Andrea Egan, who was expelled from Labour three years ago, replaces Unison`s current general secretary Christina McAnea. Read...

Texas has officially filed a lawsuit against Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense, and TCL, BleepingComputer reports. The reason for the lawsuit is that these five companies allegedly used Automated Content Recognition (ACR), a technology that takes periodic screenshots of what users are watching (twice per second) and sends that information to servers in Japan, South Korea, and China. In the official press release, the lawsuit is summarized as a “suit against five major television companies for spying on Texans by secretly recording what consumers watch in their own homes.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton writes: “Companies, especially those connected to the Chinese Communist Party, have no business illegally recording Americans’ devices inside their own homes.” He goes on: “This conduct is invasive, deceptive, and unlawful. The fundamental right to privacy will be protected in Texas because owning a television does not mean surrendering your personal information to Big Tech or foreign adversaries.” If the allegations are true, this will be one of the biggest breaches of user privacy in smart TVs, and it’s not like smart TVs are exactly bastions of privacy to begin with. While it’s hard to avoid smart TVs these days—TVs without internet connections are getting rarer and rarer—it’s another notch in favor of not making everything we own online 24/7. You can read the actual lawsuits filed against each company with these links: Sony (PDF), Samsung (PDF), LG (PDF), Hisense (PDF), TCL (PDF). Read...

Google loves to send its services off with the Grim Reaper. The latest casualty: Google Dark Web Report, which scans the internet’s underbelly for your personal information and alerts you of fresh sightings. Starting January 15, 2026, Dark Web Report will cease looking for new results.  A month later, the scythe makes a final swing on February 16, 2026, when Google removes all collected data. Users will not be able to view the information starting on this date. In the email notification sent, Google attributes this death to feedback stating the feature lacked helpful next steps. Instead, the company plans to “focus on tools that give [users] more clear actionable steps to protect [their] information online.” Whether those tools still plumb the dark web for information remains to be seen—which I personally view as a bummer. Forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes. True, Google gave no context to these dark web reports, but why not add such information to results instead of killing the whole thing off? The death notice itself includes general advice like changing passwords, switching to passkeys, enabling two-factor authentication, and making use of Google Password Manager. There’s still about a month for you to run a Dark Web Report, if you’re curious to see what Google can find on you.PCWorld Without Dark Web Report, consumers will have one fewer source for data breaches—one that sometimes gave a heads-up days before disclosure from the affected companies, allowing users more time to lock down vulnerable accounts. As a free service, it was an easy recommendation as an online security tool. Time will tell whether Google’s next moves will be as effective at helping users avoid the flood of spam and scams hitting their inboxes. Meanwhile, the company will maintain its Results About You feature, which lets you find and request removal of Google search results containing personal information like your home address and phone number. I also recommend signing up for Have I Been Pwned if you haven’t already—while it’s not always as fast as Google’s Dark Web Report with notifications, this data breach database is still a valuable method of keeping tabs on where your details end up. Be sure to register all the email addresses you actively use, so that you don’t miss any important alerts. Read...

In case you hadn’t heard, there’s currently a RAM crisis affecting the PC market. The high demand by AI companies for RAM has led to a shortage of supply and pushed prices sky high. It’s a big hassle for those wanting to upgrade or build a new PC as they’re faced with paying exorbitant prices for modules. But there are a few things you can do to skirt around the situation. Here I suggest a few ideas. Buy bundles for RAM While the cost of individual RAM kits can leave one’s eyes watering, savvy shoppers have managed to score some great deals on RAM bundles. Buying anything in groups to save a few dollars is generally a good idea and the same can be said for RAM. Some bundle deals even include free RAM. For example, Newegg had a bundle deal on a gaming motherboard and free RAM going on Black Friday: If you bought this Asus TUF Gaming mATX motherboard you got 16GB of free Team Group DDR5 RAM as well. Consider a prebuilt PC If you’re in the market for a whole PC, you may as well buy a prebuilt PC and get your RAM that way. While buying individual components and building a rig can be extremely expensive in light of the RAM crisis, most companies selling prebuilt PCs still offer their products within a reasonable price range. For example, while a pair of 16GB DDR5 RAM modules can cost as much as $640 on Amazon, you can currently buy a BeastCom Q3 Gaming PC with 16GB DDR5 RAM for as little as $522 — that’s with all the other components added too — a motherboard, CPU, and the tower, included. If you’re looking for a prebuilt PC be sure to check out our best computer deals article. Pexels: