October 23, 2024

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January 26, 2024 | CentOS

The Great CentOS Linux Migration: How We Got Here and What’s Next – DevOps.com

The recent news regarding Red Hat’s decision to limit access to the source code of their Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) distribution has garnered considerable attention. In order to understand the ramifications and subsequent changes, it is important to look back at CentOS, its historical alignment with RHEL and the options moving forward.

CentOS Then and Now

Starting in 2004, right from its inception, every iteration of the commercial RHEL offering triggered a corresponding release of CentOS. These iterations mirrored RHEL, albeit with modifications to eliminate the Red Hat branding and other minor updates. The presence of open source CentOS Linux facilitated swift installation of a free RHEL variant, rendering it accessible for diverse purposes spanning from development to production environments.

In January 2014, Red Hat joined the CentOS project. Under a new CentOS governing board, they became the main sponsor and driver of the CentOS project. They continued to be an open source downstream alternative to RHEL.

On December 8, 2020, the CentOS project and Red Hat set a new end-of-life (EOL) date for CentOS Linux 8. They shifted focus and investment into a new Linux distribution, CentOS Stream, with a rolling release model. EOL means that the community stops releases regardless of the severity of a bug or a vulnerability. Today, CentOS versions 6 and 8 are already EOL, and version 7 is the last, with EOL set for June 30, 2024. This announcement immediately sparked new projects to fill the CentOS gap. New open source projects such as Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux took off quickly, gaining contributors, sponsors and users.

Fast forward to June 21, 2023, when Red Hat announced it would no longer publicly publish RHEL on git.centos.org.

Previously, the source code was accessible to all, and it was used by various RHEL-compatible alternative open source projects such as Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux. It also affected other distributions, including Oracle Linux, which was a RHEL derivative for many years. All of these open source Linux distributions offered an alternative for applications; they were equally compatible with both free open source Linux and the commercial RHEL offering.

According to the 2023 State of Open Source Report, 15% of all organizations and 20% of large organizations globally still have CentOS Linux deployed in their environments. Organizations have to move off EOL CentOS 6 and 8 and, in less than a year, off CentOS 7. Running EOL versions of any software can pose a substantial risk and cause failure in IT internal and external compliance. New vulnerabilities are constantly disclosed, and without updates or patches to CentOS, it is critical to plan for the “Great CentOS Linux Migration.”

CentOS Migration Planning and Challenges

Migration can be challenging. If organizations have legacy applications, they might encounter significant challenges making them work properly on a different Linux distribution. Even a small change in the individual packages that form the Linux distribution can impact and delay testing. While every application is different, and many are not dependent on low-level Linux functions, others could be significantly impacted. The number of CentOS deployments and applications has an exponential impact on the migration efforts. Evaluating different Linux distributions also takes time and will depend on the use cases, the skills developers have within each organization and the results of testing. The actual installation of a new Linux distribution is the easy part—the testing of all the layers on top of the operating system is what will take time. Some might be straightforward while others will require significant changes. Those are the reasons why it is helpful to stay with compatible distributions that will minimize the migration challenges.

As organizations navigate the CentOS EOL and the migration period, it will be helpful to find options to extend CentOS long-term support. This means finding the expertise to generate patches that address newly disclosed high-severity vulnerabilities post-EOL. In other words, organizations must expand the community’s long-term support to address security.

Wait for What’s Next

The biggest question about alternative distributions is how closely they resemble RHEL. Are they going to continue to be bug-for-bug compatible? Or are there enough differences to no longer consider them application-compatible? The Rocky Linux Enterprise Software Foundation announced its plan to access RHEL source code and its intentions to continue to be bug-for-bug compatible. AlmaLinux OS Foundation announced a different approach. It is working with the CentOS Stream community while maintaining binary compatibility. This means not strictly bug-for-bug but focusing on applications to continue to be compatible.

It is possible we’ll see other potential changes from Red Hat with regard to the access to RHEL’s source code. Today, it’s only available to customers under a commercial license agreement.

The big test will be the next minor version, RHEL 9.3. It will be interesting to review the corresponding 9.3 versions of Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, Oracle and others, including SUSE, who announced their intention to offer an open source compatible Linux distribution. The analysis and comparison of how applications run with the new minor version will reveal how close they are to RHEL.

To mitigate uneasiness, organizations have to plan and test alternatives. Finding post-EOL support and patches will allow organizations to have a runway for migrating CentOS to different Linux distributions.

As everyone in the industry with CentOS deployments waits for the next release or the next few releases, extending long-term support becomes a very viable solution. It is wise to make sure security and IT compliance aspects are addressed. Perhaps more open source Linux distributions will appear in the near future and offer another alternative to CentOS Linux.

January 26, 2024 | Lubuntu

How to install Lubuntu Linux OS on PC via USB stick/drive – H2S Media

Lubuntu is easy to install Linux Distro, however, here is the tutorial to know how to install it on PC using a bootable USB or Pen drive.

There is an innumerable number of distributions available for Linux, and one of the most popular among them is Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a large community, and you can get answers to your questions just in case you face some issues using it. Lubuntu is an official flavour of Ubuntu, and it is best suited for computers with not so powerful or old hardware. Lubuntu comes with the lightweight LXDE desktop environment, which is sleek and the user interface should please most users. Lubuntu might not be that beautiful, but it is one of the best flavours of Linux you can use.

