 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1156, 19 January 2026 |
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Welcome to this year's 3rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
One of the hardest aspects of adopting a new operating system is getting it downloaded and installed. Picking the right file to download, transferring it to temporary storage, and then running an installer is a daunting task for new users. This week we begin with a look at a new system installer from the developers of Chimera Linux. In the past, Chimera has used a manual install process which involved a good deal of typing. The project's new installer, which can run in both desktop and server environments, lowers the bar for people wishing to try out this distribution. There are many styles of system installers, including text-based, graphical, and configuration-based. Which type of installer is your favourite? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about acquiring new install media, specifically through torrent downloads. Torrent files are a great way to transfer large, popular files and we discuss how to make use of both torrents and DistroWatch's Torrent Corner. In our News section we talk about new package tools being developed for Arch Linux. Meanwhile, Haiku is improving EFI support and the Redcore project is streamlining its repository branches. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
The new Chimera Linux installer
A little over a year ago I wrote a review of Chimera Linux. It's an unusual distribution which combines an uncommon collection of software to create the core operating system. While I enjoyed most elements of Chimera Linux and its highly efficient, unorthodox approach, a sticking point was the install process.
Chimera Linux has a manual install process which is executed step-by-step on the command line, similar to how people have typically installed Arch Linux. As I wrote in the review:
The initial install process for Chimera Linux was long and tedious. I can say the documentation was clear and offered good step-by-step instructions, but most of it could easily be replaced by a short script rather than having us copy/paste lines from the documentation.
That was my main complaint about the distribution - the install process. Not that the install steps were difficult, but that almost all of the commands could be copy/pasted from the documentation and, if we're going to do that, it seemed like the whole process could have been a simple script.
In mid-December the Chimera team announced they had created a text-based system installer which would automate a large portion of the initial setup process:
The images now come with an experimental TUI installer. It can be invoked as chimera-installer from the command line.
The installer supports the following:
- Local and remote installs
- APK mirror setup, with up to date mirror list fetched from the repo
- Basic setup (hostname, timezone, root password, user account)
- Installing extra packages
- Kernel version selection
- Bootloader setup (GRUB and systemd-boot, including BIOS/EFI/OF)
It does not support the following:
- Disk partitioning and formatting
- And probably a lot of other things
You are expected to partition, format, and mount your filesystem layout beforehand and then point the installer to the mounted root. This is by design and will remain that way, however a separate tool for simplified disk setup may be provided later on.
However, it does validate your mounted filesystem tree for baseline correctness, performs detection of system-specific things (like ESP) and automatically generates crypttab for encrypted setups (this is rudimentary so if you use keyfiles or other advanced things you need to tweak it afterwards).
I wanted to see how the new installer would perform and compare to other installers. With this in mind, I downloaded the 2.4GB ISO file for the project's Plasma edition.
The experiment begins
Booting from the Chimera Linux ISO quickly loads the system and automatically launches the Plasma desktop environment. With the live environment we have access to a handful of desktop utilities, we can connect to the Internet, and browse the web.
Chimera Linux 20251220 -- Launching the partition manager
(full image size: 224kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The project's announcement had mentioned the new system installer does not have any options for disk partition management. Instead we can manage partitions using the KDE Partition Manager (on the desktop) or run the cfdisk command line partition manager. Either tool will get the job accomplished, assisting us in dividing the disk.
At times I was prompted for a password, either when running system administration tools or when the desktop timed out and locked itself. The password is "chimera". I also noticed that Chimera uses the doas utility instead of sudo when performing admin tasks from the command line.
Once the disk has been partitioned we need to mount the partition which will hold the base operating system. I was not sure where to mount the partition so I went with the default location mentioned in the project's install documentation, /media/root. Then I ran the system installer, which can be accomplished by running "doas chimera-installer".
The Chimera installer uses text-based menus and has an appearance similar to the installers used by Void, Slackware, and FreeBSD. The menu system gives us the chance to perform configuration tasks in any order. It also makes it easy to backtrack and change previously selected options.
The installer guides us through selected whether to install packages from local media or over the network. We are asked to make up a hostname for our computer and then select our timezone from a list of locations.
Chimera Linux 20251220 -- Running the system installer
(full image size: 197kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The installer asks us to create a password for the root account and gives us the chance to create a regular user account. We are asked where the root partition is mounted. As it turned out, we could have mounted the target partition anywhere since we are prompted to type in the path. The default location is /mnt/root. The installer will verify the partition looks suitable and ask us to select another location if the path we provide looks to be incorrect.
