 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1045, 13 November 2023 |
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Welcome to this year's 46th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
After a series of delays, the Fedora project unveiled Fedora 39 this past week. The new version includes a number of cutting edge technologies, including GNOME 45 for the Workstation edition. This week Jeff Siegel took Fedora's latest version for a spin and reported on his findings, read on to learn of his first impressions. In our News section we talk about ReactOS being able to boot on machines with UEFI enabled while the elementary OS team plans to make Pantheon running on Wayland the default desktop session. We also report on Canonical adding new features to the Mir display server, including the ability to divide work across multiple video devices. Plus we dive into how to confirm packages that are being installed on a distribution are safe to use. One of the best protections against installing malware is to run open source software. In this week's Opinion Poll we ask whether all of the software installed on your computer are open source or not. Plus we are pleased to share details on the distributions released this past week and share the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jeff Siegel) |
Fedora 39
Reviewing a Fedora release is like watching an aging rock band make yet another farewell tour. Neither Fedora or the band offers many surprises; the latter usually plays the same songs in the same style while the distro's release date gets postponed a couple or three times.
And, just as the farewell tour is only worthwhile as long as the band doesn't get bored, so too is a Fedora release only worth installing if the developers are doing more than going through the motions (as with Fedora 36).
The good news is that the flagship Workstation edition of Fedora 39 -- despite a two-week delay in its release -- is more than just a compilation of greatest hits. The distro offers solid improvements -- more speed, a more nimble desktop, and a smoother experience. Its take on the GNOME 45 desktop is appealing, even to those of us who don't understand the need for GNOME, and its performance should impress even people who swear by KDE Plasma.
Though, Fedora being Fedora, some things never seem to get better. The Anaconda installer remains as aggravating as ever, and the Fedora take on the GNOME software center is no better than Ubuntu's (still awkward, still frustrating). And, of course, a couple of other irritating bits cropped up during the week or so I ran it, because, of course, Fedora.
Still, those were annoyances, but not reasons to discount Fedora 39 as a step forward. Yes, it's still not the first choice for those of us who don't write code, but with this version, I could run my writing business and not keep muttering curses under my breath.
Getting started
Fedora 39 is developed by the community-supported Fedora Project and is sponsored by Red Hat/IBM. The desktop edition comes in 11 versions, or spins, including KDE, Cinnamon, and Xfce. Typically, Fedora releases a new version every six months or so, and each release is supported for about 13 months. So expect this one to reach end of life sometime towards the end of 2024.
The workstation version that I tested comes in a 64-bit 2.0GB ISO, which is quite a bit smaller than similar Ubuntu family releases -- as little as half the size. The minimum system requirements are at lease a 2GHz dual core processor, 2GB of memory, and 15GB of hard drive space. Recommended specifications are a 2GHz quad core processor, 4GB of memory, and 20GB of hard drive space.
My VirtualBox test ended quickly; the live version of Fedora 39 didn't play nicely at all. It performed sluggishly, with lots of lag between mouse movements; the windows were balky when re-sizing; and Firefox was sluggish as well. In addition, there was quite a bit of screen tearing, which I almost never see when testing distros on VirtualBox. Wayland problems, perhaps?
Fedora 39 -- Running the Firefox web browser
(full image size: 198kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The actual installation on my Dell test machine went much more smoothly. Of course, this means allowing for the Anaconda installer, which -- after reviewing three Fedora releases (and installing multiple times for each release) -- still remains a mystery. One day, perhaps, I'll be able to figure how to get through the hard drive selection process without having to hit the Back button over and over. And over.
The actual installation was painless, about five minutes, but for some reason, the machine hung up when rebooting automatically after installation. This seems to be quite common among recent Fedora and Ubuntu releases, but the installation did work. I just had to shut down using the power button and restart.
What's new
Fedora 39 comes with Linux kernel 6.5, GNOME 45, GTK 4.12, LibreOffice 7.6 for the office suite, Firefox 119 as the web browser, and GNOME's new image viewer Loupe. There is still no e-mail client. There is also a desktop sharing app called Connections, Rhythmbox for music, and Boxes (the GNOME equivalent of VirtualBox). In addition, there also some significant under-the-hood changes for the GNU toolchain.
Fedora 39 -- Exploring the live desktop
(full image size: 202kB, resolution: 1137x705 pixels)
Most of it not only just works, but works very, very well, almost giving a new meaning to the phrase, "snappy desktop." When LibreOffice doesn't balk on loading, there have definitely been speed improvements. There was no problem recognizing my networked Canon printer or its scanner function, either. In addition, it looks good -- clean, functional, and focused. And this comes from someone who really doesn't care about that sort of thing.
