 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1101, 16 December 2024 |
Welcome to this year's 51st issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
One of the most incredible things computers can do is share information with other computers. This concept is the basis of the Internet, all on-line communication, website, and on-line gaming. Being able to share bits of information, regardless of CPU architecture or operating system is an incredible feat! There are a lot of ways computers can share information, such as transferring files, and this week we talk about some ways to send files between devices. In our Questions and Answers column we touch upon how to use e-mail, OpenSSH, and KDE Connect to transfer files between computers. Before we explore file sharing we talk about a rare project: a desktop-oriented flavour of one of the BSDs. GhostBSD is a desktop-ready flavour of FreeBSD, featuring MATE or Xfce along with a graphical package manager and a point-and-click system installer. Our Feature Story has more details about GhostBSD's latest release. Then, in our News section, we talk about a new tool from openSUSE which assigns applications to specific GPUs, regardless of which desktop environment is in use. We also talk about GNU's service manager, called Shepherd, reaching version 1.0 while Murena launches its first privacy-focused tablet. Plus we report on Xfce 4.20 being released and a security update from UBports and link to the mobile project's newsletter. This week we are also pleased to list the releases from the last week and share the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
GhostBSD 24.10.1
GhostBSD is a desktop-oriented member of the FreeBSD family. While FreeBSD mostly caters to servers, network-attached storage (NAS), and embedded systems, GhostBSD strives to provide a friendly desktop experience that is easy to set up. This is achieved by offering a graphical system installer and pre-configuring a desktop environment. GhostBSD officially uses MATE as the default desktop, though there is a community-maintained Xfce edition too.
GhostBSD is available for x86_64 machines only and requires 4GB of RAM. While the typically system uses much less than 4GB of RAM when installed, the live media loads the operating system into memory and claims to need at least 4GB of space in order to do this properly. The live media in question for GhostBSD's MATE edition is 2.6GB in size.
The latest version of GhostBSD removes the choice of installing the operating system on UFS partitions, enforcing the use of the advanced filesystem ZFS, even when the user is accessing custom partitioning options in the system installer. The release announcement also mentions the ability to watch Netflix in the Chromium web browser has been enabled. There are also some comments about improved hardware support in the release announcement:
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.
Update Station, for those wondering, is a minimum update manager and I'll talk about it later in this review.
The GhostBSD live medium boots to the MATE desktop. When I was testing the operating system on my laptop the desktop displayed two panels, one across the top of the screen and one across the bottom. The top panel held MATE's Applications, Places, and System menus on the left. On the right I found the system tray. The bottom panel held a virtual desktop switcher and a task switcher. When I first booted GhostBSD in VirtualBox both panels were placed at the top of the display, one immediately under the other. This only happened in the live environment and only in VirtualBox; once GhostBSD was installed, the panels were separated and appeared at the top and bottom of the display, respectively.
On the desktop I found icons for opening the Caja file manager and for launching the system installer.
GhostBSD 24.10.1 -- Exploring the Applications menu
(full image size: 1.7MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Installing
GhostBSD uses a streamlined, graphical system installer. It walks us through selecting our preferred language, picking our timezone from lists of regions & cities, and asks us to make up a username and password for ourselves.
The installer offers guided partitioning where we can take over an entire disk with ZFS. We can optionally set a pool name for the ZFS volume, reserve a fixed amount of swap space, and set up mirroring. Alternatively we can choose to take a more manual approach to picking a disk or partition for GhostBSD, though we will still be limited to using ZFS.
With these configuration steps out of the way the installer goes to work copying files to the local disk. This takes just a few minutes and then the installer offers to restart the computer or return us to the live MATE desktop. The whole install experience is fairly similar to using Calamares or Ubiquity in the Linux ecosystem.
Hardware
When I started using GhostBSD I found, when running the operating system in VirtualBox, that I was restricted to a minimum desktop resolution, 1024x768 pixels. This was a limitation of the default VMSVGA graphics controller used by VirtualBox. When I switched to the VBoxSVGA controller in VirtualBox's settings, I was given a full range of desktop resolutions I could use in the guest environment.