Andrey Matveev Choose DDR4 RAM over DDR5 RAM Looking at the price of RAM on Amazon you’ll see a huge price difference between DDR5 RAM and DDR4 RAM, with DDR4 RAM being in some cases up to $150 cheaper than DDR5 RAM. For example, you can currently buy 32GB of of G.Skill Trident DDR4 RAM for $230, whereas 32GB of G.Skill Trident DDR5 RAM costs $360. That makes a compelling case for choosing DDR4 RAM for any RAM upgrades or new builds, perhaps pairing the RAM with a Ryzen 5800X3D or Core i7-14700K if you’re building a new rig. DDR4 RAM is still considered good enough for most uses in 2025. It offers significant value for gaming and productivity tasks, with speeds of 3,200MHz or higher being sufficient for most games. While DDR5 offers faster speeds and higher capacities, the performance difference is often minimal for everyday use. You’ll need to be willing to use slightly older platforms and parts to go this route, but you can still find excellent performance available. Shop the secondhand market Good bargains can be found shopping in the secondhand market for PC parts with RAM being one of the more reasonable purchases among the different components for sale. As a general tip, don’t just look for standalone RAM sales, if you’re a savvy shopper you should also target old desktops or laptops with the intention to harvest the RAM inside. Wait it out Of course, the other thing you could do if you don’t want to pay exorbitant prices right now is wait until RAM prices come back down to a reasonable level. Even though it seems like the crisis won’t end, the day will come when suppliers will catch up with demand. We saw this happen with the GPU shortage back in 2023 and 2024. GPU prices have since stabilized and returned to mostly normal. So, if your rig is doing swell and doesn’t need any big performance boosts, hold tight for a year or longer and you might be able to save some cash. Related content Why mixing your PC’s RAM is a recipe for disaster 16GB of RAM just doesn’t cut it anymore for PC gaming. Here’s why Build your gaming PC on budget: 5 ways to avoid overspending Read...

The German Federal Audit Office has highlighted a particularly remarkable case of taxpayers’ money being wasted – in the Federal Ministry of Finance, of all places. According to the report, the Federal Ministry of Finance purchased 17,321 “secure” smartphones for the customs administration between October 2021 and December 2022. The customs employees were to use them to communicate in encrypted form “exclusively in accordance with the specifications of the BSI [German Federal Office for Information Security – ed.]”. The new mobile phones were to enable “data exchange up to the classification level “classified information – for official use only [VS-NfD],” as the Federal Audit Office writes. But after the purchase, the officials realized that the brand new smartphones could not meet the required encryption standard. Not because they were unable to do so themselves, but because the IT infrastructure into which they were to be integrated did not provide for this. The Federal Audit Office wrote this under the heading “35 million euros misinvested: BMF procures unsuitable smartphones”: “The smartphones cleared for classified information were integrated into an IT infrastructure (the IT infrastructure of the Federal Information Technology Centre, ITZBund) that had no VS-NfD clearance until June 2025. Until then, customs were not allowed to communicate or process classified information with the smartphones. The smartphones also had functional restrictions in operation that the BMF and the General Customs Directorate (GZD) had not previously recognized. Many customs employees therefore decided not to use the new devices. They continued to use simple mobile phones.” The Federal Audit Office also mentions the sum that the Federal Ministry of Finance spent on the unsuitable smartphones: 35 million euros. According to this, a single mobile phone cost over 2,000 euros, including accessories and licenses! It is not clear from the report which specific model was involved. But that’s not all: “The smartphones had numerous functional limitations. They could only be used to a limited extent in customs practice, e.g. the calendar, telephone directory, image transfer and retrieval of work emails could not be used. They also had a high power consumption, which greatly reduced the battery life.” The whole thing is reminiscent of a similar disaster in the German Armed Forces: it takes the Bundeswehr almost an hour to send a single chat message. (Link in German.) And what happened to the unusable mobile phones? The Federal Audit Office writes: “The majority of the secure but unusable smartphones were replaced in 2024. The Federal Ministry of Finance has not achieved its goal of using encrypted and secure communication in the customs administration exclusively in accordance with the specifications of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). the BMF has therefore failed to invest 35 million euros in secure smartphones. The Federal Ministry of Finance must avoid bad investments. If it procures equipment for the customs administration, it must be fit for purpose and have added value for the service. It must present the need in a well-founded manner.” Federal Ministry of Finance defends itself The Federal Ministry of Finance tried to defend the purchase as follows: “At the time, only the procured smartphone solution met the requirements of the BSI. The high power consumption and the resulting short battery life were initially unknown and only became fully apparent during operation.” Read...

