 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 237, 28 January 2008 |
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Welcome to this year's 4th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Mobile workers no longer have to carry bulky laptops in order to do their work; with the emergence of free software and live operating systems, a bootable USB Flash drive with Linux is often all that's needed to complete one's task while on the road. In this week's issue we'll take a quick look at Mandriva Flash 2008, a useful "pocket" OS with thousands of applications and several gigabytes of free space for storing your data. In the news section, Gentoo Linux works hard to improve the interaction between the developers and its users, Debian embarks on a major switch to GCC 4.3 as the default compiler, Fedora announces more changes to the project leadership prior to the upcoming release of Fedora 9, and ISP-Planet talks to m0n0wall's Manual Kasper about the importance of small, configurable firewalls. Finally, don't miss the usual bunch of new Linux distributions submitted to DistroWatch, including the promising openmamba GNU/Linux. Happy reading!
Content:
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| Featured Story |
First Look at Mandriva Flash 2008
 Mobile computing is an essential activity for many people who frequently move between different work places. Traditionally, carrying a laptop (and maybe a spare battery) was the most common way to make sure that a job was being done even while away from the office, but with the emergence of modern technologies and free software, some people have replaced the bulky notebook with a tiny USB device. With Linux, especially since KNOPPIX and other live operating systems revolutionised the way we boot our computers, many projects have embarked on building bootable Linux systems on USB devices - complete with full operating systems and enough space to store one's data. Of the big Linux distributions, Mandriva -- with its Mandriva Flash, a 4 GB USB storage device carrying the latest version of its distribution -- has always been at the forefront of the development of these "pocket" operating systems.
I started my testing of the 4 GB Mandriva Flash 2008 on a Toshiba Satellite laptop. Although the laptop supports booting from USB devices and its BIOS was set up with the USB drive as the first boot device, it still failed to boot the Flash drive. No problem. Since Mandriva's USB key comes with a tiny bootable ISO image, I inserted the Flash drive to a USB port of my main computer, copied the 4.8 MB ISO image to the hard disk and then burnt it onto a CD. Even if Mandriva Flash boots fine on your system, it is always advisable to create this boot CD for those computers that don't support booting from USB devices. With its small size, it even fits on one of those business card-size CDs that one can conveniently carry in a wallet!
With the freshly burnt CD in the DVD drive, the Toshiba laptop finally booted into Mandriva Flash 2008. The first boot somewhat resembled the installation process - although the system detected and configured all hardware correctly, it required some user input, such as specifying the keyboard, time zone and root password, and creating a user account. This was followed by a screen allowing the user to resize the live system in order to create space for system settings and data. This got me stumped; with the default set to just 400 MB, but with the total available space of 2,640 MB, why not use the entire free space for data? And if I accept the default and allocate just 400 MB for data, what will the remaining space be used for? Other user accounts? Or system updates? This, I felt, wasn't explained clearly by the on-screen wizard. Eventually I settled on allocating about two thirds of the available space to data and left the rest to whatever the system needed it for.
The optimal monitor resolution of 1280x800 pixels was set up correctly. Interestingly, the system automatically loaded a proprietary NVIDIA driver and asked whether to turn on any 3D desktop effects - the default was none, but one could choose between Metisse and CompizFusion. I opted for CompizFusion just to see how well it would perform while running the OS from a USB Flash drive, but later I turned it off because I found it a bit flaky (the default Mandriva slide show screensaver would sometimes only cover one part of the screen and I had X.Org crash on me on one occasion). The hardware detection system correctly configured and brought up both the wireless network card (Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG) and the Ethernet card (Intel PRO/100). One other glitch I noticed after entering the desktop was the duplication of some menus (Find and Recent Documents, see the screenshot below).
