 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1049, 11 December 2023 |
Welcome to this year's 50th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
At DistroWatch we are always looking for projects which perform a new task or perform common tasks well. We're always on the outlook for capable, polished solutions in the open source community. This week we begin with a look at one distribution which is excelling in its field: Lernstick. The Lernstick distribution provides a portable, education-focused environment which is based on Debian and offers a great range of flexibility, multiple desktop environments, and many applications. Read on to learn about our first impressions of Lernstick. Then, in our News section, we talk about openSUSE rebranding itself while Leap 15.4 nears the end of its supported life. FreeBSD 12 is also close to the end of its life and we share details below while Debian pauses updates due to a kernel bug. We also share previews of Linux Mint's new Cinnamon features, talk about Lubuntu's system installer, and AlmaLinux's support for Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL). Plus we discuss alternatives to using the WINE compatibility software for running Windows applications. In our Opinion Poll this week we seek feedback on updating our Major Distributions page in 2024 and then we warmly welcome the SDesk Linux distribution to our database. 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!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: Lernstick 12
- News: openSUSE updating its branding, openSUSE 15.4 nears its end of life, FreeBSD 12.x reaches its end of life, Debian pauses updates, Mint unveils new Cinnamon features, Lubuntu team talks about new features, AlmaLinux expands EPEL support
- Questions and answers: Alternatives to WINE
- Released last week: Kali Linux 2023.4, Alpine Linux 3.19.0, SparkyLinux 7.2
- Torrent corner: KDE neon, Raspberry Pi OS, SolydXK, SparkyLinux
- Opinion poll: Replacing CentOS on the Major Distributions page
- New additions: SDesk
- New distributions: Eltanin Glacies
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Lernstick 12
Lernstick is a portable and secure learning and working environment for school and at home that can be installed on external storage media (e.g. USB sticks, USB hard drives, SD cards, etc.). The distribution is based on Debian's Stable branch. The distribution is intended to perform so that almost every computer can be started from this storage media. Basically, a hard drive with an installed operating system is no longer required. As a result, Lernstick (or "the learning stick") is a platform for so-called "bring your own device" scenarios, in which students can also use their private devices for school purposes.
The latest version of Lernstick is based on Debian 12 and runs on x86_64 computers. The ISO file we download is unusually large, 15.2GB in size. This unusually large ISO includes multiple desktop environments and dozens of applications beyond what we'd normally find in a typical Linux distribution.
When we boot from the Lernstick live media we are presented with a graphical boot menu. From this menu we can toggle settings. One menu option lets us pick our preferred language. The default is German, but other languages, including English, are offered. We are given the chance to select a desktop environment. GNOME is the default and we can also select Cinnamon, Enlightenment, KDE Plasma, LXDE, MATE, Xfce, or a text console.
Lernstick 12 -- The boot menu
(full image size: 95kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
From the boot menu we can access some additional features. The media can perform a self check to verify its contents. The boot menu can also control changing our keyboard layout settings, enabling swap space, and enabling a data partition. The boot menu is unusually flexible and worked well while also looking nice.
Early impressions
The distribution boots and automatically starts a new session in whichever desktop we selected from the boot menu. When running from read-only media, a warning will appear to let us know there is no writable data partition. When using a thumb drive we may have a writable partition where files can be stored.
Regardless of which desktop session we select, an application window opens and offers us a number of choices for transferring or resetting the operating system. There are four main options presented in this window: transfer the existing operating system to external storage, such as a USB stick; upgrade the existing system; convert running media to a DVD ISO file which could be transferred to another machine; or reset the storage media to factory defaults. There does not appear to be an option to transfer the running live system to a hard drive partition, nor did I find a system installer in the application menus of the available desktop environments.
Lernstick 12 -- Transferring the operating system to new media
(full image size: 107kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
While Lernstick defaults to running the GNOME desktop, and I used this session a few times, I cycled through most of the available desktop options, including Plasma, Xfce, LXDE, and MATE. Each of these desktops was presented with their default layout, minimal Debian branding, and they all used light themes. They all worked well and I encountered no issues or crashes during my trial.
