FOSS News Interviews

Distro News DN 1 – SystemD Free Distros For Those Who Want Full Freedom and Privacy Last week, I mentioned SystemD as being problematic in relation to privacy, this week, we are going to talk about a handful of options (and there really are just a handful of viable options at this point). Some of these are almost bespoke in their uniqueness, such as Chimera Linux. Others are so hard to use that I can’t suggest them to anyone (Void, Gentoo, Alpine, Venom, KISS, Slackware). Devuan, Peppermint, Nitrux Linux, Artix, AntiX, and PCLinuxOS are usable, but each have their quirks and things to be aware of. This will wind up being a listicle of sorts, based on another listicle, but with my own thoughts about each. I will order them from most user friendly to least. 1) Peppermint Devuan a. This is an older, intentionally lightweight distro, built for webapps, something along the lines of ChromeOS. It is very performant, and just works, even for gaming, a bit. It was recently rebased from Ubuntu to Debian/ Devuan. We are concerned with the Devuan base, here, as Debian has a systemD problem. Being based on Devuan, you can choose at install time whether you want OpenRC, dinit, runit, or SysVinit. All that said, this, coupled with ease of install and ease of use causes this one to rise to the top. https://peppermintos.com/guide/downloading/ 2) Devuan a. This is Debian minus SystemD. Whatever problems you might have installing vanilla Debian, you will probably have with Devuan. It is usable, but many things are broken out of the box. It, like many, later in the list, is meant for advanced users. You can check it out and download if you wish, here: https://www.devuan.org/os/ 3) Nitrux Linux a. This one runs on OpenRC, but has significant UI issues, because even the currently default NX Desktop (based on KDE) has stability issues (for example, it uses Latte Dock for the bottom dock configuration, and it crashes multiple times per minute). They are also working on their own desktop, which I have mentioned in the past, called Maui Desktop. This is a promising project, as it is meant to provide convergence between desktop and mobile UI, but is a far cry from being done, yet. https://nxos.org/ 4) AntiX a. If you don’t want to be preached at from the Communist Manifesto, don’t bother with this one. It is based on Debian Stable, but only offers a series of window managers, as this is a super lightweight option. It gives you the choice of either SysVinit or runit for an init system, and has 0 systemd garbage in it. Read up more on it here: https://antixlinux.com/about/ 5) PCLinuxOS a. This one is an indie. It uses APT (from Debian) to access curated rpm packages (from Fedora), ships with a choice of the usual suspects in terms of desktop environments, and runs SysVinit rather than systemd, which is why this is on the list. 6) MX Linux a. Related, somehow, to AntiX, but not truly systemd-free, unfortunately. The devs simply chose to use sysVinit to do the actual init tasks at boot, but once you are into the desktop, it switches over to systemd. Other than that, it is probably the most polished and easy to use so far, but it doesn’t technically belong on this list, though. https://mxlinux.org 7) Artix Linux a. Our only Arch based option today, as it is vanilla Arch, with a GUI installer, and no systemd to gum up the works and spy on you. They have opted for choice, so you can use just about any other init system out there, from OpenRC, to Runit, S6, Suite66, elogind or SysVinit. My brother has used this and loves it, currently, even for playing games. Try one of the community versions, whether KDE, GTK (something like Mate), XFCE, Cinnamon, LXDE, LxQt, or Mate. It should install cleanly, and you should have any DE (other than GNOME) to choose from, so if you like Arch more than Debian, this may be your best option on the list. Check it out here: https://artixlinux.org/download.php 8) Chimera Linux a. Complex blend of the Linux kernel with BSD tooling and a focus on building from source. Not user friendly, but at least starts with the option of running GNOME. Uses dinit for init and service management. Do not recommend for an inexperienced user. (this will be a refrain for the rest of this piece) Take a look at it here: https://chimera-linux.org/ 9) GoboLinux a. Another indie effort, this time with a novel approach to the file system, so every package/app