I ran into one other issue when running GhostBSD in VirtualBox and that was, when using the live session, running Firefox for a few minutes would cause the live desktop to lock up and cease responding. This problem did not occur when testing GhostBSD directly on my laptop's hardware. The system was fairly quick and stable in VirtualBox.
In most ways GhostBSD worked well when running on my laptop. The desktop performance was good, audio worked, and my touchpad was detected. I did notice the touchpad's movement was a little "off". The mouse pointer would glide along with my finger for a while and then pause or stick, a problem I haven't had when running Linux distributions.
Usually the BSDs do not work well with the wireless cards in any of my devices. GhostBSD was an exception and properly detected my laptop's network card, though I did need to "activate" networking in the networking system tray widget before I could scan for local networks. From there I could choose my wi-fi network and sign in, just as I would when using Network Manager under Linux. This was a big step forward for me in terms of using the BSDs and I'm glad to see progress being made in supporting wireless cards.
GhostBSD 24.10.1 -- Streaming YouTube videos
(full image size: 1.4MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Audio output worked on my laptop and I could play audio files and YouTube videos. However, the volume control widget in the system tray did not work. Clicking on it showed a slider bar, but no control or knob on which to click. My media keys on the keyboard were not recognized. I was able to adjust the volume by opening the audio controls from the system tray, opening the volume settings window and dragging the volume slider up/down. This limitation only happened when running GhostBSD on my laptop, when run in VirtualBox the system tray widget could adjust the volume.
GhostBSD used about 340MB of active memory and 590MB of wired memory. These are types of memory used by applications and the kernel, respectively, for a total of about 930MB. This is a little heavy when compared to Linux distributions running MATE and a classic filesystem like ext4. However, it's lighter than running a mainstream Linux distribution with GNOME and the ZFS filesystem. (ZFS uses some memory for dedicated cache, usually rising memory consumption by around 300MB to 500MB on desktop machines.)
The operating system took up about 2.6GB of disk space, plus some area I had set aside for swap space. This is on the light side when compared to most mainstream Linux distributions.
GhostBSD 24.10.1 -- Trying a dark theme
(full image size: 1.4MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Included software
Along with the MATE 1.28.2 desktop environment, GhostBSD ships with the Firefox web browser, the Evolution e-mail client, the Rhythmbox music player, and the VLC media player. The Atril document viewer and Eye of MATE image viewer are included. I also found the Caja file manager and Shotwell image manager installed. A system monitor and text editor are also in the Applications menu.
MATE is accompanied by the MATE settings panel which provides many configuration modules to help us tweak the desktop. This allows us to change fonts, change the desktop resolution, adjust the theme, and otherwise customize the environment.
GhostBSD 24.10.1 -- The settings panel
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The default shell used by GhostBSD is fish. I tried using this for a while, and appreciated some of its shortcuts, but gave it up in favour of bash after a while. My main complaint was fish used odd colour combinations, especially for directory listings, and this made a lot of text on the screen impossible to read. GhostBSD's implementation of bash defaults to displaying all text in white on black for better contrast.
The operating system also ships with the Clang compiler, manual pages for virtually everything, and it all rests of the FreeBSD 14.1 Stable branch. (Note: "Stable" here refers to the name of a development branch. It is akin to Debian Testing in that it is mostly stable, but hasn't hit final Release status yet.)
A quick note on accessing Netflix. The release announcement mentioned Chromium can be used to stream Netflix, though Firefox is the default browser. I tested Firefox and found it could not stream Netflix content. Then I installed Chromium and it too was unable to stream any content. When I tried to access a show on Netflix an error was shown which indicated I had to go into the Chromium settings (chrome://settings/content/protectedContent) and confirm the "Sites can play protected content" option was enabled. I checked and this option was already enabled, yet Chromium was unable to play any shows on Netflix. It seems this option has been turned on, but still not tested or enabled properly.
