 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 980, 8 August 2022 |
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Welcome to this year's 32nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
It seems to be increasingly common that we see open source projects experiment with multiple base operating systems on which to build. In recent weeks we have talked about TrueNAS running FreeBSD and Debian branches, Slax running Debian and Slackware editions, and this week we report on Peppermint OS experimenting with both Debian and Devuan editions. We also report on SparkyLinux updating classic (and classic-looking) desktop environments in this week's News section. Before we get to those stories, we share a look at Linux Mint 21. Linux Mint is a popular, Ubuntu-based operating system (which also offers a Debian branch) that features its own, custom desktop environment: Cinnamon. We talk about what it's like to set up and run this distribution with the Cinnamon desktop in this week's Feature Story. Then we turn our attention to a security tool for Linux which has its roots in OpenBSD. This utility, called Pledge, creates a sandbox which reduces the access to resources a program has in order to prevent it from doing damage or phoning home. Do you use any sandbox software, such as Pledge or Firejail, to limit what your applications can do? Let us know about your sandboxing utilities in this week's Opinion Poll. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Linux Mint 21
Linux Mint is one of the better known, beginner-friendly Linux distributions. The project's main branch is based on Ubuntu's long-term support (LTS) releases with an alternative branch based on Debian. The project's main branch is further split into three editions: Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce.
The latest version of Mint features a handful of key features. This long-term support release will be maintained through to 2027. It includes a new rebase of the Muffin window manager to import improvements from the upstream Mutter window manager. It also includes a switch from the Blueberry Bluetooth software to Blueman for better cross-desktop support. This release also includes a process monitor which will let us know when automated tasks are running in the background and may impact system performance. A few other improvements and cosmetic changes are mentioned in the project's What's New document.
I downloaded the Cinnamon edition of Linux Mint 21 which is approximately 2.8GB in size. Booting from this media brings up a menu asking if we want to launch the live desktop, launch the desktop in compatibility mode (in case of video card issues), or launch the OEM installer. Taking the default quickly launched the Cinnamon desktop. On the desktop we find icons for launching the file manager and system installer. At the bottom of the display is a panel where we can find the application menu, task switcher, and system tray. The system was responsive and my hardware worked fairly well out of the box so I dived into installing the distribution.
Installing
Linux Mint uses the Ubiquity system installer. It's a friendly, graphical application which streamlines the initial install process. Ubiquity walks us through selecting a language, optionally viewing the project's release notes, and picking a keyboard layout. We're also asked if we'd like to install optional media codecs.
The next screen asks if we'd like to use guided or manual partitioning and here I ran into my first issue. If I opted for guided partitioning there was a button to press to see more options, such as using LVM or ZFS storage volumes. Clicking the Cancel button to back out of this menu disabled the button to proceed to the next screen of the installer. Switching to manual or back to guided partitioning also left the button to start the install disabled. I had to go back a step to the media codec selection screen, then step forward again to enable the button to proceed past partitioning.
On the subject of partitioning, the guided option defaults to using an ext4 filesystem for the root partition. As I mentioned, we can also use LVM or ZFS. There is no option for automated Btrfs partitioning which I found odd as some of Linux Mint's core utilities make use of Btrfs features. I tried going into the manual partitioning screen which, to be fair, is pretty easy to use. However, when I chose to take over the disk with a Btrfs volume the partition manager crashed and sent me back to the previous screen of the installer.
Eventually I got through the partitioning section, made up a username and password for myself, and the installer got to work. I feel it worthwhile to mention Mint allows users to encrypt their home directory, something most distributions have dropped in favour of full disk encryption. When the installer concludes its work it offers to restart the computer.
Early impressions
Mint booted to a graphical login screen where I could sign into my account. Once signed in a welcome window appears on the Cinnamon desktop. This window is divided into tabs which give us quick access to on-line documentation and release notes along with links which connect us with the Mint community forum and the project's IRC support channel. Most links open in Firefox with HexChat providing access to the IRC channel.
Linux Mint 21 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 711kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The bulk of the welcome window's functionality can be found under a tab called First Steps. The First Steps tab features a handful of settings we can toggle which allow us to change theme colours, switch between dark and light themes, and change the style of the desktop panel. This tab also offers buttons which will launch various utilities. These include Timeshift for taking snapshots, a driver manager, an update manager, the system settings panel, the software centre, and the Gufw firewall tool. The firewall is turned off by default.
