 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 890, 2 November 2020 |
Welcome to this year's 44th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Just over a week ago Canonical released Ubuntu 20.10, which was accompanied by the distribution's many official community editions. One of the key features in this new version is GNOME 3.38 which is reported to bring improved performance. This week we begin with a look at Ubuntu's Desktop edition and explore its strengths and its issues. One feature we touch on is that Ubuntu 20.10 offers the ability to run GNOME on a Wayland session or on the X.Org display server. Have you tried these two session options? If so we'd like to hear what you thought of them in our Opinion Poll. In our Questions and Answers column we address speculation on whether Microsoft is going to port its Windows operating system to the Linux kernel. We discuss some arguments for and against Microsoft fully embracing Linux. Last week Canonical announced plans to speed up Snap package load times and we share the details in our News section, along with a report that ReactOS is hiring a kernel developer. We also share tips from Fedora Magazine on how to upgrade Fedora's Silverblue edition and report on Linux Mint making its own Chromium packages. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we are pleased to announce the Arch-based Snal Linux distribution has been added to our database and details on this young distribution are included below. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Ubuntu 20.10
- News: ReactOS hires a kernel developer, Ubuntu speeding up Snap package load times, upgrading Fedora Silverblue, Linux Mint builds its own Chromium package
- Questions and answers: Considering a Microsoft Linux distro
- Released last week: Fedora 33, FreeBSD 12.2, NixOS 20.09
- Torrent corner: Fedora, FreeBSD, FuguIta, GParted Live, IPFire, Linux Lite, KDE neon, OpenIndiana, Nitrux, NixOS, Snal Linux, Swift Linux, Voyager Live
- Opinion poll: Does Wayland or X.Org provide a better experience?
- New additions: Snal Linux
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (18MB) and MP3 (13MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Ubuntu 20.10
Just over a week ago Canonical pushed out their latest version of Ubuntu which was accompanied by seven official community editions. The new 20.10 release features version 5.8 of the Linux kernel and the main desktop edition runs GNOME 3.38. Developers and tinkerers will be happy to learn Ubuntu 20.10 includes version 10 of the GNU Compiler Collection and can run on Raspberry Pi 4 computers. This release also includes the ability to connect to Active Directory domains at install time and features nftables as the default firewall backend which replaces iptables. Ubuntu 20.10 receives a mere nine months of support and security updates, making it a better platform for testers and enthusiasts rather than people who need a stable, long-term support operating system.
While there are Server and single board computer images for Ubuntu, I downloaded the Desktop edition which is 2.8GB in size. Booting from the live media automatically starts a self-verification check on the media. Once this passes the live disc brings up a window asking which language we would like to use and we can pick our preference from a list. There is also a link to the distribution's release notes which will open in the Firefox web browser. The window also includes buttons labelled "Try Ubuntu" which launches the GNOME desktop and "Install Ubuntu" which launches the Ubiquity system installer.
The live GNOME desktop worked just fine for me and I will come back to describing it later. For now I just want to acknowledge that it ran without any serious problems and that I soon clicked the system installer icon on the desktop to launch Ubiquity.
Ubuntu 20.10 -- The GNOME Help documentation
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Installing
The system installer provides a streamlined, graphical interface that quickly walks us through a few configuration options. Ubuntu's installer has not changed much in recent years and the screens asking us to pick our language, keyboard layout, and time zone are largely the same as in past releases. We are also asked if we wish to set up a Normal or Minimal installation. The Normal option includes a handful of desktop applications while Minimal appears to pretty much be the base system, GNOME desktop, and a web browser.
The installer asks if we want to download updated packages during the install process and if we wish to enable third-party software such as non-free hardware support and media codecs. When it comes to disk partitioning we can use a friendly, manual disk partitioning tool. Alternatively we can use guided partitioning which can make use of LVM and ZFS volumes. Earlier I mentioned the installer can connect to Active Directory domains and this option is presented on the screen where we create a username and password for ourselves.
