 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 494, 11 February 2013 |
Welcome to this year's sixth issue of DistroWatch Weekly! It has been an exciting week for users of open source software with big announcements coming out of the Ubuntu and GNOME projects. In this week's edition of DistroWatch Weekly we will look at the new developments underway in the GNOME community and look at the changes coming to Unity, Ubuntu's primary desktop environment. We also bring you news of Canonical's plans to launch a phone powered by the popular Ubuntu distribution. This week we turn a spotlight on server operating systems. Jesse Smith takes FreeBSD 9.1 for a spin and reports on his experience and how it compares to running Linux distributions on home servers. Plus we take a look at which Linux distributions are preferred for hosting web servers. In the Questions and Answers section we look at the common problem of broken software following an upgrade and share tips on how to deal with this issue. As always we look at the distribution releases of the past week, look forward to new releases to come and share news, reviews and podcasts from Around the Web. We wish you a pleasant week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (21MB) and MP3 (34MB) formats
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Bringing home FreeBSD 9.1
 At home I have an old machine which, around a decade ago, performed as someone's desktop computer. Abandoned by its former owners, it now sits in my home and gets used as a test bunny whenever I'm feeling experimental. For the past several months the machine has been running Ubuntu Server, partly because Ubuntu is quick to install and, when I break it, it's quick to re-install. In addition Ubuntu's installer was the first of several which was able to run on the hardware. The machine has been holding up well with Ubuntu and I've had no problems setting it up as a web server, ownCloud server, file server and test bed for ZFS-on-Linux technology. Still, I find when my computers work too well for too long I get bored. In order to experience some excitement I started thinking about what other operating system I might put on my test box and settled on FreeBSD.
There are a number of different download options for FreeBSD. The project supports four different architectures (i386, amd64, sparc64, powerpc64) and the i386 build is available in a few different flavours. We can download a CD-sized ISO, a 2.5GB DVD image or an image for USB flash drives. I opted to work with the DVD image. Booting from the downloaded image brings up a text menu asking if we would like to run the FreeBSD installer or make use of the command shell available on the media. Jumping into the installer we are asked to confirm our keyboard map and provide a hostname for our computer. We are then asked which optional components (games, documentation, ports and system source code) we would like to install. The next series of text-based menus deal with partitioning.
The partitioning section is where I hit my first snag. By default FreeBSD uses UFS as its file system, but one of the perks of running a FreeBSD system is having built in support for ZFS and its many advanced features. According to the FreeBSD documentation the installer supports ZFS. Maybe it does, but I couldn't get it to work. When I specified I wanted to set up partitions or slices using ZFS the installer would accept the order, then when I tried to proceed to the next step (formatting the hard drive) an error would appear saying the ZFS partition (or slice) could not be accessed. Following this I would be asked to restart the install process, beginning from the first screen of the installer. After my fourth attempt I finally gave in and accepted UFS as my primary file system.
After partitioning has been completed we are asked to set a root password and configure the system's network card. Here I ran into another problem as the installer wasn't able to make use of DHCP through my network card and I had to manually configure my connection. We are then invited to enable system services, such as secure shell support and network time synchronization. Our next step is to create a user account and fill in all its details, such as the user's shell, group and even the permissions on the user's home directory. Earlier I mentioned there are some optional packages we can install, including games, documentation and source code. I opted to install the documentation package. The installer informed me it was unable to perform the installation of the documentation package, though it was not clear as to why. With that the installation and initial configuration was complete and I was able to reboot the system to begin using FreeBSD.
Booting FreeBSD brings us to a text console where we are presented with a login prompt. My first order of business upon logging in was to check for system updates. At time of writing no updates to FreeBSD 9.1 were available. Looking around a little we find the system comes with a complete collection of UNIX userland tools and documentation in the form of man and info pages. As FreeBSD is currently in the process of switching their build processes from the GNU Compiler Collection to the Clang compiler both compilers are present on the base system. During the installation process I had requested OpenSSH be enabled and I found this service running in the background. The secure shell provided by OpenSSH allowed me to login remotely and I had no problem enabling public key logins. The system is quite clean, less than 30 process run on the default install and the system only uses around 50MB of active memory. Of course a server without services isn't much more than an ineffective space heater so my next task was to install additional software.
