| DistroWatch Weekly |
| A d v e r t i s e m e n t |
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| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 273, 6 October 2008 |
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Welcome to this year's 40th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! After two weeks or refining the package management cheatsheet, DistroWatch takes a break from this project to update its rapidly ageing Major Distributions page. Linux Mint, which has become the third most-often used Linux-based operating system among the visitors of this web site gets a well-deserved place among the elite, while CentOS, an increasingly popular community distribution among users preferring stability and reliability over bleeding-edge features also enters the exclusive list for the first time. Read on for brief overviews of the two projects. In the news, Barry Kauler resigns from the position of a benevolent dictator at Puppy Linux, OpenSolaris 2008.11 gets a range of excellent new features, and DistroWatch is showcased on Voice of America's Website of the Week. Also in this week's issue, two new distributions for those users who like to preserve their privacy while surfing the Internet: the Gentoo-based Incognito and the Debian-based Privatix. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of the DistroWatch September 2008 donation is Miro, an Internet video player. Happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (12MB) and mp3 (12MB) formats (many thanks to Russ Wenner)
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story |
Major distribution updates: Linux Mint and CentOS
The upcoming release of Mandriva Linux 2009 later this week signals the start of a new, intensive release season that will last until the end of this year. Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE and dozens of smaller projects will continue to showcase their latest innovations in semi-regular intervals, making the following two months a dream come true for every distro hopper and open source software enthusiast. Which distribution will you run this Christmas? And which will get a thumbs down from the users? The next several weeks will answer most of these types of questions.
While speaking about new releases, many DistroWatch readers have emailed us recently saying that our Major Distributions page no longer reflects the reality and needs an update. That's true. Compiled in April 2007, the page is a testament of just how fast the Linux distribution world can change in just a few short months. While some projects go from strength to strength, others, especially the smaller ones, can burn out and fade away. All these little evolutions give a sense of dynamism to the world of distributions that many people find so irresistibly exciting and which many enjoy discussing in forums around the Internet.
So the time has come to update the Major Distributions page - with two changes. The first one is the replacement of MEPIS Linux with Linux Mint in the category of user-friendly distributions. While MEPIS has long held the position of being one of the best distros for users new to Linux, Mint has become a very strong contender in recent months. In fact, anybody who compares the two today, can't but notice the enormous amount of activity, innovation and excitement at Linux Mint. In contrast, MEPIS, while still remaining a solid distribution, has lost much of its lustre, with release frequencies dropping considerably and with many MEPIS community sites having closed down. According to the Apache logs on DistroWatch, four times as many DistroWatch readers visit this site with a version of Linux Mint than those who come with MEPIS. In short, Linux Mint is clearly where much of the newbie-friendly action is taking place right now.
The second change is the replacement of KNOPPIX with CentOS. Like MEPIS, KNOPPIX too has lost much of its stardom that brought it to the attention of Linux users early this decade when it was the first hands-off live CD capable of booting just about any computer. But as most other distributions caught up and developed their own "live" products, KNOPPIX has slowly taken a backstage role. Nowadays, its releases are few and far between and the quality isn't what it used to be either. The KNOPPIX mailing list rarely receives more than a handful of messages in a month. As such, it will drop out of the major distributions page to be replaced by CentOS, a large (and still growing) community project that rebuilds Red Hat Enterprise Linux into a completely free distribution with long-term support. Although CentOS doesn't do any innovation of its own, it provides new CentOS versions and all security updates in a prompt and responsible manner. Many sizeable organisations and companies use CentOS, especially on their servers.
So without further ado, here are the descriptions of Linux Mint and CentOS for the Major Distributions page, pending corrections and suggestions from the readers:
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 Linux Mint, a distribution based on Ubuntu, was first launched in 2006 by Clement Lefebvre, a French-born IT specialist living and working in Ireland. Originally maintaining a Linux web site dedicated to providing help, tips and documentation to new Linux users, the author saw the potential of developing a Linux distribution that would address the many usability drawbacks associated with the generally more technical, mainstream products. After soliciting feedback from the visitors on his web site, he proceeded with building what many refer to today as an "improved Ubuntu".
