 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 145, 3 April 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 14th issue of DistroWatch Weekly. As always, April 1st was a perfect day for many web sites to come up with most unlikely stories, catching great many people. Now back to serious business, we are pleased to announce our first ever competition - a chance to win a copy of Beginning Ubuntu Linux. This new book for Linux novices is a great introduction to the world of Debian and Ubuntu and has already received a positive review on Slashdot. In other news: SUSE Linux 10.1 delayed once again, miscellaneous Debian happenings, an update on the Linux DVD that can boot 10 different live distributions, and a link to Hack In The Box - a web site that does a great job at keeping us informed about cybercrime. Finally, the recipient of our March 2006 donation is the GParted project. Happy reading!
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Content:
Miscellaneous news: SUSE delays, Debian updates, MultiLinux Live DVD, more Tuttle fun
 Let's start with what has become a standard opening paragraph of just about every issue lately - a new postponement of a distribution release. Andreas Jaeger has announced yet another delay in the release schedule of SUSE Linux 10.1: "We have looked at the current state of SUSE Linux and decided that we're not ready yet to call this week's build an RC1, there are far too many open blocker bugs and also some changes that need additional testing. We therefore have to delay RC1 a bit." The updated roadmap suggests that the release candidate will be postponed until April 12th, while the final release of SUSE Linux 10.1 is now scheduled for April 25th. Please see this mailing list announcement for further details.
 Lots of Debian-related news this week. Low voter turnaround that seems to plague many elections around the world seems to have hit the Debian Project Leader poll too - the third call for voter participation was issued in the third and final week of voting. Good news for those of you waiting for the latest GNOME to appear in Debian "sid": Jordi Malach has announced that all GNOME 2.14 packages should be in the unstable branch within the next few days. Ekiga, however, is a different story. On the Debian HOWTO front, two links to a couple of good articles: Basics of Debian Networking and The Perfect Xen 3.0 Setup For Debian. Finally, if you missed it among the many other April Fool's day hoaxes, Linus Torvalds has announced that he is now officially a Debian developer ;-).
We have previously mentioned the existence of a custom Linux DVD that contains a number of bootable live distributions, all available for selection from the initial GRUB boot menu. The concept was originally started by a Spanish web site called Nautopia.net, which provided the build script. More recently, the Michoacán Free Software User Group has created a complete DVD image for download. The MultiLinux Live 0.1 DVD contains the following live distributions: KNOPPIX 4.0.2, Ubuntu Linux 6.06 Flight CD 5, Livux 2.0, PCLinuxOS 0.92, SimplyMEPIS 3.4.3, SystemRescueCd 0.2.17, Puppy Linux 1.0.8, Elive 0.4.2, and Damn Small Linux 2.2. The 4.16 GB DVD image is available for download directly from Michoacán FSUG and also from LinuxTracker.org.
 If you had never heard of Tuttle before last week, then surely the recent hilarious email exchange between the city manager Jerry Taylor and CentOS developer Johnny Hughes put it on the map. But despite being ridiculed by the geek community around the world, Taylor, who claims to have 22 years of computer engineering experience, continues to amuse us with new words of wisdom. In response to a flood of emails that filled his inbox following the incident, he dismissed them as something written by people who have nothing better to do: "This is just a bunch of freaks out there that don't have anything better to do. [CentOS is] a free operating system that this guy gives away, which tells you how much time he's got on his hands." For more fascinating insight by the city manager please see this article in The Tuttle Times.
 Last week, several readers emailed us to say that Flight 6 of Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Edubuntu 6.06 "Dapper Drake" had been released - a news item that many of you expected to see on the DistroWatch news page. Since this is a topic that seems to come up all the time (and few readers bother to read the site's FAQs), here is an explanation: news about a distribution release will only appear on the front page of DistroWatch after it has been formally announced by the distribution itself. This has been our policy for several years and we don't intend to change it. With all previous Flight releases, a formal release announcement was always published on the ubuntu-announce mailing list shortly after the ISO images were ready for download; with Flight 6, however, the developers have only made a (back-dated) announcement late on Sunday, despite the fact that the ISO images had been available since Friday morning. Hence the reason for the release not being announced on DistroWatch earlier.
