 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1111, 3 March 2025 |
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Welcome to this year's 9th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
An operating system's user interface is a key and defining element of any platform. Whether we are using a graphical touch screen, a text console with a keyboard, or a desktop environment with a mouse, how a computer system interacts with the user is incredibly important. This week we talk about a relatively new user interface: the Orbitiny desktop environment. Orbitiny recently had its first public launch and the desktop, while it retains a classic look, introduces some interesting concepts and shortcuts. Our Feature Story gives a tour of Orbitiny's main features and shares thoughts on how it works. Also on the topic of desktop environments, Canonical is planning to launch a special flavour of Ubuntu featuring an immutable base with the GNOME desktop. This new edition, called Ubuntu Core Desktop, has been in the works for a while and we discuss what its launch will mean for the Linux desktop ecosystem. Then, in our Opinion Poll this week we ask whether our readers switch complete distributions or desktop environments more frequently. Do you prefer to hop between desktops or between distros? In our News section we report on Gentoo offering ready-to-go disk images while FreeBSD begins porting efforts to the PinePhone Pro. We also share an invitation from the elementary OS project to submit suggestions for new features. Plus we are pleased to share details on last week's releases and list 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) |
Orbitiny 0.01
Orbitiny is a new independently developed desktop environment for Linux. It's built using Qt, the same development library used by KDE Plasma and LXQt. The project's website describes the desktop as follows:
Built from the ground up using Qt and coded in C++, Orbitiny desktop is a new, 100% portable, innovative and traditional but modern looking desktop environment for Linux. Innovative because it has features not seen in any other desktop environment before while keeping traditional aspects of computing alive (desktop icons, menus etc).
At the time of writing it seems that no Linux distribution packages Orbitiny. At least no distributions are building Orbitiny from source code and bundling it up in a package for its users. The Arch User Repository offers the next best thing. It provides a script to download and unpack Orbitiny's pre-built binary, the AUR script doesn't build the source code.
I decided to try Orbitiny in its prepackaged form on a copy of the siduction distribution. I didn't have any particular reason for picking siduction other than I already had a copy installed with very few tools and just the LXQt desktop.
I downloaded Orbitiny version 0.01 which was packaged as a 105MB tarball. Expanding this archive created a directory which took up 258MB of disk space.
Once I had unpacked Orbitiny I tried running the command start-orbitiny from a terminal which displayed a series of messages about loading plugins and, after a few seconds, failed, returning me to the shell prompt.
Between reading the errors and reading the project's documentation it appears that Orbitiny does not have its down session manager and, instead, can be run "on top" of other window managers and desktops, such as Xfce. To test this, I installed the Openbox window manager, logged into a completely empty Openbox session, and then ran start-orbitiny from a virtual terminal. This worked, placing orbitiny's panel, desktop, and wallpaper on my display.
Orbitiny 0.01 -- The application menu
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At this point two windows opened. One displayed text which gave a short introduction to the desktop and warned me that I was running an early development release. The second window let me know the desktop was licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and asked if I accepted the license terms.
Early impressions
Orbitiny presents us with a wallpaper showing the sky and some mountains. Eight icons sit on the desktop, clustered near the middle of the screen. These icons are called Linux System, Disks and Partitions, Trash, Documents, Features, Variables, README, and Panel README. The final four are all text or word processor documents which describe the project, its features, and some environment variables.
The desktop icons sit on an invisible grid which becomes visible (like translucent graphing paper) when an icon is clicked and dragged. I'm not sure if the grid of rectangles is meant to be a debugging feature or just a way to show the user where icons can be placed, but I like it. This gives the desktop the impression of having slots where we can put icons. As a bonus, the grid prevents icons from overlapping or being hidden behind each other. It also means we can arrange icons to form a picture by filling in the grid.
At the bottom of the display we find a panel, arranged horizontally. This panel holds several icons and widgets. To the left we find an application menu with three panes and later I will describe the menu in more detail. The panel holds quick-launch icons, a drawer that can hold additional launchers, a task switcher, and a virtual desktop widget. Next we find a CPU monitor, a "Run" input box, and a system tray. The tray holds a single icon which, when clicked, displayed an error indicating "pactl not found". I believe this was meant to offer a volume control. There was no networking widget in the system tray. To the far right I found a clock.
