Immutable distros borrow a critical feature from systems like Android, rolling out atomic updates. In other words, an update is download, applied at restart, and either takes successfully or is rolled back to the existing version. As a result, there is virtually no chance of an update filling mid-update and leaving the user with bricked install.

Manjaro is a Linux distro based on Arch. As a result, it is a rolling release distro—as opposed to a point release like Ubuntu or Debian—but it moves at a slower pace in an attempt to provide additional stability and reliability. The company is working to improve that even more with an immutable version of the distro.

The Manjaro Team made the announcement in a forum post.

Powered by Arkdep 133 from the Arkane Linux 115 project this exciting new Manjaro variant is available for public testing right now!

The goal of this release is to gather community feedback on the technology powering Manjaro Immutable.

The devs emphasize that this is just an experimental release, and therefore not yet suitable for daily driving in a production environment.

Note that this is only an experimental release and not representative of the final version, there is also no support guarantee, so hold off on installing it as your primary operating system, at least for now.

Manjaro is already one of the more popular Linux distros, and one of the most common one users looking to dip their foot into rolling releases choose. Manjaro Immutable could end up being a very popular option.

Linux has been making some impressive gains on the desktop in the last year, crossing 3% share for the first time ever in July 2023. After taking almost 32 years to reach that milestone, Linux quickly topped 4% eight months later in March 2024.

According to Statcounter, Linux reached 4.45% desktop share in July 2024, an impressive gain over a mere four months.

There are likely a number of factors driving Linux adoption, including an increasing wariness of Big Tech among consumers and regulators alike, as well as Windows 11’s general unpopularity.

Microsoft’s increasingly aggressive tactics—including full-screen popups and ads—that it is using to push OneDrive, Edge, and other products, has led even long-time users to look for other options. The company’s wholesale effort to adopt AI, and push it onto customers has also disenfranchised some users.

Linux has proven to be a viable option for users looking to escape the Microsoft ecosystem, providing an easy-to-use OS that is open-source, privacy-respecting, and secure. Thanks to the effort of countless developers, the Linux app ecosystem is better than ever, giving users access to open-source and commercial software alike.

Users, organizations, and companies interested in making the switch to Linux should check out our Linux Distro Reviews series, with special attention to Linux Mint and Linux Mint Debian Edition, the two distros to receive five-star reviews.

Aeon’s developers announced in mid-July that they planned on making FDE the default moving forward. While the vast majority of Linux distros offer FDE, very few enable it by default, despite the security it provides. openSUSE has a long history of being one of the most security-oriented distros on the market, and Aeon’s devs wanted to take that to the next step by making FDE the default option.

In a post on Reddit, the devs announced the release of Aeon RC3:

The biggest change with this release is the introduction of Full Disk Encryption by default, configured automatically as part of the installation

Depending on your hardware, Aeon will automatically configure Full Disk Encryption in one of two modes

• Default Mode with “Measured Boot” – strong verification of bootloader, initrd and kernel before automatically decrypting your system
• Fallback Mode with no verification of boot components and requiring a Passphrase on boot to decrypt your system

For those leery of relying on the default mode, the devs previously outlined why it is secure, debunking myths regarding TPM in the process:

The Default Mode is the preferred method of encryption provided the system has the required hardware. This mode utilizes the Trusted Platform Module(TPM) 2.0 chipset with PolicyAuthorizeNV support (TPM 2.0 version 1.38 or newer). In this mode, Aeon Desktop measures several aspects of the system’s integrity. These including:

• UEFI Firmware
• Secure Boot state (enabled or disabled)
• Partition Table
• Boot loader and drivers
• Kernel and initrd (including kernel command line parameters)

These measurements are stored in the system’s TPM. During startup, the current state is compared with the stored measurements. If these match, the system boots normally. If discrepancies are found, users are prompted to enter a Recovery Key provided during installation. This safeguard ensures that unauthorized changes or tampering attempts are flagged.

The devs do say that existing users will need to reinstall their system to take advantage of the new features.

RC3 is expected to be the last release candidate before a 1.0 release.

Project lead Clément (Clem) Lefèbvre made the announcement Thursday morning, following a longer-than-usual beta phase for the new release. The extra work comes largely from the move to a new base, the latest release of Canonical’s Ubuntu, as well as some additional work to implement new features and ensure consistency.

Ubuntu 24.04 Base

One of the biggest benefits of the new Linux Mint 22 is the updated Ubuntu 24.04 base. This means the software and repos are much more current than what is included in Linux Mint 21, which is based on Ubuntu 22.04.

Because Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu’s LTS releases, Linux Mint 22 will be supported until 2029.

Improved Kernel Cadence

One of the criticisms leveled against Linux Mint is that it has always been very conservative with kernel updates. For example, the default kernel on Linux Mint 21 is 5.15.x, despite 6.10 recently being released. While users could use the Update Manager to switch to a new kernel, the default was still 5.15. As a result, unless users opted for the “Edge” edition, which defaulted to a newer kernel OOTB, the mainline Linux Mint often had issues on newer hardware, not even installing in some cases.

