 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 993, 7 November 2022 |
Welcome to this year's 45th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Some Linux distributions take an unusually minimal approach, providing the bare necessities in order to accomplish a task. One such streamlines distribution is Static Linux, a project which is not only small, but takes an unusual approach to installation. This week we begin with a look at Static Linux and how this curious project performs. In our News section we report on changes coming to Linux Mint which will simplify package management, especially when dealing with Flatpak packages. Plus, in this week's Questions and Answers column we explore what a distribution could do if it included just a kernel with no other utilities. All Linux distributions include some userland tools, software beyond the kernel, and in this week's Opinion Poll we'd like to hear from you. How many packages are included in your distribution? Plus we are pleased to share the torrents we are seeding along with the releases of the past week and details of the new versions below. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Static Linux
One unusual project that was recently added to the DistroWatch waiting list is Static Linux. The project's website doesn't offer much information or documentation, but it does share the following description of what Static Linux is:
[A] Linux distribution based on Alpine Linux, musl libc, and Busybox. It comes with JWM, Firefox, Transmission, data recovery tools ddrescue, testdisk, [and] photorec. Kernel and the root filesystem are assembled in a single file to boot on systems with UEFI (Secure Boot is not supported).
Static Linux is available in two editions, X.Org and Wayland, which are sometimes referred to by the project as simply X and W. The download images for these editions are 222MB for the X.Org edition and 66MB for the Wayland edition. The difference in sizes, I feel it worth mentioning, are not just due to the display server software. The lists of included applications in the two editions vary too, which accounts for the bulk of the size difference.
Along with the available media, the distribution provides 206 packages (at the time of writing) which have been compiled for Static Linux. These packages cover a number of utilities and development tools, most of them intended for command line use. I'll talk more about the packages and working with them later.
Installing
Static Linux doesn't use a normal install method, such as running an installer from a live desktop or unpacking an archive. The downloads we're offered are designed to be booted directly from the hard drive. To set up Static Linux, we format a disk (either a hard drive or USB thumb drive) and place a partition on the disk formatted with the FAT32 filesystem. We then copy the Static Linux archive we downloaded, saving it on the formatted partition as /efi/boot/bootx64.efi. When our computer boots, it automatically locates this file and expands it into memory. The archive contains the Linux kernel, Busybox utilities, and other basic items required to launch the operating system.
I feel it's important to note Static Linux can be booted on machines running in UEFI mode only. The distribution will not be found and launched on computers running in Legacy BIOS mode.
Early impressions
I tested both editions of the Static Linux distribution. I started with the X.Org (X) edition which boots to a text console at first and then attempts to launch X.Org and Joe's Window Manager (JWM). The graphical environment failed to load, apparently due to either a permission or a missing driver issue. (Possibly both, based on a quick glance at the error log). Since JWM didn't successfully load I was left with a command line prompt. The system logged me in as a regular user, appropriately called "user". The sudo utility isn't included, but we can switch to the root account by using su and the password "root".
The distribution has around a gigabyte of utilities packed into its single-file archive and we can use remaining free space to download files and install packages. The distribution is quite light, requiring less than 100MB of RAM.
Static Linux's X.Org edition ships with version 5.15 of the Linux kernel. Version 5.18 of the kernel is included in the Wayland edition. The Busybox utilities are included too, though not much else. There are a few rescue utilities, such as photorec and ddrescue. There are no manual pages, meaning any help we receive will need to be found on-line. Though I didn't get to use it due to the lack of graphical interface, the project's website points out the X.Org edition of Static Linux ships with the Firefox web browser.
One interesting quirk of the distribution is exiting the command line shell will halt the system and power off the computer.
Wayland edition
When I switched to the Wayland (W) edition of Static Linux, the experience started out much the same way. The distribution's image file was placed on my drive, the system booted successfully to a text console, but then the system successfully and automatically launched the Lab Wayland Compositor (labwc). The labwc environment is basically a very minimal desktop environment with a panel at the bottom of the display with a few quick launch buttons and an open desktop space where we can right-click to open a terminal or exit the session. Like the X.Org edition, the Wayland edition (even when running labwc) consumes less than 100MB of RAM.
