 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1168, 13 April 2026 |
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Welcome to this year's 15th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
One way to make the transition between operating systems easier is to have the new desktop environment resemble the user's original setup. There are a few Linux distributions which do this, setting up the desktop environment to mimic commercial operating systems such as Windows and macOS. This week we begin with a look at pearOS, a Linux distribution which strives to look like macOS. Do you like a desktop which imitates commercial desktops? Let us know your thoughts in this week's Opinion Poll. We also touch upon recent changes to EndeavourOS and its system installer in this week's Feature Story. In our News section we talk about Arch Linux updating its firewall packages, which may require some manual work on the part of system administrators. We also talk about the Linux kernel dropping support for i486 processors while Red Hat extends its commercial support to 14 years. We also report on new features in Debian's APT package manager and work being done to Redox's scheduler. We have received some more questions about age verification laws and our Questions and Answers section talks about which projects are adopting age reporting software. We then share a summary of last week's releases and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
This week's DistroWatch Weekly is presented by TUXEDO Computers.
Content:
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| Feature Story (By Jesse Smith) |
pearOS 2026.03
pearOS is an Arch-based desktop Linux distribution which features a macOS-like theme and icons on top of the KDE Plasma desktop. The latest version of pearOS is called "NiceC0re" (it also carries the version number 2026.03) and it features a new installer based on Electron. The distribution runs on x86_64 processors only.
I downloaded the 3.6GB ISO file for pearOS and, booting from it, was given the option to run the distribution's live environment with FOSS drivers enabled or proprietary NVIDIA drivers. I don't have any NVIDIA hardware so this was an easy choice and I went with the default FOSS option.
The distribution's live session boots to a busy Plasma desktop which has been customized to loosely resemble the macOS desktop. There is a transparent menu bar at the top of the screen and a macOS-style dock is placed at the bottom. On the desktop we find a few widgets: one is a calendar and the other shows weather conditions in Bucharest. A single icon sits in the desktop's upper-right corner and can be used to launch the project's system installer.
Two windows open on the desktop automatically. One is titled "What's New" and displays news posts from the pearOS project. It keeps loading posts and adjusting the position of its text endlessly, making it virtually impossible to read any of the news items. This window seems to be constantly refreshing itself.
The second window presents us with multiple rows of action buttons. These buttons can be used to launch the system installer, open a menu to change the desktop resolution (only a few resolutions are supported), fetch package updates, and change the package manager's mirror list. There are also buttons for donating to the pearOS project and more buttons for visiting on-line resources, such as the distribution's GitHub page and Discord channels. There is a button for switching to a dark theme and another for opening (or re-opening) the What's New window.
Shortly after the desktop loaded a black blob appeared in the upper-centre section of the screen. This looks like it might be another widget that doesn't display anything, but it does not appear to have any controls or a method for dismissing it from the screen.
pearOS 2026.03 -- Running the Plasma desktop
(full image size: 622kB, resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
The live desktop environment, when sitting idle, uses 100% of every available CPU core constantly. It also uses around 2GB of RAM. This unusually heavy and resource intensive desktop makes it virtually impossible to navigate the desktop or open applications. Even trying to open a new file manager window takes around 30 seconds and trying to open the settings panel sometimes worked, but sometimes brought the system to its knees, effectively locking the desktop. My laptop got so hot at one point, while just sitting idle at the desktop, I had to shut it off to avoid automatic power-off.
I found that I could switch to a text console and sign into the root account without a password. This gave me a chance to explore what was running on the system and what was causing so much strain on my processors.
One thing which stood out was the pear-welcome desktop process was constantly using at least 25% of my CPU, even when I was signed into a text console. This application seems to be stuck in an ongoing loop, even when it is not being drawn on the screen. I also noticed the Qt web engine was running constantly, even after the pear-welcome and What's New windows were closed. It seems some elements on the system are running Electron instances and effectively running active web browsers even when the desktop is empty. Another process, called pearos-notch, for which I could find no documentation, was also running constantly and gobbling up available CPU resources.
Seeing what a terrible state the live session was in and calculating that it would take longer to install the distribution than it would take my laptop to shut itself down to avoid overheating, I decided to look at another project.
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EndeavourOS 2026.03.06
It wasn't my plan to review EndeavourOS this year. I had enjoyed the distribution last year and Endeavour had even made it into my top picks for 2025. Given my recent positive experiences with the distribution, I didn't feel a pressing need to revisit it. However, Endeavour's latest, Arch-based snapshot did introduce a few interesting features and I wanted to test drive the latest version of the installer:
Improved mirror ranking support, including providing an optimised mirror list when the installer is off-line. Added hardware detection for all GPUs and VMs. We are now installing additional drivers for all GPUs, including Vulkan drivers and the needed packages for hardware-accelerated video decoding when applicable GPU drivers are now being loaded early by default. This release also introduces a new tool, eos-hwtool. This is the tool being used by the installer, and it is also available now to all EOS users to install and remove GPU drivers whenever needed.
The project's ISO size has increased a bit, from 3.0GB (this time last year) to 3.4GB in 2026. This appears to be mostly due to increased driver support.
EndeavourOS 2026.03.06 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
The Endeavour medium boots to the Plasma desktop. A single panel is placed across the bottom of the screen. The desktop is mostly empty and uses a dark theme. There is a welcome window which appears on the desktop and will assist us in checking for fast package mirrors and launching the system installer.
The installer begins by asking if we'd like to perform an on-line or off-line install. More importantly, this prompt explains what these two options do in a practical sense. The off-line installer uses local packages and sets up the KDE Plasma desktop on our computer. The on-line option pulls in packages from remove repositories and gives the user a choice of which desktop will be installed.
EndeavourOS 2026.03.06 -- Selecting a desktop in the installer
(full image size: 803kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Endeavour OS uses the Calamares graphical system installer. The installer begins by asking us for our timezone and giving us the chance to select our language and keyboard layout. I used the on-line installer which provides several desktop options: No desktop, Plasma, GNOME, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE, Budgie, LXQt, LXDE, and i3. We can select one desktop only and I decided (by a dice roll) to go with the Cinnamon option.
The next page of the on-line installer shows us a list of package groups and asks us which ones should be installed. Most of them are enabled by default and are listed as: Desktop-base, Endeavour applications, Recommended applications, Firefox, spell checker, firewall, LTS kernel, Printing support, HP printer/scanner support, and the desktop we selected (Cinnamon, in my case). Each of these groups can be expanded to show individual packages we may wish to install or exclude.
While I was using it, the installer locked up for about a minute after package selection. The installer window stopped responding for a bit and then it recovered on its own and asked if I wanted to install a boot loader (GRUB) or to skip installing a boot loader. We can then go through the disk partitioning steps or take a guided option which will set up an ext4 root partition with no swap space. We have the option of selecting an alternative filesystem and enabling swap. The installer then asked me to make up a username and password and downloaded the necessary packages to my hard drive.
