 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 64, 30 August 2004 |
Welcome to this year's 34th edition of DistroWatch Weekly. As summer holidays in northern hemisphere countries come to an end, there is a lot to look forward to in the coming months!
Content:
The next release wave
After the traditionally uneventful months of July and August, September tends to bring substantial increase in web site traffic on DistroWatch, together with many exciting release announcements by major Linux vendors. Let's take a brief look at what we can expect to see in the next few months.
We'll start with the Debian project, which is, according to this schedule, expected to announce the release of stable Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 "Sarge" on the 15th September. Since Debian releases are exceptionally rare (the current stable release 3.0 "Woody" is now more than 2 years old), this should bring relief to all users itching to upgrade their Debian servers to something less "ancient" than Woody's default kernel 2.2.20. But will Sarge come out on time? As the tried and tested Debian policy of "release when ready" takes precedence over schedules, there is always a possibility that Sarge will be further delayed. But whenever it comes, one thing remains certain: the release will indeed be stable, in the true sense of the word.
In the meanwhile, the big three commercial distributions (Red Hat's Fedora, Mandrakelinux and SUSE) will likely continue in their twice-per-year release cycles. Mandrakelinux tends to be the first of the three with a new release and, with the recent second beta of Mandrakelinux 10.1, it seems to be the farthest down the beta testing road at the moment. However, the developers haven't been able to keep up with the original release schedule falling behind by about a month already. The final release of Mandrakelinux 10.1 Community has been re-scheduled for the 7th September, but don't be surprised if it this date is postponed again.
By contrast, Fedora's release schedule seems a lot more realistic, with test1 already out in July, test2 scheduled for the 13 September, test3 for 3 October, and the final release of Fedora Core 3 expected on mirrors on the 21st of October. As for SUSE, the company normally announces their upcoming release about a month before the boxes ship to retailers in Germany. If it continues in its usual release cycle, we can expect a big Novell/SUSE release announcement during September. Will the upcoming SUSE LINUX include the much hyped new Novell Desktop, a GNOME/KDE hybrid containing the best features of each of the two leading desktop environments? We shall patiently wait for this one....
On the BSD front, one of the most eagerly awaited FreeBSD releases ever is the upcoming first production release of FreeBSD 5. The first two betas are out with only a couple of days behind schedule. Two more betas and two release candidates are still expected before the final release of FreeBSD 5.3 on the 3rd of October.
Of course, several smaller distributions are also preparing new releases. Lycoris should start shipping their Desktop/LX 1.4 any time now (the release was postponed due to last-minute bugs found after the press release announcing the product), while Linspire and Xandros are also rumoured to be working on new releases - both Linspire 5.0 and Xandros Desktop 3.0 should be out before Christmas. A press release announcing the final release of SimplyMEPIS 2004 is also expected shortly, while the never-ending stream of new distributions will no doubt brighten up many rainy autumn days of those of us living north of the equator.
Exciting times ahead, no?
Linux distribution chooser
Our friends at tuxs.org have sent us a link to their newly developed Linux distribution chooser, a wizard that can suggest the most suitable distribution for you based on your answers to a sequence of questions. This is a great concept, especially for those new to Linux, who are often overwhelmed by the number of available choices. Try it out and give the maintainers your feedback and suggestions for improvements.
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| Featured Distribution of the Week: Conectiva Linux |
Conectiva Linux
Conectiva Linux celebrated its 9th birthday last Saturday. Founded in 1995 by Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo in Curitiba, Brazil, the distribution is not widely used outside of the largest Latin American country; yet it is one of the dark horses of the Linux distribution world, worthy of your attention.
Why is Conectiva an interesting distribution? Firstly, it has been an ardent supporter of Free Software since the very beginning of its existence. At one time or another the company employed several prominent personalities of the Free Software world; among them Marcelo Tosatti, the current maintainer of the Linux kernel 2.4 series, Alfredo Kojima, the lead developer of WindowMaker, and Everaldo Coelho, the designer of the widely used Conectiva Crystal icon set. The company is also well-known for developing APT for RPM, a Debian-style package management front-end for RPM packages, as well as Synaptic, a graphical RPM management utility. It is worth noting that, unlike many other commercial companies, Conectiva has always released all of their software and artwork under the GPL.
