 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 857, 16 March 2020 |
Welcome to this year's 11th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Many people strive to reach a balance between running software offering the latest features and stability. One approach to finding this balance is to run a rolling release distribution with a slight delay in upgrades, giving developers a chance to perform extra testing on new packages. Manjaro Linux is one distribution which takes this approach and Bernhard Hoffmann dives into Manjaro 19.0 this week in order to report on what it is like to run this rolling release distribution. Then in our News section we talk about running the UBports mobile operating system on a Raspberry Pi computer and talk about Debian building packages with an alternative compiler. We also link to a report detailing how Ubuntu's new ZFS snapshot feature integrates with package management. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about the level of interest in distributions compared to how well a distribution is rated by its users. Level of interest in distributions is also the subject of our Opinion Poll and we would like to hear how your main distro fairs on our page hit ranking chart. Plus we are pleased to list the releases of the past week and share the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we are thrilled to welcome the Recalbox distribution to our database. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Manjaro Linux 19.0
- News: UBports running on a Raspberry Pi, Debian testing package builds with Clang, Ubuntu to get automated ZFS snapshots
- Questions and answers: Ratings of distributions versus their popularity
- Released last week: 4MLinux 32.0, Clonezilla Live 2.6.5-21, Tails 4.4
- Torrent corner: 4MLinux, Archman, ArcoLinux, AryaLinux, Clonezilla, Endless, Exe, KDE neon, LibreELEC, NuTyX, SparkyLinux, SystemRescueCd, Tails, Ultimate Edition, Zevenet
- Upcoming releases: Fedora 32 Beta
- Opinion poll: Position of your distro on the PHR chart
- New additions: Recalbox
- New distributions: Mabox Linux
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (by Bernhard Hoffmann) |
Manjaro Linux 19.0
Manjaro Linux is one of those distributions I have tried many times over the years but was always unable to keep for any length of time due to this or that issue cropping up. Either package management was limited, it wouldn't boot up after the install, or even straight away. Whatever the issues I don't exactly recall, because the last time I tested it must have been around 2014 or even 2013, which would have made this Manjaro 0.8.x. Has it really been around this long already? My, I'm getting quite long in the tooth. Manjaro 19.0 looks really interesting and it's brand new. I'm sure lots has changed so, in somebody else's words, test we must.
Many of the people behind Manjaro are the same that are, or at least were, behind the Chakra distribution, a KDE-centric distribution I really liked and found interesting back in the day but which appears quite dormant. Developers moved on. I recall getting an e-mail once about this new project they were going to start called Manjaro and asking if I wanted to do an early review but unfortunately time didn't permit back then. And when I did it appeared not mature yet so it seemed better not to write anything. But an incremental number 19 seems plenty mature. Enough of the babble, let's go.
The release announcement for 19.0 informs us that it comes in three desktop variants with GNOME 3.34, Xfce 14.4 or with KDE Plasma 5.17. Cutting edge stuff. Also with something called Architect which as it turns out is included in all editions as a shortcut on the desktop, similar to the install button, and allows us to customize installations. Architect can also be downloaded on its own and is basically a net-install image to install the latest available packages and set up and configure Manjaro in every detail using the command line, custom setup tool included. We'll be looking at this in more detail later.
I opted to download the KDE edition via a torrent which is clocked at 2,892MB (about 2.8GB) but which took up 3.0GB on my hard drive. I guess it depends on what cluster size one has used for formatting.
The release announcement includes a 43 minute long video walking us through all the editions which is a really nice introduction to features and looks and can help decide which edition is for you.
This release is underpinned by the latest LTS Linux kernel 5.4 to have the most up to date drivers available. Looks-wise Manjaro has updated Xfce with their own new theme called Matcha, the Plasma desktop has received a fully integrated look with a comprehensive and all-encompassing set of themes called Breath2 in light and dark variants. And yes, it looks slick if that is your style but personally I'm not one for the abstract wallpapers and flat looks in fashion nowadays. Not a biggie, can be changed.