First impressions
When I booted into my new copy of EndeavourOS the login screen offered me Cinnamon on X11 and Cinnamon on Wayland sessions. Both worked well and offer reasonable performance. In my opinion, the default dark theme looked nice and the desktop was responsive.
When I reviewed Endeavour in 2025 I stated that the distribution performed unusually well and it was one of my favourite distributions of the year. The one drawback I felt Endeavour had was the lack of a graphical software centre. This is still somewhat true, but with a condition/exception. Endeavour does ship with a simple application which will help the user install popular software. This tool can be launched from the welcome window and lists categories of desktop software. We can expand each of the categories and select specific popular applications to install by clicking a checkbox next to an application's name.
EndeavourOS 2026.03.06 -- Selecting additional packages to install
(full image size: 962kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
This tool is not a full featured software centre. It can be used to fetch new applications from a specific list, but we cannot update or remove packages. We also cannot search through the repositories to find alternative packages. In short, Endeavour is providing some easy access to new packages, but most software management will still need to happen from the command line (using pacman) or via a software centre we install ourselves.
Speaking of command line tools, Endeavour includes a shell program called eos-update which will fetch software updates for us. It will optionally also check the Arch User Repository (AUR) for any updates and fetch them for us. This is a welcome tool for me because I find it easier to remember "eos-update" than "pacman -Syu" along with the equivalent of whichever AUR manager I happen to have installed.
Conclusions
Otherwise, EndeavourOS appears to have remained the same as it was when I reviewed it last year. The packages are a little newer, but otherwise the distribution appears to retain its usual good performance and stability.
EndeavourOS 2026.03.06 -- Exploring the Cinnamon application menu
(full image size: 900kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
I can't say that I noticed any difference in features when I was using the system installer. The improvements and driver support do not appear to have impacted me one way or another. This seems, to me, to be a good thing. The team have managed to add some additional support and features without them showing up on the surface. I did try out the new eos-hwtool and it did detect my system's equipment. It didn't provide me with much information, and nothing I couldn't get from other tools, but it did work and I like it when new tools function properly without causing any problems.
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Visitor supplied rating
pearOS has a visitor supplied average rating of: 6.7/10 from 3 review(s).
Have you used pearOS? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Arch Linux adjusts firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its lifecycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves CPU scheduler
The Arch Linux project is making a change to the distribution's firewall packages, reflecting the evolving backend for firewall rules. An announcement by the project reports: "The old iptables-nft package name is replaced by iptables, and the legacy backend is available as iptables-legacy. When switching packages (among iptables-nft, iptables, iptables-legacy), check for .pacsave files in /etc/iptables/ and restore your rules if needed: • /etc/iptables/iptables.rules.pacsave • /etc/iptables/ip6tables.rules.pacsave. Most setups should work unchanged, but users relying on uncommon xtables extensions or legacy-only behavior should test carefully and use iptables-legacy if required."
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The i486 CPU architecture has been around for over 35 years. While a popular CPU in its day, the architecture has long since been replaced by more modern 32-bit and 64-bit processors. Kernel developer Ingo Molnar has suggested it is time to drop i486 support from Linux. "In the x86 architecture we have various complicated hardware emulation facilities on x86-32 to support ancient 32-bit CPUs that very very few people are using with modern kernels. This compatibility glue is sometimes even causing problems that people spend time to resolve, which time could be spent on other things."
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The recent news that Linux may be dropping support for the i486 CPU architecture has some people contemplating just how long software should be supported. Red Hat has an answer for this query: up to 14 years. "The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Life Cycle, Premium subscription provides extended maintenance, offering up to a 14-year lifecycle for a major version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Extended maintenance: Beyond the standard 10-year support and maintenance lifecycle, this offering provides an additional 4 years of extended maintenance after the last minor release of a major version."
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The Debian project (and its child distributions) use the APT package manager for handling classic Deb packages. The APT tool has received a significant update, with version 3.2 including rollback, undo, and redo functionality. The Linuxiac website shares details: "APT 3.2 is now the latest stable version of Debian's package manager. The primary enhancement is expanded history functionality, which introduces several new commands: apt history-rollback - rolls package changes back to an earlier transaction; apt history-list - shows a list of previous package transactions; apt history-info - shows detailed information about a specific transaction; apt history-undo - reverses a specific transaction; apt history-redo - repeats a previously undone transaction." A complete list of recent changes to the APT package manager can be found in the utility's changelog.
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The Redox project has published its monthly newsletter for March 2026. There have been a number of significant changes in Redox OS over the past month. One of the changes is an improvement to the process scheduler: "Akshit Gaur implemented a new CPU scheduler to reduce idle processes stealing CPU time from active processes, and to improve system performance with better CPU time distribution. He enabled nice from uutils, and implemented a Redox version of renice to allow changes to process priority. Here's an article about his work." The newsletter contains a detailed look at the key changes to the operating system.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Which distributions are adopting age verification?
Never-ask-a-user-their-age asks: Which distributions have implemented age verification? How can we tell which ones are likely to do so?
DistroWatch answers: At the time of writing, so far as I know, there are no Linux distributions running age verification code*. The relevant laws are still fairly young (and haven't taken effect), so it will likely be a few more months before we start seeing many new releases with any sort of age verification code enabled. The MidnightBSD project has committed code which can be used for age declaration and it is one of the few open source operating systems to include age declaration code in a new release.
I'd like to clarify something about the new age tracking laws and the code meant to comply with them. While all of these new laws (and new software changes to comply with the laws) tend to get lumped together under the umbrella term of "age verification", there are some key distinctions to be made.
Age declaration is what happens when the computer's operating system reports whatever age the user tells it to share. If I say that I was born in the year 2000 then the operating system's age declaration code will report that I am 26.
Age verification is age declaration with an added step. Age verification requests proof from the user rather than just blindly accepting and reporting what the user tells the computer. Age verification typically requires the user to supply some form of identification (photo ID, birth certificate, or passport) in order to confirm the user's age.
While both age verification and age declaration are problematic because they track users and reduce privacy, the former is much more invasive. It will also have a higher level of fallout when the databases holding the age verification information are breached. Some users may not care if an app knows their age, but a user will probably care about hackers having a copy of their driver's license with their photo, and address.
I'd also like to point out that a distribution may include age declaration (or verification) features, but use of those features might not be enforced. The systemd project has come under fire in recent weeks for implementing code for storing age information in response to the new laws. This code provides a mechanism for reporting, but it will be up to the individual distributions whether they enforce the use of the collection and reporting of age-related information or other identifying details about the user.
Put another way, a Linux distribution can include the ability to declare the user's age, but this does not mean it enforces the practice. Soon all distributions running systemd will have the capability of providing age declaration tracking for applications, but the distributions can decide whether they want to use it, just like any other of the dozens of systemd features.
