 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1158, 2 February 2026 |
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Welcome to this year's 5th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The computing world is constantly moving, constantly evolving. Since software is always changing, many people believe a rolling release operating system is the best way to keep up with the fluctuating world. This week we begin with a look at Manjaro Linux, a rolling release distribution which is based on Arch. Manjaro offers a graphical installer, several desktop editions, and runs on a range of handheld devices. We explore a desktop flavour of Manjaro in this week's Feature Story and report on the experience it provides. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about filesystem performance and what may cause slow access in file managers. Do you notice a difference in performance when running various filesystems? Let us know in the Opinion Poll. In our News section this week we talk about progress being made in postmarketOS while Xfce begins work on its own Wayland window manager. Plus we share a link to an interview with the founder of Bazzite, an immutable gaming platform. Then we are pleased to share details on last week's releases and we list the torrent 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: Manjaro Linux 26.0
- News: postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed
- Questions and answers: Fastest filesystem
- Released last week: DietPi 10.0, Emmabuntüs DE5-1.05, FydeOS 22.0, GParted Live 1.8.0-2, AerynOS 2026.01, Linux Lite 7.8, iDeal OS 2026.01.31
- Torrent corner: Emmabuntüs, KDE neon, Kicksecure, Linux Lite
- Opinion poll: Do you notice a change in performance when using different filesystems?
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Manjaro Linux 26.0
The Manjaro Linux distribution is an Arch-based project which offers a wide range of desktop editions. The project features a graphical system installer, convenient methods for fetching additional applications, and support for a wide range of hardware.
There are a surprising number of editions of Manjaro. The project offers desktop editions (KDE, GNOME, and Xfce) for laptops and workstations, community editions (Cinnamon, i3, and Sway) for desktop computers, along with special builds for phones and embedded devices. There are also some special editions specifically for Slimbooks and Star Labs laptops. The download page has a little something for just about everybody.
I decided to download the x86_64 build of the KDE Plasma edition for workstations and laptops. The ISO file I downloaded was 5.3GB in size.
Looking through the recent release notes for Manjaro I didn't find a lot of news. The release notes mention Manjaro 26.0 ships with GNOME 49, Plasma 6.5, and Xfce 4.18. This last entry is not a typo on my part, the release notes report Manjaro offers Xfce 4.18 which is a few years out of date. I checked the repositories and Manjaro actually ships with Xfce 4.20.
Booting from the KDE live medium brings up a menu where we can select our preferred language and choose whether to launch Manjaro with open source drivers (which is the default) or to load proprietary drivers. Once the system starts we are presented with a KDE Plasma desktop session and a welcome screen. The welcome window contains links to on-line resources such as a support forum and wiki. The window also holds links to Manjaro's social media accounts. Near the bottom of the window is a button for launching the system installer. In case we close this welcome window there is a single icon on the desktop which also launches the installer.
Manjaro Linux 26.0 -- The welcome window
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The Plasma desktop, even when running in the live session, was responsive. Applications opened quickly and I had no trouble getting on-line. A panel which holds the application menu and a system tray sat at the bottom of the display. The Plasma desktop running on Manjaro uses a relatively dark theme with icons and folders that tend to be green.
Installing
Manjaro uses the Calamares system installer. This installer offers a nice, graphical interface which quickly walks us through the usual steps of selecting our timezone, keyboard layout, and language. The installer also helps us create a user account and (optionally) set a password on the root user's account. There is an extra screen where we are asked if we want to install an office suite with the three available options being: no office suite, LibreOffice, or FreeOffice. Not a lot is said about the two suites, other than briefly mentioning LibreOffice is free and FreeOffice requires a product key. I decided to install LibreOffice.
The partitioning screen offers guided and manual options, both of which are easy to navigate. The default guided approach uses Btrfs for our root filesystem and no swap space. There are options to switch to another filesystem (XFS, ext4, and F2FS are available) and we can use a drop-down menu to enable a swap partition or swap file.
The install process went quickly and, after about four minutes, the installer reported success and offered to restart my computer.
Early impressions
My new copy of Manjaro booted to a graphical login screen. From there I could sign into the Plasma desktop. Manjaro offers just one session option: Plasma running a Wayland session. There is no X11 session, though (in an unusual turn of events) I never felt I needed to use X11 as a backup option; the Plasma 6.5 desktop worked well with Wayland.
When we sign into the desktop the welcome window appears again (and will continue to appear at each login until we toggle a button to disable it). The welcome window is nearly identical to the version we saw in the live session, but the button for launching the system installer has been replaced with a button called "Applications". Clicking this button opens a new page which shows a simple software centre with a list of application categories. Clicking on any category expands the group to show three or four popular applications in the category. We can then click a box next to applications we want to install.
Manjaro Linux 26.0 -- Fetching extra applications
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There are just over a dozen categories, including web browsers, office suites, audio players, and backup tools. This is a convenient way to quickly install a few commonly used applications right from the beginning of our experience with the distribution.
I found the Plasma desktop to be responsive and generally easy to navigate. The desktop has a clean, polished look that I found pleasant to my eyes. There were a few minor issues though that I encountered on the first day of my trial. For example, as with many modern desktops, Plasma blanked and locked the screen too quickly. After just five minutes the screen would lock, which is fine if you're using a mobile phone, but it's unsuitable for a workstation. If I pause to read a document or answer the phone my laptop has locked me out. Fortunately, this timeout is easy to change in the System Settings panel.
Manjaro Linux 26.0 -- The KDE System Settings panel
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There is an odd bug which I haven't encountered before on Plasma where the application menu "times out". When I was browsing the menu and didn't click on anything after about three seconds, the menu would close. This is really annoying when I am browsing to see what is available or searching for a rarely used application.
