 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 923, 28 June 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 25th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Ideally, computers should be easy to use, predictable, and trustworthy. None of these ideals is easy to achieve and, as a result, developers are constantly trying new approaches and experimenting with different combinations of tools. In our News section this week we talk about NixOS gaining the ability to create reproducible builds along with an OpenBSD developer borrowing concepts from NixOS to predictably configure OpenBSD systems. Plus we talk about Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, offering commercial support for the Blender application to help keep this open source application running smoothly. In our Questions and Answers column we continue to discuss various solutions to problems, using command line shells as an example. There are a lot of different shells available and we talk about why this is as well as answering why bash is so popular. Which command line shell is your favourite? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. Before we dive into all of these topics, we'd like to open with a look at Ubuntu MATE. Many people look at Ubuntu MATE as a continuation of what Ubuntu originally was, back before the distribution adopted the Unity and GNOME desktops. We talk about Ubuntu MATE and some of its key features in this week's Feature Story. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Ubuntu MATE 21.04 and Anbox
- News: NixOS gains reproducible builds, OpenBSD developer seeks to duplicate Nix features, Canonical offers commercial support for Blender
- Questions and answers: Why there are so many Linux shells
- Released last week: IPFire 2.25 Core 157, Rocky Linux 8.4, SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP3
- Torrent corner: Android-x86, Gardua, IPFire, KDE neon, Robolinux, Rocky, SparkyLinux
- Opinion poll: Which is your favourite command line shell?
- New distributions: rlxos
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (14MB) and MP3 (10MB) formats.
|
| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Ubuntu MATE 21.04 and Anbox
The Ubuntu team published version 21.04, on schedule and without much in the way of surprises. Ubuntu and its many community editions, including Ubuntu MATE, appear to have spent the past six months polishing the desktop environments. There aren't many changes, no leaps forward in terms of the underlying technology like init software, filesystems, and packaging formats which sometimes shake up the Ubuntu community. This time around the big headline change for Ubuntu was adopting Wayland as the default display software for the GNOME desktop. Meanwhile the Ubuntu MATE team included some fixes, addressed some problems when switching between desktop layouts, and polished their themes.
One key item mentioned in the Ubuntu MATE 21.04 release announcement is that their fixes have been pushed upstream to Debian. This means that fixes which appear in Ubuntu MATE 21.04 will not only be available to other flavours of Ubuntu, but improvements to the MATE desktop should also appear in Debian and its dozens of derived distributions.
Ubuntu MATE 21.04 is available for 64-bit (x86_64) machines. On release day ARM images were planned, but not published yet. The project's ISO file is a 2.8GB download. Booting from the Ubuntu MATE media brings up a menu asking if we'd like to run the live desktop, run the live desktop in safe graphics mode, or run the OEM install process. Taking the live desktop modes launches MATE 1.24.1. A window appears and asks us to select our language from a list and then click either a Try or Install button to proceed.
Taking the Try option brings up MATE with a classic two-panel layout. The top panel features the applications menu. The top panel also holds the system tray and a logout and user settings menu. The bottom panel acts as a task switcher.
A welcome window opens and presents us with a series of buttons for accessing information and commonly performed actions. On the information side of things there is an introduction note explaining what Ubuntu MATE is. There are documents we can read which talk about the distribution's key features as well as access the project's user forum and Discord chat room. Links to on-line documents and support open in the Firefox browser. The welcome window's action buttons help us change the desktop layout (more on that later) and launch the system installer.
Ubuntu MATE 21.04 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 605kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Installing
Ubuntu MATE uses the Ubiquity system installer. Ubiquity has remained mostly unchanged over the past decade and it is one of the easier to navigate installers, in my opinion. It quickly walks us through choosing our preferred language and offering to show us the release notes. The release notes seem fairly conservative with few changes for this release compared to version 20.10.
We are next given the option of a Normal or Minimal installation. The minimal version essentially installs just a base system with the MATE desktop, a few utilities, and the Firefox web browser. The Normal install adds some other popular applications such as LibreOffice and a media player. On this screen we can also choose whether to install third-party software such as media codecs and non-free wireless networking support. I decided to take the Normal install option with non-free items.
