 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 767, 11 June 2018 |
Welcome to this year's 24th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Passing information between computers, whether it is downloading files, viewing web pages or streaming video, is a big part of modern computing. There are a lot of tools for transferring files between computers, but few are as flexible as OpenSSH. This week we share tips on copying files and using pipes with OpenSSH's secure shell. Android is typically used as a mobile operating system, but ports of it can be run on x86 workstations and laptops. This week we begin with a look at Android-x86 and report on how it runs on a laptop computer. Plus we link to a tutorial on getting Debian-style package management on Linux From Scratch and report on TrueOS's new plans. We also share stories about how OpenMediaVault and pfSense are reacting to Europe's GDPR rules, and ArchLabs leaving GitHub. This week we also celebrate Haiku getting a port of LibreOffice working. Plus we share the releases of the past week and provide a list of the torrents we are seeding. Speaking of torrents, we have made some improvements to our Torrent Archive page and the details can be found below. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Android-x86 7.1-r1
- News: Running Linux From Scratch with Debian package management, TrueOS changes course, OpenMediaVault and pfSense react to GDPR, ArchLabs leaves GitHub, Haiku ports LibreOffice
- Tips and tricks: OpenSSH, pipes and file transfers
- Released last week: Devuan 2.0.0, GeckoLinux 150
- Torrent corner: Archman, AUSTRUMI, Berry, Clonezilla, Devuan, Gecko, Live Raizo, Omarine, PCLinuxOS, SmartOS, Tails
- Opinion poll: Running Android on a desktop/laptop computer
- DistroWatch.com news: Navigating to a distribution's page from our Torrent Archive
- New distributions: Olu, Quick-Save-Live
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Android-x86 7.1-r1
Android-x86 is a port of the Android operating system for 32-bit and 64-bit x86 computers. In theory, Android-x86 make it possible to run the same Android operating system on a workstation or laptop computer as we might run on our phone. Android uses a version of the Linux kernel, much like GNU/Linux operating systems, but features different userland utilities and a different graphical user interface.
The latest release of Android-x86 (hereafter simply referred to as Android) is version 7.1-r1 which is available as a 809MB download. I grabbed a copy of this release in order to give it a test run in a VirtualBox virtual machine and on my laptop. When booting from the Android media, a boot menu is displayed, offering us the chance to try a live environment or install the operating system. My experiment with VirtualBox got off to a rocky start as Android failed to launch the live graphical environment. Sometimes the system would simply reboot when the live desktop option was selected and other times the system would lock up.
Installing
Taking the install option from Android's boot menu brought up a text console with a menu-driven interface. The installer asks us to partition the hard drive and tells us we should set up a partition with at least 4GB of disk space, though 8GB is recommended. Disk partitioning is handled by the cfdisk text-based partition manager. Once a partition has been created, we are asked to select a file system (FAT, ext4 and NTFS are supported). We are then asked if we want to install the GRUB boot loader to handle starting the operating system.
When the installer is finished we can restart the computer to try out our fresh copy of Android. Unfortunately, I could not get Android to boot and display a graphical interface in my virtual machine. I was able to get Android to boot in debug mode, but launching the system in debug mode would only get me to a minimal command line interface where I could run a few commands, like ls and top. From the command line I was unable to connect to any networks or launch the desktop environment.
Running Android on my laptop went more smoothly. The operating system was able to run its installer and boot without any tweaking on my part. Launching the new copy of Android the first time walked me through some configuration options. I was given the chance to select my preferred language, connect to a wireless network and optionally sign into a Google account to synchronize settings and contacts. With these steps completed we are presented with Android's desktop interface.
Android-x86 7.1 -- The default desktop
(full image size: 174kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Early impressions
The Android interface is roughly divided into four parts. There is a notification bar at the top of the screen which we can click to access recent notifications and settings. The bulk of the display is taken up with an empty desktop space where application icons can be placed. Below this empty space is a button that opens an application drawer. When the draw is open it shows us a large grid of icons for installed applications. At the bottom of the display are Android's customary Back, Home and Show Open Windows buttons.