With Linux Mint 22, the team is going to follow Ubuntu’s HWE kernel. In other words, when Ubuntu releases updates every six months, the team backports the kernel to the previous LTS release. In other words, when Ubuntu 24.10 is released, it will ship with a newer kernel than Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. Ubuntu’s developers will backport that newer kernel to 24.04, however, ensuring that LTS users benefit from the latest improvements.

Clem says that Linux Mint will adopt the HWE kernel beginning with 22, meaning Linux Mint age far more gracefully over the next couple of years until version 23 comes out.

Pipewire

One of the biggest improvements involves the sound server, with Mint 22 making the move from PulseAudio to Pipewire, thanks to the underlying base.

Pipewire is vastly superior to PulseAudio, especially for content creators and those who regularly work with audio.

See Also: Linux Mint vs LMDE: Which Should You Choose?

Software Manager and Flatpaks

The Software Manager received a major performance improvement, now opening almost instantly, as opposed to the several seconds it used to take.

In addition, the Software Manager hides unverified Flatpaks by default, although experienced users can enable them.

Language Support

The Mint team has improved the installation process to remove preinstalled language packs that are not needed. By default, English and whatever language the user has selected will be installed. All others will be removed at the end of the installation process, saving “a significant amount of disk space.”

GTK4 Issues

GTK is the visual toolkit that Linux Mint’s desktop environments are based on. Unfortunately, GTK is largely maintained by the GNOME developers, with many recent changes in GTK4 aimed almost exclusively at apps designed for GNOME. One such technology is the GTK4 libAdwaita GUI library, which severely limits the ability to theme an app.

As a result, while Mint’s themes were updated to support GTK4, several applications have been removed or backported to their GTK3 version because of visual incompatibility between the app’s libAdwaita appearance and Mint’s appearance and ability to be themed.

Clem outlines which apps are impacted:

As a result, the GNOME Font Viewer was removed and the following applications were downgraded back to GTK3 versions: Celluloid, GNOME Calculator, Simple Scan, Baobab, System Monitor, GNOME Calendar, File Roller, Zenity.

Similarly, the Linux Mint team has forked the Gnome Online Accounts as a result of changes upstream, as Clem details:

With GNOME 46, libgoa/libgoa-backend 3.50 moved to GTK4 and could no longer be used by GTK3 applications. This meant that Online Accounts support had to disappear from Cinnamon, Budgie and Unity. The XApp project implemented a standalone application called “GNOME Online Accounts GTK”. Not only did this bring the feature back in these three desktop environments, it also made it possible for it to be used in MATE and Xfce.

De-Snapification

Ubuntu has been moving increasingly toward its Snap packaging format. Firefox and Chrome were already bundled as a Snap rather than the traditional DEB package. In Ubuntu 24.04, Thunderbird joins the list of Snapified apps.

Since Linux Mint does not include Snaps, the team is taking it upon themselves to bundle Thunderbird as a traditional DEB file.

Misc Improvements

There are a number of other improvements, including the following:

• JXL support was added to Pix and a new thumbnailer was implemented for it.
• The Software Sources received support for the new Debian DEB822 format.
• All software using libsoup2 was migrated to libsoup3.
• HiDPI support improvements were made in the boot sequence, in Plymouth and Slick-Greeter.

The Future

Linux Mint clearly has some challenges ahead, from both its Ubuntu base, as well its reliance on GTK for its GUI toolkit.

Ubuntu Challenges

While Snaps are an excellent option for server environments, Ubuntu’s insistence on using them in the desktop space will continue to pose an issue for the Linux Mint developers.

The team already has to package and maintain DEB versions of Firefox, Chrome, and Thunderbird. It’s believed that Ubuntu will move the CUPS printing stack to Snap in Ubuntu 24.10. Because Mint is based on the Ubuntu LTS releases—meaning Mint won’t rebase until Ubuntu 26.04—that change won’t have an immediate impact on the distro. Nonetheless, the writing is on the wall: If Mint continues to be based on Ubuntu, the team will have to continue to take on the work of packaging and maintaining the various parts of the system that Ubuntu Snapifies.

Clem has previously stated he doesn’t believe Snap will be around for the long haul and will instead join the list of technologies Canonical has tried to push and ultimately abandoned.

Realistically though I don’t think Snap will last forever. I see it getting abandoned just like Mir or Unity when it fails to get the traction and return on investment Canonical wants from it.

Clem may well be right. Canonical has invested a lot of money in making Snap a universal packing format beyond just Ubuntu. Unfortunately for the company, outside of the server space, the wider Linux community has very little interest in adopting Snaps and prefer its competitor, Flatpak. In fact, even some distros that did support Snap have opted to drop support.

Only time will tell if Clem is right. If he is wrong, however, undoing Ubuntu’s decisions may eventually result in such an increased workload that making the backup Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) the new mainline offering may be unavoidable.

GTK4/GNOME Challenges

The Linux Mint team clearly has fundamental differences of opinion about how desktop environments and apps should behave. GNOME wasn’t a very macOS-like unified look, with very little customization. In contrast, Linux Mint’s developers believe users should be able to customize and theme their desktops and apps while still providing a consistent experience.

