 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1048, 4 December 2023 |
Welcome to this year's 49th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
In the Linux community, the herd of Wayland-backed desktop sessions have been slowly coming over the horizon for years. As window managers and desktops gradually adopt Wayland, some distributions are looking to phase out the old X11-powered desktop sessions. Our Questions and Answers column tackles the topic of Wayland gradually replacing X11 sessions and how long X11 applications are likely to be supported. Also this week, in our News section, we talk about Red Hat's plans to ease X11 out the door in favour of Wayland. Meanwhile the Fedora team is looking at making it possible to start new Wayland sessions remotely as the UBports team highlights a new tool to help develop applications on mobile devices. First though we take a look at openSUSE's MicroOS running the GNOME desktop. MicroOS is an immutable operating system which combines openSUSE packages with portable packages on a fixed foundation. Read on to learn more about this interesting branch of the openSUSE family. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: openSUSE MicroOS
- News: Red Hat phasing out X.Org packages, UBports makes it easier to develop on mobile devices, Fedora to support remote Wayland login sessions
- Questions and answers: The transition from X11 to Wayland
- Released last week: 4MLinux 44.0, Armbian 23.11, NixOS 23.11
- Torrent corner: Armbian, KDE neon, Proxmox, Tails
- Opinion poll: Does your desktop or window manager support Wayland, X11, or both?
- New distributions: AcorOS, Starbuntu
- Reader comments
|
| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
openSUSE MicroOS
MicroOS is a special branch of the openSUSE project. The MicroOS branch, which uses the same technologies as other openSUSE editions, offers an immutable operating system. This means the core system is read-only and not meant to be changed while the distribution is running.
I tried MicroOS a little over a year ago, running the edition's KDE Plasma desktop. The experience, in line with the edition's label of being alpha-level software, was (in brief) poor. A year ago the Plasma flavour of MicroOS threw a lot of errors and ran into a number of problems. Though, again, in all fairness it was marked as "alpha" quality software.
I checked back on MicroOS and discovered that, in terms of classifications, not much has changed. MicroOS still bears the warning that the Plasma flavour is alpha software and the GNOME flavour is still considered a release candidate (as it was a year ago). Things may be moving slowly in the MicroOS ecosystem. Still, I was curious to see how the GNOME edition was coming along and if it could offer a better experience than my trial with the Plasma edition.
MicroOS is offered as a 4.1GB ISO file. A minor annoyance I ran into early on was the ISO's filename didn't match the filename listed in openSUSE's checksum file. This just means that automated hash checking tools don't work (reporting an error) and the checksum needed to be verified manually.
Installing
Booting from the MicroOS media brought up a boot menu where we can choose to boot from a local hard disk or launch the system installer. Taking the Install option launches a graphical environment and starts openSUSE's installer.
The install process is fairly straight forward. We are shown a license agreement and then asked to select a role for our new operating system. Roles include: MicroOS (minimal install with no services); Container Host (this offers Podman for handling container workloads); Desktop (with GNOME); Desktop (with Plasma); Remote Attestation (Agent); and Remote Attestation (Verifier). Since it didn't seem like the desktop flavours had advanced in their stability, I chose the GNOME option for my trial since the Plasma role was a mess during my previous experiment.
We are asked if we'd like to select a remote time server for syncing our system's clock and then given a chance to create a password for the root account. We're then shown a summary of actions the installer will take and we can click convenient links next to each action item in the summary to change it. These links to advanced options in the installer might be my favourite part of setting up a fresh copy of openSUSE.
The installer then set up a Btrfs volume and copied its packages to my hard drive. Once the installer finishes its work the computer is automatically rebooted and launches the new copy of MicroOS.
Early impressions
The first time MicroOS boots it brings up the GNOME desktop and runs a wizard to complete a few configuration steps. We're asked to pick our preferred language from a list, select our keyboard's layout, and asked if we'd like to enable location services. We're then asked to pick our timezone from a map. The final two steps invite us to connect with on-line accounts (Google, Nextcloud, and Microsoft are supported) and then create a username and password combination for our regular user.
