Vendefoul Wolf Excalibur Xfce

Devuan-based distro brings speed, performance to wide range of hardware

By Larry Cafiero

And the hits just keep on coming . . .

Not only was last week a week of firsts for Distro of the Week, we follow up this week with another set of firsts for the column. Most specifically, we’re test-driving a distro today based on Devuan, focused on simplicity and efficiency which works on a wide variety of hardware, especially those a bit long in the tooth.

Ladies and gentlemen – that covers most of you – welcome to Vendefoul Wolf Linux.

Direct from Spain, the latest version of Vendefoul Linux, code named Excalibur, comes in a wide variety of desktop environments, specifically KDE Plasma, Xfce, Cinnamon, Budgie, Katana, Sonic, Trinity, as well as the Bspwm and IceWM window managers. For purposes of this review, we are test-driving the Xfce version at 1.9 GB for the ISO.

One of the more remarkable features of Vendefoul Wolf Linux is its adherence to marching to a different beat in the interest of being inclusive. Most notably, the distro – thanks to its Devuan roots – lacks systemd, using the lightweight and efficient OpenRC for initialization, plus the graphics server employs Xlibre as the default X server, which enhances performance on low-resource systems.

The recommended system requirements for Vendefoul Wolf are a fairly simple: A 64-bit processor, multi-core preferably, with 2 GB or more of RAM for optimal performance and at least 10 GB of storage space on your hard drive.

Installing Vendefoul Wolf Excalibur

The 1.9 GB ISO was put on a USB stick, plugged into the laptop, and booted without a hitch. Additionally, the Calamares installer appeared instantly, even before I was able to log in to the WiFi, and went through the typical Calamares steps for installation. First, the location – which interestingly defaults to Rome, but we fixed that easily – then keyboard choice, disk partition, login name and password, and then the summary before we were on our way.

The Software Manager provides programs to add to Vendefoul Wolf Excalibur.

The installation took about 10 minutes and came up with a newly installed system after reboot. Time to explore.

Vendefoul Wolf Excalibur’s Xfce version comes up with a unique desktop layout. For example, the panel sits vertically along the left side of the screen, and the icons sit on the right side of the screen. A digital clock is shown at the top center of the desktop, and a row of icons – typical of Xfce – sits along the bottom center of the screen.

In the area of software, Vendefoul Wolf is unique insofar as the offerings. The web browser offered is LibreWolf, which is an adequate replacement for a browser like Firefox, but from there, the offerings can best be described as slim pickings. There are the standard Xfce-based tools along with some Vendefoul Wolf specific tools, like the Aconita kernel manager. The Thunar file manager handles the files easily and efficiently, as well as software programs like the Parole Media Player and Abiword word processor are also included in the initial download.

Fortunately, the distro comes with its own Software Center, which we put to use posthaste. Since the original installation excluded an email client, we installed Thunderbird. While Abiword was probably adequate for word processing duties, the LibreOffice suite is a personal favorite, and that software was next. GIMP for editing photos followed. While Parole Media Player is a good program, we opted for VLC just out of personal convenience.

Kicking the tires

Once we got Vendefoul Wolf to what was an acceptable level, it was time to put the distro through its paces. True to its Devuan roots, the distro ran remarkably well, responding quickly and effortlessly to everything thrown at it.

In fact, Vendefoul Wolf absolutely flies. This may be because it is not hindered with systemd or maybe it’s the Xlibre server or maybe it’s for some other unforeseen reason, but the distro was one of the fastest that has been tested here for quite some time.

The fastfetch command in the terminal unlocks a variety of important information on the distro.

Multitasking was also a breeze. Spending the day surfing the web while listening to music was all in a day’s work for this distro. In fact, kudos should be given to LibreWolf as a web browser for handling all web surfing issues with the aplomb reserved for higher-end web browsers like Firefox. Also, on the multitasking issue, the memory use rarely reached 3 GB of RAM usage while juggling multiple software requests.

The final word

Truth in advertising: While I wrote the Distro of the Week column for FOSS Force – and this is going back about a year – I wanted to give Devuan a go, but I couldn’t install it on any of my hardware. Chalk that up to user error, no doubt. However, Vendefoul Wolf has solved that issue with a simple Calamares-based install.

One thing, though: I had to change the default desktop photo to something more, well, sane – and thankfully the distro offered options in that regard.