Ubiquity accepted my choices, copied its files to my hard drive, and then offered to restart the computer when it was finished. So far things were going well.
Early impressions
My new copy of Ubuntu booted to a graphical login screen where I could sign into the GNOME desktop. There are two session options, though it took me a minute to find them as they are only presented when we click a button that looks like part of the background. The session option button appears in the bottom-right corner of the screen after we select which user account to use. By default Ubuntu runs the GNOME desktop on the X.Org display server, though there is a GNOME on Wayland option.
The first time I signed into my account a configuration wizard popped-up and offered to connect my local account to on-line accounts. Ubuntu, Google, Nextcloud, and Microsoft cloud services are supported. We are then asked if we would like to send our computer's hardware profile to Canonical. The following screens offer to enable location services and launch the Software utility to install additional applications. Then the wizard vanishes.
A few seconds later another window appeared and reported there were package updates available and asked if I would like to install them. As it turned out there was just one new package, Firefox, which was a 55MB download. I accepted the update manager's invitation and downloaded the new copy of Firefox which was applied successfully.
It was then I got my first serious look at the GNOME desktop. GNOME places a panel across the top of the screen which is home to the Activities menu on the left side, a date & notifications widget in the middle, the system tray to the right, and the far right corner holds the user & settings menu. Down the left side of the screen we find a dock which holds quick launch icons and acts as the desktop's task switcher. The bottom-left corner of the screen holds the application menu.
Hardware
When I started playing with Ubuntu it was in a VirtualBox environment. The distribution performed well in some ways. The GNOME desktop dynamically resized with the VirtualBox window and was generally stable. However, GNOME ran very slowly and was painfully unresponsive in the virtual machine.
Ubuntu ran better on physical hardware. GNOME was much more responsive, though applications were still a bit slow to load, whether I ran the distribution on an ext4 or ZFS filesystem. Something I kept noticing was GNOME displayed a lot of animations. These make the desktop seem more dynamic, more busy, but ultimately makes the system feel slower. Each time a window is minimized, restored, or closed there is an effect to accompany it which starts out looking neat, but quickly becomes an irritation when we end up waiting for it to finish hundreds of times a day. There does not appear to be an easy way to disable these animations; at least I didn't find a toggle for it in the settings panel.
Ubuntu 20.10 -- Adjusting desktop settings
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While using Ubuntu on my workstation a notification kept appearing at the top of the desktop letting me know a network connection could not be established. This notification appeared semi-regularly (once every few minutes), even after a network connection was set up and running. Sometimes it even appeared while I was transferring files over the network. I'm not sure what causes this inaccurate warning, but it quickly became an unwelcome distraction.
The distribution used a surprisingly large amount of RAM, 1.5GB when I was running the GNOME desktop with Ubuntu installed on a ZFS volume. Memory usage dropped down to 780MB when I ran the distribution on an ext4 filesystem. This is still higher than on most distributions I have tried this year. On the other hand, the system only required about 4GB of disk space, which is about average.
I mostly ran my GNOME session on the X.Org display server, though briefly tried Wayland too. I did not find there to be a significant difference between the too. This strikes me as good news as I typically run into problems of one sort or another when using Wayland, but this time the two were functionally almost identical.
Applications
Ubuntu ships with a fairly small collection of popular open source applications. Firefox is included along with LibreOffice, the Thunderbird e-mail client, and a calendar. The Rhythmbox and Videos applications are available along with media codecs. There is a backup application, the Cheese webcam utility, the Files file manager, a text editor, and the Transmission bittorrent client. I also found a document viewer and the GNOME Help application which explains how to navigate the desktop environment. The distribution ships with systemd which provides init and service manager functionality. Version 5.8 of the Linux kernel runs things in the background.
