 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1039, 2 October 2023 |
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Welcome to this year's 40th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The Slackware Linux distribution is well known for its rock solid, conservative, dependable approach to computing. Both Slackware and its children have reputations for dependability. But what happens if a distribution is run as a rolling release platform with Slackware as its base? This week Jesse Smith takes Zenwalk GNU Linux (a desktop-focused, Slackware-based distribution) for a test drive and reports on the experience. Read on to learn about some of the strengths and problems with Zenwalk's rolling Current branch. In our News section we report on Peppermint OS test driving a Mini edition while the Raspberry Pi is getting an upgrade later this month. Plus System76 is adding new features to its COSMIC desktop, including a new approach for switching between application windows. We also report on a security incident which is affecting Canonical's Snap repository. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about how to find the total length of a collection of media files. We dive into a few approaches, including a scripted command line solution. Last week we reported the Reiser filesystem is gradually being phased out of the Linux kernel and a few people commented they still use ReiserFS. Do any of your computers still store files on ReiserFS? Let us know about it in the week's Opinion Poll. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Zenwalk GNU Linux Current-230909
Around a year and a half ago I reviewed Zenwalk GNU Linux 15.0. It was a mixed experience which improved on my experience with vanilla Slackware 15.0 in some ways while also introducing some fresh problems.
Near the start of September the Zenwalk project published new install media for the distribution's Current branch. The Current branch offers a rolling/development release and an alternative to the ultra-conservative Stable branch which usually only receives significant updates once every few years. The latest snapshot for the Current branch is 1.4GB in size (Zenwalk 15.0 was 1.2GB) for the x86_64 CPU architecture. There is just one edition that offers a system installer and a text-based console environment. There is no live desktop available to test the distribution against our hardware before attempting to install it.
Installing
As far as I could tell, Zenwalk's menu-based installer hasn't changed since version 15.0. Once the distribution boots we're asked to set up disk partitions using one of two console-based partition managers. Then we run the setup command and are guided through assigning mount points, picking a keyboard layout, and making up a username and password. We're also asked which background services (such as cron, CUPS, and OpenSSH) we want to run.
The installer has a classic 1990s look to it, works quickly, and finished its work successfully. When it had completed setting up the distribution I rebooted and was presented with a graphical login screen. From there I could sign into the Xfce desktop. This was a pleasant step forward from my experience with Zenwalk 15.0. At the time, the distribution had been unable to start a graphical session, either a session manager or a desktop environment. Having the graphical environment work out of the box was a welcome treat.
Early impressions
I found the login screen used a wallpaper which was mostly black and black text. This makes it hard to see the labels on the text boxes for the username and password.
Zenwalk GNU Linux Current 230909 -- The Xfce desktop and application menu
(full image size: 707kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
The first time I logged into my account, the Xfce desktop appeared. It uses a dark theme with dark wallpaper. A panel is placed down the left side of the screen with quick-launch icons and the application menu. Another panel sits at the top of the screen, holding a clock and the system tray. Immediately a terminal window opened and announced (mostly in red text) it wanted to download a series of packages which were listed. No context was given for this action and I guessed these might be software updates, though the prompt is not particularly clear. The options we are given are "run Forest" and "abort". It feels odd to use a 25 year old movie reference as a package manager response, but I took it. The system appeared to fetch a few packages and then the terminal window closed.
Included software
The distribution ships with Firefox, some media applications, and the suite of Xfce settings modules. There are common tools like a text editor, and virtual terminal. In the background we find the GNU command line tools. The SysV init software is installed and the snapshot of Zenwalk I was running shipped with version 6.1.52 of the Linux kernel.
I found the sudo program for running administrative commands was installed, but our first user is not allowed to use it by default. We can either use the su command to switch to the administrator account or edit the sudo configuration file to grant our user admin access.
Last year when I used Zenwalk 15.0 I found the Samba service, when enabled at install time, would fail to start. This appeared to happen due to a missing configuration file. I found Samba still failed to start on the latest snapshot of Zenwalk and it was discouraging to see this behaviour persists.
Hardware
A fresh install of Zenwalk consumed about 7.2GB of my hard drive and, when signed into the Xfce desktop, took up about 450MB of RAM. This is about average for a Linux distribution running an Xfce session. The desktop's performance was quite good, above average, with the windows and menus responding quickly.
Zenwalk worked alright with my hardware, though it didn't integrate well with VirtualBox. The distribution didn't resize my desktop to match the VirtualBox window.
