 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1083, 12 August 2024 |
Welcome to this year's 33rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Many of us have an ever-growing collection of digital data. We tend to accumulate photos, music, old messages, contact lists, calendar appointments, and other files which grow over time. Whether we want to just store this information or share it, we need a place to put it all. This week we begin with a look at TrueNAS, a network-attached storage solution which strives to be easy to set up with a point-and-click web interface to make configuring on-line storage as easy as possible. Jesse Smith test drives TrueNAS's SCALE edition and reports on the experience. In our News section we discuss Redox OS, a Unix-like operating system written in Rust, and how the project is reaching new milestones in its development. We also share information on a series of issues which can cause Linux laptops to consume more power when running PipeWire and talk about Canonical's new kernel release policy. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we discuss running Linux distributions on smartphones and what projects are available for mobile devices. Do you run a smartphone that is compatible with GNU/Linux distributions? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. Plus we are pleased to share a list of new releases. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE"
TrueNAS is an operating system (or family of operating systems) sponsored by iXsystems for network attached storage systems. TrueNAS is available in a few editions. The project's CORE edition is based on FreeBSD while the SCALE edition, intended to accommodate both small and larger deployments, is based on Debian.
Whichever edition we decide to use, TrueNAS provides a mostly-automated install process, a friendly web-based user interface for remote administration, and can manage ZFS storage pools through a nice, point-and-click interface. I talked about TrueNAS CORE a few years ago, and two years prior to that, reviewed the project's earlier incarnation when it was called FreeNAS.
While I had tried FreeNAS and TrueNAS CORE in the past, I had not tried the Linux-based TrueNAS SCALE edition yet and decided to give it a test drive. The SCALE edition is available for x86_64 machines and is provided as a 1.5GB ISO download.
Booting from the SCALE media brings up a textmenu where we are asked if we'd like to Install/Upgrade TrueNAS. This menu also has options for accessing a command line shell, rebooting the machine, and shutting down the computer. The shell is very minimal. The shell has no history and the environment is very minimal, with few tools. For example, there are no top, ps, or less commands. There seems to be just enough of an environment to set up TrueNAS on our disk. Exiting the shell takes us back to the menu.
When we take the Install option the system asks us which hard drive (or hard drives) we want it to use to set up the operating system. I'd like to note here that TrueNAS will take up one entire disk, no matter how large the disk is. This disk is used for the operating system only. We need to use additional disks for data we will store on the NAS. We are next asked if we wish to login to the system as the "admin" user or as the "root" user. The latter, root, is not recommended. I took the default "admin" option and was asked to create a password for the admin account. We're then shown some simple progress information as files are copied to the local disk.
The installer only needed a couple of minutes and then returned to the initial menu where I was asked if I wished to Install, access a shell, restart, or shutdown the machine.
One more thing I'd like to mention is TrueNAS recommends at least 8GB of RAM for SCALE. This isn't required, the operating system can work with quite a bit less memory (my machine used about 2.4GB with a single disk storage pool), but 8GB is suggested.
First impressions
TrueNAS SCALE boots slowly. This happened the first time I launched SCALE and it continued on future boots, taking quite a bit longer than other Linux-based desktop and server systems usually do. The boot messages scrolling up the screen seem to suggest plug-ins and services provided by iX (iXsystems) are taking time to load in the background. Once the system finishes booting we are shown the system's IP address and a menu is displayed with nine options: Configure network interfaces; configure network settings; configure routes; change admin password; reset all configuration to defaults; open TrueNAS CLI shell; open Linux shell; reboot; and shutdown.
Some of these are fairly obvious in their function. Resetting all configuration options and the admin password, for instance, do exactly what we'd expect. Likewise, rebooting and shutting down the computer are clear. The "Linux shell" option simple opens the zsh with us signed in as the root user. I was curious about the differences between configuring network interfaces and network settings. The former allows us to create new interfaces and toggle DHCP for each one. The Network Settings entry covers setting up network gateways and nameservers.