Static Linux 2022 -- Using Static Linux to download itself
(full image size: 25kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Unlike the X.Org edition of Static Linux, the Wayland edition does not ship with the Firefox web browser or bittorrent software, which probably makes up the bulk of the difference between the sizes of the two editions. The Wayland edition offers us a virtual terminal, the testdisk, photorec, and ddrescue software along with the Busybox utilities. That is about all that is available by default. If we want more software we need to turn to the Static Linux repository.
Software management
Earlier I mentioned the Static Linux project provides 206 packages in an archive on their website. These packages are simply listed, one per line, with their name and version, but no description. We're left to figure out for ourselves what atk, bison, and pcre are and whether we need these items. Each package is an APK file which is basically a tar archive.
I had thought, since Static Linux is reportedly based on Alpine Linux, the distribution might include the Alpine Linux package manager, but this does not appear to be the case. I could not find a package manager, documentation for installing packages, or a web browser (graphical or text-based) included with the distribution.
Since the APK packages are tar archives, I was able to download an index of the available software using wget, fetch specific files, and then unpack them with the tar program. The archives, when unpacked from the root directory, will install software into the /usr directory and other appropriate locations. Some programs are set with permissions which only allow them to be run as the root user and may need to have their permissions (or ownership) changed in order for them to be executable.
The base operating system resets when it is restarted. Which just means any changes we make to the system are lost when we reboot. We can get around this by setting up another partition, either on the USB thumb drive or on a local disk drive, and mounting it. For instance, I set up a persistent partition and mounted it under my home directory. This partition could then include hand written scripts to perform some basic actions, such as installing a package. The persistent partition can also hold programs which can be installed there to survive reboots. For instance, I set up a partition called disk in my Static Linux home directory. At each boot I could mount disk and add ~/disk/usr/bin to my user's path to run any programs I'd installed in past sessions.
Conclusions
While it is possible to work with this manual approach to persistence, I feel it worth noting Static Linux does not appear to be intended to be used across reboots. It's not an operating system which we install or on which we set up users. Static Linux is specifically geared toward accessing and rescuing data from local disks. Typically without many tools or conveniences. It's super light, highly portable, and (despite a weird setup process) is pretty easy to get started using.
The distribution offers virtually no documentation, no package manager, and on the Wayland edition there is no web browser. This makes the distribution quite limited. However, its small size and performance are appealing and I'm intrigued by the idea of the entire operating system booting from a single file. This is an unusual approach, but it seems to be working. While I had a few issues with the X.Org session, the Wayland edition worked well and, if the project would add a web browser (even a text-based one) to the Wayland session I could see it being a handy rescue tool that can be dropped on any thumb drive.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Mint streamlines package management, elementary OS provides upgrades through Flatpak
The Linux Mint team has published their monthly newsletter which includes information on component updates and a streamlining of package management, especially when Flatpaks are used. "The code which lets you remove applications from the main menu was reviewed and password prompts were removed in situations where administrative permissions weren't required. Removing a Flatpak will no longer require a password to be entered. Same goes for simple shortcuts and local applications (i.e. applications which aren't installed system-wide). Synaptic and the Update Manager will now also ask pkexec to remember your password so you won't have to enter it every single time if you perform multiple operations. Flatpak support was added to the Update Manager. This allows Flatpak applications and runtimes to be updated like any other supported types of software."
* * * * *
The elementary OS team has pushed their monthly newsletter which provides insights into changes coming to the distribution. Some of these changes include upgrades to Flatpak and, through Flatpak, GNOME packages. These upgrades will be available for elementary 6.1 users as well as people installing the upcoming 7.0 release. "Also to be expected soon is the latest Flatpak platform. Platform 7.1 is based on the GNOME 43 platform and brings a number of improvements for GTK 4. We're excited to get it published and available for use in your apps right away as well as updating the GNOME apps we ship to their latest releases. Thanks to the magic of Flatpak, OS 6.1 users can expect to receive this update as well."
