 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1102, 23 December 2024 |
Welcome to this year's 52nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
As we approach the end of 2024 this seems like a good opportunity to look back and reflect on the past year - the successes, the failures, and the unusual moments. We begin this week with a look back at some of the fantastic distribution highlights from the Linux community which were released in 2024. Jesse Smith shines a spotlight on four of his favourite projects in 2024 and, in our Opinion Poll, we invite you to chime in with the distributions which earned your praise. Then, in our News section, we share a few positive updates from the Fedora project. Fedora has formed a new special interest group for improving Btrfs support. Fedora has also updated its Asahi Remix, a branch of Fedora for running on Apple's M-series hardware and we share details below. The openSUSE project, meanwhile, introduced some unusual patches to remove sandboxing to the Bottles package and drop donation options from the application. We talk about this below and also report on openSUSE 15.5 Leap nearing the end of its supported life. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about how to rename a process on Linux and explore multiple approaches for altering how processes are labelled in system monitors. Plus, we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We're also grateful to our donors and thank them below. We will be on vacation next week, but will return on January 6th. Until then we wish you all a wonderful week, a joy-filled holiday (for those of you who celebrate), and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
The best of 2024
Another calendar year is drawing to a close. As we prepare to go on a holiday (we'll be away next week and return January 6, 2025) I would like to take a moment to look back on the distribution highlights of 2024.
Every year I end up trying out dozens of distributions, usually about 60, and the experiences range from literally unusable through to fantastic. This year was no different and I'd like to take a moment to heap praise on four projects which stood out and impressed me this year, though each won my appreciation for a different reason.
It should be no surprise Linux Mint 22 appears on this list. The Mint team consistently puts out solid releases and continually sets the standard for desktop operating systems, both inside and outside of the Linux ecosystem. When I reviewed Linux Mint 22 back in August, I found the distribution continued to raise the bar.
Not only did Mint's latest version perform well, polishing the Cinnamon desktop and introducing a solid Wayland experience, the distribution also made a seamless transition to PipeWire, offered an updated hardware enablement (HWE) kernel, and filters for unverified Flatpaks were put into place without restricting what users can choose to install. As a bonus, Mint releases are supported for five years, making for a stable experience.
Linux Mint 22 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 77kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Mint regularly manages to take its Ubuntu parent, remove the pieces people generally don't like and replace them with components which make sense.
I wrote back in August:
I'm usually impressed by new releases of Linux Mint and version 22 has been no exception. The distribution delivers on virtually every front for desktop users. It's easy to set up, it offers a solid collection of popular applications without overly crowding the application menu, and it ships with three desktop flavours - ranging from full featured (Cinnamon), to classic (MATE), to lighter (Xfce). The welcome window makes it easy to access help, change the look of the system, and perform essential tasks such as making backups and installing updates. The software centre is fast and flexible, uniting Flatpak and Deb packages fluidly in one space.
Cinnamon uses nice, sane defaults, and it should be familiar for people migrating from Windows, while being flexible for people who want a distinctly different look and feel. Media support works out of the box, the update manager integrates with Timeshift for bullet-proof updates, and the system is stable. Even the new Wayland session works surprisingly well.
I played with Mint for five days and didn't manage to find any errors, any crashes, or any common task that it tripped over.
I feel that sums up the experience well and it highlights why Mint continues to be the distribution I recommend to new Linux users.
* * * * *
NixOS is an especially interesting project, almost entirely thanks to the Nix package and system manager which sits at its core. I commented back in April that, on the surface, NixOS does not immediately stand out. NixOS is installed with the Calamares graphical installer, it runs the GNOME or Plasma desktops, and it offers a fairly uncluttered desktop experience. All of this is fairly standard, but then, behind the scenes, we find Nix.
Nix is a real treasure in the Linux community. At first, Nix just looks like a package manager which offers atomic updates. However, it is so much more than this. Nix is a full system manager. Using Nix we can set up users, install packages, enable services, and configure all of the above items - all from one central text file.
NixOS 23.11 -- Installing NixOS from the Plasma desktop
(full image size: 525kB, resolution: 1920x1440 pixels)
In other words, we can take one configuration file and use it to manage not just our system, but also any other computer running Nix. This allows us to duplicate systems (including users, services, and installed software) by transferring a single text file and running a command.