The Chimera installer asks if we want to install a "stable" kernel or a long-term support (LTS) kernel. Alternatively we can opt to not install any kernel package and manually install one later. Another screen asks us to type a list of any extra packages we want to install. This is a good idea, as it would allow us to add desktop environments and additional background services. However, asking us to type full package names, instead of having a list of popular items with check boxes next to each item, is not a friendly approach. Any typo will result in the package failing to download and new users will not know under what names software has been packaged.
The installer next offers to install the GRUB bootloader. We can skip this step and configure a bootloader manually at a later time. The installer then goes to work copying its packages to the root partition, performing some configuration steps, and setting up accounts.
The Chimera packages copied in just a few minutes and then the installer displayed a message saying we should perform some post-install steps, such as setting up the bootloader. This seemed odd to me as the bootloader was one of the configuration screens we went through in the initial process. The installer then reported it was installing any extra packages we had requested and installing the GRUB bootloader.
The installer concluded by asking if we wanted to run a command line shell to perform any customizations. It also offers to reboot the computer.
The results
My simple conclusion is that, ultimately, the Chimera Linux installer worked. My computer displayed a bootloader menu with Chimera listed and the newly installed distribution booted with no problems, presenting me with a console login screen. I could then sign in and use the operating system, fetch additional packages, and set up a desktop environment.
On the positive side of the experience, the system installer is quite fast. It is fairly easy to navigate, and it can be run from the desktop or from text-only environments. It doesn't have a lot of options, and what it does have worked. Chances are anyone who has installed any other Linux distribution using a text-based menu system will feel comfortable with Chimera's new installer.
There is some room for improvement, I think. It would be nice if the installer offered to handle partitioning for us, or as an alternative, it could offer to launch one of the partition managers. As mentioned above, it would be nice to have the system installer list popular extra packages it can install rather than have us type out package names. I'd especially like to see future versions of the installer offer to enable a desktop environment for us.
For now, this first draft of the installer is a good beginning. It worked and it is fast and it follows the approach used by similar installers, making it familiar to people accustomed to setting up Linux distributions in text environments. I hope the developers extend the installer a bit to offer some more conveniences.
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Visitor supplied rating
Chimera Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.9/10 from 13 review(s).
Have you used Chimera Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
New package management tools for Arch Linux, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces ZFS support at install time
A topic which came up recently on the Arch Linux Dev Blog was the progress being made on a set of tools used for package creation and management. The new tools, collectively called Arch Linux Package Management (ALPM), are written in Rust and designed to provide secure libraries which will aid in all elements of package management. ALPM is not itself a package manager (such as the pacman tool which is used by Arch Linux), but it provides libraries and structures for creating new package managers and build tools. "The scope of this project is to provide robust integration for all relevant package creation and consumption, as well as repository management tasks. As such, the ALPM project also aims at providing drop-in replacements or alternatives for some facilities provided by pacman." In other words, ALPM is not itself a front-end package manager, like pacman, but it could be used to create a new package manager which could be an alternative to pacman in the future.
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The Haiku team have published their monthly newsletter for December. The project has reported progress and improvements across dozens of components, including applications, drivers, and filesystems. The project is also making it easier to set up Haiku on systems booting into EFI partitions. "PawanYr added a tool to the Installer to copy the EFI loader onto the system EFI partition, reducing the number of manual steps that need to be taken to set up Haiku on an EFI system." A complete list of changes can be found in the newsletter.
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Redcore Linux is a distribution which is based on Gentoo with an aim at making it easier to set up a Gentoo-based desktop experience. The Redcore project is streamlining its three branches down to two. Originally the three branches were: master, next, and edge. The master branch was relatively stable and conservative, the next branch was more up to date, and edge was a testing and development branch. The new system will introduce the following changes: "master will behave like next used to. This is the branch for people who want the experience what many have enjoyed on next up until now: a system that 'just works', reasonably fresh, with binaries available without too much waiting. If you liked the old next because it was a good daily driver with working binaries, master is now where that experience lives. next will behave like edge used to. This becomes the true testing and development branch. It is where changes from Gentoo land first, where transitions are incomplete, and where things may break. Binary packages will still be built, but they will lag behind the git state. That means there will be times when the newest changes exist only in source form for a while, and running next will feel much closer to tracking raw Gentoo, with all the sharp edges that implies. The difference from before is that this level of risk is now exposed directly to users, instead of being tucked away in edge. edge is retired."
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The Synex distribution is a Debian-based project which provides a series of desktop editions alongside a server edition. The project's latest update introduces a custom system installer which can be used to set up Synex on a ZFS volume. "Synex Server 13 receives its first update with the incorporation of a native ZFS installer that overcomes the limitations of the traditional Debian Installer. This implementation enables deployment of enterprise-grade storage infrastructure with snapshots, compression, and advanced data management without relying on external solutions." The project's news post goes into details on how to access and use the new system installer and notes running the original Debian installer is still the default option.