Ubuntu 20.10 -- Browsing the application menu
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Software management
Managing software applications on Ubuntu is handled by a desktop utility simply called Software (or sometimes Ubuntu Software). This program has three tabs. The first tab shows us a collection of popular software ("editor's picks") along with recent releases. At the bottom of the first tab we find categories of items, though these categories do not correspond with normal application menu categories. There are categories such as "News and Weather" and "Books and Reference" but nothing familiar like "Internet" or "Web". This left me to mostly use the search function to find programs I wanted.
Ubuntu 20.10 -- The Software utility
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Search was a mixed bag too as the search feature was slow, taking a lot longer than using the APT command line search function. I also discovered that if Software was unable to find any matches to my search queries it would never stop the search. The spinning "busy" animation would play and Software would consume 100% of my CPU endlessly, even after 20 minutes of waiting for a result. Software was unable to find command line programs, meaning installing them required switching over to the APT command line tools.
The Software utility mixes together portable Snap and traditional Deb packages. At first glance there is nothing to distinguish them, though clicking on a program's entry brings up a full page description of the package. The repository of the package is listed in the program's Source field, which lets us know if the software is packaged as a Snap. The Software utility prompts us for a password every time we install or remove an application, which can be tedious after a while.
The two other tabs of the Software utility show installed programs, which we can remove with a click, and updates, if any are available. Given that Software was a bit sluggish, I preferred to use the smaller update manager I mentioned earlier to grab the latest versions of packages.
As I stated above, Software includes support for Snap packages and makes working with them seamless. One interesting feature Software offers is, after a Snap package has been installed, we can click a button to set system access permissions on an application. We can set, for example, if a program is allowed to access our home directory, communicate over the network, or print. There are other options and some programs have more options than others.
This is a great idea and it works; I tested it on the Chromium web browser with good results. Sometimes setting permissions was a problem though. If I toggled a permission off, usually the interface would immediately turn the switch back on. I would also be prompted for my password when changing options. This resulted in some situations where I would click a button, it would toggle back, then prompt me for my password. Then I'd click the button again, it would turn off, then back on, then prompt for my password again. I had to turn off printing access to Chromium six times before the switch remained in the "off" position. On the other hand the "record audio" and "play audio" permissions toggled off and stayed off the first time, so the bug appears to be random.
Ubuntu 20.10 -- Settings permissions on Snap applications
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I tried installing a few Snap packages. VLC and Chromium worked fine, though the Falkon Snap failed to launch, reporting a missing file. In short, there are some interesting and useful ideas happening in the Snap ecosystem, but there are some practical problems too.
Other observations
One interesting feature the GNOME desktop offers is the rearranging of icons. We can drag launchers around the application menu, drop them into categories, pull them out, and change their order. I like the flexibility this offers and how smooth it is.
Speaking of items in the application menu, there is a tool listed called Livepatch. I believe this is connects with the Canonical service for live patching (updating a kernel without restarting the computer). However, clicking the Livepatch icon brings up a message saying Livepatch is not available for this release. Which I suppose raises the question of why it was included in the menu for 20.10.
Ubuntu 20.10 -- Trying to run the Livepatch tool
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One bump in the road I ran into was that on the second day of my trial Ubuntu failed to boot. After the boot menu I just got a blank screen and had to hard restart the machine. This only happened once and it was not immediately after an update or any other problems so I do not have an explanation for it.
Another weird glitch showed up when I was using LibreOffice. If I opened the About screen and attempted to move it, the entire LibreOffice window would shrink down to a thin column. The width varied, sometimes it was about an inch wide, other times it was barely big enough to display the window's "Close" button. Either way, closing the About window allowed me to resize the LibreOffice application back to its usual dimensions.
Ubuntu 20.10 -- The LibreOffice window goes into hiding
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Conclusions
Canonical did not do anything really surprising or new with Ubuntu 20.10. There are some new features and some improvements. I like the ability to set up ZFS volumes with a click and the support for Raspberry Pi 4 computers will be welcome to many. The permissions on Snap packages will be useful for people who want to sandbox applications and I think having a relatively friendly interface for that is a good move.