The Picochess chess program already has a long and storied history behind it—something you should be aware of if you’re looking to download and use it to play chess with on Raspberry Pi. After years of development, version 1.0 was released in 2019, but only offered minor improvements compared to 0.9N. This was followed by version 2.01 at the beginning of 2020 and 3.0 towards the end of the year. Version 3.3 has been available since May 2024. You can download these newer versions at github.com/tosca07/picochess. However, this is only Picochess. To be able to use the tool, you must first set up the Raspberry Pi OS operating system. The prototype of the upcoming version 4 of Picochess has also been available without Raspberry Pi OS since May 2025. Anyone looking for ready-made images with Raspberry Pi OS and Picochess on the web will almost inevitably end up on github.com/jromang/picochess. However, the last change there was more than six years ago—so it’s not recommended. Not much is happening elsewhere either: for example, the “DGT Pi Chess Computer” with integrated Raspberry Pi comes with the ancient Picochess version 0.9L. On the DGT website there is only a reference to a YouTube video explaining how to update to a more recent version. A poor service. However, if you have to do it yourself, there are better ways. Instead of paying around $400 for the DGT Pi Chess Computer, you can use a Raspberry Pi and a DGT-3000 chess clock for around $100. Or you can build your own chess computer by giving the Raspberry a touchscreen. It’s also possible to play with the Raspberry on a tablet as Picochess has an integrated web server. Enter the IP address that your router has assigned to the Raspberry. If a touchscreen is connected directly to the desktop version, the address is 127.0.0.1. Picochess 3.3 Desktop and Lite As of September 2025, there are two 3.4 versions of Picochess—a desktop and a lite version. The desktop version is, as far as Picochess is concerned, the same, but unlike the Lite version, it has a desktop environment and some extra software. Picochess desktop: Apart from the graphical user interface and a few other programs, there are hardly any differences to the Lite version. The Lite version is therefore ideal for Raspberry Pis without their own display.Foundry The Lite version is ideal for older Raspberry Pis, such as the 3 series models. Both images can be downloaded from the Picochess Google group, each on the current Bookworm version of Raspberry Pi OS. The image of the Lite version is 5.7GB in size (unpacked 10.5GB), that of the desktop version 7.1GB (unpacked 16 GB). You should use at least a 32GB micro SD card for the desktop version, as otherwise no further updates are possible. You should also create a larger swap file on a Raspberry with less main memory. Writing the image to the SD card There are several ways to write the image to the micro SD card. First install the Raspberry Pi Imager (under Ubuntu) with sudo apt install rpi-imager Then open Raspberry Pi Imager. Select the Raspberry model and the entry Use custom as the operating system at the bottom. Then select the previously downloaded and unzipped image file, followed by your SD card and Next. RPI imager: The image is selected here, which is then written to the SD card. At the bottom of the list is the entry “Use custom”. This allows you to select a ready-made image that already contains the chess program.Foundry In the next step, edit the settings. On the “Services” tab, switch off Enable SSH. Under “General”, uncheck Hostname and Set username and password. Then set up the Wi-Fi (“Configure Wifi” with SSID, password and Wi-Fi country) and specify the language settings. Save the settings and then select Yes in the next dialogue window and the one after that. Under Ubuntu, you must then enter the root password to start the write process. You can then start the Raspberry Pi with this image. After booting, the partitions are enlarged to cover the entire SD card. If you have set up WLAN, you will have to wait a little longer due to a compatibility problem. The system will shut down again and you’ll need to unplug the power cord briefly to restart. The Raspberry Pi restarts several times. Finally, the desktop image appears (or a prompt in the Lite version). The user name is “pi” and the password is “picochess”. Marginal: The web server of the desktop version looks a little different from that of version 3.3, but the difference is negligible. Foundry Changes in the “picochess.ini” At the prompt—in the desktop version in a terminal—change to the “/opt/picochess” directory. There, edit the file with nano picochess.ini The content is very well explained and you only have to change a few things. Set the standard playing time below the “Time selection” line. Change the line “board-type = dgt” to board-type = noeboard if you want to play against the engine via the web server. There are also many other options. For example, you can send yourself games by e-mail or have Picochess automatically check for updates. Just have a look at the “picochess.ini” file. Menu navigation: Use the arrow keys as well as ” ” and “-” to navigate quickly or slowly through the Picochess menu. Foundry Other engines The image contains box64 and Wine to be able to use x86 Linux and Windows chess engines. This requires a 4k pagesize kernel on a Raspberry Pi 5. If you don’t have a Pi 5, you can remove the entry “kernel=kernel8.img” with sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt (“#kernel=kernel8.img”) and then reboot the computer with sudo reboot There are two folders under “/opt/picochess/engines/ aarch64”: “linux64” and “windows64”. One folder is for x86_64-bit Linux systems, the other for Windows chess engines, which do not run as reliably. The freely available versions of Komodo Dragon, Komodo 14.1, and Stockfish run on both Windows and Linux. You must first download the Komodo engines from the homepage and add them to the appropriate folder. Set the files to executable and adjust the required entries in the “favorites.ini” in the aarch64 folder. There are ini examples in the corresponding directories. Read...

