 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1148, 17 November 2025 |
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Welcome to this year's 46th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Now that Microsoft's Windows 10 has reached the end of its supported life and Windows 11 requires, in many cases, a hardware upgrade, many people are looking for alternatives. Some former Windows users are exploring beginner friendly Linux distributions and, in particular, looking for distributions which make migrating easier. This week we begin with a look at Zorin OS, a distribution which intentionally mimics other operating systems, such as Windows and macOS, in order to feel familiar to new users. Read on to learn more about Zorin OS and its features. In our News section we talk about postmarketOS unifying its documentation and updating its user interfaces while OpenBSD polishes its upgrade experience. Meanwhile, Canonical extends Ubuntu support to 15 years as a part of its Ubuntu Pro service. We also report on NetBSD experimenting with sandboxing technology to isolate processes. Do you use any sandbox tools? Let us know if you run processes in a sandbox in this week's Opinion Poll. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we discuss how to rename and delete files which contain strange characters in their names. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: Zorin OS 18
- News: NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD makes system upgrades more resilient, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu, Debian publishes updated media for Trixie
- Questions and answers: Deleting a file with a weird name
- Released last week: Volumio 4.067, SparkyLinux 8.1, Nitrux 5.0.0, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.1 and 9.7
- Torrent corner: Debian, Debian Edu, KDE neon, SparkyLinux, Tails
- Upcoming releases: FreeBSD 15.0-RC2
- Opinion poll: Using a sandbox
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jeff Siegel) |
Zorin OS 18
The first thing to know about Zorin 18, the new release of the Ubuntu-based distro, is that the panels have rounded corners.
Which, for anyone who has spent entirely too much time tweaking CSS to get rounded panel corners that never seem to be quite rounded, is reason enough to be excited about the new version. That most of the rest of Zorin 18 is as impressive is just more good news. There are some irritations - related, not surprisingly, to its use of the GNOME desktop - but Zorin 18 is almost all anyone could ask for in a Linux distribution - sleek, good-looking, snappy, and straightforward.
In this, the Zorin developers are betting big on luring Windows 10 users who don't want to waste hundreds of dollars on hardware upgrades to use Windows 11. As such, 18 Core, as it is called, is focused on making the transition as easy as possible, with similar theming and desktop layouts as well as a unique approach to running Windows apps on Linux. How about a Linux installation walk-through that uses a dedicated Windows app installer (based on WINE and Bottles) if they try to install an .exe file? Because, of course, that's what most Windows users will try to do. Sometimes, Zorin even offers suggestions for Linux apps that do the same thing, like LibreOffice in place of MS-Office.
Zorin OS 18 -- The welcome screen
(full image size: 2.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Can 18 Core accomplish this feat of enticing Windows users? The early returns are good, with Zorin Group reporting more than 100,000 downloads in just over two days, making it the distro's "biggest launch ever." And almost three-quarters of the downloads came from Windows users.
But the long-term answer lies in convincing millions of other Windows users that their computing lives won't end if they leave Windows, which is less about how good 18 Core is and more about Microsoft's stranglehold on its customers' psyche. But 18 Core is well designed and intuitive enough so that it offers them a legitimate chance if they want it.
Zorin OS 18 Pro -- Exploring the application menu
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A Zorin overview
Zorin has long been one of the best Linux distros - always graphically appealing and never hung up on being Linux-y just for the sake of being Linux-y (yes, Fedora, we're talking about you). I've run the Xfce (Lite) edition of Zorin off and on for years and have never been disappointed.
But, to be honest, I had my reservations before running 18 Core, the Zorin flagship. (The Xfce and Education spins are scheduled for new releases later this year). Most of my concern revolved around the GNOME desktop, which strikes me as a solution to a problem that never existed.
Oh ye of little faith.
Yes, the GNOME desktop remains as annoying as a yard crew using its leaf blowers even after the leaves are gone, but 18 Core works around many of the aggravations. It's not seamless - some of the GNOME extensions are as buggy as always - but most users coming from Windows won't know about extensions, let alone try to use them. The basic Zorin OS 18 Core setup, with a bottom panel and menu widget on the far left (just like Windows) will probably be enough for them.
Zorin 18 Core is a long-term release based on Ubuntu 24.04, supported until at least April 2029. The ISO download is 3.5GB, compared to 6.3GB for Ubuntu 24.04.3 and 3.0GB for Linux Mint 22.2 with the Cinnamon desktop, another popular Windows alternative. It's worth noting here that Zorin offers an 18 Core Pro version (with a 7.6GB ISO) for a one-time payment of US$47.99; more on the Pro edition later.
