 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1003, 23 January 2023 |
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Welcome to this year's 4th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
In recent months there have been a few new projects entered into the DistroWatch database which attempt to take the Fedora Workstation distribution and make it more convenient to set up and use right away. One of these projects is risiOS, a Fedora-based Linux distribution which runs the GNOME desktop environment and includes a number of graphical setup and tweak tools to help initialize and customize the desktop experience. This week we begin with a look at risiOS and report on how this young project performs. Then, in our News section, we continue talking about Fedora-related efforts. The Fedora team is working on their new, web-based system installer and the developers are seeking advice from the community about how to best handle disk partitioning. Plus we share news that Debian has entered the long process of releasing a new stable version while Ubuntu 18.04 nears the end of its supported life. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about different types of packages and whether it is safe to mix software from different sources or with different package formats. Do you make use of different types of packages, such as Flatpak and Snap? Let us know in this issue's Opinion Poll. This week we are pleased to add the DynFi Firewall project to our database. DynFi is a FreeBSD-based firewall solution and we share more information on this operating system below. Plus we share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
risiOS 37
risiOS is a young distribution which is based on Fedora. As with its parent, risiOS uses the GNOME desktop by default. Unlike its parent, risiOS uses the zsh command line shell instead of bash. The project also introduces a few key features which set it apart from Fedora in an attempt to make it easier to set up.
One of the main features of risiOS is a graphical utility which helps users set up third-party repositories and add codecs Fedora does not provide:
"risiWelcome helps first time users install drivers and codecs, setup FlatHub and RPMFusion, and find resources related to risiOS. We also have "quick setup" scripts that help you quickly install certain applications you may need for certain tasks.
The distribution also with a tool to tweak the desktop appearance, manage extensions, and adjust interface features like the touchpad's behaviour:
Use risiTweaks to change themes and layout settings, manage GNOME Extensions to make risiOS yours, manage risiScript installers, and enable experimental features from within risiOS.
The risiOS website briefly mentions a tool called risiScript:
risiScript allows us to generate a GUI wizard for bash/shell scripts and make things like installing third-party apps and system configuration easy.
We are also told about a utility to help us set up access to websites and web apps:
Make your favorite web apps feel native using our fork of Linux Mint's web app manager. This fork contains a store with loads of preset web apps to choose from in order to let you discover new web apps and conveniently add them.
risiOS 37 -- Running the GNOME desktop
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In short, risiOS is a Fedora spin with easy to use tools to help the user get started with more software, codecs, and tools to tweak the desktop environment.
In the following overview of risiOS's capabilities, I'm going to focus on the aforementioned features rather than a complete review of the distribution. risiOS, apart from the tools listed above, is basically Fedora. It uses the same core repositories, the same system installer, the same default desktop, and kernel. For an overview of
the parent distribution, I recommend reading Joshua Allen Holm's Fedora 37 review.
First impressions
At first, risiOS looks and acts very much like its parent. risiOS offers to perform a self-check of the install media, boots the GNOME desktop, and pops up a window asking if we want to try or install the distribution. Apart from the custom wallpaper, the experience feels exactly like Fedora at this point.
Likewise, the Anaconda installer offers the same experience on risiOS as it does on Fedora. We're asked to pick our language, then shown a hub screen where we can access modules to set our time zone and keyboard layout, and partition the disk. This stage is quite straight forward and, when taking automated partitioning, we can get through the installer's steps in under a minute.
The one odd aspect of installing the distribution came at the end when Anaconda finished and a notification popped up to tell me the desktop's theme had been changed, though no visual change occurred.
When a newly installed copy of risiOS first boots it starts up a graphical wizard which walks us through enabling location services, optionally enabling problem reporting, asks us if we want to set up third-party software repositories, and offers to connect us with on-line cloud accounts. The ultimate step asks us to make up a username and password for ourselves. So far, risiOS was acting just like Fedora.
