 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 858, 23 March 2020 |
Welcome to this year's 12th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The Arch Linux distribution is quite popular, especially among people who want to tinker with their systems, gain a high degree of control over which components are installed, or who just want to learn more about how the pieces of a distribution fit together. Installing Arch Linux tends to be a manual process which has given rise to many projects which offer quick and easy ways to automate the Arch install process. This week we begin with a look at Anarchy Linux, a project which adds a text installer and a lot of customization options to the process of setting up the Arch distribution. In our News section we discuss another Arch-based distribution, Manjaro Linux, becoming the default operating system for Pinebook Pro ARM-powered computers. Debian's Project Leader election is now underway and we link to the campaign platforms of the three candidates. Plus we talk about IPFire introducing a new level of security through kernel module signing and Qubes OS planning a new graphical domain to better isolate system components. Then our Opinion Poll asks how people feel about EarlyOOM, a service shipping in Fedora 32 Beta which removes processes which are consuming too much memory. We are also pleased to share the releases of the past week and link to the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Anarchy Linux 1.0.10
- News: Manjaro becomes Pinebook Pro's default OS, Debian Project Leader election begins, IPFire introduces kernel module signing, Qubes plans a separate GUI domain
- Questions and answers: Performance impact from installing dependencies and installing alternative package versions
- Released last week: Linux Mint 4 "LMDE", Emmabuntus DE3-1.01, FuryBSD 12.1
- Torrent corner: Android-x86, Archman, AUSTRUMI, Berry, Bluestar, Emmabuntus, FuryBSD, IPFire, KDE neon, Linux Mint, PCLinuxOS, Volumio
- Opinion poll: The EarlyOOM service in Fedora 32
- New distributions: RockSolid Signage
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (15MB) and MP3 (10MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm) |
Anarchy Linux 1.0.10
Anarchy Linux is an Arch-based distribution that provides a custom installation script designed to quickly configure and install Arch. The Anarchy Linux ISO is 665MB and the installation process requires an Internet connection to download packages. Basically, Anarchy fully automates many steps of the Arch install process. Selecting options in Anarchy's installer is all that is required to get a system up and running. Most of the steps in the text-mode installer are the same as the ones presented when installing almost any Linux distribution, but Anarchy does provide more customization options when it comes to software selection and configuration.
Anarchy Linux 1.0.10 -- Menu with installer and other options
(full image size: 7kB, resolution: 800x600 pixels)
The Anarchy installer provides a wealth of options, but the five main choices are: Anarchy-Desktop, Anarchy-Desktop LTS, Anarchy-Server, Anarchy-Server LTS, and Anarchy-Advanced. The difference between the LTS and non-LTS options are mainly which version of the Linux kernel gets installed. The LTS options use version 5.4.x of the kernel. The non-LTS versions use the latest version of the kernel (when I was working on this review, that was version 5.5.x, but 5.6.x will probably be what is current by the time you are reading this). The Desktop options provide a choice of five customized desktop environments: Budgie, Cinnamon, GNOME, Openbox, and Xfce. The Server options do not install a desktop environment and provide a very bare-bones default selection of software. The Advanced mode lets the user pick options far beyond what is offered by either of the other installation styles.
Anarchy Linux 1.0.10 -- Installation options
(full image size: 9kB, resolution: 800x600 pixels)
For this review, I will look at desktop installations with GNOME and Xfce, a server installation, and a GNOME desktop installed using the extra options available in the advanced installer. This barely scratches the surface of the many, many different ways an Anarchy Linux system can be configured using the installer, but I hope that it will provide a decent overview of the options. I should also note that Anarchy, like Arch itself, is a rolling release, so things are constantly changing. It is possible that issues I had during my experience are already fixed by the time you read this, and it is also possible that new issues have developed.
Anarchy Desktop
I started by trying out Anarchy in VirtualBox, and the first time I tried to install it I ran into problems. The version of the package Anarchy was trying to install to enable VirtualBox support was not available on the mirror the installer was selecting (the package had just been updated in Arch, so the mirror had a newer package than what the installer was looking for based on what a different package required) which caused the entire installation to fail. This issue fixed itself in a few hours when the mirrors were completely updated, but an installation process failing completely because one package was not available after three attempts to download it was not a good first impression. I would have a repeat of this issue a few days later when I tried to install the GNOME desktop and the Epiphany package on the mirror selected was, again, the "wrong" version.
