 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 807, 25 March 2019 |
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Welcome to this year's 12th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
A big part of what makes open source software attractive to developers is the ability to take an existing solution which is nearly what is required and making small additions or modifications to suit the current need. We tend to see this a lot with popular parent distributions, such as Debian and Arch, which provide a lot of useful tools and packages that can be customized into convenient desktop, embedded, or appliance distributions. This week we begin with a review of one of Debian's many children, called Pardus. Pardus 17.5 was released earlier this year and Joshua Allen Holm takes this distribution for a spin in our Feature Story. In our News section we talk about a new version of the pleasantly polished Budgie desktop which is available now in Solus 4.0 and cover a tool for FreeBSD users who wish to fine-tune their operating system. We also talk about Debian migrating their older releases to the archives. Our Questions and Answers column this week explores methods of tracking down which user modified a file using common tools and logs. Then, in our Opinion Poll, we ask whether our readers typically use the log files their systems generate. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and provide a list of the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Pardus 17.5
- News: New features in the Budgie desktop, a GUI for browsing sysctl values on FreeBSD, Debian archives older releases
- Questions and answers: Tracking down the user who changed a file
- Released last week: Solus 4.0, Tails 3.13
- Torrent corner: BSD Router Project, Clonezilla, GParted, HardenedBSD, LinHES, Parabola, PBXware, Septor, Solus, Tails
- Upcoming releases: Ubuntu 19.04 Beta
- Opinion poll: Looking through log files
- New distributions: Venom Linux, OS108
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (12MB) and MP3 (9MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm) |
Pardus 17.5
Pardus is a Debian-based distribution developed in Turkey. Pardus 17.x releases are based on Debian 9, but they also include software from Debian Backports and Pardus-specific packages. The latest release, Pardus 17.5, will be the final release in the Pardus 17 series, but it will be supported through early 2021.
For this review I will be looking at Pardus 17.5's Xfce desktop version, but there is an alternate download that features the Deepin desktop environment. There is also a server image that installs Pardus without a desktop environment. The Xfce image is 1.3GB, the Deepin image is 1.4GB, and the server image is 530MB.
Pardus live image
I copied the Xfce image to a flash drive and booted my computer from the drive. I was presented with options to use the live desktop in Turkish or English, or to install using a graphical or text-mode installer. I selected the English live desktop and waited just a short time before I had a functional desktop.
Pardus 17.5 -- Xfce desktop environment
(full image size: 52kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
At first glance everything seemed okay. Despite the slightly older version of the Linux kernel (4.9), everything worked okay, including my wireless networking. I explored the customized Xfce desktop environment and found it worked well and was well organized, but as soon as I tried typing anything I found that the keyboard layout was still set to Turkish. I had to adjust this before I could start doing anything in the terminal. This was a minor annoyance, and easy enough to fix, but it might confuse some users if they do not realize what is going on.
Installing Pardus
Once I was sure Pardus worked with my hardware I rebooted and selected the installation option. In my case I opted for the text-mode option because, for some reason, my trackpad does not work in Debian's graphical installer (it works perfectly fine in the live desktop and once Debian, or a Debian-based distribution is installed).
The installation process was also identical to the standard Debian experience, except for the lack of options to select a desktop environment. Debian provides multiple options on its DVD images, but Pardus will just install its pre-selected software packages.
One thing to note is that while Pardus does support disk encryption as part of the installation process, the default boot splash does not provide a password prompt to unlock the encrypted disk. If the user decides to encrypt their disk, they will end up at an animated splash screen with the Pardus logo with a running cat animation, but no visible prompt that they need to enter their pass phrase to decrypt their drive to continue the boot process.
Pardus's default desktop and software
Pardus's default Xfce desktop environment is customized and themed. It features a single bottom panel layout out in a similar manner to the Windows taskbar. The application menu is the left corner and the clock and various functions like wi-fi settings and volume control are on the right. In the centre of panel are the running applications. On the desktop there are shortcuts for the user's home folder and the trash. Overall the experience is very Windows-esque, which is good for a distribution that can be used in corporate environments in place of Windows.
