 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1073, 3 June 2024 |
Welcome to this year's 23rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Graphical desktop environments are the method by which most people interact with their computers. The concept of placing applications inside rectangles (windows) which can be moved around the screen has been around for decades and there are many styles and approaches which build on this idea. This week we focus on desktop environments, beginning with a look at LXQt 2.0.0, a lightweight desktop which uses the same Qt development library as the more commonly used KDE Plasma desktop. How do you feel about light desktops such as LXQt and Enlightenment? Do they provide enough feature for you or do you need more capabilities like those found in Plasma and Cinnamon? Let us know in the Opinion Poll. This week we also respond to a request to compare the main Linux desktops. Our Questions and Answers section provides an overview of the more commonly used Linux desktops and what makes them special. In our News section this week we report on Wayland adding OpenBSD support and progress happening in openSUSE's atomic Aeon Desktop edition. The Aeon Desktop branch provides an immutable base with filesystem snapshots and a focus on portable packages providing applications. We also share an article about a spike in traffic to Fedora's repository mirrors and report that Canonical is partnering with Milk-V to get Ubuntu running on the Milk-V Mars single-board computer which features a RISC-V processor. Plus we are pleased to welcome the NethSecurity firewall distribution to our database. NethSecurity grew out of the NethServer distribution and attempts to make managing firewalls and networks as easy as possible. Plus we share a summary of last week's distribution releases and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
- Review: LXQt 2.0.0 running on EndeavourOS
- News: Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE rolls out new features for Aeon Desktop branch, Fedora mirrors see unexpected traffic spike, Wayland gains OpenBSD support
- Questions and answers: An overview of Linux desktop environments
- Released last week: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.10, Armbian 24.5.1, KaOS 2024.05, Rhino Linux 2024.1, NethSecurity 8.0
- Torrent corner: AlmaLinux OS, Armbian, KaOS, KDE neon, Linux Lite
- Upcoming releases: FreeBSD 14.1
- Opinion poll: Do lightweight desktops offer enough features for you?
- New additions: NethSecurity
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
LXQt 2.0.0 running on EndeavourOS
On April 15th, the LXQt project announced the launch of LXQt 2.0.0. What is LXQt? The project's website describes itself as follows:
LXQt is a lightweight Qt desktop environment. It will not get in your way. It will not hang or slow down your system. It is focused on being a classic desktop with a modern look and feel.
While LXQt is capable of working with multiple window managers, it is most commonly paired with Openbox or KWin.
The 2.0.0 release places a strong focus on the migration from the Qt5 development libraries to Qt version 6. This upgrade also paves the way for most LXQt components to be Wayland compatible, though there are a few modules remaining that are not compatible with Wayland. For people interested in running LXQt under Wayland now instead of an X11 session, the LXQt documentation has some tips for running under Wayland. The project's release announcement mentions version 2.1.0 of the desktop should be 100% compatible with Wayland. Here are the highlights from the LXQt release announcement:
- Wayland will be the main target for LXQt 2.1.0, as Qt6 was for LXQt 2.0.0. The components which are not ready for Wayland yet include ScreenGrab, LXQt Global Shortcuts, LXQt Panel's task-bar and keyboard indicator (but LXQt Panel can be used under Wayland without those plugins), some input settings, and settings of monitor, power button, and screen locker. However, most Wayland compositors have tools that can be used instead of them, such that an LXQt-Wayland session is already possible for advanced users.
- LXQt Panel has a new default application menu called Fancy Menu, featuring "Favourites", "All Applications", and an improved search.
- Now, PCManFM-Qt [the file manager] can give you a real desktop not only with desktop-agnostic X11 windows managers, but also with Wayland compositors which implement "layer shell protocol", like those based on wlroots or KWin.