A VirtualBox test failed twice, once with safe graphics mode enabled. Each time it threw an error telling me to use a supported graphics device. However, this wasn't surprising, since Zorin's website documentation says it doesn't play well with virtual systems.
Installation uses a Zorin-centric version of the new, standard Ubuntu installer, and there weren't any problems. I picked language, timezone, and the rest, overwrote my previous test distro - Mint Xfce - and 10 minutes later I had 18 Core up and running. Interestingly, though my Wi-Fi settings were saved, the screen resolution wasn't, and I had to reset it to 1360x768.
Setting up the desktop
Zorin 18 Core uses GNOME 46 with Wayland (which is probably why the VirtualBox session failed) and the 6.14 kernel. Most importantly, for Windows refugees, it comes with a Zorin appearance app, which offers four ways to arrange the desktop. This includes not only two left side Windows 11 look-a-likes, but two GNOME-centric displays. The paid version offers four more, taking advantage of what seem to be built-in GNOME extensions, including Dash to Dock. The appearance app also has settings for themes and effects (even offering a desktop cube).
That's the good news. Unfortunately, when I moved the bottom panel to the top and tried to use Dash to Dock, it didn't act like a dock properly. Sometimes, I got a dock and sometimes I didn't, and it never loaded on startup despite adding it to the startup settings (which seems to be another known Zorin bug). At one point, I got the bottom panel and the dock together -- appearing on top of each other.
The software setup, though, is much cleaner, even when allowing for the GNOME software app's inability to reliably update software, be it Deb, Snap, or Flatpak. The latter two are enabled, though no Snaps seem to be installed out of the box. The software center descriptions note which is which, so while there are three Thunderbirds listed, you can tell which package format you're installing.
The Windows software installer does sort of work. The catch is that the Windows software has to work under WINE and you need a legitimate .exe file. The former means only the best-known Windows apps stand a chance of installing; I tried a couple of lesser known word processors without any luck. The latter means that an older .exe - say Outlook - probably won't work even if it installs (which happened to me), either since Microsoft doesn't support it anymore or there's something goofy with WINE or just because it's a Windows application. In fact, testing the Windows installer was problematic, since I haven't used a Windows app in more than 15 years. Hence, I don't have a subscription to whatever Microsoft calls Office these days (as well as access to other popular Windows software), so I had difficulty finding current .exe files to try.
Zorin OS 18 -- Enabling Windows application support
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Two things do work almost flawlessly: First, the installer will tell you if there is a Linux version of the Windows app, like Firefox or Thunderbird, so you don't have to mess with the .exe file. Second, when you search in the left-side menu for an app that isn't installed, like the VLC media player, the result links to the software center for installation. Which saves a lot of aggravation and is much more effective than the way it works in Windows.
Zorin OS 18 -- Offering suggestions for alternative applications
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What about the browser?
This raises the question of Zorin's new default browser, Brave, which replaced Firefox. Since the distro's goal is to make Windows users feel comfortable, it seems like an odd choice (even allowing for the privacy concerns given for the change). In my experience, Brave works as well as the rest of the world's Chromium-based browsers, but it seems entirely too geeky for wooing Windows users, who will wonder where Chrome and Edge are (in the app store as Flatpaks, actually).
Most of the rest of the software is standard for Linux distros with the GNOME desktop - LibreOffice, Files (aka Nautilus); Rhythmbox for music; the Brasero CD ripper; GNOME Camera; GNOME Videos; and the Evolution e-mail client.
Perhaps most impressive: Zorin Connect, the distro's reworked version of KDE Connect, which allows users to link their phones and computers. It worked at first try, without any problems, just like apps are supposed to work - text messages sent and accessed on the computer, sending files back and forth, and all the rest. Adding my printer worked on the first try too - no need to go through the CUPS website to find it, which I've had to do for almost every review for the past several years.
Zorin OS 18 -- Linking devices with Zorin Connect
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In addition, I was able to connect to my local Nextcloud server using Zorin's Online Accounts wizard. I can't remember that working quite that well ever before, and I didn't need to install the Nextcloud desktop app; the link to the server was in Files' shortcuts, just like any other folder.
