 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1163, 9 March 2026 |
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Welcome to this year's 10th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The Linux community is large, varied, and always on the move. At times, reviewing one distribution per week is not enough to keep up with new and exciting developments happening in the world. With this in mind, our Feature Story this week quickly touches upon three projects: KaOS, Tiny Core Linux, and NuTyX. Each of these distributions has published new releases recently and Jesse Smith takes a look at what each project is doing, focusing on new features. In our News section we talk about more changes coming down the chute, including Guix System introducing support for 64-bit builds of the Hurd kernel. Do you run a non-Linux open source kernel on any of your computers? Let us know in the Opinion Poll. We also discuss Linux Mint's new Cinnamon screensaver, which is Wayland compatible. Recently, some regions around the globe have been creating laws which will require operating systems to report the age of the user. The Fedora and Ubuntu communities have started discussions on how to address the new laws and we link to these talks below. The Redox OS team have ported new features to their open source platform and we share highlights from their progress. This week we also respond to a query about creating a single, giant repository for Linux software and explore the benefits and problems with such an idea in our Questions and Answers section. Plus, we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: Quick looks at three Linux distributions
- News: Guix System offers 64-bit Hurd option, Ubuntu and Fedora communities discuss age declaration laws, Linux Mint unveils new Cinnamon screensaver, Redox OS introduces new COSMIC features
- Questions and answers: Would one big collection of packages help?
- Released last week: Security Onion 2.4.210, Origami Linux 2026.03, RELIANOID 7.9.0, PrismLinux 2026.03.04, Linux From Scratch 13.0, iodéOS 7.3, Zenclora OS 2.0, CachyOS 260308
- Torrent corner: CachyOS, KDE neon, TUXEDO OS
- Opinion poll: Non-Linux open source kernels
- Site news: Operating systems can have multiple kernel options
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Quick looks at three Linux distributions
Most weeks, when I sit down to scribble a review, my plan is to try out a new distribution and attempt to use it regularly throughout the week. I want to see if the project can perform basic tasks, such as getting on-line, playing media files, and creating documents. I also want to see if it has the applications I want to use and how it will perform while I go about my normal digital routine. Shaking out a distribution and exploring its nooks and crannies takes a few days and might last most of the week, if the trial goes well.
Sometimes what I am interested in exploring is not the distribution as a whole, but specific new features or changes the developers have introduced. Sometimes I have reviewed a project recently and, generally speaking, know of its capabilities, but want to try out a new tool or package the developers have unveiled. This takes considerably less time and, sometimes, I don't bother writing about these mini-adventures. This week though I found myself curious about small aspects of three separate projects and decided to share what I learned.
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KaOS 2026.02
The KaOS distribution made an interesting announcement in February. Well, it was basically two announcements wrapped into one. The project announced it was considering a move away from the systemd software with plans to introduce Dinit. The Dinit project offers both basic init software (like SysV) and service management (like OpenRC and systemd), with the added bonus of being portable. Dinit runs on Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD.
Up to this point, KaOS has been a distribution which focused on shipping KDE software and applications created with the Qt toolkit. However, since KDE's announcement that its new login manager (PLM) would rely on systemd, this left the KaOS developers with a few choices: either drop plans to adopt Dinit, use an alternative login manager, or use an alternative desktop environment. The KaOS chose to, for the moment at least, experiment with an alternative desktop in the form of Noctalia which runs on the Niri window manager. Noctalia uses a Wayland session.
All of this sounded fascinating and I downloaded the demonstration ISO the KaOS project provided. The ISO file was 3.8GB in size. I booted from the ISO and was presented with a blank screen. The system seemed to get stuck at this point, showing nothing but an empty screen. With a little experimenting I found that I was able to switch to a text console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2 and login from the terminal.
From the text console I was able to determine KaOS had launched Niri, apparently on terminal #1, though that terminal remained blank. I could also see, thanks to a process monitor, the distribution had launched a welcome window or greeter which was consuming a lot of CPU. I killed the welcome window, and CPU usage dropped to idle, but the Niri window manager was unable to display anything.
I attempted to terminate the existing Niri session and launch a new Niri process from my console. A message appeared indicating Niri was reading its configuration file and then the terminal stopped responding.
I tried booting a few more times with various graphical settings, but without success. Each time Niri seemed to launch and then not draw anything on the screen.
At the moment it is unclear whether this test with the Noctalia/Niri combination will be a one-time experiment for the KaOS team or if they will revert back to using the Plasma desktop as the default in future ISO snapshots. At the moment, my experience suggests the new desktop isn't ready and isn't as mature as Plasma, but perhaps there are just a few issues to fix before the team makes the transition official.
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Tiny Core Linux 17.0
I decided to shift my focus from one project which was introducing big changes to another project which, as far as I could tell, had not changed much in recent years. Tiny Core Linux has been quietly churning out new versions on a regular basis with little fanfare. Around fifteen years ago I was hearing about people setting up small projects with Tiny Core, testing it in unusual environments, and there was even a book about what the project could do. However, for the past decade, I hadn't heard of anything big (pardon the term) happening with Tiny Core. It seems the distribution has been mostly receiving small package updates. I decided to take a quick look at Tiny Core to see what, if anything, had been introduced in recent years.
Tiny Core Linux is available in a few editions, for x86 and x86_64 CPUs. The truly minimal edition is 24MB and offers users a command line interface only. The main edition includes a window manager (Flwm) and is 41MB in size.
Tiny Core Linux 17.0 -- Running the package manager and settings panel
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Tiny Core boots almost instantly, logs us in automatically, and displays a graphical interface. There is a dock at the bottom of the display we can use to launch applications. Alternatively we can click on an empty portion of the desktop to see a small pop-up menu which helps us launch programs and settings panels. Window controls and titles are displays on the left side of application windows rather than on top.
Since the main focus of Tiny Core is to be, as the name suggests, tiny, not many applications are included. There is a terminal, a text editor, a graphical package manager, and a settings panel. There are some core command line utilities and that is about all we get by default.
What is impressive about Tiny Core is how minimal it manages to be. When the desktop is idle it uses just a few dozen megabytes of RAM. Even when I opened the package manager, a terminal, and the text editor the system was consuming less than 100MB of RAM. At that size, I could run about 80 instances of Tiny Core in parallel on a Raspberry Pi 5 before I ran out of memory.