Software management
Package management on Zenwalk uses the slackpkg package manager. Trying to use the package manager notifies us that we first need to select a mirror from a configuration file. This hasn't changed from my experience with Zenwalk 15.0, but it did make me wonder how the distribution appeared to fetched packages at the start of my trial since I had not yet selected a mirror at that time.
At any rate, I selected a nearby mirror from the list and tried to run a check for updates. This failed with an error saying the /var/log/packages file was broken and contained duplicate entries. This also happened during my trial with 15.0 and it concerns me that the package manager is effectively broken right from the start. The package manager then asks us if we want to fix the issue and remove duplicate packages or ignore the error. Taking the Ignore option simply causes the error about duplicate packages to be repeated and slackpkg refuses to proceed.
When I took the option to remove the duplicate packages I was shown a text menu with a list of the duplicated packages and asked which ones I wanted to remove. As with my Zenwalk 15.0 trial, I selected which items I wanted to remove. This seemed to work and slackpkg would then allow me to fetch new packages to install. So far, this was all going just as it had with my previous review.
Where my experience with the latest snapshot varied came next, when I asked slackpkg to check for fresh updates. I didn't expect any since I'd been prompted to download fresh packages when I signed in. However, I was presented with at least a few hundred updates. In fact, it looked as though, based on the lengthy alphabetical list, that every package (or nearly every package) on the system was awaiting an update. It was difficult to verify this as slackpkg doesn't display a total count of the items it will update.
Hundreds of packages were downloaded and then the process came to a halt, reporting slackpkg was one of the items being updated. This caused the process to abort with a message saying we should run the update process over again. I did this, running what I assumed was an updated version of slackpkg, and again accepting the lengthy list of updates.
Zenwalk GNU Linux Current 230909 -- The package manager failing after glibc is removed
(full image size: 740kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
The update process failed a few minutes later with a report helper programs could not be run because the glibc library could not be found. This was concerning as glibc is the system's C library and, without it being recognized, virtually no programs (command line or desktop) will run. I quickly confirmed no programs could launch, each of them giving link errors about not being able to find the C library.
Scrolling back through the slackpkg status messages it looks like what happened is the package manager removed an old version of the system's C library and then, because the library no longer existed, slackpkg was unable to install a new version as none of the helper programs (like the copy and move commands) could launch.
This problem did not happen during my trial with Zenwalk 15.0. It was disappointing to run into this error with the snapshot for a few reasons. The obvious, immediate issue, was that my system was entirely broken at this point, unable to even shutdown or boot. A more long-term concern is that it appears any major update to the C library of this rolling release branch of Zenwalk can destroy the system as the package manager isn't equipped to handle upgrading this core package.
Conclusions
I had planned to go into this experience with the Zenwalk rolling snapshot to take just a quick glance at the distribution, mostly to compare it to the 15.0 release. In particular, I was wondering if the bugs (such as the display issues and Samba service) had been addressed in the past year and a half.
At first, it looked promising. The video display issues I'd had with 15.0 were no longer there and the desktop session was responsive. The installer doesn't look as though it has changed, but it feels a little faster than before.
Beyond that point though, I mostly encountered disappointment. There are some minor issues such as the Samba service still not working out of the box and VirtualBox integration not being in place. The much larger issue (or issues) though are with the package manager. It doesn't work out of the box, requiring the user to manually select a mirror. Most distributions do this automatically - picking a nearby mirror or one at random. After that, the package log is broken fresh out of the box (a problem that existed 18 months ago too) and it is discouraging this hasn't been addressed.
The biggest problem, of course, is the package manager destroying the installation, apparently by wiping out the C library during an update. Completely rendering every application and command line program inoperable during the first update is a major problem and probably the worst error I've encountered in a package manager. This makes it impossible to keep a fresh copy of Zenwalk's Current branch updated and is a critical problem I hope is corrected quickly.
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Visitor supplied rating
Zenwalk GNU Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9/10 from 3 review(s).
Have you used Zenwalk GNU Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Peppermint tries out new edition, Raspberry Pi gets an upgrade, COSMIC gains new features, security incident in Canonical's Snap repository
The Peppermint OS project is testing a new edition of its distribution. The new branch is called Peppermint Mini and offers two flavours, based on Debian and Devuan. The new Mini edition uses a network installer which is launched from a sub-200MB ISO file. "The mini builds utilize the Debian installer for a net install. You can select from 64/32 bit Debian or Devuan. The ISOs are about 100 - 180MB. These builds are intended for that user who really wants to control how their installs are conducted. If you are familiar with the Debian installer you will be right at home here, but with a Peppermint take. At a point during the install you will be able to select, whether or not you want the Peppermint standard install or you can select from other Desktops available. If you use Devuan you will be able to choose the init system that you prefer (SysV, Runit, or OpenRC)" The new branch is in beta testing with the ISO files available from CodeBerg.
