Guardians of Privacy: How Security-Driven Linux Distributions Are Rising to Meet Growing Digital Fears

Linux Journal
2 months 1 week ago
by George Whittaker

In the last decade, the digital landscape has shifted from a space of casual convenience to a battleground for personal information. From constant corporate profiling to sprawling government surveillance programs, the reality is clear, our devices have become treasure troves for those seeking to exploit or monitor us. As trust in mainstream platforms erodes, a surge of interest has emerged around operating systems that place security and privacy at their very core. At the forefront of this movement are a new breed of Linux distributions designed not just for power users and security experts, but for anyone who values control over their data.

The Age of Hyper-Exposure

Every click, swipe, and typed search leaves a footprint. This wasn’t always a mainstream concern, many users once traded data for convenience without a second thought. But a string of high-profile incidents changed the narrative: massive data breaches leaking millions of personal records, whistleblower revelations exposing global surveillance programs, and marketing giants quietly building extensive behavioral profiles of individuals.

For the average person, these events have shattered the illusion of online privacy. For professionals handling sensitive work, journalists, lawyers, healthcare providers, data exposure is more than a nuisance; it’s a potential threat to safety, reputation, and trust. The result? An accelerating search for technology that resists tracking, intercepts intrusions, and limits data leakage before it can begin.

Why Linux Has Become the Privacy Battleground

Linux, in its many forms, has always worn transparency as a badge of honor. Unlike proprietary systems where code is hidden from public scrutiny, Linux distributions are open-source, meaning anyone can inspect the source code, audit for vulnerabilities, or suggest improvements. This creates a self-reinforcing cycle of trust and accountability.

Beyond transparency, Linux allows deep configurability. Users can strip away unnecessary software, remove hidden telemetry, and harden their system against attacks. Updates arrive quickly, often patched within hours of a security flaw being reported, compared to the slower cycles of commercial operating systems. And most importantly, Linux is free from the corporate incentives that often drive aggressive data collection.

What Sets Security-Focused Distros Apart

While all Linux distributions benefit from open-source transparency, security-oriented distros go several steps further by building privacy and protection into their foundation:

  • Hardened System Kernels: Some distros use custom kernels with advanced security patches (like grsecurity) to close off potential attack vectors.

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George Whittaker

zabbix >= 7.4.1-2 may require manual intervention

Arch Linux
2 months 2 weeks ago

Starting with 7.4.1-2, the following Zabbix system user accounts (previously shipped by their related packages) will no longer be used. Instead, all Zabbix components will now rely on a shared zabbix user account (as originally intended by upstream and done by other distributions):

  • zabbix-server
  • zabbix-proxy
  • zabbix-agent (also used by the zabbix-agent2 package)
  • zabbix-web-service

This shared zabbix user account is provided by the newly introduced zabbix-common split package, which is now a dependency for all relevant zabbix-* packages.

The switch to the new user account is handled automatically for the corresponding main configuration files and systemd service units.

However, manual intervention may be required if you created custom files or configurations referencing to and / or being owned by the above deprecated users accounts, for example:

  • PSK files used for encrypted communication
  • Custom scripts for metrics collections or report generations
  • sudoers rules for metrics requiring elevated privileges to be collected
  • ...

Those should therefore be updated to refer to and / or be owned by the new zabbix user account, otherwise some services or user parameters may fail to work properly, or not at all.

Once migrated, you may remove the obsolete user accounts from your system.

Robin Candau

[Testing Update] 2025-08-04 - Kernels, Toolchain, Blender, Mesa, Ollama

Manjaro Linux
2 months 2 weeks ago

Hello community, here we have another set of package updates.

Current Promotions Recent News Valkey to replace Redis in the [extra] Repository (click for more details) Previous News Finding information easier about Manjaro (click for more details) Notable Package Updates
  • Some Kernels got updated
    • this includes an initial preview of 6.17 kernel series
    • toolchain updates with gcc security fixes and glibc 2.42
  • Some Updates to GNOME
  • Blender 4.5.1
  • Mesa 25.1.7
  • Inputplumber 0.61.0
  • Ollama 0.10.1
  • Updates to Python and Haskell
Additional Info Python 3.13 info (click for more details) Info about AUR packages (click for more details)

Get our latest daily developer images now from Github: Plasma, GNOME, XFCE. You can get the latest stable releases of Manjaro from CDN77.

Our current supported kernels
  • linux54 5.4.296
  • linux510 5.10.240
  • linux515 5.15.189
  • linux61 6.1.147
  • linux66 6.6.101
  • linux612 6.12.41
  • linux615 6.15.9
  • linux616 6.16.0
  • linux617 6.17.0-rc0
  • linux61-rt 6.1.146_rt53
  • linux66-rt 6.6.99_rt58
  • linux612-rt 6.12.39_rt11
  • linux615-rt 6.15.0_rt2

Package Changes (Mon Aug 4 08:50:41 CEST 2025)

  • testing core x86_64: 25 new and 25 removed package(s)
  • testing extra x86_64: 1449 new and 1446 removed package(s)
  • testing multilib x86_64: 17 new and 17 removed package(s)

Overlay Changes

  • testing core x86_64: 27 new and 25 removed package(s)
  • testing extra x86_64: 185 new and 178 removed package(s)

A list of all changes can be found here.

Click to view the poll.

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philm

Looking for an Ubuntu Manual? Try This Book

It's F.O.S.S.
2 months 2 weeks ago
Whether you’re new to Ubuntu or have been using it for years, The Ultimate Ubuntu Handbook offers a wealth of practical tips, time-saving tricks, and insider insights that will help you get even more out of your Ubuntu experience.
Abhishek Prakash

[Unstable Update] August 2025

Manjaro Linux
2 months 2 weeks ago

Welcome to the new monthly unstable branch thread.

Recent News Kernel 6.15 is now EOL (click for more details) zabbix >= 7.4.1-2 may require manual intervention (click for more details) (click for more details) Notable Package Changes Known Issues 2025-07-20 - grub update 2:2.12.r292 -> r350 (click for more details) 2025-06-22 - linux-firmware-amdgpu-20250613.12fe085f may create an unbootable system for RDNA4 GPUs or graphical glitches with RDNA3 GPUs (click for more details) 2025-06-01 - avahi-discover python script (click for more details) Chrome/Chromium-based browsers and GNOME 48 - Global Shortcuts (click for more details) python-gobject 3.52 breaks multiple apps (libpeas related) (click for more details) Possible breaking changes to pacman-mirrors (click for more details) Plasma 6.4.0 will need manual intervention if you are on X11 (click for more details) Additional Info Info about AUR packages (click for more details)

Get our latest daily developer images now from Github: Plasma, GNOME, XFCE. You can get the latest stable releases of Manjaro from CDN77.

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Yochanan