 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1118, 21 April 2025 |
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Welcome to this year's 16th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
This has been a busy week in the Linux community with new releases emerging from several popular distributions. Fedora, Ubuntu, Manjaro, TrueNAS, and Tails all published updates this week, along with a number of other distributions. We share details on these new versions below and list the torrents we are seeding in support of these releases. To begin our newsletter this week we focus on Fedora 42 and its newly elevated KDE flavour which is now presented as a main edition alongside the GNOME-powered Workstation edition. Jesse Smith takes Fedora 42 for a spin and reports on his findings in our Feature Story. In our News section we share updates from the Nitrux project as the distribution replaces some of its package management tools. We also talk about Fedora's plans to bring reproducible builds to almost all of the distribution's packages. Plus we share news about PINE64's open hardware, some of which runs custom builds of Debian. Then, in our Questions and Answers section, we talk about why strange characters sometimes show up in the Vim text editor and how to fix this problem. There are a lot of text editors in the Linux ecosystem and, in this week's Opinion Poll, we ask which one is your favourite. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: Fedora 42
- News: Fedora plans to make most packages reproducible, Nitrux introduces new portable package tools, PINE64 updates multiple devices running flavours of Debian
- Questions and answers: Unexpected characters showing up in Vim
- Released last week: Fedora 42, Ultramarine Linux 41, Manjaro Linux 25.0.0, MX Linux 23.6, T2 SDE 25.4, TrueNAS 25.04.0, deepin 23.1, Murena 2.9
- Torrent corner: deepin, Manjaro Linux, Tails, TUXEDO OS, Ubuntu
- Opinion poll: What is your text editor of choice?
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Fedora 42
The Fedora project announced the release of Fedora 42 last week. The release elevates the distribution's KDE Plasma flavour form "spin" to "edition", putting it on par with the GNOME-flavoured Workstation edition in terms of visibility and support. The new version of Fedora also introduces a COSMIC desktop spin. The release announcement for Fedora 42 had another interesting feature to share:
Perhaps most excitingly, we have a new installation interface! The previous UI was designed to manage a lot of before-you-even-start configuration choices. Over the past decade, though, we've gone to "get the full system installed with no fuss, then set up what you need from a complete environment". That made the "hub and spoke" model more confusing than helpful. The new UI is streamlined and sleek.
Since the system installer has been one of my feature favourite aspects of Fedora releases over the past decade, I was looking forward to trying out the new approach. Before we dive in, the release announcement had a warning to share:
We discovered a problem with the Live boot media at the last minute, and since the release was already out of the airlock, we can't do much about it. It doesn't damage anything, but is annoying: just booting the Live media adds an unexpected entry to the UEFI boot loader even when Fedora Linux 42 is not installed to the local system.
Reading further, the Fedora release notes shared a few new items for desktop users: "Fedora now provides FEX, a fast emulator that allows one to run x86 and x86-64 binaries on an AArch64 Linux host." This could certainly be useful for people, particularly gamers, running 64-bit ARM machines. Another new feature will likely appeal to gamers too: "Applications that use SDL 2 (typically games) will now transparently use SDL 3 through the sdl2-compat package."
I wanted to see how the KDE Plasma edition would perform, especially now that it was an "official edition" rather than one of many community spins. The download for the KDE edition was 2.7GB in size. The other main desktop flavour, which is called "Workstation" and runs GNOME, is a 2.3GB download.
Live desktop
The distribution's default boot option is to test the live media and then launch the operating system. We can, if we wish, skip the self-test. Either approach boots Fedora and displays the Plasma desktop where a welcome window opens. This welcome window's first screen offers to launch Fedora's system installer. If we skip this step, the following screens offer to give us an overview of Plasma with a little tutorial on using the desktop and panel. We're then shown an overview of some key features, such as KDE Connect, the settings panel, and Vaults. The next page of the welcome window offers to launch the Discover software centre and the following screen offers to enable third-party software repositories. Once we go through all of these steps, and close the welcome window, we can still access the system installer from an icon on the desktop. This is the only visible icon on the Plasma desktop.
Plasma is presented with a panel placed across the bottom of the screen. This panel features, from left to right: an application menu, quick-launch buttons, a task switcher, and system tray.
Plasma was a bit sluggish when running in the live environment on my laptop and unusually slow when running in VirtualBox. I looked into this a bit and it led me down a rabbit hole. It was an hour long journey and I'll just share some of the highlights.
There were two main issues at play. One was Fedora's KDE edition was unusually heavy in RAM, using more than 3GB of memory to run just the desktop. This wasn't too much of a problem on my laptop since it has 8GB of RAM, but it was a tight fit for the virtual machine as VirtualBox had 4GB of RAM allocated to it. Normally this is more than enough, as a desktop and all of my applications rarely use more than 2GB to 3GB of space, but Fedora was more hungry for memory than other distributions.
The second issue at work was Fedora uses a zRAM swap device which is stored in memory. The idea is that memory which isn't being used can be compressed and continue to be kept in memory, being decompressed when it is needed. In theory, this provides "more" memory because inactive data is compressed and it is faster to access the fake swap space because the data is still in RAM rather than on the disk. However, what caused the situation to fall apart was Fedora was using so much memory, even when idle, that it was constantly trying to swap data out to compressed RAM (the zRAM virtual device), but almost everything I did required data to be brought back in to regular (uncompressed) memory.
