 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1033, 21 August 2023 |
Welcome to this year's 34th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
When you're on the go, it isn't always convenient to travel with a computer. Sometimes you arrive at a destination and discover you really could benefit from using your preferred Linux distribution, however you don't have your laptop with you. For situations like these, it's helpful to have a thumb drive with a desktop Linux distribution queued up and ready to go, then any handy computer is a reboot away from running the operating system you need. This week we begin with a look at MiniOS, a Debian-based distribution that is intended to be run live. Read on to learn more about MiniOS and the experience it provides. In our Questions and Answers column we explore system user accounts, why they exist, and whether they can be removed. How many user accounts, in total, are on your main desktop system? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. Plus we provide an update on what all of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux clones are doing now that Red Hat is no longer freely providing source packages for its distribution and we share improvements coming to Haiku. We're also thrilled to wish the Debian project a happy 30th anniversary! Then we're pleased to share a summary of last week's releases and the torrent we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
MiniOS 20230606
One of the more recent additions to the DistroWatch waiting list is the MiniOS distribution. Which has actually been around for a while, in one form or another. The project's website describes the MiniOS distribution as follows:
MiniOS is a lightweight and fast Linux distribution designed for installation on a USB drive. The MiniOS project was launched in 2009 as a Linux distribution for USB drives based on Mandriva Linux. However, in 2013 it was suspended due to the liquidation of Mandriva. The modern version of MiniOS has been released since 2020 and is based on Debian - one of the most popular and stable distributions.
The distribution's website mentions MiniOS is designed to be run from a USB thumb drive without being installed to local storage. In other words, it's a portable distribution for people on the move. There are six editions of MiniOS, ranging in size:
- Flux - A compact version with Fluxbox window manager, 295MB in size.
- Minimum - Based on a previous version of Debian. Compressed with xz to take up less space. The ISO is 305MB.
- Standard - A balanced edition with the Xfce desktop and compressed with zstd for faster performance. The ISO is 515MB.
- Maximum - Offers a full desktop environment plus media player, office suite, virtualization tools, and web browser. 685MB in size.
- Ultra - An all in one edition with many applications installed. 1.3GB in size.
- Puzzle - The system-constructor, in its basic version, is an analogue of the Standard version with the possibility of expanding the system to Ultra functionality. This edition ranges in size from 460MB to 1.5GB.
The first three editions listed above offer both 32-bit and 64-bit builds while the Maximum and Ultra editions are 64-bit only.
I downloaded the current release of the Standard edition which is based on Debian 11 "Bullseye". At the time of writing there doesn't appear to be a version of MiniOS based on Debian 12 "Bookworm" yet.
Early impressions
Booting the MiniOS media brings up a menu offering to start the distribution in Persistent storage or Static mode. There is also an option to load MiniOS into RAM rather than run it from the thumb drive.
MiniOS boots to the Xfce desktop. The version of Xfce is 4.16, a major release behind 4.18 which is what most distributions use these days. The differences in this older version Xfce are small, but there are a few elements which feel outdated now and some features appear to be missing. Still, the Xfce desktop is quite responsive and the environment feels light and snappy.
MiniOS 20230606 -- Exploring the Xfce desktop and its application menu
(full image size: 467kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
Xfce places a desktop panel across the bottom of the screen. Icons are placed on the desktop which will open the Thunar file manager. While the panel itself is dark, most of the distribution uses a lighter theme.
Included software
MiniOS ships with Firefox 102 ESR, the Thunar file manager, and a task manager. There is an entry for an e-mail client in the application menu, but none is installed on the Standard edition. The Mousepad text editor is included along with an image viewer and a remote desktop client.
MiniOS 20230606 -- Exploring the settings panel and running Firefox
(full image size: 491kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
These tools are available alongside the Xfce settings manager, which is a great all-in-one panel for handling desktop settings. The usual GNU command line tools are installed for us along with their manual pages. In the background we find the systemd init software and version 5.10 of the Linux kernel.
Typically distributions which focus on running live, from a thumb drive, place a focus on providing system administration tool. These may be disk partitioning tools, data rescue utilities, or network troubleshooting applications. MiniOS doesn't include any of these in its standard edition. This distribution appears to be geared toward being a portable desktop distribution rather than a collection of sysadmin utilities.
