 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 589, 15 December 2014 |
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Welcome to this year's 50th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Modern operating systems are made up of many complex components. Our computers need to deal with user accounts, permissions, multiple file systems, any number of removable devices, drivers and the many programs which make up a modern desktop operating system. Understanding how all the pieces fit together is difficult and being a developer who works on those pieces is even harder still. This week we talk about a book, appropriately called How Linux Works, that explains the many interlocking pieces of a Linux-based operating system and how they fit together. In our Feature this week we share a review of the Parsix distribution which takes the popular Debian GNU/Linux operating system and tries to make it more appealing to desktop users. In our News section we discuss Fedora's latest release, Canonical's plans for a minimal server distribution with isolated services and the PC-BSD project's attempt to fix problems with their upgrade process. Plus we share the latest distribution releases and list the new projects added to our waiting list. We wish you all a delightful week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Parsix GNU/Linux 7.0 - a desktop Debian distribution
 According to the distribution's website, "Parsix GNU/Linux is a live and installation DVD based on Debian. Our goal is to provide a ready to use, easy to install, desktop and laptop optimized operating system based on Debian's stable branch and the latest stable release of GNOME desktop environment." I quite enjoyed the last few versions of Parsix. I feel the project has done a nice job of taking Debian and using it as a base to create a friendly, desktop-oriented operating system. Parsix, in its purpose and past performance, has appeared to me to be similar to Linux Mint "Debian" edition, a user-friendly layer on top of a stable Debian base.
The latest version of Parsix GNU/Linux is available in two builds. There is a 32-bit and a 64-bit x86 build. Both downloads are approximately 1.1 GB in size. Booting from the project's media brings up a menu asking if we would like to launch Parsix in graphics mode or in a text mode. Taking the graphical option launches the GNOME 3 desktop.
GNOME is laid out with its application menu in the upper-left corner of the display and the system tray in the upper-right. The central section of the top bar displays the current time. Icons for browsing the file system and launching the project's installer sit on the desktop. Shortly after GNOME finished loading I clicked on the application menu button and GNOME immediately crashed. I was logged out and presented with a login screen. From the login screen we can sign in to either GNOME 3's full featured desktop (from which I had just been evicted) or we can sign in to a GNOME Classic environment. The Classic environment looks and acts in a similar fashion to the legacy GNOME 2 desktop, though with some slight differences to the appearance of menus and buttons. With a little trial and error I found I could login to the default user account (and access GNOME Classic) if I provided the operating system with the password "parsix".
Parsix GNU/Linux 7.0 - browsing the web with Iceweasel
(full image size: 347kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Once I was logged into GNOME's Classic desktop and determined the environment was stable I launched the distribution's system installer. Parsix ships with a graphical installer which first checks to see if we have a spare partition available and swap space on the hard drive. We are then told we can change the drive's layout if we want and we are given a chance to open the GParted partition manager. Using GParted we can divide up the local drive as we wish and then return to the system installer. Parsix's installer asks if we would like to install a fresh copy of the operating system or upgrade an existing installation. Taking the option for a fresh installation we are then asked which partition should hold the Parsix operating system and we can select the partition from a list.
We are then asked which file system should be used on the partition with options including ext3, ext4, JFS and ReiserFS. The next few screens ask us to create a user account for ourselves and to set a password on the root account. We are then asked to create a name for our computer and, finally, we are shown a confirmation screen where the installer lists all the actions it will take. Once we confirm the installer may proceed, it copies its files to our hard drive. When the installer finishes its work, it exits and returns us to the desktop.
Upon rebooting the computer, Parsix GNU/Linux loads and we are shown a grey graphical login screen. Here we can sign into our account and launch either the GNOME Shell desktop or GNOME Classic. I mentioned a few weeks ago in my review of Trisquel that I haven't been using the GNOME desktop much of late. However, my time with Trisquel was quite positive and so I felt optimistic going into my trial with Parsix. The positive feeling did not last. As I mentioned earlier, GNOME Shell proved to be an unstable (and slow) desktop environment. Even with the proper drivers installed for 3-D support, GNOME Shell lagged a lot. As a result, I spent most of my time using GNOME Classic.