I like that we can run GNOME in either a X.Org session or with Wayland. At this point the two technologies appear to be about even. Ubuntu is sticking with X.Org for the default which probably still makes sense given the few corner cases where Wayland can still struggle.
There were a lot of little problems with this release. Putting aside performance in VirtualBox, which was poor, I ran into a number of issues. Things like the Software utility consuming all of my CPU endlessly when it could not find a package match, the same utility not returning any results sometimes even when I was typing names of programs I knew were available and found later using the same search. The constant warnings on my workstation about the network connection not being established while I was downloading files was alternatively comical and annoying. Having the system not boot once during my trial was unpleasant and not confidence inspiring.
The odd thing I found was the unevenness of the experience. The installation is polished and smooth. The GNOME desktop, while very heavy on resources, is well put together and fairly consistent. On the other hand getting spammed with network errors while the network was functioning and regularly seeing sluggish animations that were more distracting than helpful was unpleasant. I started using the command line and APT just to avoid using the desktop and the Software utilities more than absolutely necessary and that is not a good sign when the user is trying to work around your interface.
There are some good ideas happening in Ubuntu 20.10, but the distribution does not feel polished or smooth once it is installed. There are some good tools and good concepts on display, but a lot of little problems, distractions, and glitches too. I'd recommend passing on this release and hoping things get ironed out in time for Ubuntu 21.04.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a desktop HP Pavilon p6 Series with the following specifications:
- Processor: Dual-core 2.8GHz AMD A4-3420 APU
- Storage: 500GB Hitachi hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111 wired network card, Ralink RT5390R PCIe Wireless card
- Display: AMD Radeon HD 6410D video card
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Visitor supplied rating
Ubuntu has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.7/10 from 298 review(s).
Have you used Ubuntu? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
ReactOS hires a kernel developer, Ubuntu speeding up Snap package load times, upgrading Fedora Silverblue, Linux Mint builds its own Chromium package
The ReactOS team develops an open source operating system which strives to be binary compatible with Microsoft Windows. The ReactOS project has hired a developer to work full-time on the operating system's kernel memory management software. "I proudly announce that ReactOS Deutschland e.V. has hired Jérôme Gardou to work full-time on the ReactOS kernel's memory manager for the next 3 months. Jérôme is a ReactOS veteran who has been contributing to the project since 2009. He has deep expertise into nearly all parts of ReactOS, ranging from various user-mode components (mostly related to low-level graphics) over their kernel-mode counterparts and down to bare-metal components like the kernel memory manager. During the upcoming months, Jérôme is going to overhaul the Mm (Memory Manager) and Cc (Cache Controller) components of the kernel. Both of them are core parts of the operating system, which are involved in every memory request and file operation. Improving them is expected to have a substantial effect on the overall stability and performance of ReactOS." Details on the work planned can be found in the project's news post.
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The Ubuntu project is attempting to address performance issues surrounding launching portable Snap packages. In particular the initial load times tend to be slow and the default compression used to compress Snap packages is being changed to reduce the time it takes to load a Snap. "By default, snaps are packaged as a compressed, read-only squashfs filesystem using the XZ algorithm. This results in a high level of compression but consequently requires more processing power to uncompress and expand the filesystem for use. On the desktops, users may perceive this as a 'slowness' - the time it takes for the application to launch. This is also far more noticeable on first launch only, before the application data is cached in memory. Subsequent launches are fast and typically, there's little to no difference compared to traditionally packaged applications. To improve startup times, we decided to test a different algorithm - LZO - which offers lesser compression, but needs less processing power to complete the action." Further details are available on the Ubuntu blog.
