Category: Debian

Distro of the Week: Asmi 13.6 Linux

Indian distro based on Debian provides a hefty toolset, setting it apart from others

The Asmi Linux 13.6 desktop as installed shows the clean lines of Xfce 4.20.

By Larry Cafiero

Today’s Distro of the Week comes to us all the way from India, and comes with an interesting story around its name.

Once known as Zinc, this Indian distro based on Debian (with a version based on Ubuntu as well) is called Asmi – pronounced like “us” and “me” – and is a name in Sanskrit and Hindi that means “I am” or “I exist.”

Asmi 13.6, which we’re taking a look at today, comes with Debian 13.6 “Trixie” and the Xfce desktop, aims to provide a lightweight and modern Xfce-based experience with the addition of distro-specific tools to make the experience a good one for the user.

But we’re getting ahead of the story.

Installing Asmi 13.6

The ISO for Asmi comes in at just under 2 GB, which makes for a quick download. Onto a USB drive it goes, and the live USB comes up quickly on the various hardware we have running the distro.

Taking liberties: We changed the Xfce desktop on Asmi Linux 13.6 to put the panel from the left side to the top, while also changing the wallpaper.

On the live USB, the Xfce 4.20.1 desktop comes up immediately in a unique screen formation, with the dock on the left side, along with a customary desktop icon to install the distro. Clicking the icon brings us to the Calamares installer, which goes through the customary questions to be answered like keyboard choice, location for time/date purposes, disk setup, login/password setup, and once you confirm all of that, you’re on your way.

The system requirements for Asmi 13 are somewhat standard, and would easily fit a wide range of hardware. The minimum RAM requirement for the distro is 2 GB, although the distro would absolutely love 8 GB or more – wouldn’t we all? – using an Intel or AMD-based 64-bit processor. A user could have as little as 10 GB of storage, however the distro runs better on 20 GB or more in the storage department, and the screen resolution could be as low as 1024-by-768 but it would really like a resolution of 1920-by-1080.

The installation goes relatively quickly – in one case our hardware took the installation in under 15 minutes – and once we reboot, we were on our way.

Kicking the tires

First things first: After updating the distro to make sure we were working with the latest and greatest version, we had to do some proverbial desktop surgery. While the panel on the left was, for all intents and purposes, unassuming at best, we needed to change that to either a top or bottom panel, as is customary among Xfce-based distros.

The menu in Asmi 13.6 shows a wide variety of choices for the user.

This is where a Asmi-based tool came in and excelled. The Asmi Settings window popped up after logging in and while it was understated and underassuming by other distros’ Welcome window standards, it packs an absolute wallop in the way of assisting the user in modifying their distro to their particular liking.

Want to move the panel? No sweat, there are several options you can choose thanks to the Layout button on the window. Wallpaper is the same. Software support includes Flatpak and Snap, we well as Gnome Software Center and other options. From the Settings window you can also choose a variety of web browsers (we’ll keep Firefox, thanks!), as well as choose from a list of recommended software to install. There’s a Change and Remove Kernel options for those brave users wishing to venture that far, as well as System Restore and Software Updates. Finally there’s a link for a variety of tools from Teejee Tech, the creative force behind Asmi Linux.

Once the user examines what’s available and how to install software using this provision, it was time to add a few things. It should be noted that after the in-house Asmi tools and Firefox, the software on the original install drops off considerably, although it does include a variety of programs like the Celluloid media player, a Flash USB installer, ChronShield Recovery Wizard, the Fresh text editor, Geany IDE, the Nemo file manager, and Sensor Viewer to keep an eye on the temperature of your hardware.

So now the Popular Software button on the Asmi Settings window gets a bit of a workout. Let’s add the usual suspects, shall we? VLC media player, please, as well as the GIMP image editor. Let’s not forget one of our favorites, the LibreOffice suite of software, as well as an email client like Thunderbird. Once we got all our proverbial ducks in a row, we were ready to go.

The Task Manager in Asmi Linux 13.6 provides users with helpful information.

Daily use of Asmi 13 went flawlessly. Web surfing and emails with Firefox and Thunderbird respectfully went without a hitch, and the CPU usage graph in the upper panel gives the user a unique look at what the system is doing under the hood, and to the right there are small CPU, memory, and swap monitors to keep things going. Speaking of under the hood, the Debian base in this distro hums along, willingly and effortlessly handling every request thrown at it.

That said, multitasking is hardly an issue for Asmi 13, since having several software programs open and being used at the same time did not faze the distro one iota. In fact, it was a stretch to get the distro to use up to 3.5 GB of RAM, which it handled with the typical Debian aplomb. Using only programs like Google Docs and Google Drive were a breeze, which the distro handled without a problem.

The final word

We’ve said this before in past columns, but it bears repeating: Of all the distros that serve as a base in the wider Linuxsphere, Debian tops them all. With over 90 distros based on Debian, it makes up just under 20 percent of the Linux universe.

So in a crowded field of Debian-based distros,what makes Asmi 13 so special?

Tangled up in blue: Listening to Bob Dylan on the VLC media player in Asmi 13.6.