Manjaro's copy of Plasma plays an alert whenever a pop-up appears, such as when we are being prompted for a password. This notification sound quickly wore out its welcome and once again I headed for the System Settings panel to disable alert sounds.
Hardware
The distribution ran smoothly when I experimented with it in VirtualBox. The desktop integrated nicely with the VirtualBox window, the desktop was quick to responds, and I encountered no stability issues.
The experience was similarly pleasant when I ran Manjaro on my laptop. All of my hardware was detected, it was easy to get on-line using a widget in the system tray, and audio worked. My touchpad was detected and automatically handled taps as clicks. My screen's brightness was set to be a bit dim (about 30% brightness level), but this could be adjusted using my laptop's shortcut keys (all of which worked as expected).
My fresh install of Manjaro took up about 5.4GB of disk space, not including the swap partition I had enabled. When signed into the Plasma desktop the system used about 1.2GB of RAM. This is a bit lighter than other recent installs of Plasma and GNOME I have used in the past six months. However, it's heavier than some other popular desktops such as Cinnamon and Xfce.
Applications
Manjaro ships with a fairly common collection of open source applications. Exploring the application menu we can find the Firefox web browser, the KDE Connect utility for linking devices, and the Dolphin file manager. As mentioned earlier, we have the option of having an office suite installed for us. The Plasma edition also includes the Okular document viewer, Gwenview image viewer, and the Kate text editor.
Manjaro Linux 26.0 -- The application menu
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Manjaro ships with the Elise music player and codecs for playing audio files. I did not find any video player installed, but we can add one through the software manager and I will touch upon package management later in this review.
The distribution includes a few system monitors (the KDE system monitor and htop were available) along with the Timeshift snapshot tool. Manjaro includes manual pages and the GNU command line utilities. The systemd software performs service management and init duties. By default Manjaro runs version 6.18 of the Linux kernel and there are other kernels are available in the project's repositories.
Manjaro's default command line shell is zsh. This isn't my preferred shell, but it works well enough and I will admit it has some nice features, such as typing suggestions and colour-coded exit status information. I did find it strange that whenever I opened a terminal it would launch four shell processes instead of just one. I also noted some shell environment variables were unusually long and complex which made examining and parsing them a bit tedious.
Manjaro Linux 26.0 -- Running into a conflicting alias
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When we try to run a command that is not available on the system the shell will offer to "correct" our spelling of the command and change it to something which is installed. This could be quite dangerous because instead of a simple "command not found" error or an offer to install the missing command, the shell is offering to run an entirely different command which will have different (possibly destructive) behaviour. Imagine trying to run rmid and having it replaced with rm, for example.
One last issue I had while working from the command line was Manjaro sets up aliases for a few common commands and these aliases can conflict with normal command line usage. I'm of the opinion if commands are going to be overloaded with aliases, it should be something the user creates. Changing commands to do something else isn't ideal.
Software management
When software updates are available a red icon appears in the system tray. Clicking the icon opens the Pamac software centre and shows us its Updates tab. There are three tabs in Pamac: one for exploring available software, one for viewing and removing installed items, and then the Updates tab. We can confirm which packages we want to download and then click a button to fetch the new packages.
Manjaro Linux 26.0 -- The Pamac software centre
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Updating packages from the Manjaro repositories worked well for me. Exploring available applications and installing them also worked smoothly with Pamac. While Pamac pulls from Manjaro's traditional package repositories by default, the distribution does have Flatpak support installed and it automatically connects to Flathub. Within the Pamac Preferences menu there is an option to display Flatpak bundles in the graphical software centre. At first, enabling Flatpak support in Pamac did not appear to work. Even performing searches for software I knew to be in Flathub returned no results. I discovered I first had to close Pamac and then re-launch the software centre to make Flatpak bundles appear in searches. Under each package entry Pamac shows the repository where the package is located. This makes it easy to identify which packages are provided by Manjaro and which come from Flathub.
After I confirmed I could install Flatpak bundles through Pamac I tried to update Flatpak packages through the graphical software centre. This did not work. Flatpak bundles would appear in the Updates tab alongside Manjaro packages, but selecting these updates had no effect. The software centre would instantly report Flatpak updates had been installed, but they remained listed a available to download. I found that running "flatpak update" from the command line would work to keep Flatpak bundles up to date.
We can also use the pacman command line package manager to install, remove, and update traditional packages. The pacman command works quite quickly and I had no problems while using it.
Other observations
One tool which I stumbled across while looking for something else was the Manjaro Settings Manager. This is a settings panel with just a handful of modules for adjusting low-level system options. There is a module for changing the date and time settings, another for creating and managing user accounts, and one for changing the keyboard layout. There is another module for downloading alternative kernels. By default Manjaro uses a stable 6.18 kernel, but there are other options available, including LTS kernels, which we can download.
The above modules worked well for me. One module which I found confusing was one for handling language packs. Despite the name, the Language Packages module doesn't fetch additional language support, it just downloads spellcheck packages for languages which have already been installed. There is another tool which is labelled as being used for managing locales. This tool does install extra language support and, once a locale has been enabled, it then shows up in the Language Packages tool which allows us to download dictionaries for it. The tools here work, but their terminology feels backward.
Manjaro Linux 26.0 -- The Settings Manager
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Something I started to notice after a few days was Manjaro tends to use a low-contrast font. Menus and applications tend to use, for example, grey on black or dark green on black. This isn't terrible, but I'd prefer something with a bit more contrast.