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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) |
Using DistroWatch's Torrent Corner
I recently received an e-mail asking if I would explain how to use the Torrent Corner section of DistroWatch Weekly. This seems like a good opportunity to talk about torrent downloads, the Torrent Corner, and DistroWatch's Torrent Archive.
What is a torrent?
A torrent is a file which contains information on how to download another file (or a collection of files). The torrent file is loaded into an application called a BitTorrent client. The client then works out which files it needs to download and from where. It then downloads the files listed in the torrent and, optionally, shares them with other people who also want access to the files.
Most of us are probably familiar with downloading files from a website or an archive. We click a link in our web browser and the file downloads directly from the web server to our computer. This is referred to as a client-server download, meaning there is one client (us) fetching a single file from one remote location (the website).
BitTorrent works differently. BitTorrent is what is referred to as a peer-to-peer connection. Instead of our computer fetching files from one remote location, the torrent describes how to connect to multiple other computers (called peers) which are also downloading the file. This allows each peer to share the pieces of the file it has with everyone else.
The client-server approach is simple and it is ideal for sharing a single file, especially a small file. Especially if the file is less popular and the server is not being overloaded by requests. The BitTorrent approach is more complex, but it is beneficial in situations where someone wants to share a large file, a collection of files, or a popular file that will result in a lot of network traffic. BitTorrent's peer-to-peer approach spreads the workload over multiple computers, avoiding putting stress on any one machine or network connection. This is why a lot of Linux distributions use BitTorrent to share their install media with the public - the downloads are relatively large and may be downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. That's a lot of traffic for a single server to handle, but it is a small amount of work for a thousand "peer" computers all sharing the same file.
Torrent clients
A BitTorrent client (sometimes called a "torrent client") is an application which knows how to read a torrent, connect to other peer computers which are sharing the files we want to download, and fetch pieces of the files from each peer. Some of the more popular download clients are Transmission and KTorrent, though there are several others.
Transmission 4.0.2 -- Fetching install media for AlmaLinux OS
(full image size: 41kB, resolution: 1163x500 pixels)
Both Transmission and KTorrent can open a torrent file locally or be given a link to a torrent file we wish to download from the Web. Both of these applications will show progress information while they work and save the files we want to fetch locally, usually in our Downloads directory. If we leave these torrent clients running they will continue to share the files with other peers who want to download the same files.
How to use the Torrent Corner
In each issue of DistroWatch Weekly we have a section toward the bottom called Torrent Corner. This section contains a table listing torrents DistroWatch has downloaded and is sharing (as a peer) that week. The table has three fields:
- The name and version number of the operating system we are sharing.
- The filename of the torrent we are using to share the operating system's install media.
- A checksum which can be used to verify the file you download matches the one we are sharing.
Clicking on the link in the first column (the name and version number) will display our information page for that operating system. Clicking the link in the second column will download the torrent file for that operating system's install media. Once this file has been downloaded it can be loaded into your torrent client.
The third field shows the SHA256 checksum of the install media. Once the torrent has finished downloading we can run a program such as sha256sum on the downloaded file to make sure its output matches the series of letters and numbers we show on the website. Most distribution projects will display the SHA256 checksum on their website, typically on their Download page. This enables us to confirm the file we have on our computer matches what the project published. In other words, the file has not been corrupted during the download process or tampered with by malicious actors.
If the checksum you generate locally does not match the checksum published by the distribution's website, then do not use it to install the operating system! Something has gone wrong and the install media should be downloaded again, possibly from another source.
Browsing the torrent archive
While the Torrent Corner in our Weekly newsletter shows the torrents we are participating in sharing that week, we also maintain an archive of torrents we have shared in the past (and which other people may be engaged in sharing as peers). This collection of older torrent files can be found in our Torrent Archive.
The Torrent Archive displays a table with a similar layout to our Torrent Corner. To the left we show the name of the project and clicking its icon will display our information page for the project. The middle column shows the name of the torrent file available for download and this link can be clicked to fetch the torrent. The third column displays the date the torrent was made available.
Remember to check downloads independently
I sometimes encounter people claiming that if you use a torrent file to download install media (rather than downloading the media directly from a website) then there is no need to verify the checksum of the install media we ultimately download. This misunderstanding comes about because BitTorrent clients will verify the individual pieces of a file they download while fetching the file. This confirms the pieces of the file we are downloading were not corrupted during transit.
However, importantly, the BitTorrent client does nothing to verify the file we downloaded is the correct file and that it (or the torrent itself) have not be modified. BitTorrent clients verify just the transfer happened without error, but do nothing to protect us against tampering or corruption of the original torrent file itself.