While cloud-based AI solutions are all the rage, local AI tools are more powerful than ever. Your gaming PC can do a lot more with AI than just run large language models in LM Studio and generate images with Stable Diffusion… and unlike with cloud-based AI tools, you maintain full control over your data and have complete privacy. Here’s a taste of the cool AI stuff you can do on a desktop PC right now. Most of these are community-created hobbyist projects, by the way, so be sure to go in with the right expectations. Note: Many local AI tools are open-source software, so you can download them for free and work pretty well, but they won’t have the same level of polish or user-friendliness of proprietary software. Voice-to-text transcription Whisper Desktop OpenAI’s Whisper voice-to-text model is open source and you can run it on your own PC with tools like Whisper Desktop. Whisper Desktop will run the Whisper model on your PC’s GPU for fast transcription. It’s a capable solution for converting audio to text. You can speak directly into your microphone or provide an audio file. While Whisper isn’t perfect—no AI tool is—it does outmatch the professional transcription software you would’ve had to pay for just a few years ago. Image upscaling Upscayl These days, so many companies have caught up on offering cloud-based image editing and upscaling tools. Adobe Photoshop even has this feature, but Photoshop does it on Adobe’s cloud servers. If you want to increase the resolution of images using your own PC, Upscayl is a user-friendly tool for upscaling images from lower resolutions to higher ones via local AI. Cloud-based AI image editing tools are convenient, but if you have a powerful enough rig, this is the type of thing you can do right on your PC without uploading your images to a cloud server. Real-time webcam and microphone effects Nvidia Broadcast Microsoft is really pushing Windows Studio Effects as part of its Copilot+ PC suite of AI features, and many of the latest laptops I’m reviewing have “AI webcam effects” packages preinstalled. If you have a Copilot+ PC laptop, try using Windows Studio Effects. If you have a recent laptop in general, dig in the Start menu for webcam filter tools. But if you have a powerful gaming PC (whether a desktop or laptop) with an Nvidia RTX GPU, you can use the free Nvidia Broadcast app to unlock AI webcam and microphone effects like background removal, fake eye contact, and even high-end features like “studio-quality lighting” on top-end GPUs. It all happens in real time, so you can use it while live-streaming a game or in a video meeting. Video upscaling and editing Topaz Labs You can AI upscale and edit videos using your PC’s own hardware, too. Topaz Labs offers popular paid professional apps for AI video and image editing work, with all the processing happening on your PC’s local hardware. It’s a pricey solution designed for professional workflows, but it shows what’s possible with local AI. For a free and open-source option, take a look at Video2X. That one’s a surprisingly user-friendly tool for AI-upscaling video files. These tools are good examples of the “last mile” challenge. While there are lots of powerful local AI models out there, the most polished user interfaces that are easy to work with tend to be paid tools. Hobbyists and researchers can make powerful software, but they often don’t spend much time on polishing it into a shiny end-user product. Voice cloning GPT-SoVITS Did you know you can clone your voice using your PC’s hardware? Tools for this aren’t particularly polished yet—like lots of the local AI landscape—and you’ll often get a web UI and have to download some large files. You can do this with GPT-SoVITS or RVC, but expect some jankiness. However, it’s a great example of what’s possible: you can already clone a voice using consumer hardware and some open-source software. The only missing piece of the puzzle is an easy user interface. Music generation YuE If you’ve seen AI-generated songs on social media, they were probably created using Suno, a cloud-based music generation tool. Local AI solutions for generating music exist, but most of them are early in development and still unpolished. YuE is an open-source tool that looks like it could one day compete with Suno. You can download YuE and run it on your own hardware, but you’ll probably want to stick with Suno until tools like YuE are more user-friendly. As is often the case with local AI solutions, YuE is making it easier to access the kinds of features that were only available via companies running on cloud servers in the past. According to YuE, generating 30 seconds of audio takes about 360 seconds (6 minutes) on a PC with an RTX 4090 GPU. That’s not bad! Give it a few more years and you might be able to generate full songs on your gaming PC. Remove vocals from music Ultimate Vocal Remover If you like to perform karaoke to backing tracks, or if you just prefer to listen to instrumental music, you may wish you had a tool that could remove the vocals from any song. People have been able to do that for a long time, but it’s been a painstaking process that takes a lot of time—until now, thanks to Ultimate Voice Remover. This free application is simple, user-friendly, and gets the job done in mere minutes rather than hours or even days. Just provide an MP3, FLAC, or WAV file and it’ll spit out a version with vocals stripped. Local AI is powerful but unpolished If you’ve been disappointed by the amount of AI hype over the past few years, I understand. Despite all the high-flying talk about local AI, Microsoft Windows and consumer software packages have done very little integration of useful AI tools. The most interesting things are happening in the open-source software community, where surprisingly powerful local AI models come with unsurprisingly janky and amateurish user interfaces. Fortunately, there’s a good chance more user-friendly solutions will pop up in the next few years that take better advantage of powerful PC hardware. For now, you can already do a lot with local AI if you’re willing to get your hands dirty, suffer through rough learning curves, and equip yourself with some relatively powerful hardware (e.g., RTX GPU). Unfortunately, NPUs won’t help you run local AI tools just yet. Want more PC goodness? Sign up for Chris’s newsletter, The Windows ReadMe. It’s always written by a human, even when it’s about AI. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Dual lenses cover wide-angle and zoomed-in views Smooth pan-and-tilt movement Very affordable price Cons Conspicuous industrial design Dependent on a wired power supply Built-in power-surge protection Generic third-party app with pushy upsells Our Verdict The Annke WCD600 offers impressive coverage and durability, making it a smart choice for broad outdoor monitoring, provided you’re comfortable with its wired power requirement and a less-than-polished app experience. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Annke WCD600 Retailer Price Annke $39.99 View Deal Check Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices The Annke WCD600 is a dual-lens outdoor security camera built for people who want to cover a lot of ground without cluttering their space. Each lens captures a three-megapixel view—one wide-angle, one telephoto—helping reduce blind spots across driveways, yards, and side lots. This camera connects to your 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network (i.e., it’s not a dual-band camera), is weatherproof, and costs far less than most cameras that offer similar coverage. The Annke WCD600’s dual-lens setup gives you two complementary perspectives rather than one stitched panorama. Design and features The WCD600 isn’t designed to blend into the background. With its two exposed antennas, bulbous lower housing, and rings of LED lights around each lens, it’s something intruders will notice immediately, and some people will consider that part of its appeal. The white-and-black shell feels solid, weather-sealed, and built to handle the elements. It carries an IP66 rating for protection from the elements, meaning it’s dustproof and can withstand powerful jets of water, such as from a pressure washer, from any direction. (Read our IP code guide to learn more about that topic.) An unusual feature that will be of interest to homeowners living in areas with frequent lightning storms is the camera’s built-in surge protection (up to 2kV). The WCD600’s dual-lens setup gives you two complementary perspectives rather than one stitched panorama. The top 3MP lens delivers a static wide-angle view of your overall scene, while the lower 3MP lens is mounted to a pan/tilt motor to follow movement. The lower camera pans 300 degrees horizontally and tilts 90 degrees vertically. Together they provide context and close-up detail simultaneously, so you see both the big picture and what triggered an alert. At night, the WCD600 switches to its dual-light system: a pair of infrared LEDs for discreet video capture in low light. It also has red-and-blue strobe lights and a built-in siren that trigger on motion. Those deterrents can be set to run automatically or manually from the app, giving you the option to scare off trespassers or just light up the driveway when you step outside. The WCD600’s two lenses capture wide and telephoto views for contextual coverage. Annke The camera can detect both general motion and human activity. When it identifies a person, the lower lens automatically pans and tilts to follow them, keeping the subject centered as they move. You’ll get an instant notification through the iCSee app, and tapping it opens a live view so you can see what’s happening in real time. Video can be saved locally to a microSD card up to 128GB, letting you store footage directly on the camera without a subscription. The camera also supports cloud backup via the iCSee app, with subscription plans that start with 7- or 30 days of storage at a cost of $3.99 or $6.99 a month respectively.  The camera also integrates with Alexa and Google Home, allowing you to pull up live video on a smart display or control basic functions with voice commands. Setup and performance Everything you need to get started is in the box, including a mounting bracket and screws and a power supply. Because the camera draws power from a 12-volt adapter, you’ll need an outlet nearby or a weatherproof extension cord. The WCD600 uses the iCSee mobile app for setup, live viewing, and storage management. iCSee isn’t exclusive to Annke—it’s a third-party platform used by several budget and midrange camera makers. Once you create and account and start the pairing process, the camera’s booming voice prompts guide you through the steps to connect the camera to your network. The app displays both camera views at once, stacked vertically in portrait mode or side by side when you turn your phone horizontally. The daytime image quality is very good, and the twin lenses capture a broad, balanced view without visible distortion. The camera automatically switches between day and night modes based on ambient light, or you can adjust it manually in the app. Night Mode activates the infrared LEDs for clear black-and-white video, while Day Mode disables light enhancement entirely. The third-party ICSee app makes it easy to control the camera