 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 281, 8 December 2008 |
|
Welcome to this year's 48th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
This week's feature story takes a first look at VectorLinux 6.0 beta 2. Following up on last week's feature story about the impact of
the global financial crisis on Linux distributions, Mandriva CEO Hervé
Yahi responds to the community regarding the recent dismissals at the
Paris-based distribution while Novell posts mixed sales results for SUSE Linux. In other
news, Phoronix publishes the results of benchmark tests comparing the
performance of the newly released OpenSolaris 2008.11 with the previous
version, 2008.05, Ars Technica names Foresight Linux and openSUSE as its
distributions of the year, and DragonFly BSD gets a closer look. Finally,
we get progress updates on Linux Mint 6 and a preview
release of Fedora-based Omega 10 Desktop. Happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (14MB) and mp3 (12MB) formats (many thanks to Russ Wenner)
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
|
| Feature Story |
First Look: VectorLinux 6.0 beta 2
For my final DistroWatch Weekly feature (at least for now) Ladislav
suggested that I reviewed VectorLinux since it's
what I've used as my primary desktop on and off for many years. In the
interest of full disclosure I must mention that I do some volunteer work
for VectorLinux, including packaging, repository maintenance, and
testing. However, anyone who read my reviews of
Vector
Linux 5.9 SOHO or Vector
Linux 5.9 Standard for O'Reilly knows I don't shy away from pointing
out any issues or problems with the distro.
VectorLinux (VL) is a decade-old Slackware derivative
and VL 6.0 is loosely based on Slackware 12.1. I say loosely because
most of the packages have been upgraded or rebuilt. VectorLinux
developers seem to have two goals in mind: to create a
distro that is very user-friendly and to optimize it for speed and
performance wherever possible, all while retaining the reliability of
Slackware. On previous releases they have succeeded very well with the
performance goal while having decidedly mixed results at best in making
it newcomer-friendly. This is the area where the developers have made
the most improvements in version 6.0.
For this first look I used a pre-release copy of the 32-bit edition of
the second beta. A public release is waiting on a fix to the installer
and should be available this week. There is a 64-bit edition as well,
but it just had its
first
public alpha release last week. In addition, VectorLinux Light,
designed for older, legacy and limited hardware, is currently
at alpha
14.
Installation and Configuration
If you've read the
development release announcements for VectorLinux 6 on DistroWatch, you know that
the developers are touting a new GUI installer which was written from
scratch. Previous releases had an ncurses/text-based installer which is
still available for those who prefer it. A live CD is not available at
this time.
VectorLinux 6.0 beta installer - opening screen
(full image size: 132kB, screen resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
The opening screen of the installer allows you to choose your language for the
installation process. As of now the choices are English and Spanish. A
Portuguese translation is in the works, but it is not clear if this will
be completed in time for the VL 6 release. The left hand panel on the
installer shows you all of the steps in a clear, concise fashion. Disk
partitioning is handled by GParted. ReiserFS, XFS, ext3 and ext2 are
all supported. VectorLinux uses LILO for the bootloader and the option to
pass custom parameters to the kernel is offered.
Hardware detection in VectorLinux is on par with major distributions.
The installer correctly detected both my wired and wireless network cards.
The one area that still doesn't work quite as it should for me is X
configuration. On my Toshiba laptop, if I allow vxconf to probe my video
chipset and monitor, I am left with a small display in the middle of my
screen surrounded by lots of black space. If I choose the default
xorg.conf-fbdev file, that does work correctly with my laptop. Printing
isn't handled by the installer and has to be configured after the system
boots up for the first time. The installer allows the user to include or
exclude large blocks of software: development packages, kernel sources,
and even X, but does not allow individual package selection within these
groups. A number of optional packages are then offered which can be
individually selected.
The new installer is more intuitive than the older
text-based version but it still offers a great deal of flexibility. It
also assumes more knowledge on the part of the user than the
Ubuntu installer, for example, and there are parts
that may still seem a bit daunting to a Linux newcomer.
Running VectorLinux 6.0 beta 2
One important change is visible immediately once installation is done.