But Linux Mint is not just an Ubuntu with a new set of applications and an updated desktop theme. Since its beginnings, the developers have been adding a variety of graphical "mint" tools for enhanced usability; this includes mintDesktop - a utility for configuring the desktop environment, mintMenu - a new and elegant menu structure for easier navigation, mintInstall - an easy-to-use software installer, and mintUpdate - a software updater, just to mention a few more prominent ones among several other tools and hundreds of additional improvements. The project also designs its own artwork, while its reputation for ease of use has been further enhanced by the inclusion of proprietary and patent-encumbered multimedia codecs that are often absent from larger distributions due to potential legal threats. However, one of the best features of Linux Mint is the fact that the developers listen to the users and are always fast in implementing good suggestions.
While Linux Mint is available as a free download, the project generates revenue from donations, advertising and professional support services. It doesn't have a fixed release schedule or a list of planned features, but one can expect a new version of Linux Mint several weeks after each stable Ubuntu release. Besides the "main" edition which features the GNOME desktop, the project also builds a variety of semi-regular "community" editions with alternative desktops, such as KDE, Xfce and Fluxbox. However, these are often completed several months after the release of the "main" GNOME edition and may sometimes miss some of the "minty" tools and other features found in the project's flagship product. Linux Mint does not adhere to the principles of software freedom and it does not publish security advisories.
- Pros: Superb collection of "minty" tools developed in-house, hundreds of user-friendly enhancements, inclusion of multimedia codecs, open to users' suggestions
- Cons: The alternative "community" editions don't always include the latest features, the project does not issue security advisories and lacks a bug-tracking facility
- Software package management: APT with mintInstall using DEB packages (compatible with Ubuntu repositories)
- Available editions: A "main" edition (with GNOME) for 32-bit and 64-bit computers, a variety of "community" editions (with KDE, Xfce and Fluxbox) for 32-bit computers
- Possible alternative: SimplyMEPIS
Linux Mint 5.0
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 Launched in late 2003, CentOS is a community project with the goals of rebuilding the source code for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) into an installable Linux distribution and to provide timely security updates for all included software packages. To put in more bluntly, CentOS is nothing more than a clone of RHEL. The only technical difference between the two is branding - CentOS replaces all Red Hat trademarks and logos with its own. But the connection between RHEL and CentOS is not immediately visible on the CentOS web site; due to trademark laws, Red Hat is referred to as a "Prominent North American Enterprise Linux Vendor", rather than by its proper name. Nevertheless, the relations between Red Hat and CentOS remain amicable and many CentOS developers are in active contact with Red Hat engineers.
CentOS is often seen as a reliable server distribution. It comes with the same set of well-tested and stable Linux kernel and software packages that form the basis of its parent, Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Despite being a community project run by volunteers, it has gained a reputation of being a solid, free alternative to the more costly server products on the market, especially among the more experienced Linux system administrators. CentOS is also suitable as an enterprise desktop solution, specifically where stability, reliability and long-term support are preferred over latest software and features. Like RHEL, CentOS is supported with a minimum of 5 years of security updates.
Despite its advantages, CentOS might not be the best solution in all deployment scenarios. Those users who prefer a distribution with the latest Linux technologies and newest software packages should look elsewhere. Major CentOS versions, which follow RHEL versioning, are only released every 2 - 3 years, while "point" releases (e.g. 5.1) tend to arrive in 6 - 9 month intervals. The point releases do not usually contain any major features (although they do sometimes include support for more recent hardware) and only a handful of software packages may get updated to newer versions. The Linux kernel, the base system and most application versions remain unchanged, but occasionally a newer version of an important software package (e.g. OpenOffice.org or Firefox) may be provided on an experimental basis. Relative to RHEL, most CentOS point releases arrive within weeks of the upstream release, but major versions can take up to two months before they are made available. The CentOS project is supported by donations.
