 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 850, 27 January 2020 |
Welcome to this year's 4th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
There are many reasons to use a live operating system running from a USB thumb drive or DVD. It is portable, allowing the user to take their operating system with them. A live system is handy if we need to recover data from a broken operating system too. Perhaps most significantly, a live system can be used to test performance and hardware compatibility before we commit to installing an operating system permanently. This week we begin with a look at a FreeBSD-based operating system meant to be run from a DVD or thumb drive. The live system is called FuryBSD and we discuss how it performs in our Feature Story. We also discuss live operating systems and their performance compared to locally installed systems in our Questions and Answers column. In our News section we talk about Fedora's new Fedora CoreOS edition and Ubuntu dropping their Amazon launcher from the default install. Plus we link to Kubuntu's new official laptop provided by Tuxedo Computers. We would like to hear how you feel about distributions partnering with hardware retailers in our Opinion Poll. Is it helpful to you to have a distribution bundled with a new computer? Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: FuryBSD 12.0
- News: Fedora presents Fedora CoreOS, Kubuntu unveils official laptop, Ubuntu dropping Amazon launcher
- Questions and answers: Live distro versus installed distro performance
- Released last week: GhostBSD 20.01, Solus 4.1, Lakka 2.3.2
- Torrent corner: Bluestar, EasyOS, Fatdog64, GhostBSD, GParted Live, KDE neon, Lakka, Live Raizo, Parabola, Q4OS, Qubes OS, Robolinux, Solus, Volumio
- Opinion poll: Purchasing an official distro computer
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (15MB) and MP3 (12MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
FuryBSD 12.0
FuryBSD is the most recent addition to the DistroWatch database and provides a live desktop operating system based on FreeBSD. FuryBSD is not entirely different in its goals from NomadBSD, which we discussed recently. I wanted to take this FreeBSD-based project for a test drive and see how it compares to NomadBSD and other desktop-oriented projects in the FreeBSD family.
FuryBSD supplies hybrid ISO/USB images which can be used to run a live desktop. There are two desktop editions currently, both for 64-bit (x86_64) machines: Xfce and KDE Plasma. The Xfce edition is 1.4GB in size and is the flavour I downloaded. The KDE Plasma edition is about 3.0GB in size.
Booting from the live media brings up the Xfce 4.14 desktop environment. Along the bottom of the screen is a panel which holds the application menu, task switcher and system tray. Icons on the desktop open the Thunar file manager, launch the system installer, and provide quick access to a Getting Started document. There are two more icons for accessing X.Org configuration options and showing system information. The Getting Started document is a quick reference text file containing command line instructions for setting up networking and installing video drivers. The System Information icon opens the Firefox web browser and displays a locally generated page which contains general information about our computer and its resource usage.
FuryBSD 12.0 -- The live Xfce desktop
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Installing
Launching the system installer opens a window that displays a series of text-based menus and prompts. The first screen asks us to make up a hostname for our computer. We are then shown a series of ZFS options. We can choose which disk to take over for the filesystem, along with RAID options, whether to enabling encryption, and we can set the size of swap space. This screen is not at all beginner friendly and is likely to confuse anyone not accustomed to working with ZFS, but the options all seem to work as I would hope. The installer asks if we are sure we want to wipe and take over the disks we selected and then copies its files to the hard drive.
Once the files have copied we are asked to make up a password for the root account. We can then add a new user account. We are advised to add at least one user to the wheel group. This recommendation is not explained, but it is so our user can perform administration actions. We are then asked to pick our time zone from a menu and then the system restarts.
While the installer worked well enough, something that gave me a little trouble was the screensaver came on while the operating system was being set up and locked the desktop. I did not know what the password was and it took a little trial-and-error before I came up with "furybsd" as the password. I later found the default passwords are on the project's GitHub page for the live media.
Early impressions
My fresh install of FuryBSD booted to a graphical login screen. From there I could sign into my account, which brings up the Xfce desktop. The installed version of Xfce is the same as the live version, with a few minor changes. Most of the desktop icons have been removed with just the file manager launchers remaining. The Getting Started and System Information icons have been removed. Otherwise the experience is virtually identical to the live media.
FuryBSD uses a theme that is mostly grey and white with creamy yellow folder icons. The application menu launchers tend to have neutral icons, neither particularly bright and detailed or minimal.
FuryBSD 12.0 -- The Xfce application menu
(full image size: 924kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Hardware
I tried running FuryBSD on my laptop and in a VirtualBox machine. In both test environments, the operating system ran quickly and the Xfce desktop performed smoothly. When running in VirtualBox, at first FuryBSD could not integrate the mouse pointer or use my system's full screen resolution. Once VirtualBox guest modules had been installed from the FreeBSD package repositories mouse integration worked, but I still could not get the desktop to use a higher screen resolution.
