 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1005, 6 February 2023 |
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Welcome to this year's 6th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
A long time ago, in the time of floppy disks and single-core processors, there was a Unix desktop called the Common Desktop Environment (CDE). This graphical user interface was commonly seen on Solaris machines and it offered a virtual experience which tried to imitate a real world desk. These days not many people use CDE, but the desktop has been ported to modern operating systems and, this week, Jesse Smith tries out CDE on the NuTyX Linux distribution; read on to learn about his experiences. Do you use CDE or a modern clone of the desktop? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. In our Questions and Answers column we peek under the hood of Linux systems to talk about user identification numbers (UIDs) and why the ranges of these numbers are different across different flavours of Linux. We also share news stories, covering improvements to the new Pop!_OS COSMIC desktop environment along with better access to keyboard and mouse settings on Linux Mint. Then we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. This past week we introduced the helloSystem project to our database. helloSystem is a FreeBSD-based project which seeks to provide a macOS-like desktop experience and we have details below. We also added two new packages, nftables and ClamAV, to our software version tables and Search page which we hope you will find useful. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
NuTyX 22.12.0 and a return to CDE
About a year ago I decided to revisit the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) to see how the experience held up to my 20 year old memory of running the desktop on Solaris. I ended up installing CDE on Debian. While I did get the aging desktop running, there were some severe limitations, such as the inability to use the mouse to click on icons and menus, and my trial soon came to a close.
The idea of revisiting CDE stayed with me though and, last month while I was tinkering with Arch Linux, I noticed NsCDE is in the Arch User Repository (AUR). NsCDE (the Not So Common Desktop Environment) is a modern implementation of CDE using FVWM minimal window manager. I decided to try installing NsCDE on my Arch system, which already had GNOME and Xfce running on it, to see how the experience held up.
I tried to perform the install of NsCDE from the AUR using the yay assistant, but the build failed due to missing dependencies. I tracked these down and the build failed again, with more missing dependencies. Then failed again. I manually added more dependencies. Then the build failed again with less clear errors. So I gave up on running NsCDE on Arch and went looking for another distribution which might offer NsCDE or the real, original CDE. I found what I was looking for in NuTyX.
NuTyX offers about a dozen editions. Most of these editions feature modern desktop environments and some include lightweight window managers. There is a minimalist, command line only edition, and, yes, one edition featuring CDE!
NuTyX is built from Linux From Scratch and Beyond Linux From Scratch, with a custom package manager called "cards". The package manager can install individual binary packages, a group of related binary packages (e.g. desktop packages, such as KDE or Xfce), and compile source packages from ports. The distribution is designed for intermediate and advanced Linux users. I downloaded my coveted CDE edition which was available as a 1.5GB ISO file.
Installing
Booting from the NuTyX media brings up a text-based menu screen where we are asked to pick our county and language from a list. We're then asked to pick one of three options: Install, Advanced, or Help. I picked Install which asked me to pick my keyboard layout from a cryptic list of short names and then make up a username and password. The system then seemed to be loading something for a handful of seconds. The screen cleared and showed me a graphical login screen for CDE.
What took me by surprise is, at first, I still thought I was engaged in part of the install process from the live media. However, when I signed into the desktop and was greeted by no more prompts or questions I checked and confirmed NuTyX was now running from my hard drive. On one hand, it is very impressive that NuTyX installed and then rebooted so quickly that I didn't notice it had happened. I don't believe that has ever happened to me before. In the time it takes some distributions to merely load their installer or present package selection options, NuTyX finished its install process.
On the other hand, I'm concerned about the fact NuTyX took over my hard drive, wiping the entire disk clean, without warning. I didn't see any prompt asking me about partitioning or erasing data. NuTyX simple took the nuclear option without fanfare. This is not going to make for a great first impression for most users. I went to the distribution's website and read the documentation about installing. To be fair, it does say the default Install option on the live media offers automated partitioning. However, it does not seem to indicate the disk is erased and partitioning happens without warning. Lots of distributions offer an "automated" or "guided" partitioning option, but they almost always warn the user first.