Included software
The Lernstick distribution is packed with applications. Browsing through the application menus of the desktop environments we find a huge number of launchers. These launchers consist of some popular items, such as Chromium, Firefox, and LibreOffice. There are other popular items such as the GNU Image Manipulation Program, Inkscape, and the Blender 3-D creation suite. There are several messaging programs, including Mumble, Pidgin, Quassel, Matrix and Signal.
Lernstick 12 -- The KDE Plasma application menu
(full image size: 222kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The Epoptes lab administration tool is included along with Wireshark for listening to network traffic, and multiple remote desktop clients. We're also given bittorrent clients, such as KTorrent, and the KDE Connect utility to synchronise data between multiple devices.
Some multimedia applications are included as well, such as the Audacity player, the Cheese webcam utility, and the LMMS audio player. We're also given a range of file managers, including Dolphin, Thunar, and Caja as most desktop environments have their own file manager.
Where Lernstick stands out from other distributions is its focus on tutorial software, games, and educational games. There are dozens of games included in the distribution along with tutorials, a physics simulator, typing games, a geography trainer, and the gBrainy testing software. There are also learning tools which assist students in the subjects of programming, music, vocabulary, spelling, and piano playing. Plus an installer for the Steam gaming portal client is included.
Lernstick 12 -- Testing problem solving with gBrainy
(full image size: 233kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Several of the included applications have been installed as Flatpak bundles rather than traditional Deb packages. Some of these items are Krita, Kdenlive, digiKam, and the Warpinator file sharing utility. A quick check showed that Flatpak is installed and automatically connects to the Flathub repository, giving us access to a wide range of up to date software. The Flatseal application is installed by default, giving us the ability to manage the sandboxes of installed Flatpak bundles.
Lernstick 12 -- Locking down application permissions using Flatseal
(full image size: 306kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Behind the scenes, Lernstick ships with the GNU command line utilities and their associated manual pages. The GNU Compiler Collection is installed for us as is Java. The distribution runs the systemd init software and runs on Linux 6.4 (Debian 12 shipped with version 6.1 of the kernel and Lernstick has updated it).
In short, Lernstick includes just about every desktop environment, popular application, game, and learning utility we might want. It's a comprehensive collection of open source software.
One application stood out and this was the Welcome to Lernstick program. It's a desktop utility which includes a few tabs. The first offers a brief message suggesting where we can find help and documentation. The second tab offers a chance to install non-free applications such as Google Earth, proprietary fonts, and media codecs. There is also a tab which facilitates fetching additional learning and teaching software. This welcome window doesn't open automatically, but when launched it makes adding extra tools and features pleasantly straight forward.
Lernstick 12 -- Getting a list of installed Flatpak packages
(full image size: 144kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Other observations
Some of the desktop environments Lernstick offers include a feature to allow users to search the application menu for launchers based on their name or a description. GNOME and Plasma, for example, make searching the application menu easy. Xfce and MATE do not include a search feature. When we consider the dozens and dozens of applications Lernstick ships, the search feature becomes more of a bonus in this distribution than in other flavours of Linux.
If we are running a desktop session which locks or if we logout of our account and wish to login to a fresh session, the password for the user account is "live". I didn't see this information explicitly mentioned on the website (the site is in German and I was, at best, working with a rough translation of the text) and I stumbled across the password by guessing.
Lernstick 12 -- Playing games in an Xfce session
(full image size: 446kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
We can use the APT command line tools to work with Deb packages, which are mostly pulled from Debian's repositories. We can also run Flatpak from the command line to manage portable packages and these are automatically pulled from the Flathub repository. The GNOME Software utility is installed for us, however I couldn't get it to work. Updates were not displayed, the software centre had trouble trying to fetch repository information, and I was unable to open the GNOME Software settings page to adjust repositories.
Other software centres, ones associated with different desktops, like KDE's Discover, are not included. GNOME Software appears to be the only modern software manager.
Hardware
I tested Lernstick in VirtualBox and on my laptop. The distribution worked well in both environments. There were slight variations in performance and memory consumption, based on which desktop I was running, though all the desktop sessions I tried were usable. The distribution worked smoothly in VirtualBox and detected all of my laptop's hardware. Audio, networking, and my touchpad all worked as expected. Some desktops did not detect touchpad taps as clicks and some, like LXDE, did not make it easy to adjust touchpad settings. However, most other desktops would adjust the keyboard and touchpad behaviour as desired with minimal effort.
