 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 907, 8 March 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 10th issue of DistroWatch Weekly and happy International Women's Day 2021! Artix Linux is one of the shrinking number of Linux distributions that do not use the controversial systemd init software, providing instead a set of Arch Linux-based operating systems with a choice of OpenRC, runit or S6 init processes. We take a look at a recent release of the project's "KDE Plasma" edition to see how it has progressed since our review in July 2020. Is it better, faster, more customisable than its famous parent or is the init software the only major feature that distinguishes Artix from Arch? Read below to find out. In the news section, the SUSE project announces a merge of package repositories for openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise distributions, LinuxSecurity overviews some of the popular security and privacy-oriented Linux systems, and Dedoimedo has an interesting suggestion for CentOS users frustrated with the discontinuation of CentOS 8 - simply switch to CentOS 7. Also in the news section, a link to an amusing email from Linus Torvalds after discovering an embarrassing issue in Linux kernel 5.12-rc1, a bug that could overwrite the filesystem with random swap data (at least for those users who prefer a swap file over a swap partition). In our regular Questions and Answers column, Jesse Smith examines the topic of combining several commands into one using pipes and command substitutions. Finally, for those looking for some exciting new toys to take for a spin, we have some suggestions - try Salient OS, a new addition to the DistroWatch database, an Arch-based distribution optimised for gaming and multimedia work. Or take a look at TeLOS Linux, a minimalist distribution with KDE Plasma, based on Debian's "Testing" and "Unstable" branches. Happy computing!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Artix Linux in 2021
Artix Linux is a fork (or continuation as an autonomous project) of the Arch-OpenRC and Manjaro-OpenRC projects. Artix Linux offers a lightweight, rolling-release operating system featuring alternative init software options, including OpenRC, runit, and s6. The distribution is available in many editions, including Base, Cinnamon, LXDE, LXQt, MATE, KDE Plasma and Xfce. With all of the desktop options, combined with the available init choices, there are 21 editions, not including community spins from which to choose. All editions appear to be built for 64-bit (x86_64) machines. Picking randomly, I selected Artix's Plasma edition featuring the runit init software. The download for this edition is is 1.3GB. Browsing the other editions it looks like most flavours are about 1.1GB to 1.3GB in size, though the minimal Base edition is a compact 618MB.
The project's live media boots to the KDE Plasma desktop. On the desktop we find multiple documentation and README icons. There is also an icon for launching the system installer. The default layout places a panel at bottom of the screen where we can find the application menu and system tray. The default wallpaper is a soft blue while the theme for windows and menus is dark with high contrast fonts.
There isn't much in the documentation text and PDF files linked on the desktop. There are some notes on installing runit, which is already done for us, and one file just contains the name of the log file for X.Org. The one documentation file on the desktop which stood out was the troubleshooting PDF which is helpful and includes several explanations and workarounds for common issues. Another useful piece of information is that the password for the live session is "artix" which is needed to unlock system if it is left idle.
Artix Linux 20210101 - browsing the application menu
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Installing
Artix Linux uses the Calamares graphical installer. The installer begins by asking us for our preferred language. This first screen of the installer features buttons for accessing release notes, support, and a list of known issues. Clicking on any of these three buttons did nothing during my trial. However, once past this initial screen things were smooth sailing with Calamares. The installer quickly helped me pick my time zone, select the keyboard layout, and create a user account. When it comes to partitioning Calamares provides both a friendly manual partitioning screen and a guided option. The guided option defaults to setting up the operating system on an ext4 filesystem which takes up all available disk space. The guided option will offer to create either a swap partition or swap file for us which is a nice touch. Calamares quickly copied Artix successfully to my hard drive and offered to restart the computer.
Early impressions
Artix boots to a graphical login screen where we can type our username and password as well as select our preferred desktop session. By default the Plasma edition, appropriately, only provides a Plasma session. The installed copy of the operating system does not feature any desktop icons. The environment is fairly bare, offering no welcome window, no initial configuration, and no pop-up notifications. The desktop is, in short, pleasantly quiet. The theme is dark with a strong contrast and nice, large fonts. This made Artix pleasant to look at right from the start.