As to which distributions are likely to implement some form of age declaration in the future, it's difficult to say with any certainty. It's likely that all commercial distributions will implement age declaration and/or verification eventually as they will want to continue doing businesses in regions with age verification laws. Probably most distributions based in the United States and Brazil (two leaders in age verification laws) will implement some form of age declaration.
People wishing to run distributions that are unlikely to implement age verification will probably want to look at community-run projects which do not have lead developers living in the aforementioned countries. Community projects, particularly smaller ones, do not have a financial incentive to enable spying on their users. Those projects outside of Brazil and the United States are not bound by the laws of those countries, making their developers immune from the non-compliance fines.
* - After writing this I discovered BigLinux has created age declaration tools.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
deepin 25.1.0
The deepin project, which develops a Debian-based Linux distribution with a custom-built Deepin Desktop Environment, has announced the release of deepin 25.1.0. The new build upgrades the Linux kernel to version 6.18 and introduces new artificial intelligence features: "As an open-source operating system that shines in the global rankings on DistroWatch and is widely recognized by users worldwide, deepin has been continuously listening to your feedback since the release of deepin 25. We've been refining details, fixing issues, and introducing innovations. Today, we are excited to announce that the deepin 25.1.0 images are officially released. This update deeply empowers productivity, bringing a system-level reconstruction and ecological expansion to UOS AI. The newly launched system-level native Claw mode fully integrates with mainstream IM application interfaces such as Lark, DingTalk, and QQ. Users can use natural language commands to let AI automatically control the computer to complete complex system tasks. AI writing agent reconstruction: deep feeding and outline first - supports directly uploading local reference materials and document outlines...." Continue to the release announcement, available in simplified Chinese and English, for further details.
Trisquel GNU/Linux 12.0
Rubén Rodríguez has announced the release of Trisquel GNU/Linux 12.0, a major update of the project's "libre" distribution built for home users, small enterprises and educational centers. The new version is based on the long-term supported Ubuntu 24.04: "We are proud to announce the release of Trisquel 12.0 'Ecne'. After extensive work and thorough testing, 'Ecne' is ready for production use. Trisquel 12.0 ships with APT 3.0, enabling us to fully adopt the modern deb822 repository format across all installation paths. The 'netinstall' (for text-based installation and advanced users), Ubiquity (for graphical installation from a live system), as well as Synaptic and other package-management tools have been updated to use the new repository formats. The kernel remains one of our biggest engineering challenges with every release. For 'Ecne', we focused on making our kernel changes more modular, substantially reducing breakage in the udeb components used during installation." See the release announcement for more details.
Trisquel GNU/Linux 12.0 -- Running the MATE desktop
(full image size: 3.4MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 3,420
- Total data uploaded: 49.9TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
What desktop layout do you prefer?
This week, in our Feature Story, we touched upon pearOS. This distribution is one of a few which tries to copy the desktop style of macOS. Other distributions, such as Zorin OS seek to copy the Microsoft Windows layout and theme. Meanwhile some distributions run desktops which are distinctly different from either of these commercial designs. This week we would like to hear about your preferred desktop style - which is your favourite?
You can see the results of our previous poll on age verification's impact on distribution choice in our previous edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 20 April 2026. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Weekly Archive and Article Search pages. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • PearOS (by Devlin7 on 2026-04-13 00:37:32 GMT from New Zealand)
Classic! "Seeing what a terrible state the live session was in and calculating that it would take longer to install the distribution than it would take my laptop to shut itself down to avoid overheating, I decided to look at another project."
2 • Desktop layout I prefer (by GruntZ on 2026-04-13 01:04:22 GMT from Canada)
I'm still using Compiz + Emerald, with XFCE base, organised with upper panel (menu + status) and bottom dock (I use Plank because of AWN death :'(
The time spent fine-tuning "your" interface to match your habits shouldn't be wasted, so why change it?
That's why I hate the post-GTK2 changes to window organization, menus, and buttons.
Routine is not a flaw; it is the key to mastery, and therefore to productivity.
3 • Age Declaration/Verification (by PostSystemD on 2026-04-13 02:00:57 GMT from United States)
SystemD again. ****ing typical. Wake up tech nerds. Do you see where this is going yet?
Just say No.
4 • APT changes (by InvisibleInk on 2026-04-13 02:06:34 GMT from United States)
It is pretty wondrous, The Debian System. Looking at the change-log reveals a blizzard of highly-organized, yet often semi-autonomous contributors, characterized by their actions.
This is the cutting-edge Salsa project's APT team at work. Fascinating stuff.
5 • Desktop layout (by John on 2026-04-13 02:32:47 GMT from Canada)
At the time I voted I am surprised my pick, "different (non-commercial)", was a bit ahead. I was and am still expectation is MACOS will end up #1. But I am one of the first to vote.
Depending on screen size, I flip between FVWM, Fluxbox, cwm. With FVWM for high resolutions and cwm for small resolutions. Fluxbox for mid-size.
As for age validation in the US, as the team of the distro I use believes (hope), I tend to think it will be invalidated eventually in court. But my usual question on age validation I always ask when commenting on it, why is the Linux Foundation being quiet ?
6 • preferred Layout of Desktop (by Always_curious_about_FOSS on 2026-04-13 05:03:58 GMT from Germany)
I appreciate the customization options available on a desktop environment.
That’s why I choose the ones that offer me the most options and the greatest freedom in that regard. For a long time, I used JWM and Openbox on X11.
Currently, I’m exploring the Labwc desktop. Labwc is very similar to Openbox and runs on Wayland. In addition, the Waybar panel is highly customizable and can be styled using CSS, and the Foot terminal offers a wide range of customization options via its foot.ini configuration file.
7 • desktop layout survey (by Joseph on 2026-04-13 05:55:40 GMT from New Zealand)
I voted Windows, but by that I mean 98/XP and not 8/10/11 which are a trainsmash. The Mac UI is interesting, though quirky (top toolbar behaviour). I like DW for showing new releases .. want to look at the new Trisquel, the new Deepin (hey, "AI" - and frankly at this point rather Beijing than Washington thank you).
Customnisation is a biggie for me as well. Cinnamon, KDE, Xfce :)
8 • EndeavourOS Titan (by Bin on 2026-04-13 06:00:22 GMT from United Kingdom)
As a lifelong Debian boy I have been very impressed with EndeavourOS. Ganymeade installer was OK but there have been a number of very welcome changes in the installation process with Titan which have ironed out a few glitches.
Since KDE 6.x arrived I have gone from Plasma nay-sayer to actually really loving Plasma over the last 6 months.The real joy with EOS is getting the new versions as opposed to being stuck behind the curve with Debian etc. Not just eye candy but functonal useful improvements.