The documentation does mention the Advanced option on the live media can be used to access a command line and run disk partitioning tools. The steps outlined require a bit of Linux knowledge and manual work, but they should allow someone to set up the distribution without having it take over the entire disk. When taking the automated approach, I ended up with a single ext4 partition for the root and home directories. A swap partition is also created. According to the project's documentation, on machines with UEFI enabled, an EFI partition is created. However, I was unable to get NuTyX to boot in UEFI mode, it only ran in Legacy BIOS mode during my tests.
Early impressions
NuTyX boots to a graphical login screen where we can sign into the CDE desktop. The session loads unusually quickly and, the first time we sign in, a file browser and document explaining how to use CDE are automatically opened. Booting NuTyX takes about two seconds and loading the desktop takes about a second. The CDE desktop places a thick panel at the bottom of the screen. The panel holds quick launch icons and buttons which will open "drawers" where we can find additional applications. There is also a large virtual desktop switcher in the middle of the panel. The panel further holds buttons for locking or leaving the desktop session.
NuTyX 22.12.0 -- Changing sound and screensaver settings
(full image size: 135kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The default theme tends to use white font on a beige background which I found difficult to read. The virtual terminal uses white on black which I find easier on my eyes. We can open a settings panel which will allow us to pick alternative colour themes. However, the desktop session must be closed and we must sign back in to see the new theme, it does not change on the fly.
Application windows have maximize and minimize buttons and a general window menu for moving or resizing the application, but no dedicated close button. We can close windows by clicking the general menu button and selecting the Close entry. Most native CDE applications also have a menu built into the application which offers a Close option. I found this somewhat inconvenient, but I suppose the lack of a Close button is intended to help people avoid data loss. Clicking a window's minimize button shrinks the window to an icon and places to the left of the desktop. There is no dock or task switcher, just an open space on the desktop or holding a list of icons.
More details on CDE
I'd like to return focus to the CDE panel for a moment. The panel holds a number of application launchers and information indicators. These include a calendar, a launcher for the file manager, and a mail icon for opening an e-mail client which did not work as no mail client was installed. There are buttons for locking and leaving the CDE session, and four large buttons for switching between virtual desktops. There is a button for opening a printer browser. This print tool should let us see printers and waiting print jobs, but the utility doesn't enable us to add new printers.
Digging through the drawers of the panel we find one drawer is mostly geared toward launching applications such as text editors and the terminal. Another drawer gives us quick access to desktop settings. The desktop settings application includes modules for adjusting the theme, font size, and mouse behaviour.
NuTyX 22.12.0 -- Running Firefox and browsing application launchers
(full image size: 359kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The panel also includes a help menu where we can see a guide which explains using the CDE interface and a trash bin where we can find deleted files. Near the middle of the panel is a light which flashes when we try to launch an application. This visual feedback was more helpful back in the days when it took several seconds to a minute to launch new applications. One button on the panel minimizes the panel just like we would a window, pushing it off to the left side of the screen.
One of the drawers offers a launcher which opens a window that lists software categories and, when we select a category we are shown application launchers for popular applications. This arrangement of icons is misleading as almost none of the programs listed are actually available - they are not installed on the system. I'm not sure why this program shows us lots of icons for unavailable software. When we install new desktop applications, as I'll talk about later, launchers are added to this window. This application browser, which has its own window, feels like an early version of the modern full-screen application grid approach to launching apps used by GNOME and smartphones.
Something I find interesting about CDE is how much the environment tries to imitate a physical desk. The way we don't minimize applications to an abstract taskbar, instead moving small markers for the window to the left, for example. Or the way we open and shut drawers (which stay open until manually closed) rather than browsing a menu tree. By default, CDE saves our session when we logout, meaning when we sign back in the applications we were using open automatically and return to their previous positions. Modern desktops can save sessions, but usually do not, preferring to give us a clean slate. CDE tries to treat our digital environment like a physical one where open tasks do not disappear when we leave the room.