Pardus 17.5 -- Xfce desktop with application menu
(full image size: 87kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The default selection of software is very typical. Firefox ESR is the browser and Thunderbird is the e-mail client. VLC serves as the default media player. LibreOffice 6.1, one of the packages that comes from Backports, is the office suite. GIMP is pre-installed. The rest of the applications are various system utilities and tools, most of which are from Xfce, but GNOME Disks and Evince are also part of the pre-installed software selection.
Pardus 17.5 -- LibreOffice Writer
(full image size: 52kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
I found Pardus's desktop and software selection to be very usable. I could do most basic tasks on my computer without having to install additional software. However, I noticed that the LibreOffice help files are not installed, not in English or Turkish. When I tried to install the US English help files, there was an error message about the libreoffice-help-common package not being available. The LibreOffice help packages depend on this package, but it does not seem to exist in the Pardus repositories.
Installing additional software
Pardus uses its own repositories that combine packages from Debian Stable, Debian Backports, Pardus, and some non-free software, which makes it closer to Ubuntu's style of being based on Debian than other distributions that still use Debian's repositories and add their own repositories on top of that. This method works, except for the issue noted above with the missing LibreOffice package (and possibly similar issues that I did not come across), but there appears to only be one source for packages, instead of a global network of mirrors, so sometimes installing packages and updates can take a while.
Pardus 17.5 -- Synaptic package manager
(full image size: 92kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Pardus comes with three graphical tools to install additional packages plus a Package Updater application for installing updates. There is the Pardus Store which is a custom graphical interface for installing a curated collection of software, including non-free packages like Steam and Skype; Synaptic Package Manager for power-users; and GNOME Packages, which honestly feels redundant given the inclusion of Synaptic package manger.
Pardus 17.5 -- Pardus Store
(full image size: 235kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The Pardus Store looks very nice, but only has a limited selection of software. Like I noted above, the selection is curated, and there is a poll for voting on which package should be added next. However, the text for this poll is the one bit of text I ran across in my English language install of Pardus that was still in Turkish.
Pardus 17.5 -- Skype in Pardus Store
(full image size: 516kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Another nice feature of the Pardus store is how clearly it indicates that software is non-free (free in the Free Software Foundation sense of the term, not software that costs money). There are huge brightly colored indicators that state the software is non-free. The software is still available, so the distribution might not be good enough for purists, but for a desktop designed to possibly replace Windows in an office setting, having Skype, Slack, and other non-free tools is very helpful.
Aside from the oddly missing libreoffice-help-common package, I found everything I needed in the repositories. Granted, it was older versions because most of them come from Debian 9, but that is to be expected. I found Pardus's selective use of Backports to be quite good in bringing in slightly more up-to-date version of certain packages.
Final thoughts
Pardus is a nice distribution. It has a few issues, which I noted above, but the default desktop and software selection are solid, which makes it a good choice for adoption in offices and by users who want a conservative desktop experience. The only drawback is that it is very difficult to report issues with the distribution, unless you can communicate in Turkish. Granted the shoe is often on the other foot in the open source world when we often expect everyone to communicate in English, but there are issues in Pardus that I could not just report, but actually fix, if I had the ability to interact with the project's infrastructure and community.
Even though I cannot get truly involved with the project, I think I going to keep using Pardus because it does have some very nice design decisions. Sure, with a little work I could turn Xfce on Debian 9 into something very close to what Pardus offers, but Pardus does that without me having to do the work. I just hope Pardus fixes the boot splash not providing a prompt to decrypt drives issue and the missing libreoffice-help-common package. Those two issues are not major problems, I can still decrypt my hard drive without a visible prompt and I can access LibreOffice help online, but they are annoying.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo Ideapad 100-15IBD laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: 2.2GHz Intel Core i3-5020U CPU
- Storage: Seagate 500GB 5400 RPM hard drive
- Memory: 4GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8723BE 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter
- Display: Intel HD Graphics 5500
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Visitor supplied rating
Pardus has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.3/10 from 52 review(s).