Android-x86 7.1 -- The application drawer
(full image size: 122kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The interface was responsive on my laptop, but inconsistent in its appearance. Some buttons and icons were large while anything in the notification area was very small. The fonts in most applications are large and easy to read, but text in the settings area was very small. This gives the Android interface an imbalanced look. I found some pieces could be made to look smoother through the settings panel.
On the subject of settings, one issue I struggled with was Android uses inverse vertical scrolling. (Scrolling down takes us up the page, scrolling up moves down a page.) I found this jarring since it's the opposite of how most desktop environments respond.
Android-x86 7.1 -- The settings panel
(full image size: 43kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Another problem I had with the mouse pointer was items I moved the mouse over often got activated as though I had clicked on them. This resulted in a lot of apps and options being opened by accident. At first I thought this was due to an option which causes the interface to register a click after pointer movement, but this feature was turned off by default. In my case the mouse was just super sensitive.
Another issue which kept coming up was about once a every minute or two, a pop-up would appear, telling me the Play Services program had crashed. This did not appear to affect my tasks or my ability to install applications, but it did constantly interfere with my web browsing and typing.
Included software
One of my key concerns when I run Android on a desktop x86 computer instead of its native, mobile ARM environment is how well applications will run. The good news was I found that most programs included with Android (the photo gallery, application store, settings panel and so on) worked. Using them was sometimes awkward as they are designed to be run on small, touch-enabled displays. Attempting to navigate these apps with a mouse and keyboard is awkward at best.
Android-x86 7.1 -- Browsing the web with Chrome
(full image size: 549kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Trying to download and run additional software gave mixed results. Some programs worked as expected, others would crash at start-up. There does not appear to be any way to easily identify which programs will work and which will not, other than downloading and trying them.
One example of struggling with Android's software came about when I tried to watch Netflix. The Chrome browser which ships with Android worked really well for most things. I could browse websites, watch YouTube videos and check e-mail with it. But when signing into Netflix, any attempt to watch videos in the browser brought up a page telling me I had to use the Android app to watch Netflix. The Netflix app could be installed, but failed to launch, effectively blocking access to the streaming platform.
Android-x86 7.1 -- Installing an app from the Play store
(full image size: 243kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Other observations
Android ships with a terminal application for those of us who like to work from the command line. Many common UNIX utilities are included, making it easy to browse directories, monitor processes and manipulate files. One problem I ran into though was I could not get the secure copy (scp) and secure file transfer (sftp) programs to work. The former would always exit with an error saying “-x” was not a valid parameter (the -x flag was not being used). The latter program would not give any meaningful error, just exit. However, the secure shell (ssh) program did work and allowed me to login and manage remote machines. This left me in the weird position of performing file transfers through a pipe over secure shell rather than using the typical scp and sftp programs.
Android-x86 7.1 -- Monitoring processes from the terminal
(full image size: 154kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Android 7.1 ships with version 4.9.80 of the Linux kernel. This is a relatively modern kernel, not much older than the one I typically run on this laptop for work. However, while recent versions of Linux Mint, Ubuntu and MX Linux have typically provided me with two hours of battery life when listening to music or watching a movie, Android could not provide me with more than 40-50 minutes minutes of battery when browsing the web and adjusting settings. This puts Android at a disadvantage when we are on the go.
Conclusions
Android-x86 is a project which I think is interesting for its goal of getting Android onto more platforms and I can certainly see how it would be appealing for people who want to test Android applications across several types of devices. Unfortunately, Android is geared toward small, mobile devices and its interface, controls, applications and hardware support just do not translate well to larger personal computers. To me, trying to use Android on a laptop computer feels out of place, much like trying to use a word processor or virtual terminal feels out of place on a small, mobile device. It's possible to use, but not ideal and not entirely practical.
I think the Android-x86 team deserves a great deal of credit for getting Android working as well as it does - the system does boot, run and can launch several applications on my laptop. But the regular notifications of crashes, short battery life and limited number of applications make this operating system unappealing for daily use. I think Android-x86 is a good test platform for trying out Android and its apps on different sized screens and hardware, but it's not great for common desktop tasks.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a de-branded HP laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: Intel i3 2.5GHz CPU
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 700GB hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Wired network device: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast
- Wireless network device: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Android-x86 has a visitor supplied average rating of: 4.5/10 from 4 review(s).