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Fedora Silverblue is a desktop distribution which uses OSTree to manage the base operating system system in an atomic fashion. Upgrading Fedora's Silverblue edition works a little differently than other editions of Fedora, but also offers some benefits such as rolling back problematic system changes. "Silverblue is an operating system for your desktop built on Fedora. It's excellent for daily use, development, and container-based workflows. It offers numerous advantages such as being able to roll back in case of any problems. If you want to update to Fedora 33 on your Silverblue system, this article tells you how. It not only shows you what to do, but also how to revert things if something unforeseen happens." The detailed upgrade guide can be found on the Fedora Magazine website.
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The Linux Mint team has published their monthly newsletter for October. In it the team talks about new features, such as the ability to mark specific files as "favourites" to make them easier to find. The newsletter also reports that both Linux Mint and Linux Mint Debian Edition will now have up to date Chromium packages. "The Chromium browser is now available in the official repositories for both Linux Mint and LMDE. If you've been waiting for this I'd like to thank you for your patience. To guarantee reactivity and timely updates we had to automate the process of detecting, packaging and compiling new versions of Chromium. This is an application which can require more than 6 hours per build on a fast computer. We allocated a new build server with high specifications (Ryzen 9 3900, 128GB RAM, NMVe) and reduced the time it took to build Chromium to a little more than an hour. Although Chromium was present in Debian we noticed it was rarely up to date so the decision was taken to also build for LMDE." More information on what the Mint developers have been up to this past month can be found in their October 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) |
Considering a Microsoft Linux distro
Penguin-in-pane asks: I've heard that it's possible Microsoft might make their own Linux distro. What would that look like and how would it affect existing distros? Would this be a good thing bringing in more money and developers or a disaster for all the existing Linux distros?
DistroWatch answers: I'm old enough to remember when it used to be a common joke to tell new people in the Linux community Microsoft was building their own Linux distribution and then send them to the MS Linux satirical website. Twenty years ago the idea of Microsoft creating a Linux distribution seemed like such an outlandish idea that referencing it was a popular way to get a laugh.
Times change though and these days, when people like early open source pioneer Eric S. Raymond suggest Microsoft might want to stop developing Windows to work on their own Linux-based platform, many people actually take the idea seriously. Raymond's idea makes some sense, at least at first glance.
Twenty years ago, when my friends and I were laughing at the MS Linux website, Microsoft made most of its money from sales of Windows and Microsoft Office. They had a very strong market position which resulted in anti-trust proceedings. The idea of the company changing gears to work on a Linux distribution when they were so profitable through sales of Windows was entirely outlandish. However, these days the landscape looks a lot different.
Microsoft still holds a dominant desktop position, but the bulk of their revenue comes in through different streams. Much of their profits come from the Azure cloud service and about 60% of the installations on Azure are Linux distributions. Microsoft also may have made more money in recent years from the sale of Android phones than Windows phones. When we factor in that Microsoft Office is now frequently used as a cloud service rather than a set of desktop applications and that Microsoft has ported their Edge web browser to GNU/Linux, well, it begins to look like the company is happy to make money from Linux and contribute back to Linux development. Especially when we consider that Microsoft is trying to make it easy for people to run Linux software on the Windows desktop through Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
Does this indicate that Windows is likely to become a Linux-based distribution? Something that runs Linux at its core with a Windows (or Windows-like) desktop on top and a WINE-like compatibility layer for running legacy Windows software? My crystal ball is out of order, but I suspect we are not going to see a Microsoft Linux distribution in the near future. Some people, like Eric S. Raymond, see a Linux-based Windows experience as a way for Microsoft to offload a lot of their kernel development costs onto the Linux community and reap the benefits of just maintaining a compatibility layer. Since Windows makes the company proportionally less money these days, it would seem to make sense to offload as much development effort (and cost) as possible in order to increase profits and reduce work the company needs to do.
At least that seems to be the line of reasoning. There are three problems, as I see the situation, which prevent this approach (a Linux-based Windows) from making sense for Microsoft. The first is that Windows is a massive software project. Even 20 years ago when talking about the size of the Windows source code people tended to round off to the nearest ten million lines of code. It's huge. Even just the kernel and drivers probably amount to tens of millions of lines of code. Were Microsoft to want to go the Linux-based route, they would need to make sure all of the functionality, quirks, and features of that code was translated over into Linux or into the compatibility layer which would sit on top of Linux. It is a huge undertaking, one which the WINE project has been chipping away at for decades.