Orbitiny 0.01 -- The panel drawer
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Hovering the mouse pointer over panel icons did nothing for a few seconds, but eventually would display a tooltip describing the icon and any configuration options. This is useful since the icons are unique and I didn't recognize what most of them would do based on their images alone.
I'd like to dwell on the application menu for a bit. The menu has an unusual, three-pane layout. The right-hand pane shows a list of storage devices and mount points connected to the computer. Beneath each entry we can see an indication of how much storage is being consumed and a button to mount the device, if it isn't already mounted. This is an interesting idea and it can provide a quick overview of available storage. On the other hand, some of the entries are likely to confuse users. There isn't really any reason to show the /dev directory, for example. It also shows Btrfs snapshots as a separate volume and some entries have "mount" buttons that are not traditionally mounted - like the swap partition.
The middle pane shows categories of software. Some of these are fairly typical across desktop environments. There is a Development category and an Audio/Video category, for instance. There are also some less clear entries such as GTK and GNOME. It's probably not immediately obvious for a non-technical user what programs will be in these two categories or what will distinguish a GNOME application from a GTK application. The left panel shows launchers in the selected category.
I'd like to point out that, to the left of the left pane, there is a Favourites/Pinned bar. We can drag launchers onto this bar to quickly access them in the future. Unfortunately, any items I placed on the Pinned bar did not stay there after I'd logged out and logged back in.
Key desktop features
What I'd like to do next is share descriptions of the key elements of the Orbitiny desktop which have been provided by the developer. I will then share my own observations on what I found it to be like using these features.
Desktop Gestures - On the blank area of the desktop, draw a gesture pattern (like in a web browser) but on the desktop to perform an action, like, for example, launch a custom command or use one of the built-in supported actions available to choose from. Up to 12 gestures are supported for both left and right mouse buttons, 12 per button + additional configurations for middle clicks. Gestures are drawn on the blank area of the desktop and they work regardless whether icons are turned off or on.
When I clicked and dragged the mouse across the desktop it drew a line, sort of like a painting program. Completing a gesture popped up a message saying we can assign a command to a gesture by going into Preferences -> Desktop -> Gestures. Here I ran into a problem as I could not find this series of menu options anywhere. Following the README file I thought using Linux System icon might give me access to Preferences, but ran into a dead-end. Also, I found some desktop settings appear to rely on Xfce being installed.
The README file also suggested we look under Environment and Workspace Settings -> Advanced -> Gestures. I found the Environment and Workspace settings by right-clicking on the desktop. All this did was give me access to wallpaper settings; I found nothing called Advanced or Gestures.
Eventually found out the reason I was running into a dead-end was the Preferences window was opening too close to the top of the screen and the top inch was cut off. This was hiding tabs which gave access to changing default applications, adjusting fonts, setting up gestures, and changing UI themes.
Orbitiny 0.01 -- Defining actions when a gesture is performed
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I went into the Gestures tab and assigned a few simple mouse movements (up, down, left, and right) to various commands. Half of them were preset options we can select from a drop-down menu, the others were commands I typed into a nearby field. Once these gestures were set up, any gestures I had mapped to a specific, typed command worked. However, any preset options, like opening the overview dash or clipboard, failed. So this feature, once I found it, worked sometimes. It's easy to use (when it works) but it seems the preset options aren't implemented yet.
Icon Emblems - When a file is cut or copied to the clipboard, a little icon emblem with a "cut" or "copy" symbol is attached to the icon to indicate that the file is on the clipboard, either copied or cut. If the file is a directory, and contents of that directory change (like a file is created or deleted), an emblem is attached to let you know that the folder contents have changed.
Orbitiny 0.01 -- The copy emblem is displayed on the test.txt file icon
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This is a straightforward concept which worked well, at least on the desktop. When I opted to cut or copy a file the desktop showed a little cut or copy symbol by the upper-right corner of the icon. This is a convenient reminder of what we are in the process of doing.
File Join - Drag a text file over another text file to add the contents of the dragged file to the target file.
This did not work for me. Dragging one text file on top of another on the desktop did nothing. Both text files remained unchanged.
Paste to File - If there is ASCII content on the clipboard, right-click the file and select "Paste to File" and the content will be appended to the end of the file. Prepending is also available. If the selected file is a folder, the text content will be pasted into that folder and a file gets generated automatically. There is also image pasting. If the clipboard has an image, right-click + paste will generate an image file.