Getting started
I have a growing appreciation for light- and medium-weight desktop environments. My daily requirements are fairly minimal (and static) while the features and flash of larger desktops keep raising the bar in terms of CPU, memory, and disk consumption. I wanted to try out LXQt and - since the Arch Linux family quickly packaged LXQt 2.0.0, got it through testing, and into the stable repositories in a few weeks - I decided to use an Arch-based system as my testing ground. Specifically, I used EndeavourOS which is an Arch-based distribution that allows the user to pick their desktop environment at install time and sets it up with a minimal amount of customization. This gave me quick access to LXQt without a lot of distro-specific changes and without another desktop installed and cluttering up the system.
LXQt 2.0.0 -- The new Fancy application menu
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Once I'd installed LXQt and signed in the first thing I noticed was a notification which popped up in the lower-right corner of the screen. This notification indicated this was the first time the power manager had run. I was shown a button I could click to configure the system's power-related features. When I clicked the button I was shown a window where I could adjust what happens when the system is idle, when the battery is running low, and when the laptop's lid is closed.
Apart from the power manager notification, LXQt was silent. No welcome window, first-run wizard, or configuration window was displayed when I first signed in. (EndeavourOS does display a distro-specific welcome window, but it's for underlying EndeavourOS features only.)
LXQt was set up with a light theme by default. A medium sized panel was placed across the bottom of the display. This panel was packed with widgets. There was a button for the application menu, a virtual desktop switcher, a few quick-launch buttons, a task switcher, and a system tray.
The rest of the desktop was empty, by default, though we can add icons to it for opening files or accessing parts of the filesystem.
Application windows were displayed with thin title bars and small control buttons. As with most desktops and window managers, the window control buttons were placed to the right side of the windows.
Performance
LXQt running on the Openbox window manager was light and snappy. The interface is unusually responsive. Applications open quickly, windows respond immediately, and menus render instantly. It's refreshing to navigate a desktop that responds right away without lag or visual effects slowing the experience.
LXQt fits into the light-to-medium category in terms of memory consumption. The desktop took up just 470MB of RAM on EndeavourOS. This places it at about two-thirds the size of Plasma 5 on most distributions and a little less than Xfce on most distributions I've run recently.
Improved application menu
The LXQt release announcement mentioned a few key features. While some of them are not visible to users, a few are. The default application menu, which was a minimal, tree-style menu in version 1.4.0, has been replaced in version 2.0.0. The new menu, which is called Fancy, introduces a dual-pane style with a search bar. The left pane displays application launchers while the right pane shows us available categories of software. The default category is Favourites, which is empty. When it is empty, the Favourites category displays a message letting us know we can right-click on launchers to add them to our Favourites group.
At the top of the Fancy menu we find a search box where we can type the name or description of an application. For example, typing "web" locates Firefox while typing "text" finds the FeatherPad text editor. Regardless of which category we have selected in the right-side pane, search results are immediately displayed in the left pane when we begin typing.
At the bottom of the menu are three buttons. One is decorated with the LXQt logo and it opens the About LXQt window. This window provides version and copyright information. The second second button is for settings and opens the LXQt control panel. The third button opens a window with logout and shutdown options.
For people who prefer the old, simple menu with the tree layout, it is still available. We can right-click on the desktop panel to bring up a menu which gives us options for adjusting the widget under the mouse pointer or the panel itself. Selecting Manage Widgets brings up a window where we can remove unwanted widgets and add new ones. The earlier version of the application menu widget is called Application Menu (mainmenu). The new one is called Fancy Application Menu (fancymenu).
Control panel
LXQt features a classic control panel with launchers for configuration modules laid out in a grid. There are just a handful of launchers for managing the desktop appearance, power settings, file type associations, notifications, shortcut keys, and keyboard & mouse settings. While LXQt might not be as flexible as Plasma or have as many features as Xfce, we have a good deal of flexibility at our fingertips. I like that the modules are consistent and easy to navigate. As with many aspects of LXQt, we're given "enough" options without being given "too much" or anything extra.