- Pros: Extremely well-tested, stable and reliable; free to download and use; comes with 5-years of free security updates; prompt releases and security updates
- Cons: Lacks latest Linux technologies; by the time of release, most software packages are outdated
- Software package management: YUM graphical and command line utility using RPM packages
- Available editions: Installation DVDs and installable live CDs (with GNOME) for i386 and x86_64 processors; older versions (3.x and 4.x) also available for Alpha, IA64 and IBM z-series (s390, s390x) processors.
- Other RHEL clones and CentOS-based distributions: Scientific Linux, SME Server, StartCom Enterprise Linux, Fermi Linux, Rocks Cluster Distribution, Oracle Enterprise Linux
CentOS 5.2
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Note: The package management cheatsheet will return next week, hopefully in its final version.
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| Miscellaneous News |
Barry Kauler retires from Puppy Linux, more OpenSolaris features
 Last week was a quiet one. Apart from a few beta releases of major distributions and a couple of stable releases of minor ones, there wasn't much to report. But the imminent release of Puppy Linux 4.1 was accompanied by a warning for the fans of the popular mini-distribution: Barry Kauler, the project's founder and lead developer, is about to retire as the project leader: "I have decided to bow out from my position as leader (also known as 'benevolent dictator') of the Puppy Linux project (held since I released version 0.1 in mid-2003), and take a back seat. Version 4.1 is my final release as leader. A small group of trusted developers will take over, although the details are still to be worked out -- there are a couple of threads on the forum discussing this. I won't be going away totally, and plan to focus on a 'puplet' (derivative of Puppy) based on my 'UniPup' concept and targeting specific hardware, probably one or more of the baby laptops. This will be a more part-time project than the hectic full-time pace that I have maintained over the last couple of years." This is not a new phenomenon in the world of Linux distributions - we have seen the leaders of other projects retire after achieving reasonable success (Arch's Judd Vinet or CRUX's Per Liden come to mind). But there are exceptions to this trend. Patrick Volkerding, who founded Slackware Linux in 1993, is still at the head of the project some 15 years later! Quite an achievement that!
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 In recent issues we talked about some of the desktop features in the upcoming OpenSolaris 2008.11. Of course, there is a lot more to OpenSolaris that just GNOME, so here is a list of some of the other new stuff that has been added to the latest build: "SD card support; audio HD improvements - many more laptops will now have working audio; fast reboot; Brussels (NIC Administration) - a greatly improved manageability for network interfaces; suspend (S3) support." The author, Garrett D'Amore, can't hide his enthusiasm for the new version: "I think OpenSolaris 2008.11 is going to be great - I confess that I was skeptical about the earlier releases, but this release is shaping up to be really awesome." That's another interesting release that no open source software enthusiast should miss, so do keep an eye on DistroWatch for the announcement of the first beta.
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| Released Last Week |
Ultima Linux 8.4
Martin Ultima has announced the release of Ultima Linux 8.4, a Slackware-compatible desktop and server distribution built around the KDE desktop: "The Ultima Linux project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Ultima Linux 8.4. This release includes over 850 packages, including the Linux kernel 2.6.24.7, X.Org 7.3 with ATI and NVIDIA proprietary drivers, KDE 3.5.10, OpenOffice.org 2.4.1. Highlights: all-new code base based on the ultima-scripts package and live CD build system; more optimized base system, including i686-optimized kernel and glibc on x86, and greater use of native code on AMD64; improved hardware support for wireless, ATI and NVIDIA drivers, and some 'netbooks' such as the ASUS Eee PC; cleaner, more refined desktop with numerous Ultima tweaks and enhancements...." Read the full release announcement for further information.
