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.