 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1026, 3 July 2023 |
Welcome to this year's 27th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Last week the news feeds and discussion forums were alight with talk about Red Hat restricting public access to the company's source code. This change in Red Hat's policy has people wondering about the legalities of this change, the future of Red Hat Enterprise Linux clones, and how people will perceive Red Hat sponsored projects such as Fedora. We discuss Red Hat's change, how it affects clones of the enterprise platform, and how people are reacting to all of this in our Questions and Answers column. Are you running a distribution affected by Red Hat's source code policy change? Let us know about your plans in this week's Opinion Poll. Meanwhile, we added a new distribution to our database last week called Kumander Linux. This distribution tries to copy the look of Microsoft Windows as well as some of the nicer elements of that operating system's behaviour. We talk about how Kumander works and what it does to appear Windows-like in our Feature Story. Plus, in our News section, we report on the ReactOS project sharing an overview of its progress and new release schedule. We also talk about new features coming to TrueNAS which improve file transfer performance while Zorin OS introduces a new upgrade utility to jump between versions of the distribution. We're also 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:
|
| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Kumander Linux 1.0
Kumander Linux is a young distribution based on Debian and running the Xfce desktop environment. The project's key selling feature is that it is designed to look and act like legacy versions of Microsoft Windows, specifically Windows 7. The idea seems to be that users should feel at home when migrating from Microsoft's operating system to Kumander with as little fuss as possible.
The first stable release of the project, Kumander Linux 1.0, was published in June and I decided to take it for a test drive. The current version is based on Debian 11 (which has been succeeded by Debian 12, though it is still supported for about three more years). The Kumander distribution is available as a single edition for x86_64 computers. Its install media is provided as a 4.4GB ISO file.
Booting from the provided media offers to launch a live desktop where we can test Kumander or start the distribution's system installer. Taking the live option loads the Xfce desktop which has, as advertised, a strong Windows 7 theme. There is a desktop panel at the bottom of the page which holds an application menu (labelled as "Start"), some quick-launch icons, and a system tray. On the desktop we find icons for opening the Thunar file manager.
A welcome window opens on the desktop. This window has several tabs. The first includes a link for an introduction to Kumander. Clicking this link opens the VLC media player and displays a tutorial and overview of the desktop experience. The second tab lists several popular open source packages (such as LibreOffice, Blender, and GIMP). Clicking the icons for any of these entries opens the Chrome web browser to play a video on YouTube which introduces the software. The third tab of the welcome window displays releases notes. The remaining tabs offer donation acknowledgements, contact information, and thanks to people who participated in the project.
Kumander Linux 1.0 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 263kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
The live desktop session was working well for me and so I went looking for a way to launch the system installer. Not finding one, I decided to restart the computer and take the install option from the boot menu.
Installing
Kumander uses Debian's graphical installer, with some steps cut from it. As with Debian, we're asked to pick our language, location, and keyboard layout. We're also asked to make up a username and password for ourselves. We're given the option of using guided or manual partitioning, with the guided option setting up an ext4 partition for the operating system and a swap partition. The installer then copies its files to our hard drive.
What I found noteworthy about this is a lot of the extra, mostly pointless steps from Debian's installer have been removed. We don't get asked to pick mirrors, set up a web proxy, set our domain name, or pick which services we want to install. This makes Kumander faster to set up and less confusing for new users.
Early impressions
When the installer finishes its work it reboots the computer and presents us with a graphical, blue-themed login screen. The login page is fairly simple, showing us just our username, a password box, and a power button in the lower-right corner of the display. Signing into our account brings up the Xfce desktop and welcome window again.
The distribution does indeed look a lot like Windows XP or Windows 7 in its layout, theme, and icons. The blue colours, the stark contrast of black text on white backgrounds, and the "Start" text on the application menu all make the operating system look like a Microsoft product.
Kumander Linux 1.0 -- Exploring the application menu
(full image size: 284kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
Sometimes the Windows-like style extends to some unexpected places. For instance, when I opened a virtual terminal I discovered the prompt was set to "C:/home/jesse>" instead of something like "jesse@~ $". It's a bit unusual, but I suppose it sticks with the concept of making former Windows users feel at home.