When it comes to partitioning we can take a Guided option. This follows up by offering to set up Ubuntu MATE on a LVM volume or ZFS storage pool. Alternatively we can use a Manual partitioning option. The Manual screen is quite friendly and shows us a visual representation of our disk. I noticed when setting up Ubuntu MATE in a virtual machine that creating a new partition table defaulted to a GPT layout while past versions of the distribution would ask whether to use a DOS or GPT layout. As a side-effect of this, the installer now insists on setting up a EFI partition and reserved BIOS boot space. In the past an installation in a virtual machine could get by with one or two partitions (depending on whether we wanted swap space), now it requires at least four, which feels like overkill.
The final screen of the installer asks us to make up a username and password for ourselves. We have the alternative option of connecting to Active Directory for authentication. Ubiquity then copies its packages to the hard drive and concludes by offering to restart the computer.
Early impressions
My new copy of Ubuntu MATE booted to a graphical login screen with a green background. Signing into my account brought back the MATE desktop. The welcome window pops up again and this time it features a few alternative buttons. There is a Software button where the Install button used to be. This Software button launches the software centre which is called Software Boutique. I'll talk about this software centre later. Along with the buttons to access help and on-line resources there are buttons for changing the desktop layout and seeing a list of available web browsers. This latter button brings up a screen where some popular browsers such as Firefox, Chromium, Chrome, Brave, and Opera are listed. We can click a button next to any of these browsers to install them. Some are available as native packages, though others are not. Chromium, for instance, is installed as a Snap package.
The second time I logged into my account a window appeared and asked if I would like to send my hardware information to the developers. We can preview the data which would be sent, which mostly deals with the type of CPU, amount of memory, and hardware present on the computer.
The default theme of the MATE desktop is bright and makes use of a lot of white and light grey. I found this hard on my eyes and was pleased to find there are alternative dark themes available. The distribution famously supports multiple desktop layouts. We can access these alternative layouts through the welcome window or the MATE settings panel. There are layouts available which make MATE look like Ubuntu's Unity desktop, like macOS, and like the classic Windows desktop. I found that sometimes switching layouts would cause the desktop panel to crash, an issue that was reportedly fixed for this release. I will grant that having the panel crash when switching to the Unity-like layout no longer causes the whole MATE session to crash, just the panel.
Ubuntu MATE 21.04 -- Exploring the application menu and running LibreOffice
(full image size: 193kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
One aspect of Ubuntu MATE I appreciated was that its screensaver does not activate until the system has been idle for 30 minutes. This is a comfortable default for me and a pleasant vacation from many modern distributions which insist on locking the desktop after five minutes on inactivity.
Hardware
I started my trial with Ubuntu MATE in a VirtualBox environment. The distribution ran smoothly in the virtual machine. The MATE desktop dynamically resized to match the application window, the system offered average performance, and I encountered no problems with it.
When I switched over to running Ubuntu MATE on my laptop I was pleasantly surprised at how responsive the MATE desktop was. Everything felt very quick and snappy. There are no distracting visual effects or animations to slow down the desktop and everything felt pleasantly quick. All of my laptop's hardware was correctly detected and worked well. Ubuntu MATE was able to boot in both Legacy BIOS and UEFI modes on my laptop.
Ubuntu MATE 21.04 -- The Mutiny layout with a dark theme
(full image size: 589kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
In both test environments the operating system was stable, but the desktop panel was not. I experienced almost daily crashes of the panel in both environments. Usually the panel would come back on its own, though sometimes it needed to be manually loaded or I'd need to logout and sign back into my account to restore the panel.
Ubuntu MATE is a mid-weight distribution, creeping toward the heavier end of the scale. The system uses 590MB of memory to log into MATE and a fresh install took up about 7GB of space. This is slightly above average, but still lower than the mainstream distributions which run GNOME.
Applications
Apart from the MATE 1.24.1 desktop and the distribution's welcome window, Ubuntu MATE ships with a collection of popular open source applications. The Firefox browser is included with several other browsers readily available. The Transmission bittorrent software is included along with the LibreOffice suite and the Evolution e-mail client. The Atril document viewer is included along with the Caja file manager, and a simple image viewer. I found Rhythmbox and the Celluloid media player installed and the Webcamoid utility is available for handling web cams. The distribution ships with media codecs and was able to play all the audio and video files I threw at it. The Shotwell image manager is featured too.
The distribution also includes a user account manager, the CUPS printing configuration tool, and the GNU Compiler Collection. Ubuntu MATE runs the systemd init software and version 5.11.0 of the Linux kernel.
