 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1097, 18 November 2024 |
Welcome to this year's 47th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
There is an ongoing tug-of-war in software development between convenience and security, between efficiency and user-friendliness. It's a tricky balance to find and projects tend to prioritize one side over the other. This week we begin with a head-to-head comparison between two similarly named projects which are entirely different in their philosophies. On the one hand we have ChimeraOS, an appliance-like gaming-focused distribution which is set up to allow users to plug-n-play. On the other hand we have Chimera Linux, a distribution which places more work in the users' hands while maintaining a clean and efficient design under the hood. Read on to learn more about these two wildly different distributions. Our Questions and Answers column this week addresses another comparison between distributions, discussing the key differences between Debian and AlmaLinux OS. Which one do you prefer for a home server? Let us know in the Opinion Poll. Then, in our News section, we talk about developments in the Fedora community. In particular, we talk about Fedora's KDE spin being elevated to be on par with the GNOME-focused Workstation edition. Speaking of KDE software, the desktop project is in the process of creating its own Linux-based distribution. We also share insights into Fedora's new, web-based system installer. Plus we talk about security and isolation technologies which are bringing Qubes-like tools to FreeBSD. We are also pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we list the kind donors who help keep DistroWatch running before welcoming one of the Chimera distributions to our database. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: Chimera Linux vs ChimeraOS
- News: Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora trials new system installer, KDE developing its own distribution, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD
- Questions and answers: Choosing AlmaLinux OS vs Debian
- Released last week: CachyOS 241110, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5, RELIANOID 7.5
- Torrent corner: GhostBSD, KDE neon, TUXEDO OS
- Upcoming releases: FreeBSD 14.2 RC1
- Opinion poll: AlmaLinux OS or Debian?
- Site news: Donations and sponsors
- New additions: Chimera Linux
- New distributions: Vendefoul Wolf, GXDE OS, Lingmo OS, PureDarwin
- Reader comments
|
| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Chimera Linux vs ChimeraOS
About four years ago DistroWatch received two new distribution submissions, fairly close together. This in itself is normal, we receive word of new distribution at a rate of about one per week. What made these two distributions stand out is they had virtually the same name: Chimera. Upon closer inspection, one website labelled its distribution as ChimeraOS while the other operated under the title Chimera Linux.
We have a policy of not accepting distributions with duplicate or nearly matching names (otherwise we'd have about half a dozen "ArchOS" and "Super OS" variants) so this posed a potential problem. However, both projects were still quite young and most distributions on our waiting list are abandoned within a year, so I thought the problem would resolve on its own - one project would die and we'd add the other to our database.
Over the next few years not only did neither project die, but their communities grew. And members of both communities regularly messaged me to ask why their Chimera hadn't been added to the database yet. Several insisted their preferred Chimera was the one, true Chimera due to being older/unique/more popular. However, none had a convincing argument, some had false claims, and neither project was willing to change its name.
Now we find ourselves in an unusual position. Both projects have grown in popularity, both still have the same duplicate name, both continue to push out regular releases, and now the word "Chimera" (note the lack of "OS" or "Linux") is one of the most commonly entered search terms on DistroWatch. What to do?
I have decided to test out the latest versions of both projects, put them in a head-to-head comparison, and see which one proves to be the better overall project. Both distributions will be evaluated on ease of installation, usefulness, completion of their stated goals, unique or interesting approaches, documentation, and support options. The winner, whichever project has the highest score, will be added to the database while the loser will be dropped from the waiting list and ignored until it undergoes a name change. Let the battle begin!
Website and documentation
Let's get to know our two contestants. Chimera Linux describes itself as follows: "Chimera is a general-purpose Linux-based OS born from unhappiness with the status quo. We aim to create a system that is simple, transparent, and easy to pick up, without having to give up practicality and a rich feature set. It is built from scratch using novel tooling, approaches, and userland. Instead of intentionally limiting ourselves, we strive to achieve both conceptual simplicity and convenience with careful and high quality software design."
According to the website, Chimera Linux makes use of FreeBSD userland tools, the Clang/LLVM compiler toolchain, and the musl C library (as opposed to the GNU C library). Chimera Linux strives to remove extra libraries and "cruft" to provide a technically simple, but feature complete experience. The website says Intel/AMD, ARM AArch64, POWER and RISC-V processors are supported.
The distribution is independently developed with new releases of Chimera Linux published every three months. Each release appears to be a snapshot of a rolling repository and these snapshots are available in Base, GNOME, and Plasma editions. I decided to download the Plasma build for x86_64 which was 2.0GB in size.
Installing Chimera Linux, which I'll get to in some detail shortly, is a mostly manual experience and requires a comfort with the command line. The project provides a detailed installation guide to walk users through setting up the distribution.
