Category: Linux

Distro of the Week: Peppermint OS

British distro based on Debian offers
a blank canvas for users to explore

Peppermint OS has a photo of a fox staring back at you for its illustration.

By Larry Cafiero

Which distro, right from the start, gives you the option to set up your distro the way you actually want it?

There are several, of course, but one of the most prominent of those Linux distros is Peppermint OS. Peppermint OS is based on either Debian or Devuan, and comes with a long history of participation in the Linux realm. It has been chosen as this week’s Distro of the Week.

While we may be getting ahead of the story, Peppermint OS “comes with nearly nothing installed other than the core packages needed to run the system and you have the choice to which packages should best fit your build.”

Which, of course, is heady stuff.

The minimum system requirements for the British distro is 1 GB of RAM and a single-core 1 GHz processor, with 10 GB of disk space and integrated graphics compatible with OpenGL 2.0. This makes it idea for older machines, but it also makes it a welcome distro for newer hardware as well. However, the recommended system requirements are 2 GB to 4 GB of RAM, a 2 GHz dual-core processor, and 20 GB or more of storage.

Installing Peppermint OS

Because Peppermint OS is light on software, the ISO weighs in at a mere 1.9 GB, which meant a fairly quick download. Once the ISO was put onto a USB drive, we were off to the races installing it on a couple of pieces of hardware.

The menu on Peppermint OS is standard Xfce 4.20, with a couple of tweaks.

The install process was very straightforward thanks to a Calamares install. The usual suspects pop up during the install: keyboard, disk configuration, login and password, and confirmation before clicking install and letting the program do it’s magic.

As I said earlier, we were getting ahead of the story when it comes to software already installed. Think of Peppermint OS not as lacking software but as a blank canvas where you, the artist, creates your distro on your own terms.

So we did. Using Synaptic Package Manager – one of the programs included in Peppermint OS – we added VLC media player, the LibreOffice suite of software, the GIMP image manipulator, as well as Thunderbird email client. The distro does come with a web browser already, which is LibreWolf, and it performed admirably, so there was no Firefox added as a result.

The About window on Xfce gives vital information about your Peppermint OS operating system.

Once we got the distro to where we wanted it, it was time to give Peppermint OS a run.

Kicking the tires

The first thing one notices when booting Peppermint OS is the speed upon which the distro comes to life. It is very quick to show the login/password, after which the user is introduced to a Welcome window. This window provides a wide range of information about the distro, including an about page, suggestions regarding what the user might want to install, online documentation, and the build log for safe measure.

The Xfce 4.20 desktop environment is its usual clean and efficient self, with the Menu generated from the bottom left and a trio of icons – file manager, Xfce terminal, and Run Program icons, specifically – all on the bottom panel. The right side of the panel is complete with WiFi, Clipboard, Battery, an Update Shortcut (which is very handy to update the system), Notification, Volume, and Calendar.

The desktop photo itself in the stock download is a fox looking straight at the user. While it is a fairly calming and innocuous photo, those who have an aversion to an animal staring at you may want to change it, although the pickings were slim when it came to desktop photo alternatives.

The btop program – one of many tools in the Xfce-based toolset – offers much in the way of system information in Peppermint OS.

Because Peppermint OS is aimed at a wide range of hardware, the performance of the distro is top-notch. There is absolutely no lag in calling up programs, and the speed at which the programs execute their duties have been impeccable. Multitasking with Peppermint OS is also a joy, with the distro handling each and every request with ease. It was difficult to make the distro rise above 3 GB of RAM use no matter what we did.

Additionaly, Peppermint OS played nicely with web-based programs like Google Docs and Google Drive. Of many of the distros reviewed recently, this one stands out as an all-around go-to for those seeking to use Linux.

Final thoughts

The only thing – and this is more of a “me” issue than anything – which I found a little quirky about Peppermint OS is when I wanted to turn off the machine, I couldn’t immediately find the button to do so. But it is there, actually, hiding in the bottom left in the menu next to the Settings Manager and Lock Screen. Could it be a bigger button? I would say yes, but again this is me we’re talking about and – truth in advertising – I felt a bit sheepish when I found it.

Listening to Bonnie Raitt courtesy of VLC media player in Peppermint OS.

But if that’s the only, well, problem with this distro, then Peppermint OS shines as an example of what a Linux distro should be. The Xfce desktop environment is an ideal counterpart to the Debian beneath the hood, and the performance is pretty much second to none.

