 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1066, 15 April 2024 |
Welcome to this year's 16th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Long-term support releases are where people and businesses go to find stability, reliability, and enterprise-focused solutions. However, long-term support releases typically ship with older versions of applications which lack the latest features. How can someone enjoy the static nature of a long-term support (LTS) release while also running the latest desktop software? We explore this topic and a number of options for installing new applications on LTS platforms in our Questions and Answers column. One application which is experiencing performance gains in its latest version is GNOME Terminal. In our News section we link to a detailed report of why GNOME Terminal is getting more responsive and how much of a difference it makes. Plus we share news that Linux Mint is testing new repository mirrors while Gentoo comes a Software In The Public Interest project. Before we dive into that, we discuss a few fun projects people can try on any Linux machine, but specifically on low-spec computers like the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone. Read on to learn how to get more out of these minimal devices. Do you own a minimal computing device? Let us know about it in this week's Opinion Poll. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
Fun projects with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone
I tend toward the minimal side of things when it comes to computer hardware. Maybe it's a side effect of spending so much time working on DOS machines. Or perhaps it's a result of the time in my early 20s when my friends and I would cobble together working personal computers from old equipment we had and parts people had thrown away. However I ended up here, it's my habit to buy refurbished computers rather than cutting edge new machines and it's my preference to tinker with low-specification devices, like Raspberry Pi single-board computers, over top-of-the-line servers.
This week I want to touch upon a few fun and interesting things we can do with minimal, fanless devices like the Raspberry Pi series of computers and the PinePhone. Technically these mini projects I will cover below will also work on full featured, x86_64 powered computers too. However, I think the style of these projects is best suited to minimal, possibly headless, machines. Keeping that in mind, the steps I'll be sharing below are intended to be run on systems running small, Debian-based distributions, such as Raspberry Pi OS and UBports.
Talk the talk
Before office colleagues annoyed each other with Teams and Slack, they had to make due with pestering each other using command line terminal interfaces and e-mail. One of the ways people could connect and communicate in real time was with the talk program. The talk program splits the terminal into two parts or panes. Text we type appears in the top half of the screen and responses from the person on the other end appears in the bottom half. It's a one-on-one experience and about as simple as we can get in terms of communicating through text with a peer.
To install the talk software we will need both the talk client and its background service, talkd. These items should, in turn, pull in the inetd service as a dependency which will help handle setting up the connections in the background. To get started, we should install the talk and talkd packages:
$ sudo apt-get install talk talkd
Debian-based distributions typically enable background services for us, but in case the operating system doesn't do it for us, we should make sure inetd is running:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/openbsd-inetd restart
While, traditionally, the talk software would work to connect people (sometimes without warning), these days it is considered rude (and possibly a security risk) to allow one user to write to the terminal of another. For this reason most shells will block messages from the talk and write commands. We can verify whether our shell is allowing the talk service to contact us by running the mesg command:
$ mesg
is n
The "is n" response means no connections are allowed. We can enable communication through talk by running mesg and passing the parameter "y":
$ mesg y
$ mesg
is y
To find other people on our local computer to chat with we can run the who command. This command will give us a list of people on the system:
$ who
jesse pts/2 2024-03-18 14:00 (:0.0)
alice pts/1 2024-03-18 15:30
In the above text we can see two users, Jesse and Alice, are on the system. Jesse (that's me) is using terminal pts/2 while Alice is using pts/1. This tells us how to reach out to the users.
The talk program initiates communication with another user who we specify on the command line. We need to provide the username, the hostname of the computer, and the terminal name. Typically we want to talk to someone on the same computer so the hostname will be "localhost". The username and terminal name we can get from the who command, as shown above. To request a connection with the user Alice, we could run the following command:
$ talk alice@localhost pts/1
Assuming Alice has messaging enabled (she has run "mesg y"), Alice will receive a notification in her terminally saying we wish to chat. The text on Alice's screen will look like this:
talk: connection requested by jesse@127.0.0.1.
talk: respond with: talk jesse@127.0.0.1
Then Alice can run the command "talk jesse@127.0.0.1" to establish the link. At that point both our terminal screens will be split into two panes. We'll be able to watch each other type messages. This will continue until one of us closes the terminal or presses Ctrl-C to disconnect the session.
