Distro watch
What’s behind the free software sofa?
LINUX MINT 21.3 VIRGINIA
Mint is one of the most popular versions of Linux, partly due to its support for multimedia codecs out of the box, as well as offering more traditional desktop interfaces via Cinammon and Mate. Version 21.3 of the OS was announced on 12th January as an LTS (Long Term Support) release. Mint now includes new features for the Hypnotix TV viewer, a new Actions add-on for Cinammon, and experimental Wayland support. Visit www.linuxmint.com for more information.
WATTOS R13
WattOS is based on Debian (in this case Debian 12 Bookworm), and incorporates the lightweight OpenBox window manager. This makes it ideal for installing on older machines. The latest version use the lowresource LXDE desktop and has switched to using the Calamares installer. It also now incorporates better hardware support out of the box, kernel v6.1 for 64-bit PC installation, and Gdebi for easy installation of DEB packages. You can discover more about WattOS at www.planetwatt.com/R13-details/.
SOLUS 4.5 RESILIENCE
Solus is an independent version of Linux, built from scratch. Versions are available using a customised iteration of the Budgie desktop environment and Gnome. There’s also now an experimental version running Xfce. The latest release brings updated apps and kernels, including Firefox 121.0, LibreOffice 7.6.4.1 and Thunderbird 115.6.0. Other improvements include switching to the Calamares installer. The OS also now uses PipeWire by default. See https://getsol.us.
NOBARA PROJECT 39
The Nobara Project first announced stable releases in 2022. It’s a modified version of Fedora Linux, designed to be more user-friendly than its parent OS. To this end, it includes extra packages such as Wine dependencies and Nvidia drivers. Nobara now incorporates codec installation into system updates. The layout picker has been removed because the Nobara team claims it wants to move away from Gnome. There is still a pop-up for Nvidia drivers.
Learn more at https://nobaraproject.org.
ZORIN OS 17
Zorin OS is based on Ubuntu and is specifically designed for people who are new to Linux. It supports running many Windows programs. The latest version has been designed to run faster on a greater range of hardware. Both the kernel and desktop have been optimised – the OS only needs 1.5GB to run now instead of 2GB. The Zorin Menu and search features have also been upgraded.
You can find out more at https://zorin.com.