One minor issue I noticed early on was that, despite having provided my location to the system installer, the clock on the panel was displaying the time for a location in east Asia, not my location in Canada. While I was changing the clock settings to use my timezone I noticed the clock was configured to be set manually rather than synchronize with time servers. When I selected automatic time synchronization an error window appeared and said NTP support was not installed. This prevents Kumander from automatically updating the clock.
Hardware
I found the Kumander desktop experience to be unusually responsive. Opening applications, accessing menus, and moving windows all happened with a surprising degree of snappiness. This held true whether I was running the distribution in VirtualBox or on my workstation. I also found that, when run in VirtualBox, the Xfce desktop would automatically resize to match the dimensions of the host window.
Kumander was completely stable during my trial and worked well with all my hardware. The official build of Debian 11 does not work with my workstation's wireless card until non-free firmware has been installed, but Kumander connected wirelessly without any issues.
A fresh install of the distribution took up 9.6GB of drive space and, when signed into the Xfce desktop, the system consumed 400MB of RAM. This makes Kumander a little larger on the disk than is average for a Linux distribution, but its memory consumption is lower than that of most mainstream distributions.
Software
Kumander ships with a lot of software installed by default. We're given two web browsers (Chrome and Firefox), Transmission, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, the Putty OpenSSH client, Blender, and Inkscape. LibreOffice is installed for us, along with a PDF viewer, and the Geary IDE.
The Thunar file manager is included along with VirtualBox, Timeshift for making system snapshots, and the Back In Time backup utility. VLC is provided for playing audio and video files (with media codecs included). We're also given the Kdenlive video editor, the Audacity audio editor, and "Notepad" (which is the Mousepad text editor under a different name).
Kumander Linux 1.0 -- Running LibreOffice, Thunar, and DOSBox
(full image size: 165kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
We are also given a tool for managing user accounts, the Steam gaming portal, and a handful of small games. There are some emulators too, such as a C64 emulator and DOSBox for running DOS games.
The distribution ships with the GNU Compiler Collection, GNU command line utilities, and manual pages. Kumander runs the systemd init software and, in the background, we find version 5.10 of the Linux kernel.
Something I feel Kumander does well is it places a few icons in the application menu which are labelled as being installers, not the actual program indicated by the icon. The entry for Thunderbird, for example, is an installer rather than the e-mail application itself. These installers have grey launchers, distinguishing them from the installers for local applications. When we click one of these install icons it opens the distribution's software centre and displays the page for the selected item. (I will talk more about the software centre below.)
The distribution includes the Xfce settings panel which makes it easy to adjust the look and behaviour of the desktop environment. There is also a module for managing the firewall, using Gufw. While there is a user account manager in the application menu, it does not appear to be included in the settings panel. I like Xfce's settings portal and find it easy to navigate.
Kumander Linux 1.0 -- The Xfce settings panel and Gufw firewall utility
(full image size: 316kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
In the application menu there is a task monitor. This monitor works well for tracking resource usage and processes. I tried the popular Windows shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Esc to see if it would work. The shortcut is recognized and using it pops up an error message saying the command xfce4-taskmanager failed to execute because it is missing. In other words, the shortcut is registered and a process monitor is installed, the shortcut just doesn't point at the proper executable program.
Something the Kumander team has done which may appeal to some users and put off others is set up the first user (and any other users added to the sudo group) with the ability to run sudo commands without entering a password. Likewise, we can add and remove software, adjust the firewall, and perform other admin actions without providing our password. This is both convenient and a bit dangerous as it allows the user to perform potentially destructive commands without the usual barriers. We can change this behaviour, if we wish, by editing the /etc/sudoers file. I will admit the default behaviour does do a good job of imitating Windows when running that operating system as an administrator or power user.
Kumander Linux 1.0 -- Running Firefox and launching Steam
(full image size: 224kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
Software management
Kumander ships with GNOME Software as the primary tool for managing software. The software centre is divided into three tabs - one for locating new software, one for seeing installed items we can remove, and a third tab for fetching updates. The first tab pulls in software from Debian's Old Stable repositories and from Flathub. A few packages are also pulled from the Google Chrome repository and the VirtualBox repository. This gives us a fairly wide range of packages from which to choose. The second tab allows us to remove items, even ones which came installed with the operating system.
