 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1180, 6 July 2026 |
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Welcome to this year's 27th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
People who work with computers often need to take on different roles. Most of the time we are computer users, running applications. Other times we might be helping other people or customizing the operating system. Sometimes we might be installing new software or fixing problems. Modern operating systems provide a range of tools to separate these tasks, including file permissions and separate user accounts. This week's Questions and Answers column talks about tools we can use to run commands as different users, which can be useful when helping others or configuring the operating system. What tool do you use to run commands as other users? Let us know in the Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about the Asahi Linux team fixing a boot bug which affected people running computers with macOS 27. We also share reasons, apart from performance, to run the Gentoo meta-distribution and talk about Astral's new WINE port. Before diving into those topics, we begin this week with a look at FreeBSD 15.1 and talk about the anticipated install-time desktop environment planned for this version. Plus we share a summary of last week's releases and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
FreeBSD 15.1 with an install-time desktop
Back in December I reviewed FreeBSD 15.0. The then-new version of FreeBSD was significant in two ways. It offered a new method of managing the software in the base operating system (switching from distribution sets to packages managed by pkg) and it was set to debut the option to install a desktop environment from the system installer. The latter move was part of a larger effort to make FreeBSD a suitable operating system for laptop computers.
While the switch from distribution sets to the pkgbase approach to managing the software in the core operating system did show up in FreeBSD 15.0, and it did work as expected, there was no sign of an option to install a desktop environment from the system installer. With some poking around, I finally found that the project had delayed the desktop option until FreeBSD 15.1, in order to work out some final issues.
Eager to test drive the pre-configured desktop, I downloaded the full DVD build of FreeBSD 15.1 for x86_64 machines. This file is 4.3GB in size. Booting from the provided disc image brings up a text prompt offering to run the system installer, open a shell, or run a live system. Unlike Linux distributions, which usually supply a desktop environment in their "live" environments, FreeBSD does not. Instead we are presented with a login shell where we can sign into the system using the root account and no password. This gives us a chance to inspect the system, perform data recovery, or manage partitions.
Installing
The system installer provides a series of text-based menus where we are prompted with questions and can select our answers from lists or type responses in a box. The installer quickly walks us through choosing our keyboard layout and making up a hostname. We are given the choice of using classic package sets or the modern pkgbase approach to software management. I chose pkgbase. Then I was asked if I wanted to fetch software from on-line repositories or use packages on the local ISO. I chose to use the local media.
The installer then asks if we want to use automated ZFS, automated UFS, or manual disk partitioning. We are asked which operating system features we want to install, with options including the base system, development tools, the OS source code, test code, and extras. The selected packages installed and then I was asked to make up a root password, confirm my timezone, and set the system clock. I was asked which background services to run, such as network time sync, and secure shell.
One of my favourite features of FreeBSD is an option to enable extra security at install time. We can check features we want to enable from a list and these items include features such as hiding processes from other users, assigning random PIDs, and cleaning the /tmp directory upon each boot. The final option asks if we would like to create regular user accounts. Then the system installer offers to reboot the computer.
The whole process took me under ten minutes and, to my surprise, at no point was I asked if I wanted to install a desktop environment.
Wondering if I'd missed an option, I went through the installer more deliberately. This time I chose to download packages from the on-line repositories, thinking that might open up the option of fetching desktop packages. Fetching packages from remote repositories made the install process slightly slower, but otherwise it worked exactly the same. Ten minutes later, I booted into my (second) new copy of FreeBSD 15.1 and again discovered there was no desktop installed. There was no first-run wizard or tool for enabling a desktop either.
Searching for answers
From here on this article shifts from an exploration of the technical elements of FreeBSD into a quest for information. I was tempted to simply abandon the experiment and move on to something else, but the more time I spent looking for information about FreeBSD's desktop installer the more I felt sharing this journey was important. Someone commented recently: "When Jesse expresses puzzlement or disappointment or joy or pleasantness or boredom (my favorite) with a distro or some aspect of a distro then my ears perk up and I read on." What follows is largely written for them.
