 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 666, 20 June 2016 |
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Welcome to this year's 25th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Software continues to change and improve. Sometimes it is difficult to keep up with all the new features and new ways of performing tasks. Last month we published the results of an experiment where five open source operating systems were put through a live upgrade. This week we continue our experiment, putting four more projects through the live upgrade process and reporting on how well each one does. Plus we discuss educational resources which explore how Linux works in our Questions and Answers column. In our News section we talk about Ubuntu's snap packages being adopted by more distributions and Antergos dropping 32-bit installation media. We also cover Fedora's new upgrade method, openSUSE upgrading their compiler and GeckoLinux launching a new rolling release edition. In the Torrent Corner we share the torrents we are seeding and we provide a list of the distributions released last week. In our Opinion Poll we revisit the question of 32-bit verses 64-bit operating systems and we are happy to share some improvements to our Search page. Plus, we are pleased to donate money to Devil-Linux to help the project purchase a new server. We wish you all a joyous week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (25MB) and MP3 (38MB) formats
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Comparing more live version upgrade methods
At the end of May I set out to discover how well a handful of popular Linux distributions (and FreeBSD) would handle a live upgrade between major versions. The results were mostly positive with four of the five open source operating systems successfully upgrading to their latest version.
Following that article, some people asked if I would perform similar upgrade tests on other projects. This past week I set out to perform live upgrades on four more open source operating systems and report on the results.
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OpenMandriva 2013.0 to 2014
One of the distributions I was asked to upgrade was Mageia, a relative of the Mandriva family of Linux distributions. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a copy of Mageia's old version 4 release on the project's download mirrors. Apparently it was removed to save space following the release of Mageia 5 and I had to skip experimenting with Mageia.
In Mageia's place I decided to try upgrading OpenMandriva which is probably Mageia's closest relative in the Linux ecosystem. The release notes for OpenMandriva 2014.0 include a section on upgrading the distribution from earlier versions. I downloaded OpenMandriva 2013.0, which was a 1.5GB download. I went through the installation, taking all the default settings, which gave me a copy of OpenMandriva with the KDE desktop environment.
At first I planned to install a few packages and update the software which came with OpenMandriva 2013.0, but I found there were no software repositories set up by default. The release notes warn users about this possibility and I was able to go into the software manager, select media settings and add the missing repositories. At this point I checked for software updates again and was suspicious when the update manager reported there were only 12MB of available updates for the aging version of OpenMandriva.
I tried to install the waiting updates, several times. Each time the update process failed, reporting there was a missing locale package. Skipping this package, I found several other dependencies were missing and so no package updates could be applied to the out of date 2013.0 release.
At this point I decided to skip updating the individual packages and make the leap to OpenMandriva 2014.0. Following the provided instructions in the release notes, I removed the old repository information, enabled the new 2014.0 repositories and performed a command line upgrade. The upgrade process failed quickly, reporting many errors. Essentially, what I found looking through the error log was that most packages failed to upgrade due to missing dependencies.
In the end, the bad news was it was not possible to upgrade OpenMandriva 2013.0 to a newer version. However, the existing system remained usable. Attempting the upgrade did not damage or otherwise prevent me from being able to use the existing 2013.0 installation.
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Linux Mint 16 to 17.3
The next distribution on my list was Linux Mint. I was hesitant to cover performing a live upgrade of Linux Mint for two reasons. The first is that Mint's community documentation on version upgrades recommends against performing live upgrades. Instead, the documentation suggests backing up our files and list of installed packages, installing a fresh version of the operating system and then re-adding the packages we had previously installed. Their reasoning makes sense, but they do include a section on live upgrades too for people who really want to go that route. The second reason I almost skipped talking about Linux Mint is, at the time of writing, I only have the option to upgrade version 16 to version 17. However, as I write this, Linux Mint 18 is being beta tested and may be released around the same time as this article, making these comments seem out of date. I do note that the live upgrade process has not changed between the launch of Mint 16 and Mint 18, so what I cover here should be applicable to the latest version of Mint.
I downloaded the Cinnamon edition of Linux Mint 16. The ISO was a 1.2GB download and I installed Mint with all the default settings. After installing Linux Mint 16 I found the version was well out of date and there were no updates available. I could not install additional software as the Mint 16 repositories no longer exist.