LXQt 2.0.0 -- The control panel
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I ran into very few issues during my trial with LXQt, and no serious problems. One quirk I ran into was with the Appearance configuration module. This isn't a bug, just an inconsistency. When browsing the theme and icon options in the Appearance module we are shown previews next to the names of the themes and icon sets. When visiting the tab for adjusting the look of the mouse pointer, no preview is shown. I thought this was a bug at first, until I clicked on a pointer theme's name to test it and the preview appeared.
LXQt 2.0.0 -- Changing the mouse pointer theme
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PCManFM-Qt
I usually don't use graphical file managers, but I wanted to poke around PCManFM-Qt, the LXQt file manager, a bit. It's a fast and simple file manager with a locations pane down the left side and icons for files and folders displayed to the right. PCManFM-Qt is, like the rest of the desktop, small and snappy. It works as expected and I encountered no problems with it. I quite like the breadcrumb style toolbar the file manager uses, making it easy to jump back up layers of directories. I also like that right-clicking on the breadcrumb bar gives us two options: copy the current path or edit the path manually.
LXQt 2.0.0 -- The PCManFM-Qt file manager
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Other observations
I experimented with swapping out LXQt's default, light theme for a dark theme. Here we can run into a complication because LXQt's Appearance utility handles desktop panels, window contents, and icons separately. This can lead to some situations where changing the theme causes icons to be invisible or adjusting the colours used in application windows can make it hard to see the mouse pointer. In short, I ended up doing a little bit of switching back and forth between the various Appearance tabs as I tried to find the desired combination.
LXQt 2.0.0 -- Trying out a dark theme
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One issue I ran into and didn't find a fix for was tool tips. Tool tips always seem to use the same background colour and using a theme that requires light fonts resulted in tool tips which were unreadable. There is probably a setting buried in LXQt or Openbox to adjust the background colour of tooltips, but it was not included in the various control panel tools and Openbox window customization tools I checked.
At one point I decided to try to customize the LXQt desktop the way I'd probably set it up if I were to use the environment for a long time. This involved moving the desktop panel to the left and making it vertical, moving window control buttons to the left, and using a dark theme. I also like a bold font.
This experiment eventually worked, but it was not a smooth process. Switching the panel from a horizontal to vertical orientation breaks a few things. Most notably the clock and task switcher show text sideways, and the quick launch buttons shrink to the point of being almost invisible. These things can be fixed. We can expand the panel and refresh it to restore the quick launch buttons. We can change a setting in the task switcher to use icons only instead of icons and text. The clock was a bigger problem. I did eventually find a way to switch its orientation (by disabling auto-rotate) and expanded the panel so the clock's numbers were not truncated. When I switched to a dark theme, the clock's text remained black and thus became invisible. This required a dive into LXQt's panel text and background settings.
LXQt 2.0.0 -- Exploring a custom layout
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Changing the position of window buttons is possible, but a bit cryptic. In the window options there is a text box where we can type letters, each letter representing a button. The string of lettings determines the position of buttons. For example, typing "TIMC" would cause a window's title bar to display the application's name (title), minimize, maximize, and close buttons - in that order. This isn't as straight forward as having a visual representation where we can drag buttons into place, but it does work.
All of this leads me to say that LXQt can be reshaped, even into unusual configurations. However, doing so is not as simple as clicking a few buttons to adjust the theme and locations of items. Elements can't just be dragged around the way I did when I used Plasma 6 on Fedora 40 earlier this year. Moving things around on LXQt and adjusting the colours is a multi-step process. We can't just re-orient the panel, we also need to adjust the widgets on the panel. We can't just change a theme, we also need to address window colours and font colours separately. The configuration tools work, there is just more manual work involved with LXQt than when using more feature-rich desktop environments.
Conclusions
LXQt is a special type of project that accomplishes what it sets out to do. The desktop's website makes no wild or bold claims and it doesn't use flowery language. The LXQt website describes the desktop environment as being lightweight and modular. It says LXQt won't bog down the system, and will stay out of the way. All of this is entirely accurate. When running LXQt all of its components and Openbox combined used less than 1% of my CPU cycles. The desktop, even with EndeavourOS's background services, used less than 500MB of RAM.