To the modern eye, CDE might seem dated or quaint, but I think there was a strong effort here to make the digital world feel familiar to people accustomed to working with physical equivalents of the tools provided. Which makes CDE's approach fairly easy to learn, even if it doesn't feel as efficient compared to some modern desktops.
Included software
NuTyX doesn't ship with a lot of software installed. The GNU command line programs are available along with the CDE desktop. There is no compiler on the system and no web browser. The distribution runs the SysV init software and version 6.0 of the Linux kernel, at the time of writing. The man command line utility is installed, but manual pages are not available by default. When we install new software, manual pages are an optional additional package we can fetch rather than part of the program's main package.
NuTyX 22.12.0 -- Browsing files and changing the desktop appearance
(full image size: 208kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Package management with cards
As I mentioned at the start of this review, NuTyX uses the cards package manager. The cards utility is a command line tool which uses a fairly straight forward syntax. The "cards search" command finds new software, "cards install" fetches a package, "cards remove" deletes a package, and "cards upgrade" updates installed software. We can run "cards list" to see items already installed.
In the event we forget these commands, or want to see other options cards provides, we can run "cards help" to see a summary of features the package manager offers. Something I found interesting is "cards help" displays its options in colour in the terminal. This means if we pipe the output of "cards help" through a pager, like less, the output becomes scrambled as colour codes are printed in the text, making it hard to read.
NuTyX 22.12.0 -- Running the cards package manager
(full image size: 136kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
I found cards worked quickly for me, and functioned without errors. The output produced is slightly on the terse side, but cards seemed clear in its syntax and output. I quickly grew to like cards and its quick performance.
While the NuTyX repository is missing some common open source desktop applications, we can try to overcome this by using portable packages, such as Flatpak. The Flatpak framework can be installed by cards and the popular Flathub repository is automatically enabled for us. I had problems installing Flatpaks though. I attempted to fetch and run four applications and three of them failed to install properly, giving checksum errors. In short, while Flatpak is an option, is did not prove to be a reliable one. Even when I then tried installing Flatpaks on NuTyX which I already had running on another distribution at the same time, the installation usually failed.
Hardware
NuTyX is a fairly light distribution. When signed into the CDE interface the system consumed about 115MB of RAM. A fresh install used about 4GB of disk space.
At first I struggled with the desktop resolution while running NuTyX in VirtualBox. The CDE desktop defaulted to displaying at 800x600 pixels, which was probably fine in 1998, but not ideal for a modern screen. To make matters worse, CDE does not include any configuration tools for adjusting the desktop resolution. On Solaris, there were external command line tools to manage CDE's resolution, but these are not included in NuTyX. I worked around these limitations by using cards to fetch the xrandr command which can query and set the screen resolution.
Doing this while logged into CDE changes the screen resolution, but not the amount of display real estate CDE consumes. The desktop stays firmly in the upper-left 800x600 corner of the screen until we sign out and log back into the desktop.
As I mentioned earlier, I got NuTyX to boot in BIOS mode, but not in UEFI mode. This prevented me from successfully running the distribution on my laptop. My trial was restricted to a VirtualBox instance.
Conclusions
As the NuTyX website makes fairly clear up front, the distribution is geared toward more experienced Linux users. People who are comfortable using the command line, manually partitioning a hard drive with command line tools, people who don't mind using a custom package manager, and manually enabling services. The distribution is very hands-on and the documentation is often brief on topics covered. This leaves the user to mostly navigate using on-line documentation as a quick-start guide and local manual pages (which must be installed separately).
I'm not thrilled with how NuTyX takes over the hard drive with no warning during the installation and virtually no hint of what will happen in the documentation. This is dangerous and a good way to put off first-time users.