Manjaro uses the Btrfs advanced filesystem by default and it ships with Timeshift which can help us automate snapshot creation. Manjaro automatically sets up its Btrfs volumes to be compatible with Timeshift (using "@" and "@home" sub-volumes) and this makes it possible to set up scheduled snapshots with a few mouse clicks. Further, these snapshots are automatically integrated with the bootloader. This means if an update breaks our system we can rollback to the previous snapshot by restarting the computer and selecting the snapshot from the boot menu. It also means if we delete or corrupt a file unintentionally we can restore it with a few clicks from the Timeshift application.
Filesystem snapshots and bootable snapshots are features which relatively few Linux distributions enable and it is great to see Manjaro providing this functionality.
Conclusions
On the whole, I greatly appreciate what the Manjaro project is doing. They have taken a popular base (Arch Linux), added a graphical installer, and provided some popular, pre-configured desktop environments. This makes setting up an Arch-based system quite easy. However, a lot of distributions do this. What makes Manjaro stand out from the crowd is the way it makes many common tasks easy and integrates components. There are lots of distributions in the Arch family which use the Calamares installer, but most don't provide office suite options and automate setting up Btrfs to be compatible with Timeshift. Most other Arch-based distributions don't have as much documentation, as much support for multiple ARM-powered single-board computers, or the option to run on phones.
Manjaro stands above most of its competitors by providing a new welcome window, solid documentation, integrated boot environments, a graphical package manager, and other little conveniences. Unlike many other Arch-based projects, Manjaro doesn't feel like Arch Linux with a graphical installer and some paint hastily slapped on it. Manjaro feels like a complete, well designed product that is made with the intent of making computing better.
While the Manjaro team have done a very good job, there were some elements that gave me trouble. Pamac was a bit flaky when I enabled Flatpak support in the software centre. It's a fast and friendly software centre, but it seems to trip over itself when working with Flatpak bundles.
My main complaint when running Manjaro, especially during the first two days, was it felt like the distribution was trying to do more for me than I wanted it to do. I liked the available tools and the options presented, but sometimes Manjaro did things for me which got in the way more than they helped. The shell aliases and command spelling correction, were two examples of this behaviour. These might be handy for newcomers, but they slowed me down until I disabled them and I feel as though command line correction has the potential to be dangerous. Likewise, Plasma tended to be a little loud, a little flashy, and a bit too quick to lock the computer for my taste. These are all things which can be adjusted in the extensive System Settings panel and, I will concede these complaints reflect my preferences rather than showcase real problems with Manjaro.
On the whole, I liked Manjaro. Some of the little issues, such as with Pamac, make me hesitate to recommend Manjaro to a complete Linux novice, but it is a solid, rolling release operating system which I think would suite most Linux users once they have a little experience with managing settings and packages.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Manjaro Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.2/10 from 488 review(s).
Have you used Manjaro Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed
The postmarketOS project has published an update on the distribution's progress across multiple fields. The project's has announced improvements with working with systemd, progress on drivers and immutable filesystems, and code clean-up. "systemd upstream has merged the first pull request to allow experimental builds with musl libc! This is great news for us since that will make it much easier to rebase our fork and upstream our patches. This PR together with a few fixes has landed in systemd v259. More PRs are already in progress like running the CI test suite in postmarketOS. Thanks Yu Watanabe and everybody who reviewed the PRs, and to Clayton and Jane for getting this version into postmarketOS edge. Also now that abuild has support for -systemd subpackages that allow shipping systemd service files in Alpine Linux, we can get rid of our systemd service file forks. That allows us to always use the service files endorsed and released by our upstream projects, and therefore reducing maintenance and trigger less issues due to service file compatibility." More complete coverage of recent changes can be found in the project's newsletter.
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The Xfce desktop project is working on its next level of Wayland support by creating a new window manager (and compositor) which will provide an alternative to xfwm4, Xfce's X11 window manager. "This initiative will utilize a significant portion of the project's donated funds, but we believe it's an important investment in Xfce's future. The goal is that xfwl4 will offer the same functionality and behavior as xfwm4 does, or as much as possible considering the differences between X11 and Wayland. Using xfwl4 should feel just like using xfwm4 on X11. We even plan to reuse the existing xfwm4 configuration dialogs and xfconf settings to ensure a seamless transition. Xfwl4 will not be based on the existing xfwm4 code. Instead, it will be written from scratch in Rust, using smithay building blocks." Additional information on the new Wayland window manager is provided in the project's blog post.
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The Bazzite project is based on the Fedora distribution and is designed with gaming in mind. Bazzite runs on desktop computers and can also run on a variety of handheld gaming machines, including the Steam Deck. The project's founder, Kyle Gospodnetich, recently gave an interview with Gaming On Linux and answered questions about the Bazzite project. "Q: How difficult is it to actually add support for new PC handhelds to Bazzite? What goes into it? A: It really depends on the handheld. Previously we used a userspace solution for handling input on these handhelds, and recently we've transitioned into a new method that relies more on kernel patches and custom drivers. Some handhelds are very easy to support and need little customization, and others have broken sleep, broken wifi, missing sound firmware, 'unique' input systems that are hard to support, and all sorts of other small problems that take serious work to resolve." The interview covers working with hardware makers, collaboration with other gaming projects, and pizza toppings.
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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) |
Fastest filesystem
Need-for-speed asks: Which filesystem is the fastest? Whenever I open a big directory it takes a long time to populate in the file manager.
DistroWatch answers: A lot of factors can go into determining which filesystem is the fastest, in large part because filesystems can be better at some tasks than others. A filesystem that is good at handling a lot of tiny files (storing their contents as meta-data) might be poor at handling large database files, for example.
