DistroWatch Weekly |
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 699, 13 February 2017 |
Welcome to this year's 7th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Open source is virtually everywhere these days. Open source operating systems power many of the world's servers, run many of our media players and run on most of our smart phones. This week we explore several niche projects and distributions, starting with the OpenELEC and Clear Linux projects. OpenELEC is a distribution dedicated to running the Kodi media software on a variety of devices and Clear Linux is a fast, minimal server operating system. We also talk about Ubuntu's mobile operating system running on the modifiable Fairphone, GhostBSD's network configuration utility being ported to FreeBSD and the elementary OS team working on a pay-what-you-want app store. Plus we talk about the benefits and drawbacks to different types of file compression in our Tips and Tricks column and ask people about their preferred archive formats in our Opinion Poll. We are happy to provide a list of last week's releases and share the torrents we are seeding. Plus we have a new distribution, SLG OS, on our waiting list. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (43MB) and MP3 (28MB) formats.
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Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
OpenELEC 7.0.0
OpenELEC is a Linux-based distribution designed to act as a media hub and, in particular, to run the Kodi media software. (Kodi was previously named XBMC.) The Kodi software essentially turns the computer into a dedicated media centre which can either play media directly or through an attached television. The OpenELEC distribution provides a range of builds for x86-powered computers, Raspberry Pi and WeTek devices, along with a few other platforms.
The installation images we download from OpenELEC are compressed disk images which can be written to USB thumb drives or SD cards. There do not appear to be any ISO images which would be suitable for writing to a CD or DVD.
Since I had previously experimented with OpenELEC on my Raspberry Pi computer which features an ARM processor, I decided to shift focus and run OpenELEC 7.0.0 on a laptop computer, running on a 64-bit x86 processor. I downloaded the 221MB compressed disk image which, when unpacked, expanded to 548MB. I then copied this image file to a USB thumb drive and used it to boot my laptop.
Booting from the OpenELEC media brought up a series of text menus which asked if I would like to install a fresh copy of the distribution or upgrade an existing installation. Selecting the fresh install option brought up a menu asking me to select which hard drive would host my new copy of OpenELEC. I selected my hard drive and a warning appeared letting me know any data on the disk would be lost when OpenELEC was installed.
I opted to proceed and, a minute later, the installer announced it was finished. From there I removed my thumb drive and rebooted the computer. At this point I ran into a wall as OpenELEC failed to boot. I was a little disappointed as my past experimented with OpenELEC 5.0.8 had gone well.
OpenELEC's latest version looks enticing and I've had good luck with the distribution before, but this time around the system did not play well with my laptop so I moved on to a new project I had not tried before.
* * * * *
Clear Linux
I next turned my attention to a distribution which has only recently been added to the DistroWatch database: Clear Linux. The Clear Linux distribution is unusual in a few ways. For one, the project is not designed to be a full featured or general purpose operating system; Clear Linux focuses on performance more than features. The distribution is fairly minimal and is designed with cloud computing in mind, though it may also be used in other areas, particularly on servers. The project's website states:
The Clear Linux Project for Intel Architecture is a distribution built for various cloud use cases. We want to showcase the best of Intel Architecture technology and performance, from low-level kernel features to complex applications that span across the entire OS stack. We're putting emphasis on power and performance optimizations throughout the operating system as a whole... Our aim was not to make yet another general-purpose Linux distribution; sometimes lean-and-fast is better than big-and-universal.
Another aspect of Clear Linux which sets it apart is the distribution does not handle software the same way most other Linux distributions do. Instead of upgrading thousands of individual packages, the Clear Linux operating system gets upgraded as a whole. We do not upgrade the desktop or our text editor individually, with Clear Linux we upgrade the entire operating system from one version to the next. This makes Clear Linux a sort of unified rolling release operating system. We can add or remove software, but these components (called "bundles" rather than "packages") encapsulate a piece of software and its dependencies. Again, the project's website explains:
We do not deploy software through packages as many distributions do. Instead, we provide "bundles" that each contain a set of functionality for the system administrator -- functionality that is enabled by composing all the required upstream open source projects into one logical unit: a bundle.... There is another notable difference between package-based distributions and the Clear Linux OS for Intel Architecture. On a package-based OS, a system administrator can update each individual package or piece of software to a newer (or older!) version. In the Clear Linux OS for Intel Architecture, an update translates to an entirely new OS version, containing one or many updates; it is not possible to update a piece of the system while remaining on the same version of Clear Linux.
