 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 780, 10 September 2018 |
Welcome to this year's 37th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Running a rolling release distribution is one approach to keeping an operating system up to date without needing to re-install (or perform a large upgrade) periodically. The week we begin with a review of Netrunner's rolling release branch, which is based on Manjaro. Joshua Allen Holm takes Netrunner's rolling edition for a spin and reports on his findings in our Feature Story. In our News section we discuss language and font improvements coming to the Fedora distribution along with tips on customizing the Kali Linux distribution. Plus we pass along a reminder from the FreeBSD team that FreeBSD 11.1 is nearing the end of its supported life. Finding the right video drivers for your distribution can make a world of difference to system performance and, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about how to find video drivers for your distribution. Plus we discuss trying to switch which init software is installed on a distribution. As usual, we share the releases of the past week and we are pleased to share a list of the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Netrunner 2018.08 Rolling edition
- News: Fedora improves language support, how to customize Kali, FreeBSD 11.1 nearing end of life
- Questions and answers: Finding video drivers and switching init implementations
- Released last week: NetBSD 7.2, Univention 4.3-2, Tails 3.9
- Torrent corner: Antergos, IPFire, KaOS, KDE neon, Linuxfx, NetBSD, Nitrux, Omarine, OSGeoLive, Parrot Security, Q4OS, SystemRescueCd, Tails, Univention
- Upcoming releases: Elive 3.0
- Opinion poll: Open versus proprietary video drivers
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (14MB) and MP3 (10MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm) |
Netrunner 2018.08 Rolling edition
Netrunner comes in a several different versions. There is a stable release, which is based on Debian; and a rolling release version based on Manjaro, which, in turn, is based on Arch; plus a few others. For this review, I will be looking at the latest version of Netrunner Rolling, version 2018.08.
Installing Netrunner Rolling
I began by downloading the 2.6GB ISO and copying it to a USB flash drive. I then rebooted my computer, disabled Secure Boot (per the Netrunner documentation), and booted from the flash drive. A boot menu appeared with several options for changing things like language and keyboard layout, but I just left everything as is and selected the "Boot: Netrunner.x86_64 kde" option. It took a while for the system to boot to a usable desktop, but once the system was ready, I had a nice live desktop to try out before installing.
Netrunner 2018.08 "Rolling" -- Live media boot options
(full image size: 40kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
I only spent a short while with the live desktop, but found that it performed well, even when running from a rather slow USB flash drive. I did try to look at the Readme file linked to on the desktop, but that did not work. Clicking on the "Readme" shortcut opened Firefox, but the page on the Netrunner website could not be found. Even as I write this review, a couple of weeks after my initial attempt to view the Readme file, the link is still returning a "page not found" error page.
Netrunner 2018.08 "Rolling" -- The Calamares installer
(full image size: 271kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Since I planned on exploring the desktop more after I installed Netrunner Rolling, I clicked on the installer shortcut on the desktop and started the install process. The installer used by Netrunner Rolling is Calamares, which provides a pretty standard installation experience. I configured my location and keyboard settings, partitioned the hard drive, created a user account, and then let the installer do its job. Overall, the experience was straightforward, but I did have a problem with the first of my install attempts; when the computer was supposed to reboot itself based on the option I selected in the installer, there was a kernel panic during the shutdown process and after forcing a shutdown and rebooting the computer, Netrunner could not successfully boot. I rebooted using the USB flash drive and reinstalled. Everything worked perfectly this time. The error with the initial installation attempt was probably a random fluke, not something caused directly by the installer, but I still had to install Netrunner twice before I had a working installation.
Netrunner Rolling's KDE desktop
Netrunner Rolling uses KDE Plasma 5.13 with version 18.04 of the KDE applications package for its desktop environment. While the KDE desktop used in Netrunner is close to the standard KDE settings, it comes with a few nice changes from the Breeze or Oxygen look and feel options. Instead of using the Application Launcher widget, Netrunner uses the Application Dashboard widget, which provide a full screen search interface similar to, but not exactly like, GNOME 3 and Unity. There are other various tweaks throughout the desktop, but the different application menu is the biggest one.
Netrunner 2018.08 "Rolling" -- The default KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 578kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
While most of the tweaks to KDE are little things here and there, they do add up to a very nice user experience. I switched back and forth between the Breeze look and feel and the Netrunner look and feel to try to spot the differences, and while both are completely usable, I found myself preferring the Netrunner option. The bottom panel was slightly smaller in the Netrunner option and I really liked the Dashboard application menu. Granted, I could easily customize the Breeze look and feel to have the same settings, but Netrunner already made those tweaks for me.