Due to too very low system requirements, Lubuntu is very responsive, at least way more responsive than Ubuntu, and you can even use Lubuntu on a new system, and change the desktop environment later on, if you are looking for a more beautiful user interface. Lubuntu is easy to install, and here is the tutorial, if you are finding it difficult. Lubuntu doesn’t come with any bloatware or unnecessary programs and thus, you will eventually have a lot of space for installing those programs that you actually need. It only lacks the snap repository, which though can easily be added before you can start downloading packages from it.

So without any delay, let’s get started with how you can install Lubuntu on your computer.

The steps to follow

Step 1: Download Lubuntu ISO file

Go to Lubuntu official website Download Page. The latest version which was available for downloading while writing this article was Lubuntu 19.04.

Step 2: Create a Bootable Lubuntu USB drive

To create Lubuntu bootable USB drive simple download a tool known as Universal USB Installer. Here is the link to get it. It is a cross-platform tool after a downloading click on the setup to run it.

Step 3: Boot PC with a USB drive

Insert the USB stick with Lubuntu on your computer’s USB device and boot from it. You can read this tutorial to find out how you can create a bootable USB stick.

Step 4: Select Lubuntu Language

Once it boots up, choose the language for the installer. I am choosing ‘English’ here.

Step 5: Install Lubuntu

Now the boot menu for Lubuntu will appear. Just select ‘Install Lubuntu’, which should be chosen by default, using the navigation keys, and hit the enter key.

Now choose the language that you want to use for the installer, and hit the enter key. I am choosing ‘English’ here.

Step 6: Choose Location

Now choose your location using the navigation keys. Obviously, it will be India for me. Once you select your location, hit the enter key.

Step 7: Keyboard selection

Now you will get an option to set up the keyboard. Chances are there you are already using the QWERTY keyboard. If that is the case, select ‘No’ using the Tab key, and hit the enter key. Alternatively, you can select ‘Yes’ to choose a different layout.

Now you will have to choose the origin country of your keyboard. It is ‘English (US)’ for me, and will possibly be the same for most other users.

Now choose the language of your keyboard. It is ‘English (US)’ for me, and should be the same for most other users.

Step 8: Give Hostname to Lubuntu

The installation should start now, and once it is complete, assign a hostname for your computer, and hit the enter key. I am naming it ‘lubuntu’

Step 9: Create a Username and Password

Now you will have to enter the name of the user, who will be using the computer. I am assigning ‘sbasu’. Once you are done, hit the enter key.

Now enter the username. You can keep the username same as the full name of the user. I am assigning ‘sbasu’. Once you are done, hit the enter key again.

Now assign a password, and enter the same twice, hitting the enter key after you enter it each time.

 

Step 10: Configure Time zone

Now your location will be automatically detected. Use the tab key to navigate to ‘Yes’, if the detected physical location is correct, else choose ‘No’ if you want to find out the location manually.

Step 11: Partition Disks

Now the next task is to partition your disk. Choose ‘Guided-use entire disk’, and hit the enter key.

Select the partition, where you want to install Lubuntu, using the navigation keys, and hit the enter key. Now you will be asked for the confirmation to write changes to the disk. Select ‘Yes’ using the tab key, and hit the enter key.

Now the system installation will start, and once it is over, you will be given the option to enter proxy information. If there isn’t any proxy to access the internet, leave it blank, and hit the enter key.

Now some updates will be downloaded, and once it is done, you will be given the option to install GRUB Boot Loader on to your hard drive. Use the tab keys to navigate to ‘Yes’, and hit the enter key.

Now depending upon whether your clock is based on UTC, use the tab keys to choose ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ and hit the enter key. It is ‘Yes’ for me. Once the installation is complete, hit the enter key to select ‘Continue’.

Once you choose ‘Continue’, remove the installer media. Now Lubuntu is ready for you to use.

Your computer is now ready to use. Lubuntu features a very user-friendly interface, and you will hardly face any issues using it.

Hope the process was useful for you. Do you have any questions in mind? Feel free to comment the same down below.

January 26, 2024 | Lubuntu
January 26, 2024 | XeroLinux

XeroLinux Review: Yet Another Arch-Based Distro for Beginners – Tech News, Reviews, Tutorials and More!

XeroLinux is a hobbyist Arch-Based Distro that offers users a pre-configured Latte dock with Kvantum. XeroLinux’s ALCI scripts make it friendly for new Linux users. Its KDE Plasma version is an eye-catchy, MacOS-like interface. This distro is easy to install and use; providing all the benefits of Arch Linux without the need to configure everything yourself.

This distro includes all the software you need to get started using your new Arch installation – making it perfect for anyone looking for an Arch-based distro that is pre-configured and ready to go.

So why not give XeroLinux a try? You might just find that it’s the perfect Linux distro for you!

What Makes XeroLinux So Special?

This is XeroLinux. What Makes It So Special?

There are lots of other arch-based Linux distros available in the market, but Xero Linux is different because-

  • XeroLinux uses the KDE Plasma desktop, which is known for its beauty and customization options.
  • The default color scheme of XeroLinux is purple.
  • This distro runs as smooth and silky, giving you a MacOS feel with a dock and a top bar.
  • Both Pamac and Synaptic are available for software management in XeroLinux.
  • Flatseal flatpak GUI is used in XeroLinux, making it easier to install and manage flatpaks.
  • A terminal window (Yakuake) is available by default in XeroLinux.
  • Grub customizer is available in XeroLinux, allowing you to change the look of your GRUB screen.
  • You can easily switch between dark and light themes in XeroLinux.
  • The XeroLinux Configuration tool makes it easy to customize your installation.
  • Pamac GUI is used for software management in XeroLinux.
  • The desktop is beautifully designed and supports AUR and Flatpaks.
  • topgrade T.U.I updater is available in XeroLinux.
  • Themes like Dracula, Nord, SweetKDE, etc., are available for customization.
  • GRUB Themes like Daft Punk inspired, TRON: Legacy inspired, Star Wars: The Last Jedi inspired, XeroNord, and Xero-Compromise are also available.