Both of these features worked. I could open one text file, copy its contents, then right-click on any text file's icon to append the data to the second file. If I right-clicked on a folder and chose to paste the contents of the clipboard the text from my clipboard would be copied into a new file called "00.Text File.txt". This is a neat shortcut. It's a great way to dump text without manually opening a new text file.
Multi Paste - Select a set of folders on the desktop and click "Paste" and the content from the clipboard will be pasted to all of the selected folders. Text content will also be pasted automatically by generating a unique file name and a file (works with images too).
This is an extension of the previous feature and I confirmed this works too. I'm not sure if I'd ever need to use it to paste text or images to multiple folders at the same time, but Orbitiny will do it if we wish.
Custom Desktop Directories - Choose any folder and use it as a desktop directory. It doesn't have to be $HOME/Desktop.
This is a neat idea, but I didn't find any way to do it. I thought maybe right-clicking a folder in the file manager would give me the option of assigning an alternative desktop location, but couldn't find an option for setting a folder as the desktop. I like the concept, I just can't find the screen where we implement the change.
Independent Desktops - Each screen is a separate desktop so on one screen you can have one desktop with its own set of icons (by selecting a desktop directory of your choice) and on another screen, you can have another desktop with its own icon by selecting a different desktop folder. Of course, works with wallpapers too. So it's like two different computers running on two screens.
This is a very cool idea and one which I could see catching on, especially for people who want to split their work and personal environments. I just have the one screen on my testing laptop and could not verify how well this feature works. Though, as I mentioned above, I didn't find the option to select a custom desktop directory anyway.
Beautiful and Non-Blocking Custom Context Menus. Non-blocking means your traditional shortcuts you have assigned in X11, will continue to work when a context menu is open, the shortcut won't get caught/blocked by it like it is the case with many other applications that use standard context menus. The context menus are custom made, not using the QMenu component.
Orbitiny 0.01 -- The desktop context menu
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This is both accurate and a wonderful feature. I often run into situations where I want to do something, perhaps take a screenshot using a shortcut, while a context menu is open. Orbitiny handles this beautifully. The context menus look nice too - pretty without being messy or overly flashy.
On the other hand, I found error pop-ups blocked accessing the desktop's context menu. For example, if I tried to open the keyboard settings an error would appear and report the xfce4-keyboard-settings application could not be found. Then I couldn't access context menus until that error window had been closed.
Orbitiny 0.01 -- Failing to open keyboard settings
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Open Multiple Terminals - Select several folders, right-click and select Open Terminal and a new terminal will open for all of the selected folders.
Orbitiny 0.01 -- The Orbitiny file manager
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This works as advertised. When multiple directories are selected in the file manager, we can right-click and choose to open a terminal in each location. This opens multiple terminal windows and automatically changes the working directory to match the selected folders. This is a convenient feature. I think it would be cool to see this ability extended a little so we could type in one window and have it mirrored to each terminal. This feature exists in remote administration tools like ClusterSSH and it would be nice to have it work locally too.
Built-in Run Drop-down Box (Combo Box) in the context menus allows you to run a command against the selected files (highly experimental and new).
I think this is referred to as Custom Actions in the file manager's context menu. It looks like we can perform one of the predefined actions from a menu. There is also an option to create custom actions based on file type. This is still, as the notes point out, in the early stages, so editing in new actions takes some manual text file editing to define custom actions. But they did work. For example, I selected a few files and chose to put them in a file archive and the system created a 7z archive with the multiple files in it for me.
Orbitiny 0.01 -- Performing context-specific actions
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Multi Profile Support on the Panel - Right-click the edge button on the panel and create a new profile or select one of the previously created ones to get a new configuration / sets of applets. You can switch between profiles like you switch different TV channels.
This seems to work, more or less as expected. It took me a while to get used to having multiple panels with different applets and settings. But it can be done. Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to load/clone an old profile onto a new panel (the same profile can't be loaded onto two panels at the same time to avoid conflicting changes). I also discovered right-clicking on a panel and selecting "Exit" would terminal all panels. If I wanted to dismiss just one panel I needed to right-click on the panel and select "Close".