With that said, I think a good general rule is that more simple filesystems tend to be marginally faster at common tasks than more complicated ones. In tests I've run on my own systems the classic UFS filesystem tends to be faster than ZFS, ext4 tends to be faster than Btrfs. You can look up benchmarks to see some side-by-side comparisons of filesystems performing various tasks, if you want to see how various filesystems perform doing large amounts of work.
The situation you mentioned, waiting for files to show up in a file manager, probably is not a situation where the filesystem is going to make much of a difference. In other words, I don't think the filesystem is the bottleneck in your scenario. Chances are the read speed of the drive is an issue (if the storage device is a spinning disk vs an SSD) or the file manager is buffering the list of files until it can show them all at once. In either case the filesystem won't make much of a difference. Instead, I recommend one (or all) of the following solutions:
- If you are using a spinning disk, consider upgrading to an SSD. An SSD is often ideal for these sorts of situations where you are loading multiple small pieces of data, such as filenames and meta-data.
- Try a different file manager. Performance may change between Nemo vs Dolphin vs Thunar, for example. Chances are if you were to open a terminal and run the ls command in the same directory you'd get a full list of files almost immediately. This would indicate the limit to performance is the file manager rather than the filesystem.
On a similar note, if you have file previews enabled or file details enabled in the file manager, consider turning off these features so the file manager is loading just the filenames, not extra information about the files.
- Consider enabling a caching tool such as preload. This is a service which runs when your computer boots and it caches commonly accessed information in memory. Previews of files (image thumbnails, for instance) will get loaded before the file manager tries to access them, speeding up the experience.
- If possible, break large directories into multiple smaller ones. Sorting files into sub-folders (music by artist, photos by person/event, or work by project) can reduce the time it takes to load the information for the files in one specific directory.
These options can reduce the time it takes to display a directory listing and will be less trouble than trying out various filesystems to see which one performs the best.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
DietPi 10.0
DietPi is a Debian-based Linux distribution, primarily developed for single-board computers such as Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi or Odroid. It also supplies builds for 64-bit x86 personal computers and virtual machines. The project's latest release, version 10.0, introduces some important changes and drops support for some old single-board computers. "The minimum Debian version supported by our scripts has been raised to Debian 12 Bookworm. Debian 11 Bullseye systems will be migrated to a dedicated branch automatically. We highly recommend to upgrade affected systems to Debian 12 Bookworm, following our guide. Once the upgrade has been done, the update to DietPi v10 will be offered on next update check or when running 'dietpi-update'. The minimum DietPi version to support direct updates to DietPi 10 from has been raised to 8.0. Older systems will go through a two-stage process, being upgraded to DietPi 9.20 on a separate branch, and afterwards further to DietPi 10 via master branch, if the Debian version requirement is met as well. DietPi-Software, ownCloud Infinite Scale - this successor of the classic ownCloud file sync and share platform has been added to our software catalogue. DietPi-Software, Uptime-Kuma - this self-hosted monitoring tool has been added to our software catalogue." Additional information is provided in the release announcement.
Emmabuntüs DE5-1.05
The Emmabuntüs project has published an update for its DE5 branch. The new version improves volume handling, makes it easier to install WINE, and offers updated Italian language support. "The Emmabuntüs Collective is pleased to announce the release of Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 5 version 1.05, available in 32-bit and 64-bit editions, based on Debian 12.13 'Bookworm' and featuring the Xfce and LXQt desktop environments. This update was designed to allow our users, when necessary, to refurbish computers based on a 32-bit architecture. Based on the Debian 12.13; improved Italian translation; assignment of sound volume to 50% by default; added Wine installation script; fixed choice of country and time zone; fix related to the use of proprietary firmware in the ISO image; removed non-functional Deborah; updated Firefox 140.7.0esr, Thunderbird 140.7.0esr, Debian beginner's handbook 12.10.2, deb-get 0.4.5, Ventoy 1.1.09, CTparental 5.3.01, TurboPrint 2.59; redesigned the accessibility window using YAD in order to have speech synthesis to navigate in this window; added MBROLA and Piper speech synthesizers; added caja for desktop management in accessibility mode; added LIOS (Linux-Intelligent-OCR-Solution); added KDE-Connect; added laptop battery level information script; added Index Braille embosser installation script." Additional details can be found in the release announcement.
FydeOS 22.0
The FydeOS project has announced the release of FydeOS 22.0, the latest stable release of the project's ChromeOS-based Linux distribution that delivers a Google Chromebook-like experience. The new release introduces a new quick share feature and changes the default search engine to Qwant (where available): "We're happy to bring you FydeOS v22 'Radiant Anatomy'. This release brings the underlying system from Chromium OS r138 to r144, improving stability while also introducing a few new features. We hope it makes your day-to-day FydeOS experience feel smoother and more seamless. Here are the key highlights of this release. Quick Share (aka Nearby Share). You can quickly send and receive files, photos and links between nearby devices - no cables or third-party tools required. During the transfer, you'll see the target device, confirm the request, and get clear progress and completion feedback, then open or save the content right away. Note: Quick Share works with devices that implement the Quick Share protocol (e.g., some Android devices and ChromeOS devices). Availability may vary by device model and region." Read the rest of the release announcement for a detailed list of changes and screenshots.
