 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 984, 5 September 2022 |
Welcome to this year's 36th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
People who develop software tend to be creative and experimental. A lot of developers want to try new things or test new approaches in solving problems. This week we talk about a number of projects taking experimental paths. We begin with a look at deepin, a distribution which is always changing its base, desktop design, and package management. The deepin project is currently striving to create an independent base with custom package management and atomic updates. Jesse Smith takes a preview of the upcoming deepin 23 for a test drive and reports on his findings. One of the big features arriving in deepin 23 is the introduction of the Linglong portable package repository. Linglong works similarly to Flatpak and is reportedly able to work on other distributions. Are you interested in using the Linglong repository? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section, we talk about a small tweak to Debian's Chromium web browser package to improve user privacy and report on experimental changes in the HardenedBSD project. We also talk about Devuan's repository key issue along with the Linux Mint team trying out the Steam Deck and sharing their observations on the device. While developers are dealing with changes to software and hardware, users often deal with changes to their systems and files too. In this week's Questions and Answers column we share tips on monitoring files and directories for changes, letting us know when a file is being altered. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
deepin 23 Preview
Hiweed GNU/Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution developed in China. Actually, that description is a bit out of date, let me start over. Linux Deepin is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution featuring a custom desktop environment called Deepin Desktop Environment. Actually, that's no longer accurate. Deepin is a Debian-based distribution featuring the custom Deepin desktop and a number of desktop applications developed in-house. Wait, I'm almost up to date now. deepin is a Chinese distribution which claims to be independently developed. It features the Deepin desktop, a custom system installer, a custom application repository called Linglong, and the project offers atomic updates.
A preview of the latest version of deepin was published in mid-August and its release announcement featured a few key points. Specifically: the move away from Debian to be an independent distribution; the use of Linglong to offer a custom repository of portable applications that can be run across multiple distributions; and the use of atomic updates to make updates more reliable.
The new deepin release, version 23, is currently in the development phase at the time of writing and I wanted to see what this departure from the previous, Debian-based model would look like. I downloaded the deepin ISO which is a 3.4GB build for 64-bit (x86_64) computers. After confirming the media's checksum was good, I tried booting from it.
The live media brings up a boot menu asking if we'd like to install deepin with version 5.15 of the Linux kernel or 5.18. Both options also have failsafe driver options, resulting in four menu options. There's a fifth menu entry for running a self-check on the media. There are no options for running a live desktop in the menu. I decided to try the 5.18 kernel option first.
Installing
The deepin distribution uses a custom installer that asks us to select our preferred language from a list and then accept the project's license agreement. We're then given the choice of manual or automated disk partitioning. The automated screen warns us that deepin requires at least 64GB of free disk space and recommends 128GB. It will not proceed if less than 64GB of free disk space is available. This struck me as odd as most distributions will install and run with less than 10GB of space. The manual partitioning screen is pretty simple and streamlined. We can add new partitions, remove old ones, and assign both mount points and filesystem types with a few clicks. The manual partitioning approach has no strict space requirements and our root filesystem can be any size over the 8GB required to hold deepin's packages.
With these steps completed, the installer starts copying its files to the hard drive. Here I ran into an issue. The installer eventually failed, about halfway through, with a report it was unable to operate on a file called /target/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libspatialite.so.7.1.2.
I restarted the computer and, this time, took the boot menu for the older 5.15 kernel to be installed. Whether this fixed the problem or it was a coincidence, the installer walked me through the same steps and completed its work successfully with the 5.15 kernel.
The first time we boot deepin a graphical configuration wizard opens. We're once again asked to pick our language and accept the license agreement. We can then pick our keyboard layout and time zone. Our time zone can be picked from a map or a plain text list of locations. The wizard spends a few minutes "tuning system" and then presents us with a graphical login screen.
Early impressions
Signing into my account brought up the Deepin desktop with a welcome window. The first page of the welcome screen displays a video which is basically a slideshow of the desktop's components. The welcome window then walks us through a few choices: asking if we want a Fashion or Efficient desktop, whether we want Effects mode or Normal mode, and which icon theme we want. I'm not entirely sure what the differences between the various desktop modes are as they aren't explained, but I suspect the first choice deals with themes and the second enables or disables effects.
deepin 23 -- The Deepin desktop and application menu
(full image size: 1.5MB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
The Deepin desktop worked fairly well for me and used 500MB of RAM. It looks a lot like KDE Plasma, in my opinion, but the settings panel looks like it was imported (or copied) from GNOME. Anyway, the desktop is attractive to me and I found it easy to navigate. By default the application menu takes up the full screen in a grid/mobile style. There is a button we can click to switch to a more compact, classic menu layout. I like the latter option as it involves less mouse movement.