What does the XeroLinux desktop look like?

What does the XeroLinux desktop look like?

The desktop is very beautiful and eye-catching. It comes with a pre-configured Latte dock and Kvantum. The default color scheme is purple, but you can easily change it to any color you want. A top bar shows the time, date, and battery status. You can also add widgets to the top bar. The desktop is very clean and well-organized.

Performance

XeroLinux is a desktop-oriented distribution that offers impressive performance. Its RAM and CPU usage are low during idle state, making it a suitable choice for modern hardware. The Linux kernel 5.16 is used, which works fine on different hardware configurations. However, we recommend installing this OS on a hardware-rich system to unlock its full potential.

It works well on the i3, i5, and i7 Intel generations with around 8GB of RAM. XeroLinux is an excellent distribution for people who are looking for a balance between an eye-candy desktop and optimal performance.

Desktop and GRUB Customisation

This distro comes with a lot of options for customizing the desktop and GRUB. You can easily change the color scheme, wallpaper, icons, fonts, etc. The XeroLinux Configuration tool makes it easy to customize your installation. You can also change the look of your GRUB screen using the Grub Customizer tool.

Software Management

It uses Pamac GUI for software management. You can also use Synaptic Package Manager if you prefer. Both Pamac and Synaptic are available in the XeroLinux repositories. Flatseal flatpak GUI is used for managing flatpaks. You can easily install and manage flatpaks using Flatseal.

Desktop Environment Options

The main version comes with the KDE Plasma desktop environment, but an Xfce version is available for older Linux machines. The Gnome version was there initially, but development was dropped as it had an issue with the extension implementation.

How easy is it to install XeroLinux?

Installing XeroLinux is very easy and straightforward. You just need to download the ISO and burn it to a USB drive. Then, you can boot from the USB drive and follow the instructions on the screen. The entire process will take less than 10 minutes.

XeroLinux Complete Install Guide

It uses the calamares installer, which is very user-friendly. You don’t need to depend on a terminal or guided Arch installer. Just select your language, location, timezone, and keyboard layout, and choose whether you want to install XeroLinux alongside another operating system or Erase the disk and install XeroLinux. Then, select the graphics drivers and specific Linux kernels.

XeroLinux uses the calamares installer

The process of installing software on XeroLinux is very easy. Select the packages you want to install and click “Install Now.”

System76’s power management driver and Nvidia Optimus Manager are also available to install. It provides a variety of different packages that you can choose from at the time of installation.

What software is included in XeroLinux?

XeroLinux comes with all the software you need to get started using your new Arch installation. And all those software are organized in the menu bar as multimedia, development, office, internet, etc.

Software is included in XeroLinux.

Linux newcomers might find XeroLinux an attractive option, as it comes pre-installed with useful tools and software. These include the Dolphin file manager, Gwenview image viewer, Kalender task and event manager, Spectacle screenshot capture utility, Falkon web browser, Grsync GUI for rsync, VLC media player, and Grub Customizer utility to customize the bootloader. Additionally, the KWrite text editor is included.

You can also install additional software from the official repositories or the AUR. This distro also supports software from flatpak, synaptic package manager, and pamac.

Should You Try?

If you’re looking for a user-friendly Arch Linux distribution, then XeroLinux is worth considering. It’s one of the easiest ways to install and use Arch Linux. The installation process is very straightforward, and you get lots of software pre-installed. Additionally, it supports flatpaks, making installing additional software easy.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a more customizable Arch Linux distribution, this distro might not be the right choice. While it’s possible to customize the look and feel of XeroLinux, it doesn’t offer as much flexibility as some of the other Arch-based distributions. Additionally, the range of software included in XeroLinux is somewhat limited. However, you can install any software from the software repository.

Overall, this distro is a great choice for Linux newcomers who want to try Arch Linux but don’t want to deal with the complexities of the installation process. It’s also a good choice for experienced Linux users who want an easy-to-use Arch Linux distribution.

Finally, Insight!

XeroLinux is a great choice for both Linux newcomers and experienced users. It’s very easy to install, and you get lots of software pre-installed. Additionally, it supports flatpaks, making it easy to install additional software. If you’re looking for a user-friendly Arch Linux distribution, then XeroLinux is worth considering.

January 26, 2024 | SpiralLinux

SpiralLinux: Anonymous creator of GeckoLinux puts out new Debian remix – The Register

SpiralLinux is the result of the creator of GeckoLinux turning their attention to Debian – with an interesting outcome.

Some Linux distros have many remixes and respins, while some have very few. For example, there are multiple downstream variants of Debian and Ubuntu, but very few of Fedora. The Reg FOSS desk is only aware of one for openSUSE: GeckoLinux, whose Rolling edition we looked at earlier this year.

