 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1179, 29 June 2026 |
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Welcome to this year's 26th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Here, at DistroWatch, we talk about hundreds of different distributions and what each one offers. Many people enjoy trying out different distributions and comparing their capabilities, but it can be challenging to move seamlessly between the various flavours. In our Questions and Answers column this week we share tips on installing multiple distributions. Do you have any tried and true distro-hopping tips? Let us know what works for you in the comments section. We begin this week with a look at PCLinuxOS, a conservative rolling release distribution. PCLinuxOS grew out of the Mandrake Linux family, but it is independently developed and has gradually adopted different tools and package management utilities. PCLinuxOS has an unusual release model, both constantly moving, but experimenting slowly. In this week's Opinion Poll we ask our readers about their preferred release cycle - do you like rolling, semi-rolling, fixed, or long-term support releases? Our News column this week reports on the Xfce desktop testing a new Wayland compositor and link to a FreeBSD "ask me anything" presentation which will happen this week. Then we share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. Finally, we say a grateful thanks to the kind readers who sent us donations this month. 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) |
PCLinuxOS 2026.05
It has been a while since I last took the PCLinuxOS distribution for a test drive. The PCLinuxOS project grew out of the Mandrake Linux/Mandriva family and combined that family's legacy of making system administration easy with a new feature: a rolling release. PCLinuxOS was an early member of the rolling release club and it has continued to provide a relatively conservative approach to the concept over the years. Unlike most rolling releases, which are constantly adopting cutting-edge technologies, PCLinuxOS sticks to tried and true software and introduces major upgrades rarely.
The distribution is available in multiple desktop editions. The project provides ISO files for a KDE edition (3.9GB), a MATE edition (3.6GB), and the Xfce edition is 3.4GB. Each edition runs on x86_64 processors only.
I downloaded the KDE Plasma edition. Booting from this edition brings up a boot menu where we have the options of booting a live desktop, booting with no splash screen, booting in safe video mode, booting into a console environment, or copying the distribution into RAM and then booting to a desktop. Taking any of the desktop options brings up a graphical environment and then a window asking us to select our keyboard layout from a list. The window disappeared and I was left with a black screen, distracted only by a white mouse pointer.
I could move the pointer around the screen, but there was nothing else; nothing on which I could click. I also found the keyboard was unresponsive and I could not switch to a terminal. I tried booting a few times, trying the safe video mode and regular mode. Each time a window would pop-up, ask for my keyboard layout, and then leave me stranded in an empty screen.
Since the operating system was clearly able to create a graphical environment (the configuration window worked), but the Plasma session was not working properly, I decided to switch to another edition of PCLinuxOS; I downloaded the Xfce edition.
My trial with the Xfce edition began the same way. It presented me with the same boot menu and the same question about my keyboard layout. Then the Xfce 4.20 desktop loaded! A panel was placed across the top of the screen, showing an application menu and the system tray. Along the bottom of the display was a dock. Icons on the desktop offered to open the file manager and launch the system installer. The default theme is light and features a lot of blue icons.
The Xfce desktop was pleasantly quick to respond in the live session and my hardware seemed to be working well. I also really liked the default font (Open Sans Semibold) which looked great on my monitor.
PCLinuxOS 2026.05.30 -- Running the live Xfce session
(full image size: 2.5MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Installing
The PCLinuxOS system installer is, I think, unique to the distribution. It is a graphical application which asks us to pick our preferred language, select our keyboard layout again, and then asks us to pick our timezone from a map. The next few screens deal with disk partitioning. There is an automated option which will take over available storage space and, optionally, create a swap partition. We are not told which filesystem will be used for the root partition. Manual partitioning is a bit odd. The system installer will handle assigning mount points to existing partitions. However, if we want to edit a partition the installer launches the GParted partition manager which works independently and then sends us back to the installer's mount point assignment screen.