One day during my trial the desktop suddenly became sluggish. A little looking around revealed there was a process called deepin-anything running and consuming all available CPU resources. I could not find a manual page for this utility. The program's GitHub page unhelpfully says, "Something like everything, but nothing is really like anything..." An English translation of the Chinese documentation is more illuminating: "The development of anything is derived from everything under Windows, which is committed to providing a lightning-fast filename search function for Linux users, as well as an offline search function. It turns out that there is a similar rlocate program in Linux, but that program is a bit too old, and it is not difficult to rewrite a better one, so I rewrite one."
In short, it seems to be a file indexing and search tool which is not properly throttled and consumes all available resources when it runs. The service does not respond to regular terminate signals, even from the root user, and I had to use the "kill -9" command as root to stop the process.
Also on the subject of performance, once during the boot process deepin seemed to lock up. Looking at the boot messages (accessed by pressing the Esc key) revealed systemd had stalled while trying to launch the network time service. After about a minute the boot process resumed.
Independent base?
For the purposes of this trial, especially where I was running a preview of the final deepin 23 release, I was mostly interested in exploring the key points of the project's announcement. Specifically: what does deepin look like as an independent distribution now that the team says they are moving away from Debian? Also, what package management options are available? What do Linglong and their atomic update system look like?
Starting with the status of the base distribution, looking around the system it seems the deepin files and tools have embraced the independent label. The lsb_release utility and /etc/os-version file report the system is deepin 23. The APT package manager, which I'll talk about later, pulls software from deepin servers.
deepin 23 -- Debian's copyright notice
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
Digging further though I soon discovered deepin is still using Debian packages (or packages forked from Debian). The system contains Debian patches. Copyright notices and documentation are imported from Debian. The add-on drivers and extra packages on the ISO all marked as being maintained by Debian developers. Basically, the system seems to be Debian at its core with a custom installer and the Deepin Desktop Environment as the default interface. This appears to contradict the project's statement: "Independent upstream: Relying on the core packages and some optional components, a brand-new v23 repository is built in the Preview stage. deepin will continue learning from upstream distributions such as Debian and Arch Linux." In this case it seems "learning from" means forking from Debian's repositories.
Software management
While the base system appears to still be mostly Debian, what about package management? The deepin system has the Debian dpkg and APT utilities installed and they pull in packages from deepin's custom repositories. Or they would, expect one of the repositories is broken - APT reports a Release file is missing, preventing the repository from being used. This may be a bug or it may be that deepin intends to use these Deb packages as a base, but not have the user interact with them directly.
There are no Flatpak or Snap frameworks installed, but the project's release announcement does talk about a new software management utility and repository. Both appear to be called Linglong. The deepin project describes Linglong as follows:
Linglong is a new package format developed by deepin, aiming at solving various compatibility problems caused by complex dependencies of traditional package formats under Linux, and reducing the security risks caused by decentralised control of permissions. It is available to any Linux distribution, supports incremental updates of applications, managing, distributing, and sandboxing apps, which not only improves ease of use, but also greatly protects user privacy.
deepin 23 -- The Linglong store
(full image size: 197kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
For people using other distributions who want to try Linglong there are install instructions. I searched for tools called "software", "package", or "linglong" in the application menu and settings panel without any luck. It turns out Linglong is a command line tool which can be accessed using the name ll-cli. This command line tool appears to be limited and I was unsuccessful in getting it to search for available software. The ll-cli tool only lists installed items and installs or runs installed programs. Most people will probably interact with the Linglong repository through its web portal.
This web portal presents us with a big grid of application launchers and short names. We can click on a button to install the desired software. This pops up a window in the web browser which shows progress information. This window notifies us when the application is installed. I installed a handful of programs and they all downloaded and ran without any problems. The only difficult part of the process is finding the link to the web portal to browse software. After that, it's a simple point-and-click process which automatically adds application launchers to the application menu for us.