Have you used Android-x86? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Running Linux From Scratch with Debian package management, TrueOS changes course, OpenMediaVault and pfSense react to GDPR, ArchLabs leaves GitHub, Haiku ports LibreOffice
Linux From Scratch (LFS) is a project which provides step-by-step instructions for creating a minimal operating system from source code. While LFS can be used to create a small, Linux-based operating system, running LFS is not practical for most users, in part because the operating system lacks a package manager. This means LFS users end up compiling their software and manually handling dependencies. A new project, called Debian From Scratch offers a solution. The Debian From Scratch documentation shows users how to set up Debian's package management tools on a new LFS install, greatly automating software management and future upgrades. "This project intends to be a community resource to help those interested in creating their own custom system from the ground up, while fully taking advantage of the Debian suite of package management, dpkg and apt, in order to solve the problems of package dependency installation and management."
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TrueOS is an operating system for desktops and servers based on FreeBSD's development branch. TrueOS uses FreeBSD at its core and is perhaps best known for making it possible to quickly install a FreeBSD-based desktop system. The focus of TrueOS is changing now, with the project forking further from FreeBSD. "TrueOS will become a downstream fork that will build on FreeBSD by integrating new software technologies like OpenRC and LibreSSL. Work has already begun which allows TrueOS to be used as a base platform for other projects, including JSON-based manifests, integrated Poudriere / pkg tools and much more. We're planning on a six month release cycle to keep development moving and fresh, allowing us to bring you hot new features to ZFS, bhyve and related tools in a timely manner. This makes TrueOS the perfect fit to serve as the basis for building other distributions." In the place of TrueOS's desktop edition, the team has reported a separate project, called Project Trident will become available. Further information ca be found in the project's blog post.
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Last week we shared a story in which, in an effort to avoid coming into conflict with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Bodhi Linux team shut down their support forum. At the time, Bodhi users were advised they could still get support on social media sites, such as Reddit. This week, OpenMediaVault took similar action, deactivating their Facebook page where users could keep up with announcements and request support. The decision follows a court ruling which states administrators of Facebook pages share responsibility with Facebook in complying with the GDPR. OpenMediaVault continues to maintain a support forum on their website.
* * * * *
On June 4th the popular source repository and development platform GitHub announced they were being purchased by Microsoft. The news was generally not welcomed by open source developers, many of whom feared vendor lock-in or mistreatment from Microsoft. Several projects quickly made plans to move to other web-based development platforms. The ArchLabs team, for example, immediately transitioned to BitBucket. Meanwhile, pfSense moved in the other direction, taking documentation from their wiki and placing it on GitHub's servers. The pfSense announcement lists several reasons for the move, the first one being trying to find a way to comply with the GDPR. "Ultimately, we made the switch because it was the right thing to do. Specifically, there were several reasons for this move, including: GDPR Compliance - We don't have to worry about storing any personal information about contributors and contributors don't have to worry about creating an account with a limited use case (assuming they use their GitHub account for other projects)."
* * * * *
The Haiku team had lots of progress to report in their latest monthly newsletter. There were a number of upgrades to the Haiku build system and more drivers were imported from FreeBSD to provide better hardware support. The most visual change though was the port of the LibreOffice productivity suite to Haiku: "There are still a few caveats and bug fixes still going on; for details see this forum thread. But it is entirely usable for day-to-day work. As of writing, it's already in the x86_64 package repository, and hopefully coming soon to the 32-bit one."
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
OpenSSH, pipes and file transfers
In a few recent articles I have referred using the secure shell (ssh) command with a pipe to transfer data or files from one computer to another. For those not familiar with these two pieces of technology, let's start with a quick overview.