I want to point out that TrueNAS automatically signs us into the root account. We don't need a password to access this menu and accessing the "Linux shell" gives us root access to the system. While convenient, I don't like that the system just assumes anyone who sits at the keyboard should have root access. I feel there should be at least an option to enable password protection. I suppose TrueNAS is meant to be run in environments where there is a dedicated, locked server room, but for people wanting to try it at home, it's unnerving to have a system that can be wiped out accidentally by a five year old mashing buttons.
TrueNAS shell
The TrueNAS shell is a unique experience and I want to talk about it for a bit. Accessing the shell asks us to type "ls" to list available commands. This shows us a list of works like System, and Task. Once we have typed the name of a category, we can type "ls" again to see sub-categories or settings we can manipulate. Apart from telling us to use "ls" to see available options and "man" to see how to use the options, the shell is silent on how it works or what we can do with it. The situation was made more cryptic when I found typing "man" followed by an option name always returns and error which said the command was "not found". Typing "quit" retuned me to the original, nine-item menu.
To make matters worse, sometimes new status messages from background services would be printed to the console, mixing with the TrueNAS shell's output. This sometimes made it hard to see what was happening.
I looked up on-line documentation for the TrueNAS shell. It is described as follows: "The new SCALE command-line interface (CLI) lets you directly configure SCALE features using namespaces and commands based on the SCALE API. TrueNAS CLI is still in active development. We are not accepting bug reports or feature requests at this time.
See SCALE CLI Reference Guide for more information on using the TrueNAS CLI."
I read through the documentation and it feels as though much of it was auto-generated or created from a template. Most of the descriptions of categories and options are almost identical, with just a word or two changed. They all read this this entry for the Sharing category in the shell: "Sharing: Introduces the TrueNAS CLI sharing namespace and provides access to child namespaces and commands including iscsi, nfs, and smb." I didn't find any information on what the available options and commands were. This is okay as most users will probably use the web interface to manage TrueNAS, but I hope more documentation is added for the shell for future releases.
I did eventually return to the TrueNAS shell and got the hang of navigating into and out of categories (typing ".." reverses up one level in the menu system). Some commands included descriptions or were fairly clear, while others were a bit less obvious. For example, running the "System -> ready" command just prints "true" on the screen if the system has finished booting. Running "System -> version" prints the TrueNAS version on the console: "12.04.2". These are straight forward enough. However, the "System -> truenas" entry has no description and running "man truenas" returns a "command not found" error so it's a bit of a mystery. Other commands technically work, I suppose, but aren't all that useful. For instance, running "App -> available" should show a list of applications we can install, but this is the output of the command:
TrueNAS 24.04.2 SCALE -- Shell output when requesting list of available applications
(full image size: 19kB, resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
Web interface
For most users, managing TrueNAS will happen through the project's web interface. We can access the web portal using either HTTP or HTTPS over the default ports. We are shown a login screen where we can sign in using the username "admin" and the password we created during the initial install process.
Once we sign into the web interface we are shown a dashboard screen which displays the version of TrueNAS we are running. We are also shown update, links to forums and documentation, and a button to check for updates. The dashboard also shows a quick overview of CPU usage, memory consumption, and network activity. When I checked for updates, none were available.
Apart from the dashboard screen there are ten other tabs, displayed down the left side of the interface. I'd like to provide a quick summary of these tabs and what they do for us.
- Storage - This tab shows ZFS storage pools attached to our NAS. If no pools exist, this screen provides options to create a new pool or import an existing ZFS pool. We can click a button labelled Disks to see storage devices attached to our NAS, including the drive hosting the SCALE operating system. When creating a new pool, we can select which disks we want to use (the entire disk will be wiped and used). We can also set encryption, mirroring, and RAID options.
- Datasets - From this tab we can create or manage ZFS datasets and snapshots. A dataset is a location or collection of data inside a ZFS pool. Datasets allow us to do some useful things, such as treat home directories individually or take snapshots of application data separately from user documents. I quite like how this page is organized as it makes creating and snapshotting parts of a ZFS pool quite easy.