Linglong looks and acts almost exactly like Flatpak with the Flathub repository. In fact, the experience (and the command line output) is so similar that I actually checked to see if they were compatible. I tested if Linglong could install Flatpak packages and it was not able to do this, but it looks like Linglong is strongly inspired and maybe borrows from Flatpak.
I also went looking for tools to update the system so I could try out the atomic updates feature. There don't appear to be any dedicated graphical update tools in the application menu, but I did find an update tool in the desktop's settings panel. This tool performed a check for updates and failed. It didn't say why it failed; I'm uncertain if it couldn't connect to remote servers, if it just found no updates, or if there was another problem. At any rate, the update tool reports it is unable to find updates.
deepin 23 -- Checking for software updates
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
As I mentioned before, the APT package tools didn't work and the settings panel updater didn't work. I looked through the documentation concerning package management. It talks about Linglong, which doesn't seem to have an update process. It also talks about dpkg which doesn't work, and rpm packages, but there is no rpm framework on the system.
The deepin system does include OSTree, which is typically used by atomic or immutable platforms such as Fedora Silverblue, however the documentation doesn't cover OSTree at all. I tried running some OSTree commands, including ones to list known repositories or references. These all failed and it looks like OSTree hasn't been configured by default.
Conclusions
I realise the version of deepin I was using is a preview of things to come, not the finished product. As such things are not going to be as polished and perfect as they could be. I'm okay with that, to a point. But I feel as though most of this preview release doesn't live up to its description.
There were three main points in this development snapshot I was interested in exploring: an independent base, Linglong packages, and atomic updates. As far as I can tell, deepin is not an independent distribution. It's either based on Debian or a fork of Debian. Its packages, the credited maintainers, low-level packaging tools, and copyright notices are all pulled from Debian.
I couldn't test atomic updates. I'm not clear as to whether this was a technological problem (with the update checker failing), a lack of available updates, or just a lack of documentation explaining what I was missing.
The one highlight of this release which worked for me was Linglong. The web portal for browsing and installing applications worked without any problems. It looks like new versions might need to be updated manually from the command line, but otherwise the experience was smooth. Linglong feels very similar in its style, syntax, and command line output to Flatpak. Linglong is either heavily inspired by Flatpak or borrows from it technologically, though they do not appear to be compatible. In short, while Linglong works and works well, it seems the same effect could have been produced by installing Flatpak and linking to the deepin repository rather than (or alongside) Flathub.
In other words, the one thing I found to celebrate in this release is the custom, Flathub-like repository which worked well. The other talking points - atomic updates and an independent distribution - appear to be future goals rather than something available at this time.
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Visitor supplied rating
deepin has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.1/10 from 123 review(s).
Have you used deepin? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Debian applies Chromium search engine change, HardenedBSD publishes status update, Mint tests utilities on the Steam Deck, Devuan repository key troubles
In an excellent example of the Debian project's conservative pace and dedication to protecting user privacy, the distribution has adjusted the default settings of the Chromium web browser package. The new configuration will use the DuckDuckGo search engine, which anonymizes search queries, instead of Google. This changes was committed and announced two years after the original proposal was submitted.
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The HardenedBSD project is a fork of FreeBSD which experiments with security features and hardening improvements. This allows people who typically use FreeBSD to test security features to see how useful or disruptive they will be before any changes are committed to the FreeBSD project. The August HardenedBSD newsletter shares a summary of changes being developed, including improved randomization and a custom firewall: "Loic fixed an issue MrUnix reported about a missing PaX ASLR macro when building a kernel with COMPAT_FREEBSD32 enabled. Loic updated bsdinstall with a few changes, updating which sysctl nodes to set. I pulled in a change from OpenBSD that randomizes how often the chacha20-based arc4random(3) reseeds itself. HardenedBSD user "apache2" enabled multi-console booting by default, enabling use of the serial console by default." The project's status report offers more information.