Upgrading Linux Mint is a lot like upgrading Debian. We manually edit the APT configuration, changing the source repositories. This is the only tricky part as we need to know both the name of the new version of Mint and the code name of the Ubuntu release Mint's new release uses as a base. For example, Mint might use "Rosa" as a code name while Ubuntu will use "Trusty" for the corresponding version. Once the APT configuration has been updated to point to the proper Ubuntu and Mint repositories, we can refresh our repository information and perform the upgrade using the command line apt-get utility.
I performed the live upgrade in two stages, using "apt-get upgrade" and "apt-get dist-upgrade". In total, these two operations pulled in 890MB of new packages (409MB for the first upgrade and 481MB for the dist-upgrade). During the upgrade process, there were a few speed-bumps. For example, after running "apt-get upgrade" the Cinnamon desktop crashed. I was able to login again and resume the process, but Cinnamon was unstable until after the "apt-get dist-upgrade" command had concluded its work. Also, during the upgrade, the process paused several times to ask if APT should overwrite existing configuration files or leave the old files in place. This means we need to babysit the upgrade process, checking on it occasionally over the span of about four hours.
In the end, I found myself running Linux Mint 17.3,. The system was stable and the new version respected the configuration changes I had made prior to starting the upgrade. While Mint's live upgrade process may not be recommended, it did work.
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PC-BSD 9.2 to 10.x
The next project on my list was PC-BSD. The FreeBSD-based operating system does provide
some documentation on upgrading across major versions. One important thing to note is that PC-BSD 10.0 and newer require ZFS to be available, otherwise some of the system utilities will not work. This means we cannot live upgrade PC-BSD 9 to 10 if PC-BSD 9 was installed on an older file system such as UFS. The download for PC-BSD 9.2 was 3.4GB in size. I installed the operating system with all of its default settings, which gave me a copy of the operating system running on ZFS with the KDE desktop.
At first it looked as though PC-BSD would be quite easy to upgrade. Shortly after logging into my account, a notification in the system tray let me know software updates were available. The graphical update manager offered to upgrade the base operating system to PC-BSD 10.0 and update the pkg package manager. The update manager refused to update both components at the same time.
I soon found trying to upgrade either the base system or pkg would fail. The update manager did not provide details as to what had gone wrong and so I decided to attempt a manual upgrade by following the FreeBSD Handbook as I had when performing a live upgrade of FreeBSD back in May. At first the manual process seemed to work, downloading the necessary patches for FreeBSD 10 and getting me to resolve conflicts between my existing configuration files and the new versions. Part way through, we are asked to reboot and then continue the upgrade process using the freebsd-update command utility. PC-BSD failed to reboot and, in fact, the boot loader no longer found any operating systems to run.
The inability of GRUB to find the operating system was unfortunate, both because it meant the upgrade had failed, but it also meant I was unable to rollback the upgrade and use an earlier snapshot of the operating system. I had taken the time to save a snapshot of PC-BSD prior to starting the upgrade process and had hoped it would allow me to recover if anything went wrong. However, with the boot loader failing to find PC-BSD, my snapshot was lost.
* * * * *
OpenBSD 5.8 to 5.9
The OpenBSD operating system was the last project on my list to explore. Though it does seem to be technically possible to perform a live upgrade of the highly secure operating system, the documentation recommends performing a hybrid upgrade where we update the base operating system from an installation disc and live update third-party software packages. The OpenBSD installation media is 220MB in size. I installed the operating system with X and a window manager, then added a few packages to customize the installation.
The documentation provided explains how to upgrade OpenBSD 5.8 to version 5.9 step-by-step and the instructions worked exactly as laid out. Upgrading requires two reboots, one to initiate the upgrade process and one to boot into the new version of OpenBSD. Upgrading the base operating system took approximately ten minutes, including the two reboots. Upgrading the third-party packages took another minute or two. The only quirk I ran into was that I had to manually update my repository mirror information to gain access to the new packages available for OpenBSD 5.9. If this step is not done, then the pkg_add package manager will continue to pull in packages from the old repository we set up for OpenBSD 5.8.