The welcome window
The main differences between risiOS and its parent show up after the first-run wizard disappears and the GNOME desktop appears. Once in the GNOME session the risiOS welcome screen launches. Apart from a brief welcome message, the welcome window is divided into four tabs: First Steps, Quick Setup, Join The Community, and Contribute to risiOS.
The Contribute tab offers us links to where we can submit artwork and code to the distribution. We're also provided with a button to access the project's store where we can trade money for merchandise. Clicking any of the buttons in the Contribute tab launch the Chromium web browser to connect us with the on-line resources requested.
The Join The Community tab works the same way. It lists social media accounts and support forums, such as risiOS's Reddit page and user forum. Clicking a button next to each entry opens Chromium to connect us with the requested page. I did run into a problem where clicking the button to view risiOS's Twitter account failed, saying the account doesn't exist. The risiOS project does have a Twitter account so I think the link from the welcome window is simply broken.
First Steps
The First Steps tab of the welcome window includes a lot of options and I feel it deserves its own section. The First Steps page lists a number of options for setting up software repositories and acquiring new software packages. These options include enabling the RPMFusion repository and installing media codecs at the same time; enabling the Flathub repository; launching GNOME Software; creating shortcuts to web apps; and running risiTweaks.
The button to set up RPMFusion does enable the third-party repositories as requested, though reports failure when grabbing codecs. Upon further inspection, the repositories and the codecs had been installed. I believe the error occurs because I requested all codecs, except the "ugly" ones, while the script ultimately reports failure if the "ugly" codecs are not on the system. This seems to happen even if all requested codecs installed successfully. The error is cryptic and this behaviour may confuse users, but it seems the install function is working properly.
The tool to enable the Flathub repository worked without any issues. I find it interesting both this button and the RPMFusion button disappear after they have been used to avoid duplicating their efforts, even if the scripts setting up the repositories return an error.
The button to open GNOME Software works, though the software centre immediately reports a problem with a broken digest on a package. I also had GNOME Software crash a few times while it was working, though I suspect this was due to another issue I'll discuss later. Installing updates through GNOME Software also results in the system insisting on restarting the computer and performing a long upgrade process during the next start-up sequence. This feels like a step backwards from the way virtually all other Linux distributions handle upgrades.
risiOS 37 -- Browsing Flatpaks with GNOME Software
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The button to add web apps opens a tool which walks us through creating a launcher for websites. Basically we make up a name and provide a URL for a website, optionally set an icon for it, and we've created a launcher. It's like making a web browser bookmark for your desktop. The tool included in risiOS works almost exactly like ICE does in distributions like Peppermint OS.
risiOS 37 -- Creating shortcuts to websites
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Last, but not least, there is a tool which can be launched from the First Steps page called risiTweaks. This tool offers customizations for the appearance of the desktop, customizations to GNOME extensions, and the option to add more web browsers. I'm not sure why installing more browsers is a function of risiTweaks instead of the Quick Setup section of the welcome window where we fetch other types of software, but the option is there to fetch the Brave, Vivaldi, Edge, Opera, and Chrome browsers. These fetch functions worked for me without any issues.
risiOS 37 -- Adjusting the interface with risiTweaks
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The risiTweaks took works, but its interface is crowded. There are four tabs across the top of the window listing types of adjustments we can make. There are then sometimes four or five tabs down the left side of the window inside these top tabs for more fine-tuned access to settings. It's a bit overwhelming visually and I think it's going to be hard for newcomers to navigate.
This cluttered appearance aside, I did like the customizations the risiTweaks tool offered. Being able to adjust the clock, hot corners, touchpad settings, and desktop theme from one location was convenient. Some of these options can also be adjusted through the GNOME settings panel, but there isn't a lot of overlap between the two utilities.