So where does that leave Peppermint OS on the Linux spectrum? Again, the Xfce desktop atop Debian allows for easy use by new users, while more experienced users might be uses to adding a wide array of software to the limited lineup offered by the distro.

It’s rare that we come across such a well-rounded distro with direction, and Peppermint OS is absolutely a pleasant surprise.

Give Peppermint OS a shot by downloading the ISO from the download page. You won’t be disappointed.

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: Arch disables AUR again

By Larry Cafiero

Bill Toulas of BleepingComputer.com reported on Friday that Arch is disabling its Arch User Repository – otherwise known as AUR – to stem the flow of malware and malicious takeovers of existing packages.

“The decision was announced on the distribution’s mailing list by contributor Robin Candau, who said that the situation is temporary until a solution is found,” the article said.

Quoting Candau, “Due to the current influx of malicious package adoptions and follow-up commits made via the AUR, package adoption is currently disabled while we are handling the situation. We will send a follow-up once we’re able to. In the meantime, feel free to report suspicious adoption events or commits that haven’t been dealt with yet, and stay vigilant!”

The article says that “Independent Federated Intelligence Network (IFIN) conducted a technical analysis of the malware and reported that the campaign began on July 29 with the package ‘openconnect-sso.’ ”

IFIN reports that the campaign bears many similarities to the last campaign, the article states, including the use of the Tor network for staging.

“In June, a separate campaign hit AUR via more than 400 packages, distributing a Linux rootkit and info-stealer malware to unsuspecting users,” the article says.

But in the latest attack, “the researchers identified a two-stage infection, with the first stage acting as the loader, and the second one being a Linux x86_64 payload described as stealer malware with remote administration (RAT) and SSH worm features,” the article explained.

But wait, there’s more on the Arch front . . .

Prominent Arch developer resigns

Michael Larabel at Phoronix reports on Saturday that Morton Linderud – otherwise known as “Foxboron” – announced he is resigning from the Arch Linux project after a 10-year run.

Linderud was an Arch Linux developer, security team member, AUR maintainer, and package maintainer for the distro.

“After a decade serving as an Arch Linux developer, package maintainer, and security team member, Morten Linderud has decided ‘it’s a good time to let go’ and move on from the project,” the article says. “He was responsible for debug packages on Arch Linux, initial work on their Git migration, and other contributions to the project over the years.”

While stepping back from his Arch Linux duties, Linderud “still intends to pursue his open-source work around TPMs, Secure Boot, and related security initiatives . . . In his resignation email among the Arch Linux packages now in need of a new maintainer include the likes of mkinitcpio, Bolt, nvme-cli, Go-Tools, Pacman, arch-install-scripts, archlinux-keyring, archlinux-repro, and others.”

And yet, despite all of the aforementioned . . .

Arch releases August ISO

Bobby Borisov at Linuxiac reported on Saturday that Arch Linux has released its monthly ISO for August, shipping with Linux kernel 7.1.5, glibc 2.44, Binutils 2.47, systemd 261.2, KDE Plasma 6.7.3, and updated packages.

“As usual, this is not a separate Arch Linux release or a new distribution version,” the article states. “Instead, the monthly ISO images are intended for new installations, giving users a more current starting point and reducing the number of packages to download immediately after installation.”

According to the article, the guided Archinstall installer remains at version 4.4, which was introduced shortly before the July image.

“Beyond the kernel, August’s snapshot includes several important changes to the system toolchain. GNU C Library moved from version 2.43 to 2.44, while GNU Binutils received a major update from 2.46.1 to 2.47,” the article says. “GCC remains on the 16.1.1 series, but Arch’s packages include a newer development snapshot from that branch.”

Regarding desktops, the article said repositories now include the latest KDE Plasma, Gnome, and Cinnamon, as well as the latest Cosmic 1.5 desktop.

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: Cosmic 1.5 released

Marcus Nestor at 9 to 5 Linux reported on Wednesday that computer maker System76 released version 1.5 of the Cosmic desktop environment.

Based on Rust, the desktop environment’s improvements are generally based on performance issues.

“Coming only a week after Cosmic 1.4, the Cosmic 1.5 release is here to fix high CPU panel usage when the screen is locked, fix panel touch input, fix panel flickering when using the Frosted Glass effect when preserving style on window maximize, and fix Frosted Glass for panel applets on hotplugging an external monitor,” the article says.

Other specific improvements include a workaround to fix a Chromium issue when scaling, a fix for D-Bus deadlock, and a fix for an issue causing panic when rendering fails after a GPU reset, among other bugs in version 1.4.