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
What can you do with a kernel on its own?
Trying-understanding-the-kernel asks: Let's imagine that a computer has only the kernel installed and nothing else. What would work on the computer and what would not? To what extent could you use this computer? Would it be possible to communicate with the kernel? Would it be possible to install other programs?
DistroWatch answers: When an operating system is booting, the kernel is typically the first program that gets loaded into memory (with a few key exceptions like the computer's boot loader). The kernel has a special status. It typically gets locked into memory and is able to act as a controller for the entire operating system. The kernel in a modern operating system typically handles memory allocation, scheduling which programs run, passing information between processes, low level networking tasks, and talking to the computer's hardware.
The kernel acts as a middle layer between the hardware and the applications we run. It handles allocating resources, passing information between components, and talking to devices such as video cards.
The kernel, at least on modern operating systems, doesn't interact directly with the user. It doesn't prompt us for input, interpret commands, display a desktop, manage windows or any of the other things you actively interact with when you're using your computer.
If you had a computer with nothing but the kernel installed (for example, the Linux kernel) the computer would likely boot and its hardware would technically be initialized. But then the system would likely "panic", or lock up. The reason being the kernel needs to launch services in order for the operating system to be able to do anything useful. The kernel expects there to be programs - such as init, likely a service manager, and a command line shell - in order to accomplish anything. When no programs are installed, in particular the init software or a suitable substitute, then the kernel will bail out and bring the system to stop.
In short, a system with just a modern kernel installed on it can start-up, but then won't do anything. You wouldn't be able to interact with it, load programs, or install new software. There would be no software you could use or run and therefore you couldn't accomplish anything with the system. To do anything you'd need to add other programs to the hard drive. At the very least you would need a command line shell that would allow you to type commands. For a really minimal system you might want to set up something like Busybox which would give you a small core set of commands that would help you actually do some basic things on your system.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Linux Lite 6.2
Linux Lite is an Ubuntu-based distribution intended to be easy for Linux beginners to use. The latest version of the distribution, Linux Lite 6.2, features an improved upgrade manager, new Papirus icons, and Openshot has been replaced by Shotcut in the Lite Software utility. Other changes include: "Fixed dialogue lengths of many Linux Lite applications. Fixed hostname bug in Lite Tweaks. Many updates to the Help Manual. The Hardware Database now has over 75,000 submissions. 100k here we come! Fixed bug in Lite Sources not populating the codename. Purging even more logs in Lite Tweaks, freeing up space. Latest stable versions of Chrome, LibreOffice, Lite applications, etc. New wallpapers. Task Manager (System Monitoring Center) right click now works everywhere, updated icon. Microsoft Teams removed from Lite Software, no longer maintained by Microsoft, instead, they will offer a PWA version only for Linux. Fixed Kernel Removal in Lite Tweaks...." Additional information and screenshots can be found in the project's release announcement.
Linux Lite 6.2 -- The welcome screen and application menu
(full image size: 231kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Nitrux 20221101
The Nitrux developers have published a new release which features updates to KDE Plasma, the Firefox browser and includes NVIDIA's proprietary video driver. "We've updated the following components of the distribution. For other information, see Notes. KDE Plasma to version 5.26.2, KDE Frameworks to version 5.99.0, and KDE Gear to version 22.08.2. Firefox to version 106.0.2. We've decided to add the NVIDIA Proprietary driver to the default installation, currently version 520.56.06, along with NVIDIA Prime, but not our X11 configuration. We've decided to change our policy about including this particular piece of proprietary software to make this distribution more accessible to users and to avoid creating a separate ISO file. The minimal ISO does not include the NVIDIA Proprietary driver, as we want to keep the size of the ISO image small. We're aware that NVIDIA had released an open-source driver, too; however, it only supports a handful of professional graphics cards and almost none of their consumer graphics cards." Additional information is provided in the distribution's release announcement. The announcement refers to the new version of Nitrux as 2.5.0 while the provided media is labelled using the date of the release: 20221101.