A pipe is a way for two programs to communicate, with one handing data to the other. One program creates a pipe and sends information into the pipe. Another program can then open the pipe and read this same information in the order it was sent. Pipes allow us to string a series of commands together to share and manipulate data. For example, the grep command finds lines matching a pattern in a text file and the sort command rearranges lines in alphabetical order. Using a pipe, we can use grep to find something, like names in an address book, and then use sort to put those names in order. Here is an example of a pipe gathering up the information from a search of an address book and passing the names to the sort command:
grep "Name:" address-book.txt | sort
The OpenSSH secure shell program is typically used to log into a remote computer and interactively run commands on the remote machine. In its simplest form, the secure shell (ssh) command accepts our username and the name of the remote computer we are going to log into and then runs a normal, interactive shell session over the network. Running ssh typically looks like this:
ssh jesse@example.com
Sometimes, if we just want to run one command on the remote computer and then immediately quit, we can specify the command to run at the end of the line. For example, here we get the amount of time the remote computer has been running using the uptime program:
ssh jesse@example.com uptime
One very nice feature of ssh is that we can pass information from it through a pipe on our local computer. For example, if the address-book.txt file I mentioned earlier is on the remote computer, we can search through it for names on the remote computer and then sort the results locally. For instance:
ssh jesse@example.com grep "Name:" address-book.txt | sort
Using pipes we can also run commands locally and then send the output to a file on another computer. Here we get a list of processes running on the local computer using the ps command and then save it in a log file on a remote computer for safe keeping. This works because secure shell passes the piped information from ps to the cat command running on the remote computer. The data is finally dumped into logfile.
ps aux | ssh jesse@example.com 'cat > logfile'
Note the command we run on the remote computer is placed inside single-quote marks. This separates the command run remotely from what we are doing locally. Without the single-quotes we would end up creating logfile on our local computer.
Apart from passing small pieces of information from local commands to remote commands, the ssh utility can be used to transfer files from one computer to another. Normally, we would use a command like secure copy (scp) to transfer a file from one place to another. However, if we do not have access to scp or we want to do some processing on a file's contents during the transfer, ssh becomes very useful. Here is an example where we perform a straight forward transfer from the local computer to a remote computer, backing up a tar archive:
dd if=archive.tar.gz | ssh jesse@example.com dd of=backup-archive.tar.gz
In the above example, we use the dd command, which copies data from one location or file to another. Here, the dd command loads archive.tar.gz as its input file (if) and sends the file over a pipe to the remote computer. On the remote machine we use the dd command again to create an output file (of) called backup-archive.tar.gz. This simple copy works, but is more cumbersome than the more commonly used scp version of the same action, which requires just the name of the file to copy and its destination. Using scp, the process would look like this:
scp archive.tar.gz jesse@example.com:backup-archive.tar.gz
Where using ssh with pipes really shines is when we want to perform an action on data during the transfer. For instance, what if there is a log file on a remote server and we want to compress it and then download a copy of the compressed log, all in one action? We can use pipes on the remote computer to compress a log file using gzip and then pass the compressed file through dd to our local computer. The command looks like this:
ssh jesse@example.com 'cat /var/log/error.log | gzip | dd ' | dd of=error.log.gz
Once again we see the string of commands on the remote computer is placed in single-quotes to isolate the remote processes from commands performed locally. After the above command runs, we end up with a compressed copy of the error log file.
Some people might look at the above example and wonder why the first instance of the dd command is run without any parameters. It seems somewhat pointless when gzip can compress the data and pass it along to our local computer. The reason for the empty dd command is gzip will refuse to dump compressed data to the console (aka standard output) as it would look terrible. However, gzip will pass compressed data out to another pipe. In the above example, the first dd command is there just to accept the compressed data from one pipe and then pass it along to the next step so that gzip will agree to run in this unusual set up. Once the data comes through the pipe to our local computer, the second dd command writes the compressed information to an output file (of) called error.log.gz.
These are just a few examples of how we can pass information and files from one computer to another using pipes and secure shell. There are lots of other ways to string commands together to get data from one computer to another over secure shell. These methods may look more complicated than using a simple copy command, but it's one way to string programs together to form one big command line rather than breaking data processing and file transfers into separate processes.
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More tips can be found in our Tips and Tricks archive.
