 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 340, 8 February 2010 |
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Welcome to this year's 6th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! On the occasion of the forthcoming release of PC-BSD 8.0, a major new update of the desktop-oriented FreeBSD system, DistroWatch talks to Kris Moore, the project's founder and lead developer. What is the relationship between FreeBSD and PC-BSD like? Which are the new features in version 8.0? What are the project's future plans? Read on to find out more. In the news section, we link to an interesting article investigating the history of FreeBSD and also to a guide whose goal is to get newcomers to Linux up and running with the latest release of Fedora. Further down in the news, the first issue of BSD magazine is now available for free download, Canonical's Jane Silber talks about the role of women in the world of open-source development, and Kongoni announces the end of its Slackware-based distribution. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of the DistroWatch.com January 2010 donation is Qimo 4 Kids, a charity project that develops a free Ubuntu-based distribution for children. Happy reading!
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Interview with Kris Moore, PC-BSD
  Recently, I had a chance to exchange some e-mails with Kris Moore (pictured on the right), the founder of the PC-BSD project. For those of you interested in the BSD scene, PC-BSD is a desktop operating system which uses FreeBSD as its base. The PC-BSD team has been busy recently, preparing for their 8.0 release. Mr Moore kindly agreed to answer a few questions, which I'll share here with you.
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DW: From what I've read, PC-BSD makes a strong effort to add to the underlying FreeBSD operating system without changing the base. Are there any parts of FreeBSD you do have to change and what effect does this have on the system?
KM: We've actually done a very good job at keeping as vanilla of a FreeBSD base as possible. With PC-BSD 8.0, the only differences are a few extra kernel configuration options, such as "atapicam" support to enable CD/DVD burning and options to enable some specific "pf" firewall features.
DW: Could you please explain the relationship between PC-BSD and iXsystems? Do they own/control the project?
KM: iXsystems owns the trademark "PC-BSD", and greatly assists it by funding some of its development, along with promotion and support. The project itself is open source, of course. All our code is BSD licensed and freely available.
DW: There are lots of reasons I can think of to move from, say, Windows to PC-BSD. Can you provide some reasons why a Linux user, or vanilla FreeBSD user, might want to switch to PC-BSD?
KM: For a Linux user, PC-BSD is one of the best ways to "get your feet wet" with the BSD platform. Many of the tools and desktop options will be similar to what is offered on Linux, such as KDE 4, Firefox, etc. However PC-BSD makes it super simple to get started digging into the FreeBSD platform. You'll be able to spend less time compiling and figuring out how to get your desktop working, and have more time to become immediately productive.
The same ease-of-install applies to a regular FreeBSD user. It can be quite time-consuming to get a graphical desktop set up and configured on plain FreeBSD, and PC-BSD provides a way to bypass that step. Also PC-BSD offers some additional niceties during installation, such as options to set up ZFS, mirroring, disk encryption and other features not present in FreeBSD's installer routine, which often required a bit of manual tweaking to use.
DW: What are some things you're really happy about regarding version 8?
KM: In version 8, we've really gone back to the drawing board on a lot of features. Almost all of our tools have been updated or enhanced in a variety of ways, however the largest new feature is the replacement of our old system installer, with a brand new GUI and separate backend. This new installer supports many new features for disk setup options, the ability to choose between installing PC-BSD or vanilla FreeBSD with a single click, and advanced logging and error reporting to enable us to easily fix installation issues. Also, the DVD doubles as a live disk.
DW: What do you see as the next big challenge for your team? What will you be working on next?
KM: After the release of 8, we've still got plenty to do. I'm hoping to do a lot of general code clean up, re-writing much of our PBI installer to simplify and streamline application installation routines. Also on the list are some new features for our networking GUIs, such as support for easy creation of a WiFi hotspot.
DW: There are three CD ISOs available for download (for PC-BSD 7.1). Is it possible to install PC-BSD off a single CD? Do you have a live CD for demo/testing purposes?
KM: Starting with 8.0, we'll be changing our media up a bit. For installation or live mode, we'll be offering just a DVD or a USB image. We will still offer a CD, but it will be a "boot-only" image, allowing you to install or restore a system from the network or Internet.
DW: How much coordination happens between the FreeBSD team and the PC-BSD team? Do you share code, ideas?
KM: We try to keep in sync as much as possible with the FreeBSD side of things. Any patches we make to improve something in the FreeBSD base system get submitted back to the FreeBSD tree for inclusion. We've also begun to offer some of our tools and utilities in the FreeBSD ports system, such as networking GUIs. We also discuss ideas often, especially at trade shows, where we try to brainstorm various ideas and features which would be beneficial to both communities.
