EWatch, developed by Ewan Wills, is a programmable ESP32-S3 smartwatch with a 1.69-inch color touchscreen, 350mAh battery, vibration feedback and USB-C connectivity. The platform is offered as a bare PCB, self-assembly kit or complete watch, following more than five years of development.

ESP-Mosaico centers dual-core RISC-V ESP32-S31 around a 2.16-inch square AMOLED

The Espressif ESP-Mosaico is an expandable smart-interaction development kit based on the ESP32-S31 microcontroller. The compact device integrates a 2.16-inch square touch display, audio hardware, motion and magnetic sensors, NAND storage, haptic feedback and dual expansion interfaces for HMI, edge voice and multimedia applications.

Open-source flight controller pairs i.MX RT1176 with Pixhawk PAB compatibility

ARK Electronics recently showcased the ARKV6X-RT, an NDAA-compliant flight controller based on the FMUV6X-RT and Pixhawk Autopilot Bus open standards. The module uses an NXP i.MX RT1176 microcontroller and includes three synchronized IMUs, onboard FRAM, a secure element and PX4 Autopilot support.

Pocket-sized OpenWrt router offers dual-band Wi-Fi 5 and Gigabit Ethernet

GL.iNet has unveiled the Mango 2 (GL-MG1300), a compact travel router with dual-band Wi-Fi 5, Gigabit Ethernet and USB 3.0. The device supports WireGuard and OpenVPN, along with Ethernet, Wi-Fi repeater, USB tethering and USB cellular modem connections.

9to5Linux

GNOME 50.5 Improves Multi-Monitor Support, HDR Support, and More

Coming one and a half months after GNOME 50.4, the GNOME 50.5 release improves the opening of windows created via the new-window action to appear on the correct workspace, improves keyboard navigation on the unlock dialog, improves switching of workspaces with direct scanout, and adds support for tracking magnifier mouse position without polling.

PeaZip 11.3 Archive Manager Improves ZPAQ Support, Adds New Themes

Coming two months after PeaZip 11.2, the PeaZip 11.3 release improves ZPAQ support with a new “Force typing password interactively” option, and a new option to automatically explore the output path with PeaZip after a task is completed, which also changes the behavior of internal drag-and-drop copy/move actions to explore the destination path.

OBS Studio 33 Promises Support for Latest NVIDIA Broadcast SDKs, Beta Out Now

OBS Studio 33 promises support for the newest NVIDIA Broadcast SDKs for NVIDIA Audio Effects and Video Effects, a check for encoders being missing when loading a profile, hotkeys for controlling audio monitoring of a source, and NVENC (NVIDIA Encoder) support on AArch64 (ARM64).

Shelly 3.1.5 GUI Package Manager for Arch Linux Adds Atoll-Powered AUR Browser

Coming two weeks after Shelly 3.1.4, the Shelly 3.1.5 release introduces an optional Atoll-powered AUR browser to let you navigate a paginated package list from the Arch User Repository (AUR), sort packages by votes or popularity, view dependency information, and see information about installed or out-of-date dependencies.

news

Merlot – lightweight Linux distribution for running Windows applications

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Sep 27, 2026

Quoting: Merlot - lightweight Linux distribution for running Windows applications - LinuxLinks —

Merlot is a lightweight Linux distribution. Its main focus is providing a relatively lean desktop environment for users who need to run Windows applications while retaining a Linux-based operating system.

Merlot uses IceWM as its window manager. IceWM has modest resource requirements and provides a traditional desktop layout without the overhead associated with larger desktop environments. This fits Merlot’s aim of remaining lightweight while leaving sufficient system resources available for applications.

Read On!