Conectiva Linux 10 was released in July 2004 and is available for free download from the distribution's mirrors. At about once per year, the official releases don't come as often as those of other major distributions, but those who prefer living on the cutting edge of Linux development can easily keep their software up-to-date. That's because Conectiva maintains a publicly accessible RPM package repository called "snapshot" which is updated frequently. Besides its native Brazilian Portuguese, the distribution also supports Spanish and English.
Next time you feel like installing a new distribution, give Conectiva Linux 10 a try - you won't be disappointed. Alternatively, try one of their frequently updated live CDs.
Conectiva Linux 10 - a great distribution, not only for Brazilians
(full image size 435kB)
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| Released Last Week |
Knoppix 3.6
Knoppix 3.6 has been released. From the changelog: "V3.6-2004-08-16 ('aKademy Release'). First release after LinuxTag 2004; kernel 2.6.7 (as an option) and 2.4.27; memtest86+ as boot option; captive-ntfs update; FreeNX-Server package from Fabian Franz; hardware detection updates and fixes; KDE 3.2.3 (which is still more stable than 3.3 in Debian); lots and lots of packageupdates from Debian/testing and unstable."
Minislack 0.2
A new version of the Slackware-based Minislack Linux distribution is out: "The new version of Minislack comes with kernel 2.6.7 and GCC 3.3.4, following the release of Slackware 10.0. At desktop level: the X server switches to Xorg, and default graphical environment becomes KDE with an elegant look inspired from Gnustep. WindowMaker is provided in CVS version with new antialiased fonts support. Of course Minislack provides essential tools for coding (Python 2.3.4, Perl 5.8.4, Vim 6.3.004, Kdevelop 3.0.4, Quanta 3.2.3, Kate), office production (GIMP 2.0.2, Koffice 1.3.1, CD burning tool K3B 0.11.12), as well as Internet software (Mozilla 1.7, Kmail 1.6.2), and more..." You can find the announcement on thedistribution's home page.
Feather Linux 0.5.7
Feather Linux 0.5.7 has been released. From the changelog: "Midnight Commander now has vfs support, and an internal editor with syntax highlighting; added scripts to easily switch window managers; made some small changes to X settings autodetection; added ability to restore configuration from the Internet - boot with 'restore=net url=<url>'; fixed Opera startup glitch; added ReiserFS support to HD install script (still experimental - you may have problems on bootup); added udhcpd, a tiny DHCP server; updated Dillo to 0.8.0...."
Yoper Linux 2.1
Yoper Linux 2.1 has been released: "The 'fastest out of the box' OS, Yoper Linux V series, continues its global climb with the next stable release of V2 tagged 2.1.0, a powerful OS built upon the proven speed technologies that have made its predecessors famous. Known to be a commercial strength desktop solution at 0 cost, this release provides the power user with many new features, encompassing Reiser4 support for the root file system, new non-destructive NTFS resizing, graphical partitioning, option to use GRUB or LILO boot loaders, a new clustered control panel, KDE 3.3.0 final, Linux kernel 2.6.8.1, default firewall and the OpenOffice.org office suite, all provided on 1 CD." Read the rest of the announcement here.
Kurumin Linux 3.2
The developers of Brazil's Kurumin project have released Kurumin Linux 3.2. Several packages have been updated to synchronise Kurumin Linux with the current package set in Debian Sarge and to facilitate future updates. Other changes include updates and bug fixes to Clica-aki, Kurumin's centralised system administration utility; several new "magic icons" for installing RealPlayer and for providing support for some proprietary audio and video formats; upgraded the QEMU processor emulator to version 0.6.2; removed Dillo... More details are available in this release announcement (in Portuguese).
Buffalo Linux 1.4
Buffalo Linux 1.4.0 has been released: "The final release of Buffalo Version 1.4.0 is now available for download. Changes from 1.4.0rc2 include: IceWM 1.2.16, two graphical login options (XDM/GDM), GNOME-pilot added to the GNOME package, and many bug fixes including fix for sound using ALSA-1.0.6. Threewindow managers are now available: Buffalo IceWM, XFce, and GNOME. Version 1.4.0 is the first to use Xorg and the new 2.6.8.1 kernel. An update of the base install package from 'rc2' is available here. Refer to the Update_Notes in this directory for other update info." The announcement, changelog.