gets its own subtree in the file system. This one is another that emphasizes on building from source, rather than providing end-user pre-packaged binaries (.deb, .rpm, etc). It runs SysVinit for init. It sounds intriquiging, but I don’t know that I would ever really try it, much less suggest it to anyone. https://gobolinux.org/index.html#content 10) Venom Linux a. Focused on being lightweight and giving users a choice between init systems: sysV and Runit are your options here. It is another source-built distro, thus is not meant for new users. However, if you can roll Void or Gentoo successfully, then this should be more or less up your alley. https://venomlinux.org/ 11) KISS Linux a. Not named for Gene Simmons’ band... but for Keep It Simple, Stupid. This is a meta-distro. If that takes you aback, then it ain’t for you. If it makes you curious, then this might actually mean something to you: its repos are meant to be an extensible base for you to build on. This looks to be terminal only, at least in the beginning. Not user friendly. In order to use it, you actually wind up learning how to maintain the distro, which is designed to be doable by a team of 1. https://kisslinux.org/ 12) Slackware a. This is a truly venerable distro. It is the oldest that has been consistently developed, yes, older than Debian even. They just had a new release on Thursday, and switched to a rolling release model, run sysVinit and defaults to KDE for ease of use. It doesn’t obscure anything, which makes sense with the choice to roll with KDE, which pulls very few punches, itself. Check it out, in all its glory here: http://www.slackware.com/getslack/ 13) Tiny Core Linux a. This is ultra minimalistic. The smallest on the list, by a good deal. A full install can be as small as 23 MB. It is designed to live in RAM, no matter how you try to run it. It uses Busybox for init, and is lightning fast because it is all in RAM and has next to nothing to it. Check it out here: http://tinycorelinux.net/welcome.html 14) Gentoo Linux a. This one is all about building from source. Runs OpenRC for init. If you can get it running. Connor can tell you about how non-friendly this distro is. It can be excellent, once you have time and patience to learn portage, the package manager, which build EVERYTHING from source. https://www.gentoo.org/ 15) Void Linux a. Another build-from-source indie distro. Runit is their init of choice, I know of a few people who swear by Void, for anything but gaming. Not user friendly. https://voidlinux.org/ 16) Alpine Linux a. I’m going to let Connor take this one, entirely. He recently joined their dev team, and is positively goofy over this distro. In short, it is an indie distro meant for servers and IoT devices, so it is minimalistic, though you can easily install most of the major desktop environments using a simple script after you install the rest of the system. I have both done it successfully and failed miserably. It is something of a crapshoot, depending on your hardware and which version you choose (my experience). It runs OpenRC and busybox, may not be AS small as Tiny Core, but is still much smaller than the average mainstream offering. https://alpinelinux.org/ https://itsfoss.com/systemd-free-distros/ #distronews #systemd #nosystemd4me #alpine #void #artixlinux #listicle #TechFreedom #FOSSNews Freedom Consultation Free call. 60-90 minutes. Q&A Leave with Actionable Steps to take, whether you work with me or not. Schedule today. https://techfreedom.pro/freedom-consultation #distromonday #freedom #consultation #Linux #degoogleyourlife #TechFreedom What Do You Need to Know about Tech Freedom? https://rumble.com/v19elx6-10-things-about-tech-freedom.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #TechFreedom #top10 #explainer #wifeysauce FOSS News FN Special: SystemD and its issues... What started, 15 years ago, as a needed replacement for sysVinit has suffered so much bloat and so much feature creep that the plethora of distros which use it might as well start being called SystemD distros rather than Linux distros. Sure, they still use Mr. Torvalds’ kernel, but so much functionality (in the name of almighty convenience) has been handed over to it that it basically is your system, so when it crashes, so does your system. Connor has something prepared for us, and I will simply chime in during his presentation as I see fit. Connor, would you mind sharing with