Listening to Yes on VLC in Vendefoul Wolf Excalibur Xfce.

Depending on what desktop environment/window manager you go with, the performance levels of this distro would probably be close to the same. In this case, the care that the Vendefoul Wolf developers have taken with the Xfce desktop, complete with an unconventional – and equally attractive – side panel and icons on the right translate to a powerful and nimble distribution.

Is it good for beginners? Adequate, maybe, as newbies would not be lost in this computer environment, and with a little effort new users could master the distro. Intermediate and greybeards would feel at home with this distro as well.

Whichever desktop environment or window manager you choose, Vendefoul Wolf Excalibur is definitely worth a look. Download the ISO on the Vendefoul Wolf’s 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: 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.

Distro of the Week: Slackel 9.0 MATE

Despite dated menus, pop-ups, Greek distro based on Slackware excels on many fronts

The Slackel 9.0 MATE desktop. — The MATE desktop on the Slackel 9.0 system shows clean lines.

By Larry Cafiero

We have a couple of notable firsts here at Distro of the Week: First and foremost, we are trying out our first Greek distro of our relatively short existence, but more importantly we are testing our first Slackware-based distro ever.

No small feat there.

Today we’re putting Slackel 9.0 MATE through its paces to see if it passes muster. As previously mentioned, the distro is based on Slackware with advanced administration tools borrowed from Salix Linux, and comes with the MATE desktop environment as its default. The latest version became available in late June.

We took the liberty of changing the desktop background in MATE to something more reasonable. — Taking liberties: Changing the desktop background in MATE to something more reasonable.

In its release notes, the Slackel folks want to make one thing clear regarding who this distro is aimed at: “This release serves as an ideal platform for Linux enthusiasts who appreciate the historic speed and cleanliness of Slackware but prefer a user-friendly installer, automated dependency resolution, and a fully structured, traditional desktop experience.”

Let’s see if they are right.

Installing Slackel 9.0 MATE

The ISO for Slackel 9.0 MATE is a relatively sane 4.0 GB, which we put on to a USB key after it finished downloading in around 10 minutes. From rhere, we live-booted the USB drive, which came up with some interesting menus before starting as a live USB.

Undaunted at that particular – and proverbial – curveball, we nevertheless were greeted eventually with the MATE desktop environment and a bay view with a bridge in the background as the default desktop background. Once we established a WiFi connection, we clicked the installation icon on the desktop.

The menus in MATE are very clean and readable in Slackel 9.0 MATE.

Typing the password “one” to establish superuser status on the live USB (go figure), the installer is rather unique. Unlike the popular Calamares installer used by other distros, Slackel depends on its own installer which, interestingly, is only one window where you choose pretty much everything by checking boxes and choosing from drop-down menus. You install a root password, user name, and user password, estahlish a time-zone location, keyboard, language, file system, and other items all in one window before clicking on the “Install live system” button.

This in and of itself was a surprise, but a pleasant one once we got the hang of it.

Taking Slackel 9.0 MATE for a spin

Before we start, it would behoove us to mention that Slackel 9.0 MATE can be used by both 32- and 64-bit hardware, and the distro is generally designed to be lightweight, making it suitable for a wide range of systems. The minimum system reqirements are a i686 or x86_64 CPU, a minimum of 1 GB of RAM for smooth operation, sufficient disk space for installation, and a graphics card compatible with the MATE desktop environment.

Once we rebooted into our new system, we updated it, which was an interesting endeavor. Not only was the Gslapt Package Manager gathering updates when asked, but it gave us an explanation of each update in a window-sized morsel as it went along. That was a nice touch.

The System Monitor on Slackel 9.0 MATE shows that the system hardly breaks a sweat in multitasking issues. — The System Monitor on Slackel 9.0 MATE shows that the system hardly breaks a sweat.

Then once that was done, it was time to check what we had in the way of software. Slackel is generous in offering software in its initial install, as the usual suspects were present – like Firefox and the Thunderbird email client – as well as a few treats in store for those who have to get actual work done. The LibreOffice suite was available in the initial install, which was a huge plus, as well as the GNU Image Manipulation Program, more widely known as GIMP.

Using Gslapt, we added the VLC media player – a personal preference – and we were on our way.