The desktop itself, like the website, is attractive without being flashy, useful without getting in the way, and fast without lacking anything important. I'm not saying it is perfect, as I mentioned above, there are some quirks and some manual work we must do to customize the experience. However, I will say that I didn't encounter anything I would say is a serious bug, there were no stability issues, and no glaring problems.
LXQt is a no nonsense, no frills, no distractions style of desktop which has just gone through an evolutionary improvement. There is nothing wildly new, no features that will make a big splash, just some incremental improvements to the application menu and Wayland support. Everything included is minimal and functional; there is nothing extra, nothing exciting. This is a desktop for people who want to work and for users running low-spec machines.
* * * * *
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) |
Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE rolls out new features for Aeon Desktop branch, Fedora mirrors see unexpected traffic spike, Wayland gains OpenBSD support
Canonical has announced a new build of Ubuntu for the Milk-V Mars single board computer. The Milk-V Mars features a RISC-V processor and up to 8GB of memory. "Milk-V and Canonical have reached a strategic cooperation agreement with the intention of bringing Ubuntu to novel RISC-V devices. Milk-V will provide hardware sponsorship to Canonical, including for future products, and offer an Ubuntu operating system as its main supported and maintained system to users across form factors and use cases, with a specific emphasis on accelerated computing and AI. With the support of Milk-V's hardware and engineering teams, Canonical will leverage the latest and greatest RISC-V designs to continuously improve Ubuntu and the broader open source ecosystem for the RISC-V ISA." The new Ubuntu build can be downloaded from the Ubuntu RISC-V page.
* * * * *
openSUSE's Aeon Desktop edition is taking form and gaining new features. The Aeon Desktop branch of openSUSE offers atomic updates, automated snapshots, and makes use of containers and Flatpak bundles to provide access to additional applications. The project is enabling compressed swap (zRAM) by default and using a new system installer to make sure new copies of the distribution start with predictable configurations. "One of the standout features of Aeon Desktop RC2 is the inclusion of Linux Kernel module zRAM by default. This feature significantly improves system performance by avoiding the need to swap data to slow hard disk drives (HDDs) or wear-limited solid-state drives (SSDs); this provides users with faster and more efficient memory management. Another feature introduced in Aeon is a revolutionary image-based installation process powered by the new installer tik. This ensures every user receives an identical configuration out-of-the-box." More information about Aeon Desktop can be found in the project's news post.
* * * * *
Stephen Smoogen has shared an interesting blog post which talks about an unexpected spike in network traffic to Fedora's repository mirrors. "Basically the load is an additional 5 million systems starting to query both the Fedora webproxies for mirror data, and then mirrors around the world to get further information. Going through the logs, there seems to be a 'gradual' shift of additional servers starting to ask for content when they had not before. In looking at the logs, it is hard to see what the systems asking for this data are. EL-7 uses yum which doesn't report any user data beyond: "urlgrabber/3.10 yum/3.4." That could mean the system is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, CentOS Linux 7, or even Amazon Linux 2 (which is sort of based on CentOS 7, but with various changes that using EPEL is probably not advised)." The extra five million addresses querying Fedora's mirrors seem to be coming from Amazon, though neither the Fedora project or Amazon know why at the time of writing. Downloading packages from Fedora and EPEL servers may be impacted until the issue is resolved.
* * * * *
The Wayland project has announced the release of Wayland 1.23.0 which introduces a number of bug fixes and improvements to the Wayland protocol. Included in the short list of changes and new features is an entry which simply says "OpenBSD support". It's likely this will open the door for desktop environments on OpenBSD to offer Wayland sessions in the future.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
An overview of Linux desktop environments
Picking-a-desktop asks: Do you guys have any interest in writing a comparison of or guide to Linux desktop environments? DistroWatch's Search page lists over 50 DEs in the Desktop Interface category and Debian alone lists 22 DEs. With that many desktop environments, it can be overwhelming for beginners to choose among them, so a guide might be very useful.