Damn Small Linux 0.8.0
This is a new release of Damn Small Linux, a very light, business card-size live CD with support for hard disk installation. From the changelog: "Change log for 0.8.0: updated kernel and modules; new boot floppy; new uci single file cloop extensions; call powerdown.sh from reboot; updated Xsnapshot; new xcuriser; updated myDSLgui; updated frugal_install; updated dsl-hdinstall; updated mkmydsl; updated frugal_lite.sh more cloop devices."
Austrumi 0.8.8
The Slackware-based business-card size Austrumi live CD project has produced an updated release, version 0.8.8. What's new? "Added gv - a PostScript and PDF previewer; added xwhois - an graphical whois client for the X; updated AbiWord, beaver, iptables, Opera, front end installer to hard disk (beta); updated kernel (2.6.8.1); fixed same bugs." You can find the full changelog and other details on the distribution's project page.
Navyn OS 2004.08
The Gentoo-based Navyn OS project has released a new version of its distribution. New in 2004.08: "new kernel 2.6.8.1; now Xorg instead XFree86;; completely rebuilt fromscratch; added porthole, program with GUI for installing programs from portage; now there are 3 installers; you can choose which packages to install from CDROM to hard disk; new drivers for WiFi cards; added two games: abuse and jumpnbump; digital cameras are supported by program gtkam; added hard disk and CPU temperature monitors to GKrellM; added vixie-cron and syslog-ng; added xPDF for reading PDF files; added Flash plugins for Opera and Firefox web browsers...." More details in the changelog.
SLAX 4.1.4
SLAX 4.1.4 is out: "SLAX 4.1.4, the 180MB live CD with KDE 3.3, was released today! It features a lot of bugfixes and news, for example: added Linux kernel 2.4.28-pre2 with SATA (libsata) support compiled in; added KDE 3.3.0, K3B 0.11.14; added cheatcodes.txt to CD's root directory; added MPlayer 1.0-pre5, recompiled with many options; fixed GUI script to better handle X auto-configuration; the Czech version of SLAX is available at slax.cz. Some other languages for SLAX are available as modules on this page." See the full changelog for details about otherchanges and improvements.
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
OpenBSD 3.6
The OpenBSD web site has published details about the next release - OpenBSD 3.6 due on 1st November and activated pre-orders: "We have just activated pre-orders for the OpenBSD 3.6 release, which will be released and start shipping Nov 1, 2004. As always, those who pre-order will receive their CDs first. There is a new 3-CD set and a new poster which can be ordered from here. An OpenBSD 3.6 T-Shirt will be added in the coming weeks. OpenBSD 3.6 contains numerous improvements over previous releases - most notably SMP support on i386 and amd64. Please keep in mind that this project is completely funded by CD sales and donations from our user community." For details about new features in OpenBSD 3.6, please see the product's release page and the current changelog. The 3-CD set of OpenBSD 3.6 costs US$45.
Vector Linux 4.3
Expect a new Vector Linux stable release later this week: "Version 4.3 is about to go final based on the rc-1 release. If anyone has any issues that haven't been already covered under the rc-1 release please let me know now. I am looking at September 1 as a release date." The above quote comes from the distribution's message board.
Impi Linux 2.0
Tectonic provides some interesting information about the upcoming release of Impi Linux 2.0, expected shortly: "Impi Linux 2 is the next generation of original South African-developed open source software. Unlike Impi 1, version 2 is not based on any existing Linux distributions such as Red Hat and Debian, but is built from the ground up. Ross Addis, chairman of the Gauteng Linux Users Group says Impi 2 is a 'purely South African-developed open source technology'." The full story.
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| Web Site News |
New distribution additions
- The Athene Operating System. Athene is a commercial operating system developed by Rocklyte Systems for use in the home and office. Athene combines years of Rocklyte's R&D with the latest Linux technology to create one of the fastest operating systems available today. With boot times as fast as four seconds and advanced graphics technology not available in standard Linux distributions, Athene may be the best low-cost alternative to Windows for your computer desktop.