Other Recent Tux Machines' Posts

AlmaLinux’s New Beefed-Up Hardware and Software Certification: The AlmaLinux booth at All Things Open 2023 conference in Raleigh, North Carolina
GNU/Linux Reaches All-Time High of 6% (According to statCounter) or 7.3% (Clownflare) in Indonesia [original]: Indonesia's latest data suggests GNU/Linux is growing among Indonesian computer users
NetBSD Leftovers: 2 stories
Qualcomm Snapdragon X2: Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon X2 Linux Developer Preview
The Netherlands joins Europe's gradual migration from Windows to Linux on government PCs: Something very interesting is happening over in Europe in the world of FOSS
The GNOME LLM Policy That I Want: KDE is on the news because of a controversial proposal to define an official “AI” (LLM) policy (archived link)
Best Free and Open Source Software: Only free and open source software is eligible for inclusion here
Linux Has Too Many Distributions – And Most New Ones Don’t Need to Exist: One of Linux’s greatest strengths is choice. It is also one of its easiest excuses
Era, the new Rust-based calendar for GNOME, is now in beta: Era is a new Rust-based calendar app for GNOME that describes itself as “beautiful and performant
Fastfetch 2.69.0 Released with GIF and APNG Animated Logo Support: Fastfetch, the popular tool for fetching system information and displaying in command-line interface (CLI)
Merlot – lightweight Linux distribution for running Windows applications: Merlot is a lightweight Linux distribution
Caelaris Linux – Arch-Based Distribution for Desktop and Gaming: Caelaris Linux is an Arch-based distribution designed to provide a ready-to-use system for desktop computing
Today in Techrights: Some of the latest articles
Microsoft Windows is Collapsing in Singapore and Nearby Indonesia [original]: Windows is no longer "leader" at all, not even in desktops/laptops
GNU/Linux Leftovers: misc. GNU/Linux picks
Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Leftovers: FOSS leftovers
Standards and Web Clients: Mozilla and more
Protesilaos Stavrou on Emacs and Free Software: a pair of posts
SPECviewperf 15.0.1 Linux Edition, Mike Blumenkrantz Explains Recent Graphics Work: a pair of articles
Slop in Linux and Slop About Linux Graphics: slopfest
Games: GamingOnLinux Stories, ‘World of Warcraft: Forever’, and Star Trek in BASIC: gaming news
Red Hat / Fedora / IBM / Clones: mostly Red Hat
Canonical/Ubuntu: Alan Pope Propping Up Microsoft's Mono, Ubuntu 26.10 Delay, and Ubuntu in Slop Surveillance: Ubuntu leftovers
Open Hardware/Modding: ESP32, OpenWrt, Pi Pico, and More: Hardware picks
Programming Leftovers: Development related picks
Events: 2026 Git Contributors' Summit and HomelabFest Coming: 2 events
Security Leftovers: Security picks and more
GNOME 50.5 Improves Multi-Monitor Support, HDR Support, and More: GNOME 50.5 is now available as the fifth update to the latest GNOME 50 desktop environment series with various bug fixes, updated translations, and other improvements.
PeaZip 11.3 Archive Manager Improves ZPAQ Support, Adds New Themes: PeaZip 11.3 open-source archive manager is now available for download with improved ZPAQ support, new themes, new keyboard shortcut, improved handling of invalid filenames, and more.
Android Leftovers: Android 17 QPR2 Beta 6 is rolling out: unexpected reboots and kernel crash fixes lead the way
5 niche Linux distros that deserve way more attention: There are hundreds, if not more, Linux distros out there, but not all of them get the same amount of attention
Free and Open Source Software, howtos and Installations: This is free and open source software
PH4NTXM – Debian-Based Cybersecurity and Privacy Distribution: PH4NTXM is a Debian-based live Linux distribution designed specifically for cybersecurity
KDE and AI, and you, and me: So I accidentally triggered an online shitstorm in the process of trying to craft a set of more restrictive LLM usage guidelines for KDE
This Week in Plasma: Akademy Special: Welcome to a new issue of This Week in Plasma
Dedoimedo: Laptop and battery pending charge issue: If you have a Linux machine and you experience intermittent charging not-charging "issue" in normal everyday situations