When running on my laptop, FuryBSD was able to make use of my wired network connection, but could not detect my wireless card. I used the Getting Started tips file, but the listed tools did not help. I also found applications were unable to play sound in either test environment. I will touch on this again later, but FuryBSD was entirely silent during my trial, regardless of how I adjusted the volume controls.
The operating system is fairly lean for a desktop system and requires just 2GB of disk space. Memory usage was about average, with the operating system consuming 330MB of Active memory and 290MB of Wired memory.
Applications
FuryBSD requires a smaller than normal amount of disk space because it ships with few desktop applications. We are given Firefox, the Thunar file manager, the Xfce terminal, the Xfce settings panel, and a bulk file renaming tool. The application menu contains a launcher for an e-mail client, but no e-mail application is installed. Behind the scenes we find the FreeBSD 12.0 userland tools, manual pages, and the Clang compiler.
For anything else we will need to turn to the package manager. FuryBSD does not ship with a graphical software manager, instead we can use the pkg command line package manager to install, upgrade, and remove software. We could also use FreeBSD's collection of ports if we wish to compile source packages and add customizations.
FuryBSD 12.0 -- Information on using the package manager
(full image size: 489kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The Firefox browser worked well for the most part. I had no trouble visiting most websites. However, I could not get YouTube videos to play. Videos would load, but refuse to start. I also had trouble with local multimedia. I installed the VLC and mpv players. Both media players would show video, but were unable to produce sound, for either video or audio files.
Both the sudo and doas privilege escalation tools are installed. I found sudo is not configured and needs to be set up manually. The doas tool is set up to grant root access (with a password) to anyone in the wheel group. Some specific commands can also be run by wheel members without a password, such as the service command for managing background services and the ifconfig utility for managing network connections.
FuryBSD 12.0 -- The settings panel
(full image size: 477kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Conclusions
I don't feel as though I have a lot to say about FuryBSD as the operating system is quite minimal for a desktop system. The project mostly does what it sets out to do - providing a way to run a live desktop version of FreeBSD and make it possible to quickly install a FreeBSD-based operating system. On the positive side of things, it mostly works well, has some quick-reference documentation, uses FreeBSD's solid core as its base, and has a pretty vanilla, yet functional, version of Xfce.
I did have a few complaints. FuryBSD is very minimal, meaning beyond testing hardware and browsing the web, there is not a lot we can do with the live environment. The installer, while functional, is likely to scare away anyone besides people already comfortable with FreeBSD and ZFS. I also found sound was not working on my test systems.
While FuryBSD basically succeeds in fulfilling its mission, I was less enthusiastic about using it than I was when I tried NomadBSD last month. NomadBSD has a more polished desktop, more included applications, sound worked out of the box, the desktop resolution could be adjusted in VirtualBox, and it used less RAM. These two projects have a lot of overlap and, while they approach some things differently, I feel NomadBSD is currently the stronger choice for most users while FuryBSD will probably mostly appeal to people who want a more minimal default collection of software.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a de-branded HP laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: Intel i3 2.5GHz CPU
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 700GB hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Wired network device: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast
- Wireless network device: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless network card
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
FuryBSD has a visitor supplied average rating of: N/A from 0 review(s).
Have you used FuryBSD? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Fedora presents Fedora CoreOS, Kubuntu unveils official laptop, Ubuntu dropping Amazon launcher
The Fedora team have announced that the Fedora CoreOS platform is now available for general public use. Fedora CoreOS is a minimal platform intended to run containers and is considered the successor to Fedora Atomic Host and CoreOS's Container Linux. "The Fedora CoreOS team is pleased to announce that Fedora CoreOS is now available for general use. Here are some more details about this exciting delivery. Fedora CoreOS is a new Fedora Edition built specifically for running containerized workloads securely and at scale. It's the successor to both Fedora Atomic Host and CoreOS Container Linux and is part of our effort to explore new ways of assembling and updating an OS. Fedora CoreOS combines the provisioning tools and automatic update model of Container Linux with the packaging technology, OCI support, and SELinux security of Atomic Host."
The Fedora Magazine post goes on to note that this means CoreOS's Container Linux, which was purchased by Red Hat about two years ago, will soon reach the end of its supported life. "CoreOS Container Linux will be maintained for a few more months, and then will be declared end-of-life. We'll announce the exact end-of-life date later this month."
