 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 944, 22 November 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 46th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
The Fedora project is a cutting edge distribution which is always packaging and testing out new features. The Fedora team recently published version 35 of their Red Hat-sponsored distribution and Ivan Sanders took the latest release for a spin. Check out our Feature Story to learn about Ivan's first impressions of Fedora's Workstation edition. In our News section we talk about GhostBSD hosting an on-line meet-up for people interested in FreeBSD, ZFS, and related technologies. We also link to a report on the current status of work going into FreeBSD while the AlmaLinux OS team answers questions from the public about their Enterprise Linux clone. Our Questions and Answers column this week talks about various ways to run scripts and services at login time, either as the user signing in or as the administrator. Do you run any custom login scripts on your computer? Let us know about them in this week's Opinion Poll. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (15MB) and MP3 (11MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Ivan Sanders) |
Fedora 35
Fedora 35 was released on 2 November 2021, slightly after the anticipated launch in late October. I respect their delay, the Fedora team did not want to release a buggy product, or they still had some key issues to workout; nevertheless Fedora 35 is here. For some background, Fedora is a Linux distribution which aims to create, "an innovative, free, and open source platform for hardware, clouds, and containers that enables software developers and community members to build tailored solutions for their users." (Quoted from getfedora.org.) Many Linux users will know Fedora as the community and upstream version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the enterprise version of Fedora known primarily for running on servers and a company to provide support.
Installing
The installation process for Fedora 35 was straightforward. I always encrypt my drives with LUKS encryption, and the installation process offered me a simple way to do this. Additionally, as a user who hops distros about 2-3 times per year, I have all my Steam games on one hard drive, and I install distros on the other (home and root on the same drive, usually same partition). GNOME Disks (after installation) allows me to setup auto-mount for the hard drive that stores all my games; this drive is also encrypted and when I setup auto-mount through GNOME Disks the application stores the encryption key on the LUKS encrypted drive where I installed Fedora. Very convenient.
Fedora 35 -- Setting up mount options
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Initial impressions
From a layman's perspective, and as someone who has installed dozens of distros over the last five years, the installation was simple and great, but it seemed to be missing something. Upon first boot I realize what was missing - I did not setup a user profile during installation, which is odd. But it works. Its almost as if you're installing the operating system for the machine, and whoever gets the machine can do the rest; the feel is similar to an OEM install.
Fedora 35 -- Accessing local printers
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Upon first boot, the user is presented with a Welcome Screen. First it displays privacy options, which allows the user to disable location services and automatic problem reporting. As a privacy advocate, I appreciate and respect these options. Next, the Welcome Screen allows the user to enable third-party repositories. This is a trick.
This is a trick because, if you read the intro, Fedora is an open source platform. What they have done with this simple toggle is profound: they are empowering the user with the ability to enable third-party repositories. The user can decide if they want to use proprietary software in support of their hardware needs, and most of us need proprietary software whether it be from NVIDIA, Intel, Microsoft, etc. Fedora: thank you for empowering the user through this easy option. The next section, called About You, allows the user to setup a profile and password, rating the strength of the password on a range from weak to strong. Usually this process is done in the installation, but I kind of like how the team behind Fedora went their own way.
Usage as a daily driver
The default desktop of GNOME 41 is beautiful. Although there surely are a few Fedora zealots, you will not find many fanatics in the Fedora community (the community seems very kind and professional). This correlation also applies to GNOME desktop environment users. GNOME 41 is beautiful, only needs minimal tweaking (such as enabling a dark theme), and I prefer all of the other defaults straight out of the box. One thing I miss in Fedora (which was available in the Arch Linux AUR) was NetworkManager's GNOME WireGuard plugin which allowed me to setup WireGuard connections through the GUI. I don't mind using the command line, but as a reviewer I like to see more user friendly interpretations of command line applications.
