 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 174, 23 October 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 43rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly! On the eve of several major new releases, such as Firefox 2.0, Fedora Core 6 and Ubuntu 6.10, this week's DistroWatch Weekly takes a brief look at some of the new products, comments on the new Fedora 6 release, and asks whether Firefox has lost some of its former glory. In the meantime, Xandros Corporation is rumoured to be under a "reorganisation", while Munich continues its march towards a successful switch of thousands of its desktop and server computers to LiMux, a Debian-based distribution that recently reached version 1.0. Also in this issue: a reader recommends BeaFanatIX, a light-weight and user-friendly distribution that attempts to revive the concepts of the BeatrIX project, while the "First Looks" section introduces the new Xen Demo CD 3.0.3. Happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (3.6MB) or mp3 (5.8MB) format (courtesy of Matt Taylor).
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Miscellaneous News |
New releases from Fedora Project and Ubuntu, changes at Xandros, introduction to LiMux and BeaFanatIX, Firefox
 For all the enthusiasts who follow the world of free operating systems, this will be undoubtedly one of the most exciting weeks of the year. Not only can we expect the first stable release of Firefox 2.0 and the initial beta build of openSUSE 10.2, the final releases of Fedora Core 6 Ubuntu 6.10 also scheduled for release later this week. In fact, Fedora Core 6 has been completed already, but as usual, the directories containing the new release have been locked until the release announcement. This should be made on Tuesday, 24 October, which was confirmed by Red Hat's Jesse Keating during the weekend: "Yes the 24th is _the_ date. We've reached the point of no return." As tends to happen just before each new Fedora release, several of the download mirrors have already opened up for access so if you desperately want to play with the new toy, you can try visiting some of these mirrors to see if any of them lets you in the newly created "6" directory. However, be aware that until Fedora Core 6 is officially announced and released, you won't get access to updates and extras for the new version.
Love it or hate it: the new Fedora Core 6 artwork.
(full image size: 1,329kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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 Although Ubuntu 6.10 "Edgy Eft" is still going through a last-minute bug-fix session before its official release on Thursday, the project has already announced preliminary plans for the distribution's next release, version 7.04 and code name "Feisty Fawn": "With the final release of Ubuntu 6.10 approaching, and apparently set to be spot on schedule October 26th, we're starting to look beyond it to Ubuntu 7.04, scheduled for release on 19 April 2007." What can we look forward to in Feisty? "The main themes for feature development in this release will be improvements to hardware support in the laptop, desktop and high-end server market, and aggressive adoption of emerging desktop technologies. Ubuntu's Feisty release will put the spotlight on multimedia enablement and desktop effects." Read this mailing list post by Mark Shuttleworth to learn more about some of the ideas behind Ubuntu 7.04.
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 Is Xandros Corporation in the process of abandoning its desktop Linux users? DesktopLinux.com reports that the company producing one of the most user-friendly desktop Linux distributions on the market has recently undergone "reorganisation", with 5 employees from its marketing department already gone and a possibility of a change in the company's product orientation - from business desktops to high-end servers. As the article points out, despite overwhelmingly positive reviews in the media, Xandros Desktop has remained on the periphery of the Linux distribution market. This is largely due to its commercial nature, but perhaps also because the company has detached itself from the Free Software community, despite the fact that the lion's share of its products consists of Free Software.
But would Xandros's re-branding as a developer of predominantly server solutions turn the company into a financial success? Unlikely. The tightly contested market is already dominated by Red Hat and Novell, and any newcomer will have hard time to make a dent in this supremacy. Instead, we believe that the company should relaunch itself as a community-oriented desktop distribution with broader outside participation and with its own work (e.g. the Xandros File Manager) released under the GPL. Creating a high-end product with dozens of proprietary modules would be a step backward in the world where open-source software solutions are playing an increasingly important role. Xandros would be wise to follow the trends, not to go against them.
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 Reports about the progress of the City of Munich in its current effort to migrate some 14,000 computers to desktop Linux are avidly followed by many Linux users and decision makers around the world. Will it succeed? Will there be any major problems that would stall the process? While nobody expects a huge transition like this to be a smooth ride, it seems that things are progressing rather nicely. LiMux, which is the name of the Debian-based distribution being deployed on Munich's computers, has recently reached version 1.0. Last week, the LiMux development team has demonstrated their new Linux system to Debian's Steve McIntyre who wrote about it in his web log: "They're using FAI to automate installation of systems, along with LDAP to store lots of configuration information and GOsa as a user-friendly front-end to that configuration. They've integrated these to enable some very clever management features so that all aspects of the city-wide system can be maintained from one central point." If you understand German, you can find more information about LiMux on the project's web site, or on its brief English page.