* * * * *
The Kubuntu team has announced the availability of an official Kubuntu laptop. The laptop is a joint venture with Tuxedo Computers and the new device is being called the Kubuntu Focus Laptop. "The Kubuntu Council, MindShareManagement Inc, and Tuxedo Computers proudly announce the officially authorized Kubuntu Focus Laptop. The target audience are power users and developers who seek performance and compatibility with Linux deployment environments. It comes pre-loaded and pre-updated with the latest, professionally vetted software for web development, deep learning, Steam games, video editing, image editing, and dozens of additional supported software packages. This laptop is the result of months of focused industrial design. We took one hardware configuration meticulously tuned it to ensure everything works out of the box" A post on the Kubuntu website offers further details and specifications.
* * * * *
According to an article on FOSS Bytes, the Ubuntu distribution will no longer be shipping with a launcher for the Amazon store by default. Canonical's relationship with Amazon has often been the source of controversy over the past eight years and the distribution has gradually been pulling back from including Amazon search results and Amazon links bundled with the operating system. "Does the Amazon web app also give you a hard time on Ubuntu? If yes, then it's time to cheer for you as the much-awaited Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa has finally removed the pre-installed Amazon web launcher from the dock. The article points to a change on Launchpad which seems to indicate the removal of the Amazon launcher.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Live distro versus installed distro performance
Buyer-beware asks: Live distros always seem to work great off of a DVD. However, I struggle to figure out why they no longer work as fast or as smooth whenever I decide to actually install an updated distro.
A perfect example is the Ubuntu family. Lubuntu and Xubuntu have the same or better response times. Kubuntu takes forever no matter what I try to do.
How do I find out what settings are used that allow a live version of a Linux distro to work great when I test it on my hardware versus when I install it? Do you know of an optimization checklist that might help?
DistroWatch answers: I find this situation interesting as, typically, I get the same desktop performance from a live distro as an installed one. If anything, running a distribution from a hard drive is usually faster than running it from a DVD due to the better drive speed. I would generally consider it strange to find a distribution that runs slower after it has been installed than when it is running from a DVD.
When there is a performance difference when running from one medium or another there are some things we can check. The first one I usually look at is the video driver. In the Ubuntu family of distributions you can go into the Software & Updates tool from the application menu and look under the Additional Drivers tab. This will give you access to third-party drivers which may offer better desktop performance. Typically the third-party drivers will only help if you are using a 3-D desktop like GNOME or Cinnamon. It is less likely to help when running Lubuntu, Xubuntu or Kubuntu as these desktops do not require 3-D driver support to functional smoothly.
Another thing to look at is whether desktop visual effects are enabled. This tends to make a big difference on distributions that run the KDE Plasma desktop (such as Kubuntu). If you go into the System Settings panel and look at the desktop effects settings, you will likely find most of them enabled. Turning off visual effects can speed up the desktop. On many modern desktops you should also check the compositor settings. I often find turning off compositing (or tuning it to prefer performance over visual polish) can make a big difference. Each desktop handles this differently, so check your desktop environment's documentation or your distribution's documentation for steps on how to do this.
A third option is to look at background services, such as file indexing. Generally file indexing should be disabled on a live disc, but will be running in the background on a freshly installed distribution. Many distributions run a service like locate which indexes all the files on the hard drive. Some desktops, including KDE Plasma, can also create an index of files and this can slow down the interface. Check your desktop's settings to see if it is setting up a search index or file index. If so, disabling this service can help. Similarly, if your computer is running a background job to index files for locate, then disabling this service or making it run at a lower priority can help. You can check if one of these index services is running using your distribution's system monitor.
Finally, one more thing you can do is wait. If you are noticing the performance difference right away and not using the distribution for very long before deciding it is too slow, then it is possible some background services are running when you first sign in and will stop later. For instance, your system may be checking for software updates when you first install the operating system and will sort itself out in a few minutes. If so, the slower performance will be temporary and only happen when you first login to your account. If slow performance continues beyond a few minutes then it is probably due to one of the above scenarios.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
GParted Live 1.1.0-1
Curtis Gedak has announced the release of GParted Live 1.1.0-1, the latest stable version of the project's Debian-based CD/USB image with a collection of disk management and data rescue utilities: "The GParted team is pleased to announce a new stable release of GParted Live. This release includes GParted 1.1.0, updated packages and other improvements. Items of note include: fix error when moving locked LUKS-encrypted partition; switch to faster minfo and mdir to read FAT16/32 usage; calculate JFS size accurately; recognise ATARAID members and detect their busy status; based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2020-01-21; Linux kernel updated to 5.4.13; fix an issue about makeboot.sh which failed to run. Note that the default boot options did not display an X Desktop on old Acer Aspire laptops. The workaround is to select Other modes of GParted Live and choose GParted Live (Safe graphics setting, vga-normal). Note also that a problem on a test computer with GParted stuck displaying 'Scanning all devices...' turned out to be an mdadm command waiting forever for a floppy_read_block." Read the full release announcement for more details.