The Classic desktop was not going to win any speed tests either, it lagged noticeably, but did perform better than GNOME Shell. Several times GNOME Classic crashed or froze, either sending me back to the login screen or forcing me to reboot the machine. By default, Parsix's desktop is designed to lock after a few minutes and rather than have the user simply press a key to restore the display, the user must click and drag the screen saver out of the way, an awkward movement to perform with a mouse. Perhaps on a touch screen the swiping gesture would be more convenient, but on a traditional desktop, it feels out of place.
I also noticed that GNOME Classic ran a "Location" service by default. There isn't a lot of documentation I could find about what Location does, but it appears as though the Location service tracks the user's current position. This may be useful for programs like weather widgets. The Locations service can be disabled through the system tray. Another quirk I discovered was GNOME Classic, for the first day I was running Parsix, would not allow me to logout or shutdown the computer from within the Classic desktop. Clicking the shutdown/logout button simply returned me to the Classic desktop. On the second day of my trial the logout/shutdown button started working, immediately following a software update.
Parsix GNU/Linux 7.0 - managing software packages and services
(full image size: 189kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Speaking of updates, there does not appear to be any form of notification in place to let the user know when a software update becomes available. Instead we can locate the update manager in the distribution's application menu. The update application is pretty simple in its design, showing us a list of waiting software updates. We can click a box next to each item we want to download. During my trial I downloaded 10 new packages, totalling 37 MB in size. These updates all installed cleanly and I had no problems with the update manager.
On the subject of software management, Parsix ships with a graphical package manager we can use to find, install and remove software. The package manager is divided into two parts. On the left side of the window we see categories of software and on the right we see specific packages in the given category. We can also search for packages using a specific name. Installing or removing software is straight forward and just requires clicking a box next to a package's name and clicking the "Apply" button at the top of the window. For the most part the package manager worked well for me. The simple approach to managing software is convenient and the interface is clean.
I did find that search results pulled in a lot of items, sometimes making me wish there were more filtering options. A search for the Totem video player, for example, brought up over a page of results that included libraries, data packages and plugins. It would have been nice to have been able to filter results to include just desktop applications. The Parsix project maintains its own software repository which borrows a good deal from Debian Stable. I did notice though that some available packages do not match version numbers in Debian's main repositories. I suspect Parsix is either creating some custom packages for their users or drawing from Debian's Backports repository to get more up to date software.
Parsix GNU/Linux 7.0 - changing GNOME's desktop settings
(full image size: 269kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Digging through Parsix's application menu we find a fairly standard collection of software. The Iceweasel web browser (a re-branded version of Firefox) is included along with the Adobe Flash plugin. We are given the Transmission bittorrent client, the XChat IRC client, the Empathy instant messaging software and the FileZilla file transfer software. The LibreOffice productivity software is included along with the Grisbi accounting software and the Evolution e-mail client. We can also find the Brasero disc burning software, the Cheese web cam utility, an audio recorder and the VLC multimedia player.
I found that audio files played without any problems but I ran into a few issues with video files. For example, playing a video in the VLC player would offer audio and video, but the video was always in black and white. I installed the Totem multimedia player and found it produced audio, but there was no accompanying video. Looking further through the application menu we find the GNU Image Manipulation Program, the Inkscape application and the xFar Dic translation program. I found xFar Dic could be used to translate text, but asking the application to "speak" a word out loud caused the application to crash.
Parsix GNU/Linux 7.0 also ships with the Htop process monitor, the Midnight Commander file manager, a settings panel and a document viewer. There is also a desktop environment tweak tool for changing the appearance of GNOME. Parsix ships with a services manager, but I found this program did not display available services properly as only one item in the list of dozens of services could be viewed at a time. Parsix provides us with a calculator, archive manager, the GParted partition manager and a text editor. In the background we find Java is available, the GNU Compiler Collection is installed and Network Manager is provided to help us get on-line. Parsix ships with the Linux kernel, version 3.14.
