 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1028, 17 July 2023 |
Welcome to this year's 29th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
We live in an interconnected world. So much of our lives happen on-line these days - whether it's shopping, communicating, consuming entertainment, or learning. With interactions happening increasingly on-line it is useful to be able to share information between devices. We begin this week with a look at KDE Connect, an application which runs on virtually any device to allow multiple computers and smart phones to share files, notifications, photos, and text messages. Read on to learn more about KDE Connect and how to perform basic actions with this software. Do you use KDE Connect or a similar application to link together personal devices? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. Last week the Linux community continued to react to Red Hat's announcement that the company would no longer publicly share its source code. Both Oracle and SUSE have responded with plans to assure their customers and offer alternatives to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Meanwhile the AlmaLinux team, which publishes a clone of RHEL, are adjusting their mission goals slightly. We also report on the KaOS team addressing an issue with last month's snapshot of their independent distribution as Slackware Linux turns 30 years old. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about immutable distributions and how these read-only platforms apply software updates. Plus we are pleased to share the releases and torrents of the past week. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
KDE Connect on phones and desktops
KDE Connect is an application which can run on a wide variety of platforms, including Linux desktop distributions, Android mobile devices, Sailfish, Windows, macOS, and iOS. Typically KDE Connect is used to link a mobile device and a desktop machine, allowing them to share information, services, and files. For example, we might install the software on an Android phone and a Linux desktop, providing a bridge between the two devices. However, KDE Connect can also be used to join two or more of virtually any type of device, including linking one laptop to another, linking two phones, or a workstation with a phone.
I was recently asked about the capabilities of KDE Connect. Specifically the person wanted to know if it would be possible to set up a job (crunching numbers or compiling software) running on a workstation and then use KDE Connect to send a notification to a mobile device when the task was completed. This is possible - I'll share an example in a moment - and I also want to share some of the other ways in which KDE Connect can be a helpful tool when used to link two (or more) devices.
Installing and connecting
Installing KDE Connect is typically quite easy. Most Linux distributions include the KDE Connect software in their repositories. Android users can find the app through Google's Play store and F-Droid, iOS users can find it in the App Store, and Windows users can access it through the Microsoft Store. Despite the application's name, KDE Connect is not dependent on the KDE Plasma desktop and can be run from any Linux desktop environment. People who want to avoid KDE dependencies can even install a related tool called GSConnect which is intended to integrate with the GNOME Shell desktop. I will be focusing on using the KDE Connect application (and command line tools) on a desktop Linux distribution and the mobile version of the service on Android for the purposes of this article.
Once the software is installed the software will either run quietly in the background automatically, or it can be started by launching the KDE Connect application from the device's application menu. At this point that's usually all the preparation we need to do. However, if your device is running a firewall, it will be necessary to open network ports 1714 through 1764. The KDE documentation has an overview of how to open network ports using a variety of firewall utilities.
KDE Connect -- Linking to a new mobile device from the desktop
(full image size: 25kB, resolution: 900x500 pixels)
To link any two devices so they may communicate with each other and share information we open the KDE Connect application (on either device). On the desktop version of the application we will see a list of detected devices on our network. We can then select a device and click the button labelled "Pair". On the other device we should see a notification which asks if we'd like to accept a new connection and the name of the device initiating the link. Tapping the Accept button links the two devices.
On the mobile version of KDE Connect, when we open the application we want to visit the menu in the upper-left corner of the app. Then select the entry labelled "Pair new device" and select the name of the remote computer to which we want to link. Again, on the other device, a notification will appear letting us know we can accept an incoming connection.
KDE Connect -- Finding new devices from the mobile app
(full image size: 123kB, resolution: 1440x960 pixels)
From that moment onward, any time both devices are on the same network, they should automatically detect each other and synchronize information between them.
Configuring modules
Once we have linked two (or more) devices together, the next thing we should do is decide which plugins we want to enable. KDE Connect's capabilities are delivered through a series of plugins and we can enable or disable these plugins as a way to determine which features our devices can access. This is important because we may want our devices to be able to share files, but not remotely control our camera, or we might want to be able to send SMS messages from our desktop computer, but not share a clipboard due to sensitive information we could be copying.
