a GUI interface before Apple or Microsoft. See the following link for some interesting history:
https://techotv.com/the-legendary-tale-of-xerox-parc-where-modern-computing-was-born/
For those of us old "codgers", you may remember Quick Menu III and Geoworks from the good old DOS days. Despite limited computing power and minimal memory availability in those days, these worked remarkably well. Yes, we have way prettier desktops these day, but one has to wonder how far we've actually progressed. Example: Midnight Commander is sort of an ncurses clone of the old Norton Commander. In many ways, the keyboard driven interface is still more efficient than the rodent driven ones.
Presently, still using Xorg. So not certain if window managers like Fluxbox will even work on Wayland. Perhaps using something like Wayback?
47 • Revived desktop environments – Katana (by KroceDN on 2026-01-15 17:58:28 GMT from North Macedonia)
Where to find a version of Katana Desktop Environment (KDE4 Lite fork) compiled for Debian 13 "Trixie".
48 • Calamares Passwords (by TheAmnesiacPhilosopher on 2026-01-15 19:25:04 GMT from United States)
In reading your review of Sparky Linux, it reminded me of my previous thoughts of wondering why developers don't fix that stupid problem about passwords. All it takes is about 30 seconds to change it in the calamares' files (if you take your time) before you produce an .iso. For that matter, why do the Calamares' developers institute this? It's stupid. A user should be able to use any password they want regardless of how "insecure/secure" it is.
I recently installed Debian with Calamares, and it wouldn't let me use the password I wanted. I went ahead and used a different password, but I wanted to bust somebody up for making me do it. LOL!
Use Linux! It's free!
...until you want to freely use a stinkin' password.
49 • @48 Passwords (by dragonmouth on 2026-01-15 19:34:51 GMT from United States)
You can always install with the password demanded by Calamares and then, after the install is done and Calamares is no longer looking over your shoulder, change it to the password you would like to use.
50 • Passwords (by Keith S on 2026-01-16 15:04:45 GMT from United States)
The stupidity of limiting which special characters can be used has a companion: forcing password changes every four or six or eight weeks. Guess what happens? Users write down their passwords because they can't remember what they changed it to. If it's compromised, limiting that compromise to some period of weeks really doesn't solve anything, and compromise is far more likely when passwords are written down in an unsecured location.
51 • Poll and MATE (by Simon on 2026-01-16 19:27:14 GMT from New Zealand)
"None of the above" because my favourite revived classic DE is MATE... but I'm not asking "Does MATE count?" as if there were some question about it. It's a re-branded continuation of GNOME 2 just as Trinity is a re-brand of KDE 3. It's not clear why MATE's status as a revived classic DE is being questioned: it's no more an official branch of GNOME than Trinity is an official branch of KDE, and both revised DEs were started some months after the abandonment of the classic DEs that they revised. Whatever questioning MATE's status is meant to communicate, it can't be a claim that their not buying into Wayland means they don't have a future. The whole point of continuing with the GNOME 2 software base was to avoid new tech that was being shoved down users' throats when many users preferred the existing tech.
52 • Passwords (by Friar Tux on 2026-01-16 20:59:00 GMT from Canada)
@50 (Keith) I read your comment laughing. I ran it this at the last place I worked before retiring. It was exactly as you mentioned. Passwords were changed about every month. It had to be 8 or more characters, at least one or more special characters, one or more numbers and no part of the new password could resemble any part of the old password. (I started there when one password served you for years.) Oh, and we were not allowed to write them down anywhere. Man, you would not believe the lost downtime every month with people having to call into IT to re-change the new password. Our immediate boss eventually got a notebook and wrote out each employee's new password (about a dozen) and locked it in his desk. We all took an hour off, one day a month, to do the password change - it sort of became a monthly ritual. Still had people forgetting, but it was so much easier to call the boss over, than to phone HQ (we were based in Canada, HQ was in the USA). Fun times.
Number of Comments: 52
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Guix System
Guix System (formerly Guix System Distribution, or GuixSD) is a Linux-based, stateless operating system that is built around the GNU Guix package manager. The operating system provides advanced package management features such as transactional upgrades and roll-backs, reproducible build environments, unprivileged package management, and per-user profiles. It uses low-level mechanisms from the Nix package manager, but packages are defined as native Guile modules, using extensions to the Scheme language.
Status: Active
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