Well, there are a couple of things right off the bat. The Asmi Settings window is something that both unassuming and yet uncharacteristically useful in Asmi 13. From this window alone there are a wide range of option for the user to tweak the system to their liking, in ways that some might consider overkill. For example, I would never had considered deleting old kernels, but here we are, given the option to do so. Secondly, the system overall is very responsive and giving, which might be normal in a Debian-based scenario, but chances are it is an overlooked issue when it comes to reviews.

Asmi 13 works on a wide range of hardware, to its credit. But is it for all levels of users? It gets a green light for beginners thanks to the Xfce 4.20 desktop environment being akin to what Windows users are escaping. For intermediate and experienced users, the distro provides a wide range of tools – some of which are proprietary, which may be the distro’s only drawback – as well as the power of Debian beneath the hood.

Try it out yourself. Download the ISO from the Asmi download page and give it your own test-drive.

Do you have a distro you think would make a great feature for Distro of the Week? Don’t be shy—let me know! Email me at larry.cafiero@gmail.com and I’ll make an effort to make your choice available to the wider public … No suggestion is too mainstream!

Bits & Bobs: ‘Forky’ artwork sought

Compiled by Larry Cafiero

Marcus Nestor at 9 to 5 Linux reported on Thursday that Debian 14 “Forky” artwork proposals are now open for submission, with the final release of Debian 14 operating system expected in mid-2027.

“This is the moment for aspiring artists and designers who want to display their work in front of millions of Debian users to submit their best artwork for the upcoming Debian 14 (codename Forky – continuing the “Toy Story” naming) operating system series, due for release in mid-2027,” the article says.

According to the article, “submissions are open until November 26th, 2026, but your artwork needs to meet some specifications, such as using an image format that can be later modified using free and open-source software, and adding a license that lets the Debian Project distribute your artwork within Debian.”

The artwork will not only be used for Debian Forky’s wallpaper, the article says, but also in various parts of the operating system, such as the boot screen, Debian Installer, login screen, CD/DVD labels, Debian Project’s website, and even stickers for laptops.

“The artwork is a key part of a Debian release because it’s usually the first thing new users see when installing or booting Debian, and it’s also the first thing that appears when Debian users share their screens or connect to an external device while giving talks around the world,” the article says.

Budgie, Cosmic updates for aerynOS

Bobby Borisov from Linuxiac reported on Friday that aerynOS will make Budgie 10.10.3 widely available on its distro, as well as announcing an update of Cosmic to 1.10

“Just days after its previous October update, aerynOS has rolled out another substantial refresh to its Unstable Stream. The headline change is Budgie 10.10.3 arriving in the distribution’s regular package repositories, alongside Cosmic Desktop 1.10, KDE Gear 26.08.2, and Linux kernel 7.2.9,” the article states.

What makes this noteworthy is that “Budgie 10.10.3 represents the desktop’s transition to a fully Wayland-based environment,” the article says. “Instead of relying on its previous X11 architecture, it now uses the lightweight labwc Wayland compositor with a configuration bridge that allows Budgie to manage the compositor’s settings.”

The aerynOS update upgrades COSMIC Desktop from 1.9 to 1.10. The new version includes bug fixes, improvements to drawing tablet support, and enhancements to GPU acceleration.

“KDE users also receive KDE Gear 26.08.2, the latest maintenance update for the 26.08 application series. Meanwhile, Gnome 51 gets several smaller application updates and packaging adjustments, including the addition of the Sushi file previewer to aerynOS’s recommended GNOME package set.

Gnome 52 scheduled for March 2027

Marcus Nestor on 9 to 5 Linux reported on Tuesday that Gnome 52 desktop environment is scheduled for release on St. Patrick’s day of next year.

The alpha of Gnome 52 alpha is expected on Jan. 9, 2027, with the beta scheduled to be released on Jan. 30. The release candidate for Gnome 52 is scheduled for Feb. 27.

The desktop enviroment is code-named “Terengganu” from the city where the Gnome Asia Summit 2026, “the annual Gnome conference in Asia, which will take place later this month, in Terengganu Digital 1303, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, from October 31st to November 2nd, 2026.”

Meanwhile, “let’s take a look at the release schedule for GNOME 52, as the alpha release is planned for January 9th, 2027, while the beta milestone is expected later that month, on January 30th, and, finally, the Release Candidate (RC) milestone is currently scheduled for February 27th, 2027,” the article said.

Ubuntu 26.10 gets GnuPG replacement

Sourav Rudra on It’s FOSS reported on Monday that Ubuntu 26.10 will have a Rust-based GnuPG replacement, with the Rust-based OpenPGP tool lands in Stonking Stingray’s main archive, with sq and sqv available alongside gpg and gpgv.

“You already know that Canonical has been selectively replacing Ubuntu’s C-based system components with Rust-written equivalents that don’t compromise in terms of functionality, most of the time,” the article says.

“Now it looks like the distro’s OpenPGP implementation is next, with Sequoia PGP coming preinstalled in Ubuntu 26.10,” the article continues. “Canonical wants it to eventually replace GnuPG as the default toolchain, though that switch has not happened yet.”

What is Sequoia PGP? Glad you asked.