and manage its settings, but it feels generic compared to Annke’s own software. Michael Ansaldo/Foundry Human detection worked well in my testing. The camera reliably distinguishes people from moving trees or passing cars, and motion tracking keeps subjects centered without excessive motor noise. You can configure the app to frame people with a yellow box for easier visibility on playback, and there are several options for taming notifications including interval settings and detection sensitivity. The iCSee app handles everything from pairing to live viewing, video playback, notifications, and the camera’s many settings. But it also doubles as a storefront for iCSee’s “value-add” services. Once you open it, you’ll see prominent prompts to activate “AI” functions and cloud storage, along with a countdown timer on any free trial. It’s functional and responsive, but the upselling can feel a bit aggressive—especially if you just want to use the camera’s local recording features. Should you buy the Annke WCD600? The Annke WCD600 normally lists for $79.99, but as of this writing Annke has discounted it to $39.99. That low price makes it an easy gamble. My main reservation is the third-party iCSee app. It’s functional and responsive, but it pushes add-on services too aggressively for my taste, and the interface lacks the polish of Annke’s own software. Still, this camera delivers strong performance and flexibility for the price, making it a smart, affordable option if you want broad outdoor coverage without overcomplicating your setup. This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best home security cameras. Read...

While a general sale is ongoing through FIFA, NZ Football gets to control access to 8% of the purchasable tickets for each of the All Whites` three matches, which will be in an area at each stadium reserved for Kiwi fans. Read...

Debian, Arch, Slackware? Ubuntu, Open Suse, Mint? Knoppix, Tails, Parted Magic? KDE, Gnome, Cinnamon? Anyone who deals with Linux has to process and categorize dozens of names. A few safe claims can help as landmarks. If you want to install Linux, you really are spoiled for choice: There are currently around 250 distributions available for end users, the vast majority of them free of charge. Do you have to know or even try out 250 distributions to find the right one? Certainly not: 80 to 90 percent can be filtered out in advance. In this article, I’ll present the best systems and work out the differences, advantages, and weaknesses. Main strains with Debian dominance The only thing that unites all Linux distributions is the Linux kernel. On this basis, there are five main strains on which the vast majority of distributions (derivatives) are based: Debian Linux: around 125 active distributions, including Debian, Raspbian, Knoppix, Ubuntu with numerous other derivatives such as Linux Mint RedHat/Fedora: around 25 active distributions, including Fedora, RHEL, Alma Linux Arch Linux: around 20 active distributions, including Manjaro, Endeavour-OS) Slackware: around 10 active distributions, including Porteus, Slax, and a handful more, if you still want to count Open Suse as Slackware-based Gentoo Linux: around eight active distributions, including Redcore Linux In addition, there are numerous independent distributions such as Solus-OS, Clear Linux, or Puppy Linux and — for the sake of completeness — the Android mobile system. Debian therefore has far more successors than all other Linux strains combined. The more than 50 Ubuntu derivatives alone add up to more systems than any other main Linux strain. The main reasons for the spread of Debian are its compactness, flexibility, and stability (in the most widely used “stable” branch) and the reliable package management with a huge selection of software. Many derivatives such as Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Bodhi Linux, Zorin-OS, or Bunsenlabs do not reveal their Debian or Ubuntu ancestry in their names. Knoppix, Raspbian, or the NAS system Open Media Vault are also based on Debian. This picture is only intended to convey the quantities. These are half of the Debian derivatives with the Ubuntu node. Foundry The user and desktop area is dominated by comfortable Debian systems such as Ubuntu, Mint, or Elementary OS. The bottom line is that Debian systems are the first choice for beginners, but also for many pragmatic Linux connoisseurs. The only disadvantage of Debian and others may be somewhat outdated software versions. Most Gentoo-, Slackware-, Red Hat- and Arch-based systems are not suitable for the majority, but are islands for Linux connoisseurs and for specialized areas of application. The Gentoo base is practically dying out after the end of Sabayon and the switch from System Rescue CD to the Arch base. However, there are some notable exceptions with Arch, etc.: Arch Linux: There are two particularly popular distributions here: Endeavour-OS is a very fast Linux with a graphical installer, but requires some Linux experience in everyday use. Manjaro with its graphical installer and package manager is probably the most convenient Arch Linux, but is also not a beginner’s system. Red Hat: Fedora Workstation is focused on innovation, less on stability. The “Anaconda” installer used here cannot compete with the simpler Debian/Ubuntu alternatives (Ubiquity, Calamares). Slackware: Porteus is designed as a live system (no installation) and is the first choice for a mobile and fast surfing system. Open Suse is basically based on Slackware, but is now considered independent. For more than a decade, it was almost the only Linux aimed at the PC desktop with graphical operation and configurability. The