 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 768, 18 June 2018 |
|
Welcome to this year's 25th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
A few years back the Debian project held a debate on the subject of which init software would best serve the distribution and its users. The Debian team ultimately decided to migrate from SysV init to systemd. Some developers, unhappy with the change, created a fork of Debian called Devuan and the young Devuan project released its second stable version just over a week ago. The new version, which carries the code name "ASCII", is the subject of our first review this week. In our Opinion Poll we ask which of the many init implementations for Linux and BSD is your favourite. Our second review column this week covers a cross-platform software build tool called pkgsrc, which offers users a way to build source packages on multiple operating systems. We provide an overview of pkgsrc, how to install it and how to use it in our Software Review. In our News second we talk about Red Hat Enterprise Linux being used on the world's fastest super computer and openSUSE providing support for a range of ARM-powered computers. Plus we talk about a new filesystem for Linux called NOVA and a new method for handling cron output on OpenBSD. We then share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Devuan GNU+Linux 2.0.0 "ASCII"
- News: The world's fastest super computer runs Red Hat, openSUSE's supported ARM devices, new NOVA filesystem coming to Linux, OpenBSD offers better handling of cron output
- Software review: Building packages with pkgsrc
- Released last week: deepin 15.6, NethServer 7.5, UCS 4.3-1
- Torrent corner: Berry, deepin, NethServer, Parabola, Plamo, Robolinux, Sparky, Univention, Untangle, Zeroshell
- Opinion poll: Preferred init software
- Reader comments
|
| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Devuan GNU+Linux 2.0.0 "ASCII"
A few years ago, when the Debian project opted to switch from using SysV init software to the more modern systemd alternative, the Devuan project was formed to provide a Debian-like operating system which continued to use SysV init. It took about two years for the Devuan project to get all of its infrastructure in place and release its first stable release, but the developers generally managed to deliver on their goal to provide a fork of Debian than was (by default) free of the systemd software.
The Devuan team has recently published their second stable release, codename ASCII. Devuan 2.0.0 is approximately equivalent to Debian 9 Stretch in the packages and technology it provides. Though, as before, systemd has been stripped from Devuan and SysV init is available in its place. The release announcement mentions the OpenRC service manager is also available as an alternative to systemd at install time.
Devuan 2.0.0 runs on 32-bit and 64-bit x86 processors and there are also a handful of builds for ARM-powered computers like the Raspberry Pi. I decided to try the 64-bit option and found it is available in multiple flavours, including a live disc, an install disc and a minimal disc. I downloaded a live disc that was 1GB in size and featured the Xfce desktop environment.
Booting from the live disc brings up a menu asking if we would like to start the live desktop environment, load the operating system into RAM and then launch the desktop or boot with failsafe options. Whichever option we choose, the system quickly loads from the disc and displays the Xfce desktop.
The live desktop session features a theme and wallpaper which combines grey and purple to produce a visually uninteresting first impression. There is a panel housing the application menu, task switcher and system tray at the top of the screen. At the bottom of the display we find a dock with some quick-launch icons for the file manager, web browser and virtual terminal. On the desktop are icons for opening the file manager, reading the distribution's release notes, launching the installer and changing the desktop font sizes. I really like the ability to increase or decrease font sizes with a click as it is a feature that often takes digging through multiple configuration screens. Unfortunately, the text labels under the desktop icons do not handle being resized well. When we first start using Devuan, the text under the icons reads "Small", "Large" and "_Release Notes". Increasing the size one notch makes the text read "SM", "LA" and "_RE".
Devuan GNU+Linux 2.0.0 -- Reading the release notes
(full image size: 104kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
The release notes are relatively brief, but provide information on such topics as non-free firmware (it is included for wireless support) and default repositories (non-free and contrib repositories are disabled). Default account usernames and passwords are also mentioned. While brief, the documentation gives us a good idea of what we will be starting with if we install Devuan.
Installing
Devuan has its own system installer. While there is a text-based version available, launching the installer from the live desktop opens a graphical installer. I believe it is worth covering the installer's many steps because it is almost certainly the longer installation process I have gone through to date.
