| DistroWatch Weekly |
| A d v e r t i s e m e n t |
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| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 156, 19 June 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 25th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! There is a lot to look forward to this week - a brand new release of Xandros Desktop is expected to start shipping on Wednesday, while the first test build of Fedora Core 6 should be available from Fedora mirrors on the same day. In other news: Slackware 11.0 nears its release point, OpenSolaris celebrates its first birthday, and SCO becomes a victim of a strangely believable hoax that excites some of the former users of Caldera OpenLinux. In the "First Looks" section you'll find a round-up of currently available BSD-based live CDs, while in the "Site News" area we present the list of packages that have been selected as new entries into the database of software packages tracked by DistroWatch. Happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG format (4.2MB)
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in MP3 format (5.0MB)
(The Podcast edition is provided by Shawn Milo.)
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Miscellaneous News |
Fedora 6 Test1, Slackware 11.0, OpenSolaris birthday, Dapper sources.list, Caldera hoax
 With the release of the first alpha build of SUSE Linux 10.2 last week, the beginning of a new development cycle for the major Linux distributions is now officially in progress. This week, it's the turn of the Fedora Project which is expected to release Test1 of Fedora Core 6 on Wednesday. Although very little information has been published about the new release, looking through the package list of the Fedora development tree, we can see that parts of GNOME 2.15, a pre-release version of glibc 2.5, and the brand new X.Org 7.1 have all entered the testing branch. The Fedora developers have yet to move to the new kernel 2.6.17, while the KDE is the slightly older 3.5.2, but most other packages are highly up-to-date. Interestingly, a recent beta release of GnuCash 2.0 has now replaced the "behind-the-times" 1.8 series, which suggests that GTK+ 1.x libraries are likely to be removed from the distribution before the final release of Fedora 6. A word of caution: all recent Test1 releases of Fedora Core have been rather buggy and should only be installed by serious beta testers willing to report bugs.
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 It shouldn't be too long before the fans of Slackware Linux are greeted with a new release of the world's oldest surviving Linux distribution. According to the latest Slackware Current ChangeLog, Patrick Volkerding believes that the "current" tree is very stable and almost ready for release: "Although there's still quite a bit in the TODO queue here I'm making my steps carefully as -current is very stable, and I think it should ship as a stable 11.0 soon so that we can get back to the business of breaking things in -current. :-)" Despite the major version number change, those who expect Slackware 11.0 to default to kernel 2.6 will be disappointed - the "current" tree still deploys kernel 2.4.32 (compiled with GCC 3.4.6), with kernel 2.6.16.20 stubbornly remaining in the "testing" directory. Among other important packages, glibc is the older 2.3.6, X.Org is version 6.9.0 and PHP 5 is also in the testing directory, but the rest of the system is up-to-date. For more details please check out the above-mentioned changelog and the Slackware page here on DistroWatch. The official Slackware 11.0 DVD is available for pre-order from the distribution's online store (US$59.95).
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 The OpenSolaris Project is 1-year old. To celebrate the project's birthday, ZDNet has published an article entitled OpenSolaris one year on: Success or failure?, which looks at the events of the past year: "In June 2005, Sun Microsystems released core elements of its flagship Solaris operating system as open source software, making public more than five million lines of code. The announcement sparked intense interest among developers." The article quotes statistical evidence and several external contributors to indicate a growing developer community and general success of the project. Although released under a special license, OpenSolaris is considered Free Software. During the past year, several OpenSolaris-based distribution were listed on DistroWatch; these include the excellent BeleniX graphical live CD, the non-graphical SchilliX live CD, and the promising Nexenta OS, which is probably the best Solaris-based desktop distribution created to-date. There is little doubt that the availability of OpenSolaris has given us another great, free operating system, which can't be a bad thing. So happy birthday, OpenSolaris! We are glad you've joined the Free Software community!