Quick Setup
Earlier I mentioned a tab in the welcome window called Quick Setup. This tab lists categories of software we might want to install. These categories include gaming, office productivity, video production, audio consumption, and audio production. (As I mentioned earlier, web browsers are not a listed option. Browsers are handled separately in the risiTweaks tool.) Clicking a button next to these categories opens a window which offers to fetch specific applications. For example, the Gaming category offers to fetch the Steam client, a GOG launcher, Lutris, RetroArch, and DOSbox, along with a few other packages.
risiOS 37 -- Installing productivity software
(full image size: 890kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Selecting the other categories offer related choices too. The Office category will fetch LibreOffice or OnlyOffice. We also have the option of installing Zoom, Teams, Geary, Evolution, and Thunderbird. The first time I tried to grab office software (LibreOffice and Thunderbird) the system reported it had run a bash script, but not successfully. I went back and tried to install just LibreOffice, but it was already installed so the script reported success. I then tried to install just Thunderbird and it was also already installed and the script concluded with a successful message. I later confirmed the requested applications had been installed so the initial error appears to have been incorrect.
The scripts for fetching other collections of software worked for me without further issues.
Other observations
On the risiOS website one of the key features mentioned is a technology called risiScript which is intended to make it easier to add graphical elements to scripts. I couldn't find much information about this, but it looks like this is the technology which provides us with prompts and options when we install new software through the risiOS tools. For example, when we install a web browser or office suite, it seems the action is handled by risiScript.
While this is not specific to risiOS necessarily, I noticed after installing the first wave of package updates through GNOME Software that the distribution was slow to shutdown. Any time I brought down the system after performing this initial batch of updates, I'd run into the notorious issue of systemd waiting for a job to stop. When I first installed risiOS, the distribution would shutdown in two or three seconds, after the upgrades shutdown times increased to about a minute and forty seconds. When new system updates were being installed, start-up times would increase too.
Earlier I mentioned I ran into a number of session crashes. These mostly happened when I was using GNOME Software and, at first, I thought the underlying package manager was causing my GNOME session to crash. The crashes would usually close my applications and session, returning me to the login page. A few times the system simply showed me a blank screen and refused to respond to input. In both scenarios my work was lost.
This issue continued, showing up when I wasn't engaged in package management. Sometimes it happened when launching programs, other times it happened when browsing the GNOME settings panel and I began to suspect the crashes were random. At any rate, it was rare for me to be able to stay logged in more than 15 minutes and sometimes my GNOME session would bail out and return me to the login screen within 5 minutes. I tried switching from the default Wayland session to GNOME's X11 session. After this, the crashes stopped entirely.
Conclusions
There have been many Linux distributions over the years which have been based on Fedora. Several of these have tried to tackle common complaints with their parent distribution, particularly the lack of media codecs and certain desktop programs in the official Fedora repositories. Atomix, BLAG, FoX Desktop, Fuduntu, Fusion, and Korora being some of the prime examples.
Fedora, for all its cutting edge options and interesting technologies has tended to be a hassle to set up and turn into a full featured desktop operating system, at least when compared to other mainstream Linux distributions, and its derivatives reflect that. risiOS appears to be the latest project to try to take Fedora and make it easier to get up and running with popular repositories, media codecs, and desktop software. It's a popular concept and one which always seems to be in demand.
The implementation of this idea mostly works well. risiOS manages to provide a number of simple point-n-click solutions for accessing RPMFusion repositories, Flathub, fetching codecs, and tweaking elements of the GNOME desktop. These tools, mostly accessed through the welcome window, tend to work and make it quick and easy to fetch popular software packages.
In my mind, while risiOS mostly works well, there are two problems the distribution currently faces with its initial release. The first is some of the scripts could be polished. They sometimes report errors after succeeding. It seems the scripts expect a certain set of options to be selected or to be skipped and, if the user's choices do not match these expectations, the script will throw errors or bail out. This leads to some confusing messages that I think will throw off new users.
The second concern I have is that the tools risiOS provides are, well, full. The welcome window and risiTweaks have four or five tabs each, those tabs sometimes have four or five tabs. Some of those tabs have multiple sections for different options. It's as though the developers were so intent on making as many options available as possible they ended up with a giant collection that then got buried in the clutter.