Mandriva Flash 2008 - the default desktop
(full image size: 618kB, screen resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
Mandriva Linux 2008 was released more than four months ago, so I wasn't surprised to see that, after launching the package update tool, there were 171 packages waiting to be updated. This proceeded without a hitch. Next, I was curious to find out more about the available "disk" space on the USB Flash drive, so I reached for the "df" utility. This gave me an interesting output: the total space was 3.1 GB (with 1.5 GB used and 1.6 GB free), which meant that the roughly 900 MB of space which I left "unresized" during the initial resizing wizard was unrecognised. This made me wonder even more about the unusually small space set out by default for user data - just 400 MB. Had I opted for that, full 2 GB of the Flash drive would have been "lost" to whatever the designers of Mandriva Flash intended it for!
One other thing I wanted to test was the speed of the system and applications, but I found these to be excellent; in fact, I hardly noticed that the operating system wasn't running from the hard disk. It booted up in 110 seconds (from the moment it detected the boot CD to the full KDE desktop), while OpenOffice.org Writer started in 11 seconds (first launch) and 3 seconds (second launch). Other than the fact that the system ran from a USB Flash device, it was very much the same as the Powerpack edition of Mandriva Linux 2008, complete with some proprietary components (kernel drivers, media codecs) and non-free software (Skype, Flash plugin, RealPlayer), but there was one important difference - GNOME was not present. The only alternative to the KDE desktop was the light-weight IceWM. On the other hand, Mandriva Flash 2008 supports a large number of languages, which can be configured during the first boot.
After spending a few days running Mandriva Flash 2008, I was pleased with the system. It's hard not to appreciate its versatility - you can easily move any data between the device and another computer without having to boot it first and the operating system itself seemed to be very stable (once you overcome the temptation to turn on CompizFusion) and bug-free. Its hardware detection was excellent and performance rather better than I expected. This should be a perfect companion for the road - provided that you have a remote server to back-up your work; after all, the USB key is so small that there is a real danger that it could get misplaced or lost. The only other negative: Mandriva Flash isn't particularly cheap, but as always with these products, you get what you pay for.
Mandriva Flash 2008 4GB is available from Mandriva Store (€59.00, free shipping) or Amazon.com (US$93.99). For more information please visit the product page at Mandriva.com.
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| Miscellaneous News |
Gentoo rejects Robbins's offer, Debian switches to GCC 4.3, Fedora announces more personnel changes, ISP-Planet interviews m0n0wall's Manuel Kasper
 The Gentoo Linux project has seemingly recovered from its recent leadership crisis. Following the outcry of the Gentoo user community over the revocation of the Gentoo Foundation's charter and further demands for better interaction between the project's developers and its users, the Board of Trustees has introduced a number of changes. Those who missed the old glory days of Gentoo Linux will be pleased with the frequent updates on the project's home page, including news about the upcoming release of Gentoo Linux 2008.0, tentatively scheduled for 17 March 2008. In a related development, the Board of Trustees has rejected the offer of help from Daniel Robbins and has decided to continue managing Gentoo under the current leadership. The project's founder welcomed the changes and dismissed suggestions that he fork Gentoo into a new distribution. He was later seen joining the developers' mailing list at Sabayon Linux, a Gentoo-based desktop distribution.
All is well that ends well? Let's hope that the newly introduced changes will not be just temporary and that we will continue seeing regular updates and frequent stable release of what is one of the most innovative and powerful Linux distributions available today!
* * * * *
 Judging by the confidence with which many Debian-based distributions release their new builds based on Debian's two non-stable branches, the development of the upcoming release of the world's largest Linux distribution, code name "Lenny", is going well. However, as announced on the Debian developers' list over the weekend, a critical part of the process - a switch to GCC 4.3 as the default compiler, is only now getting under way: "Over the last year many test rebuilds of the archive were made using new compiler versions taken from the upstream repositories. The results of these re-builds look promising so we will make GCC 4.3 the default compiler for at least these architectures with good test results soon after the creation of the GCC 4.3 release branch. ... Among some new features and bug fixes, the C++ compiler is now more strict, plus libstdc++ did see a reorganisation of header include files, which both lead to a large number of build failures, which will turn into release critical bugs once the first architecture changes to g++ 4.3 as the default C++ compiler. While a large number of packages is already fixed and prepared to build with 4.3, we still have more than 500 packages which do not build with g++ 4.3."