Anarchy Linux 1.0.10 -- Desktop options
(full image size: 8kB, resolution: 800x600 pixels)
Aside from those two flukes, the Anarchy installation process worked well. The Desktop and Desktop LTS options provide an installation process not much different from the installation of other distributions. The installer prompts the user to configure language, keyboard layout, location, partition the hard drive, set up a user, and other basic configure options. The only major choice presented is which of the five desktop options to install. The options, as noted above, are Budgie, Cinnamon, GNOME, Openbox, and Xfce, and all the options provide a decent selection of software. However, not all software package selections are equal; the GNOME desktop option provides a ton of software, including almost all GNOME games and utilities, but Xfce did not pre-install nearly as much software. Xfce had a browser, LibreOffice, and software for performing many tasks, but seemed to be missing some basic utilities. The default PDF viewer on the Xfce desktop was LibreOffice Draw. Evince (or any other option) was not installed.
Anarchy Linux 1.0.10 -- Customized Xfce desktop
(full image size: 1.5MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The Desktop installer lets the user install additional software as a step after installing the desktop, but it does not identify which packages are already installed by the desktop environment. For example, both GNOME and Xfce come with LibreOffice, but LibreOffice, like all the other software listed, is unchecked in the list of options, so the first time I tried the GNOME desktop, I opted to "install" additional software that was already included as part of the base package selection. On all of my subsequent installations, I skipped the additional software step and installed software post-reboot, which I could do with the GUI package manager provided by the desktop environment I had selected. In the case of GNOME, the GUI package management tools were GNOME Software and GNOME Packages.
Anarchy Linux 1.0.10 -- GNOME desktop with Terminal showing zsh plugin error
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All of the customized desktop options provide Anarchy-specific tweaks. These tend to be the same across all the desktops, so all five of the options provide experiences that are identifiable as Anarchy Linux, which is great for branding. However, I did not like some of the choices made by the developers. The icon set, coloring, and default background were fine, but the font used for the interface text, Zekton, is way too hard to read. It looks cool, but it is not a font that I want to spend all day looking at. Thankfully, the document and monospace font used in the terminal are more traditional and easier to read.
Anarchy Server
Unlike the Desktop option, the Server option is very, very frustrating. I selected the defaults for most steps, configured a user, and let the installer install the packages it wanted, but I did not add any additional packages. When I rebooted the virtual machine and logged in, the system complained because the .zshrc file could not find the hostname program. When I tried to use the pacman package manager to install the package with hostname in it, I found that the network connection was not enabled. Rather than try to fix this by enabling the network connection, I opted to reinstall the system from scratch to see if I happened to miss something during the installation process. Unfortunately, I did not miss anything, so before I rebooted the system, I used the "Anarchy-Chroot Into Installed System" option to install the packages that provided hostname and nmtui, so I could solve the hostname issue and easily enable the network interface.
Once I had a system that worked without showing any errors, I had a server installation that worked, but the experience was nothing special. It was a typical GUI-less Linux installation that used zsh as its default shell. I could install packages using pacman or yay, a wrapper with AUR support. The system worked, and I could install and configure various services, but the experience was just ordinary. I like the Anarchy Desktop experience, but was not impressed by the Server experience. Broken installation issues aside, the Server option just does not offer enough to recommend it over something like CentOS or Debian.
Anarchy Advanced
Now that I had a feel for how Anarchy worked, I opted for a bare-metal installation for my test of the Advanced installation option. This is where Anarchy gets interesting. The Desktop/Desktop LTS options pick sane defaults for many options, but the Advanced installer lets the user pick from several advanced options to build the system the user wants. The kernel can be the vanilla (newest) version, long-term support, hardened, or zen. The default shell can be bash, dash, fish, mksh, tcsh, or zsh. The bootloader can be GRUB (which is used by the Desktop/Server installations), syslinux, systemd-boot, or efistub. Networking can be handled by Network Manager or netctl. There are way more desktop options in the Advanced mode. In addition to the five customized desktops available in the Desktop install option, there are non-customized versions of those five desktops and several more options. If there is a major desktop environment packaged for Arch, there is a good chance it is included in Anarchy's extensive list of desktop options.
Anarchy Linux 1.0.10 -- Customized GNOME desktop showing GNOME Tweaks font options
(full image size: 934kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
For my bare-metal install I opted for the vanilla kernel, zsh with Oh-My-Zsh as the zsh configuration option, systemd-boot, Network Manager, and a non-customized GNOME with GDM as the login display manager. The installation process worked perfectly on the first try, so, thankfully, I was not stuck with a non-working laptop while I waiting for the mirrors to sort themselves out. When I rebooted, the system booted quickly and almost everything was configured correctly. My hardware all worked, but on the software side, there was a minor issue with zsh complaining about not being able to find the zsh-syntax-highlighting plugin. This should have been correctly configured when I picked the zsh and Oh-My-Zsh option during install, but it was not. However, that is the only issue I ran across when using the system. Aside from that one minor issue, I had a well configured Arch Linux-based system that I was able to set up in under 30 minutes by just selecting options and entering options in the Anarchy installer. Anarchy Linux is not perfect, but it does do a good job of making Arch super easy to install.