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 A DistroWatch reader wrote in to give a thumbs up to a distribution called BeaFanatIX, a project which is trying to revive the now abandoned BeatrIX live CD: "I have discovered a wonderful little distro called BeaFanatIX. It is a light-weight (under 130 MB) mix of Ubuntu, KNOPPIX and Debian, but feels clean and sharp. It has given new life to my old laptop, which was running Puppy Linux, but I found it a little unpolished and Windows 95-ish. BFX installs on minimal hardware and runs fast, but as a Debian, the power of apt-get is just a few clicks away. The interface has the look and feel of its Breezy roots, with the GNOME desktop. Although the community is still small, the forums are responsive, usually getting help within a few hours or a day. The installer was one of the easiest I have used. I really hope you will consider giving this worthy little distro a look over. It is amazingly powerful for such a small package. I'm sticking with it on my laptop and would really like to see the community grow." Those readers who miss the light, friendly BeatrIX project might want to take a loot at BeaFanatIX; a stable 2006.1 and a beta 2006.2 versions are both available for download from the distribution's web site. See also the new distributions section below for a brief description and screenshot.
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 Have you noticed the rapidly increasing unhappiness of some Linux users and developers with Mozilla Firefox and other Mozilla products? As an example, read this blog entry by Alexandre Buisse, a Gentoo Linux developer. Entitled "Goodbye Firefox!", the author writes: "I had been thinking of leaving Firefox entirely for a long time (I had already traded Thunderbird for mutt last year), mainly due to its huge memory print (I like to navigate with more than 20 tabs at the same time), its slowness and a growing dislike of the Mozilla attitude, especially since the creation of the Mozilla Corporation." This view is echoed by many other users some of whom have openly criticised Mozilla for giving preferential treatment to its Windows editions of Firefox and Thunderbird, and for displaying signs of commercialism; according to an unconfirmed report, Mozilla Corporation makes in the region of tens of millions of dollars per year by referring its users to Google search. Its recent dispute with Debian over a trademark issue didn't help to improve Mozilla's image either.
Has Firefox grown too big too quickly? And have you considered (or tried) an alternative web browser? Konqueror? Or perhaps Opera, if you don't mind using non-free software? And how about the Linux-only Epiphany, which is similar enough to Firefox (it even uses the same HTML rendering engine), but without the attitude problem of its Mozilla cousin? More importantly, do you share the belief of some users who claim that Mozilla is now run by people more interested in making money than in developing a great browser? Or do you think that it's all just smoke created by people who are jealous of Mozilla's success? Please share your views in the forum below.
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| First Looks |
Xen Demo CD 3.0.3
Last week's announcement about the release of Xen 3.0.3 generated surprisingly sparse media coverage. Although intended mainly for deployment on specialist servers and popular with many web hosting companies, Xen is a wonderful piece of software that can increase one's productivity even on a desktop system. Intending to prove that "virtualisation" is not just a buzz word, the developers of Xen also released a new demo CD to showcase the latest Xen technology and to demonstrate its capabilities.
I downloaded the Xen Demo CD 3.0.3 over the weekend to give it a test drive. Xen Demo CD is a bootable CD containing not one, but three Linux distributions - a recent build of Debian "etch", SUSE Linux 10.0 and CentOS 4. Its main purpose is to demonstrate the wonders of virtualisation, or in less technical terms, the technology of running several operating systems (or several instances of the same operating system) simultaneously on the same machine. In case of the Xen Demo CD 3.0.3, the user has a choice to boot one of the three available distributions and then, depending on the amount of system memory, launch several "virtual" instances of these in separate windows.
Xen Demo CD: running Debian, SUSE and CentOS simultaneously
(full image size: 466kB, screen resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
Since the CD contains three Linux distributions, the amount of software is limited to the usual text-mode utilities, XFce desktop, and Firefox. Once booted, the user can choose to launch another distribution either from the command line (the xterm window will display relevant sample commands upon start), or by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting one of the three "guest" operating systems. The document supplied with the CD warns that you shouldn't expect breakneck speeds while running three or more distributions directly from the CD, but it should suffice as a demonstration tool. Disappointingly, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to transfer the content of the demo CD to one's hard disk.
Otherwise the only glitch in the CD is related to the X configuration; in my case, the default configuration with vesa brought about a blank screen, so I had to boot into text mode and reconfigure /etc/X11/xorg.conf by supplying it with the correct video driver before launching the GDM login manager. Networking was pre-configured and worked on the main system, as well as the two guest distributions I tried. An xterm window (shown in the bottom right corner of the screenshot) gave some useful information about the status of the virtual machines, including CPU and memory consumption of each running guest.
Xen virtualisation is a great way of running several distributions simultaneously and without having to reboot the machine - an excellent time-saving solution for many developers who might need to test their code on several different systems. But even if you are not a developer and don't have a need for running a number of Linux distributions on one desktop, Xen Demo CD is not only great fun, it is also a testament to the flexibility and superiority of open source software solutions.