DW: Many thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
FreeBSD past and present, Fedora newbie guide, interview with Ubuntu's Jane Silber, end of Kongoni
 With the main story covering a BSD system, let's start the news section with other BSD stories that made headlines last week. Firstly, here is an interesting article, published by H Open, entitled Health Check: FreeBSD - 'The unknown giant'. It starts with a recap of the project's rather turbulent early days and ends with examining its current status among the free operating systems, including the obligatory comparison with Linux: "Although FreeBSD hasn't had the public impact or profile of Linux it has grown steadily, as "the unknown giant among free operating systems", and is probably as healthy as it has ever been, offering the traditional virtues that are often associated with Linux, such as price/performance, security and stability on commodity platforms running Intel or AMD Processors, or tucked away quietly on widely used networking devices from the likes of Cisco, Juniper, Force10, and NetApp."
On a separate note, the first free online issue of BSD Magazine was published last week. It covers a variety of topics, including a first look at PC-BSD 8.0, installing and securing an Apache jail with SSL on FreeBSD, comparison of OpenBSD, NetBSD and FreeBSD as file sharing servers (the first part deals with NFS), IPsec VPNs - an introduction to IKE and IPsec, LDAP on FreeBSD, secure and stable mail servers with OpenBSD and qmail, developing secure storages on FreeBSD, web server benchmarking, an interview with Olivier Cochard-Labbé, the founder of FreeNAS and other topics. The issue is available as a free download (in PDF format), but you need to give away your email address in order to receive the download link.
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 Fedora isn't the most beginner-friendly distribution out there, but sometimes a good guide can help to turn even a casual Linux user into a confident expert. Last week, TuxRadar published a newbie's guide to Fedora 12, designed to help anybody to install and use this popular distribution: "Sometimes it's easy to forget that we all had to start somewhere with Linux. When you're not used to the way it works, or the kind of concepts involved, Linux can seem like a foreign language. If you're struggling with free software, or if you know someone who needs help making the switch to Linux, we hope this feature will help. Fedora is a great choice of distribution to start with. It's easy to install and just as easy to use. It's one of the most well-respected distributions available, and has a very tight relationship with its parent and chief sponsor, Red Hat. With Fedora, you have access to one of the largest communities in the world of Linux, and one of the biggest selections of software to play with."
Still on the subject of Fedora, Valent Turkovic has emailed to tell us about a new release of Fedora Community Respin (formerly Fedora Community Remix), a Fedora variant with a variety of user-friendly enhancements: "We would like to announce a live CD/USB release of Fedora Community Respin 12.2. Features: 100% compatible with Fedora; Compiz Fusion compositing window manager; KDE and GNOME desktops; multimedia support out of the box; additional Xfce and Enlightenment desktops; GNOME Do - an intelligent application launcher; OpenOffice.org 3.1; Inkscape, Scribus, GIMP, Blender; Evolution with native Exchange support; Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0; better hardware compatibility for Broadcom wireless cards; educational and astronomy software installed; Google Chromium browser; wireless security tools; GPS and location applications; Nautilus in browser mode by default...." Download the live DVD image from here: Community-Fedora-Remix-12.2.iso (1,782MB, MD5).
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 Ubuntu Fridge has published a brief interview with Jane Silber, the recently-appointed Chief Executive Officer at Canonical. In it, she talks about her new position in the Ubuntu community and specifically about the role of women in the male-dominated world of free and open source software: "I joined the Ubuntu Women mailing list around the time it was created. And while I have followed the ups and downs of that group with interest, I haven't taken an active role in the group. I recognise that due to my role at Canonical, my experience in the community as a woman is very different than others, and I thought it was important to provide the space for other women in the community to understand and articulate the issues from their perspective. I recognise the value of sharing experiences and having the support of people in a similar position, and I relied on women's groups early in my career. In particular, when I was working as a software developer and researcher in Japan, I joined the Systers email community (started by Anita Borg, and now part of the Anita Borg Institute). At a time when I felt I was an isolated minority (by gender, exacerbated by culture), the Systers list gave me real support. Knowing that I could find people with similar experiences and even solutions at times, was a real boon for me. I hope that the Ubuntu Women's group can provide similar support within the Ubuntu community."