Full Drag & Support on the Panel - Drop any File/Folder from the Desktop or a File Manager or Drag and Re-arrange any applet, any icon on the panel. No special "Edit Mode" is required. Just grab the applet on the panel or a file from the desktop / file manager and drop it straight onto the panel and an icon for it gets created or the dragged one gets re-positioned. So to be clear: Launch Thunar, Nemo, Dolphin or whatever and drop any file / folder from it onto the panel, either on the Quick Launch or anywhere else and a file icon gets created. This, Drag & Drop Support was my primary goal. The panel can be resized, and placed on any corner of the screen by dragging its handle or you can put it on the middle of the screen if you wish, or turn it into a dock with auto-resizing, or a deskbar that takes the width or the height of the screen. It's highly configurable. I use it as a deskbar as I am used to it.
This is an accurate description which was reflected in my trial. I sometimes found the movement of the panel (or the icons on the panel) unpredictable. Icons sometimes ended up zooming to the far end of the panel when I tried to move them. Otherwise, I agree, the panel is highly flexible and much easier to configure than other desktop panels. I also found the panel would change its length without my knowing what had triggered it. I sometimes found myself re-enabling the option to expand the panel to take up the full desktop width as the panel would occasionally shrink without warning.
Another problem I had was I couldn't get desktop icons to transfer/copy to the panel. I could add them to the drawer on the panel, but not the panel itself.
While the panel looks nice when it's aligned horizontally, the panel looks squished and text is not aligned well when panel is placed vertically along the side of the screen.
Orbitiny 0.01 -- Placing the panel vertically
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A Comprehensive Start Menu / Application Launcher applet and again with full Drag & Drop support. You can re-arrange icons within the menu, from / in the menu, and there is designated area for a sidebar too on the menu which you can also attach / remove icons from and in to it.
I could not get icons to switch order or move around in the application menu. I could drag and drop icons into the Favourites/Pinned area on the far left of the menu, but could not rearrange them within the menu.
Directory Browser inside the right-click context menu.
This is a cool shortcut feature! In the file manager we can right-click in a directory and move up or down the directory tree from the context menu. We can also open sub-directories from this tree menu in a new file manager tab. This makes navigating to other locations easy and it helps us bookmark our previous place since the original folder remains open in the previous tab.
Dashboard Window - click any edge on the desktop to launch a dashboard window that shows you running tasks + installed applications. Search/Filter is available. At the moment, the running applications only work with X11.
This is semi-accurate. I found that the task overview only opened when I clicked near the top edge of the screen. Clicking any other edge (the right, left, or bottom) did nothing. Double-clicking anywhere on the screen opened a clipboard manager. The dashboard has two tabs, as mentioned above. The first one shows a list of open applications and the second acts as a second application menu.
Portable Mode - All the files needed to run along with the applications it comes with can be downloaded to a USB flash drive (or a folder) along with the settings so you can just take the whole folder with you and run it on any Linux computer and the settings will remain the same so the settings are also portable.
This is both true and convenient. You can put Orbitiny's directory anywhere and run it. It's highly portable. It doesn't matter if the directory containing Orbitiny's files is on a thumb drive, in /usr/local, or in your Downloads directory, the desktop will run exactly the same. The project is nicely self-contained.
Built-in WINE and DOSBox support. All the components mentioned here support both WINE and DOSBox. This means, if you drop a Windows or DOS .exe onto the panel and click on it to launch it or double-click it from the file manager or the desktop, its path will be handed over to either WINE or DOSBox to run it.
I did not test this, but it sounds convenient.
Multi-command Support - Some of the panel applets such as the launcher applet, quick launch and the drawer menu along with its items allow you to add two commands per launcher. One for left-click and another one for middle-click.
Tried this with the drawer icon and it worked. We can set right- and left- clicks to do any custom command we wish. This is flexible and a cool way to pack extra functionality into the panel.
Multi-content Search Support in File Manager - The file manager supports searching for content inside files but it also gives you an option to search for an additional word on the same line the match is found.
This is another feature which sounds interesting, but I could not find how to activate the search option.
Right-Click + Zoom - To increase / decrease the icon size, along the standard CTRL + Wheel to zoom in / out, you can also click and hold the right-hand mouse button and use the scroll wheel - up/down.