Netrunner 2018.08 "Rolling" -- The application dashboard
(full image size: 870kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Netrunner Rolling's default application selection
There is a lot of software included by default in Netrunner Rolling. Beyond the KDE applications that make up the basic system utilities. There is Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, Qtransmission, and Skype for Internet applications; GIMP, Inkscape, and Krita for graphic editing; LibreOffice for document editing, though, oddly, Netrunner Rolling ships with LibreOffice 5.4, despite almost every other software package being the latest release (subsequent updates have bumped LibreOffice to version 6.0 and 6.1 is available by installing a different package: libreoffice-fresh); and Audacious, gmusicbrowser, HandBrake, Kdenlive, SMPlayer, vokoscreen, and Yarock for audio and video playback, recording, and editing. There is also a modest selection of games, mostly simple puzzle games, but the Steam client is also included.
While not every program that Netrunner ships with is my preferred application, I found that I was able to do everything I wanted without installing any additional software. I could play audio files and videos, including DVDs, without having to install any additional software. I could edit graphics with any off the installed programs. Browsing the web and accessing my e-mail was easy using Firefox and Thunderbird, but I could not use Thunderbird for IRC until the update to version 60. Before that, Thunderbird would crash whenever I tried to connect to IRC. Overall, Netrunner Rolling comes with a very nice selection of quality open source software, plus a few proprietary applications that might be useful for some users.
Installing & updating packages
Netrunner Rolling provides two graphical options for installing software packages. The Discover application provides a way to search for graphical applications, and Octopi provides access to all the packages in the distribution's repositories. Octopi is the more power-user oriented application, but I found Discover to be well organized and easy to use to install graphical applications. When, on the rare occasion that I needed to install something that was not listed in Discover, I found myself just using the pacman package manager in a terminal to search for and install packages.
Netrunner 2018.08 "Rolling" -- The Octopi package manager
(full image size: 122kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
A notification appears in the bottom panel when updates are available. Clicking on the notification provides a button that opens Discover to handle the update process. The first time a large group of updates were available for Netrunner, I selected the option to install all of them. This process took a while, but no worse than is typical for over a gigabyte of updates.
Netrunner 2018.08 "Rolling" -- System updates in Discover
(full image size: 141kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
After I rebooted and logged back in, a second update tool, this one specific to Manjaro (and Netrunner by extension) told me that a new kernel version was available. This updater listed all the available kernels, and let me update from a kernel in the 4.17 series to the 4.18 series, with several other older and newer options also listed. If I really wanted, I could even update to a pre-release 4.19 kernel.
Netrunner 2018.08 "Rolling" -- Manjaro Settings Manager
(full image size: 451kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Final thoughts
Netrunner Rolling is a distribution I thoroughly enjoyed using. There we a few minor issues, but overall everything worked great. The distribution came with enough software pre-installed that I really did not need to install any additional software to perform most basic tasks. Were I to use Netrunner Rolling long term, I might want to swap a few of the included programs for ones that were my own personal preference, but the software Netrunner Rolling ships with are good defaults. The only software oddity was being stuck on LibreOffice 5.4 for a while before finally upgrading to 6.0. Most of the other packages are up-to-date, often the absolutely newest possible version, but updates to LibreOffice packages are more conservative.
Users wanting the Arch Linux experience without the effort should give Netrunner Rolling a try. It provides a nice, polished KDE experience with a decent selection of software included by default. Netrunner's KDE customizations create a desktop experience that is simultaneously traditional and modern, providing a nice middle ground between the classic Windows-style desktop and GNOME 3 & Unity.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo Ideapad 100-15IBD laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: 2.2GHz Intel Core i3-5020U CPU
- Storage: Seagate 500GB 5400 RPM hard drive
- Memory: 4GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8723BE 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter
- Display: Intel HD Graphics 5500
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Visitor supplied rating
Netrunner has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.6/10 from 9 review(s).
Have you used Netrunner? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Fedora improves language support, how to customize Kali, FreeBSD 11.1 nearing end of life
The Fedora team is working to improve internalization language and font support, with specific enhancements coming to Chinese, Japanese and Korean fonts. These changes are expected to arrive in Fedora 29 and are currently being tested. "Fedora 29 development and testing is currently in full swing, and Fedora 29 features a range of improvements to Internationalization (i18n) support. Major improvements in Fedora 29 include better font support, and improvements to the iBus input method. All this week, the Fedora i18n Team is running a Test Week to try out these new features. More details on helping out and testing is available at the Test Day wiki page. In Fedora 29, the default font for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean (CJK) languages is now Google Noto. This provides better quality of rendering for Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters. This change provides a Serif face default for Japanese and Korean. Additionally, it provides a Monospace typeface for all of CJK languages, improving visual consistencies among the typefaces." A post on Fedora Magazine offers further details.
