 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 124, 31 October 2005 |
Welcome to this year's 44th issue of DistroWatch Weekly. Fans of the BSD family of projects can expect an exciting week as NetBSD 2.1, FreeBSD 6.0 and OpenBSD 3.8 are all expected to be announced and released with the next couple of days. On the Linux front, we have some interesting information regarding the Ubuntu Zero Conference, a link to guide describing the installation of Enlightenment 17 on SUSE 10.0 and news about a working graphical front-end for the Debian installer. Finally, the fans of Debian-based distributions will no doubt appreciate our review of The Debian System - Concepts And Techniques, a newly released book written by a well-known Debian developer. Happy reading!
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (8.75MB) or mp3 (9.47MB) format (courtesy of Shawn Milo).
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
Content:
A big week for BSDs
 With all major Linux distribution releases of the season now safely behind us, the focus can turn to the BSD family of operating systems, with several significant new releases expected shortly. In fact, the ISO images of NetBSD 2.1 have quietly hit the NetBSD mirrors over the weekend, although they have yet to be formally announced. These are soon to be followed by an updated release of NetBSD 2.0 series, version 2.0.3 and, of course, the much awaited major new release, version 3.0, scheduled to reach a release candidate status in November. NetBSD is the most multi-platform operating system available today, supporting no fewer than 55, mostly exotic, architectures.
FreeBSD 6.0 is also expected to be released any moment now. That's according to this message by Scott Long on the FreeBSD current mailing list:
"Wanted to let everyone know that the testing on RC1 has gone well enough that we've decided to skip RC2 and go straight to 6.0-RELEASE. Everyone that we have talked to has applauded the stability and functionality of the system, so we are really pleased and really eager to wrap it up and get it out to everyone. Over the next 24 hours we will be synchronizing the RELENG_6_0 tree to get in all of the appropriate bug fixes, then we will do some test builds as a final verification. Everyone is still welcome to update their sources on the RELENG_6_0 branch and provide feedback for the next 48 hours or so. The release will likely be announced by the end of the weekend or early next week, at the latest."
The above message was published on Thursday, so it shouldn't be long before the shiny new FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE images start appearing on FreeBSD mirrors. Besides the usual security and bug-fix updates, users can expect newly added functionality to many network cards, ACPI support for IBM, Fujitsu and SONY laptops, read support for ReiserFS 3.x file systems, and a large number of userland changes and software updates, too numerous to list them all here. On the negative side, FreeBSD 6.0 removes support for 80386 processors (the I386_CPU kernel configuration option), so those running FreeBSD on such ancient hardware should remain with FreeBSD 5.x series. Unlike upgrades from FreeBSD 4.x to FreeBSD 5.x, upgrades from FreeBSD 5.x to FreeBSD 6.x are supported and reportedly trouble-free. See the FreeBSD 6.0-RC1 release notes for a comprehensive list of changes.
Last but not least, it's release time for OpenBSD as well. The favourite operating system of many security professionals will hit version 3.8 on Tuesday as part of its usual twice-per-year release cycle. The official CD set of the new release is reportedly shipping already, but a bootable CD image designed for network installation should appear on OpenBSD mirrors within a day or two. See the OpenBSD 3.8 page for details about the new features and other enhancements.
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Miscellaneous news: Ubuntu Below Zero, E17 for SUSE, graphical installer for Debian
 The Ubuntu Below Zero conference is now underway in Montreal, Canada. The 10-day gathering's main purpose is to discuss goals and finalise technical specifications of the upcoming release of Ubuntu Linux, code name "Dapper Drake". Unlike the previous three Ubuntu releases, "Dapper Drake" intends to be "enterprise-ready", with security support provided for a minimum of five years. As such, it is expected that the new version will be slightly more conservative in terms of package selection and will almost certainly undergo a more vigorous testing process. If all goes according to the preliminary plan, "Dapper Drake" should be released in April or May 2006.
 Interested in trying out an alternative desktop on your SUSE Linux? If so, then you might want to check out this guide to installing Enlightenment 17 on SUSE 10.0. The steps are very simple: all it takes is to add the "Guru" installation sources to your YaST package management module, then install a few applications. After you log out, you will be able to choose Enlightenment from the Session Type menu. Just remember that E17 is still under heavy development and not everything works as expected, but it is a beautifully designed desktop with plenty of eye candy. See screenshots here.
