 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 966, 2 May 2022 |
Welcome to this year's 18th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
There are a lot of different branches of the Linux family tree. One of the more widely used flavours of Linux is Ubuntu, along with its many community editions and derivatives. This week we begin with a look at Ubuntu 22.04, a long-term support release of the distribution which features a custom GNOME desktop and Snap packages. How do you feel about Ubuntu migrating some popular applications, such as Firefox and Chromium, from traditional Deb packages to Snap packages? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. While Ubuntu uses the GNOME interface some of its children use alternatives and a few have even created their own desktop environments to replace GNOME. One of the distributions working on their own desktop environment is System76's Pop!_OS. The Pop!_OS team are close to releasing their first development snapshot of their COSMIC desktop and we report on this in our News section. While Pop!_OS is preparing the first release of COSMIC, the Unity desktop is making a comeback after six years of inactivity. We also share a fix from EndeavourOS which corrects a common install issue and report on how Active Directory authentication works on Ubuntu. In this week's Questions and Answers column we discuss running programs from a data partition and some of the security features which can block the execution of applications. Plus we are pleased to share highlights of last week's releases and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Just over a week ago Canonical launched Ubuntu 22.04, a long-term support (LTS) release that will receive free security updates for five years. The distribution is available in a number of flavours, including Desktop, Server, and Raspberry Pi builds.
Ubuntu 22.04 ships with a mixture of GNOME 41 and GNOME 42 packages. The Firefox browser is now provided as a Snap package instead of a native Deb package (following in the steps of the Chromium browser). This release defaults to running the distribution's customized GNOME desktop on a Wayland session rather than on the X.Org display server. (There is an exception to this: machines with NVIDIA video cards will run GNOME on X.Org by default.)
I feel it worth observing the bulk of the changes in Ubuntu 22.04, compared to the past version or two of the distribution, are almost all behind the scenes adjustments. The distribution ships with an updated kernel, newer compiler, an updated version of OpenSSL, and there is the Firefox packaging change I mentioned. But almost all of these adjustments are under the surface, minor changes to the way things work rather than visible changes the user can see.
I downloaded the 64-bit (x86_64) Desktop edition of Ubuntu which was provided as a 3.4GB ISO. Booting from the media brings up a welcome window where we can pick our preferred language from a list and then choose to Try the distribution's live desktop or Install it. When running Ubuntu in a VirtualBox test environment the distribution's live media booted quickly. When I tried the distribution on physical hardware it took about five minutes to boot to the welcome screen and at two separate points the boot process appeared to stall for a minute.
Taking the Try option presents us with a customized GNOME desktop. The expected panel at the top of the screen is there with the Activities menu and system tray. Down the left side of the screen we find a thick dock which offers quick launch buttons and an application menu. On the desktop are two icons for launching the system installer and opening the GNOME Files file manager. The desktop and basic hardware testing worked well and I quickly jumped into the install process.
Installing
Ubuntu uses the Ubiquity installer which hasn't changed much in the past few years. We're shown a link to the project's release notes which, when clicked, displays the release information in Firefox. We're walked through the normal steps of selecting a language and picking our keyboard's layout. We're asked if we would like a Normal or Minimal install. The former includes several popular desktop applications while the latter offers a bare GNOME desktop and just a few core applications. We're also asked if we would like to install third-party software such as non-free device drivers and media codecs. I opted to take the Normal install with third-party add-ons.
The next screen asks if we would like to use manual or guided partitioning. The guided option has a few extra options. We can choose to set up a plain ext4 filesystem, LVM volume, or ZFS storage pool. Under the guided options we can also choose to encrypt the filesystem. The manual partitioning approach offers a nice, friendly partition manager where we can assign mount points.
Toward the end of the install process we are asked to select our time zone and make up and username and password for ourselves. Then the installer finishes its work and offers to restart the computer.
Early impressions
My freshly installed copy of Ubuntu booted to a graphical login screen. Text in the centre of the screen asked "Not listed?" There was no text box or icons to click to access a user account. Clicking the "Not listed?" button did not do anything. In fact, I couldn't click on anything as the icons on the panel didn't respond to the mouse. I forced a reboot and this time the system booted and showed me an icon where I could click to access my user account.