Despite shipping with a very small selection of software, the distribution does include a graphical package manager. This simple software manager presents us with a list of packages in the distribution's repository. We can then download these modules and (optionally) activate them, making the software available. Tiny Core makes a distinction between simply downloading a package and activating it (making it available to run), I suppose to make the packages transferable to another instance. I downloaded a few items from the (relatively) small repository and confirmed the installed packages worked. Tiny Core might have a smaller collection of applications than mainstream distributions, but what it has worked for me.
There were a few areas where the distribution did not work well for me. Earlier I mentioned Tiny Core includes a settings panel, but it is limited. In particular, I was unable to find a tool for connecting to wireless networks. Tiny Core has a tool for linking to wired network interfaces, but as far as I could tell, nothing for managing wireless networks. This seems like a big oversight in today's world where many people have only wireless connections.
On a related note, I also didn't find any tool for adjusting desktop resolution, either in the graphical control panel or on the command line, and this left my desktop at an unusual resolution that was lower than normal.
I came away from my time with Tiny Core Linux 17.0 thinking it was nearly identical to my trials with the distribution thirteen years ago when I was testing Tiny Core versions 4 and 5. The project has worked to keep its packages up to date, but it doesn't seem to have evolved to handle newer devices and situations. It's still delightfully small, but it doesn't appear to be keeping up with the changes in minimal computing. As far as I could tell Tiny Core isn't available for ARM-powered devices, which is where the focus of most minimal distributions is these days. It doesn't seem to have wireless support or an easy to use installer. It feels like Tiny Core is stuck in time and no longer meeting minimal computing enthusiasts where they are today.
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NuTyX 26.02.2
Moving on from one project which has remained largely unchanged for the past decade to a project which is making some significant changes, I turned my attention to NuTyX. NuTyX is based on Linux From Scratch (LFS) and features a custom package manager called cards. Following, and perhaps as a result of, Linux From Scratch dropping SysV support in favour of systemd NuTyX is also migrating from using the classic init software to systemd.
This adjustment appears to go hand in hand with a trimming of the distribution's editions. In the past, NuTyX offered a Base (command line only) edition, plus about a dozen desktop variants. The project's download page, at the time of writing, showcases the Base edition and just three desktop flavours: GNOME, Plasma, and Xfce. I decided to download the 1.8GB Xfce edition. I was curious to see if switching init software would have any noticeable effect on the distribution.
Booting from the ISO brings up a boot menu where we are offered the chance to install the distribution or launch the live desktop mode. Both options bring up a series of text menus where we are asked to pick our language, keyboard layout, and create a username and password. The only difference I noticed between the two choices is the Install option asks if we want to install a boot loader. Both choices then present us with a graphical login screen.
The similar behaviour might strike people as odd, it certainly seemed strange to me the first time I experienced it. Both the Live and Install options ask us to configure the system, but the Live option (as the name suggests) runs from the removable medium. The Install option quietly takes over the hard drive and installs NuTyX to the disk without asking us any questions about filesystems, mount points, or formatting. This is unusual and destructive behaviour and it has been the distribution's approach for a few years, at least.
Once the distribution has been installed and we sign into the Xfce desktop we are presented with a fairly lightweight and sparse operating system. A relatively small number of applications are installed - just Xfce, its associated tools, and Firefox are present in the application menu. The desktop works quickly and the default dark theme looks nice, in my opinion.
The distribution is fairly light on resources, using 5.5GB of disk space (which is less than the average, mainstream Linux distribution) and consumes about 450MB of RAM when logged into Xfce. This is also below the normal range for most distributions running medium or full-featured desktop environments.
Something odd I noticed while exploring NuTyX is the distribution includes the man command line tool for viewing manual pages, however no manual pages exist on the system. I also noticed that the root account is not accessible by default (no password is set); we can use the sudo command to perform administrative tasks.
As I mentioned earlier, the current version of NuTyX runs the systemd init and service management software instead of SysV init. For most practical purposes this change did not have any positive or negative effects on the distribution, at least for day-to-day operation. The commands for managing services are different and most log entries are in binary format rather than in text files. A person will also notice more mount points when running tools such as df or mount, though that seems to be where the practical differences end.
While my question about how the migration to systemd would affect the distribution had been answered (the impact was mostly small and behind the scenes), I still wanted to take a tour around NuTyX and explore further. In particular, I wanted to try out the distribution's unique cards package manager.
NuTyX 26.02.2 -- Running the cards package manager
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The cards command line package manager has a nice syntax, using clear words such as sync, upgrade, install, search, and remove. Running cards without any parameters shows a helpful summary of available commands. I appreciated the text cards displayed on my system was in English, despite the fact NuTyX is primarily a French distribution (merci).
The Flatpak software is not installed by default, but it is available in the NuTyX repositories if we wish to install Flatpak bundles.
On the whole, despite the big under-the-hood chances to NuTyX, this was probably one of my best trials with the distribution. Part of that was probably due to my past experiences, as I was ready for NuTyX's quirks. Part of the good impression this time around was from me using a more mainstream desktop (Xfce) rather than a more obscure one like CDE. However, part of the good experience was, I believe, a result of the developers handling the transition from one service manager to another, making the migration smooth. As a result, the switch from SysV to systemd does not appear to have had much impact, good or bad, unless you need to go digging through log files.
For the most part, NuTyX worked well for me. It is minimalist, it has a limited default software repository, but it offers a lightweight environment and excellent performance. On the whole, it is a decent experience for someone who wants a minimal operating system without a lot of features or clutter.
My big concern with NuTyX has nothing to do with its migration from one init implementation to another, but its install process. Specifically the way it takes over a disk without warning or confirmation. I ran into this same behaviour three years ago:
What took me by surprise is, at first, I still thought I was engaged in part of the install process from the live media. However, when I signed into the desktop and was greeted by no more prompts or questions I checked and confirmed NuTyX was now running from my hard drive. On one hand, it is very impressive that NuTyX installed and then rebooted so quickly that I didn't notice it had happened. I don't believe that has ever happened to me before. In the time it takes some distributions to merely load their installer or present package selection options, NuTyX finished its install process.
On the other hand, I'm concerned about the fact NuTyX took over my hard drive, wiping the entire disk clean, without warning. I didn't see any prompt asking me about partitioning or erasing data. NuTyX simply took the nuclear option without fanfare. This is not going to make for a great first impression for most users.