DistroWatch answers: There are indeed a lot of open source desktops and window managers available. As the question above points out, we have about 50 listed on our Search page, and there are some we don't list, simply because they are not used as the default desktop anywhere, or are only used by one project. It's a lot of options, especially for beginners, to evaluate.
On the subject of beginners, I'd recommend newcomers to Linux not focus on selecting a specific desktop environment - at least not at first. I suggest newcomers should pick one of the more user friendly, mainstream distributions and use whichever technologies, including the default desktop environment, they offer. It's hard to go wrong by selecting "Beginners" from the Distribution Category of our Search page and taking one of the top three distributions which appear. Alternatively, check out our Major Distributions page and pick one of the three beginner options listed.
In other words, for any beginners reading this, I recommend picking a newcomer friendly project and just sticking with its defaults. Don't worry too much about what desktop environment, package manager, or release frequency the project uses. For most beginners, most of the time, picking a project like Linux Mint, Ubuntu, or Zorin OS will be a comfortable experience and give you a chance to get familiar with the Linux landscape. After that, you'll have lots of time to explore, try out different applications, different desktops, and various customizations.
With that said, let's talk about some of the big, key desktop environments.
KDE Plasma
I'd like to start with KDE Plasma as it is one of the older surviving open source desktops for Linux as well as one of the more popular. The KDE project was started in the mid 1990s and was one of the early attempts to make a Linux desktop with a suite of applications that had a unified look and feel.
Kubuntu 24.04 -- The KDE Plasma desktop
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KDE's desktop is based on the portable Qt toolkit and these days it is known as one of the more customizable desktop environments. Virtually every aspect and element of KDE Plasma can be customized, swapped out, or adjusted to suit the user. This leads some people to suggest KDE is overly complex as it offers users so many options and features, while fans of the desktop enjoy its unusual level of flexibility.
The KDE Plasma desktop tends to be one of the more heavy desktops, in terms of memory consumption, and it is either the default or one of the main desktop editions in many Linux distributions.
GNOME
The GNOME desktop was started in the late 1990s and, originally, got its start as an alternative to KDE. During most of the 1990s the Qt toolkit KDE used was offered under a restrictive license and free software advocates wanted a pure, free and open source solution. Qt was moved to a fully open source license in 1999, but by then GNOME was picking up steam and its GTK development library was gaining popularity.
These days GNOME is well known for its minimal design. GNOME tends to tuck away menus, remove extra buttons, and streamline options - favouring a design that removes clutter and customization. At the same time, GNOME is one of the (if not the) heaviest desktop in terms of memory usage. Some people note that GNOME seems to follow a touch-focused design with large buttons and widely spaced controls.
Fedora 40 -- The GNOME desktop
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GNOME is one of the more widely used Linux desktop environments. It is especially favoured by commercially backed distributions with Ubuntu, SUSE Linux Enterprise, and Red Hat/Fedora all using it as their default desktop.
Xfce
The Xfce desktop was launched around the same time as GNOME and might be considered, in some ways, the little sibling to GNOME. Like GNOME, Xfce uses the GTK library for development. However, Xfce places a stronger focus on being lightweight, avoids visual effects by default, and takes a more conservative approach to adopting new features.
For many people, Xfce finds a comfortable middle ground in the field of desktop environments. Xfce offers a medium level of customizations, a small yet capable suite of applications, and a high level of performance. It isn't as powerful, flexible, or feature rich as GNOME or KDE. However, it is more feature complete and easier to use than many of its super lightweight cousins.
Xubuntu 24.04 -- The Xfce desktop
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The middle ground approach and its relative portability have caused Xfce to be especially well received by smaller community projects (such as MX Linux) and by the rolling release distributions in the Arch Linux community. It is also often presented as a "Lite desktop edition" alternative by distributions which use KDE or GNOME in their primary edition.
LXQt
While Xfce might be considered the small sibling of GNOME, LXQt could be regarded as the small sibling of KDE Plasma. LXQt, which was originally a merger of the LXDE and Razor-qt desktops, is a lightweight desktop built using the Qt library. LXQt strives for a minimal approach and often is presented with a classic 1990s style layout. LXQt doesn't ship with a large collection of applications and, unlike the earlier three desktops mentioned, does not develop its own window manager.