Finally, a word about the Pro version, which Zorin's developers let me use for this review. It installed in more or less in the same manner; the biggest differences are the extra desktop layouts, more installed software, and a left-hand side window close button. The first allowed me to use a top panel and bottom dock without any problems, while the third was irritating until a bit of searching sent me to the Zorin appearances app, where I could move all the window buttons to the right. The paid version also comes with free installation support and free upgrades for the entire Zorin 18 life cycle.
Zorin OS 18 Pro -- Adjusting the layout of the desktop
(full image size: 918kB, resolution: 1368x768 pixels)
The additional software in the Pro edition is an interesting mix of the esoteric - the Blanket ambient sounds app - and the specialized, like the Handbrake video transcoder, the Darktable digital photo editor, and the Apostrophe markdown editor. These are present as well as the usual suspects, like GIMP, Audacity, and Homebank. Most don't seem to be installed in the free version, though a menu search sends users to the software app, where they can be downloaded.
Is all of this worth $47.99? Those of us who absolutely, positively must have a top panel and bottom dock will certainly think long and hard about it, though the paid version is more likely aimed at small companies. They're used to paying subscription fees, for one thing, and a one-time charge of $47.99 is nothing compared to paying $32 a month for Windows 365. Plus, the idea of support and not having to install apps like Ardour will also be appealing, especially for companies making the switch from Windows who may not be quite sure how this Linux thing works.
Zorin OS 18 Pro -- Displaying the top panel and dock
(full image size: 1.5MB, resolution: 1368x768 pixels)
In fact, the Zorin developers have done such a good job of making Windows users feel comfortable in switching that I was annoyed when I started using the distro. I just wanted my top panel and the Plank dock; what did I care about Windows? That 18 Core won me over after 10 days of use speaks to how well thought out it is and that it actually speaks to the ordinary computer user, whether a grandmother e-mailing pictures to her family or a cubicle worker staring at spreadsheets all day. And even the stuff that doesn't always work, like installing .exe files? They're probably used to that too, given Windows is Windows.
Perhaps the highest praise of all? Windows users who try 18 Core could easily assume that it's just a fancier version of their operating system and not something as terrifying as Linux.
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Hardware used for this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a HP EliteBook 840 G5 laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel Core i7-8550U, 1.80GHz
- Storage: 512 GB M.2 SSD
- Memory: 16GB of RAM
- Networking: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 Combo
- Display: Intel UHD Graphics 620
When he is not testing out new versions of Linux distributions, Jeff Siegel can be found writing about all things related to WINE at Wine Curmudgeon.
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Visitor supplied rating
Zorin OS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.6/10 from 322 review(s).
Have you used Zorin OS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD makes system upgrades more resilient, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu, Debian publishes updated media for Trixie
The NetBSD project may soon be gaining new sandboxing features, thanks to a Summer of Code project. Vasyl Lanko provides some background on this effort: "As of the time of writing, there is no real sandboxing technique available to NetBSD. There is chroot, which can be considered a weak sandbox because it modifies the root directory of the process, effectively restricting the process' view of the file system, but it doesn't isolate anything else, so all networking, IPC, and mounts inside this restricted file system are the same as of the system, and are accessible.
There has already been some research on implementing kernel-level isolation in NetBSD with tools like gaols, mult and netbsd-sandbox, but they haven't been merged to NetBSD. Other operating systems have their own ways to isolate programs, FreeBSD has jails, and Linux has namespaces.
The goal of this project is to bring a new way of sandboxing to NetBSD. More specifically, we want to implement a mechanism like Linux namespaces. These namespaces allow the isolation of parts of the system from a namespace, or, as the user sees it, from an application." Details on bringing sandboxing to NetBSD can be found in Lanko's report.
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The postmarketOS project has published a newsletter with highlights of progress made during the month of October. Some of the key changes being introduced are a new version of the Sxmo user interface and a new, unified documentation portal. "Previously, documentation was spread over many different places such as our website, the wiki and the various repositories of projects. This made it both hard to locate documentation when looking for it and it wasn't always clear which parts of documentation were authoritative and which ones weren't. So, what can you expect to find there? User-contributed advice and knowledge will remain in the wiki. Documentation for governance, policies and processes is now on the new website. You can also find the documentation for projects under the postmarketOS umbrella there, such as pmbootstrap or BPO, our build queue manager. Amongst other things, we've also started to add packaging documentation to pmaports and documented how to contribute to the new docs.postmarketos.org repository itself." Additional information can be found in the project's blog post.
