 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 311, 13 July 2009 |
|
Welcome to the 28th issue of DistroWatch Weekly for 2009!
In the news this week, Slackware finally adopts ARMedslack as the
official port for the project, while Ubuntu founder Shuttleworth talks
about Karmic Koala, the release scheduled for October this year. We also
link to an interview with Jono Bacon, the project's Community Manager. Our
feature this week takes a nostalgic look back at some great Linux
distributions that failed to survive. Elsewhere in the free software world, Google has announced their own
Linux based operating system for netbooks and the BSD Magazine survives
some tough times to continue printing. Have a great Monday and the rest of the week!
Content:
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
|
| Feature Story (by Caitlyn Martin) |
Gone But Not Forgotten: Five Great Linux Distributions That Did Not Survive
If you looked at DistroWatch for a typical day five or six years ago you'd see a
lot of familiar Linux distributions with announcements. You also would likely
see some names that would be unfamiliar if you are relatively new to Linux.
Currently the DistroWatch database contains 278
discontinued
distributions and 36 more that are listed as
dormant. Of these
314 distributions and countless others that never were listed on DistroWatch at
all there are many which are probably best forgotten. There are others which
were promising but for one reason or another were abandoned. A smaller number
were truly exceptional but still failed to survive. This week I decided to wax
nostalgic and look at five that seemed special to me at one time or
another. Obviously this list is based on my personal experience. If
you've been around Linux for a long time you might have a list of your own.
1. Caldera OpenLinux
Caldera OpenLinux (originally Caldera Network Desktop) was launched in 1994 by
former Novell employees after the company decided to jettison their Corsair
desktop project. Version 1.0 was released the following year. By the late 1990s
Caldera was considered one of the premier Linux distributions. The following is
from an obituary for the distro
Ladislav wrote for LWN.net in 2003: "Four years ago, Caldera
produced one of the best Linux distributions of all times, gained a respectable
market share and established vast international presence. [...] Caldera
OpenLinux 2.3 [released] in August 1999 [...] made a substantial impact on the
Linux market by introducing Lizard. Caldera's Lizard was the first graphical
installer ever deployed by a Linux distribution. The OpenLinux 2.3 and especially
OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4 releases were well received by Linux fans."
Caldera OpenLinux also included COAS, one of the first and, at the time,
undoubtedly the best integrated graphical configuration and administration tool.
OpenLinux also had a polished KDE desktop at a time when many popular
distributions still had a lot of rough edges. The WikiPedia article on the distro
makes clear how important Caldera OpenLinux was to the development of the current
Linux desktop: "OpenLinux was not a Microsoft killer, but it
showed the Linux community what would be required to create a mainstream desktop
OS out of the Linux kernel. In many ways the last 10 years of desktop progress has
been to successfully implement what Caldera was attempting to do with the tools
they had available. [...] They had a powerful low bug (by Linux standards)
distribution that worked well on a wide range of hardware."
Caldera OpenLinux was the third distribution I tried after
Red Hat and Slackware. It was as
powerful as the others but remarkably easy to use and easy to teach to Linux
newcomers. When I first started doing Linux based freelance work in 1999 my
distribution of choice was Caldera OpenLinux. It was that good.
While OpenLinux was succeeding in terms of popularity in the Linux community it
was failing miserably as a business. A number of different business models
attempted to bring revenue to Caldera, none of which proved successful. In 2001
Caldera announced it was moving to per-seat licensing for the distribution. While
the basic desktop version of OpenLinux 3.1 remained freely downloadable for
non-commercial use the new license still drew very harsh criticism. Richard
Stallman's take on it was: "Licensing per seat perverts the
GNU/Linux system into something that respects your freedom as much as
Windows."
Caldera OpenLinux 3.1.1, released 30 January 2002
(full image size: 203kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Most of you who have been around Linux for a while probably know what happened
after that. Caldera acquired DR-DOS from Novell and sued Microsoft, eventually
collecting a huge settlement. The proceeds were used, in part, to buy SCO (then
a successful UNIX company) and to hire new management. The lesson learned from
the DR-DOS case was that it was likely to be far more profitable to engage in
litigation than produce a Linux distribution. SCO Linux, the
successor to Caldera, was discontinued in 2003. Ladislav's
announcement at the time
reflected the anger and disgust felt by most of the Linux community.