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Web sites: Hack In The Box
How do you keep up with security issues affecting your Internet presence? Although the World Wide Web has given us unprecedented convenience in looking up information, communicating with distant friends, and even managing our finances, it also gave rise to "cybercrime", a term associated with online fraud, such as "phishing" for passwords and other methods of depriving many people of their hard-earned cash. If you are concerned about the growing ingenuity of online criminals, you ought to bookmark and visit Hack In The Box. The maintainer of this web site has an amazing ability to collect most relevant news items related to online security that are published elsewhere on the Internet and presents a daily summary of the most relevant ones. Although this is not an Linux-specific web site, it is a great resource for anyone who routinely performs financial transactions online. After all, the best way to fight cybercrime is to stay informed and alert about all the latest security breaches and warnings.
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| Competition: Win a copy of Beginning Ubuntu Linux |
Competition: Win a copy of Beginning Ubuntu Linux
 We have never run a readers' competition on DistroWatch before, but a recent email by Keir Thomas, the author of Beginning Ubuntu Linux, has given us an idea. Keir has kindly offered to mail a signed copy of his new book to ten lucky winners. All you need to do is to send us a paragraph (consisting of no more than 150 words) describing how and why you switched (or intend to switch) from Windows to Ubuntu Linux. You can also mention your experiences with the switch, talk about the positives of moving to Linux or provide suggestions for future improvements of the distribution. It doesn't have to be an entirely positive feedback - constructive criticism of Ubuntu is welcome too.
The competition will be open for a week (it will close at the stroke of midnight GMT on Monday, 10 April), after which we (Keir and myself) will choose the ten winners based on what we'll consider to be the best and most valuable competition entries we receive. The best contributions will be published and the winners will be announced in the April 10th issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The competition is open to all citizen of the Universe, except for readers affiliated with DistroWatch.com and APRESS. The judges' decision is final, etc... you know the small print.
Beginning Ubuntu Linux is intended for users who are just starting out with Linux. This beginner-friendly book is a great introduction to Linux in general and Ubuntu and Debian in particular, but also covers more advanced topics, such as working on the command line. A brief review of the book was recently published on Slashdot: "All in all a good book which is both informative and entertaining at the same time, and which would appeal to anybody interested in installing and using Ubuntu Linux on ones machine." To evaluate the author's writing style, you can download a free sample chapter: Personalizing Ubuntu: Getting Everything Just Right (24 pages in PDF format).
Update 10 April 2006: This competition is now over. We received a total of 192 valid entries from which ten winners will be announced in the April 10th issue of DistroWatch Weekly. Thank you very much to all who participated.
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| Released Last Week |
DesktopBSD 1.0
The first stable version of DesktopBSD, a desktop-oriented and easy-to-use operating system based on FreeBSD 5, has been released: "We are pleased to announce that DesktopBSD 1.0 is now available from our download mirrors and via BitTorrent. Changes include: upgrade to KDE 3.5.1; update to FreeBSD 5.5-PRERELEASE; user-friendlier package manager; printing fixes; hardware event notifications; many smaller improvements." Find more details in the release announcement, release notes and changelog.
rPath Linux 1.0.1
A new set of ISO images for rPath Linux 1 has been released for the i386 and x86_64 architectures: "Refreshed ISO images, release 1.0.1, have been made available for new installations of rPath Linux 1. These images include all updates through and including updates released on 23 March 2006. If you have already installed rPath Linux 1, you should update your current system rather than reinstall using the new images." The new rPath Linux image set includes security updates to curl (7.15.3), PostgreSQL (8.1.3) and Sendmail (8.13.6); see the release announcement for more details.
BLAG Linux And GNU 30003
An updated version of the current stable BLAG Linux And GNU 30000 series is now available: "BLAG 30003 (bicycle) has been released. BLAG is a single-CD distribution with everything desktop users 'expect' from a desktop, plus a collection of nice server applications. BLAG 30003 is based on Fedora Core 3 plus updates, adds applications from Dag, Freshrpms, NewRPMS, and includes custom packages. BLAG 30003 is the latest update to the BLAG30k series, using updates from the Fedora Legacy project. Updates include a new kernel, Apache, OpenSSH, Firefox, Mozilla, Liferea, Scribus, udev.... Overall, 42 packages were changed on the CD." Read the rest of the release announcement for further information.
Damn Small Linux 2.3
After two release candidates, the new Damn Small Linux 2.3 final has been released. What's new? "New auto mydsl, auto scan for directory named mydsl will automatically load extensions; new DSL natively booted can now recognize the QEMU virtual hard disk; upgraded QEMU to v0.8; new background image (Saturn) to match current theme; new check and prompt to save APSFILTER printer and wireless setup; new MyDSL is now a separate menu; new prompt when keyboard is changed while running X; new USB pen drive installs now support 'toram'; new faster dsl-embedded loading in Windows; new theme and XMMS skin...."