One of the more attractive features to find its way into FreeBSD in recent years is pkg-ng, a "next generation" package manager which provides FreeBSD users with modern package handling similar to Debian's APT or Red Hat's YUM. The pkg-ng software works with binary packages which have been built from the FreeBSD ports collection. Trying to run pkg-ng the first time causes the software to bootstrap itself, enabling the default repository. So far, so good. However, performing searches for packages turned up no results. Checking for repository updates showed the local package database was up to date. Having used pkg-ng last year I was a bit puzzled as to the lack of available software packages. Some browsing of the FreeBSD website revealed binary packages for pkg-ng and the traditional FreeBSD package management tools had been taken off-line following a security breach in late 2012. At the time of writing the repository of binary packages has been off-line for approximately two months and there is no estimate as to when the repository may be brought back on-line. This means software must be added to the system and upgraded by compiling software in the FreeBSD ports collection.
There were several pieces of software I wanted to install on my FreeBSD machine. These included a FTP server, the Apache web server, PHP, MySQL and ownCloud. The FTP server, Apache, PHP and MySQL server all built and installed. I found the FTP server would start and operate without any problems, however Apache refused to start. After some failed attempts to get it running the problem turned out to be Apache didn't like my machine's hostname ("xena") and required a fully qualified hostname in order to start. I provided Apache with a complete (though fake) domain name and it worked properly from then on. I also found that by default installing the PHP language does not provide PHP support for the Apache web server. I went back and reconfigured the PHP port and rebuilt it. This provided me with a PHP module which I could add to Apache and my web server was up and running.
The ownCloud software provided its own set of challenges. Getting the software installed from its port was easy, but I soon found ownCloud was installed with file system permissions which would prevent the service from being accessible. Additionally, the ownCloud port provides configuration steps to assist the user in enabling the cloud service on Apache services. The steps provided did not yield a working ownCloud system. Tweaking the ownCloud permissions and adjusting the software's configuration allowed me to access my newest web service. FreeBSD has long had a more hands-on reputation compared to Linux distributions and so I expected a little more manual configuration to be required. This was par for the course. What I did find odd however is that, by default, the PHP port does not supply a module for Apache and requires the user to specifically build this module. Considering how server oriented FreeBSD is I am surprised no one has created a unified Apache-MySQL-PHP (AMP) port for the operating system yet. It would certainly speed up the initial set up process.
One of the benefits of running FreeBSD is the excellent built-in support for the feature-rich file system called ZFS. FreeBSD comes with a modern implementation of ZFS which allows for the storage of massive amount of data, instant recovery from system crashes, instant file system snapshots, mirroring and data deduplication. FreeBSD provides a good deal of clear documentation for dealing with ZFS's many features and it makes setting up new file systems fairly straight forward. While I wasn't able to get ZFS working using the system installer, I was able to add devices and partitions post-install and migrate my users' home directories to ZFS. In the past people have claimed ZFS requires large amounts of memory to work. However, for simple home use I have found ZFS's memory use hardly shows up on the system at all and multiple devices with hundreds of gigabytes of data can be stored without any problems on a system with 512MB of RAM.
In the end, I did get all the services and features I wanted installed and running. The process of getting everything in place on FreeBSD required a good deal more time compared to performing similar setups with Ubuntu or CentOS -- around six hours for installing the operating system and compiling packages on FreeBSD next to an hour to install and configure everything with Ubuntu Server. Most of the extra time was due to compiling third-party software rather than having convenient binary packages. Another delay came from trouble-shooting Apache and ownCloud errors which I did not experience upon installing the same services on Ubuntu. Still, the end results achieved with both operating systems are quite similar. Aside from the time required to get all the pieces in place, the main practical difference is the organization of those pieces once they have been added to the system. Where Linux distributions tend to intermix the operating system, applications and services, FreeBSD makes a clear separation.
The operating system and the software we install on FreeBSD are divided, making for a clean working environment. I found FreeBSD used slightly less memory and ran fewer processes than my old Ubuntu Server install, though the difference is quite small. Setting up a FreeBSD server takes a bigger investment and makes for a more educational experience compared with Ubuntu which provided more of a quick install-and-go experience. Both have proven to be stable and both come with several years of support. FreeBSD is a powerful and useful platform, though the lack of binary packages does give me pause as it means (at least for the time being) future security updates will require more work and each update will require additional compile time. It is my hope the FreeBSD team is able to restore the pkg-ng repository to its former glory as its binary packages are a big time and energy saver for the project's users.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar) |
Web server statistics, Ubuntu enhanced search, Anaconda, PC-BSD updates, GNOME developments
 The number of users each Linux distribution has is a famously difficult statistic to nail down, however that fact doesn't prevent people from trying. The website W3Techs has put together some numbers and graphs in an attempt to judge the market share of popular Linux distributions on web servers. The graphs show the current leader in web server installs is the community-run Debian GNU/Linux distribution. Another community project, CentOS, takes second place while two commercial distributions, Ubuntu and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), take third and forth places, respectively. It is perhaps interesting to note that, according to W3Tech's statistics, both Debian and Ubuntu (two closely related projects) are increasing in market share while Red Hat and CentOS (two other closely related projects) have dropped in popularity over the past twelve months.