Among the most noticeable features:
- No problems at all with Wayland, the default display session. I didn't even realize it was the default until I checked the system settings. In addition, the installation defaulted to the 1366x768 screen resolution, which I prefer.
Fedora 39 -- The Settings panel
(full image size: 184kB, resolution: 976x642 pixels)
- Firefox was so lively that it didn't seem like Firefox. I haven't seen this responsiveness in what seems like years; I have the same version of Firefox on my desktop and it takes so long to load that I don't use Firefox anymore.
- The sign-in screen is, well, nifty. No messing around with any LightDM sort of thing. Instead, the screen just pops up after the desktop loads. Enter password, and you're set.
- Loupe is simple, straightforward and effective. I didn't think I would be so impressed by such a simple piece of software.
- The set-up feature that loads after the first boot, following installation, which ticks off wireless settings, privacy options, on-line accounts, and so forth, remains first-rate. The only catch? It locked up when I tried to set up my Nextcloud account and I had to force quit. This happened several times. When I installed Nextcloud through the desktop package in GNOME Software, I wound up with two instances of Nextcloud listed in the networking part of the left hand panel in Files (though there was just one folder).
- The About screen, reached through Settings, offers a pop-out called System Details -- in other words, no more need for Neofetch. Plus, there's a copy button that sends the listing to the clipboard.
Fedora 39 -- Gathering system information
(full image size: 46kB, resolution: 662x485 pixels)
A few words about GNOME
This isn't the place to rehash whether GNOME is a proper desktop or a phone interface adapted to the desktop. It's enough to know that it works smoothly and efficiently here, and I even, sort of, kind of, got used to the counter intuitive hot corner thingy, as well as the way GNOME handles open windows. And, surprisingly, I grew to appreciate the search bar -- though I did install Dash to Dock to get a more desktop-oriented look and feel.
Fedora 39 -- Unlocking the keyring
(full image size: 481kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The problem with GNOME in Fedora 39 is that it needs extensions that aren't pre-installed (and neither are GNOME Tweaks or the extension manager, for that matter). For example: Why isn't a clipboard already there? Or something to control the number of desktops, since not all of us need more than one of them?
Which brings us to GNOME Software -- still the app everyone loves to hate -- and with good reason. I haven't really noticed any improvements since I reviewed Fedora 34, and after trying it out, I mostly used the command line to install software and update the system. And this comes from someone, again, who would prefer to use a GUI.
After almost a week, though, I figured out how to work around the complications and make Fedora 39 work for me. That included writing a variety of notes and taking the screenshots for this review, and sending them to my desktop using Nextcloud. Which, in the end, is what matters and not the occasional aggravation.
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Hardware used for this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Dell Latitude E7440 laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel i7-4600U
- Storage: 256GB SSD
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Networking: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485
- Display: Intel HD Graphics 4400
When he is not testing out new versions of Linux distributions, Jeff Siegel can be found writing about all things related to wine at Wine Curmudgeon.
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Visitor supplied rating
Fedora has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.3/10 from 458 review(s).
Have you used Fedora? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary plans to make Wayland the default Pantheon session, Mir gains ability to split work across video cards
The ReactOS team develops an open source operating system which strives to be binary compatible with Microsoft Windows. The developers have been hard at work on a few problems, including porting their code to alternative compilers and getting ReactOS to boot on UEFI-enabled computers. "Thanks to the work of Timo Kreuzer (tkreuzer) our AMD64 builds are now capable of booting on an increasing number of hardware. Thanks to Timo's and Justin's work, we are working towards supporting modern devices with UEFI class 3 firmware. Work has been underway since the beginning of the year to transition FreeLoader, our default bootloader for ReactOS, to support UEFI on x86 and AMD64, as well as ARM32 and ARM64. Hermès has been developing a system for passing the UEFI framebuffer information in a fashion that allows Windows XP to run on UEFI systems, while Justin Miller (TheDarkFire) has been developing the UEFI freeloader build. On top of supporting booting ReactOS, other features are being built such as EFI chainloading and a bootmgfw-compatible build of FreeLoader. These features would add boot management capabilities and allow modern Windows systems to bootstrap our favorite bootloader." Additional details can be found in the project's newsletter.