Hardware
I began testing Artix in a VirtualBox environment. The operating system performed well in the virtual machine. The Plasma desktop was responsive and dynamically resized to match the VirtualBox window's dimensions. The system performed tasks quickly and was stable. When I switched to running Artix on my laptop I enjoyed a similar experience. Artix was again fast and ran smoothly. The distribution recognized all my hardware and I encountered no stability issues with the included applications or the system as a whole.
Artix is a relatively light distribution. A fresh install used 4.5GB of disk space, less than the average Linux distribution. Memory usage was also trim, even when logged into Plasma Artix only required 370MB of memory. This is about half the RAM usage I experience on most mainstream Linux distributions.
Artix Linux 20210101 - browsing desktop settings in System Settings
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Applications
Artix ships with a relatively small collection of desktop software. Looking through the application menu we can find the Falkon and Konqueror web browsers. The Okular document viewer and the Gwenview image viewer are present. The mpv media player is included and is equipped with a full range of multimedia codecs. The Dolphin file manager and KSysGuard system monitor are installed for us along with the KGpg encryption tool and a text editor.
Desktop settings are managed by the System Settings panel which provides a fantastic range of configuration options. The settings panel includes a search feature to help us locate specific desktop functions and tweaks. In the background we find the runit init software (though each edition is available with alternatives). The distribution is a rolling release and new versions of software become available regularly, but the install media I started with included version 5.9 of the Linux kernel.
Since Artix starts us off with a minimal collection of software, enough to get on-line and perform some basic tasks, but not a full suite of tools, we will likely need to install additional packages. I added a handful of common programs to Artix such as LibreOffice, Firefox, and the GNU Image Manipulation Program. Each of these were added without any problems. The Firefox browser automatically comes bundled with a few extensions, including Privacy Badger, a spell check extension, and a tool for working with mouse gestures.
Artix Linux 20210101 - running Firefox and LibreOffice
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Software management
Speaking of software management, there doesn't appear to be any graphical package manager included with Artix. There are some graphical front-ends we can install from the project's repositories, but that clearly involves using another package manager to get us started. Artix ships with the pacman command line package manager. I find pacman to be fast, flexible, and oddly cryptic in its syntax.
Despite the unusual syntax, pacman gets the job done. I was able to download new packages, perform upgrades, and clean out the package cache without any significant issues. All the while pacman performed its tasks quickly.
There was one minor issue I tripped over early on. When I first installed Artix there were 263 packages available I could upgrade, totalling 530MB in size. Clearly a lot of new updates had come out in the weeks since the last ISO snapshot. When I ran the upgrade process, I was asked if it was okay to swap out one package with another. I opted to keep the original package and, a few minutes later, this caused the entire upgrade to halt with an error. Apparently the new package was a dependency of other items. I ran the upgrade again, this time allowing the replacement to happen and the upgrade completed successfully.
Artix Linux 20210101 - checking for software updates with pacman
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Another feature of pacman some newcomers might find alien, though not a bug, is that the package manager will sometimes pause and clarify which package we want if it finds multiple potential candidates. For instance, LibreOffice is available in development and stable flavours though the package names aren't particularly descriptive.
Conclusions
Artix Linux is one of those distributions I really enjoy using and yet struggle to review in a meaningful way because it doesn't really go out of its way to introduce new or exciting features and everything works smoothly. The distribution is wonderfully easy to install, offers top-notch performance, and is unusually light on resources. Artix is somewhat minimal, but still ships enough software to be immediately useful right out of the gate. We can browse the web, install packages, view files, and play videos. Meanwhile the application menu isn't cluttered with a lot of extras. The developers clearly expect us to install the functionality we need, while doing a really good job of providing enough for the desktop environment to feel base-line useful right from the start.
Artix does a nice job of balancing performance and functionality while also juggling ease of use against not getting in the way. There is a little documentation, but no initial welcome screen or configuration wizards that might distract the user.
