 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 158, 3 July 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 27th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Last week was a slow one - among the major distributions, only Novell provided some excitement with the first public development release of SUSE Linux Enterprise 10. Several smaller distributions also continued their work - the SME Server project has finally released its long-awaited version 7.0, while a new and excellent live CD edition of Zenwalk Linux also made its first appearance last week. In other news, Smart for SUSE Linux and DesktopBSD's new package management tool are the focus of the news section, while the first look part of DistroWatch Weekly brings a short review of Frenzy 1.0, an excellent live CD based on FreeBSD. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the June 2006 DistroWatch donation of US$500.00 has been awarded to Gentoo Foundation. Happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG format (4.5MB)
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in MP3 format (4.7MB)
(The Podcast edition is provided by Shawn Milo.)
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Miscellaneous News |
Novell's new distributions for enterprise, Smart for SUSE, DesktopBSD, ZenLive Linux
 In terms of new distribution releases, last week has to go down as one of the slowest ever on DistroWatch, with only a handful of interesting news items worth reporting. One of them was a public development release of Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise 10. Both Desktop and Server editions of the product were made available for public download and the first reports indicate that this is indeed a substantially improved edition of the recently released SUSE Linux 10.1 -- complete with some enterprise features (Novell ZENworks Linux Management, Novell Customer Center) and Novell-specific enhancements (new graphical user interface, integrated search capabilities, intuitive menu design). With the networking giant struggling to return to profitability, let's hope that the new product family will turn into a winner so that Novell can continue supporting openSUSE, Xgl with Compiz, Evolution and other Free Software projects under its umbrella for years to come!
* * * * *
 Speaking about SUSE Linux 10.1, the package management troubles that continue to plague some users of the distribution have created a market for alternative software management options for the users of this popular distribution. For years, it was the port of Debian's apt-get for RPM-based distributions that some preferred over SUSE's native YOU. More recently, it is the increasingly popular Smart package manager that is now available for SUSE Linux. Setting it up is easy: "Smart has only one requirement - that's 'rpm-python'." Besides the standard command line options (e.g. smart install package_name), the Smart project also offers a graphical utility similar to Synaptic. If you continue experiencing difficulties while installing applications on SUSE Linux 10.1, give Smart a try - you might be pleasantly surprised!
* * * * *
 The DesktopBSD project, which develops a desktop FreeBSD operating system with intuitive graphical configuration tools, has announced a series of enhancements to its package manager. The planned improvements are the result of feedback received from users, many of whom wanted a simpler interface with some of the more advanced options hidden from the default view. A new feature, designed for those who prefer to compile their applications from the FreeBSD port system with a graphical menu to configure build options, will be added. The developers also promise to refine the right-click context menu. The new package manager will make its first appearance in the upcoming DesktopBSD 1.6, the development of which is expected to complete within the next few months. Please visit the announcement for more details and a link to screenshots.
* * * * *
 The fans of Zenwalk Linux -- and there seem to be quite a few among the DistroWatch readers -- will be excited to learn that a new live CD edition of the Slackware-based distribution is now available. Michael Verret explains: "An idea has quickly become a reality as the ZenLive Linux live CD project is happy to announce its first major release - ZenLive 2.6! This first release is based on a combination of the current tree of the revolutionary and blazingly fast Zenwalk Linux OS, together with Tomas Matejicek's famous Linux-Live scripts to create the ultimate Linux live CD. Features of this release include hardware recognition using Zenwalk's configuration tools, international translations, the latest XFce window manager, multimedia applications, video games, office software, and networking and development tools - all in a single CD. Future release plans will follow Zenwalk's release cycle." Find more information and download links on the project's home page.
ZenLive Linux - a new live CD based on Zenwalk Linux
(full image size: 140kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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| First Looks |
Frenzy 1.0 "Extended" Edition (by Andrei Raevsky)
After recently reviewing various BSD based live-CDs for DistroWatch, I decided to take a closer look at new version of the distro which I had singled out for its quality: Frenzy. I have to admit that I had great expectations. I was not disappointed.