“This release also brings some changes to COSMIC Settings with slider widget handle improvements, a fix for the one-pixel gap between outputs due to rounding errors, support for adding multiple images at once in the Wallpaper pane, which now supports up to 500 wallpapers, and networking improvements by no longer storing the VPN username as a secret,” the article says.

Check out the release notes on the project’s GitHub page for more details about the changes included in COSMIC 1.5.

Oops! Still GPL items in FreeBSD kernel

Christine Hall at FOSS Force reported on Wednesday that actually some of the GPL-based software in FreeBSD may still be lurking in some of the corners of that particular operating system’s kernel.

“A couple of weeks back we told you that the folks at FreeBSD had removed all GPL code from their operating system to keep the world safe for devs with copyleft allergies,” the article states. “The OS was thought to be GPL-free after the removal of dpv, a toolset that contains the GPL tool ‘dialog.’

That’s evidently important to BSD folks, who think that software freedom means the freedom to make it private.”

But . . .

“Unfortunately, the dev team at FreeBSD left some other GPL code behind, so the GPL still lurks, sprinkled in the FreeBSD kernel, of all places,” the article continues. “It’s in a header file that was copy and pasted from the Linux kernel for Qualcomm SoCs. There are also some GPLv2 snippets in the Device Tree.”

So it’s back to the drawing board for the FreeBSD developers. We’ll keep you updated on this as we find out more.

‘Stonking Stingray’ moving along

Sourav Rudra wrote an article in It’s FOSS on Wednesday about the improvements coming to the next Ubuntu version to be released in October.

“Every two years, Canonical puts out a Long Term Support release that gets five years of security updates, which can be stretched further with Ubuntu Pro,” the article states. “In between those LTS releases, Canonical ships an interim version every six months, and each one is supported for nine months.”

Those releases don’t carry the same importance as an LTS, but that’s the point, according to Rudra. They give Canonical room to test newer kernels, toolchains, and design changes with a smaller user base before those changes get baked into the next LTS.

“The next one, Ubuntu 26.10, carries the codename ‘Stonking Stingray’, continuing the tradition of ordered alphabetical codenames after Resolute Raccoon (26.04),” the article continues.

According to the article, “stonking” is British slang for something impressively big or excellent, and a stingray is the flat-bodied, boneless fish that spends most of its time half-buried in sand near the seafloor.

The article brings to the fore the schedule for the releases, with the next one being a Feature Freeze on Aug. 20, and the testing week takes place a week later on Aug. 27.

The article also states that “[i]f things go as planned, it will land on October 15, 2026, with a short support window that will close in July 2027.”

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 weekend on Monday.

Distro of the Week: Pardus 25.2 Xfce

Turkish distro based on Debian maintains
its latest version’s sky-high standards

The Xfce desktop environment in Pardus 25.2 shows clean lines.

By Larry Cafiero

When I first took this week’s Distro of the Week out for a spin – and that was when I was at FOSS Force back in December of last year – I recall being wowed by its performance and simplicity.

Fast forward to today and two version later: Pardus 25.2 Xfce once again does not disappoint, and once again deserves high praise.

The recommended hardware specs for Pardus are very straightforward: It requires a modern multi-core processor, a minimum of 4 GB of RAM although it works better with 8 GB or more, at least 20 GB of disk storage, a compatible graphics card, and it helps to have WiFi, or at least ethernet, network access for the Internet.

A little history

Pardus – the name is derived from Panthera Pardus Tulliana, the scientific designation of the Anatolian Leopard – is a Linux distribution which started with its main focus in Turkish government and public-sector environments.

Started in 2003 by the Turkish National Research Institute of Electronics and Cryptology under the watchful eye of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, the first live CD version was a fork of Gentoo Linux in 2005. Over time, Pardus evolved from a government-sponsored project into a community-driven distribution, changing its base to Debian in the process.

Installing Pardus 25.2 Xfce

Based on Debian 13 “Trixie,” Pardus’ latest version was released in mid-July. And while the default desktop environment is Gnome, we chose to forego that to opt for the Xfce desktop environment.

The enhancements for the latest version against version 25.1 and the original 25.0 are basic but noteworthy: Pardus 25.2 obviously includes all the updates from the last version, but also the latest version optimizes system performance for speed and efficiency, and includes more security features like AppArmor.

In short, Pardus 25.2 offers a more polished experience with all the updates from 25.1, enhancing performance, security, and user interface.

The menu on the Xfce desktop environment of Pardus 25.2 is very helpful.