The one piece I felt was missing was a graphical package manager which would have made it easier to build the extra functionality I wanted on top of the base distribution. However, that one piece aside, I felt as though Artix was really well designed and put together, at lease for someone like me. It's not a distribution geared toward beginners, it's not a "first distro". It is a bit minimal and requires command line knowledge. However, for someone with a little experience with Linux, for someone who doesn't mind the occasional trip to the command line or installing new applications as needed, then Artix provides an excellent experience. It's fast, light, looks (in my opinion) great with the default theme, and elegantly walks the line between minimalism and having enough applications ready to go out of the box to be immediately useful. I'm unusually impressed with how smooth and trouble-free my experience was with this distribution and the fact it offers such a range of desktop and init diversity is all the more appealing.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a de-branded HP laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: Intel i3 2.5GHz CPU
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 700GB hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Wired network device: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast
- Wireless network device: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Artix Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.2/10 from 177 review(s).
Have you used Artix Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
Newly shared codebase between openSUSE and SUSE Linux, an overview of security Linux distributions, switching from CentOS 8 to CentOS 7, the "double ungood" 5.12-rc1 kernel bug
 Last week, the developers of openSUSE announced the availability of a beta build of the upcoming 15.3 "Leap" distribution. This was just one of the many routine distribution release announcements that appear on DistroWatch daily, directed more towards beta testers and ardent followers rather than the general public. As such, chances are that many simply skipped the news or read it with only a passing interest. And yet, the announcement included a rather surprising change - a repository merge that essentially closes the gap between openSUSE and its enterprise-class sister project, SUSE Linux Enterprise. SUSE's Gerald Pfeifer explains: "Leap 15.3 is the first release where openSUSE Leap and SUSE Linux Enterprise share the same source code and use the exact same binary packages. ... A community distribution that is binary compatible with an Enterprise Linux distribution offers unmatched choice. openSUSE Leap not only provides the same quality as SLE, it also combines that with the amazing ecosystem of openSUSE, which offers thousands of additional community-maintained software packages. Previously you had to choose between super rock-solid (we do need to stress that Leap was, of course, also very solid already) and a large choice of software packages, but no more. You can have both at the same time now." This is perhaps the reason why the beta snapshot of SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 Service Pack 3 was released at the same time as the beta of openSUSE Leap 15.3.
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 With the increasingly intrusive ways the big technology companies and governments encroach on the privacy of internet users, it's always reassuring to know that the Linux community continues to develop excellent products that attempt to preserve whatever little seclusion we might still enjoy while browsing the world wide web. Last week, LinuxSecurity.com's Brittany Day wrote an overview of some of the more prominent security-oriented Linux distributions, including Qubes OS, Tails, Parrot, BlackArch Linux and Whonix. On the subject of Qubes OS, the author writes: "Qubes OS is an ideal choice for users looking to mitigate risk by compartmentalizing their digital life. A key feature of this operating system is the confinement of high-risk applications to separate virtual machines. Multiple virtual machines - or 'qubes' - are used to organize and separate systems around 'work', 'personal', 'internet' and so on. These qubes, which are conveniently color-coded to help users differentiate them, are highly secure and can offer privacy advocates peace of mind in an increasingly invasive digital environment. As a result of this compartmentalization, if you happen to download malware to your work machine, your personal files won't be affected and vice versa."
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 If there was ever a competition for the most infuriating announcement in the Linux world, then one of the top prices for 2020 will surely have to go to Red Hat's discontinuation of CentOS 8. CentOS was 100% binary compatible with the company's own enterprise-level platform and completely free to download and use, so it is perhaps unsurprising that somebody at Red Hat saw it as a threat to the company's business model and decided to put a stop to it. But if CentOS 8 is no longer an option, what about its predecessor, CentOS 7? Last week, Dedoimedo's Igor Ljubuncic took a look at the legacy branch of CentOS, arriving to a rather surprising conclusion: "I knew CentOS is rock solid, and I didn't expect any complications, but the results surpass my own expectations. I guess I've been removed from the good ole stuff for too long to remember and appreciate the steadfast simplicity from the heyday of the desktop - roughly the first half of the past decade. And if I think more deeply about it, CentOS 7 actually has a wider collection of software available than its successor, as lots of the stuff, even in RPM Fusion and EPEL, didn't make it into CentOS 8. Like LyX. The one thing I'm missing here is Plasma 5, so maybe I will actually hassle myself up to get this working all nice and proper like, just for fun." According to the project's wiki, CentOS 7 will continue receiving support until June 2024, while CentOS 8 will be completely discontinued in December 2021.