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In the past, OpenBSD's system upgrade tool could be overly optimistic about how much disk space it had to work with on the /usr partition. A change has been introduced which will cause the upgrade tool (sysupgrade) to gracefully fail rather than fill up a partition that is too small. "If 'df /usr' says the filesystem is over 90% full, rather than potentially completely breaking the system, fail the sysupgrade. This comes with a message pointing people to read a new Sub-Section PRUNING in the manual page which will softly lead them to understand all the nuances involved and that their best choice is to reinstall with a bigger /usr." Additional information about this change is covered by the OpenBSD Journal site.
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Canonical has announced the company will extend support on long-term support (LTS) versions of Ubuntu to supply security updates for 15 years. "Today, Canonical announced the expansion of the Legacy add-on for Ubuntu Pro, extending total coverage for Ubuntu LTS releases to 15 years. Starting with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr), this extension brings the full benefits of Ubuntu Pro - including continuous security patching, compliance tooling and support for your OS - to long-lived production systems." The extended support is provided as part of Canonical's Ubuntu Pro service.
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The Debian project has announced refreshed install media for Debian 13 "Trixie". The new media is not a new version of the distribution, but contains security fixes that have become available since the original release. "The Debian project is pleased to announce the second update of its stable distribution Debian 13 (codename Trixie). This point release mainly adds corrections for security issues, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories have already been published separately and are referenced where available. Please note that the point release does not constitute a new version of Debian 13 but only updates some of the packages included."
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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) |
Deleting a file with a weird name
Cleaning-the-closet asks: I've got this file I downloaded that has a weird name, it has a bunch of symbols in it. Whenever I try to move or delete it I get the error "No such file or directory." How can I work with a file if I can't type its name?
DistroWatch answers: When dealing with a file that has strange (or unprintable) characters in its name, there are a few approaches we can take to manipulate the file.
One of the easier workarounds in these situations is to use a graphical file manager, such as Nemo or Dolphin. They will usually allow us to select the file and then rename or move it, fixing the issue of the strange characters in the name.
When working from the command line we can try using wildcard characters. In the Linux shell, the * character refers to any/all characters in a sequence. Let's say I have three files:
Abc?%??^123
Abc?%%^^456
Xyz?%%^^456
Running the following command will match (and display) the first two files in the above collection:
$ ls -1 Abc*
Abc?%??^123
Abc?%%^^456
This means we could use a wildcard symbol to move the original file with the unusual name. Continuing with our example, I can rename the first file from "Abc?%??^123" to "abc_123" by replacing the unusual characters with a single *:
$ mv Abc*123 abc_123
In the above example the * replaces the strange symbols, allowing the move command (mv) to see the file.
If the above approaches are not working, we can try to remove the file using its unique identifier, called an inode number. We can find a file's inode number with the ls command. Here we find the inode numbers, displayed in the first column of the output, for two files:
$ ls -li
4332149 -rw-r--r-- 1 jesse jesse 0 Oct 4 15:04 abc
4340815 -rw-r--r-- 1 jesse jesse 0 Oct 4 15:04 def
We find that the file abc has the inode number 4332149 and the file def has the inode number 4340815. Next, we can use the find command to match a file with its inode number:
$ find . -type f -inum 4332149
./abc
The find command accepts the inode number and returns the filename, confirming we have a correct match. Now that we have confirmed we have the correct inode number for the file abc, we can delete this file with the find command:
find . -type f -inum 4332149 -delete
One (or all) of the above options should provide a way to either rename or delete the file with the strange characters in its name.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Volumio 4.067
The Volumio team has announced the release of Volumio 4.067, a major update of the project's single-purpose Debian-based Linux distribution designed and fine-tuned exclusively for music playback. This release updates the underlying system to Debian 12: "Today marks something special for us and for everyone who loves what Volumio does. After nearly a year of work, we're releasing Volumio 4 for Raspberry Pi and PC platforms. You might fire it up and think, 'Wait, it looks the same.' And you'd be right. We didn't redesign the interface or move buttons around. What we did was rebuild the foundation. Why this matters? Think of Volumio 4 like replacing the engine in your favorite car. From the driver's seat, everything feels familiar. But under the hood, we've swapped in something more powerful, more efficient, and ready to take you places the old engine simply couldn't go. We've moved to Debian 'Bookworm', which is the technical way of saying we've given Volumio a completely modern foundation. Here's where things get exciting. Volumio 4 works hand in hand with our new Volumio app, which just landed on the app stores. This is the first step in our vision - one seamless ecosystem for music playback, everywhere, for every kind of digital music." See the full release announcement for further information and screenshots.