Fedora 35 -- Checking the NVIDIA driver
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Installing the NVIDIA drivers on Optimus (dual video card) laptops has become much easier in the past two-to-three years. With NVIDIA Prime Offloading most distros only require relatively new NVIDIA drivers and newish X.Org drivers. I had only minor issues utilizing my NVIDIA card in my laptop with Fedora - I needed to install the kernel-devel package through the dnf package manager to get NVIDIA to work. In hindsight, I would have liked to install the NVIDIA drivers through GNOME's Software GUI, but I used the command line before I thought to use the GUI.
Fedora 35 -- Multitasking in GNOME Shell
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Time from the LUKS decryption screen to GNOME Display Manager was approximately 20 seconds, quite good for boot-up times. Consider also that I use a solid-state hard drive for my main installation media, which improves boot times significantly. It's not mere milliseconds, but it is very good for a full distro.
GNOME 41 is super polished. It seems like everything works out of the box (come on NVIDIA, let's get you on board). Whereas on other distros I would need to configure many options and drivers to get everything working properly, Fedora just works. The polish extends to all of the facets of this operating system. The boot-up splash screen is simple and beautiful. The installation of updates is clean, and the rebooting during installation is well polished. Fedora knows how to take control of an operating system and do it properly. I love how dnf (the package manager) handles updates and installing software. My Steam games worked as expected. I could edit photos easily using the photo editing software of my choice. Firefox worked great for streaming media. The HDMI output was perfect. What can I say, Fedora leaves little left to want. Yes there may be more highly configurable distributions, but Fedora seems to be one of, if not the most professional distribution I have used. (I have not been a Fedora user in the past.)
Fedora 35 -- Changing the desktop theme
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Conclusion
Fedora has pushed out a polished, beautiful, and clean new version with the release of Fedora 35. It may not be a major, life changing, reinterpretation of Linux gospel, but it is a solid update bringing new features and was well thought through. Not all Linux distros are refined out of the box, but thankfully we have Fedora 35. I may be a chronic distro hopper, but I will stay with Fedora for the foreseeable future. I highly recommend Fedora 35 to new Linux users, professionals, and advanced users.
Additional details
Fedora 35 used 1,126MB of RAM upon first boot, with NVIDIA drivers.
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Hardware used in this review
Laptop - Lenovo Legion Y530
- Processor: Intel Core i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz x 6
- Storage: 256GB NVMe SSD Samsung and 1TB HDD
- Memory: 16GB
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411
- Display: 1920x1080 @ 60Hz
- Graphics: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 630, NVIDIA Corporation GP106M [GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile]
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Visitor supplied rating
Fedora has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.3/10 from 353 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) |
GhostBSD to host community meeting, FreeBSD publishes status update, AlmaLinux OS team answers questions from the public
GhostBSD is a desktop-oriented flavour of FreeBSD which supplies pre-configured desktop environments, ZFS support, and convenient utilities for common tasks such as getting on-line and installing packages. For people who would like to learn more about GhostBSD, its FreeBSD base, and ZFS technologies, the GhostBSD project is hosting an on-line meeting on December 11, 2021. "GhostBSD online meetups consist of open discussions on GhostBSD, OpenZFS, FreeBSD, and questions and answers. Everyone can suggest a subject of discussion. There will be no official presentations until the group is more established." Details are offered on the GhostBSD website.
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The FreeBSD project has published a new Quarterly Update which lists ongoing work and improvements to the FreeBSD operating system. One of the impressive feats mentioned in the report is the halving of FreeBSD's boot times in some environments. "Colin Percival is coordinating an effort to speed up the FreeBSD boot process. For benchmarking purposes, he is using an EC2 c5.xlarge instance as a reference platform and is measuring the time between when the virtual machine enters the EC2 "running" state and when it is possible to SSH into the instance.
This work started in 2017, leading to a conference presentation, 'Profiling the FreeBSD kernel boot', and quickly yielded roughly 4850 ms of improvements (starting from a baseline of about 30 seconds).