The installer asks us where it should install the GRUB boot loader and asks if we want to download software updates during the install process. We are asked to make up a password for the root account and then we can make up a username and password for our regular user. Files are then copied to the hard drive. The installer completed in record time, taking about two minutes to perform all of its initial copying and configuration steps. Then the installer offered to restart the computer.
Early impressions
The first time I tried to boot PCLinuxOS from my disk the distribution failed, running into a kernel panic almost immediately after the boot menu. This happened again the next time and the next. This seemed odd since the live Xfce session had run without problems, but the installed version was failing and I had opted not to fetch updates during the install process. With a little experimenting I found that it was possible to boot into recovery mode (a single-user, text console environment), just not the regular desktop mode.
With a little more experimenting I found that I could successfully boot PCLinuxOS if the kernel was passed the "nomodeset" parameter. I'm not sure why this worked automatically on the thumb drive and not when booting from the local disk, but at least the distribution was up and running for me.
The distribution's login screen has an unusual layout. Instead of placing most functions, such as selecting a language and session type, around the borders of the screen, everything is placed in the middle. We can select our user from a list (shown on the left) and enter our password or select settings on the right. Something I found odd was that there are restart and shutdown options on this screen, but there is also an Actions button which, when clicked, also displays the choices of shutting down or restarting the computer. There is a Configuration button which does nothing.
The Xfce 4.20 desktop is snappy and it responds well. The desktop has no visual effects or animations to slow it down and everything reacts quickly. The application menu is presented in a classic tree format and has no search option. However, I found that running the "Run program" entry would open a window where I could type the name of a program I wanted to launch and the window would provide suggestions based on what I was typing. This helps us find programs based on their name, but not by any description or other key words.
Since I was having trouble getting PCLinuxOS to boot without changing the kernel parameters, I went looking for an easy way to adjust the boot menu. There is a tool for making changes to the boot loader, but it only changes the boot loader's location and timeout delay. It can toggle a few options relating to ACPI and SMP, but there is no option to input our own custom parameters. Since there is no option to add parameters, such as "nomodeset", through the graphical tool we need to adjust this via the command line and edit the GRUB configuration file by hand.
Hardware
When I tested PCLinuxOS in a virtual machine the distribution worked quickly and smoothly. The system booted and shutdown almost instantly, the desktop was quick to respond, and Xfce was stable. When I ran PCLinuxOS on my laptop all my hardware was detected. Audio worked, wireless networking was set up without any issues, and I could stream videos on-line smoothly. Also, Xfce was unusually quick on the physical test equipment.
The only hardware quirk I ran into was with the touchpad. It handled taps as clicks, which was appreciated, but it didn't recognize two-finger scrolling by default. Instead the touchpad recognizes edge scrolling, though this is tricky on my touchpad as it doesn't have a dedicated edge. This default can be changed in the Xfce settings panel.
The distribution takes up about 9.5GB of disk space, not including a swap partition I set aside. This is about average for a modern desktop distribution. On the other hand, PCLinuxOS was unusually light in RAM, using 490MB of memory when signed into Xfce. This is lighter than most other distributions running Xfce and about a third of the RAM used by most distributions running Plasma, GNOME, or COSMIC.
Included software
Along with the Xfce desktop, PCLinuxOS ships with a range of useful applications. I found Firefox, Thunderbird, and FileZilla in the application menu. LibreOffice is included and the GNU Image Manipulation Program is featured. The Thunar file manager is included along with a PDF viewer and an image viewer.
There are a few tools included for connecting with remote machines, including the Gigolo utility for setting up shell and file transfer connections. The AnyDesk and NitroShare utilities also help us connect with remote desktops or share files. These tools are not, in my opinion, particularly user friendly, but they worked for me.
When using Gigolo, connecting to another machine over SSH shows our local username/hostname, not the remote one. So if I'm logged in as "jesse" on server "remote", but my local machine name is "michel", then the prompt shows "jesse@michel" when I'm logged into the system called "remote". The connection works and runs commands on the remote machine, but the prompt is incorrect.