Clear Linux is available in several builds for various virtual environments, including KVM, Azure and Hyper-V. However, the build I wanted to try on my laptop was the "Live" edition which can be run from a USB thumb drive. I feel it worth mentioning the Live edition collects and sends telemetry data back to the project's developers.
The Live edition of Clear Linux was a 211MB download which gave me a compressed image file. Unpacking the downloaded file resulted in a 5,185MB (approximately 5GB) image file which I could then transfer to a USB thumb drive. I plugged the drive into my laptop and attempted to boot Clear Linux. I found the distribution failed to boot when my laptop was run in legacy BIOS mode, but Clear Linux booted without issue when running in UEFI mode.
Clear Linux's Live edition boots very quickly, taking just a few seconds to bring us to a text console with a login prompt. From here we can sign into the root account without a password. The system insists on getting us to create a password for the root account and we cannot complete logging in until a suitable password is provided. This caused me a little frustration as Clear Linux insisted on a long password that was not based on a dictionary word, it had to be complex and not based on any recognizable pattern. It took me more than a few tries to come up with something the distribution would accept.
Once we get signed in we find ourselves in a very minimal environment. Clear Linux basically just runs a few systemd background services and the login terminal. There are only about a dozen processes running in total, using about 51MB of memory. The distribution features the GNU command line utilities, the OpenSSH secure shell service and Python. I intentionally downloaded a version of Clear Linux which was a few versions out of date to test the upgrade functionality. Version 12100 of the operating system used systemd 231 and version 4.8.12 of the Linux kernel. There are no manual pages or compiler and there is no graphical environment. The distribution takes up about 914MB of disk space.
At first, the root account is the only user on the system. There are not even any other accounts for background services as is common on other distributions. We can add other users to the system using the useradd command line program.
When running on my laptop, I noticed Clear Linux did not recognize my wireless network card, but I was able to plug into a wired connection and use the Ethernet port. Clear Linux automatically sets up a wired network connection and uses Google's DNS servers to resolve hostnames.
Since Clear Linux starts us off with a minimal environment, we will likely want to install new software (bundles) from the distribution's software repository. Installing new bundles, removing unwanted bundles and upgrading the operating system are all tasks handled by a command line program called swupd. To check for new versions of the operating system we can run swupd check-update. This will display the version of the operating system we are using (12100 in my case) and display the version number of the latest release, such as 12400. We can then run swupd update to grab the next version. There is no prompt to confirm the action, swupd simply proceeds. I found upgrades happened fairly quickly, requiring just a few minutes.
To find new bundles we may want to install we can run swupd bundle-add --list. This shows us a simple list of available bundles. The names of these bundles can be short and a bit cryptic and there are no detailed descriptions of bundles so far as I could find. Some item names are fairly straight forward, like the php bundle installs the PHP development language. But I wasn't sure what bat was, or what the differences were between the iot, iot-base and iot-extras bundles.
I noticed there was a bundle for the Xfce desktop. This package does install the components of the Xfce desktop environment, but I was unsuccessful in getting the desktop environment to launch on my laptop.
The swupd software manager works quickly and with very little output. This can make it look like the software manager has locked up, but it always successfully completed its tasks while I was experimenting with it. I was able to install a few tools and experiment with them and found Clear Linux to be stable and fast, as advertised.
I was pleased to note changes to the operating system are persistent across reboots with the changes and upgrades I made being written to the USB thumb drive. All in all, I felt like Clear Linux was a cousin to RancherOS which I explored in my article on small Linux distributions. Like RancherOS, Clear Linux focuses on being a small platform on which we can add new bundles, containers or services. It's probably not an operating system a person would run at home, at least not on a desktop computer, but Clear Linux's performance and simplified software management does make it an appealing option for cloud and server deployments. If you are interested in squeezing more performance out of a server system, I recommend looking through the distribution's documentation as it has several helpful hints and tutorials for setting up services.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a de-branded HP laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: Intel i3 2.5GHz CPU
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 700GB hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Wired network device: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast
- Wireless network device: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless network card
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Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
GhostBSD's network utility ported to FreeBSD, Ubuntu coming to the Fairphone, elementary OS crowd funding an app store
For a while now people running the GhostBSD operating system have been able to use a graphical desktop utility to connect to nearby networks. The tool, called NetworkMgr, has a similar interface and purpose as the Network Manager program that is used by most Linux distributions. The easy point-n-click nature of the GhostBSD networking tool has made it an attractive option to many FreeBSD users and the NetworkMgr program has recently been added to FreeBSD's port collection. Detailed information on the NetworkMgr port can be found on the FreshPorts website.