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A few weeks ago we reported the Linux Mint team is working to make their Cinnamon desktop environment run on a Wayland session. This week we share similar news from the elementary OS project as the distribution's developers seek to make their Pantheon desktop run a Wayland session by default for the next major release. "One the largest and most ambitious goals we have for OS 8 is to use the Wayland display server protocol by default. This is a transition that we have been planning and working towards for several years and we're finally in the home stretch. Folks in our Early Access program know that we have an experimental Wayland session of Pantheon available to test right now. We're currently tracking issues related to completing the Wayland transition in this GitHub project. Wayland will bring us improved performance, better app security, and opens the doors to support more complex display setups like mixed DPI multi-monitor setups.
As part of the Wayland transition, Pantheon needs a new Dock. Plank was written in a time long before many modern APIs and depends on a window matching library that is both incompatible with Wayland's security model and has proved to be increasingly inaccurate with some sandboxed apps." Additional plans for the upcoming elementary OS 8 are outlined in the project's overview of features for version 8.
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While the Mir display server started out as a technology for Ubuntu with its own protocol, the software has been extended to also act as a Wayland display server. This could allow Mir to act as a desktop-neutral Wayland implementation for desktop environments which have not created their own display server. One of the latest features of Mir is the ability to split work across multiple video cards. "But, even without multiple platforms we can already run compositing on a different card than we render on. This means, for instance that I can use an integrated GPU to render and display via a dock using DisplayLink. (DisplayLink creates a virtual evdi 'card' that doesn't support rendering.)" Additional information on the efforts going into Mir can be found in this discourse post.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
How to trust provided software packages
Verifying-trust asks: I am new to running Linux and wondering something. How do you know you're not installing something malicious? I've installed a lot of packages, how do I know if they're safe or not?
DistroWatch answers: When it comes to matters of trust and software it is difficult, maybe impossible, to be absolutely sure and guarantee the software we are receiving is not malicious in any way. There are all sorts of ways the original author, the person packaging the software, the compiler author, or someone with the ability to intercept software as it moves between the package maintainer and the end user's computer could compromise a software package.
The are several ways to make it less likely a package is malicious or compromised. When these methods are combined it offers layers of protection against malicious actors and makes it much more likely a software package is trustworthy. Generally speaking, the more checks or filters a piece of software goes through between its author and the end user, the more likely it is we can trust the package is safe.
On one extreme end of the spectrum we can consider a pre-built executable package provided by a third-party which we are asked to download and install without any security checks. This approach to sharing software has long been popular in the Windows ecosystem, but it provides no checks and balances. There are no checks at any point in the distribution process to protect us or verify that the software is trustworthy and uncompromised.
Most software developed in the Linux ecosystem is open source which offers one major benefit. Anyone with the necessary skills can read through the source code, along with recent changes to it, and look for malicious behaviour or exploitable code. The more popular an open source software project is, the more people tend to browse through its code and identify potential problems.
Another layer of protection is popular software is typically reviewed and packaged by Linux distributions. This means commonly used utilities are often monitored and reviewed by package maintainers in all of the major distributions (such as Fedora, Debian, openSUSE, and Arch Linux). Any change in the original source code which looks suspicious or vulnerable can be flagged by one of these maintainers and the rest of the community is warned.
Packaged software is then passed around to mirrors, often run by third-party volunteers. How can we make sure these copies of the software, sitting vulnerably on the mirrors, is uncompromised? Most distribution maintainers digitally sign their packages. The signature acts as a method to confirm who the author is and that the contents of the package have not been changed since the developer signed it. Verification keys included with the distribution's package manager can check the signature and confirm who made the package and that it hasn't been compromised in transit.
In addition to these checks, the tools used in this process are generally open source too. The compiler, the package build utilities, the package manager, and the digital signing tools are all open source. This makes it possible to verify the good behaviour of the tools which will be used in the package creation, distribution, and installation process.
All of the above features result in an ecosystem that is fairly safe. It is generally accepted that software included in the repositories of major Linux distributions is usually safe to install as it has gone through multiple checks. This doesn't guarantee safety, but it greatly improves our odds.
Where people tend to run into trouble is when they step outside of the software officially curated and signed by their distribution. Connecting to third-party repositories, using personal package archives, installing closed-source software, fetching unsigned software, or using packages that haven't been reviewed by a neutral maintainer all introduce potential risks. This isn't to say software which falls into one of these categories is malicious or vulnerable, but it would be easier to insert malicious software onto a system which doesn't go through the normal distribution-approved series of checks.