GDM, rather than KDM, is now the login manager. GDM offers the ability
to set language and locale either on a session-by-session basis or as
the default for a given user on the system. Previous versions of VL
had no such ability and users had to edit configuration files and set
at least four variables. Now VectorLinux can speak your language
easily. The only remaining issue is the fact that only a very limited
subset of the fonts normally provided with X.Org are installed by
default. If your chosen language uses other than Latin glyphs, you may
need to install font packages before changing this setting.
VectorLinux 6.0 beta - the default desktop
(full image size: 385kB, screen resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
VectorLinux Standard 6.0 uses Xfce 4.4.3 by default, if that desktop
isn't deselected during installation. LXDE is the other desktop
environment offered in the ISO image. KDE 3.5.10, GNOME 2.22, and a variety
of lightweight window managers are available in the repository.
Applications include Firefox 3.0.4, SeaMonkey 1.1.13, and Opera 9.62
web browsers, AbiWord 2.6.4, Gnumeric 1.8.2, GIMP 2.6.3, MPlayer 1.0rc2,
VLC 0.9.3, K3b 1.0.5, and Pidgin 2.5.2. OpenOffice.org and Scribus are both
available in the repository. Multimedia codecs are installed by default.
While I've only been able to do a limited amount of testing with this
beta, everything multimedia I've tried so far just worked out of the
virtual box.
Graphical wireless configuration is handled by wicd, which will be
familiar to anyone who has used Zenwalk Linux.
WiFi Radar, which was used in previous versions of VectorLinux, is
still available in the repository. A lightweight GUI
front-end to the Vector wireless scripts, vwireless, is also installed by default,
as is a new lightweight graphical tool for WPA configuration. vasmCC,
the VectorLinux control center, is the graphical system configuration
utility. The older, menu-driven vasm is also available in both GUI and
text editions.
vasmCC - the VectorLinux Control Center
(full image size: 58kB, screen resolution: 604x426 pixels)
Package management is handled by slapt-get at the command
line, or the graphical GSlapt. Anyone who has used Synaptic on a
Debian-based distribution should find GSlapt to be
quite familiar. These tools have matured to the point that dependency
checking and resolution is no more of an issue in VectorLinux than in
any of the major distributions. The repository of additional software
for VectorLinux has grown with each successive release. The 6.0
repository isn't fully populated yet, but it already appears that it will
be at least as large as the 5.9 repository by the final release. It's
probably now larger than most second-tier distributions. If you're used
to the huge repositories offered by Ubuntu, Debian,
Fedora, or openSUSE, you will
probably find the VL repository lacking, however.
An innovative way to add more software is vpackager, a remarkably easy-to-use graphical tool to build packages from source. I suspect a lot of
relatively new Linux users who looked at compiling software as beyond
their capabilities will be surprised at just how easy it can be. An
experienced user can edit the build script that backends vpackager, in
effect allowing just as much control over the compilation process as is
available at the command line. In addition to building packages from a
compressed source tarball, vpackager also works as a graphical front-end
for CruxPorts4Slack. It checks the repositories for both the
CRUX distribution and a library of ports contributed
for VectorLinux.
vpackager - GUI package building tool
(full image size: 34kB, screen resolution: 642x426 pixels)
Under the hood, VectorLinux 6.0 beta 2 sports a 2.6.27.7 kernel which is a significant upgrade from beta 1. The decision to upgrade after
the initial code freeze was due to the superior hardware support offered
by the newer kernel, including support for popular netbook hardware and
a wider variety of Atheros wireless chipsets.
This is beta software and I have run into a variety of interesting
little bugs. Rather than detailing them here, I'll point you to the
appropriate place in the
VectorLinux forum.
Conclusions
Even with the new graphical installer, VectorLinux still requires a bit
more knowledge and effort to install and configure than some of the
friendliest of the major distributions. Once set up, it's as easy to use
as any distro out there. Internationalization and localization, which
were sorely lacking in previous versions, have improved dramatically.