Stable kernels: Linux 7.2.8, and Linux 6.18.54: I'm announcing the release of the 7.2.8 kernel
End of Support for Mageia 9: At Mageia, we have reached a significant milestone with the release of Mageia 10 on 30 June 2026
Today in Techrights: Some of the latest articles
OBS Studio 33 Promises Support for Latest NVIDIA Broadcast SDKs, Beta Out Now: OBS Studio 33 entered public beta testing today with support for newest NVIDIA Broadcast SDKs for NVIDIA Audio Effects and Video Effects, a check for encoders being missing when loading a profile, and more.
The Dutch Fall in Love With GNU/Linux [original]: ClownFlare says about 10%, statCounter says about 13% on desktop/laptop
Shelly 3.1.5 GUI Package Manager for Arch Linux Adds Atoll-Powered AUR Browser: Shelly 3.1.5 graphical package manager for Arch Linux distributions is now available for download with Atoll-powered AUR browser, a build-and-install command, and native tools for maintaining your own package repositories.
Fedora Linux 45 Beta Released with Linux 7.2, GNOME 51, and KDE Plasma 6.7: Fedora Linux 45 distribution is now available for public beta testing powered by Linux kernel 7.2 and featuring the GNOME 51 desktop environment. Here’s what to expect from the final release.
GNU/Linux and BSD Leftovers: primarily GNU/Linux
Release or Availability of F-Droid 2.0, 5 Android Data Recovery Tools to Consider When Important Files Go Missing: Android picks
Raspberry Pi and ZimaBoard 2 Review: Hardware stories
Security and Microsoft TCO: bugs and incidents
Free, Libre, and Open Source Software & Standards Leftovers: FOSS and more
Programming leftovers: Development picks
Emacs Chat, Using Emacs, and Org mode: Emacs stories
Fuzzers in "AI" Clothing Clogging Up CVE Queues, a Burden for Distros: 4 picks
Fedora and Red Hat Leftovers, About Half of It Selling Slop Plagiarism, Not Linux: sad, but true...
LibreOffice Conference 2026 Videos and The BSD Now Podcast: new shows or talks
today's howtos: Instructionals/Technical articles
KDE Akademy 2026 Report and Rebellion Over Slop (LLM Junk) in KDE: KDE picks
Desktop Environments (DE)/Window Managers (WM): COSMIC in System76, Xlibre in Peppermint, and WIMP: 3 stories
Games: CONTROL Resonant, Faugus Launcher, Quake Champions, and More: mostly from Liam Dawe
The Kernel Report 2026 edition and Linux OOM on the desktop: Linux picks
'Linux' Foundation Promotes (for Money) Slop Plagiarism, Fake Currencies, and Scams, Calling Sloppy Bots "Agentic": 4 picks today
Susan Linton Also Played a Role at DistroWatch [original]: DistroWatch is still going strong
Android Leftovers: Samsung starts rolling out Android 17, One UI 9 to Galaxy S26 in the US following delay
F-Droid 2.0: A New Chapter for Android Freedom: After more than a year of hard work, we are thrilled to announce the launch of F-Droid 2.0
The Fairphone (Gen. 6+): Loved by critics. Plus more: A month in, and the conversation around the Fairphone (Gen. 6+) is only getting louder
I automated my entire Linux desktop with 4 bash scripts—and reclaimed hours every week: The more you get into using Linux, the more likely you are to start using the Terminal for various tasks
5 free Linux distros I wish had premium versions – and why I’d pay for them: Why would I want to pay for something I can get for free? I've got plenty of reasons
I gave up on Windows and Linux for an OS that gives me the best of both worlds: Let me preface this with the fact that I love Linux
Free and Open Source Software: This is free and open source software
MollyOS – Debian-Based Linux Distribution for Children: MollyOS is a Debian-based Linux distribution designed for children and families
Bouncy Ball 3D and Taking KDE to the Pyramids: During this year's Akademy, while celebrating KDE's 30th birthday
Ubuntu is Tightening its Kernel SRU Cycle to Two Weeks, and Clankers Are to Blame: Ubuntu users will get kernel security fixes faster thanks to this
Finishing a Series About SLAPP Censorship Against Tux Machines [original]: Part 200 (the last) will be more technical
Today in Techrights: Some of the latest articles