Please note that each time we open a terminal, the default shell behaviour (blocking talk access) will be put into place. We will need to run "mesg y" again to enable new connections. If we plan to use talk frequently it might be best to add the command "mesg y" to our shell's start-up script. For bash users this script file is ~/.bashrc.
Technically it is possible for the talk service to run between two different computers, though it isn't commonly used anymore. To allow talk to work between machines, make sure network ports 517 and 518 are open and your firewall is allowing UDP traffic on those ports.
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Streaming audio from the command line
There is a script called yt-dlp which can download video files from a variety of locations, including YouTube. This is handy for archiving videos, downloading clips to watch later, and downloading videos in order to scale them down to make them watchable on a minimal device.
Since a video file is a combination of visual elements and an audio track, it may interest people to know yt-dlp has the ability to download a video file and extract just the audio to save for later. This allows us to fetch interviews, news reports, and music videos then strip away the video, leaving just audio files. This is quite useful if we wish to consume just audio recordings later or experience news or interviews on devices where playing video files isn't practical - such as an MP3 player.
Further, the yt-dlp software can recognize on-line playlists, such as groups of YouTube videos, and fetch them in sequence. Let's take a look at some practical examples for a PinePhone or a Raspberry Pi that has a speaker plugged into it.
First, we need to fetch a few programs. Specifically, we'll need an audio player (I'm choosing mplayer here because it worked the best for me in minimal environments). We'll also need wget to fetch the yt-dlp script. To get started, we'll install the mplayer and wget packages, then use the latter to grab the latest copy of yt-dlp:
$ sudo apt-get install mplayer wget
This can be followed by:
$ wget "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp"
$ chmod +x yt-dlp
Now we have the yt-dlp script and have made it executable. We can use it to fetch a video by specifying the URL of the website where the video exists. In its most simple form, the command looks like this:
$ ./yt-dlp "URL-for-video-page"
The above command will scan the page we gave it and then exact the video file it finds there, saving it in the local directory.
Next, what if we want to just download the audio portion of a video? We can do this by specifying to yt-dlp that we want only audio and which format to use:
$ ./yt-dlp --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 "URL-for-video"
The script will download the video file, extract and save the audio portion, then delete the video data. This leaves us with just an MP3 file of the audio portion of the video.
One interesting feature of the yt-dlp script is it can write its video (or audio) data to standard output (stdout). Some media players, such as mplayer and VLC, can read media data from the command line rather than a regular file. This means we can pipe an audio stream from a website using yt-dlp and have it play in a local media player. This basically replaces a web browser as a tool for listening to interviews and music and it can be done from a minimal, command line interface:
$ ./yt-dlp -o - --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 "URL-for-video" | mplayer -
Earlier I mentioned yt-dlp recognizes websites, such as YouTube, which feature playlists. This means yt-dlp can download dozens of video files from a playlist to be enjoyed later, perhaps while we're taking a trip or out of range of an Internet connection. In its simplest form, the yt-dlp script can download a playlist of videos just using the URL of the playlist:
$ ./yt-dlp "URL-for-playlist"
When combined with its audio extraction capabilities and a command line audio player, we can use yt-dlp to stream a playlist of music. This allows us to play dozens or hundreds of audio streams without the video and without saving any content to our (limited) storage drive. Here is what that looks like:
$ ./yt-dlp -o - --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 0 "URL-for-video-playlist" | mplayer -
The above example will cycle through the playlist, playing the extracted audio, until it reaches the end or until we press Ctrl-C. This is a great way to turn your Raspberry Pi or PinePhone into a minimal media player without requiring additional storage space.
* * * * *
Connect all the devices
The KDE Connect software is best known for linking a phone to a workstation over a local network connection. While this is quite useful, it's not the only way we can use KDE Connect. The software can be used to link virtually any two (or more) devices together, enabling them to share files, clipboards, notifications, and contacts.