The software repository still is nowhere near what the major
distributions offer, however. The compelling reason to run VectorLinux, for
me, is speed and performance. VL 6.0 is noticeably faster than the
major distributions, particularly on older hardware. Only the final 6.0
release will determine if VectorLinux is finally ready to go toe to toe
with the DistroWatch top 10. Right now things
look very promising.
|
| Miscellaneous News |
News: Mandriva CEO responds to community, Novell/SUSE sales, OpenSolaris benchmarks, Ovatio awards, Omega 10 Desktop, DragonFly BSD overview
Part of last week's DistroWatch Weekly feature report on the effect of the
global economic crisis on Linux distributions covered firings by
Mandriva, which has been struggling financially. The community reaction
towards new Mandriva CEO Hervé Yahi's decision to dismiss
Mandriva Community Manager Adam Williamson and Oden Eriksson, maintainer
of the LAMP (Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack and other related packages, was
nearly uniformly negative. This week Yahi responded to the community in
the official Mandriva Blog, in both English and French.
"We recently had to let some valuable members of
staff go, notably amongst community members and distribution. It's
always a difficult decision to make and I would like to thank them for
the contribution they made to Mandriva during all these years. Once we are through this arduous passage, we plan to re-think and reinforce the community template. Mandriva-based solutions are coming through the pipeline,
ready to target our community, a world-wide market and the ensemble of
Mandriva's partners. Mandriva is brimming with new ideas aimed at the
whole community." Since nobody knows how long "this arduous passage" will last, it appears
Mandriva will not be focusing on the community, at least for now.
* * * * *
On Thursday, Novell released the company's quarterly financial results.
The
VAR Guy interpreted the results and what they mean for SUSE Linux.
According to the Novell
press release, revenue from Open Platform Solutions, mainly SUSE Linux Enterprise, was up 33% from
the same period last year. The VAR Guy's reaction: "Thirty-three
percent growth is impressive in a horrendous economy." His
take on the full report: "The business that matters
most to Novell's future -- SUSE Linux -- continues to grow. And the
Microsoft relationship, however controversial in the open source
community, has restored Novell's credibility with quite a few CIOs,
The VAR Guy believes." The question he doesn't answer is how
Novell regains credibility with the open source community in light
of the Microsoft relationship.
* * * * *
The most significant release of this past week was OpenSolaris 2008.11, the second official release of Sun Microsystems' new desktop operating system intending to compete with Linux.
Incredibly, Sun has forgotten to tell the world about it - the word OpenSolaris is nowhere to be found on the
Sun
News Center page and the product didn't even rate a mention on the
OpenSolaris
announce mailing list and forum. Only the OpenSolaris.org
has been updated to reflect the arrival of the new version.
On Friday, Phoronix
published a series of benchmark tests comparing the performance of
OpenSolaris 2008.11 with the previous version, 2008.05. The conclusion?
"While we had just ran a few benchmarks in this
article, from the looks of it, the performance level between OpenSolaris
2008.05 and 2008.11 is mostly the same, but there's just a few areas
where it was different, which could even be attributed to the
upgraded Sun Java stack for some of the results."
OpenSolaris 2008.11 - nearly all the packages have been upgraded
(full image size: 342kB, screen resolution 1280x960 pixels)
* * * * *
On Wednesday, Ars Technica handed out their annual
Ovatio
Award. This year two distributions share the honor: openSUSE and
Foresight Linux. Ars Technica staff felt that both distros made "significant advancements" during 2008. Their comments on the lesser known Foresight Linux, in part:
"It's an impressive up-and-coming Linux distribution
that has lots of potential. It vaulted into the mainstream this year
when it was adopted by Shuttle for the KPC and other products. It
leverages Conary, an innovative package management system, with
compelling features like file-based dependency resolution and support
for rollbacks." They were equally effusive in their praise of openSUSE:
"Under Novell's stewardship, openSUSE has become
significantly more inclusive and community-driven. The distro announced
its first community-elected board this year and has grown its base of
contributors considerably. The distro has also made major technical
advancements, including major improvements to its package management
system and support for installation from a live CD. openSUSE delivers a powerful user experience and is one of the few
distros that provides equally outstanding support for both GNOME and
KDE..."