Although we changed the desktop background to something a little more straightforward, the MATE desktop was clean although a little dated, with a top panel that provided menus and icons on both the left and right of the panel. Conversely, the bottom panel showed which programs were running, in true MATE fashion.

But with MATE showing its clean lines on the surface of Slackel 9.0 MATE, the Slackware base lived up to its legendary status of quick and nimble performance under the hood. In fact, using a multiplicity of software programs simultaneously caused the system to hardly break a sweat, getting the System Monitor to only reach 1.6 GB of RAM use.

This, of course, speaks highly of Slackel 9.0 MATE’s multitasking abilities, which were phenomenal. In addition, the distro’s ability to work with web-based programs like Google Docs and Google Drive were seamless.

The final word

Despite Slackel 9.0 MATE’s desktop presence could arguably be seen as outdated by most users’ standards – menus and pop-up messages are a bit of a throwback, to be sure, and the old-fashioned look lacks a modern cohesion that users may be used to today – the Slackware base provides a performance boost that clearly launches and carries this distro.

He's the one: Listening to Bruce Springsteen on VLC media player in Slackel 9.0 MATE — Tramps like us: Listening to Bruce Springsteen on VLC media player in Slackel 9.0 MATE

The current installer could throw some less-than-experienced users for a proverbial loop, however attacking it logically overcomes any fear one may have in using it. Still, while it’s nice that everything is in one window, it would also have been nice to have a Calamares-style installer to install the distro itself.

But never mind: Slackel 9.0 MATE checks all the boxes in performance, appearance, and style for a modern distro. And again, Slackware rumbling under the MATE hood is a definite – and pleasant – plus.

Is it good for beginners? For those coming directly from Windows, I would suggest another distro. However, for those who have been around the block a few times in the Linux neighborhood – or more than a few times – Slackel 9.0 MATE would be a welcome distro to try, if for no other reason that finally – finally! – there’s a Slackware-based distro that does not cause a user to rend their garments in installing.

Give Slackel 9.0 MATE a shot. You can down the ISO from the Slackel download page.

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.

Bits & Bobs: Linux Mint to provide Wayland support for Cinnamon

By Larry Cafiero

Marcus Nestor at 9 to 5 Linux reported on Wednesday that full Wayland support is on the way for the Linux Mint Cinnamon edition version 6.8.

According to the article, “Linux Mint project Clement Lefebvre revealed today in the monthly newletter some of the new features and improvements coming to the next major version of the Cinnamon desktop environment, version 6.8, such as full Wayland support.”

Nestor continues that the “Linux Mint devs have been working hard on making Cinnamon’s Wayland session as stable as possible, and it looks like Cinnamon 6.8 will finally remove the ‘experimental’ status of the Wayland session and fully support Wayland.”

Wayland improvements and featuresinclude proper mapping for new windows, applet popup menus and context menus, proper focus stealing prevention, and improved support for multiple monitors and KVM switches, according to the article.

“There’s also full HiDPI support for crisp icons, smoother mouse cursor, and better handling of Chromium apps, as well as support for running root apps as Wayland clients, window progress to see, for example, Firefox download progress in the panel app button.,” the article says.

Tuxedo OS skips Ubuntu for Debian

Bobby Barisov at Linuxiac reported on Tuesday that Tuxedo Computers has made a major change for its in-house Linux distribution, Tuxedo OS, saying goodbye to its Ubuntu base and hello to Debian Testing.

“According to the company, the decision arrives after several months of reduced update cadence, especially around KDE Plasma updates,” the article states. “While Plasma 6.7.x is already available upstream, Tuxedo OS is still based on Plasma 6.5.x, and the company had not previously given a precise timeline for moving existing users to an Ubuntu 26.04 LTS base.”

So the reason behind this? It’s complicated.

“Until now, Tuxedo OS has followed a hybrid release model which combined a stable Ubuntu LTS base with more frequently updated components such as the Linux kernel, web browsers, NVIDIA drivers, the graphics stack, and KDE Plasma,” the article continues.

“However, Tuxedo says this model has become increasingly difficult to maintain as Ubuntu LTS releases age. According to the company, backporting modern software to an older package base requires more work over time, especially when newer applications depend on libraries that are either missing or outdated in the underlying distribution.”

But why switch to Debian Testing?

“Debian Testing . . . provides a more current package base,” the article states. “For Tuxedo, this gives the distribution a more flexible foundation while still staying within Debian’s well-established package ecosystem.”