Sequoia PGP was started in 2017 by former GnuPG developers who chose to build a new OpenPGP implementation in Rust.

“Sequoia PGP is designed as a library that other software can use directly, rather than a standalone command-line tool,” the article says. “sq
sits on top of that for encryption, decryption, signing, and key management, and sqv handles signature verification, filling in for gpg and gpgv in GnuPG.”

But there’s a caveat. “The release notes for Ubuntu 26.10 and a recent announcement clearly mention that Sequoia PGP becoming Ubuntu’s default OpenPGP toolchain is a future goal, not something that’s already the default experience,” the article said.

And that’s all for today. Don’t forget: Distro of the Week appears Wednesday – and it’s always a good one on hand – and Bits and Bobs will return with news over the week next Saturday.

Distro of the Week: VailuxOS 1.6.1.4

German distro based on Debian opts
to make it easy for Windows refugees

The VailuxOS desktop features KDE Plasma with some minor tweaks.

By Larry Cafiero

After a trying day last week while choosing a distro for this week’s column, augmented with an unusually wide variety of non-starters, Distro of the Week finally decided on this week’s Linux distro.

Direct from Germany, VailuxOS is a German desktop-oriented Linux distribution based on Debian’s “Stable” branch. The project’s primary goal is to make the transition from Windows to Linux as seamless as possible by maintaining familiar ways of working and workflows. The distribution uses the KDE Plasma desktop.

We took the latest version, 1.6.1.4, out for a test spin to see what it’s all about.

Installing VailuxOS 1.6.1.4

Before we start, it should bear mentioning that one of the main reasons for this distro, which is making it easy for Windows refugees to find a home with Linux. That’s an admirable proposition, of course, and with that in mind we downloaded the ISO.

The minimum system requirements for VailuxOS are fairly straightforward: A dual-core 64-bit or more CPU is required, as is at least 4 GB of RAM, and at least 25 GB of storage space available. In the graphics department, a 3D-accelerated GPU with at least 256 MB VRAM is required, as is a display of at least 1024-by-768 or higher resolution. Internet connection is also suggested in installing the distro.

The menu for VailuxOS 1.6.1.4 is square in the center, which differs from most distros.

At a relatively hefty 7.1 GB, the ISO took longer than usual to download, but once the process was complete and was installed relatively easily on a USB drive, we took the live USB to install this distro on a few laptops available.

The Calamares installer comes up quickly after clicking the icon on the desktop, and after installing the usual information – location for the time/date, keyboard type, disk partition, user login/password – and after checking everything out, we were on our way.

Kicking the tires on VailuxOS

Rebooting after the installation, VailuxOS came up relatively quickly with the KDE Plasma desktop environment, albeit modified, with the menu grouped with icons in the center of the bottom panel. On the left is a very convenient weather program while at the right are the usual suspects, icon-wise: Volume, Bluetooth, Display Brightness, Devices, Network, and Time.

There’s a good reason that the ISO was so robust. VailuxOS includes the various KDE-based tools which should be familiar to regular KDE users, like Dolphin file manager, Discovery software center, Ark archiver, and the Kate text editor, among others. However, there are a variety of software that is not often included in initial installations which is a feather in the distro’s cap: the LibreOffice suite of software, for starters, is available right off the bat, as is the VLC media player.

As far as web browsers go, VailuxOS bypasses some of the more popular browsers like Firefox and instead include Waterfox, a free/open source alternative which worked adequately. Email program? This distro opted for the KDE-based Kmail, which I tried unsuccessfully and failed to set up. So off to Discovery to install Thunderbird for ease of use.

Downloading GIMP for safe measure – even though VailuxOS comes with KolourPaint and ImageMagick – we were ready to both rock and roll.

The About window in VailuxOS 1.6.1.4 provides important info to the user.

Despite the unique look with the modified KDE Plasma desktop – the menu in the center took some getting used to – the Debian underpinnings and the spry performance that accompanies it was second to none. The Weather program that dominates the left side of the bottom panel is something one gets used to and, as it turned out, I referred to it from time to time.

The Waterfox web browser deserves special mention, as it performed flawlessly throughout the week, surfing the web and playing some online games, handling the latter with the same aplomb that Firefox would handle them; and that’s no small feat, since not all web browsers perform quite as well as Waterfox. Once again, the VailuxOS developers got this one right.

This may sound silly, but it bears mentioning. KDE produces a software program called KDE Connect which allows the user to “connect” their hardware to their phone, which might sound trivial but this software is an absolute blast to play with. But it’s functional as well, whether it’s transferring files between your computer and your phone (or vice-versa), and you can even control your mouse from your phone.

But back to the daily grind of use, VailuxOS hits all the high marks when it comes to performance and speed on a wide variety of hardware. As expected, all multitasking issues that arose were handled with the usual Debian-based je ne sais quois, with the RAM rarely reaching over 3 GB. While it barely broke a sweat in that department, it also bears mentioning that the distro plays nicely with online programs like Google Docs and Google Drive.