Conclusions
Lernstick is, in my opinion, a rare gem in two distinct ways. It is a rare distribution which appears to be virtually bug free. During my trial almost everything worked - hardware support, games, applications, both Deb and Flatpak package managers, multiple desktop environments, and custom tools. A lot of the credit may be due to the stable Debian base, but even the custom tools seem to all work well. The one exception was GNOME Software, which seems to not be configured properly, but the underlying APT and Flatpak tools did work.
The other aspect of Lernstick I quite like is the distribution has a specific goal and works toward it. This isn't just another distribution spin with some games or custom themes installed. The project aims to provide a portable, flexible, educational and learning environment. Lernstick can be used as a general purpose operating system (it offers a huge collection of open source software) but its focus is being a bring-your-own-system platform which can be used for education, tutorials, and learning games. It performs all of these tasks quite well. Meanwhile, the range of desktop environments and boot options give us a great deal of flexibility.
In short, Lernstick is flexible, highly capable at a range of tasks, well suited to its stated mission, very stable, and it runs flawlessly in my test environments. I'm quite impressed with this portable distribution and how it is suitable both for learning environments and as a general purpose operating system.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Lernstick has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7/10 from 1 review(s).
Have you used Lernstick? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
openSUSE updating its branding, openSUSE 15.4 nears its end of life, FreeBSD 12.x reaches its end of life, Debian pauses updates, Mint unveils new Cinnamon features, Lubuntu team talks about new features, AlmaLinux expands EPEL support
The openSUSE project is embarking on a quest to rebrand itself, making a clearer distinction between SUSE and the openSUSE project. "The openSUSE project adopted the SUSE logo from 2003, but was characterized by a different text beneath it, marking an era of brand association for the community lead project. SUSE has refreshed its brand over the years and its newest logo revealed in 2020 differs completely from that of openSUSE's. However, the brands of both SUSE and openSUSE can oftentimes confuse people who don't understand the relationship between the open-source company SUSE and the open-source community project openSUSE." Details on the history and efforts to rebrand the open source project can be found in the openSUSE blog post.
Marcus Mesissner sent out a reminder that openSUSE 15.4 will reach the end of its supported life at the end of December 2023. People still running this version of Leap are advised to upgrade to version 15.5 which will be supported until the end of 2024. "SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 leaves its regular maintenance and support phase on December 31st 2023. As openSUSE Leap 15.4 uses the SLES 15 SP4 updates, also openSUSE Leap 15.4 support from openSUSE Maintenance and Security will end on December 31st 2023. An upgrade to openSUSE Leap 15.5 is recommended."
* * * * *
The FreeBSD project has sent out a reminder that the FreeBSD 12.x branch will reach the end of its supported life on December 31, 2023. People still running FreeBSD 12 are advised to upgrade to the FreeBSD 13 or 14 branches. "As of December 31, 2023, FreeBSD 12.4 and the stable/12 branch will reach end of life and will no longer be supported by the FreeBSD Security Team. Users of FreeBSD 12.4 are strongly encouraged to upgrade to a newer release as soon as possible." The notice, along with a calendar of current support schedules, can be found on the FreeBSD Announce mailing list.
* * * * *
The Debian project temporarily paused updates to Debian 12.3 and advised users to hold off applying kernel updates while a data corruption bug was addressed in the Linux kernel. "Due to an issue in ext4 with data corruption in kernel 6.1.64-1, we are a pausing the 12.3 image release for today while we attend to fixes. Please do not update any systems at this time, we urge caution for users with Unattended Upgrades configured." Details and progress can be found in this Debian bug report.
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The Linux Mint team have published their November newsletter which highlights some key changes coming to the distribution. One of the new features is very early (alpha stage) support for Wayland baked into the Cinnamon 6.0 desktop. Another new feature is the expansion of Nemo Actions. "Right-click an ISO file. You see 'Verify' and 'Make bootable USB stick' in the context menu? These are Nemo actions. Until now actions were provided by packages and we only shipped actions which were useful to most people. These two actions, for instance, are part of the mintstick package. Starting with Cinnamon 6.0, you'll be able to download, enable and rate actions the same way as applets, desklets, extensions and Cinnamon themes. Actions will be a new type of Cinnamon spices. We'll see a huge variety of new actions popping up in the community and available in Cinnamon."
