DistroWatch Weekly |
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 866, 18 May 2020 |
Welcome to this year's 20th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The Fedora Linux distribution is a cutting-edge project that is often used as a testing ground for new technologies. The latest compilers, development tools, desktop environments, and systemd features often appear in Fedora before arriving in other fixed-release distributions. This week Joshua Allen Holm takes us on a tour of Fedora's latest Workstation release and explores some of the features and improvements available in Fedora 32. In our Questions and Answers column we share reasons distributions tend to build their own software packages, such as web browsers, instead of redistributing binary packages from their upstream source. Where does your web browser package come from? Let us know in the Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about Fedora's Silverblue project along with new features coming to the UBports mobile operating system. Plus we say farewell to the TrueOS project as it officially shuts down. Then we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the distribution torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Fedora 32 Workstation
- News: UBports status report, TrueOS shuts down, an overview of Fedora Silverblue
- Questions and answers: Why distros offer custom builds of packages
- Released last week: Proxmox 6.2 "Virtual Environment", Q4OS 3.11, Kali Linux 2020.2
- Torrent corner: 4MLinux, Android-x86, ArcoLinux, BackBox, Bluestar, Finnix, Kali Linux, Manjaro 20.0.1, KDE neon, Plamo, Q4OS, Zevenet
- Upcoming releases: OpenBSD 6.7
- Opinion poll: The source of your web browser package
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (16MB) and MP3 (12MB) formats.
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Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm) |
Fedora 32 Workstation
In late April, the Fedora project released Fedora 32. This release, like all recent Fedora releases, is available in several different editions. Workstation and Server are the two main editions, and there are three emerging editions: Fedora CoreOS, Fedora Silverblue, and Fedora IoT. There are also several spins that feature alternate desktop environments and labs that serve specific purposes. For this review I will be focusing on Fedora Workstation, which uses GNOME as the desktop environment, but many of the enhancements made in Fedora 32 are available in all the Fedora editions.
Installing Fedora Workstation
I began by downloading the 1.8GB Fedora 32 Workstation x86_64 ISO and copying it to a flash drive. Then I rebooted the computer and booted from the flash drive. Fedora booted quickly and I was soon looking at a GNOME desktop with a prompt asking me if I wanted to "Try Fedora" or "Install to Hard Drive". Because I already knew that my hardware (except for the fingerprint scanner on the touchpad) worked with Fedora's previous release, I picked the install option.

Fedora 32 -- Live desktop with Try or Install options
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The first part of Fedora's installation process is handled by Anaconda. The only things that are configured during this part of the process are keyboard layout, time & date, and selecting/partitioning the disk Fedora will be installed on. The partitioning option does provide advanced customization options, but I opted for the defaults. This worked fine for the most part, but I did notice that on my new Fedora installation the volume group name for the LVM volume group created by Anaconda was "fedora_localhost--live". Because Anaconda has no option for configuring networking or setting the hostname, and because I did not use any other method to change the hostname of the live image, this name carried over to the volume group during installation. For comparison, the hostname changes from "localhost-live" on the live image to "localhost" on an installed system. The hostname gets adjusted if no hostname is set, but the volume group retains the "-live" suffix. Changing the hostname on the live image before running Anaconda solves this problem, but it is not very intuitive to have to go into GNOME Settings or use another method to change the hostname of the live image to properly set the volume group labels. Of course, this only applies when selecting the default partitioning option; when using the custom option, the volume group names can be configured by the user.

Fedora 32 -- The Anaconda installer
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The next step of the installation process is handled after the new Fedora installation is booted for the first time. GNOME Initial Setup handles creating a new user and configuring a few privacy settings. This new user has administrator privileges and the root account is disabled. Installing additional users can be done using the GNOME Settings application. The root account can be enabled by using "sudo passwd" to set a password for the root account.