Considering all that has happened with SCO it would be easy to simply say "good
riddance to bad rubbish". For those of us who remember what Caldera contributed
to Linux desktop development before things went so horribly wrong it isn't quite
that simple. The developers who made Caldera OpenLinux a leading distribution in
the late 1990s had nothing to do with the management who eventually destroyed the
distro and ultimately the company as well.
2. Storm Linux
At the same time Caldera OpenLinux was at the peak of its popularity a Vancouver,
Canada based startup called Stormix Technologies introduced a new distribution
called Storm Linux. In the late 1990s
Debian GNU/Linux was already very well established but it had
a reputation for being difficult to install and use. Nearly five years before
Mark Shuttleworth launched Ubuntu, Storm Linux brought users
the first Debian based distro designed for ease of use on the desktop with
frequent regular releases. It also included a modular graphical system
administration tool, Storm Administration System or SAS.
Storm Linux was very well received by the Linux community. I received a copy of
Storm Linux 2000, based on Debian Potato, with one of the Linux magazines I
subscribed to. It was the first Debian based distribution which I tried and I
found that I liked it. Storm Linux should have succeeded then but, unlike
Ubuntu, it lacked adequate funding. Less that two years after Stormix
Technologies was launched the company was in
"reorganization", meaning
bankruptcy. Less than three months later all the remaining employees were laid
off and the distro was gone for good. The demise of Storm Linux was the very
first news item on DistroWatch.
3. TurboLinux Lite
Japanese distributor TurboLinux is very much alive today
with a commercial distribution designed for enterprise use. TurboLinux Lite, a
free version designed to be lightweight, was sadly rather short-lived. It was
introduced in the spring of 1999 with version 2.0.
By August, 1999 TurboLinux 4.0 sported a GNOME desktop. TurboLinux Lite used a
default desktop environment built on the
AfterStep window manager and offered
lighter applications as well. It was the first distribution I saw designed
specifically to be able to run on older or lower spec hardware. I found it to be
perfect for my older machines and yet it didn't lack features and was easy to use.
I was impressed. The distro may be long gone but the concept of light yet highly
functional has since been copied by a large number of distributions. Unfortunately
TurboLinux Lite didn't add to the company's bottom line and by 2000 it had been
discontinued.
4. Feather Linux
Feather Linux was a British mini live CD distribution based
on Knoppix. It split the difference between the full
featured Knoppix and the really tiny Damn Small Linux.
Feather Linux, as the name implies, was lightweight and ran well on older
hardware.
I became aware of Feather Linux in late 2003. By that time it was already
reasonably well established and had a fairly good following. The iso was still
under 50MB at the time, much like Damn Small Linux, but it quickly grew beyond
that, eventually reaching about 120MB by version 0.7.5. By not limiting the size
of the iso as severely as Damn Small Linux the Feather Linux developers were able
to offer somewhat larger and more powerful applications and a wider variety of
applications. They successfully did so without abandoning the goal of remaining
extremely lightweight. In 2005 I would have described Feather Linux as the most
usable and complete of the mini distros available at the time. The distro was
quite popular and had an active community around it.
Feather Linux 0.5.8, released 5 September 2004
(full image size: 73kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
In the spring of 2005 a change of lead developers was announced on the Feather
Linux forum. One release did follow and there was discussion of an upcoming
0.8.0 release later that year. Unfortunately it never materialized. Feather
Linux is still listed as "dormant" on DistroWatch but after four years without a
release it is probably discontinued.
5. AliXe
As it became clear that development on Feather Linux had all but ground to a halt
I moved on to Slackware-based live CD distros. I found these distros to be
superior performers on my older hardware. I was impressed by the design of
Slax but the KDE desktop was heavier than what I wanted. By
2006 Slax had spawned a number of derivative distributions. The two that
impressed me the most had Xfce and IceWM desktops, respectively, and could squeeze more performance
and more apps onto a small iso. The first was Wolvix Cub.