When I signed into GNOME a welcome window appeared and offered to connect me with on-line accounts from Google, Microsoft, Nextcloud, and Ubuntu's Single Sign-on service. The welcome screen also offers to send hardware information to Canonical and to enable location services. The final screen shows us a list of popular programs with their icons. The welcome window then offers to launch the software centre so we can install these items. I'll come back to the software centre later.
The GNOME desktop, whether run on Wayland or X.Org, is fairly responsive. Not amazingly so, but about average. The desktop actually appears slower than it really is because many actions are accompanied by visual effects that play out on the screen. The desktop is fluid and can respond quickly, but each action incurs a slight delay while the animations play. There doesn't appear to be any way to disable these visual effects with the default settings panel.
Ubuntu 22.04 -- Trying the dark theme
(full image size: 393kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
The desktop has the nasty habit of turning off and locking the screen after five minutes of inactivity. This is quite common these days and one of the first things I like to change in most distributions. On Ubuntu the settings to adjust screen timeouts can be found in the settings panel under the Power options.
Included software
One of the early quirks I noticed while using Ubuntu 22.04 was that programs shown on the desktop dock are not present in the application menu. The reverse is also true, if an icon appears in the application menu, it is not also on the dock. We can right-click on a launcher to choose where it should appear, but there doesn't appear to be any way to have the icon appear in both places. This seems unusual behaviour and something I found jarring when I was browsing the application menu. I can see the logic, not wanting to clutter the menu, but it meant I sometimes had to mentally switch contexts in order to find what I wanted.
Speaking of software in the menu (and on the dock) we're treated to the Firefox browser, Thunderbird e-mail client, the GNOME Files file manager, Rhythmbox audio player, and LibreOffice. Transmission is included along with the Cheese webcam utility and the Shotwell photo manager. The Totem video player is included too.
There is a launcher called Additional Drivers which opens the Software and Updates utility. This tool helps us select repositories, update checks, install new device drivers, and manage live kernel updates. The live kernel updates feature requires an Advantage support account from Canonical.
Digging further into the distribution we find the GNU command line utilities, manual pages, and the systemd init software. Ubuntu runs on version 5.15 of the Linux kernel.
Hardware
I experimented with running Ubuntu 22.04 on a physical workstation and in a VirtualBox virtual machine. As I mentioned earlier, the live media booted quickly in VirtualBox, but took around five minutes to boot on the workstation. Otherwise the experiences on the two platforms were virtually identical. My workstation's hardware was all recognized and I was able to get on-line, watch YouTube videos, and performance was usually good. There were a few glitches which I'll mention below, but in general the desktop ran smoothly.
A fresh install of the distribution occupied about 5GB of disk space. The distribution consumes about 1GB of RAM when running on the ext4 filesystem and about 1.3GB when running on a ZFS volume. This makes Ubuntu, even with the lighter filesystem, nearly twice as memory hungry as many other mainstream distributions.
Using Ubuntu and various observations
An issue I ran into early on was when I double-clicked on a video file to play it, the Totem application launched and reported "The specified movie could not be found." When I then tried to open another video file, either by dragging it from GNOME Files into the Totem window or selecting it from within Totem, the video player would crash. At least this is what happened when running Totem in the Wayland session. When I switched to running GNOME on the X.Org session Totem was able to open and play both audio and video files. When I switched back later to using Wayland, Totem stopped working again and the error "The specified movie could not be found," returned. This situation, Totem working in X.Org and not Wayland, occurred whether I was running the distribution on my workstation or in a virtual machine which makes me suspect it's not a driver issue.
Ubuntu 22.04 -- Trying to open media files in Totem
(full image size: 79kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
This problem with Totem bothered me for two reasons. One was it seems not enough testing was done with Wayland before making it the default display option. The other is the error isn't accurate. Totem can find the file and there clearly isn't anything wrong with the file or its permissions (since Totem can play it in the X.Org session), but the error suggests the file cannot be accessed.