It is quite evident though, even at this stage, from looking at the website that Manjaro has a lot of resources behind it and a lot of people must be committing time to this, so it's certainly not a project in danger of withering away over night in case people are concerned about long-term viability and support for their installs. Plus, Manjaro is of course based on Arch Linux which has been around since the early 2000s. Packages from the official Arch Linux repositories and user contributed packages and build scripts should be working fine. Like Arch Linux, Manjaro is also a rolling release distribution that should not require a reinstall if everything goes well. The team behind Manjaro go to some lengths to make sure it does, by tweaking and moderating changes from upstream and channeling packages through their own repositories.
By the way, downloading any of the images or torrents mentioned above redirects to OSDN.net, with the following product description on the download page:
Manjaro is a user-friendly Linux distribution based on the independently developed Arch operating system. Within the Linux community, Arch itself is renowned for being an exceptionally fast, powerful, and lightweight distribution that provides access to the very latest cutting edge - and bleeding edge - software. However, Arch is also aimed at more experienced or technically-minded users. As such, it is generally considered to be beyond the reach of those who lack the technical expertise (or persistence) required to use it.
Developed in Austria, France, and Germany, Manjaro provides all the benefits of the Arch operating system combined with a focus on user-friendliness and accessibility. Available in both 32- and 64-bit versions, Manjaro is suitable for newcomers as well as experienced Linux users. For newcomers, a user-friendly installer is provided, and the system itself is designed to work fully 'straight out of the box.
In contrast to the above statement only aarch64 and x86_64 architectures are currently supported, although the older 18.04 with Xfce can be downloaded for 32-bit machines. Also available from the main page are ports for several ARM boards like the Raspberry Pi 4 and the Pinebook Pro (KDE Plasma and Xfce 20.02) and Community Editions for x86_64 with the Cinnamon and MATE desktops and for the i3 and Openbox window managers. These options are tucked away under Editions at the top of the page and would likely not confuse newcomers, with the emphasis being on the main editions on the download page.
Let's see how it fares.
Boot up and GRUB2 menu
Manjaro booted fine and leads us into a Welcome screen where we can set various boot options. The usual options to set time zone (not present in all distributions), language and keyboard layout are present. Also the usual memtest at the bottom of the screen. Language selection works and the system booted with the right language packs for the Plasma desktop and applications and the chosen keyboard layout (German, de_DE for the test).
Manjaro Linux 19.0 -- The GRUB boot menu
(full image size: 129kB, resolution: 1024x768pixels)
Slightly out of the ordinary is the notepad or edit icon with no description, which allows us to edit boot parameters at the command line. Manjaro boots with free video drivers by default, but if we choose "nonfree" in the driver sub-menu the proprietary NVIDIA driver is used. This should help users get the most out of their graphics cards if they don't mind using what some consider tainted software, but Manjaro appears to be a pragmatic distribution with users that are more interested in their hardware working to the full extent.
Changing the keyboard layout does not change language automatically so this will have to be done separately, if desired. Manjaro booted into live mode from here without problems. There is no option to launch into the installer straight away so this will have to be done from the desktop. Hitting the respective entry started the boot sequence and something displayed about a job running told me that systemd is the init software in the background. Manjaro does not obfuscate the boot process which is very welcome here. Also AppArmor and snapd loaded.
Test run in VirtualBox
My first attempts at using Manjaro 19.0 were in VirtualBox, as I suspect is the standard way now for most people to get a first feel for a new release. No surprises were encountered. Mouse integration was on by default.
One has to set the graphics adapter to VBoxSVGA and activate 3D acceleration to get full desktop size, full screen or a scalable window, but once I had restarted with those settings it worked flawlessly.
Manjaro Linux 19.0 -- Resizing the desktop inside VirtualBox
(full image size: 2.9MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
One thing I noticed when poking around is that the distribution comes with a myriad of wallpaper backgrounds, 148 to be exact, probably too many. Ok, ISO size isn't really an issue anymore but if it was, here is definitely potential to save space given that most people have their own extensive collection by now.
Manjaro Linux 19.0 -- The large collection of wallpapers
(full image size: 908kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
While in VirtualBox the search field in the Plasma menu did not let me enter any text when looking for the screenshot utility but I was able to start Krunner from the shell menu and launch the Spectacle tool from there.
Live session
I tried Manjaro on two laptops, an ASUS Vivobook with and an old Dell Latitude without UEFI. Manjaro booted on both from a Corsair Flash Voyager USB without problems.