The second was AliXe.
AliXe 0.09 "ICE", released 20 November 2006
(full image size: 994kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
AliXe was a solo project by Canadian developer Sylvie Migneault (a/k/a Alisou)
with the goal of promoting Linux in the French speaking community in Québec. The
bilingual (English/French) distro went well beyond that goal. While the iso was
still relatively small (just under 330MB for version 0.11b, with an Xfce desktop) it
added the gcc compiler and developer tools not normally found in
lightweight desktop live CD distros. That, combined with the fact that I needed both
languages, made AliXe seem like the ideal live CD for me, as reflected by my
largely favorable
review.
Since version 0.11b was released in November, 2007 the developer has gone on to
work on other projects related to the EeePC, most notably ZenEee. AliXe is still
listed as active on DistroWatch but there have been no updates to the website and
no mention of any new version being developed even in Ms. Migneault's
Tuxee blog. The blog has also gone
silent in recent months. Hopefully Ms. Migneault is well and may decide to pick up AliXe
at some point in the future. As we approach two years without any activity I fear
the distro is dead.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly DistroWatch readers will remember other once impressive Linux
distributions which have been discontinued. As I noted at the outset this list is
rather personal to my experience and is by no means definitive. What is notable
about each of these five distributions is that they managed to break new ground in
some way. In most cases their innovations have been picked up by other distros
and advancements in the areas they championed continue.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Chris Smart) |
Slackware gets official ARM port, Ubuntu interviews with Shuttleworth and Bacon, BSD Magazine lives on, Google announces Chrome OS
 The project has been in the works for a while, but now it's official - Slackware has a port for the ARM processor. Writing on the project's website, Patrick Volkerding writes: "Slackware has a new official port for the ARM architecture, by the name of ARMedslack, which has recently released the port of Slackware version 12.2. ARMedslack began in 2002 by Stuart Winter, with the primary goal of providing a full Slackware port for ARM desktop machines - initially targeting the Acorn StrongARM RiscPC, and later embedded devices." The packages are compiled for armv4, little endian, old/legacy ABI, and will run on most ARM devices. A new port to the EABI (Embedded ABI) is underway, however: "Currently I'm building and upgrading the base packages in armedslack-12.2 to bootstrap the new port. I expect to open a new -current branch with this work in the next few months."
* * * * *
 The next release of Ubuntu is only three months away and according to founder Mark Shuttleworth, it will be a "definitive shift" in reference to the new kernel based mode-setting. He says: "There's some extraordinary work that's been done [on Koala], mostly pioneered by the Intel/Moblin team, the X team, and the kernel team (kernel mode setting), so I think that's going to be a definitive shift for us. I'm really hopeful we get that in." Fedora has moved to the new technology and has their Plymouth layer on top to provide a stunning boot up experience. Shuttleworth says Plymouth is just one option. He also hints at a new colour and graphical theme, but we've heard that before. Shuttleworth also comments on the relationship with Debian, saying: "It's very important to me that not only do we have a good relationship with Debian, but that Debian feels great about what we're doing. In a real sense, Debian is the epitome of free software collaboration and community, and Ubuntu has never been an attempt to detract from that." It looks like one of the world's most popular free operating systems will be getting a decent overhaul with Karmic Koala later in this year. Meanwhile, software company Coverity has been talking with Jono Bacon, Ubuntu's community manager, about the project's development method and open source in general.
* * * * *
 Due to low sales BSD Magazine was set to halt future publications, and put out a cry to the community to help advertise. It appears to have worked for now, and the editor has announced that the Magazine will live on thanks to a sudden increase in sales and visits to the website. She writes: "Thanks to you all, BSD magazine will be published! I don’t know how you did this, but he sales figures from stores, website visits, newsletter subscribers increased immediately – you are the best!! I hope it will stay like this and that BSD magazine will win the fight for staying in operation for a long time! We still need your help and support, so please spread the word about BSD mag :)" If you're a fan of BSD have you considered a subscription or contributing to this project? There are numerous magazines in public circulation for Linux and specific distros, but few are dedicated solely to BSD. It would be a shame to see such a useful resource go to waste, however in this day and age one has to wonder how long paper magazines will last in general.