Sergei Mozhaiskii, the 26 year old PhD student (and system administrator for a local ISP) from the city of Melitopol in the Ukraine and the 'father' of Frenzy just released several new editions of his distro, including the basic Frenzy 1.0, Frenzy 1.0 'extended', and Frenzy 1.0 'lite' - a CLI rescue credit card-sized 50MB mini-CD. I chose the 'extended' edition for this review.
Frenzy 1.0 is clearly oriented towards the experienced power user or system administrator. It comes packed with 500 applications squeezed into only 200MB, while the 'extended' edition totals 600 applications for a size of 250MB. The new version of Frenzy is based on FreeBSD 6.1-STABLE and comes with various interpreters and compilers, file managers, archiving applications, editors, web browsers, mail and news clients, network and traffic monitoring utilities, database clients, a Samba server and client, plenty of security applications, hardware information and troubleshooting utilities, CD burning tools, mp3 and ogg players and numerous other applications. The 'extended' edition adds some additional tools and the MPlayer multimedia player. As far as I can tell, the man/info pages for all these applications are present. Furthermore, the CD includes basic documentation about Frenzy and the official FreeBSD Handbook and FAQ (both in HTML).
Frenzy 1.0 - a FreeBSD-based live CD with Fluxbox
(full image size: 114kB, resolution: 800x600 pixels)
Consistent with this 'for sysadmin only' approach, no games or word processors are included (Catdoc and AntiWord are available for emergencies).
Mozhaiskii began working with BSD in 2000 while still a student. Soon he began thinking about creating a live CD based on FreeBSD which he could carry on a small 200MB mini-CD; he had, however, no idea as to how to proceed. In 2003, he came across and article by Manuel Kasper - MiniBSD - reducing FreeBSD, in which the author described how he squeezed FreeBSD into 20MB. Mozhaiskii tried this and succeeded. Soon thereafter, Frenzy 0.1 was born.
Initially, Mozhaiskii planned to keep Frenzy for himself, convinced that nobody would be interested in his product. Soon, however, he realized that a great number of people were highly interested in his work and he made an ISO image of Frenzy 0.2 (an improved version with some requested modifications) available. Almost at the same time, by a happy coincidence, a FreeBSD developer wrote a module called geom_ugz (now called geom_uzip) which made the creation of a compressed file system, similar to Knoppix's cloop, possible for FreeBSD. Thanks to this module, Mozhaiskii soon released Frenzy 0.3 with 600MB worth of applications compressed into a 200MB CD. This version was the first one to be fully bilingual - Russian and English.
Having completed this work, Mozhaiskii took some time off work (to marry and have a son, Konstantine). With the help of his employer, he later managed to return to Frenzy in April and by May 1st, the first beta version of Frenzy 1.0 was out. After two more release candidates, the final Frenzy 1.0 came out on June 5th. This new version is a massive improvement over the previous one.
Frenzy can now be installed on a hard drive or a USB flash disk. Another innovation is that Frenzy can now be uncompressed to the RAM memory with a 'toram' cheat code, thereby freeing the disk drive and improving speed and battery use (on a laptop). However, due to a bug in the FreeBSD kernel, this option only works well with very large RAM sizes. There is also an option of copying the Frenzy subdirectory from the CD into the root directory of any hard disk and then run it from there with the 'fromhdd' cheat code (the CD is then automatically ejected). I tested this option on an ext2 file system mounted read-only and it worked perfectly.
Like the very best GNU/Linux live CDs, Frenzy now has the option of saving all its configuration and any number of subdirectories, including a permanent /home directory, on a floppy disk, USB device or hard disk. These files, and the complete system configuration, are automatically restored on boot-up.
Frenzy 1.0 now features a brand new configuration center (frconf) from which the console, swapping, network parameters and various servers can be configured.
At boot-up (non-graphical), Frenzy first offers a number of basic options (default, ACPI, safe mode, single user, verbose) and an option to either escape to a prompt or reboot. The next menu offers the choice of Russian, Ukrainian or English, and a number of cheat codes. Unless the 'gui' cheatcode is entered at that time Frenzy's boot up will end up with a command line prompt and no graphical desktop will be automatically loaded. I think that this is an excellent choice as many, if not most, of Frenzy's applications are designed to run in CLI. You can even play music from the CLI with mpg123 and aumix.