This week Peppermint OS also published new Devuan-based media for the distribution. This version is very similar to the project's recent Debian-based release, but with the option of choosing one of three init implementations: SysV init, Runit, or OpenRC.
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The popular Raspberry Pi single-board computer is getting an upgrade this month. The new device, the Raspberry Pi 5, features a 64-bit ARM processor, wi-fi, Bluetooth, and up to 8GB of RAM. Details on the new Pi specifications and features can be found on the foundation's announcement page. The new device will require a new version of the default operating system: "You will need the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS, Bookworm, for your Raspberry Pi 5. Bookworm will launch in mid-October."
* * * * *
The System76 team is continuing their work to develop a custom desktop environment for Pop!_OS. The new desktop, called COSMIC, has a new way to switch between active windows. "Pop!_OS and COSMIC DE are built to stay out of your way so you can focus on getting things done. With Auto-tiling, new windows arrange themselves automatically on your screen to reduce the hassle. It's important, then, that rearranging tiled windows manually feels as seamless as possible. COSMIC's new window-swapping mode helps facilitate this seamlessness with, as the name suggests, an easy way to swap windows with your keyboard. Pressing and holding Super + X creates a small version of your selected window, signaling that you are now in window swapping mode! While holding Super + X, use your arrow keys to hover this tiny window over the window you'll swap it with. Release the keys, and presto! A swapped window." Other new features are outlined in the company's blog post.
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Canonical has removed a number of Snap packages from its software repository and temporarily blocked new uploads from publishers following a security incident. "On September 28, 2023, the Snap Store team was notified of a potential security incident. A number of snap users reported several recently published and potentially malicious snaps. As a consequence of these reports, the Snap Store team has immediately taken down these snaps, and they can no longer be searched or installed. Furthermore, the Snap Store team has placed a temporary manual review requirement on all new snap registrations, effectively immediately." Details can be found on the Snapcraft forum.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Finding the length of media files
How-long-will-this-take asks: Is there a program on Linux that can calculate the length of a series of video files?
DistroWatch answers: Some desktop media players, such as Rhythmbox and VLC, will calculate the total play duration of the selected library or playlist. This is entirely automated and the play duration is typically displayed in the status bar (in the case of Rhythmbox) or next to the playlist's name (as VLC does). This is probably the easiest approach.
However, if you are using an assortment of media formats or do not have access to a desktop media player, what are the options? When dealing with a single video or audio file we can use the ffmpeg command line program to get the play time of a media file. For example, to find the length of a song called my-song.mp3 we can run the following command:
$ ffmpeg -i my-song.mp3
One of the fields in the information ffmpeg displays will be for the duration of the song. We can tidy up the output to show only the duration of the song track by using the grep and cut commands to filter out everything except the duration of the song. The grep command isolates the line of information containing the word "Duration" and the cut command whittles the information down to just the word "Duration" and length of the track, removing extra data like the bitrate. We can see this in the following example:
$ ffmpeg -i my-song.mp3 2>&1 | grep Duration | cut -f 1 -d ','
Duration: 00:03:37.06
The above example is fine for finding the length of one media file, but what if we want to find the length of multiple media files. This gets a bit tricky. In theory, we could pass multiple files to ffmpeg, each one prefixed by the "-i" flag to indicate it's an input file. Then use grep and cut as we did above to get the combined file lengths. That ends up looking like this:
$ ffmpeg -i my-song.mp3 -i another-song.mp3 2>&1 | grep Duration | cut -f 1 -d ','
Duration: 00:04:01.42
Duration: 00:03:37.06
This is not ideal because we just have a list of each track's duration, not the total length. For that we need another step, probably a program like awk which will accept lines of information and perform calculations on them. I'm not going to dive into all the details, but the following awk command keeps track of the number of seconds of play time in each media file, then outputs the total hours, minutes, and seconds the provided tracks will play:
$ ffmpeg -i my-song.mp3 -i another-song.mp3 2>&1 | grep Duration | cut -f 1 -d ',' | awk -F ':' 'BEGIN {total=0} {total+=$2*3600; total+=$3*60; total+=$4} END {minutes=int(total/60); hours=int(minutes/60); minutes=int(minutes%60); seconds=int(total%60); print hours":"minutes":"seconds}'
0:7:38
This is a messy line, but we could put it in a script to avoid typing it each time and we'd be all set. However, there is one problem which prevents the above solution from scaling up well. Specifically, command lines are limited in length which means there are a limited number of files we can pass to the ffmpeg program at one time. We can give it one or two files to process, but if we try to hand a few dozen tracks to ffmpeg the shell will complain our command is too long. Plus, it's awkward to try to put the "-i" flag in front of each path name; we cannot simply use something like "ffmpeg -i *.mp4" because the "-i" flag needs to go in front of each filename.