The ISO for the Pardus 25.2 Xfce version is about 3 GB, which downloaded in roughly six minutes. Once we put the ISO on a USB drive and plugged it in to our various laptops, one at a time, the download was fairly quick, thanks to the Pardus installer YALI – which stands for “Yet Another Linux Installer.”

YALI asks for your language, keyboard layout, time zone, disk partitioning (note: here would be a good time to use “Automated installation,” unless you’re really good at Linux – and don’t forget to check the box for “Install system with updates”), and from there it asks if you’re sure you want to install the distro, and off you go.

Taking Pardus 25.2 Xfce for a spin

One of the first things a user might notice about Pardus 25.2 is the clean design of the Xfce desktop. The bottom panel contains a variety of icons that are convenient for day-to-day use. The menu is activated with a click on the far left, while a variety of icons – including the WiFi, Updater, Bluetooth, Power Manager, Volume, Battery, Notification, Date/Time and Logout – all sit dutifully on the right.

To Pardus’ immense credit, all the software you may need is included in the original install. Web browser? Firefox. E-mail client? Evolution (an interesting choice, but worked wonders nonetheless). Graphics editor? GIMP. Media player? VLC. It’s all here – so much so that I hadn’t even considered installing additional software. It also comes with a hefty amount of Debian-based tools as well.

Because most software you might use is included in the original install, the Pardus Software Center is there just in case you might want to add something.

Because Pardus comes with essentially all the software a user could possibly need installed by default, the only reason you would really do so is if you planned your own personal software shopping spree, if you lean that way. Because the distro is based on Debian, you can apt-get your way through the terminal, but the Pardus Software Center provides a much easier way to go about downloading software and installing.

With Debian rumbling under the hood, Pardus 25.2 responds quickly and efficiently to any and all requests made of it. The distro handled daily multitasking duties with ease, hardly breaking a sweat, which incidentally I could monitor thanks to a sensor-viewer tool in the Systems menu. Going back and forth between software in day-to-day use was simple, and the distro played well with web apps such as Google Docs and Google Drive.

As I said in the original review and it stands to this day: To the distro’s credit, the combination of useful apps and tools make Pardus a distro where a user’s curiosity might be piqued enough to take a deeper dive into the distro itself.

The final word

In the last review back in December, I mused about why Pardus isn’t near the top of the list of all-time great distros. Maybe the fact that Turkey is not exactly a known FOSS hotbed is what’s hamstringing it from getting a wider international audience.

Nevertheless, Pardus 25.2 has improved slightly since I reviewed it last, and is unquestionably an outstanding Linux distro.

Like its predecessor reviewed in December, Pardus 25.2 Xfce performed remarkably this week, passing each test easily with flying colors. It was an absolute joy to use and it did not falter for an instant, meaning it would be suitable to use across the spectrum in the Linux universe.

Listening to a little R.E.M. on VLC while using Pardus 25.2.

In other words, beginners should feel at home with the amount of easily usable software Pardus provides right off the bat, and more experienced users will appreciate the wealth of tools it has to offer. Both the new user and the grizzled graybeard will appreciate Pardus’s clean look and nimble responsiveness.

Pardus 25.2 deserves a shot, even if you’re set in your Linux ways. You can download it from the Pardus download page on the project’s website.

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: LibreOffice updated

By Larry Cafiero

Not exactly Linux-specific, but close enough . . . Bobby Barisov of Linuxiac reported on Friday that LibreOffice had released an updated verstion of the 26.2 series – this one 26.2.5 – which includes 21 bug fixes for Writer, Calc, Base, and the user interface.

According to the article, notable fixes include resolving a crash triggered by pressing Shift+Enter on the numeric keypad and fixing a macOS issue where opening multiple files could fail due to incorrect path concatenation.

“Writer users gain from several document-handling fixes,” the article continues. “Hidden empty paragraphs in DOC files now display correctly, editing conditional text fields no longer deletes them, and spaces after one-letter words at the start of a paragraph are maintained under specific AutoCorrect settings.”

The article also states that LibreOffice 26.2.5 addresses an HTML export issue affecting punctuation and other weak-directionality characters inside right-to-left text spans. In addition, pictures and shapes with transparent backgrounds should now appear more consistently with the final document output.

“Calc compatibility and functionality have been improved as well, with the DROP and TAKE functions now handling edge cases correctly, and TEXTAFTER matches more closely with Microsoft Excel 365 when using the ‘match end’ option,” the article states.

For a full rundown of everything that’s been fixed in LibreOffice 26.2.5, the official announcement is here.