KDE Connect -- Enabling plugins through the desktop application
(full image size: 88kB, resolution: 949x664 pixels)
To see which plugins are enabled on your desktop machine, launch the KDE Connect Settings application. Down the left side of the window we find a list of linked devices. Over on the right there is a list of modules. We can check a box next to each module we want to enable. By default, KDE Connect tends to enable most plugins - sharing a clipboard, battery level information, disabling the media player during phone calls, and allowing us to send SMS messages from the desktop.
I think it's worth considering these options carefully. It's certainly useful to be able to remotely control the volume settings on your computer and share notifications across all devices, but if you share your phone with anyone else in your household you might not want to let them blast your speakers or see e-mail notifications from your boss.
When using the mobile version of KDE Connect, you can determine which plugins are enabled by opening the KDE Connect app. Then select the linked device for which you want to enable plugins. Tap the menu in the upper-right corner and select Plugin Settings. This will bring up the same (or a similar) list of available features which can be toggled on/off.
KDE Connect -- Enabling plugins through the Android app
(full image size: 267kB, resolution: 1440x2960 pixels)
Share files
One of the main reasons I use KDE Connect is its ability to share files between devices. From my Android phone I can select any photo or file I wish, tap the share button, and then select my desktop computer from the list of possible destinations. It's quite a straight forward experience and works just like sending a file over text messaging or Bluetooth.
KDE Connect -- Sharing a file from the desktop application
(full image size: 29kB, resolution: 900x500 pixels)
From my desktop machine there are two approaches I can take to share a file. One is to open the KDE Connect application. I then select my phone from the list of linked devices available and click the Share File option on the right side of the window. Then I can browse for the target file. Alternatively, if I have the KDE Connect icon in my system tray, I can right-click on it, selected the name of the device to receive a file, and then pick "Send a file/URL" from the menu that comes up. Then, once again, I can browse to the file I wish to send, or paste a URL into the box to send a link my phone can open.
There is also the option of right-clicking on the KDE Connect icon in the system tray, selecting a target device and choosing "Browse Device". This will open a file manager which can navigate the phone's filesystem. It's a handy way to find, transfer, or delete multiple files on the mobile device.
Sending and receiving text messages
Another key reason I enjoy KDE Connect is the desktop version includes a SMS messaging client which can operate when linked to a phone. Launching the KDE Connect SMS application displays a list of active message threads on the linked phone. We can then click on a message thread to read its entries and send texts. When new messages come in, we're shown a desktop notification. We can click a button in the notification to reply. This means I can correspond with people through SMS texts without picking up my phone or switching between windows, I just need to click the incoming notification bubble.
KDE Connect -- Responding to text messages from the desktop
(full image size: 36kB, resolution: 800x600 pixels)
Media control
Another handy feature KDE Connect offers is the ability to remotely control a media player running on another device. For example, if I have an audio player or a movie playing on my laptop, a notification bar will appear on my phone's screen which shows the name of the video or track being played. Tapping this bar will open a simple media player where I can see how far along the track is, my volume level, buttons to pause/play and skip the track. This allows us to jump through the track or switch to a different song or video from anywhere the local wireless network reaches.
KDE Connect -- Remotely controlling my desktop's media player from the Android app
(full image size: 110kB, resolution: 1440x2960 pixels)
Sharing clipboards and notifications
The sharing of notifications between devices, when enabled on the plugin page, happens automatically. This allows one device to send any desktop (or home screen) notifications to other linked devices.
For the most part, sharing a clipboard happens the same way from a desktop user's point of view. When we copy text on a desktop machine, it's automatically sent to the clipboard on linked devices. We can then paste text on another laptop or mobile device and it will automatically use the clipboard text sent from the desktop machine.