How can we work around this limitation? One approach would be to run the ffmpeg command several times, once for each file we want to examine, and dump the duration information for each track into a temporary file. Once the duration information for each track has been put in a file, the awk command can come along and read all of the individual times and calculate a total for us.
The following script, which I call media-duration will accept a list of audio and video files and tell us the total run time for all the files combined.
#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -lt 1 ]
then
echo "Please provide at least one media file."
exit 1
fi
tempname=$(mktemp)
while [ $# -gt 0 ]
do
ffmpeg -i "$1" 2>&1 | grep Duration | cut -f 1 -d ',' >> $tempname
shift
done
awk -F ':' 'BEGIN {total=0} {total+=$2*3600; total+=$3*60; total+=$4} END {minutes=int(total/60); hours=int(minutes/60); minutes=int(minutes%60); seconds=int(total%60); print hours":"minutes":"seconds}' < $tempname
rm $tempname
How does this work? The first few lines of the script do some sanity checking to make sure we are trying to get information for at least one media file. Then we run the mktemp command to create a temporary file and store its name in the tempname variable. The pieces are all in place at this point.
The while loop then runs the ffmpeg command for every file we've specified on the command line. The output from ffmpeg is run through our dual grep and cut filter and the duration information is dumped into the temporary file. We then move on to the next file in the list using the shift command.
When we've gathered the duration data for all of the media files, it's then awk's turn. The awk program reads in all of the duration data from the temporary file, adds up the seconds of play time, and displays a total.
The last line of the above script removes the temporary file.
In practise, how does this work? From the user's point of view we can run the script as follows:
$ media-duration *.mp3 *.mp4
3:13:22
In the above example, we find the total run time for every MP3 and MP4 file in the current directory. The script runs for a few seconds, then declares the total run time is 3 hours, 13 minutes, and 22 seconds.
What if we want to get a little more fancy and get the duration of all the video files in a directory tree, including sub-directories? We can use command line substitution for that and use the find command to search all the directories below ours for files. Here we use find to gather a list of MP4 media files and pass them to our media-duration script to get the total run time:
$ media-duration $(find . -type f -iname "*.mp4")
10:52:12
This is one of those situations which highlights how powerful and flexible the Linux command line can be. With a handful of common programs we can string a few commands together to calculate meta data for dozens or hundreds of files and print out the calculated total duration of our media library.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Porteus 5.01
The Porteus development team has announced the release of Porteus 5.01, an updated release of the project's Slackware-based Linux distribution with several popular desktop environments and window managers, available for both x86_64 and i586 architectures: "Porteus 5.01, a bug-fix and security-patch update of 5.0 is now released. Main changes include: Linux kernel 6.5.5; Core is based on Slackware 15.0 plus updates from Slackware-15.0-patches (as of 2023-09-21); eight desktop options to choose from (seven for i586); Perl has been moved to 05-devel; Slackware package managers included - slapt-get and slackpkg (in core) and slpkg (in 05-devel); a simple wrapper for slapt-get - slapt-mod, to produce a module of the package (a revision of getmod by babam); SysVInit static binary updated to 3.07 (and corresponding Slackware package to match); a simple script - convertz, to convert a folder of xz compressed modules to zstd compressed modules; updated the onboard FAQ documents regarding package management; BusyBox in initrd updated to 1.36.1...." The release announcement.