 The idea of a pleasant graphical installer for Debian will never go away, it seems. The latest issue of the Debian Weekly Newsletter once again reports about the latest attempt to create a graphical front-end for the "sarge" installer: "Christian Perrier reported about the graphical frontend to the debian-installer as part of the most recent minutes of the monthly Debian Installer team meeting. Davide Viti earlier announced a nearly working graphical installer and a small ISO image for trial." If you are interested in seeing the progress, you can download the installation ISO image with a GTK+-based Debian installer from this page.
New effort to develop a graphical front-end for the Debian installer is underway.
(full image size: 39.5kB)
 The developers of Debian Pure, a user-friendly Debian-based distribution that has become fairly popular among the DistroWatch readers, have informed us that the project is now known as GenieOS: "I have been in contact with the Debian developers and I have agreed to remove Debian from the domain name. The new name for the distribution is GenieOS. The website can be found at genieos.toluenterprises.com." As a result of this name change, GenieOS has now been listed on DistroWatch.
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Web sites: LinuxDemos.com, AMD64 Linux Support Guide
Regular readers of Linux news sites have probably noticed the almost daily occurrence of screenshot tour news by the ever busy OSDir.com. While we agree that a picture is worth a thousand words, is there something worth a thousand pictures? Yes, videos, suggests a web site called LinuxDemos.com. The site's main purpose is to demonstrate the usability of Linux distributions in Flash-based videos. Both installation and desktop videos are available for many major distributions and live CDs, including CentOS, Damn Small Linux, Debian, Fedora, KANOTIX, KNOPPIX, Kubuntu, Libranet, Linspire, Mandriva, MEPIS, PCLinuxOS, Red Hat, Slackware, SLAX, SUSE, Ubuntu, Vector, Xandros and Yoper. If you have Flash installed on your computer, this is an interesting way of examining what is available today and to get an idea what all these different distributions offer.
For those interested in the AMD64 platform, the PCBurn web site has put together a nice collection of relevant links specific to this increasingly popular processor among Linux and BSD users. The page includes a list of distributions with support for 64-bit processors, links to white papers, documentation and reviews of the these systems, as well as a thorough listing of motherboards and chipsets designed to handle these powerful processors. For more details please see PCBurn's Guide to Linux AMD-64 Operating Systems.
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| Book Review: The Debian System - Concepts And Techniques by Martin Krafft |
The Debian System - Concepts And Techniques by Martin Krafft
 Can you imagine a book about Debian GNU/Linux stretching to 600 pages? No, not covering any of the applications that ship with Debian, nor delving into general configuration of, say, X or Samba. Just pure Debian; that is to say, the book covers Debian-specific utilities only, in densely printed pages with hardly any screenshots. Yup, a book like that has just been published under the name of The Debian System - Concept and Techniques. Written by Martin Krafft, this is one of the most comprehensive and detailed accounts of the largest Linux distribution in existence.
First, a few words about the author. Martin Krafft has been a passionate Linux user since 1995, an ardent Debian supporter since 1997 and a prominent Debian developer since 2002. His interests lie, in his own words, in "security, support, quality assurance and public representation of Debian." Martin is currently working towards a PhD degree at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, "researching neurobiologically inspired models of learning in robots."
Now that we know the basics about the book and its author, here is the list of chapters making up the book:
1. Introduction
2. The Debian project in a nutshell
3. Installing Debian the right way
4. Debian releases and archives
5. The Debian package management system
6. Debian system administration
7. Security of the Debian system
8. Advanced concepts
9. Creating Debian packages
10. Documentation and resources
 As you can see from the above, there are four general, mostly non-technical chapters (chapters 1, 2, 4 and 10) that can be easily digested while away from a computer. Chapter 2 especially is perfect for bed-time reading, covering the history of the project, together with some interesting information about the Debian philosophy, licensing and community. I found the author's writing style somewhat academic and humourless (surely, the 10+ years of Debian have produced some amusing stories that could have spiced up this section), although I still digested the information with great interest. The topics dealing with information about becoming a Debian developer or some of the theories behind the origin of the "swirl" (nobody really knows the real meaning of the famous logo) certainly captured my interest.
The real value of this book, however, lies in the six technical chapters. The one covering the new sarge installer could be useful for those who don't find the installation intuitive enough. Otherwise the chapter is safe to skip - unless you are interested in learning to set up logical volumes or have troubles configuring some hardware.
