 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 936, 27 September 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 38th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
What do you think makes an operating system good or interesting? Do you want reliability, new features, do you primarily desire a convenient interface? Operating systems that attract my attention are often trying to do something new and different, offering a new approach. I like when projects aim for the stars! This week I tried out two young projects, one which claims to be universal - able to run applications for a variety of platforms - while the other tries to bring the convenience of macOS to a FreeBSD base. Read on to learn about my experiences with these two operating systems. Universal operating systems have been a growing trend recently with developers trying to make their platforms capable of running software built for a range of other operating systems. In our News section we talk about UBports adopting Android features while the Waydroid project aims to get Android software running on GNU/Linux distributions, including mobile systems. The FreeBSD team is planning to change their operating system's default shell and we share the reasons for that below. Plus we talk about an unusual project which brings Linux programs to the aging DOS ecosystem. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we discuss how virtual PDF printers work and why people use them. Do you have a virtual PDF printer device set up on your system? Let us know about it in this week's Opinion Poll. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of this past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (14MB) and MP3 (11MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Martine OS 2.0
When I am considering trying out a new operating system or distribution one thing I always find interesting is how the developers present their software. Some take an understated, technical approach, explaining what their distribution is based on and how it differs from its parent. These distributions usually do exactly what they say on the website without any surprises. Then there are projects which make lots of wild, clearly inaccurate promises about how their distribution will magically prevent tracking, revolutionize the desktop, or be 100% secure against attackers. These projects usually turn out to be really just a popular distribution such as Debian or Ubuntu with an alternative desktop theme.
Then there are projects which aim high, offering something truly eye-catching. Whether the project succeeds or not is sometimes less intriguing than how the developers went about trying to make it happen and what they accomplished or sacrificed along the way.
The Martine OS distribution falls into this last category. It's a Linux distribution which reportedly has a "modern" look and claims to be "universal". Universal in what way? Well, the Martine OS project claims the distribution will run applications written for Windows, Linux and Android. I decided to take Martine OS 2.0 for a test drive to see how these claims measured up to reality.
I could find very little information about Martine OS - which desktop it runs, how it accomplishes its goals of running applications from other platforms, or what its base distribution is. Once I had downloaded the project's ISO file, which is a 6.0GB download for x86_64 processors, I was able to explore the distribution and discover a few things. One is that it is Ubuntu 21.04 under the hood. The other is that the distribution runs the Deepin desktop.
Booting from the live media brings up a boot menu asking if we'd like to try the live desktop or launch the project's system installer. Both options cause the live mode to run and launch the Deepin desktop.
It took several minutes to load the live session and the desktop was unusually slow to respond. A quick check showed that all CPU resources were being consumed, even while sitting idle at the Deepin desktop. As a result, it took over a minute for applications to load.
Martine OS 2.0 -- Running the Deepin desktop
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1536x839 pixels)
I discovered the culprit behind the excessive CPU usage was the Clam anti-virus software which was running in the background, constantly scanning the live media. I tried to terminate the anti-virus process, but ran into a few issues while doing this. One is that both the root account and sudo access are password protected, but there is no indication of what the passwords are. I eventually guessed the sudo password was "user" and was able to terminate ClamAV. The desktop still wasn't snappy, but it became usable.
The next hurdle I ran into is some of the text in the user interface is displayed in English and some in Polish. When I checked the settings panel it indicated my preferred language was already set to English only, so it seems there are bits of the desktop not yet translated. While exploring the settings panel the desktop locked up and necessitated a reboot.
Since the boot menu option to launch the system installer just brought me back to the desktop I did some more exploring of the live interface (once ClamAV had been terminated again). The distribution includes WINE's development branch which explains the project's claim it can run Windows software. Being based on Ubuntu, Martine OS can also install Snap and Flatpak packages, plus any of the thousands of packages in Ubuntu's repositories. I was unable to find any hint as to how the distribution would attempt to run Android applications.
There doesn't seem to be any Android compatibility software installed or Android-related tools. Nothing in the application menu or package list appeared relevant to running Android packages. While I could simply be missing a key component, the project's website doesn't offer any pointers or documentation to help in this area.