Manjaro's default desktop features an abstract wallpaper as is the current style of the Plasma desktop and the Breath2 theme as noted in the introduction, which appears to be a variation on the Breeze Dark theme, utilizing the trademark Manjaro colours.
Manjaro Linux 19.0 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 425kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
As has become good practice with the more user-friendly distributions, a welcome screen opens on the desktop straight after booting with links to important documentation like a user guide and Readme. The user guide is a hefty 130 pages and can also be accessed from the utilities menu later on. It's an introduction to getting Manjaro, which at this point people would have done, installing and using the distribution. It should also be fine as a good enough introduction to the Linux desktop, important applications like Thunderbird for e-mail and to package management in general as the principles are the same. However, it has not been translated and remained in English during my test when booting into a German language desktop.
There are further links to the Manjaro chat room, wiki, mailing lists and to the forum to get support or to get yourself involved. We can also launch the installer from here which seems a bit unnecessary given that an icon for this is also on the desktop.
Manjaro had performed well in VirtualBox but the desktop responded faster in the live session, very fast indeed on the ASUS 8 x Core Intel i7 with 16GB RAM. It better at these specs! The logout screen blurs into a nice fade out, just long enough to notice it which is a cool visual. However, the shutdown sequence detracted from this. I was advised that a stop job could not stop SDDM and that I needed to wait the infamous 1:30 minutes. This then extended to 3:00 minutes as apparently systemd had such a hard time terminating the login manager. Following this systemd-shutdown ran into several errors and refused to shut down at which point I had to hard kill the power. The second time however the shutdown from live session was smooth and fast, a matter of one or two seconds, literally.
Suspend and resume worked well in the live session and the system came back up instantly.
Desktop and installation
Manjaro uses the Calamares installer which is quite well-known now. It runs through the usual steps and allows us to install either alongside an existing system, replace it, fully erase the disk and then take it over, or partition manually. My setup isn't too complicated. There's also an option to encrypt partitions.
Manjaro Linux 19.0 -- The Calamares system installer
(full image size: 92kB, resolution: 1027x552 pixels)
The installer guessed my computer model correctly and then offered to install LibreOffice, FreeOffice or no office suite at all. I opted for LibreOffice.
Going through the dialogues took about a minute, the install itself a further five. GRUB2 was installed to the MBR and the reboot went smoothly. Manjaro played well with my other install and added the correct menu entries for Debian. Manjaro used about as much time to the desktop as Debian 10 does with KDE Plasma.
What I found noteworthy was that despite my language selection (British English) Manjaro had installed in German, probably taking its clues from the time zone. I went again, setting my time to London/UK and this time it worked.
Manjaro Linux 19.0 -- Displaying system information
(full image size: 73kB, resolution: 801x629 pixels)
Manjaro comes up with a clean desktop with no icons. Settings from the live session did not carry over. I won't go too much into the default installed applications as you get more or less the typical suite of a Plasma desktop, with Firefox and a few more applications on top. Applications can easily be changed. SUSE Studio USB key writer is included. The Manjaro Application Utility, which gives access to install or remove oft used and popular programs without having to launch the more fully fledged package manager, Pamac, is included too. When installed the button in the welcome screen that used to launch the installer is replaced with a link to this software management tool. Pamac however, apart from being used to update the system, also allows us to install locally downloaded programs.
Also noteworthy is the inclusion of Timeshift for backups, Steam being already pre-installed for gaming, qBittorrent instead of KTorrent and VLC instead of any KDE player.
Another thing of note was that the double prompt to save the password in Kwallet when setting up wireless networking is gone. Not sure whether this is an improvement in KDE or something Manjaro-specific, but this has been really annoying for a long time.
Manjaro Linux 19.0 -- Updating the Steam gaming portal
(full image size: 3.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080pixels)
On the first day Manjaro had one update available, two days later there were 154 updates. The next day there were a further three updates. This is quite a lot for a distribution that has just been released, but is to be expected with a rolling release and in line with my experiences with Arch Linux with very frequent updates, and loads of them. For this reason I would not recommend Manjaro or any rolling distribution to people who just want to use their desktop workstation and get on with their lives. If you're using your machine for any serious work or for a particular application like a media centre chances are you do not want to constantly update your machine almost every day but are looking for a stable base that you can log in to and get the job done. On the other hand, the updates installed cleanly and the system remained stable and responsive.
