 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 527, 30 September 2013 |
Welcome to this year's 39th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! The free and open-source community is often regarded as a virtual commune where people share ideas and software, freely exchanging what they have created with anyone who wants it. While there is a great deal of sharing in the community, open source isn't just for the altruistic, many companies invest in open source in order to gain a return. This week we talk about some companies who are investing positively in open source in the hope of reaping the rewards. These companies include Valve, a company working on a Linux-based gaming console; NVIDIA, a popular video card manufacturer and Red Hat, a leading developer of enterprise software and sponsor of the Fedora Project. The Fedora Project is especially interesting as it is an open test bed for many developers and has just reached the distinguished age of ten years old! Not to be outdone, the GNU project celebrated thirty years of free software this past week with a new release of GNU Hurd. This week Jesse Smith takes Tiny Core Linux for a spin and reports on his findings and we will talk about methods for transitioning one's operating system from one computer to another. Also in this week's edition of DistroWatch Weekly we cover new releases which have appeared over the past week and look forward to new releases to come. We wish you all a great week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (11MB) and MP3 (25MB) formats
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
First look at Tiny Core Linux 5.0
 Tiny Core Linux is, as the name implies, a distribution with a focus of being as small as possible. There are several Linux distributions which strive to maintain a small memory and installation footprint, but few come close to matching Tiny Core when it comes to being minuscule. Tiny Core, which can boot from a variety of media, including optical discs, thumb drives and frugal hard drive installations, is designed to provide a very small base upon which software modules can be added. We might think of Tiny Core as being a little foundation and the project's package repository as being bricks which can be used to shape the distribution to whatever task we require. The Tiny Core distribution is available in three flavours. There is a Core edition with provides us with a command line only and this ISO weighs in at 9MB in size. The standard Tiny Core edition is 15MB in size and features a minimal graphical interface. There is also a Core Plus edition which is an installation image with more firmware and multiple window managers. The installation media is 72MB in size. The latest version of Tiny Core, version 5.0, is a fairly conservative upgrade from the 4.x series. The new release features a number of small updates, including upgrades to the X graphics stack and the Linux kernel.
Tiny Core Linux 5.0 - running the Firefox module
(full image size: 129kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
Booting from the distribution's live media brings up a menu which allows us to choose between running the distribution with a command line interface or with a graphical environment. Tiny Core boots in mere seconds, on my hardware the distribution takes approximately four seconds to transition from the boot menu to the graphical interface. Booting to the command line interface took just over two seconds. Once the system finishes booting I found the command line environment required approximately 20MB of memory while the graphical interface took 50MB of RAM. I tried running the distribution in a VirtualBox virtual machine and on my desktop (dual-core 2.8GHz CPU, 6GB of RAM, Radeon video card, Realtek network card). In both environments Tiny Core performed very well, booting quickly, responding almost instantly to commands and running with a very small memory footprint. All of my hardware worked well with networking and sound functioning out of the box. My display was set to a high (though not maximum) resolution and, during my trial, I didn't experience any instability with the operating system.
In order to maintain its extremely small size, Tiny Core Linux does not come with many applications. We are given a text editor, a virtual terminal and a mounting tool for accessing removable media. There are a few daemons, including cron, and a handful of small graphical apps for configuring the network connection, setting the system's clock and there is a package manager I'll cover in a moment. The distribution does not ship with a compiler, Java, manual pages, web browser or multimedia support. It is about as close to a bare system as we can get while still maintaining a graphical interface. In the background we find the Linux kernel, version 3.8, powering the distribution.
Tiny Core Linux 5.0 - applications and control panel
(full image size: 39kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
The graphical package manager which comes with Tiny Core Linux is called Apps. This application gives us a fairly straight forward approach to installing new software. The program's window is divided into two parts. On the left side we are shown a list of all available software in the Tiny Core repositories. Over on the right side of the window we are shown detailed information about the package currently highlighted. The available software is not organized into categories, rather all packages are simply shown in alphabetical order. If we desire we can search for packages using their names. When we have located a package we want we can download it with a click of the mouse. The package manager then downloads the requested module with any dependencies and installs them. In cases where we download a desktop application the program's icon is added to the quick-launch bar at the bottom of the screen. While the Tiny Core repositories do not have as much software as mainstream distributions, Tiny Core does provide enough modules to perform most common tasks.