Because GNOME dominates GTK development, it does not bode well for non-GNOME desktop environments that rely on GTK. This is why Budgie has been trying to move away from GTK, and System76 decided to build their own desktop environment for Pop!_OS based on Rust.

All three of Linux Mint’s desktops (flagship Cinnamon, Xfce, and Mate) are all GTK-based, meaning the project is heavily invested in the toolkit. Nonetheless, the issues GTK4 has caused for non-GNOME desktops is only going to get worse as the project moves toward GTK5 and beyond.

As a result, the Mint devs will need to come up with a long-term solution. This could involve adding a library to GTK4 that enables better integration with non-GNOME desktops, or even using a maintained fork of GTK3.

Clem mentioned both possibilities in a response to a user comment in the April blog post:

We fully support GTK4 apps but we’re not migrating to it.

It took a decade for GTK3 to be stable, we want to enjoy it for a while. Many widgets we’re using in GTK3 no longer exist in GTK4 so the migration isn’t easy and could force the loss of features or layout changes in some applications. GTK4 probably needs a library to make it complete and easy to use, a libAdwaita for generic apps really. But nobody made one so far, assuming they ever will. Long term we don’t know if GTK will continue to support themes or even Xorg. Some GTK users moved to Qt or other toolkits. Some are looking at GTK3 forks. Some are thinking of making a GTK4 lib. And some like us, are just happy to stay on GTK3 until there’s more visibility going forward.

Whatever option the Mint team chooses, it’s a safe bet they will approach the challenge with the same careful, measured consideration they have shown with previous issues.

Conclusion

Overall, Linux Mint 22 is shaping up to be one of the best releases of the venerable Linux distro in years. While the project certainly has some challenges ahead of it, the team is well-positioned to address those challenges and continue to deliver one of the preeminent Linux experiences.

A CrowdStrike Falcon update brought the world to its knees, crippling systems across industries. Unfortunately, because CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software runs at such a low level, computers that were impacted by the bad update could not even boot, making it difficult to recover from.

Microsoft outlines the two repair methods:

Recover from WinPE (recommended option)

This option quickly and directly recovers systems and does not require local admin privileges. However, you may need to manually enter the BitLocker recovery key (if BitLocker is used on the device) and then repair impacted systems. If you use a third-party disk encryption solution, please refer to vendor guidance to determine options to recover the drive so that the remediation script can be run from WinPE.

Recover from safe mode

This option may enable recovery on BitLocker-enabled devices without requiring the entry of BitLocker recovery keys. For this option, you must have access to an account with local administrator rights on the device. Use this approach for devices using TPM-only protectors, devices that are not encrypted, or situations where the BitLocker recovery key is unknown. However, if utilizing TPM+PIN BitLocker protectors, the user will either need to enter the PIN if known, or the BitLocker recovery key must be used. If BitLocker is not enabled, then the user will only need to sign in with an account with local administrator rights. If third-party disk encryption solutions are utilized, please work with those vendors to determine options to recover the drive so the remediation script can be run.

Additional considerations

Some devices may not be allowed to connect to a USB drive. In this case, it may be better to reimage the device.

Instructions for downloading and using the new recovery tool can be found here.

ChromeOS Flex is a popular option for users looking to revitalize older hardware. Because it’s a cloud-based OS, ChromeOS Flex can run well on old hardware that can’t run the latest versions of Windows or macOS.

In a recent blog post, however, Google says it is working to more fully integrate Android and ChromeOS:

To continue rolling out new Google AI features to users at a faster and even larger scale, we’ll be embracing portions of the Android stack, like the Android Linux kernel and Android frameworks, as part of the foundation of ChromeOS. We already have a strong history of collaboration, with Android apps available on ChromeOS and the start of unifying our Bluetooth stacks as of ChromeOS 122.

Bringing the Android-based tech stack into ChromeOS will allow us to accelerate the pace of AI innovation at the core of ChromeOS, simplify engineering efforts, and help different devices like phones and accessories work better together with Chromebooks. At the same time, we will continue to deliver the unmatched security, consistent look and feel, and extensive management capabilities that ChromeOS users, enterprises, and schools love.

AS ZDNET’s Jason Perlow writes, this could spell doom for ChromeOS Flex:

Google’s plan, as detailed, suggests that ChromeOS Flex could be phased out, leaving its current users in a difficult position. The ChromiumOS community around ChromeOS Flex may attempt to adjust to these changes if Google open sources ChromeOS Flex, but this is not a guarantee. In the meantime, users may want to consider alternatives, such as various Linux distributions, to keep their older hardware functional.

One such alternative that many users should consider is Linux. This writer has an old HP laptop that runs like a new machine thanks to switching it from Windows to Linux Mint.

Users interested in switching to Linux should check out our Linux Distro Reviews series to learn more.

The CSA is an organization dedicated to helping secure cloud computing. A survey the organization conducted with Netskope found that DLP solutions are a critical component used in cloud security.

Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. While companies are relying on DLP systems, nearly a third struggle to use them effectively.

Among the top challenges cited by organizations are management difficulties (29%), too many false positives (19%), the need for manual version upgrades (18%), and deployment complexity (15%).