At this point we are presented with the GNOME desktop and left to explore. In the future, when the system boots, it shows us a graphical login screen. From the login screen we have four session options: GNOME (running a Wayland session), GNOME Classic (also on Wayland), GNOME on an X11 session, and GNOME Classic on X11. I mostly stayed with the GNOME Wayland session and it worked well during my trial.
openSUSE MicroOS 2023 -- The GNOME Settings panel
(full image size: 579kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
GNOME is presented in a fairly minimal style with a panel across the top that holds the Activities menu and system tray. The default theme is dark, though this can be adjusted in the desktop's settings panel. When the Activities screen is opened, a dock is presented at the bottom of the screen with a few launchers and a button to display a full screen grid of application launchers. This makes getting to the applications a bit of a process, with a lot of mouse movement. GNOME's layout is awkward, but functional.
Included software
The first time I ran the GNOME session a window popped up letting me know Firefox was being installed. This was followed by other messages indicating additional apps, such as a calculator, were also being installed. Once this series of packages were installed I browsed the application menu to find the following items: Firefox, GNOME Software, the GNOME Files file manager, a system monitor, virtual terminal, and a text editor. These applications worked and I had no problems with them. The GNOME Help documentation portal is also installed, but no help pages are included. Launching GNOME Help just displays an empty window instead of the expected documentation. The GNOME Settings panel is also included to help us customize the desktop.
openSUSE MicroOS 2023 -- Seeking documentation in GNOME Help
(full image size: 451kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Behind the scenes we can find the GNU command line utilities installed. There is no man command, so no access to local manual pages by default. The systemd init software is provided and, at the time of writing, MicroOS was running version 6.5 of the Linux kernel.
Hardware
When I tried running MicroOS in a VirtualBox environment the distribution performed adequately. The system was stable and ran without serious issues, though desktop performance was subpar. This is fairly typical for GNOME running in a virtual machine. When running MicroOS on my workstation all of my hardware was detected, the distribution connected to local wireless networks, and performance was improved. The desktop still wasn't particularly responsive when compared with alternatives such as Xfce or Plasma, but it ran well enough for me to work comfortably with it.
openSUSE MicroOS 2023 -- Exploring the system in a virtual terminal
(full image size: 657kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
MicroOS is unusually heavy in memory, taking up 1,100MB of RAM just to sign into the minimal GNOME environment. MicroOS's Plasma flavour took 640MB, for the sake of comparison, a little more than half the memory with the same base operating system. Other mainstream distributions I have run this year tend to consume between 500MB and 800MB of memory. The MicroOS distribution also consumed a lot of disk space, 7.2GB for a fresh install, which feels like a lot since only a handful of applications are included. Again, for comparison's sake, my experiment with the Plasma flavour used 2.8GB of space on the drive.
Software centre
The GNOME flavour of MicroOS uses GNOME Software to manage applications. There are three tabs in this software centre: Explore, Installed, and Updates. During my trial there were no new updates released, which made the Updates tab uninteresting.
openSUSE MicroOS 2023 -- Browsing software packages
(full image size: 568kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The Installed tab lists packages which are already on the system. These include items like Firefox and the calculator. MicroOS installs applications as Flatpak bundles on a per-user basis. These Flatpak packages are pulled from the Flathub repository. This means each user gets their own copy of an application. A nice side effect of this is we can add or remove applications to our account without needing to use a password or other form of administrator access.
The Explore tab shows us categories of applications we can browse. There is also a search box where we can search for software based on a name or description. Clicking on a specific application's entry in the Explore tab brings up a full screen description and a screenshot of the software in action. We can click a button to install new items and continue to browse for additional applications. Software is fetched in the background and we can check on the status of items being installed by switching to the Installed tab.
Conclusions
I feel as though openSUSE's MicroOS is, at the moment, less a full featured operating system (like openSUSE Leap), Ubuntu, or Manjaro, and more of a minimal platform on which we can build our computing experience. The MicroOS edition ships with very little software, beyond the core desktop, and we (as the user) are expected to layer on any software required to accomplish tasks. While this introduces a bit more set up time at the beginning, the idea of installing just the Flatpak bundles we need does appeal to me, at least in terms of setting up an end user desktop experience.
Unlike the experience I had with MicroOS's Plasma flavour last year, the GNOME experience was quite good. I'd even say it was pleasantly polished. It feels like the developers actually use this system and have ironed out most of the issues. There were just a few exceptions, such as the GNOME Help application not displaying any documentation, but otherwise my trial with MicroOS was quite solid this time around.
When I test out distributions, especially ones trying new things, I strive to look at two key factors: Does this project accomplish what it sets out to do? And will I find this useful?