Now, the creator of GeckoLinux – who prefers to remain anonymous – has turned their attention to one of the most-remixed distros there is, Debian, to create SpiralLinux. What can a new remix bring to the already-crowded table of Debian meta-distributions? (That is: distributions built from other distributions.)

SpiralLinux is to Debian what GeckoLinux is to openSUSE. They both offer easier, friendlier ways to install the upstream distro, but the final result is as close as possible to its parent. Neither adds any new components that aren’t in the parent distro, and updates come direct and unmodified from upstream.

Both Debian and openSUSE offer default downloads which boot directly into an installation program. This is in contrast to the more modern Ubuntu and Fedora way of doing things, where the install image boots into a live desktop, so you can try it out and get a feel for it before you commit yourself to installing it. (We must be fair and note that both Debian and openSUSE do offer optional live-image downloads as well – but you need to know to look for them.)

Both Debian and openSUSE exclude proprietary drivers from their installation image, relegating them to optional additional repositories. This can make it difficult to get things like Wifi working. (Debian does offer optional “non-free” installation media with proprietary firmware and drivers, with scary warnings that these are unofficial.)

Both SpiralLinux and GeckoLinux are remixes, which take the upstream distro and repackage it in a more Ubuntu-like way: so, they boot directly into a live desktop environment, which you can try out – or use to recover a damaged installation.

Both include the most important non-FOSS drivers and firmware, so you have, for example, a much better chance of getting online wirelessly direct from the live image, and thus be able to install updates or extra software.

Once you’ve installed either Spiral or Gecko, what you end up with is, basically, a cleverly-configured copy of Debian or openSUSE, respectively.

This is very different from most other downstream Debian meta-distros, such as Linux Mint Debian Edition to pick one example. An installed copy of LMDE is distinctly – well – Minty, and it unavoidably contains components that didn’t come from upstream Debian.

This is much like what Debian, in its rather Puritanical terms, calls a FrankenDebian: mixture of multiple different parent distros.

SpiralLinux offers a few improvements that installing from a Debian live image (even a “nonfree” one) doesn’t.

You get Btrfs, configured with both compression (Fedora-style) and automatic snapshots (openSUSE-style), including for the kernel. You get improved font rendering. You get Flatpak support, complete with the GNOME Software app, even on non-GNOME installations.

Along with extra drivers, the Debian non-free repositories are preconfigured, so more hardware will work out of the box – including VirtualBox guest support, and HP printers and scanners – and they’ll get updates in future.

Rather than a dedicated partition, it uses a swapfile on the root drive, plus ZRAM compressed swap for low-memory machines. TLP is installed and configured for better laptop battery life, too.

Subject to the concerns about Btrfs that we have expressed before, and more than once at that, this is all good stuff. It’s also worth noting that you get the best aspects of both openSUSE and Fedora’s configurations of Btrfs.

The Xfce desktop in SpiralLinux looks very much like it does in GeckoLinux… which is no bad thing

We tested the Xfce version, but you can also pick Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE Plasma, MATE, Budgie or LXQt variants, plus a bare-bones “Builder” edition if you want to configure your own desktop.

The Xfce editing installed smoothly, both in VirtualBox and on bare metal. Everything worked without a hitch, and the resulting OS feels fast. It looks very much like GeckoLinux Xfce, with a dark theme and a similar wallpaper: muted but clean.

Crosshead text

Now, to be fair, some of these things are a little controversial. Not everyone admires Btrfs, and while Snapper can be a lifesaver, you will need significantly more disk space with snapshot support than without. Not everyone likes Flatpak, either, but given Debian’s rigorous guidelines about Free Software, it’s by far the easiest way to install proprietary freeware such as Chrome, Skype or Steam onto a Debian box.

At the end of the installation, you are running something that accurately calls itself Debian Bullseye. It contains basically nothing else, with only one small exception, as its creator told us:

So the result is vanilla Debian, and that does mean a rather dated distro in places: kernel 5.10, and a somewhat elderly version of Firefox. But to get round that, Flatpak comes built-in, or it’s possible to update the whole distro to Debian Testing or Unstable… but if you want a true rolling release, there’s GeckoLinux Rolling, which uses openSUSE Tumbleweed underneath.

SpiralLinux, just like GeckoLinux, is not so much a new distro as a new and improved way to install an existing distro. If you like Debian – or the idea of Debian, complete with long-term stability and a slow, careful release cadence – but you want some of the shinier bits of rival distros, SpiralLinux looks like a great option. ®

Bootnote

At this point, The Reg FOSS desk must confess to some confusions in the original GeckoLinux write-up. I thought it eschewed Btrfs, but I was wrong. It doesn’t. As a matter of routine, I normally pre-partition destination computers with Gparted before installing – but the GeckoLinux installation program picks up existing partitions and their filesystems, and by default won’t suggest changing them. Also, GeckoLinux does include firmware and non-free drivers that openSUSE doesn’t. My mistakes, and my apologies.

