 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1105, 20 January 2025 |
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Welcome to this year's 3rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
It has been a while since Red Hat phased out CentOS Linux, which was a downstream clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), in favour of CentOS Stream. The CentOS Stream distribution holds a middle ground in the development process between Fedora and RHEL and it offers a way for people to see new features coming to RHEL. This week we begin with a look at version 10 of CentOS Stream and report on the experience. Have you tried CentOS Stream lately? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll what you think of the distribution and if you plan to keep using it. Then, in our News section, we discuss the Haiku team porting Iceweasel to their lightweight operating system. We also talk about new debugging tools for people working with Oracle Linux and report on vulnerabilities being patched in the popular rsync backup utility. Then we turn our attention to Flatpak packages and, specifically, why they may seem to be woefully out of date in your distribution's software centre. We tackle this problem in our Questions and answers column below. Finally, we are pleased to share the new releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
CentOS 10 Stream
The CentOS project has undergone changes over the years. Many people are probably familiar with CentOS Linux, a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux which started as a community project that was eventually taken over by Red Hat. This project, CentOS Linux, was killed off and, in its place, Red Hat set up CentOS Stream. Stream is described by its own website as follows:
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.
In other words, it is basically a development branch which sits between Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The latest branch of CentOS Stream is version 10 which includes a small number of features and package upgrades compared against version 9: Linux kernel 6.12; Python 3.12; Go 1.23; Rust 1.82; Valkey 7.2; and GNOME 47.
The project's release announcement mentions a few other key changes and characteristics. X11 support has been dropped for version 10. CentOS 10 Stream offers Wayland support only and it appears to only support one desktop environment: GNOME. Version 10, we are warned, doesn't work with Secure Boot.
CentOS runs on four CPU architectures: X86_64, 64-bit ARM, Power9, and IBM Z. The release notes also mention a significant change for people running older hardware: "A notable change in this release is that the AMD/Intel 64-bit build now targets the v3 microarchitecture level." This caused me to pause my preparations long enough to confirm my workstation does indeed have x86_64-v3 support.
The x86_64 build is available in two editions, a 6.8GB "DVD" edition and a smaller 800MB "Boot" edition. I fetched the DVD edition. Booting from this media displays a menu asking if we'd like to jump straight into the install process or run a self-test on the media first. When taking the self-test option, I found the self-check completed successfully, then launched the Anaconda system installer.
The live system doesn't offer a desktop environment, it simply starts a graphical interface and launches the Anaconda installer. Anaconda asks us to select our preferred language and then shows us a hub screen where we can launch a collection of configuration modules in any order. These modules ask us to confirm our timezone, pick a keyboard layout, enable kernel dumps (kdump), and connect to a local network. There are also modules for setting the root account's password (the root account is disabled by default) and for making up a username and password for a regular user. Our regular user can be granted administrative privileges.
One of the modules asks us to select a role (also known as a collection of packages) for our system. The available roles are: Server with GUI (the default), Server, Minimal Install, Workstation, Custom, and Virtualization Host. I decided to go for the Workstation role and customized it slightly, adding backup and admin tool packages.
There is a disk partitioning module and it is, true to Anaconda's history, still awkward to navigate. We can manually partition the disk or we can take over a disk using guided partitioning. The guided approach will create three partitions for us: XFS on /boot, XFS on LVM for the root partition, and a swap partition.
The system installer copied its 1,282 packages to my hard drive. During this time it showed how many packages it had copied and what it was currently working on. This part of the status page worked. There was also a progress bar displayed on the screen, but it did not move. When Anaconda was finished it offered to restart the computer.
Early impressions
Booting from my new copy of CentOS brought up a graphical login screen, which made sense for my selected Workstation role. I was offered two desktop session options: GNOME and GNOME Classic, both of which run on Wayland.