Fedora 32 -- Creating a new user during the initial setup
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Fedora Workstation's default GNOME desktop and software
Fedora 32's GNOME desktop is very close to GNOME's default settings. The only GNOME extension enabled by default is one that shows "Fedora" in the lower right corner of the background, but Fedora does provide a "Classic" login option that enables more extensions and provides a desktop experience closer to, but not exactly like, GNOME 2. If you like GNOME, Fedora Workstation is an excellent choice, but if do not like the GNOME way of doing things, one of Fedora's spins or a different distribution entirely might be a better choice. Personally, I really like GNOME as is, so I do prefer Fedora's take on GNOME, but I know not everyone feels the same way.

Fedora 32 -- The default software selection
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The default selection of software that comes pre-installed with Fedora 32 consists of Firefox, the Calc, Impress, Math, and Writer components of LibreOffice 6.4 , and a selection of GNOME applications and utilities. There is no e-mail application installed by default, but in the age of web-based e-mail that is understandable. The default audio player is Rhythmbox, the default video player is GNOME Videos, and the default image viewer is Image Viewer, but GNOME Photos is also installed.
Fedora 32 Workstation's GNOME 3.36 desktop environment works extremely well. Earlier versions of Fedora and GNOME would occasionally slow down or freeze up entirely on the laptop I used for this review, but nothing like that occurred so far with Fedora 32. Part of this is thanks to improvements made to GNOME, and part is due to the inclusion of EarlyOOM, which makes Fedora handle low memory situations much better than it did in earlier versions.
Installing additional software
Like most Fedora releases, the bulk of the change log is "new version of [some programming language or development tool]". Most of these packages do not come pre-installed, but can easily be installed using the DNF package manager. Fedora has up to date packages for Go, GCC, Pascal, Python, Ruby, and a wide selection of other options, which makes Fedora a good choice for developers. Python 2.7 is end of life, but there is still a python27 package available.
In Fedora 32 DNF feels much, much faster. Packages install faster than they did in Fedora 31. Given the network congestion caused by everyone working from home right now, it is not possible for me to properly benchmark DNF's Fedora 31 and Fedora 32 performance, but it is snappier enough to be noticeable. The "command not found" feature on the command line also works better. It still takes a while to return information the first time it runs in a session, but after that it seems to behave much better and quickly provides the option to install a package that provides the entered command or state that the command was not found if no package provides that command.

Fedora 32 -- GNOME Software
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The graphical option to install additional software is GNOME Software. This application provides a selection of GUI applications from Fedora's RPM repositories and from Fedora's own Flatpak repository. Fedora's RPM repository contains a lot of packages, but the Flatpak repository is very, very small. The Flatpak repository contains mostly games and GNOME applications. Most of these Flatpak applications are already packaged as RPMs, so, at present, the Fedora Flatpak repository does not provide much value. GNOME Software does allow the user to enable a selection of "Third Party Repositories", but this option only enables a Copr repository for PyCharm, a repository for Google Chrome, and Steam and NVIDIA drivers provided by RPM Fusion. Despite using RPM Fusion for two packages, there is no automatic way to enable the full RPM Fusion repositories. There is the same issue for Flathub, which contains way more packages than the Fedora Flatpak repository. Enabling Flathub would be helpful, but it is not an option presented by GNOME Software. If a user wants to use Flathub, they must enable it themselves by going to the Flathub website and following the instructions. While there are understandable legal issues around providing RPM Fusion and Flathub by default, it is unfortunate that the optimal Fedora experience requires knowing that RPM Fusion and Flathub exist.
One minor frustration with GNOME Software is that it keeps displaying an error message stating that it is "Unable to install English as not supported". Fedora 32 changed the way language packs are installed, but GNOME Software seems to have some issues with the changes. The English language tools seem to be installed properly, and are working just fine in LibreOffice and other applications, but GNOME Software keeps displaying the error every time I open it.