The final word

If the sole purpose of VailuxOS is to cushion the blow, so to speak, for new users escaping Windows to use an “acceptable” Linux distribution, then it succeeds on several levels. For one, the KDE Plasma desktop would make any Windows refugees feel welcome, and the variety of software available on the initial install makes adding other programs minimal.

Going old-school: Listening to a little Creedence Clearwater Revival on the VLC media player.

That said, VailuxOS is an admirable attempt in making new users welcome to Linux, and it’s a wonder why it isn’t higher than the mid-60s in Distrowatch’s page-hit rankings, especially with all the problems associated with the Windows 11 rollout. If there is a “fault,” it’s this: The distro adapts Linux to Windows habits instead of forcing users to adapt a Linux zeitgeist, or even at least a Linux mindset.

Is that good or bad? That remains to be seen.

Nevertheless, VailuxOS 1.6.1.4 is solid top to bottom, and both beginners and more experienced users would each find things they would like about this distro.

Give VailuxOS a shot. Download the ISO from its download page.

Do you have a distro you think would make a great feature for Distro of the Week? Don’t be shy—let me know! Email me at larry.cafiero@gmail.com and I’ll make an effort to make your choice available to the wider public … No suggestion is too mainstream!

Bits & Bobs: Tails 7.14 gets update

Compiled by Larry Cafiero

Bobby Borisov at Linuxiac reported on Wednesday that The Amnesic Incognito Live System – otherwise known in the Linuxsphere as Tails – has made several updates focused on further privacy.

Tails 7.14 updates the Tor browser to version 15.0.24, the Tor client has been upgraded to 0.4.9.13 and the Linux kernel has been bumped up to 6.12.111 in its latest iteration.

“Beyond the component updates, Tails 7.14 fixes an issue with the default keyboard input method when starting a session in Korean,” the article says.

The article continues, stating “[u]sers running Tails 7.0 or later can upgrade automatically to version 7.14 while keeping their Persistent Storage. A manual upgrade is available if the automatic process fails or if Tails does not start afterward.”

But how about new installations? “Tails 7.14 is available as a USB image and an ISO image for DVDs and virtual machines,” the article says. “Installing Tails again instead of upgrading an existing USB stick will erase its Persistent Storage.”

Debian-based antiX 26.1 released

Marcus Nestor at 9 to 5 Linux reported on Wednesday that the Debian-based and systemd-free antiX Linux 26.1 has been released with updated Linux kernels, with both Core and Full editions shipping with the Linux 5.10.256 LTS an 6.6.139 LTS kernels in both editions.

Still based on Debian 13 “Trixie,” antiX Linux 26.1 “ships with updated packages from the upstream Debian Stable repositories and updated kernels across all supported architectures, namely the customised Linux 5.10.256 LTS kernel for the core edition and the Linux 6.6.139 LTS kernel for the 64-bit full edition,” according to the article.

“Beyond that, the antiX Linux team notes that various bugs have been squashed, though one known issue persists as Bluetooth mice may not be picked up in some configurations,” the article says. “Everything else remains unchanged from the antiX Linux 26 release, which continues to be without systemd, libsystemd0, elogind, or libelogind0, and ships eudev in place of udev.”

The article continues with “antiX Linux 26.1 release supports five init systems, namely runit (default), sysVinit, dinit, s6-rc, and s6-66, and includes IceWM as the default window manager alongside the Fluxbox window manager, JWM (Joe’s Window Manager), and the herbstluftwm tiling window manager.”

Debian fixes over 1,300 CVEs

Speaking of Debian, Marcus Nestor at 9 to 5 Linux reported on Friday that the latest Debian 13 “Trixie” kernel security update patched more than 1,300 CVEs and urges users to update their installations to Linux kernel 6.12.111-1 as soon as possible.

“Yes, you’re reading it right, the new Debian 13 Linux kernel security update is a massive one, probably the biggest kernel security release ever, and it patches no less than 1,313 security vulnerabilities in the Linux 6.12 LTS kernel series that powers Debian Trixie,” the article states.

Why so many? “Well, because of several reasons, one of them being the recent policy change in CVE assignment for the kernel project, where essentially any commit identified as fixing a potential security issue gets a CVE assigned, even if it’s a minor one or has no known exploit path,” the article explained.

“Another reason is that Debian Stable releases don’t ship every upstream stable point release as a separate DSA (Debian Security Advisory),” the article continued. “They accumulate fixes across multiple upstream kernel versions and package them in larger periodic updates. The longer the gap, the bigger the batch.”

But . . . “Seeing over 1,300 vulnerabiliies in a single Debian kernel update is overwhelming, but the vast majority of these CVEs are low-severity, highly conditional, or affect subsystems irrelevant to any given machine,” the article says. “However, the update is still worth applying, but it’s not 1,313 independently critical issues.”

Debian users are urged to update their installations, use a terminal emulator and run the sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade commands. And, of course, “don’t forget to reboot your computer after installing the new kernel version.”

Budgie desktop set for aerynOS?

Bobby Borisov at Linuxiac reported on Friday that aerynOS could be the next distro to offer the Budgie desktop environment, as Joshua Strobl had recently opened a pull request to bring Budgie Desktop 10.10.3, along with related apps and required dependencies, into aerynOS.