Nix has some other great features, such as atomic package actions, instant rollback (and roll-forward) operations, and easy garbage collection to avoid cluttering the disk. This alone makes it worth checking out, but NixOS itself makes for a great distribution even without these special features. I wrote in April:
In addition to all of this, NixOS is a rare gem in that I don't think I ran into any errors while I was using it. The distribution was stable, it worked well with my hardware, and I didn't run into a single issue while running it. I feel NixOS is well worth a try, especially if you're a system administrator and want to deploy (or maintain) identical distributions across multiple machines.
It's well worth trying NixOS, especially if you are into system administration or atomic updates.
* * * * *
I was not sure if I was going to include PorteuX in this list. I'd only had a chance to play with PorteuX once - well, twice, quickly checking out versions 1.5 and 1.6 earlier this year in one combined review. The project as a whole didn't make a great first impression. The PorteuX website was lacking in terms of documentation and community forums.
PorteuX is also a curiosity in that is seems to be trying to fit into a niche that has been shrinking over the past two decades. PorteuX is a portable live distribution, intended to be run from live media and using separate modules to add functionality instead of classic software packages. These days most Linux distributions offer a live desktop mode, calling into question why we need a new project like PorteuX.
PorteuX 1.6 -- Browsing active modules
(full image size: 372kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
So why did I put PorteuX on my list of favourite projects for the year? I think mostly because, despite its limitations and lack of documentation, it does what it says it does and does it well. It strives to be a small, portable, desktop distribution which can be extended by modules and that is what it does. It offers several desktop flavours, it can fit on a CD (the ISO files are under 700MB), and it runs quickly.
I put it on this list, partly for people who want to perform system rescues or have the need to carry their operating system in their pocket. I also added it to this list because PorteuX is a rare project that has a specific focus, modest goals, and delivers exactly what it says it does.
* * * * *
It took me a long time to get around to trying Chimera Linux and the project had been sitting on the waiting list for a few years.
At first, Chimera Linux might not look like an obvious choice for someone looking for a great desktop or server distribution. The mission statement is vague and philosophical: "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."
To make matters more complicated, Chimera Linux doesn't have a system installer. The project has an Arch-like approach which requires the user to manually set up the distribution and bootstrap the initial packages. This makes for a lot of reading and even more typing.
Chimera Linux 20241027 -- Managing software with Discover
(full image size: 253kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
There are two reasons Chimera Linux won me over and was added to this list, following my November review of the distribution. The first is that Chimera has great documentation and lots of it. The project insists on a simple approach to software design and this means manual work for the user. However, manual doesn't mean difficult, especially when almost everything is handled through text files and tasks are well documented in the project's handbook. I sometimes say that software should either be easy to learn on its own or provide clear documentation. Chimera, like Arch and FreeBSD, take the latter approach.
The other reason Chimera caught my attention (and ended up on this list) is it is so pleasantly weird. Chimera Linux offers a unique collection of software. It runs the Linux kernel, BSD userland tools, the APK package manager from Alpine, the Dinit service manager, the Clang/LLVM compiler, and the musl C library. I have used a few projects which used Clang (like OpenMandriva) and musl C (like Void), and I've run a few distributions which used APK, but all of these together? This was a new experience!
In a landscape of Linux distributions that can blend together, in a world where every other distribution is a spin of Ubuntu or Arch Linux and in a community where 75% of all projects run systemd, Chimera Linux is a breath of fresh air. It is so nice to encounter a project which is cleanly designed, strange, documented, unique, and (despite all of its unusual components) it runs smoothly.