* * * * *
On Thursday, a posting to the Fedora
announce
list touted a community remix, Omega 10 Desktop, which includes
multimedia codecs: "Omega is a Linux-based
operating system and a Fedora remix suitable for desktop and laptop
users. It is a installable live CD for regular PC
systems (i686 architecture). It has all the features of Fedora 10 and a number of
additional multimedia players and codecs by default. You can play any
multimedia content (including MP3) or commercial DVDs out of the
box." A preview release CD image can be downloaded from here:
omega-10-desktop-preview.iso (634MB). If no major bugs are found, this could become the final release.
* * * * *
 On Tuesday, Steven Rosenberg, writing for Inside
SoCal, took a long look at DragonFly BSD. He discovered excellent
hardware support, a large software repository, and an operating system that is easy to
use. "...even a thick-headed guy like me could
install and deploy the OS on the server or desktop. DragonFly BSD -- itself derived from FreeBSD -- shares
the NetBSD package system and, as a result, has a
very extensive repository with thousands of desktop-friendly applications. Like
most developers, those who work on DragonFly BSD keep an eye on the other
BSDs, and they borrow from FreeBSD and NetBSD when appropriate."
The community-built DragonFly BSD live DVD, version 2.1, is a good entry point into the word of BSDs.
(full image size: 1,070kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
|
| Released Last Week |
grml 2008.11
Michael Prokop has announced the release of grml 2008.11,
a Debian-based live CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software
\ especially for users of text tools and system administrators:
"grml version 2008.11 has been released and is
currently being uploaded to the mirrors. What's new? New grml-scripts:
grml-chroot - wrapper around chroot with proc/sys/pts/dev file system
handling; swspeak-setup - activating software speak(up) features. The
grml-live build system: several new packages in the different flavour
classes; improved error handling; improved checks for LZMA for different
Squashfs tools; automatically activate grml-testing repository for
development releases and daily snapshots. Special new features:
integration of vcs_info within Zsh prompt; moved from syslog-ng to
rsyslog..." Read the full
release
announcement and release
notes for more details.
OpenSolaris 2008.11
The OpenSolaris project has updated its web
site to reflect the release of OpenSolaris 2008.11, the project's
second stable release. The final live CD remains unchanged from the
second release candidate (RC2), so users who have downloaded the RC2
don't need to re-download the final release. "The
OpenSolaris 2008.11 operating system is a point of integration for the
installation, desktop, and package management system projects on
OpenSolaris.org. Today, the OpenSolaris 2008.11 live CD is available
with the following feature updates: ZFS Time Slider and Songbird;
suspend/resume and CPU power management; Distribution Constructor and
Prototype Automated Installer; WebStack with 64-bit MySQL, CherryPy,
and DTrace for Ruby; GNOME 2.24, OpenOffice.org 3.0, and Firefox 3;
Many F/OSS applications added, including top, sudo and Emacs; 700
additional man pages and Package Manager online help." Visit the
project's home page to
read the release overview; the more detailed release notes are
available
here.
Finnix 92.1
Ryan Finnie has announced the release of Finnix
92.1, a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system
administrators, based on Debian testing: "Today
marks the release of version 92.1 for the x86/AMD64, PowerPC, and
UML/Xen platforms. Finnix 92.1 is a regular maintenance release. New
features include Linux kernel 2.6.26, updated upstream software, and x86
boot menu cleanups. Changes: dist-upgrade; upgraded kernels to 2.6.26
(Debian 2.6.26-7); added space after boot parameters in x86 boot menu,
to add extra boot parameters, simply select a menu item, press Tab, then
start typing extra parameters; re-added F2 cheat codes x86 boot screen,
which did not carry over in the menu transition; removed dvdrtools;
added Emad, an action adventure side-scrolling RPG platformer about a
boy and his loving pet pig in 38th-century Scotland." Read the
release
announcement and
release notes
for additional details.
SystemRescueCd 1.1.3
An updated version of SystemRescueCd, was released today. What's new? "Updated the standard kernels to Linux 2.6.27.7 with Reiser4; updated the alternative kernels to Linux 2.6.27.7 with Reiser4; updated Squashfs with LZMA support (kernel driver and tools) to version 3.4; updated GParted to version 0.4.1; updated the Memtest86+ floppy disk image to version 2.10 (Memtest86+ boot entry); updated NTFS-3G to version 1.5130 (NTFS full read-write support); FSArchiver to version 0.1.6 (tool to backup Linux file systems); backported ext4 file system support from Linux 2.6.28-rc; added ISCSITarget and Core-iSCSI-tools version 3.5; fixed bug with the permissions which prevents thttpd from working; fixed bug in the PXE network boot to get a dynamic address." Here is the complete changelog.