First, we are asked for the root password, which is available in the release notes file. Then we are shown a screen warning us the installer's windows may not fit on small screens (or display properly in a virtual machine) and, in that case, we should use the text installer. Then I was warned that the grub-pc package was missing and might need to be installed manually, though the reason for this was unclear. We are then shown a long list of file system options, such as placing /home on a separate partition, using encryption and whether to use UUIDs in place of traditional device names in the system's fstab file. It is important to read through the entire list and toggle the right options because this will affect future options we will be shown and determine how the installer sets up our operating system. After that, we are asked to manually set up partitions using the GParted desktop software or the cfdisk text console partition manager. Then we are asked which partition should be used for the root file system and, in my case, which device will host the /home partition. Devuan supports working with just the ext2/3/4 file systems.
Next, we move onto selecting our time zone from a list. We are asked which language locales should be set up, with options being pulled from a cryptic list with entries like "en_US.UTF-8". We then select our keyboard layout from a similar set of lists. The installer then switches over to a terminal to ask if it should proceed with formatting our hard drive. Files are copied to our drive and then I was asked an unusual question. I was shown a screen with three options, with the first being to copy files to a /target directory and install the GRUB boot loader packages. The second was to open a chroot environment to perform custom actions. The third was to "continue" without installing a boot loader. I took the "copy files" option, half expecting it to fail since I'd been warned the grub-pc package was missing, but the installer accepted my choice and moved on.
We are then shown a screen asking us to create a user account. The account can be given sudo access, with additional options to "use sudo by default" and to "use sudo for shutdown only". These options don't have a clear explanation, but I think the last one implies any user with sudo access can shutdown the computer. The following screens get us to create a password for ourselves and the root account and then the installer disappears, apparently finished.
Early impressions
Honestly, after the long install process with odd file system, GRUB and user configuration options, I did not have high hopes that Devuan would boot the first time I went through the installation, but it did. The operating system booted and presented me with a graphical login screen where I could sign into the Xfce 4.12 desktop.
Devuan GNU+Linux 2.0.0 -- The application menu
(full image size: 93kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
The desktop was uncluttered, there were virtually no pop-ups, no welcome screen and no distractions. Xfce was pleasantly responsive. At first I wasn't a fan of the dock at the bottom of the screen taking up real estate, but I grew to appreciate having quick access to programs I was using on a regular basis.
Hardware
A fresh install of Devuan took up about 3.6GB of disk space and logging into the Xfce desktop required 215MB of RAM. The distribution worked well with my desktop computer's hardware. The system booted quickly, the desktop was responsive and audio was set to a reasonable level. Videos played smoothly and I found Devuan to be stable on my desktop's hardware. My only complaint was that Devuan did not recognize or respond to my keyboard's media keys, such as the volume-up and volume-down controls.
I found Devuan did not integrate into its VirtualBox environment and could not make use of my computer's full screen resolution while running as a guest. Further complicating things, I could not find VirtualBox modules in the distribution's repositories. I was able to install the build-essential package and then build VirtualBox's generic guest modules. After that, I was able to increase Devuan's screen resolution.
Devuan GNU+Linux 2.0.0 -- Running Firefox and LibreOffice
(full image size: 231kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Applications
Devuan ships with an unusual combination of popular open source applications and some less common programs. Popular items include Firefox, LibreOffice, the GNU Image Manipulation Program and the VLC media player. But then we are also given the lesser known Quod Libet music player, the Ex Falso media tag editor and the mutt terminal e-mail client. The Orage Calendar application, a PDF document viewer and printer manager are present too. The Thunar file manager is included along with a tool to rename groups of files and there is a process monitor. Devuan ships with the Wicd network manager to help us get on-line. In the background we find version 4.9 of the Linux kernel.
The operating system includes a handful of tools to adjust the look and behaviour of the Xfce desktop. Most of these worked very well for me and I was able to easily change the theme, fonts and window behaviour. Back when Devuan's release candidate came out, I tested the distribution and run into a problem with the utility which changes the desktop wallpaper. This program would lock-up and use 100% of my CPU, even after the window had been closed. The runaway process had to be killed manually through the task manager. I was pleased to find that problem had been fixed by the time the final Devuan 2.0.0 release was published. This was perhaps the only significant difference I encountered between testing the release candidate and the final release.
Earlier I mentioned Devuan did not work with my keyboard's media keys and I believe that goes hand-in-hand with another issue: Devuan does not have a volume control widget in the system tray. There is a PulseAudio control panel we can launch from the Xfce application menu, but by default there is no global volume control; each application is left to handle audio volume (or not) on its own.