After two passes through the FreeBSD system installer and not seeing any obvious way to enable a desktop environment, I went back and re-read the release announcement and release notes for FreeBSD 15.1. While some work has been done to improve the experience of running FreeBSD on laptop computers, and to improve the overall desktop experience, there wasn't any specific information about setting up a desktop environment at install time. I also didn't find any indication the feature had been dropped from 15.1. There was mention of following instructions in the Handbook to get a new system installed. I checked the FreeBSD Handbook, which is always a good first-stop for information, and again did not find anything specific to setting up a pre-configured desktop.
This lack of information about how to set up a new desktop system (or what had happened to the desktop-at-install-time feature) puzzled me because, by the time FreeBSD 15.1 was officially released, there had already been multiple blog posts and reviews about it and about its new install-time desktop option. I read multiple posts from authors who claimed FreeBSD 15.1 included the feature and wrote that it provided a working KDE Plasma environment post-install. Some even posted screenshots of the installer setting up Plasma packages. So I began to wonder what I was missing.
I went back and revisited some of those articles and posts. One review, on the Sacred Heart blog, began by mentioning the latest version of FreeBSD works quite well as a desktop system. The blog post mentions some of the improvements for desktop users in 15.1 and includes a screenshot of Plasma working. Though, when I read through to the end of the post, I found (about two-thirds of the way through) that the author says they had to install all their Plasma packages manually. So their system wasn't set up as a desktop out of the box, they just managed to turn it into a desktop system.
That review, if perhaps a touch misleading at first, was honest. Other reviews, I began to suspect, were fabrications. Upon revisiting them I started to notice two things. The first was that comments about FreeBSD's new desktop-at-install-time feature all sounded the same, the way news reporters do when they are all trying to put their own spin on a press release. Or the way a large language model (LLM) will rewrite an article, putting a new spin on saying the same information in a similar way. I also noticed the posts with screenshots were, in a word, wrong. I had just installed FreeBSD 15.1 multiple times, trying different options, and was freshly aware of how the system installer looked. The screenshots didn't match.
FreeBSD 15.1 -- The system installer on Jesse's computer
(full image size: 9kB, resolution: 720x400 pixels)
Screenshot presented on other review websites
(full image size: 94kB, resolution: 800x527 pixels)
As you can see in these screenshots, the background is not the same shade of blue. In the screenshot of FreeBSD 15.1, the bar at the top of the screen is blue and dotted. In the other articles' screenshot the line is green and solid. The text "FreeBSD Installer" is also a different colour. My suspicions about the legitimacy of the content grew when I noticed multiple articles were using the same screenshot, where the colours and lines didn't match my experience.
It seemed likely these articles were generated by LLMs, perhaps using a common source. I performed a test, asking ChatGPT: "Does FreeBSD 15.1 include a system installer option to install the Plasma desktop?" The chatbot reported back with false information:
"Yes - FreeBSD 15.1 includes an installer option to install the KDE Plasma desktop (work was added to bsdinstall to offer a KDE/Plasma desktop choice)." It even provided a link for this information, which took me an article on Phoronix, published earlier in the year. The article, to be fair, says the feature is in progress: "[FreeBSD developers] are working on getting the installer option ready for FreeBSD 15.1. Adding a NVIDIA GPU driver option to the FreeBSD installer was also recently carried out." (Note: The option to add NVIDIA GPU drivers is also not in the 15.1 release.) Significantly, the Phoronix article displays the above screenshot of the new desktop installer working, and seems to be the source for all the other articles claiming FreeBSD 15.1 is shipping with the option of setting up a desktop environment at install time.
In short, either Phoronix mocked up the screenshots to demonstrate what the feature could look like, or perhaps they were testing a preview snapshot for FreeBSD 15.1 which was never shipped. Either way, it looks like other blogs and reviewers picked up on this and shared the information, presenting it as a feature which would be (or was included) in FreeBSD's latest version.
