The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. This week in DistroWatch Weekly:
Review: An alternative OS for work and play
News: AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access, Mageia deals with service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support
Questions and answers: Avoiding the spread of AI services
Released last week: Murena 3.1.1, SparkyLinux 2025.09, Mauna....

The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. The DietPi project, which produces a set of extremely lightweight Debian-based distributions designed primarily for single-board computers, has announced the release of DietPi 9.17. Based on Debian 13, the new version comes with a long list of enhancements: "The September 20rd, 2025 release of DietPi version 9.17 comes....

Catch up on the latest Linux news: Ubuntu 25.10 Beta, LMDE 7 Beta, Zorin 18 Beta, GNOME 49, Systemd 258, Firefox 143, APT adds native history parsing, Torvalds tinkers with GuitarPedal, and more.

After a year’s gap, VLC 3.0.22 RC1 media player introduces Qt6 build support, Windows ARM64 compatibility, and improved playback reliability.

FLX1s is a $550 Linux phone that debuts with Debian-based FuriOS, 5G support, and hardware kill switches for privacy.

DietPi 9.17 delivers faster, space-saving backups, a Roon early access toggle, and fixes for SPI flashing issues.

Git developers discuss adopting Rust, with a formal RFC proposing it as a required dependency once version 3.0 is released.

Debian’s APT package manager is adding a new history command, letting users list and inspect past package transactions.

The Multikernel team opens its Linux kernel codebase, promising a new path to scalability for modern multi-core and cloud environments.

A beta version of Pinta 3.1 is available for testing. The fee open source image editor adds axonometric grid, polygon selection, performance improvements and more.

You're reading Pinta 3.1 Beta Adds New Features, Effects & Options, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

The next stable release of VLC is on the way with various improvements, including dark mode, support for Windows on ARM, and more – fancy testing it early?

You're reading VLC’s First Update This Year Adds Qt6 Support, Dark Style + More, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Zorin OS, the popular beginner friendly Linux Distribution, announced the Beta release of version 18 yesterday!

Zorin OS is a Linux distribution designed for newcomers switching from Windows and macOS. It features Ubuntu package base, and customized GNOME desktop experience, while a lite version is available for choice with XFCE4 desktop.

Zorin OS 18 is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Thanks to the upstream, the new release upgraded from Kernel 6.8 to Kernel 6.14 with tons of new drivers, new and improved hardware support. See what’s new in Kernel 6.14 (replace 6.14 in URL link, e.g., 6.13, for changes other Kernel versions).

Thanks to GNOME upstream changes, it features GNOME 46 (customized) desktop with a “dot and pill” icon to trigger overview, and indicate which workspace you’re working in. There are as well new camera app, remote login with RDP protocol, and OneDrive support in online accounts.

Besides the upstream changes, Zorin OS 18 refined the default desktop appearance with floating panel and rounded corners. While, user may easily change the layout with a single mouse click by using the built-in Zorin Appearance utility.

Like Ubuntu 24.04, the release also introduced a tiling window extension. Simply drag a window to screen top, it will show you a list of tiling layout, allowing to easily move and resize window automatically into selected screen edge.

By going to Zorin Appearance -> Windows -> Advanced Window Tiling, you may enable the indicator icon for the extension, and configure more about it.

For users who need Office/365, Teams, Adobe Photoshop, etc apps, the release also introduced a WebApp Manager allowing to easily turn your favorite websites into apps, by using either the default Brave web-browser or any other browser (if installed) as you want.

Other changes in the release include:

• Update built-in database to suggest alternatives to more Windows apps.
• New Yellow and Brown theme colors.
• 3 new panel layouts: Compact, Linux Mint like, and elementary OS like layouts (for Pro, paid version only).
• Use Pipewire instead of PulseAudio as default sound server.
• Improve Zorin Menu with multi-monitors support.
• Center new windows at launch.
• Global search in Files, and more!

Get Zorin OS 18 Beta

The official release note as well as the .iso image are available in its website via the link below:

NOTE that Zorin OS 18 is so far available for Beta testing, it’s not recommended to install it on production machine at the moment.

The minimum hardware requirements include 2 GB RAM, 15 GB disk space, and 1024 × 768 resolution display.

The post How to Backup and Restore Installed Packages in Ubuntu first appeared on Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides .

If you’ve ever reinstalled Ubuntu, you know the pain of setting everything up again, such as finding apps, adding PPAs,

The post How to Backup and Restore Installed Packages in Ubuntu first appeared on Tecmint: Linux Howtos, Tutorials & Guides.

For Linux Mint users who prefer Debian package base, LMDE 7 code-name “Gigi”, is available for beta testing!

LMDE stands for Linux Mint Debian Edition. As the name says, it’s a Linux Mint edition based on Debian, aims to continue to deliver the same user experience if Ubuntu was ever to disappear.

LMDE 7 is the next major release of this Linux Mint edition based on Debian 13 trixie, which was released a month ago. It features Kernel 6.12, Cinnamon desktop 6.4.12, and Debian 13 package base.

In my experience, Debian is more stable and reliable than Ubuntu. It’s perfect for server and advanced user use. And, LMDE makes it friendly for beginners.

However, it lacks major kernel version updates and most recent drivers (e.g., NVIDIA proprietary driver), unless upgrading the entire system to a new version (e.g., from LMDE 6 to LMDE7). If they are not big deal for you, then it’s a great choice!

Besides the difference between Kernel version and systems they’re based on, LMDE and normal Linux Mint edition deliver almost the same user experiences!

