Distro watch
What’s behind the free software sofa?
FINNIX 125
Finnix is a self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution (live CD) for system administrators. It’s based on Debian and now includes a mixture of packages from both the stable and unstable repositories. The latest version uses kernel 6.1 and comes with new packages including 2048, aespipe, iperf3, ncdu, netcat-traditional, ninvaders and vitetris. There’s no GUI but, on the plus side, the ISO is less than 500MB. It can be booted live to diagnose issues. You can download it from www.finnix.org.
OPENMANDRIVA 23.03
OpenMandriva is a fork of ROSA, a Russian distro, which itself was a fork of the original Mandriva Linux. The ROME version for personal users follows a rolling release model. The latest default snapshot includes the KDE Plasma Desktop, but there are also images with the LXQt desktop, as well as for servers and various AArch64-based devices, such as the Raspberry Pi 4. For full installation instructions, visit https://wiki.openmandriva.org/ en/distribution/releases/rome.
LINUX LITE 6.4
Based on the latest LTS release of Ubuntu (in this case 22.04) Linux Lite uses the Xfce desktop. The simple layout, colourful themes and in-house applications make this distro particularly friendly to beginners. The developers claim the operating system is designed to help users transition to Linux. The latest version (6.4) includes a design overhaul for Mozilla Thunderbird. There’s also new Materia window and Papirus icon themes. You can learn more at www.linuxliteos.com.
EXTIX 23.4
Traditionally this has been based on Ubuntu but the developers have recently switched to Deepin. The latest release is based on Deepin 23 Alpha 2, which isn’t strictly speaking ready for a production environment – for instance, Extix’s kernel is a modified version of Kernel.org’s kernel 6.3-rc4. Still, the Deepin desktop’s new flow design and redesigned control centre are remarkably intuitive. You can test Extix in a live environment or install it via www.extix.se.