GhostBSD 20.01
GhostBSD is a user-friendly desktop operating system based on TrueOS (which is, in turn, based on FreeBSD's development branch). The project's latest release, GhostBSD 20.01, introduces some fixes to the installer and ships with version 1.22.2 of the MATE desktop environment. A community edition featuring the Xfce desktop is also available. "I am happy to announce the availability of GhostBSD 20.01 with some improvements made to the installer, mainly improvements to the way the installer UI deals with custom partitions involving GTP and UEFI. Also, some system and software has been updated. GhostBSD 20.01 ISO has some minor improvements over 19.10. It provides an up to date ISO with the latest packages and system updates for new installation with a simple installation process to get you going quickly. For current installation, no need to re-install. What has changed since 19.10: System got updated to 12.1-STABLE. MATE is now at 1.22.2. Added a warning when an incorrect password is used in Software Station. Fix the UI installer limitation with GPT and UEFI." Further information can be found in the project's release announcement.
Lakka 2.3.2
The Lakka development team has announced the release of Lakka 2.3.2, a lightweight Linux distribution (based on LibreELEC) which promises to transform a small computer into a full-blown game console. The new release comes with an updated RetroArch user interface: "The Lakka team wishes everyone a happy new year as it welcomes 2020 with a new update and a new tier-based releases system. This new Lakka update, version 2.3.2, contains RetroArch 1.8.4 (was 1.7.2), some new cores and a handful of core updates. This new version of RetroArch adds some welcome features - the most interesting is the manual content scanner. You read it right - no database is required any more to build your playlists. Whether it's because the database is missing or your platform has little memory to handle big scans, you now have the choice to do a manual scan to build playlists on your Lakka box. This new scanning method simply takes all files ending with a known extension in a folder and adds them to the playlist for that system." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details. At present, the new Lakka release is available for generic x86_64 computers and Raspberry Pi boards.
Solus 4.1
Solus is a Linux distribution built from scratch. It uses a forked version of the PiSi package manager, maintained as "eopkg" within Solus, and a custom desktop environment called "Budgie", developed in-house. The project's latest release is Solus 4.1 which offers many updates and should provide a faster install process thanks to using a different format for compression: "Solus 4.1 is the first ISO release to feature the use of Zstandard(zstd) compression for the SquashFS images. Compared to the XZ compressed ISOs from previous releases, the ztsd compressed size is a little bit larger. But as a result, the decompression times are significantly improved (3-4x), leading to a much faster installation process than ever previously achieved. In most cases, you can expect to spend more time filling out the questions in the installation wizard than it will actually take to copy everything to disk. We hope you are just as surprised as we were at just how fast this process has become." The project's release announcement offers further details.
Solus 4.1 -- Running the Budgie desktop
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
* * * * *
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: 1,792
- Total data uploaded: 29.9TB
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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) |
Purchasing an official distro computer
There are a handful of Linux distributions (and some flavours of BSD) which are partnered with hardware sellers to provide customers with official desktop, laptop and NAS devices. The Linux Mint distribution promotes the MintBox series of computers, for example, and in our News section we talked about the new Kubuntu Focus Laptop. Buying a laptop that is endorsed by the distribution should, in theory at least, provide a smooth experience with hardware that has been tested with the distribution's configuration and drivers.
We would like to hear how many of our readers have purchased one of these official, distribution-endorsed computers. Was it a good experience or the same as you would expect from any off-the-shelf computer? Let us know about your experiences in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on whether init software plays a role in choosing your distribution in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Purchasing official distribution computers
| I have purchased an official distro PC and liked it: | 89 (5%) |
| I have purchased an official distro PC and disliked it: | 8 (0%) |
| I have not purchased an official distro PC and plan to later: | 360 (21%) |
| I have not and have no plans to purchase an official distro PC: | 1220 (73%) |
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| Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 3 February 2020. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. 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)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Linux Foundation Training |
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| TUXEDO |
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Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Issue 985 (2022-09-12): Garuda Linux, using root versus sudo, UBports on the Fairphone 4, Slackware reverses change to grep |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Liberté Linux was a secure, reliable, lightweight and easy-to-use Gentoo-based live medium with the primary purpose of enabling anyone to communicate safely and covertly in hostile environments.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
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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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