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 We conclude this week's news section with a fairly entertaining email written by Linus Torvalds and sent to the Linux kernel mailing list after he discovered a critical bug that somehow found its way into the first release candidate of Linux 5.12: "Hey peeps - some of you may have already noticed that in my public git tree, the 'v5.12-rc1' tag has magically been renamed to 'v5.12-rc1-dontuse'. It's still the same object, it still says 'v5.12-rc1' internally, and it is still is signed by me, but the user-visible name of the tag has changed. The reason is fairly straightforward: this merge window, we had a very innocuous code cleanup and simplification that raised no red flags at all, but had a subtle and very nasty bug in it: swap files stopped working right. And they stopped working in a particularly bad way: the offset of the start of the swap file was lost. ... Yes, this is very unfortunate, but it really wasn't a very obvious bug, and it didn't even show up in normal testing, exactly because swap files just aren't normal. But I want everybody to be aware of because _if_ it bites you, it bites you hard, and you can end up with a filesystem that is essentially overwritten by random swap data. This is what we in the industry call 'double ungood'."
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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) |
Making commands work together on the command line
Curious-about-the-command-line asks: What is one of the best or most powerful commands you can use on the Linux command line? Is there something Linux can do in this arena other operating systems can't?
DistroWatch answers: I'm not sure there is any one command that particularly stands out, at least not one that doesn't have an equivalent on other operating systems. There are lots and lots of powerful tools for the Linux (and BSD) command line. I have talked in the past about how much I like the ability to quickly schedule tasks or string together OpenSSH commands to perform remote actions and deal with the output locally. In fact, over the past decade I have written frequently about neat command line tricks which accomplish anything from checking available disk space, to reducing the priority and impact of running processes, to working with variables.
After giving it some thought, I don't think there is any one specific program which stands out in my mind, but there are two practises I use a lot on Linux which make my work easier on a daily basis. These are command substitution and pipes.
Let's talk about pipes first as I think they are the easier and more popular of the two concepts. A pipe is a tool for taking the output of one command line program and passing that information as input to a second program. Basically we are feeding the work of one program into another. This may be easier to understand in the form of an example.
Let us pretend for a moment that I want to get a list of programs currently installed on my computer. I run the rpm package manager and get a listing of packages currently installed. I've trimmed down the output of rpm in this example to just three entries from hundreds for the sake of simplicity.
$ rpm -qa
linux-5.9
xorg-server-1.27.1
bash-5.1
This shows me three packages (linux, xorg-server, and bash) are installed, along with their version numbers. Now, what if I want to have this same information, but sorted alphabetically? On a real package listing from rpm there could be thousands of entries so I don't want to arrange them manually. Instead I will use the sort utility which will put the package listing in order for me. I do this by running the "rpm -qa" command again and using a pipe (|) to pass that information along to the sort utility:
$ rpm -qa | sort
bash-5.1
linux-5.9
xorg-server-1.27.1
As you can see in the above example, the information is now sorted alphabetically. We can further manipulate the information available, doing things like translating all the letters to upper-case using the tr command:
$ rpm -qa | sort | tr [:lower:] [:upper:]
BASH-5.1
LINUX-5.9
XORG-SERVER-1.27.1
Each command in the above example prints output which is captured by the pipe and passed along to another program. We could also do a neat trick to remove the dash character from between the package name and the version number. This is accomplished by reversing the order of the characters in each line via rev, then replacing the first dash with a space via the sed command, and restoring the characters back to their original order using rev again. This may seem a round-about way to remove the dashes, but it has the benefit of leaving the dash in the xorg-server package name in place.
$ rpm -qa | sort | rev | sed 's/-/ /' | rev
bash 5.1
linux 5.9
xorg-server 1.27.1
Pipes are one of the tools which give Linux its famed flexibility and command line power. Pipes allow us to do an amazing amount of data manipulation and, in some cases, transfer data to other computers and back. In each case this is accomplished by stringing commands together through a series of pipes.