* * * * *
In other news, it was revealed this past week that Google is moving into the operating system sphere with a new product called "Chrome OS". The operating system will be based around their web browser, Chrome, with a new graphical interface all running atop the Linux kernel: "The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel." It is aimed squarely at the netbook market (including both Intel and ARM processor based systems) and therefore for users "living on the net", however use on the desktop has not been ruled out. The system will be open sourced later this year with commercial products available in 2010. "The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be." While their Android platform is designed for mobile network devices, Chrome OS fills the gap one step up with netbooks. How this might affect the adoption of other Linux distributions in the market remains to be seen, however one this is certain - any improvements that Google makes to the Linux kernel benefits everyone. That's the beauty of free software!
|
| Released Last Week |
PC-BSD 7.1.1
The PC-BSD Team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of
PC-BSD 7.1.1, a desktop operating system based on FreeBSD 7.2:
"Version 7.1.1 contains a number of bugfixes and
improvements from PC-BSD 7.1, including KDE 4.2.4, improvements to
printing support, Xorg Server 1.6.1, and much more. For a full list of
changes, please refer to the changelog. Users who wish to upgrade from
PC-BSD 7.0.x / 7.1 are able to do so via the upgrade / repair option
during the installation. Software specs: FreeBSD 7.2-Stable, KDE 4.2.4,
Xorg 7.4, Nvidia driver 185.18.14, Nvidia driver 173.14.18, Nvidia
driver 96.43.11, Nvidia driver 71.86.11." Read the
press release,
release notes and
changelog for
more details.
Sabayon Linux 4.2 "KDE"
The "KDE" edition of Sabayon Linux 4.2
"KDE" edition, a Gentoo-based desktop distribution and live DVD, is
ready for download: "On the behalf of the Sabayon
Linux team, we are happy to announce the immediate availability of
Sabayon Linux 4.2 KDE. Distribution features: based on Sabayon 4.1 KDE,
containing hundreds of bug fixes and performance improvements; halved
hard disk footprint, less than 2GB ISO image; custom Linux kernel
2.6.29; ext4 as default filesystem; complete KDE 4.2.4 flavour;
OpenOffice 3.1; Compiz and Compiz Fusion 0.8.4; X.Org 7.4 supporting AMD
and NVIDIA latest video cards; multimedia applications (audio, video,
dvd ripping, file sharing)..." Find more
information in the detailed
press
release.
CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01
CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01, an Ubuntu-based
distribution featuring the lightweight Openbox window manager, is now
available: "After a slight delay and a prolonged
testing period, the final builds of CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01 are now
available. As the version number suggests, it is based on Ubuntu Jaunty
Jackalope. As with all previous releases, 9.04.01 has been built from
scratch using the Ubuntu MinimalCD. The builds were completed on the
6th July 2009 and contain all security and package updates available at
that time. For the first time, CrunchBang Linux is available to download
in both 32 and 64-bit builds. Other noticeable changes as a result of
moving to the latest stable Ubuntu release include: much improved boot
performance with faster start-up times; improved support for wireless
cards; ext4 filesystem support." See the
release
announcement for further details.
Kongoni GNU/Linux 1.12.2
A. J. Venter has announced the availability of Kongoni
GNU/Linux 1.12.2, a free African GNU/Linux distribution based on
Slackware with significant inspiration from the BSD architectures:
"It is my pleasure to announce that Kongoni version
1.12.2, code-named Nietzsche, has been officially released. This marks
the first official and stable release of the Kongoni GNU/Linux
distribution after several development releases. The most significant
Kongoni feature is its source-based software installation system (known
as a ports tree), a feature that originated in the BSD UNIX world and
remains a popular power-users tool on present-day BSD UNIXes, Apple's
Mac OS X and source based GNU/Linux distributions. Kongoni, however, is
not a source-based distribution. The distribution itself is shipped as
binaries which work out of the box. The ports tree is used only for
installing additional software." Read the rest of the
release
announcement for more details.