“DLP solutions are an integral part of organizations’ data security strategy, but leaders are still struggling with this strategy and the implementation of solutions, especially for how complicated legacy and on-prem based solutions are to manage and maintain,” said Naveen Palavalli, Vice President of Products, Netskope. “These findings highlight the need for a comprehensive and easy-to-use cloud delivered data protection solution that integrates into their existing security controls and is a key tenant of their Zero Trust security strategy.”

Cloud security is increasingly in the spotlight as more and more organizations experience data breaches at a time when the cloud is becoming integral to more companies and industries.

The Biden administration has signaled it is preparing to regulate cloud security in an effort to better protect organizations. If the CSA’s findings are any indication, it looks like the industry could use the help.

Linux Mint 22 is based on the recently released Ubuntu 24.04 and will be supported until 2029. The Mint team have been at work rebasing on the new version of Ubuntu, as well as adding a number of new features and addressing several issues:

Linux Mint 22 ships with modern components and the new Ubuntu 24.04 package base.

To guarantee better compatibility with modern hardware, the kernel is version 6.8 and Linux Mint 22.x point releases will follow the HWE series.

The default sound server switched to Pipewire.

The Software Sources received support for the new Debian DEB822 format.

Themes were updated to support GTK4.

JXL support was added to Pix and a new thumbnailer was implemented for it.

All software using libsoup2 was migrated to libsoup3.

HiDPI support improvements were made in the boot sequence, in Plymouth and Slick-Greeter.

Linux Mint 22 also improves language support, saving disk space by removing preinstalled language packs that are not in use.

The new version also makes changes to some of the included apps, rolling them back to GTK3 versions (instead of GTK4) to improve compatibility with Mint’s theming options. The team have made improvements to the Software Manager, improving performance and changing how Flatpaks are handled. By default, the Software Manager will only show Verified Flatpaks, although the behavior can be changed in the preferences.

Linux Mint 22 also comes with version 6.2 of the flagship desktop environment, Cinnamon. While not a major upgrade to Cinnamon, version 6.2 has a number of improvements, including the following:

• Less printer added notifications (silenced for 2 hours)
• Wayland support: Clutter polkit agent
• Spices: keybindings support
• Better avatar support in polkit agent and user applet
• Workspace switcher: middle click removes the workspace being hovered
• Keybindings: ability to search by binding
• Cornerbar applet: shift+click action added
• Applets: improved precision in reporting VPN and battery states

Users who want to participate in the beta and help report bugs can find download links here.

The latest update was released June 25, but is causing the Taskbar to not show, or to not respond to input. Fortunately, the issue is only impacting Windows N users, as well as those who gave disabled Media Features.

N editions of Windows include the same functionality as other editions of Windows, except for media-related technologies, Windows Media Player, and certain preinstalled media apps.

You might not be able to view or interact with the Taskbar after logging in to your device once the update is installed. Other applications like File Explorer, Desktop and Settings will continue to work.

Next Steps: We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

Spotted by Neowin, Microsoft appears to have made the change without notifying users or making any announcement. Now, when a user sets up Windows 11 on a new computer, or reinstalls on an existing one, Windows 11 will begin restoring content from the users OneDrive account onto the machine.

The move is the latest in a litany of issues in which Microsoft appears hell-bent on ignoring its own users’ preferences in favor of what it wants to push. The company has been trying to force users to use a Microsoft account when setting up Windows, rather than a local account as was traditionally the case. Microsoft also has a long history of pushing advertising within Windows, including for its own services. In view of those actions, it’s not surprising that Microsoft has enabled OneDrive by default.

As Neowin points out, OneDrive can be a powerful option for users when they knowingly activate it and configure to work the way they want and backup the files they choose. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s approach means that users’ systems will almost immediately be cluttered by whatever files are in their OneDrive storage, regardless of whether they want those files on their computer or not.

Hopefully, Microsoft will return to the days when it actually respected its users enough to let them make their own choices about how to use their computers and devices.

Like many tech companies, Microsoft once had an abysmal repairability track record, with its Surface Pro scoring a 0/10 for requiring a razor blade to cut away access to the battery. Suffice it to say Microsoft has come a long way, with its new CoPilot+ devices scoring a 8/10 and the site proclaiming that “Microsoft puts repair front and center.”

The company’s changed stance is apparent right from the outset, according to iFixit:

One of the first things you’ll see when removing the magnetically secured bottom plate is a QR code taking you to the service manuals on Microsoft’s website. The manuals were made available the very day the device was released, something we rarely see in any product category.

The company goes on to include indicators that make it possible to fix the device even without a manual:

The next things you’ll notice are tiny symbols (Microsoft calls them Wayfinders) indicating which component is being secured by the type and quantity of screws. You could easily disassemble this device without using the manual thanks to these Wayfinders.

Microsoft extended its repairability even further by making nearly all of the major components easily accessible:

A special mention should be made of how most components are accessible without the need to remove additional layers. Need to replace the battery? No problem, it’s just a few screws and a bracket. What if you need to clean the fan? Easy. Just peel back the Surflink cable and undo three screws.

iFixit concludes by saying Microsoft’s change underscores the importance of Right to Repair advocacy and legislation:

Microsoft’s journey from the unrepairable Surface Laptop to the highly repairable devices on our teardown table should drive home the importance of designing for repair. The ability to create a repairable Surface was always there but the impetus to design for repairable was missing. I’ll take that as a sign that Right to Repair advocacy and legislation has begun to bear fruit.