Fedora 42 -- The welcome window
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The result was hundreds of megabytes of memory were constantly being compressed and swapped out, only to be immediately decompressed and re-loaded, and then compressed and swapped out again. My CPU was very busy in both environments, especially in the virtual machine. I decided to disable the zRAM device and just use RAM regularly. This worked, for a minute, but then the CPU started churning again. I checked and found the system had automatically recreated the zRAM device and resumed swapping.
A little research turned up that this is a known issue and people have been fighting against zRAM being automatically recreated for the past five years. It can't be disabled by normal methods and requires a command line trick to get systemd to stop re-enabling zRAM. At any rate, I put the systemd hack in place, disabled zRAM, and then got back to exploring the live environment. This made the system more responsive and things were starting to look up, so I turned my attention to the system installer.
Installing
The first time I tried to launch the system installer the Plasma desktop locked up. Keyboard input was ignored and I ended up performing a hard restart. After that, in either environment, the installer launched and worked properly. Though this was not to be the only desktop crash I ran into this past week.
I was disappointed to find the Anaconda system installer has not changed. In fact, despite the comments in the release announcement about the new, sleek interface, Anaconda looks exactly as it has for the past decade. Maybe there is a way to launch a different installer that I did not learn about from reading the announcement and release notes. At any rate, I felt a bit betrayed as I went through Fedora's usual hub screen of options. Despite the clunky interface, Anaconda worked and it was pretty painless to set my timezone, partition the hard drive, select my language, and enable a network connection. There are also configuration screens for setting the root password and creating a regular user account.
The disk partitioning screen is a bit complicated if we take the manual approach. Taking the automated option will set up a Btrfs volume for our root directory and home directories. Swap is, as with the live environment, set up as a zRAM virtual device rather than a swap file or partition.
The installer copied its packages to my drive, and did so relatively quickly. The copying process took about five minutes and then I was asked to reboot the computer.
Early impressions
Once installed, Fedora booted to a graphical login screen. Signing into our account brings up the Plasma desktop running on Wayland. (By default, Wayland is the only session option.) The welcome window appears the first time we sign in. This time the welcome screen for launching the system installer is replaced by a telemetry setting where we can choose how much data to send to the KDE developers. The default is to send no data.
Fedora 42 -- The Plasma application menu
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Plasma uses a light theme by default and the desktop was fairly quiet. When running on my laptop the screen was unusually dim at first. Using a keyboard shortcut or venturing into the System Settings application allowed me to adjust the screen to a brighter level.
Hardware
Fedora was able to run in both of my test environments and booted in both UEFI and Legacy BIOS modes. The distribution worked fairly well in VirtualBox. The desktop was a bit sluggish, but it was usable. I experienced better performance on my laptop. Plasma offered average responsiveness and all of my laptop's hardware was detected. Audio and wireless networking worked, my media and screen brightness keys functioned, and the touchpad registered taps as clicks.
The project's release announcement mentioned extra entries appearing in the UEFI boot loader and I did experience this bug. It's mildly annoying, but not a practical issue.
Fedora running Plasma was super heavy on resources; it is, by far, the heaviest distribution in RAM I have ever used, taking up 2.5GB of memory. For comparison, that is about 66% larger than the next largest Linux distribution I have tested. It made me wonder if they left debugging on for some packages because this seems surprisingly large without there being extra services or features enabled that would account for the extra gigabyte of memory being consumed. In contrast, Fedora used just 4.3GB of disk space which is quite a bit smaller than a lot of other mainstream Linux distributions. It's about half the size of many other distributions running GNOME or Plasma that I have tried in the past year.
Fedora 42 -- The System Settings panel
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Some readers might be wondering if the zRAM device I mentioned earlier is contributing to this large RAM consumption total. The 2.5GB total is how much regular RAM was consumed, whether the zRAM device was active or if it has been deactivated and removed. I ran Fedora with and without the zRAM device and memory consumption always stayed in the 2.4GB to 2.7GB range when signed into Plasma with no applications open. The 2.5GB figure was usually where the system settled when the desktop was idle, in either configuration.
Included software
The KDE edition of Fedora ships with a wide range of functionality. There are some popular applications, such as Firefox and LibreOffice. We also find the KDE Connect software, the Kmail e-mail client, a remote desktop viewer, and a Matrix chat client. The Dragon video player and Elisa audio player are included and worked to play my media files. There is a QR code scanner, an address book, and a calendar/organizer application. I also found a PDF viewer, the Dolphin file manager, a partition manager, and a system process monitor.
For adjusting the Plasma desktop's settings the System Settings panel is available and it offers a great deal of flexibility. When working from the command line we can find the GNU command line utilities and manual pages. OpenJDK provides Java support and systemd handles init duties. In the background Linux 6.14 keeps things running.
Fedora 42 -- The Dolphin file manager
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When a command is typed on the command line and the desired program is not available there is a brief pause while Fedora looks for the missing program in its repositories. It will then offer to install the required package. This slows things down a little, but it can also be a convenient feature when setting up a new system as the distribution is finding packages for us as needed.
Fedora 42 -- Running the Falkon web browser
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Software management
The KDE edition of Fedora uses Discover as its main software manager. Discover has a modern approach where we can browse software categories and see desktop applications listed with their icon and a short description. Next to each entry is a download button we can click to fetch the package. Clicking on an application's entry brings up a full description and a screenshot.