* * * * *
Canonical, the company behind the popular Ubuntu operating system, will be showcasing an interesting device at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February. The Canonical booth will be featuring the Fairphone 2 mobile device running Ubuntu Touch as its operating system. "The Ubuntu Community UBports has one mission: to have the open source software Ubuntu on every device, starting with smart phones. UBports' actions are based on collaborative development where developers are putting Ubuntu on different smart phones. During the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona end of February UBports will show a very special combination: Ubuntu on the Fairphone 2. With this successfully working device two worlds come together: sustainability and open source." The Fairphone is a development effort to create a modular phone where individual pieces of the phone can be repaired or upgraded. This allows the owner of the Fairphone to upgrade or modify their phone rather than regularly purchasing a new device. The Fairphone 2 can run both the Android and Ubuntu Touch operating systems, mostly due to porting work done by the UBports project. Further information on the phone and UBports can be found on this Ubuntu Insights page.
* * * * *
The elementary OS team is trying to entice more developers to create software for Linux by creating a pay-what-you-want app store. The specifications for the elementary app store outline a portal where Linux users will be able to download third-party software that is DRM-free and pay what they want. This approach to providing software to Linux users on a pay-what-you-want basis has worked well for Humble Bundle sales. "If the Humble Indie Bundle has shown us anything, it's that people place varying amounts of value on indie content and you can still be wildly successful while letting people vote with their wallets. We believe that pay-what-you-want both allows indie developers to get paid for their time and ensures that apps are available to the widest audience possible. We've built our company on pay-what-you-want by making every release of elementary OS available with this model. We're excited to bring this unique model to our users and third party developers by making AppCenter 100% pay-what-you-want." The elementary OS team is running a crowd funding campaign in order to try to raise the money to develop their AppCenter.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
Package compression compared
These days people move a lot of data over the Internet. We load web pages, view videos, stream music and download software over our network connections. Ideally, we would like the things we download to use as little bandwidth as possible. Reducing bandwidth means finding a form of data compression which will keep our downloads small and, hopefully, not use up too much of our processor's time.
This past week I decided to try out five different compression technologies to see how they compare in terms of the time required to compress (or decompress) a package archive. I also measured how much each compression method was able to shrink the size of the archive and listed these statistics in the chart below.
I selected these five compression methods (bzip2, gzip, lzip, LZOP and xz/LZMA) because they are the options listed in the tar manual page and therefore most likely to be used when creating package archives. To test each compression method, I put together a package archive which included several text files, some images and some binary data (system libraries). I then compressed and unpacked the archive multiple times and recorded the average time it took to create and unpack the compressed archive.
The results of my test are listed below with the best results marked in bold. In each field, lower values are better.
Compression type |
Average time to compress (s) |
Average time to unpack (s) |
Compressed size (%) |
bzip2
| 5.364 |
1.890 |
64.6 |
gzip
| 1.205 |
0.378 |
66.8 |
lzip
| 10.233 |
1.909 |
62.2 |
LZOP
| 0.217 |
0.324 |
73.6 |
xz
| 9.508 |
0.947 |
62.0 |
As you can see from the above chart, the xz/LZMA compression option (as offered through tar) provided strong compression, though relatively slow performance. The gzip method, which is probably the most commonly used way to compress tarballs, offers a great deal of speed and pretty good compression. The LZOP approach worked so quickly I was not sure at first it had done anything at all. LZOP did well when considering how quickly it worked, but the trade-off was the lowest compression ratio of the trial.
Looking at the above statistics, I think it becomes more clear why packagers tend to favour the compression methods (typically bzip2, gzip and xz) they use. The gzip approach is very quick, bzip2 offers a pretty good balance between performance and compression while xz trades off performance for better compression.
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For more questions and answers, visit our Questions and Answers archive.