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Valve's Steam Deck gaming device runs a customized version of Arch Linux and doesn't have a lot in common with the Linux Mint ecosystem, but that hasn't stopped the Mint team from finding common ground and interesting trivia to share about the Steam Deck. The project's monthly newsletter reports: "Other than Linux and Proton, the Deck relies on an immutable version of Arch, Flatpak and KDE so its ecosystem is a little bit different than the one we have in Linux Mint. The development of SteamOS and Linux Mint aren't likely to have much in common or to converge in any way. That said there will likely be some use cases we'll be able to help with. Warpinator for instance, which we made available as a Flatpak, proved to be useful to share files between computers, smartphones and the Steam Deck."
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The Devuan GNU+Linux team reported issues with their repository verification keys this past weekend. The issue is the key expired which effectively prevented people running Devuan (and its child distributions) from installing or upgrading packages from the official repositories. "At 2022-09-04, the Devuan repository key BB23C00C61FC752C updated at 2017 expired, which has led to difficulties for many users. The key has been corrected in the repository by expanding the validity period, and a new version of devuan-keyring, version 2022.09.04, is available. It is only slightly complicated for an end user to get that new version installed given that their currently installed key version has expired." An overview of the problem along with steps to correct it are covered in a blog post.
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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) |
Watching for changes to directories
Ever-vigilant asks: Is it possible to detect changes in the /boot directory without using something like SELinux or Secure Boot?
DistroWatch answers: Yes, there are ways you can detect changes which happen in a specific directory. There are two main approaches to monitoring a directory I can recommend and they can be used together or individually.
The first approach I'd suggest is to use a utility which will monitor any and all changes to a directory and its contents in real-time. The utility will then report when something happens or log events for you which you can read through later. One such tool for performing this action is inotifywait.
The inotifywait command monitors a file or directory. It either reports when something happens or exits so another command can be run. In a situation where we wanted to monitor just one file for changes we could run a command like this:
inotifywait my-file.txt && echo "Something happened!"
If anything happens to the file my-file.txt - if it is opened, deleted, and changed in any way - then inotifywait exits and the line "Something happened!" will be printed to the terminal.
In the above example we were watching one file to see if it was changed or accessed. We can do the same with an entire directory, using the recursive (-r) flag for inotifywait. In the following example we watch the Documents directory until something changes, then notify the user:
inotifywait -r Documents && echo "Something happened!"
In many situations we will probably want to be notified when something happens in a directory and then have the inotifywait command continue to monitor the directory. We can do this by using the monitor (-m) flag. Using the monitor flag causes inotifywait to print out information when something happens and then continue to watch the directory for future events:
inotifywait -m -r /boot
The result of the above command will be a list of actions which took place and the names of the files which were accessed or altered under the /boot directory.
Using the inotifywait command is useful in situations where you can rely on real-time monitoring or logs to report when files have been changed. However, if you don't trust the system you are monitoring - perhaps because you're worried any monitoring might be compromised at the same time as your /boot directory - then you need to take another approach.
One way to verify files have not been tampered with is to use a live USB drive or live DVD. Boot your computer, ideally right after the operating system has been installed, from the live media and then run a checksum on all the files in your /boot directory. This will give you the hash or "fingerprint" of all the files. You can save these hashes somewhere - ideally on another computer or print them on a physical piece of paper. To get hash values for all the files in a directory you can run:
find /boot -type f -exec sha256sum {} \;
The output of the above command will list the hash file of each file next to its name. This information can be copied to a text file and saved or printed for later verification.
Later on, maybe a week or a month down the road, we can run the same command shown above to get the current hash values of each file. If any hash values are different or the number of files has changed without us performing an update then we know something was altered without our permission.
Ideally you can use both of these methods together. The first should let you know when something has changed. The latter will allow you to periodically audit the system from a live disc, meaning you do not need to trust the main (potentially compromised) system.
Something to keep in mind is, if you do perform system updates, this will change the hash values of the files stored under the /boot directory. It will also trigger a warning from inotifywait, so take this into consideration and plan to re-scan the hash values of your files under /boot after each system update.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
MX Linux 21.2
MX Linux 21.2 is out. The latest update of the number one distribution in our page hit ranking statistics continues to be based on Debian 11 and its 5.10 Linux kernel, but the AHS variant of the Xfce edition now comes with the Linux kernel 5.18. "We are pleased to offer MX Linux 21.2 for your use. MX 21.2 is the second refresh of our MX 21 release, consisting of bug fixes, kernels and application updates since our original release of MX 21. If you are already running MX 21, there is no need to reinstall. Packages are all available through the regular update channel. Highlights include: Debian 11.4 'Bullseye' base; mx-installer received several bug fixes and improvements; mx-tweak has new options for disabling Bluetooth adapters and moving Xfce/GTK file dialog buttons to bottom instead of the top of the dialog; Fluxbox gets a new mxfb-look tool to save and restore theme combinations; mx-updater/apt-notifier has option to use nala as the backend; kernel cleanup tool added to mx-cleanup; disk space check for /boot partitions to make sure a disk has enough room for a kernel update before the update starts...." Continue to the release announcement for full details.