I feel it is worth saying that I really like how the Mint welcome screen is presented and the configuration tools it launches are pleasant to use. The design is clean, information is clearly presented, the style feels consistent to me. I like the easy access to theme customization and the quick access to updates and the suggestion of making snapshots. It's a good early impression of the distribution and makes it easy to complete common tasks right from the start.
Software management
Mint's update manager is a pleasantly streamlined tool which still allows for some flexibility. By default, the update manager shows us a list of packages waiting to be updated and we can click a button to fetch them all. The update manager also allows us to do some neat things, such as filtering and sorting the list of available updates. We can unselect updates to prevent specific packages from updating. The update manager will also try to find faster mirrors for us and can be used to launch the Timeshift utility to take snapshots of our filesystem.
Linux Mint 21 -- Fetching software updates and creating a Timeshift snapshot
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I've mentioned Timeshift a few times now. It's a graphical utility which will take snapshots of our filesystem (using either rsync or Btrfs snapshots). These snapshots can be stored somewhere for quick access later, assisting us in recovering data files or rolling back the operating system to an earlier point.
After performing the first wave of updates and restarting the computer, the system failed to boot. At first I suspected there was an issue with the new kernel version (the new kernel was why I restarted the machine). Selecting the older kernel from the boot menu did allow the system to start, which seemed to confirm my suspicions. However, later I tried booting the newer kernel again and it worked. Which means I don't know why the system failed to start and both kernels booted without further problems during the rest of my trial.
Mint's software centre has a modern layout and approach. The software centre begins by showing us featured, popular applications at the top of the window and categories we can browse underneath. We can either browse through available packages or perform key word searches to find items we want. We can queue software to be installed in the background and items are added or removed while we can continue to browse the centre.
Linux Mint 21 -- Installing new applications
(full image size: 703kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Mint pulls software from Deb package repositories and Flatpak packages from Flathub. These packages are displayed side-by-side and Flatpaks have their repository name displayed next to the package name. For example, the VLC Flatpak is shown with the name "VLC (Flathub)" to distinguish it from the VLC Deb package.
Mint's software centre is one of the few, perhaps the only, software manager I have used in the past year which works smoothly with both classic and portable package formats without locking up, throwing errors, or crashing. It's an unusually fast and smooth experience and Mint's software centre is probably my favourite modern software centre just for this trouble-free experience.
Included software
Mint ships with a collection of popular and capable open source software. Included in the application menu are Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, and a calendar application. The Transmission bittorrent software is included along with the HexChat IRC client. The Celluloid video player and Rhythmbox audio player are included along with the IPTV client Hypnotix. The media players were able to play all the audio and video files I threw at them. There is a drawing tool and an image viewer. The Nemo file manager is featured too.
Mint ships with Java and the GNU Compiler Collection. On the command line we have access to GNU utilities along with corresponding manual pages. In the background we find the systemd init software and version 5.15 of the Linux kernel.
Linux Mint 21 -- Browsing channels through Hypnotix
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The software included with Mint tended to work and work well. Both the third-party applications and the in-house Mint utilities worked smoothly for me. One of the rare glitches I ran into came about when trying out Hypnotix, the IPTV client which provides us with streaming access to TV shows and movies. I could use Hypnotix to browse available channels and movie categories. However, sometimes when selecting a channel the application would get stuck trying to load the stream. I also found that sometimes I'd be watching a stream and try to close the player window only to have it lock up. I had to terminate the Hypnotix process or use xkill on its window to close it.
Hardware
I began by running Linux Mint in a VirtualBox virtual machine. The distribution ran smoothly in VirtualBox and quickly. The Cinnamon desktop resized dynamically with the VirtualBox window, the desktop was responsive, and the system was stable. When I switched over to running Mint on my laptop the distribution ran well, detecting my hardware and running quickly.
While there were virtually no bugs while running the distribution on my laptop, there were defaults which I felt were not ideal. For example, Cinnamon does not detect touchpad taps as clicks by default, though this can be adjusted in the settings panel. Likewise, mouse and touchpad scrolling using the "natural" or "inverse" style which I've yet to adapt to and so I changed it. Interestingly, mouse wheel and touchpad scrolling can be adjusted independently of each other. At one point I had my mouse using classic scrolling while my touchpad was still using natural scrolling. Personally, I found this confusing until I synchronised them, but if you're someone who wants these behaviours to be handled independently, Cinnamon will accommodate you.