I am surprised that this behaviour continues to be the default for NuTyX and the developers still haven't placed any warning or confirmation or other prompts in the experience to let the user know part of their disk is about to be consumed by the operating system. It's an oddly aggressive approach by what is otherwise a fairly solid, minimalist distribution.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Guix System offers 64-bit Hurd option, Ubuntu and Fedora communities discuss age declaration laws, Linux Mint unveils new Cinnamon screensaver, Redox OS introduces new COSMIC features
People who are interested in microkernels received some good news this week from the Guix System project. People running Guix System can now make use of the GNU Hurd kernel, which now has support for 64-bit CPUs. "Fifteen months have passed since our last Guix/Hurd on a Thinkpad X60 post and a lot has happened with respect to the Hurd. And most of you will have guessed, unless you skipped the title of this post, the rumored x86_64 support has landed in Guix!" The announcement goes on to explain how to install the 64-bit build of Hurd on the Guix System platform. There is also an option in the operating system's installer for Hurd to install 32-bit or 64-bit Hurd kernels.
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The State of California in the United States of America has passed a law which will require operating systems to collect and provide the birth date or age of the person using the computer. This legislation has caught the attention of Linux distribution developers who will need to address this law, particularly if they do business in the USA. Aaron Rainbolt has started a discussion on the Ubuntu developer mailing list about this issue: "Recently, a new law was passed in California that requires OS vendors to provide some limited info about a user's age via an API that application distribution websites and application stores can use. Colorado seems to be working on a similar law. The law will go into effect January 1, 2027, it is no longer a draft. I do quite a bit of work with an OS vendor (working with the Kicksecure and Whonix projects), and we aren't particularly interested in blocking everyone in California and Colorado from using our OSes, so we're currently looking into how to implement an API that will comply with the laws while also not being a privacy disaster."
A similar discussion is underway in the Fedora community. Other countries and regions are planning to pass similar laws, making this a global issue rather than one specific to California.
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The Linux Mint project has announced that the Cinnamon desktop is getting a new screensaver. The new screensaver should offer smoother transitions and it works with Wayland. "The biggest gain of course is the full compatibility with Wayland. Whether or not we want to default to Wayland in the future is a different topic, but we certainly want to have the option on the table. With this new screensaver, the next Cinnamon release will be Wayland compatible. Screensavers are very important. They need to look good, they need to work well, and they cannot under any circumstance fail to protect the user's privacy. If the screensaver was to crash, the session still needs to be locked. There's an extra process dedicated to hiding the screen when that happens. It worked well with cinnamon-screensaver but it took a lot of testing to make sure it did. It works well with the new screensaver also, but it will take time to make sure it's tested properly both in Xorg and in Wayland." Further details on the new screensaver utility are provided in the distribution's monthly newsletter.
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The Redox project has published a newsletter in which the team highlights progress and new developments. Some of the key changes include porting the COSMIC settings panel to Redox OS, booting Redox OS on a Lenovo IdeaPad, and a port of NodeJS running on the Rust-based operating system. Another step forward is that programs with multiple threads now execute more reliably: "Wildan Mubarok successfully executed the os-test test suite on multiple QEMU CPU cores without hangs! Previously, when running multi-core, os-test had been triggering some kernel bugs and other hangs, which we have been working hard to fix." Details on these and other improvements are covered in the Redox OS February newsletter.
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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) |
Would one big collection of packages help?
Unifying-packages asks: Why doesn't Linux have one big package repository all distros can use?
DistroWatch answers: The idea of having one giant repository that everyone can use as a basis for building their distributions and then allow users to install extra packages from it is, at first glance, an efficient idea. Instead of Fedora having one set of packages, Debian having another, Slackware having its own set, and Arch building their own, could we have one giant repository that everyone could pull from? Assuming, of course, that you could get everyone to agree to use the same packaging format and the same package manager, it seems like this should work, in theory, and reduce duplication of work.
Where the theory runs into a hurdle is the vast amount of diversity and number of niches filled by the Linux community. I don't just mean diversity in terms of software and design, but also the supported hardware and philosophies.
A repository of all Linux software in one place would be huge, because there wouldn't just be one package of each piece of software (such as the kernel, desktop environments, LibreOffice, and web browsers). There would need to be separate builds for each supported CPU architecture, which would mean around a dozen different builds of each package. It gets worse though, because if you wanted an all-in-one repository you would need to support old CPUs (ie. provide packages without CPU optimization levels), but if you want your repository to be used by enterprises then you also need to provide highly optimized packages. There are around 100,000 different source packages which have been ported to Linux, which means (at this point) we're looking at about 1.5 million packages just to cover the range of CPU architectures.
It gets worse. There are long-term support releases which are maintained for 15 years and other distributions which use the latest stable versions of packages, plus cutting edge distributions. Which means, at a bare minimum, three versions of each package (though more likely you'd be building new versions every six months, plus the cutting edge versions). This is assuming you don't also have a testing and development repository, which most projects will want. By the end of one year the repository packagers would be maintaining about 9 million binary packages.
It gets still worse because some people want lightweight builds of packages (with no suggested dependencies and add-ons) while other distributions cater to people who want every optional feature enabled, and many distributions take the mid-level defaults. At which point we're up to around 27 million different builds of packages.
Let's say you get together enough people, funds, infrastructure, and build servers to support churning out about 27 million packages per year. It's certainly doable with the right motivation and contacts. And let's assume you can get everyone in the world to agree on a single format and package manager - which might be harder. At this point you still have some tricky philosophical differences to navigate. For example, is this repository going to include free software only or provide non-free packages too? If it is the former then someone is going to create their own fork of your repository and include non-free elements for practicality. However, if your repository includes non-free packages then strictly free software distributions will refuse to use it and create their own fork. You may run into similar mutually exclusive debates over whether packages are static or dynamically linked, whether dependencies are bundled (making the packages portable) or shipped separately.
In the end, you're going to end up with around six different types (or copies) of the main repository with at least three versioning branches (plus a testing branch), for a dozen CPU architectures (totaling a minimum of 162 million packages), and you will need to provide the infrastructure, ongoing funding, and documentation for users to find the right fit for their wants. Alternatively you will come to realize that the super expensive, mega-meta repository is really just duplicating the same thing the Linux community already does organically by dividing itself into separate distributions with their own repositories.