Since June, another roughly 9790 ms of time has been shaved off the boot process, taking it down to approximately 15 seconds. There is still more work to be done; in particular, while the loader and kernel have been profiled, the TSLOG system Colin is using does not currently support userland profiling." Additional information can be found in the project's report.
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The AlmaLinux OS team creates a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, based on the upstream provider's source code. The AlmaLinux developers have taken to Reddit in order to answer questions and field comments from the Linux community. "Hello everyone. We are the AlmaLinux team. AlmaLinux OS is an enterprise Linux distribution continuing the legacy of CentOS Linux and are a classical downstream 1:1 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. We did something unique and setup a 501(c)(6) non-profit along with an open and free membership so that the community can actually own the OS and all the related intellectual property, vote in elections and steward the project." The open forum and the developers' responses can be found in this Reddit thread.
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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) |
Running scripts at login as another user
Getting-things-started asks: With Windows there are many means for automatically running scripts: I can make startup/shutdown scripts (in group policy) to be executed by the builtin user "SYSTEM"; I can make logon/logoff scripts (in group policy) to be executed by the builtin user "Administrator"; I can make auto-start scripts, placed in the Start menu "Startup" folder which are executed by a user as they login.
Please explain how I can create logon scripts on Linux (with systemd) and execute them on behalf of the user "root". I already know how to create startup/shutdown scripts.
DistroWatch answers: I had to consider this question for a while because there are multiple ways to run commands as another user at login, but it's important to do it safely.
With Linux (and similar Unix-like operating systems) typically startup and shutdown scripts are run as the root user or another special user account that has been granted the privileges necessary to run the script. Scripts that are run at login time are usually run as the user who is logging in. Usually functions that need to be set up by the user (or for them) are handled by a user's own login script. These login scripts can be stored in a variety of locations, and the location may vary depending on which shell (or desktop) they are running.
Typically scripts which are run at login time are executed as the regular user and stored in the /etc/profile.d/ directory. Scripts to be run at logoff are specific to the shell or desktop used. For the popular bash shell, commands to be run when the user logs out can be run from the ~/.bash_logout script.
Each desktop environment has its own options for running scripts at login and logout, and these are typically found in the settings panel under either the Startup or Session modules.
The above options for running programs at login/logout all run the specified script as the user who is signed into the session, not as another user like root. Typically Linux administration assumes any service or program launched by the user signing in will be run as that user.
There are exceptions though where an administrator will really want to run a script as another user (such as root) when someone logs in. This can be accomplished on most Linux distributions through a Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM). Specifically through a module called pam_exec. (There is a similar module called pam_script.) The pam_exec module seems to be pretty standard and runs a command as either the root user or the user logging in, depending on how it is called. The pam_script module seems to be less commonly included on distributions by default, but offers some nice options for running scripts as any user we want.
The idea behind these PAM modules is you can edit your PAM login (or equivalent) module in the /etc/pam.d/ directory using any text editor. Then add an entry which says something like:
auth optional pam_exec.so seteuid /etc/my-special-script
The above will run the command /etc/my-special-script when the user logs in and the script will be run as the root user instead of the person who is signing in.
For instance, we can create a very simple command which creates a file in the /tmp directory whenever someone authenticates using the sudo command. This is accomplished by adding the following line near the top of the file /etc/pam.d/sudo:
auth optional pam_exec.so seteuid /usr/bin/touch /tmp/someone-sudoed
With the above line in place, someone trying to run sudo silently triggers the touch command and it makes an empty file in the /tmp directory.