KDE Plasma 6.6.6 released

Mark of the Beast or just plain happenstance? You decide.

Liam Proven at The Register reports Thursday that KDE Plasma has released version 6.6.6, which has a long list of upgrades featured on the KDE web page.

“KDE Plasma 6.6.6 is a release that really is just about bug-fixes, but while there are no headline-grabbing features coming out for this inauspicious version number, it’s worth remembering: in a world of bloated code, real-world software still depends on experienced maintainers,” the article states.

If you really like Plasma 6.6, you should hope that version 6.6.6 lasts longer than Linux kernel 6.6.6 did – that was only around for a couple of days before it was replaced with Linux 6.6.7.

“This version appeared precisely on schedule, but that planned release timetable holds some bad news. Under the heading Bugfix releases, it says: “Beginning with Plasma 6.3, stable ‘feature’ releases will each receive six (6) subsequent updates containing bug fixes.”

Interesting.

Later in the article, Proven writes that, “[w]e suspect that will matter more, because as we reported last month, the plan is that Plasma 6.7 will be the last version to support an X11 session. KDE Plasma 6.8 is currently scheduled for mid-October, in order to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the announcement of the ‘Kool Desktop Environment.’ The plan is still as it was in 2025: Plasma 6.8 will be Wayland-only. Already today, the default setup of Plasma 6.7 on most OSes uses Wayland, but it’s still possible to install the necessary package and have the option of running Plasma using X11 instead.”

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 Monday.

OmegaLinux Next Deep Blue Sea

Tossing Lubutnu for Arch, Chilean distro offers much for those with limited resources

The LDXE desktop on the latest OmegaLinux release is clean and functional.

By Larry Cafiero

For today’s Distro of the Week, we’re going to go south of the border – way south, apparently – and take a look at the latest version of Chile’s OmegaLinux, a distro which has shed its Lubuntu roots in February, basing itself on Arch and featuring the LXDE desktop environment.

With this combination, OmegaLinux is designed for lightweight performance and is ideal for older hardware, while all but flying on newer ones. But we’re getting ahead of the story.

Installing OmegaLinux

The system requirements for OmegaLinux are tailored for older equipment, which of course means that newer equipment, for the most part, would find them easy to handle. The minimum system requirements are 1 GB or more of RAM, a 1.5 GHz single-core 64-bit CPU or better, and 15 GB of storage.

The ISO weighs in at a fairly light 1.7 GB as well. Downloading it on to a USB drive was relatively quick and once we rebooted the hardware, LXDE provided a clean desktop for the live version. With no desktop icon allowing the user to install, it was a dive into the menu where we found an install icon in the System section of the menu.

The LXDE menu sits on the lower left of the screen in OmegaLinux.

A Calamares installer pops up and after putting in our location, keyboard settings, disk partition preferences, put in a login/password, and then check everything for safe measure, the install was underway. About 10 minutes later, we were asked to reboot and were ready to go.

Perhaps a downside of having a light ISO like OmegaLinux is the amount of software available on the distro immediately after the install. After doing a customary update on the distro post-install, the proverbial pickings are rather slim.

OmegaLinux includes a variety of tools – Vim is the surprise here, along with Htop – as well as some standard software staples like the Firefox web browser , but from there it drops off dramatically. So it’s off to . . . well, the command line to add software via the standard Arch package manager, or pacman for short.

So we added a plethora of software: the LibreOffice suite, Thunderbird email client, VLC media player and GIMP, most notably, using the command line and we were on our way.

Kicking the tires

Once we got OmegaLinux to where we wanted it, using the distro was phenomenally simple. True to its Arch roots, the distro was nimble and quick, and multitasking was a breeze. The LXDE desktop environment took a little getting used to – I know, that’s a “me” problem – but overall the performance of the distro gets high marks.

One thing that deserves special mention is the OmegaLinux Tutorial, a brief series of windows that allow the new user a small, yet important, insight into the distro. From here, users are instructed in the various ways to modify their systems to their liking.

A fastfetch screen in the terminal shows relevant hardware information in OmegaLinux.

But back to OmegaLinux’s performance: At its multitasking best, OmegaLinux barely scratched the surface of RAM use, coming in an nearly 1 GB of RAM, which made the day-to-day chores and shenanigans of computer use completely enjoyable. Whether it was writing this article in LibreOffice while resizing the photos in GIMP, all the while listening to music via VLC, the distro behaved quite well across the board.