Another factor is, even if you managed to build this giant meta repository, you'd still need to convince people to use it, to trust a single, central hub and authority over their own communities. The open source community generally knows better than to take centralized, single-point-of-failure solutions over diverse and locally managed options. Most people are not going to want to put the well being of the entire Linux ecosystem in the hands of one organization that they need to trust to keep churning out millions of packages with no benefit in return.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Security Onion 2.4.210
Doug Burks has announced the release of Security Onion 2.4.210, the latest stable version of the project's Oracle Linux-based distribution designed to perform threat hunting, enterprise security monitoring and log management: "Security Onion 2.4.210 now available with updated components and new features, including local model support for Onion AI. For Security Onion Pro customers, we've made major improvements for our popular new Onion AI Assistant. Many folks have been asking for local model support. If your local model has an OpenAI compatible endpoint, then this release can connect to it. Onion AI is a huge leap forward in leveraging AI to assist you in triaging alerts, working incidents, and tuning your deployment. This release updates several components including: Zeek to 8.0.6, Elasticsearch to 9.0.8, Docker to 29.2.1, Saltstack to 3006.19. This version of Salt has a configuration option minimum_auth_version for the Salt master. By default, this value is set to 3 and only minions on version 3006.12 or later support that version and are able to authenticate with the salt-master service." Continue to the release announcement for more details.
Origami Linux 2026.03
John Holt has announced the release of Origami Linux 2026.03. Freshly out of beta, this updated version of the project's immutable Fedora-based distribution ships with the CachyOS Linux kernel 6.19.3 and the COSMIC desktop 1.0.8: "We are thrilled to announce a massive milestone for the project - Origami Linux is officially out of beta. Over the past months, we have relentlessly refined our automated daily builds, perfected our immutable base, and tuned our kernel for maximum performance. Today, we are proud to say the system is rock-solid, incredibly fast, and ready for everyone. To mark this milestone and help our growing community track our progress, we are introducing our new release model, starting today with Origami Linux 2026.03. ... For those just discovering Origami Linux, we are bringing something unique to the Linux desktop by combining the ultimate stability of an immutable system with bleeding-edge performance. Origami Linux 2026.03 ships with Fedora 43 atomic base, the absolute gold standard for atomic/immutable Linux, ensuring your core system is virtually unbreakable." See the complete release announcement as published on the distribution's GitLab pages.
RELIANOID 7.9.0
RELIANOID is a load balancing operating system based on Debian. The project's latest release is version 7.9.0 which introduce patches for critical bugs. In addition, backup management has been streamlined and the distribution performs some automatic clean-up of temporary lock files. "Several system-level improvements have been introduced to enhance robustness and operational stability. RELIANOID now performs automatic cleanup of stale lock files every hour, reducing the risk of blocked operations caused by unexpected interruptions or abnormal process termination. Backup management has also been streamlined through the removal of obsolete parameters, simplifying configuration and improving long-term maintainability. Additionally, the Web UI server now shuts down gracefully, ensuring clean service stops during restarts, upgrades, or system shutdowns." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
PrismLinux 2026.03.04
PrismLinux 2026.03.04 has been released. PrismLinux is a minimalist, Arch-based distribution optimised for speed. It boots into the River Wayland compositor and launches a custom system installer which provides a number of popular desktop options available for installation. This major new release overhauls the installer and introduces many significant improvements: "We're excited to announce PrismLinux 2026.03.04, a major release packed with installer improvements, a full migration to Electrobun, system enhancements, and significant backend upgrades. What's new? The installer has been overhauled from the ground up: localization fix - fixed localization during system installation; better password support - improved handling of passwords with special characters; more packages - additional packages now available in the installer; default browser - Firefox is now the default browser for all desktop environments; lighter system - reselected packages for a lighter and faster out-of-the-box experience; new languages - added German and Russian language support; SSH on live CD - enabled sshd on live CD via liveuser@localhost for configuration-based installs...." Read the rest of the release announcement for a full list of changes.
PrismLinux 2026.03.04 -- Running the River interface
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Linux From Scratch 13.0
Bruce Dubbs has announced the release of Linux From Scratch (LFS), version 13.0. The new version includes several package updates, including the Linux kernel, which is now at version 6.18.10. "The Linux From Scratch community is pleased to announce the release of LFS Version 13.0 (systemd) and BLFS Version 13.0 (systemd). This release is a major update to both LFS and BLFS. The LFS release includes updates to binutils-2.46 and glibc-2.42. In total, 36 packages were updated since the last release and extensive updates to the text have been made throughout the book to improve readability. The Linux kernel has also been updated to version 6.18.10. Overall there have been over 100 commits to LFS since the previous stable version of the book. Packages that have security updates include: glibc, coreutils, expat, Perl, Python, systemd, xz, and vim." Various formats of the LFS and Beyond Linux From Scratch (BLFS) books are available on the project's downloage page.
iodéOS 7.3
iodéOS is an Android-based operating system (in the LineageOS family) which ships without Google trackers or proprietary software. The project has released version 7.3 which is based on LineageOS 23.2. "This month, iodéOS 7.3 arrives with a thrilling evolution-blending Material 3 Expressive design with unparalleled customization. Built on LineageOS 23.2, this update transforms your interface with dynamic colors and intuitive interactions. Every swipe and tap now feels more alive and personal. Meet the smarter Quick Settings panel! Swipe down to discover customizable tiles that adapt to your workflow. Expand icons for labels, then collapse them once familiar. And unlike mainstream Android, iodéOS offers you the option of separate Wi-Fi and cellular controls - because you deserve precision. Enjoy a richer dark theme and enhanced file utilities for private spaces - because your data deserves both beauty and security. The LineageOS team has revamped Twelve (music), DeskClock, and ExactCalculator with the new design, with more apps on the way!" Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
Zenclora OS 2.0
Zenclora OS, a desktop Linux distribution based on Debian's "Stable" branch with a customised GNOME desktop, has been updated to version 2.0. Code-named "Ardenweald", it now features a unified package management system called Zen Package Manager (ZPM). "This major release marks the transition to Zen Package Manager (ZPM), unifying software installation, system management and utility tools. Core changes: transitioned from 'Zenclora Commands' to the unified Zen Package Manager (ZPM); package installation, system management and utility tools are now centralized under zpm. Zen Package Manager (ZPM) expansion: added support for external packages - librewolf, mullvad-browser, signal, mullvad-vpn, rust, docker, pacstall, nvidia-driver; new bundle installs - gaming-pack, editor-pack, producer-pack, office-pack, dev-pack; new system management - optimize, mitigations, info, services, packages, logs, netfix, aptfix; integrated utility tools: formatusb, debinstaller, filemanager; added automatic NVIDIA driver installation support. System and aesthetics: full visual redesign: updated login screen, Plymouth and Debian Installer themes; significant desktop changes for better usability and a more refined appearance; improved kernel-level optimizations...." Visit the distribution's releases page for a complete changelog.