Speaking of documentation, Chimera Linux offers a lot of it. There is a fairly detailed handbook which covers fetching, installing, and setting up the distribution. The documentation covers package management, enabling and disabling services, installing alternative desktops (such as Xfce), configuring a firewall, installing Flatpak, and gaining accessing to video games. Other parts of the website make it possible to search for packages in the distribution's repositories, connect us with community forums, and there are links to the project's source code (and issue trackers). Everything appears to be well documented and out in the open.
Score: 5/5
* * * * *
Now, let's pause to shift focus to ChimeraOS. This distribution describes itself as follows: "Bringing the console gaming experience to PC." The project's website goes on to claim it can "Instantly turn any PC into a gaming console." We're also told the project offers automatic updates which will stay out of our way, and its interface is compatible with gaming controllers. Under the "Learn more" link, I found a more detailed description: "ChimeraOS is an operating system that provides an out of the box couch gaming experience. After installation, boot directly into Steam Big Picture and start playing your favorite games. If you want Steam in your living room, you want ChimeraOS."
The website reports it can run games from Steam, GOG, Epic Game Store. Updates are automatic, the system is intended to be easy to install in just a few minutes, and the distribution focuses entirely on games, making for a streamlined experience.
Earlier I mentioned ChimeraOS claims to turn "any PC" into a gaming console, but the distribution's download page walks back that claim a bit. It displays a list of requirements and restrictions above the Download button. These requirements include, but are not limited to, the following: PCs must have 8GB of RAM or more, at least a 64GB partition, AMD Radeon RX 400 series or newer GPU required (NVIDIA and Intel video cards are not supported), hybrid graphics are not supported, virtual machines are not supported, a keyboard (not just controller) is required, Secure Boot must be disabled, and UEFI is required.
ChimeraOS is based on Arch Linux and the ISO file for the latest version of the distribution is 836MB in size. It appears the distribution runs on x86_64 processors exclusively.
The website features links to third-party community forums and social media. There is also a documentation wiki. The wiki can direct us to an issue tracker, FAQ page, system requirements, and tips on navigating settings. For the most part the instructions are clear, though some are a bit vague. For instance the install instructions tell us: "Boot from the USB stick. Follow the installer directions. Once installation is complete and the computer is restarted, you will be presented with some basic setup screens after which you will need to log in to Steam. The documentation is sometimes like this - accurate, but not informative.
Score: 3/5
* * * * *
Installing and initial impressions
I decided to install ChimeraOS first since it appeared to have the more simple setup process. ChimeraOS's media boots to a text console where a prompt is shown letting us know the distribution will wipe the local disk and overwrite everything with ChimeraOS. Our choices are to proceed or cancel the installation. The installer then tries to connect to the Internet and, assuming it is successful, it will download a disk image. We are shown progress in the form of a per cent completion, but not how much total data is being downloaded.
The install process completed downloading and then copying the new system to my disk. A prompt then offered to reboot the machine or switch to a command prompt.
The first time ChimeraOS booted the system briefly displayed a message saying the system failed to a create a swap file. This was followed by an error: "Dependency failed for Swap." Then my screen went blank. After waiting a few minutes, I decided nothing further was going to happen on its own. I found I could switch to local text terminals which each displayed a login prompt.
This was progress, but I didn't know what the default login credentials were and the documentation either wasn't helping me or I was having trouble finding the information. I tried guessing a few username/password combinations without success. In my searches around the ChimeraOS resources, I found a series of issue reports which indicated other people were experiencing the same issue as I was with the blank screen. The issue appears to affect people running AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel video cards, on both generic PCs and the Steam Deck.
Reading through the bug reports I found out the username/password credentials were gamer/gamer. This allowed me to sign in and do some troubleshooting. Using the command line I confirmed the base system is Arch, that the pacman package manager doesn't work on ChimeraOS, and the root filesystem is Btrfs. A fresh install took up 356MB of RAM at the command line and 5.9GB of disk space.
Also following the discussions in the bug reports, I discovered we can run the command "chimera-session" to see a list of supported sessions. My system reported the following session options: desktop, desktop-xorg, steam (which appears to be the default), steam-plus, and opengamepadui.
Running "chimera-session desktop" launched the GNOME desktop. This seemed like good news as it meant my video card and drivers were working and supported. The issue appeared to be somewhere else.
From GNOME I could click an icon to launch Steam, though Steam immediately reported an error saying the machine was not on-line. ChimeraOS was connected to the Internet during the install process and it had successfully downloaded its image. I confirmed my machine had a network connection and I was able to ping remote servers outside the local network from the command line. When I tried running Steam again it terminated reporting it was off-line.