This got me wondering: What about blogs or reports which went the other way? Was anyone talking about the NVIDIA drivers and automated desktop setup being dropped from FreeBSD 15.1? Was anyone dispelling the idea that 15.1 was going to ship with these features, or that the features had been delayed? After several web searches, some browsing FreeBSD news sites, and reading forum posts, I found a single report saying the desktop setup feature had been postponed. Specifically, Over Central reported a conference speaker at the Open Source Summit (Deb Goodkin) said the feature would be delayed again until FreeBSD 15.2:
During Goodkin's talk, he noted that FreeBSD 15.1 was planned to include a KDE desktop option directly in the installer. This would be a landmark change - eliminating the need for users to install the desktop environment manually via the command line after a base installation. However, by the time the beta stage arrived in May 2026, the feature could not make the cut. It has been deferred to FreeBSD 15.2.
This seems to be accurate, but it is a story without a source. There is no recording of the talk, as far as I can tell, and no written confirmation in a presentation slide or mailing list post. The best I could dig up was a comment on an issue report on the FreeBSD Foundation's GitHub account which said:
Additional notes copy/pasted from elsewhere: The script still needs to be updated because new NVIDIA drivers have been released, and some parts have become obsolete (no longer necessary) and should be removed. After the script is committed to CURRENT, a testing period will still be required before the functionality can be merged into STABLE. Therefore, in order to provide users with the best possible solution, it was decided to target STABLE 15.2 instead.
This is a good plan, though it leaves a cold trail. There isn't any original source or link to the report from where the message was copied. It also doesn't specifically mention the desktop feature, only the way NVIDIA video drivers are being handled. In short, we can infer this means the desktop enabling feature was postponed, but the report doesn't mention it by name, it just refers to a related driver feature.
Ironically, I did eventually find a post on Phoronix (again) which suggested the desktop installer was being post-postponed until FreeBSD 15.2. Unfortunately, that post doesn't seem to have been picked up by LLMs and bloggers. It also doesn't link to a clear, official source.
Follow-up thoughts
After a few hours of digging and reading reports and comparing blog posts like a conspiracy theorist on a caffeine-binge, I surfaced with a few thoughts and conclusions.
First, I'm sure it is of no surprise to anyone that there is a lot of made up news in the world. Some of it is LLM-generated; some of it is reports which comment on possibilities, mentioned elsewhere, as facts; others were probably accurate at the time of writing, but have become outdated as developments happened. Whatever the reason for the misinformation, it is important to remember that reports on-line, especially ones which don't link to an original, official source, may be false, reframed, or misinterpreting the information.
In a similar vein, some tech blogs and news sites will copy and paste just about anything without confirming it. Some of them will even copy screenshots which either are not real or are not for the release they are covering. This is part of why DistroWatch tries to always provide its own, created in-house screenshots and we test any tips or tutorials to confirm they work as reported.
Ironically, accurate news is not always well-cited or sourced. The two reports I could find confirming FreeBSD's new features were being delayed did not have any supporting link or quote. It was a case of one person copying something someone else had told them. It appears the information was correct, but there was no way for me (someone who didn't go to the Open Source Summit) to confirm the desktop environment setup feature was being delayed.
Finally, and this may seem harsh, but I don't feel a though the FreeBSD Foundation (and the FreeBSD project) did a good job of sharing information on these new features and their eventual delay. As an example of this, the FreeBSD Quarterly Status Report in April reported the following: "A version of the [desktop setup] script was later adapted for integration into bsdinstall and into an installation ISO. After successful testing on both CURRENT and STABLE, a review has been submitted to add the desktop script to bsdinstall.