Manjaro Linux 19.0 -- The software centre
(full image size: 380kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Manjaro also supports Snap packages, Flathub and AppImages. It even includes a graphical manager called bauh to install from these additional sources as well as from AUR, along with a symbol to identify to the user where each package comes from. There is also AppImagelauncher for, you guessed it, AppImages, and an interface that can be started from the settings manager in the system tray to up- and downgrade kernels. My only concern is that, in particular, less experienced users may get lost in the many options to manage software - six if including the updater and the kernel installer. But then there is also a separate updater for language packs.
In the past I had a Chromium Snap package running on another distribution which inexplicably one day failed to start. I suppose it could not have been dependencies as Snaps are supposedly self-contained. Whatever the reason, I gave up and moved on because these new solutions are supposed to be better than the proven package management. Only that they aren't, so what's the point? And that's if you don't care about Snap being controlled by Canonical and lack-lustre integration - which in the case of Chromium was most likely due to sandboxing.
Snaps and others may be a way out of dependency hell and guarantee availability of new software updates but are far from proven and a rolling distribution should not have problems with outdated libraries preventing, for example, the latest Chromium from installing. Once installed the Chromium Snap worked - for now.
Resource usage
Right after boot Manjaro Plasma edition took about 545MB RAM initially with only the default desktop and services running, and the two cores idled around the two percent mark each, even dropping to 0.7 or 1.3 percent at times. Chances are you will not install this distribution to look at htop but also to actually run some applications so this will quickly go up.
It seems I ran into the well-known man-db bug discussed in the forum, in the way that after the first boot of the day CPU usage spiked to 65-80% and remained at this reading until the machine was shut down, trying to kill the process did not work for me. I was only able to kill this with a cold boot, after which processor utilization presented normal once again.
Manjaro Architect
As alluded to, Manjaro Architect is both a standalone net-install ISO image and is also included in the main editions to customize installations. It is prominently linked on the desktop.
At launch the Architect updates itself and then after choosing the language does a quick sync with the repositories. Then the main menu appears. From here we can prepare the disk for an installation which leads to the below sub-menu which allows us to have a look at available devices and complete tasks like partitioning, opt to set up LUKS encryption, mount partitions or refresh repository keys and choose or set custom mirrors.
Manjaro Linux 19.0 -- The Architect installer
(full image size: 55kB, resolution: 641x508 pixels)
We also get the option to install a desktop system from scratch rather than using one of the pre-built images, a command line system, a completely custom system with no pre-defined package set, or (under data recovery) launch into a rescue mode which includes Clonezilla. Thus Architect also doubles as a rescue and repair tool. One can also chroot into an existing install or re-install the boot loader from here.
Conclusion
Manjaro KDE Plasma was immensely fast both on an eight-core i7 and on the older Dell Latitude Core2Duo. It also presented a rock-solid experience in terms of daily use. It's a nice rolling distribution if that's what you're looking for, but the multitude of updates can quickly get too much. If you're just looking for a system to actually get work done then being on the leading edge and having the latest version of Plasma, which changes over time, seems less important.
The front page of Manjaro's site claims "Manjaro is a professionally made Linux based operating system that is a suitable replacement for Windows or MacOS. Multiple desktop environments are available through our Official and Community editions."
That's a bold statement because in my experience none are completely like the other and operating systems rather compliment each other. Therefore none is a suitable replacement for the other. Of course it depends on your needs. If all you do is browsing and Internet-related stuff, a bit of word editing or anything that LibreOffice or Abiword can fulfill, fine. Even file-sharing with Samba or FTP, can do, plus a million other things like showing blingy wallpapers. Can I get constant pop-ups nagging me about updates to this or that or that my firewall or virus scanner are not on/installed, sudden reboots in the middle of working that take forever to install the latest service pack? No. Is it likely I'll even download an executable virus or worm in Linux? No. Can I play the latest and most graphics intensive games that in the PC-market are still made only for Windows? No. Can I just drag an application to the Applications folder to install? No. And security-wise it's a bad idea too.