Chapter 5 deals with Debian's venerable package management system. This is possibly the most valuable chapter where even many experienced Debian users will find something new and interesting. How many times I wished I knew how to widen the columns of the "dpkg -l" output! Now I know: all it takes to is to set the COLUMN variable to a reasonably large value before running the above command and bingo - even the longest package name is longer hidden from view. Or did you know that using "apt-get upgrade" is an unwise way of tracking the "unstable" branch as you are running a relatively high risk of ending up with a broken box? To prevent potential breakages and to obtain more information prior to an update, the recommended way of keeping up with sid is "apt-get --show-upgraded dist-upgrade". Memorise it for your next update!
The above are just two interesting snippets of the 140-page chapter dealing with Debian's package management utilities. Besides APT and dpkg, Aptitude and Synaptic are also covered, together with thousands of other vital pieces of information. What do you do if an upgrade goes wrong and you are stuck in a loop that does not let you install anything until you solve the problem? Or how do you use such useful utilities as "apt-listchanges" or "apt-listbugs" to keep on the top of your system? And how about information on auto-updates with "cron-apt", using "alien" and "checkinstall", or configuring installed applications with "debconf"? These and many other excellent topics are described in amazingly thorough detail with practical examples and useful tips.
The package management chapter is further extended in the 80-page chapter 9 which deals with creating Debian packages. As one would expect, this is a more technical topic, written for software developers rather than users. But even if you never intend to build a Debian package, it is a great chapter to read through. It enables you not only to understand the process of creating Debian packages, but also to appreciate the care that goes into the process, together with some great concepts that make the entire 15,000+ package Debian system so remarkably stable and bug-free!
The 85-page chapter 6 discussing system administration in Debian is another invaluable section of the book. Starting with easy basics on configuration files, permissions and the "alternatives" system, it then delves deeply into user management and authentication, before discussing backups, device management, network configuration and "inetd". The chapter concludes with "wajig" and "feta", two integrated system administration tool that combine the plethora of Debian commands into two convenient utilities.
The chapter on security is rather short, dealing mostly with general overview of security in Debian and restricting itself to package updates. The new "Secure APT" with signature checking and other security features are also discussed. This is followed by a chapter presenting three advanced topics: a useful section explaining the concept of building a Debian kernel, the option of mixing packages from different releases by pinning and wider implications of such actions, and a discussion about alternative methods of installing Debian.
All technical aspects of this distribution are explained with remarkable clarity of a person who is rather familiar with the system. Interestingly, Martin Krafft admits that during the year he spent on writing the book, he exchanged a large number of email, as well as opinions on IRC channels, and learnt a lot in the process. Yet, he does not come through as a person strongly advocating his preferred operating system - in fact, he freely admits that Debian might not be for everyone and other Linux distributions (or even other operating systems) might sometimes be more suitable for certain users and tasks.
So who is this book for? I have no problem recommending it to anyone who has settled on Debian or one of the Debian-based distributions as his or her preferred operating system. No matter how skilled you are in administrating a Debian box and irrespective of how confident you are running the multitude of Debian commands at 4 o'clock in the morning, you are bound to learn something new. There is so much amazing information packed in this book that it is impossible for any one person to know it all. A great reference material and also a great read for all who enjoy the gift the Debian project keeps giving us year after year.
This is, of course, the first edition of what is one of the most comprehensive Debian-related book ever written. As such, it is not quite perfect yet. There are grammatical errors that make for a slightly less enjoyable reading. I didn't find the excessive annotations at the bottom of most pages particularly pleasant - I would much rather see the notes integrated into the main text, instead of having to interrupt the reading by shifting my eyes and attention to the bottom of the pages. There are some notable omissions too; as an example, one of the appendices provides a list of the main Debian-derived distributions on the market, but it completely omits the two commercial and arguably most user-friendly among them - Linspire and Xandros.
But these are comparatively tiny annoyances when considering the book's technical merits. I have always enjoyed computer books and have a sizeable collection that I accumulated over the years. However, The Debian System - Concepts And Techniques will go down as one of the greatest of them all - the one that I will certainly keep on the table for a long time before I put it up on the shelf, but even then, it will never be far from reach. An absolute must for all users of Debian and Debian derivatives, and a proud addition to any Linux user's book collection. Highly recommended.