* * * * *
 Preparations for the upcoming first alpha release of Fedora 9 Alpha, due later this week, continue unabated - despite several personnel reshuffles the project has been through since its last stable release. The latest round of changes includes a "promotion" for Tom "Spot" Callaway to the newly created Fedora Engineering Manager post: "The paperwork went through earlier this week, so it is official now: I'm now the Fedora Engineering Manager inside Red Hat. This is a new role, it was created as part of the understanding that Max Spevack is actually a super-powered alien from outer space, and that no mere mortal can do all the things that his job entails. Paul Frields is the Fedora Leader, he is the decision maker, the big kahuna, the wise man, and the last best hope for peace. Jack Aboutboul is the Fedora marketing lead, community builder, and ambassador to the known the universe. I'm filling the technical portion of the tri-force, leading the Red Hat engineering efforts towards making Fedora even better, and getting good ideas wherever I can find them."
On a related note, the code name for Fedora 9, scheduled for release on 29 April 2008, will be Sulphur.
* * * * *
 Small firewall distributions lack the glamour and attention the big desktop-oriented releases get in the Linux media, but they form an essential part of the Internet infrastructure. One such project is m0n0wall, a light-weight firewall based on FreeBSD and complete with an excellent, web-based configuration tool. ISP-Planet has talked to Manuel Kasper, the project's founder and lead developer: "Manuel Kasper developed the embedded firewall software package m0n0wall back in 2002, he says, while experimenting with embedded x86-based computers. 'Having just succeeded at stripping down FreeBSD enough to make it run on a Soekris net4501 board... and deploying it for use as a home firewall/NAT router, I wanted to go one step further,' he says. 'I wanted a nice, web-based interface to configure it, just like the commercial firewall boxes.'".
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| Released Last Week |
Ubuntu 6.06.2
Canonical has announced the release of Ubuntu 6.06.2 LTS, the second update to its "Long Term Support" release from June 2006: "Canonical, the commercial sponsors of the Ubuntu project, announced today the second maintenance release of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, which continues to be supported with maintenance updates and security fixes until June 2009 on desktops and June 2011 on servers. Over 600 post-release updates have been integrated, so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation, and the installation system has been improved. These include security updates and corrections, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 6.06 LTS. Some particularly notable updates in Ubuntu 6.06.2 LTS include: Users can configure LVM using RAID partitions as physical volumes; detection of the DAC960 RAID controller...." Read the rest of the press release for further details.
GoblinX 2.6 "Micro"
Flavio Pereira de Oliveira has announced the release of GoblinX 2.6 "Micro" edition, a minimalist live CD based on Slackware Linux: "GoblinX Micro 2.6 is released. The GoblinX Micro edition is the smallest version of our distribution and contains only Fluxbox as windows manager and GTK+-based applications. The main upgrades since the release candidate: added SLAX firewall; added more options to ISOLINUX menu; rebuilt GtkDialog interfaces to not allow resize action; corrected several errors and bugs; added ghdcpd and xrefresh; upgraded some libraries and packages including xorg-server; replaced z.Goblinx with z.Micro; replaced z.User with z.Muser; corrected some sudo issues; removed X.Org default resolution; recompiled Fluxbox against Imlib2." Visit the distribution's news page to read the full release announcement.