Kumander Linux 1.0 -- Finding new applications with GNOME Software
(full image size: 426kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
The third tab presented a problem. The update tab listed available updates and a "Restart & Update" button. Clicking the button does nothing, no actions are taken and no error message is displayed. I ran into the same problem when working with Debian 12 last month and it seems Kumander has this issue in common with its parent.
The classic Synaptic package manager (a common feature of many Debian-based distributions) is not included in Kumander, however we can turn to the command line to use the APT and Flatpak command line utilities. These allow us to fetch, remove, and upgrade packages. There doesn't appear to be any dedicated, graphical update utility and (considering the problems I had with GNOME Software) I feel this leaves a gap in functionality which is likely to prevent users from gaining access to (or even being aware of) security updates.
Conclusions
It has been over a decade since I have used Windows with any degree of regularity and two decades since I used the operating system at home. For this reason, I tend not to gravitate toward Linux distributions which try to look or act like Microsoft's operating system. I don't have anything against them, but resembling Windows isn't a selling point for me the way it would be for someone in the process of migrating from Windows to Linux. Projects like Zorin OS, for example, I admire as good options for Linux newcomers, but they don't hold a special appeal for me based on their appearance.
With that said, I really liked Kumander's user interface. I liked the soft blue shades, I liked the high contrast text fonts, I liked the lack of distracting visual effects. I especially liked how unusually fast and responsive the desktop was. Xfce usually performs well, and it was running at top speed during my trial, even in a virtual machine. This allows Kumander to run circles around other distributions I've used recently, such as Debian or Ubuntu running GNOME and openSUSE running KDE Plasma. In short, Kumander offers some of the visual design benefits of Windows 7 while doing away with the distracting visual effects, annoying pop-ups, and mass of background services which often make using that operating system unpleasant.
There are a few bugs. Kumander just hit its first stable release so things like the task manager shortcut not working or the timezone being set improperly are small issues which are to be expected. They're small issues and not critical. The one big issue I ran into was GNOME Software not being to install updates and there not being an easy way to fetch security patches from a GUI application. This is a significant problem and will hopefully be addressed with a dedicated update manager or a fix for the software centre in the next release.
There are some design choices I have mixed feelings about. Having some configuration modules in the application menu and others in the settings panel feels a touch disorganized. Allowing users to run admin tasks without a password feels on-brand for a distribution trying to imitate Windows, but it's not a feature I feel good about. Then again, I'm not the target audience and many users will probably appreciate this characteristic.
For a first stable release, Kumander is doing a lot of things well. It's fast, stable, and achieves its goal of being Windows like (in a good way) without most of the negative aspects of using Microsoft's product. There are some issues to work out, but few serious problems.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo desktop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Hex-core Intel i5-10400 CPU @ 2.90GHz
- Storage: Western Digital 1TB hard drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 wired network card, Realtek RTL8822CE 802.11ac PCIe wireless adapter
- Display: Intel CometLake-S GT2
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
Kumander Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.5/10 from 8 review(s).
Have you used Kumander Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
ReactOS explains its new release schedule, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel support, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility
The ReactOS project develops an open source operating system which strives to be binary compatible with Microsoft Windows while also offering a lot of the same look and feel as classic versions of Windows. The project has appeared outwardly dormant recently and the project's latest newsletter addresses the reduced level of visible activity: "The latest release of ReactOS is 0.4.14, published on 16th December, 2021. That release alone took a year to be engineered. Back then, ReactOS followed a 3-month cadence, releasing a new version every 3 months. But since 2021, ReactOS is still at 0.4.14. Are you guys dead?
The answer is certainly no, the way we handle releases has changed. Back in the day, ReactOS releases were made for the sake of quantity rather than quality. Every new release after 3 months was similar to the previous one, with the exception of a small number of added features and bug fixes. But overall, the net gap between the releases wasn't that big. For a while now we have instated a rule that for a new version to reach 'Release' status, it needs to have a reasonably low amount of regressions (no more than 20) and the stability mustn't be badly impacted by the introduction of new features or code changes done during development.