ClarkConnect 5.0
Point Clark Networks announced the availability of the community edition
of ClarkConnect 5.0, a specialist CentOS-based
distribution for routers, gateways and firewalls:
"Highlights include: upgrade to CentOS 5.x; complete
LDAP integration; protocol filtering; improved bandwidth management;
mail quarantine; improved Windows integration (roaming profiles, recycle
bin support, file auditing). Version 5.x supports upgrades from
ClarkConnect 4.x and later. Upgrades from earlier versions are not
supported. When you run the ClarkConnect installer, make sure you select
the upgrade option. The 5.0 release is a major operating system upgrade,
so it is not possible to perform the upgrade on a live system. In
addition, users who have installed third party software packages or used
the command-line apt-get tool to install software should also run the
following command: yum upgrade. Known Issues: blank screens on first
boot with some types of hardware; localization is incomplete."
Read the detailed
release
notes and the changelog
for more information.
Parted Magic 4.3
Patrick Verner announced the release of Parted
Magic 4.3, a bug fix release of the popular live CD designed for
hard disk management tasks: "Not only did some bugs
get fixed, but a few new programs were added too. chntpw, nilfs-utils
2.0.12, gdisk 0.2.2, Adblock Plus 1.0.2 are now part of Parted Magic's
program line-up. These programs have been updated: udev 143, glib
2.20.4, GTK+ 2.16.4, e2fsprogs 1.41.7, Firefox 3.5, FireFTP 1.0.5,
Clonezilla 2.3.3-65, Linux kernel 2.6.30.1, p7zip_9.04, Partclone
0.1.1-15, NDISwrapper 1.55. We also took some time to redo the artwork.
Many thanks to Jason Vasquez for heading up this effort. I think it's
the best-looking version of Parted Magic yet!" Visit the project's
home page o read the full release
announcement.
SystemRescueCd 1.2.2
Fran¸ois Dupoux released an updated version of
SystemRescueCD a Gentoo-based live CD with a
collection of data rescue and hard disk partitioning tools. From the
changelog:
"Updated the standard kernels to Linux-2.6.29.6;
updated the alternative kernels to Linux-2.6.27.25; updated the
sysresccd-cleansys script with the new packages list; updated Aufs to
git-20090622 for Linux kernel 2.6.29 (standard kernels); updated
FSArchiver to 0.5.8 (file systems backup and deployment tool); updated
e2fsprogs to 1.41.7 (ext2, ext3, ext4 file system tools); added
mtd-utils 20080907 (contains the tools related to ubifs); added
macchanger 1.5.0 (change the mac address of an interface); updated
NTFS-3G to version 2009.4.4-AR12 (NTFS-3G advanced release); PXE boot
fix: allow thttpd to send files with the execution permission; added
mdadm support in the initial boot process."
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
- FreeBSD FreeBSD 8.0-BETA1, the release announcement
- Frugalware Linux 1.1 Pre 2, the release announcement
- Tiny Core 2.2-rc1, the release announcement
- Calculate Linux Desktop 9.7 XFCE, the release announcement
- MoLinux 5.0, La Versio´n Educativa, the release announcement
- Pardus Linux 2009 RC2, the release announcement
- Elive 1.9.33, the release announcement
- wattOS 1.0 Beta 3, the release announcement
- GeeXboX 1.2.3, the release announcement
- IP Cop 1.9.6
- Astaro Security Gateway 7.470
- Vine Linux 5.0-beta1
- Momonga Linux 6-beta1
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Element GNU/Linux.
Element GNU/Linux is a specialist distribution based on Ubuntu for
media-center personal computers, designed to be connected to your HDTV
for a digital media and internet experience within the comforts of your
own living room or entertainment area.
- 8ix Zenith CE.
8ix Zenith CE is a specialist distribution based on Asterisk for IP
telephony applications with a rolling release schedule.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 20 July 2009.
Caitlyn Martin and Chris Smart
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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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heads
heads was a privacy-focused Linux distribution designed to make it easy for users to access the Internet anonymously using the Tor network. heads was based on Devuan and features only free (libre) software. The Linux kernel has had non-free blobs removed.
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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