Parsix GNU/Linux 1.0r0
Alan Baghumian has announced the release of Parsix GNU/Linux 1.0r0, a desktop distribution based on Debian's testing branch: "We are proud to announce that the final version of Parsix GNU/Linux 1.0r0, code name 'Ramon', is available now. The main highlights are: Improved live system with new start-up and shut-down scripts, new live structure, new Squashfs + LZMA compression system, updated installer system, new 2.6.23.14 kernel with CFS 24.1, CK, TuxOnIce 3.0-RC5, Iwlwifi and other patches, GNOME 2.20.3, lots of updated packages including OpenOffice.org 2.2.1, GNU Iceweasel 2.0.0.11, GIMP 2.4.3, glibc 2.7, Pidgin 2.3.1, all packages have been synchronized with Debian testing repository as of January 24, 2008, new GUI X.Org configuration tool ported from Ubuntu, new attractive look and feel." Read the release announcement and release notes for further details.
Parsix GNU/Linux 1.0r0 - showcasing the latest from Debian's testing branch
(full image size: 355kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
SchilliX 0.6
SchilliX 0.6, a non-graphical distribution featuring the latest OpenSolaris technologies, has been released. What's new? "Updated to use OpenSolaris Nevada Build 80; now using a non-DEBUG build of the OS; new keyboard layout recognition and setup method, if you do not use a German keyboard, boot one of the 'Ask KBD Layout' boot entries and wait for being asked for the keyboard layout; thanks to a new mkisofs and to a new 'hsfs' driver, installing the DVD to a hard disk will now correctly hard link all hard linked files in the copy; all /opt/schily programs updated to a recent release; SCCS has been updated to the recent Schily release that adds some new features and fixes some bugs. Warning: this release does not fit on a CD any more, you need to write the image to a DVD to be able to boot it." Here is the full release announcement.
Shift Linux 0.6.2
Barney Tormey has announced the release of Shift Linux 0.6.2, an Ubuntu-based distribution developed by the Neowin.net community: "Shift Linux 0.6 released today. There are three editions released at this time: Shift Linux 0.6 GNOME, Shift Linux 0.6 KDE4, and Shift Linux 0.6 Lite (for older computers). Shift Linux Lite contains two less resource hogging window managers (Xfce and Fluxbox), but will have a full compliment of packages and utilities. All three versions of Shift Linux 0.6 are fully installable (tested and verified). Shift Linux has moved away from its Morphix base and is now based on Ubuntu. This version incorporates Firefox 3 (GranParadiso), OpenOffice.org, new themes, and a tested installer. We've also updated to KDE4. This is a transition version as we move away from Morphix and port over our previous versions to Ubuntu." Here is the complete release announcement.
Shift Linux 0.6.2 GNOME edition - now based on Ubuntu and featuring Firefox 3.0
(full image size: 200kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Gentoo Linux 2008.0
The Gentoo Release Engineering team has published a roadmap leading to the release of Gentoo Linux 2008.0: " Public beta releases play a major role in the Release Engineering team's revamped plans for 2008.0. Releng lead Chris Gianelloni said he hoped beta releases would increase community participation as well as the quality of the final release. These feature-complete public betas will require the earlier development of release materials, another component of the 2008.0 changes. To ensure sufficient time for beta testing, a mandatory 2-week testing period will follow the beta release." Gentoo Linux 2008.0 Beta is scheduled for release on March 3rd, with the final release coming on March 17th, 2008. Read the full announcement for further details.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
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New distributions added to database
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New distributions added to waiting list
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DistroWatch database summary
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 4 February 2008.
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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TA-Linux
TA-Linux was a free Linux distribution that targets Linux power users. Its main goal was to have a small base installation that the end-users can expand to include the software they need. The secondary goal was to support as many different architectures as possible, at this time x86 was fully supported with Alpha, Sparc, PPC and PA-RISC around the corner. Extra software not included in the base was handled using a system resembling the *BSD ports system, called Collection, which handles installation, upgrading and dependencies. The primary way of installing new software was to download the source, compile and install it (totaly automatic). The user can also choose to install already built binary packages, also automaticaly using the Collection system.
Status: Discontinued
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