I really wish Linux distributions would stop pretending to be something that they're not, i.e. el cheapo alternatives to the supposedly grown-up, proprietary desktop systems. Linux is not inferior, trying to catch up with the big guys. It can do many things those other operating systems can do and more, even better, but it is different, therefore it is not a replacement. Of course all it needed would be for big companies to code their games, their photo editing, tax or enterprise software for GNU/Linux and for others to have their custom in-house software written for or ported to Linux and switch, but that is not going to happen for a while. So, although Linux could do all that, for all practical purposes it is not a suitable replacement.
I'm not arguing with the "professionally made" claim. Manjaro Linux as presented in its latest incarnation is a very nice and well thought-out Linux distribution that is polished, includes many tools for the advanced user and simply works if you want a rolling, always updating operating system to stay current, and it looks good while doing that. It brings something unique to the table in the vast universe of GNU/Linux systems, has forged its own identity and presents a polished and helpful interface to newcomers. Hopefully helping to make Linux a more popular alternative. I like it very much. It is only slightly let down by having embraced some trendy, arguably ill-advised, technologies that do not work reliably.
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Hardware used in this review
- Dell Latitude E4300, 13.3" notebook display 1280x800 (WXGA) used with external monitor
- 6GiB DDR3 RAM
- 250GB Samsung SSD 860 EVO,
- Intel Centrino Core2Duo 9300 @ 1.6GHz (up to 2.26 with Boost)
- 1066MHz FSB, USB 2.0
- Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset integrated graphics
- Intel Corporation Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300 wireless
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Visitor supplied rating
Manjaro Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.1/10 from 412 review(s).
Have you used Manjaro Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
UBports running on a Raspberry Pi, Debian testing package builds with Clang, Ubuntu to get automated ZFS snapshots
The UBports project continues the development of Ubuntu Touch for mobile devices. While primarily used on phones, UBports can also be run on some tablets and work is now being done to get the operating system working on Raspberry Pi single board computers. The Raspberry Pi port is in its early stages, but owners of Raspberry Pi 3B+ boards can try out the operating system by following the installation instructions.
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While most Linux distributions build their packages using the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), some projects find it useful to run an alternative compiler called Clang. The Clang compiler tends to offer better warning and error messages when it finds problems in code. Performing package builds with an alternative compiler can also help find bugs in packages whose code was written specifically for a single compiler. The Debian team has been testing Clang against over 31,000 packages and have found over 95% build correctly. Statistics and common errors can be found on the project's rebuild page.
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The next version of Ubuntu is probably going to offer automatic ZFS snapshots as part of the package management process. Arstechnica is reporting that Ubuntu 20.04 will automatically take filesystem snapshots when the APT package manager is run to guard the system against broken upgrades and disruptive package changes. People who install Ubuntu on ZFS will also be able to boot into older snapshots of the operating system, much like openSUSE users can with Btrfs. "There weren't any snapshots on the freshly installed system yet, so we did a quick 'apt install gimp'. Afterward, we saw that zsys had taken a snapshot in every dataset present on rpool. Having a snapshot taken prior to installing new packages means that, if something should go haywire, we can easily revert the system to its state prior to the new package being installed. Carving the system up into so many different datasets means, in turn, that we can roll back only those parts of the system affected by the package manager - for example, we can roll back packages without affecting data in the user's home directory."
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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) |
Ratings of distributions versus their popularity
Looking for consistency asks: All the reviews I read for "best KDE distro" recommend distros that are low on the DistroWatch page hit list. Do you have an opinion as to why? I am currently running Manjaro which is #2 on DistroWatch yet low on the reviews. I also will say that I don't agree with what most the reviewers say. KDE neon consistently is their top, I think it is bloated garbage.
DistroWatch answers: First, I would like to state up front that projects listed on our page hit ranking (PHR) chart are not organized by popularity, install base, or by quality. The PHR chart just shows how many people are visiting a project's information page. The chart tends to favour newcomer friendly projects - DistroWatch often attracts people who are new to Linux and wondering which distribution to try first and this causes beginner friendly projects to float to the top.