To be fair, the clutter is usually organized, at least once the user gets to explore a little. But there are times when it feels inconsistent. For example, installing almost every form of software (gaming, office, and audio consumption) happens in the Quick Setup section of the welcome window. However, web browsers are installed from the risiScript section of the risiTweaks tool. I'm unaware of any logical reason for the exception.
These little issues can probably be attributed to risiOS being young and the developers trying to get it launched to test the waters. I think the distribution is young enough that users should expect a few rough edges and for things to shift and settle into a more polished product over the next release or two.
I suppose the important question here is whether the changes risiOS introduces improve upon its parent distribution. To that, my answer is: yes, a little. It's not a big shift, but risiOS makes the distribution a little easier to set up and makes GNOME a little more customizable. This is an improvement. Unfortunately most of Fedora's underlying issues (such as slow package manager, awkward updates, and problematic systemd shutdown delays) still shine through the patches offered by risiOS. I'm hoping risiOS will attempt to further improve upon its existing work in step with new Fedora releases.
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Visitor supplied rating
risiOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.8/10 from 8 review(s).
Have you used risiOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Fedora seeks feedback on web-based installer, Debian 12 enters development freeze, Ubuntu 18.04 nears end of life, SparkyLinux image writing tool offers persistence
As work continues on the new Fedora system installer, the team is hoping to gather feedback on how the new web-based installer should handle disk partitioning. "In general, partitioning is one of the most complex, problematic, and controversial parts of what Anaconda is doing. Because of that and the great feedback from the last blog, we decided to ask you for feedback again to know where we should focus." More information on the new installer and a link to the feedback form can be found in the Fedora Magazine blog post.
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The Debian project has a policy of waiting to publish new stable releases until they are ready and for taking a relatively long time between releases. Debian 12 "Bookworm" will likely be released around the middle of 2023 as the project has just entered its first stage of development freeze. Paul Gevers wrote to the Debian development mailing list: "We're pleased to announce that the freeze for Debian 12 'Bookworm' has begun. On January 12th we stopped accepting transition requests and we are working to complete the transitions in progress. We ask the maintainers of packages that are part of the toolchain to stop uploading those packages without prior approval from us. We remind everybody to stop uploading large or disruptive changes to Unstable, from here on Experimental is the place to do that." Further information on preparation for Debian 12 can be found in the mailing list post.
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Version 18.04 of Ubuntu is nearing the end of its supported life. After April this version of the distribution will no longer receive fixes and security updates. "Ubuntu 18.04 'Bionic Beaver' is reaching End of Standard Support this April, also known sometimes as End Of Life (EOL). This distribution of Ubuntu was installed by millions of users and powers up thousands of devices. From kiosks and appliances to IoT devices and robots, 18.04 helped many companies deploy innovations to the world. As with all other Ubuntu LTS releases that reach their end of standard support, Bionic Beaver will transition to Extended Security Maintenance (ESM). This blog post will help developers and companies evaluate their options for devices currently running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. It will also cover how you can enable ESM in case you choose to extend the support window with this service." The announcement provides further information.
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The SparkyLinux project is offering a new feature which will make portable computing easier for its users. The Sparky utility which writes USB disk images now includes the ability to offer persistent storage on the USB thumb drive: "The Sparky tool that creates Live USB disk (sparky-live-usb-creator) has gotten a new feature which lets you make a live USB disk with persistence. It means, you can boot Sparky Live system from a USB disk and save your work, new installed applications, etc. to the same USB disk. The sparky-live-usb-creator 0.2.1 is available to Sparky rolling users so far, and it works with Sparky 2023.01 MinimalGUI ISO image only so far." Details are offered through the project's blog post.
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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) |
Mixing package management methods
Mixing-and-matching asks: Can I install multiple software package utilities such as: GNOME Software Centre, snapd, and Flatpak? I want to be able to draw in apps from each, but don't want to break my system.
DistroWatch answers: In this specific example, using GNOME Software, snapd, and Flatpak together will not cause conflicts or break your system.
Stepping back from this specific example, this seems like a good opportunity to talk about the various elements of package management and why some combinations can cause conflicts which will break an operating system and some will not.