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Conclusions
In my previous trial I experimented with five operating systems and, despite a few issues, four of them successfully updated across major versions. I considered four out of five to be a success. This week I experimented with four operating systems and the results were split with two successfully completing live upgrades and two failing. OpenMandriva failed with a certain amount of grace, allowing me to continue to use the operating system. However, PC-BSD failed to upgrade in a way which left the operating system unable to boot even with file system snapshots in place. To a degree, PC-BSD failing to boot was my fault. When the update manager refused to perform the upgrade automatically, I could have left it at that. Attempting to push ahead with a manual install was what drove to the operating system over the edge and past the point of no return.
I had much better luck this week with Linux Mint. Though Linux Mint 16 was no longer supported and its repositories shut down, I was able to upgrade the distribution. I was quite happy to see Mint survived the live upgrade despite live updates not being the recommended path for upgrades. OpenBSD was probably the smoothest upgrade of the four. OpenBSD provides clear documentation, step-by-step instructions and the upgrade happens very quickly. The command line nature of the OpenBSD upgrade might be intimidating to newcomers, but it works as documented.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Ubuntu's snap packages, Fedora presents new upgrade method, Antergos drops 32-bit media, openSUSE adopts GCC 6 and GeckoLinux unveils new Rolling edition
People who have been looking for a practical way to use Ubuntu snap packages are in luck. One pioneering developer has packaged a development version of LibreOffice (LibreOffice 5.2 Beta) as a snap. The snap package can be installed alongside a stable version of the productivity suite, tested and removed without affecting other versions of LibreOffice. "The upcoming LibreOffice 5.2 packaged as a nice new snap package. This is pretty much a vanilla build of LibreOffice 5.2 Beta 2, using snapcraft, which is making packaging quite easy. Contains all the applications: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math, Base. Installs easily on the released current LTS version of Ubuntu 16.04. Allows you to test and play with the upcoming LibreOffice version to your heart's delight without having to switch to a development version of Ubuntu." Instructions for downloading and installing the LibreOffice snap package can be found on the Sky From Me blog.
Speaking of snap packages, it looks as though snaps will be showing up on multiple Linux distributions in the near future. The Ubuntu Insights website explains: "Developers from multiple Linux distributions and companies today announced collaboration on the snap universal Linux package format, enabling a single binary package to work perfectly and securely on any Linux desktop, server, cloud or device. This community is working at snapcraft.io to provide a single publication mechanism for any software in any Linux environment. This release quotes Dell, Samsung, the Linux Foundation, The Document Foundation, Krita, Mycroft, Horizon Computing, contributors to Arch, Debian, OpenWrt, Ubuntu, and several of their related distributions. According to the post, snap packages can currently be used on many distributions including Arch, Debian, Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distributions. Snap packages are being tested and should soon work on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Gentoo, and openSUSE. Further details can be found on the Insights website.
* * * * *
Once Fedora 24 has been released (which should happen very soon), it will be possible for Fedora users to upgrade from version 23 to version 24 from within the distribution's graphical package manager. Fedora Magazine explains: "Shortly after the Fedora 24 release, you can upgrade to the newest Fedora Workstation using the built-in Software app (gnome-software). The Software app has always provided the ability to process updates. But to upgrade to the latest Fedora - for example, Fedora 22 to 23 - you had to use the command line. But that's about to change for users running a fully-updated Fedora 23 system. The Software app on Fedora 23 will soon let you upgrade your whole system to Fedora 24 without the command line." Details are available in the Fedora Magazine article.
* * * * *
The Antergos project released updated installation media last week, making snapshot 2016.06.14 available for users to download. The Antergos blog post accompanying the new snapshot mentions this will be the last time the project will publish 32-bit installation images. "We are discontinuing the 32-bit versions of our install media. This will be the last release that includes 32-bit media. This change applies to the install media only. We will continue to maintain 32-bit packages in our repository for the foreseeable future."