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 In recent months the Ubuntu developers have placed an increasing emphasis on search with the Unity Dash being the focal point of their efforts. Going forward the Dash is going to receive more attention which will not only provide users with more search lenses (now called "master scopes"), but the search system will gather feedback about which scopes return desired results and learn to tailor its results to the user's preferences. Ubuntu Community member Alan Bell writes, "This means that your client might have 100 or more locally installed search scopes, but the server will advise it which are likely to give good results. Now for the scary bit, once you have looked at the results and perhaps clicked on something then your client pings the server again to tell it which scope produced the most relevant result. This means that the server can learn from this feedback about which scopes produce high quality results for that keyword, and perhaps rank that one a bit higher in future recommendations lists." The new, smart master scopes feature is expected to be included in the upcoming release of Ubuntu 13.04.
The Ubuntu community also learned this past week that the popular Linux distribution will be coming to mobile devices in the final months of 2013. Michael Hickins of The Wall Street Journal reports Ubuntu may begin shipping on smart phones in October. "Smart phones running the open source Ubuntu operating system will be available to customers beginning in October 2013, according to Mark Shuttleworth, founder and CEO of Canonical Ltd. Canonical provides services for corporate customers using Ubuntu open source software. Application developers will have access to the smart phone operating system, which is optimized for the Galaxy Nexus handset manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co., in late February."
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 Fedora's new system installer, the revamped Anaconda, has come under heavy criticism from many quarters, including reviewers and even some well-known Linux developers, many of whom questioned the reason behind the radical redesign of a well-established tool that has been around for years. But as explained by Will Woods, one of the developers of the new Anaconda, the rewrite of the ageing installer was long overdue: "Back in August 2009 we were trying to redesign the storage UI to handle modern storage needs. This turned out to require rewriting a lot of the storage backend code (again) because the existing Anaconda code was basically all duct tape and bubble gum, creaking under the strain of modern demands. You might think I’m exaggerating, but keep in mind that Anaconda was originally written in 1999, for Red Hat Linux 6.1. It was designed to run off a 1.44 MB floppy disk, using the still-newish Linux 2.2.x kernel. In 2009 it still had its own custom initrd init system called 'loader' written entirely in C. So Anaconda had its own copy of stuff like mount, losetup and mknod, but no Bash before the GUI started. Good luck trying to debug anything!"
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 Dru Lavigne, a well-known FreeBSD and PC-BSD developer, has written an interesting post in which she quotes Kris Moore, the founder of PC-BSD, voicing his dissatisfaction with the PC-BSD release process. To take the project into the future, he believes, it needs to switch to a rolling-release style of OS updates: "First of all, I want to let you know, that I’ve personally not been satisfied with the frequency of PC-BSD releases and updates. With us tracking the upstream FreeBSD releases, it has really tied our hands getting new releases out to the public. The past couple of releases had a delay of almost a year between them, which is WAY too long in my opinion. To further compound the problem, our build system wasn’t designed to do frequent updates of packages and our utilities, which made getting updates out to the community a long and tedious process. This is all going to change. What we are looking at going to now is more of a “Rolling-Release” model, first for our utilities and system packages, and eventually for the FreeBSD base itself." Exciting times ahead for those who prefer to run FreeBSD on their desktops.
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 The GNOME project has been in the news a lot this past week. First it was announced the GNOME project would consider JavaScript as the primary language for the development of new applications on the GNOME desktop. Other languages will continue to be supported, but new developers will be guided by JavaScript tutorials and documentation for developing in JavaScript will be given priority. As GNOME developer Travis Reitter wrote on the Let's Push Things Forward blog, "It's critical that everyone understands this decision as a plan to elevate the language, bindings, tools, and documentation to a level of quality we have not yet achieved. It is not a decision to abandon any other language bindings. We will continue to distribute other bindings and documentation as we do now and compatibility for the other languages will continue to be developed as they are today by the developers involved with those modules."