This works, sort of. The images inside an icon's grid slot get larger and smaller when we zoom. However, the space the icon takes up (the grid rectangle containing the icon) stays the same size. The text under an icon also stays the same size. This limits the usefulness somewhat as it makes the icon picture a little larger (or smaller), but the overall icon size and its text remain unchanged.
Double-Clicking a Blank Desktop Area - Run a preset gesture or an individual command when the blank area of the desktop is clicked. Hold down right-hand mouse button and double-click - Run a preset gesture or an individual command
Double-clicking opens the clipboard manager. I imagine we can set other commands to run instead, if I could get te preset gestures to work.
Other observations/quirks
Selecting the Logout option from the application menu pops up a window saying we are being logged out. Then nothing happens. We remain logged in with the desktop displayed on the screen.
The user can kill the orbitiny-desktop and orbitiny-panel processes to effectively remove the desktop and then logout of the underlying desktop or window manager.
Orbitiny uses about 580MB of RAM when signed in with no applications running. This includes the underlying siduction core and Openbox. This makes Orbitiny a relatively lightweight desktop environment. This makes sense as there are not many services or supporting applications. It's pretty much just two processes, the panel and the desktop space.
The desktop doesn't seem to remember settings. For example, each time I logged in there were four virtual desktops. I'd reset it to one, but the next time I signed in there would be four. Though this might be an issue between the Orbitiny widget and the underlying Openbox window manager. I also noticed each time I restarted the computer, my desktop icons would change position from wherever I'd left them back to their default cluster in the middle of the interface. As I mentioned above, any changes I made to the application menu were undone when I logged out and signed back in. Other items were remembered. For instance, after the first login, I never saw the window asking me to accept the license again. Likewise, erasing a panel profile was remembered across sessions.
There is an icon on the panel called a Drawer which appears to hold multiple launchers and can be configured to perform specific actions when clicked. This feels a lot like the CDE desk drawer concept and acts like a mini application menu.
This drawer doesn't always work well. Icons need to be in the file manager or on the desktop to be dragged to the drawer (we can't add items to the drawer from the application menu or panel). Some launchers I added from the file manager didn't work and, instead of launching the application, clicking the icon would launch Firefox with an error saying the provided address wasn't understood. This appears to be an issue with desktop icons being treated like URLs. Some other application icons though did work and launched the programs as expected. I'm not sure why some desktop links worked when accessed from the drawer and some did not.
Moving icons around the panel or accessing the drawer widget sometimes caused the panel to crash, but rarely. When this happened I could run "orbitiny-panel" from a terminal to restart the panel. I also found moving icons around the desktop would occasionally cause a crash. I think Orbitiny crashed entirely on me once a day during my four day trial.
There is a Run widget on panel which provides us with a way to quickly find and run a program by typing its name. Past commands are saved for quick access later in a drop-down menu next to the Run widget. This Run widget works, but every time it is used a terminal window opens on the desktop to launch the program name we just typed. This makes the desktop messy after we've opened a handful of programs as the terminals are not closed automatically after they launch the command we typed.
I found out the hard way "resetting" the panel settings wipes them and causes the panel to be completely empty, permanently. We need to either recreate the panel's layout manually or wipe the panel settings and re-launch the desktop to get the original panel back.
Conclusions
The new desktop has some neat concepts and lots of intriguing shortcuts. The environment is very customizable and flexible. Orbitiny reminds me of a modern take on CDE in some ways with its drawer and flexible panel. I feel like this is what CDE might have become if someone wanted to add gestures and multiple folder actions to the classic desktop.
Some options are either hidden from view or missing. I had to dig a bit to find some configuration options and others didn't work because I wasn't running Orbitiny on top of Xfce. But what I found was generally good, especially for a first release.
I ran into a few crashes, the desktop isn't entirely stable, but I had fewer problem than expected for an initial release. I also like that Orbitiny is relatively light on resources.
This feels like a really good first attempt and, as the author suggests, it's a good balance between classic layout with modern features.