In other words, the ReactOS project is now focusing on providing quality releases, which rules out the 3-month release cadence. That previous approach wasn't feasible for a development team with a size like ours anyway." The newsletter goes on to talk about an x64 port and updates to applications.
* * * * *
The TrueNAS team announced a number of few features and fixes which are coming to the project's network-attached storage solutions. One of the more attractive enhancements is SMB Multichannel support through the web-based user interface. "TrueNAS 22.12.3 adds official (WebUI) support for SMB Multichannel and increases maturity and quality. SMB multichannel is used where systems have multiple LAN interfaces and can take advantage of more bandwidth than a single LAN interface. A customer can aggregate 4 x 1GbE ports, 2 x 10GbE ports, or 2 x 25GbE ports on TrueNAS. The resulting multichannel connection uses the aggregate bandwidth and makes more efficient use of the client's CPU by reducing the dependence on the performance of a single processor core. After upgrading to TrueNAS SCALE 22.12.3, SMB Multichannel can be enabled from the (SMB Service Screen) menu by toggling the 'Enable SMB Multichannel' option." Additional improvements are discussed in the TrueNAS blog post.
* * * * *
The Zorin OS project has unveiled a new upgrade utility to help users migrate between versions of the distribution. "In the past, the only way to upgrade between major releases of Zorin OS (for example, Zorin OS 15 to 16) or between editions (Zorin OS Core to Pro) was to perform a clean install. That meant you needed to back up your files and erase your apps & settings upon each major upgrade, before setting up your work environment from scratch again. The new Zorin OS Upgrader makes this process easier by allowing you to keep your current installation. Simply follow a few quick steps to select your upgrade option and sit back while it handles the heavy lifting." Instructions on how to use the new upgrade utility can be found in the project's documentation.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code
A little over a week ago we reported Red Hat had announced the company would be changing how it shared the source code for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Now that the dust has settled somewhat, this seems like a good opportunity to discuss what the change is, how this affects people who use members of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux family, and what it will mean for distributions based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).
First, a little context is in order. It's important to understand the flow of code from one place to another. Typically source code originates with an "upstream" project. Upstream projects are open source organizations like KDE, GNOME, LibreOffice, Mozilla, and the Linux kernel. These organizations publish the source code for their applications, services, and desktop environments publicly and usually for free. Then distributions, such as Fedora, take the source code and package it. Distributions like Fedora usually create two types of packages - source packages which contain the source code, images, and data files required to build the software; and binary packages which contain the executable programs and resources required to run the software.
In the case of the Fedora and Red Hat ecosystem, the source code passes from the upstream projects to Fedora and then to CentOS Stream. CentOS serves as a sort of slow-moving testing ground for the community and Red Hat. From there, the source code flows downstream to Red Hat Enterprise Linux where it is used to build binary packages which are provided to Red Hat's customers.
For most of the life of RHEL, Red Hat has published its source packages publicly while reserving the binary packages for Red Hat customers and developers with Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions. The publicly available source packages meant developers could take the source packages, strip out anything bearing Red Hat's trademarks, and use the source code to build their own equivalents of RHEL. These equivalents are called RHEL clones.
Red Hat's approach to publishing its source code has meant it has been possible for other organizations to make clones of RHEL which use the same source code and therefore are considered 1:1 compatible (or "bug for bug" compatible) with RHEL. This has given rise to distributions such as Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux OS, Oracle Linux, EuroLinux, and a few others.
In theory, this situation has led to a mutually beneficial relationship. The Linux community gets free clones of RHEL for small deployments and testing purposes. Meanwhile, small organizations who start out with a free RHEL clone can "upgrade" seamlessly to RHEL's commercially supported distribution when they get larger and more successful. The clones act like free samples, something which might appear to take away from Red Hat's business while also promoting the company's software stack and encouraging people who don't need commercial support to stick around in Red Hat ecosystem until they do.
Red Hat's recent announcement changes this relationship a bit. What the company has done is effectively say they will no longer publicly publish the source packages for RHEL. They will only provide the source code used to build RHEL to Red Hat's customers (and subscription holders) and those customers need to abide by a license which prevents them (in essence) from creating Red Hat clones. Meanwhile, the source code for Fedora and CentOS Stream will remain publicly available.