The system ships with Grsync and Timeshift for synchronizing files across computers and making filesystem snapshots, respectively. The Ventoy tool is included to help transfer disk images onto thumb drives, and BleachBit is included to help clean up unused files.
PCLinuxOS 2026.05.30 -- Installing a Flatpak and sending a file with NitroShare
(full image size: 1.5MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
I noticed the system installer remains on the installed copy of PCLinuxOS, but it displays a message saying it refuses to run when the user clicks its icon.
The Parole media player is included and works - playing both video and audio files without any issues. The VLC media player is also included and, likewise functions well. The distribution includes codecs for playing a wide range of files. There are clients for the Spotify and Pandora services. The first time I tried to run Spotify the window remained blank and was not interactive. I tried again the following day and it opened what appears to be a web app which can be used to sign into the Spotify service. The Pandora client, Pithos, reports its service is blocked in my country and refuses to connect.
PCLinuxOS 2026.05.30 -- Running Spotify
(full image size: 2.3MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The distribution ships with Java and the GNU core utilities. The man manual page reader is included, but there are no manual pages installed on the system. In the background we find PCLinuxOS ships with SysV init and, at the time of writing, version 6.18 of the Linux kernel.
Package management
The distribution ships with a few tools for managing software on the system. Looking through the application menu we find the DNF Package Manager and the Easy Flatpak Manager. The former is immediately available and presents us with a low-level package manager that has a nice, clean layout. The DNF front-end divides packages into tabs for items already installed and items available. There is a search box for finding specific packages and we can select items to install by clicking a box next to the package. It's a fairly straight forward experience and the DNF front-end works quickly.
While I think new users might be put off by the low-level nature of DNF Package Manager, I appreciated its simple layout and relatively quick work. It crossed my mind a few times that the Fedora project would benefit from retiring dnfdragora in favour of PCLinuxOS's approach since it fixes all the issues I had with Fedora's package graphical manager.
PCLinuxOS 2026.05.30 -- Working with RPM packages
(full image size: 2.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Trying to launch Easy Flatpak first installs the application as a Flatpak. By default PCLinuxOS does not ship with any Flatpak bundles on the system, but this one is added to provide a software centre when we click its launcher. Easy Flatpak provides a nice, modern software centre interface that pulls software from the Flathub repository. I used it to fetch a few applications and it worked well.
We can also manage system packages (RPM files) with the DNF command line package manager. The command line Flatpak utility is available too. These both worked well during my trial.
I noticed while running PCLinuxOS that the distribution does not notify the user when new software updates become available. I had to check manually for new packages.
Settings Manager, Settings Editor, and Control Centre
One odd aspect of running PCLinuxOS is that it has, at least in the Xfce edition, three graphical settings tools. (I think the Plasma edition has two settings panels). The first is called Settings Manager and this is part of Xfce. The Settings Manager (sometimes labelled simply as "Settings") handles customizing the desktop environment. From this panel we can modify the desktop layout, change the screen resolution, create keyboard shortcuts, adjust mouse behaviour, and tweak the window manager behaviour. These modules are nicely put together and I found them easy to navigate.
The second tool, Settings Editor, is a lower level tool. It also deals with the behaviour of the desktop, but through lower level variables and behind-the-scenes settings. Using the Settings Editor we can toggle variables which most users should not need to touch.
PCLinuxOS 2026.05.30 -- The three settings panels
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The third settings application is called Control Centre and it is also labelled as "Configure your Computer" in the application menu. This application is inherited from the distribution's original family and helps the user manage the underlying operating system. Using Control Centre we can launch modules for setting up a firewall, creating user accounts, configuring file sharing services, and change the click settings. There are also tools for managing partitions and adjusting boot loader settings.