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| Released Last Week |
GeckoLinux 150
GeckoLinux is a distribution based on openSUSE with a focus on providing a friendly, desktop platform with multimedia codecs out of the box. The project has published two new versions: Static 150 which is based on openSUSE's stable Leap edition, and GeckoLinux Rolling 999 which is based on openSUSE's rolling release Tumbleweed edition. "The GeckoLinux project is pleased to release updated spins of both Rolling and Static editions. GeckoLinux spins are based on the openSUSE distribution, with a focus on polish and out-of-the-box usability on the desktop. A large variety of customized desktop options are available in Static (based on openSUSE Leap) and Rolling (based on openSUSE Tumbleweed) editions. After installation to the hard disk, a GeckoLinux system will continue to receive updates from the openSUSE and Packman infrastructures. An installed system can even be upgraded smoothly to future openSUSE releases while at the same time retaining its unique GeckoLinux configuration." There are several desktop spins and a BareBones minimal spin of each edition. More information on both editions can be found in the release announcements (Static, Rolling).
Devuan GNU+Linux 2.0.0
The "Veteran UNIX Admins" have announced the release of Devuan GNU+Linux 2.0.0, a new stable build from the project that forked Debian in late 2014 to build a systemd-free variant of the popular community distribution. Devuan's second release is based on Debian 9.0 and carries a code name of "ASCII": "We are happy to announce that Devuan GNU+Linux 2.0 ASCII stable is finally available. Devuan 2.0 ASCII runs on several architectures. Installer CD and DVD images, as well as desktop live and minimal live ISO images, are available for i386 and amd64. Ready-to-use images can be downloaded for a number of ARM platforms and SOCs, including Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, OrangePi, BananaPi, OLinuXino, Cubieboard, Nokia and Motorola mobile phones several Chromebooks, as well as for VirtualBox, QEMU and Vagrant. The Devuan 2.0 ASCII installer ISOs offer a variety of desktop environments including Xfce, KDE, MATE, Cinnamon, LXQt, with others available post-install." Read the release announcement and release notes for full details.
Devuan GNU+Linux 2.0.0 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 83kB, resolution: 1280x1024 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: 889
- Total data uploaded: 20.1TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Running Android on a desktop/laptop computer
This week we talked about Android-x86, a port of the Android operating system for consumer desktop and laptop computers. We would like to know what our readers think of running the Android operating system, typically used on phones and tablets, on a laptop or workstation. Would it be helpful to you to have a mobile-style OS running on desktop hardware, or is Android's design unsuited to your workstation habits?
You can see the results of our previous poll on openSUSE's key features in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Running Android on a desktop/laptop computer
| I like the idea of having Android on my workstation/laptop: | 312 (17%) |
| I prefer a desktop-oriented OS for my workstation/laptop: | 1348 (75%) |
| No strong preference: | 149 (8%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
Navigating to a distribution's page from our Torrent Archive
For a while now DistroWatch has maintained an archive of distributions' torrents. These torrents are mostly ones we have seeded and shared with the world, but also include torrents other people are seeding on behalf of a distribution. Up until now, the Torrent Archive simply listed the available torrents and the date they were uploaded.
This past week we updated the Torrent Archive page. Now each torrent is listed along with the date it was uploaded, the name of the distribution which provided the media and a link to the distribution's information page. This is intended to make it easier to find more details on a distribution before downloading its torrent. Our system tries to find a distribution match for a torrent based on information in the torrent, which works most of the time, but a few unusually named ISO files or inactive projects may not be recognized.
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Distributions added to waiting list
- Olu. Olu is a re-spin of Ubuntu which features the Unity 7 desktop environment in place of GNOME Shell.
- Quick-Save-Live. Quick-Save-Live is a minimal (50MB) live CD with a graphical interface which can be used to rescue files or repair an operating system. It is based on Tiny Core Linux.
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DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 18 June 2018. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. 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)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Linux Schools (formerly Karoshi) is a free and open-source school server operating system based on Ubuntu. It provides a simple graphical interface that allows for quick installation, setup and maintenance of a network.
Status: Active
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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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