TrueNAS 13.0-U3 "CORE"
Will Soteros has announced the availability of a third update of TrueNAS CORE 13, version 13.0-U3. Formerly known as FreeNAS, TrueNAS CORE is a FreeBSD-based, open-source and community-supported software designed for NAS (Network-Attached Storage) computers. It uses the self-healing OpenZFS filesystem and is extensible by a variety of free plugins: "Building on the Enterprise quality of prior versions, the third update of TrueNAS 13 was released today. In addition to greater maturity and test coverage, Globally Distributed Storage provided by iX-Storj is also now included in this release. Compared to TrueNAS 12, TrueNAS 13 includes significant new components and has improved performance, scalability, and reliability in subsequent releases. In the two months since TrueNAS 13.0-U2 was released, it has already become the 2nd most deployed version of TrueNAS. TrueNAS 13.0-U3 builds on the maturity of the prior version with 30 bug fixes and security updates. It also includes enclosure management updates for the TrueNAS R50 Gen3, which was announced two weeks ago." See the release announcement and the release notes for detailed information about the product.
GParted Live 1.4.0-6
Curtis Gedak has announced the release of GParted Live 1.4.0-6, an updated build of the project's Debian-based specialist live CD designed for disk partitioning and data rescue tasks. This release updates the Linux kernel to version 6.0.6 and expands the included software with various useful items, such as Nmap or Samba client: "The GParted team is happy to announce a new stable release of GParted Live. This release includes GParted 1.4.0, updated packages and other improvements. Items of note include: based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2022-11-03; Linux kernel image updated to 6.0.6; more packages added - this includes vim, pv, htop, bmon, nmon, zutils, pigz, xz-utils, zstd, zip, unzip, colordiff, xxd, vbindiff, cifs-utils, smbclient, nmap, xrdp, rdesktop, usbutils, vlan, parallel. This release of GParted Live has been successfully tested on VirtualBox, VMware, BIOS, UEFI and physical computers with AMD/ATI, NVIDIA and Intel graphics." Visit the project's news page to read the release announcement.
* * * * *
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: 2,788
- Total data uploaded: 42.5TB
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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) |
How many packages are installed on your distribution?
In this week's review of Static Linux we talked about a remarkably minimal distribution. Static includes very few packages, but there are smaller Linux distributions in the world. There are also many larger distributions, full of packages and features. This week we'd like to find out how many packages are currently installed on your distribution. Is it more than 1,000? More than 5,000? Let us know which distribution you are running and how many software packages are installed in the comments.
If you're unsure how to find out how many packages are installed on your system, please refer to our package management cheatsheet page to learn how to get a listing of packages on your distribution. Then run the result through the wc command. For example, you'll get a rough idea of how many packages are installed on Debian-based systems by running "dpkg -l | wc -l". The equivalent in the Arch Linux family is "pacman -Q | wc -l" and on RPM-based systems like Fedora you can use "rpm -qa | wc -l".
You can see the results of our previous poll on home directory permissions in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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How many packages are installed on your distro?
| 0-500: | 77 (5%) |
| 501-1000: | 134 (9%) |
| 1001-2500: | 575 (38%) |
| 2501-5000: | 300 (20%) |
| 5001-10000: | 47 (3%) |
| More than 10000: | 25 (2%) |
| I do not know: | 312 (21%) |
| I am not running a Linux distro: | 23 (2%) |
| I am not running a distro with traditional packages: | 11 (1%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 14 November 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 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 |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
OpenIndiana
OpenIndiana is a continuation of the OpenSolaris operating system. It was conceived during the period of uncertainty following the Oracle takeover of Sun Microsystems, after several months passed with no binary updates made available to the public. The formation proved timely, as Oracle discontinued OpenSolaris soon after in favour of Solaris 11 Express, a binary distribution with a more closed development model to début later this year. OpenIndiana is part of the illumos Foundation, and provides a true open-source community alternative to Solaris 11 and Solaris 11 Express, with an open development model and full community participation.
Status: Active
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| TUXEDO |
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