Managing software
Software on Devuan can be handled through the Synaptic package manager or by using the APT command line tools. Synaptic is a fast and capable package manager which can install, remove and upgrade software. It can also perform simple searches and configure software repositories. Synaptic handles package installs and upgrades in batches rather than queuing actions in the background like most modern software centres. It also takes a package-oriented view of managing software rather than focusing on desktop software, the way mintInstall and GNOME Software do. I was happy to find Synaptic performed its actions quickly and without any problems.
Devuan GNU+Linux 2.0.0 -- Managing packages with Synaptic
(full image size: 183kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Much of Devuan's software is over a year old at this point and some users may wish to get more up to date desktop software. One way to do this is by using Flatpak packages. While Flatpak support is not included in Devuan by default, the Flatpak framework can be installed from the repositories. This allows us to install and run Flatpak bundles. Projects which supply AppImage packages can also be accessed. Unfortunately Devuan users cannot make use of Snap packages due to that technology's reliance on systemd, which is excluded from Devuan.
Conclusions
When I am trying out a desktop distribution, what really tends to divide the field of Linux distributions in my mind is not whether the system uses MATE or Plasma, or whether the underlying package manager uses RPM or Deb files. What tends to leave a lasting impression with me is whether the desktop environment, its applications and controls feel like a cooperative, cohesive experience or like a jumble of individual tools that happen to be part of the same operating system. In my opinion Ubuntu running the Unity desktop and Linux Mint's Cinnamon desktop are good examples of the cohesive approach. The way openSUSE's administration tools work together provides another example. Like them or hate them, I think most people can see there is an overall design, a unifying vision, being explored with those distributions. I believe Devuan falls into the other category, presenting the user with a collection of utilities and features where some assembly is still required.
This comes across in little ways. For example, many distributions ship Mozilla's Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird e-mail client together as a set, and they generally complement each other. Devuan ships Firefox, but then its counterpart is the mutt console e-mail program which feels entirely out of place with the rest of the desktop software. The PulseAudio sound mixing utility is included, but its system tray companion is not present by default. Even the system installer, which switches back and forth between graphical windows and a text console, feels more like a collection of uncoordinated prompts rather than a unified program or script. Some people may like the mix-and-match approach, but I tend to prefer distributions where it feels like the parts are fitted together to create a unified experience.
Devuan GNU+Linux 2.0.0 -- Running the Falkon browser using Flatpak
(full image size: 352kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
What I found was that Devuan provided an experience where I had to stop and think about where items were or how I was going to use them rather than having the pieces seamlessly fit together. However, once I got the system set up in a way that was more to my liking, I appreciated the experience provided. Devuan offers a stable, flexible platform. Once I shaped the operating system a little, I found it to be fast, light and capable. Having a fairly large repository of software available along with Flatpak support provided a solid collection of applications on a conservative operating system foundation. It was a combination I liked.
In short, I think Devuan has some rough edges and setting it up was an unusually long and complex experience by Linux standards. I certainly wouldn't recommend Devuan to newcomers. However, a day or two into the experience, Devuan's stability and performance made it a worthwhile journey. I think Devuan may be a good alternative to people who like running Debian or other conservative distributions such as Slackware. I suspect I may soon be running Devuan's Raspberry Pi build on my home server where its lightweight nature will be welcome.
* * * * *
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 2.8GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
Devuan GNU+Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9/10 from 171 review(s).
Have you used Devuan GNU+Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
The world's fastest super computer runs Red Hat, openSUSE's supported ARM devices, new NOVA filesystem coming to Linux, OpenBSD offers better handling of cron output
Several news sites have reported that the world has a new fastest super computer, capable of performing 200,000 trillion calculations per second (200 petaflops). The new super computer, named Summit, was built by IBM and uses a combination of Power9 processors and NVIDIA graphics cards. The computer's operating system: Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Network World reports: "If you knew that the top ten fastest supercomputers in the world today all run a variant of Linux, Red Hat's role in Summit might not be such a surprise. But don't stop there. The benefit to users of having a familiar OS (many national labs and research centers run Red Hat Enterprise Linux on their systems) makes Summit approachable in a way that older supercomputers have generally not been. The requirements for flexibility and scalability required for IT operations are considerably more important when it comes to supercomputing with its highly specialized components. Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides stability, support, and its open nature."