Some of these tools work well while others don't. The user account manager was great and worked without any issues. Likewise, the boot loader tool worked and the disk partitioning tool was fine. The OpenSSH manager reported OpenSSH was not installed and asked if I wished to install the service. I clicked the button to install the OpenSSH server and immediately the control centre reported the install had failed, with no explanation. I was able to switch to a terminal and run "sudo dnf install openssh-server" to install the daemon, then the control centre module worked and helped me configure OpenSSH.
The same problem happened with Samba. The Control Centre offered to install the Samba service package and immediately failed. This package too could be manually installed from a terminal.
PCLinuxOS 2026.05.30 -- The Control Centre failing to install Samba
(full image size: 2.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The fact that some of these tools do not work without manual help and do not provide any useful error message is concerning. I suspect it means they are not being tested on fresh installs of PCLinuxOS.
Other observations
In many ways PCLinuxOS takes a classic approach to accomplishing tasks, reminiscent of its early days from two and a half decades ago. The distribution tends to use nice, big fonts, descriptive icons, and high-contrast backgrounds. Under the hood we find PCLinuxOS still uses the /bin directory instead of the modern practice of grouping programs under /usr/bin. There is no swapon command for managing swap space or swap files; we get one swap partition and we better like it! PCLinuxOS still uses SysV init (and it works, usually faster than some modern alternatives). In a lot of ways, PCLinuxOS has a familiar feel to it, reminding me of when I first got into using desktop Linux, but with updated applications.
Then there are some choices which do not seem to fit or which feel out of place. For example, despite the distribution's classic feel there are no manual pages included. The system places a terminal quick-launch button the panel, but there is no command line documentation. The system installer does not seem to support (or perhaps does not encourage) Btrfs use, but Timeshift is installed for taking snapshots of Btrfs volumes.
At times it is a weird mix of old and new, a classic style with modern applications. For instance, Gigolo and an FTP service manager are installed - classic tools from an earlier era, and these are placed alongside SysV init. On the other hand we find Spotify and a friendly front-end for Flatpak on the system too. Half the system feels like it is catering to the old guard who do not want welcome windows and flashy animations or high-level software centres. The other half is offering Flatpak, Spotify, and Pandora.
Half the time it feels like I'm using a 20 year old distribution of tried and true software with package updates applied. Other parts of the system feel modern and cater to new users. The system is incredibly lightweight and efficient, but then both editions (Plasma and Xfce) had trouble booting without changing kernel parameters and ship with some modern tools.
Conclusions
After a few days with PCLinuxOS I'm still not sure how I feel about the distribution. It does some things really well, managing to be light on resources and efficient in a lot of ways, and it mostly stays out of my way. On the other hand, I found myself missing some modern conveniences, such as the option to search for tools in the application menu and I missed having update notifications. Some elements of the distribution worked really well, including most of the configuration tools and applications. But there were occasional problems, both with local applications and cloud services.
My main concern with PCLinuxOS was with the moments where quality control appears to have let bugs slip through the cracks. Having Control Centre modules fail because they cannot install needed services, having both editions fail to boot (Plasma from the live session and Xfce once it was installed) certainly took me by surprise, especially since the Xfce edition ran smoothly from the live medium.
Ultimately, the conservative rolling approach is something which could work for me, but it isn't a style that I think would appeal to many other people. It's too varied in its style for new users, probably too conservative for many experienced or experimental users who want something cutting-edge. I like the "run what works" style and efficient desktop, I feel almost more at home with a distribution that inherits some of its style from 25 years ago. However, I suspect not many Linux users who have joined the community in the past 15 years will share that sense of familiarity and may be put off by the classic style and occasional bugs.
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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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Visitor supplied rating
PCLinuxOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.1/10 from 132 review(s).