OmegaLinux also worked flawlessly with online programs as well, as transfers to Google Docs and Google Disk were straightforward.

The final word

Despite not exactly having a wealth of software at its immediate disposal – and some may argue that this is a good thing because users can design their own Linux systems from the ground up – OmegaLinux is still a solid distribution which should probably have a good run under its new Arch base.

But taking OmegaLinux from a Lubuntu base to an Arch base is not without a drawback or two. That said, the LXDE desktop environment is easily adaptable and understandable – especially for Xfce users – for new users dipping their proverbial toe into the Linux waters. However, the leap of faith that the OmegaLinux folks are asking new users to make regarding changing the base distro is significant, and time will tell if it is the right call.

The OmegaLinux Tutorial is helpful to new users of both the distro and LXDE.

In short, they’re trading the stability of the Ubuntu-based Lubuntu for the faster updates– and the possibility of errors and crashes that may follow – and streamlined system borne of Arch.

Nevertheless, OmegaLinux may not be for the faint of heart when it comes to being a gateway to Linux, and beginners may want to try something more simple before graduating to this distro.

Conversely, for those who have been around the block a time or two in the Linux realm – and even the most seasoned greybeards among you – would be pleased with the phenomenal performance of this distro on various levels.

In the final analysis, OmegaLinux is a solid distro that uses few resources while providing much to the user. In an age where RAM is at a premium, price-wise, and hardware is generally used for much longer than expected, distros like OmegaLinux are nothing short of a blessing. This lightweight distribution is ideal for users looking to revitalize older PCs without the need for high-end specifications while working remarkably well on newer hardware as well.

Give OmegaLinux a shot by visiting its download page and picking up an ISO.

Distro of the Week: LazyLinux Xfce

Armenian offering based on Void checks all boxes, and the distro’s anything but ‘lazy’

This pizza-eating sloth greets viewers to LazyLinux Xfce.

By Larry Cafiero

Sometimes you have a list of distros to choose from and you put them in a neat order to write about on a weekly basis. And sometimes a distro just proverbially falls out of the sky and into your lap.

This week’s Distro of the Week is definitely the latter.

From Armenia – of all places – and based on Void Linux – of all distros – is the latest version of LazyLinux.

LazyLinux features a modified version of the Xfce 4.20 desktop environment and, according to Distrowatch, aims to be “user friendly and usable right after installation.”

According to the LazyLinux download page, “LazyLinux is a pre-configured distro from Hadrut, Armenia, based on Void Linux featuring XFCE desktop and latest kernel version to provide a stable and user-friendly experience. It comes with a large number of software preinstalled for almost any purpose.”

Installing LazyLinux

The ISO for the Xfce version of Lazy Linux – it also comes in an OXWM window manager version – weighs in at a hefty 6 GB. While it downloads onto a USB drive, we should mention that the distro requires a minimum of 2 GB of RAM and 10 GB of disk space, but for optimal performance, 4 GB of RAM and a solid-state drive are recommended.

The Xfce 4.20 desktop environment in LazyLinux allows the traditional menu in the upper left.

Once we’re finished there, we boot into the live version of the USB stick. The user is greeted with a somewhat humorous desktop display of a sloth grinning back at the user while eating pizza and drinking what one can only assume is LazyLinux cola. However, the Xfce 4.20 desktop environment provides only one icon – Install – and we oblige.

LazyLinux provides a standard Calamares installer, complete with adding your location, keyboard, disk setup, login/password and once that’s all squared away, the install starts. The download took a little longer than usual, but after it was completed, we rebooted. Updating the system for good measure we were on our way.

Kicking the tires on LazyLinux

The immediate look of LazyLinux – pizza-eating sloth excluded – provides the user with various options. The Xfce 4.20 desktop environment comes with a wide variety of additions to the upper panel. On the right is the stock Xfce drop-down menu, and moving leftward there are icons for the workspace, Search, Thunar File Manager, Ghosty terminal, and then icons for Zed, the Zen Browser, and the Brave web browser to conclude the icons on the left of the panel.