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 Several web sites have published entertaining interviews with major distribution personalities last week. Pro-Linux.de, a German Linux web site, has interviewed Anthony Towns, the current Debian Project Leader (DPL), and Steve McIntyre, one of DPL's deputies, about the current status and future plans of Debian GNU/Linux. In the meantime, the ever so busy Kevin Carmony of Linspire has answered dozens of questions for the Free Software Magazine about the new Freespire distribution. Finally, KDE Dot News has published an interview with Tomáš Matějíček, the founder and lead developer of the popular SLAX live CD. Enjoy!
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 If you are looking to enhance your Ubuntu and Kubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake installation with extra packages from external repositories, this web log post is the most comprehensive list of available software for Dapper we've seen. It includes repositories for the Opera browser, Penguin Liberation Front packages, the latest KDE, KOffice and amaroK, up-to-date packages for VLC, Compiz, Skype, Freevo, MythTV and other popular software, as well as a number of unofficial and experimental repositories created by volunteers all over the world. As always, these packages are unsupported and some might even break your system, so proceed with caution. But if you absolutely need a package for your Ubuntu or Kubuntu system, getting it from the repositories listed in the above-mentioned link might be a better option than compiling the required package from source code.
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 Development of Tao Linux, a distribution built by re-compiling the source RPM packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, has been terminated. As explained by the project's founder David Parsley, a change of employment means that he will no longer have the time to maintain the distribution, which was originally launched with a promise to deliver 5-years' worth of security updates for each new release: "After nearly three years of the Tao Linux project, I'm undergoing an unexpected change in employment that will effectively take away my time for working on Tao Linux." As a result, all Tao Linux users are now encouraged to migrate to CentOS, a community project with similar objectives as Tao Linux. For more information and instructions about how to switch to CentOS please visit the project's web site at TaoLinux.org.
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 Finally, a little late for April Fool's, but nevertheless an entertaining hoax announcing that SCO will resume the development of Caldera OpenLinux, a Linux distribution first launched back in 1996. Although Caldera OpenLinux never reached the popularity of Red Hat Linux, it was the first distribution incorporating a graphical installer and its eDesktop 2.4, released in February 2000, was widely considered to be one of the best desktop-oriented and stable Linux operating systems at the time. Unfortunately, after merging with SCO, the company changed its strategy from developing software to pursuing dubious copyright and patent violation claims against IBM and other companies in courts. While SCO still offers a range of UNIX products for sale on its web site, the company's income and share price have dropped considerably in recent years.
Caldera OpenLinux 3.1.1, released in January 2002, was the last distribution version released under the Caldera brand name
(full image size: 203kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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| First Looks |
A comparison of BSD live CDs (by Andrei Raevsky)
GNU/Linux live CDs are increasingly playing an important role in the free software community. They serve as advocacy tools, they make it possible for newbies to try out software without having to install anything and they make fantastic rescue disks. While all the best known live CDs are GNU/Linux variants, there are also several *BSD live CDs out there. I decided to give them a test run.
I tested all the BSD live CDs I could get my hand on: FreeSBIE 1.1, FreeBSD LiveCD 1.2, Frenzy 0.3, AnonymOS 2006, OliveBSD 3.8 and NetBSD Live! 1.6 (editor's note: a newer release of NetBSD Live!, version 3.99.7, is available from here). Each distro was tested on two desktops (a home-built AMD Duron 850MHz, 256MB RAM with generic components and a Hewlett-Packard Intel Celeron 500MHz, 256MB RAM) and two laptops (a Dell Inspiron 8200, Intel Pentium 4 1.8GHz and 885MB RAM and a Quantex N30W, Intel Pentium 3 450MHz and 192MB RAM). I pre-tested all my computers for possible problems with a KANOTIX 2005-04 live CD before beginning my evaluations.
First, I wanted to see how these distributions would perform in terms of hardware recognition (in particular video configuration) and smooth installation, ease of use, documentation, speed and overall versatility (capability to dial-up, software choice, etc.). My second goal was to see whether these live CDs would be adequate advocacy tools for free software in general and for *BSD in particular.