That report says the feature has been tested in the project's STABLE branch and it has been submitted to be included in the installer. That was two months prior to the 15.1 release, so it sounds like a fait accompli. As far as I can tell, there was no official report from the project or the Foundation after that, saying the feature had been pushed back to a later version. As a result, blogs and reviewers continued to run with the stale information. Some of us, such as myself, took the time to test for the feature and noticed it was missing. Others appear to have just let an LLM write their review, as one report stated: "FreeBSD 15.1 includes several enhancements over previous versions, such as improved hardware support, updated WiFi drivers, and better power management. It also introduces a new KDE Plasma desktop install option, aiming to enhance the user experience on laptops and desktops."
I feel like the confusion, and some false reports, could have been avoided if the FreeBSD project had been a bit more up front about what they were including and what they were holding back in the FreeBSD 15.1 release. As it is, there are some people out there who are probably going to wonder why they can't get the new desktop setup feature to work. The simple truth is: it doesn't yet exist.
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Visitor supplied rating
FreeBSD has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.7/10 from 83 review(s).
Have you used FreeBSD? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Asahi fixes macOS boot bug, reasons to run Gentoo, Ubuntu reverts Rust-based copy command, Astral gets WINE port
The Asahi Linux project has addressed an issue which was affecting users who had installed or upgraded to macOS 27. The issue, which prevented Asahi installations from booting, is related to a change in the macOS boot loader and a fix has been found: "The macOS Installer sets some APFS metadata before rebooting the machine, which further investigation revealed to be a flag that marks the volume as bootable. Until macOS 27, the boot tooling simply ignored this flag entirely. After setting the flag manually on an Asahi APFS container, it becomes available in the macOS 27 boot picker with no further changes. Going forward, all new Asahi installs will have this flag set automatically by the Asahi Installer. We've also added an installer mode that will fix existing installations. If you've installed the macOS 27 developer beta and cannot access your Asahi install, please run the installer again and use the 'Fix macOS 27 boot picker compatibility' option." Other changes coming to Asahi Linux can be found in the project's progress report.
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In the past, when people talked about the benefits of running Gentoo, they would often point out that software compiled for a specific architecture and with optimizations enabled could provide better performance over generic binaries. While this is true, modern processors tend to be fast enough that such optimizations are not apparent to the user. Michał Górny writes that there are a lot of good reasons to run Gentoo and performance is not one of the significant ones. "There's much more to Gentoo than that. Yes, some of it comes from building from source: the flexibility. But a lot of it comes from the wider Gentoo philosophy, the philosophy that brought us all together. The idea that Gentoo is the distribution we’re making for ourselves and people who enjoy Gentoo." Górny's post goes on to cover some of the key benefits of Gentoo and the meta-distribution's approach.
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Canonical has been migrating some of the core components of Ubuntu from C-based programs to programs written in the Rust language. Rust is designed to avoid common memory issues (and exploits) that are often found in C code. However, when major, core components change, other types of problems can arise. As Linuxiac reports, an incompatibility was found between the GNU cp command and the Rust-based equivalent: "According to the bug report, Ubuntu briefly reinstated the Rust Coreutils version of cp in coreutils-from 0.0.0~ubuntu26. This change caused failures in livecd-rootfs, one of the packages responsible for building Ubuntu live images. The bug was labeled Critical, and the immediate solution was to restore GNU cp. The technical issue involved how uutils cp handled combinations of archive and symlink-related options, particularly cases like cp -afL. In GNU cp, the -a option is equivalent to -dR --preserve=all, which includes recursive copying and attribute preservation. The Rust implementation, however, handled some mutually exclusive flags too aggressively."