When it comes to managing software there are, generally speaking, two types of packages: traditional packages, such as Deb and RPM files; and portable packages, such as Flatpak, AppImage, and Snap bundles.
Traditional packages are typically pulled from a distribution's official repositories. These packages are the foundation of most Linux distributions and are usually tested to work well together. However, if you introduce another source of traditional packages or introduce another type of traditional packages, then your system is at high risk of being damaged.
For example, if you are running Debian, you'll find your system uses Deb packages, pulled from Debian's repositories. Any packages in Debian's repositories should work on the system. However, if you introduce packages from another Deb repository, such as from Ubuntu, then it may introduce a conflict and break things.
Also, if you are running Debian, which uses Deb packages, and you try to install an RPM package from Fedora or a package archive from Arch Linux then it's also likely to cause conflicts. Different types of packages will have different ways of declaring dependencies and may overwrite existing files on your operating system.
In short: avoid mixing different types of traditional packages (such as RPM and Deb) and avoid mixing sources of these packages.
Moving on to portable package formats. These include Flatpak, Snap, and AppImage bundles. Portable packages are designed to sit atop the operating system - they are additional pieces on top of the distribution rather than the foundation supplied by traditional packages. Portable packages are also intended to be somewhat self-isolating, meaning they should not conflict with each other or any traditional packages.
Put another way, while it's often dangerous to mix together traditional packages of different types and sources, it's almost always safe to add portable packages (of different types and sources) to your distribution. You can safely use both Flatpak and Snap on the same distribution and they won't conflict with the underlying traditional packages.
The question brought up the idea of using GNOME Software and I'd like to address that too. GNOME Software doesn't provide a specific type of software (RPM, Deb, or Flatpak) and it doesn't access a specific source of software, such as Flathub, Debian's repositories, or Fedora's repositories. GNOME Software is a graphical front-end package manager and it, like many package managers, are neutral when it comes to the source and type of software they handle.
Basically, package managers like GNOME Software and Discover are designed to provide a friendly way to manage software on your distribution. They are not tied to a specific type of package or source, but will manage any source or types of packages your system knows about.
Since these graphical utilities only put a user friendly face on top of the lower level software management tools, you can use multiple software centres on the same system. You can run GNOME Software, Discover, and other graphical front-ends on the same system without causing a conflict.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Plop Linux 23.1
Elmar Hanlhofer has announced the availability of version 23.1 of Plop Linux, an independently-developed distribution for desktops, servers and Raspberry Pi computers, designed primarily for advanced Linux users: "Version 23.1, release date 2023-01-16. Changelog: Linux kernel not updated because of hang problems with NVIDIA graphic cards; fixed 32-bit size of time on 32-bit systems - problems with GnuTLS causing 'The certificate has not yet been activated' on wget; build tools / update-os.tar.gz - to update glibc, also a static build for ARM added; Filezilla removed from 32-bit builds because of compile problem with the current GCC - float16 is not supported on this target; EFI directory to upper case; added EFI image to the ISO image - EFI/efiboot.img; build scripts updated; 183 packages updated." Here is the complete changelog. Plop Linux 23.1 is available for i486, x86_64 and armv6l architectures in "Standard" (live, with Xfce 4.18 as the default desktop), "Small" (without X.Org, GCC and Pythong) and "BRL" (for blind and visually impaired users) variants.
