GNU/Linux and BSD Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Apr 03, 2026

• Desktop Environments (DE)/Window Managers (WM)

  • Unicorn Media ☛ Hyprland WM’s Eye Candy and Efficiency Ship With a Learning Curve

    From ricing to hyprctl, this window manager rewards tinkerers with a sleek, efficient desktop while reminding casual users that convenience isn’t always part of the deal.

• Distributions and Operating Systems

  • Geeky Gadgets ☛ The Best Lightweight GNU/Linux Distros to Revive Your Old Hardware

    Lightweight GNU/Linux distributions offer an effective way to rejuvenate older computers, allowing them to perform everyday tasks efficiently despite hardware limitations. As highlighted by ExplainingComputers, these distros are designed to minimize resource usage, making them ideal for systems with constrained memory or processing power.

  • BSD

    • University of Toronto ☛ Using 'pkg' for everything on FreeBSD 15 has been nice

      Traditionally, the FreeBSD base system was managed through freebsd-update (also), which I would call primarily a patch-based system, while third party software was (usually) managed through pkg, a package manager. This was a quite traditional split, but it had some less than ideal aspects, and as of FreeBSD 15 you can choose to manage FreeBSD through pkg using what is called freebsd-base (which is also known as 'pkgbase'). If you're installing FreeBSD 15 from scratch, the installer will let you choose (and I believe it recommends the pkg based approach). If you upgrade from FreeBSD 14 to FreeBSD 15, there's a post-upgrade conversion process using pkgbasify (also, also).

  • Arch Family

    • Distro Watch ☛ Distribution Release: Artix Linux 20260402

      The Artix development team has announced the release of a new version of Artix Linux, a set of Arch-based, rolling-release distributions with a choice of four init systems (Dinit, OpenRC, runit and s6) and six desktops (Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, LXDE, LXQt, MATE and Xfce). Artix Linux 20260402 switches the X window system from X.Org to XLibre and the audio server from PulseAudio to PipeWire: [...]

  • Canonical/Ubuntu Family

    • Tom's Hardware ☛ Ubuntu Linux raises minimum system memory requirements by 50% — requirements bumped to 6GB of RAM, previously raised from 1GB to 4GB in 2018

      The release notes for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS show that Canonical has quietly raised the minimum RAM requirement for its popular Linux-based operating system by 50%. Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon), the newest long-term support (LTS) release, requires at least 6GB of precious RAM, alongside a minimum dual-core CPU with a clock speed of 2 GHz, and 25GB of free storage.