Zenclora OS 2.0 -- Running the GNOME desktop
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CachyOS 260308
The CachyOS team have announced the release of a new version of their Arch-based Linux distribution. The new version places a focus on making the system installer more friendly, particularly when selecting which desktop environment to use. "First, the installer now shows animated GIF/WebP previews in the Desktop Selection to showcase each desktop environment. This is currently enabled for Plasma, GNOME, Niri and COSMIC, giving users a much better idea of what to expect before making their choice. And also, added support for JPEG XL in the Desktop Selection to reduce image sizes. The Desktop Environment list has also been sorted from easy and accessible setups to more advanced ones like window managers. Cachy-Update is now enabled by default for GNOME and KDE installations. The microcode installation logic has been improved - it will now detect the hardware and install the proper microcode instead of installing both and then removing the unneeded one. The error message when the EFI partition is too small has also been improved." The project's release announcement lists additional changes and fixes for the new snapshot.
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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: 3,398
- Total data uploaded: 49.6TB
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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) |
Non-Linux open source kernels
The Linux kernel has become widely recognized throughout the open source community. It is a piece of technology which is virtually everywhere, from servers to smartphones, from home appliances to desktop computers, from super computers to handhold gaming consoles. While the Linux kernel receives the lion's share of attention in the open source community, there are several other kernels which are open source and used around the world. The illumos kernel, the BSD kernels, Hurd, and MINIX are also widely deployed.
This week we would like to hear if you run one of these non-Linux open source kernels on any of your devices.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running a firewall at home in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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| Website News |
Operating systems can have multiple kernel options
Most open source operating systems have one kernel. By this we mean one brand of kernel (such as Linux, Mach, kFreeBSD), though usually with multiple versions or builds available.
For most of the life of DistroWatch this has remained true and so we've only ever tagged projects with one kernel type. However, some open source operating systems experiment with multiple kernels (some of them even in an official capacity) and so we've made it possible to tag each operating system in our database with multiple kernels.
At the moment, just Guix System and Debian have multiple kernels (Linux and Hurd) associated with them. However, we're prepared to expand this in the future as more projects experiment with alternative kernels.
On a related note, our Search page now has an option to search for projects which offer the Hurd microkernel.
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 16 March 2026. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
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1 • Talk is cheaper than code (by Huyzs on 2026-03-09 00:40:25 GMT from France)
I've been browsing the web for more than 20 years now and I've rarely seen a better dialogue of the deaf from the thread about implementing such basic functionality: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/california-age-verification/181968
I understand how much political Linux users can be when governments and big companies tell them how they must use their computer, but these people keep adding their 2c and at the end, there is not even a single dollar of wisdom.
Just implement the basic form to ask for birth date, and allow users to skip it. California won't sue Fedora but the user (or, most probable, nobody at all).
2 • one package manager (by john on 2026-03-09 01:42:47 GMT from Canada)
There is "one package manager" out there and some Linux Distros along with NetBSD, Minux and maybe others use, pkgsrc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pkgsrc
I think it is too bad it never became popular, I have used it and I think it works great.
3 • Evading age verification laws (by InvisibleInk on 2026-03-09 02:31:22 GMT from United States)
I guess if I choose to run a system with no multi-user accounts, like Puppy Linux, Haiku, or FreeDOS, then those age verification laws are pretty much impossible to implement.
4 • KaOS (by Jyrki on 2026-03-09 04:59:02 GMT from Czechia)
For me they were always classed as systemd/KDE distro and therefore I have not looked for any updates from them. So it's a big surprise they are trying something different. But this made me curious. I have to keep an eye on them and give it a try
5 • TinyCore Wifi (by Antal on 2026-03-09 05:42:20 GMT from Hungary)
There *IS* wifi support in TinyCore Linux out of the box. As you can see there are 3 editions of TC: Core, TinyCore and CorePlus. The CorePlus edition is 276 MB (TC 17.0). This edition contains several WMs, but more importantly it loads a lot of firmware and wifi module and *HAS* wifi settings, which is available on the bottom bar.
6 • TinyCore Raspberry PI (by mtov on 2026-03-09 05:53:15 GMT from Germany)
https://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/doku.php?id=picore:welcome
http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/16.x/aarch64/ (no 17)
http://repo.tinycorelinux.net/16.x/armhf/ (no 17)
https://wiki.tinycorelinux.net/doku.php?id=picore:wifi:rpi3_wifi_aarch64_16
Not tested by me.
7 • tinycore packages (by We all float down on 2026-03-09 07:06:13 GMT from Netherlands)
@5 Yeah, the old chicken/egg problem, I always had to download usb-serial-$KERNEL.tcz modules outside, but it seems he already has a connection and can then use a keyword search for wifi or wireless and find plenty. OTOH I agree there's often no good reason to upgrade for a very long time, I still have version 12 on some machines, but also because sometimes upgrades drop packages or 32/64 begin to diverge for some reason.
8 • Dinit and other better init systems (by Hank on 2026-03-09 09:07:39 GMT from Germany)
Dinit, a modern easy to setup init, you get fast boot, stability and human readable logfiles
My system is prtesently booting lightning fast with S6 Rc, everything working fine, logfiles plain text
S6 another modern init, same advantages
My system antiX 26 rc 1.
ICEWM my preference.
Still some odd bugs being found but good for everyday usage.
SysV and Runit are also available, intent is exploring and debugging alternative modern
init alternatives to the monster systemd.
I find the experience very positive.
9 • KaOS 2026.02 devs not understanding KDE login in manager change announcement? (by Frank Lindemann on 2026-03-09 09:16:08 GMT from Germany)
It seems an interesting mis-read of the change to a new login manager by KDE.
Yes, the login manager PLM has a dependency for systemd, and that's that.