After this initial surprise though, NuTyX performs fairly well. The installer is super fast, the distribution boots within two seconds and logs into CDE in about a second. (This disproves the myth the classic SysV init software is slow to boot; when it's configured properly it brings up the system almost instantly.)
NuTyX is fairly small, fairly lightweight, but offers enough popular software and options through the repositories that I think has the tools for most people to perform basic tasks. The challenge, I find, is bootstrapping enough applications onto the system in the beginning to make the minimal operating system useful for daily tasks. This can take a while as NuTyX ships with such a small collection of applications.
In short, both CDE and NuTyX are small and fast. Both do a minimal of hand holding, and both feel like trips to past popular technologies. I liked visiting CDE again after 20 years and, while it is not a desktop I'd now want to use regularly, I did appreciate how much the developers tried to make CDE feel like a familiar, physical desk. NuTyX is somewhat limited in its packages and utilities, but the trade off is a simple design and fantastic performance.
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Visitor supplied rating
NuTyX has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.2/10 from 14 review(s).
Have you used NuTyX? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes mouse and keyboard options more accessible
The Pop!_OS developers have been working on a custom desktop for their distribution. The new desktop is called COSMIC and is written in Rust, a language designed for both safety and speed. The developers have published updates on their progress and included screenshots of the young desktop environment in action. "COSMIC DE uses the Wayland display server, a program which communicates with the rest of your system to run your application, show it on-screen, and register user inputs. But Wayland is relatively new compared to the X11 display server, so some applications may not be compatible. That's where XWayland comes in. The XWayland display server includes a compatibility layer for applications using X11 to run on Wayland instead. Since one of our engineers, Victoria, integrated XWayland into the cosmic-comp compositor, the engineering team has been testing how X11 applications like Firefox and Steam are faring on COSMIC DE." Additional information and highlights can be found in the project's blog post.
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The Linux Mint team have published their monthly newsletter and taken the opportunity to highlight changes coming to the next version of their distribution. Two of the notable changes include improved accessibility for changing keyboard layouts and tap-to-click is enabled for touchpads on the login screen. "System layouts defined in /etc/default/keyboard are listed first for easy access. Below that a sub-menu lists all supported layouts. Touchpad support was also improved. Tap-to-click is detected and enabled automatically in the login screen. The layout used for Onboard, the on-screen keyboard, is configurable. The keyboard navigation was improved. The arrow keys can be used to edit the password which is being typed. A revealer icon appears when the password is clicked or edited. This revealer can be used to toggle the visibility of the password. Among other small improvements Slick-greeter also received support [for] Wayland sessions, LXQt/Pademelon badges, and a scrollable session list." Additional information can be found in the project's newsletter.
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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) |
User identification number ranges across different distributions
What-is-my-number asks: I'd love to see a story about user ID numbers, 1000 for Debian, etc. And why they're different across, sometimes, common platforms.
DistroWatch answers: A user identification number, which is sometimes referred to as a user ID or UID, is a positive integer which is associated with a user account on a Linux, BSD, or other Unix-like operating system. Basically, every user is assigned a UID in order to uniquely identify their account.
A UID is also used to assign file and directory permissions. A username can change on an operating system and usually changes when moving files between operating systems. Using a numeric value instead of a name makes it easier to update access permissions in case a username changes.
As for why UIDs are different across platforms, I believe this question is referring to the fact that the range of UID values can be different on different operating systems.
Backing up a bit, the Linux kernel (and the kernels of other members of the Unix family) do not usually care about the UID associated with an account. You can assign just about any number in the range of 1 to 65535 to a user account, as long as the value is unique on your operating system. The one exception is the root user, the administrator. The root account always has a UID of 0 (zero). Apart from this special instance, UIDs can be just about any positive integer value for any account.
These days most Linux distributions (and flavours of BSD) assign UIDs to new user accounts starting at the value 1000 and rising incrementally. In other words, the first user account you make will be assigned the UID 1000, the second account will likely have a UID of 1001, the third 1002, and so on. However, some distributions (especially older ones) may start assigning UIDs at 500. So the first account gets a numeric identifier of 500, the second gets assigned 501, the third 502...