Have you used PCLinuxOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
COSMIC gets a new system monitor, Xfce tests new Wayland compositor, FreeBSD developers invite questions
The developers of the COSMIC desktop have unveiled a new application, a system monitor. "A system monitor is often neglected as a run-of-the mill utility app in the desktop experience - a source of important performance data but an afterthought in UI and UX design. And that's exactly why the new COSMIC System Monitor was given the same attention to form and function that we've devoted to the rest of the DE. Users can find it in the COSMIC Store by searching for COSMIC System Monitor. It's available now in System76's Pop!_OS and other distributions." Additional information about the new application, along with screenshots, can be found in the System76 blog post.
"
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The Xfce project is moving closer to complete Wayland compatibility. Brian Tarricone has published an early snapshot of a Wayland compositor for Xfce. "The end goal of xfwl4 is to behave as closely as possible to an Xfce desktop running on an X server. Ideally a user could switch between the two without even knowing there's a difference. In reality, of course, it won't be quite that seamless, and there's still more work to be done to get as close as possible to that ideal. This is a first solid cut at it, at the very least." Additional information on the new compositor, including a link to the source code, can be found in Tarricone's post.
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Do you have questions about FreeBSD? Allan Jude, Kyle Evans, and Colin Percival (all FreeBSD experts and contributors) will be engaged in an ask-me-anything event on June 30th. "This year's BSDCan, North America's premier technical conference for the BSD operating system community, highlights major developments across FreeBSD, OpenZFS, virtualization, storage, networking, security, and modern infrastructure. We're excited to announce that Klara will host a live post-event Ask Me Anything session where we'll share what we learned at BSDCan and discuss the biggest announcements, technical updates, and FreeBSD developments relevant to production environments." Registration for the event can be performed on the Klara website.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Tips for switching between distributions
Getting-into-hopping asks: I'm getting into distro-hopping. Any tips to make it easier to switch between distros? I don't want to have to set up everything from scratch every time.
DistroWatch answers: Welcome to the distro-hopping club! A world of options, discovery, and customizing your computing experience to suit your needs awaits!
I have a few tips to share that I've certainly found useful over the past 20+ years of testing distributions and experimenting with different combinations of operating systems. They are, in the order I've found them to be helpful:
- Test new distributions in virtual machines before you install them. Most distributions follow fairly predictable behaviour and rules, but some will do weird things or have configurations which will not suit your situation. For this reason I recommend installing any distributions you are curious about using in a virtual machine. Walk through the install process, find out what its defaults and behaviours are. Most importantly, watch to see if the distribution does anything destructive such as wiping and taking over your entire hard drive, or installing itself over another operating system without asking. Those sorts of poor designs can ruin your day if the distribution is running directly on your physical hardware. When it happens in a virtual machine, no harm is done.
- Before you start distro hopping, before you install any new distributions, make a few decisions. Figure out how many distributions you might want to install at a time and how much space each one will likely need. Then partition your hard drive to match your requirements. It is a lot easier to have a few dedicated partitions set aside with enough room to hold a distribution than it is to repartition your disk on an ad-hoc basis. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you need to shrink one partition to make room for another new root partition for a new operating system.
- Speaking of partitions, I highly recommend setting aside space for an independent /home partition. Or at least a partition where you can store files that you will want to share between distributions. Installing multiple distributions on the same computer, or simply upgrading one distribution, becomes a much faster and easier process when you have a separate partition dedicated to holding your users' files.
Some people may warn against you sharing one /home between multiple distributions for fear of configuration files not being compatible across the different distros. This can happen, but it is rare and usually only occurs when you are using widely different versions of the same application across different distributions. If the application versions are similar, or you use different applications for each distro, then you'll be safe. Alternatively, if a conflict does happen and damages your configuration then removing the application's entry from your ~/.config directory will usually solve the issue.
- Keep backups. Make regular backups of the files in your /home directory. This is a good idea for anyone with any setup, but it is especially important when distro-hopping. You're going to be running multiple operating systems and multiple installers and multiple versions of programs. Any one of these can have unexpected behaviour, every one of these carries the potential for a mistake.