For comparison's sake, I downloaded the VLC media player. By default, the software centre grabs the Snap package for VLC. The VLC player could open both audio and video files whether it was running in the Wayland session or on the X.Org display server. However, I could not get VLC to produce sound, only display video. This looks like it may be a permission issue with the Snap package, though I have not confirmed the cause at the time of writing.
Something else I found interesting is the Software Centre application has the opposite issue as Totem. The Software Centre will open when running on Wayland, but it crashed every time I tried to open it in the X.Org session. In effect this meant I had to play videos on X.Org, but had to switch to Wayland to manage software packages.
There doesn't appear to be any tool included in Ubuntu by default to manage advanced filesystems such as Btrfs and ZFS. Both have been included in the distribution for several releases, but Canonical hasn't really embraced the functionality of either yet the way openSUSE has with Snapper and Linux Mint has with Timeshift.
I ran into an unusual bug when trying to access the user account management tool in the settings panel. When trying to unlock the account manager a password prompt appeared. I was unable to type anything into the prompt and dismissed it. I then found, from then on, the desktop failed to respond to keyboard input. I had to use the mouse to select the Restart option in the user menu to reboot the computer, at which point keyboard functionality returned. This only happened the once, future trips into the user manager module worked smoothly. Well, mostly smoothly. The account manager demands new accounts be created with complex, non-dictionary passwords and can be quite demanding compared to most other user management tools.
Ubuntu 22.04 -- Exploring the settings panel
(full image size: 515kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Software management
While Ubuntu does have a minimal, dedicated utility for checking for software updates which can be used to select which items we'd like to fetch and install, most software management is handled by Software Centre. The Software Centre application is divided into three tabs which allow us to browse for new software, see installed items, and check for updates, respectively.
Software Centre made a good first impression. It was quick to respond, it has a nice, clear interface. I like that in the upper-right corner of the window we can see if an application we are looking at is a Snap or Deb package. We can also click this indicator to check for alternative packages. For instance, we can often select a stable Snap, a development Snap, or a Deb package for many applications. The default behaviour seems to be to grab the stable Snap when one is available. I don't like this behaviour as the Snap packages are massive and often take a long time to load compared to their Deb counterparts.
Ubuntu 22.04 -- Exploring Software Centre
(full image size: 719kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
The Software Centre did cause me a few problems. For instance, I was unable to remove any pre-installed applications. Trying to remove any of the default software would result in an error message saying "No packages to remove." I also found that trying to install a Snap and a Deb package at the same time would bring the operating system to its knees while both package managers tried to consume all available resources rather than having one run followed by the other.
Ubuntu 22.04 -- Attempting to remove software
(full image size: 649kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Conclusions
A handful of thoughts and themes kept crossing my mind while I was experimenting with Ubuntu 22.04. One was that the distribution does not appear to have evolved or changed significantly in the past two years since I last spent several days with the project. The installer, the desktop, the settings panel, the software manager, the default software all seemed mostly the same. If you're looking for a desktop experience which doesn't change much, Ubuntu is doing that. But rather than appearing to be focused on stability or consistency, it just feels like the Desktop flavour of Ubuntu is being neglected. Ever since Canonical dropped Unity for their highly customized GNOME environment, it seems like the company has lost interest in the desktop experience and is choosing to ignore it.
Another thing which regularly stood out is just how inconsistent the customized GNOME experience is. Some of this may be a result of Ubuntu mixing versions of GNOME together (some components are from GNOME 41 while others are from GNOME 42). I saw three different styles of menu bar/button in the default applications - hamburger menu, classic menu bar, and compact menu - and the theme didn't seem to be consistent. Some applications defaulted to a light theme (GNOME Files being a prime example) while others, such as Totem, used a dark theme. This inconsistency extended to the settings panel. Some sections seemed minimal and tidy while others had nested options or pages of settings on a screen. Some admin functions required a password and others didn't. There doesn't seem to be any consistency in the GNOME experience.