* * * * *
Antergos was not the only project last week to announce it is phasing out older technology. The openSUSE website features a post which says the distribution's rolling release edition (Tumbleweed) is migrating from version 5 to version 6 of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). "Tumbleweed 20160613 snapshot will be the last snapshot to be based on GCC 5, according to the openSUSE Project's Dominique Leuenberger. GCC 6 will become the new default compiler, but the release date of the snapshot is difficult to predict right now because Tumbleweed is competing with builds allocated for the next Alpha 2 release of openSUSE Leap 42.2, which is scheduled to be release next week before the openSUSE Conference." Additional information on changes coming to openSUSE Tumbleweed can be found in the project's announcement.
* * * * *
The GeckoLinux project, which provides a desktop-oriented distribution based on openSUSE, has released a new version of GeckoLinux. The new version provides a rolling release model and is based on openSUSE's Tumbleweed branch. "GeckoLinux is pleased to announce the release of a new family of 'Rolling' spins, based on the openSUSE Tumbleweed distribution to complement the 'Static' spins that are based on openSUSE Leap. The openSUSE Tumbleweed branch is unique in the sphere of rolling Linux distributions thanks to the extensive and automated testing performed by the openQA. This results in a highly stable and yet extremely current Linux distribution, with multiple release snapshots every week. GeckoLinux 'Rolling' builds on the Tumbleweed base with all of the typical GeckoLinux configuration changes, a live installable ISO image, optimal software selection, polished defaults, and eight (8) customized spins for all of the major desktop environments." Specific information on each live spin can be found in the project's release announcement.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
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Getting to know how the system works
Digging-deeper asks: I want to learn how Linux works, how all the pieces fit together. I've been running Ubuntu for about a year and I'm pretty comfortable with it and the command line. Where should I turn to next to education myself on Linux? I've heard of Linux From Scratch, but I'm not sure I know enough programming to handle it. Do you have some suggestions?
DistroWatch answers: Linux From Scratch (LFS) is a fine resource and there is nothing wrong with exploring it. I don't think you will need any programming experience to build LFS, just patience while you wait for the components to build from their source code. The LFS guide will certainly give you a lot of insight into the low-level components of a GNU/Linux operating system and the work which goes into making a Linux distribution. However, I think if you want to learn how to use Linux instead of how to build Linux, you might consider some alternatives.
When learning how to use a GNU/Linux operating system, I think you can start exploring with any distribution, including Ubuntu. Each distribution uses slightly different names for packages and may place files in different locations, but they tend to work in similar ways. So if you're comfortable with Ubuntu already, feel free to start exploring there. Continue to explore the command line, look into automating tasks with scripts, maybe set up a home file server and see where the journey leads.
If you want a more intense educational experience then you might want to explore a distribution which does less for you, but still does not require that you compile packages from source code (like LFS does). The Arch Linux distribution would probably suit the task and the Arch wiki has some of the best documentation in the Linux community. The first time you install Arch Linux (or any other distribution) I recommend installing it in a virtual machine to avoid messing up your existing operating system.
Finally, I would suggest looking at a couple of educational books. Off the top of my head, How Linux Works, A Practical Guide to the Linux Command Line and Linux Bible all come to mind as excellent learning resources. These books will begin by exploring the basics of the command line, take you through shell scripting, setting up services and generally becoming adapt at running a Linux desktop or server. While it can be fun to dive into learning an operating system on your own, I have found following a textbook means benefiting from the wisdom (not just the knowledge) of the authors.
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Past Questions and Answers columns can be found in our Q&A Archive.
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
Bittorrent is a great way to transfer large files, particularly open source operating system images, from one place to another. Most bittorrent clients recover from dropped connections automatically, check the integrity of files and can re-download corrupted bits of data without starting a download over from scratch. These characteristics make bittorrent well suited for distributing open source operating systems, particularly to regions where Internet connections are slow or unstable.
Many Linux and BSD projects offer bittorrent as a download option, partly for the reasons listed above and partly because bittorrent's peer-to-peer nature takes some of the strain off the project's servers. However, some projects do not offer bittorrent as a download option. There can be several reasons for excluding bittorrent as an option. Some projects do not have enough time or volunteers, some may be restricted by their web host provider's terms of service. Whatever the reason, the lack of a bittorrent option puts more strain on a distribution's bandwidth and may prevent some people from downloading their preferred open source operating system.