I tried running Parsix in two environments, a physical desktop machine and a VirtualBox virtual machine. Parsix was unable to boot on my desktop test box. I downloaded both the 32-bit and 64-bit builds and neither would load on physical hardware. When running in VirtualBox, even with 3-D support and guest additions installed, Parsix was sluggish. This was most obvious when running GNOME Shell, but I found GNOME's Classic desktop was slow to respond too, especially when opening the application menu. This was in strong contrast to the way the GNOME Classic desktop ran in my trial of Trisquel 7.0. Under Trisquel, GNOME Classic was responsive and stable, but Parsix's GNOME desktop was slow and crashed nearly every day of my trial. I found the 64-bit build of Parsix used approximately 260MB of RAM when logged into the Classic desktop.
Conclusions
In the past I have generally had good experiences with Parsix. In recent years I've tended to think of Parsix as a solid, conservative branch of the Debian family, adding just enough desktop oriented software and configuration tweaks to make Debian more desktop ready. However, Parsix 7.0 was a disappointment for me. While the installer worked well and the configuration panel was functional, I ran into several bugs. The operating system wouldn't run at all on my physical test machine, the desktop crashed, on average, about once per day and a couple of default applications either crashed or locked up during my trial. The package manager was functional, but tended to provide too many search results to be helpful. Multimedia support was provided, but didn't work as well as I would have liked. Being based on Debian's Stable branch some software felt out of date, particularly the LibreOffice productivity suite.
Overall, my experiences with the latest version of Parsix GNU/Linux made a poor impression. Some of the issues were certainly hardware related and may not affect other users, but several appeared to be poor design/implementation decisions or a result of bugs missed during testing. I'd also like to see the Parsix distribution offer a wider range of editions to provide a wider variety of desktop environments out of the box. Perhaps a different desktop environment would have offered a more stable and more responsive experience.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8 GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500 GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6 GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar) |
Fedora 21 arrives, Canonical introduces "Snappy" images, PC-BSD tests new update process, Gentoo migrates handbooks to Wiki
 The big news last week was the launch of Fedora 21, a long awaited release from the Red Hat sponsored community distribution. It has been a year since the usually fast-moving distribution put out a new version and the project has been talking a lot about their new product line up. Fedora 21 will be the distribution's first release with three product branches (Cloud, Server and Workstation), accompanied by several community spins. The new release also features a new graphical package manager and experimental Wayland display server support. Further details can be found in the distribution's release notes.
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 Mark Shuttleworth announced last week that Canonical is testing new Ubuntu images called "Snappy". The Snappy images are an attempt to improve application isolation and prevent software updates to one program or library from affecting other applications or services. Snappy applications will run on top of Ubuntu Core, a minimal distribution that will allow administrators to apply atomic updates and roll back upgrades to recover the operating system: "The snappy system keeps each part of Ubuntu in a separate, read-only file, and does the same for each application. That way, developers can deliver everything they need to be confident their app will work exactly as they intend, and we can take steps to keep the various apps isolated from one another." The new Ubuntu Core with Snappy applications presents a solution which appears to be similar to Red Hat's Atomic Host.
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 Two weeks ago the PC-BSD project removed updates which would allow users to upgrade PC-BSD 10.0 installations to 10.1. This change followed several reports of users being unable to successfully upgrade their operating system. Work has been done to the PC-BSD update manager and the project is now in the process of testing the upgrade procedure: "The new PC-BSD Update Manager CLI utility is available and ready for testing. There is a lot of fresh code and a lot of new methodology so we need your help to test the update before release to the rest of the community." Instructions for testing the new upgrade procedure can be found on the project's testing mailing list.
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 One of the best aspects of a highly technical distribution like Gentoo Linux is the project's ability to deliver excellent documentation. In the old days, the developers chose to provide their handbooks in XML format, but the emergence of easy-to-use Wiki-style documentation has superseded most other formats in many open-source software projects. Gentoo Linux is no exception. As reported last week by Sven Vermeulen the ever so excellent Gentoo handbooks have now also been migrated to the Gentoo Wiki pages: "The Gentoo Handbooks were the only user-oriented documents that were not on the Gentoo Wiki yet. And although 'back in the days' the choice for the XML-based documentation development was valid (offline development of documentation was a primary concern) times have changed, as well as documentation developer abilities. The need to train users into the dark corners of GuideXML (and the almost programmatic approach to the Gentoo Handbooks) pushes down hard on the team's growth. And that in essence is the second reason as well: the Gentoo Documentation Project is no longer the huge project it once was. We reduced from over 20 authors/editors to only one or two active members - and even those do not do it "full time" anymore. Moving towards a better known (and popular) documentation platform makes sense."