Lubuntu 24.04 -- The LXQt desktop
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While some people may view LXQt as overly minimal in its design and scope, fans of the desktop appreciate its high level of performance, lack of clutter, and clean design. LXQt is highly responsive and light in memory.
Cinnamon
About 15 years ago the GNOME team decided to take a new approach and abandoned the popular GNOME version 2 desktop, replacing it with a completely new design in the form of GNOME version 3 (also known as GNOME Shell). There were a lot of varied opinions about GNOME 3 early on and concern about the new direction GNOME was taking. As a result, a number of new desktop environments were started, often forking away from either the classic GNOME 2 technology or branching from the new GNOME 3 code. Cinnamon was one of the latter, growing out of the technology offered by GNOME 3 to take on its own design, suite of applications, and theming.
Linux Mint 21 -- The Cinnamon desktop
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Cinnamon is primarily developed by the Linux Mint project and serves as its default desktop, though Cinnamon is occasionally offered by other distributions as an optional edition.
Cinnamon provides most of the modern features and feel GNOME does while taking a more classic desktop approach and workstation oriented style that newcomers to Linux will hopefully find familiar. Cinnamon tends to be on the heavier end of the scale in terms of resource usage while also providing a great deal of features, customizations, and extensions.
MATE
Earlier I mentioned some people forked the GNOME 2 code when GNOME 3 was launched. The MATE project became the spiritual continuation of GNOME 2, maintaining its style, applications, and flexibility. MATE, like Xfce, tends to find a middle ground in terms of included applications, performance, and memory usage. Like Xfce, MATE tends to be conservative in its adoption of new technologies.
MATE is appreciated by people who liked the power and performance of GNOME 2 and who prefer tried and true technologies over the last features and visual effects. While MATE is not often used as a default desktop these days, it is frequently offered as a middle-weight alternative to the bigger desktops by many distributions.
Ubuntu MATE 24.04 -- The MATE desktop
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While these are, in my opinion, the main desktop options people will run into - ones offered by many Linux distributions - there are several others. A lot of alternative desktops are typically only used by one or two distributions or have found a small niche in network-install distributions. A few honourable mentions I'd like to add to my above list are:
- Budgie - the attractive and streamlined default desktop of Solus.
- Enlightenment - a super light desktop used by Bodhi Linux and a few other distributions.
- Trinity - a fork of KDE 3 that has found a home in Q4OS.
- Deepin - a full featured and attractive desktop used primarily by the deepin distribution.
- Unity7 - yet another fork of GNOME 3 which was used by Ubuntu for several years, but has mostly been abandoned, with the exception of the Ubuntu Unity project.
- Unity8/Lomiri - a mobile-oriented desktop used primary by UBports.
There are about 40 other desktops and window managers from which to choose, but these are the ones I feel people are most likely to encounter. These are the desktops most often offered as available editions on Linux distributions' download pages. Let us know which one is your favourite, or which one you felt deserved a mention, in the comments.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
EuroLinux 8.10
EuroLinux is a distribution built from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). This RHEL clone has just received an upgrade to its 8.x branch. The latest release, version 8.10, mostly provides security fixes and minor updates to services and development languages: "The EuroLinux 8.10 release is codenamed 'Bucharest' - the capital of Romania. EuroLinux 8.10 is available for x86_64 and aarch64 (ARM64) architectures. Among the most significant new features are the new modules: MariaDB version 10.11; Nginx version 1.24; PHP version 8.2; PostgreSQL version 16; Python 3.12. Furthermore, the most crucial system components and developer tools have been upgraded to newer versions: GCC toolset version 13; GO language stack version 1.21; Rust language stack version 1.75; LLVM stack version 17." Aditional details can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.10
Red Hat has published a new update in the company's Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) product line, this one of the 8.x series. The new release, version 8.10, mostly introduces bug fixes and minor updates to the 8.x line. One interesting feature is a change to the behaviour of OpenSSH: "OpenSSH's response after login failure is artificially delayed to prevent user enumeration attacks. This update introduces an upper limit so that such artificial delays do not become excessively long when remote authentication takes too long, for example in privilege access management (PAM) processing." Additional changes and important details can be found in the company's release notes for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.10.