Tiny Core Linux 5.0 - applications and control panel
(full image size: 51kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
I find that I do not have a whole lot to say about Tiny Core Linux as the distribution is quite focused on one goal: being very small. I must say the developers do an amazing job at packing a great deal of functionality into such a tiny space. With a mere 15MB download we have access to graphical tools, a package manager (which can provide us with a wide range of software) and a simple control panel. On modern hardware the distribution boots and shuts down almost instantly and it is amazingly responsive. The only problem with Tiny Core, at least from my point of view, is that in being so small it has limited use in most situations. We might look at Tiny Core and think that its low resource requirements would make it a good live distribution to take on trips, but the lack of applications means we will probably end up downloading software at each terminal we visit. The distribution might seem appealing at first for old hardware, but there are other, more user-friendly, distributions such as Puppy Linux or Lubuntu which will work well with older machines.
Tiny Core Linux 5.0 - applications and control panel
(full image size: 59kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
What it really came down to this week was I used Tiny Core Linux and was very impressed with the achievements of the developers. Tiny Core is about as tiny as we can get and still have a point-n-click interface. The tools all seem to work well and we have easy access to software modules. But, apart from being impressively tiny, there wasn't much to the distribution. It is a great base, an excellent foundation, I'm sure, for building other things. Tiny Core appears to be less of an appliance and more of a workbench. It seems to be a good workbench -- small, fast, flexible and stable -- but, as the project's website points out, this is not a "turnkey" distribution for general purpose use. It's a small, powerful tool and an interesting experiment in just how small a Linux-based operating system can be while maintaining a friendly interface.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Valve announces Linux-based console, NVIDIA supports Nouveau, Fedora turns ten and GNU turns thirty
 The Linux kernel is virtually everywhere, from laptops to servers to mobile devices. Valve announced last week that they soon intend to bring Linux to gaming consoles. SteamOS is a new Linux-based platform from Valve which is at the centre of Valve's goal of "bringing Steam to the living room." Valve has been working to improve video performance and make their catalog of games available to users of GNU/Linux distributions. Now Valve is taking things a step further by releasing their own Linux distribution. According to Valve's announcement, SteamOS is "a collaborative many-to-many entertainment platform, in which each participant is a multiplier of the experience for everyone else. With SteamOS, "openness" means that the hardware industry can iterate in the living room at a much faster pace than they've been able to. Content creators can connect directly to their customers. Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want." One area where Linux users have been missing out in past years is availability of mainstream game releases. This move by Valve may pave the way to a richer gaming experience on Linux platforms.
While Valve was announcing its plans to put a Linux-based gaming platform in every living room, NVIDIA was extending a hand to Linux video driver developers. For years NVIDIA's high-performance drivers have been proprietary and this has led an independent group of kernel developers to create the Nouveau project in an effort to produce an open-source driver for NVIDIA graphic cards. Last Monday Andy Ritger posted to the Nouveau developer list and announced, "NVIDIA is releasing public documentation on certain aspects of our GPUs, with the intent to address areas that impact the out-of-the-box usability of NVIDIA GPUs with Nouveau. We intend to provide more documentation over time, and guidance in additional areas as we are able." While the documentation provided mostly contains information already known to the Nouveau developers, this is a positive step and any further documentation NVIDIA is to provide will result in better performance and stability for users of NVIDIA video cards.
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 In the Linux ecosystem distributions frequently have a short life span. Small projects come and go quickly and so it's nice to see when distributions reach key milestones. The Fedora project had the distinction of turning ten years old last week. Fedora is a cutting-edge distribution that is sponsored by Red Hat and is well known for its experimental nature. Technology developed and tested in Fedora often makes its way into Red Hat's Enterprise Linux distribution and this makes Fedora an important testing ground, both for developers and system administrators. In a recent interview Fedora's Project Leader, Robyn Bergeron, took some time to talk about the project's past, current developments and where Fedora may be heading in the future. One key focus Bergeron mentions is automation: "I think we can try and abstract and automate the things we have to do a lot, so our really awesome people's brains can be applied to solving problems that aren't yet automate-able."
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 A new series of beta images were released this past week for Ubuntu and the many official Ubuntu community projects. The Ubuntu family is typically an experimental group of distributions and it's always interesting to see what changes are presented during the projects' testing cycle. With this latest beta one of the more interesting announcements was the inclusion of installation images for phones: "Together with existing builds of Ubuntu for PCs and servers, with this milestone, Ubuntu images for phones are also included in a beta for the first time. It is not recommended that casual users install Ubuntu on their phone," People interested in testing Ubuntu for phones can find a list of supported devices and installation instructions from the Ubuntu wiki.