A word of warning: changing PAM modules and login routines can break your system and prevent you from being able to login. Please test any changes to PAM (or other login functions) in a virtual machine or on a test box before applying them to an operating system you use regularly.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Rocky Linux 8.5
Rocky Linux is a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, built from the upstream project's source code. The Rocky Linux team have launched version 8.5 of their operating system. One of the major changes in this release is the debut support for Secure Boot. "In less then 48 hours from RHEL-8.5 being released, we had successful tests on our ISOs and just before we were about to pull the string to go GA with 8.5, Microsoft countersigned our Secure Boot shim. We quickly deliberated and decided to backtrack and incorporate that into the 8.5 release. There were some things that we had to get in order and resolved, but it is with great pleasure that this release includes the official Rocky Linux signed shim. Here is the full thread to the shim review. As with any security related diligence, it is important to be able to validate the Secure Boot shim is exactly what you expect and that it is properly activated." Additional information is available in the distribution's release notes.
CentOS 8.5.2111
Johnny Hughes has announced the release of CentOS 8.5.2111, the latest version of the project's Linux distribution compiled from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). All CentOS users are welcome to update to this version, but are also reminded that CentOS 8 will reach the end-of-life status at the end of this year. "We are pleased to announce the general availability of the latest version of CentOS Linux 8. Effective immediately, this is the current release for CentOS Linux 8 and is tagged as 2111, derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.5 source code. Please note: CentOS Linux 8 will EOL on 31 December 2021. We will handle the EOL as directed by the CentOS Project Board of Directors. Major changes: later versions of the following components are now available as new module streams - Ruby 3.0, nginx 1.20, Node.js 16; the following components have been upgraded - PHP to version 7.4.19, Squid to version 4.15, Mutt to version 2.0.7; the following compiler toolsets have been updated - GCC 11, LLVM 12.0.1, Rust 1.54.0, Go 1.16.7." See the release announcement and release notes for further details.
Proxmox 7.1 "Virtual Environment"
Proxmox is a commercial company offering specialised products based on Debian GNU/Linux. The distribution's latest release is Proxmox 7.1 Virtual Environment (VE) which is based on Debian 11. "We're excited to announce the release of Proxmox Virtual Environment 7.1. It's based on Debian 11.1 "Bullseye" but using a newer Linux kernel 5.13, QEMU 6.1, LXC 4.0, Ceph 16.2.6, and OpenZFS 2.1. and countless enhancements and bug fixes. Proxmox Virtual Environment brings several new functionalities and many improvements for management tasks in the web interface: support for Windows 11 including TPM, enhanced creation wizard for VM/container, ability to set backup retention policies per backup job in the GUI, and a new scheduler daemon supporting more flexible schedules. Here is a selection of the highlights: Debian 11.1 'Bullseye', but using a newer Linux kernel 5.13. LXC 4.0, Ceph 16.2.6, QEMU 6.1, and OpenZFS 2.1. VM wizard with defaults for Windows 11 (q35, OVMF, TPM). New backup scheduler daemon for flexible scheduling options. Backup retention. Protection flag for backups. Two-factor Authentication: WebAuthn, recovery keys, multiple factors for a single account. New container templates: Fedora, Ubuntu, Alma Linux, Rocky Linux and many more enhancements, bugfixes, etc." Additional details can be found in the company's release announcement and in the release notes.
UBports 16.04 OTA-20
UBports is a community-developed fork of Canonical's Ubuntu Touch operating system for mobile devices. The project's latest release is UBports 16.04 OTA-20. The new release includes several changes to notifications. "We implemented notification LED support for devices with Halium 9 base. If your device is still not blinking, keep in mind that many recent devices do not have a notification LED anymore: Vollaphone and Pixel 3a cannot blink physically for example. Also vibration works now for incoming notifications on those devices. We added support for Khmer and Bengali fonts to support users from these locales a bit better. It is now possible to define a custom notification sound. Like with ringtones one can now select any accessible audio file to be played when a new notification arrives. Let's annoy our co-workers with style! A few new devices were added to the range of installable devices again: Xiaomi Redmi 9 and 9 Prime (lancelot), Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 (merlin), Note 9 Pro (joyuese), Note 9 Pro Max (excalibur), Note 9S (curtana), Xiaomi Poco M2 Pro (gram) and Pixel 2 (walleye). The Pixel 2 has some battery lifetime issues though, so it might not be fully ready for your daily drive." Additional information is available in the project's release announcement.