What Chimera Linux is bringing to the table isn't a practical capability. It doesn't offer Linux Mint's ease of use, PorteuX's lightweight nature, or NixOS's incredibly powerful package manager. What it does offer is something different. In a world of Red Hat clones, Ubuntu editions, and openSUSE spins, it is refreshing to come across an independent project which is striving to be its own thing and succeeding. I'd recommend trying out Chimera Linux if, for no other reason, than it is good to be reminded that there are different ways of doing things and the freedom Linux offers has not been entirely drowned in the samey sea of commercial software and corporate-backed distributions.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Fedora to expand Btrfs support and publishes new Apple M-series update, openSUSE announces the upcoming end of 15.5 Leap support and patches security feature out of Bottles
The Fedora distribution has had support for Btrfs as a filesystem for several years and, for the past few releases, has made Btrfs the default filesystem. Despite this migration toward using Btrfs, not much has been done with Btrfs on Fedora, compared with other Linux distributions. Fedora still doesn't have any graphical tools for managing Btrfs, it doesn't offer boot environments, and there is no integration between Btrfs and the package manager. Fedora's new Btrfs Special Interest Group (SIG) is hoping to address these shortcomings. Michel Lind writes: "We definitely have more Btrfs enablement to pursue in the future - bootable snapshots being one, transparent encryption another (pending it making it into the upstream kernel) - but the proposed SIG intends to get started on more practical items." People interested in furthering Btrfs support on Fedora can visit the Btrfs SIG page in the Fedora wiki.
Fedora's Asahi Remix is a special flavour of Fedora for Apple's M-series computers. Version 41 of the Asahi flavour introduced several new features and made running Linux on Apple hardware much more appealing: "In addition to all the exciting improvements brought by Fedora Linux 41, Fedora Asahi Remix 41 provides x86/x86-64 emulation integration including support for AAA games to Apple Silicon. The game support is based on the new conformant Vulkan 1.4 driver. It also continues to provide extensive device support, including high quality audio out of the box. Fedora Asahi Remix offers KDE Plasma 6.2 as our flagship desktop experience. It also features a custom Calamares-based initial setup wizard. A GNOME variant is also available, featuring GNOME 47, with both desktop variants matching what Fedora Linux offers." Further details are provided in the Fedora Magazine announcement.
* * * * *
In an unusual move, an openSUSE package maintainer has disabled security measures in the distribution's Bottles package and, seemingly in a move intended to spite the Bottle developers, removed the Donate button from the Bottles application. Some people have pointed out that removing the sandbox requirement of Bottles makes it easier for openSUSE to package and distribute Bottles to users who do not mind running the package in an unsupported environment. However, openSUSE has also removed the warning against running Bottles unsandboxed, leaving the distribution's users in the dark about the increased risk.
The move is not only raising eyebrows over the security implications and the apparent slap in the face to the Bottles team as openSUSE cuts off an avenue of donations to the upstream project, but there are also legal considerations in play. It is the nature of open source that anyone can fork (or patch) and then redistribute code from upstream sources - this is explicitly allowed by most open source licenses. However, downstream packagers are not allowed to redistribute their own, modified copy of software while keeping the name and trademark of the upstream project in place if it goes against the wishes of upstream. This is why clones of Red Hat Enterprise Linux cannot use the Red Hat logo and why Debian's highly patched web browser had to be called Ice Weasel instead of Firefox.
The openSUSE project has announced the end of support for Leap 15.5 is nearing: "The release of Leap 15.6 on June 12 set in motion the End of Life for maintenance and security for Leap 15.5, which will happen at the end of December. Users should upgrade to openSUSE Leap 15.6 to continue to receive security and maintenance updates. Leap versions have a six-month end-of-life period after the release of a new version."
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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) |
Changing a process name
A-process-by-any-other-name asks: Is there a way to rename a process? When I have multiple copies of the same program running I can't tell which one is the one I want to kill. They all look the same under ps so I want to rename them so I can tell them apart.
DistroWatch answers: There are a couple of ways you could approach keeping track of your programs so you know which one to terminate. One of the easiest ways to approach this is to launch a process in the background and immediately save its process ID in a file. This is how classic init and service managers usually handled this sort of situation. When a new background process was launched, they'd save the process identification number (PID) in a file. Then, if the administrator wanted to stop or restart the process, the service manager could check the file for the relevant PID.
Here is an example of running the sleep program and saving its PID. When a new program is launched in Bash, its PID is temporary stored in a shell variable called $!. This allows us to capture the value and save it to a file.