distribution has lost importance and now tends more towards innovation (e.g. BTRFS file system) and less towards beginner-friendliness. Nevertheless, Open Suse (“Leap“) remains a rock-solid choice. Package formats and containers A desktop user may not care whether their VLC player or Office program runs under Debian or Arch. The software is the same in both cases. However, as all the main strains mentioned use a different package format and different tools when obtaining the software, the choice of system for the software used plays an important role. Once you are used to the DEB package format (Debian, Ubuntu & Co., Linux Mint) and the apt terminal tool responsible for this, the changeover to RPM (Slackware, Red Hat, Open Suse), Tar.xz (Arch) or even Portage (Gentoo) is a significant hurdle and vice versa. Package management differs technically in terms of recognizing package dependencies and also in terms of operation. Graphical software centers of desktop systems should not be relied on exclusively, as they only offer a subset of the software sources. Fundamental knowledge of the respective terminal package manager is therefore important. The package format for installations and updates differs significantly between the main Linux strains. Anyone who is used to Debian or Arch will remain loyal for this reason. Foundry Apt (DEB packages under Debian/Ubuntu), Zypper (RPM packages under Open Suse) and Yum (RPM packages under Red Hat) can be considered relatively simple. You have to get used to the very concise syntax of Pacman (Arch), although only a handful of commands are required for the essentials (update, installation, uninstallation, search). Familiarizing yourself with Emerge and Gentoo’s Portage package format will be too much for normal users. The Snap and Flatpak container formats require independent management. This, their package sizes, and the increased system complexity are annoying or even off-putting for many users. If you want to avoid Snaps, you have to avoid all official Ubuntus (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, UbuntuMate/Budgie/Cinnamon/Unity). With Flatpak, the situation is more relaxed because here, as a rule, only the offer in the form of the management software is available, but no binding pre-installed Flatpak software. Candidates with a pre-installed Flatpak environment are Linux Mint, Elementary OS, Endless OS, Fedora, Tuxedo-OS, Zorin-OS. Different release models All Linux distributions provide standard package sources to supply the respective operating system with software and updates. There are clearly differentiated release models, which are essential for up-to-dateness and stability, but are not always communicated as clearly as they should be. Fixed: This is the regular and predominant release model with a quasi-static standard system. The fixed model is not only typical for Debian/Ubuntu/Mint, but is standard almost everywhere beyond Arch Linux. The kernel and system remain conservatively in their original state and updates only correct the current security problems. In the case of LTS long-term versions, function and kernel updates are carried out via periodic point releases. In general, this model guarantees high stability for the desktop, and even more so for server systems. However, the application software from the package sources can become relatively outdated over the years (with the exception of browsers). Rolling: This model is the rule for Arch-based distributions (Arch, Endeavour-OS, Manjaro), but can also be found elsewhere as an optional variant: Examples include Debian Sid, the Ubuntu-based Rhino Linux, or Open Suse “Tumbleweed”. The independent Solus OS is also a rolling release. Rolling releases do not recognize system versions, but keep the Linux kernel, drivers, system, and software permanently up to date — with certain risks of incompatible components. Rolling releases are suitable for users who tend to be competent, who always want to stay up to date and can fix any problems themselves. Semi-rolling releases such as MX Linux, Antix, KDE Neon, or Tuxedo-OS are hybrids between fixed and rolling. Immutable: The young, extremely secure release model “Immutable Linux” is more restrictive than the fixed model and strictly separates the core system and software. Apart from updates, the core system is static and unchangeable for both users and software. For application software, the container formats Flatpak and Snap are used, which do not interfere with the core system. Prominent candidates are Fedora Silverblue, Endless OS, and soon a variant of Debian 13. However, the immutable model is hardly recommended for normal users: The range of software is limited, the read-only system is too inflexible for server tasks, and the same applies to driver updates. Origin and sustainability In the mass of distributions on offer, some candidates may appear to be the perfect solution at first glance. However, typical desktop users or even Linux beginners should not get involved with exotics. Linux projects from small development teams may quickly become obsolete or have shortcomings that are not immediately recognizable even after trying out the live system. A lack of language support or a mixed-language system are among the most common, but by no means the most serious shortcomings. Distributions and desktops A user-friendly interface is at least as important to many users as the familiar package format or release model. However, distributions and desktops are a complicated subject. Although the well-established statement that the desktop under Linux is merely an interchangeable software application is technically true, it is