Q4OS 4.7
The Q4OS project produces a Debian-based distribution which is available in KDE Plasma and Trinity desktop flavours. The project's latest release is Q4OS 4.7 which is based on Debian 11 "Bullseye" and which features an update to the Trinity Desktop Environment. The release announcement reads: "A significant update to the fourth Q4OS stable series codenamed 'Gemini' has been released. This upgrade includes set of security and bug fixes, receives the most recent Debian Bullseye 11.1. as well as Trinity desktop environment R14.0.11 stable versions. Trinity desktop maintenance release of the R14 series is intended to bring bug fixes, while preserving overall stability. You can find the complete Trinity desktop release notes and new features list at the Trinity desktop environment website. We are currently pushing all the changes mentioned above into the Q4OS repositories, automatic update process will take care about to update computers for current users."
Q4OS 4.7 -- Running the Trinity desktop
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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:
- Peers connected: 2,157
- Total torrents seeded: 2,651
- Total data uploaded: 41.0TB
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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) |
Custom login scripts
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about various ways to run login scripts, either as the user signing in or as another user such as root. We'd like to hear if you use any custom login scripts. Let us know how you trigger these scripts in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on preferred lightweight desktops in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Regarding scripts triggered at login
| I run custom scripts as the user signing in: | 197 (18%) |
| I run custom scripts as another user: | 13 (1%) |
| I have custom scripts for both situations: | 76 (7%) |
| I do not run any custom login scripts: | 822 (74%) |
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| Website News |
Creating and tracking new torrents
For the past few years DistroWatch has been seeding torrents for new releases of distributions. Many of the torrents we have been sharing through our weekly Torrent Corner and through our Torrent Archive have been provided by the distribution developers themselves. A few torrents have been provided by community members who are helping out.
Some projects and their communities do not provide torrents of their distributions' ISO files. In these situations, when a new stable release comes out, we have been creating torrents for them and hosting them on our infrastructure. These torrents have made for Linux distributions are tracked through our very own torrent tracker.
A torrent tracker is a service which helps people who are downloading or seeding a torrent find each other. It's like a hub where torrent clients can find each other.
For the first few years this worked really well. Unfortunately, in recent months our torrent tracker has been absolutely flooded with requests and it seems like some people are trying to perform a denial-of-service attack against our torrent tracker. We've been able to keep it on-line, but the bandwidth requirements are becoming increasingly large. Our torrent tracker currently handles over ten times more bandwidth than both the DistroWatch website and our torrent seed server combined.
Given the expense associated with keeping the tracker on-line, after this month we'll be shutting down our torrent tracker at the end of November and will no longer be creating our own, custom torrents for projects which do not have their own. We will continue to seed torrents from Linux and BSD projects which provide a torrent file for new releases. We are happy to continue seeding torrents and contributing to the community. However, we will be relying on upstream projects to publish their own, official torrent files.
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Lilidog. Lilidog is a Debian-based Linux distribution featuring the Openbox window manager. It is available in three editions: Full, Minimal, and Sid (a rolling release).
- Lirix. Lirix is distribution based on Arch Linux which features the MaXX Interactive Desktop environment. It is intended to be lightweight and use less than 200MB of memory at sign-in.
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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, 29 November 2021. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
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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 |
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| Random Distribution | 
Subgraph OS
Subgraph OS was a Debian-based Linux distribution which provides several security, anonymous web browsing and hardening features. Subgraph OS uses a hardened Linux kernel, application firewall to block specific executables from accessing the network and forces all Internet traffic through the Tor network. The distribution's file manager features tools to remove meta-data from files and integrates with the OnionShare file sharing application. The Icedove e-mail client was set up to automatically work with Enigmail for encrypting e-mails.
Status: Discontinued
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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!
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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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