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| Book Review (by Jesse Smith) |
Book Review: How Linux Works
 One of the nice things about Linux is that it is honest. What Linux does and how its tasks are accomplished are open to public viewing. At any point we can pop the proverbial hood on our operating system and see what Linux is doing and why. This makes it easier to understand why Linux does things the way it does, transparency makes it easier to spot and fix problems and it makes it easier for people to extend and improve their operating system. The book How Linux Works by Brian Ward dives straight into the transparent depths of Linux-based operating systems and shows us how all the pieces fit together.
Typically when I share a book or resource it is because I feel that resource will be of immediate, practical assistance to people. I like to share books that discuss setting up services, trouble-shooting network problems or getting the most out of desktop applications. How Linux Works deals less with practical day-to-day issues and deals more with what the operating system is doing under the surface while we are using it. While other texts talk about creating files or scanning through logs, How Linux Works deals with the methods programs use to talk to the Linux kernel and how files are organized and located on the hard drive. Other books discuss setting up permissions on files and directories, How Linux Works shows us how permissions are implemented. Recently we've been hearing debates over different types of init software, How Linux Works discusses how each init implementation works and goes over the benefits and drawbacks of each one.
Brian Ward's book is for a specific sort of person, someone that is less interested in what their operating system does and more interested in why. Why is accessing swap space slow? What do inodes do and why do we have them? How do threads work? What goes on behind the scenes when the kernel is scheduling processes? Why do we need a boot loader to bring the operating system on-line? All good questions curious people want answers to and Ward has those answers (and many, many more).
Something I like about How Linux Works is there is a certain abstract approach to the text. There are relatively few practical examples or tutorials on display, most of the book is focused on explaining what goes on in the background when we do certain things. As an example, when we browse the contents of a directory, what is going on behind the curtain that allows us to see files and folders? When we measure resources used by a program, what exactly are we looking at and how can that help us? People often talk about userspace and kernel space, but what are these things and what is the difference between the two? These are the sorts of topics tackled by Ward and I found the explanations to be wonderfully clear and to the point. Ward has a gift for describing complex concepts in simple language and he does not let the details of the material bog us down. The book hops quickly from one concept to the next, rapidly painting a broad (and accurate) picture of what Linux is doing behind the scenes and why.
Admittedly, if you are new to Linux and trying to figure out web browsing and package management, then this book is probably going to provide more information than you want to digest right now. However, if you are curious as to how Linux (and similar operating systems) do the things they do, if you want to know (in gritty detail) how the pieces of your operating system fit together, then How Linux Works will answer your questions in clear, concise terms. Modern operating systems are massive, complex systems and Ward has managed to cover all the basics (and then some) in under 400 pages. It is an impressive feat and Ward does an excellent job, in my opinion, of putting the many functions of Linux in context. If you want to know Linux, inside and out, then How Linux Works is a good guide book to get you started.
* * * * *
- Title: How Linux Works, Second Edition
- Author: Brian Ward
- Published by: No Starch Press
- Pages: 392
- ISBN-10: 1593275676
- ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-567-9
- Available from: No Starch Press. Amazon and other bookstores
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| Released Last Week |
SparkyLinux 3.6 "LXDE", "MATE", "Razor-qt", "Xfce"
Paweł Pijanowski has announced the release of SparkyLinux 3.6, a set of lightweight Debian-based distributions with a choice of LXDE, MATE, Razor-qt and Xfce desktops: "I am happy to announce the fourth release, and the last this year, of SparkyLinux - 3.6 'Annagerman' LXDE, MATE, Razor-qt and Xfce. At the beginning, I’d like to thank all of our small but strong community members for their help with searching and solving bugs and problems. SparkyLinux 3.6 provides (as usual) all package updates, some bug fixes and small improvements, such as: Linux kernel 3.16.7, Xfce 4.10.1, LXDE 0.99.0, Razor-qt 0.5.2, MATE 1.8.1, Openbox 3.5.2; Twitter's microblogging client Hotot has been replaced by Turpial; the new wallpaper 'Vortex'; Sparky Conky Manager updated to version 0.1.7 with a new battery status applet...." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details.