TrueNAS 24.04.2 SCALE -- Setting up automated snapshots
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- Shares - This page shows any existing NFS and Samba shares. We can create new shares which provide access to any location on the data drives. This makes setting up, for example, a Samba share for a directory in a user's home as easy as a few clicks.
TrueNAS 24.02.2 SCALE -- Setting up and accessing a network share
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- Data Protection - From the Data Protection tab we can schedule automated scrub tasks on ZFS. By default these are set up to run weekly. This tab also contains options for scheduling backups to remote locations and cloud storage providers. It's quite straight forward and we can select supported services from a drop-down list.
- Network - From this tab we can see the NAS's IP addresses, network configuration, and DNS settings.
- Credentials - User account management is offered through the Credentials tab. We can add and edit accounts. We can set up new users, assign them a home direcotry, install SSH keys, set user passwords, and enable sudo access.
- Virtualization - This tab gives us the ability to set up new virtual machines which will run in a KVM environment.
- Apps - The Apps tab is perhaps the most interesting one of the group. This tab provides us with access to 107 apps we can download. There is quite a range in functionality, not just storage related applications. There are some NAS related items like Syncthing, Qbittorrent, and Nextcloud, but also Minecraft, the FreshRSS feed client, and the Handbrake media converter.
When we find an application we want we can click a button to fetch the application. There are also fields we can fill out for some applications which will, for example, pick where the application will be installed on the filesystem, what the app's admin password will be, and possibly what network ports it will use. Once we pick our settings the app is installed (the interface calls it "deployed"). From the Apps tab we can then start and stop any installed applications.
- Reporting - The Reporting tab shows us status and resource monitors for CPU load, memory, disk, and network. This is quite similar to the Dashboard tab, though a bit more focused on just system resources.
- System Settings - The System Settings tab is broken down into several sub-pages. These pages allow us access to updates, boot environments, a web-based command line shell, and DNS servers. We can also enable and disable background services like Samba, FTP, and secure shell. Basically all the low-level items and background software is handled through the Systems Settings screens.
TrueNAS 24.04.2 SCALE -- Toggling background services
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Other observations
While exploring TrueNAS SCALE I made some additional observations. For example, after I had created a regular user account and started storing files under this user's home (and Samba share) I tried to sign into the web interface. My signin attempt was rejected with a generic error about using the wrong username or password. I confirmed my credentials were correct and tried again and, once more, saw the generic error message. I tried adding my regular user to the "admin" user group and was still blocked from signing into the web interface. I eventually found I had to add my regular user to one of the pre-defined TrueNAS groups, either truenas_readonly_administrators or truenas_administrators. The former allows us to login and monitor the system, but blocks the user from changing any system settings.
TrueNAS 24.04.2 SCALE -- Managing user accounts
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I found that if I strayed away from the web interface for a while (I think ten minutes) the session would timeout. This is probably for the best as it adds a little security, logging us out automatically if we are idle. I looked for a way to disable the timeout, but didn't find an option to adjust it.
I decided to install a few applications. After installing the Nextcloud app the CPU usage of my NAS went through the roof. CPU consumption went to 100% and stayed there, endlessly. No apps were shown as actually running in the Apps tab of the web interface. Looking at the output from top in the shell showed the k3s-server process, which does not have a local manual page, was the culprit. Killing this process just caused it to restart and take up all available CPU resources again. Having k3s-server running also meant a steady flow of status messages to the NAS's console, making it impossible to use the text interface. To fix the issue I had to remove all TrueNAS apps to get CPU usage back to normal.
TrueNAS 24.04.2 SCALE -- Browsing available applications
(full image size: 122kB, resolution: 1488x839 pixels)
Conclusions
This was my first experience running TrueNAS's SCALE edition. For the most part the features and abilities are quite similar to what I experienced with past CORE editions. There are some additional support features and the interface has gradually improved over time. However, if you've run the FreeBSD-based CORE edition in the past, I believe you'll find SCALE to be nearly the same experience on small/medium deployments.