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The Lubuntu team have published a blog post which outlines changes and features coming to the next version of their distribution. Lubuntu 24.04 "Nobel Numbat" will make the system installer more accessible, offer a minimal install option which will exclude Snap support, and offer an easier way to configure the SDDM login screen. The developers have also explained why they continue to use Calamares as Lubuntu's system installer rather than Ubiquity or Ubuntu's new installer: "The Ubuntu Desktop Team has recently been working on the new Ubuntu Desktop Installer. This tool, developed with Flutter and distributed as a snap, is intended to provide a frontend interface for Subiquity, which is the new installer for Ubuntu Server. They are attempting to replace Ubiquity, which is a noble mission. After thorough evaluation of the new installer, the decision was made not to adopt it for our use. We found that Calamares consistently and continuously outperforms the new installer in UI page performance and installation speed, and aligns more closely with our existing theming. Furthermore, the requirement for each flavor to create a separate snap for theming purposes presents a less than optimal solution."
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The AlmaLinux team is working to make it possible for distributions in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux family to share packages and for users to migrate between the various enterprise distributions. "Hello, Community! Today, AlmaLinux OS Foundation is eager to share some big news concerning our ELevate project, an initiative to support migrations between major versions of RHEL-derivatives. Previously, the project only provided support for official operating systems repositories, excluding external repositories. However, the AlmaLinux Team made significant improvements. We are thrilled to announce that the first step in EPEL support is now included in the ELevate project, enabling smooth migrations between CentOS 7 and AlmaLinux 8. Please be aware that at present, the EPEL support does not include migrating to non-AlmaLinux OSes, or between EL8 and EL9 derivatives, but those are planned for the future!" Tips for testing the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repositories can be found in the AlmaLinux announcement.
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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) |
Alternatives to WINE
Looking-at-the-options asks: Are there any alternatives to WINE for running Windows applications on Linux?
DistroWatch answers: If you're looking for a compatibility layer which will allow Windows applications to run directly on Linux, then WINE is pretty much your only solution. There are a number of projects, such as Proton and CrossOver, which will help you run Windows application on Linux, but they are all based on WINE.
Even ReactOS, which is an open source operating system which strives to be binary compatible with the Windows operating system, shares a lot of its development efforts with the WINE project.
With that said, people who primary run Linux while also requiring access to Windows applications can run Windows in a virtual machine if solutions such as WINE and CrossOver are not able to provide enough compatibility.
Another approach would be to try to find alternatives to popular Windows programs which were written specifically for Linux (or were designed to be cross-platform and can run natively on Linux). For most tasks there are alternative programs which can be run on Linux without a virtual machine or compatibility layer. Long-term, seeking out an alternative, native solution, will usually give the best results and require the least maintenance.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Kali Linux 2023.4
Kali Linux is a Debian-based distribution with a collection of security and forensics tools. The project's latest snapshot is Kali Linux 2023.4 which features a number of usability improvements, many of them courtesy of GNOME 45: "With GNOME 45 hot off the press, Kali Linux is now supporting it! And is looking pretty in the process! For people who opt to use GNOME as their desktop environment, GNOME 45 is now here! If you do not read their changelog, below is a quick summary mixed with some of our tweaks: Full-height sidebars in many updated apps; highly improved speed of search in nautilus file manager; unfortunately the update for Nautilus was not ready for this release, but it will arrive as a later update soon; improved settings app (gnome-control-center); updated color-schemes for gnome-text-editor; updated themes for shell, libadwaita, gtk-3 and gtk-4; updated gnome-shell extensions; shell updates, including a new workspace indicator, replacing the previous Activities button; it is also possible to scroll your mouse wheel while hovering over the indicator to switch between workspaces." Additional information is provided in the distribution's release announcement.