Have you used Pardus? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
New features in the Budgie desktop, a GUI for browsing sysctl values on FreeBSD, Debian archives older releases
One of the big releases of the past week was the anticipated launch of Solus 4.0. While Solus itself was a big release with a lot of upgrades, some of the improvements to the project's Budgie desktop deserve special attention. Budgie 10.5 has received improvements to the way programs are grouped, the notification centre received more fine-grained responses and the volume control now makes it easier to adjust input and output volumes separately. The Budgie settings panel includes many well-explained features to make life easier, "The Windows section of Budgie Desktop Settings introduces options for: Centre new windows on screen (when possible). Disabling Night Light mode when a window becomes full-screen. This option will automatically re-enable Night Light mode when leaving full-screen. This is great for late night gaming or movie watching. Enabling window focus change on mouse enter and leave instead of based on clicking on a window." A full list of improvements can be found in the project's release announcement. Hopefully these improvements will soon be packaged and included in other distributions.
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As many FreeBSD users know, the operating system includes special controls which allow the operating system to be fine-tuned while it is running. These special controls are called system controls (sysctl). While these controls are very useful, it can be difficult to remember the many options available or what specific functions they perform. To help with this, a new, third-party tool called sysctlview has been launched to provide a way to browse and get descriptions of available sysctl options from the comfort of a desktop environment. The tool has been added to FreeBSD's collection of ports.
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Joerg Jaspert has sent out a notice to let people know older versions of Debian which are no longer receiving security updates are being moved to the archives. This means the older versions can still be downloaded, but will not be available on Debian's large mirror network. "As Wheezy and Jessie have been integrated into the archive.debian.org structure recently, we are now removing all of Wheezy and all non-LTS architectures of Jessie from the mirror network starting today. That is, only Jessie i386, amd64, armel and armhf will continue to be
hosted on the normal mirrors. The data is, of course, not lost - the whole of it is synced to archive.debian.org, so if you still need it you will be able to get
it from there."
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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) |
Tracking down the user who changed a file
Trying-to-locate-the-editor asks: Someone with access to my system edited a configuration file and I would like to know who did it. Is there a way to identify who changed the file?
DistroWatch answers: I am assuming the file is on your system and not in a version control system like git that would track who changed the file. And I'm going to assume there is no special auditing software or logging in place. With this in mind, there are a few things you can do to try to figure out who edited your file.
The first, and easiest, check you can perform is running the ls command on the file to find out when it was last changed. If the user copied a new, altered file into place instead of editing the original, the ls -l command may also tell you who overwrote the original. Here is an example of running ls -l on a file called example.conf to find out when it was modified:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 46252 Feb 10 12:31 example.conf
In this case the file is owned by the root user and was altered on February 10th. This tells us when the file changed, but since the file was probably owned by root all along, we still do not know who changed it.
Assuming the file was owned by root, then chances are the person who made the edit had to use a tool like sudo or doas to change the file. Your distribution should record sudo use in a log file such as /var/log/auth.log or /var/log/security. On my system, I can see when someone edits a configuration file by running the grep command on the log, the result is shown below in bold:
grep example.conf /var/log/auth.log
Feb 10 12:31:54 gwen sudo: jesse : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/var/log ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/vi example.conf
Here we can see that user "jesse" ran the sudo program in order to perform the command "/usr/bin/vi example.conf" as the root user. This happened on February 10th, the same day the file was last edited.