In the center of the panel are a variety of icons as well, including separate monitors for WiFi, disk drive, RAM, and disk use. On the right and filling out the icons are a language icon, Clipman clipboard manager, on-screen keyboard, WiFi network connection, Cortile tiling manager, a remote device monitor, Bluetooth, Volume, Battery monitor, Weather monitor, and Date/Time.

A lot to deal with for one panel, but I digress, although the Weather monitor icon bears special mention as a welcome addition.

The size of the ISO becomes evident when the user looks at the amount of software included in the initial download. In a nutshell, there are a wide variety to choose from, and when I say “to choose from,” I actually mean that specifically. As previously mentioned, two web browsers – Zen and Brave – are available. The distro provides an email client – Aerion – to its long list of included software.

The fastfetch command in the terminal provides information in LazyLinux.

But wait, there’s more. The VLC media player and GIMP image editor are also included on the initial download as is a variety of Void-based tools to configure the LazyLinux experience to the user’s liking.

For the first time in quite awhile, there was no need to add any software to the original install, which in and of itself is a feather in LazyLinux’s cap. While I would have preferred LibreOffice, we wrote the article using the available OnlyOffice, which performed admirably.

The Void Linux base on LazyLinux is clearly evident, since all the software and hardware react quickly and efficiently to a wide range of requests made by the user. Although I was a few steps away, rhetorically speaking, from the Firefox/Thunderbird “confort zone,” the software included in the distro performed swiftly and adequately. Multitasking on this distro is very simple and almost carefree, and multitasking issues were completely non=existent.

Lastly, even using two new browsers – new to me, anyway – LazyLinux handled online programs like Google Docs and Google Drive easily and effortlessly.

The last word

This is the first Void Linux-based distro that Distro of the Week has tested, and the Void base of LazyLinux passes with flying colors. As an aside, it urges an uptick in trying vanilla Void in an upcoming Distro of the Week.

Listening to Suzanne Vega on VLC media player on LazyLinux.

Further, to call LazyLinux “lazy” is a complete misnomer. This sole Linux offering from Armenia checks all the boxes for speed, efficiency, and multitasking, and surpasses each with flying colors. Being based on Void Linux, LazyLinux inherits the speed, simplicity, and robustness of its parent distribution.

That said, LazyLinux is easily useable for new users dipping their toes in the proverbial Linux waters, despite being “burdened” – for lack of a better word – with a virtual tsunami of software and tools at the user’s disposal.. Both intermediate users and “greybeards” would have a field day with the amount of tools and setups available in the LazyLinux download.

Don’t take my word for it. Give it a shot. You can download LazyLinux from its download page and give it a try.

Bits & Bobs: Best Arch-based distro?

By Larry Cafiero

Hand it to Dibakar Ghosh at HowToGeek.com for taking the time to do this, and while the story is a couple of weeks old, it bears repeating today. Ghosh took the time to test nine – count ‘em, nine – Arch-based distros – in the middle of the AUR hubbub, no less – and provide readers with a list of ninth to first.

“Most Arch-based distros either preserve that minimalism while reducing complexity, or they go all-in on power, performance, and extra features,” Ghosh writes. “After testing many options, these nine stood out—and here’s how I’d rank them according to my needs and workflow.”

Because it seems that there are many distro based on Arch, the usual suspects appear in the story, with plausible explanations regarding why Ghosh has ranked them as he did. While I have no argument with the rankings as such – and it includes a couple I would have never considered at all – I still think that Manjaro, for all its recent turmoil, is still the best distro of the lot, and he ranks it at number five.

Seriously?

So what did he rank first? Not a chance – read the article. It’s worth the few minutes of your time

KDE Plasma 6.8 taking shape

Fun fact: The release of KDE Plasma 6.8 in October is scheduled to coincide with the 30^th anniversary of the founding of KDE. That said, we thought we’d check in on developments in the Wayland-only desktop environment.

Sven Bauduin at PC Games Hardware wrote an update earlier this month about it, in which he wrote that the major development is the departure of X11 for just Wayland.

“With Plasma 6.8, the login screen will only offer the Plasma Wayland session,” Bauduin writers. “KDE also plans to remove X11-specific code from Plasma Shell, System Settings and device configuration in this release. That makes Plasma 6.7 the last version expected to ship with a dedicated X11 session. It is scheduled for mid-June 2026, while Plasma 6.8 is currently expected around October 14, 2026.”