With this in mind, DistroWatch plans to give back to the open source community by hosting and seeding bittorrent files. For now, we are hosting a small number of distribution torrents, listed below. The list of torrents offered will be updated each week and we invite readers to e-mail us with suggestions as to which distributions we should be hosting. When you message us, please place the word "Torrent" in the subject line, make sure to include a link to the ISO file you want us to seed. To help us maintain and grow this free service, please consider making a donation.
The table below provides a list of torrents we currently host. If you do not currently have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found here. All torrents we make available here are also listed on the very useful Linux Tracker website. Thanks to Linux Tracker we are able to share the following torrent statistics.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 205
- Total data uploaded: 37.4TB
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| Released Last Week |
Baruwa Enterprise Edition 6.8
Andrew Colin Kissa has announced the release of Baruwa Enterprise Edition (also called BaruwaOS), version 6.8, a new release of the project's commercial distribution built from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux: "Today we are issuing Baruwa Enterprise Edition release - BaruwaOS 6.8. This release tracks the upstream base OS's update 6.8. Baruwa now supports the ACME client protocol. This allows for requesting of certificates from ACME compatible Certificate Authorities, such as CertBot formerly known as Let's Encrypt, a free and open CA which issues browser recognized certificates. Baruwa will now request Certbot certificates for the HTTPS and SMTP TLS services, if you do not have a CA issued certificate. Certbot certificates are supported by a wide range of browsers so you should no longer have the warnings generated when using the Baruwa CA auto generated certificates." Read the brief release announcement as well as the much more detailed release notes for further information. Free trial editions of BaruwaOS are available for download from the project's home page, while commercial variants start at US$58 per month.
Robolinux 8.5
The Robolinux project, a Debian-based desktop distribution, has announced the launch of Robolinux 8.5. The new release is available in four editions (Cinnamon, LXDE, MATE and Xfce) and is based on Debian 8 "Jessie". Past editions of Robolinux have been free to try, but required a purchase to install and this has changed with the latest release as the distribution is now free to install. "Robolinux is extremely pleased and excited to announce its new upgraded Robolinux 8.5 'Raptor' Cinnamon, Mate, Xfce & LXDE with 32- & 64-bit versions. Undoubtedly the biggest news is that all 16 Robolinux 7 & 8 Live versions now come with a free OS installer and can be downloaded for free on SourceForge. Please permit me to say it again: There is no more charge for our OS installer which was how we funded third party Linux application developers! Gaming enthusiasts will be thrilled because we added Steam to v8.5. We also updated Stealth VM and the Robolinux C Drive to VM for Windows XP, 7 & 10 so it works with VirtualBox 5.0 and above which is great news for Linux Mint and Ubuntu users! Please note: VirtualBox 5.0 is not yet compatible with Debian 8." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
Parrot Security OS 3.0
Parrot Security OS 3.0 has been released. Parrot Security OS is a Debian-based distribution featuring a collection of tools designed for penetration testing, computer forensics, reverse engineering, hacking, privacy and cryptography. There is no release announcement about the project's major new release, but this features page provides useful information about the product: "'Forensic' boot option to avoid boot automounts; most famous digital forensic tools and frameworks out of the box; reliable acquisition and imaging tools; top-class analysis software; evidence management and reporting tools; disabled automount; software blockdev write protection system; custom anti-forensic tools; custom interfaces for GPG; custom interfaces for cryptsetup; support for LUKS, Truecrypt and VeraCrypt; NUKE patch for cryptsetup LUKS disks; encrypted system installation; AnonSurf; entire system anonymization; Tor and I2P out of the box; DNS requests anonymization...."
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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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| Opinion Poll |
Revisiting 32-bit vs 64-bit OSes
About a year ago we asked our readers how many were using 32-bit operating systems verses 64-bit operating systems. Over the past year a handful of distributions have dropped (or are phasing out) 32-bit support. We would like to revisit the subject and find out how many of you are running 32-bit vs 64-bit operating systems.
If you are still using a 32-bit operating system, please let us know why in the comments. Is it a matter of having older hardware, trying to save space in memory or have you run into trouble using 64-bit software?