The company's announcement led to a lot of people questioning whether the company can do this under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL), which governs the distribution of much of the company's software. The answer is: they can. The GPL does not require organizations to provide public access to their source code, it only requires that companies offer to provide their source code to people to whom they distribute binary copies of their software. In other words, Red Hat only needs to provide their source code to Red Hat subscription holders who request it, according to the GPL. The GNU organization explains this in its GPL FAQ document:
The GPL does not require you to release your modified version, or any part of it. You are free to make modifications and use them privately, without ever releasing them. This applies to organizations (including companies), too; an organization can make a modified version and use it internally without ever releasing it outside the organization.
But if you release the modified version to the public in some way, the GPL requires you to make the modified source code available to the program's users, under the GPL.
In short, what Red Hat is doing might be considered outside the "spirit" of open source software development, but it is within the "letter" of the appropriate licenses.
Some people have pointed out that section 6 of the GPLv2 states, in part: "You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein." Which some have suggested contradicts Red Hat's stance that their clients may not use Red Hat's source code to create new clones. However, while the GPL's clause likely prevents Red Hat from legally blocking the creation of RHEL clones, it does not require Red Hat to continue to do business with clients who assist in the building of RHEL clones. In other words, Red Hat likely can't sue customers for making a clone, but they can deactivate the accounts of people they suspect are assisting the development of clones.
What will this mean for clones of RHEL? That is a bit of an open-ended question. In a blog post titled Impact of RHEL changes to AlmaLinux, Benny Vasquez outlines the issues they face, how it came as a surprise even before Red Hat's announcement, and what this is going to mean for AlmaLinux OS and other clones:
Late last week one of our build SIG members noticed that some updates for Red Hat 8 hadn't been published on git.centos.org like they were supposed to be. They assumed it was a bug and opened a report appropriately, but as the days went on with no resolution, we knew something was up. This morning we got our answer:
Red Hat has decided to continue to use the Customer Portal to share source code with our partners and customers, while treating CentOS Stream as the venue for collaboration with the community.
This change means that we, as builders of a RHEL clone, will now be responsible for following the licensing and agreements that are in place around Red Hat's interfaces, in addition to following the licenses included in the software sources. Unfortunately the way we understand it today, Red Hat's user interface agreements indicate that re-publishing sources acquired through the customer portal would be a violation of those agreements.
A similar news post was published by Rocky Linux, expressing surprise over the restriction to sharing source code that was introduced in the middle of the life cycles of RHEL versions 8 and 9:
Last week we had identified we were about ten updates behind. Wednesday's announcement confirmed these missing updates had not been a simple oversight. So we have been solving immediate concerns while simultaneously developing mid- and longer-term responses. After tireless efforts by team members, we have completed update composes for Rocky Linux 8 and 9, including all the updates we were missing, also including all errata information.
In other words, clones of RHEL are now cut off from using Red Hat's source code and security patches. The AlmaLinux blog post goes on to say that, in the short-term, AlmaLinux will be working with other clones and the CentOS Stream source repositories to try to keep up with security fixes. In the long-term, well, that is more of an open question and one for which nobody seems to have an answer. Without access to Red Hat's source code it becomes difficult to (legally) make a 1:1 clone of the company's distribution.
The Rocky Linux team published a statement, indicating plans to keep the project going and continue their work despite Red Hat's embargo.
In response to the backlash from people who were upset about Red Hat cutting off access to their source code in the middle of a support cycle after having used open source to build their business model, Mike McGrath, the Vice President of Core Platforms Engineering at Red Hat, wrote:
Ultimately, we do not find value in a RHEL rebuild and we are not under any obligation to make things easier for rebuilders; this is our call to make.