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It would be understandable if our readers had not heard of Astral, an open source operating system written in the C language. The small project has not attracted much attention up to this point and has lived in the niche of hobbyist operating systems which are interesting, but not practical to run. This may be changing for Astral as the project's developer has ported a desktop environment and WINE, allowing the user to run multiple applications at once along with some games. "Today, people expect many things from a computer, and by extension, from its operating system. For example, they expect to be able to play the song they just downloaded, or to use the joystick they just plugged into the computer without rebooting. These features require not only hardware support, in the form of a sound card or a USB controller, but also operating system support. Support for audio and USB had been on my Astral TODO list for quite a while. Over the past few months, I have been working on getting both of them to work. Not only that, but I have also been porting NsCDE to Astral in order to replace the current stock FVWM interface. Progress has been great: Astral can now handle USB input, play games with audio, and play music, all while running NsCDE." The developer's blog post includes a link to a video that shows Astral running the game Minecraft. While hardware support is still limited, Astral has come a long way.
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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) |
Various tools for running admin commands
Open-the-pod-bay-doors asks: I've been reading about run0. Is there any reason to use it vs sudo or su?
DistroWatch answers: Each of these tools (run0, su, and sudo), along with a few others, are all utilities to use when we want to run a command as another user. Each tool has its own benefits and drawbacks and I will give a quick summary of each.
Since these tools all allow one user to launch commands as another user, the terminology can be confusing. To try to keep things clear, in this article I will be referring to the user sitting at the computer as the "original" user. When that user tries to run commands as someone else (such as the root user), I will refer to the other user as the "target" user. If Alice is sitting at the computer trying to run commands as root then Alice is the original user and root is the target user.
Let's look at popular tools for running commands as another user:
- su - Running the su command switches our shell from running as our regular user to another user, typically root. When we run su we will be prompted for the password of the target account and then we are effectively logged in as that user. We then run commands as the target user until we exit the shell. The su utility is fairly simple in its approach, basically logging us in as another user, without us first needing to logout.
- sudo - The sudo utility improves upon the approach of su in a few ways. When we invoke sudo we are prompted for our own password. The sudo command looks at its configuration and our user's permissions to determine whether we should be allowed to perform commands as another user, specifically the target user. Assuming our user or account group is allowed by sudo's configuration to run commands as the target user, we are able to perform one command as the target user.
The sudo command improves over su in a few ways. One is that it does not require the target user to provide the original user with their password. This means we can grant a user access to perform commands as root (or another user) without giving them the root password. The sudo command also allows us to limit which commands each user or group can run. This means handing out root access is not done in an "all or nothing" way, as it is with su. We can grant specific users the ability to set up printers, apply security updates, or mount drives without giving them full access.
The sudo command can also log actions taken by users, which is helpful when we want to audit actions on the system.
By default, sudo will drop its elevated access after performing a single command. This prevents the original user from staying logged in as the target user for longer than necessary.
- doas - The doas command is quite similar to sudo in how it works. Like sudo, doas checks to see what commands the original user is allowed to run, it prompts for the original user's password, and it performs a single command as the target user. The doas program also logs its actions.
What sets doas apart from sudo is its focus on being smaller and simpler. The sudo utility has a reputation for being complex, for having a lot of configuration options which are difficult to read, and for being relatively large. The doas command is smaller, it has fewer options, and its configuration file is relatively simple to read.
As an example, here is a fairly typical sudo configuration file:
Defaults env_reset
Defaults mail_badpass
Defaults secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"
Defaults use_pty
Defaults:%sudo env_keep += "http_proxy https_proxy ftp_proxy all_proxy no_proxy"
%sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
@includedir /etc/sudoers.d
Basically, the above allows any user who is in the "sudo" group to perform any command they want as any user. Meanwhile this is a fairly typical doas configuration file which does the same thing:
permit :sudo as root
This should, in theory, make doas a smaller target for hackers and make it easier to write (and understand) its configuration.
- pkexec - The pkexec command works in a similar fashion to sudo and doas. It checks the credentials of the user and, using behind-the-scenes rules, it verifies if our original user should be able to perform actions as the target user (typically root). There are a few things which set pkexec apart. The most visible one is that it will try to prompt for the user's password using a pop-up window on the desktop, assuming we are running a desktop session. If we are running from a real text terminal then pkexec prompts for our password in the terminal.