I ran into a few problems with both desktop environments when I first got started. The first time I signed into the plain GNOME session I was surprised to find the desktop did not display any welcome window, configuration wizard, or GNOME Tour. After a moment, I realized the system had locked up completely. It was not responding to mouse or keyboard input and had probably stopped working before any first-run processes could be launched. I rebooted and tried the GNOME Classic desktop. It worked and functioned fairly well, but then the system showed a blank screen and locked-up when I tried to logout. This again required a forced reboot to get back to normal.
CentOS 10 Stream -- The desktop overview
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Oddly enough, these two lock-ups were the only ones I experienced during my trial and both only happened the first time I ran the respective desktop sessions. After that, it was smooth sailing in both test environments.
The second time I signed into GNOME Shell, the GNOME Tour application launched. The tour showed me a few screens which explained how to launch applications, see an overview of workstations, and use the desktop's search feature. GNOME Shell used a theme which caused the desktop elements (panel, menus, and wallpaper) to be dark, but applications to be light. The text editor, terminal, and file manager all used white backgrounds with the default theme. We can switch to a dark theme which causes all elements and applications to be dark and the wallpaper to be removed, leaving us with a black background.
CentOS 10 Stream -- The applications grid
(full image size: 77kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
Hardware
CentOS worked fairly well on my workstation. The distribution automatically detected my network card, audio worked out of the box, and performance was average. I previously experienced a lot of lag with the GNOME 3.x series, but the GNOME 40+ series has generally worked smoothly for me and this decent performance continued for me this week.
The first time I tried to run CentOS in VirtualBox the distribution immediately failed with a kernel panic. It turned out the reason was I was running the VirtualBox package which is available in Debian 12 (VirtualBox 7.0), but VirtualBox 7.1 is required to enable the x86_64-v3 CPU features that CentOS needs. Upgrading VirtualBox to version 7.1 allowed the distribution to boot.
CentOS 10 Stream -- The GNOME Settings panel
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Once it was up and running, CentOS took up 6.3GB of disk space for its root filesystem, plus additional space for a swap partition. Logging into GNOME used 1.1GB of RAM which puts the distribution on the heavier end of the Linux spectrum.
Included software
CentOS, even when set up in the Workstation role, ships with very little desktop software. There is no web browser, no audio player, no video player, no office suite, no games, and no image editor - just to point out a few examples.
CentOS 10 Stream -- The default light theme
(full image size: 1.4MB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
The distribution does ship with core GNOME applications, including a calculator, system monitor, the GNOME Files file maanger, a disk usage utility, and an image viewer. The GNOME Settings panel is available to help configure the desktop. There is a tool called SELinux Troubleshooter to sort out issues with the security software.
The distribution includes GNU command line utilities, manual pages, and the Network Manager software. There is no compiler or Java on the system. The systemd software is present and the distribution runs on version 6.12 of the Linux kernel.
In the background I found a few network services, including the OpenSSH service on port 22 and the Cockpit administrator web portal running on port 9090.
I had expected to find Toolbx, a container manager, installed as it was a major feature of Fedora 41 Kinoite, but it was not present. I found Toolbx is in the repositories and can be installed using the DNF package manager
Software management
As I mentioned above, CentOS ships with the DNF package manager for handling low-level packages on the command line. DNF worked well for me. It's a bit slow compared to most other Linux package managers, but it functioned without any issues. By default, DNF pulls software from CentOS's Core, Extras, and AppStream repositories. There are other repositories for specialized packages, such as firmware, and these can be enabled through GNOME Software.
On the subject of GNOME Software, the modern software centre provides us with three tabs. One for exploring and downloading new application, one for listing and removing installed items, and a final tab for updating software. GNOME Software worked well for me, at least within its capacity, tracking down desktop applications, removing them, and keeping them up to date. GNOME Software is also able to toggle repositories, enabling/disabling known package sources.
CentOS 10 Stream -- Searching for new applications
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Browsing the default repositories (Core, Extras, and AppStream) we soon find there are very few applications available. There is no Firefox package and, in fact, no graphical web browser at all. (The Lynx text-based browser is in the repositories, but not available through GNOME Software.) The whole software centre feels bare.