User menu and the Control Centre
In the upper-right corner of the desktop is a user and settings menu. This menu provides options for logging out, shutting down the system, opening the MATE documentation, and seeing some general system information. I think it's unfortunate the icon for this menu is so small and subtle as the items in the menu are all very useful and particularly helpful to new users. This menu also includes an entry for launching the system's Control Centre.
Ubuntu MATE 21.04 -- The Control Centre
(full image size: 487kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The Control Centre displays a grid of icons which open settings modules. These icons are organized by category. While most of the settings modules adjust the look and behaviour of the desktop there are also modules for adjusting the firewall, setting up printers, and managing user accounts. These settings modules are all clearly presented and worked well for me.
Software management
Ubuntu MATE ships with a simple update manager which opens on the desktop whenever new packages become available. The updater lists available new packages and their overall size. We can then click boxes next to each item we want to download or ignore. There were only a few packages available when I was first running Ubuntu MATE, partially (I suspect) because components in the base system are bundled together into one item. All the updates I fetched were installed without any problems.
Ubuntu MATE 21.04 -- The Software Boutique
(full image size: 468kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The main software centre on Ubuntu MATE is called Software Boutique. This software manager can be accessed through the welcome menu, the application menu, and the Control Centre. The Boutique displays a list of icons for software categories across the top of its window. Clicking on a category allows us to see curated or popular items in the category. We can then apply filters within a category to further narrow down results.
The Boutique is set up to display relatively few items in each category - just showing the more popular items in each group. We can click a button next to each item we want to install and it is added to a queue that will be processed later. We can click a button in the upper-right corner of the Boutique window to review the queue and start the download process.
The Boutique processes queued items one at a time and pauses to prompt for our password prior to each package it downloads. This means we cannot simply set-and-forget the Boutique's queue, we need to watch over it and this slows down the process. It also means installing many items becomes tedious as it results in a lot of password prompts.
Should we wish to use a software manager which offers access to the full range of packages in the distribution's repositories, or if we want to avoid these steady password prompts, the Boutique has us covered. There is a category dedicated to other software managers such as Synaptic and GNOME Software.
We also have the option of using the APT command line tools and Snap to manage packages. The Snap framework for portable packages is installed by default. The Flatpak framework is not included by default, but it is available in the repositories.
When trying to run programs from the command line which are not installed there is a pause while the system tries to find the missing program in Ubuntu MATE's repositories. If a result is found we are told what package to install to acquire the program. Usually this happens quickly but it can take several seconds if updates or new packages are already being installed.
Anbox
While not really relevant to Ubuntu MATE, I wanted to try out Anbox this week. The Anbox software strives to run Android applications in containers on a GNU/Linux desktop. Anbox's install instructions rely on Snap packages and personal package archives (PPAs) so it's mostly limited to running on the Ubuntu family.
I tried to follow the Anbox install instructions and found the PPA the project provides for some dependencies has not been updated to work with Ubuntu 21.04 (or its community editions) at the time of writing. This brought my test to a premature halt, though I hope to return to it later.
Conclusions
I was quite happy with my experiences with Ubuntu MATE 21.04. It had been a few years since I last tried this flavour of Ubuntu and I was pleased to see that the developers have mostly focused on polishing and fixing minor issues. The distribution works well with my hardware, it's responsive, and I like that we can easily switch between desktop layouts to suit the user's preference. The welcome window manages to provide access to a lot of information and resources without being too cluttered or confusing.
Ubuntu MATE 21.04 -- Exploring different desktop layouts
(full image size: 642kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The Software Boutique is an interesting idea and I have mixed feelings about it. Having a small collection of popular applications readily available in an uncluttered interface is quite attractive to newcomers. On the other hand, forcing users to install a separate software centre to gain access to less popular (though still useful) applications feels awkward. This is a tool I'd probably want to stick in front of novice users to see how they react to it before I make a decision on it.
The documentation, settings panel, and default layout all feel really polished. The installer is easy to navigate, for the most part, and Ubuntu MATE ships with fairly up to date software. I had just two issues with this release. One was that the desktop panel sometimes crashed, either when switching desktop layouts or when signing in. Usually the panel restarts itself, but sometimes I had to logout and then sign back into my account to get the panel back. The other concern is Ubuntu MATE 21.04 only receives nine months of support. I'd suggest sticking with long-term support (LTS) releases for most people. However, for those who don't mind upgrading about once every six months, 21.04 is a really solid release based on my experience. It's also one of the more user friendly distributions I have used in the past six months.