Armbian 24.5.1
Armbian is a Linux distribution designed for ARM development boards. It is usually based on one of the stable or development versions of Debian or Ubuntu and it supports a wide variety of popular ARM-based devices, including Banana Pi, Cubieboard, Olimex, Orange Pi, Odroid, Pine64 and others. The project has announced an updated build which carries the version number 24.5.1: "Reproducible Armbian OS and Armbian build framework are tightly connected. Framework can build custom Debian or custom Ubuntu. Armbian Ubuntu is made from LTS or latest packages and is cleaned from all Canonical packaging including snapd. By default, we provide the latest critical packages also in the LTS package base. Armbian Jammy and Noble comes with highly optimized, specially built for each hardware platform, on top of mainline kernel 6.6.y or from SoC vendors, ZFS 2.2.4 and always the latest deb packaged Chromium, packed as .deb, comes with 3D and video acceleration where possible, VS Code, Thunderbird, Firefox, preinstalled Linux Userspace x86 and x86_64 Emulator on aarch64 hardware and several others. Armbian provides cleaned, improved, but stays close to the standard Debian and Ubuntu experience. To keep 100% compatibility, we tend to keep things that work well as they are. We stick to a minimalistic approach - less is more." The release announcement offers additional details.
KaOS 2024.05
Version 2024.05 of KaOS, an independently-developed Linux distribution focused on Qt/KDE toolkit and desktop, has been released. This release removes modsetting for all graphic cards and completes the removal of GTK2 from the project's repositories: "Four years after being end of life, GTK2 is finally removed from the KaOS repositories. The one major application left that still required GTK2 was Ardour, but with 8.4.0, an internal YTK is used, thus GTK2 is now gone. Updates to the base of the system included a move to Python 3.11, Glib2 2.80 stack, kernel moved to Linux 6.8.10, Systemd 253.19, ZFS 2.2.4, KMod 32, OpenSSL 3.3, FFMPEG 6.1, OpenJDK 17 and Mesa 24.0.7. Among the new packages included is Marknote, a nicely in Plasma 6 integrated note management application." Further information is provided in the project's release notes for KaOS 2024.05.
AlmaLinux OS 8.10
The AlmaLinux OS distribution is a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux which maintains binary compatibility with upstream while offering a few additional features and bug fixes. The project has released AlmaLinux OS 8.10 which brings small improvements and fixes to the 8.x series. The release announcement touches on the highlights: "AlmaLinux 8.10 brings updates to security and data protection, and improvements in web-console and system roles to automate operations and ensure consistency in intricate IT settings. The release continues to enhance system availability, reliability, and recovery processes, alongside improving virtual machine snapshot functions in hybrid cloud scenarios. New system roles have been introduced to streamline the creation and administration of logical volume manager (LVM) snapshots for better data backup and recovery processes. Performance, scalability, and reliability continue to be the focus of updates in the 8.10 version to aid developers in application development and management." Additional information can be found in the project's release notes.
Rhino Linux 2024.1
Rhino Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution which offers a rolling-release upgrade approach. The distribution uses a customised Xfce desktop environment. The project has published its first release of 2024 which focuses on an update to the Pacstall repository: "Our main highlights for 2024.1 are Pacstall's 5.0.0+ releases, so please be sure to check out the provided release notes and updated wiki down below. Joint members of the Rhino Linux and Pacstall teams have been working hard over the last several months on these releases, and we are very excited about the development potential that they hold. Known issues: In the live boot of our ISOs, desktop icons are not appearing at the start (these issues do not persist after installation). To launch Calamares installer for Rhino Linux, you can simply select 'Install Rhino Linux' from the App Grid." Additional details, including changes incorporated from upstream, are covered in the project's release announcement.