Porteus 3.1
Jay Flood has announced the release of Porteus 3.1, a set of lightweight Slackware-based distributions and live CDs that come in four separate flavours - with KDE, LXQt, MATE and Xfce desktops: "The Porteus community was delighted to find that Santa had dropped into our chimney a little early this year and left a shiny new Porteus Desktop edition 3.1, as well as Porteus Kiosk edition 3.2.0. A major change in the new desktop edition is the inclusion of the new LXQt desktop which replaces both Razor-qt and LXDE. Changes in this release (relative to 3.1) include: Linux kernel 3.17.4; kernel configuration 0 compiled support for FB_EFI, increased number of Aufs branches to 1024, added input drivers; Porteus installer - user must type 'OK' before MBR will be updated; added 'ntpdate' utility from NTP package which synchronizes the clock over Internet if 'timezone=' cheatcode is enabled...." Read the rest of the release announcement for a full changelog.
FreeNAS 9.3
Jordan Hubbard has announced the release of FreeNAS 9.3, a brand-new version of the specialist FreeBSD-based operating system for network-attached storage (NAS) systems: "After months of work and close to a thousand bugs resolved, we are very proud and pleased to announce the official release of FreeNAS 9.3. Please come and get it while it's hot! We have also prepared some important upgrade notes for this release which even folks coming from 9.3-BETA may wish to read. If you are one of the folks who jumped on board with 9.3-BETA then you need merely check for and apply the update that will be waiting for you - this will update you to 9.3-RELEASE and automatically jump you to the 9.3-STABLE update train (note: if you got the very last update already, you may need to simply switch manually to the 9.3-STABLE train). If you are not currently on 9.3, then simply grab the GUI or ISO update image and update in the usual way; this is the last time you will need to do so!" See the release announcement and release notes for further information.
Fedora 21
Matthew Miller has announced the release of Fedora 21, the latest stable version of Red Hat's community distribution for desktops, servers and the cloud: "The Fedora Project is pleased to announce the release of Fedora 21, ready to run on your desktops, servers and in the cloud. Fedora 21 is a game-changer for the Fedora Project, and we think you're going to be very pleased with the results. As part of the Fedora.next initiative, Fedora 21 comes in three flavors: Cloud, Server, and Workstation. The Fedora Workstation is a new take on desktop development from the Fedora community. Our goal is to pick the best components, and integrate and polish them. This work results in a more polished and targeted system than you've previously seen from the Fedora desktop." Read the release announcement and release notes for detailed information about the release.
Fedora 21 - the default GNOME Shell desktop
(full image size: 941kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Clonezilla Live 2.3.1-18
Steven Shiau has announced the release of a new stable version of Clonezilla Live, a Debian-based specialist live CD designed for disk cloning and file backup tasks: "This release of Clonezilla Live (2.3.1-18) includes major enhancements and bug fixes: the underlying GNU/Linux operating system has been upgraded, this release is based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2014-12-08; Linux kernel has been updated to 3.16.7; the drbl package has been updated to 2.11.13 and Clonezilla to 3.12.7; syslinux has been updated to 6.03; a mechanism has been added to check if i386 library (libc6-i386 or glibc.i686) exists on x86-64 system when running makeboot.sh due to the fact that syslinux included in Clonezilla Live is 32-bit; Linux kernel i486 has been replaced by i586 because now only i586 kernel exists in the Debian 'Sid' repository...." Read the full release announcement for more details.
Alpine Linux 3.1.0
Natanael Copa has announced the release of Alpine Linux 3.1.0, a security-oriented distribution built from scratch and designed (not only) for server deployments: "We are pleased to announce Alpine Linux 3.1.0, the first release in the 3.1 stable series. This release is built with musl libc and is not compatible with 2.x and earlier, so special care needs to be taken when upgrading. Please refer to the documentation for information on how to perform the upgrade. Some of the new features are: support for Open vSwitch; Xen 4.4; a release build for Rasberry PI (arm hardfloat); some of the desktop applications that got upgraded and are available for 3.1: X.Org Server 1.16.2, Firefox 31.2.0, Gnumeric 1.12.18, Evince 3.14.1, virt-manager 1.1.0, Claws Mail 3.11.0, Hexchat 2.10.2, VLC 2.1.5, Inkscape 0.48.5, GIMP 2.8.14, Audacity 2.0.6." Here is the brief release announcement.
