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4MLinux 47.0 Released with Installation Support for Virtual (KVM) Block Devices

4MLinux 47.0 is here almost four months after 4MLinux 46.0 with support for installing the distro on virtual KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) block devices (e.g. /dev/vda1, /dev/vda2, etc.), as well as support for hundreds of old image formats via RECOIL (Retro Computer Image Library) with its GIMP plugin.

siduction Linux 2024.1.0 Released with Xfce 4.20, KDE Plasma 6.2, and LXQt 2.1

Dubbed “Shine on…”, powered by the latest Linux 6.12 LTS kernel series, and synced with the Debian Sid (Unstable) repositories as of December 23rd, 2024, siduction 2024.1.0 ships with the KDE Plasma 6.2, the recently released Xfce 4.20, and the LXQt 2.1 desktop environments.

postmarketOS 24.12 Released with KDE Plasma Mobile 6.2.4, GNOME Shell 46

Highlights of postmarketOS 24.12 include updated interfaces with KDE Plasma Mobile 6.2.4, GNOME Shell on Mobile 46, Phosh 0.43.1, and Sxmo 1.17.0. The Phosh UI now supports accent colors, while the Sxmo UI switches to wofi as the new menu with smooth scrolling and line wrapping, and improves device support.

Serpent OS Enters Alpha with GNOME and COSMIC Spins, Powered by Linux 6.12 LTS

Powered by Linux kernel 6.12 LTS, Serpent OS Alpha has two official flavors featuring the latest GNOME 47.2 and COSMIC 1.0 alpha 4 desktop environments. Both editions are supported equally, but the devs recommend using the GNOME edition because the Rust-based COSMIC is not yet mature and it’s subject to frequent potentially breaking changes.

9to5Linux Weekly Roundup: December 22nd, 2024

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Review: Murena on Fairphone 4 in North America

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Jul 24, 2023

The items in my Fairphone 4 box

I really like what Murena is trying to do with their focus on open source software and privacy. They make an unusually polished, de-Googled experience which is still compatible in virtually every way with the existing Android ecosystem. The Fairphone is a great idea, in my opinion. Too many phones get thrown away these days due to dead batteries or a malfunctioning component. The Fairphone addresses this problem really well by making it easy to pop open the device and replace a component at a reasonable price.

Often times devices and operating systems which exist outside the mainstream struggle to be polished, performant, or to be compatible with existing apps. Murena running on the Fairphone doesn't have these drawbacks. It's basically Android, but with more privacy features and Google's cloud services swapped out for Nextcloud. The Fairphone is far from under powered, in fact it's sporting approximately the same CPU and memory as my laptop and is pleasantly fast.

I had a little trouble getting the device to charge from a computer's USB port, but otherwise the experience was fantastic. The phone is fast, we have access to virtually all the apps in the Android ecosystem, and I like that F-Droid is enabled by default.

I also like the Murena cloud services. They're optional and opt-in, making them non-invasive. I appreciated being able to synchronize all my devices - sharing tasks, contacts, and files.

Finally, I really appreciate that this phone feels like a phone and computing device that is designed to be useful for me rather than an advertising platform for a large company. Whenever I have the misfortune to use other people's Android phones or iPhones, I always feel as though the goal is to see how much the device can annoy me before I stop using it. The pop-ups, the ads, the nagging prompts to enable things on those phones are frustrating and time consuming. This phone feels like it is there to make my life easier, and its repairable nature means it can continue to do so for the next five years without requiring me to buy another device.

In short, I think Murena's Fairphone offering is a solid product. It's a decent price, offers the power and flexibility of Android, with an added set of privacy protecting tools. Plus the phone is repairable and the software is supported for five years. This makes the device ideal for people who are environmentally or privacy focused as well as people who would like to keep their devices running for longer periods of time rather than upgrade steadily.

Read on

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