The KDE Connect software includes a command line utility which allows these actions to be carried out from a terminal. This means we can link a server, a Raspberry Pi, a phone, or a laptop (or all of the above) together as long as they are on the same network.
Before I get started I want to acknowledge that KDE Connect can work on some operating systems which run on the PinePhone, but it struggles on UBports due to issues with the Lomiri user interface. We can work around this by running the KDE Connect background service (kdeconnectd) and passing it the "-platform offscreen" flag. This runs KDE Connect in headless mode. This restricts some functionality, but works around the compatibility issue.
To install the KDE Connect command line software we can use the package manager to fetch this package and any dependencies:
$ sudo apt-get install kdeconnect
To see a list of all available devices that are also running the KDE Connect service on our network we can use the "-l" parameter to list other devices:
$ kdeconnect-cli -l
- Galaxy S9: 8f420d3562d61340
1 device found
In the above example, KDE Connect has detected my Galaxy S9 phone. I can attempt to pair with the device using its name, in this case "Galaxy S9":
$ kdeconnect-cli -n "Galaxy S9" --pair
When the above command is run a notification appears on my phone, asking if I'd like to accept the connection. Note the phone's name is in quotes because the model name includes a space character. I've quoted it to avoid making KDE Connect think "Galaxy" and "S9" are two separate parameters.
Later, if I wish to send a file from my Raspberry Pi to my phone, for example a document file, I can initiate the transfer with the "--share" parameter:
$ kdeconnect-cli -n "Galaxy S9" --share mydocument.pdf
Next, if I misplace my phone and wish to locate it, I can cause it to ring by running the following command:
$ kdeconnect-cli -n "Galaxy S9" --ring
The KDE Connect service can be useful in other ways when running on a low-spec device or server. For example, let's say I start a long job - perhaps I'm downloading a series of video files or performing a backup task - and I wish to be notified when the task has been completed. We can send a short message from the local device to the phone to indicate when a job is finished. In the following example I run a backup command with rsync and then notify my phone when the task has completed:
$ rsync -a ~/Documents/ backupserver:Documents/ ; kdeconnect-cli -n "Galaxy S9" --ping-msg "Backup complete"
The above example will inform me when the rsync command has finished. This means I do not need to keep checking back to see the status of the work in progress. My phone will chime when the job is finished.
These are some projects I've enjoyed playing with on my Raspberry Pi and PinePhone. Let us know in the comments some of the fun things you've accomplished with your low-spec devices.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project
We usually don't think of virtual terminals being fast or slow. People simply type text into them and, typically, get a short text response in return. On most systems this process looks almost immediate. However, different virtual terminals work at different speeds and this difference can have a striking effect when running long jobs with a lot of output. Changes in the Virtual TErminal library (also known as VTE) have introduced noticeable speed-up improvements in GNOME Terminal. Ivan Molodetskikh explores why GNOME Terminal should now feel faster and by how much in a detailed blog post: "Over the GNOME 46 cycle, VTE has seen a lot of performance improvements. Christian Hergert mentioned some of them in his blog posts about VTE and about his work in GNOME 46. But how much did the performance actually improve? What should you, the user, expect to feel after installing a fresh Fedora 40 update and launching your favorite terminal? Let's measure and find out!"
* * * * *
The Linux Mint team is looking for people who would like to help test new repository mirrors. The new package mirrors, provided by Fastly CDN, should hopefully provide better response times, secure HTTPS connections, and excellent uptime. "We expect the Fastly CDN to be fast, consistent and highly available. If you're testing it and you're happy with it, simply react to this issue with the rocket emoji. If you are experiencing problems, let us know with a comment. Long term, we're hoping to be able to move to Fastly. We need to see how the CDN copes with large amounts of users before switching to it." People interested in testing the new repository mirror can learn how to participate by reading the project's explanation and instructions.
* * * * *
The Gentoo project become a Software In The Public Interest project earlier this year. This move will help the project unload some of its housekeeping and will offer some benefits to the distribution's users. FOSS Force reports: "As of March, Gentoo Linux has signed up and been accepted as a project of Software in the Public Interest. For Gentoo, this means the organization will eventually be able to do away with the Gentoo Foundation, which till now has been tasked with all of the nontechnical issues associated with running an organization, such as keeping the rent paid, the lights on, and the tax man happy.