- Càtix. Càtix is a Linux live CD based on Knoppix and with support for the the Catalan language.
- PilotLinux. PilotLinux is a thin client live CD. This means that when you boot from a PilotLinux CD your PC has been temporarily transformed into a thin client machine. If a settings file is supplied booting from a PilotLinux CD will automatically connect you to your terminal server. Otherwise the PilotLinux GUI will be displayed and give you the ability to manually enter the server address.
- Santa Fe Linux. Santa Fe Linux is a commercial desktop distribution with advanced hardware auto-detection and some of the best desktop applications open source has to offer. Santa Fe Linux is a Debian-based live CD and features X.org with automatic binary driver configuration for NVIDIA and ATI video cards.
- Xfld. Xfld provides an alternative operating system for common i386 machines which are able to boot from CD-ROM. Xfld provides approximately 2GB of (transparently compressed) software. Among those you can find tools like the GIMP, OpenOffice.org, which is partly compatible with MS Office, Mozilla for browsing the web, Apache web-server, and many more. Xfld features XFce as its default desktop environment and therefore enables the user to test-drive this extensive and fancy desktop enviroment at will.
Xfld 0.1 comes with the latest cvs snapshot of the upcoming XFce 4.2.
(full image size 175kB)
New on the waiting list
- BeatrIX. BeatrIX is a less-than-200MB distribution based on the latest Linux kernel, GNOME 2.6, Firefox, Evolution, GAIM and several other useful programs. It is aimed at people who just want to get the job done with the minimum amount of hassle and it does that with a plomb. It is designed to run on any Pentium-class computer with at least 128MB of RAM and will run on Via's small-footprint motherboards, which it was compiled on. The goal of BeatrIX is to make a distribution that is simple enough for anyone to use on any computer. 0.1 is a live CD, 0.2 will be a hard-drive install, if desired.
- MostlyLinux. MostlyLinux is a Linux distribution based on Fedora Core and developed in India.
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of Linux distributions in the database: 328
- Number of BSD distributions in the database: 7
- Number of discontinued distributions: 35
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 77
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| DistroWatch in the News |
Tune-up: letting in Linux
CNET was one of our biggest referrers in recent weeks thanks to its Tune-up: Letting in Linux feature:
"If you're new to UNIX-like OSs, pick a distribution that focuses on easy installation, such as Mandrakelinux or SUSE LINUX. For informative reviews of various distributions, check out DistroWatch. Once you've selected one, go to the web site for that distribution and check the list of supported hardware against your component list. If you can't find a distribution that supports your hardware, you're better off not installing Linux, unless you're ready to spend serious time learning more about it."
That's all for this week, see you all next Monday :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1169 (2026-04-20): Lakka 6.1, free software and source-based distributions, FreeBSD Foundation publishes compatible laptop list, Debian holds Project Leader election, Haiku progresses ARM64 port, Mint to extend development cycle, Linux 7.0 released |
| • Issue 1168 (2026-04-13): pearOS 2026.03, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, which distros are adopting age verification, Arch adjusts its firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its release cycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves its scheduler |
| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
| • Issue 1166 (2026-03-30): NetBSD jails, publishing software for Linux, Ubuntu joins Rust Foundation, Canonical plans to trim GRUB features, Peppermint works on new utilities, PINE64 shows off open hardware capabilities |
| • Issue 1165 (2026-03-23): Argent Linux 1.5.3, disk space required by Linux, Manjaro team goes on strike, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA driver support and builds RISC-V packages, systemd introduces age tracking |
| • Issue 1164 (2026-03-16): d77void, age verification laws and Linux, SUSE may be for sale, TrueNAS takes its build system private, Debian publishes updated Trixie media, MidnightBSD and System76 respond to age verification laws |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Keysoft Linux
Keysoft was an openSUSE-based distribution designed with visually impaired users in mind. The distribution ships with the GNOME desktop environment, the Orca screen reader and Braille display drivers. Keysoft ships with the WINE compatibility software to facilitate working with software built for Windows. Keysoft was primarily a German distribution, though multi-language support was available.
Status: Discontinued
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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