Before you install a new distribution make sure you have copies of any important files on a hard drive that is not plugged into your computer. You do not want a misbehaving system installer to grab your external drive and merge it into a new storage pool or format it by accident. Backup often, backup to multiple locations, and backup before you install a new distribution.
- Keep a reliable distribution on a DVD or thumb drive to assist in system rescue. Sometimes, no matter how practised you are, things go wrong. A system installer will overwrite your boot loader, an update will break the system, something will go sideways. In those times it is important to have a distribution on hand that you know will run well from a live medium and will make it possible to run rescue tools or quickly re-install.
I recommend having a mainstream distribution on hand that you know works and can be setup quickly. That way, if the worst happens, you can install this trusty distro and restore your important files from a backup. You will be running normally again in under half an hour.
I think that covers the main concerns and tips I have when it comes to trying out multiple distributions. Experienced distro-hoppers, please leave us your battle-tested tips 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 |
SteamOS 3.8.10
SteamOS, an Arch-based Linux distribution developed by Valve Corporation, has been updated to version 3.8.10. The new release comes with an updated base system and a large number of improvements and bug fixes: "SteamOS 3.8.10 has just been released for all users with the following changes: updated Arch system base; initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware; added support for waking from sleep via connected Steam Controller; substantially improved speed of future OS updates on high-speed connections; improved support for screen casting in Game Mode (e.g. OBS/Discord); fixed dropdown menus not appearing in some games; fixed excessive trackpad sensitivity on certain early Steam Deck LCD models; improved support for games that attempt to open PDF files in external viewers; fixed an issue where video output could become frozen while using Remote Play; fixed a possible session crash when using Game Recording with certain 'Maximum video height' settings; fixed an issue affecting certain titles (such as 'SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide') where the game window could have an incorrect position; fixed closing certain titles (such as 'STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor and Starfield') resulting in a session crash...." See the release announcement for a full list of changes.
KaOS 2026.06
The KaOS project has announced the launch of KaOS 2026.06 which completes the distribution's shift to the Dinit init software. "After almost three years of preparation and close the a year of trials, building, testing and rebuilding, KaOS is proud to present to you a first stable ISO image that is fully Dinit-based. For those interested in the reason why all these changes, please read systemd and the future of KaOS. A move away from systemd as init system is completed. KaOS now uses Dinit, turnstile, seatd for the system startup, seats and services. This does not mean the system is systemd free, a much reduced systemd is still in use mainly for udev and tmpfiles (this will stay for the foreseeable future, other options for udev and tmpfiles will be evaluated). Elogind is in use, though not for system login, but purely for a functional polkit. A new display manager is also in use, greetd with tuigreet has replaced sddm. Greetd fully integrates with seatd, so is a better fit for KaOS in the new setup. You will not find Plasma or Kwin on this ISO image, instead you will find a Niri/Noctalia based system." People who would like to continue running Plasma on KaOS can still install the desktop from the distribution's repositories. Further information is available in the release announcement.
Drauger OS 7.8
The developer of Drauger OS, an Ubuntu-based distribution with optimizations designed to improve gaming performance and experience on Linux, has announced the release of a major new version, 7.8, now based on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS: "I am proud to announce the stable release of Drauger OS 7.8, codename 'Urgal'. This release comes with a number of features and changes over 7.7: Drauger OS 7.8 ships with kernel 7.0, meaning immediate support of NTSYNC and a much improved performance over Drauger OS 7.7; we've upgraded to Plasma 6.5, this comes with a number of creature comforts, including better VRR and HDR support; all Drauger OS installations now use Wayland by default; Firefox as a flatpak; following in Ubuntu's footsteps, we've switched to using sudo-rs over the traditional C-based sudo. The Edamame installer has seen a number of improvements: Quick Install now supports copying network settings with both NetworkManager and netplan; Edamame will now copy network settings from netplan from the live system to the installed system, so you shouldn't need to re-setup WiFi after installation; background optimizations to keep lower-end systems responsive...." The full release announcement is available on the project's Reddit pages.