In other words, Microsoft might save some effort in kernel development eventually, but the upfront cost of migrating to a new kernel while maintaining compatibility with the old Windows kernel base would be a massive project that would take years to iron out.
The second issue is that Microsoft would, at least for a while, find themselves supporting two quite different code bases. Two massive, technologically quite different code bases. The switch wouldn't happen over night, there would be "legacy Windows" installs lingering on, under support contracts, for around a decade. Microsoft will not want to essentially maintain two hugely complex operating systems and all their software that runs on these platforms, at the same time for a decade. It would be a big drain on resources and support personnel.
Finally, a big barrier to Microsoft switching lanes at this point is just the massive ecosystem the company has built. A lot of Microsoft server and desktops tools (apart from their Edge browser) are Windows-only. A lot of their ecosystem is tightly integrated to keep customers (especially businesses) tied to Windows. The Windows desktop market is worth billions of dollars still. Migrating to another kernel would be risky, expensive in the short-term, and risk undoing a lot of the work the company has done to tie all of its products together. All for the questionable long-term benefit of saving some developer effort a decade down the road? It seems like a big gamble.
After all, Linux is a money maker for Microsoft in the cloud and sometimes on phones, but on the desktop? Not so much. Microsoft may be more Linux-friendly when it comes to desktop software these days, but that doesn't mean they see a benefit to jumping to a new kernel in a market where they already dominate. Raymond put forward the idea that the only reason Microsoft would port their Edge browser to Linux was as a test to get experience in porting the rest of their software stack. I see this as unlikely. The core of Edge (Chromium) already runs on Linux, so the "porting" process in this case would be mostly packaging and adjusting the small amount of Windows-specific code. In other words, a relatively simple process. In exchange, now web developers running Linux can test their websites with Edge and Microsoft can benefit from web search revenue through Edge. Put simply, this was a minimal investment with relatively good payoff. Porting many other Microsoft tools would be a much larger investment with arguably no benefit.
For all the above reasons I believe a Linux-based Windows platform is unlikely, at least in the coming decade. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Hayden Barnes works on running Ubuntu via WSL for Canonical and recently pointed out several reasons it is unlikely Microsoft would transition to a Linux-based Windows.
But what if I'm wrong? What if Microsoft sees it as worth while to use Linux as its core and run userland Windows on top? In that case, from a ecosystem point of view, I don't think we would see much change. At least not in the short-term.
Hardware companies would probably put more effort into developing drivers for Linux, but otherwise I don't imagine a lot would change in the short-term. Microsoft tools would still be designed to run on their compatibility layer, not on GNU/Linux. Third-party applications and games would be packaged for the Microsoft platform, probably not generic GNU/Linux distributions. New computers would still mostly be sold with the new Windows-ish operating system and bundled with the usual add-ons. It might become easier to port "Windows" software to Linux, but it would probably still require some help from compatibility projects like WINE to make it work.
My reasoning largely comes from watching the FreeBSD community. After all, macOS includes parts of FreeBSD under the hood, but FreeBSD cannot run macOS software because it is typically made with entirely different libraries. FreeBSD doesn't benefit from macOS games, drivers, or its application store. While the two platforms share a lot of code and tools, the differences between macOS and FreeBSD are vast and software rarely spans the divide. I believe the same would happen were Microsoft to port its userland to the Linux kernel. The two platforms would suddenly have a lot more in common, but in a practical sense little would change for consumers or for existing distributions.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Fedora 33
The Fedora project has announced the release of Fedora 33. The project's latest version ships with Btrfs as the default filesystem (on the Workstation edition) and runs GNOME 3.38. Each edition now enables the EarlyOOM service to free up memory when heavy processes consume too much RAM and swap space. The project has also made nano the default command line text editor, replacing vi. "No matter what variant of Fedora you use, you're getting the latest the open source world has to offer. Following our 'First' foundation, we've updated key programming language and system library packages, including Python 3.9, Ruby on Rails 6.0, and Perl 5.32. In Fedora KDE, we've followed the work in Fedora 32 Workstation and enabled the EarlyOOM service by default to improve the user experience in low-memory situations. To make the default Fedora experience better, we've set nano as the default editor. nano is a friendly editor for new users. Those of you who want the power of editors like vi can, of course, set your own default." Further information can be found in the project's release announcement.