Like past versions of TrueNAS (and FreeNAS), SCALE is wonderfully easy to set up. We really just need to hand it a disk and an admin password and the installer automates the rest of the process. When TrueNAS is run for the first time it shows us the machine's IP address and connecting is as easy as pointing a web browser at the given IP.
With SCALE setting up ZFS pools and user accounts is quite easy. A few clicks can create a pool, schedule snapshots, and even transfer the snapshots to another computer or cloud service. These are all areas where SCALE shines. I also appreciate how easy it is to toggle background services, such as the FTP, Samba, and SMART monitor services. These can be turned on/off with a click on the System Settings page.
I did run into a few issues and some problems. While not a bug, it bothers me the text console logs the user in automatically as root. This has always been an annoyance to me on previous versions of TrueNAS and it's one of the few aspects of the platform which prevent me from using it at home. In a big office environment it makes sense as storage devices will likely be placed behind locked doors. But in home and small office environments it's common for systems to be less guarded. It shouldn't be possible for me to lose my entire setup if a cat walks across the keyboard.
In a similar line of thought, I'm not a fan of the TrueNAS shell in its current state of development. Some of the commands don't work, some are not described, there isn't much in terms of documentation yet, and some commands which do work have output that isn't useful. I like the idea of a command line control centre for TrueNAS, but this one has a ways to go before it's ready to take over from the standard command line or the web interface.
For some reason, trying to install applications from the web interface didn't work well for me. New items would download, but usually fail to finish deploying. Having any apps installed, even when they were stopped (inactive) resulted in my CPU being constantly overwhelmed by the k3s-server process.
In short, I found that TrueNAS really excels when we focus on its niche. TrueNAS works best when we treat it like an appliance for managing and sharing large amounts of data. The operating system is wonderfully simple to set up, we can enable ZFS storage pools with a few clicks. With a few more taps on the mouse we can add user accounts, datasets, and automated backups. We can have a full features NAS with network shares up and running within ten minutes of plugging in a thumb drive with a copy of TrueNAS. This is quite impressive, plus it's easy to use, and the web interface is pleasantly slick. All the common functions are front and centre with optional and advanced features tucked off to the sides.
The issues I ran into is when we step away from this idea that TrueNAS is a web-managed storage appliance. Any time I used the text console or tried to add extra applications, that was when my experience would fall apart. Sticking with TrueNAS as it shipped, out of the box, and using the web interface only was a great experience and it makes setting up shared storage for homes or offices amazingly simple. I just wouldn't recommend trying to add a bunch of applications or virtual machines or using its text console to try to extend the platform further.
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Visitor supplied rating
TrueNAS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.1/10 from 175 review(s).
Have you used TrueNAS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Redox OS introduces a new web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical changes its kernel release policy
The Redox OS project develops a modern evolution of Unix which is written in Rust and which uses a microkernel design. The project's July newsletter shares some milestones in the project's development, including the addition of a web server and the ability for Redox OS to build binary files which run on the operating system. "Redox now has a working web server! Simple HTTP Server is an advanced HTTP web server written in Rust. Contributor Bendeguz Pisch has gotten the server to work and has successfully served a website. He is also improving the Apache HTTP Server port. Self-hosting update: We finally successfully built Hello World programs in Rust, C and C++ inside of Redox!" Some fixes have also been applied to Redox's UEFI code which should allow the operating system to boot in more environments.
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Sometimes it can be hard to track down exactly where a software bug comes from. Issues are not always caused by black and white mistakes in the code, but sometimes by the way multiple components interact with each other. One such example surfaced recently when it was found running PipeWire on the Fedora distribution was resulting in higher energy usage, which meant laptop batteries were draining faster. The issue appears to be caused by the way PipeWire and the libcamera library interact with laptop webcams, causing the camera to always remain powered up and the laptop unable to drop into lower power consumption states. While originally reported on Fedora, the issue likely affects any distribution using PipeWire on a computer with a webcam. According to another issue report, people can check to see if their system is affected by running "fuser /dev/video0" when their webcam is not supposed to be active. Disabling PipeWire or turning off the webcam in the machine's UEFI settings should fix the issue and cut power consumption by 20% to 50%.