$ sleep 3600 &
[1] 161181
$ echo $! > first-sleep
The file first-sleep is now a text file containing the PID of the running sleep process. We can terminate it by running the following command which will check first-sleep for the PID and pass it to the kill command:
$ kill $(cat first-sleep)
It's a good idea to clean up the file containing the PID after you are finished with it. Ideally our example would look more like this:
$ kill $(cat first-sleep)
$ rm first-sleep
To expand on this scenario a bit, let's start three sleep processes and then terminate just the middle (second) process:
$ sleep 3600 &
[1] 161200
$ echo $! > first-sleep
$ sleep 1800 &
[2] 161205
$ echo $! > second-sleep
$ sleep 7200 &
[3] 161210
$ echo $! > third-sleep
$ kill $(cat second-sleep)
$ rm second-sleep
In the above example, only the second sleep process, (PID 161205) is terminated. The other two will continue to run.
That is one way you can approach running multiple processes with the same name and keep track of them. Ideally you would give the files holding the PID numbers more descriptive names to make them easier to organize.
Another approach is to give the program a unique name before you launch it. This can be accomplished with symbolic links. The ps program will show us the name of the program we launched on the command line, not the name of the executable file that ultimately ran. This means we can create a symbolic link for whichever program we want to run, launch it, then remove the link.
In the next example, I'm again going to use the sleep command to launch a couple of processes. Then I'm going to create a link to the sleep executable and, finally, bring up a listing of running programs using ps. The copy of sleep run from a symbolic link will stand out.
$ sleep 3600 &
[1] 162635
$ sleep 7200 &
[2] 162637
$ ln -s $(which sleep) my-cool-sleep
$ ./my-cool-sleep 1800 &
[3] 162669
$ ps
| PID |
TTY |
TIME |
CMD |
| 3732 |
pts/1 |
00:00:00 |
bash |
| 162635 |
pts/1 |
00:00:00 |
sleep |
| 162637 |
pts/1 |
00:00:00 |
sleep |
| 162669 |
pts/1 |
00:00:00 |
my-cool-sleep |
| 162685 |
pts/1 |
00:00:00 |
ps |
With this approach, we can quickly terminate the my-cool-sleep process by running the killall command.
$ killall my-cool-sleep
[3]+ Terminated ./my-cool-sleep 1800
At this point we can remove the symbolic link if we wish:
$ rm my-cool-sleep
These are probably the two easiest approaches available. They are portable, do not require any special permissions, and (I think) fairly easy to understand. There is another approach, but it's a bit awkward to use as it requires spawning a new shell. Here is an example of creating a new sleep process and naming it my-long-sleep:
$ bash -c "exec -a my-long-sleep sleep 10000 &"
The "-a" flag allows us to make up our own name for the launched process. While this approach saves us from creating symbolic links or text files containing PIDs, it has three notable drawbacks.
- The command is long and a bit awkward to type. Remembering 'bash -c "exec -a myname command &"' might be something you want to turn into a script rather than type every time.
- The above command launches its own, new shell. This means the process we created will not show up when we run ps without any arguments. The ps command, by default, only shows us processes in our own shell. We will need to run something like "ps aux" in order to see the command we renamed.
- Similar to the previous issue, some terminate commands, such as killall and pkill will not work against renamed processes. (Note: pkill can still work to kill renamed processes, but we need to specify the "-f" flag to clarify we are targeting a process by its new name rather than its original path.) This means we need to find other ways, such as running "ps aux" to locate the process's PID and then use the kill command, to terminate the renamed process. This is awkward as it means our renamed processes do not necessarily react as expected when we try to signal them and we need to do more work to find and stop our processes.
Hopefully one of the above three options will suit your needs and workflow.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
PorteuX 1.8
developers have announced the release of PorteuX 1.8, the latest version of the project's set of minimalist and portable Linux distribution based on Slackware Linux. This brand-new build updates the Xfce desktop environment to the just-released version 4.20: "This release introduces the long-awaited Xfce 4.20, along with updates to almost all desktop environments. The kernel has been updated to 6.12.5, but there appear to be some upstream performance regressions for AMD users in specific cases, so if you experience some of these issues, you can use the kernel from PorteuX 1.7. Changes: fixed vm.max_map_count not being set during boot; fixed extensions not installing in Cinnamon if 05-devel was not activated; fixed KDE 6 night light feature not working; improved support for Steam Deck; improved PorteuX installer for Linux to only ask for admin rights instead of root user; improved all scripts in /opt/porteux-scripts to only ask for admin rights instead of root user...." Continue to the release notes for a full list of bug fixes and other changes.