Final thoughts
Anarchy Linux is a good way to quickly get Arch installed and configured. I have some issues with some of the customization choices made in the customized desktops, and not all the desktop options are equal, but the Desktop and Desktop LTS options do provide a good experience. The installer could fail a little more cleanly when it cannot download a package, but when the installer works, it works well. However, the Server and Server LTS options need work. Finally, the Advanced option works great (though the same "fails completely when it cannot download a package" issue also applies here) and is perfect for users who want to customize an Arch install without having to do all the work by hand. Overall, Anarchy Linux a good distribution that needs just a little more polish, which, hopefully, will come as more people use Anarchy and file bug reports.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an ASUS VivoBook E406MA laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel Pentium Silver N5000 CPU
- Storage: 64GB eMMC
- Memory: 4GB of RAM
- Networking: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
- Display: Intel UHD Graphics 605
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Visitor supplied rating
Anarchy Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 10/10 from 2 review(s).
Have you used Anarchy Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Manjaro becomes Pinebook Pro's default OS, Debian Project Leader election begins, IPFire introduces kernel module signing, Qubes plans a separate GUI domain
The PINE64 team have published a blog post in which they talk about updates to their Pinebook Pro laptops and offer news about the PinePhone mobile device. One of the new developments is the Pinebook Pro ARM-powered laptop will ship with Manjaro Linux as the default operating system. "We're excited and proud to announce that future Pinebook Pros will ship with Manjaro KDE as the default operating system. Pre-orders for the next production run of Pinebook Pros starts on March 18, 2020 with an estimated shipping date of early May, 2020 (once Hong Kong border opens to our shipping staff). The image that ships with the upcoming Pinebook Pro batch features an additional layer of polish, which extends to a custom set of wallpapers and tweaks to the default application list to include popular software. If you are a Manjaro enthusiast, then I probably don't need to convince you any further, and if you haven't gotten a chance to try Manjaro yet then I suspect you'll really enjoy the out-of-the-box experience. Speaking of the out of the box experience, Manjaro ships with an OEM setup / installer that allows you to set your username and password as well as choose your keyboard layout and system locale on initial boot."
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Once per year the Debian team votes to decide who will be the project's next leader. Debian is one of the world's largest distributions in terms of developers and maintains a massive collection of software which is used by dozens of distributions, meaning the decisions Debian developers make can cause ripples throughout the Linux community. There are three candidates in the 2020 election: Jonathan Carter, Sruthi Chandran, and Brian Gupta. Their platforms are presented on the Debian website. Voting for these three candidates will happen in April.
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The IPFire team is taking pro-active security measures when it comes to protecting the kernel. One of the approaches IPFire is introducing is kernel code signing to verify that the kernel has not been maliciously altered. "In IPFire 2.25 - Core Update 142, we are now cryptographically signing all kernel modules. That means every time a driver for a network adapter, a filesystem driver or other kernel module is loaded into the kernel, it is checked that this signature matches. The signature is added during compile time of the kernel and after we are done with that, we throw the key away. Nobody needs it any more. Nobody - not even we - have now the ability to change the kernel any more. The only way to change a line of code somewhere is to rebuild and re-ship the whole kernel." Further details are available in the distribution's blog post.
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Qubes OS is a security-oriented operating system which mitigates security issues through strong isolation of components into separate domains. The project is introducing a new domain for graphical components. "One of the Big Things coming soon, in Qubes 4.1, is the first public version of the GUI domain: the next step in decoupling the graphical hardware, the display and management, and the host system. Very briefly, the GUI domain is a qube separate from dom0 that handles all the display-related tasks and some system management. Why make a GUI domain at all? One of the biggest security concerns at the moment for Qubes is how much power is in dom0. Once a person has access to it, they can do anything: and while we separate it quite effectively from what is running inside application qubes, dom0 is still a big, bloated and complex domain that performs many disparate functions. It handles managing other domains, display and graphical interfaces, multiple devices (including audio devices), memory and disk management, and so on. We mitigate many of the GUI-related risks (like the powers wielded by the window manager, or the fact that huge, complex libraries such as Qt/GTK are always an increased attack surface) through compartmentalization." The project's blog post offers further details on the new GUI domain.