Strobl is a software engineer, open source advocate, and the founder of Buddies of Budgie, known for developing Budgie Desktop and contributing to projects like Fedora and Solus.

“The pull request, opened in the aerynOS recipes repository, adds Budgie Desktop 10.10.3 along with related applications, dependencies, branding, and integration pieces for a complete setup,” the article says. “The work is still under review, so Budgie is not yet an official aerynOS desktop option.”

The article continues: “According to Strobl, the submission includes the main Budgie Desktop package, a package set with recommended applications, aerynOS-specific branding based on his generic Budgie defaults template, and a patched Budgie Control Center with support for the distribution’s branding.”

If merged, Budgie would join aerynOS’ existing desktop lineup, which includes Gnome, KDE Plasma, and Cosmic. Recent aerynOS updates have continued moving all three stacks forward, including KDE Plasma 6.7.5, Cosmic Desktop 1.9, and Gnome 51 in the distro’s September package refresh.

And that’s all for today. Don’t forget: Distro of the Week appears Wednesday – and it’s always a good one on hand – and Bits and Bobs will return with news over the week next Saturday.

Bits & Bobs: Gnome 51 released

Compiled by Larry Cafiero

Michael Larabel at Phoronix reported on Wednesday that Gnome 51 was released, complete with improved frame scheduling among it many improvements.

“Gnome 51 debuted today with many nice improvements to Mutter for bettering the desktop responsiveness and a smoother experience with improved frame scheduling,” the article says. “There are also new Wayland protocols supported (such as ext-background-effect-v1) and other optimizations there, including removal of legacy NVIDIA driver support with EGLStreams. Mutter also now has support for custom pointer acceleration profiles.”

The article continues to state that “Gnome 51 also brings a number of settings improvements, offline map support for Gnome Maps, faster startup of Gnome Software, the Gnome Calendar is also faster now too, and the Gnome File Previewer has a complete UI revamp.”

Debian 13.7 gets update

Bobby Borisov at Linuxiac wrote last Saturday that Debian 13.7 released 107 security updates and 106 bug fixes, as well as updates on the installer, kernel ABI, Cinnamon glbc, and other package updates.

“If you’ve been keeping your system updated through security.debian.org, there’s not much to do with this release, because most of the fixes were already included in earlier updates,” the article states. “13.7 just brings them together in one place.”

Notable changes include the Debian Installer, which has been rebuilt for the point release and now uses the Linux kernel 6.12.107. The audit package also gains support for the RISC-V 64-bit architecture. Desktop users will find a fix for Cinnamon that restores downloading and updating applets, desklets, extensions, and themes.

“At the system level, glibc fixes buffer overflow and underflow vulnerabilities and adds compatibility with Linux kernel 7.0 headers,” the article says. “Plus, several packages have been rebuilt against the updated glibc.”

Firefox enters public beta testing

Marcus Nestor at 9 to 5 Linux reports on Tuesday that Mozilla Firefox 157 has entered a period of public beta testing with the web browser’s new Nova design, with other improvements including audio/video synchronization and a vertical tabs sidebar.

“Firefox 157 looks like a small update, due to the newly adopted two-week release schedule, promising proper support for displaying HDR videos encoded in 8-bit color formats as HDR in most cases, which fixes several cases of dull gray-looking videos that should have been more vibrant,” the article states.

But continuing from there, the article also says that “Firefox 157 also promises to improve audio/video synchronization when changing playback rate on HTMLMediaElement, an improved Vertical Tabs sidebar to work better when the cursor moves to the edge of the screen in full-screen mode, and support for viewing recent searches on Android when tapping the search field.”

One interesting thing that could appear in the Firefox 157 release “is the brand-new design that we previewed in Firefox Nightly back in July,” the article says. “The new theme is called Nova and promises to make the popular open-source web browser feel cleaner, faster, adaptable, and warmer, according to Mozilla.”

Best window manager for Linux?

Linux Stans reported on Monday a very comprehensive and thorough report on the best window manager for Linux distributions.

We’re not joking. This is quite comprehensive. The article breaks down 12 – count ‘em, 12 – window managers, giving the positives and negatives of each, afterward providing a guide for users.

“If you’ve never used a tiling window manager before, start with i3 on X11 or Sway if you’re already on Wayland,” the article states. “Both have the documentation and community size to get you through the first frustrating week. If you want something that looks impressive with minimal effort, Hyprland is the current favorite, and Niri is worth a look if the scrollable layout appeals to you. If you want the smallest possible resource footprint and don’t mind compiling code, dwm is hard to beat. And if none of that appeals to you, Openbox or IceWM will get you a fast, familiar, floating desktop without asking you to learn a new workflow at all.

“There’s no wrong answer here. Try one, keep your old desktop environment installed as a safety net, and switch back anytime it stops working for you.”

Note to self: Take a look at some of the window managers other than Openbox, Fluxbox, and IceWM.

Fedora 45 beta released

Marcus Nestor at 9 to 5 Linux reported on Tuesday that the Fedora 45 Beta was released with the Linux 7.2 kernel, Gnome 51 and KDE Plasma 6.7, with the final release expected in late October or early November.