* * * * *
At the end of May the openSUSE team released version 15 of their distribution. The openSUSE distribution not only runs on laptops, workstations and servers, it is now also available on a wide range of ARM single board computers. Douglas DeMaio writes: "The release of openSUSE Leap 15 two weeks ago is following up with its Build to Scale theme by offering images for Raspberry Pis, Beagle Boards, Arndale board, CuBox-i computers, OLinuXino and more. openSUSE has plenty of supported ARM boards to allow makers to simply create. openSUSE is providing makers the tools to start, run and grow a project on micro devices to large hardware. The new, fresh and hardened code base that supports modern hardware is stable and offers a full scope of deployments. Makers can leverage openSUSE Leap 15 images for aarch64 and ARMv7 on Internet of Things (IoT) and embedded devices. Since openSUSE Leap 15 shares a common core with SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) 15 sources, makers who find success with a project or device can more comfortably transition to an enterprise product in the future should certifications become a requirement." A list of supported ARM-powered computers can be found in openSUSE's wiki.
* * * * *
Linux Journal ran an article this past week on a new filesystem for Linux called NOVA (NOn-Volatile memory Accelerated). One of the selling points of NOVA is its ability to run in non-volatile RAM, memory which can be used across reboots. NOVA is also a log-based filesystem which offers some interesting benefits: "One of NOVA's main claims to fame, aside from supporting non-volatile RAM, is that it is a log-based filesystem. Other filesystems generally map out their data structures on disk and update those structures in place. This is good for saving seek-time on optical and magnetic disks. Log-based filesystems write everything sequentially, trailing old data behind them. The old data then can be treated as a snapshot of earlier states of the filesystem, or it can be reclaimed when space gets tight." More on NOVA and its current status can be found in the Linux Journal article.
* * * * *
System administrators have always faced a challenge when it comes to dealing with scheduled tasks. Specifically, each task that runs likely generates output which is e-mailed to the administrator. Most of the messages will be simple confirmations that everything went according to plan, but sometimes the output will indicate something went wrong. It is not a good idea to discard all of the messages and it can be cumbersome to set up filters to deal with the torrent of e-mails. Job Snijders has published a patch for OpenBSD's implementation of cron which allows the administrator to discard all output in cases where jobs complete successfully, but also be e-mailed a command's complete output if the job fails. "To improve the situation I propose to add a simple crontab(5) convenience option called '-n' (mnemonic 'No mail if run successful'). Note that options already are a thing in vixie cron ('-q' has existed for decades?), but are not part of POSIX. With this 'no mail if success' option you can do things like:
* * * * * -n cp -rv src/ dest/
With the above example crontab(5) entry you'll only receive a mail from cron(8) if the cp(1) encountered some kind of error. You'll also have in that e-mail up until what point cp(1) actually was able to copy files." The NetBSD team has already adopted the new cron feature.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Software Review (by Jesse Smith) |
|
Building packages with pkgsrc
The pkgsrc framework is an interesting, cross-platform approach to managing software. The pkgsrc project creates a framework for compiling software on a range of operating systems, allowing users to use the same framework and tools on a variety of operating systems. Or, as the pkgsrc website states:
pkgsrc is a framework for building third-party software on NetBSD and other UNIX-like systems, currently containing over 17,000 packages. It is used to enable freely available software to be configured and built easily on supported platforms.
Using pkgsrc, we can compile open source software on just about any flavour of UNIX-like operating system and have it build and run the same way on each system. The pkgsrc framework has been tested and works on Illumos flavours, macOS, Linux, NetBSD and MINIX. The pkgsrc framework automatically downloads and manages dependencies for us. This takes a lot of the work out of getting up to date software running on a variety of operating systems.
Installing
According to the pkgsrc website, setting up the ports framework should be a straight forward process. We need to run a CVS command to download the framework, change into a directory in the framework and run a command to set up (bootstrap) the framework to work on our system. In theory, this should be accomplished with three commands we can copy and paste from the pkgsrc website:
cvs -danoncvs@anoncvs.netbsd.org:/cvsroot checkout pkgsrc
cd pkgsrc/bootstrap
./bootstrap
The first issue I ran into while setting up pkgsrc was that my distribution (and in fact, I think most Linux distributions) no longer ship the CVS version control software by default. Luckily, most distributions still offer it as a package and I was able to install CVS on my MX Linux box by running "sudo apt install cvs".
The second problem I ran into was the space I had set aside for pkgsrc was not large enough. The pkgsrc framework alone takes up about 1.4GB of disk space. Then, after it has been through the bootstrap process and we have downloaded some source code and built a few packages, pkgsrc can easily take up 4-5GB of space.