For more information and download links please visit XenSource.com.
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| Released Last Week |
trixbox 1.2.2, 1.2.3
A new, bug-fix version of trixbox has been released: "Trixbox users have been reporting stability problem with 1.2. We are trying to address these with the 1.2.2 release. There are some strange audio problems with the 42 kernel. This is most apparent with VMware. When the 42 kernel is used the audio prompts are jittery and broken. This was not a problem with the 34 kernel. I am making the 34 kernel the standard for trixbox until further notice. The version of Asterisk 1.2.12.1 that is included with the 1.2.1 trixbox patch has a lot of the Asterisk patch files from Digium and other sources included. This may have caused some of the instability and FreePBX reload issues that were reported. The Asterisk 1.2.12.1 that is included with 1.2.2 has only 4 patches." Full details in the release announcement.
DeLi Linux 0.7.1
Henry Jensen has announced the release of an updated version of DeLi Linux, a distribution designed for legacy hardware: "DeLi Linux 0.7.1 is mainly a bug-fix release. But there are also some new features: support for Microchannel (PS/2 machines) and EISA; added 'deliget', a tool for downloading and installing packages; new packages including AbiWord 1.0.7, Fox, Xfe and XMMS. DeLi Linux is a distribution made for old hardware. Machines from 386 to Pentium I with 8 to 32 MB RAM are considered as target systems. DeLi Linux uses lightweight software wherever it is possible. Nevertheless DeLi Linux provides a graphical desktop with an office package, web browser, e-mail client, PDF viewer and games." The release announcement.
tinysofa classic server 2.0 Update 6
The tinysofa project has released the 6th update to "Ceara", its Trustix-based distribution for servers: "tinysofa classic server 2.0 Update 6 (Ceara) is now generally available. This release focuses on bug and security fixes, integrates all released security fixes, and updates various packages (notably the kernel) to the more recent upstream releases. 'Ceara' features: The Linux 2.6.16 kernel, grsecurity support, APT and SmartPM for advanced package management, the next generation PHP 5 environment (5.0.4), OpenSSH 4.3p2, high availability features such as DRBD (0.7.17) and UCARP (1.1), the latest development tools and languages (gcc 3.4.3, Python 2.4.2), and much more." Read the release announcement on the distribution's home page.
Tilix Linux 2.0
The second major release of Bulgaria's Tilix is now ready for download. Unlike the Tilix 1.x series, which were based on KANOTIX, the latest release, code name "Karposh" is built on top of Kubuntu. Apart from standard features, such as complete localisation into Bulgarian, Tilix 2.0 comes with the following new applications and characteristics: Linux kernel 2.6.15.6, X.Org 7.0, KDE 3.5.5 with Kaffeine 0.8.1; ability to write to NTFS file systems via ntfs-3g; new hard disk installation program for installing Tilix directly from live CD session; support for a number of multimedia formats, including MP3 and DivX; integrated browser plugins in Firefox - Flash, Java, FreeWRL, DejaVuLibre, OpenSC; availability of proprietary graphics drivers for easy installation. For more information please read the release announcement (in Bulgarian).
Tilix 2.0 - a Kubuntu-based distribution designed for Bulgarian speakers.
(full image size: 1,982kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Sun Wah Linux 1.5r2
After collecting feedback from its users for five months, China's Sun Wah today announced the availability of a revised version of its Debian-based distribution - Sun Wah Linux 1.5r2. Among the many new features and additions in the updated release the following are worth mentioning: inclusion of proprietary graphics drivers for ATI (version 8.2.28) and VIA S3 Unichrome graphics cards; support for Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 network cards, addition of MadWifi drivers, inclusion of Java, Mono and Mono-based applications, such as Beagle desktop search tool; support for 3D desktop effects with Xgl/Compiz; many upgraded packages (GNOME 2.14.1, Firefox 1.5.0.6). Read the release announcement and release notes (both links in Chinese) for further details.
pQui Linux 2.0
pQui Linux is a desktop-oriented Brazilian distribution based on Slackware Linux. Version 2.0 was released earlier this week. Compared to a standard Slackware, pQui Linux 2.0 is enhanced by a number of applications, including Firefox 1.5.0.7 with pre-configured extensions (DownThemAll!, FlashGot, TabMixPlus and VideoDownloader), browser plugins (MPlayer, Flash and Java) and search engines (Wikipedia and YouTube), BrOffice 2.0.3 with an updated Brazilian Portuguese spell-checking plugin, KDE 3.5.4 and customised XFce 4.3.90.2 desktops, gtkpod (for iPod support), Azureus, aMSN, MPlayer, MadWifi and NdisWrapper. It is built on top of a Linux kernel 2.6.17.6. Some packages, such as Dia, Nvu, Acrobat Reader and games, have been removed. For more information please see the project's news page (in Portuguese).