In other GNOME-related news, The H reports GNOME developers will soon begin work on a new distribution independent sandbox model for applications. This should allow third-party applications to be bundled with all of their dependencies in a single file and installed on the user's computer just by clicking on the application archive. The application would be installed in an isolated area of the file system for added security. "GNOME developer Alexander Larsson writes that the entire concept is to go hand in hand with efforts to improve app isolation. For example, the developers plan to use techniques that are also used for containers to mount each app image in a separate area. Only the programming interfaces that are listed in the manifest will be available in these areas. The apps are not planned to have direct access to a user's home directory."
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Over the years more and more businesses have turned to open source software to help them run their infrastructure. The low cost, the ability to audit the source code and the extendability provided by open source products are great features for enterprises. However, giving away one's source code raises certain challenges when it comes to turning a profit. Last week Katherne Noyes wrote a blog post in which she talks with the CTO, CEO and a Vice President of the successful ownCloud project. They discuss the problems ownCloud tries to solve and why they feel it has been successful as a business. Frank Karlitschek says ownCloud got its start when, "`Three years ago I had an opportunity to keynote at a KDE event in San Diego, and I thought, let's look a bit into the future,' he recalled. `I could already see the trend of things moving to Dropbox, which was pretty much the only solution for cloud at the time. I thought this was interesting, but I also saw problems.' Specifically, Karlitschek identified privacy and cost issues for home users, and was inspired to launch an open source project to help solve those problems."
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Broken packages and possible solutions
 Recently I have been receiving e-mails with a common theme from several Linux users. The common characteristics of these e-mails are that the person writing has been using a piece of software (perhaps a network service, perhaps a game) and, following an update, the software has stopped working. In every case either no error message appears on the user's screen or the error that appears on the user's terminal is cryptic and may indicate a segmentation fault or perhaps a missing library function. A Google search of the error message doesn't reveal any obvious causes or solutions. The final thing each of these e-mails have in common is that the person writing to me is running Arch Linux. Having had the chance to help several people through this situation I would like to share the solutions we have found that fixed the problem.
The most common cause of a program or service no longer working properly after an upgrade appears to be out of sync repositories. It takes time for packages to get replicated across all repositories and some repositories fall behind in their updates. This puts the repository out of sync with the rest of the Arch community. When this happens check the package manager's mirror list and try pulling from a mirror in a different region. There are plenty of Arch repository mirrors out there from which to choose. Once you have updated your mirror list, try updating your malfunctioning package and its dependencies.
In some cases it seems that simply removing and re-installing the program which is malfunctioning can correct the issue. I suspect this also means the local system is out of sync with the main Arch repositories and the user simply needs to let time pass before attempting to update their system again.
It may be that you have uncovered a bug. Sometimes packages are broken when they are upgraded. Be sure to check the Arch Linux forums to see if anyone has experienced the problem or has found a solution. If no one else has reported the problem, be sure to file a bug report so the developers can look into the matter.
Should you be in a hurry for a fix and no one is coming to your aid, consider building the malfunctioning package from its source code. Most open source projects include details on their website or in their source code archives on how to compile their software. This can be of great help to people looking to fix their own problems. Building a package from its source and linking it to the libraries on your own system may correct the problem or at least give you a better place from which to trouble-shoot the problem.
I hope the above suggestions will prove useful, both to Arch users and to anyone else who has run into problems following an upgrade.
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| Released Last Week |
Parsix GNU/Linux 4.0r2
Alan Baghumian has announced the availability of an updated build of Parsix GNU/Linux 4.0, a desktop distribution and live DVD based on Debian's "testing" branch: "To celebrate our 8th anniversary, we decided to release an updated version of Parsix GNU/Linux 4.0 code name 'Gloria'. This version ships with a brand-new kernel based on Linux 3.2.37 and merges Debian testing updates as of January 30, 2013. Parsix 'Gloria' is the project's first release with the GNOME 3 series and it ships with LibreOffice productivity suit by default. Gloria has a brand-new software package manager. Highlights: GNOME 3.4.2, X.Org 7.7, GRUB 2, GNU Iceweasel 18.0.1, GParted 0.12.1, Empathy 3.4.2.3, LibreOffice 3.5.4, VirtualBox 4.1.18. The live DVD has been compressed using Squashfs and xz." Read the rest of the release notes where you can find more information and upgrade instructions.