For Gentoo users, this means their distro will be on a better economic footing, partly because they'll be saving a lot because SPI will be doing a lot of the work that the Gentoo Foundation currently has to spend money to get done, and partly because they're likely to see increased donations since donating to Gentoo is suddenly tax deductible, which it's never been before."
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Getting newer versions of software on fixed release distributions
Running-ahead-of-the-pack asks: I typically run rolling distributions like Arch. How do people running old LTS releases get access to new versions of applications? Are they just stuck running old packages until they upgrade?
DistroWatch answers: I'm pleased to report that fixed release distributions - projects which don't introduce major new changes or package upgrades during the life span of the distribution release - do have an array of methods for installing up to date software on the system.
Fixed releases, particularly long-term support (LTS) releases, generally remain unchanged during the supported life of the distribution version. Apart from security fixes, and maybe the web browsers, long-term support distributions will stay static and not introduce new versions of applications and desktop environments. However, there are a number of methods people can use to get up to date applications on their LTS systems. Let's look at some of these methods, in no particular order.
Portable packages
One of the easiest ways to install new applications on most Linux distributions is to use a portable package, such as an AppImage, Flatpak, or Snap bundle. These packages can usually be fetched from a central repository such as AppImages, Flathub, and Snap Store. Some developers also provide portable packages directly from their websites. Portable packages are easy to install and are isolated from the rest of the operating system which avoids introducing new package conflicts.
Backports
Though not available on all distributions, some projects offer an add-on repository called a backports repository. This extra repository provides newer versions of applications than the ones available in the normal, default software repositories. A backport package is one which offers a newer version of an application while maintaining compatibility with the original, older distribution core. If your distribution offers a backports repository it can probably be enabled in your package manager and then it will integrate seamlessly with your usual package management actions.
Third-party repositories such as PPAs
A similar approach to backports is a third-party repository, what Ubuntu-based distributions call a personal package archive (PPA). This is basically the same thing as a backports repository, but third-party repositories are not supported by the distribution and usually not available as an option in your package manager. You will need to follow some instructions (hopefully provided by this third-party repository's maintainer) to gain access to the software. Personal package archives usually don't receive the same level of testing as official backport repositories, so use them with caution.
Once a third-party repository is enabled it will provide new software through your package manager, hopefully without introducing any dependency conflicts.
Distrobox
One method which has gained popularity in recent years is Distrobox. What Distrobox does is set up a second operating system in a container and allow us to run applications from inside the container on our desktop. This basically gives us access to applications from multiple distributions all in the same desktop session.
It can take a little more work to get Distrobox in place and a second distribution installed, but once it's in place the experience is fairly smooth. We've talked about how to use Distrobox in a previous Weekly. This allows us to run an LTS distribution as our base system and then run a cutting edge distribution inside Distrobox from where we can run all of the latest applications.
Perhaps the only real downside to using Distrobox is it requires we install an extra distribution on our machine which can take up quite a bit of space.
Virtual machines
Running a virtual machine with a cutting edge distribution running inside it is similar to using Distrobox. However, using a virtual machine introduces a bit more overhead and more separation between the host operating system and whatever is run in the virtual machine. This is probably the method which requires the most work up front to run newer applications. However, there are some benefits. With a virtual machine we can keep all of our data strictly separate in the virtual environment, a bonus if security is a requirement or we want to test multiple versions of an application.
Virtual machines also have the ability to run entirely different operating systems. With all the other methods in this list, we're running newer Linux applications on a Linux host. A virtual machine can run any major operating system, allowing us to run the latest software available on FreeBSD, Windows, Haiku, or FreeDOS.
Bedrock Linux
Bedrock Linux may be the most unusual approach to running up to date applications on a stable base, but it's also one of the most interesting options. Bedrock is a meta distribution which effectively merges together multiple Linux distributions, allowing users to run software from each of the selected projects. There is relatively little overhead with Bedrock and all software runs natively and seamlessly on your system.