You can still use any old login manager to log in.
Soooo, let's wait and see where this ship is going, aaand I found another
distro to surf on the bleeding KDE edge: OpenSuse Slowroll:
https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Slowroll
Cheers
Frank
10 • "Age Verification" Irony (p1) (by Alice on 2026-03-09 09:21:16 GMT from United Kingdom)
Here we go again. Patterns. Context. Big Brother. Because "think of the children, think of the children."
How ironic, after the West's hysterical condemnatory tribal "othering" of China and its infamous Great-Firewall and Social-Credit infrastructure!
I'm sure I'm not the only British DistroWatch reader who's increasingly seeing, or rather _not_ seeing, geo-blocked content.
Conspicuously, since last year, web-forum and GitHub posts show lilac rectangles instead of the original images - because of Imgur-hosting and geo-blocking. And that's just one high-profile example.
Yes, some alternative routes and methods still work, _for_now_ - but the options are shrinking.
We definitely don't have critical-mass peer-to-peer Mesh networking anywhere, period.
It all bodes ill. Because, fundamentally, _we_ don't control the network channel hardware. Which renders us vulnerable to _them_, the gatekeepers and toll-extractors with for-profit and for-politics agendas. As illustrated in every recent protest-unrest scenario where the incumbents and their mates and jackboots simply switch network access off.
Even in "normal" times, the usual "get a VPN" bleat falls short if you're already an outsider to The System. There's a de-facto stranglehold on global banking and payments - and no, don't say "crypto" because.. well, because Reasons - so many, _many_ reasons. The core concept of crypto is fine, but the reality, no chance! Not least that nowadays "KYC" is an extension of that stranglehold. Never forget, there's a reason "livestock" - as in stocks+shares, living sentient beings, held for profit, held to be milked, fleeced and slaughtered - are forced to have tags and bar-codes and chips under the skin.
And don't forget, your use of VPNs is already in Their sights too, along with backdoorless Encryption too.
11 • "Age Verification" Irony (p2) (by Alice on 2026-03-09 09:24:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
Those of us with long memories haven't forgotten the era and battles which birthed the phrase "Net Neutrality" - an issue which, like Fascism, never actually went away, and is dangerously on the rise again. Twenty, thirty years on, it seems recent "rulings" by the monkeys playing their "courtroom" games once again threaten that precious internet ideal of Open-To-All-Equally. And surprise, surprise, it's the usual suspects. Be interesting to see the venn overlap with the fundamentalist-extremist rentiers of the so-called "IP" lobby who are threatening digital libraries.
Never forget: "the Law" is merely the codified demands and prohibitions of whichever tribe-du-jour has gotten hold of the local levers of Power.
Also: "the Law" is like a cobweb - it's there to catch you insects, you little people, but the big beasts stomp through unhindered (many on their way to kiddie-fiddling tycoon islands).
Free-range lives for the few. Chipped battery-lives for the many.
The dystopias really are materialising as we look on helpless.
It's not just the obvious hot Warfare to dominate territories and resources (cough, Oil again, cough), but also waging "Lawfare" to advance a particular hegemony benefitting a particular hierarchy.
Currently it's in the guise of "Verification."
The creep of demands and prohibitions. Because "think of the children, think of the children." An expedient Trojan Horse advancing the malign agendas of Big-Money/Big-State via the useful-idiot grass-roots naive do-gooders. Another thin end of another wedge. The tentacles being irreversibly inserted. An unholy alliance accelerating the metastasis toward terminal Stage-IV.
George Orwell truly was a visionary: firstly Animal Farm's searing depictions of human Types, followed by Nineteen Eighty-Four's dystopian masterpiece.
12 • age verification (by andrew on 2026-03-09 10:33:01 GMT from Canada)
Lots of people thought that the internet would be a place where they could escape the constant surveillance of society but as it turns out, is become the means for complete surveillance of everyone. Bitcoin is the same way because people thought they would be able to trade without being tracked. Pat, of course that is very stupid on its face since every transaction has a unique number associated with it. Of course! The excuse for implementing age verification is to protect the children and the initial effects seem to support that since so far the main effect has been to horse. Read it to keep kids out of the LGBT forums which is of course a good thing. Pat, it will be weaponized soon enough.
13 • Mass surveillance is now done open (by SuperOscar on 2026-03-09 11:00:27 GMT from Finland)
It certainly looks like the best-before date of free societies and basic human rights is now in the past. Of course we always knew the likes of NSA do mass surveillance, but now they are doing it openly. G’bye free speech.
14 • min OSes (by Sondar on 2026-03-09 11:13:58 GMT from United Kingdom)
EasyOS? Comes from Barry Kauler, one of the best coders. Small and beautiful (not sure about Barry on that second quality...!).
15 • KaOS and NuTyX (by ghost on 2026-03-09 11:37:17 GMT from Sweden)
I've curious about KaOS for a while, since it was announced in their forums they are looking to switch to dinit. As for NuTyX, they are going in the opposite direction and we (the ones which cannot imagine using systemd) just lost another of the very few options remaining. :(
16 • "Age Verification" Irony (p3) (by Alice on 2026-03-09 11:52:27 GMT from United Kingdom)
coda..
(delayed cos DW algorithms(?), IOW, "the computer says No")
There was an old adage, can't remember exact wording, something along the lines of:
"The Freedoms the grandparents fought and died for,
the Freedoms their complacent children ignored and forgot,
are the selfsame Freedoms the grandchildren lost completely
as they fell captured into Slavery once more."
Google's demanding dev-ID. keepandroidopen org.
Third-party servers in multiple jurisdictions doing the supposedly anonymous Face Verification.
No ta!
The only safe Data is the data that was never captured in the first place.
More than ever, the good-guys resisting The Great Ensh`ttification and its pathological regimes _need_ private anonymous access to net resources and to each other.
The oncoming tsunami of "verification" changes everything. Add AI. It's over. Stage-IV indeed.
We oldies saw the Internet's best years - untracked, private, anonymous. A universal shared resource.
A high-point in Human evolution.
Ironic that, for oldies, refusal to "Age Verify" will be what finally kills it
.
17 • Age verification / minimalist OSes (by Keith S on 2026-03-09 12:10:12 GMT from United States)
The new push for age verification is just another path to try to get everyone to upload a photo ID so your username(s) are linked to you personally. Once that is accomplished, the government will implement licensing in order to be allowed to use the internet, which of course means there will be regulations around acceptable use thereof. This will result in even more safety for children, naturally.