ChimeraOS 2024.09.20 -- Installing Flatpak packages
(full image size: 60kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
So the install process for ChimeraOS is super simple and the system boots. But if anything goes wrong we're left stranded with no helpful documentation or prompts and not many useful error messages. I could login and access a desktop, but Steam (the main purpose for the distribution) failed to launch because it does not detect the active network connection. This was, at best, a mixed first impression.
Score: 2/5
* * * * *
Next, let's move on to installing Chimera Linux. Booting from the install media brings up a boot menu which offers to start the live session or load the operating system into RAM and then start the live session.
The live media automatically started the Plasma desktop for me and launched Plasma's welcome window. Chimera Linux does not provide a graphical installer. Instead we need to follow instructions in the project's handbook to install the distribution from a terminal. The process is quite similar to setting up Arch Linux. We create a disk partition or two, bootstrap the core system, and perform some initial configuration. The main difference between Arch and Chimera Linux, in this regard, is Chimera provides a nice, graphical desktop from which to perform these commands. It makes it easier to read the handbook in one window and type commands in a virtual terminal.
The documentation tells us we can login as the user "root" or "anon" and then authenticate using the password "chimera". Admin functions can be performed using the doas utility. (Chimera Linux uses doas instead of sudo for admin tasks.)
Following the handbook, I set up a root filesystem and swap partition. I mounted the root partition and then ran "chimera-bootstrap -l /media/root" to get a minimal system in place on my disk. The bootstrap utility can use local packages from the thumb drive or download fresh packages from the Chimera Linux repositories. I used local packages for expediency. The bootstrap tool reported it was working, but did not provide any progress information.
Chimera Linux 20241027 -- Exploring the Plasma desktop
(full image size: 250kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Once the core operating system is in place, we're encouraged by the handbook to continue polishing the installation inside a chroot environment. The handbook suggests fetching updates, confirming a kernel has been installed, checking to make sure the system time is correct, and removing the base-live package. Basically, it's a series of checks and housekeeping to perform before we reboot the computer. We're also told to confirm the entries in the /etc/fstab file look correct, otherwise the distribution will not boot properly. We are advised to install a boot loader if one isn't already in place. Mostly we end up just copying commands from the handbook and it feels, to me, as through most of these tasks should be completed by a simple shell script.
Once we restart the system Chimera Linux presents us with a text console where we can sign in as the root user. At this point we should probably perform a few more configuration tasks. For instance, setting our timezone and creating a regular user account. These steps are all covered in the project's handbook.
A moment ago I mentioned Chimera Linux booted to a text console. I knew Plasma packages were installed on the system and was not sure why I was not seeing a graphical login screen. The handbook is geared toward GNOME and recommends making sure GNOME and the GDM session manager are installed and enabled. There aren't equivalent instructions for Plasma.
With a little experimenting I found the SDDM session manager is installed, it just isn't run at boot time by default. Manually running the sddm command or enabling the SDDM service will present us with a login page. After I enabled SDDM using the command "dinitctl enable sddm" I was shown a graphical login screen each time the system booted.
The initial install process for Chimera Linux was long and tedious. I can say the documentation was clear and offered good step-by-step instructions, but most of it could easily be replaced by a short script rather than having us copy/paste lines from the documentation. The handbook assumes we will use GNOME and GDM to login while ignoring Plasma and SDDM, despite Plasma being one of the two desktop flavours. This means the user needs to guess or know somehow they need to enable SDDM instead of GDM to get a desktop environment. I think the team deserves credit for better than average documentation, and having the instructions result in a working system, but I took away two points for making me read five pages of instructions and type dozens of commands (plus perform some troubleshooting) just to install the base OS.
Score 3/5
* * * * *
Unique or unusual approaches
Let's talk about what makes these two projects stand out. Some corners of the Linux ecosystem can look a bit bland, with dozens of "Ubuntu, but with this feature" distributions or "Arch Linux, but set up with Calamares and running Xfce" spins. I spend a lot of my week exploring the minute differences in Linux projects and, even to me, some of them start to blend together after a while. Which is to say, I appreciate it when a project does something different, weird, or special. Void has its own package manager and the ability to choose between C libraries, EasyOS makes working with desktop containers seamless, openSUSE has the amazingly powerful YaST configuration tool. So, what do the Chimeras bring to the table?
Chimera Linux stands out in this regard. While I don't think any one thing it does is, strictly speaking, unique, it does have a blend of technologies and approaches which stand out. Having detailed documentation instead of a graphical (or menu-driven) installer isn't unique (Arch does this too); using the APK package manager isn't unique (Alpine uses it too); using Clang/LLVM isn't unique (OpenMandriva builds its system with Clang); running the musl C library is something Void does too. The components used are unusual, but not unique. However, this distribution blends them together to make something which is highly unusual and perhaps unique.