Fedora 33 -- Running the GNOME desktop
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NixOS 20.09
NixOS is an independent Linux distribution which showcases the Nix advanced package manager. The project's latest release is NixOS 20.09 which is supported through to April 2021 and places a focus on stabilizing the core system. "Stabilization of the NixOS happens a month before planned release. The goal is to have as little as possible continuous integration (Hydra) jobs failing before the release is cut. While we would like to release on time, a high quality release is more important. I think that the 20.09 release highlighted a few weak points with our current release schedule. Discussions have already began on how to improve the process from the beginning, to help minimize risk, and set ourselves up for more successes in the future. I want to thank WORLDofPEACE (my co-release-manager) for helping me with release management items, Thomas Tuegel for helping with Qt and Plasma stabilization, as well as Robert Scott for his work with release stabilization." Further information is available on the project's news page and in the release notes.
FreeBSD 12.2
The FreeBSD team has announced the availability of FreeBSD 12.2. This update to the 12.x series updates Intel networing support, makes it possible to run Linux inside Jail environments, and the Clang compiler has been updated to version 10. "The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 12.2-RELEASE. This is the third release of the stable/12 branch. Some of the highlights: Updates to the wireless networking stack and various drivers have been introduced to provide better 802.11n and 802.11ac support. The ice(4) driver has been added, supporting Intel 100Gb ethernet cards. The jail(8) utility has been updated to allow running Linux in a jailed environment. OpenSSL has been updated to version 1.1.1h. OpenSSH has been updated to version 7.9p1. The clang, llvm, lld, lldb, compiler-rt utilities and libc++ have been updated to version 10.0.1." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
GParted Live 1.1.0-6
Curtis Gedak has announced the release of GParted Live 1.1.0-6, the latest update of the project's Debian-based, specialist Linux distribution designed for performing disk management and data rescue tasks: "The GParted team is pleased to announce a new stable release of GParted Live. This release includes GParted 1.1.0, updated packages and other improvements. Items of note include: based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2020-10-27; Linux kernel updated to 5.9.1. Known issue: GParted Live safe graphic setting Failsafe mode fails to enter graphic mode when booting from UEFI mechanism, while it's OK when booting from legacy BIOS one. This release of GParted Live has been successfully tested on VirtualBox, VMware, BIOS, UEFI and physical computers with AMD/ATI, NVIDIA and Intel graphics. Note that the default boot options did not display an X Desktop on old Acer Aspire laptops. The workaround is to select Other modes of GParted Live and choose GParted Live (Safe graphics setting, vga-normal)." Here is the short release announcement.
Linux Lite 5.2
Jerry Bezencon has announced the release of Linux Lite 5.2. The project's latest release is based on Ubuntu 20.04.1 and introduces a number of small changes and improvements. The firewall can now be managed through a module in the settings panel, old GTK2 software and themes have been removed, Adobe Flash is no longer included in the distribution, and new packages have been added to the Lite Software package manager. The distribution also includes some package updates: "Details: kernel: 5.4.0-52 ( custom kernels also available via our Repository for versions 3.13 - 5.9); Firefox: 82.0; Thunderbird: 68.10.0; LibreOffice: 6.4.6.2; VLC: 3.0.9.2; GIMP: 2.10.18; Base: 20.04.1. Known Issues: No prompt to eject Media at the end of the Legacy install, prompt is available at the end of the UEFI install. Release Notes - not working on first installer slide. Desktop icons - English support only. GRUB - holding shift down whilst booting in UEFI mode does not bring up the GRUB menu (works in Legacy mode), waiting for Ubuntu fix. GRUB menu shows Linux Lite as 'Ubuntu'. After you install Linux Lite, you can change GRUB to show 'Linux Lite'." Further information and screenshots can be found in the project's release announcement.