GhostBSD 24.10.1 -- Trying to access Netflix
(full image size: 1.8MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Software management
GhostBSD ships with two utilities for managing software. Both of these are available through the desktop's System menu. The first is called Update Station. This is a minimal desktop application which checks for available package updates. During my trial no new packages were released and Update Station would simply tell me (correctly) no updates were available and exit.
The other utility is called Software Station. This application is a classic, low-level package manager. It displays package/port categories down the left side of its window and a list of available packages in the selected category to the right. Software Station doesn't display icons, screenshots, or full package descriptions. It just shows package names with a single-sentence description. We can check a box next to items we wish to install. Packages are then fetched in batches, locking Software Station until the new software has been installed.
GhostBSD 24.10.1 -- The Software Station package manager
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
In most ways Software Station is like Synaptic in the Debian family of distributions. Its approach is similar, it deals with low-level packages rather than specifically with desktop applications, and processes actions in batches. As with Synaptic, Software Station's categories can be tricky to navigate. There are a lot of categories and it is not always easy to figure out which category is likely to hold the item we want. Some are fairly straight forward like "news" or "science". Others might be tricky due to overlap. For example, would you expect to find an audio/video editor under "audio" or "multimedia"? If you went looking for a chat client under "net" (for network) you might be surprised to find it's actually under a category called "irc". When looking for a low-level tool, are you going to look under "base" or "os" first?
I found it easier to use the search function to find programs by name or description rather than browse categories and, for that matter, it was faster to use the command line pkg package manager than the GUI.
In short, Software Station works, but it's not a particularly friendly way to manage packages compared to most modern software centres.
ZFS and boot environments
Earlier I mentioned GhostBSD enforces the use of the ZFS advanced filesystem. For most people, this focus on ZFS is probably for the best. With ZFS we gain copy-on-write features which protect our data and provide instant filesystem snapshots.
GhostBSD includes a utility called Backup Station which helps the administrator work with boot environments (snapshots of the operating system). This means we can open Backup Station, click a button to create a snapshot, and perform an update. If anything goes wrong with the update, we can rollback the change by rebooting and selecting the snapshot from the boot menu (menu item #8).
GhostBSD 24.10.1 -- Managing boot environments
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The Backup Station tool will also mount previous snapshots and delete snapshots we no longer need, helping us clean up old copies of the operating system.
Conclusions
Evaluating GhostBSD is, for me, a tricky experience. On the one hand, I'd like to look at GhostBSD in a near-vacuum, examining what it adds to (or removes from) its parent, FreeBSD. GhostBSD is FreeBSD at its core, using a mostly-stable development branch which adds additional hardware support without sacrificing much in terms of stability. This gives us better wireless support and more up to date video drivers. GhostBSD does a nice job of taking the solid FreeBSD base and adding conveniences such as a live desktop environment, graphical system installer, a graphical package manager, and pre-configured MATE (or Xfce) desktop. In short, it takes a lot of work out of the experience of setting up FreeBSD as a desktop operating system. Apart from limiting users from installing GhostBSD on UFS volumes, I failed to find any limitations or downsides.
On the other hand, GhostBSD doesn't exist in a vacuum, it lives in a world with other platforms, like Linux distributions. While GhostBSD does a a great job in turning FreeBSD into an install-and-go desktop system, one can't help but notice little issues GhostBSD has that usually do not trouble Linux users. There were little hardware glitches, for example, with my touchpad and volume controls. Nothing show-stopping, but certainly a source of friction.
The package manager, Software Station, works, but it feels primitive compared to other software centres in the open source community. Likewise, while tools such as Backup Station are certainly helpful, they fall short compared to openSUSE's Btrfs snapshot manager. Maybe it's not a fair comparison, GhostBSD is younger and has fewer resources than SUSE, but I couldn't help but notice these little differences.
I was also disappointed that one of the highlights from the release announcement, the ability to stream Netflix, didn't work. This is one of those unfortunate situations where, since I don't stream much content, I probably wouldn't have thought to test the feature or noticed it didn't work if the project hadn't drawn attention to it.