Hardware
MiniOS ran well in the VirtualBox environment I provided for it. The distribution was fast, stable, and presented no problems when I wanted to resize the desktop, play audio, or browse the web. MiniOS could boot whether I had VirtualBox set up to run in Legacy BIOS or UEFI mode. However, the distribution completely failed to boot on my laptop, simply presenting me with a GRUB boot loader prompt.
When running in VirtualBox and signed into the Xfce desktop, the distribution consumed about 420MB of RAM. This was when MiniOS was running from the thumb drive; running the whole distribution from RAM would take more memory.
Configuration
One of the features of MiniOS which intrigued me was the ideal of setting up configuration options which would help create modules and customize the operating system. The project's website explains:
MiniOS differs from most classic flash distributions in that some parameters can be set before boot in a fairly simple configuration file minios/minios.conf, which minimizes the amount of work required when creating your own modules to create embedded systems. Optionally, some of the parameters can be set in the boot parameters.
Details on the configuration file and the options it offers can be found in the MiniOS documentation. This documentation is a little vague on the location of the configuration file, which is called minios.conf. The documentation mentions a copy of the file being placed in /etc/minios, but not where the original file comes from.
There is no minios.conf file in the home directory or in the root directory of the live session. I eventually discovered the original configuration file is stored in the top level of the ISO file. It looks as though this file is copied into the live system's /etc/minios/ directory when the operating system boots.
MiniOS 20230606 -- Checking the settings in the configuration file
(full image size: 456kB, resolution: 1680x1050 pixels)
Changing this file isn't immediately straight forward. ISO files are set up to be read-only archives by default and even writing the MiniOS image to a thumb drive retains this read-only nature. This means we need to dig a bit and possibly create a new ISO image to set up a new minios.conf file. There is probably an easier way to do this through the distribution's tools, but I didn't find any clear documentation for dealing with minor configuration changes. The documentation does hint that, "On first boot, it is copied to the /etc/minios folder, then the /etc/minios/minios.conf file is automatically monitored and, when changes are made, overwrites the configuration file on the flash drive, if it is writable." However, I tried this approach and the changes didn't survive a reboot.
When we do edit the minios.conf file, it gives us a chance to customize which services are run, our hostname, and login credentials along with a few other options.
Conclusions
MiniOS seems to do what it sets out to accomplish, being a live desktop distribution with a variety of editions in different sizes. It provides a portable, desktop flavour of Debian which can be quite minimal or fairly robust. While I found MiniOS wasn't able to boot on my laptop, it did a fine job in a virtual machine and offered a smooth experience with no surprises. With this in mind, it's tempting to declare "mission accomplished" and give MiniOS a gold star.
On the other hand, MiniOS's website says the project has been around for over a decade (in one form or another) and, to date, there is very little in the way of useful documentation or infrastructure. There is almost no documentation on the distribution's concept of modules or setting up a configuration file. There is very little in terms of explaining what these optional modules are or why we would want to use them compared to other package/service formats. The discussion forum is almost empty, which feels weird for a project claiming over a decade of experience.
The current release (at the time of writing) is still based on Debian 11 which means the most up to date software in MiniOS is about three years old. This might not be a problem, exactly, but it does make the distribution look dated compared to some other live desktop distributions.
None of these concerns I mentioned is a critical problem, the distribution still accomplishes its core goal. However, it feels like there are some pieces missing - user support, documentation, newer hardware support - which could make running the distribution go from merely usable to a powerful, customized experience.
