 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 791, 26 November 2018 |
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Welcome to this year's 48th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
While we usually talk about Linux distributions, with the occasional trek into BSD Land, there are a lot of open source operating systems out there. Most of them are smaller projects, often with good ideas or interesting goals, but lower visibility compared to their Linux cousins. This week we begin with a look at the noteworthy Haiku project, which strives to make a modern version of the once-popular BeOS platform. Haiku published its first beta release earlier this year and we have details on the release below, in our Feature Story. Our Opinion Poll this week also revolves around Haiku as we would like to know if the operating system fulfills your computing needs. In our Tips and Tricks section we talk about default passwords on live media, an often annoying hurdle in trying a new operating system. Plus we talk about the Slax and Linux Kodachi projects publishing minor updates to their ISO files. We are also pleased to share the new releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (13MB) and MP3 (10MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Haiku R1 Beta1
Haiku is an open source operating system and the spiritual successor to BeOS. Haiku is a single-user operating system which offers a highly responsive desktop interface and strives to be easy to use. Development of Haiku started in 2001 and the initial release came out in 2002. Development of Haiku has been gradual and the project released its first beta in September of 2018.
According to the project's release notes, Haiku requires just 256MB of memory and 3GB of disk space. The operating system includes a number of useful utilities, a virtual terminal, a system installer and a web browser (called WebPositive). Haiku's first beta also includes a new network connection tool and a different approach to package management.
By far the largest change in this release is the addition of a complete package management system. Finalized and merged during 2013 thanks to a series of contracts funded from donations, Haiku's package management system is unique in a variety of ways. Rather than keeping a database of installed files with a set of tools to manage them, Haiku packages are a special type of compressed filesystem image, which is 'mounted' upon installation (and thereafter on each boot) by the packagefs, a kernel component. This means that the /system/ hierarchy is now read-only, since it is merely an amalgamation of the presently installed packages at the system level (and the same is true for the ~/config/ hierarchy, which contains all the packages installed at the user level), ensuring that the system files themselves are incorruptible.
The download for Haiku is a compressed archive 887MB in size. Unpacking the archive gives us an ISO file that is about 1.1GB. Booting from the provided media brings up a window asking us to select our preferred language from a list. We can then launch the Haiku system installer or try the live desktop environment.
The live desktop features seven icons lined up along the top of the screen. Over in the upper-right corner of the desktop is an application menu (represented by a blue feather), a system tray and a list of open windows. The desktop seems designed to use space as efficiently as possible; the visible elements are mostly small and tucked away into the corners.
Haiku R1 Beta1 -- The application menu
(full image size: 132kB, resolution: 1280x1024)
Looking over the desktop icons we find some that open the file manager, one which opens BeBook (which appears to be a developer guide), one that opens a welcome document and one that opens the user guide. The welcome document and user guide both provide some useful tips on using the desktop, installing wireless network support and the file system layout. The documentation is clear, features examples and often includes screen shots.
Installing
Haiku's system installer can be launched from the live desktop's greeter or from an icon on the desktop. The installer is very short and simple. We are asked to select the location of source packages (with the default location being the DVD). The only other thing the installer wants to know is where Haiku should be installed with available partitions being shown in a drop-down box. If no suitable partition is available we can click a button to launch DiveSetup, a graphical partition manager similar to GParted. Once we have selected an empty partition, the installer copies its files to the hard drive. The entire install process takes about 30 seconds. When it is finished, we can continue to use the live environment or restart the computer to use our new copy of Haiku.
Early impressions
The locally installed copy of Haiku boots directly to the desktop. The installed desktop is virtually identical to the live desktop, except the system installer icon has been removed. The graphical interface is amazingly responsive with new programs and windows opening almost instantly.