The article concludes that “The Document Foundation also reminds users that LibreOffice 25.8 has reached the end of its supported lifecycle, so an upgrade to the current 26.2 branch is highly advisable. The next update, 26.2.6, is scheduled for early September.”

KDE Plasma 6.8 introduces new tool

Michael Larabel at Phoronix reported on Saturday that developers at KDE “have been working on kscreenctl as a utility replacement to kscreen-doctor” for KDE Plasma version 6.8 “Plasma and related code has also seen a number of bug/crash fixes coming about this week too.”

This report comes from This Week in Plasma, where the latest issue sums up all of the interesting KDE Plasma desktop changes over the past week.

According to the Phoronix article, the primary highlight include “Plasma 6.8 is introducing ‘kscreenctl’ as a new screen control tool to eventually replace the kscreen-doctor tool. The kscreenctl tool provides various options to change the display output configuration.”

Other improvements in the next version of KDE Plasma are also available in the next version, and can be seen in the Phoronix article or the This Week in Plasma blog.

Faster on Linux? Well . . .

Yadullah Abidi at Make Use Of reported on Saturday that perhaps that Linux is not actually faster on various hardware, however it “seems” faster.

“Linux is often hailed as a magic fix for performance issues, especially on older hardware,” the article starts. “Dust off a decade-old laptop, slap on a Linux distro, and suddenly your machine will start feeling brand new. There is some truth to this, and compared to Windows, Linux will make your older machines feel much snappier, but responsiveness isn’t the same as newfound performance.”

Lately, Microsoft’s gaffes have led people to discover Linux, however “Linux isn’t going to make your hardware more powerful than it already is. Yes, it will feel snappier and will perform better, but it’s still limited by the hardware inside.”

So what’s the real deal here? “When people say Linux speeds up old hardware, what they’re actually experiencing is a reduction in overhead, not an increase in raw compute power,” the article explains. “Windows, especially post Windows 10, runs an entire army of background services including telemetry collection, update indexing, scanning routines, OneDrive syncing, Defender scans, and a handful of first-party apps that like to phone home even when you’re not using them.”

What is happening under the hood is a matter of system resources and how they are used. “As a result, you end up losing real performance as your machine is too busy running Windows instead of the apps, games, and browser tabs that make your daily life move,” the article explains. “If you’re installing Linux and your boot time drops to seconds instead of minutes, that isn’t happening because the CPU got faster — it just has fewer things to process.”

The article goes into detail and is worth a read.

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: New shutdown for Tails 7.10

By Larry Cafiero

Marcus Nestor of 9 to 5 Linux reported on Thursday that Tails 7.10 was released a month after Tails 7.9, with a couple of improvements.

“Tails 7.10 has been released today as the latest version of this Debian-based distribution designed to protect you against surveillance and censorship by leveraging the Tor anonymous network,” the article states.

The article continues saying that Tails 7.9, “which only updated to Tor Browser 15.0.16 and some firmware packages, the Tails 7.10 release is a bigger one, introducing a new shutdown procedure, the one from the Gnome desktop environment, which is slower but better prevents data loss. The previous, faster emergency shutdown can still be used.”

The Tails team was quoted in the article: “For example, the Power Off confirmation dialog informs you if an application needs to be closed or an open document needs to be saved before shutting down . . . Even without confirming or saving the open documents, Tails will shut down after 60 seconds.”

In other improvements in the new version, “Tails 7.10 also replaces GNOME Videos with Celluloid as the default video player app, updates the Tor Browser to version 15.0.19, updates some firmware packages to improve support for newer hardware graphics, Wi-Fi, and so on, and fixes various bugs,” the article states.

New Cosmic desktop version released

Michael Larabel at Phoronix reported on Wednesday that the System76 developers have released a new version of their Cosmic desktop environment.

“System76 developers today released Cosmic Epoch 1.4 as the newest stable release to their Rust-based desktop environment,” the article states.

According to the article, “Cosmic Epoch 1.4 brings a wide variety of fixes, cosmic-sound-theme packaging, translation updates, and some minor feature work to different COSMIC components too.”

The article continues to say that the Cosmic Compositor “has seen a number of fixes for input and window handling, improving screen edge pointer accuracy with fractional scaling, and more. COSMIC Panel has seen crash fixes.”

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.

Vendefoul Wolf Excalibur Xfce

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

Taking liberties with the desktop illustration on Vendefoul Wolf Excalibur Xfce.

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.
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.

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: 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.