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Kali Linux is a Debian-based distribution which provides security and forensic software on a live disc. The project has shared steps one Kali user, Jacek Kowalczyk, took to customize Kali to better suit his needs. "We love it when community members come up with new ideas or interesting builds, and this one caught our attention. Jacek Kowalczyk hit us up on Twitter with a really interesting story. His approach to tweaking Kali to be specific to his needs is exactly why this feature is so important to us and we wanted to share his story more widely. Jacek's live-build recipe was for a lightweight version of Kali using his favourite desktop environments, including some nice desktop configurations. We thought it would be best to let Jacek share his process with you step by step, in his own words." A blog post shares the details of Kowalczyk's process in creating a custom spin of Kali Linux.
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The FreeBSD security team has sent out a reminder that FreeBSD 11.1 will reach the end of its supported life at the end of September 2018. People still running version 11.1 are encouraged to upgrade to version 11.2 to continue receiving security patches. "As of September 30, 2018, FreeBSD 11.1 will reach end-of-life and will no longer be supported by the FreeBSD Security Team. Users of FreeBSD 11.1 are strongly encouraged to upgrade to a newer release as soon as possible."
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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) |
Finding video drivers and switching init implementations
Cannot-see-a-thing asks: Where can I find video drivers for Linux? Mine are not working correctly.
DistroWatch answers: Most distributions ship with open source video drivers already installed. If your distribution does not, then you can probably add the appropriate open source driver from your distribution's package repository. On Debian-based distributions video drivers typically have a name like xserver-xorg-video followed by the brand or model of the card. For example, we might install xserver-xorg-video-intel or xserver-xorg-video-ati, depending on which card our system uses. A list of options can be found by running the command
apt-cache search xserver-xorg-video
The equivalent command on the Arch Linux family of distributions is
pacman -Ss xf86-video
Most distribution do not ship closed-source video drivers, which often offer improved performance at the potential cost of instability and licensing restrictions. Instead, mainstream distributions tend to provide a driver manager utility which can be found in the application menu. This makes installing alternative drivers a point-n-click experience. If your distribution does not offer a tool for accessing alternative drivers, official video drivers can be downloaded from their respective vendors. NVIDIA and AMD have download pages for accessing their official drivers.
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Changing-init asks: Is it possible to swap out one init for another, how does one do that?
DistroWatch answers: It is technically possible to swap out one implementation of init for another, at least in some cases. However, it should be pointed out that changing such a low-level component of the operating system will have side effects and should be approached with caution. If everything goes perfectly with the swap you will notice very little practical difference (unless your are administrating a server), but if things go poorly then the system may not boot anymore.
Some people are sceptical of distributions like Devuan because it is "just Debian without systemd", but the alternative for people running Debian who want to switch away from systemd is a risky procedure of removing one init package and installing another. Which is why I typically suggest performing a fresh install of a distribution with the desired init software included.
Each distribution family will have a slightly different approach to changing the init process. For those brave enough to want to change their init implementation on a running system I recommend checking out this Arch Linux wiki page and the links at the bottom of the alternatives to systemd page. I also recommend making backups of your system before trying to change low-level components like init.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
NetBSD 7.2
The NetBSD project develops a lightweight operating system which runs on a wide range of hardware architectures. The project's latest release in the 7.x series is NetBSD 7.2, which offers USB 3.0 support, enhancements to Linux emulation, support for running on the Raspberry Pi 3 computer and updated drivers. "Some highlights of the 7.2 release are: Support for USB 3.0. Enhancements to the Linux emulation subsystem. Fixes in binary compatibility for ancient NetBSD executables. iwm(4) driver for Intel Wireless 726x, 316x, 826x and 416x series added. Support for Raspberry Pi 3 added. Fix interrupt setup on Hyper-V VMs with Legacy Network Adapter. SVR4 and IBCS2 compatibility subsystems have been disabled by default (besides IBCS2 on VAX). These subsystems also do not auto-load their modules any more. Various USB stability enhancements. Numerous bug fixes and stability improvements." Further information can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
Nitrux 1.0.15
Nitrux is a desktop-oriented Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, with an innovative desktop called "Nomad". Nomad attempts to extends KDE's Plasma with a special blend of aesthetics and functionality. The distribution's developers have addressed many of the issues reported in early reviews and believe it is now a much more mature, stable and polished product. The latest version is Nitrux 1.0.15, released late last week: "We are pleased to announce the launch of Nitrux 1.0.15. This new version brings together the latest software updates, bug fixes, performance improvements and ready-to-use hardware support. Nitrux 1.0.15 presents an updated hardware stack, among other things. The recently included Linux kernel 4.18.5, as well as an updated graphics stack, adds support for newer computers and hardware in Nitrux. In addition, new patches for system vulnerabilities are included in this release, so you can rest assured that you are using the most secure version of Nitrux. What's new: updated packages from Ubuntu 'Cosmic'; updated Plasma 5 (5.13.4), KDE Applications (18.08), KF5 (5.50.0) and Qt (5.11.1); updated Kvantum to version 0.10.9; added Mesa (18.1.5) drivers for Vulkan, VDPAU and support for VP-API...." See the release announcement for more details.