* * * * *
 Finally, bad news about Kongoni GNU/Linux, an interesting Slackware-based distribution with options to compile packages from source and some nice system configuration and package management tools. A. J. Venter, the distribution's founder and lead developer, announced the project's end last week: "I had enough faith to give it a try and hope to build a community that would create something together which we all could love. Unfortunately, it seems that this is not the way it happened. On virtually every question posted in the forums, I posted the only response. So I was tech support, developer and everything - all for a non-paying hobby project. Unfortunately - that is not a long term viable situation. So, with a lot of sadness and after a very long thinking, I have decided to withdraw from my position as leader of this project. If somebody else wishes to take over, please contact me - and I will do everything in my power to get you set up. Perhaps a new vision and a different leader can attract those coders I couldn't." It's interesting to note that this is the second time A. J. Venter started and discontinued a Linux distribution; the first one was OpenLab GNU/Linux (also based on Slackware). Third time lucky, perhaps?
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Backups
Better-safe-than-sorry asks: What do you recommend for backups? Methods, scripts, best practices?
DistroWatch answers: There are all sorts of different approaches for backing up data and what works best for you will differ a bit depending on your knowledge and the resources available to you. People who have 1.5 TB of music will want a different approach than the person who has 100 MB of pictures and text documents. Rather than dig into various methods (and there are a lot), I'm going to offer some general tips that I've found to be helpful. Please keep in mind, these are just tips for people at home; while some may also be helpful for businesses, that's a whole different topic.
- Whatever method you use to backup your files, make sure it works. This probably sounds obvious, but I've run into situations where people thought they had daily backups of a server and it turned out there wasn't any useful data in the archives. So make sure you can restore data from your backups, otherwise your spare copy is just a paperweight. Pretend to lose a file every so often and see how much effort it takes to get your data back. Test your archives on a regular basis to make sure when an emergency strikes, there won't be any (extra) problems.
- Always make more than one backup. Anything important enough to backup is important enough to backup twice. I've been through scary times where my backup has been corrupted and the second (or third) backup came through for me. It's also a good idea to store your backups in separate areas. One in your home for easy access and another which is kept at a different location, like a friend's house. The idea being that if one building burns down, your important files are somewhere else.
- Following on the heels of #2, if you're keeping backups in different locations or sending data over a network, you may want to encrypt the files. The GNU Privacy Assistant (GPA) is an excellent tool for file encryption, as is GPG. For users who run a KDE desktop, KGpg and the Dolphin file browser make encryption and decryption point-and-click easy. Also, if your archives are password protected, make sure the password is something you will remember. You may have to use it six months, a year or even six years from now.
- Keep it simple. I've seen some really complex, powerful scripts out there that ultimately just copied a file and placed it in a zip archive. Make sure whatever method you use to backup and restore data is as simple as possible. If your home machine's backup system uses a page-long script, pipes, half a dozen command line programs and three passwords (or keys), you're doing it wrong. A good backup solution is simple, portable and easy to debug.
- One point to consider is how automated you want your backup process to be. For example, do you want to manually burn your important files to CDs on a regular basis, or do you want your files sent to a remote server via a cron job? And, going back to tip #1, if your process is automated, check up on it regularly to make sure it's really working. I once discovered an important server hadn't completed its backup procedure for three iterations because of a minor change to another machine on the network. That's not a good feeling.
When you start looking at the specific method you want to use, I recommend examining rsync if you're going to copy your data over a network. On the other hand, if you're copying data to a local USB drive, you might want to simply use something like find or tar to create your archive. For people who want to dive deeper into the hows and whys of backups, there's a good article which goes into more detail.
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Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it. (Linus Torvalds)
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| Released Last Week |
VortexBox 1.1
Andrew Gillis has announced the release of VortexBox 1.1, a Fedora-based distribution that easily converts an unused computer into an audio server or jukebox: "VortexBox 1.1 released. I am very excited about this release of VortexBox. We are moving from being just a media server to a music player as well. This version of VortexBox includes VortexBox Player. You can use your internal sound card or external USB DAC to play your music. VortexBox Player supports music recorded at up to 24-bit / 192 kHz. This is higher then most players support including the Sonos and SqueezeBox line of hardware players. We have also added a lot of other great features requested by the VortexBox, SqueezeBox, and Sonos communities: VortexBox Player as the default software player; covers are added to all MP3 files for easy use in iTunes and XBMC; option to have MP3 or AAC mirror updated after ripping." Here is the full release announcement.
ArtistX 0.8
Marco Ghirlanda has announced the release of ArtistX 0.8, an Ubuntu-based live DVD containing a large number of free multimedia software packages for audio, graphics, and video production: "ArtistX 0.8 includes the 2.6.28 Linux kernel, GNOME 2.26 and KDE 4.2, Compiz Fusion and about 2,500 free multimedia software packages, nearly everything that exists for the GNU/Linux operating system. Main features: based on Ubuntu 9.04, Compiz Fusion for 3D desktop effects; most of Ubuntu multimedia packages. A partial list of software included on the DVD: 2D graphics software - GIMP, Inkscape, Nip2, Krita, CinePaint, Synfig, Rawstudio, Skencil, Hugin; 3D graphics software - Blender, Wings3D, KPovModeler + POV-Ray 3.6, K3D; video software - Cinelerra, Kino, Open Movie Editor, Kdenlive, PiTiVi, Avidemux, DeVeDe...." Visit the project's home page to read the release announcement.