FreeSBIE only booted properly on the home-built machine and the Quantex laptop. When it can successfully boot, FreeSBIE offers a great choice of applications on the XFce desktop (Fluxbox is also available), runs rather fast and comes with some good configuration scripts. On the down side, the documentation is minimal and the video configuration is less than stellar.
FreeSBIE 1.2 - the original live CD based on FreeBSD
(full image size: 700kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
FreeBSD LiveCD immediately showed its major drawback: it is wholly CLI which is a show-stopper for the newbie I assumed. On the positive side I noted good hardware recognition and a solid choice of CLI software. On the FreeBSD live CD website it says that "we had even made a Live CD ISO that could run as a desktop environment - with lots of graphical applications. This version was a first one that could even be used as a FreeBSD demonstration disk". Sadly, I was unable to obtain this version.
Frenzy is the only distribution which seamlessly booted up on all my computers. Frenzy is fast, comes with an excellent choice of software including games, word-processing (AbiWord), network and security applications and can be booted in either of two languages: English and Russian (the latter is the default and English speakers have only 5 short seconds during the boot up process to hit the "e" key to select English). Frenzy also features a simple but very good documentation. But the most amazing thing about Frenzy is that it completely fits on a 200MB 3" mini-CD. Developed by on person, Sergei Mozhaisky, Frenzy version 1 should be released in the near future (editor's note: Frenzy 1.0 was released in early June 2006) with, hopefully, a 'toram' cheatcode making it possible to load it completely into the RAM and free the CD drive.
Frenzy 1.0 - a FreeBSD-based live CD with tools for system and network administrators
(full image size: 882kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
AnonymOS is, like FreeBSD Live CD, a specialized distribution whose sole aim is to make surfing private and safe. After an (endless) boot-up process, AnonymOS correctly loaded up on only two out of four computers (the home-built machine and the Dell laptop). While AnonymOS offers some otherwise very interesting software, such as Tor and Privoxy, its highly specialized goal makes it inadequate as distribution aimed at BSD newbies.
AnonymOS - an OpenBSD-based live CD with tools for anonymous web surfing
(full image size: 166kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
OliveBSD was the biggest disappointment of all my tests. It was unable to boot-up on any of my computers: each time it simply froze and only a manual reboot could unlock the machine. After seeing that there are quite a few very happy OliveBSD users on the distribution's discussion group I decided that the problem with OliveBSD was probably simply due to bad luck and that another set of computers might have yielded better results.
OliveBSD - a general-purpose live CD based on OpenBSD
(full image size: 118kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
NetBSD Live! booted on two of my machines, the home-built computer and the Quantex laptop. The choice of software is excellent as NetBSD Live! is the only BSD live CD which comes with the complete KDE desktop suite, something which, I guess, any user would very much appreciate. NetBSD Live! is not the fastest distro I tested (Frenzy won in this category too), but it runs at a decent speed. Another strong point for NetBSD is that it did a great job automatically configuring the video.
NetBSD Live! - the only BSD live CD using the KDE desktop
(full image size: 399kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
My overall impression was that BSD live CDs are not on par (yet) with their GNU/Linux cousins, but that they are catching up fast. The clear winner from my, admittedly unscientific, evaluation was Frenzy, which was the only distribution to perform (almost) flawlessly on all my machines. Although clearly intended as a security/rescue tool for administrators, Frenzy is certainly the distribution which would offer the most to the newbie (including very good documentation).
I hope that the final version of Frenzy 1.0 will iron out some of the remaining issues (such as not quite perfect video configuration) and will offer the 'toram' cheatcode. Considering how solid Frenzy 0.3 has proved to be so far I would also hope that Sergei Mozhaisky would consider developing a less specialized 700MB version of his distro.
One small improvement which, I believe, all these distros could make to help newbies would be to add a simple mount/unmount tool like, for example, what is found in the Damn Small Linux distribution.