Martine OS is a distribution which aims high (running software developed for three different platforms), but lacks an easy way to do this, documentation, and a working installer. I also find it odd that this is the second Linux distribution I've tried in recent months that automatically runs anti-virus software. Granted, anti-virus can be useful in some scenarios, but it's a terrible idea on live media. Live media is often read-only, Linux distributions are unlikely to be attacked by most types of malware, and disk performance on live media (typically DVDs and USB thumb drives) is terrible, causing the anti-virus software to bring the whole system to its knees as it thrashes the live media.
* * * * *
Airyx 0.2.2
The Airyx project is another one which is making some bold attempts these days. Using FreeBSD and helloSystem as its foundation, Airyx is trying to bring a macOS-style desktop to a FreeBSD base that runs on x86_64 systems. The project will reportedly try to use existing open source software to accomplish most of its goals and write new code to fill in gaps.
The download for Airyx 0.2.2 is 1.3GB. Booting from the live media requires the host machine has at least 4GB of RAM available and will refuse to boot if the desired memory is not found. This appears to be a requirement because the live filesystem is loaded into RAM and it is a restriction shared with helloSystem.
The operating system then boots and presents us with a welcome window which says "Welcome" in multiple languages. A tune plays in the background on a loop until we go through the welcome window's screens which basically just tell us what Airyx is trying to accomplish.
The desktop is powered by Openbox and is arranged to look a lot like the macOS desktop. There is a panel across the top of the screen which shows a global menu bar and system tray. A dock at the bottom of the display offers launchers for commonly used applications and the settings panel.
At first I had trouble finding the system installer as there wasn't any launcher on the desktop. I eventually found the installer in the Utilities panel which can be opened via an icon on the dock. The installer is called Install FreeBSD.
Installing
Airyx uses a graphical installer which begins by asking us to select a disk to wipe. We can then make up a username and password for ourselves. The installer offers to automatically detect our time zone (which it did successfully). We are asked if wish to enable the OpenSSH service and then our hard drive is wiped and files are copied to the disk. A progress bar is displayed while the installer is working, though no details are displayed by default. If we want a better sense of what is happening we can click a button to show the installer's log. Once the process is finished the installer offers to reboot the computer.
Early impressions
When Airyx first boots we are automatically signed into the desktop environment. As far as I can tell there is no option to disable auto-login, at least not through the graphical environment. We are then shown the same welcome window as before which assures us the system is designed to be private and simple. A single icon sits on the desktop which opens a file manager to display the root filesystem. It seems the filesystem has been tweaked to display just the classic macOS folder names rather than the more cryptic FreeBSD directory names like /usr and /etc. Every time we sign in a small window opens in the corner of the desktop and displays the word "Welcome" in multiple languages. Its yellow background makes it look like a post-in note.
Airyx 0.2.2 -- The welcome note
(full image size: 357kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
One unfortunate drawback to the unified application menu is that it does not respond to common shortcut keys. For example, if I press Alt+F the File menu is not opened. This makes navigating menus on Airyx jarring when coming from other open source desktop environments.
Hardware
I started playing with Airyx in a VirtualBox environment where the operating system performed well. The desktop was responsive, the system booted quickly, and everything felt quick and light. While Airyx did not automatically resize its desktop to match the VirtualBox window's dimensions, the system otherwise performed well in the virtual machine.
When switching over to trying Airyx on my laptop performance was again good. Audio worked out of the box and everything ran smoothly. However, while Airyx detected that I had a wireless card, it was unable to use my network card. Attempting to scan for local networks did not detect any despite six being available. This meant, when running Airyx on my laptop, I was using a stand alone computer.
The operating system was relatively light on memory, using about 400MB of active memory and 310MB of wired. This was enough memory to both run the desktop and run ZFS as the root filesystem. A fresh install consumed 2GB of disk space.
Included applications
While Airyx ships with a desktop that imitates macOS, the included software is mostly made up of standard open source applications. The Falkon web browser is installed for us along with FreeCAD. Blender and the GNU Image Manipulation Program are included too. The Krita and Scribus applications are provided as is the QTerminal virtual terminal. The Qt Creator software is available for developers along with the Clang compiler.