January 26, 2024 | SpiralLinux

Looking for a straightforward, reliable, and impenetrable Linux OS? Look no further than SpiralLinux – ZDNet

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“Why SpiraxLinux is the Outstanding Choice for Dependable and Reliable Performance”

Source: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMibWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnpkbmV0LmNvbS9hcnRpY2xlL3dhbnQtYS1zaW1wbGUtc3RhYmxlLWFuZC1zZWN1cmUtbGludXgtZGlzdHJpYnV0aW9uLXRoZW4tc3BpcmFsbGludXgtaXMtZm9yLXlvdS_SAXhodHRwczovL3d3dy56ZG5ldC5jb20vZ29vZ2xlLWFtcC9hcnRpY2xlL3dhbnQtYS1zaW1wbGUtc3RhYmxlLWFuZC1zZWN1cmUtbGludXgtZGlzdHJpYnV0aW9uLXRoZW4tc3BpcmFsbGludXgtaXMtZm9yLXlvdS8?oc=5

January 26, 2024 | Slackware

The beginner’s guide to Slackware Linux – TechRadar

Give a man Ubuntu, and he’ll learn Ubuntu. Give a man SUSE, and he’ll learn SUSE. But give a man Slackware, and he’ll learn Linux. Well, so the old internet maxim goes, but while it’s normally used with a touch of humour, there’s a great deal of truth in it too.

Slackware is a curious animal, minding its own business while other distros roam the popularity plain and strive for dominance among their peers.

It’s not trying to win enormous desktop market share, nor is it loaded with blinking lights, hold-your-hand graphical wizards and package managers that change with every release. Slackware is about as pure a GNU/Linux system as you can get – at least, without all the arduous leg work of Linux From Scratch.

There are many reasons why Slackware has a devoted base of hardcore fans, usually Linux old-timers but occasionally newcomers too. The top four:

  • It’s almost entirely developed by one man.
  • The packages are not patched to the hilt.
  • It’s comfortable in its own distrosphere.
  • It’s very, very, very stable.

Let’s look at these in more detail. For most of its history, since the first release in 1993, Slackware has been largely the work of one developer: California-based 42-year-old Patrick Volkerding. Pat had some assistance from other paid developers in the distro’s earlier days, but now he’s a one-man band – albeit with the help of bug reports and patches from the community – and uses sales of Slackware boxed sets to fund his work on the distro.

An affable chap with a quirky sense of humour, Pat’s down-to-earth geekness puts many long-time Linuxers at ease. Got a question? Try Pat. Got a suggestion? Try Pat. Want to file a bug report? Try Pat. Don’t worry about mailing lists, project leaders and Bugzilla accounts – Pat’s your man. Indeed, he’s known as The Man in Slackware circles.

Unbefuddled software

With Pat’s central role in Slackware firmly established, we come on to patches. Most distros take the original, upstream source code of a program and weld on patches – one, two, 10, often more – to fit it in with the rest of the software and distro. That’s fine for many users, but if you want to be sure you’re getting what the developer originally intended, you’re better off with Slackware.

Now that’s not to say that Pat is a patchophobe – some programs are tweaked in places – but by and large the software is left untouched and you don’t feel like you’re getting a distorted version of the original.

There’s another side of package purity to consider as well. Contrary to what a lot of armchair distro-pundits may have you believe, Slackware does have a package management system. It’s just based around very simple tarballs (.tgz files) rather than the dependency tangled, database-backed systems of RPMs and Debs. The upshot of this is that Slackware packages are extremely easy to pop open, fiddle around in and put back together.

INSTALL: Slackware’s installer isn’t graphical, but you can Tab, Space and Enter your way to a working system easily

Slackware’s stringent focus on simplicity has led to a few software casualties in its history, most notably Gnome. In 2005, Pat decided that the work of building and integrating the vast mixture of Gnome packages and their dependencies was just too much.

He said: “Please do not incorrectly interpret any of this as a slight against Gnome itself, which (although it does usually need to be fixed and polished beyond the way it ships from upstream more so than, say, KDE or Xfce) is a decent desktop choice.”

This kicked other developers into action, with the Dropline Gnome add-on desktop project starting shortly after the announcement. It’s a great implementation of Gnome, but the message was clear: if you want your software to be included with Slackware, make sure that it’s neatly contained and not a nightmare to build and distribute.

Know your goals

This brings us to our third point: Slackware has steadfastly remained a non-newbie distro. It’s not hard to use – far from it – but it doesn’t have a graphical installer or step-by-step wizards to automate every aspect of usage and installation. Slackware users are expected to have a fair grounding in the command line and editing configuration files, which returns us to the maxim at the start: if you decide to use Slackware, you aren’t shielded from the workings of Linux under the GUI.

You get to learn the underpinnings of Linux, and because the distro doesn’t have a huge number of customisations and patches to its software, you don’t end up with countless distro-specific config files in guessing-game locations. If you learn the ins and outs of, say, Fedora, you’ll be a Fedora guru (which is great). If you learn the workings of Slackware, you’ll pick up knowledge that’s transferable across many distros.

So Slackware doesn’t try to be the best pond for Linux toe-dipping; it strives to be a great all-round distro for those who know exactly what they want and don’t want the distro getting in their way. (An example: SUSE’s Yast, while undoubtedly a highly powerful tool, can give experienced users a headache by stomping over config file changes.)

Regular reliability

Finally, let’s look at Slackware’s stability. Without the colossal developer base of Debian, you’d think Slackware would be more prone to problems, but that’s not the case. Pat is generally conservative when it comes to integrating new software: the Slackware 12.2 release, for instance, arrived in October 2008 with KDE 3.5, even though KDE 4.1 had been released three months earlier.

Having one man at the helm provides a stability boost too. Multiple teams and developers can lead to a discrepancy between the quality of patches, whereas Pat builds the whole lot before a release and therefore maintains a wide but hands-on view of the distro. Sure, big distros such as Debian need large teams and in that context the approach works well, but for Slackware the ‘one man doing it all’ approach has done an equally good job.