“Some interesting features in Fedora Linux 45 include fully reproducible package builds, kmscon as the default VT console, signature checking by default for RPM default package verification mode, disk images for Fedora Atomic desktops built with image-builder, and the new WebUI installer on all Fedora Atomic ISO images,” the article says.

Fedora 45 is also expected to bring “web-based remote installation support for Fedora Atomic desktops, LibreOffice help packages in HTML and noarch, systemd-oomd and zram swap by default for Fedora CoreOS, GRUB EFI support for confidential computing, PAM support in chpasswd and newusers, and IPv6 support in NetworkManager.”

Among other changes, “Fedora Linux 45 promises to relocate all packaged RPM repository configuration data from /etc to /usr, switch the default Secrets Service provider for Fedora desktops from KWallet and GNOME Keyring to oo7, restrict ptrace by default, and disable vendor change by default for DNF5,” the article says.

Seven eternal Linux applications

Umair Khurshid of How-To Geek wrote an article on seven pioneering Linux applications that never needed replacing, and for all intents and purposes he is spot on.

We’re not going to list all of them here, needless to say – read the article – but two of them are programs which in 20 years of Linux use by yours truly I absolutely swear by. And I will give you those – Vim and the GNU Image Manipulation Program, also known as GIMP.

“Linux has changed dramatically since the early days of the kernel,” the article starts. “Desktops have gone from X11 environments with primitive window managers to polished graphical shells. Containers, cloud computing, virtualization, and immutable operating systems have transformed how people deploy Linux. Even the hardware running Linux today would have seemed extraordinary to many of its earliest users.”

The article continues: “Yet some applications have barely budged from their place in the Linux ecosystem. You can install a modern Linux distro in 2026 and still find yourself using software whose origins stretch back decades.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the many reasons we use Linux, isn’t it?

And that’s all for today. Don’t forget: Distro of the Week appears Wednesday – and it’s always a good one on hand – and Bits and Bobs will return with news over the week next Saturday.

Bits & Bobs: Six best distro for kids

Compiled by Larry Cafiero

Linux Stans presented an interesting article on Thursday rating the six best Linux distro for kids today, which came up with some fascinating results.

Long gone are the days of Qimo 4 Kids, if you remember that distro. Qimo – pronounced “chemo,” as in the cancer treatment – “used to be one of the most recommended kids’ distros around, thanks to its cartoon-style interface and lightweight Xfce desktop,” according to the article.

However, Qimo for Kids officially shut down in January 2016, and its last release is based on Ubuntu 10.04.

Once again, the rankings are interesting and very sensible in a way. Are we going to give them to you here? No way. Read the article, because again it holds a lot of good information. Nice work, Linux Stans.

Stonking Stingray ready for testing

Marcus Nestor of 9 to 5 Linux reported on Thursday that Canonical had released Snapshot 3 of the upcoming Ubuntu 26.10 – code named Stonking Stingray – release as the third development milestone targeting early adopters and application developers who want to test their apps.

“Development of Ubuntu 26.10 (codename Stonking Stingray) kicked off on April 30th, 2026, with the usual toolchain upload, based on the Ubuntu 26.94 LTS (Resolute Raccoon) release, which means that it’s powered by Linux kernel 7.0 and uses the GNOME 50 desktop environment. In time, these will be updated to newer versions,” the article states.

Currently Ubuntu 26.10 Snapshot 3 is also using Linux kernel 7.0, just like the previous two Snapshots, but this one moved to Gnome 51 Beta. Canonical is still working on upgrading these stacks, which will probably happen closer to the beta release, while they work on new features and improvements.

“These include a complete desktop experience on RVA23-compliant hardware, improved driver management, improved multimedia support, a new, simplified installation experience, a new onboarding experience, on-device speech-to-text voice interaction, a package-agnostic App Center, and much more,” according to the article.

The final release of Ubuntu 26.10 is expected to be powered by the Linux 7.2 kernel series, which should be out in late August, along with the upcoming Mesa 26.2 graphics stack and the GNOME 51 desktop environment series, the article says.

FOSS Force interviews Stallman

Kudos to Christine Hall of FOSS Force for wrangling this interview with Free Software Movement founder Richard Stallman last week.

In a wide-ranging interview – and by “wide-ranging” we mean long, but interesting – Stallman discusses GNU, Linux, the open-source split, large language models, SaaS, digital surveillance, and why software freedom remains a moral issue.

“Richard Stallman needs no introduction, especially for an audience that reads FOSS Force,” the article begins. “Without him, the free software movement would at the very least be much different, and the four software freedoms would possibly still be waiting for someone to give voice to them. There would also be no GPL, the first general-purpose copyleft license, written long before there was such a thing as open source. Speaking of that, without Stallman there would also likely be no open source, although I’m pretty sure that he wouldn’t see that as such a bad thing.”

The article is in a Q-and-A format in which Hall asks important questions and gets relevant answers from Stallman. It is definitely worth a read.

CERN switches some systems to Debian

Michael Larabel of Phoronix reported on Wednesday that after being a long-time Red Hat institution, CERN is transitioning some of their systems to Debian.

“CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, besides being well known for its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is known among longtime Linux users as a RHEL/CentOS shop,” the article starts. “CERN formally even co-maintained the Scientific Linux RHEL derivative with other educational/research institutions in the past. So to much surprise now, CERN is transitioning to Debian Linux for industrial accelerator-control computers.”

The article also states that CERN discussed this at a Debian conference in Switzerland this past weekend. Historically, CERN used their Red Hat-based Scientific Linux for about a decade before moving to CentOS in 2015.

“Now after a decade with CentOS, they are moving on and embracing Debian for a portion of their systems,” the article says.

But an update on the article cleared up CERN’s position, stating that “CERN has clarified that their focus with the migration is on their industrial accelerator-control computers while data centers and experimental computing remain on RHEL/AlmaLinux.”

And that’s all for today. Don’t forget: Distro of the Week appears Wednesday – and it’s always a good one on hand – and Bits and Bobs will return with news over the week next Saturday.

Bits & Bobs: Happy Birthday, Debian

Compiled by Larry Cafiero

Marcus Nestor in 9 to 5 Linux on Sunday wrote about Debian Linux turning 33 years old on Sunday.

“That’s right, it’s been 33 years since the late Ian Murdock announced the Debian Project on August 16th, 1993, and the initial release of Debian GNU/Linux a month later on September 15th, in an attempt to develop the so-called ‘Universal Operating System,’ ” the article states.

Debian is being used 33 years later by millions of users around the world, “either directly by using the Debian GNU/Linux operating system or by using one of its numerous derivatives, such as the very popular Ubuntu or Linux Mint distributions,” the article states.

Parties are taking place in multiple locations across Bolivia, Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia, and Turkey.

“Without further ado, we would like to wish the team behind the Debian Project a big Happy Birthday!” the article says.

Gnome 51 beta released for testing

Michael Larabel on Phoronix on Saturday reported that Gnome 51 Beta has been released with a wide range of changes.

“The beta release of Gnome 51 is now available for testing,” the article states. “This cycle for the beta milestone is mostly a wide collection of minor improvements throughout the vast package set.”

Gnome 51.beta’s updates include the following:

– The Gnome Control Center added a new fingerprint management UI to the users area.

– Gnome Initial Setup gained support for systemd-homed accounts.

– Gnome Shell now honors the “reduced-motion” setting for those wanting reduced motions/visuals. There is also SVG-based cursor support in the same format handled by KDE.

– The Mutter compositor now supports the background blur effect on Wayland and various other improvements.

– Gnome Software improved the performance of icon loading and PackageKit repositories refine.

– GTK now supports the ext-background-effect Wayland protocol, reworked GDK frame-clock to improve precision and reduce frame drops, and other enhancements.

– The GVFS daemon added auto-unmount support for idle backends.

– Various small refinements to the Nautilus file manager.

Tuxedo OS releases beta for testing

Bobby Borisov on Linuxiac reported on Sunday that Tuxedo OS has released a beta version open for testing, marking the distro’s move away from Ubuntu to Debian Testing.

“In July, the company revealed that Ubuntu would no longer serve as the distribution’s foundation, ending the model under which Tuxedo combined an Ubuntu LTS base with newer kernels, graphics components, browsers, and KDE software maintained on top,” the article explained.

According to the article, Tuxedo maintained “that approach became increasingly difficult as Ubuntu LTS releases aged. Newer software depended on libraries that were unavailable or too old in the base. Additionally, the company cited Canonical’s growing emphasis on Snap as another reason for seeking greater independence.”

The replacement base distro has become Debian Testing, “which Tuxedo plans to use permanently instead of moving to Debian Stable when the current Testing branch becomes Debian 14 ‘Forky,’ ” the article continues. “The company calls this approach ‘Continuous Debian,’ allowing Tuxedo OS to keep its hybrid model while using a much newer package base.”

And that’s all for today. Don’t forget: Distro of the Week appears Wednesday – and it’s always a good one on hand – and Bits and Bobs will return with news over the week on Friday.

Bits & Bobs: KDE Plasma 6.8 adds server-side shadows

By Larry Cafiero

Bobby Borisov on Linuxiac reported on Friday that KDE Plasma 6.8 will improve the visual consistency of applications by adding server-side shadows to windows that do not draw them on their own.

The article reports that the upcoming KDE Plasma 6.8 release, which is scheduled for mid-October, introduces a Kwin feature enabling the window manager to add server-side drop shadows to applications that lack their own.

“Window shadows can generally be drawn either by the compositor or by the application itself,” the article explains. “Many GTK applications use client-side decorations and render their own shadows, while Qt applications commonly ask the compositor to draw both the window decoration and its shadow.”

Some applications do neither, resulting in windows with square corners, no shadow, and a visually inconsistent appearance compared to the rest of the Plasma desktop.

“This new functionality, recently merged into KWin for Plasma 6.8, fixes this issue,” the article continues. “According to KWin developer Vlad Zahorodnii, it lets users force compositor-drawn shadows on these windows, helping third-party applications integrate more fluently with Plasma.”