The GNOME flavour of MicroOS (which is sometimes referred to as openSUSE Aeon) certainly seems to be accomplishing its goals. The distribution was stable, worked well with my hardware, and presented very few problems. It was easy to install new desktop applications, even more seamless than on most distributions since a password wasn't required. One of my few concerns was how heavy MicroOS was when running GNOME, even compared to the Plasma flavour of the same platform. It's unusually large, but the experience and software included are minimal.
While MicroOS appears to be accomplishing its goals and doing well, I'm not sure I'd want to use it myself on a regular basis. Apart from the heavy memory usage, I ran into two things which make me hesitate to keep running MicroOS. One is that there doesn't appear to be much documentation for it yet (or a community around it). I tried looking up a few aspects of how the atomic updates work and how to perform some configuration tasks without openSUSE's YaST control panel. The documentation in the wiki appears to be limited and more of a quick reference for people already familiar with MicroOS.
My other concern is, as with some other immutable platforms, low-level package management and software configuration gets complicated. It's easy enough to fetch a Flatpak and install it in our user's account with MicroOS. The process is quite smooth. However, when it comes to adding or configuring command line software and libraries (things I use in my line of work administrating and developing software), MicroOS becomes awkward. First, the documentation on package management linked to in the wiki is missing at the time of writing, so that's no help. It looks as though the recommended way to handle command line software and libraries is to install a container, put a base image of another openSUSE edition in the container, and then install RPM packages into the container. This feels really indirect and leaves me feeling as though people like me will be better served by simply installing a different edition of openSUSE as the main operating system.
In short, openSUSE's MicroOS is doing well, it runs smoothly, it's accomplishing its goal of being an easy to use, immutable operating system. I might set up something like this for less technical users. However, it's quite minimal, there isn't much documentation, and the immutable nature makes some low-level tasks and tweaking more complicated.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo desktop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Hex-core Intel i5-10400 CPU @ 2.90GHz
- Storage: Western Digital 1TB hard drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 wired network card, Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11ac PCIe wireless adapter
- Display: Intel CometLake-S GT2
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
openSUSE has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.7/10 from 437 review(s).
Have you used openSUSE? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Red Hat phasing out X.Org packages, UBports makes it easier to develop on mobile devices, Fedora to support remote Wayland login sessions
Red Hat has announced plans to drop X.Org packages from the upcoming release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 10, instead using Wayland and (when necessary) Xwayland for backward compatibility with X11 applications. "With this, we've decided to remove Xorg server and other X servers (except Xwayland) from RHEL 10 and the following releases. Xwayland should be able to handle most X11 clients that won't immediately be ported to Wayland, and if needed, our customers will be able to stay on RHEL 9 for its full life cycle while resolving the specifics needed for transitioning to a Wayland ecosystem. It's important to note that 'Xorg Server' and 'X11' are not synonymous, X11 is a protocol that will continue to be supported through Xwayland, while the Xorg Server is one of the implementations of the X11 protocol." Details on this change can be found in the company's announcement.
* * * * *
One of the barriers to running many open mobile operating systems on phones is the lack of applications on these platforms. The latest UBports newsletter highlights some new applications, one of which aims to facilitate development on the UBports mobile operating system. "Touch IDE is a touch-optimized, mobile-friendly development environment. Its programming language is easy to use and doesn't require tedious keyboard input. You can create and run your scripts on your mobile device without using a PC. The scripts are converted to pure HTML/JavaScript-based applications in the background and are therefore executed on your device immediately, without further compilation." Additional information on Touch IDE can be found in the UBports Open Store repository.
* * * * *
There are some interesting components coming together in GNOME and in the Fedora distribution which will soon allow users to set up remote desktop sessions and login to their GNOME desktop running on Wayland. Christian F.K. Schaller takes us through a tour of new features, such as PipeWire, updated NVIDIA video drivers, and remote Wayland sessions in an exciting feature preview. "One feature we been also spending a lot of time on is enabling remote logins to a Wayland desktop. You have been able to share your screen under Wayland more or less from day one, but it required your desktop session to be already active. But let's say you wanted to access your Wayland desktop running on a headless system. You [have] been out of luck so far and had to rely on the old X session instead. So putting in place all the pieces for this has been quite an undertaking with work having been done on PipeWire, on Wayland portals, gnome remote desktop daemon, libei; the new input emulation library, GDM and more. The pieces needed are finally falling into place and we expect to have everything needed landed in time for GNOME 46."
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
The transition from X11 to Wayland
Phasing-out-the-old asks: With Wayland quickly gaining in popularity, how long before we can expect X11 applications to no longer work?