Would I recommend GhostBSD? Possibly, depending on what the user needs. If a person is looking to jump into the BSD community, try something new, or if they already like FreeBSD and want to run it as a desktop operating system - then yes, I'd definitely recommend GhostBSD. It is, without a doubt, the most beginner-friendly, easiest to use, complete desktop-oriented platform I have used in the BSD sphere. The project represents an impressive effort to turn the usually-server-focused FreeBSD into a plug-n-play desktop operating system.
However, I would not recommend GhostBSD to someone coming from another operating system (such as a Linux distribution) who needed specific features, particularly proprietary applications. If you want to stream YouTube and other open sources of entertainment then GhostBSD has you covered. Proprietary streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ seem to still be out of reach. GhostBSD has access to a lot of open source games and I played a few this week. On the other hand, while it is technically possible to get Steam running, but it's not a smooth experience. If you want an office suite, GhostBSD has you covered, but if you need WPS or Microsoft Office, then you're going to run into limitations.
GhostBSD is a solid, useful operating system at its core and well suited to most desktop use. The limitations though, as with any less mainstream platform, start to show up the further one gets from its core functionality and out into the edges where specific applications, hardware components, and services lie.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
GhostBSD has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.3/10 from 45 review(s).
Have you used GhostBSD? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
openSUSE provides cross-desktop GPU switching tool, GNU announces Shepherd 1.0, UBports addresses security concerns in new update, Murena unveils its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 launched
The openSUSE team have announced a new utility which can be used to manage multiple GPUs, allowing users to assign applications to a video card without requiring a specific desktop environment to be in use. "Users of openSUSE can now rely on the built-in switcherooctl tool for GPU switching, which is already integrated into our distributions with major desktop environments like GNOME and KDE Plasma. This is a game changer because it eliminates the need for additional tools and simplifies multi-GPU management while enhancing compatibility and performance with users' systems. For years, tools such as suse-prime and bbswitch have been staples in managing NVIDIA Optimus laptops and multi-GPU systems, but advancements in kernel drivers and desktop environments have made these tools unnecessary in most cases. Installations of openSUSE now handle these configurations out of the box, whether using the open-source Nouveau driver or NVIDIA's proprietary drivers." The new tool also works in both Wayland and X11 sessions. Details on the switcherooctl utility can be found in the project's announcement.
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The GNU project has announced the release of GNU Shepherd 1.0, a service manager which is configured using its own language. "Finally, twenty-one years after its inception (twenty-one!), the Shepherd leaves ZeroVer territory to enter a glorious 1.0 era. This 1.0.0 release is published today because we think Shepherd has become a solid tool, meeting user experience standards one has come to expect since systemd changed the game of free init systems and service managers alike. It's also a major milestone for Guix, which has been relying on the Shepherd from a time when doing so counted as dogfooding." Shepherd is not widely used, but it is featured in the Guix System distribution.
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The UBports team recently pushed out an update (20.04 OTA-7) ahead of schedule to deal with a security concern. The team has published an explanation: "The latest OTA is for Focal and we released it quickly because we found a security issue. The trust store settings in PulseAudio have become corrupted and the protection settings made optional. That includes when an attacker or a malicious app talk or tell to unload the security module, it would have full access to microphones without the user having to agree with that. In practical terms that meant that a malicious app could turn on the microphone without the phone user being aware of it. There was some other changes. Confined apps were able to crash PulseAudio on a Bluetooth device when the virtual device was removed." Other improvements, including updated support for printing and hot-plugging external monitors, were also introduced.
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The Murena project provides a de-Googled flavour of Android, called /e/OS, and sells phones with this privacy-focused operating system pre-installed. The organization has announced it will soon sell a tablet which will ship with /e/OS installed. "Featuring a 10.95-inch LCD display with a sharp 2560 x 1600 resolution, this tablet delivers vibrant visuals for both work and play. Powered by the efficient Tensor G2 chip, it ensures smooth performance while keeping your data secure. Enjoy our built-in synchronisation to Murena Workspace that runs on renewable energy." Details on the new tablet can be found on Murena's pre-order page.