Final thoughts
If you are already a Fedora user, Fedora 32 is something you should upgrade to immediately. Fedora 32's improvements far outweigh the few minor issues (e.g. GNOME Software complaining about being unable to install English). If you are currently using a different distribution or if you are new to Linux, I still recommend Fedora 32, but with the caveat that you need to know about RPM Fusion and be able to follow the instructions on the RPM Fusion website to install the repositories and install the multimedia codec packages to have an experience on par with other distributions. While not as crucial, it also helps to enable Flathub, which provides a much larger set of packages than Fedora's own Flatpak repository, including many applications that are not available as standard RPM packages. There are valid reasons for a Red Hat sponsored project not enabling those things by default, but it does make the Fedora installation process and user experience more complicated that it could be. Even with the extra work needed to set everything up, Fedora 32 Workstation is a great choice for general desktop computing, development work, or for learning the ins and outs of how Red Hat-style distributions work.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an ASUS VivoBook E406MA laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel Pentium Silver N5000 CPU
- Storage: 64GB eMMC
- Memory: 4GB of RAM
- Networking: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
- Display: Intel UHD Graphics 605
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Visitor supplied rating
Fedora has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.3/10 from 363 review(s).
Have you used Fedora? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
UBports status report, TrueOS shuts down, an overview of Fedora Silverblue
The UBports team has published an update on work being done to their mobile operating system. The team has reported improvements in compatibility with the PinePhone and upgrades to the user interface. There have also been improvements to the Morph web browser: "OTA-12 includes the very last version of Unity 8 (now Lomiri) that Canonical ever prepared. It has finally been brought out of mothballs. There are better contrasting colours across the whole OS, thanks to Cibersheep. The keyboard edit overlay now operates by swiping up, instead of the long press on the space bar. Double tap now works to control it. With Morph improvements, apps can now utilise it to download files. Deleting cookies is now possible! Yes, that should have been in there before but everything takes time... Devices equipped with multi-colour LEDs now show charging status properly. [white/green = charging, green = charged, orange = battery low]. Also some translations have been tidied up and now appear correctly in system settings and elsewhere." Additional details can be found in the project's Q&A post.
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The TrueOS project has been dormant for several months and the team has now announced that the project is officially being discontinued. "With a heavy heart, the TrueOS Project's core team has decided to discontinue the development of TrueOS for the foreseeable future. We'll still be heavily involved in other Open Source projects like FreeNAS & TrueNAS CORE. We're incredibly proud of the work we put into TrueOS and its predecessor, PC-BSD. TrueOS source code will remain available on GitHub for others that may want to continue the work that we started so many years ago." People who are interested in rolling release varieties of FreeBSD and desktop flavours of FreeBSD may be interested in exploring the closely related GhostBSD project.
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Fedora Silverblue is an interesting branch of the Fedora project which presents the core operating system as a set image. Modules can be added on top of Silverblue, but the base operating system is intended to stay as a single, atomic foundation. Nick Hardiman dives into some of Silverblue's features: "The libostree project supplies the goods for managing Silverblue's file system. It is an upgrade system that the user can control using rpm-ostree commands. libostree knows nothing about packages - an upgrade means replacing one complete file system with another complete file system. libostree treats the file system tree as one atomic object (an unbreakable unit). In fact, the forerunner to Silverblue was named Project Atomic. The libostree project provides a library and set of tools. It's an upgrade system that carries out these tasks: Pull in a new file system, store the new file system, deploy the new file system." Hardiman's post further explores managing software on Silverblue.
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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) |
Why distros offer custom builds of packages
Looking-at-the-label asks: Back when I was hopping around for which distro to stick with (thanks to DistroWatch for being my guide), I noticed that the About page for Firefox usually said "Firefox for <distro name>". What are the differences between a "distro specific" Firefox build and the "generic" Firefox build from Mozilla? Why do distros (the ones I've tried, at least) prefer to have their own build rather than use the "generic" build?
DistroWatch answers: There are a handful of reasons a project might want to make their own, custom build of Firefox rather than just install a generic build from Mozilla.
One is customizing locations of files or making Firefox fit better with the distribution's filesystem layout. A distribution might want to shuffle things around to keep resources, icons, or libraries organized more consistently.
A second option is the distribution has security patches which they apply to their build which might not yet be available upstream. Similarly, maybe there aren't any patches at the moment, but doing a custom build means it is easier to insert patches later if they are needed. It is more straight forward to add a patch to a source build than to re-write the packaging routine from using a generic build to then incorporate a patch.