OK it is a learning curve with a change to Arch base, but the tools provided by EOS do make it a lot easier to transition and quite frankly with yay who needs a package manager - it will just list all the options for you.
9 • pearOS (by maybe... on 2026-04-13 06:29:25 GMT from Italy)
In Italy we say "a pensar male si fa peccato ma non si sbaglia quasi mai", that you could translate into "thinking evil is a sin but it's true almost all the times". If a distro start behaving way too abnormally just in the beginning, maybe it's (badly) hiding its real actions...
10 • Desktop layout (by tomas on 2026-04-13 08:00:38 GMT from Czechia)
I did not vote because the options seem too limited to me.
Maybe I am too old to change my habits and too lazy to learn not DE based desktops.
Before coming to Linux for many years I used Windows XP setup in the classical W95 not the fancy XP style.
In Linux I configure the desktop as close as possible to that.
Here the Mate desktop is the first option, followed by Trinity and Plasma in closed run.
11 • Desktop layout (by pwplant on 2026-04-13 08:27:35 GMT from Bulgaria)
I voted for "A different (non-commercial) style of desktop". Generally I think free software has huge advantage in this area so much, that following commercial designs simply not worth it.
The three desktops in scope of my attention is KDE Plasma, Cosmic and XFCE. But there is pliantly more projects, that deserve attention. I hope Plasma will not converge to that single paradigm, semi tablet like interface with limited options, that everybody seems to follow.
As for classic DE, my preferences are KDE v3 > KDE v5 > XFCE > GNOME v2 > Win 2K > Mac OS v6 > Win v7.
Mac looks great, but it is not super practical IMO.
12 • Desktop layout: Golden age of Win for the win (by No Rust, no Wayland, better UI on 2026-04-13 10:00:08 GMT from Norway)
Something like Windows, of course. But that isn't specific enough. Something like Windows Vista and 7. (XP was pretty great too, but the start menu was still inferior.)
Stardock sells some great UI/UX overhaul tools called Start8, Start10 and Start11, without which any Windows after 7 are unusable. While those tools are neither free as in speech nor as in beer, on the Linux side we are even more limited.
On GNOME you can combine Dash-to-Panel and ArcMenu to achieve a "good enough" similarity with ease. And Cinnamon used to have something called CinnVIIStarkMenu, which with a bit of tinkering could do more or less the same. But that's about it.
I've seen people managing to get MATE and LXDE (not on Xfce and LXQt though, interestingly) looking "good enough", but I've never managed to reproduce it quite satisfactorily myself. And then the KDE krowd is always going on and on and on about how similar Plasma can look to Windows 7, but I have yet to see anyone manage to get the start menu even remotely right. (I think it can't be done - take that as a challenge, if you like!)
What we need on Linux, are DE overhaul tools like those by Stardock, which just werk out of the box. And they're not there (except maybe one could argue on GNOME). I don't even care if they're proprietary and cost money. They just need to exist.
13 • Desktop Layout (by drlong on 2026-04-13 10:02:43 GMT from United States)
CWM with tint2
14 • EndeavorOS (by tomas on 2026-04-13 10:32:11 GMT from Czechia)
Reading the review I came to the conclusion EOS did not make it for me to try it again.
The devs should realize that Linux will not gain on popularity (market share) until it gets rid of the "only for tinkerers and computer freaks" sticker.
To achieve that it should have a good installer, update notifier and software manager, maybe an easy tool to configure the desktop.
There are some examples of that, from those I know about, Mint is the best, maybe Artix and Manjaro come next, for the rest something is missing.
15 • PearOS (by Carl on 2026-04-13 10:56:20 GMT from France)
Every time I hear about PearOS it's always bad. This distribution might be doing harm to the community, I imagine very well a new user trying it out because they advertise a MacOS experience featuring not only a similar interface but also some kind of "cloud".
16 • Poll: (by dragonmouth on 2026-04-13 11:15:31 GMT from United States)
Linux is neither Windows nor macOS. Therefore it should nor try to look like those two O/Ss. It should maintain its own identity. Neither Windows nor macOS make any effort to look or work like Linux. If I want my desktop to look like Windows or macOS, I will use Windows or macOS not some ersatz Linux look alike. I did not switch to Linux to have it look like Windows or macOS.
BTW - I use Trinity DE.
17 • Desktop Layout (by Carlo Alessandro Verre on 2026-04-13 12:38:45 GMT from Italy)
My preferred desktop is XFCE plus wmtile, see https://pypi.org/project/wmtile
18 • Age Verification (by Zyber on 2026-04-13 13:03:13 GMT from United States)
Well it looks like it is time to get offline. This is going to go badly, especially with the new AI tech. I think it is safer to not be online anymore. Too bad. I was there when the internet got started. We had such high hopes. Knowledge at your finger tips, places where people around the world could talk and come together. Well we where idiots for thinking that. It is nothing but a market place now. And a playground for clueless politicians to gather data and control. Believe it or not. I no longer care. The internet is a failure.
19 • Are you kidding? (by ?!? on 2026-04-13 13:25:37 GMT from Italy)
@18 A computer is a machine for processing data. It's always been. Maybe you can't remember when you had to use floppy disks to exchange that, but if Internet is a failure, what should you use that for, if even OS can't be retrieved other than by the network?
20 • DE (by Huckleberry Hiroshima on 2026-04-13 13:26:36 GMT from United States)
@16 Trinity is very much Windows and MacOS looking. I tried to make a point last week about "windows," by Windows. We're using windows in Linux, be it Trinity or Plasma or Fluxbox. It's a windows environment.
"Linux is neither Windows nor macOS. Therefore it should nor try to look like those two O/Ss."
Look again.
21 • @19 (by Zyber on 2026-04-13 13:32:35 GMT from United States)
We can use Ollama, Huggingface, AnythingLLM and many others to get our own personal AI's. or I personally love ollama with a few python scripts. What does this mean? It means I have the knowledge of this AI, its LLM and I dont have to be online for that. So the knowledge part is no longer needed.
And yes I remember using cassette tapes with a tandy 1000, coding basic for hours just to get a little pixelated image to barely move. I loved it. It was all offline. Corporations have made us lazy. Thinking we need to reply on them and them only. I live in a city. I have stores I can go to, physical stores, and support my local economy. So the question is. What do i need the internet for? Not a thing anymore. I will do it myself.
22 • From bad to worse (by ?!? on 2026-04-13 13:43:03 GMT from Italy)
So Zyber, please let me tell you: since you consider the medium (Internet) a failure, you decide to resign from using your own intelligence in favour of an artificial one.
It's up to you, but better dead than that, to me. If I wanted to obey to a machine, I could easily use Magic 8 Ball I keep on my shelf for everything. It's quite cheaper and at least it doesn't go nuts once in a while. I might even use dices from DnD, but I'm not that nerd like my nephew...