Unlike Discover, GNOME Software does not know how to enable Flathub for itself. Since no web browser is installed for us, this means we need to either already know how to enable Flathub or use another computer to look up how to enable Flathub. Alternative we can install Lynx and use that to try to look up the information, though Flathub's website is not a friendly environment for a text-based web browser.
Once Flathub support had been enabled through the command line Flatpak program, GNOME Software did work with Flatpak bundles. I was able to fetch and run Flatpak packages without further hurdles.
Interesting tools and additional observations
Earlier I mentioned the Cockpit service was running on my machine. Cockpit is a remote administrative tool which provides a web-based interface. We can visit Cockpit running on our system by accessing port 9090 in any graphical web browser. The Cockpit interface provides easy access to managing applications, installing updates, enabling/disabling services, and dealing with SELinux. I like Cockpit, it has a clean, easy to navigate interface and provides access to a lot of functions a system administrator will use on a regular basis.
CentOS 10 Stream -- Installing new applications in Cockpit
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Conclusions
I think what surprised me the most while working on this evaluation of CentOS was how little I had to explore and discuss. The distribution's release announcement mentions no new additional features, just items being removed (such as older architecture support). Even the list of updated key packages is sparse. The Workstation role is likewise sparse. There are few applications in evidence, no development tools, no container manager, no media support, not even a web browser. Further, there is no graphical web browser in the default repositories and, on a distribution in a family of projects which promote Flatpak as the path into the future, there are no Flatpak repositories enabled.
What surprised me further was the problems I had with the few components which were included. It's been years since I've had stability problems with GNOME and it's rare a distribution locks up or crashes once it has been successfully installed. Yet, with CentOS, both of these issues occurred.
The single highlight of my time with CentOS was Cockpit. Though I'd intended to focus on using the distribution as a development workstation, even in the Workstation role, the distribution functioned better as a server managed remotely.
CentOS 10 Stream is further evidence, in case anyone was still lingering in doubt, that Red Hat is not interested in the desktop or developer workstations. CentOS 10 is pushing more and more toward being a minimal, server platform exclusively. In this space it is doing okay, but it's not doing anything which makes it stand out compared to Debian, Ubuntu, or openSUSE Leap. It doesn't have openSUSE's YaST, it doesn't take advantage of an advanced filesystem like Btrfs, and it doesn't have Ubuntu's massive repositories. It feels like an abandoned project, still alive, but running out of fuel.
I've mentioned before that Fedora feels less like a complete operating system and more like a collection of open source parts someone has put in a pile. CentOS feels like this too, but with most of the parts removed.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo desktop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Hex-core Intel i5-10400 CPU @ 2.90GHz
- Storage: Western Digital 1TB hard drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 wired network card, Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11ac PCIe wireless adapter
- Display: Intel CometLake-S GT2
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Visitor supplied rating
CentOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 5/10 from 20 review(s).
Have you used CentOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off new debugging tools, Linux distros patch serious rsync issue
The Haiku team published their December newsletter this week and shared some exciting news: "The biggest piece of news from last month is the arrival of Iceweasel, a web browser built from Mozilla Firefox source code but without any official branding or registered trademarks, in the software depots (for x86_64 only, at the moment.) We've been 'slow-rolling' the announcements on this one, in part because the browser was quite unstable at first and prone to cause kernel assertion failures on the nightly builds, but after a month of work it's in much better shape and is relatively stable." The newsletter goes on to describe the work being done to address memory issues and stability problems revealed by running Iceweasel.
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The Oracle Linux team have unveiled a series of debugging and analysis tools for their distribution. These tools, which aim to primarily assist developers and administrators in enterprise environments, are detailed in the company's blog post. "Performance Co-Pilot is an open source toolkit for monitoring and analyzing system performance metrics, both live and retrospective. It provides many tools and services that monitor, log, analyze and format system-level measurements. Oracle has added a few new tools to the PCP toolkit that assist the system admin in reviewing and analyzing a few procfs-derived metrics in a user-friendly format.
drgn is an open source debugger that was developed by Meta as an alternative to crash for debugging the Linux kernel. At Oracle, we have embraced the programmability of drgn for debugging complex problems, and are actively contributing to drgn (for instance, adding CTF support to it) as well as creating a new set of helpers for drgn that are geared towards monitoring and debugging Oracle Linux systems.