According to KDE developer David Edmundson, all is not lost for those who depend on the X11 window system to operate their software.

“Wayland support remains present,” writes Edmundson is his blog. “You can keep using your X11 applications, and our XWayland application support is second-to-none.

Edmundson continues to say that if you use KDE applications on another desktop environment, this change will have no effect. He reassures users that “KDE applications will continue to work in X11 for the foreseeable future.”

First Kernel 7.2 release candidate

Marcus Nestor at 9 to 5 Linux reported on Sunday that Linus Torvalds announced on Sunday the general availability of the first Release Candidate (RC) of the upcoming Linux 7.2 kernel series for public testing and early adopters.

Two weeks have passed since the release of Linux kernel 7.1 and the opening of the merge window for Linux kernel 7.2 for contributors to submit their patches, which means that it’s now time to test drive the Release Candidate (RC) versions during the next couple of months, every Sunday afternoon,” the article states.

During this two-week merge window, the Linux 7.2 kernel received many new features and improvements, most notably support for devres-based management of ACPI notify handlers, initial HDMI 2.1 FRL support to the AMDGPU driver, initial CRI platform support for the Intel Xe driver, and Intel CPU model number support for Panther Lake R series.

“Linux 7.2 also promises to introduce support for the ‘zerocopy’ library to the Rust support to make zero-cost memory manipulation effortless, new hwcaps for the 2025 dpISA extensions for the AArch64 (ARM64) architecture, and enable large folios by default for the Btrfs file system,” the article says.

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.

Mabox 26.04 Openbox

Manjaro-based distro works well overall, appeals to more experienced users on the Linux spectrum

The Openbox desktop on Mabox 26.04 shows a clean look.

By Larry Cafiero

With all the hubbub around the Arch AUR – and since Manjaro is based on Arch – we thought we’d throw caution to the wind and give an Arch-based distro a shot. Today, Distro of the Week travels to Poland to review Mabox 26.04, a Manjaro-based distro with the Openbox window manager.

Installing Mabox 26.04

The Mabox 26.04 ISO is an average 3 GB and downloaded in about 10 minutes. Once we put it on USB drive, the live version came up fairly quickly. On the live USB, there’s an option to choose either open source or proprietary drivers. With the Openbox window manager providing a wide variety of menu items – three separate windows, thanks to Conky (which we’ll get to later), we finally found the download icon on the small panel on the upper left.

Downloading Mabox consists of a Calamares installer, which consists of the standard time zone, keyboard, disk setup, and login/password. Once the user confirms everything, the installation gets underway. About 10 minutes later, the install was complete, and we are off to the races.

The menu on Mabox 26.04 provides access to a wide variety of sotware.

After updating the distro upon rebooting, the user looks at what might be considered a unique desktop layout. First of all, once again there are three – count ‘em, three – separate menus, which can be modified by the Conky manager. We dropped the photo menu in the lower right, and the two menus which appeared on the lower left, and leaving only the Conky in the upper right.

Once the Conky was sorted, Mabox’s Openbox window manager had a left panel on the top, complete with icons for web browser, terminal and other important programs, and the panel on the right featuring the desktops, the WiFi, Volume, Update, Photo, Time, and Power Button. Once we got the desktop the way we wanted it, with the single System Info window in the upper right,we were ready to go.

Test-driving Mabox 26.04

First things first: While the ISO is 3 GB, the fact that the only signiicant daily-use program that was included was Firefox ESR. With a plethora of Arch- and Manjaro-based tools included in the original download, the availability of software drops off significantly. Perhaps that’s by design – some distros purposely do not include software so users can build their own system to their liking and taste.

So it was off to use Pacman – avoiding AUR for the time being – to add a few software morsels to make daily life easier, specifically the LibreOffice suite of software, GIMP, VLC and Thunderbird, which – as an aside – should be standard issue on any Linux distribution.

The fastfetch option in the terminal provides a wide range of information on Mabox 26.04.

Once we settled in with all the software required, the daily use of Mabox almost became second nature. With Arch-via-Manjaro rumbling underneath the hood, most of the daily chores, online and offline, became completely manageable, and the distro was userful overall. Surfing the web with Firefox while reading and sending emails on Thunderbird were both effortless, and using LibreOffice to write this article while listening to a little Bruce Springsteen on VLC can best be described as uncomplicated.