Fedora 42 -- The Discover software centre
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Some applications are listed in Discover multiple times. This is due to Discover connecting to both Fedora's RPM package repositories and to Flatpak repositories. Items which are available as Flatpak bundles have a small "Flatpak" label to the right of the entry. By default, Fedora connects to its own, free software only repositories and a custom, Fedora-specific Flatpak repository. We can enable third-party RPM repositories from the welcome window or from Discover's settings page. We can also enable the Flathub repository to gain access to more Flatpak bundles.
The first day I was using Fedora, Discover found 254 new packages to update, which were about 2GB in size. This is almost equivalent to downloading the distribution's entire ISO again. Once new updates have been fetched they are not applied right away. The system waits until we reboot the distribution, then pauses the boot process to apply the updates. This can take several minutes and has an annoyingly Microsoft-style flavour to it, since most Linux distributions apply updates on the fly while the system is in use.
Discover is a convenient way to manage software, but there are also command line options. We can use Fedora's DNF package manager from the console to manage traditional RPM packages and we can run the flatpak command to manage Flatpak bundles. Both commands worked for me. I think the latest version of DNF is faster than it was in the past, or maybe it is caching results more often. At any rate, DNF felt quicker this time around than it has in the past and I appreciated how clean and organized DNF's output is. Something that surprised me though is, the first time I ran DNF, it asked me to verify a repository key. This is likely to throw off new users who might not know why they are being asked about repository security and whether it should be accepted. This sort of thing is usually handled quietly in the background on other Linux distributions.
Other observations
Still on the subject of software management, the first time I opened Discover it reported it was checking for software updates, then the desktop locked up. The wallpaper disappeared, the panel crashed, and Discover stopped responding. It took a hard reset to restore the distribution. This also happened the next day, after I had installed new applications and then tried to close Discover. It happened later on when I was working in another application (I forget which one at this point). In short, the Plasma desktop was unstable.
As an experiment, I downloaded the X11 package for Plasma (plasma-workspace-x11) and logged into the Plasma on X11 session. This had a few interesting effects. One was the desktop stopped crashing every few hours. The second big change was performance. Applications launched faster and the menus responded faster than when I had been using the Wayland session. The third benefit was the X11 session used a lot less memory - 800MB worth of RAM was freed by using the X11 session instead of Wayland. This last point surprised me as, typically, a desktop's Wayland session and X11 session tend to use about the same amount of resources. However, Fedora's X11 session used about 1.8GB of RAM compared to Wayland's 2.5GB.
Earlier I mentioned Fedora will default to using a Btrfs volume as its default filesystem. I like this as Btrfs has some nice features, such as multi-disk support and snapshots. Unfortunately, Fedora does not do anything with this technology. Some operating systems, such as openSUSE and FreeBSD, automatically take snapshots during updates. Some others, like Linux Mint, ship with integrated snapshot tools. Fedora doesn't seem to offer any Btrfs utilities or automated conveniences for working with storage volumes.
Fedora 42 -- Trying to create snapshots with Timeshift
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I decided to add a Btrfs utility and installed the Timeshift package from Fedora's RPM repositories. Timeshift does not work with Fedora's default Btrfs layout. This strikes me as odd as it means (depending on one's point of view) either Fedora has set up Btrfs subvolumes in a way that is not compatible with popular tools, like Timeshift, or Fedora has packaged an application that won't work with its default Btrfs configuration, which seems like a waste of time.
On the subject of applications which did not work, I'd like to mention the QR code application. This tool scans QR codes to reveal the text stored in them. It can also switch modes and generate QR codes based on text we type. There is an option to save QR codes, presumably so we can share them or print them from another application. However, the utility cannot save files. When the open/save dialog window appears any new filename we provide results in the error: "The file filename could not be found." It seems the developers mixed up the open/save logic and, when we are trying to save a file, it checks to see if the file is available to be opened.
Fedora 42 -- Trying to save a QR code image
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I tried to work around this by creating a new, empty file (called hello.png). Then, when I went to save my new QR code, I selected this empty file as the name I wanted to use. This appeared to work and the application seemed to save my QR code to hello.png. However, the file remained empty (zero bytes in size), demonstrating the save functionality wasn't available yet in the QR code tool.
Conclusions
Many of my experiences with Fedora were frustrating or underwhelming, at least when using the default options. Some of these were fairly minor issues. For example, I was looking forward to trying the new system installer with its streamlined interface, but it looks like the KDE edition is still using the classic installer only while the GNOME/Workstation edition offers the new installer. Having the two flavours using different installers makes it seem like Fedora doesn't yet truly see the KDE edition as being on equal footing with the GNOME edition.
Having zRAM enabled probably makes sense in some situations, I know some people find it a useful tool, but it ended up backfiring in my situation, making my CPU churn. This, on its own, wouldn't be a big deal, but re-activating the zRAM device after I've explicitly disabled it is frustrating. It gave me the impression the distribution was fighting against my efforts.
Some elements worked well for me. Discover is a capable software centre and the KDE System Settings panel worked well for me. Some of Plasma's default settings are not to my taste, but the desktop is extremely flexible and most features can be tweaked.
The DNF package manager feels faster now than it was in the past and its output is clearly organized. I also like that DNF uses clear, English words for its action commands.
Back on the "con" side of things, forcing Plasma to default to a Wayland session (no X11 session is available on the system) feels premature. Plasma's Wayland session is visibly slower and much larger in RAM than its X11 session. The Wayland session also wasn't stable. X11 should probably be the default or, at least, available as a fallback option without the user needing to manually hunt down and install the X11 packages.
I like that Fedora 42 is making it easy to add third-party repositories, such as Flathub and RPMFusion. In early versions of Fedora this required the user to know third-party options existed, then find them, and then manually add them. Fedora 42 makes enabling third-party software repositories as simple as clicking a box in the welcome window.