Getting accustomed to how Bedrock is set up can take time to learn, but the project offers practical tutorials and allows us to run any applications from multiple distributions without the need to separate new software into containers or virtual machines.
We've talked about Bedrock in an earlier Weekly with some tips for getting started with the technology.
Nix
There are a number of third-party package management tools which offer access to pools of up to date software. I won't go into all of them here, but would like to touch on one. The Nix package manager can be installed on most Linux distributions and provides access to approximate 80,000 packages.
Nix can work much like any other command line Linux package manager while keeping the software it installs separate from the base system. This provides us with a huge repository of software which runs natively and seamlessly. Nix is a little slower than most other Linux package managers, but it provides portable software that runs natively and without the need for large overhead the way a virtual machine does.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Lakka 5.0
Tomáš Kelemen has announced the release of Lakka 5.0, a major new version of the project's lightweight Linux distribution with a goal of transforming a small computer into a full-blown retro-gaming console. This release updates the distribution's build system to LibreELEC 11.0 and adds support to Raspberry Pi 5 devices: "We are happy to announce a new and updated version of Lakka. Changes since version 4.3: based on the LibreELEC 11.0 build system; RetroArch updated to 1.17.0; cores updated to their most recent versions; new cores added including dirksimple - Dragon's Lair player, DOSBox, ep128emu, geolith, jaxe, numero, thepowdertoy - The Powder Toy, vice_xpet - Commodore PET, vircon32 - virtual game console inspired by 16/32-bit systems, vitaquake2 - Quake II; Mesa updated to 24.0.4; updated Linux kernel to mainline 6.1.84, Raspberry Pi 6.1.77, amlogic 6.1.38; added images for Raspberry Pi 5, Raspberry Pi Zero 2 in Retroflag GPI Case 2W, Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 in Retroflag GPI Case 2, Generic PC - support for NVIDIA GPUs (using proprietary NVIDIA driver, separate image), OrangePi Zero2, OrangePi 3 LTS, BananaPi CM4, BananaPi M2 Pro, BananaPi M2S, BananaPi M5, Radxa Zero, Radxa Zero2, WeTek Core, WeTek Hub...." See the release announcement for further information. As mentioned above, Lakka 5.0 is available for a large variety of popular hardware platforms.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,984
- Total data uploaded: 44.2TB
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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) |
Do you own a minimal computing device?
We began this week with a look at projects which, while they can work on virtually any Linux-powered device, are well suited to the minimal computing environments provided by single board computers, like the Raspberry Pi, and open source phones like the PinePhone. We'd like to hear if our readers own one or more of these devices. Let us know which minimal computers you have in your home in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on whether the xz exploit make it into repositories in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you own a minimal computing device?
| Yes - a Raspberry Pi: | 525 (30%) |
| Yes - another single board computer: | 73 (4%) |
| Yes - a PinePhone: | 15 (1%) |
| Yes - another open source phone: | 12 (1%) |
| Yes - another type of minimal device: | 58 (3%) |
| Yes - multiple devices: | 283 (16%) |
| No - none of the above: | 771 (44%) |
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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, 22 April 2024. 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 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.
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| Random Distribution | 
FuguIta
FuguIta is an OpenBSD live CD featuring portable workplace, low hardware requirements, additional software, and partial support for Japanese. This live CD is intended to be as close as possible to the default OpenBSD when installed on a hard disk.
Status: Active
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| Tips, Tricks, Q&As | | Tips and tricks: Running Android applications on GNU/Linux with Anbox |
| Questions and answers: Distributions for audio recording, multi-distro disk layout |
| Questions and answers: Open-source applications for live streaming, difference between desktop environments and window managers |
| Questions and answers: More information about dynamic versus static linking |
| Tips and tricks: What being free, stable and light-weight mean |
| Tips and tricks: Find common words in text, find high memory processs, cd short-cuts, pushd & popd, record desktop |
| Tips and tricks: Running Plex Media Server on a Raspberry Pi |
| Tips and tricks: Shell switching, battery charge, getting the system's IP address and dealing with stubborn processes |
| Tips and tricks: How to find files |
| More Tips & Tricks and Questions & Answers |
| 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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