Drauger OS 7.8 -- Running the Plasma desktop
(full image size: 1.9MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
AnduinOS 2.0.0
AnduinOS 2.0.0 has been released. AnduinOS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution featuring a GNOME desktop customised with a variety of extensions. This major new release brings extensive under-the-hood changes while maintaining the usability and customisability of the desktop. "Today, AIURSOFT Limited is announcing the general availability of AnduinOS 2.0.0. The project is now officially maintained by AIURSOFT Limited (Hong Kong), marking its transition from a solo-maintained effort to an internationally backed ecosystem. When we started this project, like many downstream Linux distributions, we used to rely on a series of complex imperative Bash scripts to modify an existing system image. While functional, it was fragile and difficult to maintain and upgrade. For version 2.0, we took a step back and rebuilt the entire foundation from the ground up. AnduinOS 2.0 is no longer a simple "remaster". It is now assembled entirely from scratch using a clean debootstrap and chroot pipeline, driven by our custom-built, declarative packaging toolchain (aosproj and apkg). The OS core has been meticulously modularized into 56 standard .deb packages across three tiers - Hard Replacements (e.g., overriding ubuntu-desktop), Soft Overrides (e.g., apt-config) and Branding/Capability extensions." See the release announcement and the changelog for more information.
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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: 3,455
- Total data uploaded: 50.1TB
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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) |
Favourite release cycle?
There are several different approach Linux distributions can take when it comes to releasing new versions. Broadly speaking, these approaches can be split into two groups: rolling releases and fixed releases. However, both camps can offer a lot of variety in terms of pace. There are fast rolling releases and slow ones, rapid fixed releases and long-term support ones. Let us know which release cycle style is your favourite.
You can see the results of our previous poll on installing software from the Arch User Repository in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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What is your favourite release cycle?
| Rapid rolling release: | 251 (17%) |
| Slow rolling release: | 246 (16%) |
| Semi-rolling release: | 141 (9%) |
| Short fix releases (Fedora): | 105 (7%) |
| Long-term releases (Debian/RHEL): | 672 (45%) |
| Other: | 20 (1%) |
| No preference: | 74 (5%) |
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|
| Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
Donations and Sponsors
Each month we receive support and kindness from our readers in the form of donations. These donations help us keep the web server running, pay contributors, and keep infrastructure like our torrent seed box running. We'd like to thank our generous readers and acknowledge how much their contributions mean to us.
This month we're grateful for the $245 in contributions from the following kind souls:
| Donor |
Amount |
|---|
| Bruno D | $50 |
| J S | $50 |
| Sam C | $20 |
| Michael R | $28 |
| John T | $18 |
| Anthony B | $14 |
| Používateľ Krz Str vám | $8 |
| Joshua B | $7 |
| Taikedz | $5 |
| Chung T | $5 |
| Brian59 | $5 |
| Joe Football | $5 |
| AbondonShiP | $5 |
| David R | $5 |
| Robert S | $5 |
| Sammy | $5 |
| J.D. L | $2 |
| PB C | $2 |
| Stephen M | $1 |
| William E | $1 |
| Kal D | $1 |
| aRubes | $1 |
| Colton D | $1 |
| Lars N | $1 |
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 6 July 2026. 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 1181 (2026-07-13): Artix 20260419, making migrating to Linux easier, Google locking down Android, TUXEDO switches to Debian base, Mint improves Cinnamon on Wayland, OpenMandriva recovers from repository deletion, OSNews compares Windows and Linux |
| • Issue 1180 (2026-07-06): FreeBSD 15.1 and rumours of its installer capabilities, tools for running admin commands, Asahi fixes boot issue, reasons to run Gentoo, Ubuntu reverts Rust-based copy command, Astral gets WINE port |