A third subproject, and the focus of this blog, is oled-tools. It is a collection of custom debug tools and scripts that collect and analyze more focused and useful data about a narrow, specific subsystem that is under scrutiny, in order to get more detailed data about the subsystem that is perhaps behaving abnormally."
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Finally, we'd like to touch upon a wide spread bug in rsync which was reported last week. The rsync utility is used to handle backups on most server distributions and as a back-end for a lot of desktop backup utilities. Several severe vulnerabilities were found in the rsync code which could affect users of rsync, whether it is being used on a client or a server system. Cyber Insider reports: "Given rsync's popularity in enterprise environments and among developers, these vulnerabilities pose significant risks. Attackers could leverage a combination of these flaws to gain full control over servers or steal sensitive data such as SSH keys, further exposing connected systems to follow-up attacks." At this point, most Linux distributions, along with other platforms, have patches available. People should upgrade rsync if they have not done so already.
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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) |
Why are old Flatpak bundles showing up in software centres?
Why-so-old asks: I have observed, for a bunch of applications, the Flatpak version I see in GNOME Software or Discover is older than the one I see when visiting the Flathub website. How is this possible? How do I fix it? Do certain distributions, like Fedora, only have access to older Flatpaks?
DistroWatch answers: While it is true the Fedora project set up its own filtered Flatpak repository, I suspect that is not what is going on in your situation. It sounds like you're trying multiple software centres, possibly across multiple distributions, and most distributions pull Flatpak bundles directly from Flathub.
I think one of two things is happening. The first possibility is your software centre just isn't refreshing its Flathub information. Discover, GNOME Software, and most other software centres have a Refresh button. Clicking the Refresh button confirms the information (including version numbers) you are seeing associated with applications is up to date.
Another possibility is you have discovered applications which have multiple branches on Flathub. Some applications have a Stable version and a Development version. (Alternatively, a Stable version and a Legacy version.) These separate versions are stored on Flathub and made available side-by-side.
If you visit the Flathub website and look at the QGIS application you can see, at the time of writing, Flathub says the latest version is 3.40.1. However, looking up information on QGIS through Discover can show version 3.28.9 is available. This is because there are two branches of QGIS available to install: the Stable 3.40 branch and the 3.28 LTS branch.
It's easier to see this by using the command line Flatpak program:
$ flatpak search qgis
| Name | Description | Application ID | Version | Branch | Remotes |
| QGIS Desktop | A Geographic Information System | org.qgis.qgis | 3.40.1 | stable | flathub |
| QGIS Desktop | A Free and Open Source Geographic Information System | org.qgis.qgis | 3.28.9 | lts | flathub |
As you can see in the above example, we have two entries for QGIS with the same application ID. These are two versions, one in the Stable branch and one in the LTS branch. When working from the command line we can specify which one to install by using double-slashes and then the branch name as follows:
$ flatpak install org.qgis.qgis//stable
Your software centre might not be showing the separate branches because not a lot of applications get packaged for multiple versions in parallel. However, when you do encounter situations like this you can use the command line to specify which version of your application you want to download.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
MX Linux 23.5
The MX Linux team have published an update to their 23.x series which is based on Debian 12 "Bookworm". The new release offers updated kernels and Xfce 4.20 packages. "Highlights niclude: Debian 12.9 Bookworm base. This release includes all updates from the Debian and MX repositories. Some highlights since our 23.4 release include: Xfce 4.20 core packages (Xfce isos and pi respin). MX PackageInstaller has UI improvements and better version display for packages in third party repositories. Screenshots from Debian Screenshots are also available. Extra warnings on live system if persistence has been ask for on boot media that is read-only. Tweaks to default fstab file as set by installer. Additional fallback modes in installer. Many many bug fixes. Many many language updates. Many new applications in our MX Test repository. All kernel updates: The standard Xfce, KDE, and fluxbox isos are all updated to the latest 6.1.123 kernel. AHS now uses the 6.12.8 liqourix kernel, with auto-updates enabled. The MX Raspberry Pi Respin has also been updated with the latest packages available from the MX and RPiOS repos." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement.