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 The GNU project develops the software present at the heart of all GNU/Linux distributions. The GNU team also produces the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), free compiler software which is used across multiple platforms. This past week GNU turned 30, celebrating the milestone with coding and cake at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of GNU's more famous projects is Hurd, the free software kernel. While Hurd has never reached production status it remains an interesting academic exercise, allowing kernel developers to play with new concepts and clean designs in a low-pressure environment. In celebration of GNU's birthday the project released GNU Hurd 0.5. People wishing to experiment with Hurd can try the Debian port of the project which runs GNU userland software combined with the experimental Hurd kernel.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Moving operating system to new computer
Changing-spaces asks: I want to transfer my current Linux installation from one computer to another. The old computer is going to a friend so I want to leave the original hard drive in the computer for them. Can I get my operating system on the new computer without doing a completely new install?
DistroWatch answers: There are a couple of ways of making the transfer from one machine to another and the best solution will depend on the resources you have on hand. Personally, I would be inclined to perform a fresh installation on the new machine. Once the installation is complete you could install OpenSSH on either of the machines and Filezilla on the other. Using Filezilla to connect the two machines over the network you could then copy all of your personal files (the data stored in the /home directory) from the old hard drive to the new one. As for the packages you had installed on the original machine, most package managers will provide a way for you to dump a list of all installed packages. That list could then be saved and passed to the package manager on the new computer, insuring you end up with the same software installed. This approach requires very few resources, aside from the ability to connect the two computers over the local area network, and will give you a nearly identical experience on both machines. It also means the fresh install is set up to work with your hardware. This means you don't need to consider variables such as which third-party drivers are installed or how large the hard drive is.
Another way to go would be to grab a cloning utility such as Clonezilla. A tool like Clonezilla will help you create a file, a snapshot, of the first computer's hard drive. This file can be saved on one computer and then copied to the new computer. The snapshot overwrites all data on the new hard drive and (assuming everything goes well) the new computer will have all of the same files and settings as the original computer. This is a really fast way to set up the new computer to be an exact replica of the first computer. There are some issues to consider though. For example, when cloning an operating system we need to make sure the hard drive in the new computer is as large (or larger) than the drive in the original machine. If the new drive is smaller then the snapshot will not fit and it will likely result in the operating system not being able to boot on the new computer. Another issue is that we need a place to temporarily store the snapshot of the original hard drive. These snapshots tend to be large and we need a big external hard drive or a network file server to store the image so that it may be transferred to the new computer. This approach may also backfire if your new computer requires hardware drivers not available on the original machine.
Another approach which may seem crude, but efficient, is to simply swap the hard drives in the two computers. Taking the old drive and putting it into the new computer will give you all of your data, programs and settings in the new machine. The old machine can get the hard drive from the new computer. You may end up reconfiguring some hardware settings if the two machines have different parts, just as if you had used my previous suggestion and cloned the hard drive. This may be the easiest solution as it doesn't require any fancy networking or making sure the drives are of an appropriate size. You will require a screwdriver and the knowledge of how to identify and remove the hard drive, but this may end up being the fastest solution as there is no need to copy files between machines.
Do you routinely transfer your settings and files from one computer to another? Let us know your preferred method in the comments section.
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| Released Last Week |
GParted Live 0.16.2-1b
Curtis Gedak has announced the availability of a new stable version of GParted Live, a Debian-based live CD with specialist tools designed for disk management and data rescue tasks: "The GParted team is proud to announce a new stable release of GParted Live. This release includes a number of bug fixes and language translation updates. Items of note include: LVM partitions are not activated on boot to enable move or resize; based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2013-09-19. Includes GParted 0.16.2 which includes: fix crash if apply clicked before pending operations completed; fix regression which broke Linux swap resize; fix to not hide the progress of the tools used, such as ntfsresize. Special thanks go to Steven Shiau and Mike Fleetwood for their efforts to ensure the stability of this release." Here is the brief release announcement.
Parted Magic 2013_09_26
Patrick Verner has announced the release of Parted Magic 2013_09_26, a specialist live CD that comes with a collection of utilities for disk management and data rescue tasks: "Parted Magic 2013_09_26. This version of Parted Magic includes a new GUI for Secure Erase, a GUI for ddrescue, it now boots normally on Windows 8 machines with Secure Boot enabled, a completely new layout for the panel menu, and many updated programs. The new Parted Magic Secure Erase GUI has been the main focus over the past few months and it very well may be the easiest-to-use and most powerful ATA Secure Erase program on the planet. There is also a very nice GUI for ddrescue written by Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty. You no longer need to disable Secure Boot on Windows 8 machines to use Parted Magic. New programs: ddrutility and mprime. Updated programs: X.Org Server 1.14.3, Linux kernel 3.10.12, Mozilla Firefox 24.0, GParted 0.16.2...." Visit the project's home page to read the release announcement.