This means that projects near the top of our PHR list tend to be tried by a large number of people. Some love these newcomer friendly distributions and some don't, but either way these projects get tried by a lot of people. This large number of potential users, combined with mixed results from less experienced users trying Linux for the first time, means the average rating for the projects near the top of the PHR list will tend toward the mid-range. Two perfect scores (10/10) and one failing score (1/10), for example, will average out to 7/10.
Meanwhile, more niche projects, ones that focus on one specific role and are not geared toward newcomers (for example GParted Live, OpenBSD, KDE neon, Tiny Core Linux) will not attract as much attention and will be further down the PHR list. However, since these projects are almost exclusively used by people who knew they needed specific tools and sought them out, these more niche projects will almost always please their users and be ranked higher. This is probably a big factor in why OpenBSD and KDE neon both currently rank higher than Manjaro in our own rating system, though there are more people visiting the DistroWatch information page for Manjaro.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
4MLinux 32.0
Zbigniew Konojacki has announced the release of 4MLinux 32.0, the latest update of the project's minimalist distribution featuring "four Ms": maintenance (as a system rescue live CD), multimedia (for playing video DVDs and other multimedia files), mini-server (using the inetd daemon) and mystery (providing several small Linux games). This version updates most base packages and adds several new software applications: "The status of the 4MLinux 32.0 series has been changed to STABLE. As always, the new major release has some new features. Better support for Intel video cards (via MESA 3D drivers with VDPAU emulation). PCManFM in 4MLinux can now create video thumbnails (using FFmpeg) as well as PS/PDF thumbnails (using ImageMagick). AV1 video decoding is finally available out of the box (via FFmpeg with the dav1d library). Good news for nerds! The following applications have been added for them: SciTE (source code editor), GNU nano (with spell checker), mg (originally called MicroGnuEmacs). Additionally, Vim (with gVim) is now available as a downloadable extension." Continue to the release announcement for further information and a screenshot.
4MLinux 32.0 -- Running JWM as the window manager
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Clonezilla Live 2.6.5-21
Steven Shiau has announced the release of Clonezilla Live 2.6.5-21, the latest stable build of the project's Debian-based live CD featuring a partitioning and disk-cloning utility: "Stable Clonezilla Live 2.6.5-21 released. This release of Clonezilla live includes major enhancements and bug fixes. Enhancements and changes from 2.6.4-10: the underlying GNU/Linux operating system has been upgraded - this release is based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2020-03-09; Linux kernel has been updated to 5.4.19; language files were updated; improve ocs-restore-mdisks by adding -a|--last-action option to separate the last action before it's finished; include nvme-cli and scrub packages; include some more packages - tmux, mtr-tiny, dcfldd and iotop; add Bluetooth-related packages in DRBL/Clonezilla Live packages list - bluetooth, bluez and bluez-tools; allow a bare block device with a file system (e.g, /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1 which we treat as a partition), to be chosen as the destination disk when not saving...." Read the full release announcement for a complete changelog.
LibreELEC 9.2.1
LibreELEC is a minimal operating system designed with the specific purpose of running the Kodi media centre. The project's latest release is LibreELEC 9.2.1 which adds support for WireGuard VPN services and better hardware support for the Raspberry Pi 4 computer. "LibreELEC 9.2.1 (Leia) the final version has arrived based upon Kodi v18.6, the 9.2.1 release contains many changes and refinements to user experience and a complete overhaul of the underlying OS core to improve stability and extend hardware support compared to the LE 9.0 release. Changes since 9.2.0: WireGuard support added to settings; improvements for the RPi4; serveral minor updates. Change for Raspberry 4: With LE 9.1.002 and later you need to add 'hdmi_enable_4kp60=1' to your config.txt if you want to use 4k output at the RPi4. Before you needed 'hdmi_enable_4k=1' that is now deprecated." Further details on the new version and tips on upgrading can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
Tails 4.4
Version 4.4 of Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) has been released. As usual, the new release fixes a number of security issues and upgrades Tor Browser: "Tails 4.4 is out. This release fixes many security vulnerabilities. You should upgrade as soon as possible. Changes and upgrades: update Tor Browser to 9.0.6; update Thunderbird to 68.5.0; update Linux kernel to 5.4.19 - this should improve the support for newer hardware (graphics, WiFi). Fixed problems: tentatively fix WiFi interfaces with Realtek RTL8822BE and RTL8822CE chipsets; use the tails-workarounds provided firmwares until the firmware-realtek package is updated with the patch by Sjoerd Simons; if you had a problem with WiFi starting from Tails 4.1, please let us know whether your problem was fixed or not. For more details, read our changelog. Known issues: none specific to this release. See the list of long-standing issues. Tails 4.5 is scheduled for April 7." Here is the full release announcement.