Nitrux 1.0.15 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 494kB, resolution: 1920x1200 pixels)
Univention Corporate Server 4.3-2
Univention Corporate Server (UCS) is a Debian-based server distribution that offers an integrated management system for central administration of servers, Microsoft Active Directory-compatible domain services, and functions for parallel operation of virtualised server and desktop operating systems. The Univention team has published a point release update for the distribution's 4.3 series, Univention Corporate Server 4.3-2. The new version contains mostly bug fixes and minor updates as listed in the distribution's release announcement: "During the upgrade to new UCS release- or patchlevel versions, the Univention Management Console is put into maintenance mode. While the maintenance mode is active, the progress of the update is displayed on a simple web page. Samba has been updated to version 4.7.8. For security reasons, authentication with NTLMv1 is no longer allowed. If there are still old systems or applications in use that absolutely need NTLMv1, this can be reactivated via the Univention Configuration Registry. The AD connector has been enhanced with tools to synchronize individual objects or entire subtrees again and to specifically remove rejects. Various security updates have been integrated into UCS 4.3-2, e.g. Apache2, the Linux kernel and Samba4." The release notes contain further details.
Tails 3.9
The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live distribution with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The project's latest version, Tails 3.9, makes it easier to install additional software when the distribution boots. The new version also supports working with VeraCrypt encrypted storage volumes, along with reading news feeds in Thunderbird. "You can now install additional software automatically when starting Tails. When installing an additional Debian package from Tails, you can decide to install it automatically every time. To check your list of additional software packages, choose Applications->System Tool->Additional Software. The packages included in Tails are carefully tested for security. Installing additional packages might break the security built in Tails, so be careful with what you install. To unlock VeraCrypt volume in Tails, choose Applications->System Tool->Unlock VeraCrypt Volumes. The integration of VeraCrypt in the Files and Disks utilities was done upstream in GNOME and will be available outside of Tails in Debian 10 (Buster) and Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish)." Further information and screen shots can be found in the project's release announcement.
Q4OS 2.6
Q4OS 2.6 has been released. Q4OS is Debian-based Linux distribution which ships with the Trinity desktop (a continuation of the KDE 3 desktop environment) or KDE Plasma 5.8.6 (a version found in Debian 9). This version is a routine update that brings the latest Trinity, version 14.0.5: "An update to the Q4OS 2 'Scorpion' stable LTS is available for download. The new 2.6 release is based on and upgrades to the latest stable versions of the Trinity 14.0.5 desktop and Debian 9.5 'Stretch' projects. Q4OS-specific fixes and patches are revised and provided as well. All the updates are immediately available for existing Q4OS users from the regular Q4OS repositories. Q4OS Scorpion LTS release (supported for 5 years) is based on Debian 9 Stretch and it features the Trinity 14.0.5 and KDE Plasma 5.8 LTS desktop environments. It's available for 64-bit and 32-bit (i686-pae) computers as well as i386 systems without PAE extension. ARM 64-bit (arm64) and 32-bit (armhf) ports are provided as well. Q4OS offers its own exclusive utilities and features, specifically the 'Desktop profiler' application for profiling your computer into different professional working tools...." Here is the brief release announcement.
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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: 1,016
- Total data uploaded: 21.1TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Open versus proprietary video drivers
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about how to track down and install free and proprietary video drivers. This week we would like to know if you are currently using open or closed source video drivers on Linux.
You can see the results of our previous poll on verifying ISO downloads in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Open versus proprietary video drivers on Linux
| I use open source drivers: | 679 (39%) |
| I use closed source drivers: | 369 (21%) |
| I do not know: | 98 (6%) |
| I use both across multiple computers: | 554 (32%) |
| I am not running Linux: | 25 (1%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 17 September 2018. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Antomic GNU/Linux
Antomic was a free operating system. The Antomic GNU/Linux distribution was created with simplicity and adaptability in mind. It's quick to install, setup and boot. The focus was on simplicity and convenience for experienced users. GNOME was used as the desktop environment.
Status: Discontinued
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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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