Zephix 7
Robert Spiteri has announced the release of Zephix 7, a major new release from a project that develops a small, modular operating system based on Debian's "stable" branch. Zephix 7 is based on Debian 12 and it is available as a set of pre-built desktop modules with several popular desktop environments: "Zephix 7 was released with major enhancements. Updated base to Debian 12.1; heavily redesigned module creation and manipulation scripts; renamed scripts for better convention; added three new scripts - to create a custom core module, to merge two modules together and to extend swap space when building large modules; added the default behaviour to automatically move the newly created modules to the correct location; removed further unnecessary bloat from the final ISO image, reducing size to 380 MB; removed firmware module and instead included a tool named isenkram (this can be used with USB tethering to install required missing firmware)...." Visit the project's home page to read the full release announcement.
Zephix 7 -- Running the Cinnamon desktop
(full image size: 1.8MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Linux Mint 6 "LMDE"
The Linux Mint team have announced the launch of a new version of the project's Debian-based branch. The new version 6 (codename "Faye") of Linux Mint Debian Edition offers most of the same technology as Linux Mint's main, Ubuntu-based branch, but using Debian "Stable" as the core operating system. "LMDE is a Linux Mint project which stands for 'Linux Mint Debian Edition'. Its goal is to ensure Linux Mint would be able to continue to deliver the same user experience, and how much work would be involved, if Ubuntu was ever to disappear. LMDE is also one of our development targets, to guarantee the software we develop is compatible outside of Ubuntu. LMDE aims to be as similar as possible to Linux Mint, but without using Ubuntu. The package base is provided by Debian instead. Known issues: to install LMDE on an existing LVM partition you must first remove it from the LVM volumes and groups to which it belongs; in manual partitioning mode, note that the installer will auto-mount all swap partitions, these partitions will also be placed in /etc/fstab in the installed system." The release announcement and release notes offer additional information. Upgrade instructions to assist users migrating from version 5 are also provided.
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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: 2,908
- Total data uploaded: 43.6TB
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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) |
Storing files on ReiserFS
Last week we reported the Reiser filesystem (ReiserFS) is being removed from the Linux kernel. ReiserFS was an early example of a journaling filesystem and adopted by a few distributions as their default filesystem. However, other filesystems have since overshadowed ReiserFS in terms of performance and features and the filesystem is no longer maintained in the Linux kernel.
We are curious if any of our readers still use ReiserFS. If you still use ReiserFS to store files, let us know why you have stuck with it in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running desktop Linux in the cloud in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Do you still use ReiserFS?
| Yes - for my OS partition: | 9 (1%) |
| Yes - for my home partition: | 3 (0%) |
| Yes - for another partition: | 15 (1%) |
| Yes - for multiple partitions: | 15 (1%) |
| No: | 1325 (97%) |
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|
| Website News |
Adblock extensions blocking legitimate links to distribution websites
Over the past few weeks we have received a handful of reports from visitors to DistroWatch who have reported pieces of the website, usually tables or rankings of things, like the Summary section of distribution information pages and the user supplied ranking page, are missing or appear incomplete due to hidden entries. This was surprising to us as we hadn't made any changes to how these information pages are displayed.
Some investigation and the kind help of people reporting the issues revealed that, in each case, the information we were trying to display on DistroWatch was getting blocked by browser extensions. Specifically the culprit was usually uBlock or a member of the AdBlock family. This is a bit frustrating because the sections of the site being hidden by these extensions are not areas of the website where we display advertising. There are often a lot of links on the aforementioned pages, but they are legitimate links to distribution websites and related information resources like documentation, not ads or affiliate links.
This makes it difficult for us to provide a fix, because it seems the ad blockers are specifically targeting and blocking links to legitimate Linux websites such as the Debian project, Pop!_OS, and TUXEDO OS. The bug also doesn't appear to affect all users or all ad blocker extensions.
We bring up this issue for two reasons. The first is: if parts of DistroWatch appear hidden or to not be working, then chances are it's a browser extension making a table or group of links invisible. We're unable to fix this as the issue is in the extension running on the visitor's computer, and not something we can control. The only known fix at the moment is to disable the adblocker while on DistroWatch.
Second, we appreciate people letting us know when they have a problem accessing DistroWatch. However, as this is a situation we cannot control, if you discover one of your extensions is limiting access to information on this website, please send a bug report to the developers of the extension. They are probably unaware a recent change is causing their extension to be overzealous. Letting them know which pages no longer display properly will help them make their software better for all of their users, not just DistroWatch visitors.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 9 October 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 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Snal Linux
Snal Linux is a small Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. It features the i3 window manager and it includes the Firefox web browser, as well as a handful of network and filesystem utilities. It is intended to be used as a live image to troubleshoot hard disk, system and network problems.
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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