There is an extra step when data flows in the other direction. When we are using a mobile device we first need to copy text to the clipboard and then open the KDE Connect app. From within the mobile app tap the button labelled "Send clipboard" to transfer data to the linked device.
Send notification of an event
The original question I set out to answer was whether it was possible to monitor a task in progress on a workstation and then send a notification to the user's phone when the task completes. While KDE Connect won't monitor tasks, it can be used to send notifications and we can choose when those notifications are sent.
To do this, we should first find the name of devices linked to our workstation. We can do this using the kdeconnect-cli command line program:
$ kdeconnect-cli --list-devices
- Galaxy S9: 8f420d3562d61339 (paired and reachable)
In the above example we can see there is one device linked to our workstation, a Galaxy S9 phone running Android. Its name is "Galaxy S9" and its unique identifying code is "8f420d3562d61339". We can then send a notification to the remote phone using its name and a message. Specific messages are sent using the "--ping-msg" parameter.
In the following example we run the make command to compile a program and then run kdeconnect-cli to notify our phone when the compile job is finished. On the command line we specify the message to send along with the name of our device which we found in the previous step.
$ make ; kdeconnect-cli --ping-msg "Task complete" --name "Galaxy S9"
This gives us a good degree of flexibility as we can receive a notice from anywhere on the network when any task or scheduled event occurs.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Oracle responds to Red Hat's source code policy change, SUSE plans to fork Red Hat Enterprise Linux, AlmaLinux changes its mission focus, KaOS releases install media fix, Slackware turns 30
For several years Oracle has maintained a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux which, in its current form, is called Oracle Linux. When Red Hat eliminated public access to its source code in June many people saw it as a way for the company to cut off Oracle's ability to repackage, customize, and release their own clone of Red Hat's distribution. Oracle has since responded and, in an unusual move for the company, taken a stance of promoting openness and collaboration while offering to do their best to keep Oracle Linux binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux: "As for Oracle, we will continue pursuing our goal for Linux as transparently and openly as we always have while minimizing fragmentation. We will continue to develop and test our software products on Oracle Linux. Oracle Linux will continue to be RHEL compatible to the extent we can make it so. In the past, Oracle's access to published RHEL source has been important for maintaining that compatibility. From a practical standpoint, we believe Oracle Linux will remain as compatible as it has always been through release 9.2, but after that, there may be a greater chance for a compatibility issue to arise. If an incompatibility does affect a customer or ISV, Oracle will work to remediate the problem." The company has also offered to help independent software vendors, who usually test their products on Red Hat Enterprise Linux clones, maintain their software on Oracle Linux.
* * * * *
In the wake of Red Hat cutting off public access to their Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) source code, SUSE has announced the company is making a fork of RHEL. "A key priority is to continue to provide choice for customers. SUSE announced today we will build, support and contribute a hard fork of the RHEL codebase to the community. This is what we excel at, and it will give long-term compatibility and choice for customers. The best way to explain this is by the following comparison:
If you are a mobile phone user, you want the ability to switch telco provider while keeping your number, to maximize the value you are consuming.
Equally, as an Enterprise Linux user, you can switch to SUSE while keeping your existing Linux. At SUSE, we are experts at providing enterprise value to users of open source software in a highly competitive way without compromising what is important to customers."
It seems the company's plan is to maintain a fork of RHEL and attempt to keep it as binary compatible as possible to Red Hat's offering. This should allow people running RHEL or its clones to migrate their applications and services seamlessly to SUSE's offering without worrying about future access to source code or support options.
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The AlmaLinux team have announced a change in their mission following the announcement Red Hat would no longer be making its source code for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) available to the public. The project is still aiming to be compatible with RHEL, but is no longer striving for 1:1 (bug-for-bug) compatibility. "For a typical user, this will mean very little change in your use of AlmaLinux. Red Hat-compatible applications will still be able to run on AlmaLinux OS, and your installs of AlmaLinux will continue to receive timely security updates. The most remarkable potential impact of the change is that we will no longer be held to the line of 'bug-for-bug compatibility' with Red Hat, and that means that we can now accept bug fixes outside of Red Hat's release cycle. While that means some AlmaLinux OS users may encounter bugs that are not in Red Hat, we may also accept patches for bugs that have not yet been accepted upstream, or shipped downstream." The announcement offers additional details.