Below is a video of the full teardown.

Microsoft has been pushing users to use a Microsoft account rather than a local one. The company is increasingly tying Windows to its vast ray of online and cloud services, of which a Microsoft account is a critical component.

According to Tom’s Hardware, Microsoft’s support page detailing how to switch from a local account to a Microsoft account also detailed how to do the reverse under a heading (visible via the Wayback Machine) entitled, “Change from a Microsoft account to a local account.”

As Tom’s points out, Microsoft has deleted the relevant section sometime around June 17, with instructions on how to switch from a local account to a Microsoft one being the only remaining instructions.

Microsoft is clearly pulling out all the stops in its efforts to switch users to a Microsoft account, touting the benefits in its instructions:

The main difference between a local account and a Microsoft account is that a local account is specific to one device, while a Microsoft account can be used across multiple devices and Microsoft services.

• A local account is created on the device and doesn’t require Internet connectivity to sign in. It’s independent of other services, and it’s not connected to the cloud. Your settings, files, and applications are limited to that single device
• A Microsoft account, on the other hand, is associated to an email address and password that you use with Outlook.com, Hotmail, Office, OneDrive, Skype, Xbox, and Windows. When you sign in to your PC with a Microsoft account, you’re connected to a Microsoft cloud service, and your settings and files can sync across various devices. You can also use it to access other Microsoft services

Unfortunately, while many users have no objection to a Microsoft account, many others are reluctant to give Microsoft more control, especially as the company continues to push advertising and data collection in its operating system.

Recall essentially screenshots nearly everything a user does on their computer, making it easy to go back and search for documents, messages, videos, and virtually anything else using natural language expressions. Unfortunately, as impressive as the feature is, it’s a privacy and security nightmare—as virtually every security and privacy expert has pointed out.

See Also: Windows Recall Will ‘Set Cybersecurity Back a Decade’

Microsoft announced a number of changes on June 7 in an effort to address the concerns, but has decided to postpone the feature altogether to further address them. Pavan Davuluri—Corporate Vice President, Windows + Devices—announced to change in an update to the June 7 announcement:

Today, we are communicating an additional update on the Recall (preview) feature for Copilot+ PCs. Recall will now shift from a preview experience broadly available for Copilot+ PCs on June 18, 2024, to a preview available first in the Windows Insider Program (WIP) in the coming weeks. Following receiving feedback on Recall from our Windows Insider Community, as we typically do, we plan to make Recall (preview) available for all Copilot+ PCs coming soon.

We are adjusting the release model for Recall to leverage the expertise of the Windows Insider community to ensure the experience meets our high standards for quality and security. This decision is rooted in our commitment to providing a trusted, secure and robust experience for all customers and to seek additional feedback prior to making the feature available to all Copilot+ PC users. Additionally, as we shared in our May 3 blog, security is our top priority at Microsoft, in line with our Secure Future Initiative (SFI). This is reflected in additional security protections we are providing for Recall content, including “just in time” decryption protected by Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS), so Recall snapshots will only be decrypted and accessible when the user authenticates. The development of Copilot+ PCs, Recall and Windows will continue to be guided by SFI.

When Recall (preview) becomes available in the Windows Insider Program, we will publish a blog post with details on how to get the preview. To try Recall (preview) WIP customers will need a Copilot+ PC due to our hardware requirements. We look forward to hearing Windows Insider feedback.

The announcement is good news and is the first real demonstration that Microsoft is taking its previous commitments to put security above all else seriously.

Flatpaks are a popular method of releasing software for Linux that has some advantages over traditional packages. For example, many Linux distros—think Debian, Ubuntu, openSUSE Leap—prioritize stability over having the absolute latest versions of software. As a result, the software available in a distro’s repositories may lag behind until the distro is updated to the next major version.

Flatpak solves this by bundling all necessary libraries and dependencies with the app, rather than relying on the dependencies and libraries offered by the distro. This provides a way to run the latest and greatest software on virtually any Linux distro, even the stable-release ones.

See Also: Linux Mint vs LMDE: Which Should You Choose?

Flatpaks are not necessarily built by the developer of the original program. Many Flatpaks are built and maintained by third-party developers who take a copy of the original application and bundle it as a Flatpak. While the Flatpak team has done a good job of moderating submissions to the main Flathub repository—and these third-party volunteer developers are motivated by good intentions in the VAST majority of cases—there’s no denying that this approach does pose certain risks. The Flatpak team uses a Verified/Unverified checkmark system to help users identify apps maintained by the original developer, or by a developer they approve of, as the team describes on the site:

Some apps have a checkmark on the app page under the developer name. This means the app is published on Flathub by its original developer or a third party approved by the developer.

Some apps are published by third parties that are unaffiliated with the original developer. This is allowed, but such apps are not eligible for the checkmark.

To address those risks, especially for newer users, the Mint team has decided to disable unverified Flatpak support in Software Manager by default, although the setting can be changed:

Unverified Flatpaks are disabled by default.