Fedora is a cutting edge distribution and there are going to be some surprises when riding the wave of progress. Fedora 42 provides some good new features and some nice conveniences, but it also trips over some issues that did not receive enough testing. The UEFI boot menu entry was a small example, KDE's Wayland session's bloated memory and stability issues were other clear issues. It seems like the new system installer was rushed into the Workstation flavour, but maybe hasn't been around long enough to trickle into the KDE edition.
People who want a preview of what is coming to Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the future or who want to test some of the latest versions of packages will probably appreciate Fedora 42, despite its jagged edges. People who are looking for a reliable, smoothly functioning desktop distribution that will work out of the box will likely be disappointed with this release.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Fedora has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.2/10 from 396 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) |
Fedora plans to make most packages reproducible, Nitrux introduces new portable package tools, PINE64 updates multiple devices running flavours of Debian
While Fedora 42 might just be on its way out the door, the distribution's developers are already laying out plans for Fedora 43. The next version of Fedora is expected to take a big step forward in supporting reproducible builds. "Over the last few releases, we changed our build infrastructure to make package builds reproducible. This is enough to reach 90%. The remaining issues need to be fixed in individual packages. After this Change, package builds are expected to be reproducible. Bugs will be filed against packages when an irreproducibility is detected. The goal is to have no fewer than 99% of package builds reproducible." Reproducible builds result in the same source code compiling into the same binary, every time. This makes it easier to spot logic errors or malicious code which tries to hide itself or behave differently in different environments.
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The Nitrux team is doing some housecleaning, removing old package management tools and introducing a new set which should make working with portable packages easier. "Over the past month, we've cleaned up the distribution, removing zap, an unmaintained CLI package management interface for AppImages, and the NX Software Center, our GUI for managing AppImages. This leaves the door open for better tools to be included in the distribution. We're excited to introduce NX AppHub, a system to provide applications for Nitrux, particularly the CLI component, its central repository, and its integration daemon. Today's news post will tell you how NX AppHub started, why we created it, and where you can get it." Information on the new package tools (NX AppHub CLI, NX AppHub Apps, NX AppHub Daemon, and NX AppHub GUI) can be found in the announcement.
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The PINE64 team have published their April newsletter and they describe quite a few improvements to their lineup of open hardware. In particular, the PineTab tablet series and PineNote notepad have received updates and are running builds of the Debian distribution. "Since the last community update, there have been significant updates to the default Debian operating system. Notably a configuration to make the pressure sensitivity and eraser work in Xournal++, general user version of the GNOME extension, updated kernel and a new travel mode. The travel mode stops the PineNote from waking up when the folio case accidentally opens in a bag for example. For users interested or who have just received their PineNote, Caffeine has made a series of videos detailing how to enter Rockusb mode using the magnet method, how to flash, upgrade and recover your PineNote, and a full Debian software demonstration." Additional information on PINE64's line of open products can be found in the organization's newsletter.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Unexpected characters showing up in Vim
Trapped-in-a-text-editor asks: I'm trying to learn Vim and whenever I try to move the cursor around it inserts lines with "A"s and "B"s. How do I get it to stop doing that?
DistroWatch answers: Vim is a modern implementation of the vi text editor. It is one of the most commonly used text editors for terminals on Linux distributions, the BSDs, and other members of the Unix family. Vim is quite powerful and its line-oriented approach to managing text is often well suited to people writing programs.
While commonly deployed, Vim is not the easiest text editor to learn. A big part of this learning curve is Vim has multiple modes of operation - particularly a Command mode and an Editing mode. When in Command mode we can navigate around the text, type in searches we want to perform, or use shortcuts to cut/copy/paste blocks of text. Command mode isn't something most other text editors have and it can take a while to grow accustomed to thinking of using a text editor which behaves differently at different times.
When in Editing mode Vim behaves much the same way other text editors do. We can type and delete text and navigate using the arrow keys. To return to Command mode we press the Esc key.
It sounds like you are running into strange behaviour when in Vim's Editing mode. When pressing the arrow keys to get around the text it's inserting unexpected characters. Why is this happening? The classic vi editor generally assumed people would navigate between lines of text in Command mode and, in case they didn't have arrow keys, the vi editor used H, J, K, and L to move the cursor around the screen. (H moved left, L moved right, J went down, and K went up.)
The Vim program is intended to be compatible with vi and retains some of this old logic. Which means when you are in Editing mode and press an arrow key, Vim treats it as though you are typing text, taking the raw keyboard codes and dumping them onto the screen. Most people don't want this these days, but this is what strict backward compatibility gets us.
To disable this old logic and to make the arrow keys work as expected in Vim's Editing mode, we need to turn off Vim's compatibility features. We can do this by creating a new text file called .exrc in our home directory and placing the line "set nocompatible" in it. We can accomplish this using the following two commands:
$ touch ~/.exrc
$ echo "set nocompatible" >> ~/.exrc
The next time we open Vim, the arrow keys should navigate the text in Editing mode without dumping unexpected characters into your document.