When needed, the command 'startx' will load Fluxbox (another excellent choice) with fully populated menus and the torsmo system monitoring running application.
One word of caution here: Frenzy users will always login as 'root' and no passwords or other users are created. The distro clearly assumes that you know what you are doing.
The shell used by Frenzy is tcsh - not my favorite choice. I would have much preferred a bash shell, but this is probably a matter of habit as I had no difficulties whatsoever using tcsh.
Frenzy has a number of hotkeys to launch frequently used applications, among them the Opera web browser. According to Mozhaiskii, Opera is 52% smaller than Firefox, loads twice as fast and uses 45% less memory. Maybe so, but Opera is at least twice as ugly, does not have all the powerful extensions of Firefox and, worst of all, is proprietary and sends a very wrong message to potential Frenzy users (I should note here that the rest of Frenzy is all composed of free software and Frenzy-specific scripts are licensed under the BSD license). The choice of Opera is, in my opinion, the single worst mistake made in Frenzy 1.0, in particular considering that the excellent, light and superfast Dillo web browser is also available. In this regard, I find the choice made by the creator of the fantastic 50MB Damn Small Linux distribution, John Andrews, much wiser: he included both Firefox and a patched Dillo version. Frenzy also features the CLI Lynx browser - a very good choice.
One very useful tool is the frmount utility which automatically mounts all the partitions found and makes the correct changes in /etc/fstab. During the boot process all partitions are automatically mounted in read-only mode (if needed, the 'nohdmnt' cheatcode prevents any hard disk partition from being mounted at boot-up). This is, in my opinion, another excellent choice combining clarity and safety. To write on a partition the command 'remount' must be used, either from the command line, or from the corresponding Fluxbox menu.
Frenzy can read from and write to the following file systems: USF1, USF2, ext2, FAT and NTFS (only editing, renaming, moving and removal of files). Frenzy 1.0 can also read ReiserFS but cannot write to it. This is a little too basic compared to GNU/Linux distros, but the inclusion of ReiserFS, despite its read-only mode, is a definite sign of progress. I hope that ext3, read/write ReiserFS and full NTFS (native?) will soon become possible.
Frenzy 1.0 is definitely a stunning success. I consider myself rather hard to please, used as I am to such GNU/Linux heavyweights as KANOTIX, Damn Small Linux and, of course, Debian, but Frenzy truly impressed me. It is extremely well designed and slick to use, and it offers an array of system administration tools at least as good as those found on STD (Security Tools Distribution). The only feature of Frenzy which still puzzles me is one of its most fundamental ones: its size.
Frenzy 1.0 - a FreeBSD-based live CD with Fluxbox
(full image size: 160kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
I see the point of a 50MB credit card-size distro like Damn Small Linux or Frenzy 'lite'. And I see the point of a full-size 700MB general distro such as KANOTIX or a specialized one such as STD. But what is the point of a 200MB distro? A 200MB CD does, of course, fit into a pocket, but not in a wallet with credit cards. Since Mozhaiskii also created a 50MB Frenzy 'lite' edition and a 250MB 'extended' edition, I suppose that he sees this also.
To be truly honest, Frenzy is simply too good a distro to remain in the specialized 'sysadmin-only' category and I very much hope that Mozhaiskii will consider a full-size 700MB desktop version with all the current applications of Frenzy 1.0 'extended', but with all the other applications found on 'general' live CDs, including a complete office suite in two languages at least. Going for the 700MB size will also put an end to the entire 'Opera versus Firefox' issue.
Of course, going for 700MB will dramatically increase the workload for Mozhaiskii, but it will also bring him a far larger user and contributor base. Frenzy clearly has the potential of becoming 'FreeBSD's KNOPPIX': a fantastic advocacy tool which, no doubt, the entire FreeBSD community will recognize as such.
Anyone willing to encourage further development can either go to this page and contribute some money, or contact Sergei Mozhaiskii at technix at frenzy.org.ua and contribute his/her skills.