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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) |
Performance impact from installing dependencies and installing alternative package versions
Adding-more-stuff asks: When I go to install WINE I am prompted to add a bunch of 32-bit dependencies. Will adding all these extra libraries slow down my machine? If not, why?
DistroWatch answers: Under most circumstances installing additional packages on your operating system will not slow down your distribution. The extra packages will take up disk space, but do not consume processor cycles just sitting on the disk. Installing these 32-bit libraries will use up a little storage space, but they will not be running or consuming memory (at least not most of the time) and your operating system will continue to run at the same speed.
There are just a few situations in which installing more software packages will slow down a distribution. For instance, if your hard drive is nearing its storage capacity and you add more software, the operating system may struggle to find room to write new files or the drive may become fragmented. This can slow down the system, but it should only happen if your drive is already very close to being full.
Should you wish to check how much storage space you have remaining on your system to make sure you are not near the limit, run the following command in a terminal:
df -h /
Assuming the amount of space being used on the partition is less than 80% it is unlikely you will run into any performance problems.
The other scenario in which installing new packages can slow down a system is when the package includes a service that runs in the background. For example, if you installed a file indexing service or a web server on your computer and it gets enabled automatically. In those situations the service runs quietly in the background, sometimes consuming your CPU's resources. In that case the system can slow down. However, installing most dependencies, like those used by WINE, should not include any new services you need to worry about.
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Wanting-a-different-version asks: I'm thinking that with a lot of distros, that either they're way behind in their application version, like Linux Mint still providing only qBittorrent 4.03 when it's now at 4.2.1, or providing a version that you kind of wish that you didn't have to upgrade to that version. At least with Windows, you can choose which version to install or go back to. With Linux, unless you're compiling it yourself, there seems to be less options. In Gentoo, I think I'd just have to install the very latest version, which I don't necessarily want to do because I like something to be out in the wild for a while to see if other people are having bad reactions to it. Are there some distros you know of where a person has more freedom to choose which application version?
DistroWatch answers: First, I'd like to point out that the issue you are describing, being stuck on a distribution's specific version of a package, is not a reflection on a limitation of a Linux distribution to only run one version. What we have here is a matter of most distributions choosing to ship with one version of a package to make it easier to trouble-shoot and get working with other software. There isn't anything about Linux which limits you to running a specific version of an application. The "one version" limitation you are seeing is a matter of what people get if they stick with only using curated packages from their distribution. However, there is nothing preventing people from installing alternative versions from other sources, which is essentially what people who run Windows are typically doing - running third-party packages they download from a website rather than the version from an official application store.
With that out of the way, let's look at a handful of approaches you can take with Linux to install alternative versions of applications, without compiling the program from its source code.
One thing you can do is look into Fedora's modularity feature. It is specifically designed to allow users to run alternative versions of applications while still using the distribution's official software repositories.
If Fedora is not to your liking, then most of the major distributions offer backport repositories. Fixed release distributions tend to ship with older versions of software, as you noted with Linux Mint and its qBittorrent package. However, many distributions also offer newer versions of packages through optional repositories. These add-on repositories can typically be enabled through the package manager and offer optional newer versions of software.
Another option is to use portable package formats. Flatpak, Snap, and AppImage bundles are often provided by upstream application developers and provide the Windows-style approach of installing whatever version of software you want, typically from a third-party. Application developers usually release these software bundles either on their websites or through portals such as Flathub.
Should you find yourself using a member of the Ubuntu family, like Linux Mint, you can often find alternative versions of software for your distribution through a personal package archive (PPA). These are mini repositories of software that are built to provide alternative or experimental versions of applications for your distribution. You can often find PPAs on Launchpad. For example, if you visit the qBittorrent website, their download page provides instructions for enabling their official PPA on Ubuntu and Linux Mint, which offers newer stable versions of the application.