Linux Mint 21 -- The settings panel
(full image size: 700kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
On the subject of default settings I didn't like, changing the volume level using media keys produces a chirping sound. This quickly grows annoying and can be disabled in the sound settings.
The one issue I ran into which classified as a bug in my mind appeared when I enabled desktop scaling. Most desktop elements scaled as expected at 1.25x. However, the application menu collapsed, showing just three icons and taking up a tiny corner of the desktop, until I logged out and back in again. The rest of the desktop resized gracefully while I was still logged in.
The distribution took up about 8GB of disk space for a fresh install, plus some space set aside for a swap file. In total Mint took up 10GB of my disk. When signed into Cinnamon Mint consumed 640MB of memory (plus a little more when the welcome window was open). This put Mint around the boundary between medium and heavy, compared to other distributions - Xfce and KDE Plasma are usually lighter while GNOME is heavier.
Conclusions
Linux Mint is one of the more beginner friendly distributions I have used. Everything about it feels unusually polished, consistent, and considered. It has an easy to use system installer, one of the best software centres I've experienced, and Cinnamon has become both faster and more flexible over the years. It's an unusually smooth and easy experience.
Linux Mint 21 -- Running LibreOffice, Nemo, and Firefox
(full image size: 168kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
I especially like the welcome window and the various utilities it connects us with. The firewall manager, the Timeshift snapshot utility, and the settings panel are all simple to use and easy to understand.
One of my few complaints was it feels weird the default filesystem is ext4 with ZFS as a guided option. It's difficult to set up Btrfs in a way which works with Timeshift and, when I tried, the partition manager crashed. Yet Timeshift is a recommended tool to use from the welcome window and pairs with the update manager. I feel it would make sense to have Btrfs as the default filesystem since Timeshift works best with it and it would make all the tools work together seamlessly, much the way openSUSE connects Btrfs, boot environments, and YaST.
Apart from this, and one glitch when the system didn't boot after updating (then seemed to fix itself), my experience with Linux Mint 21 was problem free. The distribution is fast, easy to set up, and unusually convenient to use and customize. I especially like the software centre. It's unusually fast and error-free and I'd like to see more distributions adopt it (swapping out Discover or GNOME Software).
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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
Linux Mint has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.9/10 from 1010 review(s).
Have you used Linux Mint? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
SparkyLinux updates classic desktop packages, Peppermint OS experiments with Devuan-based branch
The SparkyLinux project has published a blog post which contains information on several updates to the Debian-based distribution. These include the end of life of SparkyLinux 4, the inclusion of updated Spanish and Italian language support, and updated packages for some classic-style desktops. "Italian locales updated of the all Sparky tools, thanks to Yodel Sinatra. Started adding es_ES locales to all Sparky tools, thanks to depaz. Common Desktop Environment (CDE) updated up to 2.5.0; amd64 only. Not so Common Desktop Environment (NsCDE) updated up to 2.2 to all Sparky archs. Browsh browser updated up to version 1.8.0 for all Sparky archs, after more than 3 years of break of development."
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The Peppermint OS team is experimenting with a new, Devuan-based branch of their distribution which is being released alongside the project's existing Debian-based offering. The new Devuan-based ISO files are available on the distribution's download page in 32-bit and 64-bit builds. A brief release announcement mentions minor changes to the Devuan builds.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Software Review (by Jesse Smith) |
Pledge on Linux
People who are familiar with the OpenBSD operating system, particularly those who have written code on the OpenBSD platform, are probably aware of a tool called pledge. On OpenBSD, pledge is a function call applications can use to voluntarily restrict themselves. Basically, an application can choose to give up access to certain system resources and capabilities in order to make the program less dangerous.
For instance, if your application is going to analyze some local data and has no reason to access the Internet, it can drop its ability to access the network. This way, even if the software is compromised, it won't be able to download a trojan or phone home. A program might also lock down its ability to create files or edit existing files, effectively making it so it can only read information in a directory, but not make any changes.
This sort of sandboxing can be quite useful. It is especially helpful if we can force other applications to respect these same limitations, not just rely on programs to restrict themselves. People who use Linux distributions now have the option of sandboxing applications using similar restrictions to OpenBSD's pledge without needing to edit source code or make changes to existing applications. This ability is due to a command line program appropriately named Pledge.