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The Canonical Kernel Team (CKT) has announced a new approach to determine which upstream Linux kernel will be included with each Ubuntu release. The new approach will allow the CKT to include the latest, cutting-edge kernels to provide up to date hardware support. "The intent behind this post is to describe a new policy the CKT is taking in regards to kernel version selection for an upcoming Ubuntu release. To provide users with the absolute latest in features and hardware support, Ubuntu will now ship the absolute latest available version of the upstream Linux kernel at the specified Ubuntu release freeze date, even if upstream is still in Release Candidate (RC) status."
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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) |
Linux distributions for smartphones
On-the-move asks: Where can I find Linux ROMs for my Android smartphone?
DistroWatch answers: As you probably already know, Android itself is based on the Linux kernel. However, Android's userland (the libraries and technologies it ships with) are quite different from a typical Linux-based operating system. People interested in running a more conventional Linux distribution, like the ones you'd usually use on desktop or server systems, should look for Linux distributions specifically developed for smartphones. The DistroWatch Search page can provide a list of good options. These include Librem's PureOS, the Alpine-based postmarketOS, and the Ubuntu-based UBports.
Once you pick a distribution which looks promising, you can visit the project's Devices page to see if your phone is supported.
You should be aware up front that most phones are not supported. It takes a lot of time and resources to port an existing distribution to a new mobile device. Most ARM-powered smartphones are not open platforms in the way x86 laptops, servers, and workstations are. Each device takes a lot of effort to support and so the list of supported smartphones is small. The odds of your specific device being supported by a Linux distribution are poor.
With that said, you can look at running a de-Googled Android distribution, such as LineageOS or Murena. Then run a typical GNU/Linux distribution inside a container on the phone using apps like Andronix and UserLAnd.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
IPFire 2.29 Core 187
IPFire is a Linux-based operating system for firewalls. The project focuses on easy set-up and configuration. The project's latest release introduces an extra layer of protection against denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. "Since IPFire is very commonly deployed in data centres where denial-of-service attacks happen on a regular basis, we now have added better protection against those kinds of attacks. Formerly, the system protected itself rather well against (D)DoS attacks, but this was only limited if TCP connections terminated at the firewall itself like for reverse proxies, etc. Now, IPFire can use TCP SYN cookies to protect infrastructure behind it better against SYN flood attacks. This is especially useful in high-bandwidth scenarios and cloud deployments and can be activated with only one checkbox separately for each firewall rule." Additional information is 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: 3,045
- Total data uploaded: 45.0TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Type of smartphone
This week's Questions and Answers column we talked about pairing Linux-based operating systems with smartphones. We'd like to hear what kind of smartphones our readers are using. Do you run an Android phone, an iPhone, or something else? Let us know why you picked the phone you have in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on preferred branches of Linux Mint in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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What type of smartphone do you own?
| Android - running Android: | 2302 (75%) |
| Android - running alternative ROM: | 235 (8%) |
| iPhone: | 254 (8%) |
| GNU/Linux phone - such as Librem: | 27 (1%) |
| Open hardware - such as PinePhone: | 12 (0%) |
| Other: | 32 (1%) |
| I do not own a smartphone: | 196 (6%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
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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, 19 August 2024. 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 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 |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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| Random Distribution | 
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre is an unofficial "libre" variant of Arch Linux. It aims to provide a fully free (as in freedom) distribution based on the packages of the Arch Linux project, with packages optimised for i686 and x86_64 processors. The goal is to give the users complete control over their systems with 100% "libre" software. Parabola GNU/Linux-libre is listed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) as a fully free software distribution. Besides a standard installation CD image, the project also provides a live/rescue DVD image with MATE as the default desktop environment.
Status: Active
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| 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!
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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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