The Audacity audio editor, LMMS player, and mpv video player are included. Multimedia codecs are available, though mpv fails to run. Trying to run mpv results in an immediate failure with the software reporting it is missing a dependency. I installed VLC and it worked to play video, though audio would sometimes fail with an error printed to the console saying "oss audio output error".
There is a launcher for LibreOffice in the application menu, but it is not installed. Clicking the LibreOffice launcher opens a window which offers to download and install the productivity suite. LibreOffice is then downloaded from the FreeBSD repositories.
Airyx 0.2.2 -- Downloading LibreOffice
(full image size: 285kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
There are utilities included in Airyx for managing boot environments (provided through ZFS snapshots). The operating system includes manual pages for available commands and uses the zsh command line shell by default. The operating system is based on FreeBSD 12.2 and sometimes refers to itself as being FreeBSD; other times it identifies as helloSystem too, so you can clearly see recent generations of the family tree in Airyx.
Apart from the issues I had with the media players, the software included with Airyx worked well. The system has relatively few pre-installed applications and configuration tools, but the ones featured tended to work as expected. One of the few exceptions was the user account manager. We can create new accounts, but we can not edit existing ones (to change our password or auto-login options). Clicking the Remove button to try to erase an existing account fails with a warning this option has not yet been implemented.
Airyx 0.2.2 -- Unable to remove user accounts
(full image size: 357kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Software management
There does not appear to be any graphical front-end to software management included with Airyx. The pkg command line package manager is included, though it is somewhat crippled compared to the version of pkg used by FreeBSD.
Airyx 0.2.2 -- Trying to fetch package updates
(full image size: 320kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The first thing I did with pkg was try to update the package manager's repository information. Performing "pkg update" produced an error saying "pkg update is not yet supported in helloSystem". This same error appears when trying to upgrade local packages using "pkg upgrade". So, at first, it seemed as though Airyx's version of pkg could not fetch repository information. However, running "pkg install" and providing a package name did work. The package manager downloads repository information, checks for the latest version of the software I requested and installs it.
All of which is to say, pkg on Airyx can install new software, but is unable to upgrade it, which I am concerned means the user will always end up running out of date applications.
Conclusions
I did not spend a lot of time with Airyx, just a few days. Mostly this was due to the operating system not playing well with my wireless card, an issue most flavours of BSD run into. However, while my experience was brief, I will say that I see the appeal of Airyx (and by extension helloSystem). For people who like the macOS style desktop, this experience should make people feel at home. The unified application menu on the top panel, the icons, the utility and settings panels, and the overall theme all share a strong similarity with macOS.
The system installer is quite simple and can be navigated with a few mouse clicks so the barrier to entry is relatively low, assuming your computer has at least 4GB of memory for the live media. The operating system, even running ZFS, is quite light in memory and includes some standard open source tools.
There were two weak points I encountered. The first was hardware support, which is often a problem I run into with flavours of BSD. Wireless and suspend support in particular tend to be missing. The other issue was the lack of a fully functioning package manager. I'm not sure why pkg has been hobbled in Airyx, but the fact it still refreshes repository information and installs packages from FreeBSD suggests to me that the limitation is unnecessary.
* * * * *
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
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
UBports working on Miracast, FreeBSD switches the default shell, Android software running on GNU/Linux, and Linux programs running on DOS
The UBports team has published an update which talks about current work going into upgrading their mobile operating system to a newer base. They also report on challenges the team is facing with regards to updating older hardware and efforts to cast video output to wireless devices. "Alfred has been continuing his experimentations, this time around: Miracast support. This is a wireless mirroring capability, either to a TV display or to a computer monitor. The test device was a Pixel 3a running Halium 9. The same principles could apply to Android 7.1. For 64-bit there are currently some issues. Alfred tried building two different coder intermediaries, one through droidmedia and the other through the backend. One uses gstreamer and the other uses droidmedia directly. The bugs that we have in our system now were still visible with the droidmedia setup. It has illuminated what has been going wrong though and Alfred is currently working on a fix, based on those insights. Alfred relies very heavily on mirroring so he is very keen to get it done! There is a mismatch between the 64-bit rootfs and the 32-bit media process on the Halium side. If anybody out there has a particular insight into the detail of that handover and would like to help, please get in touch with Alfred. There is no timescale for the fix but the strong hope is that it will be done earlier than the move to 20.04." The team's blog post offers additional information on the project's progress.