This new Pledge program "Will work on all Linux distros since RHEL 6. Root privileges are not required. You just use it to wrap your command invocations. It's so tiny and lightweight that it only adds a few microseconds of startup latency to your program. It's great for shell scripts and automated tools."
Pledge for Linux is a userland utility (it doesn't need any changes to the kernel or a kernel module). We can download the Pledge source code to build it ourselves or download a pre-built binary copy.
The Pledge utility works in a similar fashion to Firejail. Pledge runs as a sort of wrapper around other programs, determining which functions the target program can perform and how many resources it can access. I decided to try Pledge on a copy of MX Linux I already had running to see how it would perform.
One of the things I like about Pledge is, when it is run without any parameters, it displays a list of options and a summary of permissions it can grant programs it is sandboxing. The default behaviour is to block all access, apart from reading filesystem information (called rpath) and benign system calls (stdio).
It might be easiest to understand how Pledge works by looking at some examples. First, let's look at what happens if I run the ls command in my home directory. We end up with output which looks like this:
$ ls
abc def xyz
Now this is what happens if I run ls in a sandbox with Pledge's default restrictions:
$ pledge ls
abc
def
xyz
The output is mostly the same, but each entry is on its own line when ls is invoked from Pledge. In the Pledge sandbox the ls command is able to read the local directory and print output to the terminal. However, it is unable to access terminal information to see, for example, how wide the terminal is. This means ls falls back to putting each entry on its own line rather than trying to guess the width of the terminal. We can grant the ls command the ability to get this terminal information and format its output more effectively by passing it the tty permission. This, along with the default rpath and stdio permissions, gives the ls program all the access it needs to behave normally:
$ pledge -p 'stdio rpath tty' ls
abc def xyz
We can use the same restrictive permissions if we want to open a text file in read-only mode, preventing any edits to the file:
$ pledge -p 'stdio rpath tty' vi abc
In these examples, the commands (ls and vi) are unable to access the Internet, unable to edit the files they are accessing, and unable to create new processes of their own. All they can do is read files and display them on the terminal.
The Pledge documentation mentions we can grant Internet and DNS access to programs. I tried this, but none of the utilities I tried to use to download information, such as cURL and wget, were able to look up hostname information for remote servers, even when the DNS feature was granted. The documentation uses the following example, which doesn't work on my machine, resulting in an error saying the DNS lookup failed:
$ pledge -p 'stdio rpath inet dns thread' curl https://distrowatch.com/
Despite this drawback, any command line programs which only needed local access to work properly ran well.
Which means, I think, some issues still need to be sorted out. There are also limitations when it comes to running graphical applications. I wasn't able to get any desktop programs to run, even when granting the full range of permissions Pledge recognizes. It looks as though Pledge is intended primarily to run and sandbox command line utilities while Firejail is geared toward desktop applications.
In short, Pledge is a really powerful tool and one which can lock down a program's access a lot. It's certainly something we can use to avoid leaking any information or overwriting files. However, it takes some practise to get used to the cryptic shorthand permission codes Pledge uses. It also has some limitations in the types of applications we can sandbox. Firejail is a bit more polished and a little more permissive by default and more geared toward desktop applications. Pledge has a niche in restricting command line tools and background services which should only be reading information or only accessing certain parts of the operating system.
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| Released Last Week |
Q4OS 4.10
Q4OS is a Debian-based distribution which features KDE Plasma and Trinity desktop editions. The project's latest release, Q4OS 4.10, upgrades Trinity to version 14.0.12 of the classic desktop. The announcement was made on the project's blog: "Q4OS 4.10 'Gemini', stable. We have released a major update to the Q4OS 4 'Gemini' LTS. The new Gemini 4.10 series receives the recent Debian 'Bullseye' 11.4 updates, updated Debian stable kernel and important security and bug fixes. After a careful review and testing we have concluded to include the full upgrade of the Trinity desktop environment into this release as well, so Q4OS 'Gemini' now features the most recent Trinity 14.0.12 version. For more details see the Trinity desktop environment website. This release brings along improvements of Q4OS specific tools and cumulative upgrade covering all the changes from the previous stable 'Gemini' release. We are currently pushing all the changes mentioned above into the Q4OS repositories, automatic update process will take care about to upgrade for current Q4OS users."