Damn Small Linux 2.3 comes with a number of updated utilities and a new desktop theme.
(full image size: 1,149kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Frugalware Linux 0.4
The fourth stable version of Frugalware Linux has been released: "The Frugalware Developer Team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware 0.4 for the i686 and x86_64 architectures. A short list of changes since rc2: update to Linux 2.6.16, GNOME 2.14, OpenOffice.org 2.0.2.1. For those who haven't followed the changes in the pre/rc releases, the most important changes: implemented fwcpan, a new tool to install any CPAN module; network configuration has been redesigned; switched to udev as the default hotplug multiplexer; modularized X.Org 7.0, Apache 2.2.0, KDE 3.5.1, Firefox 1.5.0.1, Thunderbird 1.5...." Read the rest of the release announcement on the project's news page.
BeleniX 0.4.1
The developers of the OpenSolaris-based BeleniX live CD have released BeleniX 0.4.1, the first stable version of the 0.4 release series: "A new release of the live CD is available with several improvements, fixes and new software. The salient points are: improved boot-up time via a variety of mechanisms with further room for improvement in future; upgraded to OpenSolaris build 34 and implemented almost complete Non-DEBUG build so the kernel is now leaner and meaner; added Stefan Teleman's port of K3b for OpenSolaris; improved monitor auto-detection code especially for some flat-panel monitors like laptop ones; new wallpapers for both XFce and KDE...." Find the complete release announcement on the project's home page.
SystemRescueCd 0.2.18
A new version of SystemRescueCd has been released. From the changelog: "Updated the kernel to Linux 2.6.15.6; fixed important bugs with USB stick installation; fixed bugs with FTP that was broken; updated e2fsprogs to 1.38 (ext2 and ext3 system tools); updated ntfsprogs to 1.12.1; the manual was updated; updated Oscar scripts; other minor fixes and updates."
SLAX 5.1.0
SLAX 5.1.0 has been released: "I'd like to let you know that new SLAX version 5.1.0 is available. This version fixes some missing library dependencies (libmikmod, libstdc++) and adds a few minor features. All special editions are available too, including bsdiff patches. The 'Webconfig' size limit has been raised from 8MB to 28MB and webconfig now stores all changes from the whole filesystem, not only /root /etc... Kbuildsycoca is started after module insertion to refresh the KDE cache, so you don't need to exit KDE any more to see new menu entries for newly added software." Read the latest SLAX changelog for further details.
Finnix 87.0
Finnix 87.0 is the project's first release to support iPod - that's besides the traditional live CD editions for the x86 and PowerPC architectures: "Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators, based on Debian testing. Today marks the release of version 87.0 for the x86, PowerPC, UML/Xen, and iPod platforms. Finnix 87.0 contains new features, including Linux kernel 2.6.16, full automatic LVM detection, console mouse support.... Finnix can now also be installed on the popular iPod hardware, though this new platform is still considered experimental." Read the release announcement and release notes for more information.
Musix 0.39
As the name suggests, Musix is a Linux live CD containing a large collection of audio software and designed for musicians. Version 0.39 was released earlier this week with the following changes and updates: "Rosegarden4 1.2.3 (Musix is the first distribution with this version); X.Org 6.9.0; four kernels; some general graphics design changes; KDE 3.5.1; all source code available from www.gnu.org; eq-xmms-musix modified by Pardo (recommended); hundreds of software packages updated; lots of fixed bugs, and more." More details can be found in the release announcement and release notes.
m0n0wall 1.22
The m0n0wall project has announced the release of m0n0wall 1.22: "m0n0wall 1.22 released! m0n0wall 1.22 adds role-based webGUI access, further improves the captive portal (especially its RADIUS handling) and includes several other small updates, fixes and improvements. m0n0wall is a project aimed at creating a complete, embedded firewall software package. m0n0wall is based on a bare-bones version of FreeBSD, along with a web server, PHP and a few other utilities." Read the brief release announcement on the project's home page.
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Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
March 2006 donation: GParted receives €300.00
We are pleased to announce that the DistroWatch March 2006 donation of €300.00 goes to GNOME Partition Editor, better known as GParted. What is GParted? "GParted is an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, resizing, checking and copying partitions, and the file systems on them. This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganising disk usage, copying data residing on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk imaging)." In other words, a useful tool very similar to Partition Magic for Windows, but without the hefty price tag.