Something that took me a while to get used to is Haiku's windows are not entirely rectangular as on most other modern operating systems. Haiku's windows have a little tab that sticks out of the top that acts as the title bar and includes buttons to close and maximize windows. I also found maximizing a window does grow the window while avoiding covering the application menu. This feature, along with the upper window tab, means maximized windows leave empty screen space above and to the right (ie. they don't look maximized).
Haiku's application menu features options for accessing files, shutting down the computer, or browsing installed programs. There are also menu trees for accessing settings and demo programs. Each menu tree is arranged in alphabetical order without any sub-menus for categories of programs. I suspect that, over time, this will make the menus quite full and increasingly slower to navigate. However, in its default state, I found the menu tress easy to explore and most applications are clearly labelled; program names tend to match their functionality. For example, the archive manager is called Expander, the partition manager is called DriveSetup, and the addressbook is simply called People.
Hardware
I experimented with Haiku in a VirtualBox virtual machine and on my physical workstation. When I tried running Haiku on the physical machine the operating system failed to complete the boot process. The graphical splash screen would display for a few seconds, but the system would lock up prior to getting the to desktop. This happened when booting in both UEFI and legacy BIOS modes.
When running in VirtualBox, Haiku did not integrate with the host environment. I was, however, able to make use of my system's full screen resolution by adjusting the display dimensions in Haiku's Screen configuration tool. The virtual machine used a lot of my host's CPU. Even when Haiku was idle, VirtualBox was using 25% of my host's CPU resources. Running a simple application such as the resource monitor in Haiku raised that usage to 35%.
Haiku has a pleasantly small footprint, using about 350MB of RAM when sitting idle at the desktop. The operating system, once installed, used 2.7GB of disk space, which is relatively light compared to most modern Linux distributions.
Applications
Haiku comes with several applications already installed. The WebKit-based WebPositive browser is featured, along with a Mail client. There is also a simple media player, the Pe text editor, a partition manager and a disk usage monitor. There is an audio recorder, a contact manager and a very simple web server called PoorMan which allows us to share a directory over the HTTP protocol. There is an application called TV which just shows a test pattern image and, so far as I could tell, won't do anything else as the menu for channels contains no additional entries. There is an IRC client called Vision, which is a rare exception to Haiku's obvious naming scheme for applications.
Haiku R1 Beta1 -- Reading documentation in WebPositive
(full image size: 128kB, resolution: 1280x1024)
If we open a virtual terminal, Haiku presents us with the Bash shell. From the shell we can use most Unix command line tools, view manual pages and connect to remote computers using OpenSSH. The GNU Compiler Collection is installed for us in case we want to build new applications.
The media player was able to handle playing audio and video files. Playback was pleasantly smooth, even in the virtual machine environment. The one issue with media playing I ran into was stopping a video and trying to restart it from the beginning would cause the player to stop working. I had to close the player and re-open it to restart a video.
Another quirk I ran into was clicking the Help menu entry in the Pe editor would open WebPositive and display Haiku's website. A more pleasant feature I enjoyed was the terminal would change the colour of the shell prompt depending on whether the previous command had completed successfully. This gave a clear indication as to whether programs were completing their work properly.
A consistent problem I kept running into was Haiku's network connection dropped every few minutes. I could get on-line, visit a web page or two, but then the connection would drop. This would cause WebPositive, or whichever application I was using, to lock-up and refuse to either continue or close. Haiku's applications do not handle losing their network connection gracefully and need to be terminated from the command line.
I tried various different network settings in the hope that using a static IP, or different DNS, or a bridged connection would solve my connection issues. However, in the end, I typically just succeeded in locking up the network manager rather than re-establishing a connection to the Internet. The only reliable solution was to reboot Haiku to bring the network connection back on-line.
Software management
Programs are added to Haiku through a desktop utility called HaikuDepot. The depot is divided into two panes. The top pane displays a list of available applications in alphabetical order. Each entry includes the program's name, an icon and a brief description. Some feature a rating out of five stars. Clicking on an application causes the bottom pane to display a detailed description and a screen shot. Once a program has been highlighted we can install it with a single click.