A warning explains the security risks associated with them in the newly added preferences window.

Flatpaks will also show their Verified/Unverified status in the Software Manager, a welcome improvement over the existing version.

The Linux Mint Software Manager is one of the best available in the Linux ecosystem. This update will help make it even better and help keep users safe.

Microsoft made the announcement in a blog post:

At the end of last year, we announced a change in approach for Windows 10 to make sure everyone can get the maximum value from their current Windows PC. To bring new features and more improvements to Windows 10 as needed, we need a place to do active feature development with Windows Insiders. So today, we are opening the Beta Channel for Windows Insiders who are currently on Windows 10. This will allow us to try out new features for Windows 10, version 22H2, with Insiders before releasing them to all Windows 10 customers.

If you are an Insider on Windows 10 today and want to try out new features for Windows 10 when we have them, we recommend that you join or switch to the Beta Channel. You can do this by going to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Insider Program, clicking on the current Insider Channel selection to expand and see the full list of Insider Channels, and choosing Beta Channel.

There’s no denying that Microsoft has a Windows 11 problem. As recently as April, Windows 10 was taking market share away from 11, coming in at 70.01%. Windows 11, meanwhile, dropped to 25.69%. When looking at the change from the previous month, it’s clear that Windows 10’s increase directly corresponded to a decrease in Windows 11 users.

Users’ reluctance to migrate to Windows 11 comes from a combination of factors:

• Windows 11 has steep system requirements—seemingly arbitrary at that—that will send hundreds of millions of computers to the landfill prematurely.
• Windows 11 sends a massive amount of data to advertising companies.
• Windows 11 performance has been slammed as “comically bad” by a former Microsoft engineer.
• Microsoft increasingly requires users to sign up with a Microsoft account to use Windows 11, rather than using a local account like previous versions.
• Microsoft’s insistence on incorporating AI throughout the operating system is a turnoff for many users.
• Microsoft is rumored to be transitioning to a subscription model in upcoming releases of Windows.

Because of these factors, Windows 10 has been growing in popularity despite its impending EOL next year. In fact, the older OS is so popular that Microsoft recently announced a paid extended support option, giving users the (expensive) ability to safely use Windows 10 past its official EOL.

Microsoft’s decision to reopen the Windows 10 Beta Channel seems like further acknowledgment by Microsoft that Windows 11 is not where it needs to be to move on from Windows 10.

Mir is a Canonical project that was once seen as a competitor to Wayland. Although Mir never took off in the desktop space, it became a popular option in IoT devices. The protocol has since been adapted to support Wayland, opening up the possibility of wider adoption.

Miracle is a window manager that is based on Mir and includes its various advantages, including the ability to run on low-end hardware.

The Fedora project will include Fedora Miracle as an official spin with Fedora 41.

Miracle will provide Fedora with a high-quality Wayland experience built with support for all kinds of platforms, including low-end ARM and x86 devices. On top of this, Fedora will be the first distribution to provide a Miracle based spin, ensuring that it will become the de facto distribution for running Miracle.

Wayland is the display protocol that is replacing the aging X11 system. While many users are able to use Wayland with little to no issues, the protocol is notorious for causing issues for some Nvidia users. With X11’s EOL approaching, developers have been working to smooth out the remaining bugs, a process Canonical engineers believe is now far enough along to make Wayland the default.

In Ubuntu 24.10 we’re also planning to take the plunge and switch to Wayland by default for those with NVIDIA graphics cards. There are still a few known issues with this combination and due to the heavy use of Ubuntu Desktop in AI/ML, VFX and other industries we concluded that it was too early to make that switch in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. That list has now shrunk to a number that makes us feel confident in enabling it in the upcoming interim release and give us the time to discover and resolve any additional “unknown unknowns” ahead of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.

Wayland brings a number of improvements over X11, both in performance and security. With Fedora defaulting to Wayland and Ubuntu now doing the same, the protocol will hopefully see the rest of its rough edges smoothed out quickly.

Microsoft has made a slew of controversial decisions in recent years, including ads in the Windows 11 Taskbar, aggressive ads promoting Edge, a rumored move to a subscription model for Windows, trying to force users to have a Microsoft account to use Windows, and turning Outlook into spyware by sharing users’ Outlook data with 801 companies. To make matters worse, a former Microsoft software engineer has slammed the company for “comically bad” Windows 11 performance.

At WPN, we have repeatedly called Microsoft out for this behavior, but we’re not the only ones. In fact, a Windows Central op-ed by Jez Corden makes the case that Microsoft is destroying goodwill, the consumer experience, and possibly its own future in the interests of short-term cash grabs.

After acknowledging that Microsoft jumped to an early lead in AI, thanks to its deal with OpenAI, Corden points out that Microsoft could be even further ahead in many areas if it hadn’t made some confusing choices.

Despite the hype surrounding Microsoft’s lead in this category, what’s often less talked about is how much further ahead Microsoft would be if Satya Nadella and the team at Microsoft hadn’t made a range of baffling, short-sighted decisions in previous years. Whether it’s Windows Phone’s death and handing Apple and Google a mobile duopoly, short-changing Xbox investment for years until it was too late, or announcing awesome-looking Surface products only to cancel them — Microsoft’s biggest consistency is that it’s inconsistent. The lack of investment in winning over customers with raw quality is returning to haunt Microsoft in various ways, yet the company doesn’t seem to learn from these mistakes.