Good luck.
23 • Windows? (by wally on 2026-04-13 13:46:57 GMT from United States)
Something like Windows is way too vague given how downhill it has gone with every release.
24 • Desktop layout (by Tim on 2026-04-13 13:48:23 GMT from United States)
I wasn't sure how to answer the poll, so I selected "A different (non-commercial) layout". I use the Awesome window manager, which is both tiling and floating. It has nine workspaces by default, which is plenty for me to organize my usual tasks.
25 • @22 (by Zyber on 2026-04-13 13:58:26 GMT from United States)
Why do you assume I stopped thinking just because I use an AI? I love that tech. Not how it is being used, but the tech itself. An AI should never be used to think for a person. It should be used as a tool, like a calculator, to gather info, help one sort through their own thoughts, research, etc. One should never go by what an AI says as the final, correct truth. Approach and view is important. AI's are all over now. Answering phone, along side you with most, not all, bu most search engines. It is forced on phones. This approach is wrong and will result in major failure. However an offline AI, an extension of the human not a replacement, has the training data on their LLM. So If I need info on say, world war 2, it has this info. It is a talking encyclopedia. AI's are here to stay. Why not use it our own way rather then being forced to use it anothers way?
You are correct though in your general view. But dont assume that is the case for all. Most people will use it to think for them. Individuals, non herd thinking people, wont. Being online right now with the new AI threat, and I mean not AI itself but how others are using or abusing this, is not a smart idea. Now computers will be broadcasting age and other info at the OS level? This is a very bad combo. Once these politicians get their foot in the door, as always they will keep at it, Taking away even more privacy and freedom. So no, not worth it. But I have to ask. Why worry about AI's by themselves, and not the collective of all that is going on, and already has with cloud breaches, etc.
26 • Why do I assume you stopped thinking just because you use an AI? (by ?!? on 2026-04-13 14:04:04 GMT from Italy)
Because you decided to use an AI for replacing the global data network. You might have decided to get off the train at all and I would have understood that, even if it'd have been a bitter end. But your point of view sounds like a surrender.
Freedom is what we have to fight for day after day, not something we should give for granted nor lost.
27 • Windows-like (by Friar Tux on 2026-04-13 14:09:12 GMT from Canada)
My preference is Windows like. Mostly because of muscle memory. When I had Windows (95 and XP) I also used a secondary task bar/panel, at the top of the screen, called WinExt. It work as a place to keep my most used short cuts. (I hated shortcuts all over my desktop screen.) When I switched to Linux, the best DE I found was Cinnamon. It allowed me to place a second task bar/panel at the top without having to download a separate app/program to do so. (There are now other DEs that allow that.) At this point, I'm so used to the setup that I can let my finger go to work while my mind is elsewhere.
If/when I want something totally different in a DE I usually go with Eagle Mode. It's a zoomable desktop manager that doesn't require a file explorer per se. You just zoom into the file you want. It does have a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it's quite good - for me, anyway.
@18 (Zyber) I have to disagree with you on this one. I took a lesson from the late 1960s, early 1970s, when everyone was using "CB radios" to communicate on the roads. We used call names to, sort of, keep ourselves private to strangers. It seems to work on the Internet as well. As you may have noted, I use "Friar Tux". That's about all the Internet knows of me. That and, maybe, my search history, which is pretty random (on purpose). (I do have another identity I use but it, too, is quite limited.) And I have a third identity that is strictly for Facebook and very limited as well. The Internet does not know the real me.
28 • @26 (by Zyber on 2026-04-13 14:14:07 GMT from United States)
Not a very detailed reply. The global data network. Define that? What does that mean to you? The global data network, Ahhh, I get what you mean. The collective hive mind. Well I think that says it all. I want knowledge, but I will think for myself. What else is there that the internet offers that is worth this hassle, this insanity?
29 • Desktop layout, @20 W(w)indows, Age declaration (by Nobody on 2026-04-13 14:14:39 GMT from United States)
@20- "I tried to make a point last week about "windows," by Windows." To be accurate, the "WIMP" paradigm (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointing devices) was introduced in the Xerox Alto, developed in 1973 at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). It was copied by Microsoft, Apple and others. I don't think anyone is claiming to use a different paradigm that does not include (lower case) windows, only that the components, placement and functions are arranged and work in different ways with which we may be more comfortable.
For my use, with the width of modern monitors (16:9 on mine), I value vertical space more than horizontal, so I don't want panels, bars or docks at top or bottom intruding into the space. I place a panel on the left holding the system tray, clock, menu, a task manager showing only running apps, and a menu launcher icon/widget. This panel remains always visible. At bottom I use a second panel/dock with launchers for frequently used apps, and widgets/launchers for power, sleep, etc. This panel is set to dodge windows. This way I can use all available vertical space. I've been setting up like that for many years with different DEs. Now I'm on Plasma 6, which does the job better for me and looks good doing it.
@Jesse- Great that you point out the distinction between declaration and verification. I think the fear is that declaration will surely turn into required verification at OS level as time passes.
30 • Age Verification on Linux (by JKL on 2026-04-13 14:18:35 GMT from United States)
It’s Linux, I think it would be trivial to deactivate the age verification system if you could deactivate most parts of the system as well or uninstall the packages. If it is made to be painful, then move to another distro. That’s the power of choices and open source distros. Though, I wonder if programs or sites don’t have access to a “system,” would it mean that they would assume you aren’t a verified adult and restrict you? Who knows. At least in Cali’s case, the laws seem to have a lot of holes and the corpos will fill them with whatever is convenient for them.
31 • @27 (by @27 on 2026-04-13 14:18:50 GMT from United States)
Yes, I do much as well for my own privacy. But when you have these politicians forcing your os to broadcast your age, or other info security and privacy is less or non existent. I use to have as ham radio license, when Morse code was still a requirement, and the licenses where a bit different as well. Maybe we need to get back to all of that. Maybe even CBs to communicate. Maybe even some local, county or small group, infrastructure. Mini networks by the people, for the people. Ham style, towers and all.
32 • Zyber, are you happy with your choice? (by ?!? on 2026-04-13 14:21:03 GMT from Italy)
So, full stop. Period. Don't worry and be happy.
I don't think I need to explain to somebody why abandoning Internet (which is just a device, not the mind which uses it) for an algorythm simply doesn't make sense. If you keep asking me for, either you're searching a quarrel, or you really need some(body/thing) else to think at your place. I hope for the former, but don't need one.
33 • Desktop Layout (by JKL on 2026-04-13 14:26:31 GMT from United States)
Honestly, I don’t really care too much about layout as long as it is coherent and easy to use, but I bias away from imitation desktops that copy the looks and aesthetics of others. At the same time, I switch often between desktops and WM’s, and haven’t decided on a favorite. Though you get more power with WM’s, mainstream desktops like GNOME and KDE usually offer much better usability and performance, especially on Wayland (with less missing features).