ArtistX 0.8 - an Ubuntu-based distribution for digital artists
(full image size: 889kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Absolute Linux 13.0.7, 13.0.8, 13.0.9
Paul Sherman has announced the release of Absolute Linux 13.0.8, a lightweight, Slackware-based desktop distribution featuring the IceWM window manager and solid multimedia playback support: "Absolute Linux 13.0.8 released. Multimedia installer fix. Only a few packages changed, but the multimedia installer was not properly updated and this could lead to some confusion and lack of functionality for users who chose to install the media enhancements. Kernel bump - version 2.6.32.7 and all January Slackware updates. Lots of updates to synchronize with Slackware -current and some multimedia scripts updated to keep pace with new kernel device nomenclature. It turned out a lot less painful than expected. Brasero (CD burning) is back, DVDStyler added. Aside from kernel, a lot of multimedia capabilities were updated and tweaked." Visit the project's home page to read the brief release announcement.
Toutou Linux 4.3.1
Toutou Linux is a variant of Puppy Linux designed for French-speaking users. The project's latest version of the fast, lightweight distribution is 4.3.1, released earlier today. Compared to Puppy Linux 4.3.1, the new Toutou comes with a new "golden" desktop theme, the network is set up automatically during boot (for wireless networks one only needs to set any security parameters), and there is a new menu grouping all the assistants and utilities. The distribution now has three separate menus listing programs, services and sessions - all of these are modifiable via a new menu manager. Other changes include user-friendly extensions to context menus, new tool for automatic loading of selected partitions, a tool for launching applications at start-up, and new functionality of the Pmount tool which can now mount partitions in either read-only mode or in read/write mode. There is more, please read the complete release notes (in French) for further details.
Toutou Linux 4.3.1 - a Puppy-based distribution for French speakers
(full image size: 677kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
eBox Platform 1.4
eBox Technologies has announced the release of eBox Platform 1.4, an Ubuntu-based server distribution that offers easy and efficient computer network administration for small and medium-size businesses: "eBox Technologies is proud to announce the general availability of eBox Platform 1.4. Besides incorporating a range of new features and improvements, the eBox Platform 1.4 release features SaaS options, such as remote backup and low-cost VoIP calls to mobile phones and land-lines. Two of the most important new features of eBox Platform 1.4 include support for master-slave LDAP servers and Microsoft Windows Active Directory synchronization. Moreover, new features include new webmail module, PPPoE support, Multi-WAN support for DHCP and PPPoE configured gateways, new Samba (3.4.5) version, dynamic DNS updates via DHCP and new RADIUS module." Read the full press release for more details.
Gibraltar Firewall 3.0
Rene Mayrhofer has announced the release of Gibraltar Firewall 3.0, a major new version of the Debian-based firewall distribution: "This is a major new release, updating into kernel 2.6 and Debian 5.0 'Lenny' as base system and splitting the web interface into front-end and back-end parts in preparation of centralized management tools. Full support for IPv6, in both routing, firewall rules, and application level proxies/daemons, including automatic 6to4 and static 6in4 tunnels. Adding globally reachable IPv6 addresses to a local network is now a simple procedure by simply enabling an automatic 6to4 tunnel with almost no manual configuration. Policy routing setup via web interface with support for multiple default-routes in fail-over as well as load-balancing configurations." Read the detailed changelog for a full list of changes and new features.
Linux Mint 8 "KDE"
Clement Lefebvre has announced the release of Linux Mint 8 "KDE" edition: "The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 8 'Helena' KDE Community edition. The KDE Community edition aims to provide a version of Linux Mint which uses the KDE desktop. This edition is based on Kubuntu 9.10, Linux 2.6.31, X.Org 7.4 and it comes with the latest KDE 4.3.4 and Amarok 2.2.1. Featured improvements in this release: OEM installation, possibility to ignore updates, multiple selection in Software Manager. Software Manager's graphical interface is now easier to use and it shows more content. The layout was changed and by putting the screenshots in the corner of the application you can now see more software and more reviews at once. You don't need to manually refresh Software Manager any more. When new data is available you get notified by Update Manager." See the release announcement, release notes and what's new pages for further details.