GParted: an intuitive application for managing hard disk partitions
Shortly after sending the money we received the following email from Bart Hakvoort: "We from the GParted team like to thank you for your generous donation! Is there anyone specific who provided this money or is it just a DistroWatch initiative?"
As always, our monthly donations programme is a joint initiative between DistroWatch, which allocates 10% of its advertising revenue, and two online shops selling low-cost CDs and DVDs with Linux, BSD and other open source software - LinuxISO.co.uk and LinuxCD.org, each of which contributed US$50 towards this month's donation. Both stores have an excellent selection and latest releases at very reasonable prices. Next time you need to order your favourite Linux or BSD CDs, get them from LinuxCD.org or, if you are in the United Kingdom, from LinuxISO.co.uk.
This is the PayPal receipt for the donations to GParted:
Dear DistroWatch.com,
This email confirms that you have paid bart at hakvoort.be €300.00 EUR using PayPal.
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Payment Details:
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Transaction ID: 01B824557P880784N
Total: €300.00 EUR
Item/Product Name: Gnome Partition Editor (gparted)
Buyer: DistroWatch.com
Here is the list of projects that received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme:
Since the launch of the DistroWatch Donations Programme in March 2004, we have donated a total of US$7,540 to various open source software projects.
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New distributions added to the waiting list
- ROD Linux. ROD Linux is a new Russian distribution based on Slackware Linux
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DistroWatch database summary
That's all for today. The next issue of DistroWatch Weekly will be published on Monday, 10 April 2006. See you then :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 507 (2013-05-13): Impressions of Calculate Linux, 13.4, Ubuntu's portable packages, mintDrivers |
| • Issue 506 (2013-05-06): Ubuntu and Kubuntu 13.04, Debian "Wheezy", Slackware on systemd, distros for Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 505 (2013-04-29): First look at PCLinuxOS 2013.04, Saucy Salamander, Remastersys and System Imager, Linux containers |
| • Issue 504 (2013-04-22): Look at Bodhi 2.3.0, Ubuntu 13.04 features, building OpenBSD ports, opening large files |
| • Issue 503 (2013-04-15): CentOS versus Scientific Linux, PCLinuxOS 64, Lucas Nussbaum, ZFS/Btrfs versus ext4 |
| • Issue 502 (2013-04-08): Look at Mint 201303 "Debian", Ubuntu versus openSUSE, comparing ZFS and Btrfs file systems |
| • Issue 501 (2013-04-01): KANOTIX 2013 and GhostBSD 3.0, openSUSE Rescue-CD, Haiku package management, computer forensics |
| • Issue 500 (2013-03-25): Look at openSUSE 12.3, Ubuntu release changes, Debian backports, growing divide |
| • Issue 499 (2013-03-18): MINIX 3.2.1, openSUSE 12.3 on desktop, Ubuntu GNOME and UbuntuKylin, distros for musicians, KolibriOS |
| • Issue 498 (2013-03-11): Sabayon Linux 11, Ubuntu's Mir, Linux malware |
| • Issue 497 (2013-03-04): Rebellin Linux 1.00 "Adrenaline", rolling-release Ubuntu, Arch vs spin-offs, justification and diversity |
| • Issue 496 (2013-02-25): Review of Chakra 2013.02, The Book of GIMP, Ubuntu and privacy, FreeNAS vs NAS4Free |
| • Issue 495 (2013-02-18): SparkyLinux 2.1 "Ultra", Fedora 19 schedule, Xubuntu on DVD, cloud privacy |
| • Issue 494 (2013-02-11): FreeBSD 9.1, web server stats, Anaconda, rolling-release PC-BSD, fixing broken packages in Arch |
| • Issue 493 (2013-02-04): UberStudent 2.0, OmniBoot 1.0, MariaDB, Enlightenment 0.17 |
| • Issue 492 (2013-01-28): Fedora 18 review, systemd, Kali Linux, Ubuntu Unleashed |
| • Issue 491 (2013-01-21): Fuduntu 2013.1, Fedora 18 desktop choices, Consort, accessing encrypted drive |