OPNsense 26.1
OPNsense is a FreeBSD-based specialist operating system designed for firewalls and routers. The project's latest release is version 26.1. "For over 11 years now, OPNsense is driving innovation through modularising and hardening the open source firewall, with simple and reliable firmware upgrades, multi-language support, fast adoption of upstream software updates, modern IPv6 support, as well as clear and stable 2-Clause BSD licensing. 26.1, nicknamed Witty Woodpecker, features almost a full firewall MVC/API experience as automation rules have been promoted to the new rules GUI, Suricata version 8 with inline inspection mode using 'divert', assorted IPv6 reliability and feature improvements, router advertisements MVC/API, full code shell command escaping revamp, default IPv6 mode now using Dnsmsaq for client connectivity, Unbound blocklist source selection, an automatic host discovery service, plus much more. The upgrade path for 25.7 will likely be unlocked on January 29, which is probably tomorrow if anyone is asking why it is not there yet." A complete list of changes can be found in the project's release announcement.
GParted Live 1.8.0-2
Curtis Gedak has announced the release of GParted Live 1.8.0-2, the latest stable release of the project's Debian-based specialist live CD with tools suitable for disk partitioning and data rescue tasks. The new build updates the GParted utility to version 1.8.0 and the Linux kernel to version 6.18.5: "The GParted team is pleased to announce a new stable release of GParted Live. This release includes GParted 1.8.0, updated packages, and other improvements. Items of note include: includes GParted 1.8.0; fix crash due to not checking for failure to load icon; fix hangs setting FAT label when matches a root folder entry; erase file system signatures before all FileSystem copies; based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2026-01-27; Linux kernel image updated to 6.18.5; added a mechanism to avoid blank screen. There is an issue with help on Virtual Machines. Specifically the menu option Help, Contents opens and displays a black window on Virtual Machines. The workaround is to view help on documentation page. X Desktop GUI fails to display with default boot options? Try Other modes of GParted Live, GParted Live (Safe graphics setting, vga-normal)." The release announcement provides all the details.
AerynOS 2026.01
The AerynOS project published a news update for the month of January which highlights changes to the distribution, its website, and infrastrcuture. The newsletter includes a release announcement which discusses details of the project's latest snapshot, with visible changes coming to the distribution's desktop environments. "Given System76's move to a more regular release cycle for Cosmic DE, we are able to land updates to our repository more frequently. This month, System76 landed Cosmic 1.0.3 with some key updates including support for rounded corners and window shadows across all applications and additional appearance settings being made available. This month sees the inclusion of GNOME 49.3 which is a stable bug-fix release with updates across the Gnome stack. Some key updates include: Nautilus file manager no longer wastes resources on images with larger dimensions; GNOME Control Center fixes for time zone searching and monitoring app filter changes in the Applications panel; Loupe improvements in performance. Plus many more fixes. See the upstream changelog for more details. KDE Plasma has been updated to 6.5.5, KDE Frameworks to 6.22.0 and KDE Gear to 25.12.1. The latest KDE Plasma update brings: Improved XWayland app support; Krunner having better matching algorithms for what users are searching for; a bug fix to Kwin to properly handle drag-and-dropped text."
AerynOS -- Running the GNOME desktop
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Linux Lite 7.8
Jerry Bezencon has announced the release of Linux Lite 7.8, the latest update of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution with Xfce as the preferred desktop. The new version includes rewrites to Linux Lite's various custom utilities: "Linux Lite 7.8 Final is now available for download. Linux Lite 7.8 comes with 12 completely new re-writes of 12 of our applications as we move towards changing the majority of our applications to Python and GTK 4 in Series 8. These include: Lite Auto Login, Lite Desktop, Lite DPI, Lite Firewall, Lite Network Shares, Lite Software, Lite Sounds, Lite Sources, Lite System Report, Lite Theme Manager, Lite Updates, Lite User Manager, Lite Welcome. We're most excited about the new Lite Software. We've added more than 20 popular applications. BleachBit, Darktable, KDE Connect, Kdenlive and Stacer, to name a few. We've updated the System tab in System Monitoring Center to include more system information. Details: Linux kernel 6.8 (custom kernels also available via our repository for versions 3.13 - 6.18), Chrome 144.0, Thunderbird 140.7, LibreOffice 25.8.4, VLC 3.0.20, Gimp 2.10.36, Base 24.04.3." Read the full release announcement for more information and screenshots.
iDeal OS 2026.01.31
The developers of iDeal OS, an MX Linux-based desktop distribution with focus on privacy and security, have announced the availability of a new major release, version 2026.01.31. This release marks a merger of the project's two previously available editions into one product: "The release of iDeal OS 4.1 introduces a significant system update - a single ISO image for both the 'Emerald' and 'Diamond' editions. Anyone who supports our project with a small donation, will be given an activation key to unlock all the features of the 'Diamond' edition. There's no need to download or reinstall anything, just use our new activation tool. A comparison chart of the major installed applications can be found here. All packages and applications have been updated. Linux kernel updated to version 6.12.63. General system optimization. Now available in the 'Diamond' edition: a Windows 11-like Start Menu in dark and light variants; MKVToolNix GUI, a set of tools to create, modify and inspect Matroska files; Sweet Home 3D, an advanced 3D interior design application; Subtitle Composer, perfect for subtitling, transcriptions and translations; Planner, a project management tool with Gantt charts." Visit the project's news page to read the full release announcement.
iDeal OS 2026.01.31 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
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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: 3,380
- Total data uploaded: 49.3TB
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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) |
Do you notice a change in performance when using different filesystems?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about filesystem performance and the bottleneck in performance brought on by file managers. We'd like to hear from our readers as to whether you notice a change in performance when running different filesystems. Let us know which filesystem gives you the best speed in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using desktops which offer convergence in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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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, 9 February 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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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Manjaro sleep/suspend not enabled? (by Utusan on 2026-02-02 02:05:27 GMT from United States)
Don't understand why sleep is not enabled while most KDE implementaions has it.