34 • Ok. note to all. (by Zyber on 2026-04-13 14:29:21 GMT from United States)
I am not hearing arguments to my words, only what one thinks about my choices. Those who know what I mean, will say nothing. I have said what I needed to. There is no more to say. reread all my posts and it will answer all your questions and comments here on out. Hope everyone has a good day. I am out.
35 • Tiling WM (by Sasi on 2026-04-13 14:44:40 GMT from India)
I use gnome (on Debian Testing) with PaperWM extension. It's doing its job very well. And I don't need to look for anything else for the near future. I have decided to settle down here after testing so many WMs including the Hyprland.
36 • Desktop Environment (by Bobbie Sellers on 2026-04-13 15:12:05 GMT from United States)
I have been using KDE's Desktop Environment for about 20 years since before they added Plasma-like features in 4.x and right now 6.6.4. I did try other desktops, Mate 2.4 and
XFCE back when Mandriva featured all 3 on the Install DVD.
I used try out the various other DE later but KDE can imitate all most
all the other DE and is more transparent for people who are learning
about Linux. What I do with it is a poor imitation of AmigaOS which
I used for several years before GNU/Linux came into my life..
bliss- Dell Precision 7730- PCLOS 2026.04- Linux 6.12.81 pclos1- KDE Plasma 6.6.4
37 • i486 (by grindstone on 2026-04-13 15:50:42 GMT from United States)
Saw that comment regarding RH 14 years of support as well. 14 years is only a long time to children :) It's not Ingo's fault, obsolescence in service of ever-increasing bloat is The Way and never seems to change despite clear failures of the premises underpinning the choices.
38 • Pear OS? (by Mike on 2026-04-13 16:07:45 GMT from United States)
Maybe a better name would be Pear-Shaped OS.
39 • Preferred Layout of Desktop (by JD on 2026-04-13 16:24:02 GMT from Italy)
I prefer desktop environments that look similar to Windows (such as KDE). There’s no need to be afraid of emulating the look of the most widely used commercial operating system: what matters is what’s under the bonnet, not the bodywork.
40 • 'preferred layout' (by Dave Postles on 2026-04-13 17:44:10 GMT from United Kingdom)
I always place the panel at the top and Plank at the bottom with startup privilege.
41 • Preferred deskto layout (by Jyrki on 2026-04-13 18:14:01 GMT from Czechia)
I just can't make myself comfortable with the way MacOS look and feel, so I ignore anything that imitate it.
I am also not fond of classic Windows UI tough it's much more suitable for me. Nowadays I use XFCE set up the way I like it, it does exactly what I want and is sufficiently customizable so I don't need to look for anything else. Before XFCE, my fave DE was WPS in OS/2 and KDE1
42 • Desktop layout (by the oneirocrat on 2026-04-13 18:34:57 GMT from Portugal)
Berry window manager with conky and rofi.
43 • Trisquel (by Paul on 2026-04-13 21:45:22 GMT from Sweden)
Congratulations to the developers and users of the most popular Free Software-only distribution! Keep up the good work.
44 • Desktop layout (by Keith S on 2026-04-13 22:39:48 GMT from United States)
I agree with @29 in preferring vertical space to horizontal, probably because when I first started using computers most monitors were 4:3 aspect ratio, not the 16:9 setup made for movies. More vertical space is better for handling text, which is what I mostly interact with on computers.
When I first started, everything was command line on a terminal connected to a mainframe. Then at work there was a period where CDE was the hot new thing. My first PC was in '92 or '93, using Windows 3.11. I used all the Windows systems up to XP (my personal favorite), then also had limited use of Win 10 and 11 for a time, though not at all now for several years. I dislike the old gray Windows look and feel though and would never think of trying to emulate it on a Linux or BSD machine.
@17, wmtile looks interesting and immediately reminded me of making a cwm config. From time to time I have used cwm and Fvwm, though I think I may have lost my configuration files and most of the muscle memory that made them so useful. For the last ten years I have mostly used XFCE with a vertical bar on the right hand side (since I'm very right-handed). I might have to give wmtile a go. It is nice to not need to reach for a mouse.
45 • Windows Icons Menus Pointing devices (by Keith S on 2026-04-13 23:15:00 GMT from United States)
@20 & @29 Dedoimedo made a great point in one of his distro reviews that there has been no real innovation in desktop environments for at least 20 years. KDE and Gnome and XFCE and Cinnamon and Mate and all the rest are really basically the same DE, just with different tweaks for where the docks and menus land. (I'm paraphrasing and probably summarizing too sharply.)
The interesting area for me this past year has been on my phone. I have something like 200 apps on my phone that all want their own icon. I spent the last year searching for and finding a good launcher (as DEs are called in Android-world) and then tweaking what amounts to a super menu combined with a dozen icons and widgets. Two screens (plus a notes screen that I rarely use). Any app I want with one or two taps and one swipe at most. No hunting for some icon that looks like a dozen others. Reminds me of the very old days before windows became the default paradigm when everything was text on a terminal with a menuing system and an option to type a command. (Remember, don't hit 'X' unless you mean it or you'll waste 10 minutes getting logged back in!)
46 • @18 Zyber (by Keith S on 2026-04-14 00:14:00 GMT from United States)
I agree, though I say the internet was a mistake, more than a failure. What has it improved with regard to quality of life? Nothing, at least as far as I can see.
47 • @28- The irony of it all gives me hives. (by Nobody on 2026-04-14 01:04:49 GMT from Philippines)
@28- "The collective hive mind. Well I think that says it all. I want knowledge, but I will think for myself. What else is there that the internet offers that is worth this hassle, this insanity?" And yet, you're posting, on an internet website, engaging in argument with others which, for all you really know, may be bots or AI agents. Aren't you now part of the "collective hive mind"?
48 • Quality of life... (by Friar Tux on 2026-04-14 01:13:03 GMT from Canada)
@46 (Keith S) "What has it improved with regard to quality of life?" Wow... where have you been? My laptop is my everything - appointment calendar, reading library, writing tool, note book, recipe book, family communication center, planner, dictionary, and my go to for bill paying, shopping, take out ordering, income tax filing, and much, much more. I use it to travel the world (virtually), keep up to date on astronomy, archeology, technology, etc.. No, I'm not physically handicapped but I cannot physically go to all the places I would have to go to do the research I want to do. Also, if I had to physically collect all the literature I read, I would need to live in one of Amazon's giant warehouses. (My condo is a cozy 900 square feet.) The Internet has given me the world right in my cozy little condo. I don't even own a car anymore. So, yeah, massive quality of life, here!
49 • @34 Zyber- Ok. note to all. AI (by Claude (Not that one.) on 2026-04-14 01:59:06 GMT from United States)
"It is a talking encyclopedia." Sure. An encyclopedia needing local storage that can't be updated and has no access to most and/or current information unless it's online.