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The KaOS team have identified an issue with the project's 2023.06 install media and quickly released a fix in the form of KaOS 2023.07. The issue affected systems running non-free NVIDIA drivers, other users should be unaffected. "This July release is a quick update from the June release a little over a week ago. A major issue was found on that ISO with the use of non-free NVIDIA, resulting in systems not booting, thus a new ISO is needed right away." Additional information on the 2023.07 media and changes arriving in the KaOS distribution can be found in the project's announcement.
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The Slackware Linux project is the world's oldest surviving Linux distribution. Slackware, which is still actively maintained and is well regarded for its unusual level of stability, celebrated its 30th birthday this week: "Hey folks! It's time to acknowledge another one of those milestones... 30 (!) years since I made the post linked below announcing Slackware's first stable release after months of beta testing. Thanks to all of our dedicated contributors, loyal users, and those who have helped us to keep the lights on here. It's really been a remarkable journey that I couldn't have anticipated starting out back in 1993. Cheers!" Happy birthday, Slackware!
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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) |
Security and immutable distributions
Unable-to-write asks: My understanding is that immutable distributions have a read-only filesystem. If that's the case then doesn't that mean software is left unpatched and vulnerable? Is running an immutable distro a security risk?
DistroWatch answers: You're correct that immutable distributions have a read-only root filesystem. In other words, the core of the system is typically run in read-only mode to make sure it is not modified. The core of the operating system is typically treated as single, whole piece. This core can be tested, transferred, and installed as one atomic component. This helps with quality assurance because everyone using the same version of the distribution should be running the same software with the same configuration.
An immutable operating system can also improve security since the core system cannot be easily modified. Exploits which would overwrite system components or change the core system's configuration will fail due to the read-only nature of the filesystem.
As to the idea an immutable distribution will be unpatched or vulnerable to old exploits, this is happily not the case. The core system is read-only while it is running, but it can still be upgraded. An upgrade is typically achieved by fetching a new copy of the core system, rebooting, and swapping out the old version of the system for the new one we downloaded. This allows us to keep the core system up to date with patches while leaving the main filesystem read-only while the distribution is running.
People who have run most mobile operating systems, such as Android or UBports will have seen this approach to updating the operating system in action. Typically once a month a new version is released with fixes and security patches. The phone downloads the new version, reboots, and applies the new core image over top of the old one. When you finish booting the phone your root filesystem is read-only.
I'd also like to point out that most immutable operating systems only make the core system (the low-level components like the common command line tools, kernel, and essential services) read-only. Desktop applications and other add-ons are almost always installed as portable packages or containers to parts of the filesystem which can be updated without restarting the computer. This means end-user applications can almost always be updated easily through the package manager whenever the user wishes without requiring a reboot.
This approach to updating applications can be seen on projects like UBports using the software centre, Android using the software store, Fedora Silverblue via Flatpak packages, and Ubuntu's Core edition using Snap packages. These are all immutable operating systems that offer a read-only core that allow the user to both install and upgrade applications at will. This is possible because key parts of the filesystem (typically the user's home directory and /var) are set up to be writable.
The idea is for just the core system, the parts needed to boot and run common tasks on the operating system, to be read-only. To change the core system usually requires a reboot to overwrite the old system image with an update. The user's data and desktop applications are usually stored in an area that can be modified and these applications can be updated as desired without a reboot.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Void 20230628
The Void team have announced a new snapshot of their rolling release distribution. Void features an unusual combination of init (runit), package manager (XBPS), and multiple options for C libraries. The project's release announcement reports: "Some highlights of this release: Installing using the network source no longer fails to create the non-root user. The xbps mirror can now be selected in the installer using xmirror. The Xfce live ISO now uses LightDM. GRUB will no longer fail to be installed in some partition layouts/orders. Various improvements to the installer. Xfce live ISOs now use PipeWire for audio, and base ISOs now include ALSA. Live ISOs now include several new boot options, including screenreader-enabled, memtest86+, reboot, shutdown, and EFI firmware setup. The console screenreader espeakup, the braille TTY driver brltty, and the GUI screenreader orca are now included in all live ISOs for x86_64 and i686. To learn more about this, read the documentation in the Void Linux Handbook."