* * * * *
The FreeBSD team is planning to change their operating system's default shell. Until recently the default shell for the root account was csh, but it is being changed to /bin/sh. "For years now, csh is the default root shell for FreeBSD, csh can be confusing as a default shell for many as all other Unix-like settled on a Bourne shell compatible interactive shell: zsh, bash, or variant of ksh. Recently our sh(1) has receive update to make it more user friendly in interactive mode: command completion (thanks pstef_at_); improvement in the emacs mode, to make it behave by default like other shells; improvement in the vi mode (in particular the vi editor to respect $EDITOR); support for history as described by POSIX." The proposal points out csh will remain part of the FreeBSD base system, just no longer be the default shell. This change is something some hosting providers already adjust in their images so this proposal will result in less work for those service providers.
* * * * *
People who would like to be able to run Android applications on a GNU/Linux platform received good news recently. The Waydroid project is developing container-based software which allows a desktop Linux system to run an Android-compatible environment based on LineageOS. "Waydroid uses Linux namespaces (user, pid, uts, net, mount, ipc) to run a full Android system in a container and provide Android applications on any GNU/Linux-based platform. The Android inside the container has direct access to needed hardware. The Android runtime environment ships with a minimal customized Android system image based on LineageOS. The used image is currently based on Android 10." Waydroid is currently available pre-packaged for some distributions such as Ubuntu. It requires a Wayland session to run and Python 3 to be available on the host system.
* * * * *
Have you ever wanted to run your Linux programs on DOS? Chances are it isn't something you've ever even considered before. However, one project has taken the initiative and created a DOS subsystem which allows the user to run Linux command line programs. OSNews explains: "A WSL alternative for users who prefer an MS-DOS environment. DOS Subsystem for Linux integrates a real Linux environment into MS-DOS systems, allowing users to make use of both DOS and Linux applications from the DOS command prompt. What is this unholy union?" The DOS Subsystem for Linux (DSL) project has a GitHub account where it shows off a demo of DOS and Linux programs running side-by-side.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Creating PDF documents using Print to PDF
Making-beautiful-PDF-documents asks: How does it work when a document is created using a PDF printer? Are there any license restrictions from using this feature?
DistroWatch answers: Normally when a document, image, or text file is sent to a printer on Linux the CUPS software basically translates the contents of the file into a format the printer will understand and then transmits that data to the physical printer.
CUPS has an optional feature called CUPS-PDF or Print to PDF. This utility sets up a virtual device that, to desktop applications, appears to be just another printer. However, sending documents to this virtual device to be printed causes the document to be saved in PDF format in the user's home directory. Usually the resulting PDF file is saved in the user's PDF directory.
The Debian summary of the CUPS-PDF feature sums up the functionality nicely:
CUPS-PDF provides a PDF Writer backend to CUPS. This can be used as a virtual printer in a paperless network or to perform testing on CUPS.
Documents are written to a configurable directory (by default to ~/PDF) or can be further manipulated by a post-processing command.
Desktop users might find it simpler to use the Print To File feature provided by GTK+ and Qt or the LibreOffice's Export to PDF feature.
This can be a really useful feature if you want to create a PDF document, but the application you are running doesn't have an Export to PDF function built into it. Any application that has a print option can print to the virtual PDF printer, creating a new PDF.