@10 Sorry, but yes, I have blocked Britain and the rest of the EU from my website. I don't want OFCOM to attempt to fine me for wrongspeak. I have blocked quite a few other regions as well but mostly for reasons other than attempting to control what I say.
On a separate topic, tinycore sounds very interesting. And I agree with @15, Barry Kauler is a great maker of OSes. I have enjoyed using Puppy and EasyOS off and on over the years. And here is where I make my usual plug for OpenBSD, this time as a truly minimalist OS, though it is not usually marketed that way. The base has everything you need and nothing you don't, which in my mind is the definition of minimalist. And you can add to your list of kernels other than Linux that you use.
18 • Tiny Core Linux on ARM architectures (by minimalinux on 2026-03-09 12:40:58 GMT from France)
Tiny Core Linux ARM ports are available at http://www.tinycorelinux.net/ports.html
19 • Age verification (by JKL on 2026-03-09 12:59:04 GMT from United States)
People say what they want. But honestly, I am glad that the age verification requirements isn’t anything worse than that. You just need to say your age. You don’t have to put your ID on your computer. Of course, the main concern is apps abusing the system to farm data for advertising, but for those who don’t like it can randomize their age or whatever.
Plus if it saves us the trouble of uploading your ID everywhere (let’s not care about the easy of getting around it), then I would welcome it. Just need to “prompt” for age and have an API for it.
The only issue I can think of currently (there’s probably several) is that app makers abuse it. If there is a permission system (like macos prompting “allow app to access your age”), then it wouldn’t be as bad.
Think of this as a convenient tool to say your age without being asked on every platform (of course then you need containers or multiple users if you have different aliases online).
Just blame Zuck for passing the blame from social media platform to OS.
20 • Tiny Core (by Jesse on 2026-03-09 13:17:14 GMT from Canada)
@18: "Tiny Core Linux ARM ports are available at..."
As I pointed out in the review and someone else already pointed out in the comments, those ARM ports are all old and for past versions. There don't appear to be any ARM builds for version 17.
21 • Age verification (by grraf on 2026-03-09 13:46:06 GMT from Romania)
@19 you suffer from terminal stage self delusion if you think they will stop at that(a trust me bro age verification promt) that is only going to remain that way until that law sees mass enforcement, shortly afterwards it will get silently updated to mandate IDs & facial scans... take a f'in look at UK, it all started innocent enough now they can't even freely access wikipedia & get thrown in jail for posting 'hate speech'(broad umbrella term to jail anyone openly criticizing govt legislation&immigration policies).
22 • Age filtering for OS installs (by Huckleberry Hiroshima on 2026-03-09 14:10:24 GMT from United States)
I admit to being flabbergasted at seeing this development, and that it is gaining popularity with political regions, AND that it is being complied with by Linux distros (or at least being dealt with.. "explored" etc).
I have not yet looked at any of the cited forums where it's being discussed, and have only read several of the comments about it here at DW. So... I'm still reacting basically emotionally about this rather than with much of a factual nature. I am appalled, at the moment, that there are LAWS being passed saying, if I understand it somewhere near correctness, a person's personal information must be by LAW considered or at least known by the state when that person wishes to use a computer?
23 • @22 Age verification (by GT on 2026-03-09 15:47:34 GMT from United States)
"if I understand it somewhere near correctness, a person's personal information must be by LAW considered or at least known by the state when that person wishes to use a computer?"
You do not understand it correctly. The state does not receive any information from the user. The API creates age bracket data that is read by applications. In the text of the bill it states:
"Age bracket data” means nonpersonally identifiable data derived from a user’s birth date or age for the purpose of sharing with developers of applications that indicates the user’s age range.
24 • Age verification (by JKL on 2026-03-09 16:11:14 GMT from United States)
@21. Criticize the statement, not the person. Admittedly, I said what I said without thinking about what happens outside the US, and that was insensitive. The only reason that this Cali law passed in the first place even if it seems easy to dupe is because Zuck was able to convince the lawmakers it’s not social media companies fault that children are harmed online (I wish parents take responsibility instead of blaming). So he said it’s the OS’s responsibility, which is a bit silly. But at the same time, I do not know the story across the pond and you would probably be right. However, in the US, since this policy is just a stopgap of passing blame. If they really wanted to do mass surveillance, they would be like China and require a citizen ID for every online account you use instead. So that’s why I don’t believe it wouldn’t get too far at least in the US. Besides the gov is good at mass surveying without those things anyways.
Regardless, the current law is okay if it makes things simpler than having to enter age anywhere. And, on Linux, there isn’t anything stopping you from uninstalling or lying about your age. I would be more worried about countries banning all OS’s for consumer devices but Windows, Android and Apple because those are the only ones they can make control you.
25 • Age Verification Bill (by Huckleberry Hiroshima on 2026-03-09 17:38:25 GMT from United States)
@24 Thank you for that information. Do you trust that the constraints cited in the text of the bill proposal will be fully adhere to by all of the states involved, so that there is no danger of the state actually harvesting the personal information for the state's own purposes?
26 • Some reservations (by We all float down on 2026-03-09 18:22:46 GMT from Netherlands)
Redox: kernel bugs and other hangs? How can this be, when you pass the ru$t compile stage, eventually, you should be safe...
OpenBSDM minimal? Too big for some thin clients, still running SliTaz/tinycore.
Tinycore. On the + side, you can avoid downloading, mounting and copying from a big iso. Just get directly what you want, kernel or rootfs or modules or packages. Wish more distros allowed this. Still has alternatives for Xorg. You can avoid the default flwm/fltk/wbar: just install Xfbdev/evilwm/aterm starting with tce from microcore. Oh, wait.
On the - side, no 64-bit evilwm, no /proc/config.gz, no binfmt_misc module, no usb-serial in modules.gz, later versions start to become slowly enshittified, 99% of the upgrades completely irrelevant.
ARM at version 16 probably good enough.
Think of the children. No, no, no, not those.
27 • KaOS (by zanwalk on 2026-03-09 18:29:52 GMT from United Kingdom)
I downloaded the KaOS iso and have booted it on two (older) laptops without any problems. The Noctalia desktop works fine on both.