| • Issue 490 (2013-01-14): Look at Manjaro Linux 0.8.3, openSUSE on Chromebook, Able2Extract 8.0 |
| • Issue 489 (2013-01-07): PC-BSD 9.1, Arch spin-offs, rolling-releases, year-end PHR stats, removing applications |
| • Issue 488 (2012-12-24): Reviews of Unity and Puppy Linux 5.4 "Slacko", FreeBSD 10 |
| • Issue 487 (2012-12-17): Cinnarch 2012.11.22, OpenMandriva, Fedora Magazine, Tumbleweed, OpenJDK vs Oracle Java |
| • Issue 486 (2012-12-10): Linux Mint 14 review, Ubuntu "spyware" controversy, Haiku overview, troubleshooting Linux servers |
| • Issue 485 (2012-12-03): Kwort Linux 3.5, Mint bug-fix update, Fedora's new Anaconda, defining a distribution |
| • Issue 484 (2012-11-26): Look at SMS 2.0.1, Fedora pre-beta report, Illumos, Secure Boot update |
| • Issue 483 (2012-11-19): DragonFly BSD 3.2.1 and Xubuntu 12.10, Gentoo and udev, switching file systems |
| • Issue 482 (2012-11-12): Review of Zenwalk 7.2, Clang in FreeBSD, Omniboot 0.5, priorities on external drives |
| • Issue 481 (2012-11-05): Look at Tails 0.13, EFF on Ubuntu and privacy, Debian installer changes, ext4 data corruption bug |
| • Issue 480 (2012-10-29): Review of Ubuntu 12.10, Wayland 1.0, FreeBSD's pkgng |
| • Issue 479 (2012-10-22): Look at Zentyal 3.0, Debian bug reporting, initiating a halt |
| • Issue 478 (2012-10-15): Slackware 14.0 review, Ubuntu donations, connecting to multiple machines behind router |
| • Issue 477 (2012-10-08): Review of ODROID-X, OpenBSD's anti-Linux song, interview with Vincent Untz, Linux as operating system |
| • Issue 476 (2012-10-01): Review of openSUSE 12.2, Slackware 14.0 features, accessing home computer with SSH |
| • Issue 475 (2012-09-24): Look at PCLinuxOS 2012.08, Ubuntu and Amazon, SolusOS and PiSi, ownCloud |
| • Issue 474 (2012-09-17): Bodhi Linux 2.0.1, OpenIndiana interview, Frugalware history, update notifications |
| • Issue 473 (2012-09-10): The Linux Command Line, Slackware documentation project, Debian's new primary arch, Goobuntu |
| • Issue 472 (2012-09-03): Kororaa Linux 17, OpenIndiana and SchilliX, Ubuntu GNOME remix, home server tip |
| • Issue 471 (2012-08-27): Linux Mint 13 "KDE", Ubuntu 12.10 features, Slax update, folder quotas |
| • Issue 470 (2012-08-20): Liberté Linux 2012.2, Arch and systemd, NetBSD's sysbuild and sysupgrade, 19 years of Debian |
| • Issue 469 (2012-08-13): Peppermint OS Three, SUSE on Secure Boot, GNOME OS, moving email to Linux |
| • Issue 468 (2012-08-06): First look at CentOS 6.3, Debian installer beta, Fedora and MATE, Libtrash |
| • Issue 467 (2012-07-30): Ubuntu Made Easy, Debian "Jessie", OpenBSD on Secure Boot, Rawhide troubles |
| • Issue 466 (2012-07-23): Fuduntu 2012.3, Linux in PC-BSD jails, secure boot on older computers |
| • Issue 465 (2012-07-16): Netrunner 4.2, Mandriva's two codebases, firewalls and window frames |
| • Issue 464 (2012-07-09): Zorin OS 6, FSF's views on secure boot, Virtual PDF Printer |
| • Issue 463 (2012-07-02): TurnKey Linux 11.3, Red Hat and Btrfs, Sabayon's MATE spin, ZFS on Linux |
| • Issue 462 (2012-06-25): Sabayon 9, "Wheezy" freeze, Zorin OS overview, Vinux interview, mounting network shares |
| • Issue 461 (2012-06-18): Linux Mint 13, openSUSE 12. delays, Debian Multimedia, Mageia 3 roadmap |
| • Issue 460 (2012-06-11): Look at Fedora 17, PC-BSD and Slackware interviews, Openfiler and FuguIta |
| • Issue 459 (2012-06-04): Impressions of Mageia 2, Fedora updates, Debian or Raspberry Pie, improving software performance |
| • Issue 458 (2012-05-28): Impressions of SolusOS 1, Linux kernel 3.4, encrypting home folder |
| • Issue 457 (2012-05-21): Linux accessibility, Fedora 17 overview, MultiSystem, launching tasks |
| • Issue 456 (2012-05-14): Look at OpenBSD 5.1, Debian Installer 7.0 alpha, UDS news round-up |
| • Issue 455 (2012-05-07): Review of Ubuntu 12.04, "Quantal Quetzal" plans, Debian infographic |
| • Full list of all issues |
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