You can see the results of our previous poll on IPv6 adoption here. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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32-bit vs 64-bit x86
| I use 32-bit only: | 233 (10%) |
| I use 64-bit only: | 1293 (55%) |
| I use a mix of 32- and 64-bit: | 819 (35%) |
| I use another architecture: | 7 (0%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Improved package searches
One search feature people have been requesting for a while is the ability to find distributions which offer a package that is newer than (or older than) a given version. For example, perhaps you have wanted to find distributions shipping VLC 2.2 or newer or distributions which ship older versions of Wordpress.
Last week we updated our Search page to make package searches more flexible. People can now search for distributions which include a package newer than, older than, similar to or exactly equal to a specified version. The default continues to be finding packages of a similar version. When no version is specified, the system will try to find packages close to the upstream project's latest release.
We are continuing to make our Search page faster and more flexible, but with any new features come unexpected bugs. Please let us know if you experience any problems.
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June 2016 DistroWatch.com donation: Devil-Linux
We are pleased to announce the recipient of the June 2016 DistroWatch.com donation is Devil-Linux. The project receives US$400.00 in cash.
The Devil-Linux project describes itself as follows: "Devil-Linux is a distribution which boots and runs completely from CD-ROM or USB flash drive. The configuration can be saved to a floppy diskette or a USB pen drive. Devil-Linux was originally intended to be a dedicated firewall/router but now Devil-Linux can also be used as a dedicated server for many applications. Attaching an optional hard drive is easy, and many network services are included in the distribution. Because boot/OS and (optionally) configuration (in a tarball) are stored on read-only media, Devil-Linux offers high security with easy and safe upgrades, the system being fully configurable with no writeable system device.
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. Those readers who wish to contribute towards these donations, please use our advertising page to make a payment (PayPal, credit cards, Yandex Money and crypto currencies are accepted). 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), Squid ($250), Libre Graphics Meeting ($300), Bacula ($250), FileZilla ($300), GCompris ($352), Xiph.org ($250), Clonezilla ($250), Debian Multimedia ($280), Geany ($300), Mageia ($470), gtkpod ($300)
- 2011: CGSecurity ($300), OpenShot ($300), Imagination ($250), Calibre ($300), RIPLinuX ($300), Midori ($310), vsftpd ($300), OpenShot ($350), Trinity Desktop Environment ($300), LibreCAD ($300), LiVES ($300), Transmission ($250)
- 2012: GnuPG ($350), ImageMagick ($350), GNU ddrescue ($350), Slackware Linux ($500), MATE ($250), LibreCAD ($250), BleachBit ($350), cherrytree ($260), Zim ($335), nginx ($250), LFTP ($250), Remastersys ($300)
- 2013: MariaDB ($300), Linux From Scratch ($350), GhostBSD ($340), DHCP ($300), DOSBox ($250), awesome ($300), DVDStyler ($280), Tor ($350), Tiny Tiny RSS ($350), FreeType ($300), GNU Octave ($300), Linux Voice ($510)
- 2014: QupZilla ($250), Pitivi ($370), MediaGoblin ($350), TrueCrypt ($300), Krita ($340), SME Server ($350), OpenStreetMap ($350), iTALC ($350), KDE ($400), The Document Foundation ($400), Tails ($350)
- 2015: AWStats ($300), Haiku ($300), Xiph.Org ($300), GIMP ($350), Kodi ($300), Devuan ($300), hdparm ($350), HardenedBSD ($400), TestDisk ($450)
- 2016: KeePass ($400), Slackware Live Edition ($406), Devil-Linux ($400)
Since the launch of the Donations Program in March 2004, DistroWatch has made 145 donations for a total of US$46,081 to various open-source software projects.
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Distributions added to waiting list
- Escuelas Linux. Escuelas Linux is a Spanish language distribution based on Bodhi Linux. It is designed to be used in educational environments.
- LibraZiK. A French community-based distribution, oriented on audio creation, based on Debian Jessie.
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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, 27 June 2016. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Linux Mangaka
Linux Mangaka was a desktop Linux distribution originally designed primarily for the fans of Japanese Manga and Anime, but eventually evolving into a complete, beginner-friendly operating system with complete multimedia support. Based on Ubuntu with GNOME and Google desktop, the distribution includes a large variety of programs for graphics design, many freely available Google applications, a number of games, and an innovative set of desktop themes.
Status: Discontinued
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