Linux Mint 8 "KDE" - a Mint variant for those who prefer the KDE desktop
(full image size: 561kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Parsix GNU/Linux 3.0r2
Alan Baghumian has released a revised build of Parsix GNU/Linux 3.0, a desktop distribution and live CD based on Debian's testing branch: "The second update version of Parsix GNU/Linux 3.0 'Kev' is available for immediate download. This version merges all security, bug-fix and feature updates published in the APT repositories. It also fixes remaining minor bugs such as mounting an NTFS formatted drive in live mode and X.Org configuration error and represents a new experimental USB installer that enables users to run Parsix from USB keys and pen drives. Parsix 'Kev' brings GNOME 2.26.3, a brand new kernel based on Linux 2.6.29.6 with extra patches and drivers, updated installer system that supports separate /home partition, ext4 file system and GRUB 2." Here is the brief release announcement.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
January 2010 DistroWatch.com donation: Qimo 4 Kids receives US$250.00
We are happy to announce that the recipient of the January 2010 DistroWatch.com donation is Qimo 4 Kids, an Ubuntu-based distribution designed for very young children. It receives US$250.00 in cash.
According to the project's own description, "Qimo is a desktop operating system designed for kids. Based on the open source Ubuntu desktop, Qimo comes pre-installed with educational games for children aged 3 and up. Qimo's interface has been designed to be intuitive and easy to use, providing large icons for all installed games, so that even the youngest users have no trouble selecting the activity they want." The development of Qimo 4 Kids is sponsored by QuinnCo, a computer recycling charity, founded by Michael and Michelle Hall. It is designed to help special-needs and low-income children by giving them fully-functional computer systems. The developers recently announced that work had started on a new version of Qimo 4 Kids.
Launched in 2004, this monthly donations programme is a DistroWatch initiative to support free and open-source software projects and operating systems with cash contributions. Readers are welcome to nominate their favourite project for future donations. Here is the list of the projects that have received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme (figures in US dollars):
- 2004: GnuCash ($250), Quanta Plus ($200), PCLinuxOS ($300), The GIMP ($300), Vidalinux ($200), Fluxbox ($200), K3b ($350), Arch Linux ($300), Kile KDE LaTeX Editor ($100) and UNICEF - Tsunami Relief Operation ($340)
- 2005: Vim ($250), AbiWord ($220), BitTorrent ($300), NDISwrapper ($250), Audacity ($250), Debian GNU/Linux ($420), GNOME ($425), Enlightenment ($250), MPlayer ($400), Amarok ($300), KANOTIX ($250) and Cacti ($375)
- 2006: Gambas ($250), Krusader ($250), FreeBSD Foundation ($450), GParted ($360), Doxygen ($260), LilyPond ($250), Lua ($250), Gentoo Linux ($500), Blender ($500), Puppy Linux ($350), Inkscape ($350), Cape Linux Users Group ($130), Mandriva Linux ($405, a Powerpack competition), Digikam ($408) and Sabayon Linux ($450)
- 2007: GQview ($250), Kaffeine ($250), sidux ($350), CentOS ($400), LyX ($350), VectorLinux ($350), KTorrent ($400), FreeNAS ($350), lighttpd ($400), Damn Small Linux ($350), NimbleX ($450), MEPIS Linux ($300), Zenwalk Linux ($300)
- 2008: VLC ($350), Frugalware Linux ($340), cURL ($300), GSPCA ($400), FileZilla ($400), MythDora ($500), Linux Mint ($400), Parsix GNU/Linux ($300), Miro ($300), GoblinX ($250), Dillo ($150), LXDE ($250)
- 2009: Openbox ($250), Wolvix GNU/Linux ($200), smxi ($200), Python ($300), SliTaz GNU/Linux ($200), LiVES ($300), Osmo ($300), LMMS ($250), KompoZer ($360), OpenSSH ($350), Parted Magic ($350) and Krita ($285)
- 2010: Qimo 4 Kids ($250)
Since the launch of the Donations Program in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$23,378 to various open-source software projects.
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Linpais. Linpais is an Ubuntu-based distribution with many extra packages, games and other software added to the basic Ubuntu installation.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 15 February 2010.
Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
XStreamOS
XStreamOS and XStream Desktop are Sonicle's effort to maintain a distribution of the illumos kernel (originally derived from OpenSolaris), featuring the ZFS file system, Crossbow network architecture, virtualisation and zones, as well as a customised LXDE desktop. It also strives to develop and contribute to the illumos kernel. Sonicle, a company located in Italy, also maintains two other full-featured products - XStream Server and XStream Storage.
Status: Dormant
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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