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| Released Last Week |
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Server SPARC64
A specialist server edition of Ubuntu 6.06 designed for high-end SPARC64 processors has been released: "The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS server for Sun SPARC 64-bit architecture. Highlights of this release include: new kernels targeted at server platforms, the server kernels are tuned differently than the desktop kernels (providing better performance for server applications); turn-key LAMP installation for this common deployment scenario; improved support for clusters and SANs." Please refer to the release announcement for further information and download links.
GParted LiveCD 0.2.5-1
Patrick Verner has announced the availability of an updated version of GParted LiveCD: "GParted LiveCD 0.2.5-1. I think this might be the best version of the live CD released so far. Many issues have been fixed and I spent some time making it look better. Junel Mujar made a very cool wallpaper for the desktop. Changes: updated to Linux kernel 2.6.16.20, Parted 1.7.1, e2fsprogs 1.39, GTK+ 2.8.19, Fluxbox 1.0rc, udev 094; Added xfce4-panel 4.3.90.1 to Fluxbox, Thunar 0.3.0beta1; rebuilt X.Org to be smaller; the source for the CD is located in /usr/src/." Read the rest of the changelog for further information.
STUX GNU/Linux 0.9
Giacomo Picconi has announced the release of STUX GNU/Linux 0.9, a Slackware-based live and installation CD designed desktop use: "STUX GNU/Linux 0.9 released. Main changes: Linux kernel upgraded to 2.6.12 from KNOPPIX CD 4.0.2; based on Slackware current as at 10 June 2006; added KNOPPIX hardware autodetection; Unionfs: with Unionfs it's now possible to use STUX from Live CD without the read-only limitation; all STUX utilities fully debugged and reviewed; multimedia keyboards now working and configurable; added WINE; installed remastering tools; Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support...." Read the complete changelog on the project's news page.
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Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Xandros Desktop 4
Xandros Corporation has created a pre-orders page for the upcoming Xandros Desktop 4, expected to start shipping later this week. Despite the imminent release, details about the new versions are hard to come by - the Xandros product pages have yet to be updated, while the pre-orders page only lists general features, such as "integrated security suite" and "updated included applications". On a positive side, those readers who pre-order their copy of Xandros Desktop 4 before the release date will qualify for a $5 discount on Xandros hats and T-shirts. See the pre-orders page for full details.
PC-BSD 1.2
The PC-BSD project has published a release roadmap for the upcoming versions 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5, with an outlook towards version 2.0. Among the changes in PC-BSD 1.2, scheduled for release in July 2006, are: "Incorporate DBSD network / user toolset into Control Panel; convert PC-BSD specific tools to Control Panel modules; change default wallpaper / splash screen to something more professional; update KMenu / merge PBI with KDE application categories; set up Windows key to launch K-menu; bind ctrl-alt-delete with KDE System Guard; improve printing support with CUPS." There will be four new releases before the end or 2006, with version 2.0 planned for the first quarter of 2007. For more information please see the PC-BSD roadmap.
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
The annual package database update
Our call last week for suggestions to add new packages to the list of software tracked on DistroWatch met with surprising apathy, especially given that this time last year we were flooded with requests for new packages. Nevertheless, we evaluated the few comments and emails we received and this is the final list of packages that will be added to distribution tables later this week:
The following packages will be removed from the tables: bin86, bochs, galeon, ipvsadm, licq, webalizer and xcdroast.
Many thanks to all who have made the effort to email us and who posted requests in the forum!
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New distributions added to database
- BU Linux. Boston University Linux (or BU Linux for short) is a Fedora-based distribution specifically tailored for the Boston University environments. Among the more interesting enhancements are network installation, Kerberos authentication, tight default security, automatic security updates, apt-get package management front-end, OpenAFS file system, and extra software applications.
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Sharif Linux. Sharif Linux is a bilingual English/Persian operating system. It is based on GNU/Linux and is customized for the computing requirements of Iran and the Persian language, specially for enterprise-level and educational uses.
- Swecha LiveCD. Swecha LiveCD is a Knoppix-based distribution with support for Telugu, the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.