Building a custom package for Firefox, or any other software, allows the distribution to introduce compile-time improvements. These can include code optimizations to make the software faster, security features that make the browser harder to exploit, debugging information to help developers find problems. A lot of little tweaks can be made during the build that make a big difference in program size, speed, and security.
Branding can also play a role. Some projects may want to put their name on the browser, or adjust the browser's identification slightly to make their distribution show up in website statistics. It also lets users know where to report bugs. If you run into a problem with Mozilla's build of Firefox it should be reported to Mozilla. If you run into issues while running Ubuntu's build of Firefox it should be reported to Ubuntu.
Building from source code will often produce warnings or errors which developers can address and fix. This can result in potential problems being addressed early rather than waiting for Mozilla (or another upstream team) to notice the issue and address it.
There is also the issue of reproducible builds. Some projects want to make sure that the binary package they are providing can be reproduced. In other words, they want to confirm the binary they share with their users was built using the corresponding source code and that fact can be verified. Shipping a pre-made, generic binary, does not allow a distribution to confirm their software builds are reproducible.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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Released Last Week |
Proxmox 6.2 "Virtual Environment"
Proxmox is a commercial company which offers specialized products based on Debian. The company has launched Proxmox Virtual Environment version 6.2 which is based on Debian 10.4 "Buster". The release announcement covers the highlights of the new version which include updates to the kernel and ZFS support. "We are proud to announce the general availability of our virtualization management platform Proxmox VE 6.2. It's built on Debian Buster 10.4 and a 5.4 long-term Linux kernel, QEMU 5.0, LXC 4.0, ZFS 0.8.3, Ceph 14.2.9 (Nautilus), and ZFS 0.8.3. This release brings a built-in validation of domains for Let's Encrypt TLS certificates via the DNS-based challenge mechanism, full support for up to eight corosync network links, support for Zstandard for Backup/Restore, and a new LDAP sync for users and groups and full support for API tokens. Countless bugfixes and smaller improvements are included as well, see the full release notes." Further information on the new version and upgrade instructions can be found in the release announcement.
Q4OS 3.11
Q4OS is a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution designed to offer classic-style user interface (Trinity) or the more modern Plasma desktop. The project's latest version, Q4OS 3.11, offers several package upgrades and introduces new dedicated installers for the Firefox and Palemoon web browsers. The release announcement offers further details: "A significant update to Q4OS 3 Centaurus LTS is immediately available for download. The new 3.11 series receives all the fixes and goodies from the recent Debian Buster 10.4 update, critical security and bug fixes and brings several Q4OS specific improvements. Most importantly, the Q4OS Software centre applications list has got a bunch of new items. National keyboard layout configuration has been enhanced. In addition to the above, Q4OS 3.11 brings other exciting enhancements, such as dedicated installers for Firefox 76 and Palemoon browsers as well as cumulative upgrade covering all changes since the previous stable version of Q4OS 3 Centaurus."
Kali Linux 2020.2
Kali Linux is a Debian-based distribution with a collection of security and forensics tools. The project's latest release makes it easier for users to access PowerShell, updates themes for KDE Plasma, and the size requirements for the distribution's ARM-build SD cards has been increased from 8GB to 16GB. "A while ago, we put PowerShell into Kali Linux's network repository. This means if you wanted PowerShell, you had to install the package as a one off by doing 'sudo apt install -y powershell'. We now have put PowerShell into one of our (primary) metapackages, kali-linux-large. This means, if you choose to install this metapackage during system setup, or once Kali is up and running (sudo apt install -y kali-linux-large), if PowerShell is compatible with your architecture, you can just jump straight into it (pwsh). PowerShell isn't in the default metapackage (that's kali-linux-default), but it is in the one that includes the default and many extras, and can be included during system setup." Additional information and screenshots of the new KDE Plasma themes can be found in the distribution's release announcement.