2 • ext4 as always (by Timux on 2026-02-02 02:07:38 GMT from France)
Honesty, I've never thought of using anything but ext4 as filesystem except if I needed some advanced rollback or specific RAID functionalities. Not only it's very fast, but pretty reliable.
Talking about performances, modern computers (< 10 years old) manages to offer great IO speed. The kernel already working hard to cache as much as possible, and distros are doing their best for the rest (like using zRAM to compress RAM, and tmpfs for /tmp on RAM). Even "preload" (not available in Arch except AUR) makes nearly no improvement when using a Nvme. I'm not even sure to see a difference with on-RAM Linux distros.
So yes, HDD and old SSD are definitely slow, it felt like even a decade ago, but nowadays no software that I use takes more than a second to launch (versus up to 5s on a old SSD, maybe 10-15s on a HDD mostly because nearly no devs test their software on old HDD). And I honesty sympathize with people still using 5400 t/min HDD :)
3 • Waylandfce (by Cheker on 2026-02-02 02:10:29 GMT from Portugal)
My immediate instinct to the news is to say something incendiary like "I'll see those of you that are sane on the upcoming Xlibre fork", but realistically, if I really stop to think about it, I don't think I'm making use of any X specific feature. Odds are good that I won't bother changing DEs when the day comes, it will probably just work™.
4 • Wayland XFCE (by Devlin7 on 2026-02-02 02:22:27 GMT from New Zealand)
I use the XFCE panel with my Alpine Wayland (Niri) setup. I much prefer it to messing around with Waybar configs and I find the memory footprint is lighter. You can even tweak the XFCE menu so the right commands are used when locking the screen or exiting the session. Sure there are some plugins that aren't wayland compatible yet but I don't use them anyway.
5 • File systems (by Dave on 2026-02-02 04:02:54 GMT from Australia)
Using ZFS with proper caching, special devices etc can be ridiculously performent for heavy server workloads
6 • LFS -dropping Plasma DE! (by Myst on 2026-02-02 06:11:10 GMT from The Netherlands)
As a non systemD use, my research shows, if you require Best child distro for non-systemd KDE Plasma:
🥇 Redcore Linux (Gentoo)
🥈 Artix Linux OpenRC (Arch)
🥉 Void Linux (Runit)
What a shame, KDE-Plasma, perhaps its time to rename it Gurgler-DE !
7 • Manjaro (by Guido on 2026-02-02 07:42:12 GMT from Philippines)
Manjaro looks great and is very up-to-date. However, I can't recommend it if you're a Linux beginner or need a stable system. While all packages in the stable version are lightly tested, which is better than nothing, it can quickly become unusable after an upgrade, something that has happened to me several times. Furthermore, it uses Arch's AUR, which can contain malware. Many packages aren't included in the Arch repositories.
8 • Manjaro (by Maik on 2026-02-02 08:30:47 GMT from Belgium)
After 19 years of experience with various Linux distro's i have to say that Manjaro is easy to use and can be recommended to a novice. Just like with Mint, install, update, use the graphical package manager and don't look back.
I switched to Manjaro KDE Minimal two weeks ago, ringing in my departure from Ubuntu/Debian and Ubuntu/Debian based distro's and have been very pleased with it so far. No issues here. The Manjaro team did a great job.
9 • Manjaro = best release model (by Daniel on 2026-02-02 08:35:24 GMT from Poland)
The most important feature of Manjaro is its release model. Unlike other Arch-based systems, Arch packages are synchronized to the unstable branch, then to testing, and only then to stable. This usually takes a few weeks.
It works perfectly for me. 10 years without any issues after updates.
An incredible achievement.
10 • 10 years with Manjaro (by Luca on 2026-02-02 08:50:03 GMT from Italy)
I have been using Manjaro for over 10 years, and I can only say good things about this solid distribution. I bought my current PC about five years ago, installed Manjaro on it, and it still works perfectly, update after update. I use it for both work and personal tasks.
I especially like that non–security-related updates are released in batches every 2–4 weeks. This way, Arch packages are tested by the Manjaro team and by users on the testing channel before being released to the stable branch. I usually wait an additional 2–3 days before applying updates, just to check the forum for any reported issues, and to let things stabilize even further. By doing this, I haven't experienced any major problems.
If I need software that isn't available in the official repositories, I tend to avoid the AUR, as it requires compiling/building packages and rebuilding them after system updates. Instead, I used to rely on Flatpak packages, and more recently I've switched to Nix.
Another notable feature is MHWD, Manjaro's hardware detection tool. I've never had any issues installing Manjaro on different PCs with various hardware configurations, including different video cards.
11 • @2 Full Agreement (by Alter Furz on 2026-02-02 09:44:29 GMT from Germany)
@2 I'm there with you. ext4 is a reliable workhorse with great failure recovery. Today we use it on all business machines, PROD or otherwise, for over a decade. Before that everything was XFS, and before that, I'm talking ca. 2000, JFS (if anyone remembers that). Back then JFS was much snappier on spinning rust than any other FS but ext2 and it had journaling (the J in JFS)!
On my private desktop I switched to Btrfs a while ago, mainly because it is default in Aeon. Can't say I noticed any speed degradation and snapshots are nice.
12 • File systesm (by Jake on 2026-02-02 10:41:40 GMT from United States)
Ext 4 I see no reason to change.
13 • File systems (by kc1di on 2026-02-02 12:29:21 GMT from United States)
I currently and mostly use Ext4 Have u sed many of the other systems from time to time but find that ext4 is stable an relatively fast. And I'm not one to use many of the features of the other systems. Ext4 just works for me.