I don't know of any other distributions which uses FreeBSD command line tools, dinit, musl C, APK, Clang, and a handbook in place of a system installer. This is a truly rare mixture of components. Despite the strange combination, making this distribution quite different from the mainstream in how it operates under the hood, it works pretty well. The package manager is fast and capable, if sparse in its output. The desktop environment runs, once a login manager is enabled, most programs seem to function as expected, and portable Flatpak packages work.
Chimera Linux isn't really accomplishing new functionality, the way EasyOS or openSUSE do. But it is definitely taking an unusual approach to achieve similar results.
Score: 4/5
* * * * *
ChimeraOS, broadly speaking, falls under the popular distribution category of "Just enough OS to...." There are plenty of projects which basically provide a minimal distribution that is intended to perform one task or launch one program. Clonezilla Live just launches Clonezilla; GParted Live is just enough OS to launch a minimal window manager, terminal, and GParted; LibreELEC just launches Kodi; and Porteus Kiosk is stripped down to the point that it just runs a web browser.
As with these other appliance-like distributions, ChimeraOS narrows its focus to do one thing - in this case launch Steam. There are a bunch of these distributions, projects which take a base distribution (usually Fedora or Arch Linux) and remove everything except some drivers and a gaming portal. We have a handful of these in the database already - Recalbox, Lakka, and Batocera spring to mind. New ones are submitted to us regularly, such as Bazzite, which uses Fedora instead of Arch as its base, but otherwise has the same "appliance which launches Steam" focus as ChimeraOS.
ChimeraOS 2024.09.20 -- Running the Steam gaming portal
(full image size: 655kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
So ChimeraOS isn't unique in its approach or goals, at least not in the current landscape. However, I do want to give the developers credit for making their distribution before some of the other minimal-distribution-plus-Steam projects started arriving in our inbox. The concept isn't unusual, but they were ahead of the curve in terms of gaming appliances.
Score: 2/5
* * * * *
Accomplishing goals
Long-time readers will be aware that when I am testing a distribution I tend to look at two things: How well does this project work for me? And does it do what its website claims it does? To me, these are two entirely different issues. A Linux distribution which claims it can be installed on refrigerators and then successfully installs on my fridge accomplishes its mission, even if I have no use for it. This is what I am looking at in this section, not whether I find the distribution practical, but whether the distribution does what its website claims it can do.
ChimeraOS has a very simple goal: it is an appliance for gaming. Its goal is to have the user plug a thumb drive into a computer and, a few minutes later, have an appliance that just launches a gaming portal, such as Steam. While success or failure of Steam actually running seems to depend on some variables (such as platform, specific hardware used, and which release we are running), when the project works as intended it does accomplish its goal. Like many good goals, ChimeraOS's goal is simple: streamline the install process and launch Steam. This is what the distribution does. This is almost all it does, unless we want to poke around the desktop environment or troubleshoot something.
ChimeraOS may not have worked out of the box for me the way I'd hoped, but that's beside the point. When it does work as intended it exactly accomplishes its goal of being a Steam gaming appliance.
Score: 5/5
* * * * *
The Chimera Linux project has a much more fuzzy goal, or set of goals. I think this blurb on the project's about page sums up its mission well:
A core tenet of Chimera is that being simple is better than being complex, but being complex is better than being complicated. The whole system is transparent to the user, aiming to avoid gotchas. This makes debugging potential issues (which may always come up, since we are still humans) easier, while also ensuring the user is in control. However, a lot of care is put into ensuring that everything has reasonable defaults (which does not mean magical automatic behaviors) and requires a minimal amount of effort to get working (ideally zero, while retaining a methodical approach). On top of this, the system offers a huge amount of flexibility in terms of hardware configurations the user may run the system on, from old hardware to current, with multiple CPU architectures supported.
There are some further comments about removing baggage, about removing complexity while also being practical, about using BSD userland tools as they can be easier to harden for security purposes, about enabling more security features than most Linux distributions, and about being more portable.
Chimera Linux 20241027 -- Running the Discover software centre
(full image size: 253kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
This makes it a little difficult to evaluate whether the project is accomplishing its goals, because its goals seem to be more about the behind-the-scenes processes (enabling security, maintaining portability, keeping the design simple) than anything to do with the user experience. In the end, I went into my trial with the mindset of questioning: do all these pieces work together? Can the developers really take this weird combination of userland tools from BSD, the LLVM toolchain, the dinit service manager, the APK package manager, and make it all work? Could I use this as a desktop or server platform, despite the unusual mixture of technologies?
I can. There are some limitations, there are a few places where practically may have been sacrificed for design. However, on the whole, I feel the developers have put together a working operating system that finds a decent balance between technical cleanness and practicality.