In true Manjaro fashion, Mabox 26.04 handled multitasking issues with normal Arch fashion, which specifically was both quick and effortless. The distro played nicely with online programs like Google Docs and Google Drive, and swapping documents and photos between each of the programs and the hardware was a breeze.

The last word

Despite the original desktop being a bit “busy” – for lack of a better term – the strength behind Mabox 26.04 is certainly its malleable nature. A few clicks on a variety of menus created the desktop that I was comfortable with, and once the desktop and hardware was set up, it was a rather pleasant week using this distro.

Despite this, beginners may want to avoid Mabox 26.04, although this distro is almost custom made for intermediate and advanced users. The reason beginners may want to avoid it is because of the interface, which can be a little intimidating at first. But for even the most adventurous beginners, Mabox might be an option, if for no other reason that the Manjaro base of the distro provides a wide variety of options and its community is wide and helpful.

Listening to a little Bruce Springsteen on VLC media player while using Mabox 26.04 last week.

Overall, Mabox 26.04 presents itself in a better-than-average fashion. The Openbox configuration strikes a nice balance between form and function, like useful keyboard shortcuts, a clean tint2 panel, and the customized jgmenu system that provides a clean, organized application menu. The wide variety of Mabox tools puts system configuration well within easy reach without being overwhelming.

If you’re looking for a new distro and you have a little bit of Linux experience, Mabox 26.04 may be for you. Visit the Mabox page and see for yourself.

Bits & bobs: KDE Plasma prepares its ‘adios’ to X11 with newest version

By Larry Cafiero

It’s been coming for awhile now, but now that it’s here, it still has to sting for the X11 fans out there. But KDE has released the latest version of the Plasma desktop environment – 6.7 for those of you keeping score at home – and of the many “improvements” to it is the imminent abandonment of X11 for Wayland.

In other words, it’s the last KDE Plasma version with X11 support, with the next version, 6.8, being Wayland-only.

Nevertheless, the highlights of the new desktop environment are plenty, according to the announcement on KDE’s announcement page. First and foremost, Oxygen and Air themes have been updated from older KDE versions and make a return to the latest version.

Other KDE Plasma 6.7 highlights include a revamped Plasma Big Screen mode for mirroring the desktop on a big screen television, support for per-screen virtual desktops, a full-featured print queue viewer app, a global push-to-talk feature, Wayland session restore, and a “multi-GPU swapchain” feature for Vulkan support.

Also, according to 9 to 5 Linux, “KDE Plasma 6.7 also brings support for typing characters that aren’t on your physical keyboard, a dedicated setup UI for configuring shared printers on Windows networks, the ability to exclude windows from screen recording using permanent window rules, and a Plasma Panel switch to instantly go from light mode to dark mode.”

However, if you really must insist on keeping X11 around – and I know there are some of you out there – fear not: Bobby Barisov ran a story on the Linuxiac site on Thursday proclaiming that “[i]f you are a KDE user who still depends heavily on X11 and is concerned about what happens after Plasma 6.8 drops the X11 session, there is some good news. SonicDE is an emerging X11-focused desktop project based on forked KDE Plasma components with a simple goal: to preserve and enhance KDE’s X11-specific components.”

For those interested in SonicDE, there’s a page with more information here.

Arch AUR registrations blocked

According to Christine Hall at FOSS Force on Tuesday, “Arch has evidently stopped new AUR registrations for the time being while maintainers scrub malware and users debate how to harden the popular community repository.”

“Although things seem to be quieting down a bit — we’ve heard no new reports of newly discovered poisoned packages since early Sunday — there is news to report,” the article states. “It appears that AUR maintainers who’ve been working overtime to remove malware-laden packages and delete their committers’ accounts, have now blocked new AUR registrations.”

But fear not, Arch and Arch-based distro users: According to an article on It’s FOSS by Souray Rudra on Thursday, “ yay, the most popular AUR helper for Arch Linux, just put out a release aimed at tackling that mess on the user level, introducing two new features that make it easier to spot a risky package before you install it and to automate the review work yourself.”

Instructions on how to get yay up and running on your Arch or Arch-based distro are included in the article.

Meanwhile, like FOSS Force, we’re keeping an eye on this situation as well, and we’ll let you know something when we know something ourselves.

And that’s all for today. Some might argue that it’s too much. Either way, 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 Monday.