Operating Systems: GNU/Linux Distributions, FreeBSD, Tumbleweed, Red Hat Going Astray ("AI" Nonsense)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Dec 20, 2025

• Make Use Of ☛ 7 operating systems you should try on your virtual machine this weekend

  Hypervisors like VirtualBox or VMware can run just about any OS as long as you've got enough hardware power. However, just because you can run a full-fledged desktop OS in a virtual machine, that doesn't mean you should. I always have a VM handy for several key reasons, and they're all running OSes either specifically built or optimized for VM use.

  If you've been struggling with performance running traditional OSes on your VMs, there are better options you should try. These OSes are lightweight, have a much smaller digital footprint, and are far easier to run in a virtual machine than your typical Linux distribution.

• BSD

  • ZDNet ☛ I've used Linux for decades, but I'd switch to FreeBSD for this one feature

    I'm not gonna lie: I don't give FreeBSD (or any of the BSDs) the attention they deserve. The reason for that is simple: I'm a Linux guy.

    But isn't FreeBSD Linux? It looks like Linux, it smells like Linux…

    That is not the case here.

    FreeBSD is a Unix-like operating system that is descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993 and was developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable hardware. Since its inception, FreeBSD has continuously been the most commonly used BSD-derived operating system on the market.

    FreeBSD maintains a complete system: kernel, device drivers, userland utilities, and documentation. This is in opposition to Linux, which only delivers a kernel and drivers, while relying on third parties for system software.

• SUSE/OpenSUSE

  • Dominique Leuenberger ☛ Tumbleweed – Review of the week 2025/51

    Dear Tumbleweed users and hackers,

    The year is slowly coming to an end, and there are only a few days left in 2025. Naturally, in this period, things tend to slow down a bit. People start preparing to see their loved ones, take a vacation, or generally take time off from the online world. What does that mean for Tumbleweed? The good news: nothing. Tumbleweed keeps rolling; just some days will see slower response times, and requests might linger a bit longer. The process remains unchanged, though: unless openQA confirms the quality of a snapshot, we will prefer to hold a snapshot back in the absence of developers being able to validate its impact. I’m sure that’s in everybody’s best interest.

• Fedora Family / IBM

  • It's FOSS ☛ Red Hat Buys an Hey Hi (AI) Safety Company, Promises to Open Source Its Tech

    The new addition brings custom Hey Hi (AI) security and safety tooling to Red Hat.