NuTyX 11.4
NuTyX is a French Linux distribution (with multi-language support) built from Linux From Scratch and Beyond Linux From Scratch, with a custom package manager called "cards". The project's latest release is NuTyX 11.4: "I'm very pleased to announce the new NuTyX 11.4 release. The 64-bit version contains about 1,150 packages upgraded. The 32-bit version of NuTyX, still actively supported. In the newest release, base NuTyX comes with the Long-Term Support (LTS) kernel 4.19.108 (4.9.206 for the 32-bit version). For 64-bit systems, the kernel release 5.5.8 is also available. The GNU C library, glibc, is now glibc 2.30. The graphical server is xorg-server 1.20.7. The Mesa library is 19.3.4, GTK3 is 3.24.14, and Qt has been updated to 5.14.1. Python interpreters 3.8.2 and 2.7.17 have been included in this release. The MATE desktop environment comes in 1.24.0, the latest version. The Xfce desktop environment comes in 4.14.1, the latest version. The KDE Plasma desktop is now 5.18.2, the KDE Framework is now 5.67.0 and applications are now 19.12.3." Further details can be found on the project's news page.
AryaLinux 2.4
Chandrakant Singh has announced the release of AryaLinux 2.4, a new version of the project's independently-developed distribution built from Linux From Scratch (LFS): "AryaLinux 2.4 released. Listed below are some of the changes that have made it to this release of AryaLinux. Apart from package updates and upgrades, there are several things that make this release different from our previous releases. Linux kernel updated to version 5.5.8, subsequent update in the aufs kernel patches. Introducing in this release is alpsui - a Synaptic-like user interface to alps. The alps user interface is undergoing a lot of development and bug fixes at present. Please report problems to help us improve it. GNOME 3.36 which was released earlier. AryaLinux is one of the very first distributions to provide a GNOME 3.36 release. LibreOffice updated to 6.4.0.3. Much improved Indian language font support." See the release notes further details.
AryaLinux 2.4 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 2.4MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
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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: 1,877
- Total data uploaded: 30.9TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Position of your distro on the PHR chart
In our Questions and Answers column we discussed the page hit ranking (PHR) chart which appears on the DistroWatch front page. The chart provides an indication of how many people are visiting each project's information page and can serve as a rough indication of which projects are drawing attention, often due to new releases or interesting features.
We would like to know roughly where your main distribution is on the PHR chart. Are you using something near the top of the list, a less-known project, something that is not even in our top 100 yet?
You can see the results of our previous poll on sharing a home directory between distributions in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Position of your distro on the PHR chart
| 1-5: | 886 (48%) |
| 6-10: | 152 (8%) |
| 11-25: | 350 (19%) |
| 26-50: | 289 (16%) |
| 51-100: | 104 (6%) |
| Not in the top 100 but on DistroWatch: | 55 (3%) |
| An OS not listed on DistroWatch: | 26 (1%) |
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| Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
New projects added to database
Recalbox
Recalbox is a dedicated operating system for running video games on emulated retro and console platforms. Recalbox can also be used to run the Kodi media centre. The distribution's interface is primarily navigated with a console game controller, though keyboard support is available for many functions.
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Distributions added to waiting list
- Mabox Linux. Mabox Linux is a Manjaro-based distribution featuring the Openbox window manager.
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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, 23 March 2020. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • 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 | 
Ubuntu Studio
An official variant of Ubuntu, Ubuntu Studio is a Linux-based operating system for creative individuals in the areas of audio production, video production, graphics design, photography and desktop publishing. It makes professional audio accessible on Linux; it uses the JACK sound server and a kernel built with a low-latency patch. Up until version 20.10 Ubuntu Studio shipped with the Xfce desktop environment, but this was replaced by KDE Plasma in October 2020.
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.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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