The other visible difference when using pkexec is the utility will, by default, run any programs in the target user's home directory. This can cause some unexpected behaviour if we're not looking for it. Take the following example where we create a file and then try to read it as another user:
$ echo "Hello World" > myfile
$ pkexec cat myfile
cat: file: No such file or directory
$ cat file
Hello World
Another thing which sets pkexec apart is it uses Polkit to determine whether the original user should be allowed to perform commands as other users.
- run0 - Like pkexec, run0 uses Polkit behind the scenes to perform authorization. On the surface, run0 looks and acts a lot like sudo or doas. It accepts the names of commands we want to run and then launches them as another user, typically the administrator.
There are two things which make run0 distinct from the tools mentioned earlier. One is that it is part of the systemd suite and you will need to be running a Linux distribution which features systemd to use it. The other difference is that, unlike the commands mentioned above, run0 does not use the setuid feature.
Most utilities which allow regular users to run commands as the root user (or any other user) do so using a concept called setuid. This is a flag which can be applied to a program that allows it to run as the file's owner (typically root) instead of as the user who launches the command. In effect, this means when we run su, doas, or sudo the program is running as root, regardless of who launched it. The program then checks to see which user we want to perform the command as and changes its permissions to match the target user.
Put another way, if Alice wants to run a command as Bob, she can run "doas -u bob id". The doas command is marked as being setuid. Since the root user owns the doas program, the doas command launches as the root user. The doas program sees Alice wants to run the id program as Bob and drops its access level from root to match Bob. This is fairly standard behaviour for commands which anyone can run, but which need root-level access for certain special functions. However, for the brief time the program is running as root, it has the potential to give Alice root access if Alice can find a way to exploit a weakness in the program.
The run0 command does not run with the setuid flag, which means it does not start off running as the root user. When run0 is run by Alice, it is effectively operating as Alice, not as the root user. In theory, this behaviour is safer because it means, even if Alice finds an exploit in run0, it is still running as her user, not as the system administrator.
The trade-off is that something in the background, in this case Polkit, needs to be able to help our regular user run commands as another user. Polkit, compared to sudo and doas, is large, complex, and has an unusually complicated configuration. Using run0 is, essentially, betting that large tools like systemd-run and Polkit are coded and configured properly and more secure than small, dedicated tools like doas.
Is there a reason to use one tool vs another? In some cases, yes. For example, if you are working in a graphical desktop environment and need to prompt the user for a password, perhaps as part of a script, then pkexec is quite useful in such a situation. For most command line work, small, dedicated tools such as sudo and doas are ideal. They are relatively simple to use, fairly easy to configure, and log their interactions with users.
There is probably, in a practical sense, no reason to use su these days. It has an "all or nothing" approach, doesn't offer the same logging, and relies on handing out the target user's password to anyone who wants to run commands as that user.
As for run0, and whether it is worth switching to it from sudo or doas, I think there are two factors to consider. From a design standpoint, which do you think is better: risking running a program (such as sudo) as setuid, which might be exploited to grant root access? Or is it better to risk running systemd and Polkit which are larger and more complex, but do away with the older design of setuid? I think this is more of a personal or philosophical choice than a practical one.