Command substitution is a somewhat similar tool in that it allows us to collect the output of a command and use it elsewhere. However, command substitution works a little differently and is often used to gather a small amount of output to be used as a variable for another command or script. When we want to collect the data from a command for use later we run the command inside a set of parentheses with a dollar sign in front of them. It looks like this:
$(command)
In the following example, I use one command called whoami to find out what my username is. Then I combine it with the echo command to display a friendly greeting:
$ echo "Welcome back, $(whoami)!"
Welcome back, jesse!
In this case the system sees I'm doing command substitution and runs the whoami command and collects its output. Then it inserts that information it collected into the echo command. This is sort of like using variables in algebra where an "a" or "x" holds the place of another value.
How might we use this tool in a more practical situation? Well, if you have ever tried to download a package from SourceForge using a command line tool, you are probably aware that SourceForge sets up its download links to not end with the filename we are retrieving. A SourceForge download URL looks like this: https://sourceforge.net/projects/bftpd/files/bftpd/bftpd-5.7/bftpd-5.7.tar.gz/download
The above URL is not ideal because if we pass it to a download utility like wget it will save the file under the name "download". If you do this for multiple packages then you end up with a directory full of files named "download", "download.1", "download.2", etc. To get around this issue I wrote a little program that changes a SourceForge URL into something that still works while being more practical to use with wget. My program, short-sourceforge, works like this:
$ short-sourceforge https://sourceforge.net/projects/bftpd/files/bftpd/bftpd-5.7/bftpd-5.7.tar.gz/download
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/bftpd/bftpd-5.7.tar.gz
Now I have a tool which translates SourceForge URLs into something nicer for download utilities to use and I can use command line substitution to pass the cleaned up URL to wget:
$ wget $(short-sourceforge https://sourceforge.net/projects/bftpd/files/bftpd/bftpd-5.7/bftpd-5.7.tar.gz/download)
...
Saving to: 'bftpd-5.7.tar.gz'
The result is wget downloads the file using the cleaned up URL and saves it correctly as "bftpd-5.7.tar.gz" in the current directory.
This sort of substitution can be used with variables too. For example, I can assign a URL to a variable named "file" and the output from whoami to a variable called "name". Then print the results:
$ file=$(short-sourceforge https://sourceforge.net/projects/bftpd/files/bftpd/bftpd-5.7/bftpd-5.7.tar.gz/download)
$ name=$(whoami)
$ echo "$name downloaded $file"
jesse downloaded http://downloads.sourceforge.net/bftpd/bftpd-5.7.tar.gz
One nice aspect of command substitution is that we can use pipes within the embedded command. For example, if I wanted to use whoami to get my username and then make it start with an upper-case letter (transforming "jesse" into "Jesse") using the sed command then I can do this:
$ echo "Welcome back, $(whoami | sed 's/^./\U&\E/')!"
Welcome back, Jesse!
Many of the scripts and tools I use on a daily basis use some combination of substitution and pipes. This allows us to link multiple small commands together quickly to make bigger and more complex tools.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Emmabuntüs DE3-1.04
Patrick d'Emmabuntüs has announced the release of Emmabuntüs DE3-1.04, an updated build of the project's lightweight, Debian-based distribution designed primarily for refurbished computers: "The Emmabuntüs Collective is happy to announce the release of the Emmabuntüs Debian Edition update 3 1.04 (32-bit and 64-bit) based on the Debian 10.8 'Buster' distribution featuring both Xfce and LXQt desktop environments. This new update of our distribution brings an evolution of the way the different languages are supported, like the Emmabuntüs DE4, thanks to the .po file usage, as well as the removal of a number of proprietary software applications, to the benefit of free alternatives. Namely, DWService is replacing Teamviewer, Jami is replacing Skype and finally SMTube is replaced by FreeTube. We also took the opportunity of this new release to remove some obsolete software, like Adobe Flash, Jitsi desktop and Java 8, and to install new versions of Kiwix 2 and Ancestris 10." Here is the full release announcement with screenshots.