Score: 4/5
* * * * *
Is it useful/usable?
Chimera Linux took a while to set up, but once it was up and running with the SDDM session manager enabled, it was mostly smooth sailing. Despite the distribution's eclectic array of software, everything seemed to work well together. I was expecting a few programs might misbehave, but the applications I ran (including Firefox, Steam, and a few games) worked. The only application which failed to run for me was Konqueror, the built-in Plasma web browser. I was able to swap it out for Firefox.
Chimera Linux 20241027 -- Running Firefox and Steam
(full image size: 482kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
There were a few issues. By default, Chimera Linux didn't enable networking. The Network Manager service isn't enabled by default and the DHCP service isn't running. This meant I had to enable some networking services before I could set up a connection and have remote hostnames resolve.
It also appears as though the Discover software centre is unable to work with the APK package manager. Discover will offer to enable Flatpak support and connect to the Flathub repository. This is automated and worked for me, providing access to many desktop applications. Working with APK and the default Chimera Linux repositories required a move to the command line.
To answer whether Chimera Linux is useful and usable, the answer is a qualified "yes". Virtually everything worked for me, but several features which "just work" on most distributions required that I manually enable them first or configure something. In this manner, using Chimera Linux was a lot like working with Arch Linux, FreeBSD, or Slackware. The system is functional and stable, but getting some things running (like a graphical environment, networking, and disk partitioning) will require a trip to the handbook.
As with the other open source systems I mentioned above that are targeting advanced users, Chimera Linux is useful and practical - after the first day. The first day involves a bunch of typing, configuration, reading, and dealing with minor quirks. After that first day, it's like running most other desktop Linux distributions.
Score: 3/5
* * * * *
ChimeraOS is the harder of the two projects to evaluate, I think, in terms of being usable. Myself, and a handful of people who have reported bugs, have run into situations where the distribution fails to properly launch Steam. Even with my ability to launch a desktop environment, Steam still failed at first to run as it reported it was off-line, even though an active Internet connection is available. On the other hand, there are lots of reports from other users who have said ChimeraOS "just works" for them, launching and running Steam without any issues.
This is the tricky part about reviewing a project that has one purpose only. Its success is binary - it works or it doesn't. And ChimeraOS didn't work, for me. At least at first. The day after I'd installed ChimeraOS and failed to get it to launch Steam, I booted into the system again. Without making any changes or installing any updates, something changed. The system still wouldn't boot into Steam automatically, but if I launched the GNOME desktop I could get the Steam application to launch. I don't know why, but it meant I could play games (mostly) as intended. At this point I basically had a minimal desktop distribution, running GNOME Shell, that I could also use to run Steam, which wasn't really in the spirit of the project.
In the end, I came at the question from another angle and asked myself: If ChimeraOS had worked perfectly for me, would it have been useful? The answer is not really. ChimeraOS is a little faster and easier to install than the average Linux distribution, but not by much. Once almost any desktop Linux distribution is installed, setting up Steam is about three mouse clicks. I could plug my laptop into a TV, install any of the mainstream desktop distributions, and be downloading games in 15 minutes. When it works as intended, ChimeraOS can get that time down to around 10 minutes. It does offer an improvement, assuming all I ever want to do with my computer is run games, but it's not a lot better than running Ubuntu with Steam or Linux Mint with Steam.
I was going to give ChimeraOS a 2/5 rating here, just for being able to install, boot, and (with a little manual effort) launch a gaming portal. But, taking into consideration what the experience would do for me if it worked perfectly, I'm raising the rating to a 3/5. Slightly streamlining the experience of setting up Steam on a dedicated PC is slightly helpful, but not super practical or useful in most situations.
Score: 3/5
* * * * *
Support options
In terms of support options, both distributions provide some helpful resources. ChimeraOS has a Discord channel, some documentation, a Twitter account, and an issue tracker. These all seem to be fairly active and maintained. The documentation is a bit sparse in places, particularly in terms of troubleshooting, but that's understandable considering the project's narrow focus. I think ChimeraOS does a decent job in this category.
Score: 4/5
* * * * *
The Chimera Linux project offers a handful of resources for people looking for help. It has an extensive handbook, IRC channel, Matrix channel, Reddit forum, and GitHub page where people can send patches and report issues. The project seems to have all the avenues for community support covered.
Score: 5/5
Chimera Linux 20241027 -- Installing packages with APK
(full image size: 173kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
* * * * *
Conclusions
Chimera Linux and ChimeraOS are essentially complete opposite in many respects. One is independently developed and highly unusual in its mixture of technologies, the other is based on Arch and fulfills a common task. It was interesting looking at two projects with virtually identical names, but almost nothing else in common.