Focusing on the practical side then, which is for me the more interesting decision, I think the choice really comes down to the environment. The sudo and doas commands run virtually everywhere. They run on all Linux distributions, on the BSDs, on macOS, and on the members of the Solaris family. If you know how to set up and run doas or sudo on one system you can use it on any Unix-like system. The run0 command is part of systemd and will run on Linux distributions which run systemd only. If you exclusively run mainstream Linux distributions, such as Fedora, Debian, openSUSE, and Arch then there is no drawback to setting up and learning to use run0. However, if you use non-mainstream Linux distributions (or plan to do so), or if you use other members of the Unix-like family then I'd suggest sticking with portable tools like doas and sudo. Using the same tools across platforms is not only convenient, but it also makes your configuration more consistent and, as a result, safer.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Slackel 9.0 "MATE"
Dimitris Tzemos has announced the release of Slackel 9.0 "MATE" edition, the latest version of the project's Slackware-based live Linux distribution featuring the MATE desktop: "Slackel MATE 9.0 is the latest major release branch of the Greek-developed Linux distribution, built on top of the Slackware 'Current' tree and incorporating advanced administration tools borrowed from Salix Linux. This version delivers an optimized, lightweight computing environment paired with the highly stable and customizable MATE desktop interface. Core technical specifications: base distribution synchronized with the Slackware 'Current' tree; desktop environment - MATE; Linux kernel - 6.18.37 for the 64-bit architecture and 6.12.94 for the 32-bit edition; architecture - available in both 64-bit (x86_64) and 32-bit (x86) systems; package management - uses package management tools, like slapt-get and gslapt, for streamlined dependency handling. To accommodate different system requirements and user preferences, the installer supports three distinct deployment modes: full installation - deploys the comprehensive MATE environment alongside standard internet browsers, multimedia applications, and productivity tools...." Continue to the release announcement for further details.
Mageia 10
The Mageia project has released a new version, Mageia 10, which brings updates to the project's package management tools, welcome screen and CPU requirements. "We increase hardware requirements for 32bit systems, you will require a CPU with SSE2 features. You will find that extension for the packages and the part for architecture in the name of the ISO images have changed from i586 to i686. Also, due most of the software projects are dropping 32-bit support, you can find that the support is not as full as in the x86_64 systems. Our atelier and dev teams have worked hard to find the best balance between visual appeal and disk space usage. As usual, we've selected a range of resolutions for the main background to accommodate a wide variety of monitors, and we've also optimized their sizes using tools available in our repositories. For the main screensavers, we have chosen an image size of 3840x2160 and the JXL format, allowing them to look great on modern 2K and even 4K monitors, while maintaining a disk space footprint similar to those included in Mageia 9, which used lower resolutions and the JPG format." Additional information is provided in the release notes.
Mageia 10 -- Running the Plasma desktop
(full image size: 2.0MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Kali Linux 2026.2
The Kali Linux project has released a new snapshot of the security- and forensics-focused distribution. The project's 2026.2 release includes several upgrades: "It's the final week of Q2, and Kali Linux 2026.2 is here - right on schedule. We have been heads down since our last release, and we are ready to share what we have been working on. This release is a mix of desktop refreshes, infrastructure improvements, and quality-of-life changes that we think you will appreciate. The summary of the changelog since the 2026.1 release from March is: desktop environments - bump to GNOME 50 and KDE Plasma 6.6; helper scripts consistency - consistency to our little launches at starting services; APT format - goodbye sources.list, hello sources.list.d/kali.source; VM boot optimisation - smaller initrd + faster boot times = happy virtual machine users; reboot warning - heads-up, polkit and xrdp upgrades require a system reboot; Kali kernel incoming - staying with 6.19 for now, how to get 7.0 early; build scripts incoming - heads-up with some changes on the way; new tools - as always, various new shiny packages have been added (9)." Additional information is provided in the release announcement.
ArchBang Linux 010726
The ArchBANG project has released a new version of ArchBANG Linux with another radical change - it has replaced labwc with the Mango Wayland compositor. The new version, labelled as 010726, comes with both graphical and command-line system installers: "Pleased to announce the release of ArchBang running the Mango window manager. This marks a full rebrand from FruitBang back to ArchBang. A new ISO image, dated 1st July, has just been uploaded as promised, carrying up-to-date packages and the latest Linux kernel. Getting started - hit the yellow rocket icon on the waybar toolbar and you're off. Most of what you need is accessible from that menu. In ~/Scripts you'll find a few useful tools, including a yay installer and abi-install, a GUI installer (optional/unwanted for terminal users, but sticking around). A note on installers: arch-browser-installer is still very much a work in progress, treat it as beta, and only test it in a virtual machine for now. abi-install isn't going anywhere; it's aimed at users less confident on the terminal, and we're interested in continuing to develop that idea. Grab the ISO image and give it a spin. Feedback and bug reports welcome as always." Continue to the release announcement for further information.