Another hurdle I had to cross came about when I tried to run the bootstrap command. This failed, reporting that my echo command was not BSD compatible and that I should try using another shell. I switched from using bash to csh, as I typically use either csh or tcsh on FreeBSD and this seemed to work for a while. Trying to run bootstrap again failed and I was told I'd need to either run the script as the root user or run the script with the parameter "--unprivileged". I went with the latter option.
The bootstrap script went to work for a few minutes, but eventually failed with another error, reporting "unknown variable modifier". This seemed to be an issue with the shell I was running so I switched shells again, swapping out csh for ksh. Running the bootstrap process once more, from ksh, completed the bootstrap process. The script took approximately ten minutes to complete.
Building software
At this point we have a collection of software build recipes which are organized into a tree of directories. Each piece of software we can install is set up in its own directory inside a higher level category directory. This means we can jump into a directory like "net/nmap" or "multimedia/vlc" or other "category/program" pairing. Then the pkgsrc website says we can run "make install" to install the selected program.
At first this did not work, with any attempt at running the make command resulting in the error "missing separator". This is a semi-common problem with GNU's make program and, consulting the documentation (found in a README file in the pkgsrc directory) I learned pkgsrc requires that we use bmake instead of GNU's make. The bmake program can be found in a directory the bootstrap script sets up, called pkg. In my case this meant I could run /home/jesse/pkg/bin/bmake in order to start the build process. I feel it worth mentioning that I also tried using my distribution's own implementation of bmake, but it would not work. Using the version of bmake which ships with MX Linux to build pkgsrc's software always resulted in an error reporting circular dependencies had been detected. Running pkgsrc's bmake in the same directory would successfully resolve dependencies for the desired software.
Installing/Removing software
At this point I felt like everything was in place and I could get to work installing and working with the software pkgsrc provides. I could install new packages by switching into a program's directory and running /home/jesse/pkg/bin/bmake install and remove items by running /home/jesse/pkg/bin/bmake deinstall. Software installed this way would end up in my pkg directory. This meant it was not in my user's normal path and I could not simply type its name to have it run. But I could type the full path, like /home/jesse/pkg/bin/program. As you might suspect, I soon added this location to my path manually to cut down on my typing.
Comparison to other cross-platform software options
In the past, I have written overviews of other cross-platform package managers and approaches. I have talked about Nix as well as Flatpak, Snap and AppImage. Each approach has some pros and cons to it. Nix, for example, is fairly easy to set up and provides package version snapshots, allowing us to roll back broken updates. Flatpak works well across Linux distributions, but is awkward to use from the command line and appears to be focused on just providing desktop software. Snap is easy to use, but is set up to use just one repository by default and has trouble working on Linux systems that do not feature systemd. AppImage is highly portable, but usually does not have a central package manager.
In comparison, what sets pkgsrc apart is it is designed to work across many operating systems. The pkgsrc framework should work about the same, whether we are running it on MINIX, Debian or NetBSD. This makes pkgsrc much more flexible than the approaches mentioned above.
The downside to using pkgsrc is, when it is used outside its native NetBSD, it's more difficult to set up. The documentation seems to assume we are running the framework on NetBSD (or another flavour of BSD) and I had to go through some trial and error to get any software to compile. Unfortunately, even once I could build some packages, pkgsrc failed to successfully build most items I tried to install. This makes me think the pkgsrc contributors probably do not test ports across each platform.
Ultimately, pkgsrc is the most flexible portable software management tool of the ones mentioned in this article. However, at the moment, it is also the one I have had the least success with as far as getting software running on my operating system. Unlike the other portable package managers (like Nix and Flatpak), pkgsrc requires the user to compile software from source code which makes installing new software a slower process.
I think pkgsrc is probably best suited to more niche platforms, like MINIX, where the operating system's existing package manager is unlikely to be able to provide the software we want. On most Linux distributions, which have larger repositories of pre-packaged applications, pkgsrc is less practical.