14 • File Systems and File Managers (by picamanic on 2026-02-02 13:12:12 GMT from United Kingdom)
I have tried to use Ext2 [over 2 decades], though this is now based on Ext4 without Journals. These days and for me, the actual file system only becomes an issue when there is a power outage. In the past, my experience with Ext4+journals has not been good, and I am happy to live with Ext2.
I don't like the complexity [learning curve] that ZFS and [sometimes toxic] BRTFS bring. Ts'o/Torvalds would not let me explore BcacheFS, because they agrued with the Author [Overstreet], and not for any technical reason. I like the idea of Copy-on-Write file systems, but the barriers are too hard to overcome.
I cannot see the point of File Managers. They just impose performance and delay issues that the "ls" command does not.
15 • Conservative approach (by jyrki on 2026-02-02 13:58:04 GMT from Czechia)
Over the years and thanks to experience I would rather forget (ReiserFS) I apparently became very conservative.
So my first choice is ext4 for Linux and UFS2 for BSDs.
16 • external drive FAT32 filesystem (by matt on 2026-02-02 15:41:05 GMT from United States)
Most USB thumb drives still use FAT32. It is extremely slow compared to other filesystems. There is a lot of variability in speed based on the hardware in the thumb drive, but reformatting to ExFAT or NTFS (if you want easy Windows compatibility) will result in noticeable speed increase. I use Ext4 on the USB drive I use to transfer files between my desktop and laptop that both run Linux. I have not noticed a speed difference between Ext4 and other Linux filesystem on my flash drives.
17 • XFS > ext4 (by Kingneutron on 2026-02-02 17:02:56 GMT from United States)
XFS is better for larger drives, and is faster than ext4 on the same hardware, speedwise. I would never give an entire drive over say, 6-8TB entirely to just ext4.
For really large storage 10TB+, you want ZFS and mirrors / RAIDZ2.
18 • Manjaro (by Seattle on 2026-02-02 18:15:54 GMT from France)
Go introduced to Linux with RedHat (pre-Fedora) and when it came down to choosing something for myself, I went with Debian based distros, been that way for years. Tried Manjaro on a spare RPi4 and absolutely loved it.
In fact, recently, when I decided it was time for a change, Manjaro was the only non-debian (or Ubuntu) based alternative on my list.
File managers. As far as system level software goes, I tend to stick to the default install, how else am I going to keep an open mind to trying out a different desktop? Got to admit Dolphin is a bit frustrating when you've got years with Nemo.
19 • Try Big Linux (by Ram P on 2026-02-02 19:11:03 GMT from United States)
Manjaro was one of the first Arch Linux based Desktop distros I tried. There were some small hiccups but what brought me to Arch is the "latest and greatest" rolling release concept over say RPM or DEB based distros out there.
But if you want all the good of Manjaro with a little more of flexibility, using Manjaro's repository, please try Big Linux. It combines AUR, Flatpak, by default in Manjaro Software update. Further it also has GDebi installed, that you can download a native DEB file and then install with a right click "Install with GDebi" adding .DEB also to the equation,
Integration of NTFS Fuse, SMB, adding the Windows UEFI entries automatically, I used it as a dual boot with Windows 10 in my old Dell Inspiron 13 with Core i3 7100 after dual booting tries with
a) Zorin OS
b) Modicia OS
c) Manjaro
d) Sparky Linux
e) Winux
Once I settled on Big Linux, I have not looked back since.
20 • File systems / file managers (by Keith S on 2026-02-02 20:30:44 GMT from United States)
On Linux I just use ext4 because that's usually what is shipped with the distro. I've tried others, most recently btrfs, but didn't really see the point of the added complexity. (Timeshift is not a simple process. Easier to make periodic backups to an external drive or use snapshots from antiX / MX.)
On OpenBSD I use FFS for obvious reasons. I have heard that losing power can result in data loss, but I've
21 • continued... (by Keith S on 2026-02-02 20:34:31 GMT from United States)
...never experienced that myself. (I have fat fingers apparently.)
I don't use a file manager often, but if I do it is usually the one that comes with XFCE. (I can't recall the name right now.) More often I just use commands in xterm. Again, I'm not managing large servers with tons of files, so I try to keep it simple.
22 • Manjaro (by TRex on 2026-02-02 21:12:20 GMT from United States)
I used Manjaro for a few years. Despite not being cutting edge, it periodically became corrupted and needed to be reinstalled. When it happened a third time, I changed distros.
23 • Distro review (by mf on 2026-02-02 21:32:50 GMT from Poland)
I'd like to know if PLD is still active and how does it look these days.
24 • Poll (by Butterfase on 2026-02-02 21:39:31 GMT from United Kingdom)
Despite Btrfs' alleged ability to shrink online partitions, it has been my experience that it actually tends to cause a lot more trouble with post-install partition management (e.g. shrinking, moving, encrypting partitions) than ext4 does. In addition, Btrfs is noticeably slower than ext4, though not enough that I would consider it a major deterrent on its own. Btrfs' baked-in file compression is disappointing in how little space it actually ends up saving. And then there's all those extra directories which Btrfs requires cluttering up the file tree. All in all, I'd rather just stick with ext4. Less headache and no noticeable drawbacks. Linus' petulant tantrum sold me on the merits of Bcachefs however, so I guess I'll be trying that out next install.
25 • Bcachefs (by Keith S on 2026-02-02 23:40:53 GMT from United States)
I had never heard of this file system before today so I did a little reading on it. It sounds like it might have some valuable features, but apparently the developer has alienated key people in Linux kernel development, including Linus. I guess that's why the Debian maintainer said that people should make a determination for themselves whether it would be stable and maintained in the long run before using it in production systems.