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DistroWatch database summary
That's all for today. The next issue of DistroWatch Weekly will be published on Monday, 26 June 2006. See you then :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 340 (2010-02-08): Interview with Kris Moore, FreeBSD history, Fedora newbie guide, backups |
| • Issue 339 (2010-02-01): GNOBSD, end of Sun, Ubuntu Yahoo deal, converting ext3 to ext4 |
| • Issue 338 (2010-01-25): Hymera and commercial Linux, Lubuntu and Qimo 4 Kids updates, Linux on Mac hardware |
| • Issue 337 (2010-01-18): First look at Jibbed, Fedora Community Remix, better applications, online CD sales |
| • Issue 336 (2010-01-11): Examining SliTaz, Debian installer changes, restoring GRUB |
| • Issue 335 (2010-01-04): Look at MINIX 3, 2009 PHR statistics, optimising 64-bit distributions |
| • Issue 334 (2009-12-21): SheevaPlug as Debian MythTV server, Canonical management changes, Mandriva "InstantOn", LSB |
| • Issue 333 (2009-12-14): Look at LinuxConsole 1.0.2009, KDE-centric distros, Archiso-live, Katana security suite |
| • Issue 332 (2009-12-07): Look at FreeBSD 8.0, Fedora 12 LXDE, ClearOS for small business, FreeNAS switch, 32-bit vs 64-bit |
| • Issue 331 (2009-11-30): Look at Kubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10, FreeBSD 8.0 features, Mandriva community spins, office suites |
| • Issue 330 (2009-11-23): Look at Fedora 12, Chromium OS source code, updating FreeBSD, Qimo 4 Kids interview |
| • Issue 329 (2009-11-16): Look at openSUSE 11.2, Fedora 12 goes gold, five years of pfSense |
| • Issue 328 (2009-11-09): Look at Mandriva 2010, Ubuntu media coverage, real-time kernels |
| • Issue 327 (2009-11-02): Overview of Ubuntu variants, upgrading openSUSE and Mandriva development builds |
| • Issue 326 (2009-10-26): Review of GNOME SlackBuild, Ubuntu and Mandriva nearing release, Funtoo "fork" |
| • Issue 325 (2009-10-19): Look at iMagic OS 2009.9, Arch Linux Handbook, Linux Mint 8 Update |
| • Issue 324 (2009-10-12): Sabayon Linux 5.0 review, Debian develops kFreeBSD port, Mandriva re-introduces itself |
| • Issue 323 (2009-10-05): Slackware 13.0 review, updating openSUSE with "zypper", Red Hat vs software patents |
| • Issue 322 (2009-09-28): First look at HP Mini 110, netbook news roundup, Slackware package management |
| • Issue 321 (2009-09-21): Security basics - authentication, openSLES, Ubuntu "Lucid Lynx", Linux Mint plans |
| • Issue 320 (2009-09-14): Distro Odyssey part 2 - Arch Linux, Solaris and OpenSolaris updates, Ubuntu artwork |
| • Issue 319 (2009-09-07): Look at xPUD, Lubuntu test images, DesktopBSD 1.7, RHEL 5.4 features |
| • Issue 318 (2009-08-31): Look at Colibri, Slackware 13.0 features, ClarkConnect becomes ClearOS |
| • Issue 317 (2009-08-24): Look at Puppy Linux 4.2.1, openSUSE and KDE, Mandriva and Sabayon updates |
| • Issue 316 (2009-08-17): Status of Intel video drivers, running "Rawhide", Ubuntu Netbook Remix interface update |
| • Issue 315 (2009-08-10): Look at Pardus 2009, KDE 4.3 in distributions, Mandriva "Cooker" and Sabayon 5.0 updates |
| • Issue 314 (2009-08-03): Look at Slax 6.1.1 "Core", open letter to CentOS co-founder, Debian's time-based freezes |