Frugalware Linux 1.8
James Buren has announced the release of Frugalware Linux 1.8, a general-purpose distribution for intermediate and advanced Linux users: "The Frugalware developer team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware Linux 1.8, our eighteenth stable release. No new features have been added since 1.8rc2, but 157 changes have been made to fix minor bugs. If you didn't follow the changes during the pre-releases, here are the most important changes since 1.7 in no particular order: updated packages - Linux kernel 3.7.5, X.Org Server 1.13.2, GNOME 3.6, KDE 4.9, LibreOffice 3.6.3, Mozilla Firefox 18.0.1 to name a few major components; video decoding acceleration is now enabled in most multimedia applications; CPU scaling should now work out of the box on i686 and x86_64; Mesa 7.11 drivers revived to support hardware that Mesa upstream dropped support for...." Here is the brief release announcement.
Webconverger 17.0
Kai Hendry has announced the release of Webconverger 17.0, a specialist distribution designed for web kiosks - now based on Debian's "testing" branch: "Webconverger 17.0 is exciting for two reasons: new installer allowing you the choice to install to a USB stick and whole base is upgraded from 'Squeeze' to 'Wheezy'. The 'install' term can be misinterpreted as a straight copy of image. Install in Webconverger parlance means you are creating a read/write store. When you follow the USB guide you are: downloading the ISO; 'dd-ing', that is plonking the image upon the USB stick, without partitioning the USB stick (this is tricky); the new installer allows you to partition (tricky bit solved) the USB stick and use it as a read/write store." Read the full release announcement for more information and to see a photo of the installation screen.
Linpus Linux 1.9 "Lite"
Linpus Linux 1.9 "Lite", a desktop Linux distribution featuring a customised GNOME 3 desktop with HTML 5 widgets and support for touch screens, has been released: "Linpus, a leader in the field of open-source software in the consumer space, announced the release of the latest version of their Linux distro, Linpus Lite. Linpus Lite has both full touch-based and mouse and keyboard-style launchers that can be easily swapped between through a menu item on the top bar or a touchpad gesture. Both look and user experience are designed to match whether you want to interact with the device through touch or through your keyboard. In addition, for key applications multi-touch behavior has also been added. Linpus has also worked very hard on web app integration in several ways. Anyone with a Chrome webstore account can login and automatically sync their Chrome applications to the launcher." See the press release for more information.
Linpus Linux 1.9 "Lite" - a live CD with a customised GNOME 3 desktop
(full image size: 482kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Chakra GNU/Linux 2013.02
Anke Boersma has announced the release of Chakra GNU/Linux 2013.02, the project's brand-new series featuring the KDE 4.10 desktop: "Chakra 2013.02 'Benz' (a code name that will follow the KDE 4.10 series) has been released. KDE 4.10 is about the most polished release KDE has put out to date; one feature that stands out is the fast improvements of Nepomuk. Our tools have gotten a lot of attention too, the live image has switched to using GFXboot - this will give many more options for language and keyboard settings and it adds a few hardware checking tools in a visually pleasing way. Tribe has now a dedicated keyboard page - this will avoid issues with setting the desired keyboard. The 'Dharma' artwork theme is fully updated and integration is set for all parts of the live image, GRUB bootloader, KDM and the installed desktop." See the release announcement for further details and screenshots.
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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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| Around the Web |
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Latest reviews
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Latest podcasts
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Latest newsletters
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| DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to database
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New distributions added to waiting list
- CoreSec Linux. CoreSec Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution for penetrating security holes online and offline.
- GOVOnix. GOVOnix is a project based on the Xubuntu distribution where the Xfce desktop has been replaced with MATE.
- IprediaOS. IprediaOS is a Fedora-based Linux distribution that provides an anonymous environment. All network traffic is automatically and transparently encrypted and anonymised.
- RhinoLinux. RhinoLinux is an Ubuntu-based desktop-oriented distribution which aims to provide many different desktop environments, including GNOME, KDE, MATE, Unity and Xfce.
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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, 18 February 2013. To contact the authors please send email to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, suggestions and corrections: news, donations, distribution submissions, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (feedback and suggestions: podcast edition)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Granular Linux
Granular Linux was an easy-to-use, desktop Linux distribution based on PCLinuxOS. Its main features are a carefully selected set of applications for common tasks, the ability to customise the distribution, and the inclusion of two popular desktop environments - the flexible KDE and the lightweight Enlightenment.
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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0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