Their approaches are entirely different too. One tries to automate and streamline everything, providing an installer which really just has one interactive step. The other requires a lot of manual work and configuration to set up the operating system. One distribution has a narrow focus, placing all of its energy into providing a minimal gaming platform. The other has more general purpose and philosophical goals such as gradually removing technological complexity, hardening the core operating system, and making the distribution more efficient.
I would say I found Chimera Linux to be the more interesting of the two projects. It is working on something unique, something interesting, something a tad weird. I like that; I like the focus on efficiency and removing complexity. Everything is, as the documentation suggests, quickly understandable. This is a "keep it simple" style distribution that manages to be feature complete, even if it does require extra manual work.
ChimeraOS was, at least to me, less interesting, less unusual. On the other hand, it was more convenient to install and it has a clear, verifiable purpose. It didn't work well for me at first, but on my second day of evaluation, ChimeraOS suddenly started working (mostly) as intended. I could plug my machine into a TV and start fetching and playing Steam games. This kind of appliance-style distribution isn't useful to me, but I can see the appeal for a lot of people who might want to use a dedicated box for gaming and nothing but gaming.
Let's see how the two projects scored, side-by-side:
|
| Chimera Linux | ChimeraOS |
| Website/documentation |
5 | 3 |
| Install and initial setup |
3 | 2 |
| Unique or unusual |
4 | 2 |
| Accomplishing goals |
4 | 5 |
| Is it useful/usable? |
3 | 3 |
| Support |
5 | 4 |
| Total |
24/30 | 19/30 |
It was a close race in several categories with both projects doing fairly well overall. Still, Chimera Linux scored better and will take its place in the database.
* * * * *
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
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
Chimera Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 10/10 from 1 review(s).
Have you used Chimera Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora trials new system installer, KDE developing its own distribution, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD
The Fedora project has plans to elevate the KDE Plasma spin to be on equal footing with the distribution's Workstation edition which runs the GNOME desktop. Earlier this year the project considered, and quickly rejected, the idea of making the Plasma spin the distribution's official Workstation edition and downgrading the GNOME flavour to spin status. This new proposal will place the two desktop editions on equal footing rather than dethroning GNOME from the spotlight. "This includes the following: Listing Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop Edition at the same level as Fedora Workstation Edition on fedoraproject.org. Production of a flagship site page for Fedora KDE similar to Fedora Workstation on fedoraproject.org. Marketing support in a similar vein to Workstation at events. The Fedora KDE SIG will withdraw its Change for Fedora Linux 42 to replace GNOME with KDE Plasma on Workstation with the acceptance of this request." The change should take effect in time for Fedora 42, likely to be launched in April or May of 2025.
The Fedora team are working on a new system installer for their distribution. The Anaconda installer has a bit of an awkward interface and its front-end is built upon the obsolete GTK3 development libraries. With this in mind, the project is testing a new, web-based system installer. "The Anaconda team implemented the current design of the GTK-based installer decades ago. It uses a 'hub-and-spoke' design that can sometimes feel like jumping around sections when installing. We wanted to rethink the installation process, to create a more streamlined experience where people are guided through the installation process step-by-step in a linear manner, so they don't have to hunt for the right things to configure amid all the possible settings. Instead of figuring out how to configure the system first, the goal should be to show you a set of applicable options, and then tailor the experience from there." Screenshots of the new installer, along download links for testing out the installer in development branch of Fedora's Workstation edition, can be found in this news post.
* * * * *
The KDE project is working on its own Linux distribution, appropriately named KDE Linux. This distribution is intended to be built on Arch Linux and feature the advanced Btr filesystem for easy snapshots and rollbacks. The project's wiki also reports the distribution will be immutable and use Wayland desktop sessions by default. Though releases are not ready for the public yet, the project is testing disk images of the upcoming distribution. KDE Linux is intended to address shortcomings with the KDE neon project which has the same goal of showcasing the latest KDE experience: "KDE neon, KDE's first version of a self-made OS. KDE neon fulfills the 'distributed by KDE' requirement, but fails on the reliability angle due to the Ubuntu LTS base that ironically becomes unstable because it needs to be tinkered with to get Plasma to build on it, breaking the LTS promise."
The GNOME team has a similar project called GNOME OS which provides ISO files for an operating system running pre-release GNOME software.