MX Linux 23.5 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
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Linux Mint 22.1
The Linux Mint team have published an update to the project's 22.x series. The new release, Linux Mint 22.1, moderizes the APT packaging tools, introduces new power modes to help uses find a balance between battery life and performance, and Cinnamon now provides a Night Light service which will reduce blue light exposure. "Choosing a power mode allows you to balance between power saving and performance optimization. The following power modes are available on all computers: Power-saver mode: Limits performance to conserve energy. Balanced mode: Adjusts performance based on your needs. On supported systems, an additional Performance mode is available. This mode maximizes performance at the cost of increased power consumption. Power-saving modes reduce performance but can extend battery life, reduce heat generation, lower CPU frequency, and decrease fan noise. Note that the system may override user settings based on the selected mode to adjust display brightness or make temporary adjustments to further reduce power consumption or enhance performance. In Cinnamon, you can select the power mode by navigating to Preferences -> Power Management." Additional information can be found in the project's What's New document as well as in the release announcement and in the release notes.
Rhino Linux 2025.1
The Rhino Linux distribution is based on Ubuntu and offers its users a rolling release. The project's latest snapshot is version 2025.1 and it offers a number of upgrades, including dynamic workspaces and a new welcome application. "One of our more exciting changes will be the inclusion of our brand-new Hello Rhino application. Written in Rust and using IcedTK, this application serves to help provide useful links to our homepage, blog, Discord community and documentation. Hello Rhino will automatically launch after post installation to help jumpstart the Rhino journey. Hello Rhino was created by a new contributor, so we would like to extend a big thank you to Sundaram Krishnan for making this possible. The Unicorn Desktop finally has dynamic workspaces, bringing extra efficiency and flexibility to the already powerful Unicorn Desktop. Previously, with static workspaces, you were restricted to a maximum of four, or had to manually create and manage the number of spaces yourself. Unicorn will now automatically create a new workspace each time the previous ones have an application open on them, and once there are no applications open on a workspace, it will be destroyed. The decision to incorporate this feature draws inspiration from desktop environments like GNOME, and the expandable workflow they provide." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
Rhino Linux 2025.1 -- Running the Xfce/Unicorn desktop
(full image size: 98kB, resolution: 1920x1200 pixels)
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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: 3,145
- Total data uploaded: 46.2TB
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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 of CentOS 10 Stream?
We began this week with a look at CentOS 10 Stream, the latest branch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux's upstream. Have you tried the latest version of CentOS Stream? What did you think of it? Let us know your experiences with CentOS Stream in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running general purpose or specialist distributions in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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What do you think of CentOS 10 Stream?
| I have tried it and like it: | 50 (2%) |
| I have tried it and do not like it: | 114 (5%) |
| I have not tried it but will: | 99 (4%) |
| I have not tried it and will not try it: | 2157 (89%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- iodeOS. iodéOS is an Android-based mobile operating system which is stripped of Google trackers. iodéOS analyses real-time connection attempts from your apps and allows you to: see the identity of all recipients and the quantity of data they wish to collect; block, if you want, malicious recipients (advertisements, malwares, spams, statistics and trackers); measure how privacy-respectful your apps are.
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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, 27 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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| Archives |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Athene Operating System
Athene was a commercial operating system developed by Rocklyte Systems for use in the home and office. Athene combines years of Rocklyte's R&D with the latest Linux technology to create one of the fastest operating systems available today. With boot times as fast as four seconds and advanced graphics technology not available in standard Linux distributions, Athene may be the best low-cost alternative to Windows for your computer desktop.
Status: Discontinued
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
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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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