Title: The Debian System - Concepts And Techniques
Author: Martin Krafft
Publisher: No Starch Press
Price: US$44.95
Errata: http://debiansystem.info
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| Released Last Week |
Distribution Release: Càtix 1.2
A new version of Càtix, a Debian-based live DVD designed for speakers of the Catalan language, has been released. Version 1.2 is a major update with many new features; the most important among them are: switch to the Unionfs file system which allows modification of files and installation of applications while in "live" mode; switch to X.Org for a better support of 3D accelerated graphics drivers; OpenOffice.org in Catalan, Spanish, English and French; KDE 3.4.2 and GNOME 2.10.2 desktops with many other package upgrades from Debian 'sid'. See the product information page (in Catalan) for further details and download locations.
Finnix 86.0
Remember Finnix? One of the oldest live CDs ever created but discontinued after 2000, the developers of this minimalistic distribution for system administrators are back with a new release. Based on Debian GNU/Linux and complete with LVM2 or dm-crypt packages, Finnix 86.0 is now ready: "Nearly 6 years ago, Finnix 0.03 made history as one of the first bootable CD Linux distributions. It may have taken a while, but Finnix is back as a small (less than 100MB), fully-featured live CD for system administrators." Visit the project's home page and read the release notes to learn more about the new Finnix live CD.
Nonux CD 1.6
Nonux is a Dutch live and installation CD based on Slackware Linux. Incorporating the Dropline GNOME desktop with several key applications localised into Dutch, the product is designed specifically for business use in the Netherlands. Version 1.6 was released earlier today with the following changes and improvements: upgrade to kernel 2.6.13.3; upgrade to OpenOffice.org 1.1.5 with support for the open document format; interface changes to the Nautilus file manager; minor interface updates to the Nonux hard disk installer. Read the complete release announcement on the project's home page (in Dutch) for further details.
Tao Linux 4 Update 2 And 1.0 U6
Tao Linux is the latest RHEL-based distribution with updated releases of both its versions 1.0 (rebuilt from RHEL 3) and 4 (rebuilt from RHEL 4). Tao 1.0 U6 updated ISOs: "Yesterday I pushed a new set of ISOs to the main site; by today, all the mirrors should have them. This respin is current with all security updates through yesterday." Tao 4 Update 2 respin: "I pushed out the new Tao 4 ISOs yesterday, and they should be available on all the mirrors today. It'll probably be tomorrow before I push the remaining updated packages out to the yum repositories for pre-u2 systems. Other than the updated yum packages which are already available in the testing repo, there's nothing exciting here."
Devil-Linux 1.2.7
A new version of Devil-Linux, an independently developed live CD firewall and server, has been released: "I'm proud to announce v1.2.7 of Devil-Linux. A lot of updates have been done, including many security fixes." Excerpts from the changelog: "Added cyrus-sasl configdir patch; added rar3 and 7-zip support for ClamAV; increase syslog-ng max_connections to 1000; fixed Perl extension dependencies and added a bunch more modules; fixed missing man-pages; added samba smbldap-tools; enhanced the setup program to configure a basic NTP service...." Find more details in the release announcement and changelog.
BeleniX 0.2
BeleniX is the first live CD based on the OpenSolaris source base that boots into a full graphical desktop (with XFce). Developed at the India Engineering Centre of Sun Microsystems in Bangalore, BeleniX is trying to popularise OpenSolaris in the growing open source user and developer community in India and abroad. The project's latest version is 0.2, released on Saturday: "Announcing BeleniX version 0.2. Version 0.2 of BeleniX has been released and it is now a live CD that can boot into a graphical XFce 4 desktop and provides a bunch of useful applications. Following are some of the new features: the major feature of this release is the option to boot into a graphical XFce 4 desktop as well as the option to boot into a command line login." See the full release announcement on the project's home page.
Annvix 1.1
Annvix (formerly OpenSLS) is a secure Linux server operating system based on Mandriva Linux. The project's second stable release, version 1.1, is out: "Annvix 1.1-RELEASE is now available. 'Netinstall' ISO images are available for x86 and x86_64 on the mirror sites. Using the netinstall method, when you perform your install, your system will be 100% up to date. This is a personal project that I am embarking on as I have a strong interest in a secure Linux-based OS that is easy to use and maintain ('urpmi' has spoiled me). Unfortunately, this type of product is not on Mandriva's radar at the moment so I'm essentially scratching my own itch." See the release announcement and visit the distribution's home page for more information.