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The Xfce project has released a new major version of its middle-weight desktop environment. Xfce 4.20 mostly focuses on transitioning the desktop's code to support Wayland while maintaining X11 support. "The major focus during this development cycle was the preparation of the codebase to be ready for Wayland. So that we meanwhile have experimental Wayland support for most components. More details in the links below. Assuming you have installed Xfce 4.18, here is an overview on the major changes you will see on an upgrade to Xfce 4.20." There are also a number of visual and performance improvements, with several performance tweaks applied to the Thunar file manager.
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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) |
Sending attachments from the command line
Checking-my-mail asks: Is there a way to send e-mail attachments from the command line? Like if I wanted to send a log file or report but without access to a full desktop/web e-mail application?
DistroWatch answers: Most, though not all, command line e-mail clients will allow you to attach files. This can usually be accomplished by passing the "-a" flag to the e-mail program, followed by the name of the file you want to send.
When using the mutt command line e-mail program sending an attachment can be done as follows:
mutt -s "Please see attached" -a /var/log/boot -- my@address
The above command sends an e-mail to my@address and attaches the /var/log/boot file, assuming we have read access to the file. When using the sendEmail program we can accomplish the same thing with a command like this:
sendEmail -f from@address -t my@address -u "Please see attached" -a /var/log/boot
The layout of the command is quite similar, but we need to specify both the "from" and the "to" addresses as parameters rather than at the end.
Thinking outside the box for a moment, there are other ways to automatically share files apart from e-mail. Setting up an e-mail client and making sure it works, just to share notifications or logs, can be overkill if there are other suitable solutions.
For instance, if you want to send a single file on a regular basis to a remote machine, it's usually easier to set up OpenSSH on one of the computers and have the other securely copy the file, using scp. For example, here I tell my laptop to retrieve a file from my server and play a notification sound when the file is finished copying. This could be added to an automated script to save me from manually running the command every day:
scp remote-server:/var/log/boot ./ ; mplayer /usr/share/sounds/alert.ogg
If both computers are on the same network, which is common in most home office and business environments, then we could also use the KDE Connect program. In the past I've written about using the KDE Connect software to link phones, laptops, and workstations. Here I run the KDE Connect command line program to send my log file from the server to my phone. The phone, in this case, has the identifier "8f420d3562d61339" which I discovered using "kdeconnect-cli -l":
kdeconnect-cli -d 8f420d3562d61339 --share /var/log/boot
When the phone receives the file it displays a notification I can tap to view the contents of the file.
E-mail is often a good way to go, especially for long-distance sharing of small amounts of information. OpenSSH is often better for large amounts of data while KDE Connect is ideal for small amounts of information being shared across the same network.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Window Maker Live 12.8
Window Maker Live is a Debian-based Linux distribution that applies the Window Maker window manager as the default graphical user interface. The project has released version 12.8 which is based on Debian 12 "Bookworm". "A selection of TeX Live packages for a decent TeX system, and auxiliary tools like AUCTeX for Emacs and the vim-latexsuite were also included. All of Bookworm's outdated GNUstep packages were replaced with current versions recompiled from their still up to date Debian/Trixie sources. The included GNUstep programs are more tightly integrated in the desktop. Only seeing is believing: The GNUstep packages were augmented by a few GUI themes demonstrating GNUstep's theming capabilities. The current Emacs release 29.4 has been added with its GNUstep based GUI. This emacs-gnustep variant is provided as a self-contained component and does not rely on nor conflict with the official Debian emacs packages. The bare bones Surf browser has been replaced with otter-browser since the former's AppArmor based security sandboxing proved too restrictive for casual usage. Also, the GNUstep based netsurf port WebSurf.app was added." The release announcement offers additional details.