Lakka 4.3
Lakka is a lightweight Linux distribution that transforms a small computer into a full blown game console. The distribution is based on LibreELEC and runs the RetroArch console emulator. The project's latest release is Lakka 4.3 which updates RetroArch to 1.14.0 and adds support for the Orange Pi 4 platform. "New version of Lakka has been released! We are happy to announce the new and updated version of Lakka. Release summary - changes since version 4.2: RetroArch updated to 1.14.0. Cores updated to their most recent versions: fake-08 added new libretro core (Pico-8); mojozork: added new libretro core (Z-Machine); puae2021 added new libretro core (Amiga, less demanding version of the core). Mesa updated to 22.1.7. Added image for Orange Pi 4 LTS (Rockchip RK3399). Added support for more Nintendo Switch variants (Hekate 6.0.1+ is required, on Nintento Switch Lite use touchscreen to change the default input device: Settings - Input - Port 1 Controls - Device Index - top most item)." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
Legacy OS 2023
Legacy OS, a distribution targeting older hardware, has returned after several dormant years. The distribution was once a member of the Puppy Linux family, but has shifted its base to antiX while maintaining the same IceWM user interface. A release announcement on the project's home page reads: "After a six year hiatus Legacy OS is back! Now based on antiX/Debian Bullseye 64-bit. After a long development period LegacyOS 2023 is now available for download. As with previous releases Legacy OS uses the Ice Window Manager (IceWM) and ROX/PCmanFM File Managers. All included Ice Window Manager themes have been created for this release. A useful selection of applications are included by default. VLC, MPV, Strawberry, Peek, FreetuxTV, OnlyOffice, Scribus, GIMP, Inkscape, Firefox-ESR, Thunderbird, and Transmission just to name a few. Also available for download through the Synaptic package manager are the Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge web browsers. Unlike previous releases Legacy OS 2023 will receive regular updates."
Legacy OS 2023 -- Running IceWM
(full image size: 2.6MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
ArchLabs Linux 2023.01.20
Matt Dobson has announced the release of ArchLabs Linux 2023.01.20, an updated build of the project's minimalist, Arch-based distribution featuring the dk window manager (a tiling window manager similar to bspwm): "ArchLabs Release 2023.01.20 is now available. This is our first release of 2023 and it comes a couple of weeks after our 6th birthday. There isn't a lot new with this release; we have added dwm back to the installer and you will see that booting the ISO image no longer will take you to a live session. The live session was always just an experiment and to try something new, really. Our live session still exists, so for those of you who want to check out dk in all its glory, just type startx and hit enter. We have given the live session a nice tweak and some improvements. Also, an epic new default wallpaper from our own Will. We have tweaked the themes, updated the ArchLabs iconset, Tint2 has had some tweaks. Nate has been chipping away at dk making it better and better with each update. We now offer downloads from Cloudflare R2, please be aware that the download will start instantly. As usual, if you encounter any bugs or issues, please seek help at ArchLabs Forum." Visit the distribution's home page to read the complete 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: 2,819
- Total data uploaded: 42.8TB
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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) |
Mixing portable package types
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about mixing different types and sources of packages. Portable package formats, such as Snap, Flatpak, and AppImage, make it safer to mix different software sources. The self-isolating mature of these packages means we can mix them together without endangering the underlying operating system.
We would like to hear if you use portable packages and, if so, do you mix multiple types to gain the functionality you want?
You can see the results of our previous poll on methods used to copy files between computers in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you use portable package formats?
| No: | 718 (49%) |
| Yes - one type: | 412 (28%) |
| Yes - two types: | 243 (16%) |
| Yes - three types: | 69 (5%) |
| Yes - more than three types: | 31 (2%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to database
DynFi Firewall
DynFi is a firewall platform based on FreeBSD. The project provides utilities for VPN, IDS, proxy, anti-virus, and packet filtering. Support is provided in several languages, including French, English, and German. DynFi is designed to be deployed on both physical hardware and in virtual environments.
DynFi 2.00.000 -- A sample of the web portal
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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, 30 January 2023. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. 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 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 |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Live Raizo
Live Raizo is a live Linux distribution based on Debian "Stable". It's purpose is to experiment with system administration on simulated networks and real devices; it contains simulators of networks and systems (GNS3, QEmu, Docker, VPCS) and also Debian virtual machines already integrated into GNS3. Live Raizo also includes tools to interact with real devices, such as minicom, Putty, Wireshark, as well as DHCP, DNS, FTP, TFTP and SSH servers. The distribution uses the Fluxbox window manager and can optionally be installed to a hard drive.
Status: Active
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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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