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| Released Last Week |
B2D Linux 20060630
A new version of B2Dr Linux, a Taiwanese Debian-based live and installation CD with support for traditional Chinese, has been released. The most important changes in this release are kernel upgrade to version 2.6.16.19, udev support, switch to X.Org (version 6.9.0), upgrade to KDE 3.5.3 and GNOME 2.14.1, and NTFS write support with libntfs + fuse (replaces captive-ntfs). One important known issue: the Unionfs file system is not functional in this release. If you understand Chinese, you can find more information and screenshots in the release announcement.
SME Server 7.0
SME Server 7.0 is finally out: "Version 7.0 of SME Server has been released. The new release represents the culmination of months of hard work by numerous developers and beta testers and is sure to impress those that select it as their server distribution. Some of these features include: the industry leading web server capable of hosting multiple domains; a full featured email server with virus and spam filtering, webmail and secure access; industry standard firewall for intrusion protection; a proxy server with content filtering capability and internet sharing...." Read the release announcement and overview of features for further details.
FreeNAS 0.67
A new version of FreeNAS, a FreeBSD-based operating system providing free Network-Attached Storage services, has been released. From the changelog: "Multilingual WebGUI ready; upgrade to FreeBSD 6.1-STABLE; add software RAID: geom mirror; replace vsftpd 2.0.4 by pure-ftpd 1.0.21 (support UTF-8); update rsync to 2.6.8, Smartmon tools to 5.36, e2fsprogs to 1.39, iSCSI initiator to 0.17; replace Howl (maintenance stopped) by Apple Bonjour; SSH: added sftp subsystem; CIFS: added DOS charset 852, added UNIX charset, option for hiding some shares; FTP: added FTP banner option; added CLI tools: fetch (FTP/HTTP download client); support large FAT32 partition."
ZenLive Linux 2.6
The fans of Zenwalk Linux will be excited to learn that a new live CD edition of the Slackware-based distribution has been released: "An idea has quickly become a reality as the ZenLive Linux live CD project is happy to announce its first major release - ZenLive 2.6! This first release is based on a combination of Zenwalk Linux and Linux-Live scripts to create the ultimate Linux live CD. The features of this release include hardware recognition using Zenwalk's configuration tools, international translations, the latest XFce window manager, multimedia applications, video games, office software, and networking and development tools - all in a single CD." More information and download links can be found on the project's home page.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Ubuntu 6.10
The Ubuntu project has announced a preliminary release schedule for the upcoming Ubuntu 6.10, code name "Edgy Eft": "Wondering when Edgy Eft will be released? No need to keep scratching your head. As expected, Edgy Eft will be released to the world in October of 2006, making it Ubuntu 6.10. The Edgy Eft development cycle is going to be a fast one with only around four months until its release." The first alpha release, called "Knot CD", is scheduled for release on 13 July, the beta for 28 September, the release candidate for 19 October and the final release for 26 October. Check out the full details on the Edgy Release Schedule page.
Mandriva Linux 2007
Mandriva has published a press release announcing an "evolutionary" new Mandriva Linux 2007 to be released later this year: "Mandriva is putting the final touches on its brand new distro: Mandriva Linux 2007. To this end, besides the qualities that ensured the success of Mandriva Linux 2006, it includes brand new innovations in the fields of office suite applications, Internet, multimedia and the new virtualization and 3D-accelerated desktop technologies." The "final touches" part seems particularly surprising given that Mandriva has yet to release any development build of Mandriva Linux 2007 (other than an early alpha of the live CD edition). Nevertheless, the press release contains a general list of features set to be included in the new product and information about the planned editions.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
June 2006 donation: Gentoo Foundation US$500.00
 We are pleased to announce that the DistroWatch June 2006 donation has been awarded to Gentoo Foundation (US$500.00). As became obvious from the readers' comments following the publication of last week's DistroWatch Weekly, Gentoo Linux is a project enjoyed by many devoted followers, developers and users. Additionally, Gentoo has also emerged as one of the leading distributions on which other Linux distributions and live CDs are based on these days, including the increasingly popular Sabayon Linux (formerly RR4/RR64 Linux), Kororaa, VLOS, SystemRescueCd, Ututo GNU/Linux, and many others. Since all users of these distributions benefit from the excellent work done by the Gentoo developers, it's only natural to promote and encourage the development of the world's most popular source distribution in this way.