Kali Linux 2023.4 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 1.4MB, resolution: 1920x1200 pixels)
Alpine Linux 3.19.0
The Alpine Linux team have announced the launch of Alpine Linux 3.19.0, the latest stable version of their lightweight operating system. This version introduces support for Raspberry Pi 5 computers. "We are pleased to announce the release of Alpine Linux 3.19.0, the first in the v3.19 stable series. Highlights: Linux kernel 6.6; GCC 13.2; Perl 5.38; LLVM 17; Xen 4.18; PostgreSQL 16; Node.js (lts) 20.10; Ceph 18.2; GNOME 45; Go 1.21; KDE Applications 23.08 / KDE Frameworks 5.112; OpenJDK 21; PHP 8.3; Rust 1.72; Significant changes: Support for Raspberry Pi 5 was added." This release also cleans up some aspects of OpenRC and switches the packet filtering backend to iptables-nft. Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
SparkyLinux 7.2
SparkyLinux is a lightweight, Debian-based distribution featuring a range of editions, most of them providing pre-configured desktop environments. The project's latest Stable release is SparkyLinux 7.2 which is based on Debian 12 "Bookworm". "Sparky 7.2 'Orion Belt' is out. It is a quarterly updated point release of Sparky 7 'Orion Belt' of the stable line. Sparky 7 is based on and fully compatible with Debian 12 'Bookworm'. Changes: all packages updated from Debian and Sparky stable repos as of December 5, 2023; Linux kernel PC: 6.1.55 (6.6.4-sparky and 5.15.141-LTS-sparky in sparky repos); Linux kernel ARM: 6.1.58; LibreOffice 7.4.7; Calamares 3.2.61; KDE Plasma 5.27.5; LXQt 1.2.0; MATE 1.26; Xfce 4.18; Openbox 3.6.1; Firefox 115.5.0esr (120.0.1-sparky in Sparky repos); Thunderbird 115.5.0; VLC 3.0.20; Exaile 4.1.3." Additional details are provided in the project's release announcement.
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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: 2,939
- Total data uploaded: 43.8TB
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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) |
Replacing CentOS on the Major Distributions page
For years the CentOS Linux distribution has been included as one of the ten projects listed on our Major Distributions page. And with good reason. This clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux was one of the most widely used server distributions in the world.
However, CentOS Linux is no longer being developed. Red Hat has set up a new project in its place, called CentOS Stream, which acts as a testing and community contribution space. However, while the new project bears a similar name, it doesn't fulfill the same role or purpose. The discontinued CentOS Linux has largely been replaced by the rise of several new distributions, such as AlmaLinux OS, Rocky Linux, EuroLinux, and other enterprise-focused distributions which pull from Red Hat's source code.
With this in mind, it seems clear it doesn't make sense to list CentOS Linux as one of the major distributions anymore. However, it does leave the question of which project, if any, should replace it on the Major Distributions page. Perhaps the spot should be left empty or perhaps another project should be given the space. We'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter. Leave us a comment and let us know which project you feel would best replace the CentOS Linux listing in 2024.
You can see the results of our previous poll on whether our readers are running a desktop environment that supports X11, Wayland, or both in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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What should we do with CentOS Linux on our Major Distributions page?
| Leave it and update with new information: | 147 (11%) |
| Switch the entry to cover CentOS Stream: | 226 (17%) |
| Remove it and do not replace: | 569 (42%) |
| Remove it and replace with distro mentioned in comments: | 426 (31%) |
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| Website News |
New projects added to database
SDesk
SDesk is an Arch-based Linux distribution which strives for an easy to use, modern approach to desktop computing. The SDesk project ships up to date software and uses GNOME running on a Wayland session for its default desktop environment. SDesk includes a number of popular open source applications, including LibreOffice and uses Calamares to install the operating system.
SDesk 2023.12.03 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 237kB, resolution: 1920x1440 pixels)
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Eltanin Glacies. Eltanin Glacies is a Linux distribution featuring the Eltanin userland software. The distribution features many unique components, including its own atomic package manager (Venus), an alternative C library (Tertium), and the durden window manager. Glacies runs the s6 init software.
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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, 18 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)
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Linux Mangaka
Linux Mangaka was a desktop Linux distribution originally designed primarily for the fans of Japanese Manga and Anime, but eventually evolving into a complete, beginner-friendly operating system with complete multimedia support. Based on Ubuntu with GNOME and Google desktop, the distribution includes a large variety of programs for graphics design, many freely available Google applications, a number of games, and an innovative set of desktop themes.
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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