Haiku R1 Beta1 -- The software manager
(full image size: 125kB, resolution: 1280x1024)
The depot is easy to navigate though it shows a lot of software and there is no separation of applications into different categories, as many modern software managers do. If we are looking for a specific program or an application to handle a specific task we can perform searches using key words. Searching for "office" for example, will bring up the entry for LibreOffice.
While HaikuDepot is easy to navigate, I was never able to successfully complete an installation as my network connection kept dropping. I ran into a similar problem when using the update manager, SoftwareUpdater. The update manager, which must be run manually, displays a list of available updates with a short description next to each. We can then click a button to download the waiting items. When I started using Haiku there were 31 new updates waiting. My network connection never remained stable long enough to download more than 22 of the waiting packages.
Haiku R1 Beta1 -- Software updates
(full image size: 82kB, resolution: 1280x1024)
Conclusions
As you can probably tell by this point, I ran into a number of frustrating problems while using Haiku. The main ones were the network connection constantly dropping every few minutes, and the operating system failing to boot on my workstation. There were some other aspects that I wasn't thrilled about - the title bar being a tab at the top of windows looks weird and inefficient to me, but that is a matter of taste.
Having an operating system which only has one user account and doesn't require passwords is a non-starter for me. Some people may like the convenience and simplicity of having a completely open, one-user system (it does streamline things) but it wouldn't be suitable for any of my environments or devices, apart from my mobile phone.
In short, in my situation and in my environments, Haiku is not a practical option. However, there are several aspects of the operating system and its surrounding project that I think are great. Haiku has unusually clear and well organized documentation. Most open source projects could use Haiku as an example of how to make user guides. There are little details I like, for example the notes on how to set up wireless networks are available locally, on the install media. This is a minor detail, but it's unfortunate how many projects explain how to get on-line in resources which are only available on-line.
Haiku's desktop is clean, the look is consistent across applications and visual elements don't use up much space. It took me some time to get used to having the application menu and task switcher on the right side of the screen instead of the left, but I like the way the desktop is presented.
One of Haiku's best features is that it is fast and responsive. Whether the system is booting, launching programs, browsing the web or displaying a video, the desktop is highly responsive. Everything feels light and reacts almost instantly to input. This is behaviour I usually only see in super light (and minimal) Linux window managers and I really appreciated the how everything happens quickly on Haiku.
So while Haiku is not practical for me, and I'm guessing for many people, I do think there are aspects of the project which should be held up as a good way to do things in the open source community. I must also applaud Haiku's team for porting several applications, including LibreOffice, to their operating system. Haiku has a lot of its own applications, but I think many users will appreciate having ports of popular programs in the HaikuDepot.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8GHz 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
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Visitor supplied rating
Haiku has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.1/10 from 21 review(s).
Have you used Haiku? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Slax and Kodachi update their download media, dual booting DragonFly BSD
The Slax distribution, a live operating system based on Debian, was recently updated to version 9.6.0. The new version was then quickly replaced by a series of minor updates over the course of the week, concluding with Slax 9.6.3. The project's leader, Tomáš Matějíček, explained the reason for the series of minor updates: "While I was repackaging ISO for the 64-bit version of Slax 9.6.1, I used Midnight Commander to extract the ISO contents. Unfortunately I forgot that there is a bug in Midnight Commander and it does not see empty directories. For that reason, the Slax 9.6.2 ISO file did not contain a /slax/changes directory, which is needed for storing persistent changes. You can fix that yourself easily by simply creating that directory. I've already pushed out version 9.6.3, which fixes this."
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The Linux Kodachi project discovered a problem with the software shipped on the distribution's 5.3 release and published new media to address the problem. Unlike the Slax project which bumped its version number for the new media, Kodachi has kept the same version number and published a new checksum on Twitter: "If you have downloaded Kodachi 5.3 before 22-Nov-2018 please re-download again because I have fixed a bug to do with Nordvpn and force traffic via VPN." The tweet includes the new checksum.