In 2015, surrounded by holograms for the HoloLens reveal, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, “We want to move from people needing Windows to choosing Windows, to loving Windows. That is our goal.”

Corden goes on to say that such statements were welcome and reassuring. Unfortunately, Microsoft has not lived up to that promise.

Microsoft’s Security Woes

Citing Microsoft’s recent security issues, and the company’s pivot to promoting security above all else, Corden quotes CEO Satya Nadella’s memo on the subject and highlights the issues with it.

Recently, CEO Satya Nadella sent a memo imploring staff to put security first above everything. “If you’re faced with the tradeoff between security and another priority, your answer is clear: Do security,” the memo reads. “In some cases, this will mean prioritizing security above other things we do, such as releasing new features or providing ongoing support for legacy systems. This is key to advancing both our platform quality and capability such that we can protect the digital estates of our customers and build a safer world for everyone.” You’d have thought that one of the world’s most pre-eminent cloud companies would have been prioritizing security, but this memo reads like that wasn’t the case.

This emerged as a result of a pretty colossal hacking scandal that has been practically ongoing for the past year and, honestly, even longer ago. Microsoft provides email and cloud solutions to thousands of businesses across the globe, but also governments, nation-states, and even military installations. Microsoft revealed that Russian hackers had recently breached many of its systems, including source code, Microsoft execs’ emails, and even U.S. government entities’ emails. Naturally, this was a massive breach of trust and to the detriment of Microsoft’s reputation in this space, but it also indicates how under-invested Microsoft is in this area.

Corden ties the company’s security issues with the lack of overall support the company provides, especially compared to Microsoft’s early days when it was relatively easy to get support for almost any product.

Microsoft’s Failed Mobile Goals

Corden highlights Microsoft’s failed Windows Phone efforts, spending billions to purchase Nokia before shuttering the division a short time later. Nadella has called the move a mistake since it essentially left the mobile market squarely in the hands of Apple and Google, making it nearly impossible for a viable third-party option to survive, let alone thrive.

Once the company decided to try again with the Android-powered Surface Duo, Microsoft once again abandoned its efforts, leaving users hanging. Corden points to Microsoft’s flakiness with its mobile efforts and makes the case that it undermines confidence in the company’s current Surface plans.

While I am excited about the Snapdragon X Elite Surface iterations, as a consumer, my faith in Surface’s future couldn’t be lower. Surface suffers the same customer support cut-corners as Microsoft 365, with retail stores shut down and marketing spend nearly nonexistent. Microsoft’s fickle attitude to its products doesn’t inspire the kind of consumer confidence competitors like Apple or Dell enjoy and need through its short-sighted designs.

Winning trust in the consumer space is incredibly difficult. In previous years, Microsoft had invested a lot of time and effort in curating the goodwill and prestige around the Surface brand. Still, now it’s throwing it all away with inconsistency and a downgraded presence atop a lack of innovation. The death of Surface won’t just be the death of Surface; it’ll be the death of trust should Microsoft ever attempt anything like this again, as an extension of the trust damage already playing out from the death of Windows Phone.

Microsoft’s Obsession With Ads

Corden takes Microsoft to task for its obsession with aggressively advertising its own products within Windows, something we have pointed to numerous times.

Microsoft will start placing recommended apps in the Start Menu, as depicted above. It’ll roll out gradually in the coming weeks, and it seems some of these will be quite easily turned off.

However, Microsoft has also gotten incredibly aggressive with marketing Microsoft Edge within Windows 11 recently, moving beyond simple “hey, Microsoft Edge is actually pretty good” to outright resetting your default browser when you run major updates. Microsoft will drop pop-ups to warn you not to install Chrome and beg you to stay with Microsoft Edge when searching for Chrome within Bing.

I actually use Microsoft Edge, and I like it a lot. The password manager is incredibly easy to use and syncs between Edge on my desktop and Samsung Galaxy well. But punishing users who don’t want to use it is egregious and a problem of Microsoft’s own making. Google made a browser that was simply better through innovation and hard work. Microsoft didn’t invest enough in its browser technology, and excluded themselves from the market by putting customers last — notice a pattern here?

Conclusion: ‘Microsoft Needs to Learn Some Patience’

Corden’s overall conclusion is that “Microsoft’s biggest consistency is that it’s inconsistent,” that the company needs to learn patience.

Hindsight is 20/20, and I’m admittedly not privy to the full range of factors driving some of Microsoft’s decision-making. But after ten years, the results tend to speak for themselves. I always hear that Microsoft is “learning, learning, learning” from its mistakes, but it never seems to do so. They acquire companies at a breakneck speed, underinvest in integrations, and then shut down those divisions and products while wondering what went wrong. We’ve seen it repeatedly: reams of layoffs, underbaked integrations, low investment, and taking customers for granted.