| • Issue 1179 (2026-06-29): PCLinuxOS 2026.05, tips for switching distros, COSMIC gets a new system monitor, Xfce tests new Wayland compositor, FreeBSD developers invite questions |
| • Issue 1178 (2026-06-22): TBLock reviewed, the AUR compromised, Fedora's growing community, reasons to avoid immutable desktop distributions, Ubuntu to get speech-to-text, Canonical updates its beta policy, highlights in Plasma 6.7 |
| • Issue 1177 (2026-06-15): TROMjaro 2026.05.08, Ubuntu MATE updates, Asahi fixes dual-boot issue with macOS 27, AUR infected with malware, setting variables across shells |
| • Issue 1176 (2026-06-08): Redcore Linux 2601, the problem with minimal system requirements, Red Hat account linked to compromised npm repositories, COSMIC to get frosted glass effect, openSUSE shows off system extension manager, Origami merges with RakuOS |
| • Issue 1175 (2026-06-01): PineTab2 with various distros, less common words of wisdom, Canonical shutting down Ubuntu's Pastebin, Murena nears 100k users, DistroWatch turns 25 |
| • Issue 1174 (2026-05-25): Solus 4.9, Linux tablets, Haiku boots on Apple M1 machines, Fedora drops Deepin packages, Mint improves Nemo performance |
| • Issue 1173 (2026-05-18): Sylve on FreeBSD, the benefit of BleachBit, Debian commits to reproducible builds, Debian publishes updated install media, Haiku introduces SMP support on ARM64 processors, Rocky Linux creates opt-in security repository, Fedora reconsiders AI tools, KDE receives generous donation |
| • Issue 1172 (2026-05-11): Fedora 44, dealing with extra fonts, Fedora plans to provide AI tools, problems with Ubuntu's new coreutils, TrueNAS extends its development cycle, postmarktetOS improves the boot splash screen, Redox ports tmux |
| • Issue 1171 (2026-05-04): Xubuntu 26.04, extending memory with VRAM, Ubuntu plans AI features, Devuan developer forks GTK2, Mint introduces hardware enablement builds, Linux running on a PlayStation 5, local kernel exploit found in Linux |
| • Issue 1170 (2026-04-27): ENux 5.2.1, picking a second distro, AlmaLinux expands CPU support, FreeBSD publishes Status Report, Ubuntu MATE skips 26.04 release |
| • Issue 1169 (2026-04-20): Lakka 6.1, free software and source-based distributions, FreeBSD Foundation publishes compatible laptop list, Debian holds Project Leader election, Haiku progresses ARM64 port, Mint to extend development cycle, Linux 7.0 released |
| • Issue 1168 (2026-04-13): pearOS 2026.03, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, which distros are adopting age verification, Arch adjusts its firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its release cycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves its scheduler |
| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
| • Issue 1166 (2026-03-30): NetBSD jails, publishing software for Linux, Ubuntu joins Rust Foundation, Canonical plans to trim GRUB features, Peppermint works on new utilities, PINE64 shows off open hardware capabilities |
| • Issue 1165 (2026-03-23): Argent Linux 1.5.3, disk space required by Linux, Manjaro team goes on strike, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA driver support and builds RISC-V packages, systemd introduces age tracking |
| • Issue 1164 (2026-03-16): d77void, age verification laws and Linux, SUSE may be for sale, TrueNAS takes its build system private, Debian publishes updated Trixie media, MidnightBSD and System76 respond to age verification laws |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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| Random Distribution | 
B1ackOS
B1ackOS is a rolling-release Linux distribution based on Debian's "Unstable" branch. It offers editions with or without the X Window System, with the former featuring the Cinnamon desktop environment. The distribution is designed with privacy and personal information protection in mind and it also includes some tools for penetration and security testing to help assessing the system's security. B1ackOS can be installed to a hard disk using either the standard Debian Installer or the Calamares installation program directly from the live environment.
Status: Active
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Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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