us now? #FOSSNews #PSA #systemd #Linux #concerned #TechFreedom Want to learn more about how to degoogle your phone and why? https://techfreedom.pro/degoogled/ #TechFreedom #degoogled #degoogleyourlife #defintionsday #Truth How to install GrapheneOS on a Pixel phone: https://rumble.com/v179s8e-how-to-degoogle-your-pixel-3-xl-with-grapheneos.html?mref=2jfr3&mc=anr3y #TechFreedom #techtips #howto #tutorial #Truth How to install GrapheneOS on a Pixel phone: https://tv.gab.com/channel/tech_freedom/view/how-to-degoogle-your-pixel-3xl-629bcda174999572f23b5032 #definitionsthursday #TechFreedom #techtips #howto #tutorial Freed Computer https://techfreedom.pro/freed-computer/ https://techfreedom.pro/free-your-pc #freedcomputer #linux #nospying #safe #TechFreedom #Truth

Fast forward to the 39:00 mark to actually hear something... sorry about the audio issues in the beginning... FOSS News Bullets · Distro News o Update your Ubuntu 22.10 ASAP, its support is ending on July 20. § https://9to5linux.com/ubuntu-22-10-kinetic-kudu-to-reach-end-of-life-on-july-20th-2023 o Debian Bookworm out § Not sexy, but super stable, here are a few highlights · Latest LTS kernel by default · Non-free-firmware repo · APFS Read/Write support o HUGE for anyone wanting to switch from or deal with Macs. · NTFS to BTRFS converter · Over 11000 new packages · Most major desktop environments are available § More info here: · https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/12.0.0/ · https://9to5linux.com/debian-12-bookworm-officially-released-heres-whats-new o Freedom Consultation § Free Call § Actionable steps to set you free · https://techfreedom.pro/freedom-consultation o Ultramarine Linux § Fedora-based distro with a twist to make it a bit more user-friendly § System76 system scheduler § Flagship DE is Budgie · Also available in GNOME, KDE, and Pantheon · GNOME is the only one with a full implementation of the System76 scheduler (manages which processes get to use the CPU and when) · It is present in all 4 options though. § More info here: https://9to5linux.com/ultramarine-linux-38-launches-with-system76s-scheduler-based-on-fedora-38 § Download here: https://ultramarine-linux.org/download/ o openSUSE Leap 15.5 § Franken-distro · New & old pkgs § Highlights · KDE 5.27, added default repositories for OpenH264 video codecs, VIM 9.0, Fully functional Python 3.11 stack, in parallel to the system Python (python36), Improvements to the Kate text editor, Fixes for crashes on Kdenlive, Qt 5.15 LTS netavark 1.5.0, Flatpak 1.14.4, fwupd 1.8.6, Ugrep 3.11.0, Network Manager 1.38.6, Mozilla Firefox 102.9.0, and Thunderbird 102.8.0. § Release Notes: https://en.opensuse.org/Release_announcement_15.5?ref=news.itsfoss.com § Download here: https://get.opensuse.org/leap/15.5/?ref=news.itsfoss.com § Reference: https://news.itsfoss.com/opensuse-15-5-leap/ · FOSS News o Latest in Linux Mobile § Mobian · Now stable on Bookworm · Sounds promising · https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2023/06/10/bookworm/ § PostmarketOS · Alpine Linux based · More rolling than Mobian · Lighter · No systemd · All major, functional mobile DE’s · https://postmarketos.org/ § Capyloon · FirefoxOS, built on top of Mobian · New features o Web Tiles § Immutable: a Tile is a bundle of resources identified using content addressing. Our current implementation uses a tile:// protocol which is similar to the ipfs:// one. § Safe by default: a tile can't fetch foreign content. This is enforced by a default CSP applied to all tile:// url loads. § Powerful: because they can't leak data to external parties, tiles can be granted access to what are usually considered "dangerous" APIs. § Installable and usable offline: being content addressed and local-only, tiles are naturally suited for offline use. § Composable: being installed, tiles can register Web Activities like other installed Capyloon apps. This make them ideal candidates to bridge the Http web with new capabilities. o Peer Discovery § Easier to find other devices on your network now · https://capyloon.org/releases.html#jun-09-2023 § Manjaro Mobile · Still in beta · Plasma Mobile: https://github.com/manjaro-pinephone/plasma-mobile/releases · Phosh: https://github.com/manjaro-pinephone/phosh/releases o OnlyOffice 7.4 § I use it · Compare to Libre Office § Highlights · Drawing Support · Save Docs/Sheets as Images · Plugins Upgrade · Spreadsheet Improvements · Radar Charts · Combine Documents · Save Objects as Pictures § Good stuff · But... Let us tweak the default settings, please § https://news.itsfoss.com/onlyoffice-7-4-release/ o Linus Torvalds Not Conservative § Derides the memeing of “woke” and “communist” § Tells ostensibly conservative guy to pound sand § Mostly libertarian about social issues, other than guns · Lol § I still love linux, even if its creator is a moral and political idiot § https://news.itsfoss.com/linus-torvalds-woke-communists/ · FOSS Fun o Steam Client Updates § Good stuff · Refreshed UI Design · Enable client hardware acceleration · Caveats: not on NVIDIA GPUs, as it can cause x11 to crash · New Compatibility tab to make switching versions of Proton and WINE easier · Improved flatpak app support · Better KDE support o Uses global scaling factor to determine what the scaling should be for Steam · New game overview panel in the in-game overlay · And more § https://9to5linux.com/steam-client-now-lets-you-enable-hardware-acceleration-on-linux o NVIDIA Drivers with Better Wayland Support § Fixed a bug that caused modesets to fail in some Wayland configurations. § Fixed a bug that caused head-mounted displays (HMDs) to display black after a modeset. § Fixed a bug that prevented SLI Mosaic controls from being displayed in the nvidia-settings control panel when using GSP Firmware. § Fixed a bug that could cause image corruption when unbinding Vulkan sparse textures. § Fixed a bug that caused head-mounted displays (HMDs) to display black after a modeset. § https://9to5linux.com/nvidia-535-54-03-linux-graphics-driver-released-with-better-wayland-support § If you want more of a bulleted list, look here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/nvidia-driver-535-54-03-stable-linux/ o Want to get away from Windows? § https://techfreedom.pro/freed-computer/ o Need to Speed Up Your PC? § https://techfreedom.pro/free-your-pc o AMD Progressing Toward Open-sourced Firmware § Starting process § Migrating from AGESA to openSIL § First GitHub release for Proof-of-Concept § https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/amd-reveals-initial-open-source-opensil-code-to-replace-agesa-firmware/ If you want more of my thoughts about these stories, check out my blog:

NUTS Linux Mint Beta Freedom Consultation Red Hat Goes Scrooge OBS Studio Update 4 Best Google Docs Alternatives Degoogled KDE 5.27.6 Xonotic Update SDL 2.28 Released Freedom Overhaul DREAMM, Now with Linux Support Big Show, FOSS News, Distro News, Tech Freedom, FOSS Fun Distro News DN 1 – NUTS (Nitrux OS Update Tool System) · Awwww nuts · What’s it do? · Where do I get it? https://9to5linux.com/nitrux-devs-make-it-easier-to-upgrade-your-immutable-nitrux-os-installations DN 2 – Linux Mint Beta Released · Interface updates in keeping with new version of Cinnamon Desktop · a much-improved login manager o better keyboard navigation o support for Wayland sessions o support for LXQt/Pademelon badges o a configurable layout for the Onboard on-screen keyboard o a scrollable session list o support for multiple keyboard layouts o better touchpad support with automatic detection and enablement of tap-to-click · Other Misc things o Full support for HEIF and AVIF images o update the in-house built Xreader document viewer app to properly support Adobe Illustrator documents o Update to Pix image viewer app with a rebase on the gThumb 3.12.2 image viewer. o Software Manager app § UI refresh § better scoring/sorting algorithms § tuned package list. o Warpinator app received support for the Landlock and Bubblewrap technologies to implement folder isolation https://9to5linux.com/linux-mint-21-2-beta-is-now-available-for-download-with-cinnamon-5-8 Freedom Consultation Feeling lost? This free chat will help. I promise that by the end of the tailored presentation, you’ll have at least some idea what to do next and how to get it done. https://techfreedom.pro/freedom-consultation DN 3 – Red Hat Scrooges Other Distros? · Maybe · Red Hat forcing other developers to create free accounts to access RHEL code base · Beware click bait · Is it a big deal now? No · Could it be turned into a big deal? Yes · Time will tell https://news.itsfoss.com/red-hat-restricts-source-code/ FOSS News FN 1 – OBS Studio 29.1.3 Released · Many bugs squashed o Source Record plugin by fixing a crash that occurred when properties are deleted in the callback o improves the