So there we go. That’s Slackware. It’s not the newbie’s best friend, but it’s still a much-loved distro after 15 years and no intermediate-or-above Linux user should go without trying it at least once. Just be aware of one other snippet of wisdom from Slackware circles: “Once you go Slack, you’ll never go back.”

January 26, 2024 | Bodhi

Bodhi Linux 7.0 is its best, most user-friendly release yet – ZDNet

Moksha’s Green theme is now the default.

Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET

Bodhi Linux has been a long-time favorite operating system of mine. This is partially due to it having a desktop based on Enlightenment, but also because the development team has always delivered a rock-solid system that’s as fun as it is easy to use. And although the changes to 7.0 are sometimes subtle, they come together to make this the best release yet.

For those who don’t know, Bodhi Linux is an open-source operating system that is based on the latest LTS (Long Term Support) release of Ubuntu Linux, which in this case means Ubuntu 22.04. Bodhi Linux has held true to a philosophy of desktop minimalism combined with high customization. And, once again, the developers have delivered on that idea — only this time giving users an even more seamless experience.

Also: Bodhi Linux can make an old computer feel brand new

One of the first things I noticed with Bodhi 7.0 is that the onboarding experience has been simplified. In previous releases, upon installation users would have to answer a few questions, such as will the OS be used on a laptop or desktop. With this latest release, those questions are gone. On first login, users are simply presented with the Moksha desktop environment.

The Bodhi AppCenter actually opens in the Chromium web browser.

Screenshot by Jack Wallen/ZDNET

When you go to install snapd (as you would with any Ubuntu-based distribution), you’ll find it’s not possible to take this action out of the box. You can, however, enable snapd with the following commands:

sudo rm /et/capt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install snapd -y

You can install flatpak out of the box with the command:

sudo apt-get install flatpak -y

January 26, 2024 | Solus

Upgrade Alert! Solus Linux 4.5 Adds New Calamares Installer and XFCE Flavor – It’s FOSS News

After a rocky 2023, Solus, one of the best independent Linux distro around, has introduced Solus 4.5 as its first release of 2024. This release comes after some time since the release of Solus 4.4 which showed up halfway into 2023.

Code-named “Resilience”, this release aims to offer many improvements and fixes across the board, while also providing a new ISO in the form of a XFCE-equipped offering.

Let’s dive in and see what’s on offer.

🆕 Solus 4.5: What’s New?

Solus 4.5 is powered by a customized Linux kernel 6.6.9 that brings in better hardware support, no compression of kernel modules during initramfs creation, use of the BORE scheduler by default and enabling of all sound codecs/drivers.

Don’t worry, for those who prefer an older kernel, there is also the option of opting for Linux kernel 5.15.145.

Some key highlights of this release include:

  • Calamares Installer
  • Updated Application Suite
  • Desktop Environment Upgrades

Calamares Installer

Solus finally has a new installer in the form of the popular Calamares installer, making the installation process straightforward, it is now easier to create partition layouts, and use different file systems such as Btrfs.

Updated Application Suite

For starters, Solus 4.5 features Mesa 23.3.2 that has some neat improvements such as a gallium VAAPI driver, IO support for built-in OpenGL overlay and ray-tracing support for Intel XE GPUs.

Then there’s the implementation of AMD’s ROCm tech that enables users with AMD hardware to take advantage of GPU acceleration in different kinds of workloads, while also allowing for hardware accelerated machine learning.

On the audio/video handling front, PipeWire replaces PulseAudio and JACK for a more reliable and better experience overall.

The default applications also see an update with apps such as Firefox 121, LibreOffice 7.6.4.1, and Thunderbird 115.6.0 being featured on all editions of Solus 4.5.

Desktop Environment Upgrades

However, the most important fixes and improvements are on the desktop environment side of things. Solus is offered in four distinct flavors, so let’s take a look at those:

GNOME

Solus 4.5 GNOME Edition is being offered with GNOME 45.2 with a few tweaks; the default GTK theme now uses adw-gtk3-dark for providing a more uniform look when running GTK3/4 apps based on libadwaita.

The file chooser now has a grid view, allowing users to pick files by looking at the thumbnails, even the mouse and touchpad settings are now more accessible.

Plasma

The Plasma Edition also follows suit with it featuring Plasma 5.27.10, and all the latest KDE goodies such as KDE Gear, KDE Frameworks, KDE branch for QT, etc.

The developers are also slowly transitioning to support the upcoming Plasma 6 release, and the default behavior to open stuff like apps/folders is now double-click.

Budgie

For the flagship version, Solus 4.5 comes with Budgie 10.8.2 featuring the Budgie Trash Applet, that paves the way for easy trashcan browsing, restoring and clearing.

Moreover, the “Dark Theme” toggle in the settings menu now sets the dark theme for all applications in the system that support it; except the ones that override this with other color schemes.

XFCE (Beta)

Introduced as a beta, the XFCE Edition of Solus is intended to replace the MATE edition, which was popular for its lightweight desktop experience. With this release, the developers have said users expect some “rough edges” as it will take some time to improve.

Solus 4.5 features XFCE 4.18 with a solid suite of applications that include the following:

  • Thunar 4.18.6
  • Parole 4.18.0
  • Ristretto 0.13.1
  • Mousepad 0.6.1
  • Whiskermenu 2.8.0

Even though the devs are working towards providing a straightforward way for existing MATE Edition users to switch to Budgie or XFCE, existing users will still be supported until they are sure with their solution.