|
| Released Last Week |
NethServer 7.5
Alessio Fattorini has announced the release of NethServer 7.5. The NethServer distribution is based on CentOS and provides a friendly, web-based administration panel. The project's latest release includes the Fail2Ban security software, the ability to set up wi-fi hotspots and more flexible control over software updates. "We have deployed a new panel to manage the software center. It allows to select how NethServer deals with upstream updates and configures automatic software updates. The Locked policy is selected automatically when CentOS releases a new minor version. It limits updates to repositories specific to the current version When NethServer is ready to upgrade, the new upgrade procedure can be started. The software center section of the Admin's manual was updated accordingly. Read it carefully! Icaro Hotspot - Hotspot's main goal is to provide Internet connectivity via wi-fi to casual users. Users are sent to a captive portal from which they can access the network by authenticating themselves via social login, SMS or e-mail. Icaro is a complete Hotspot written in Go and Vue.js. It uses CoovaChilli as access controller which can be configured and installed inside NethServer." Further information and screen shots of the new features can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
Univention Corporate Server 4.3-1
Univention Corporate Server (UCS) is a Debian-based server distribution that offers an integrated management system for central administration of servers, Microsoft Active Directory-compatible domain services, and functions for parallel operation of virtualised server and desktop operating systems. The Univention team has published a point release update for the distribution's 4.3 series, Univention Corporate Server 4.3-1. The release announcement mentions the following changes: "The UMC system diagnostic module has been extended with additional tests. They support the administrator to check the system health of the UCS system and the whole domain. The management system usability and configurability has been expanded. The expected usability has been improved in several places, for example when configuring email addresses or DNS settings. A content-security-policy has been integrated in the UCS management system to increase the browser security by protecting web cookies. Various security updates have been integrated into UCS 4.3-1, e.g. Apache2, the Linux kernel and Samba4. A complete list is available in the release notes."
Untangle NG Firewall 14.0
Untangle NG Firewall is a Debian-based network gateway with pluggable modules for network applications like spam blocking, web filtering, anti-virus, anti-spyware, intrusion prevention, VPN, SSL VPN, firewall, and more. The project's latest release, version 14.0, offers more control over VPN connections and directing traffic based on the port and protocol being used. "Key updates provide more control, more visibility and lower costs for SD-WAN. Tunnel VPN connections can bind to specific WANs, allowing configuration of multiple tunnels for multi-WAN sites and ensuring each tunnel is using the desired physical WAN connection. Administrators can direct traffic to the most desirable WAN connection based on criteria like ports and protocols. Tunnels can be set up without NAT so that the cloud firewall has full visibility into the network. This gives the ability to centralize policies across the whole network from the cloud firewall." Additional information can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
deepin 15.6
deepin is a Debian-based Linux distribution which strives to provide an attractive and user-friendly experience via the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE). The project's latest release, deepin 15.6, features a new welcome window and a quick settings navigation bar. There is also a new launcher window, designed to use less screen space along with a new user's manual. "The newly added welcome program demonstrates and guides deepin personalization. When boot after deepin installation, the welcome program will be automatically shown, playing video introduction and guiding you to set desktop mode and icon theme, which can be opened later by clicking "dde-introduction" icon in Launcher. The navigation bar sticks on the left of the Control Center. Click the module icon on the left to quickly skip to the settings you want, no need to scroll up and down any more. Moreover, display scaling function is integrated in Control Center for HiDPI screens." Further information and screen shots can be found in the project's release announcement.
deepin 15.6 -- The settings panel
(full image size: 1.3MB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not 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 in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 899
- Total data uploaded: 20.1TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll |
Preferred init software
We began this week's issue with an overview of Devuan GNU+Linux, a distribution which got its start by providing a Debian-like experience with an alternative init software. These days there are a lot of init implementations available in the open source ecosystem, ranging from the classic SysV init, to the legacy Upstart, the widely used systemd, and a handful of others. There are some more interesting init projects like Void's runit and OpenRC. This week we would like to find our which init software is your favourite.
If your distribution currently does not run your preferred init software, please let us know in the comments which init implementation your distribution currently uses and which one you would like to be running.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running Android-x86 on laptop computers and workstations in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Preferred init software
| Busybox init: | 18 (1%) |
| nosh: | 7 (0%) |
| OpenRC: | 260 (13%) |
| RC: | 31 (2%) |
| runit: | 147 (7%) |
| s6: | 51 (3%) |
| systemd: | 656 (33%) |
| SysV init: | 759 (38%) |
| Upstart: | 29 (1%) |
| Other: | 39 (2%) |
|
|
| DistroWatch.com News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 25 June 2018. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. 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)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 1, value: US$1.50) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| 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.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Haansoft Linux
Haansoft Linux was a Korean Linux distribution based on Fedora Core. It was developed by Haansoft, a member of the Asianux consortium and a leading developer of Linux-based software in South Korea.
Status: Discontinued
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