What really made me surprised with regards to the current mismatched, stagnant status of the Ubuntu desktop was it feels all the stranger when comparing Ubuntu next to its close relatives. Canonical is a company which brings in $175 million a year, according to Mark Shuttleworth, but it seems to have no resources for desktop development, testing, or polishing the user interface. Default programs don't work with the default desktop display server; there is no consistency in the theme or menus; and audio output and keyboard input stopped working seemingly at random. There are no filesystem snapshot tools, despite both Btrfs and ZFS being supported options for years. Meanwhile smaller community projects, like Zorin OS and Linux Mint, are getting by with small sales figures and donations. Yet they are producing desktop environments which look better and act more consistently. Mint even develops its own Cinnamon desktop. Mint has filesystem snapshot tools which integrate with the default admin tools. These community projects use the same base and have a tiny fraction of the resources Canonical has, but are producing much more polished, well tested, and reliable tools.
I think the launch of Ubuntu 22.04 is a clear sign Canonical is much more interested in publishing releases on a set schedule than producing something worthwhile. This version was not ready for release and it is probably going to be a costly endeavour to maintain this collection of mixed versioned software and mixed display server and mixed designs for a full five years. It's a platform I would recommend avoiding.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo desktop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Hex-core Intel i5-10400 CPU @ 2.90GHz
- Storage: Western Digital 1TB hard drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 wired network card, Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11ac PCIe wireless adapter
- Display: Intel CometLake-S GT2
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Visitor supplied rating
Ubuntu has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.7/10 from 293 review(s).
Have you used Ubuntu? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Pop!_OS users waiting for COSMIC, EndeavourOS publishes hot fix, first Unity release in six years, Ubuntu's Active Directory authentication explained
Back in November we reported on the Pop!_OS distribution getting its own, Rust-based desktop environment. This April the launch of Pop!_OS 22.04 occurred, but there was no sign on the new COSMIC desktop. The new COSMIC environment is still in the early stages of development with an alpha snapshot expected in mid-2022. "What about COSMIC DE? It's in progress! Our UX Team has been testing new designs, and the Engineering Team has begun packaging various elements in the new Rust code base. An alpha release for the COSMIC desktop environment could be available as early as this summer!" The COSMIC interface is expected to replace GNOME in Pop!_OS.
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The EndeavourOS team recently published EndeavourOS 21.1 "Apollo". The project has received feedback indicating some installs were failing and a fix has been released to address the problem. "We have received messages that our recent Apollo ISO resulted in failed installations due to the recently updated Arch Linux keyring. We have fixed the issue using our HotFix feature, a feature that allows us to send a fix on an already released ISO without the need to build a new one. Just connect to the Internet on the Live ISO and the installer will fetch the fix automatically." Additional information on the bug and fix can be found in the blog post.
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People who enjoyed Canonical's custom desktop environment, called Unity, received some good news this week. The Unity 7 desktop had its first (unofficial) release in six years. The new version runs on Ubuntu 22.04 and has a number of minor fixes and adjustments to the visual look. "Unity 7.6 will be the first major release of Unity in 6 years (the last release was in May 2016). We have restarted the active development of Unity7 and will be releasing new versions with more features regularly. You can test it by running the following commands on Ubuntu Unity 22.04 (we'll be rolling it out to existing users of Ubuntu Unity 22.04 too, if you don't add the testing PPA)." A list of changes in Unity 7.6 can be found in the desktop environment's release announcement.
Many medium and large businesses use a central service to authenticate users. One of the more widely used authentication services is Active Directory. Recent versions of Ubuntu have included a feature which allows users to login using Active Directory. A blog post from Massimiliano Gori explains how this process works and what components are involved on the Ubuntu side of the process. "Linux desktops, including Debian and Ubuntu, supported Active Directory integration for a very long time through SSSD; however, that was limited to authentication and a small subset of related Group Policy Object policies. IT system administrators who wanted to use AD to enforce policy compliance or apply remote configuration faced a difficult choice: paying a premium for third-party privileged access management solutions (that are primarily tailored at servers) or relying on a plethora of custom developed tools and scripts."
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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) |
Running applications from a data partition
Making-things-go asks: I have a second disk in my computer for my data files, games, and so on. When I want to run something from this drive it always gives "permission denied" error. I'm the owner of the folder, the files, and I've got read, write, and execute so how can this happen?