Archman Linux 20241207
Muhterem Demiray has announced the release of Archman Linux 20241207, the latest stable build of the project's Arch-based distribution featuring a customised Xfce desktop: "Archman 2024-12 'Xfce' edition, the final stable release of the year, is ready. Archman Linux is an independent, globally-oriented Linux distribution derived from Arch Linux and developed in Turkey. Archman Linux offers a fast, visual, stable and easy-to-use installation and user experience. New features and updates: the latest Xfce desktop environment provides a faster and more stable experience; modernized theme and icon sets offer a more visually appealing user interface; the latest versions of popular software packages are included in this release; the system's security has been enhanced with the latest security patches. Performance improvements: the system startup time has been optimized for faster booting; memory and CPU usage have been improved, resulting in better overall system performance; battery life has been extended for laptops...." See the complete release announcement for more information and known issues.
OpenMandriva 24.12 "ROME"
The OpenMandriva project has published a new snapshot of the distribution's ROME branch, a rolling release which is available in six desktop flavours: Plasma 6 (X11), Plasma 6 (Wayland), Plasma 5, LXQt, GNOME, and COSMIC. "Main features, and changes since ROME 24.07: KDE Plasma 6 desktop by default (x11). Spins featuring latest desktop environments GNOME, LXQt Qt6, Plasma 5 and COSMIC 1.0 alpha. Plasma 6 Wayland ISO provided as well. Please note the Wayland ISO in VirtualBox may boot to a black screen and will not work; VirtualBox users may need to set VMSVGA controller to boot successfully; It works fine on most hardware and in QEMU with KVM. Available in OpenMandriva repository proton and proton-experimental, which make Proton available outside of Steam, without the need to install any non-free code. OM-Welcome Startup and Configuration tool, specifically designed for OpenMandriva KDE Plasma desktop environment, keeps improving with some more convenient modules for easy install of the users' most wished applications." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
OpenMandriva 24.12 "ROME" -- Running the Plasma 6 desktop
(full image size: 733kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
CentOS 10 Stream
The CentOS project has announced the availability of a new version of CentOS Stream. The new 10 series branch provides a preview of what is coming up in the next release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Version 10 ships with Linux 6.12, Python 3.12, and version 47 of the GNOME desktop. "CentOS Stream defines Enterprise Linux. It is a Linux distribution built by Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) engineers, and is used as the major version branch that RHEL minor versions are created from. It has roughly a five year lifecycle and will be maintained until 2030. The exact date will be contingent on the end of the Full Support phase of RHEL 10. Special Interest Groups (SIGs) and other communities use it as a trusted base for their tailored solutions. RHEL customers can use it as a preview of what's coming soon to RHEL.... CentOS Stream 10 includes several exciting new features and enhancements. Some of the highlights include: Linux kernel 6.12; Python 3.12; Go 1.23; Rust 1.82; Valkey 7.2; GNOME 47." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
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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: 3,126
- Total data uploaded: 46.0TB
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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) |
Do you use an e-mail client?
This week we talked about sharing files through e-mail attachments in our Questions and Answers section. We'd like to hear how many of our readers use local e-mail clients these days. If you do, do you use a desktop application or command line/console e-mail client?
You can see the results of our previous poll on running Red Hat Enterprise Linux and its clones on laptop and desktop computers in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you use a local e-mail client?
| Yes - desktop application: | 1072 (38%) |
| Yes - console e-mail client: | 58 (2%) |
| No - web app / webmail: | 1610 (57%) |
| No - I do not use e-mail: | 61 (2%) |
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|
| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Aurora. Aurora is a Linux distribution based on Fedora Kinoite. The project adds additional developer tools and drivers enhance hardware support out of the box.
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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, 23 December 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 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Ehad
Ehad was an Israeli project offering a repackaging of standard Mandriva Linux binary packages, in order to provide a single installation CD for Mandriva users in Israel. Ehad intends to provide a useful assortment of applications in a single CD and offers full compatibility with this popular distribution. Ehad users can enjoy all the graphical installation and configuration tools provided by Mandriva, as well as the huge software repositories (including automatic installation capabilities). Ehad has built-in support for Hebrew and English out of the box.
Status: Discontinued
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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