Kali Linux 2020.2 -- The live desktop
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Finnix 120
After a 5-year hiatus, the Finnix distribution has come to life once more with a release of version 120. Finnix is a Debian-based live Linux CD made for system administrators and designed to manipulate hard drives and partitions, monitor networks, and rebuild boot records. The new version is the project's first release for the x86_64 architecture: "Finnix 120 released. That's right: after a 5-year hiatus, Finnix - the live CD for system administrators and the oldest live CD in production - is back to celebrate its 20-year anniversary in 2020 with Finnix 120. Finnix 120 is a complete overhaul, with a number of major changes (as well as too many minor changes to enumerate): Finnix 120 is now a native 64-bit amd64 userland and kernel system; both BIOS and UEFI booting are now available, with Secure Boot; hundreds of new utility packages have been added; automatic setup attempts of complex block device layouts have been removed in favor of management via udisksctl with tab-completion; other legacy features and boot modes have been discontinued or are no longer supported, in favor of core USB/CD booting...." Read the release announcement and release notes for more information.
UBports 16.04 OTA-12
The UBports team has published an update to their mobile operating system. The new version, 16.04 OTA-12 introduces a new version of the Lomiri (formerly Unity8) user interface and Mir now supports working with Wayland clients. "The headline feature of this new release is our import of Canonical's final changes to Unity8. This is a transition that started in April of 2019 and has brought many new features. As an Ubuntu Touch user, you'll be seeing the effects of the revision right away -- the Ubuntu Touch 'home screen', the Unity8 Dash, has now been replaced by a blank background, with the Drawer serving as the new app list. The new version of Unity8 performs extensive self-tests, helping us to avoid introducing new bugs or triggering old ones again. Unity8 is now called Lomiri, though the code naming is only being updated slowly to reflect this. Most importantly for us, we upgraded from Mir 0.24, released back in 2015, to Mir 1.2, released in 2019. This newer version of Mir features support for Wayland clients!" Further details can be found in the project's release announcement.
BackBox Linux 7
BackBox Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution developed to perform penetration tests and security assessments. The distribution's latest release is BackBox 7 which is based on Ubuntu's 20.04 long-term support release. The distribution now features version 5.4 of the Linux kernel and Xfce 4.14. "The BackBox Team, ten years after its first release, is happy to announce the new major release of BackBox Linux, version 7. As usual, this major release includes many updates. These include new kernel, updated tools and some structural changes with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. What's new: Updated Linux Kernel 5.4. Updated desktop environment. Updated hacking tools. Updated ISO Hybrid with UEFI support." Further details, including minimal system requirements, can be found in the project's release announcement.

BackBox 7 -- Running the Xfce desktop
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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: 1,979
- Total data uploaded: 31.8TB
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Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
The source of your web browser package
In our Questions and Answers article this week we talked about why distributions would provide their own builds of Firefox rather than simply redistributing Mozilla's binary package of the web browser. Many packages, particularly popular ones like Firefox, can be installed through several methods and we would like to know how you get your web brwoser installed.
Do you install your web browser through your distribution's traditional package manager or through a portable package like Flatpak or Snap? Do you build your browser from source code, use a PPA, download the browser as a binary from its upstream website?
You can see the results of our previous poll on using screen sharing applications in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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The source of your web browser package
My distro's default repository: | 1395 (76%) |
A third-party/PAA repository: | 159 (9%) |
A portable package (Flatpak/Snap): | 41 (2%) |
Generic binary from upstream: | 138 (8%) |
I build it from source code: | 32 (2%) |
Other: | 51 (3%) |
Unsure: | 23 (1%) |
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Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 25 May 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 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 |
• 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 |
• Full list of all issues |
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Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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Random Distribution | 
Athene Operating System
Athene was a commercial operating system developed by Rocklyte Systems for use in the home and office. Athene combines years of Rocklyte's R&D with the latest Linux technology to create one of the fastest operating systems available today. With boot times as fast as four seconds and advanced graphics technology not available in standard Linux distributions, Athene may be the best low-cost alternative to Windows for your computer desktop.
Status: Discontinued
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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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