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Getting multiple operating systems to play well beside each other on the same disk, a practise known as dual booting, can be tricky. For people who want to run DragonFly BSD on the same hardware as other operating systems on an EFI-enabled computer, the DragonFly BSD Digest blog has some suggestions. "If you were looking to run DragonFly on the same disk as another operating system, Dr. Martin Ivanov has advice for you. Similarly, karu.pruun and Pierre-Alian TORET also have something on EFI booting."
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
Default passwords on live media
One of the questions I see most frequently in my inbox comes from people who have downloaded new installation or live media and found themselves presented with a password prompt. Then, because the default credentials are not included on the distribution's download page or in the release notes, they e-mail me and ask: "What is the default password for <insert project name here>?" It happens fairly frequently and I think it goes to show that many open source developers are not doing a great job of anticipating their users' experiences and communicating key information. I think there are actually four small problems in evidence here:
- There is a password prompt. This usually should not happen on live media. The user should typically be signed in automatically and the screen, ideally, should not lock on a live session, unless the user requests it. If the user is being asked for a password prompt when running from a live disc, it could probably be considered a bug.
- I suspect that a prompt for an unknown password indicates that no one outside the development team is testing the operating system. If you sit a non-techie friend or family member in front of a live disc that boots to a login screen, the first thing they are likely to do is ask what the password is. This is a good sign the prompt should be skipped or the password should be published somewhere obvious. Whenever I see a password prompt on a live disc, the thought crosses my mind: "This operating system has not been subjected to outside testing."
- Related to the second point, if a password prompt is really necessary, then the default, live password should be published somewhere obvious. The release announcement and/or the download page should tell potential users how to login. Otherwise their trial is only going to last 30 seconds and then they will give up.
- Developers often make it difficult to contact them or hard to find the password on their website. People would not be looking up my e-mail address and asking me about sign in credentials for random operating systems if the information were easy to find on the project's website. This only serves to make the operating system seem less user friendly and suggests there is a lack of useful documentation.
As it happens, I usually do not know, off the top of my head, what every distribution's default password is. My memory is pretty good most days, but I have my limits. However, most default usernames and passwords for distributions' live media will be one of the following:
- <blank> (just press Enter to sign in)
- root
- toor (root spelled backwards)
- live
- <the name of the distribution> (SuperOS will probably use "superos" as their username and password)
Whenever you find yourself staring at a password prompt, unsure of what to type, I suggest trying one of the above passwords, then filing an issue with the distribution. If you are stuck that means other people are too and the developers should be made aware there is a problem so they can update their documentation or automate the login procedure.
* * * * *
More tips can be found in our Tips and Tricks archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| 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: 1,134
- Total data uploaded: 22.3TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Does Haiku suit your needs?
In our review this week of Haiku we discussed some of the operating system's perks (such as its light, responsive desktop) and drawbacks (limited hardware support and single-user access). We would like to know what our readers think of Haiku. Does it suit your computing needs? Have you set it up on a relative's computer who just needs to browse the web and check e-mail? Let us know your impressions of Haiku in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on size and frequency of package updates in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Does Haiku suit your needs?
| Haiku does cover all my computing needs: | 95 (8%) |
| Haiku does not cover my needs but works for my friends/family: | 84 (7%) |
| Haiku does not cover my needs or those of my friends/family: | 535 (46%) |
| Not sure yet: | 437 (38%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 3 December 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)
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| Archives |
| • Ussye 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • 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 | 
DEFT Linux
DEFT (Digital Evidence & Forensic Toolkit) was a customised distribution of the Ubuntu live Linux CD. It was an easy-to-use system that includes excellent hardware detection and some of the best open-source applications dedicated to incident response and computer forensics.
Status: Discontinued
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| 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.
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