As for licensing restrictions, there are no restrictions on the content created with the CUPS PDF virtual printer. The source code for the CUPS-PDF software is licensed under the GNU General Public License. The Ghostscript and GhostPDL software packages the virtual printer relies on are licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License which is also a free software license. Neither license impacts content created with the virtual printer, only the distribution of the software used to create the virtual printer itself.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Emmabuntus DE4 1.00
Emmabuntüs is a desktop Linux distribution with editions basedon Debian's Stable branch with the Xfce and LXQt desktop environments. The project has published a new version which is based on Debian 11 "Bullseye". "On September 20th 2021, the Emmabuntüs Collective is happy to announce the release of the new Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 4 1.00 (32 and 64 bits), based on the Debian 11.0 Bullseye distribution and supporting both XFCE and LXQt desktop environments. This distribution was originally designed to facilitate the reconditioning of computers donated to humanitarian organizations, starting with the Emmaüs communities (which is where the distribution’s name obviously comes from), to promote the discovery of GNU/Linux by beginners, as well as to extend the lifespan of computer hardware, in order to reduce the waste induced by the over-consumption of raw materials. This update of our new distribution takes up the basis of Emmabuntüs DE3 under Debian 11 Bullseye, and its latest changes concerning the removal of proprietary software in favour of free alternatives, like DWService replacing Teamviewer, Jami replacing Skype and the complete deletion of Adobe Flash. This version exhibits the new Ice graphic theme created by Juliette Taka, the graphic artist who realized numerous wallpapers for Debian, as well as a renovated logo, which new look was designed by Jean-Claude aka JCZ, who was also part of the Debian wallpapers projects." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
Emmabuntus DE4 1.00 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 387kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
UBports 16.04 OTA-19
The UBports team has announced a new version of the project's mobile operating system. The project, which continues the work of Ubuntu Touch, has published a new update: UBports 16.04 OTA-19. This release fixes a number of small issues and annoyances which occurred when messaging and connecting to wireless networks. "As we went for the messaging app's auto-popup of the keyboard we also fixed a few other annoyances around the messaging app and it's keyboard handling, which would in fact prevent popping up the keyboard when it was needed. Seems the messaging app was not too eager about writing messages. The WiFi negotiation should now prevent unnecessary password dialogs if the connection cannot be established immediately. This reduces the annoying pop-up and also creation of multiple entries labeled (1) (2) etc for the same SSID. Let's talk about audio bugs and media hub: First we fixed a situation that prevented to put music on pause when the headphone cable has been removed and rather continued playback through the device's main speaker, quite annoying. Then we fixed a bug in media-hub which put the device to sleep after the first piece of music was played, resulting in a very choppy and broken playback of all music pieces thereafter. Also the display went dark when playing remote media that contained video information only, since media-hub did believe its audio only. " Additional information about these changes and other improvements can be found in the release announcement.
MidnightBSD 2.1.0
Lucas Holt has announced the release of MidnightBSD 2.1.0, the latest stable build of the project's FreeBSD-derived operating system for desktops: "I am happy to announce the availability of MidnightBSD 2.1 for amd64 and i386. This is an incremental release focusing on bug fixes, improvements to the package manager and a new system compiler. LLVM updated to 10.0.1, mport 2.1.4. The majority of improvements come from the MidnightBSD package manager, mport. A number of long-standing bugs have been fixed. It now can update dependencies properly on install, update or upgrade scenarios. Previously, it would sometimes crash and force the user to do it manually. Several fixes have been made around PLIST processing. The mport utility now sets a character encoding so that extracting files with libarchive with special characters is more likely to work properly without a crash occurring. (lang/go port is a fun trigger of this bug). The libmport library no long relies on libdispatch. This is slower in a few scenarios, but most invocations are now faster as it doesn't need to setup the thread pools or do the locking it once did." See the release notes for a full changelog, upgrade instructions and known issues.
* * * * *
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: 2,603
- Total data uploaded: 40.2TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Do you use a virtual PDF printer?
In this week's Questions and Answers article we talked about using virtual PDF printers to create documents from applications which do not support Export to PDF functions. Do you have a virtual PDF printer set up on your computer to create PDFs?
You can see the results of our previous poll on preferring IMG or ISO install image files in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you have a virtual PDF printer?
| Yes: | 1016 (66%) |
| No: | 431 (28%) |
| Unsure: | 97 (6%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- plagueOS. plagueOS is a Void-based Linux distribution featuring a number of security-hardening configurations and the musl C library.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 4 October 2021. 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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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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LinuxTLE
LinuxTLE was a community Linux distribution developed in Thailand and designed for the Thai speaking audience. The early versions were based on Red Hat Linux and Fedora, but starting with version 8.0, the developers have chosen Ubuntu as the distribution's new base system.
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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0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