PorteuX 1.8 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 313kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Kali Linux 2024.4
The Kali Linux project has announced a new snapshot of the project's rolling release distribution. The latest version, 2024.4, upgrades Python to version 3.12, drops support for 32-bit x86 kernels and offers GNOME 47. The release announcement offers a summary: "The summary of the changelog since the 2024.3 release from September is: Python 3.12 - new default Python version (au revoir pip, hello pipx); the end of the i386 kernel and images - farewell x86 (images), but not goodbye (packages); deprecations in the SSH client - DSA keys, reminder about using ssh1 if required; Raspberry Pi imager customizations support - able to alter settings at write time; GNOME 47 - now able to synchronize your favorite colours; Kali forums refresh - new heart of the community home. Kali NetHunter - updates to the app, kernels, installer, store and website; new tools - 14 new shiny toys added (and countless updated). Python 3.12 is now the default Python interpreter. While it was released upstream a year ago, it took a bit of time to become the default in Debian, and then even more time to make it to Kali Linux, but finally it's here. Every new version of Python brings along some deprecations or subtle changes of behavior, which in turn breaks some Python packages."
T2 SDE 24.12
T2 SDE is an open-source system development environment (or distribution build kit if you are more familiar with that term). The project has published version 24.12 which supports 25 CPU architectures, introduces several fixes, and packages the COSMIC desktop. "We are pleased to announce T2 24.12 as a major update with a total of 37 pre-compiled base install ISOs for various Glibc, Musl and uClibc combinations are available for 25 CPU ISAs: Alpha, Arc, ARM(64), Avr32, HPPA(64), IA64, Loongarch64, M68k, Microblaze, MIPS(64), Nios2, OpenRISC, PowerPC(64), RISCV(64), s390x, SPARC(64), SuperH, i486, i686, x86-64 and x32. On most architectures the release still boots with as little as 512MB of RAM or even less, and ISO downloads are less than 2GB for base Wayland desktop with Firefox. Initial support for running on Nintendo Wii U was contributed and Linux kernel scrollback buffer handling restored. Support and stability was improved for SPARC64, Intel Itanium IA-64, Sony PS3, Sgi Octane and O2. This release also ships a significant larger desktop package selection even for non mainstream RISC architectures, including LibreOffice, OpenJDK and Qemu. The Cosmic Desktop was also added as new, next-generation, Rust-based desktop environment." Additional information is provided in the release announcement.
NetBSD 10.1
The NetBSD project has published an update to the highly portable operating system's 10.x series. NetBSD 10.1 mostly focuses on fixes and some driver enhancements. "Device drivers: acpiout(4): fix brightness controls on certain machines. re(4): add support for Realtek/Killer E2600 Ethernet. uftdi(4): add support for a range of Brainboxes USB serial adapters. urtwn(4): add support for the Mercusys MW150USV2 Wi-Fi adapter. viac7temp(4): add the driver to amd64 GENERIC. virtio(4): various fixes apei(4): new driver for ACPI Platform Error Interfaces. Userspace: shmif_pcapin(1): new utility program for shmif(4) tests. pax(1): fixes for various edge cases, particularly when creating files. xsetwallpaper(1): install the manual page. envstat(8): powerd(8), traceroute(8): add support for CRUNCHOPS to enable building rumpified programs as crunched binaries. httpd(8): create mobile-friendly directory listings. ifconfig(8): document parameters for lagg(4): interfaces. sshd(8): fixed unsafe use of functions in signal handler (CVE-2024-6387). getentropy(3): expose the now standardized interface to POSIX.1-2024 applications. ftp(1): update to version 20241129." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
Murena 2.6.3
The Murena team have announced a new version of the project's /e/OS operating system. Support for tablets has been introduced along with smoother support for QR code reading. One of the big features accompanying this release is a new on-line system installer. "We're excited to introduce our brand-new Installer for /e/OS, now in beta! Our team has been working tirelessly to make installing /e/OS on your device simpler than ever. This new Installer will replace the Easy Installer, offering you a seamless, step-by-step process to get /e/OS up and running on compatible devices. No more juggling multiple tools or complicated instructions! Also, if you're already hosting or planning to host a flash party, the Installer will be a game-changer, making the process faster, smoother, and more accessible for everyone." Further details on the new release and the new system installer can be found in Murena's release announcement and in the release notes. A list of supported devices can be found in the project's documentation.