A word of warning about this solution: Some Linux distributions create aliases for the Vim editor. Usually this is just something like mapping "vi='vim'", which is pretty harmless. However, some distributions will create aliases which change the editor's behaviour and will conflict with our "set nocompatible" rule. For example, you might see an alias which is defined as "vi='vim -U <filename>'". This will conflict with our "set nocompatible" directive we created in the above steps. You can check for Vim aliases by running the following command:
$ alias | grep -i vi
alias vi='vim -U ~/.vimrc'
In the above example, we can see "vi" is actually an alias which runs Vim with the -U flag and we don't want this. In the short-term, we can disable the alias with this command:
$ unalias vi
However, in the longer-term, you may want to hunt down which configuration file is creating the "vi" alias and delete the line. Usually aliases are kept in the ~/.bashrc or /etc/bashrc files.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
MX Linux 23.6
The MX Linux project has announced a new version, MX Linux 23.6, which is based on Debian 12. "MX Linux 23.6 is the sixth refresh of our MX 23 release, consisting of bug fixes, kernel updates and application updates since our original release of MX 23. If you are already running MX 23, there is no need to reinstall. Packages are all available through the regular update channels or by installing the changed applications. Highlights include: Debian 12.10 'Bookworm' base. Some highlights since our 23.5 release include: Xfce 4.20 core packages (Xfce ISO images and Raspberry Pi respin); MX Package Installer has user interface improvements, particularly dealing with Flatpak setup and privilege elevation prompts; improved privilege prompt management in many MX tools; for Xfce users, improvements to mx-system-sounds login function, waiting for a sound server to start before trying to play the sound; fixes to deal with Xfce desktop changes and setting wallpapers; fixes to 'preserve home' mode in the installer UEFI Manager, a standalone tool for managing UEFI settings...." Additional details can be found in the release announcement.
MX Linux 23.6 -- Running the Xfce desktop
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T2 SDE 25.4
T2 SDE is an open-source system development environment (or distribution build kit if you are more familiar with that term). T2 allows the creation of custom distributions with bleeding-edge technology. The project's latest release is version 25.4m which supports 12 CPU families. The release announcement states: "We are pleased to announce T2 25.4 as a major, AI-ready release, shipping latest AMD ROCm, which thanks to a sponsorship collaboration of DeepComputing and ExactCODE GmbH has been successfully ported to RISC-V and ARM64! This breakthrough significantly advances independant AI and HPC solutions on open hardware platforms. With a total of 17 pre-compiled base install ISOs for various Glibc, Musl and uClibc combinations are available for 12 CPU ISAs: Alpha, ARM(64), HPPA64, IA64, MIPS64, PowerPC(64), RISCV64, SPARC64, i586, x86-64. On most architectures the release still boots with as little as 512MB of RAM or even less, and ISO downloads are less than 2GB for base Wayland desktop with Firefox. The release contains a total of 3728 changesets, including approximately 4558 package updates, 483 fixed issues, 527 packages or features added and 138 removed. Around 25 other improvements have been committed. More details can be found on the release page."
Manjaro Linux 25.0.0
Philip Müller has announced the release of Manjaro Linux 25.0.0, a major update of the project's rolling-release set of desktop-oriented distribution. The new release upgrades all the supported desktops; Manjaro now ships with GNOME 48, Plasma 6.3 and Xfce 4.20: "Manjaro 25.0 'Zetar' released. Since we released 'Yonada' in December 2024, we worked hard to get the next release of Manjaro out there. We call it 'Zetar'. The GNOME edition has received several updates to Gnome 48 series. This includes a lot of fixes and polish when Gnome 48 3 originally was released in March 2025. The Plasma edition comes with the latest Plasma 6.3 series 1, Frameworks 6.12 and KDE Gear 24.12 1. It brings exciting new improvements to your desktop. With our Xfce edition, we have now Xfce 4.20. Linux kernel 6.12 is used for this release, including the latest drivers available to date. With 6.6 LTS and 6.1 LTS, we offer additional support for older hardware as needed." Continue to the release announcement for more details.
Ultramarine Linux 41
Ultramarine Linux is a Fedora-based distribution featuring extra package repositories such as RPM Fusion and enabling multimedia codecs. The project's latest version, 41, adds a new tool to help track and report system information. "Ultramarine 41 comes with a new tool for advanced users, um. Currently, its main feature is the um status command, which gives an overview of your install, package status, hardware, and more. This is useful for sharing your install details for support (or flexing your rig). Additionally, the status command supports uploading your status information to Boba, our web viewer. Just run um status --upload and the CLI will output a link that you can share. This upload is end to end encrypted and will expire in 7 days. We plan to put experimental features and advanced options in this CLI tool, stay tuned for more. Our PDF viewer is now Evince and our music player is now Lollypop. In addition, the apps menu icon should now be the Ultramarine logo, in line with the rest of our editions." Additional information can be found in the release announcement.
Fedora 42
The Fedora team has announced the release of Fedora 42. The new version elevates the KDE Plasma spin to "edition" status, alongside the existing GNOME edition, and introduces a new COSMIC desktop spin. "We've promoted our KDE Plasma desktop offering to 'Edition' status. The Fedora KDE team has been hard at work making sure bugs get fixed and everything is polished just so. We're confident that this can stand along our other amazing flagship offerings. I know the naming is a bit confusing, with GNOME-powered 'Workstation' using a generic label while KDE Plasma has the tech right in the name. We'll get that figured out eventually. If you don't know where to start, don't panic. Pick one and see how it goes." Additional information is available in the release announcement and in the release notes. The project also acknowledges a cosmetic bug: "We discovered a problem with the live boot media at the last minute, and since the release was already out of the airlock, we can't do much about it. It doesn't damage anything, but is annoying: just booting the Live media adds an unexpected entry to the UEFI boot loader even when Fedora Linux 42 is not installed to the local system."