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Released Last Week |
NethServer 7.3
Alessio Fattorini has announced the release of NethServer 7.3. The NethServer distribution is a CentOS-based project for servers and features a modular design along with web-based administrative controls. The new version can use Samba to replace Microsoft Active Directory domain controllers and features centralized account management. "NethServer is now able to act as a Samba Active Directory Controller. NethServer can replace a Microsoft Active Directory Domain Controller Native MS-Windows management tools, like RSAT tools and AD PowerShell are compatible with NethServer Group policies can be deployed through native MS-Windows tools Windows workstations can seamlessly join the AD Domain, no more registry tweaks are needed. NethServer 7 brings a centralized account management (so-called 'multi-site') supporting authentication and authorization against either a local or remote accounts provider." Additional details can be found in the NethServer release announcement.
CRUX 3.3
Juergen Daubert has announced the release of CRUX 3.3, a new version of the project's lightweight (and systemd-free) Linux distribution designed for experienced Linux users (or users willing to follow a detailed handbook). This is the distribution's first stable release in nearly 15 months. "The CRUX team is happy to announce the release of CRUX 3.3. CRUX 3.3 comes with a multilib toolchain which includes glibc 2.24, GCC 6.3.0 and Binutils 2.27. Kernel - Linux 4.9.6. CRUX 3.3 ships with X.Org 7.7 and X.Org Server 1.19.1. The ISO image is processed with isohybrid and is suitable for burning on a CD and putting on a USB drive. UEFI support is available during installation with dosfstools, efibootmgr, and grub2-efi added to the image. Important libraries have been updated to new major versions which are not ABI compatible with the old versions. We strongly advise against manually updating to CRUX 3.3 via ports, since these changes will temporarily break the system." Here is the brief release announcement, with further details provided in the release notes.
* * * * *
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. Thanks to Linux Tracker we are able to share the following torrent statistics.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 295
- Total data uploaded: 56.5TB
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Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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Opinion Poll |
Archive formats
There are a lot of archive formats out there, each with a different set of strengths and weaknesses. Some formats are designed to be fast, others are portable and some strive to produce very small archives. This week we would like to find out if you have a preferred format to work with. You can leave us a comment with your reasons below.
You can see the results of our previous poll on portable packages, virtual machines and containers here. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Favourite archive format
BZIP2: | 98 (5%) |
GZIP: | 280 (15%) |
LZIP: | 67 (4%) |
LZOP: | 10 (1%) |
RAR: | 159 (8%) |
XZ: | 263 (14%) |
ZIP: | 394 (21%) |
Other: | 178 (9%) |
No strong preference: | 458 (24%) |
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DistroWatch.com News |
Testing searches for language support
This past week we introduced a new search feature: finding distributions based on multi-language support. It is now possible to filter search results based on which languages a distribution supports out of the box.
At the moment our information on which languages each project includes is somewhat limited and there are gaps in our data. We mostly have just a project's website or wiki to use for confirmation of multilingual support. For this reason, some of the projects in our database simply have "Yes/Other" listed in the multi-language field and other projects may have an incomplete listing of included language codes. If you spot a gap our information, please help us correct it by e-mailing us with a link to where the distribution has listed their supported languages. Together we can make the language search function more useful.
We have also added a page which lists the torrents we are seeding and have seeded in the past. The new Torrent Archive can display torrents listed alphabetically (if you want to look for a specific distribution) or by date (if you want to find a recent upload).
* * * * *
Distributions added to waiting list
- SLG OS. SLG OS stands for the Security Learning Group Operating System. The distribution is a Persian-language operating system based on Ubuntu and featuring the Budgie desktop environment.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 20 February 2017. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. 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)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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Tip Jar |
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Archives |
• Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
• Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20 |
• Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
• Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
• Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
• Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
• Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
• Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
• Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
• Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
• Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
• Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
• Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
• Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
• Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
• Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
• Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
• Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
• Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
• Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
• Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
• Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
• Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
• Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
• Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
• Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
• Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
• Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
• Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
• Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
• Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
• Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
• Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
• Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
• Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
• Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
• Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
• Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
• Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
• Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
• Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
• Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
• Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
• Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
• Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
• Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
• Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
• Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
• Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
• Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
• Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
• Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
• Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
• Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
• Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
• 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 |
Haydar Linux
Haydarlinux was aimed to be the first Arabic Linux distribution that has the full Arabic support, by supporting Arabic in both localized and enabled faces. Haydar Linux will give all Arabs the best way to enter the Linux world with ease and stability.
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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