Emmabuntus DE4-1.02
Emmabuntüs is a desktop Linux distribution with editions based on Debian's Stable branch with the Xfce and LXQt desktop environments. The project's latest update fixes a number of boot time and install issues. It also includes updated versions of packages, particularly web browsers. "For this version 1.02, the following and improvements and fixes have been implemented: based on the Debian 11.4; added 64-bit UEFI boot with a 32-bit ISO and vice versa; added installation of boot in UEFI 64-bits with a 32-bits ISO images and vice versa; added MemTest86+ launch in UEFI mode; fixed not launching keyboard selection in SysLinux and GRUB; Fixed Zenity crash when installing new language packs; fixed language change script due to Calamares; fixed APT cache creation script; updated Debian Beginner's Handbook 11.3; updated Calamares slideshow by adding a slide about the reuse campaign and an updated version of the computer rooms map in Togo; updated a new version of DWService agent and implemented a package; updated gSpeech to version 0.11.0." Further details can be found in the release announcement.
NetBSD 9.3
The NetBSD project creates a highly portable operating system which runs on a wide range of processors. The project has published a new version in the 9.x series: NetBSD 9.3. "Aside from many bug fixes, 9.3 includes backported improvements to suspend and resume support, various minor additions of new hardware to existing device drivers, compatibility with UDF file systems created on Windows 10, enhanced support for newer Intel Gigabit Ethernet chipsets, better support for new Intel and AMD Zen 3 chipsets, support for configuring connections to Wi-Fi networks using sysinst(8), support for wsfb-based X11 servers on the Commodore Amiga, and minor performance improvements for the Xen hypervisor." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
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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: 2,753
- Total data uploaded: 42.4TB
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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) |
Running sandboxing tools on Linux
In this week's software review we talked about a tool called Pledge which sandboxes software on Linux. This can greatly reduce the amount of access a program has to its host system. Sandboxing software can block programs from accessing sensitive information, prevent applications from transmitting information over the network, and block programs from writing data they shouldn't to the filesystem. This week we'd like to hear whether you use any sandboxing software such as Pledge or Firejail. Let us know about your sandboxing setup in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on waiting for stable point releases of distributions in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Sandboxing software for Linux
| I run Firejail: | 126 (11%) |
| I run Pledge: | 10 (1%) |
| I use containers (LXC/Docker): | 115 (10%) |
| I use another sandboxing tool: | 43 (4%) |
| I do not use sandboxing tools: | 882 (75%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- FreedomOS. FreedomOS is an Arch Linux-based distribution featuring the KDE Plasma desktop.
* * * * *
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 August 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)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1169 (2026-04-20): Lakka 6.1, free software and source-based distributions, FreeBSD Foundation publishes compatible laptop list, Debian holds Project Leader election, Haiku progresses ARM64 port, Mint to extend development cycle, Linux 7.0 released |
| • Issue 1168 (2026-04-13): pearOS 2026.03, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, which distros are adopting age verification, Arch adjusts its firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its release cycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves its scheduler |
| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
| • Issue 1166 (2026-03-30): NetBSD jails, publishing software for Linux, Ubuntu joins Rust Foundation, Canonical plans to trim GRUB features, Peppermint works on new utilities, PINE64 shows off open hardware capabilities |
| • Issue 1165 (2026-03-23): Argent Linux 1.5.3, disk space required by Linux, Manjaro team goes on strike, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA driver support and builds RISC-V packages, systemd introduces age tracking |
| • Issue 1164 (2026-03-16): d77void, age verification laws and Linux, SUSE may be for sale, TrueNAS takes its build system private, Debian publishes updated Trixie media, MidnightBSD and System76 respond to age verification laws |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
WinBi
WinBi was an Indonesian Linux distribution based on Trustix.
Status: Discontinued
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| Tips, Tricks, Q&As | | Questions and answers: Collecting distro ISO files |
| Tips and tricks: Basename, for loop, dirname, aliases, bash history, xsel clipboard |
| Tips and tricks: Silly things to do with a PinePhone (or other minimal computer) |
| Questions and answers: Launching tasks when computer is idle |
| Questions and answers: Setting up disk partitions and bash on Windows |
| Questions and answers: Ubuntu phone follow-up |
| Tips and tricks: Improved package stability coming to FreeBSD/PC-BSD |
| Tips and tricks: Konqueror & Kate make an excellent remote admin team... and a killer casserole |
| Tips and tricks: Command line weather, ionice, rename files, video preview snapshot, calendar, ls colour settings |
| Questions and answers: Working together |
| More Tips & Tricks and Questions & Answers |
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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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