* * * * *
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
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
Ubuntu MATE has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.1/10 from 74 review(s).
Have you used Ubuntu MATE? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
NixOS gains reproducible builds, OpenBSD developer seeks to duplicate Nix features, Canonical offers commercial support for Blender
Reproducible builds are an important part of confirming the integrity of a binary package, whether it is a program, a distribution, or a supporting library dependency. Reproducible builds allow a person to confirm the binary code they have came from a given collection of source code and has not been altered or otherwise corrupted. The NixOS project has made progress with regards to reproducible builds, getting the project's Minimal ISO to build in this verifiable way. "We've been hovering close to 100% for a while now but, with the staging-next merge a few days ago, it's finally happened. If I've done everything correctly, the 21.05 ISO also passes the check on my machine, hooray!"
* * * * *
In recent years many people have come to appreciate the Nix package manager and how it can be used to manage and configure many parts of an operating system. One enterprising developer would like to experience this same deterministic approach to system configuration on OpenBSD and is working on a configuration tool called GearBSD. "I love NixOS and Guix for their easy system configuration and easy jumping from one machine to another by using your configuration file. To some extent, I want to make it possible to do so on OpenBSD with a collection of parametrized Rex modules, allowing to configure your system piece by piece from templates that you feed with variables. Let me introduce you to GearBSD, my project to do so." While still in its early stages, GearBSD can already help configure the PF firewall.
* * * * *
Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu distribution has decided to offer commercial support for Blender, a popular open source application. Canonical has decided to offer support for Blender on multiple operating systems, not just Ubuntu. Beta News reports: "Blender is one of the most important open source projects, as the 3D graphics application suite is used by countless people at home, for business, and in education. The software can be used on many platforms, such as Windows, Mac, and of course, Linux. Today, Ubuntu-maker Canonical announces it will offer paid enterprise support for Blender LTS. How cool is that? Surprisingly, this support will not only be for Ubuntu users. Heck, it isn't even limited to Linux installations. Actually, Canonical will offer this support to Blender LTS users on Windows, Mac, and Linux." Professionals interested in Blender support can visit Canonical's support page for Blender.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Why there are so many Linux shells
Selling sea shells by the sea shore asks: Why are there so many shells? What are their pros and cons? Why do most Linux users use bash?
DistroWatch answers: When it comes to shells, specifically command line shells, there are many from which to choose. Shells - such as bash, dash, tcsh, ksh, zsh, and so on - interpret the commands we type and perform actions or run programs based on our input. Most shells provide the ability to script commands to assist in automation.
As with Linux distributions, there is a lot of diversity when it comes to command line shells. Some shells focus on minimalism, some focus on performance. There are some modern shells which specifically strive to be better at performing interactive tasks as the user is typing while other shells are geared towards programmable scripts to improve automation. Each shell has its own philosophy and approach.
At times it may seem as though there are a lot of shells essentially performing the same tasks, filling the same roles, however there are some key differences in most of the major shells. For instance, dash is designed to be lightweight and is mostly used to run start-up scripts quickly while fish strives to be interactive and even predictive when the user is typing. Some shells, such as tcsh, can use a syntax that should feel familiar to C programmers and this can be helpful when writing scripts while bash is a feature-rich shell that strives to provide a balance between interacting with the user while also offering powerful scripting tools.
There are a lot of shells and each has its strengths and weaknesses. Reading the links to the shells listed above will outline each shell's focus and some of their main features. Generally speaking, each shell tries to fit into one of four roles. These four roles are: user friendliness and conveniences when interacting with the user on the command line; powerful scripting tools and programmable functions; backward compatibility; and speed, usually achieved through a minimal set of features.
As to why most Linux distributions default to using bash as the shell for users, there is some history behind that. The Bourne shell, developed by Stephen Bourne, was the default command line shell for UNIX back in the 1970s. This shell, which had the executable name sh, was quite useful at the time due to its many features.
The Free Software Foundation set out in the 1980s to make a UNIX-like operating system comprised entirely of free software. Some of the key components developed by the Foundation (and its GNU counterpart) included a compiler and a shell. Since the Bourne shell (sh) was the standard for UNIX systems, the Foundation created their own, freely licensed version. They called it the Bourne Again shell, which got shortened to bash.