The AlmaLinux team fired back, listing several of the ways free clones of RHEL contribute to the Red Hat community:
AlmaLinux community members have submitted PRs to projects such as RPM, AWX, and VirtualBox. Our community has sent over 50 PRs to GlusterFS and also extended openQA. A Red Hat employee even thanked us for enabling Fedora tests to run on ELN and RHEL. An AlmaLinux contributor was so fired up by our community that he now maintains over 600 Fedora and Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) packages, including some widely-used ones like certbot, brotli, iperf3, imapsync, and countless Python libraries, many of them as the primary contributor maintaining them for the greater Fedora and Enterprise Linux ecosystem. EPEL is tremendously important to both Red Hat and RHEL users.
As it stands, clones of Red Hat's distribution likely either need to switch to a new base (such as CentOS Stream), convince Red Hat to change direction on this decision, find a way around Red Hat's restrictions, or shut down their derivative projects. Time will tell which way each clone decides to go. This issue is likely to be especially of interest to Oracle as the company has long presented itself as an inexpensive, binary-compatible alternative to Red Hat with optimizations for Oracle's database software. At the moment, it's too soon to tell what the various RHEL clones will do to protect their existence, however there are some ideas now in circulation.
The Rocky developers have started exploring ways to work around Red Hat's blockade by using paid-for-containers and cloud instances:
One option is through the usage of UBI container images which are based on RHEL and available from multiple online sources (including Docker Hub). Using the UBI image, it is easily possible to obtain Red Hat sources reliably and unencumbered. We have validated this through OCI (Open Container Initiative) containers and it works exactly as expected.
Another method that we will leverage is pay-per-use public cloud instances. With this, anyone can spin up RHEL images in the cloud and thus obtain the source code for all packages and errata. This is the easiest for us to scale as we can do all of this through CI pipelines, spinning up cloud images to obtain the sources via DNF, and post to our Git repositories automatically.
An interesting side-effect of this situation is seeing how other open source projects are reacting. Red Hat has, over the years, gradually been isolating its RHEL distribution, distancing itself from community efforts, and making it more difficult for clones to exist and users to function in their extended ecosystem. We've seen these efforts in the taking over of the CentOS project and then terminating CentOS Linux, replacing it with the moving platform of CentOS Stream. We've seen efforts to make it harder for other distributions to use Red Hat's kernel. More recently, Red Hat has discontinued the position of Project Manager at Fedora and dropped the maintenance of LibreOffice packages for their ecosystem. Red Hat appears to be trying to take control of its ecosystem and weeding out community contributions, and it's not making developers in the community happy.
For example, Jeff Gerrling announced plans to drop support for RHEL in Ansible roles - Ansible is a popular way to manage multiple machines on a network:
Support will be 'best effort', and if you mention you are using my work on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, I will close your bug/feature/support request as 'not reproducible', since doing so would require I jump through artificial barriers Red Hat has erected to prevent the use of their Linux distribution by the wider community.
Other developers, particularly those in the Fedora community (such as Philip Wyett), are now questioning why they should bother contributing to Fedora when their efforts are going to disappear behind Red Hat's paywall:
Let us face it, our efforts with the Fedora project are not valued and it means nothing to the new corporate IBM/Red Hat enterprise systems that we have to struggle to get access to SRPMS to
make a community. What is community now to Red Hat? I see an impasse here. Why contribute to Fedora when Red Hat will lock it down in other products?
The Software Freedom Conservancy meanwhile has a look back at the history of Red Hat's business, their relationship with community clones of RHEL, and concerns over software licensing. Even SUSE, another commercial enterprise Linux company, took issue with Red Hat's move, writing:
RHEL's existence owes much to the collaborative efforts of many upstream projects, including the Linux kernel developed by many different contributors, among them SUSE. At the center of our world is innovating together. We are all working to build something greater than the sum of all our parts. We are all interdependent.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Red Hat seems to be trying to slowly gather up the pieces of its scattered ecosystem and squeeze them under the umbrella of the company's control. However, many developers are not keen to have a more centralized, locked-down environment in which to work. For now it's too soon to tell how clones of RHEL will adjust in an attempt to stay alive or what effect this change will have on other community efforts like RPM Fusion which builds add-on packages for Fedora and RHEL. We're almost certainly going to see ripples coming off of Red Hat's decision to restrict access to its source code in the months to come.