Fedora 42 -- Running the GNOME desktop
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TrueNAS 25.04.0
Pee Jay Latombo has announced the release of a major update of TrueNAS, a specialist, Debian-based Linux distribution designed for NAS (network-attached storage) computers. Version 25.04.0 unifies the formerly separate "SCALE" and "CORE" editions of the product. It also features the latest long-term supporter Linux kernel, version 6.12: "TrueNAS 'Fangtooth' has been released with the today's launch of TrueNAS 25.04.0. This RELEASE version of TrueNAS brings improvements to apps and OpenZFS for both community and enterprise users, and is the recommended and unified upgrade path for both SCALE 24.10 and CORE 13.x installations. For our TrueNAS enterprise users there are additional major performance, security and storage integration improvements. TrueNAS 25.04 builds on the widely adopted TrueNAS 24.10 'Electric Eel' which delivered both integrated Docker support and significantly improved performance over TrueNAS 13.0. It builds on the combined capabilities of both TrueNAS CORE and SCALE. Fangtooth introduces a number of new features, including Linux kernel 6.12 featuring improved and extended hardware support." Read the release announcement and the release notes for further information.
deepin 23.1
The deepin project has released a new update to the distribution's 23.x series. deepin 23.1 introduces updated hardware support, introduced new local search options, and switched the distribution's AI engine to DeepSeek. "1. Hardware Compatibility and Kernel Optimization: Integrated 6.6/6.12 kernel updates, NVIDIA graphics driver upgrades, and Intel/AMD CPU microcode updates for comprehensive improvements in hardware compatibility and low-level performance 2. Core Feature Enhancements: DDE: Introduced smart mirror source management and compact mode entry; Global Search: Added offline natural language processing (NLP) and AI-powered capabilities. 3. Dev Tools and Cross-Platform Support: App Store: Adapted for Debian/Ubuntu/Arch subsystem environments with quick-launch support; Linyaps: Added remote repository management and build tool optimizations, boosting application development efficiency. 4. UOS AI Upgrade Default engine switched to DeepSeek; Added web search integration, local model deployment, and text error correction features. 5. Stability Reinforcement: Fixed over 100 user-reported issues across system modules, DDE, file manager, and cross-device collaboration, enhancing overall system responsiveness." Additional details can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
Murena 2.9
The Murena project has announced the release of version 2.9 of its /e/OS operating system. The new release introduces support for the Pixel 8 smartphone, makes it possible to export items from the Notes application, and a number of bugs have been fixed. "Google Pixel 8 is now available on AOSP 14 for Community builds. It's now possible to export your Notes to a .md file on your device. Mullvad DNS All has been implemented as Parental Control's default DNS and Kids DNS0 is implemented as a fallback. Location is now requested from supported Hotspot by default, so now you can be located while connected to the train's Wi-Fi for instance. LineageOS 21 latest bug fixes and security updates have been merged (list). Browser has been updaded to upstream version v134.0.6998.89. Web Calendar Manager has been updaded to upstream version v2.2.6. Web Calendar Manager no longer crashes while editing an already added entry. Icon display for PWA and open source apps has been fixed. Common apps are not visible anymore when disabled in the settings and are displayed systematically among searched results when enabled in the settings. F-Droid and Google Play Store links open in App Lounge." Additional details can be found in the project's release notes.
Ubuntu 25.04
Canoncial has announced the release of Ubuntu 25.04 "Plucky Puffin" which introduces the Linux 6.14 kernel and offers nine months of support. "buntu 25.04 introduces GNOME 48 with triple buffering for smoother performance, HDR settings, and new features like a Wellbeing Panel and Preserve Battery Health mode. A new modern PDF reader, Papers, is now the default. The installer now offers a smoother experience when installing alongside other operating systems, with better BitLocker support, and advanced partitioning. Built on the Linux 6.14 kernel, this release brings a new scheduling system with sched_ext, enhanced Wine/Proton gaming support through the new NTSYNC driver, and better container tooling via decoupled bpftools and linux-perf. Developer experience takes a leap forward with the introduction of devpacks. These snap bundles deliver the latest Go and Spring ecosystems, alongside updated toolchains for Python, Rust, .NET, LLVM, OpenJDK, and more." Additional details can be found in the company's release announcement and in the release notes.
Ubuntu 25.04 -- Exploring the GNOME desktop
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Kubuntu 25.04
The Kubuntu project has announced the release of Kubuntu 25.04 which features version 6.3 of the Plasma desktop. The release announcement shares the highlights: "The Kubuntu Team is happy to announce that Kubuntu 25.04 has been released. Codenamed 'Plucky Puffin', Kubuntu 25.04 continues our tradition of giving you Friendly Computing by integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The release features the latest KDE Plasma 6.3 desktop, KDE Gear 24.12.3, kernel 6.14, and many other updated applications and libraries. Applications for core day-to-day usage are included and updated, such as Firefox, and LibreOffice. In addition to the applications on our install media, 25.04 benefits from the huge number of applications in the Ubuntu archive, plus those installable via snap or other methods. Please refer to our release notes for further details."