Slackintosh 10.2
Slackintosh, the project building a Slackware-based distribution for the Macintosh computers, has released version 10.2, the most complete and up-to-date release to date: "Slackintosh 10.2-final released! It's done, our 2nd Slackintosh release is ready: version 10.2. Slackintosh 10.2 contains all security-fixes for Slackware 10.2 up to SSA:2005-286-01 (OpenSSL). Upgrading Slackintosh 10.1 to 10.2 works the same as upgrading Slackware, so you can follow Pat's instructions. Using Slapt-Get may also work." Read the full release announcement and check out this screenshot for a taste of running a fresh Slack on your Apple hardware.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Elive 0.4
The developers of Elive have announced version 0.4, scheduled for release at around Christmas: "Elive 0.4 (X.Org) is slated to be released around Christmas. It will include a much improved Elpanel control panel, an improved version of e17 and an accelerated startup. In the mean time, updates are published and made available to the users via the Synaptic package manager." See the project's roadmap page for more information.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Web Site News |
On Tompkins County, Kirux Kuadra, SUSE "edge"
Our sarcastic comment and link to Tompkins County's guide to Internet security in last week's issue of DWW caused quite a stir among our readers with the result that the incriminating page didn't survive beyond just a few hours after we published the story. We hope that all who emailed to the relevant authorities did so in a civil way. However, let's make one thing clear about the issue. The sarcasm was NOT directed at the fact that the Tompkins County government uses and recommends Internet Explorer - in fact, we believe that every organisation has a right to choose whichever software they find most suitable for their needs. The reason we published the screenshot was simple: it clearly advised that, in order to prevent virus infections, users should remove Firefox and any other non-IE browser from their computers. We thought that this advice was ridiculous and deserved our sarcasm.
Several readers have expressed outrage at our inclusion of Kirux Kuadra Enterprise Server on the waiting list of distributions to be included on DistroWatch. Apparently, the developers of SME Server believe that the Kirux Kuadra project is breaking the General Public License (GPL) by using the SME Server code base for creating a commercial product without releasing the source code of their modifications. While we do sympathise with the developers of SME Server, we also believe that their concerns should be directed to the relevant authorities dealing with GPL violations, such as the appropriately named GPL Violations web site, rather than to DistroWatch. As a side note, it seems that a community edition of Kirux Kuadra Enterprise Server has now been released for free download and is currently available from Ibiblio.org's incoming directory here: kes-community.iso (620MB).
The SUSE Linux page has now bee updated to include the SUSE development branch called "edge" (although we are told that the name might still change). Similar to Mandriva, Ubuntu, Fedora and any other distribution with an open development model, the SUSE page is now also updated daily with listings of the latest packages from the "edge" repository.
* * * * *
New distribution additions
- BeleniX. BeleniX is a *NIX distribution that is built using the OpenSolaris source base. It is currently a live CD but is intended to grow into a complete distribution that can be installed to hard disk. BeleniX is developed at the India Engineering Centre of Sun Microsystems in Bangalore, the silicon capital of India.
- Finnix. Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators, based on Debian GNU/Linux. You can use it to mount and manipulate hard drives and partitions, monitor networks, rebuild boot records, install other operating systems, and much more.
- GenieOS. GenieOS (formerly Debian Pure) is a desktop-oriented Linux distribution based on the stable Debian GNU/Linux at the time of release. However, GenieOS attempts to be more user-friendly by limiting the system to a selected number of packages and enhancing it with many useful, but non-free applications and plugins, such as those required for viewing encrypted DVDs, Flash and Java browser plugins, and MPlayer with support for many popular audio formats. GenieOS includes the GNOME and KDE desktop environments.
- SchilliX. SchilliX is an OpenSolaris-based distribution which runs from CD and can be optionally installed on a hard disk or a USB memory stick.
* * * * *
New on the waiting list
- WifiWare. WifiWare is a Slackware-based mini distribution designed for WiFi routers, VPN servers and file servers.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
And with this we'll say good-bye until next Monday. We hope you've enjoyed this issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Ladislav Bodnar
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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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PLD Linux Distribution
PLD Linux Distribution is a free, RPM-based Linux distribution, aimed at the more advanced users and administrators, who accept the trade-offs of using a system that might require manual tweaking in exchange for flexibility. Simultaneous support for a wide variety of architectures and non-conservative approach to RPM usage provide the users with a consistent environment on almost all available architectures.
Status: Active
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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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