Puppy Linux 4.1.2
Barry Kauler has announced the release of Puppy Linux 4.1.2, the latest update to the 4.1 series of the popular mini-distribution: "Puppy 4.1.2 released. Puppy 4.1.2 is a bug-fix release for 4.1 and 4.1.1. In summary, I fixed a bug when looking for USB drives at boot-up, ohci-hcd USB driver was not loading in the initial ramdisk so some interfaces were not working at that stage, bug fix for .deb package extraction, /tmp/version clean-up fix at version upgrade, Pmetatagger bug fix, some modem detection improvements, tweak for network connection at boot-up, can now load 3 SFS files, fixed a Pmount crash, prevented invalid RAM-save-interval, fixed recognition of PCMCIA in the initrd." Read the release announcement and release notes for further information.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Linux Mint 6
Last Monday, Clement Lefebvre posted a status update on the forthcoming
release of Linux Mint 6 "Felicia" to the
Linux Mint blog:
We're now in December and Linux Mint
traditionally release in the end of November, so although we don't
stick to a fixed schedule we're considering ourselves a bit late. Having
said that, I've already started analysing the feedback the community gave
since the release of RC1 and it looks like the quality of the RC release
was very good. It's missing Wubi support and there probably will be a
few bug fixes between RC1 and the stable release, but I'm confident that both
releases will be quite similar and there's still a possibility RC1 users
might not need to upgrade (in other words, if most changes affect the
CD itself, RC1 could be considered fit for usage)."
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| DistroWatch.com News |
|
New distributions added to database
* * * * *
New distributions added to waiting list
- CentServer. CentServer is an extremely small, lighting-fast and super secure server distribution based on CentOS.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next
installment will be published on Monday, 15 December 2008.
Caitlyn Martin
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1172 (2026-05-11): Fedora 44, dealing with extra fonts, Fedora plans to provide AI tools, problems with Ubuntu's new coreutils, TrueNAS extends its development cycle, postmarktetOS improves the boot splash screen, Redox ports tmux |
| • Issue 1171 (2026-05-04): Xubuntu 26.04, extending memory with VRAM, Ubuntu plans AI features, Devuan developer forks GTK2, Mint introduces hardware enablement builds, Linux running on a PlayStation 5, local kernel exploit found in Linux |
| • Issue 1170 (2026-04-27): ENux 5.2.1, picking a second distro, AlmaLinux expands CPU support, FreeBSD publishes Status Report, Ubuntu MATE skips 26.04 release |
| • Issue 1169 (2026-04-20): Lakka 6.1, free software and source-based distributions, FreeBSD Foundation publishes compatible laptop list, Debian holds Project Leader election, Haiku progresses ARM64 port, Mint to extend development cycle, Linux 7.0 released |
| • Issue 1168 (2026-04-13): pearOS 2026.03, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, which distros are adopting age verification, Arch adjusts its firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its release cycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves its scheduler |
| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
| • Issue 1166 (2026-03-30): NetBSD jails, publishing software for Linux, Ubuntu joins Rust Foundation, Canonical plans to trim GRUB features, Peppermint works on new utilities, PINE64 shows off open hardware capabilities |
| • Issue 1165 (2026-03-23): Argent Linux 1.5.3, disk space required by Linux, Manjaro team goes on strike, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA driver support and builds RISC-V packages, systemd introduces age tracking |
| • Issue 1164 (2026-03-16): d77void, age verification laws and Linux, SUSE may be for sale, TrueNAS takes its build system private, Debian publishes updated Trixie media, MidnightBSD and System76 respond to age verification laws |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Full list of all issues |
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EasyPeasy
EasyPeasy (formerly Ubuntu Eee) was an Ubuntu-based distribution for netbooks. It uses Ubuntu Netbook Remix graphical user interface and includes open source as well as proprietary software.
Status: Discontinued
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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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