Raspbian 2013-09-25
Eben Christopher Upton has announced the release of Raspbian 2013-09-25, a Debian-based distribution designed for the Raspberry Pi single-board mini-computer. It can be downloaded either as a standalone product or as part of NOOBS 1.3, a beginner-friendly compilation of several popular operating systems for the "Pi". From the release announcement: "Alex has produced a new Raspbian release, which integrates a number of recent improvements. Along with kernel and firmware updates, highlights include: Sonic Pi is pre-installed so you can jump right in to learning to program while creating your own music; significant performance improvements to Scratch; a build of PyPy 2.1 is now included to allow you to try out this high performance Python JIT compiler; Python libraries required for interfacing with Pi-Face are pre-installed. Due to the addition of Java, the standalone SD card image now requires at least a 4 GB SD card, as with 2 GB there’s not enough free space left to be useful."
Raspbian 2013-09-25 - now includes Sonic Pi and PyPy compiler
(full image size: 110kB, screen resolution 1024x768 pixels)
Skolelinux 7.1
Petter Reinholdtsen has announced the release of Skolelinux 7.1, a Debian-based distribution (also known as "Debian-Edu") for schools: "The Debian Edu developer team is happy to announce Debian Edu 7.1+edu0 'Wheezy', the sixth Debian Edu / Skolelinux release, based on Debian 7, which has been updated and carefully improved compared to the previous release while keeping its unique feature set and ease of maintainability. Installation changes: new version of installer; the DVD image was dropped, instead we added a USB Flash drive / Blu-ray disc image, which behaves like the DVD image, but is too big to fit on a DVD. Software updates: Linux kernel 3.2.x; KDE Plasma 4.8.4, GNOME 3.4, Xfce 4.8.6 and LXDE 0.5.5; Iceweasel 17 ESR web browser; LibreOffice 3.5.4; LTSP 5.4.2; GOsa 2.7.4; CUPS printing system 1.5.3; GCompris 12.01 educational toolbox; Rosegarden 12.04 music creator; GIMP 2.8.2 image editor...." Read the rest of the release announcement for additional information.
Grml 2013.09
Michael Prokop has announced the release of Grml 2013.09, a Debian-based live CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software and custom scripts specially designed for system administrators: "We just released Grml 2013.09 'Hefeknuddler'. This Grml release provides fresh software packages after the Debian stable release ('Wheezy') was released. As usual it also incorporates up2date hardware support and fixes known bugs from the previous Grml release. New features: new boot option encpasswd which takes a hashed password as argument, setting password of users root and grml to the specified value; grml-hwinfo supports iproute's IP tool, sg_inq from sg3-utils and lscpu, lsblk, dmsetup ls --tree; grml-lang includes French keymap support. Important changes: UTC is used as default time zone, to use a different setting you can use the tz boot option (usage example: tz=Europe/Vienna)...." See the release announcement and release notes for more detailed information.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
- Fedora 20-alpha, the release announcement
- Simplicity 13.10-beta, release announcement
- Ubuntu, Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, UbuntuKylin, Ubuntu Studio and Xubuntu 13.10-beta2, the release announcement
- Matriux 3-rc1, the release announcement
- FreeBSD 10.0-APHA4, the release announcement
- SolydXK 201309
- Wifislax 4.7-22092013
- Pardus Linux 2.0 "KDE"
- Vine Linux 6.2-rc1
- NetBSD 5.1.3 and 5.2.1
- OpenELEC 3.2.1
- Hanthana Linux 19.0
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- SteamOS. SteamOS is a Linux-based operating system produced by Valve to be used as a gaming platform.
- Distro Astro. Distro Astro is a project to create a Linux distribution for astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts.
- Dax OS. Dax OS is an Ubuntu-based distribution which aims to provide users with innovative software concepts and be intuitive and easy to use.
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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, 30 September 2013. To contact the authors please send email to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, suggestions and corrections: news, donations, distribution submissions, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (feedback and suggestions: podcast edition)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • 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 |
| • 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 | 
GhostBSD
GhostBSD is a user-friendly desktop operating system based on FreeBSD. Its default desktop is MATE, but a separate community edition with Xfce is available too. It also features a selection of commonly used software, a rolling-release development model, and a bootable live image with an intuitive graphical system installer.
Status: Active
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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