Further good news is that OSDisc.com has joined our donations programme by making a monthly contribution of US$50.00. OSDisc.com is one of the largest vendors of open source software products with an excellent selection and good prices - they even offer free worldwide shipping on orders valued at more than US$20.00. If you need Linux or BSD CDs and DVDs, but are stuck on a slow Internet connection, head over to OSDisc.com to order a stack of media to keep you entertained.
The monthly donations programme is a joint initiative between DistroWatch, which allocates 10% of its advertising revenue, and three online shops selling low-cost CDs and DVDs with Linux, BSD and other open source software - LinuxISO.co.uk and LinuxCD.org and OSDisc.com. The three CD/DVD vendors contributed US$50.00 each towards this month's donation to Gentoo Linux.
This is the PayPal receipt for the donation to Gentoo Foundation:
Dear DistroWatch.com,
This email confirms that you have paid Gentoo Linux Foundation $500.00 USD using PayPal.
------------------------------
Payment Details:
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Transaction ID: 5EE3225242424364N
Item Price: $500.00 USD
Item/Product Name: Gentoo Linux Support
Item/Product Number: 1000
Buyer: DistroWatch.com
Message: A donation by DistroWatch.com. Keep up the good work!
Here is the list of projects that received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme:
Since the launch of the DistroWatch Donations Programme in March 2004, we have donated a total of US$8,800 to various open source software projects.
* * * * *
The great MINIX debate
Last week's discussion prompt about whether to include MINIX in DistroWatch has resulted in a largest number of posts ever recorded in the weekly discussion forum. With hindsight, it was a wrong question - it was akin to asking a group of tourists walking across the Sahara desert whether they want a cold beer. The result was an overwhelming "yes", with only a handful of voices arguing against the inclusion of the microkernel project. Unfortunately, one negative side effect of a potential addition of MINIX is that including one non-mainstream operating system in DistroWatch will likely increase the pressure on your DistroWatch maintainer to add others. With time and resources as limiting factors, it is time to draw the line somewhere.
After going through the readers' suggestions, I liked the idea of listing on DistroWatch only those open source operating systems that have established themselves as viable alternatives in production environments and which can run a variety of open source software applications available on the Internet (that is, without having to modify their source codes first). This would ensure that only those projects, likely to be useful to a reasonably large number of end users, are listed on DistroWatch. This would also exclude MINIX, which appears to be an interesting operating system for certain uses in the embedded world or as an education tool, but not a very practical system for the majority of DistroWatch readers.
If you feel disappointed by the above reasoning, please remember that there are web sites that specialise in reporting about the great variety of operating systems, both large and small and inclusive of various hobby projects, such as OSNews.com or OSViews.com. DistroWatch also maintains a list of alternative operating systems on its Related Links page.
* * * * *
DistroWatch Weekly archives
As requested by several readers, a complete list of all past DistroWatch Weekly issues is now available here.
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
- Everest Linux. Everest Linux is a new Chinese distribution based on Fedora Core. The project doesn't seem to have its own web site, but the release notes for version 0.1 can be found in the above link (in Chinese), while download links are available here. There are two CDs - an installation CD and a "tools" CD.
- LazyDragon GNU/Linux. LazyDragon GNU/Linux is a Slackware-based live DVD aimed at video & audio editing and production.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
That's all for today. The next issue of DistroWatch Weekly will be published on Monday, 10 July 2006. See you then :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
MilaX
MilaX was a small-size live-CD distribution which runs completely off a CD or a USB storage device. It was based on OpenSolaris Nevada and includes its basic features. It originally started as an experiment to see how much OpenSolaris software could fit on a mini-CD, but it eventually became a full-fledged OpenSolaris distribution. It was also possible to use MilaX as a rescue CD. It can be installed on storage media with a small capacity, including bootable business cards, USB flash drives, memory cards, and Zip drives. MilaX was free to use, modify and distribute.
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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