Note: There has been a new version of Orbitiny published since the 0.01 release, though I haven't been able to try it out yet because it looks like the project's Codeberg repository is off-line at the time of writing. I did find a copy of the release announcement on-line and it looks like the settings panel has been reorganized and a handful of bugs fixed. The overall design and style of the desktop seem to be unchanged though.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Gentoo offers ready-to-go disk images, elementary OS invites feature suggestions, FreeBSD starts porting efforts to the PinePhone Pro, Mint warns about upcoming Firefox issue
The Gentoo project is making it easier to get started with the meta-distribution in virtual machines and cloud environments. The project is now publishing QCOW2 disk images which are ready to mount and immediately boot. "We are very happy to announce new official downloads on our website and our mirrors: Gentoo for amd64 (x86-64) and arm64 (aarch64), as immediately bootable disk images in qemu's QCOW2 format! The images, updated weekly, include an EFI boot partition and a fully functional Gentoo installation; either with no network activated but a password-less root login on the console ("no root pw"), or with network activated, all accounts initially locked, but cloud-init running on boot ("cloud-init"). Enjoy, and read on for more!" The project's news post offers additional information.
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The elementary OS team is inviting people to share thoughts on what features they would like to see in future versions of the distribution. "If you have ideas about what you think we should start working on for OS 8.1 - or OS 9 - now is the absolute best time to start a new discussion post or upvote an existing one." The project's GitHub page has an Ideas section where users can chime in with suggestions. Some of the more popular suggestions include making it easier to connect with cloud accounts, changing the style of the desktop dock, and including a new system monitor.
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When people think about FreeBSD they usually picture servers or massive network-attached storage pools. It's not often the venerable operating system is associated with mobile devices. At least one developer is working to change this. In FreeBSD's latest Quarterly Report one of the key areas being worked on is porting FreeBSD to the PinePhone Pro: "The next steps are to enable UEFI-based framebuffer support to enable output to the screen, and to enable USB on-the-go functionality, which might allow for plugging in a USB keyboard and/or Ethernet. Porting the Linux driver for WiFi will also be looked into. Any developers wanting to assist are encouraged to get in touch. Additional feedback and testers are welcome." The report also discusses improvements to the package manager, updates to several key ports, and efforts to better supports laptop computers.
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Over the past week the tech media has been discussing Mozilla, the company's Firefox web browser, and the licensing terms for Firefox a lot. In particular, there has been a lot of discussion around Mozilla's new licensing terms which allow the company to use information entered into Firefox and Mozilla's retraction of the company's promise not to sell users' data. Meanwhile, another Firefox-related issue has largely flown under the radar and the Linux Mint February newsletter addresses the problem: "On March 14, 2025, a root certificate used by Firefox will expire.
When this happen, Firefox version 128 (and lower) will suffer significant issues related to: configuration; add-ons; signed content; DRM-protected media playback. To avoid these problems, make sure you're up to date in your Update Manager. Press Refresh and apply all updates.
This is important for security reasons, and in this case it's also important to avoid regressions. Firefox 135.0.1 is available on all supported Linux Mint releases. Firefox 135.0.1 was also sent as an emergency update to the following discontinued releases: Linux Mint 19.3, 19.2, 19.1 and 19; LMDE 5; LMDE 4." Users of other distributions should make sure their Firefox packages are up to date to avoid issues accessing content.
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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) |
Effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop?
Desktop-on-a-rock-base asks: What do you think of the upcoming Ubuntu Core Desktop edition? Is it going to have a big impact on the Linux desktop market?
DistroWatch answers: For people who might not be aware, the company behind Ubuntu (Canonical) currently has a special server and Internet-of-Things (IoT) edition of Ubuntu called Ubuntu Core. The Ubuntu Core edition offers a minimal set of features by default. It's basically a small, immutable distribution which is meant to run Snap packages and containers. The idea is to have a tiny, bullet-proof base administrators can use as a foundation. Then containers and portable Snap packages are layered on top.
For people who are interested in this kind of minimal, immutable platform, I reviewed Ubuntu Core 24 last year. I mentioned at the time that setting up Core is an error-filled experience and quite restrictive. However, once the distribution is up and running, the experience wasn't bad, though it didn't really offer anything beyond what Ubuntu Server already provided - apart from Core's read-only root filesystem.
Ubuntu Core is clearly meant for server use and for IoT devices. However, Canonical has been talking about making a desktop edition of Ubuntu Core. The idea is that the distribution would again offer a minimal base and then everything on top of that base would be a Snap package. The kernel, the desktop, the web browser, the office software - everything apart from a few core utilities would be provided by a Snap package or a container.