DistroWatch answers: I suspect one of two things is happening in this situation. The most likely, based on the fact the files you want to run are on a second hard drive, is that your drive has been mounted with the noexec flag specified, either implicitly or explicitly. The noexec flag tells the kernel to not allow any executable files to be run from the filesystem, even if the user has the necessary permissions.
If you look in your /etc/fstab file with a text editor you should see an entry for your data drive. It'll probably look something like this:
UUID=0b9a883e-9985-4756-959a-b55e2ea5116d /data ext4 noexec 1 2
In the above example I've highlighted the options field which, in this case, says "noexec". If you see the word "noexec" in that position then it means the drive is being mounted with a lock on it preventing any programs from being run. You can change the word "noexec" to "defaults" to fix this.
Alternatively, you might see the word "user", as shown here:
UUID=0b9a883e-9985-4756-959a-b55e2ea5116d /data ext4 user 1 2
The user flag means regular user accounts, not just the administrator (or root user), can mount the filesystem. The user flag also implicitly specifies noexec. The mount manual page says: "This option implies the options noexec, nosuid, and nodev (unless overridden by subsequent options, as in the option line user,exec,dev,suid)." In other words, change the line to read as follows:
UUID=0b9a883e-9985-4756-959a-b55e2ea5116d /data ext4 user, exec 1 2
This will enable the ability to run programs from the drive. The reason the user flag also triggers the noexec security feature is this allows administrators to let regular users plug in USB thumb drives while preventing any malicious programs from running from the removable drive.
Earlier I said I have two ideas about this situation. I think a restrictive mount option is the most likely scenario, but there could also be a kernel level, access control security feature blocking your ability to run programs from the second hard drive. Tools like SELinux are quite useful at locking down a system and, especially in the case of SELinux, sometimes they are too effective.
Check to see if you have a text file on your system called /etc/selinux/config. If that file exists and contains a line as follows, then SELinux may be the cause of the problem.
SELINUX=enforcing
You can change the line to say "disabled" instead of "enforcing" and then reboot your system to see if that fixes your problem. However, if this proves not to fix the issue, remember to restore the file back to the way it was, switching "disabled" back to "enforcing" so it doesn't leave a security hole. More details on checking and changing the status of SELinux can be found in this tutorial.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Pop!_OS 22.04
Pop!_OS is a desktop distribution featuring the GNOME desktop, it is based on Ubuntu and developed by System76. The company's latest release is Pop!_OS 22.04 which is a long-term support (LTS) edition. "Automatic updates: update and upgrade Pop!_OS automatically from the 'OS Upgrade & Recovery' panel in Settings; minimize interruption by scheduling what day and time you want your computer to perform the updates; scheduled automatic updates include support for Debian, Flatpak and Nix packages; to reduce distractions, notifications for available updates are set to show weekly by default; the frequency can also be set to daily or monthly notifications; notifications won't show if you have automatic updates enabled; automatic updates are turned off by default; at the bottom of the Settings menu, you'll find the new Support panel - here, you'll have quick access to troubleshooting resources such as: documentation articles for both Pop!_OS and System76 hardware on the support page; the community support chat...." Additional information is provided in the distribution's release announcement. The distribution is provided in one 64-bit build for Intel and AMD video cards and a separate build for NVIDIA video cards. There is also a build for Raspberry Pi 4 computers.