In cases where you are using a more cutting edge distribution, such as Gentoo or a member of the Arch Linux family, you can install a new version of an application and then "pin" or "lock" it using your package manager. This causes the package to no longer get updated, letting you stick with the version you like for as long as you want.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Emmabuntüs DE3-1.01
Emmabuntüs is a lightweight, Debian-based distribution featuring the Xfce desktop. the project's latest release is Emmabuntüs Debian Edition (DE) 3-1.01. The latest version is based on Debian 10.3 and includes a number of fixes. "This Debian Edition 1.01 version includes the following features, fixes and enhancements: Based on Debian 10.3 Buster. Added additional soundtracks in French for Mr-Patate43. Added OpenBoard. Added open-vm-tools-desktop. Added Minetest. Added monitor monitoreDP-1 configuration. Added a screen tearing fixed script for Intel/AMD cards. Improved explanations of post-installation windows following the review of DistroWatch. Improved management of Cairo-dock icons. Improved accessibility of windows. Improvement of start-up time in live mode. Fixed icons for information on updating packages for Revival-blue and Moka themes. Fixed network share via Samba. Fixed XScreenSaver slideshow launch. Updated of HPLip 3.19.12, TurboPrint 2.49-1, Multisystem 1.0442, Firefox ESR 68.5.0, Thunderbird 68.5.0." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
FuryBSD 12.1
FuryBSD, a desktop-oriented operating system featuring the Xfce and KDE Plasma desktops, has been updated to version 12.1. The ISO images were actually released to SourceForge on March 8, but the release announcement was only published on the project's website today: "New FuryBSD 12.1 images are available for Xfce and KDE. This new release is now based on FreeBSD 12.1 with the latest FreeBSD quarterly packages. This brings Xfce up to 4.14, and KDE up to 5.17. In addition to updates, these new ISO images mostly address community bugs, community enhancement requests and community pull requests. Changelog: clean-up leftover union dir after install to disk; make sure furybsd-xorg-tool installs the right version for nvidia-driver-390; add nvidia-driver (latest) category to fury-xorg-tool; restore beastie menu and default timeout on live media; add updating documentation; update packages on ISO images to FreeBSD quarterly branch branches/2020Q1; make root mount read write on live image; update ISO image to 12.1 (latest FreeBSD 12.1-p2)...."
Linux Mint 4 "LMDE"
The Linux Mint team have published a new version of the distribution's Debian-based branch. The new release, Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) 4, is based on Debian 10 and ships with the Cinnamon desktop. "This new version of LMDE contains many improvements. Here are some of the main ones: Automated partitioning with support for LVM and full-disk encryption. Home directory encryption. Support for automated installation of NVIDIA drivers. NVMe support. Secure Boot support. Btrfs sub-modules support. Revamped installer. Automatic installation of microcode packages. Automatic resolution bump for the live session to a minimum of 1024x768 in VirtualBox. Linux Mint 19.3 improvements (HDT, Boot-repair, System reports, language settings, HiDPI and artwork improvements, new boot menus, Celluloid, Gnote, Drawing, Cinnamon 4.4, XApp status icons, etc). APT recommends enabled by default. Removed deb-multimedia repository and packages. Debian 10 Buster package base with backports repository." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
Linux Mint 4 "LMDE" -- Running the Cinnamon desktop
(full image size: 194kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 1,889
- Total data uploaded: 31.0TB
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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) |
The EarlyOOM service in Fedora 32
One of the new features being tested in Fedora 32 Beta is EarlyOOM. The EarlyOOM service monitors the system's RAM and swap space consumption. When the operating system begins to run low on memory, EarlyOOM can step in and terminate memory-heavy processes, freeing up memory for the rest of the system. This should prevent situations where programs are constantly being swapped in and out of memory, slowing down the system and causing the user interface to become unresponsive.
What do you think of EarlyOOM? Is it a welcome new feature, something you already use, or something you are likely to disable?
You can see the results of our previous poll on the position of your distro on our PHR chart in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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The EarlyOOM service in Fedora 32
| I already use EarlyOOM and like it: | 26 (3%) |
| I look forward to trying EarlyOOM: | 313 (38%) |
| I have tried EarlyOOM and do not like it: | 11 (1%) |
| I have not tried EarlyOOM and do not want it: | 347 (42%) |
| Other: | 130 (16%) |
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| Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
Distributions added to waiting list
- RockSolid Signage. RockSolid Signage is an operating system designed for "indestructible" digital signage installations on a PC: it displays a full-screen browser view restricted to a specified resource. It is based on Resilient Linux, a distribution with the data partition mounted on top of the system partition, which is read-only by design at filesystem-level so resistant to filesystem corruption. The digital signage stack is directly derived from Raspberry Digital Signage.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 30 March 2020. 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 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
EduLinux
EduLinux was a Chilean Linux distribution specially designed for computing labs. Its principal objective was to improve the performance of old computers labs, introducing a modern client/server architecture. It features a simple installation process and a client administrator software specially designed to incorporate new computers into existing networks. EduLinux was developed by Instituto de Informática Educativa in Universidad de La Frontera and Centro de Tecnología y Educación of the Ministry of Education.
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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