I think Canonical first mentioned this idea of a Core Desktop edition back around the end of 2022 or early 2023. Since then not much has come out of the plan. There have been any number of articles mentioning delays as Canonical keeps pushing back the release date. Still, some people are excited to see Canonical launch an immutable version of Ubuntu's Desktop edition which would compete with Fedora's atomic editions and openSUSE's MicroOS.
With that background provided, let me return to the original questions. First, what do I think of it? Well, it's hasn't reached a stable release yet so I'm withholding judgement until I get to try a stable version. However, for the most part, immutable editions of operating systems do not appeal to me. I understand why they appeal to the companies which make them (immutable distributions are almost exclusively developed by commercial companies). Having a super minimal base cuts down on quality assurance variables, having an immutable base means major upgrades can be atomic (they succeed or rollback), and it means the company doesn't need to support multiple versions of packages - they can deploy one portable package for all supported versions of their operating system. In short, if you're offering commercial support, quality assurance, or looking to scale back on the number of developers you need to pay then immutable distributions make a lot of sense.
However, for the most part, immutable operating systems don't offer a lot of benefits to end-users. The filesystem is more restrictive, portable packages take up more space and start slower, the user often needs to run containers to acquire less popular applications or to run development tools. A good implementation of an immutable distribution can offer some perks - slightly improved security, for example. But the atomic updates and upgrade rollbacks provided by most immutable platforms can be achieved by easier to manage, more lightweight, and less intrusive methods such as filesystem snapshots. So, from the user's point of view, the best case scenario with an immutable desktop distribution is it behaves almost exactly like a regular desktop edition while taking up more disk space. This is why almost all immutable distributions are backed by companies - community-backed distributions (such as Debian) don't get as much benefit from an immutable platform.
In other words, I see the benefit of shipping an immutable version of Ubuntu Desktop for Canonical, but not so much for Ubuntu users.
As to what sort of impact an Ubuntu Core Desktop flavour is likely to have on the Linux ecosystem, I don't have a crystal ball. However, if pressed, I'd guess the impact will be minimal. The other major Linux companies, Red Hat and SUSE, already have immutable desktop editions. These desktops editions, while still young, have been in development and accessible to users for a few years. I'd go as far as to say Fedora's latest release of its atomic desktop builds are fairly polished. There has certainly been some interest in these new, immutable editions, but they don't seem to be drawing a lot of users yet. I suspect, at least for the first few releases, Ubuntu Core Desktop will be the same: interesting, without drawing a huge crowd.
Eventually, as in five years down the road, I imagine we'll see immutable flavours of the official community editions of Ubuntu. When these projects (such a Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Lubuntu), start providing immutable bases I think adoption will spread faster. We might even see some neat specialist editions which make good use of an immutable base and other powerful features like advanced filesystems and boot environments. For the near future, I suspect Ubuntu Core Desktop will be a niche, something for people to tinker with, but not something which will replace the main Ubuntu Desktop flavour for several years.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Armbian 25.2.1
Armbian is a Linux distribution designed for ARM development boards. It is usually based on one of the stable or development versions of Debian or Ubuntu and it supports a wide variety of popular ARM-based devices. The project's latest release is version 25.2.1 which introduces new hardware support. "We are thrilled to announce Armbian Release 25.2, packed with significant updates across our entire ecosystem! These updates are aimed at enhancing functionality, expanding hardware support, and refining the user experience for both developers and everyday SBC users. Let's dive into the exciting new features! Key highlights: New Board Support: Rock 2A and 2F, NanoPi R3S, Retroid Pocket RP5, RPMini, Rock 5T, GenBook, MKS-PI, SKIPR, Armsom CM5, NextThing C.H.I.P, Magicsee C400 Plus. Rockchip 3588 Improvements: Upgrade to latest vendor kernel v6.1.99 and mainline to 6.12.y, including HDMI driver updates, USB3 fixes, and Bluetooth support updates. Wireless Enhancements: RTW88 driver additions and kernel stability fixes, added automatic wireless testing infrastructure. Kernel Upgrades: most of kernels were upgraded from 6.6.y to 6.12.y, with extensive refinements in all areas. U-Boot Updates: Most of boot loaders were updated to its last stable version, 2024.10 or more recent. Easy deployment of tools like AdGuardHome, Pi-Hole, Home Assistant, Utime Kuma, NetData, Grafana, Cockpit with KVM management, NextCloud via armbian-config." The release announcement provides more details.