VLOS 1.3
A new stable version of VLOS, a user-friendly, Gentoo-based distribution for desktop computers, has been released: "Today we are proud to announce the release of VLOS 1.3 as stable. Changes and fixes from beta3: updated to GCC 4.1.1, glibc 2.4, XGL and Compiz Quinstorm; fixed KDE problems with Compiz; updated to latest base layout, kernel and portage 2.1.1. Also, today I want to announce the open-community development of VLOS; the full version will be free of charge and the community will manage the project and development of VLOS. We are recruiting volunteers, developers and enthusiasts who want to participate and help us." More details in the release announcement.
INSERT 1.3.8
The INSERT project has released a new version of Inside Security Rescue Toolkit, a Debian-based mini-distribution designed as a multi-functional, multi-purpose disaster recovery and network analysis system. INSERT 1.3.8 comes with the following changes and new features: "Most of the software packages and the Linux kernel (2.6.16.27) have been updated. Captive-NTFS was dropped in favour of NTFS-3G, which works faster and more reliable. This is the long awaited real NTFS write support for Linux. The downloadable Firefox is a 1.5.0.7 now. An install script for the virus scanner F-Prot (for home use) has been added." Read the release notes for a complete list of all changes and package updates.
AliXe 0.09
A new minor update to AliXe, a French Canadian variant of the SLAX live CD, complete with French localisation and support for French Canadian keyboards, has been released. Version 0.09 is based on SLAX 5.1.8 "KillBill" edition which comes with the following changes: upgrade to KDE 3.5.4 and recompiled with some Slackware 11.0 fixes; better handling of booting from USB devices; addition NTFS-3g to fully support writing to NTFS partitions; addition of slaxsave.zip to SLAX CD, containing pre-built loop file systems. Visit the project's home page (in French) to read the brief release announcement.
Wolvix 1.0.5
Kenneth Granerud has announced a brand new release of Wolvix, a desktop-oriented live CD based on Slackware Linux: "After nearly five months of development, Wolvix 1.0.5 is finally ready for release. Wolvix 1.0.5 comes in two editions: 'Wolvix Cub' and 'Wolvix Hunter'. Cub is a small edition of Wolvix; it's designed to fit on 256MB USB Flash drives and to serve as a base for building your own custom Wolvix distribution. Hunter is the large 'standard' edition of Wolvix; it's designed to fit on 512MB USB Flash drives and use Wolvix Cub as its base. It includes more applications, a lot of games, and larger packages like Samba, Java and libraries for printer support. New in the Wolvix 1.0.5 series is the Wolvix Control Panel (WCP) which is a suite of administration utilities." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details.
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Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Web server disruptions
As some of you might have noticed, the DistroWatch.com web server was inaccessible for about 8 hours on Sunday, 22 October, and also on several other occasions through the weekend and on Monday. While the web server itself appeared to be running as normal, for some unknown reason it stopped accepting client connections at various irregular intervals. We are still looking for the reason and solution to the problem so please accept our apologies in case you are unable to access the web site occasionally.
Perhaps this is also a good time to remind our readers about the DistroWatch mirrors - in case our main server is down, you can still read the content of the site on one of its mirror sites. Those located in the Czech Republic and the Netherlands have easy-to-remember URLs: http://distrowatch.cz/ and http://distrowatch.nl/.
* * * * *
New distributions added to database
- Rails Live CD. Rails Live CD is a specialist distribution providing a pre-configured and fully operating Ruby on Rails development environment on a bootable CD. The distribution is derived from PCLinuxOS.
- Shift Linux. Shift Linux is a project that was created by the Neowin community. Based on Debian GNU/Linux and Morphix Linux, it has access to all of the software and applications as other Debian distributions. Neowin's Shift Linux is designed to give the user an experience of being part of the Neowin community and to have a simple, easy-to-use live CD that can be installed to a hard drive. Shift is a free distribution released under the General Public License. It can be freely distributed or modified.
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New distributions added to waiting list
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DistroWatch database summary
And that concludes our latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 30 October 2006. Until 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 |
| 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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| Random Distribution | 
secureblue
secureblue is an immutable, security-focused desktop and server Linux operating system based on Fedora Atomic Desktop's base images - Silverblue, Kinoite and Sway Atomic. The project's goal is to build a maximally secure Linux operating system by proactively increasing defenses against the exploitation of both known and unknown vulnerabilities, while avoiding sacrificing usability for most use cases. Some of the security hardening features include a global hardened memory allocator developed by GrapheneOS, a security-focused Chromium-based browser called Trivalent, and Linux kernel hardening via sysctl and kernel arguments.
Status: Active
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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