📥 Download Solus 4.5

You can grab the latest release of Solus in the four different variants from the official website.

For existing users, they can either upgrade to the latest release from the Software Center, or run the following command to get the upgrade:

sudo eopkg upgrade

You can also refer to the official documentation and release notes for more information.

💬 Any thoughts on this release? Let us know below!

More from It’s FOSS…

January 26, 2024 | Devuan

What is Devuan Linux and How to Install It – Make Tech Easier


What is Devuan Linux and How to Install It – Make Tech Easier

Also read: How to Install Debian via the Internet

What Is an Init System?

The init system is an integral part of a Linux distribution. It is the first program that the kernel runs after starting up. Aside from that, the init system also manages all the other programs that will run after it.

The way an init system does this is by acting as a “parent” process and nesting all the other processes underneath it. This allows an init system to give you control over what programs you want to run and how you want them to run.

Why Use Devuan Linux?

One of the main selling points of Devuan is that it maintains a version of Debian without the SystemD init system. While this might seem a minor change, SystemD have grown to become a software suite that has its own bleeding-edge implementations for system services.

For example, if you are using SystemD to manage your system processes you will inevitably use its network daemon, NetworkD.

This approach can be a problem to some since you are essentially including system tools into a large bleeding-edge project. This means that you are using an init system that is yet to be audited properly.

Not only that, you are also using unstable tools that are in rapid development. That is an unnecessary and dangerous risk for an important part of a Linux distribution such as the init system.

As such, Devuan’s decision to provide alternatives to SystemD makes it an attractive option for someone that wants to maintain a machine that is both stable and secure.

Also read: Top 7 Debian-Based Distros to Try If You Want an Ubuntu Alternative

How to Obtain Devuan

You can obtain a copy of Devuan from its official release archives or one of its development mirrors.

In there, you will find a number of versions of Devuan that you can download. At the moment, there are three versions that are actively supported:

  • ASCII is the original Devuan version. It is currently a Long Term Support release. This means that this version will only be likely to receive critical security updates for the base system and its packages.
  • Beowulf is the second Devuan version. Similar to ASCII, it is also a Long Term Support release. However, unlike ASCII, Beowulf still receives a healthy amount of updates. This allows users to seamlessly upgrade their system to the latest version.
  • Chimaera is the latest version of Devuan. This is the current stable branch. As such, it is the one that receives that most amount of attention and updates.

For the purpose of this article, I will be installing the latest stable version of Devuan Linux, Chimaera. To get started, I selected the “devuan_chimaera” link and then “installer-iso” in the Devuan archives.

Choosing the Installer Version

From there, you can choose between two architectures and a number of installer versions. For the architecture, Devuan only supports amd64 and i386.

A good rule of thumb is if you are using a computer that was built after 2008, you are probably running an amd64 system. However, if your computer was built before 2008 there is a good chance that it is an i386.

On the other hand, Devuan also supports three installer versions that you can choose from: desktop, server and netinstall.

  • The desktop version – is a predefined installer that will install a complete desktop environment for your Devuan system. This is useful if you are deploying Devuan to a bunch of machines that needs to be identical to each other.
  • The server version – meanwhile, is also a predefined installer that includes all of the basic server software without any desktop graphics support. This is useful if you are trying to install Devuan as a server and you don’t want it to connect to the wider internet.
  • The netinstall version – is a minimal Devuan installer. This allows you the greatest amount of flexibility during installation. However, this version requires you to have an internet connection since Devuan will download all of the packages online during installation.

In my case, I did the installation on a modern machine and I wanted to have the greatest amount of flexibility for my Devuan system. As such, I downloaded the “amd64_netinstall” version of Devuan.

From there, the next thing to do is to write the image file in an installation disk. One way you can do that is by using an image writer program such as balenaEtcher.

Installing Devuan

Once done, you can now use your USB to boot into the Devuan Linux installer. Similar to Debian, the installation process for the Devuan netinstall can be divided into two parts:

  • The installer will first install and configure basic UNIX options for your machine. These include your system language, locale and root and user accounts.
  • After that, Devuan will ask for additional options that you want to add on top of the basic UNIX installation. These include options to install a desktop environment and development tools.

Configure Your System Language and Timezone

  1. Devuan will greet you with a boot menu. This is where you can choose the installer that you want to use for the rest of the process. In my case, I wanted to use the regular installation program so I selected “Install”.
  1. This will boot the system to a simple TUI installation wizard. Once it’s done, you can pick the language that you want to use in your system. In my case, I selected English as my system language.
  1. From there, Devuan will ask for your general location. It will use this information to establish both your system time and your system locale. I was installing Devuan in the Philippines so I selected that as my location.
  1. Once done, Devuan will then ask for your keyboard layout. If you are using a language specific layout such as a AZERTY and QWERTZ you can choose it here.

Also read: The Ultimate Guide to Apt and Apt-Get Commands

Select the Network Adapter

  1. With that done, the installer will now ask for the network adapter that you want to use during the installation. One important thing to note is that this adapter must have an active internet connection. This is because the Devuan installer will connect to the internet during the installation to get its packages.
  1. In my case, I was using an Ethernet connection so I will picked “eth0” for my network adapter. The Devuan installer, then, automatically configured and started my internet connection.
  2. If you are using wireless to install Devuan, however, you have to configure your machine to connect to your access point. You can do this by selecting your wireless adapter during this step. From there, Devuan will immediately prompt you for your access point’s information.