Ubuntu MATE 25.04
Martin Wimpress has announced the availability of Ubuntu MATE 25.04. The new version, which recevies nine months of support, marks the tenth anniversary of the Ubuntu MATE project as an official Ubuntu flavour. The release announcement shares highlights for version 25.04: "What changed in Ubuntu MATE 25.04? Here are the highlights of what's new in the Plucky Puffin release: Celebrating 10 years as an official Ubuntu flavour! Optional full disk encryption in the installer. Enhanced advanced partitioning options. Better interaction with existing BitLocker-enabled Windows installations. Improved experience when installing alongside other operating systems. Major applications accompanying MATE desktop and Linux 6.14 are Firefox 137, Evolution 3.56, LibreOffice 25.2.2. See the Ubuntu 25.04 Release Notes for details of all the changes and improvements that Ubuntu MATE benefits from." The announcement also includes a link to upgrade instructions for people running previous versions of the distribution.
Ubuntu Studio 25.04
The Ubuntu Studio team have announced the release of Ubuntu Studio 25.04 which offers a rangeof creative and multimedia tools. The project's latest release features the Plasma desktop, version 3.0 of the GNU Image Manipulation Program, Pencil2D, Invada Studio plugins, and PipeWire 1.2.7. "The long-awaited GIMP 3.0 is included by default. GIMP is now capable of non-destructive editing with filters, better Photoshop PSD export, and so very much more! Check out the GIMP 3.0 release announcement for more information. Ubuntu Studio now includes Pencil2D! This is a 2D animation and drawing application that is sure to be helpful to animators. You can use basic clipart to make animations! The basic features of Pencil2D are: layers support (separated layer for bitmap, vector and soud part), bitmap drawing, vector drawing, sound support. The LibreOffice suite is now part of the full desktop install. This will save space for those wishing for a minimalistic setup for their needs." Additional information is offered in the project's release announcement.
Lubuntu 25.04
The Lubuntu project has released Lubuntu 25.04, an interim release which will receive nine months of support. The distribution's 25.04 release is one focused on transition and gradual changes as the project moves from Qt 5 to Qt 6 and from X11 to Wayland. "Our biggest point of refresh has been on two fronts, which we've previously laid out in our '24.04 LTS to 26.04 LTS' cycle plans: Port as much software as reasonable from Qt 5 to Qt 6. Get Lubuntu fully prepared for Wayland. Of course, some other items have happened, such as our move to Fancy Menu by default. This being said, Qt 6 porting and Wayland preparation were the primary points of focus. Again on the point of 'stability comes first,' we decided to delay Wayland one last cycle. This is the last time we are delaying this. Thanks to the warm welcome and support from the Mir team, Fedora LXQt, and a handful of other teams, we are proud to announce that Lubuntu 25.10, Questing Quokka, will indeed ship with Miriway as the default Wayland compositor, backed by a deb-based Mir 2.20. This switch will happen immediately following the opening of Questing, despite the fact that early, pre-alpha daily images may be completely unusable." Additional information on the transition-in-progress can be found in the project's release announcement.
Xubuntu 25.04
The Xubuntu project has released Xubuntu 25.04, an interim release which features the latest applications from Xfce, GNOME, and MATE. "Xubuntu 25.04, codenamed Plucky Puffin, is a regular release and will be supported for 9 months, until January 2026. Xubuntu 25.04 features the latest Xfce 4.20, GNOME 48, and MATE 1.26 updates. Xfce 4.20 features many bug fixes and minor improvements, modernizing the Xubuntu desktop while maintaining a familiar look and feel. GNOME 48 apps are tightly integrated and have full support for dark mode. Users of QEMU and KVM will be delighted to find new stability with the desktop session - the long-running X server crash has been resolved in Xubuntu 25.04 and backported to all supported Xubuntu releases. The final release images for Xubuntu Desktop and Xubuntu Minimal are available as torrents and direct downloads." The release announcement offers additional highlights and a list of known issues.
Xubuntu 25.04 -- Running the Xfce desktop
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Ubuntu Budgie 25.04
The Ubuntu Budgie team have announced the release of Ubuntu Budgie 25.04. The interim release continues the project's transition to supporting Wayland. "The key focus for the team for this cycle has been the conversion of our distro to a Wayland based distro. We have been working closely with our fellow Buddies Of Budgie maintainers. Excellent progress has been made towards this huge effort - we are almost there and we will be making available a 25.04 PPA specifically for our fantastic community to try and feedback. We will be shortly announcing the when-how-why in a dedicated blog post. Note - we intend to ship v10.10 of budgie-desktop as a stable release for 25.10; this will be wayland only. For 25.04 budgie-desktop is Xorg-server based and this PPA will give 25.04 users an easy way to try and give feedback - help fix issues etc. We are no longer including Thunderbird as part of our default application set. With many users now using webmail we have decided the choice of email clients should rightly be put into our community hands - see later for the email ballot." The project's release announcement has additional information.
Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04
Joshua Peisach has announced the release of Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04. Ubuntu Cinnamon is an official Ubuntu variant that features the latest Cinnamon desktop as developed by the Linux Mint project: "I am excited to share our latest release, the Ubuntu Cinnamon 25.04 'Plucky Puffin'. It comes with Cinnamon 6.4.8 and features bug fixes, new features and improvements to the user interface. Our 24.10 'Oracular Oriole' release used Cinnamon 6.0.4. The 25.04 'Plucky Puffin' release uses Cinnamon 6.4.8. Here is what's new, aside from bug fixes, tweaks and minor enhancements: the profile picture can now be displayed with the user applet; the Cinnamon user interface has been modernized in general; the power applet supports more devices and their labels; nightlight configuration in Display settings; the main menu is now controllable with the arrow keys on the numpad; Cinnamon Control Center 6.4.1; Cinnamon Screensaver 6.4.0 - the lock screen can now have delay increments of 5 and 10 seconds; Cinnamon Settings daemon 6.4.2 - new audio device selection dialog...." See the release announcement and the release notes for further information and known issues.