DistroWatch answers: While the Wayland display protocol is currently being adopted by a few of the major desktop environments and, by extension, enabled in quite a few distributions, there is a lot of inertia involved in the situation. The X11 protocol, and the related display servers which implement X11, have been around for around 40 years. X11 has been a central component of desktop computing for Linux distributions, the BSDs, and related operating systems for decades. There are dozens of window managers, several desktop environments, and thousands of applications which were developed to work with the X11 protocol. When a technology becomes this widespread and ingrained, it takes a long time for it to fade away.
At the moment there are two major desktops which are moving toward being primarily Wayland-based (GNOME and KDE Plasma) with a few others (such as Xfce and Cinnamon) planning to slowly implement Wayland sessions in the coming years. That still leaves several desktop environments and most window managers remaining on X11, at least for the moment. It's probably going to be at least another five years before all the major Linux desktop environments default to running Wayland at its current rate of adoption.
After that, there will still be some holdouts which continue to run X11 sessions by default, or even exclusively. And, even if those projects switch over to Wayland eventually, the X11 protocol will likely live on as a legacy option, at least in conservative desktop environments and long-term support distributions which offer up to ten years of support.
In the Linux ecosystem, where Wayland is gaining most of its ground, X11 still likely has a lifespan of 15 to 20 years before it is no longer supported directly. I say "directly" here, because part of Wayland is the XWayland component which allows Wayland sessions to run X11 applications. This will allow software built to work with X11 to continue to run for years, probably decades longer, even after standalone X11 sessions are no longer supported by most Linux distributions.
I'd also like to observe that, while Wayland does work on some other platforms, it is most commonly used on Linux distributions. It would not surprise me if X11 continues to be the default display protocol for a while longer on the BSDs and other, more conservative, branches of the Unix family.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
Nitrux fefc905b
The Nitrux team have published a new version of the project's Debian-based distribution. The project's latest release, which is labelled "fefc905b" and referred to as 3.2.0 in the release announcement updates the kernel, key desktop applications, and enforces strict password checks in the Calamares system installer. "Nitrux 3.2.0 build.301123.fx uses Linux 6.6.2-1 (Liquorix). We've updated the following components of the distribution. Firefox to version 120.0. KDE Gear version 23.08.3. Updates to our Calamares settings include the following. Calamares will now enforce a stricter user password quality check by using libpwquality to increase user account security. When creating the main user account, i.e., the 'system administrator,' users must use a password over eight characters long, including uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols, when creating their user accounts during installation. We recommend using a password generator application or website. Otherwise, the password quality check will be too low, and the installation will not continue."
Armbian 23.11
Armbian is a Linux distribution designed for ARM development boards. The project's latest release is Armbian 23.11 which is based on Debian 12 "Bookworm". "Key Improvements in This Release: Addressing numerous bugs for improved functionality for Banana Pi CM4. Mainline Kernel for RK3588 with experimental HDMI support. Fixed Display Managers across all desktops. Experimental EDK2/UEFI Support for RK3588 boards. Introducing Ubuntu Mantic and Debian Trixie as daily image builds. Enhancing quality control through automated tests. Highlights of completed actions: closed projects - In this version, we've successfully closed several projects, including switching the default login manager, enabling artifacts creation at pull request, and adding support for Hikey 960. Additionally, we've updated the edge kernel to v6.6 and introduced new Armbian wallpapers. The support for various boards like NanoPi R6S/R6C, TI SK-TDA4VM, Xiaomi-elish, and more has been added, enhancing the range of compatible devices." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
4MLinux 44.0
The 4MLinux project develops a lightweight distribution with a focus on four key areas (gaming, multimedia, servers, and maintenance. The project's latest release is version 44.0 which introduces some new features. The release announcement reads: "The status of the 4MLinux 44.0 series has been changed to STABLE. Edit your documents with LibreOffice 7.6.3 and GNOME Office (AbiWord 3.0.5, GIMP 2.10.34, Gnumeric 1.12.55), surf the Internet with Firefox 119.0.1 and Chrome 119.0.6045.123, send emails via Thunderbird 115.4.2, enjoy your music collection with Audacious 4.3.1, watch your favorite videos with VLC 3.0.20 and SMPlayer 23.6.0, play games powered by Mesa 23.1.4 and Wine 8.19. You can also setup the 4MLinux LAMP Server (Linux 6.1.60, Apache 2.4.58, MariaDB 10.6.16, PHP 5.6.40, PHP 7.4.33, and PHP 8.1.25). Perl 5.36.0, Python 2.7.18, Python 3.11.4, and Ruby 3.2.2 are also available. As always, the new major release has some new features. Mesa3D drivers providing system-wide support for Video Acceleration API (VA-API) have been added. QMMP (audio player), Media Player Classic QT (video player), Capitan Sevilla (platform video game) are now available as downloadable extensions. Additionally, the new stable release offers improved support for SPL printing as well as wireless networking."