| • Issue 313 (2009-07-27): Distro odyssey, ten years of Gentoo, paper on FreeBSD engineering |
| • Issue 312 (2009-07-20): Installing CentOS 5.3 on a Netbook, Mandriva products, distro and upstream relationship |
| • Issue 311 (2009-07-13): Great Linux distributions that did not survive, Google announces Chrome OS |
| • Issue 310 (2009-07-06): CDLinux 0.9.2 Community Edition, Debian and Ubuntu say Mono is no threat, "Fit and Finish" |
| • Issue 309 (2009-06-29): LinuxTag 2009, kernel 2.6.30 for "Lenny", Slackware user guide |
| • Issue 308 (2009-06-22): Interview with Robert Lange, VectorLinux, One Hundred Paper Cuts |
| • Issue 307 (2009-06-15): Fedora 11 review, custom FreeBSD images, sidux and non-free firmware |
| • Issue 306 (2009-06-08): Look at Absolute Linux, Fedora prepares "Leonidas", Mandriva Community Ideas |
| • Issue 305 (2009-06-01): Look at Debris Linux, running openSUSE "Factory", OpenSolaris 2009.06, Ubuntu User magazine |
| • Issue 304 (2009-05-25): First look at Mandriva 2009.1, Slackware64, Archlive-iso, Mobile Linux round-up |
| • Issue 303 (2009-05-18): Running Slackware "Current", Fedora 12 features, Ubuntu One, Debian "Lenny" with KDE 4 |
| • Issue 302 (2009-05-11): Future of Moblin, running "Cooker", Debian and eglibc, Slackware's new TXZ packages |
| • Issue 301 (2009-05-04): Minimal Xubuntu, Mandriva updates, BSD release galore, Arch Linux magazine |
| • Issue 300 (2009-04-27): Xubuntu 9.04 vs Debian 5.0 Xfce, Jaunty Jackalope, Fedora 10 re-spins |
| • Issue 299 (2009-04-20): Central bug tracker, reverting to older Ubuntu kernel, ShipIt 9.04, Easy Peasy updates |
| • Issue 298 (2009-04-13): First look at PC-BSD 7.1, Novell's Online Build Service, FreeBSD's 20,00 ports, Ubunchu! |
| • Issue 297 (2009-04-06): Review of Parted Magic 4.0, Linux Foundation to control Moblin, GNOME 3.0 |
| • Issue 296 (2009-03-30): First look at Tiny Core Linux 1.2, PCLinuxOS troubles, Fedora tests Nouveau |
| • Issue 295 (2009-03-23): Interview with Robert Shingledecker, Tiny Core Linux, Ubuntu 9.04 beta freeze |
| • Issue 294 (2009-03-16): Installing Linux with LVM, KDE 4 in Slackware current, ext4 and data loss |
| • Issue 293 (2009-03-09): Introduction to LVM, openSUSE and Ubuntu release plans, ULTILEX |
| • Issue 292 (2009-03-02): First look at SimplyMEPIS 8.0, openSUSE system upgrades with Zypper, Red Hat and the desktop |
| • Issue 291 (2009-02-23): Minimalist openSUSE 11.1, Ubuntu "Karmic Koala", VirtualBSD, Linux companies in recession |
| • Issue 290 (2009-02-16): Look at Debian "Lenny" live and netinst CDs, OpenSolaris Bible, Nova |
| • Issue 289 (2009-02-09): First look at Moblin, from Puppy to Woof, Mandriva Assembly, SlackFind.net |
| • Issue 288 (2009-02-02): Interview with Linus Torvalds, KDE 4.2 in Fedora, Easy Peasy and Moblin |
| • Issue 287 (2009-01-26): Linux.conf.au 2009, ext4 in Fedora and Ubuntu, ex-Mandriva developers move to Red Hat |
| • Issue 286 (2009-01-19): Arch Linux in review, Debian on Android, mini distros |
| • Issue 285 (2009-01-12): Interview with Paul Sherman, Absolute Linux, new Debian and openSUSE CD images |
| • Issue 284 (2009-01-05): Linux and distributions through years, 2008 PHR stats, Debian clears Lenny firmware holdup |
| • List of all DWW issues |
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