Ubuntu Unity 25.04
Rudra Saraswat has announced the release of Ubuntu Unity 25.04, the latest update of this Ubuntu community edition that integrates the Ubuntu base system with the Unity desktop (an interface which was used by all standard Ubuntu releases prior to 2017 when it was dropped in favour of GNOME). The release announcement warns of a last-minute bug that affects computers with a BIOS firmware: "Ubuntu Unity 25.04 'Plucky Puffin' has now been released. A bug affecting Ubuntu Unity, Kubuntu and Lubuntu was discovered a few hours prior to the release wherein manual partitioning installs on BIOS systems result in unbootable installations. As it could not be fixed in time for the release, we recommend that you do not attempt a manual partitioning install if your computer only has a BIOS. Upgrades from Ubuntu Unity 24.10 will usually be enabled within a few weeks of the release, upon which you should receive a notification prompting you to upgrade to 25.04."
Ubuntu Unity 25.04 -- Running the Unity desktop
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Ubuntu Kylin 25.04
The Ubuntu Kylin project has announced the release of Ubuntu Kylin 25.04, an interim release which will receive nine months of support. The project's new release introduces APT 3.0, updates development languages, and ships with the UKUI desktop. "Toolchain ipgrades: GCC: Snapshot of upcoming GCC 15; binutils: Updated to 2.44; glibc: Updated to 2.41; Python: Updated to 3.13.3; LLVM: Defaults to version 20; Rust: Default toolchain is 1.84; Golang: Updated to 1.24; OpenJDK: Versions 24 GA and 25 Early Access Snapshot are now available. Package management: APT has been updated to 3.0. A new dependency solver is automatically used when the classic solver cannot find a solution. It may also be triggered to provide more context in failure cases or to evaluate performance. UKUI desktop environment: Ubuntu Kylin 25.04 features the UKUI desktop environment, designed for visual elegance and ease of use. It provides a wide range of personalized settings, enabling users to build desktop layouts that match their preferences - making daily work more efficient and comfortable." Additional information is provided in the project's release announcement.
Voyager Live 25.04
The Voyager Live project has released a new version of its Ubuntu-based distribution. The project's latest release, Voyager Live 25.04, is an interim release offering nine months of support. "I present you Voyager 25.04 final version. A version 2-in-1 with GNOME and Xfce desktops unified in a single distribution: Voyager. Select your preferred session. Everything is presented in a colorful style completely redesigned for this combination, the GNOME 48 desktop coupled with the lighter desktop of Xfce 4.20. In summary, two unified systems, GNOME and Xfce, are light, fast, modern, fluid, secure and powerful in a hybrid environment for PCs and tablets. The two desktops are very distinct and their respective applications are mostly seamless, for either environment. Once installed, you can also remove GNOME or Xfce entirely or reinstall. For the first time, we will be integrating ChatGPT, one AI Chatbot in the terminal without the need for API key in version 3.5, plus the ChatGPT 4th version mini GNOME extension and an option to remove AI. This version is based on the kernel Linux 6.14 and Ubuntu 'Plucky Puffin'. Version 25.04 is an intermediate version with 9 months of updates while preparingfor the future LTS that will provide 5 to 10 years of updates." Further information can be found in the project's release announcement.
Edubuntu 25.04
Amy Eickmeyer has announced the release of Edubuntu 25.04, the latest stable version of the project's official Ubuntu variant designed to bring the freedom of the Linux desktop and the vast library of open-source education software into the classroom. "We are glad to let you know that we've released Edubuntu 25.04 and we've replaced some of our apps that were no longer supported with similar applications so you can still get the same wonderful experience. New features: this release includes GNOME 48; for Qt-based/KDE apps, we now include themes via Kvantum, mostly as a workaround for the inability to change the accent color in those applications; this theme is based on GNOME's libadwaita, on which the default Ubuntu theme (Yaru) is based; GNOME Notes is dead upstream, for that reason, we have switched to the resurrected GNote; likewise, GNOME Dictionary is also dead upstream and we have replaced it with Artha, which is more of a thesaurus but does dictionary operations as well. Known issues: upon first boot, the system will reboot - this is normal and is the mechanism to set the logo for the login screen; Artha will not launch on a Wayland session." Here is the complete release announcement.
* * * * *
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: 3,202
- Total data uploaded: 47.1TB
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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) |
What is your text editor of choice?
This week we mentioned the Vim text editor, a command line editor which is commonly deployed on Linux distributions, the BSDs, and other members of the Unix family. While Vim is commonly packaged, its unusual nature means it is a difficult text editor for new users to learn. There are many command line text editors in the Linux community and we would like to hear which one is your favourite.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running desktop applications in containers in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Which is your favourite command line text editor?
| ed: | 10 (0%) |
| Emacs: | 123 (6%) |
| Nano: | 735 (37%) |
| vi: | 110 (5%) |
| Vim: | 360 (18%) |
| Other (see comments): | 145 (7%) |
| I use a GUI text editor: | 439 (22%) |
| I do not use a text editor: | 82 (4%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 28 April 2025. 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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| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • 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 |
| • 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 | 
heads
heads was a privacy-focused Linux distribution designed to make it easy for users to access the Internet anonymously using the Tor network. heads was based on Devuan and features only free (libre) software. The Linux kernel has had non-free blobs removed.
Status: Discontinued
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| 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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