It is important to verify the checksum of the file we download against a source known to be good, such as the original project's website or their published hash file. Otherwise we don't know if the torrent we used was corrupted or we may have downloaded the wrong torrent file.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Linux Mint 22.3
The Linux Mint project has announced the release of Linux Mint 22.3. The Ubuntu-based distribution will receive support through to 2029 and introduces a new tool to help users troubleshoot problems. "The 'System Reports' tool received many new features and it was rebranded as 'System Information'. In addition to its 'System Information', 'System Reports' and 'Crash Reports' pages, the tool received four new pages to show you more information and help you troubleshoot common issues. The 'USB' page shows a detailed view of all plugged-in devices, including their type, name and ID (which uniquely identifies the device and its manufacturer). Devices are grouped by USB controller, so you can see where each device is plugged and compare its connection speed and power usage with the controller's maximum connection speed and total power capacity. This helps troubleshoot common USB issues such as slow transfers or random disconnections." Additional information can be found in the What's New document, the release announcement, and the release notes.
TROMjaro 2026.01.13
TROMjaro, a Manjaro-based Linux distribution with a customised Xfce desktop, has been updated to version 2026.01.13. The new release returns to Unity-style layout (a layout introduced by Ubuntu's now abandoned Unity desktop) for Xfce. This forum post by the project's lead developer explains the reason: "2026 brings something new but also old to TROMjaro - the Unity layout style is back because we managed to fix an annoying thing with it. Let me explain. When I first discovered Linux I fell in love with Ubuntu's Unity. A desktop that had the apps icons on the left bar, then a thinner top bar with useful info and tray icons. If you maximized an app, the app's menu and window buttons were part of the top main bar, and this maximized the space for any maximized app. On top of this (pun intended) you could search through an app's menu to quickly access its settings and options. Again made so much sense. I can quickly search through huge menus for whatever I quickly needed. Lastly, Unity had all sorts of smart searches in their main app search, like you could search online, inside the folders, etc. It made so much sense that they decided to discontinue it. When I released TROMjaro with Xfce I realized that I can simulate the Unity Layout since Xfce is so damn easy to customize."
EndeavourOS 2026.01.12
Bryan Poerwo has announced the release of EndeavourOS 2026.01.12, a minor "Neo" update of the project's Arch-based, rolling-release Linux distribution featuring a customised KDE Plasma desktop: "We are kicking off 2026 with the release of 'Ganymede Neo'. As you are accustomed to with our Neo releases, this release includes upstream updates and minor changes compared to the 'Ganymede' ISO image. Before I go into the release notes, I just want to remind you of the following. The changes described over here are affecting new installs, our Calamares installer and the live environment on the ISO image only. Running systems don't have to 'upgrade' to 'Ganymede Neo'; if you update regularly, your system is fine. This ISO image and offline installer ships with: Calamares 26.01.1.5, Firefox 146.0.1, Linux kernel 6.18.4, Mesa 25.3.3, X.Org Server 21.1.21, NVIDIA 590.48.01. And has the following bug fixes: the long startup time issue with Calamares has been resolved; the Nemo preview package was removed from the default package bundle for Cinnamon and Budgie during installation due to its removal from the Arch repository; starting with this release, the NVIDIA proprietary drivers have been switched to 'nvidia-open' due to the upstream changes to NVIDIA drivers." See the release announcement for further details.
EndeavourOS 2026.01.12 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 3.8MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 3,373
- Total data uploaded: 49.1TB
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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) |
Types of system installers
In this week's Feature Story we talked about the new system installer for Chimera Linux. The project uses a text-based menu system which is an approach commonly used for set up server distributions and it is sometimes still used by Linux distributions which came into existence in the 1990s.
There are many styles of system installers in the world. There are text-based prompts where people type in answers, text-based menu systems, graphical installers (which are used by most desktop distributions these days), and configurable installers (like Nix), and there are even some distributions which forego installers in order to have people run commands manually. This week we would like to hear about your preferred style of system installer.
You can see the results of our previous poll on revived desktop environments in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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What is your preferred style of system installer?
| Graphical: | 1154 (76%) |
| Text menus: | 224 (15%) |
| Text prompts: | 41 (3%) |
| Configurable: | 42 (3%) |
| Manual (no installer): | 50 (3%) |
| Other: | 10 (1%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 26 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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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Omarine
Omarine was a Linux-based operating system for servers. It can also be used for desktops with the GNOME or KDE Plasma option right at the login screen without any additional configuration. Omarine was originally based on Slackware Linux, but was now independently developed. It uses the RPM package management software.
Status: Discontinued
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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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