Linux PC vendor System76 has released their second test spin of the upcoming Pop!_OS 18.04, which is also derived from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS but with a growing set of changes.

When Ubuntu-loaded laptop and desktop vendor System76 announced their new Ubuntu downstream last year as "Pop!_OS" it began as mostly cosmetic changes to the desktop shell and other minor improvements. Over time they've been investing more into it with work items like a better installation process, but it looks like they will be diving deeper as they begin exploring performance and power optimizations.

ReactOS 0.4.8 is now available as the project's first update of 2018 that continues working on becoming an "open-source Windows" with binary drop-in compatibility support.

The open-source Haiku operating system that is still striving for compatibility with BeOS had another busy month.

For fans of the NixOS Linux distribution that makes use of the Nix package manager, version 18.03 "Impala" is now available.

Last week I posted an article looking at the Relative Spectre/Meltdown Mitigation Costs On Windows vs. Linux. Today from a different system and using Windows Server 2016 rather than Windows 10 are some fresh benchmarks doing a similar comparison with different hardware and also looking at the Spectre and Meltdown mitigation performance impact again on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Clear Linux.

For all the fans out there of the Rust programming language and/or micro-kernels, a new version of Redox OS is now available, the Rust-written from-scratch OS.

Arriving last Christmas was a rejuvenated release of Slax, the long-running, lightweight Linux distribution with its development restarting last year and having shifted from being a Slackware derivative to Debian and moving from KDE to Fluxbox+Compton. Those involved are working on a new Slax release for 2018.

What was Palm webOS nearly a decade ago is seeing its latest incarnation as LG webOS Open-Source Edition.

A Phoronix Premium supporter recently requested some Windows vs. Linux networking performance benchmarks. That is being done as part of a larger comparison also featuring the popular BSDs, but for some initial measurements, here are some Netperf networking performance metrics on Microsoft Windows Server 2016 and various Linux distributions.

Version 3.6 of Tails, the security and privacy minded live USB/DVD Linux distribution derived from Debian, is now available.

Netrunner 18.03 "Idolon" has been released as the latest version of this KDE-focused desktop Linux distribution derived from Debian's testing repository.

The Android-x86 port of the Android Open-Source Project for running on x86 Intel/AMD PCs and devices is now up to running on the "Nougat" code-base for its stable release.

The Solaris-derived OpenIndiana operating system now has KPTI (Kernel Page Table Isolation) support for testing to mitigate the Intel Meltdown CPU vulnerability.

It was seven years ago that Mandriva 2011 switched to using RPM5 from RPM4, but now for the next OpenMandriva release they are transitioning back to using RPM4 and with that making use of Fedora's DNF.

Adding to the list of operating systems working on memory protection improvements in wake of recent CPU vulnerabilities is Haiku OS.

For fans of Linux From Scratch for assembling your own operating system, LFS and BLFS 8.2 are released in time for some weekend adventures.

The Sculpt operating system that aims for day-to-day / general purpose use-cases and built atop the Genode OS Framework is now available.

Jolla is talking up Sailfish OS 3.0 this week at the Embedded World conference as the "next-generation of the independent mobile operating system" and plans to ship it this calendar year.

For those still interested in Jolla's Linux-based but locked down Sailfish mobile operating system, the Sailfish OS 2.1.4 release is now available to early access users.

The Solus Linux distribution has offered up some new details this week on their upcoming Solus 4 release.

System76's Pop!_OS started off mostly as a re-branded spin of Ubuntu for the company's pre-loaded Linux laptops/desktops, but lately they have been venturing to more interesting changes at varying levels of the stack.

Besides talking about GNU Hurd in 2018 one of the other interesting talks in FOSDEM's micro-kernel track this year was on an Intel GPU resource multiplexer being developed by the Genode project.

Jolla has shared some of their plans for improving Sailfish X, their mobile operating system available for purchase to load on Sony Xperia devices. There are some interesting Sailfish X plans this year with this continuing to be one of Jolla's main focuses.

The Solus Project this week released Linux Driver Management 1.0, a library created by this innovative Linux distribution for enumerating system components and detecting matches between said components and packages/drivers providing additional functionality.

For those still in search of a KDE-focused Linux distribution that's rolling-release and desktop-friendly, Netrunner Rolling 2018.01 has been released.

Last week Purism shared a progress update on the Librem 5 smartphone project where they outlined their plans to continue pursuing the i.MX8M SoC and other plans. They've kept up their word of delivering weekly status updates and out today is their latest summary of work.

The Genode open-source operating system framework project has shared some of their planned goals for 2018.

Endless OS developer Philip Chimento has developed Flapjack as a means of helping developers work on Flatpak.

Solus taking a break from their Steam Linux integration improvements and their other open-source desktop innovations has been experimenting with their own Qt Wayland compositor over the holiday period.