AMF (Advanced Media Framework) encoder’s reconfiguration and dynamic bitrate as they didn’t work in previous releases (AMF is the AMD encoder) o AMF preset fallback to take into account the GPU reported throughput o Also fixed window and game capture issues o Also fixed audio settings issues o Also fixed service selection issues o crash with Freetype 2 text sources when non-ASCII text is used, and fixes other crashes in obs-websockets and Lua scripts. o Properties dialogs now closeable by hitting the cancel button o Fixed keyboard shortcuts weren’t displayed for some context menu items o the View menu’s “Source Toolbar” checkable menu item wouldn’t update when the “Show Source Toolbar” and “Hide Source Toolbar” hotkeys were used. o Fixed a bug where switching between “Fade” and “Fade to Black” for a quick transition would fail to work correctly o fixed an issue where unnecessary undo/redo entries were being created for text sources o fixed a bug where the placeholder text for “Group” would not be correctly localized when adding a new group. https://9to5linux.com/obs-studio-29-1-3-improves-the-source-record-plugin-amf-encoder-and-more FN 2 – Tired of Volunteering Data to Big Tech? Top 4 Google Docs Alts OnlyOffice · Best all-arounder · Can connect to properly configured nextcloud instance · Does most office type things (Docs, spreadsheets, and presentations) · FOSS · Fully compatible with MS Office · https://onlyoffice.com CryptPad · Web based · Fully end to end encrypted · self-hostable (my video: https://rumble.com/v29wpc2-free-your-pc-friday-special-interwebz-news-and-how-tos.html) · No desktop apps · https://cryptpad.fr EtherPad · Only handles documents (no spreadsheets or presentations) · Not encrypted · Web based · Can do own instance (https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite#installation) or jump on a public instance (https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite/wiki/Sites-That-Run-Etherpad) CurveNote · STEM focused collaboration toolkit · Markdown · LaTeX · Its own CMS for a website · Create your own scientific journal publication · https://curvenote.com/pricing https://www.tecmint.com/google-docs-alternatives/ Degoogled Want to learn how to cut the umbilical to Mountain View, CA? Take a look at the blogs linked here. If you just want a Freed Phone, you can order one there as well. https://techfreedom.pro/degoogled FN 3 – KDE 5.27.6 Released · Big things · Wayland Session · X11 Session · Flatpak · Discover · And More · https://kde.org/announcements/changelogs/plasma/5/5.27.5-5.27.6/ https://9to5linux.com/kde-plasma-5-27-6-is-out-to-improve-plasma-wayland-session-support-for-flatpak-apps FOSS Fun FF 1 – Xonotic 0.8.6 Released · Arena based first person shooter (think Quake 3) · FOSS, fork of Nexuiz · New things o 2 maps o AI improvements o Performance improvements o VFX improvements o 3 new game modes § Mayhem § Survival § Team Keepaway https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/classic-open-source-fps-xonotic-086-released-with-new-game-modes/ FF 2 – SDL 2.28 Released · What’s SDL? · Key for Linux gaming · Low level access to most hardware (audio, GPU, mouse, keyboard, joystick) · Used by many game developers and studios (Valve, Unity engine, etc) · Focus toward SDL 3 https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/sdl-2280-released-and-goes-into-maintenance-mode-now-focusing-on-sdl-3/ Freedom Overhaul This is the full package. A whole-life exit from Big Tech. Migration from Windows or MacOS to Linux. Migration from iOS or stock Android to Graphene OS. Migration from Big Tech email and collaboration tools to ones which will honor your right to privacy. https://techfreedom.pro/product/freedom-overhaul/ FF 3 – Ever heard of DREAMM? · What is it? · Why should you care? · Lucas Arts · Nostalgia https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/06/classic-lucasarts-games-emulator-dreamm-adds-early-linux-support/

Stephan is an independent game designer with a passion for helping others through trauma. He is a jack of many trades in the game design space, and has had a (hopefully) inspiring journey from standard geekdom (Windows, Intel, etc) into Linux. He made that journey before I met him (darn it), but has enjoyed the freedom and stability of working on Linux since his switch in 2019. We'll have a blog posted, which was written by him, soon over on https://techfreedom.pro/blog