Linux Lite 5.2 -- Running the Xfce desktop
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OpenIndiana 2020.10
Andreas Wacknitz has announced the release of OpenIndiana 2020.10, the latest version of the project's community effort to keep alive the OpenSolaris distribution and its many popular technologies, such as ZFS, DTrace or Zones. This version updates the MATE desktop environment to version 1.24: "After almost 6 months of development, we have released the new OpenIndiana 'Hipster' snapshot 2020.10 right on time on October 31st, 2020. Some of the noticeable changes are: after BHyVe has been upstreamed into illumos-gate, we automatically got it and we were able to supply this with a bhyve branded zone for OpenIndiana; FreeRDP and Remmina have been added; the Squeak Virtual Machine (v4, v5 and v5 Cog) have been added and so it's possible to run older and newer versions of Squeak Smalltalk and also Cuis Smalltalk on OpenIndiana; MATE, our main desktop environment, has been updated to 1.24; GCC 10 has been added; a buch of other packages have also been updated." See the release announcement and the release notes for further information.
Voyager Live 20.10
The Voyager Live project has published a new version of their desktop distribution. The new release, Voyager 20.10, is based on Ubuntu 20.10 and offers nine months of package updates and security fixes. "I introduce you Voyager GE 20.10 which continues the adventure with the GNOME Shell desktop version 3.38 by introducing new features. With the promise finally made to have a light, fast, modern, fluid and efficient GNOME system. This version is based on the Linux 5.8 kernel and the Ubuntu Groovy Gorilla distribution . 20.10 is an intermediate version with 9-months of updates that prepares for the future 5-year LTS - long-term support - version. With integrated options like Tablet PC, Wine-staging and Steam Gaming in the Box Voyager. Voyager comes in 2 desktop versions, with Xfce by default and GNOME Shell for this version called GE, Xfce is only offered in LTS version. Also you can choose according to your wishes and machine capacities. The general idea of Voyager, is to introduce into GNOME Shell pre-installed GNOME extensions and scripts grouped in a box which optimize the system with a choice of necessary software. All in a redesigned ergonomics with many wallpapers." Further information can be found in the project's release announcement.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,203
- Total data uploaded: 34.4TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Does Wayland or X.Org provide a better experience?
In this week's review of Ubuntu the observation was made that the Wayland GNOME session worked almost identically to the GNOME on X.Org session, indicating these two technologies are close in terms of features and functionality. Have you compared X.Org sessions to Wayland? If you have, which one provided the better experience? Let us know about your adventures in testing these two session types in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on available free disk space in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Does Wayland or X.Org provide a better experience?
| I found Wayland to be better: | 137 (10%) |
| I found X.Org to be better: | 464 (33%) |
| I found the two to be about the same: | 174 (13%) |
| I have not tested both: | 617 (44%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to database
Snal Linux
Snal Linux is a small Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. It features the i3 window manager and it includes the Firefox web browser, as well as a handful of network and filesystem utilities. It is intended to be used as a live image to troubleshoot hard disk, system and network problems.
Snal Linux 1.0 -- Running the i3 window manger
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 9 November 2020. 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 |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • 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 |
| • 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 | 
NomadBSD
NomadBSD is a 32-bit and 64-bit live system for USB flash drives, based on FreeBSD. Together with automatic hardware detection and setup, it is configured to be used as a desktop system that works out of the box, but can also be used for data recovery.
Status: Active
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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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