Plasma 6.8 automates this workaround with a new window rule, “Window manager draws titlebar, frame, and shadows,” which replaces the older “No titlebar and frame” option and delivers a more direct way to request compositor-side decorations or shadows for individual applications.

No GPL left for FreeBSD 16 release

Christine Hall at FOSS Force reported on Wednesday that with the release of FreeBSD in December 2027, the last of the GPL-based code will have been removed from the base system, giving the green light to create your own proprietary software system.

Actually, this is a technicality built atop another technicality, according to Hall.

“The removal of GPL code is important because a lot of BSD people have a different view on ‘software freedom’ than the rest of us,” the article states. “To many in the BSD crowd, ‘freedom’ means the freedom to make the software proprietary, as Steve Jobs did to create NeXTSTEP and OS X. To create a proprietary operating system out of a BSD operating system, GPL code must be removed because GPL code can’t be released under a proprietary license.”

Heady stuff. We’ll definitely keep an eye on this one.

DebConf26 starts today in Argentina

If you happen to be in the neighborhood of Santa Fe, Argentina, today, DebConf26 starts today at 9 a.m,, local time, and runs through Saturday.

Located at the Facultad de Ingeneria en Ciencias Hidricas at Ciudad Universitaria UNL in Santa Fe, DebConf is the Debian Project’s developer conference. In addition to a full schedule of technical, social and policy talks, DebConf provides an opportunity for developers, contributors and other interested people to meet in person.

The DebConf26 schedule can be found here.

DebConf has taken place annually since 2000 in locations as varied as Canada, Finland, and Mexico.

Previous Debian Conferences have featured speakers from around the world. They have also been extremely beneficial for developing key Debian software components, including the new Debian Installer, and for improving Debian’s internationalization.

And that’s all for today. Don’t forget: Distro of the Week appears Wednesday – and it’s always a good one on hand – and Bits and Bobs will return on Friday.

Bits & Bobs: Debian 13 gets sixth update

By Larry Cafiero

Marcus Nestor at 9 to 5 Linux on Saturday reported that the Debian Project announced the availability of Debian 13.6, as the sixth update of the Debian 13 Trixie operating system series.

“Coming less than two months after Debian 13.5, the Debian 13.6 release is here to provide users with updated ISOs for those who want to deploy the latest Debian 13 ‘Trixie’ operating system series on new hardware without downloading lots of updates after the installation or those who had issues with the previous ISO releases,” the article states.

Number-wise, the article states that the Debian 13.6 release includes a total of 124 bug fixes for miscellaneous packages and 120 security updates. Details about these security updates and miscellaneous bug fixes can be found on the release announcement page.

“Debian 13.6 installation images are available for download . . . for 64-bit (amd64), AArch64 (arm64), RISC-V 64-bit (riscv64), PowerPC 64-bit Little Endian (ppc64el), IBM System z (s390x), and ARMhf (armhf) hardware architectures,” the article says.

The article also says that existing Debian 13 “Trixie” users “should update their installations only by running the sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade commands in a terminal emulator or virtual console. Of course, you can also use a graphical package manager like Synaptic Package Manager to update your Debian system.”

Questing Quokka reaches end of life

Also from Marcus Nestor at 9 to 5 Linux is the news on Friday that Ubuntu 25.10 – more informally known as “Questing Quokka” – has reached the end of life on Friday, and his article urges those using Ubuntu 25.10 to upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 at their earliest convenience.

“This is your friendly reminder that Ubuntu 25.10 ‘Questing Quokka’ reached the end of its supported life today, July 9th, 2026, and it is no longer supported by Canonical with software and security updates,” the article says.

According to the article, Ubuntu 25.10 was released on October 9th, 2025, “and, since it’s not an Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) release, it only received support for nine months, until July 2026.” As of July 9th, 2026, Canonical will no longer provide software and security updates to Ubuntu 25.10 systems, “which means that, in time, your installations will become vulnerable to all sorts of threats and attacks.”

Therefore, the article highly recommended that you upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Resolute Raccoon, “which will receive software updates and security patches for five years or up to 10 years with a free Ubuntu Pro account,” the article concludes.

‘Frosted Glass’ comes to Cosmic DE

Michael Larabel at Phoronix on Friday reported that computer maker System76 has had their Pop_OS! developers create a “frosted glass” look for their Cosmic desktop environment, which is featured in the Pop_OS! System.

“System76 developers have for the past number of weeks been working on developing a ‘frosted glass’ appearance for the Cosmic desktop environment featured on their Pop!_OS Linux distribution,” the article states. “For Pop!_OS users this frosted glass feature is now available and will become more widespread for other Linux distributions once the next Cosmic release is formally tagged.”

According to the article, “System76 CEO Carl Richell shared today that the ‘frosted glass’ option is now available for Pop!_OS 24.04 users. Once updating to the latest updates, via Settings / Desktop / Appearance is now a ‘Frosted Glass’ option under Style.”

The article also says that Cosmic developers plan to tag their next release next week, after which this frosted glass feature should propagate to the Cosmic packages on other Linux distributions.

And that’s all for today. Don’t forget: Distro of the Week appears Wednesday – and it’s always a good one on hand – and Bits and Bobs will return on Friday.