There aren't many guarantees with software, but the more filters, the more checks, and the more verification steps a package goes through the more likely it is to be safe. Any software which skips steps, isn't reviewed, or is closed source increases the odds it could be compromised before it reaches your computer. This is why I recommend trying to use software provided by your distribution's official repositories as much as possible and only using packages from third-parties, community repositories, or unknown sources if absolutely necessary.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Fedora 39
The Fedora project has published a new release, Fedora 39, which includes GNOME 45, an updated version of Inkscape, and updated development tools. This release is also offered in a new atomic desktop flavour which uses the Budgie desktop and is called Fedora Onyx. "On November 6, 2003, the Fedora Project released the Fedora Core 1. One day and twenty years later, we're pleased to bring you Fedora Linux 39, our complete, community-built operating system for desktops, laptops, servers, the cloud, edge devices - and just about anything else you can think of. Fedora Workstation now features GNOME 45, which brings better performance and many usability enhancements, including a new workspace switcher and a much-improved image viewer. If you're looking for a different desktop experience, our Budgie Special Interest Group has created Fedora Onyx, a Budgie-based 'Atomic' desktop in the spirit of Fedora Silverblue. Of course, that's not all - we also have updated desktop flavors featuring KDE Plasma Desktop, Xfce, Cinnamon and more." Additional details are offered in the Fedora Magazine release announcement.
Fedora 39 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 4.3MB, resolution: 2880x1800 pixels)
Clonezilla Live 3.1.1-27
Steven Shiau has announced the release of Clonezilla Live 3.1.1-27, a new stable version of the project's Debian-based specialist live image designed for partitioning, backups and disk-cloning tasks: "Stable Clonezilla Live 3.1.1-27 released. This release includes major enhancements and bug fixes. Enhancements and changes since 3.1.0-22: the underlying GNU/Linux operating system has been upgraded - this release is based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2023-11-02; Linux kernel has been updated to 6.5.8; updated the ca_ES, de_DE, el_GR.UTF-8, es_ES, fr_FR, ja_JP, pl_PL, sk_SK and tr_TR language files; Partclone has been updated to 0.3.27, options '--read-direct-io' and '--write-direct-io' are available; the ezio package has been updated to 1.2.0, some improvements from 2.0.3 include show version when running, show save_path instead of name, torrent is larger than 4MB; the acpitool, ntfs2btrfs, zfsutils-linux and vim (not vim-tiny) packages are now included in the live system; the mlocate package has been replaced by plocate...." Read the complete release announcement for a full changelog.
Relianoid 7.0
Relianoid is a Debian-based, load balancing operating system. The project has published a new release, Relianoid 7.0, which is based on Debian 12 "Bookworm", and includes OpenSSL 3. "This release provides a huge step in regards of big upgrade of the Operating System as it is based on Debian Bookworm 12.2 with Linux Kernel 6.1 which is very significant in regards to bootup speed and drivers improvements for a better system resource usage. Also, the Linux the kernel has continued to evolve with ongoing codebase cleanups and maintenance, ensuring stability and reliability in the Linux ecosystem. OpenSSL version 3 (OpenSSL 3.0.0), which is a significant update to the widely-used cryptographic library, brings several key improvements, including enhanced modularity, improved security, and better support for modern cryptographic algorithms and protocols. OpenSSL 3 introduces a modular architecture, allowing developers to more easily customize their builds and reduce the attack surface. It features better support for the latest TLS versions, like TLS 1.3, as well as post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, addressing emerging security concerns." The project's release announcement offers additional information.
UBports 20.04 OTA-3
The UBports project develops an Ubuntu-based, mobile operating system. The project has continued the work on its 20.04 branch and introduced improved support for PINE64 devices. "OTA-3 is the first Ubuntu Touch based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS that will become available for the PinePhone, the PinePhone Pro and also the PineTab and PineTab 2. We consider 20.04 OTA-3's state of the PinePhone adaptation a beta release. For now you still need to flash the Pine{Phone,Phone Pro,Tab,Tab2} upstream images as usual. Please test and give feedback to our developers. A great thanks goes to Oren and Luigi for working on the 20.04 Pine{Phone,Phone Pro,Tab} ports and esp. fixing sensor dependent rotation of the Lomiri shell and bringing back Location Service (GPS et al.) support from Ubuntu Touch 16.04 (aka Xenial). This release of Ubuntu Touch is based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, so latest Ubuntu 20.04 LTS security updates have landed in this OTA." A list of new features and bug fixes can be found in the project's release announcement. A list of supported devices and download options can be found on the project's devices page.