If checking the security log does not work, or the file is not owned by root and does not require special permissions to access, another approach we can take is looking through the users' history. Most command line shells record commands we run to a history file (the name of the file varies depending on the shell). We can run a command like the one shown below to see if we can spot who edited example.conf:
sudo grep -l example.conf /home/*/.bash_history /home/*/.history
The above command may not give you the time when a file was changed, but it should give you a list of people who changed the file from the command line.
Finally, if none of the above options work, it might be worthwhile trying a social approach instead of a technical one. Assuming not a lot of people have access to your configuration file (and not many people should), then you can sit your team down and ask (or send a query to them over e-mail): "Who changed the example.conf file?" This tactic might require less effort than combing through log files.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Solus 4.0
Joshua Strobl has announced the release of Solus 4.0, an independently-developed desktop Linux distribution featuring the simple but efficient Budgie desktop (separate editions with GNOME and MATE desktop environments are also available) and a custom package management called eopkg. From the release announcement: "We are proud to announce the immediate availability of Solus 4 'Fortitude', a new major release of the Solus operating system. This release delivers a brand new Budgie experience, updated sets of default applications and theming, and hardware enablement. All our editions feature: Firefox 65.0.1, LibreOffice 6.2.1, Rhythmbox 3.4.3 with the latest release of the Alternate Toolbar extension, Thunderbird 60.5.2. Our Budgie and GNOME editions ship with GNOME MPV 0.16 and our MATE Edition ships with VLC 3.0.6. This release of Solus ships with Linux kernel 4.20.16, enabling us to provide support for AMD Picasso and Raven2 APUs, AMD Vega20 and broader Vega10 enablement, as well as improved support for Intel Coffee Lake and Ice Lake CPUs. Furthermore, Linux kernel 4.20 expands our support for other hardware devices, such as touchpad support for the Lenovo IdeaPad 130-15IKB and 330-15ARR."
Solus 4.0 -- Running the Budgie desktop
(full image size 1.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Tails 3.13
The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The product ships with several Internet applications, including web browser, IRC client, mail client and instant messenger, all pre-configured with security in mind and with all traffic anonymised. The project's latest release is Tails 3.13 which includes localization fixes, prevents the software centre from downloading packages which are already available on persistent storage, and upgrades several packages. "Fixed problems: Prevent Additional Software from downloading packages that are already saved in the persistent storage. Fix the localization of Tor Launcher, the application to configure a Tor bridge or a local proxy. Fix accessibility when opening Tor Browser from a desktop notification. Fix WhisperBack crashing when additional APT repositories is configured." Further details and a list of known issues can be found in the project's release announcement.
* * * * *
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: 1,317
- Total data uploaded: 24.5TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Looking through log files
In our Questions and Answers column we talked about finding out who performed a specific action on a system, a task which is greatly aided by log files. While logs are incredibly useful on servers for improving performance and auditing security, they are rarely used on desktop machines. This week we would like to hear whether you routinely check the log files on your laptop or desktop computer. If you do, please let us know what you look for in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on Kubuntu versus KDE neon in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Looking through log files
| I do routinely exmaine logs: | 106 (8%) |
| I look through logs to fix specific problems: | 712 (54%) |
| I do not exmaine logs: | 503 (38%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Distributions added to waiting list
- Venom Linux. Venom Linux is source based Linux distribution based on Linux From Scratch (LFS) with a BSD-style init system.
- OS108. OS108 is a desktop-oriented operating system that is based on NetBSD and features the MATE desktop.
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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, 1 April 2019. 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 |
| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • 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.
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| Random Distribution | 
LainOS
LainOS is a lightweight, Arch Linux-based desktop distribution aimed at developers, tinkerers and hackers. As a choice of graphical environments, it offers the Hyprland Wayland compositor and the Openbox window manager. The distribution also features the Calamares system installer, personalised yet functional visual aesthetics, and a selection of useful software. LainOS is intended for users who share the admiration of Serial Experiments Lain, a Japanese anime television series.
Status: Active
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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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