Why start with such high numbers, like 500 and 1000, instead of, 1, 2, 3, and 4 for the first four regular (non-root) users? The gap between 0 and 1000 is typically reserved for system and service accounts.
Most Linux and BSD platforms reserve UID numbers below 1000 for system services. When you run a web service, mail server, secure shell login service, or printing service these services typically get assigned a user account. These services are common and important to run, but they would carry a security risk if they were run either as your regular user account or as the root user. You don't want your mail service or network manager to have full access to your operating system, especially if it gets compromised. So these services are associated with a user account which is not allowed to login and which has limited access to everything on the system, except the files it absolutely needs. This isolates system services and prevents them from doing damage if they misbehave.
In short, the root user gets UID 0, system services are assigned reserved values from 1 to 499 (or 999), and regular user accounts start at 500 or 1000 and move up. Why 500 and 1000? They're just nice, big, round numbers which makes them easy to remember.
The reason different distributions use different ranges of numbers for regular users, typically in the range of 500+ or 1000+, is just a matter of preference on the part of the developers. I think it was previously more common to use 500 and up, but over the years most projects have shifted to 1000 and up for new user accounts. This is usually just to give more room for UIDs to be assigned to system services. In years past, when computers had more limited resources, it was pretty common to have each system just run one or two background services. Now powerful machines could run hundreds of services at a time, which I believe was the motivation for some distributions to reserve more space between the UID for root (0) and the UID of the first user account (1000). There isn't anything particularly special about the starting point for UIDs, but 1000 is a nice, round number.
If you are curious about your account's UID you can run the id command to see it. On most distributions you can see what ranges of UIDs your distribution uses by looking in the /etc/login.defs file. The lowest possible UID value for a regular user will be defined in this text file as UID_MIN and the highest will be defined by UID_MAX. On my system, these are defined in the /etc/login.defs file as:
UID_MIN 1000
UID_MAX 60000
While not generally recommended, as it can break ownership of files outside the user's home directory, it is possible to change an existing user's UID. This can be done with the usermod command. An account's UID can be changed as shown below:
usermod --uid 2000 jesse
In the above example, I have changed the UID for Jesse from its original value (1000) to 2000. This should automatically also change ownership of Jesse's files in their home directory, but will not seek out and adjust ownership of other files on the system or on removable storage media.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
elementary OS 7.0
The elementary OS team have published a new version of their Ubuntu-based distribution. The new release, elementary OS 7.0 "Horus", introduces a number of new changes, many of them focused on the software centre: "As always, AppCenter is the centerpiece of elementary OS. The primary purpose of any operating system is to support the apps that you use to work, play, and express yourself creatively. In the latest version of AppCenter we've worked on making app descriptions more engaging with more information, making it easier to update to the latest versions of apps, and improving support for sideloading and alt stores. We've also worked on improving AppCenter's responsiveness - making sure you can comfortably use it when tiling and on small displays as well as better using space on large displays. We've completely rewritten the way navigation works in AppCenter and now support two-finger swipe gestures to navigate back. The entire app loads much faster and provides more feedback when running background tasks via an overlay bar in the bottom right or left corner." Additional information, along with screenshots, can be found in the project's release announcement.
elementary OS 7.0 -- Running the Pantheon desktop
(full image size: 2.3MB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
Gnoppix Linux 23.2
Andreas Mueller has announced the release of Gnoppix Linux 23.2, an updated version of the project's Debian and Kali Linux-based distribution with GNOME 43 as the default desktop: "We are proud to announce the release of Gnoppix 23.2, the latest version of our popular Linux distribution. This version includes many new features and improvements, including extensive bug fixes and improved performance, as well as support for the latest hardware and software. Gnoppix 23.2 also incorporates extensive user feedback, which we have been continuously working to implement in order to make our distribution the best it can be. This feedback has been crucial in helping us improve Gnoppix 23.2 and we are very grateful to our users for their help. On Perrit's request, we've added ChatGPT as a GNOME extension. We are now working on the next release, with GNOME 44, which is scheduled for release in March 23. This release will include the latest version of the GNOME desktop environment, as well as a number of other improvements and changes. We look forward to bringing you Gnoppix 23.3 and continuing to improve Gnoppix with your help." Continue to the release announcement for a full changelog.