MX Linux 21 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 5MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
GeckoLinux 154.220822.0, 999.220820.0
The GeckoLinux project maintains an openSUSE-based distribution which offers multiple desktop editions. The project has published new media for both the project's Static (Leap-based) branch and its Rolling (Tumbleweed-based) branch. "The GeckoLinux project is pleased to announce major updates to all editions of the Static branch, built from openSUSE Leap 15.4. This series of spins has significantly better support for new hardware thanks to the much newer kernel in openSUSE Leap 15.4. Most packages and desktop environments also have have significant new versions compared to the previous release built from openSUSE Leap 15.3. For this GeckoLinux release, permissions have been relaxed for easier printer administration without the root password. Apart from the major openSUSE updates, there are other no other major tweaks to the GeckoLinux configuration, which was already significantly improved in the previous release. GeckoLinux Static users with existing installations can simply update their systems with these simple GUI instructions." The release announcement also mentions known issues, such as Samba upgrade concerns and a warning that the openSUSE Leap branch will likely reach the end of its life in the next few years.
Linux From Scratch 11.2
Bruce Dubbs has announced the release of version 11.2 of Linux From Scratch, a project that provides a free book containing step-by-step instructions to build a custom Linux system from scratch. A separate book called "Beyond Linux From Scratch", which provides a broad range of instructions for installing and configuring various packages on top of a base LFS system, is also available in version 11.2. "The Linux From Scratch community is pleased to announce the release of LFS version 11.2, LFS version 11.2 (systemd), BLFS version 11.2 and BLFS version 11.2 (systemd). This release is a major update to both LFS and BLFS. The LFS release includes updates to GCC 12.2.0, glibc 2.36 and Binutils 2.39. The Linux kernel has also been updated to version 5.19.2. Changes to text have been made throughout the books. The BLFS version includes approximately 1,000 packages beyond the base Linux From Scratch Version 11.2 book. This release has over 1100 updates from the previous BLFS version including package updates and numerous text and formatting changes. You can read the books online or download to read locally." Here is the release announcement.
Ubuntu 20.04.5
Canonical has announced a point release for Ubuntu 20.04 and its community editions. The new release, 20.04.5, offers updated hardware support along with security fixes since the original 20.04 release. "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS (Long-Term Support) for its Desktop, Server, and Cloud products, as well as other flavours of Ubuntu with long-term support. Like previous LTS series, 20.04.5 includes hardware enablement stacks for use on newer hardware. This support is offered on all architectures. Ubuntu Server defaults to installing the GA kernel; however you may select the HWE kernel from the installer bootloader." The release announcement and release notes offer additional details.
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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: 2,766
- Total data uploaded: 42.4TB
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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) |
Using the Linglong package repository
In this week's look at deepin's new technologies we talked about Linglong. Linglong refers both to a new package manager and a repository of portable applications which appears to be a very close relative of Flatpak. The deepin project reports Linglong will run on other distributions, not just deepin. We would like to hear if our readers are interested in running packages from the Linglong repository.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running immutable operating systems in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you plan to use the Linglong repository?
| Yes: | 29 (2%) |
| No: | 1352 (85%) |
| Only if it has exclusive options: | 63 (4%) |
| Undecided: | 148 (9%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Ubuntu Unity. Ubuntu Unity is spin of the Ubuntu distribution featuring the Unity desktop.
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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, 12 September 2022. 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)
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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BRLix
BRLix GNU/Linux (formerly Famelix GNU/Linux) was a distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. Its peculiarity lies in the adaptation of the user interface so that it resembles Windows Vista (or optionally Windows XP) as much as possible.
Status: Discontinued
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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