BackBox Linux 8.1
Raffaele Forte has announced the release of BackBox Linux 8.1 un updated build of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution with an extensive collection of the most popular and best known ethical hacking tools. The new release continues to be based on the long-term supported Ubuntu 22.04, but includes an updated Linux kernel 5.15 and some bug fixes: "BackBox Linux 8.1 released. The BackBox team is happy to announce the updated release of BackBox Linux, version 8.1, code name 'Sara'. In this release, we have addressed a few minor bugs, updated the kernel stack and base system, and enhanced our hacking tools. What's new: updated Linux Kernel 5.15; updated desktop environment; updated hacking tools; updated ISO Hybrid with UEFI support. System requirements: 64-bit processor; 1,024 MB of system memory (RAM); 30 GB of disk space for installation; graphics card capable of 800x600 resolution; DVD-ROM drive or USB port. The ISO image for 64bit architecture can be downloaded from the official web site download section." Here is the brief release announcement.
BackBox Linux 8.1 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 497kB, resolution: 2560x1600 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: 2,926
- Total data uploaded: 43.8TB
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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) |
Are all of your applications open source?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about methods for verifying an application is safe to install and run. One of the key steps in verifying software has not been compromised is using open source applications. This week we would like to hear if you use open source software exclusively or if you run some closed source applications.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using IPv4 or IPv6 Internet connections in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you run all open source software?
| Yes - it is all open source: | 229 (15%) |
| Yes - except for firmware: | 422 (28%) |
| No - I run some closed applications: | 878 (57%) |
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| Website News |
Donating to favourite distributions
One of the more common concerns we hear from Linux distribution projects is a lack of funding. A lot of Linux distributions, particularly community-run projects, struggle to keep the lights on and the servers running.
To help out we are adding a new entry to each distribution's information page on DistroWatch. We've had a "Buy or Try" field on our information pages for years, providing links to websites where people can purchase distribution's on physical media or try a distro through a web-based virtual machine.
We're expanding this field to be called "Where to Donate, Buy, or Try". This field will, where applicable, include a "Donate" link which will take the visitor to distribution's donations/sponsorship page.
A project's donation page is not always easy to locate. So if you have a favourite project which does not yet have a Donate link on our website, please send us an e-mail with "Donation link" in the subject line and a link to the distribution's donation page.
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New projects added to database
Lernstick
Lernstick is a mobile and secure learning and working environment for school and at home that can be installed on external storage media (e.g. USB sticks, USB hard drives, SD cards, etc.). The distribution is based on Debian's stable branch. The distribution is intended to perform so that almost every computer can be started from this storage media. Basically, a hard drive with an installed operating system is no longer required. (Optionally, the system can still be installed on the hard disk.) As a result, the learning stick is a platform for so-called Bring Your Own Device scenarios, in which students can also use their private devices for school purposes.
Lernstick 12 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 210kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
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New distributions added to waiting list
- SavageOS. SavageOS is an Arch-based project which configures the AwesomeWM graphical environment, sets up the paru community repository handler, and offers to replace sudo with doas.
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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, 20 November 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 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Full list of all issues |
| 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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| Random Distribution | 
VyOS
VyOS is a community fork of Vyatta, a Linux distribution discontinued in 2013. It is a network operating system that provides software-based network routing, firewall and VPN functionality. VyOS is based on Debian; its features include the ability to run on both physical and virtual platforms, and support for para-virtual drivers and integration packages for virtual platforms. VyOS was completely free to download and use until the release of version 1.2.0 in January 2019 when the project turned commercial, providing the operating system with various levels of support subscriptions. Daily "rolling" images are still available for free download though.
Status: Active
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| Tips, Tricks, Q&As | | Tips and tricks: (Xfce) interface woes |
| Tips and tricks: How to check the licenses of kernel modules |
| Tips and tricks: Limiting a user's disk usage with quotas |
| Tips and tricks: Keep terminal programs running, using the at command, reverse OpenSSH connections |
| Tips and tricks: Malware warnings about Linux ISO files |
| Tips and tricks: Basename, for loop, dirname, aliases, bash history, xsel clipboard |
| Questions and answers: Quick command line and shell script questions |
| Questions and answers: Using special shell characters on the command line |
| Questions and answers: All about immutable operating systems |
| Myths and misunderstandings: Wayland, Xorg and Mir |
| More Tips & Tricks and Questions & Answers |
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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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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