Linux From Scratch 10.1
Bruce Dubbs has announced the release of Linux From Scratch (LFS) 10.1, a book of step-by-step instruction of building a basic Linux system from source code. This release upgrades most packages to their latest versions: "The Linux From Scratch community announces the release of LFS version 10.1. Major changes include toolchain updates to glibc 2.33 and Binutils 2.36.1. In total, 40 packages were updated since the last release. Changes to the text have also been made throughout the book. The Linux kernel has also been updated to version 5.10.17. In coordination with this release, a new version of LFS using the systemd package is also being released. This package implements the newer systemd style of system initialization and control and is consistent with LFS in most packages." Visit the project' news page to read the brief release announcement. A separate, Beyond Linux From Scratch book, which includes over 1,000 extra packages, is also available in version 10.1; both books are provided in SysVInit and systemd variants.
IPFire 2.25 Core 154
Michael Tremer has announced the release of IPFire 2.25 Core 154, an updated build of the project's Linux-based distribution designed for routers and firewalls. This version comes with a large number of package upgrades, DNS resolution improvements and WPA3 client support: "The first update of the year will be an enormous one. We have been working hard in the lab to update the underlying operating system to harden and improve IPFire and we have added WPA3 client support and made DNS faster and more resilient against broken Internet connections. This is probably the release with the largest number of package updates. This is necessary for us to keep the system modern and adopt any fixes from upstream projects. The DNS proxy working inside IPFire will now reuse any TLS and TCP connections for DNS resolution making it substantially faster. Before, a TCP or TLS connection had to be opened and closed after a response was received causing a lot of overhead. Please consider if your setup can run DNS-over-TLS to protect your privacy." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details.
NomadBSD 1.4
Version 1.4 of NomadBSD, a persistent live system for USB flash drives based on FreeBSD and featuring a graphical user interface built around Openbox, has been released: "We are pleased to present the release of NomadBSD 1.4. Changes since 1.3.2: the base system has been upgraded to FreeBSD 12.2-p2; the installer has been improved; problems with booting the installed system via UEFI has been fixed; the suitable graphics card driver will now be installed and set up, instead of using the auto-detection on the installed system; automatic graphics driver detection has been improved and the menu has been removed; if no better graphics driver can be found, VESA or SCFB is used; auto-detection will now only run if the system configuration has changed since the last successful detection; touchpad support has been improved - if X.Org reports a problem with the touchpad, kern.evdev.rcpt_mask is automatically adjusted to use sysmouse." See the release announcement for a complete changelog.
Qubes OS 4.0.4
Andrew David Wong has announced the release of Qubes OS 4.0.4, an updated build of the project's security-focused Linux distribution that provides a way to "compartmentalise" computing tasks into isolated compartments called "qubes": "We are pleased to announce the release of Qubes OS 4.0.4. This is the fourth stable release of Qubes 4.0. It includes many updates over the initial 4.0 release, including: all 4.0 dom0 updates to date; Fedora 32 TemplateVM; Debian 10 TemplateVM; Whonix 15 Gateway and Workstation TemplateVMs; Linux kernel 5.4 by default. If you installed Qubes 4.0, 4.0.1, 4.0.2, or 4.0.3 and have fully updated, then your system is already equivalent to a Qubes 4.0.4 installation. No further action is required. Regardless of your current OS, if you wish to install (or reinstall) Qubes 4.0 for any reason, then the 4.0.4 ISO makes this more convenient and secure, since it bundles all Qubes 4.0 updates to date. Please see the installation guide for detailed instructions." Here is the brief release announcement.
MakuluLinux 2021-03-05
Jacque Montague Raymer has announced the release of MakuluLinux 2021-03-05 "LinDoz" edition, a desktop Linux distribution with a Cinnamon desktop customised to resemble the desktop interface of Microsoft Windows. This release is based on Ubuntu 20.04: "MakuluLinux 'LinDoz' is built on our new hybrid 2020/21 base (which fully supports the new 'Focal' repositories and the move to Python 3) and designed on a heavily modified Cinnamon 4.8.2 framework. Designed to make the user transition from Windows to Linux easier and more comfortable while still retaining its Linux roots has been quite a challenge, and one we focused heavily on two fronts - keep a familiar Windows-like look, but push the Linux experience. With all new GUI and features to make the user experience easier, using the new 'LinDoz' is a breeze and feels very comfortable. Standout features of the new LinDoz 2021: introduction video that guides the user around the desktop; more streamlined themes, Lindoz now offers 12 theme variants...." Continue to the release notes for detailed information and a video introduction.