* * * * *
People who like the concept of Qubes OS, along with its strict isolation of system components and tasks, may be interested in a similar project in the FreeBSD community. The quBSD project uses shell scripts, FreeBSD jails, and virtual machines to provide low-overhead, isolated environments where users can experiment with applications and quarantine files. The project's GitHub page summarizes its key features: "X11 GUI jails, with a cloneable template. Network gateway jails/VMs for firewall, VPNs, and Tor. Disposable/ephemeral jails/VMs. Automatic rolling ZFS snapshots, with thinning. Streamlined configuration/editing:" Though not yet in the FreeBSD ports collection, quBSD should soon be available for people running FreeBSD and related projects, such as GhostBSD.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Choosing AlmaLinux OS vs Debian
Picking-a-side asks: I'm sure I can't go wrong with either AlmaLinux OS or Debian, they both seem to be recommended a lot, but I'm having a hard time choosing. Which would you suggest for a home server?
DistroWatch answers: As you said, both options (Debian and AlmaLinux OS) are good choices. For most people, in most home server situations, either distribution will do a good job. Both projects offer stable, well tested software, formidable security tools, long-term support cycles, and enough packages to handle common server roles. Since these two projects have a lot of similarities, let's look at the key differences.
The biggest difference, in my opinion, is the amount of software available. AlmaLinux and Debian organize their software differently, arranging them into different categories and repositories, so getting an exact package count which will make sense for all situations is difficult. However, you can safely say Debian has at least 65,000 packages in its Stable repositories while AlmaLinux (as best as I can figure) has in the ballpark of 10,000 packages in its official repositories. Both have access to community contributed and non-free repositories such as Debian's "contrib" branch and the RPMFusion repositories to augment those package counts. Still, when you add them all up, Debian has a larger collection of software and has tools for just about every situation. AlmaLinux is more focused on common server packages.
Debian also offers support for more CPU architectures, with Debian 12 supporting nine different CPU families while AlmaLinux offers builds for four CPU architectures. In short, Debian offers more packages across more platforms. It is a more flexible, universal distribution.
What does AlmaLinux have working in its favour? There are two main features AlmaLinux OS brings to server deployments. The first is incredibly long-term support. AlmaLinux OS provides ten years of support for each stable branch, meaning if you installed AlmaLinux OS 9 in 2022 you could continue to run it with security updates through to 2032. Debian offers long-term support too, but it reaches its limit after about five years.
The other area where AlmaLinux shines is its certifications and third-party support. A lot of third-party companies build software for AlmaLinux's upstream parent, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and a lot of training courses focus on Red Hat software. AlmaLinux also has FIPS compliance. If you are planning to experiment with Linux at home with the intention of getting certifications and system administration jobs in the future, AlmaLinux is a good place to start.
Something else to keep in mind is these two distributions use different package management tools. Debian uses its own Deb package format and APT to handle software. AlmaLinux uses Red Hat's RPM package format and DNF to manage packages. Both approaches are practical and capable. However, if you already have familiarity or a preference for one set of package tools over the other, that might tip your choice in favour of the more familiar package manager.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
CachyOS 241110
CachyOS is a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. It focuses on speed and security optimisations. The project's latest snapshot is CachyOS 241110 which introduces several kernel and firmware updates which should improve gaming performance. "We have backported from the 6.13 Kernel the THP Shrinker, which allows splitting hugepages earlier, reducing memory usage when transparent_hugepages is set to 'always', while maintaining the same performance. Also, we have added the AMD Cache Optimizer, which can be modified at runtime to the preferred mode - cache or frequency. This changes the AMD preferred core ranking. This should help in games using the wrong CCD, for example. You can find instructions in the wiki on how to use this. Additionally, we have backported the AMD-pstate performance fixes for Strix Point laptops. This should generally improve the performance of these laptops." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
CachyOS 241110 -- Running the Plasma desktop
(full image size: 639kB, resolution: 1600x1200 pixels)
RELIANOID 7.5
RELIANOID is a Debian-based Linux distribution for load balancing. The project's latest release, version 7.5, is based on Debian 12.8 "Bookworm" and introduces support for Secure Boot. "A key highlight of RELIANOID 7.5.0 is the addition of Secure Boot support, which offers an enhanced layer of security, ensuring only trusted software is loaded during the boot process. This update strengthens RELIANOID's reliability on modern hardware and aligns with security best practices for deployments that demand robust protection from boot-level threats. Additionally, this release is now built on Debian Bookworm 12.8, bringing improved stability, performance, and compatibility across a variety of environments. Users will also benefit from further refinements to the upgrade process to the Enterprise Edition, making transitions from Community to Enterprise Edition smoother and more efficient. The GUI has received several updates to improve usability, delivering a more responsive and user-friendly experience when configuring and monitoring your load balancing setups. Alongside these upgrades, we have optimized system profile file handling, ensuring configuration settings are managed with precision and reliability." Further details are provided in the project's release notes.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5
Red Hat, Inc. has announced the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.5, an updated build of the company's enterprise Linux distribution available for the x86, ARM, IBM Power, IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE architectures: "Red Hat, Inc. today announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5, the latest version of the world's leading enterprise Linux platform. Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps organizations deploy applications and workloads more quickly and with greater reliability, enabling them to lower costs and more effectively manage workloads across hybrid cloud deployments while mitigating IT risks, from the datacenter to public clouds to the edge. Red Hat Enterprise Linux management tools continue to simplify system administration, enabling organizations to automate manual tasks, standardize deployment at scale and reduce system complexities. In addition, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5 now offers new file management capabilities to the web console, allowing users to perform routine file management tasks without using the command line...." Read the press release and the detailed release notes for further information.