SparkyLinux 8.1
Pawel Pijanowski has announced the release of SparkyLinux 8.1, the latest stable release of the project's set of Linux distributions based on Debian 13: "This is a quarterly update of the SparkyLinux 8 'Seven Sisters' stable release. SparkyLinux 8 is based on and is fully compatible with Debian 13 'Trixie'. Main changes: all packages updated from the stable Debian and SparkyLinux repositories as of November 10, 2025; Linux kernel PC 6.12.48-LTS; Linux kernel ARM 6.12.47-LTS; LibreOffice 25.2.3; KDE Plasma 6.3.6; LXQt 2.1.0; MATE 1.26.0; Xfce 4.20; Openbox 3.6.1; Firefox 140.4.0esr (145.0 in repositories); Thunderbird 140.4.0esr. SparkyLinux 8 'Seven Sisters' is available in the amd64 BIOS/UEFI + Secure Boot with Xfce, LXQt, MATE, KDE Plasma, MinimalGUI (Openbox) and MinimalCLI (text mode) and arm64 with Openbox and CLI. If you have SparkyLinux 8 installed, simply keep it up to date, there's no need to reinstall it. Known issue: arm64 Wi-Fi may not be active after the first boot, you must restart the system to automatically enable Wi-Fi." Continue to the release announcement for further details.
Nitrux 5.0.0
Uri Herrera has announced the release of Nitrux 5.0.0, a major update of the Linux distribution that aims to be "disruptive by design". This is the project's first build featuring an immutable base and the Hyprland Wayland compositor (dropping KDE Plasma in the process). Although Nitrux is built on Debian, it does not ship the traditional Debian package management utilities, relying instead on AppImage, Flatpak, Distrobox and similar utilities to install new software. "We are pleased to announce the launch of Nitrux 5.0.0. This new version combines the latest software updates, bug fixes, performance improvements, and ready-to-use hardware support. Given the massive changes in this release, we recommend a fresh installation using the latest media. There's no planned update path from Nitrux 3.9.1 to 5.0.0; nonetheless, update archives for 5.0.0 and onwards will be available through the Nitrux Update tool. As announced back in June, Nitrux no longer uses the KDE Plasma desktop; beginning with this release, we transition fully to Hyprland. The transition took more than a few weeks, it wasn't just a matter of installation." Read the detailed release announcement for information.
Nitrux 5.0.0 -- Running the Hyprland interface
(full image size: 1.8MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.1, 9.7
Red Hat, Inc. has released two updated versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) - 10.1, the first point release of the distribution's latest stable release, and 9.7, an updated build of RHEL's legacy 9.x branch. "During the excitement of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 (RHEL) launch at Red Hat Summit, I kept hearing one question from customers and partners: When would an offline version of the RHEL command-line assistant be available? Today I can announce that it's on the way. As part of the RHEL 10.1 update, an offline, locally available command-line assistant is officially in developer preview. For customers with a Red Hat Satellite subscription, it offers AI-powered RHEL guidance based on decades of enterprise Linux experience. Companies and agencies in finance, government, defense, industrial control, and other heightened-security industries will find it particularly useful. A key advantage of this design is its ability to function in completely disconnected, offline, or air-gapped environments, eliminating the need for external network connectivity." See the What's new in RHEL 10.1 and Introducing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.7 blog posts for more details, with release notes for both RHEL 10.1 and RHEL 9.7 now also available.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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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) |
Using a sandbox
In our News section we talked about NetBSD gaining the ability to sandbox applications. This isolates an application from some elements of the host operating system, protecting access to files, networking, or other capabilities. Running a program inside a sandbox is a useful way to guard sensitive files form untrusted applications or prevent a program from leaking data on-line. This week we would like to hear whether our readers use a sandbox to isolate any of their applications.
You can see the results of our previous poll on preferred flavour of Fedora in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you use a sandbox?
| Yes - I use a sandbox: | 133 (11%) |
| No - but use another isolation tool like containers/VMs: | 321 (26%) |
| No - I do not isolate programs: | 764 (63%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 24 November 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 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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LinEspa was a Spanish Linux distribution based on Knoppix and optimised for Spanish and Latin American users.
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