Looking for the latest popular distros? Check the official project websites to save time and bandwidth
UbuntuArchDebianFedora
MintManjaroDevuanopenSUSE
elementary OSEndeavourOSantiXSolus
Pop!_OSArchLabsMX LinuxMageia

Ongoing! Visit our Linux User & Developer archive (work in progress).

Click here to see all available PDFs. Note: PDFs are © Future Publishing and may not be redistributed without permission from the editor. Subscribers: click here to get access to more PDFs and full issues!

(Click for larger image)

Issue 130 (April 2010) - Linux Works

Click here to get the DVD via BitTorrent

Whether it's a home office or a megacorp, Linux can save your organisation money!

SELinux 101 - Make a few quick changes and keep safe from hackers

Audio explained - Perplexed by PulseAudio? You're not alone. We explain all

On the 4GB DVD: distro powerpack with 8 super-fast Linux flavours. Plus: Mythbuntu, Firefox 3.6, KDE 4.4, and 700 Linux problems solved

Tutorials on using the command line, apt-get, gLabels, Python coding, virtualisation...

 Features

Linux Works

IT managers! Stop spending a fortune on licences and support and switch your office to free software... (Graham Morrison)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Free vs Open: What's the difference?

Free as in freedom, libre, open source and all that stuff. Here's the LXF Editor's view... (Paul Hudson)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

10 years of LXF

We cast our hive mind back 10 years to see just how much Linux Format has changed since it launched in the days of Slackware 7 and Debian Slink. (Paul Hudson)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Dr Brown's Administeria

Virtual classrooms: the doctor reports on his own experience with two competing technologies. Plus: Minix, and processes demystified. (Chris Brown)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Linux audio uncovered

We dig to the centre of the Linux kernel to uncover why sound can be so... unsound. (Graham Morrison)
 Click here to read!

Interview: Søren Hansen

He's the man behind Ubuntu's push towards cloud computing. We asked him what it feels like for Canonical to be innovating for once... (Paul Hudson)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 Coverdisc

Distro powerpack

8 blisteringly fast Linux flavours. Plus: Mythbuntu, Firefox 3.6, KDE 4.4, retro antics with Red Hat 6.0, games, podcasts and over 700 Linux problems solved (Mike Saunders)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

HotPicks

Gramps, Tea, Liferea, Fox, Hop, Font Manager, Iotop, Darktable, FreedroidRPG, Freeforth, Highlight (Nick Veitch)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 Tutorials

CLI: Work on the command line

There's no need to be scared of the command line - we take the terror away from text mode and reveal awesome power. Plus: managing users and groups. (Andy Channelle)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

gLabels: Make wine look fine

Little ol' wine dinker Mo saves cash, brews a tasty beverage and decorates the fruit of his labours with some simple free software. (Mo Awkati)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

apt-get: Master your packages

Ever wanted a one-stop place to do your package management and the associated housekeeping? We explain how. (Andy Hudson)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

SELinux: Guard your system

Here's how to lock down your Linux system without the added security hindering you as you go about those all-important day-to-day tasks. (Bob Moss)
 Click here to read!

Python: Stream video

Combine the video power of GStreamer with the graphical cunning of Clutter and you get what is officially known as 'neat stuff'. (Nick Veitch)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Android: Next steps

In the second part of our two-part series on coding for the Android platform, we explain how to improve your app and publish it to the world. (Juliet Kemp)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

OpenVZ: Fast virtualisation

Ignoring virtualisation because of the overhead? Here's a way that's incredibly quick and doesn't require any special hardware. (Mayank Sharma)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 Reviews

Mad Skills Motocross

Should games be a nice comfortable easy ride, or so hard you want to bite off your own bottom lip? We would definitely prefer the former. (Alex Cox)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Digikam 1.0

Can 'free' compete with Adobe's and Apple's wallet-busting pro photography packages? Andy grabs a horribly expensive camera to find out. (Andy Channelle)
 Click here to read!

Mandriva InstantOn

Mandriva releases a stripped-down instant-on solution, but we're left wondering whether less really is more or actually just... less. (Bob Moss)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Pardus 2009.1

A government-endorsed Linux distro? Yes, and it's actually rather good, despite the lack of English documentation. (Nick Veitch)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Muse 1.0.1

An established composition app reaches a milestone, but competition in this space is hotting up. Can Muse maintain its tempo? (Daniel James)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

TonidoPlug

And entire Linux-baseed server within a tiny plastic plug, you say? An eager Andy wires himself up to the mains to find out more. (Andy Hudson)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Tiny distros

On test: Damn Small Linux, CrunchBang, Lubuntu, Puppy Linux, Slitaz, Tiny Core, Unity, VectorLinux (Nick Veitch)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

 More

News: Leading Ubuntu into a choppy sea of change

Open source champion Matt Asay bags one of the most important jobs in OSS. Plus: Oracle competes Sun acquisition, KDE gets social network integration, Pandora launches handheld console, the Linux Fund Card. (Andy Channelle)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Distrowatch: Zorin OS 2.0

Get a distro that looks like Windows but is faster and more customisable. Plus: Sidux 2009-04, BlackPanther OS, Linux netbooks at CES (Susan Linton)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.

What on Earth: MicroXwin

This new and snappy windowing system could be music to the ears of embedded Linux developers... (Marco Fioretti)
Available as a PDF to subscribers.