Void 20230628 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 815kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
pfSense 2.7.0
pfSense is a free, open source customized distribution of FreeBSD specifically tailored for use as a firewall and router that is entirely managed via web interface. pfSense 2.7.0 ships with improvements to firewall performance, fixes some uPnP issues related to running multiple gaming systems on the same network, and upgrades OpenVPN. "Captive portal and limiters moved from ipfw to pf: pf is the default packet filter in pfSense software. These changes leverage L2 features previously added to pf and upstreamed to FreeBSD, and improve performance and stability of the captive portal by eliminating the need for packets to traverse both pf and ipfw. UPnP and multiple game systems: A fix has been added to address an issue with UPnP and multiple game systems. This resolves the problems some game systems experienced connecting to the internet when UPnP was enabled and multiple consoles are in use. New gateway state killing options: These options give the user more flexibility in how the firewall decides to kill states automatically during failover events and also adds several new manual ways to selectively remove states. Improved Firewall/NAT rule usability: The Firewall/NAT rule interface has been improved to make it easier to create and manage rules. This includes new buttons to toggle multiple rules and copy rules to other interfaces." These, and other changes, are detailed in the release announcement and in the release notes.
IPFire 2.27 Core 176
IPFire is a Linux distribution that focuses on easy setup, good handling and high level of security and is mostly used on routers and firewalls. The project's latest release focused on bug fixes and minor upgrades, including fixing IPsec certificate generation in some situations. The release announcement shares the highlights: "An edge case related to bug #13138, which caused IPsec root/host certificate generation to fail on the first attempt only, has been fixed. While editing OpenVPN static IP address pools, spaces are now handled correctly again. udev rules for LVM volumes have been fixed, allowing for configured LVM volumes to start properly on boot again. Remove entries for additional mass storage via the web interface of the ExtraHD add-on have been fixed, partially resolving #12863. Filesystem journal features are now always enabled for cloud images, and as soon as a disk with SMART support is detected. misc-progs, the safety net between IPFire's web interface and the core system, have been improved under the hood to allow for better return code enumeration. Stéphane Pautrel has contributed improvements to the French translation of IPFire's web interface."
Linux Mint 21.2
The Linux Mint team have announced the release of Linux Mint 21.2 "Victoria" which is based on Ubuntu 22.04 and offers support through to the year 2027. The new release includes a number of improvements to the login screen, Flatpak packages can now be included as Featured items in the software centre, and the layout of the Pix application has been overhauled. "Slick Greeter, which is in charge of the login screen, was given support for multiple keyboard layouts. The indicator located on the top-right corner of the screen opens a menu which lets you switch between layouts. 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." The release announcements for each edition (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce) offer additional information.
Linux Mint 21.2 -- Running the Cinnamon desktop
(full image size: 676kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
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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: 2,887
- Total data uploaded: 43.4TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Linking together multiple devices with KDE Connect
We started this week with a look at KDE Connect, an open source tool for linking together multiple desktop and mobile devices, regardless of which operating system they are running. We'd like to hear whether you run KDE Connect or another utility to link together your various devices. Let us know your favourite solutions for sharing files and other resources in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on filesystem mount flags in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Linking together multiple devices with KDE Connect
| I use KDE Connect: | 294 (25%) |
| I use a GSConnect (or other KDE Connect-based alternative): | 38 (3%) |
| I use an unrelated utility to link together devices: | 138 (12%) |
| I do not link my devices: | 638 (54%) |
| I do not have multiple computing devices: | 65 (6%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 24 July 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 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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Status: Active
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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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