Rhino Linux 2024.1 -- Running the Unicorn/Xfce desktop
(full image size: 176kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
NethSecurity 8.0
NethSecurity is an open sourcem Linux-based firewall which is a spin-off of the NethServer project. NethSecurity's first release is labelled version 8.0 and the release announcement highlights key features: "Threat Shield Panel: It keeps you safe by blocking attacks from known malicious IP addresses. These addresses are compiled into blocklists, each with a clear name that tells you its purpose and who maintains it. The confidence score is a value from 1 to 10 that indicates the quality of the list. Modernized login experience: Enjoy a redesigned login screen. Certificate and reverse proxy management: Navigate a dedicated page for easy management of certificates and reverse proxy settings. The import process for both configurations has been significantly improved. Now, you can also use DNS verification to request Let's Encrypt certificates, supporting wildcard certificates. Firewall rules configuration: Added a new page for configuring firewall rules, offering enhanced control. Users are encouraged to use this page for compatibility and optimal performance."
Linux Lite 7.0
Jerry Bezencon has announced the release of Linux Lite 7.0, a major new version of the project's Ubuntu-based Linux distribution featuring a customised Xfce desktop. This is the first Linux Lite version built from the long-term supported Ubuntu 24.04. "Introducing Linux Lite 7.0 final, code name 'Galena'. The theme of this Series is maturity. We've been offering Linux Lite for 12 years and, in that time, have integrated many features as suggested by the community as well as building upon a solid and secure foundation. Changes: Thunar 4.18.8 split view; minor changes to Lite Welcome; new install slides; plus many other tweaks and changes. Details: Xfce 4.18, Linux kernel 6.8 (custom kernels also available via our Repository for versions 3.13 - 6.8), Chrome 125.0, Thunderbird 115.11.0, LibreOffice 7.6.7, VLC 3.0.20, Gimp 2.10.36, base 24.04. There is no upgrade path from RC to final or from series to series. Login is automatic, no credentials are required. The image can be written to a 4GB or larger USB stick, or a writable DVD. If the screen locks during live mode, type 'linux' into the user box and click on the Login button (no password required)." Here is the full release announcement with screenshots.
Linux Lite 7.0 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 293kB, resolution: 2560x1600 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: 3,009
- Total data uploaded: 44.5TB
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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) |
Do lightweight desktops offer enough features for you?
At the start of this Weekly we shared an LXQt, a lightweight desktop built with the same Qt development libraries as KDE Plasma. While LXQt is relatively minimal compared to the big desktops, such as Plasma, Cinnamon, and GNOME it does provide the basics needed to run and manage multiple applications. This week we would like to hear from you about whether lightweight desktop environments such as LXQt and Enlightenment provide you with enough features, or do you desire full featured desktops?
You can see the results of our previous poll on KDE's Plasma 6 desktop in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do lightweight desktops provide enough features for you?
| Yes - I prefer light desktops: | 760 (35%) |
| Yes - I can use light desktops comfortably: | 633 (29%) |
| No - I prefer more features: | 568 (26%) |
| I prefer something even lighter (window manager or console): | 212 (10%) |
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| Website News |
New projects added to database
NethSecurity
NethSecurity is a fully-featured open source Linux firewall that streamlines network security deployment in just a few clicks. NethSecurity is a spin-off of the NethServer project. It combines multiple security features into a single platform including firewalling, intrusion detection/prevention, antivirus, multi-WAN, DNS and content filtering.
NethSecurity 8.0 -- The overview dashboard
(full image size: 381kB, resolution: 3011x1735 pixels)
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 10 June 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 | 
KnoppiXMAME
KnoppixMAME was a bootable arcade machine emulator with hardware detection and autoconfiguration. It works automatically on all modern and not-so-modern hardware, including gameports and joysticks. It was powered by Knoppix Debian GNU/Linux, X-MAME, and gxmame.
Status: Discontinued
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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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