CalyxOS 7.2.2.0
The CalyxOS team have announced the return of the project to active status and, with it, the launch of version 7.2.2.0 of the mobile operating system. "CalyxOS 7.2.2.0 is up online. This release will receive all future updates. If you haven't previously installed 7.2.1.0 (test build) and want to start or continue using CalyxOS, you need to flash your phone and install 7.2.2.0. With CalyxOS releases back to normal, we will continue with other backlog issues. Join the Matrix channel for our progress and user support. Dear CalyxOS community members, we are excited to share the release of CalyxOS 7.2.2.0. This means CalyxOS is officially back from the hiatus! It has been an enduring journey for our team to resume CalyxOS releases, and we deeply appreciate all the support and solidarity we received from you along this journey, especially the latest voluntary testing you did with us. Below we are sharing some important notes for anyone planning to install or reinstall CalyxOS, along with our next steps as we work through a large backlog of issues." Additional information on the new release, plans for CalyxOS 8 (based on Android 17), and infrastructure changes can be found in the project's release announcement. A list of supported devices and install options can be found on the project's install page.
Ultramarine Linux 44
The Ultramarine Linux, a Fedora-based desktop distribution, has published a new release, version 44. The new version includes updates to three of the four desktop environments: "We have gotten tons of feedback and praise for switching to Plasma as our recommended Edition. This release comes with Plasma 6.7, the new Union theme engine, performance improvements, and bug fixes galore. Budgie has made the switch to Wayland! It now sports the SDDM window manager and a new Bluetooth app. This was the second to last Edition to be stuck on X11, so we're really excited to finally modernize it. If you're upgrading from 43 you'll be prompted to visit this wiki page and follow its instructions, we were not able to automatically transition users to SDDM for stability reasons, but you can follow our simple instructions to switch. We've made a couple improvements to GNOME Edition that make things significantly better. Most notably, we fixed that annoying 'Window is Ready' notification, now a window will just focus itself like it would on the other editions. We're also enabling the minimize and maximize buttons on every window by default, adding calculator support to the overview search, and showing the battery percentage in the panel on laptops. Sadly in this release we had to drop Pop!_Shell, it's no longer maintained and we found that a really small number of users actually use it. You can still install it with dnf, or try a similar extension, but your mileage may vary." Additional information is provided in the distribution's release announcement.
Ultramarine Linux 44 -- Running the Plasma desktop
(full image size: 956kB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a
bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 3,458
- Total data uploaded: 50.2TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
What is your favourite way to run admin commands?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about several utilities which can be used to run commands as another user, typically as the system administrator. Each tool has its strengths and drawbacks. Which approach do you prefer when you want to run admin commands?
You can see the results of our previous poll on preferred release cycle in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Which utility do you use to run admin commands?
| None - I login as root: | 104 (5%) |
| doas: | 63 (3%) |
| pkexec: | 14 (1%) |
| run0: | 11 (1%) |
| su: | 228 (12%) |
| sudo: | 1441 (76%) |
| Other: | 11 (1%) |
| None - I do not run any commands as another user: | 19 (1%) |
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| Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 13 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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| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
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NovaCustom PrivacyGuard Laptops - Escape from Big Tech
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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.
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.
|
| Random Distribution | 
U-lite
U-lite (formerly Ubuntulite) was a light-weight distribution, based on Ubuntu, designed to run comfortably on old and low-resource computers. It comes with a careful selection of applications, such LXDE (featuring the Openbox window manager), Kazehakase web browser, Sylpheed mail client, AbiWord word processor and Gnumeric spreadsheet. Unlike most light-weight distributions, U-lite strives to provide a complete user experience out of the box.
Status: Discontinued
|
| 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.
|
| 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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