Slax 11.6.0, 15.0.1
Tomáš Matějíček has announced the availability of Slax 15.0.1 (based on Slackware's "Current" branch) and 11.6.0 (based on Debian 11.6.0). Both new releases of the project's minimalist live distribution bring updated software as well as improved persistence: "I am excited to announce the release of Slax's latest versions - Slax version 15.0.1, based on Slackware 'Current' and Slax version 11.6.0, based on Debian 11.6. Both versions are available for both 32-bit and 64-bit processor architectures. One of the biggest improvements in Slax 15.0.1 and 11.6.0 are updated packages. Another key feature of the new Slax versions is the use of the newest DynFileFS which implements how 'persistent changes' are stored on writable media. This means that when you run Slax from a USB device, all the changes you make to the system will be stored in a special file (actually, a set of four files) on the USB disk, making it possible to use Slax on the go. In the past, this feature was limited to a total size of 4GB, but with the newest DynFileFS, you can store up to 16GB of data." Read the full release announcement for further details.
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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: 2,826
- 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) |
Would you consider using CDE as your daily desktop?
In this week's review of CDE, the Common Desktop Environment, we revisited an interface which was popular in the Unix community in the 1990s. While CDE has been ported to multiple operating systems, and related projects such as NsCDE try to keep CDE's style alive, this desktop environment is rarely used anymore.
With CDE (and modern clones like NsCDE) now available across multiple Linux distributions and other open source operating systems, do you have any interest in running CDE?
You can see the results of our previous poll on checking the health of storage devices in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Would you run CDE?
| I would run CDE: | 126 (9%) |
| I already run CDE: | 10 (1%) |
| I have run CDE in the past but no longer: | 212 (16%) |
| I would run NsCDE: | 61 (4%) |
| I already run NsCDE: | 5 (0%) |
| I have run NsCDE in the past but no longer: | 23 (2%) |
| I would not run CDE/NsCDE: | 922 (68%) |
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| Website News |
Tracking new packages
Part of the work we do here at DistroWatch is tracking the versions of popular open source software available in each Linux distribution. Information on these packages, their latest stable version numbers, and a brief description can be found on our Packages Tracked page.
This past week we added two new packages to be tracked, the nftables firewall software for Linux and the ClamAV anti-virus scanner.
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New projects added to database
helloSystem
helloSystem is a FreeBSD-based, desktop-oriented operating system. The project seeks to provide a macOS-style desktop interface and layout while using open source software.
helloSystem 0.8.0 -- Exploring the application menu
(full image size: 353kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
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New distributions added to waiting list
- blendOS. blendOS is an Arch-based Linux distribution which, using a custom package manager called blend, allows the user to install software from multiple distributions (including Ubuntu and Fedora). blendOS is an immutable distribution with a read-only root filesystem.
- QuemOS. QuemOS is a Debian-based Linux distribution featuring the Xfce desktop.
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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, 13 February 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 |
| • Ussye 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 |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Full list of all issues |
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KolibriOS
KolibriOS is a tiny open-source operating system with a monolithic preemptive kernel and video drivers for 32-bit x86 architecture computers. KolibriOS is a fork of MenuetOS, written entirely in FASM (assembly language). However, C, C++, Free Pascal, Forth, among other high-level languages and compilers, can also be used in application development. KolibriOS features a rich set of applications that include a word processor, image viewer, graphical editor, web browser, and over 30 games.
Status: Active
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| Star Labs |
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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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