@24: from the little bit that I've read, I don't know that I would call Linus' decision to remove it from the kernel "petulant." After the developer finally got it merged into the tree after 4 years of trying, he sent large diffs during the release candidate phase instead of bug fixes. Linus' decision to not merge those changes make sense to me, and I'm no fan of his. The developer's histrionics about protecting users with correct code ring a little hollow if he can't follow apparently long-established development cycle expectations, especially considering the tiny user base of bcachefs. Maybe it seems petulant that less than two years after the initial merge it was removed from the kernel, but sometimes the 'D' in BDFL just means that the tail will not be allowed to wag the dog.
26 • Yet another Windows Manager swapping to Wayland (by DaveB on 2026-02-02 23:49:00 GMT from Australia)
IMHO Wayland can not be considered mature until it has a fully operational remote desktop solution, that does not need a user present to approve it. All other desktops have something - whether RDP, VNC, XSession, etc.
My use-case: I want to access my home desktop via my Chromebook when travelling.
I suspect there are a few businesses that have spent cash on dumb terminals for staff to access a central headless server for their daily compute. With the phasing out of X, the only real solution there is MS.
27 • Preferred filesystems (by Nicodemo on 2026-02-03 00:09:11 GMT from Italy)
XFS is better for large files (80 GB or more), EXT4 is faster than XFS for little files. I will be staying on EXT4 for a long time.
28 • Jesse please (by rhtoras on 2026-02-03 00:43:15 GMT from Greece)
Hello Jesse... please could you show some void based distributions that recently joined distrowatch wiating list and database... d77 for example
Thanks a lot... we are waiting for your review...
29 • Filesystems (by Robert on 2026-02-03 01:38:00 GMT from United States)
I can't say I've noticed any particular difference between filesystems in terms of speed. If I had to say one was slower, it would be ext3 and that's just because I've only used it on spinning rust. So not a fair comparison.
Between ext4 and xfs with and without lvm, plus btrfs and zfs, none of them feel faster or slower in day to day desktop use. So I generally default to zfs, unless it's just going to be too much work (root drive for example), then I go with xfs.
30 • Filesystems (by eb on 2026-02-03 20:02:08 GMT from France)
@2 : "And I honesty sympathize with people still using 5400 t/min HDD :)"
Slackware on Mac-mini 12 years old 5400/mn, Ext2_FS and contented with this !:-).
31 • hardware improvement. (by WayneMykel on 2026-02-03 21:46:32 GMT from United States)
The best speed improvement for most any PC is and SSD. The M.2 has been around for a while. I put a 2tb on my desktop where I have a lot of games stored. Best investment I ever made except, maybe the Ryzen 9 CPU that fits my slightly older MB.
I hope that the XFCE4 changes don't ruin running other software. There are changes coming soon.
That said, I also expect it is time for KDE to make bigger changes. I hope they are not as disastrous like their last one.
YMMV
32 • @26 VNC is working with Wayland (by Alter Furz on 2026-02-04 11:21:48 GMT from Germany)
@26 VNC is platform agnostic, thus works "fine" with Wayland. Quotations because it doesn't mean good, but that's on VNC and not Wayland. VNC is not a remote desktop protocol (neither is Xsession, BTW) but a network console protocol, it mirrors the host's screen, pixel by pixel. It does not open a user session or something like that, you just peek onto the (virtual) screen. Unless the host's VNC server isn't specifically configured and privileged to start a user session when a VNC connection comes in, you need a running session to show. Obviously you want the current user of the session to know that someone is looking over the shoulder.
33 • tmpfs Speed Champ (by Carl on 2026-02-04 19:04:50 GMT from United States)
The article on filesystems came close to the truth with its hint on caching. The fastest filesystem is tmpfs. A browser profile sync daemon will help most users the most of any optimization. It's not the only tmpfs trick, but maybe the one average folk should undertake.
My approach is more aggressive. I do not allow apps to clutter $HOME or cache or log directories. I generally move/assign/symlink all cache and logs and thumbnails into tmpfs. Thumbnails on disk really slow things and grow hog-wild.
And all the tmpfs junk disappears on reboot, just as I like it. If I want something sync'd to disk, I do it by hand or reboot script.
On disk, XFS has always been a solid Linux workhorse. It sees continuous development in the kernel tree. It supports TRIM these days.
Otherwise I use ext4 without a journal. My /boot partition will generally be ext4 (minus journaling), universal across Linux and good for GRUB.
Everything else will be XFS. XFS is not the fastest, but here's the bargain. It's the most reliable on Linux, and with tmpfs tricks, the need for speed does not hinge on marginal performance diffs between disk-based filesystems.
34 • Filesystem speed (by bsduck on 2026-02-06 15:50:46 GMT from Switzerland)
Interesting that you found UFS faster than ZFS, for me it has always been the opposite.
Number of Comments: 34
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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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| Random Distribution | 
Astra Linux
Astra Linux is a Russian commercial Linux distribution based on the "Stable" branch of Debian, developed by Russia's Astra Group. It was originally created to meet the needs of the Russian army and intelligence agencies, but was later widely adopted by the educational, healthcare and other state institutions, as well as many industrial companies, in order to reduce dependence on Microsoft Windows and other Western software products. Astra's flagship "Special" edition is a commercial product available for desktops, servers, mobile and embedded devices; it comes with support options and the highest level of security certification. The company also provides the unsupported, free-to-use "Common" edition which is based on an older version of Debian.
Status: Active
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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!
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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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