NixOS 23.11
NixOS is an independent distribution based around the Nix package andsystem manager. The project's latest release is NixOS 23.11 which upgrades the LLVM build software and introduces GNOME 45, along with several other package upgrades and new modules. "In addition to packages the NixOS distribution also features modules and tests that make it what it is. This release brought 113 new modules and removed 18. In that process we added 1565 options and removed 362. GNOME 45 - GNOME has been updated to version 45 "Riga", which introduces a new image viewer, a new camera app, and more changes. Refer to the release notes for more details. Default LLVM version - The default version for the LLVM package set has been updated to 16 (from 11) on both Linux and Darwin, which introduced lots of new features and improvements. The full lists of changes are available here (LLVM) and here (Clang)." Additional information is available in the project's release announcement.
NixOS 23.11 -- Running the Plasma desktop
(full image size: 525kB, resolution: 1920x1440 pixels)
Murena 1.17
Murena has announced a new stable update to the project's 1.x branch. The new version, Murena /e/OS 1.17, updates the web browser and the microG compatibility software, and introduces a number of bug fixes. "We're excited to bring you /e/OS 1.17 with significant improvements. Stay updated with refreshed Browser and microG, ensuring a more secure online journey. Bug fixes include functional bookmarks, smooth SMS experiences, and improved settings visibility. Device highlights feature firmware upgrades for Fairphone 5 and Teracube 2e, with improved functionality and fixes. Important note: This version marks the final version for Android Q; please consider upgrading for continued support if your device is compatible with a more recent Android version." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
Mabox Linux 23.12
Daniel Napora has announced the release of Mabox Linux 23.12, an updated build of the project's lightweight Linux distribution that features a customised desktop based on the Openbox window manager. The new release updates the Linux kernel to the long-term supported (LTS) version 6.6: "The December 2023 release of refreshed ISO images brings the latest 6.6 LTS kernel. Of course, there is still an ISO image available with the slightly older 5.4 LTS kernel version which may be a good choice for some older hardware. The Tint2 panel and Jgmenu are known for offering advanced users incredible capabilities and customization options. We use these possibilities in Mabox. One of the unique features of the Tint2 panel is the ability to connect your own actions (commands or scripts) to events such as left, middle or right click, mouse wheel up or down on panel elements. Conky in Mabox has been equipped with additional features that you will not find in any other Linux distribution. Here again, the wonderful Jgmenu was used with the addition of excellent glue - Bash scripts." Read the rest of the release announcement, with many screenshots, for further information.
Mabox Linux 23.12 -- Running the Openbox window manager
(full image size: 835kB, resolution: 1920x1440 pixels)
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| 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: 2,935
- Total data uploaded: 43.8TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Does your desktop or window manager support Wayland, X11, or both?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about the aging X11 protocol being replaced by the new Wayland graphics protocol. A few desktop environments and window managers have already adopted Wayland, a few exclusively, though X11 is still a supported session option with almost all graphical desktops. This week we'd like to hear whether your preferred desktop environment offers Wayland, X11, or both at login time.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using various types of swap space in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Does your desktop/window manager support Wayland or X11?
| Wayland: | 125 (9%) |
| X11: | 668 (47%) |
| Both: | 587 (42%) |
| I do not use a graphical session: | 6 (0%) |
| I do not run an OS where X11 and Wayland are supported: | 26 (2%) |
|
|
| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- AcorOS. AcorOS is a Debian-based distribution which uses the Calamares system installer. AcorOS is available in LXQt, Xfce, and Cinnamon desktop flavours.
- Starbuntu. Starbuntu is an Ubuntu-based distribution featuring the Openbox window manager with a number of customizations.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 11 December 2023. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. 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)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 1, value: US$26) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| 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 |
| 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.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Momonga Linux
Momonga Linux was a Japanese Linux distribution developed in a bazaar-style model by its developer community. The distribution's main features include secure default settings, strong support and usage of Ruby, easy handling and processing of electronic documents, packages for scientific and technical computations, an easily configurable installer, support for a large number of file systems, and selection of newest packages at the time of installation.
Status: Discontinued
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