And, LMDE 7 Beta so far features Cinnamon only desktop, with following changes in Linux Mint 22.2:

• New XApp Fingwit provides graphical interface to manage user fingerprints.
• Improved Sticky Notes app with rounder corners and Wayland support.
• Add “Theater Mode” and “Borderless Mode” mode for Hypnotix IPTV player.
• Display user avatar in the login screen.
• Add blur effect to the panel and user selection dialog box in login screen for better appearance.
• Patch LibAdwaita with theme support, including Mint-Y, Mint-X and Mint-L themes.
• Add accent colors support for LibAdwaita Flatpak apps.
• New xapp-aiff-thumbnailer thumbnailer for cover art in .aiff audio files
• Add iOS app for Warpinator file sharing utility.
• Configurable EDID-based color correction (disabled by default) in XViewer.
• Support editing description field in WebApp Manager.
• Support leading zeros when renaming multiple files and using enumerations
• Add description in Software Manager to tell the difference between Flatpak and system packages.

Download LMDE 7 Beta

The official announcement as well as the download link for LMDE 7 Beta is available in Linux Mint website via the link below:

For choice, you may download it from a mirror from this page. Though, as Beta it’s usually available in “testing” directory.

Hardware Requirements include: 2 GB RAM (though 4 GB recommended for smoother experience), 20 GB disk space, and 1024×768 resolution display.

Ubuntu 25.10, code-name Questing Quokka, is now available for Beta testing!

The developer team announced the release last night for Ubuntu Desktop, Server, WSL, Cloud products, and official flavors.

Ubuntu 25.10 is a new short-term release with 9-month support until July 2026. It features GNOME 49, Kernel 6.17, and various other toolkit and packages updates.

The new Kernel is still in RC release stage at the moment. Compare to Kernel 6.14 in current 24.04 and 25.10, it features many new and improved hardware support, drivers, and performance improvements. For detailed changes, go HERE and HERE.

The Ubuntu Desktop so far has GNOME 49 RC, though the stable release of this desktop environment was just released 2 days ago, which features:

• New Showtime video player (not pre-installed in Ubuntu with default mode, though available in App Center).
• New Papers document viewer.
• Remove ‘GNOME on Xorg’ (Ubuntu on Xorg) session, meaning Wayland only.
• Music playback control from lock screen.
• Improve remote desktop with multi-touch, relative mouse input, and additional virtual desktop.
• Add configuration for pointing stick (aka TrackPoint).
• Support relative dials on tablet pads.
• Brightness in the Quick Settings when HDR is enabled, with external monitors support.
• And more. See the official release note.

As you know, Ubuntu features a customized GNOME desktop experience. The 25.10 release replaced the default terminal with Ptyxis, which features first-class container integration.

And, it finally added Loupe as default image viewer, which was introduced in GNOME since v45. The image viewer features sandboxed image loading by using Glycin library, which also handles the background image loading in Gnome 49.

Other changes in the Beta include screen reader support in new desktop installer, TPM-backed Full Disk Encryption recovery key management, and tryboot’s A/B booting support on Raspberry Pi.

There are as well toolkit updates, including systemd 257, gcc 15.2, binutils 2.45, glic 2.42, python 3.13.7, LLVM 20, Rust 1.85, Golang 1.24, openJDK 25, Mysql 8.4, Ruby 3.3, and more.

The final release of Ubuntu 25.10 is planned for October 9. For more about it, see the official release note.

Get Ubuntu 25.10 Beta

NOTE: Ubuntu 25.10 so far has a bug that prevents it from loading other dual-/multi-boot OSes. Configure apparmor didn’t work in my case, and I end up disabling Apparmor to get back Ubuntu 24.04.

For Ubuntu 25.04, it’s now able to upgrade to this 25.10 Beta, by firstly installing all available updates, then launch “Update Manager” via the command below:

update-manager -d

And if everything goes well, you’ll be able to upgrade from Beta to 25.10 final by installing updates regularly through “Software Updater”.

NOTE: It’s IMPORTANT to backup your data before upgrading, as it may have bug that breaks your system.

For choice, the iso images of the Beta are available to download at the link below:

Don’t know why, but it misses amd64 iso image at the moment of writing. To workaround the issue, you may choose a download mirror instead to get the ISO.

And for non-GNOME users, there are also 10 official flavors features different desktop environments, which can be download from either their websites or this page.

Zorin OS 18 is the next major update to the Ubuntu-based Linux distribution aimed at Windows converts. A beta is available for testing - with plenty of new features.

You're reading Zorin OS 18 Beta Brings a ‘Redesigned’ Desktop, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

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Testing Ubuntu's development releases is now a little more dangerous, as the first of the new Ubuntu Daily Dangerous Desktop builds is made available for download.

You're reading Downloads Live for Ubuntu’s Daily ‘Dangerous’ Desktop Builds, a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu. Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.

Zorin OS 18 Beta debuts with a refreshed design, advanced window tiling, web apps, and OneDrive support.

IPFire 2.29 Core Update 197 open-source firewall introduces OpenVPN 2.6, Linux kernel 6.12.41, CPU power saving, and more.

The DistroWatch news feed is brought to you by TUXEDO COMPUTERS. Artyom Zorin has announced the availability of the beta release of Zorin OS 18, an upcoming major new update from the project that develops a beginner-friendly Linux distributions with a highly-customised GNOME desktop, based on Ubuntu's latest LTS (long-term support) release: "We're thrilled to announce the beta release....