I'd also like to acknowledge that it seems the project quietly publishes new ISO files semi-regularly. There have been a few updates in the week I've been writing this overview of the project. So it looks like development is quite active. It's not always clear if the new snapshots are offering complete new versions of the distribution or minor fixes as there do not appear to be any release notes. However, I am hoping this activity indicates there were be more improvements and refreshed documentation in the future.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was an HP DY2048CA laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1135G7 @ 2.40GHz
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 512GB solid state drive
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network device: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 + BT Wireless network card
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
How Red Hat clones are responding to the company's source code distribution changes, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 years old
A lot has been going on over the past few months in the communities of clones of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. These clones, most of them made available to the public free of charge, recently had to deal with Red Hat changing the way it distributes source code and to whom. Since then a lot has happened, with various organizations scrambling to find solutions or workarounds to losing access to Red Hat's source code in the middle of a release cycle. It can be challenging to keep up with all the developments and the solutions each clone is trying. FOSS Force has a summary of what has happened so far and what the major clones are doing to stay running and compatible with Red Hat's distribution. "I'd been covering this story since before there was an AlmaLinux. Actually, longer than that. I'd been covering this story since CentOS, as a downstream version of RHEL, seemed to have a long future. I had been covering this story since the days when CentOS's existence was proof that Red Hat understood that the vision that gave birth to free software, FOSS, and open-source was about much more than computer software, but was born out of a cultural awakening that transcended the brief revolutionary renaissance that was the 1960s, an awakening that went all the way back to the mystery schools that were still around at the end of the dark ages to protect knowledge from the coming inquisition."
* * * * *
The Haiku team published their monthly newsletter for July and one of the key points mentioned concerns application performance, particularly when running WINE. An overhaul of some code and an implementation of BSD's kqueue() functionality has addressed the concern. "Many years ago, hamishm wrote a partial implementation of such an API, but it was not very well tested, and also Haiku-specific. Last month, waddlesplash dusted off the old patches, reworked them around the kernel refactors that have occurred since then, cleaned them up, and implemented the BSD kqueue() API on top of them. This then required multiple rounds of testing (mostly against the testsuite of libuv, the event-handling backend for node.js and other projects) and rewrites, until the final result was sufficiently robust to be merged (and the implementation, by that point, differed greatly from hamishm's original patches.)
The new API provides only a subset of BSD kqueue: it only supports EVFILT_READ, EVFILT_WRITE, and EVFILT_PROC. There are some other limitations, too (for example, the amount of data readable or writable is not generally returned in the data field.) However, it is already sufficient for libuv, .NET, WINE, and a number of other projects that use like APIs.
(This also crossed off a few items that had been on waddlesplash's personal to-do list for multiple years, and had been requested by kallisti5 and others working on porting Rust applications.)"
* * * * *
The Debian project is one of the world's oldest surviving distributions. It is also one of the largest projects, with around a thousand active developers. Debian is not only a popular distribution on its own, especially in the server market, it is also the basis for many of the world's most commonly used distributions, such as Ubuntu. This week Debian turned 30 years old. "Over 30 years ago the late Ian Murdock wrote to the comp.os.linux.development newsgroup about the completion of a brand-new Linux release which he named 'The Debian Linux Release'.
He built the release by hand, from scratch, so to speak. Ian laid out guidelines for how this new release would work, what approach the release would take regarding its size, manner of upgrades, installation procedures; and with great care of consideration for users without Internet connection.
Unaware that he had sparked a movement in the fledgling F/OSS community, Ian worked on and continued to work on Debian. The release, now aided by volunteers from the newsgroup and around the world, grew and continues to grow as one of the largest and oldest free operating systems that still exist today." Happy birthday, Debian!
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Removing system user accounts
Kicking-out-unwelcome-guests asks: Can I delete default users I don't use? Accounts like mail, games, news, nobody?
DistroWatch answers: Almost all Linux distributions (and other members of the Unix family) ship with a handful of default accounts. These accounts are sometimes called service accounts or system accounts. You can see a list of all user accounts on the distribution by looking in the /etc/passwd text file. The file usually begins with the user root, which is the administrator, and typically ends with regular user accounts that people use to sign in.
In between the root user and accounts created after installation there will often be anywhere from half a dozen to about 40 accounts with names such as daemon, games, man, lp, and mail. We cannot sign into these accounts, they exist to own files and run background services.
Typically when a utility or service wants to run in the background or needs to share resources, it will be run with its own special user account. This makes it easier to set up file permissions so that services can access specific files or resources. Giving services their own dedicated user account also means background tasks and network services do not need to run as the administrator where they would have too much power over the system.
In short, these system accounts make it easier to share data, maintain good file permissions, and run background services without granting them too much power. The special accounts have limited access (compared to the root user) and save us from running background tasks as our own user.