MakuluLinux 2021-03-05 - an Ubuntu-based distribution for power users
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SystemRescue 8.00
François Dupoux has released SystemRescue 8.00, a major new version of the project's specialist, Arch-based distribution featuring a system rescue toolkit for administrating or repairing a system and data after a crash. It continues to be provided for both x86_64 and i386 systems. This version upgrades the Linux kernel to the latest LTS (long-term supported) version and it also updates the graphical user interface to Xfce 4.16: "Updated kernel to the long-term-supported Linux 5.10.20; updated partitioning tools to Parted 3.4, GParted 1.2.0; updated file systems - btrfs-progs 5.10.1, xfsprogs 5.10.0, e2fsprogs 1.46.2; updated utilities - nwipe 0.30, dislocker 0.7.3, fsarchiver 0.8.6; updated Xfce graphical environment to version 4.16; updated Python to version 3.9.2 and added python-pip; added paperkey (to print private keys on paper); replaced exfat-utils with exfatprogs." Visit the distribution's changelog and system tools pages more information and for a detailed information about the available utilities.
SparkyLinux 2021.03
Paweł Pijanowski has announced the release of SparkyLinux 2021.03, the latest update of the project's semi-rolling-release distribution based on Debian's "Testing" branch. This release adds a new addition featuring the KDE Plasma desktop to the existing lineup: "SparkyLinux 2021.03 of the semi-rolling line is out. It is the first snapshot SparkyLinux in 2021 and it is based on the Debian 'Bullseye'. Changes: packages upgraded from Debian testing repositories as of March 5, 2021; Linux kernel 5.10.13 (5.11.3 and 5.12-rc2 in SparkyLinux unstable repositories); Firefox 86.0 and Thunderbird 78.8.0; LibreOffice 7.0.4.2; LXQt 0.16.0, MATE 1.24.1, Xfce 4.16, Openbox 3.6.1; new edition with KDE Plasma 5.20.5; VLC 3.0.12; Exaile 4.1.0; Calamares 3.2.37 with kpmcore 20.12.3; SparkyLinux APTus AppCenter 20210302; added extra keyboard shortcuts to Xfce, LXQt and Openbox...." Read the complete release announcement for further details.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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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) |
Do you write your own shell scripts?
In our Questions and Answers column we talked about two powerful command line tools which can be used to improve the power of the command line and facilitate scripting tasks. Shell scripts are groups of commands which are grouped together in a text file and which make it possible to automate complex tasks. Do you write any of your own shell scripts? Tell us what sort of tasks you script in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using the Kodi media centre in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you write your own scripts?
| I do write my own scripts: | 891 (55%) |
| I previous wrote scripts though not anymore: | 191 (12%) |
| I have not written any scripts: | 530 (33%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to database
Salient OS
Salient OS is an Arch Linux-based, rolling-release distribution aimed at multimedia and gaming enthusiasts. It is optimised for performance as a gaming workstation and it can be installed to a hard disk using the Calamares installer. Salient OS comes in two separate editions, featuring either the Xfce or the KDE Plasma desktop.
Salient OS 21.03 "Xfce" - an Arch-based distribution for gaming and multimedia enthusiasts
(full image size: 752kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
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New distributions added to waiting list
- TeLOS Linux. TeLOS Linux is a Debian-based distribution built from Debian's "Testing" and "Unstable" branches, featuring the latest KDE Plasma desktop. A careful selection of pre-installed (but uninstallable) applications is included. TeLOS Linux attempts to be full-featured and easily customizable without being bloated. It is freely distributed, but includes some non-free proprietary packages to support common modern hardware. The most popular browser, Google Chrome, is also included and pre-configured for maximum performance and optimal appearance. TeLOS is suitable for both Linux newcomers and experienced users.
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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, 15 March 2021. 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 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 | 
eLearnix
eLearnix (also known as Freeleader Linux) is a self contained, Linux-based, tutorial operating system that comes on a USB/DVD instead of a book. We give you the instructions to burn the ISO file and load the whole thing absolutely and positively free. The only way to learn Linux is by running it! eLearnix was based on Slackware Linux, but recent versions are based on Linux Mint.
Status: Active
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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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