mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06DistroWatch is a news, learning, and reviews website dedicated to open source operating systems, such as Linux and the BSDs.
I find it strange people use the line "AI is here to stay" as a reason for adopting it. Air pollution is here to stay too, but that doesn't mean I'm going to swap out my bicycle for a diesel-powered truck.
Switching, in both scenarios, would have three effects:
1. Make the environmental situation worse.
2. Not solve any of my problems.
3. Make me gradually less capable and lazy.
I tried upgrading Raspberry PI OS in place today, from version Bookworm to Trixie (12 to 13). Despite warnings not to do this, the live update mostly went well.
There was a conflict with LX Panel, but removing it and then re-adding the panel post-update worked. Honestly, I was expecting more trouble.
DistroWatch Weekly talks about Package Forge, games for learning Linux skills, GNOME OS on smart phones, openSUSE fixes expired repository key, Ubuntu Pro users get new Enterprise Store, Debian begins Perl upgrade and votes on LLM use, and FreeBSD freezes its port tree: https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20260727
Scalzi is, in my opinion, one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time, certainly at the top of the list in this generation. This bundle provides the chances to read his work and support a good cause.
Posting this from my new (to me) PineTab2, running an ARM build of Arch Linux. It is proving to be a wild ride.
Emmabuntus has published an update with a focus on accessibility: https://distrowatch.com/12903
Garuda Linux publishes a new version of its FireDragon web browser with a new base: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=20229
Canonical will be offering updates virtualization tools for LTS releases of Ubuntu: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=20230
There is a now SlackBuilds package for doas (the sudo alternative) and instructions for using it in the doas README file: https://www.patreon.com/sysvinit/posts/building-doas-on-165114708
StartOS 0.4.0 is now available: https://distrowatch.com/12901
UBports has some powerful new updates, including Winevine DRM in the browser and notched display support: https://distrowatch.com/12899
Haiku provides SMP support on ARM64 machines: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=20183
ZimaOS 1.7.0, for servers and NAS systems, is available for download: https://distrowatch.com/12904
FreeBSD's second status report of 2026 talks about Dockerbox: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=20227
Helwan Linux 5.0 is now available: https://distrowatch.com/12900
GhostBSD has its first release based on FreeBSD 15.0: https://distrowatch.com/12795
Fedora has plans to roll out AI developer tools: https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=showheadline&story=20181