28 • Age verification plans (by Albert on 2026-03-09 18:40:29 GMT from Sweden)
> Other countries and regions are planning to pass similar laws, making this a global issue rather than one specific to California.
Why the developers of a freely redistributable OS should be responsible for compliance with arbitrary laws and regulations in hundreds of jurisdictions across the world? This particular law is futile anyway, because the only viable approach to restrict technologically a child from access to age-inappropriate content online is to lock down his or her account, allowing access to whitelisted sites and applications only. Otherwise there is always Wikipedia which has a detailed article for every possible kind of sexual perversion. It is concerning that Canonical developers are readily jumping to discuss technical approaches to implementation of these silly requirements. It is sad that instead of regulating the reckless "AI" and satellite mega-constellation races, the legislators take the low hanging fruit in an effort to attract voices and/or distract their electorate and/or reduce freedom "because is too dangerous"...
29 • Tiny Core Linux (by Albert on 2026-03-09 18:56:12 GMT from Sweden)
The vertical window titles look really weird. Can the conventional placement be configured?
30 • @ 24 JKL: (by dragonmouth on 2026-03-09 19:08:27 GMT from United States)
It was none of Zuckś doing. Cali legislators and Gov. Newsome never met a surveillance method they did not like.
You are naive if you think Age Verification will not morph into users having provide not just their age and a photo ID but their life stories and genealogical tree for the last 5 generations with cross references, especially if this goes nation-wide. How would you like to have to register to activate your phone, both land line and cell phone?
It is people like you who don´t mind being spied on because ¨I have nothing to hide¨ who allow the government erode our Constitutional rights.
31 • @25 Age verification (by GT on 2026-03-09 19:40:15 GMT from United States)
"Do you trust that the constraints cited in the text of the bill proposal will be fully adhere to by all of the states involved, so that there is no danger of the state actually harvesting the personal information for the state's own purposes?"
I think this question was meant for me.
California laws only affect California. Other states do not adhere to California laws in general, including this one. There are no other states 'involved' with this bill, so I am not entirely sure what you mean. Whatever other states write in their bills is independent of this piece of legislation and would not affect California any more than California's law affects them, legally speaking. Practically speaking, it is likely that this API is implemented across the board rather than having separate releases for CA and non-CA users, but that is the decision of the organizations who will need to determine how to comply with it.
Given the bill does not require, nor even request, any mechanism for the age range data to be reported to the state, and it stipulates the OS must make the information nonpersonally identifiable, there is no harvesting of data occurring. The organizations releasing OSes are not going to write a data harvesting mechanism and send it to the state if the state isn't asking them to do it. Where would organizations even send the data if there is no agency being created to receive it?
32 • Age verification (by Gaston Lagaffe on 2026-03-09 19:56:24 GMT from Denmark)
It's our collective duty to fight this thing tooth and nail.
33 • Age verification bill text (by GT on 2026-03-09 19:59:15 GMT from United States)
Here is the bill's complete text. Better than asking for the opinions of anonymous people online who likely have not read it and are just throwing out personal assumptions about what it means and requires, I recommend reading it oneself. It isn't very long or difficult to understand.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1043
Do I support this legislation? No. Like a lot people, I imagine, there are numerous pieces of legislation on the books where I live that I don't support, but the first step to dealing with it is understanding what it actually is, not what random internet people believe it is.
34 • Age Verification Bill and Discussion (by Huckleberry Hiroshima on 2026-03-09 21:33:43 GMT from United States)
@33 "Random" people are all of us and all of them, including those who wrote the bill in question. So, I feel fine discussing this and a lot of other things on this evil internet, especially in a forum or comments area wherein mostly quite intelligent and savvy people hang out.
As far as that bill's implications as to how far reaching its ideas could extend, we'd do well to remember a lot of things that have beginnings in a humble manner and forwarded by generally insignificant players who later had huge impacts on the world at large.
35 • Age?? (by Noddy from Aus. on 2026-03-09 22:04:58 GMT from Australia)
Age verification??
Gee I've been 3 for decades, even my mum knew when she was alive I was always 3.
Of age, my first computer was a brand spanking Atari 400, I think with 8MB ram and a tape cassette to save and start programs from. Programming in basic. No hand holding.
As far as AI goes, no thanks, I'll try to figure it out for myself.
As for the system d and sys vinit, well, all I want is something the works and is consistent over time.
That's my 1.5 cents worth
36 • @34 Age Bill Discussion (by GT on 2026-03-09 22:17:57 GMT from United States)
Personally speaking, i wouldn't consider the elected officials who authored the bill in a documented public process random people like I would anonymous Internet users whose names and credentials are unknown, and objectively speaking, any extension of the bill's ideas would have to come in the form of a new bill passed through the corresponding legislative process for those ideas to be actualized. The bill in its current form can't extend beyond what it is.
Consulting the source material is a better way to get answers about what the bill is and what it does than listening to others speculate about what it is and does. I don't think that is controversial to say. If one prefers to discuss their feelings about the bill rather than their knowledge of it, that's fine. I care more for people's knowledge than feelings, though, and I like there being a baseline of agreed upon facts when discussing these sorts of topics to keep things grounded, which is why I shared the bill's text.
37 • @33, @36 Age verification (by ShadowWatcher on 2026-03-09 22:49:27 GMT from Switzerland)
You know what incremental control means? "First we introduce this law, and once people accept it, we introduce the next one, until eventually they accept all of them." May be you should look up who implemented that way laws and policies.
One should nip it in the bud.
38 • @37 (by GT on 2026-03-09 23:59:08 GMT from United States)
The bill already passed and has become law. Given there wasn't enough political will to stop it beforehand when the legislative process played out in public, I don't expect there to be anything close to enough political will to immediately pass another law that repeals it after it was signed. What do you suggest be done to 'nip it in the bud'?
Number of Comments: 38
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Full list of all issues |
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XCP-ng is a CentOS-based Linux server distribution designed to be a high-performance enterprise-level virtualization platform that uses Xen, a free and open-source hypervisor that allows multiple computer operating systems to execute on the same computer hardware concurrently. XCP-ng stands for Xen Cloud Platform - next generation, it is the modern successor to XCP, initially created as an open-source version of Citrix XenServer back in 2010. XCP-ng is a secure platform to run any kind of virtualization workload, while being managed by a central administration console called Xen Orchestra (XO).
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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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