Since most Linux distributions run FSF/GNU utilities and since bash was the Foundation's shell, bash soon became the default for most GNU/Linux systems. Other UNIX-based and UNIX-like operating systems use alternative defaults. The default shell for regular users on FreeBSD is tcsh, for instance. For OpenBSD the default shell is ksh. Often which shell is the default comes down to a matter of preference from the developers of the operating system.
* * * * *
Answers to other questions can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
IPFire 2.25 Core 157
IPFire is an independent Linux distribution designed for use on firewalls and routers. The project has published a new update which strips away most of Python 2, replacing the code with Python 3. Python 2 reached the end of its supported life on January 1, 2020. "We have made huge efforts to migrate away from Python 2 which has reached its end of life on January 1st of this year. That includes repackaging third-party modules for Python 3 and migrating our own software to Python 3. The work will continue over the next couple of weeks and we are hopeful to remove all Python 2 code with the next release. We will keep Python 2 around for a little bit longer to give everyone with custom scripts a little bit of time to migrate them away, too. The IPFire kernel has been rebased on Linux 4.14.232 which brings various security and stability fixes." Further details may be found in the project's release announcement.
Rocky Linux 8.4
Rocky Linux is a community enterprise operating system designed to be 100% compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The project has announced its first stable release which is Rocky Linux 8.4. "We are pleased to announce the General Availability of Rocky Linux 8.4 (Green Obsidian). Rocky Linux is a community enterprise operating system designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4. Since this is the first Release of Rocky Linux, the release notes below reflect only changes in upstream functionality between point releases." The distribution's release notes offer details along with tips for converting from other members of the Enterprise Linux family: "The community has created the migrate2rocky tool to aid in the conversion to Rocky Linux 8.4 from other Enterprise Linux systems. This tool has been tested and is generally known to work, however use of it is at your own risk. Community members have successfully migrated test systems to Rocky Linux from: Alma Linux (8.4), CentOS Linux (8.4), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (8.4), Oracle Linux (8.4)."
Rocky Linux 8.4 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 1.8MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Android-x86 8.1-r6
Android-x86 is an unofficial initiative to port Google's Android mobile operating system to run on devices powered by Intel and AMD x86 processors, rather than RISC-based ARM chips. he project began as a series of patches to the Android source code to enable Android to run on various netbooks and ultra-mobile PCs, particularly the ASUS Eee PC. The project's latest update is to its 8.1 branch. It includes graphics, sound, and kernel updates. "The 8.1-r6 is mainly a security updates of 8.1-r5 with some bugfixes. We encourage users of 8.1-r5 or older releases upgrade to this one. Update to latest Android 8.1.0 Oreo MR1 release (8.1.0_r81). Update to LTS kernel 4.19.195. Update Mesa to 19.3.5. Update alsa-lib and alsa-utils to 1.2.5, add alsa_alsamixer tool and ucm files. Fix unable to download native bridge libraries issue. Add more devices specific quirks. This release contains these files. You can choose one of them depends on your devices. Most modern devices should be able to run the 64-bit ISO. For older devices with legacy BIOS, you may try the 32-bit ISO." Further information is provided in the project's release notes.
SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP3
SUSE has announced the release of SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) 15 SP3, the third service pack of the company's enterprise-class Linux distribution designed mainly for developers and administrators to deploy business-critical workloads. This is the first release that provides binary compatibility with the latest openSUSE Leap release: "With the release of SLES 15 SP3 we now have 100% binary compatibility with openSUSE Leap 15.3 (our developer platform). That means that you can smoothly move workloads from development to production environments that run SLE 15 SP3 - and back again - with assured application compatibility. This is an important milestone for openSUSE and SUSE, our users and our customers: 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. The bottom line is that we are providing a seamless developer experience that drives faster digital transformation." See the release announcement and the comprehensive release notes for further information.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| 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: 2,498
- Total data uploaded: 38.5TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
|
|
| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- rlxos. rlxos is an independent, general-purpose distribution with a primary focus on "single file per application" (even for system image, rlxos boot directly from system image and save cache on hard disk) so users can have multiple version/variant of same applications (and even operating system) installed side by side.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 5 July 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)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
|
| 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.
|
| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
| Random Distribution | 
nUbuntu
nUbuntu was a collection of network and server security testing tools, piled on top of the existing Ubuntu system. While aimed to be mainly a security testing platform, nUbuntu also operates as a desktop environment for the advanced Linux user.
Status: Discontinued
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