I use AI, more than one. No apologies, no excuses, no reasons that I need to explain to others. And yes, they are online! I tried DeepSeek out of curiosity a while back. I asked some questions. Sometimes it gave me dated answers. I asked why, and I got this back: "Sorry, I have not been trained on these subject since 2023." So, it had stopped learning. (Reminds me of many humans.) That's the problem with offline. I used to have Britannica, several dictionaries, and many other reference books. Now I have Internet. It suffices and exceeds.
For searching, I've replaced my standard Google search bar with Gemini. Example: The other day I was installing openSUSE MicroOS Kalpa. I needed a refresher on enabling QEMU and installing Virt-Manager. Asking DuckDuckGo will work. It will show me SUSE's portals and their excellent documentation, and I can scroll and click to find the instructions. Or I can ask Gemini and get point-by-point instructions front and center. No clicking. No scrolling. Where did Gemini get the info? SUSE portals of course. Am I too lazy to make the effort? Damn right! Does it dull my brain and keep me from thinking? No more than the power steering on my car make my arms flaccid.
50 • desktop poll (by A drangleic hobbit on 2026-04-14 03:39:16 GMT from Chile)
I answered Windows just because I'm a big fan of the desktop metaphor. Windows 95/98 was what I started with and while xp and seven were really good I've always ha a soft spot, a longing for those pixel perfect sharp corners, square everything, no stacked tasksbar items, tree-view start menu instead of having me click on the start menu just to make me switch to the keyboard to search for a program, like a savage. I switched to Lubuntu around 2014 or 2015, to keep my senile pentium 4 working in the mines. They were still using lxde and it was glorious. Lxqt was messy when they first implemented it but I've grown to like it even if I don't use ubuntu anymore.
That said, I like mxlinux's xfce desktop. The taskbar on the left side of the screen works very nicely.
Unity was also incredibly good and very flashy, but it's basically a zombie which is a shame because it's the only way I've ever even remotely tolerated gnome 3 and their california soy-like design language were minimalism isn't proper use of the monitor but rather removing almost every option out of everything and make the two that they trust you not to misuse into a switch that covers the entirety of the monitor widthwise, before they remove the ability to modify those two options, too.
51 • Vertical Values and Various Vectors (by Lisa Wemchatt on 2026-04-14 10:41:33 GMT from Australia)
For those who value vertical monitor space, mount your monitor on a stand that rotates 90 degrees, to give you tons of vertical space with a 9:16 ratio. And call a suitable xrandr command to rotate your display to match the physical rotation.
My favourite DE, so to speak, was RISC-OS, which was light-years ahead of its time. RISC-OS let you save a file by dragging its icon from the application and dropping it into the file manager.
And working from menus in RISC-OS applications was super-fast, because when you right-clicked a menu item, the action was performed, but the menu stayed open, so you could choose several actions in quick succession. Show us a "modern" DE or GUI toolkit that can do this...!
52 • @27 Friar Tux: (by dragonmouth on 2026-04-14 10:52:52 GMT from United States)
¨The Internet does not know the real me. ¨
ROTFLMAO!
I¨m glad you think so. Internet knows more about you than you know about yourself, including what you had for dinner on Friday three years ago. It even knows the brand and size of your tidy whities. :-)
53 • @52 dragonmouth- Internet fears (by Claude (Not that one) on 2026-04-14 12:05:11 GMT from United States)
"Internet knows more about you than you know about yourself, including what you had for dinner on Friday three years ago." Assuming you're right, and I very much doubt it, I don't think anyone out there cares what I or the Friar had for dinner today, never mind three years ago Friday. Any non-celebrity who thinks there are masses of people out dying to know about their tidy whities is either paranoid or has a wildly exaggerated idea about their own importance.
54 • The problem is not the medium (by ?!? on 2026-04-14 12:58:55 GMT from Italy)
@53 The problem is not the instrument, it's the will for abusing it. I do suppose that somebody could eventually discover what Friar Tux had for dinner on Friday three years ago, but it's highly unlikely they would bother. But what if technology let them get that info with no or little cost?
Some weeks ago, a workmate of mine had to come back to Italy through an unplanned flight plan with a stop in a Chinese main terminal. He forgot he had left a matchbox in his knapsack while at duty-free, but local authorities tracked him and prevented him from boarding without seeking and getting rid of that. All thanks to a capillary AI-aided video/audio surveillance which really could have found a needle in a haystack.
If you can know everything about everyone, sooner or later you'll want to.
55 • @51 Vertical space (by Keith S on 2026-04-14 13:11:01 GMT from United States)
Yes, that works for the desktop at home and our new desktop computer has a nice swivel on the mount to make it easy. But it does nothing to help out laptops that have also adapted 16:9 or something close to that. I think there are a few laptops that use WUXGA aspect ratio for a premium, and in fact, I plan to search for that in a year or two when I replace my current laptop.
56 • @48 Quality of life (by Keith S on 2026-04-14 13:21:47 GMT from United States)
I agree that the development of the internet has made life very convenient in many ways. My argument is that convenience does not equal quality of life. When I think back to my youth, before the internet had any real impact on daily life, what I recall is that people were much more connected to each other. The people who were the age that I am now had much more active social lives than my cohort does today. How many friends do you have that you see at least once a week to have real conversations? How familiar are you with your family members hopes and dreams and fears? I know that I am not as well-rounded in that sense as my parents' generation or my grandparents' generation.
57 • WIMP (by Huckleberry Hiroshima on 2026-04-14 13:45:00 GMT from United States)
@29 yeppers... well explained as to the root of the Windows exploiting/developing windows/icons/menus/pointing devices as GUI.
@45 Dedoimedo's assessment of the windows situation sounds pretty close to a portion of my point about it all. That about phones you're saying there is interesting as we include touchscreens in the discussion now. I'd say that's one light ray of evolution with (lower case) windows, although I do recall the file dragging and dropping with the special pen-like device on screens at work in 1990.
58 • What is your preferred desktop layout? (by Carson on 2026-04-14 14:32:22 GMT from Canada)
@16
"BTW - I use Trinity DE."
So then you fall under "something like windows" 🤦♂️
59 • Preferred desktop layout (by greenjeans on 2026-04-14 15:32:10 GMT from United States)
Openbox, with Tint2. The Crunchbang legacy lives on long after the distro is gone, that sensibility still guides a lot of what I do.
I also mess with Mate frequently, way back in the day gnome2 helped me transition from windows xp to Linux, so I have a soft spot for that style of DE.
And of course, 1 panel, at the bottom, lol, sorry but it just works, panels anywhere else just get in the way.