These accounts are typically created by packages installed on the system. For example, the PulseAudio package might add a user called pulse and the OpenSSH service package may add a user called sshd. Typically these service accounts will be removed when their corresponding package is deleted from the system.
Some people may look at the list of a few dozen service accounts and wonder if they are really needed or if it might be more secure to clean them off the system. Typically if the accounts are there it means a package has added them and removing the account may break the functionality of the corresponding package. As for the security risk, service accounts almost always have their login shell (the last field in the /etc/passwd file) set to be "nologin" or "/usr/sbin/nologin". This means people attempting to access your computer cannot sign into these accounts. Attempts to sign in locally or remotely will be denied. The account exists to perform specific tasks, but cannot be accessed by people or scripts attempting to break into the operating system.
In short, it is not a good idea to remove these accounts from your system. They don't do any harm, usually perform important background tasks, and cannot be used by attackers to login. It's best to leave them alone.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Devuan GNU+Linux 5.0.0
Devuan GNU+Linux is a Linux distribution forked from Debian in 2015. The project's primary goal is to provide a variant of Debian without the complexities and dependencies of systemd. The project's latest release is Devuan 5.0.0 "Daedalus". The release notes share highlights of the new version. "xserver-xorg-core now uses libseat1 to control rootless startx and access to input and video devices - this has several advantages, the most significant being that it removes the dbus dependency from xserver-xorg-core; libseat1 can use either seatd or elogind as a backend; if you need to override the default choice (autodiscovery), use the LIBSEAT_BACKEND environment variable; if you are using seatd as the backend, ensure the user is a member of the video group - this is only relevant to running startx as a user, X.Org run as root by a display manager is unaffected; users can now enjoy a Wayland desktop without elogind by installing libpam-ck-connector, sway and seatd; ensure the relevant user is a member of the 'video' group and run Sway from the terminal."
siduction 2023.1.0
Ferdinand Thommes has announced the release of siduction 2023.1.0, the new stable version of the project's distribution based on Debian "Sid" (the "unstable" branch) and featuring a choice of KDE Plasma, LXQt and Xfce desktops: "The siduction team is very proud to present an unscheduled release for a special occasion. Debian, whose unstable branch some of us have been following for over 20 years, celebrates its 30th birthday on 2023-08-16 and we think that is worthy of all honor. Debian is the second oldest distribution after Slackware, and is solely supported by the people involved, without a company standing in the background or someone at the top deciding where things go. Debian is considered the 'universal operating system' because of the many architectures supported to this day and the stability of their releases is legendary. The flavours we offer for siduction 2023.1.0 are KDE Plasma 5.27.7.1, LXQt 1.3.0, Xfce 4.18, X.Org and noX. GNOME, MATE and Cinnamon did not make it again this time because there is no maintainer within siduction for them." Here are the complete release notes.
siduction 2023.1.0 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 5.1MB, resolution: 2880x1800 pixels)
* * * * *
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: 2,899
- Total data uploaded: 43.5TB
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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) |
How many user accounts are on your desktop system?
In this week's Questions and Answers article we talked about user accounts on a Linux system and how some accounts are important for running background services. How many user accounts, in total, are on your distribution?
You can get a quick headcount by running the following command on your distribution:
wc -l /etc/passwd
You can see the results of our previous poll on arranging new windows on the desktop in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
How many user accounts are on your system?
| 1-10: | 852 (62%) |
| 11-20: | 19 (1%) |
| 21-30: | 36 (3%) |
| 31-40: | 198 (14%) |
| 41-50: | 186 (14%) |
| 51-60: | 50 (4%) |
| 61-70: | 6 (0%) |
| 71-100: | 5 (0%) |
| 100+: | 19 (1%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 28 August 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)
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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 |
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| Random Distribution | 
Ubuntu Budgie
Ubuntu Budgie (previously budgie-remix) is an Ubuntu-based distribution featuring the Budgie desktop, originally developed by the Solus project. Written from scratch and integrating tightly with the GNOME stack, Budgie focuses on simplicity and elegance, while also offering useful features, such as the Raven notification and customisation centre.
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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