still not correct. If you choose a distribution with the wrong desktop, you will regularly be disappointed by a “real” desktop installed afterwards. This also applies to distributions without a default desktop with Netinstaller (such as Debian, Open Suse, Parrot-OS), which install the desktop selected by the user. As flexible as this may seem, the result is always an unambitious standard desktop that requires reworking and possibly further installations. Desktop and distribution selection: The widest possible range of graphical management tools is important if terminal knowledge is lacking. Foundry Practically speaking: It is advantageous to choose distributions that are clearly or even unambiguously committed to a desktop. Here you can assume that the interface is optimized and delivered with all the associated components. Examples of distributions that clearly serve a desktop are official Ubuntu flavors such as Kubuntu (KDE), Xubuntu (XFCE), Lubuntu (LXQT), as well as Elementary OS (Pantheon), KDE Neon (KDE), Bodhi Linux (Moksha), or Bunsenlabs (Openbox). Most distributions avoid the restriction to one desktop and therefore offer several interfaces, but favor at least one standard. It is practically always best to choose this standard desktop — and if this desktop is not desired, it is better to choose a different distribution. Examples of distributions that clearly favor a specific desktop are Linux Mint (Cinnamon), Solus-OS (Budgie), or Parrot-OS Home (XFCE). The Linux desktops If you expect — without a terminal — the most complete graphical use possible for software installation, system configuration, drive management, and desktop customization, you cannot choose just any Linux desktop and therefore not just any distribution. The desktop for Linux systems is in principle freely selectable, as here with the Debian Netinstaller. However, you are better off with a distribution with a pre-installed standard desktop. Foundry KDE Plasma: With its configuration centers and system tools, KDE is the undisputed leader among Linux desktops. However, KDE is complex and not always beginner-friendly. Other obvious distributions would be Kubuntu, KDE Neon, or Opensuse “Leap”. Cinnamon: This desktop is probably the best Linux interface at the moment, combining a wealth of functions with (still) clear operation. Linux Mint, Ubuntu Cinnamon, and others offer the latest and most complete Cinnamon. Gnome: This desktop is unconventional, but functional and complete, although the administration area (“Settings”) is more confusing than KDE or Cinnamon. Typical Gnome distributions are Ubuntu, Fedora, or Pop-OS. Mate: The Mate interface still ranks among the complete desktops in that almost all administrative tasks can be performed graphically. Nevertheless, it only serves as the standard desktop under Ubuntu Mate, although many distributions offer it as an option. Budgie: The Gnome-based desktop makes Gnome more traditional again, but has the same confusing settings center and its own customization tools that take some getting used to. The traditional distributions are Solus-OS and Ubuntu Budgie. XFCE: The conservative desktop is easy to use and customize, but has slight deficits compared to the “big” interfaces when it comes to system tools. Model distributions are Xubuntu, MX Linux, or Voyager-OS. LXQT: This desktop is standard in Lubuntu alone, but optional in many distributions. Although LXQT borrows configuration tools from its big brother KDE, complete graphical system administration reaches its limits here. Pantheon: The desktop with a Mac look is attractive, but very reduced. System settings and customizations only offer the essentials. Pantheon is developed by the Elementary OS distribution and is standard there. LXDE/Moksha/Openbox/Fluxbox: These interfaces are representative of a number of others that a user can select specifically because they like them or because they need to save resources. They offer few configuration tools and delegate system administration to the terminal. Distributions that rely on such desktops are generally optimized for economy or live operation, such as Knoppix (LXDE), Bodhi Linux (Moksha), Bunsenlabs (Openbox), and MX Linux (Fluxbox). More hard facts about Linux distributions Wikipedia with hardcore information: The article “Comparison of Linux distributions” provides technical details on a large number of Linux distributions in several individual tables.Foundry The English-language Wikipedia website “Comparison of_Linux_distributions” shows information on all important distributions in sophisticated tables. For example, the existence of an installable live system or a graphical installer, the general orientation, the standard file system, the standard desktop or the number of software packages for each distribution can be researched here. These tables are excellent decision-making aids for a strategic distribution search. The Distrowatch website always provides up-to-date information on all Linux distributions — including servers, exotics, and extinct dinosaurs. In addition to basic data on origin and orientation, there is always a brief, rarely in-depth system characterization. A simple distribution search by name can be found at the top left of the homepage. The real highlight, however, is the search filter at distrowatch.com/search.php. Provided you have some knowledge of Linux, there is no other way to get a quicker answer to the question of whether there is an Arch-based distribution with Netinstaller and Budgie desktop. Advanced search filters on Distrowatch: The well-maintained database enables technical selection filters for a targeted system search. Foundry Read...