LinuxConsole 2.3
Yann Le Doaré has announced the release of LinuxConsole 2.3, an independent Linux distribution made for game consoles: "LinuxConsole is primarily designed to turn old and semi-old computers into game console centers. The LXDE desktop includes some utilities, scripts to install Firefox 34, Flash player and Google Chrome), and system-management functions (like installing printers). As a bonus, a lightweight package manager called opkg-gui allows you to install and run stable source packages to fill out the basic live CD with the latest software. Several categories are available: games, office, system, education. Based on the goal to revive old computers, this distribution works well on old and semi-old computers with low resources (as low as 256 MB of RAM), it runs on old and new video cards (Intel, NVIDIA, ATI), it can be turned into a live USB image, and it can be installed as a dual-boot system with Windows. Features: locale support for English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese and Breton, Linux kernel 3.14.26...." Here is the full release announcement.
Tanglu 2.0
Matthias Klumpp announced the release of Tanglu 2.0, a desktop Linux distribution with a choice of KDE or GNOME, based on Debian's "Testing" branch: "We are glad to announce the availability of the second release of Tanglu, code name 'Bartholomea'. This release contains a large amount of updated packages, and ships with the latest release of KDE 4 and GNOME. Tanglu 2 ships with two options to install it: Debian Installer (d-i) and our own live-installer. We recommend to use Debian Installer ('Install Tanglu' option on the live CD boot menu), because a lot of testing went into it and it does a much better job compared to the live installer, which will be replaced with Tanglu 3. The KDE flavor of Tanglu received bug-fix updates for the Plasma workspaces and contains new versions of the KDE applications." See the release announcement and release notes for more details.
Tanglu 2.0 - the distribution's default KDE desktop
(full image size: 421kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
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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 |
Distributions added to waiting list
- Cyborg Hawk. Cyborg Hawk is a Linux distribution for penetration and stress-testing tasks.
- Pratham OS. Pratham OS is a Debian-based Linux distribution for desktop users.
- Linux Royal. Linux Royal is a Ubuntu-based Linux distribution with Unity removed in favour of GNOME Shell.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 22 December 2014. 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 1169 (2026-04-20): Lakka 6.1, free software and source-based distributions, FreeBSD Foundation publishes compatible laptop list, Debian holds Project Leader election, Haiku progresses ARM64 port, Mint to extend development cycle, Linux 7.0 released |
| • Issue 1168 (2026-04-13): pearOS 2026.03, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, which distros are adopting age verification, Arch adjusts its firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its release cycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves its scheduler |
| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
| • Issue 1166 (2026-03-30): NetBSD jails, publishing software for Linux, Ubuntu joins Rust Foundation, Canonical plans to trim GRUB features, Peppermint works on new utilities, PINE64 shows off open hardware capabilities |
| • Issue 1165 (2026-03-23): Argent Linux 1.5.3, disk space required by Linux, Manjaro team goes on strike, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA driver support and builds RISC-V packages, systemd introduces age tracking |
| • Issue 1164 (2026-03-16): d77void, age verification laws and Linux, SUSE may be for sale, TrueNAS takes its build system private, Debian publishes updated Trixie media, MidnightBSD and System76 respond to age verification laws |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Zeus Linux
Zeus Linux was a Greek Linux distribution based on Slackware Linux. It includes many fixes, such as remaking init scripts, new precompiled kernels for workstation machines, several tools that we believe should be included in all distributions (Zebra for advanced routing, FreeSwan ipsec tunnels, Open-nms for network monitoring, Ntop, Mailscanner, Sophos Antivirus, Mrtg, Rrdtool for graph making, sawmill log analyzer and many other useful tools for power users).
Status: Discontinued
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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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