I used to wonder why many Microsoft reporters seemed jaded, but after almost a decade, I feel like I’m starting to understand. There’s still plenty to love here, and I’m certainly not denigrating the efforts of individuals in those teams — I want them to be supported better and for customers to be treated with more care. I like Windows 11 for the most part, and I like the possibility of using Surface with ARM. Xbox seems to have an impressive slate of upcoming games. But because of the patterns Microsoft keeps throwing at us, it all comes with a cloud of doubt. Doubt is easy — building trust is hard, and Microsoft hasn’t learned this yet.

Corden’s take is an incredibly well-reasoned, in-depth take on Microsoft’s current issues and is well worth a read. The full article can be found here.

AlmaLinux is a popular clone of RHEL, giving users an enterprise-grade distro for free. While AlmaLinux used to be 1:1 RHEL compatibility, the project had to change direction when Red Hat began restricting access to its source code. AlmaLinux is now Application Binary Interface (ABI) compatible with RHEL. This frees the distro to improve on RHEL, while still maintaining compatibility.

That newfound freedom is on full display with AlmaLinux 9.4, with the latest release bringing a number of improvements.

Introducing updates to enhance machine security and data protection, AlmaLinux 9.4 also provides improvements in web-console and system roles that automate additional operations and promote consistency in complex environments. Its new system roles enable the creation and management of logical volume manager (LVM) snapshots for improved data backup and recovery processes while its new features also aim to improve system availability and reliability, facilitate easier recovery operations, and enhance virtual machine snapshot capabilities in hybrid cloud environments.

One of the big features of AlmaLinux’s new release is support for older hardware that the latest RHEL has dropped support for.

With RHEL 9.4, Red Hat changed how they manage device drivers that are deprecated, disabled, or unmaintained, and also removed support for several older hardware devices. The way those devices are managed makes it easy for AlmaLinux to re-add support for those devices that the AlmaLinux community still needs. The release of AlmaLinux 9.4 marks a pivotal moment for any industry looking to keep hardware and human costs low by extending the life of still-good, but aging servers.

The list of devices deprecated in RHEL and supported in AlmaLinux include:

• aacraid – Dell PERC2, 2/Si, 3/Si, 3/Di, Adaptec Advanced Raid Products, HP
• NetRAID-4M, IBM ServeRAID & ICP SCSI
• be2iscsi – Emulex OneConnectOpen-iSCSI for BladeEngine 2 and 3 adapters
• hpsa – HP Smart Array Controller
• lpfc – Emulex LightPulse Fibre Channel SCSI
• megaraid_sas – Broadcom MegaRAID SAS
• mlx4_core – Mellanox Gen2 and ConnectX-2 adapters
• mpt3sas – LSI MPT Fusion SAS 3.0
• mptsas – Fusion MPT SAS Host
• qla2xxx – QLogic Fibre Channel HBA
• qla4xxx – QLogic iSCSI HBA

“This significant enhancement not only streamlines installation and updates for our clusters but also revitalizes older systems, particularly in VFX studios where legacy CPU rendering blades still play a vital role,” said Tristan Theroux, IT infrastructure & security director for SHED. “In the realm of VFX, where every resource counts, these trusted, resilient servers tackle less intensive tasks, allowing more powerful rendering servers to be reserved for more intensive projects. AlmaLinux 9.4 doesn’t just bridge the gap between the past and present; it propels us toward a future where innovation knows no bounds.”

The AlmaLinux team emphasized the importance of the project’s newfound freedom, as well as the team’s commitment to its user base.

“The release of 9.4 stands as the latest testament to AlmaLinux’s steadfast commitment to our community while maintaining the ever-improved performance, scalability and reliability,” said benny Vasquez, chair of the AlmaLinux OS Foundation. “This is our second point release for AlmaLinux 9 since last year’s shift from copying Red Hat bit-for-bit, and we are starting to take advantage of our freedom.”

“Releasing AlmaLinux 9.4 less than one week after the release of Red Hat 9.4 is a testament to the strength and depth of knowledge of the AlmaLinux community and its commitment to speed as well as stability,” said lead architect at AlmaLinux, Andrew Lukushko. “We have the backing of companies and organizations that provide the infrastructure and fundamental understanding needed to deliver the enterprise Linux that our community needs.”

According to the latest data by StatCounter, Windows 10 adoption increased to 70.01% at the end of April 2024. In contrast, Windows 11 adoption dropped to a mere 25.69%. Interestingly, Windows 10’s gain appears to be directly at the expense of Windows 11, since Windows 10 rose by 0.96% and Windows 11 dropped by 0.97%.

Windows 11 has been incredibly unpopular with Microsoft’s user base, largely as a result of controversial decisions Microsoft has made. The company has insisted on including advertising in the operating system, despite intense criticism of the practice. Windows 11 also has steep, and seemingly arbitrarily, high system requirements that will see hundreds of millions of PCs become obsolete.

Unfortunately for users, Windows 10 is EOL October 2025, meaning it will not receive bug fixes or security updates after that date. Microsoft has rolled out an extended support option, but it is expensive. The option starts at $61 per license for the first year, then increases to $122 the second year, and $244 the third. Microsoft offers no additional support, paid or otherwise, after the third year.

If the latest usage stats are any indication, Microsoft still has a long way to go to convince users to upgrade to Windows 11.