60 • @53: (by dragonmouth on 2026-04-14 17:46:17 GMT from United States)
The problem is NOT that anyone cares or not, the problem is that Internet has that kind of of information. Saying that ¨Internet doesn´t know the real me" is naive because you´d be shocked at what the ¨Internet¨ does know about you.
61 • What is your preferred Desktop layout (by Whattteva on 2026-04-14 18:31:38 GMT from United States)
Contrary to most popular opinions, I actually liked the desktop from Windows Vista with the Aero glass look and that would be my ideal.
For lower-spec computers, I found my best distro/desktop combo, which is FunOS; Ubuntu LTS base with JWM.
62 • Age Verification (by iThink on 2026-04-14 18:52:50 GMT from Canada)
I think every person should be assigned a unique IPv6 address at birth that serves as a permanent network identity, registered with the DNS authourity. When setting up a computer account or connecting through tools like NetworkManager, individuals would authenticate using this identity so their personal IP address becomes the device’s network address, and the authority could verify attributes such as age.
We need a drivers license to drive, we can damn well have an IP address to surf!
63 • Age Veri @62 (by Jupiter on 2026-04-14 21:09:17 GMT from United States)
@62
Sounds like a digital ID but worse, and frankly no thank you. That's not a great idea for us who like having some privacy, I'd rather not have anyone spying on everything that I do, and besides I don't exactly expect you to enforce this all that well considering things like people changing their IP addresses via router, VPNs, and the list goes on. No thanks, only way thats gonna be enforced is by forcing everyone on some closed source nonsense and constantly making sure people only have approved software or simply no internet at all... and oh welcome to North Korea.
No thanks. I'll keep my privacy thank you very much.
64 • netbsd (by rhtoraS on 2026-04-14 23:07:06 GMT from Greece)
New version for net BSD and i realise there are not enough guides on the net. Evene a review from Jesse was okish but what about long guide and after install guide too ? What exist on the web is outdated or limited. I could use it but it is a facts and shows why is the #3 BSD in terms of popularity.
65 • Crunchbung (by rhtoraS on 2026-04-14 23:10:48 GMT from Greece)
@greenjeans @59 you can have this layout on fvwm with fewer resources and a better result. I tried your project but a) i prefere systemD free versions and b) i prefer fvwm over the limited openbox
ps openbox is not that bad but in the end of the day better alternatives exist
66 • @62: (by dragonmouth on 2026-04-15 11:17:02 GMT from United States)
Why take half measures? Why not have everybody be implanted with an ID chip at birth?! That way one chip can be your ID for ALL your transactions.
67 • 486 (by We all float down on 2026-04-15 12:54:56 GMT from The Netherlands)
@37 The excuse to retire 486 on Linux sounds rather lame to me: our glue/memory is rather fragile, it _might_ cause problems again (before _we_ can, I guess).
What ever happened to don't break user space (apart from scrolling back in a framebuffer, dropping a.out...)? Now it's screw these users, we have better things to do (revising the CoC?). Give us the real reason, Red Hat, ru$t can't 486?
@64 Almost a reason to go NetBSD, apart from its weird setup (confusing disk slices, loop devices) and slow pkgsrc scripts. You basically had to edit a single config file (much like /etc/rcS.conf on SliTaz). Did that, came back to the same old sack of device drivers. I fear I'll have to stop being lazy and backtrack, bant, backport to build back better in the future when they'll drop 32-bit Intel entirely.
68 • A.I. (by Huckleberry Hiroshima on 2026-04-15 14:50:20 GMT from United States)
@26 There will come a time, very soon I surmise, when we will not have a choice as to the inclusion or omission of A.I., at least in computing activities, and perhaps in other daily tasks, as we see "smart" items intruding on a lot of aspects of daily living.
Whether you yourself purchase such devices may not be relevant, as they..will..just..be..there.
69 • @54, AIs, UIs, (by Qiki on 2026-04-15 18:11:29 GMT from Canada)
I'm with you @54 - the problems are corruption, self-interest, and stupidity. Corporations, governments, and other ne'er-do-wells keep choosing technology they think might increase their money or power over other technologies that would benefit users. "Uti non abuti."
*If any technology has more minuses than pluses to it, it shouldn't be pursued, let alone advertised as a fix for all the world's problems.*
And speaking of AIs: AI=BS (Today's 'AI' is ML on crack.) AIs are called 'bullshit machines' for good reason.
When an AI can exhibit the reality-based problem-solving abilities that a crow or parrot can exhibit (roughly that of an 8 year old child), I'll consider ML somewhat intelligent. (Today's poseurs need not apply.)
On UIs: Competence comes first, design a close second. I like simple UIs: i3, tilers, LXQt, *Box-ish, dwm-ish. Coherence is beautiful, simplicity is too. (Look at Plan 9.)
Da Vinci got design right: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
UI designs shouldn't slavishly re-implement the past [often commercial] failures of past UIs, either.
Bucky had worthwhile ideas:
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
And ultimately:
"When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty but when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."
Why should Linux compete when it can be so much more?
70 • @62 @66 (by hadji457 on 2026-04-15 20:56:06 GMT from United States)
Let's not give THEM any more ideas!
71 • My preferred layout (by denk_mal on 2026-04-16 07:12:50 GMT from Germany)
My preferred desktop layout is - surprising - Linux!
Especialliy the handling of the window functionallity is not windows like which means all windows have the same decoration and they elements have the same color, size and functions. I dislike the apps that are stealing MY window frame for stuid things like search bars, info buttons, auto-hiding scrollbars or rounded corners.
Or in other words: my computer is a work horse for the daily work and not an Art-Deco style element.
72 • Desktop style (by Jacob Alexander Tice on 2026-04-16 15:37:49 GMT from United States)
As of right now I use Xfce configured to look like GNOME 2.
Number of Comments: 72
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| • Issue 1168 (2026-04-13): pearOS 2026.03, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, which distros are adopting age verification, Arch adjusts its firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its release cycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves its scheduler |
| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
| • Issue 1166 (2026-03-30): NetBSD jails, publishing software for Linux, Ubuntu joins Rust Foundation, Canonical plans to trim GRUB features, Peppermint works on new utilities, PINE64 shows off open hardware capabilities |
| • Issue 1165 (2026-03-23): Argent Linux 1.5.3, disk space required by Linux, Manjaro team goes on strike, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA driver support and builds RISC-V packages, systemd introduces age tracking |
| • Issue 1164 (2026-03-16): d77void, age verification laws and Linux, SUSE may be for sale, TrueNAS takes its build system private, Debian publishes updated Trixie media, MidnightBSD and System76 respond to age verification laws |
| • Issue 1163 (2026-03-09): KaOS 2026.02, TinyCore 17.0, NuTyX 26.02.2, Would one big collection of packages help?, Guix offers 64-bit Hurd options, Linux communities discuss age delcaration laws, Mint unveils new screensaver for Cinnamon, Redox ports new COSMIC features |
| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
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