What Red Hat is doing appears to be legal and within the bounds of its licenses, but this surprise move has left a bad taste in the mouths of many community members and developers.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
Nobara 38
Nobara Project is a modified version of Fedora Linux with user-friendly fixes added to it. The distribution comes with certain features that do not ship with the regular Fedora. The project has published Nobara 38 which includes a number of fixes for Davinci Resolve, Payday 2, GStreamer codecs and improves support for XBox controllers. "Nobara 38 released. New to Nobara: Davinci Resolve workaround will detect if Davinci Resolve installer has been run from terminal and, after installation, will prompt for user to run a wizard to perform additional actions; payday 2 workaround will detect if the native Linux version of payday 2 is run and, if so, will use the zink driver to run it, as the OpenGL implementation is currently broken and the native version no longer receives official support; udev rules - rule added so that the 'Xbox 360' controller devices are forced to use the Xpad driver - this allows devices such as the gpd win max 2 and gpd win 4 to retain controller support while still also allowing the optional xone/xpadneo driver to be installed when users need wireless dongle and/or better bluetooth support for XBox one controllers." Additional information is provided in changelog.
Nobara 38 -- Running the Official desktop edition
(full image size: 441kB, resolution: 1920x1440 pixels)
Proxmox 3.0 "Backup Server"
Proxmox is a commercial company offering specialised products based on Debian GNU/Linux. Proxmox has released version 3.0 of its "Backup Server" edition which is based on Debian 12. The Backup Server edition is equipped with ZFS support for large scale storage volumes. The release announcement reads: "We're excited to announce the release of Proxmox Backup Server 3.0. It's based on Debian 12 "Bookworm", but uses the newer Linux kernel 6.2, and includes ZFS 2.1.12. Here are the highlights: Debian 12, with a newer Linux kernel 6.2; ZFS 2.1.12; additional text-based user interface (TUI) for the installer ISO; many improvements for tape handling; sync jobs: 'transfer-last' parameter for more flexibility; we have included countless bugfixes and improvements on many places; see the release notes for all details." The aforementioned release notes and press release offer additional information.
Peppermint OS 2023-07-01
The Peppermint team have published a new version of the project's Debian-based distribution featuring the Xfce desktop. The new release is based on Debian 12 "Bookworm". "Branding updated; new Plymouth design; adjusted the Welcome screen... removed features or added features based on feedback; Peppermint Docs updated; Peppermint Hub adjusted features added or removed based on feedback; suggested feature has been simplified based on feedback; Kumo has been updated to use lua, and the GUI was simplified; Neofetch configured to use the basic output (no logo); the OS base is now Debian Bookworm stable; Calamares installer removed installing packages during install feedback suggested that if too much was selected the install process would take too long or fail, that's why we removed that module; added a few Marawaita themes and Tela Icons." The release announcement and release notes offer additional information.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| 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: 2,882
- Total data uploaded: 43.4TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Are you using a distribution affected by Red Hat's change to its source code policy?
This week we talked about changes to the way Red Hat handles sharing its source code. The new limitations regarding how the source code for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is distributed is likely to affect clones of RHEL, such as Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux OS and other related projects. We'd like to know if you are currently running one of the potentially affected distributions. If you are a clone of RHEL, do you have any plans to migrate to another distribution?
You can see the results of our previous poll on the preview of KDE Plasma 6 in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Are you running a clone of RHEL?
| Yes - and plan to stick with it: | 67 (4%) |
| Yes - and plan to migrate soon: | 79 (4%) |
| Yes - and am waiting before making a decision: | 114 (6%) |
| No - running another member of the Fedora/Red Hat family: | 160 (9%) |
| No - not running any member of the Red Hat family: | 1423 (77%) |
|
|
| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- SpaceFun. SpaceFun is a lightweight, Debian-based distribution featuring the LXDE interface. It is intended to be used by young children (ages 4-14). SpaceFun has two companion editions called IceFun and Moonlight which use the IceWM interface.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 10 July 2023. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 1, value: US$10) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
|
| 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.
|
| Archives |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • 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.
|
| Random Distribution | 
Atomix
Atomix was a Serbian desktop and server oriented Linux distribution based on Fedora Core and enhanced with multimedia applications.
Status: Discontinued
|
| 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.
|
| 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