GhostBSD 24.10.1
The GhostBSD project has announced the arrival of GhostBSD 24.10.1, the latest update to this desktop-oriented branch of the FreeBSD family. The new release focuses on driver updates and improvements. It also fixes some issues with booting on Legacy BIOS systems and introduces support for watching Netflix in the Chromium web browser. "We're excited to announce the release of GhostBSD 24.10.1! This release brings system updates from FreeBSD and better hardware compatibility with some old AMD Radeon and FirePro GPU. We resolved live session startup issues with Legacy BIOS and started to fix some issues with Update Station functionality. For a complete list of changes, check the changelog 24.10.1 Changelog: Enhancement, improvements, and new features - Build www/chromium with necessary options to watch e.g. Netflix. Removing UFS from custom installation." Additional details and upgrade instructions can be found in the project's release announcement.
* * * * *
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: 3,113
- Total data uploaded: 45.8TB
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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) |
AlmaLinux OS or Debian?
In our Questions and Answers section this week we talked about Debian and AlmaLinux OS in home environments. Both are capable, popular distributions well suited to servers. We'd like to hear which one you prefer. Let us know about your home server setups in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using Tmux or Screen in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Do you prefer AlmaLinux OS or Debian for home servers?
| AlmaLinux OS: | 100 (3%) |
| Debian: | 833 (29%) |
| Both: | 59 (2%) |
| Another Linux distro: | 188 (7%) |
| Another OS: | 64 (2%) |
| I do not run any home servers: | 1636 (57%) |
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|
| Website News |
Donations and Sponsors
Each month we receive support and kindness from our readers in the form of donations. These donations help us keep the web server running, pay contributors, and keep infrastructure like our torrent seed box running. We'd like to thank our generous readers and acknowledge how much their contributions mean to us.
This month we're grateful for the $120 in contributions from the following kind souls:
| Donor |
Amount |
|---|
| J S | $50 |
| Hendrik H | $15 |
| Jonathon B | $10 |
| Sam C | $10 |
| Brian59 | $5 |
| Chung T | $5 |
| surf3r57 | $5 |
| TaiKedz | $5 |
| Antonio N | $5 |
| J.D. L | $2 |
| PB C | $2 |
| aRubes | $1 |
| c6WWldo9 | $1 |
| Stephen M | $1 |
| Kai D | $1 |
| Shasheen E | $1 |
| William E | $1 |
* * * * *
New projects added to database
Chimera Linux
Chimera Linux is an independent distribution which uses an unusual combination of technologies behind the scenes. Chimera Linux uses BSD userland command line tools, the Clang/LLVM compiler toolchain, dinit for service management, and APK for package management. Chimera Linux strives to keep the design simple while still providing the experience and features most users want, such as multiple desktop environments, Flatpak support, a graphical package manager, and easy access to desktop configuration tools. Chimera Linux does not have a system installer, instead providing manual command line instructions to bootstrap the operating system from a live environment.
Chimera Linux 20241027 -- Running the Plasma desktop
(full image size: 250kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
- Vendefoul Wolf. Vendefoul wolf is a Devuan-based Linux distribution. It is available in two editions, a 32-bit LXQt flavour and a 64-bit Xfce flavour. The project runs the SysV init software and uses the Squid application to install the operating system.
- GXDE OS. GXDE OS is a deepin-based Linux distribution featuring the Deepin desktop environment along with WINE for running Windows applications.
- Lingmo OS. Lingmo OS is a Debian-based distribution featuring a customized desktop environment based on KDE/Qt.
- PureDarwin. Darwin is the open source operating system from Apple that forms the base for macOS. PureDarwin is a community project that fills in the gaps to make Darwin usable. PureDarwin focuses on creating a usable bootable system that is independent of macOS components.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 25 November 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 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • 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 |
| • 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.
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| Random Distribution | 
Core GNU/Linux
Core was designed and constructed around one simple philosophy: to be the absolute minimum of what was required for a Linux operating system. Core was designed to be the basis for a larger, more complete operating system constructed by the end user. It contains only what was necessary to boot into Linux and download, compile and install other software packages.
Status: Discontinued
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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!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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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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