IPFire 2.29 Core 190
The IPFire project develops a minimal operating system for routers and firewalls. The project's latest release, IPFire 2.29 Core 190, provides a kernel update and begins phasing out support for RSA encryption: "We are starting the path to remove RSA from the IPFire web UI and SSH. On new installations, RSA keys won't be generated any more. On existing installations, this update removes the RSA key from the web UI, but we keep the RSA key for SSH to not break any monitoring tools, etc. We still believe that RSA is strong enough to be used in today's world, but since there is sufficient browser and SSH client support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography which is considered to be much stronger, we want to raise the bar for any potential future attacks on RSA. IPFire is also now using post-quantum cryptography for SSH key exchanges: Streamlined NTRU Prime sntrup761 and X25519 with SHA-512 (sntrup761x25519-sha512) and Module-Lattice-based Key-Encapsulation Mechanism (MK-KEM, mlkem768x25519-sha256) have been enabled." Additional details are provided in the project's release announcement. Download: ipfire-2.29-core190-x86_64.iso (502MB), ipfire-2.29-core190-x86_64.img.xz (427MB).
Grml 2024.12
Grml is a minimal, live distribution which is based on Debian. Grml 2024.12 drops support for x86 (i686) computers while expanding support for 64-bit ARM machines. "We are proud to announce our new stable release version 2024.12, code-named Adventgrenze! This Grml release brings you fresh software packages from Debian trixie, enhanced hardware support and addresses known bugs from previous releases. With version 2024.12 Grml, for the first time ever, supports 64-bit ARM CPUs (Architecture arm64)! This milestone was made possible thanks to the financial support from netcup. As previously announced, releases for 32-bit x86 PCs have been discontinued. With the grml32 flavor removed, we've introduced UEFI 32-bit boot support on our Grml amd64 flavor to ensure 64-bit PCs with 32-bit Firmware can use this release." The release announcement and the release notes offer additional details.
CachyOS 241221
CachyOS is a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. It focuses on speed and security optimisations. The project's latest release focuses on performance and Bluetooth support: "One of the most notable changes is that the default kernel is now optimized using AutoFDO. Profiling workloads are run through a diverse set of tests, including sysbench, CachyOS Benchmarker, Git operations, kernel compilation, and several miscellaneous benchmarks. Currently, the profiling is done on a Zen5 machine, but in the future, we plan to support merging multiple profiles for even broader optimization. RustiCL has replaced the default OpenCL driver in the Mesa stack, bringing improved performance and compatibility. Additionally, we now use scx_loader for sched-ext scheduler management in the kernel-manager. This allows for more seamless switching between schedulers and ensures they are properly configured using a dedicated configuration file. We've also enabled Bluetooth support, enhancing the user experience for most users." The project's release announcement offers further details.
CachyOS 241221 -- Running the Plasma desktop
(full image size: 2.3MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
* * * * *
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: 3,130
- Total data uploaded: 46.1TB
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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) |
What do you think was the best distro of 2024?
We began this week with a look at some of the distribution highlights of 2024. These projects stood out as being of high quality and interesting. What were your favourite projects of 2024? Did you agree with our list or do you have a favourite we missed? Let us know in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using an e-mail client in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Your favourite distro of 2024
| Chimera Linux: | 76 (2%) |
| Linux Mint: | 1014 (30%) |
| NixOS: | 107 (3%) |
| PorteuX: | 32 (1%) |
| Other (share in comments): | 2143 (64%) |
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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 $125 in contributions from the following kind souls:
| Donor |
Amount |
|---|
| J S | $50 |
| Assaf R | $25 |
| Jonathon B | $10 |
| Sam C | $10 |
| Brian59 | $5 |
| Chung T | $5 |
| surf3r57 | $5 |
| TaiKedz | $5 |
| J.D. L | $2 |
| PB C | $2 |
| aRubes | $1 |
| c6WWldo9 | $1 |
| Stephen M | $1 |
| Kai D | $1 |
| Shasheen E | $1 |
| William E | $1 |
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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, 6 January 2025. 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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| 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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| 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 |
| 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 | 
Remix OS
Remix OS was an operating system based on Android-x86. Remix OS merges the Android operating system with a PC/desktop style interface with a traditional desktop application menu.
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.
|
| 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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