Set up Your Hostname and Domain Name

  1. Now the installer will ask for your system hostname. This will serve as the machine’s name when it is exposed in a network. I named my machine “devuan”.
  1. After that, you’ll need to input your machine’s domain name. This is important if you are installing Devuan on a machine that you will expose to the internet. In that case, you have to provide a “fully qualified domain name” for that machine.
  2. On the other hand, you can set anything here if you are only installing Devuan on a local machine. In my case, since I installed Devuan locally I set my domain name to “devuan.local.arpa”.

Also read: The History of Various Linux Distros

Set up the Root Password and User Account

  1. Next, you’ll have to create a password for the root account. In here, you need to make sure that this will be a password unique to this account. Further, you should also keep this password stored somewhere safe.
  1. The Devuan installer will then prompt you to create a name and a password for that user account.

Select a Partition Layout

The Devuan installer will now prompt you to partition your disk for it. There are a number of options that you can choose from:

  • Manual partitioning will allow you to have the greatest flexibility with the partitioning size and layout of the hard drive.
  • Guided Encrypted LVM allows you create an encrypted volume for Devuan. It does this by creating an encrypted software volume. Further, using this option also means that you will need to input your password whenever you boot your machine.
  • Guided LVM is similar to its encrypted counterpart in that it allows you to use a software volume for Devuan. This is especially useful for users who are using multiple drives and they want those drives to seamlessly talk to each other.
  • Guided Entire Disk is a partition layout preset that clears the previous partition table and uses the whole disk for Devuan. This is useful for people who are only interested in running Devuan on their machine.

In this case, I used the Guided Entire Disk option to allocate the entire disk to Devuan.

Also read: The 6 Best Linux Distros for Gaming

Partition Your Disk

  1. Now, select the disk that you want to partition. Pick the option that shows your hard disk and press Enter. For me, it’s the device in “/dev/sda”.
  1. The installer will then ask for the partition scheme that you want to use for this hard disk. You can select whether you want to have a separate partition for the root folders or not.
  2. For the most part, however, putting all the folders in one partition will be sufficient for daily use. As such, I selected that option in this step.
  1. Lastly, the Devuan installer will display all of the options that you have selected for partitioning the disk. From here, you can still modify any previous option that you have selected.
  2. Once you are satisfied, however, you can press Enter on “Finish partitioning and write changes to disk”. This will commit all of the settings that you have set to your disk.
  3. From there, Devuan will also automatically download and install its base system after that.

Download Third Party Package Repositories

With the base system installed, the next thing you need to do is to download all the third-party packages for your system.

  1. In the next step the Devuan installer will ask you for the main mirror that you want to use to download third-party packages. For most cases, however, the default “deb.devuan.org” mirror should be enough.
  1. Now you need to select whether you want to set a proxy when downloading third-party packages. Since I am not using any proxy I left this blank and just pressed Enter.

Select Packages

  1. The Devuan installer will now present you with a small selection of software that you can download and load for your system. These includes most desktop environments and common third-party utilities for specific workloads.
  1. In my case, I wanted to have an XFCE desktop so I selected that using Space and I pressed Enter to download and install it for my system.

Also read: 8 of the Best Linux Distros for Windows Users

Select an Init System

As discussed above, one of the main selling point of Devuan is that it gives you the freedom to install an alternative init system. In that, it provides you with three options:

  • Sysvinit is the traditional init system for Linux. It is simple and it should be enough for a basic desktop system that does not need any complex behavior for managing programs.
  • OpenRC is an improved version of the traditional sysvinit system. It is more modern and powerful compared to its predecessor. However, this also means that it has a steeper learning curve.
  • Runit is a simpler and cleaner approach to init systems. It is also the most recent amount the three options. This means that runit has not been tested and audited as much as sysvinit and OpenRC. Despite that, runit is still useful if you are looking for an init system that is easy to maintain and understand.

Set up the Bootloader

After all this, the last step in installing Devuan is configuring the GRUB bootloader.

  1. The Devuan installer will ask whether you want to install GRUB to your primary hard disk. Select “Yes”.
  1. Select where you want to install GRUB. Choose your hard disk and press Enter. This will download, install and configure GRUB for you machine.
  1. Once done, you now have a freshly installed Devuan machine. The only thing left to do is to reboot the machine to load to your new Linux distribution.

You have now successfully installed Devuan Linux. Further, you now have a basic understanding of how init systems work and why being able to choose one is necessary for your security and stability.

Also read: 5 of the Best Linux Distros for Developers and Programmers

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is there an equivalent to the Sid (Unstable) branch in Devuan?

Yes! The unstable branch in Devuan is called Ceres. You can migrate to it by adding the following line to your “/etc/apt/sources.list” file:

deb http://deb.devuan.org/merged ceres          main

Once done, you can apply your apt configuration by running the following command:

2. Aside from having an encrypted disk, what else can I do to secure my Devuan system?

One of the most common ways of securing your system is by installing your bootloader in a separate drive. You can do this by selecting a different disk when installing the bootloader.

One important thing to note, however, is that by doing this you are moving a critical part of the boot process to a different disk. This means that you now need to insert that disk every time you boot your computer up.

Image credit: Unsplash

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Ramces is a technology writer that lived with computers all his life. A prolific reader and a student of Anthropology, he is an eccentric character that writes articles about Linux and anything *nix.



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