Murena 2.8
The Murena team have announced the launch of an update in the /e/OS 2.x series. The new version imrpoves the account manager and software centre while fixing bugs on multiple devices. The release announcement reads: "We're thrilled to announce the release of /e/OS 2.8, packed with exciting new features, improvements, and bug fixes to enhance your experience! This update brings notable enhancements, including a more user-friendly Account Manager, an improved App Lounge experience, and important software updates like the latest LineageOS 21 security fixes. We've also addressed several bug fixes across devices like the Fairphone 3, Google Pixel 5, OnePlus Nord, and more, along with updates to popular apps such as Browser and Maps. Want to know more? Dive into the full release notes and explore everything /e/OS 2.8 has to offer!" Additional details can be found in the project's release notes. A list of supported phones and install options for them can be found on the project's Devices page.
GhostBSD 25.01
The GhostBSD project maintains a desktop-focused build of FreeBSD. In the past, GhostBSD was based on FreeBSD's development (STABLE) branch, but the latest version, GhostBSD 25.01, is built on FreeBSD's RELEASE branch. "What's new in 25.01-R14.2p1: MATE Desktop at 1.28.2: Upgraded to 1.28.2, with mate-panel (1.28.4), mate-notification-daemon (1.28.3), atril (1.28.1), and more, for a refined desktop feel. 2025 Visual Refresh: New wallpapers update the MATE desktop and Slick Greeter login screen. Hardware Boost: Added QEMU USB Tablet and XHCI mouse support for live sessions and installs, plus AMD Radeon R7 240 (Device ID 0x6613) compatibility. Broader Accessibility: Brazilian Portuguese translations land in Update Station and NetworkMgr. Workstation Firewall: Default firewall now set to "Workstation" for desktop-friendly security. Improvements and Features: Tuned live session memory for a snappier start. Pulled in releng/14.2 updates from FreeBSD. Simplified driver and software management with refactored package lists. Replaced automount in ghostbsd-utils with UDISKS2 in gvfs for better media handling. Fixed USB stick unmounting for Xfce users." Additional information is provided in the release announcement.
GhostBSD 25.01 -- Running the MATE desktop
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1024x768 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: 3,166
- Total data uploaded: 46.7TB
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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 change distributions or desktop environments more frequently?
Usually our focus is on Linux distributions, such (as with our Feature Story this week, we sometimes also turn our attention to desktop environments. In the Linux community it is almost as easy to switch an entire operating system as it is to install and customize a desktop environment. We'd like to know which you do more often? Do you more frequently install and try out a new desktop environment on its own, or perform a fresh install of a new distro?
You can see the results of our previous poll on writing software in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you install new desktop environments or new distros more frequently?
| Desktop: | 157 (9%) |
| Complete distribution: | 1232 (67%) |
| About the same: | 199 (11%) |
| I have not installed either: | 250 (14%) |
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|
| Website News |
Added Declarative tag to Search page
One of the feature requests we received recently was to make it possible to search for distributions based on whether the project offered a declarative setup. This is a relatively rare feature and only a few Linux distributions, such as NixOS, currently support the ability to setup and configure a distribution using a declarative file and package manager. This is a feature which may spread as the technology is quite useful, particularly when deploying virtual machines.
For our readers who would like to search for declarative distributions, it is now a Distribution category option on our Search page.
* * * * *
New projects added to database
Bazzite
Bazzite is an atomic distribution based on Fedora. The Bazzite distribution is designed with gaming in mind. It can run on desktop computers, the Steam Deck, and other handheld gaming devices. The base system is read-only and packages are usually supplied using Flatpak bundles.
Bazzite 41 -- The KDE Plasma 6 desktop
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
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DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 10 March 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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If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • 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 |
| • 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.
|
| Random Distribution | 
FaunOS
FaunOS was a portable, fully integrated Linux operating system with over 600 pre-installed packages. Based on Arch Linux, it was specifically designed to run from a portable USB memory device (such as a USB Flash drive). It can also be configured to boot from other media, such as DVD, and even the internal hard drive. FaunOS was a live desktop system designed to run without setup on most modern x86-based systems.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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