Pop!_OS 22.04 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 4.3MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Voyager Live 22.04
Voyager Live is an Xubuntu-based distribution and live DVD showcasing the Xfce desktop environment. The Voyager Live project has published a new release, Voyager Live 22.04 LTS, which provides five years of security updates. This release ships with both the Xfce desktop and GNOME, allowing users to switch between the desktop environments from the login screen. "I introduce you Voyager 22.04 LTS Edition Explorer in its final version. A 2 in 1 version with for the first time, the GNOME and Xfce desktops unified in a single distribution. Voyager, let's you pick your preferred session. Everything has been completely redesigned in this old school adventure style for this duo. The GNOME 42 desktop coupled with the Xfce 4.16 desktop has been finally realized, producing 2 unified GNOME and Xfce systems, light, fast, modern, fluid, secure and efficient in a hybrid environment for PC and Tablet. The 2 desktops are quite distinct and their respective applications are for the most part seamless, for one or the other environment. This version is based on Linux kernel 5.15 and Ubuntu distribution Jammy Jellyfish. 22.04 is a 5-year LTS - long-term support - release for updates until July 2027 for Gnome and Xfce." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
KaOS 2022.04
KaOS is a desktop Linux distribution that features the latest version of the KDE desktop environment. The latest snapshot of KaOS offers a number of desktop improvements: "With the release of KDE Gear 22.04, some nice new features and enhancements are introduced. Konsole's completely new feature is Quick Commands: open a quick commands pane from Plugins -> Show Quick Commands and you will be able to create short scripts you use frequently, Konsole's SSH plugin has been further enhanced and you can assign different visual profiles. For Kdenlive, two new options stick out: you can create customized profiles so that your rendered movie adapts perfectly to your needs, and you can also render by zones, using the guides you set up on the timeline as references. Okular now alerts you immediately when you go to sign a document but have no valid digital certificates." Additional information can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
Zephix 5
Zephix, a recent addition to DistroWatch, has been updated to version 5. Zephix is a live Linux distribution based on Debian's stable branch; its aim is to provide a free modular operating system that users can carry with them and use wherever there is a laptop or a desktop system available. Besides the main ISO image, the development team also provides various modules which can be added to the live image to extend its usability. The new Zephix 5 re-introduces the LXQt desktop and firmware modules directly into the live system and ads a "to RAM" boot option: "Zephix 5 has been released. Updated Syslinux and GRUB boot logos to reflect more the Zephix theme; added a 'to RAM' boot option - Zephix can now be loaded totally in memory (if enough RAM is available); changed the default console font; included the desktop and firmware modules by default in the ISO image to make it more usable - this decision was taken thanks to the feedback received from various users." Visit the distribution's About page which contains all the recent changelogs and several screenshots.
ExTiX 22.5
ExTiX is an Ubuntu-based desktop distribution which replaces the default desktop environment with alternatives. The latest version of ExTiX is 22.5 which is based on Ubuntu 22.04, a long-term support release. "I've made a new updated mini version of ExTiX - The Ultimate Linux System. It is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish. The ISO file is of only 1340 MB, which is good if you want to run the system super fast from RAM. It should be enough with 2GB RAM. When the boot process is ready you can eject the DVD or USB stick. Use Boot alternative 2. The best thing with ExTiX 22.5 is that while running the system live (from DVD/USB) or from hard drive you can use Refracta Snapshot (pre-installed) to create your own live installable Ubuntu 22.04 system. So easy that a ten year child can do it! ExTiX 22.5 uses kernel 5.17.2-amd64-exton. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS will be supported until April 2027." Additional information and screenshots can be found in the project's release announcement.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,716
- Total data uploaded: 41.9TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Ubuntu adopting more Snaps
Recent versions of Ubuntu have been moving more of the distribution's popular software applications from traditional Deb packages to Canoical's Snap package format. Applications such as Chromium and Firefox have been migrated to Snaps and the Ubuntu Software Centre now defaults to using the larger, portable Snap bundles by default. What do you think of this shift toward Snap packages? Do you like the protable nature and reduced maintenance Snap packages promise? Do you think Snap packages are too large and too slow to start? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on Peppermint OS switching its base distribution in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Ubuntu migrating applications to Snap packages is...
| Something I like: | 67 (3%) |
| Something I do not like: | 1494 (70%) |
| I am indifferent: | 231 (11%) |
| I am unaffected by this change: | 336 (16%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- Rolling Rhino Remix. Rolling Rhino Remix is an Ubuntu-based distribution featuring a rolling release update cycle.
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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, 9 May 2022. 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 |
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Metamorphose Linux
Metamorphose Linux was a Brazilian Debian-based distribution whose biggest goal was being simple and complete with a pleasant graphical interface for beginners or advanced users. The distribution ships with KDE Plasma as the default desktop environment and WINE was present to help users run Windows applications. UEFI support was available.
Status: Discontinued
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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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0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