NetSecL 2.3
Iuri Stanchev has announced the release of NetSecL 2.3, a Slackware-based distribution with advanced security features: "As the NetSecL project developer, I am proud to announce the release of NetSecL 2.3. The main highlights: improved full setup using rsync - we were able to get a full install in 5 minutes, this is the fastest result for now; smaller size of the ISO image file - another 100 MB got melted; a source-based portage system CruxPorts4Slack - mainly suitable for upgrade of command-line utilities from source; a conversion system adding PT_PAX_FLAGS to ELF binaries; a more advanced kernel configuration and additional modules (NDISwrapper and Dazuko - fixed); X.Org update thanks to the excellent packages from Zenwalk, additionally, with small modifications to the X.Org ATI driver, we added support for the latest ATI 4850/4870 video cards." Read the complete release announcement for more details.
GParted LiveCD 0.3.9-4
A new stable version of GParted LiveCD, a specialist, Debian-based live medium featuring a popular hard disk partitioning tool, has been released. From the release notes: "Comes with GParted 0.3.9; based on Debian 'Lenny' as of 2008-10-01; Linux kernel 2.6.26; package hfsprogs was added; three boot parameters were added: gl_lang, gl_kbd, and gl_batch (example: 'gl_lang=en_US gl_kbd=NONE gl_batch' will use en_US.UTF-8 locale, will do nothing about keyboard mapping change and will not wait for entering key before starting X); VGA 1024x768 is used for framebuffer when booting; the icon of USB on desktop was removed since it does not fit the way USB Flash drive was made; updated with newer live-initramfs 1.139.1."
VectorLinux 5.9 "Live"
VectorLinux 5.9 "Live" has been released: "The VectorLinux Live team is proud to announce the release of VectorLinux 5.9 Standard Live CD (and the first 5.9 Light beta live CD). This is the final release for 5.9 Standard Live. We like to keep our live CDs as close to the installed versions as possible, except for the addition of GParted for easy GUI partitioning. The 5.9 Standard Live CD has been updated with all the latest packages from the 5.9 repository. Also installed in these live editions are vmklive, a live remastering tool that makes live CD remastering easy for everyone. These live CDs include browser plugins, SeaMonkey, Firefox and Opera, the newest Xfce desktop, The Gimp, AbiWord and Gnumeric, vasm and vl-hot, wireless drivers and configuration tools, support for read and write to NTFS, and lots of fun and games." Here is the full release announcement.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
- SimplyMEPIS 8.0-beta2, the release announcement
- Fedora 10-beta, the release announcement
- FreeNAS 0.69-beta4, the release notes
- Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio and Mythbuntu, 8.10-beta, the release announcement
- Momonga Linux 5-rc, the release announcement (in Japanese)
- openSUSE 11.1-beta2, the release announcement
- Berry Linux 0.92
- Momonga Linux 5.0-beta2
- VectorLinux 5.9-beta "Lite Live"
- Scientific Linux 4.7 "Live CD/DVD"
- Clonezilla Live 1.2.0-27
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
DistroWatch on Voice of America
 It is a great pleasure to announce that DistroWatch.com was featured on Voice of America's Website of the Week programme last Friday. Voice of America (VOA) is an international broadcasting service funded in 1942 by the U.S. Government, broadcasting more than 1,250 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of 134 million people. Its Website of the Week feature is generally geared towards popular political, environmental and cultural web sites, so it was somewhat surprising to see the programme's editor, Art Chimes, choosing a site dedicated to free and open source software for its latest edition. Besides the brief introduction to DistroWatch.com, the above page also links to a short (2:30 min) audio file in MP3 format.
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September 2008 donation: Miro receives US$300.00
 We are pleased to announce that the recipient of the September 2008 DistroWatch.com donation is Miro, a free and open source Internet video player. It receives US$300 in cash.
If you've never heard of Miro, here is the description from its web site: "Miro is a free application for channels of Internet video (also known as video podcasts and video RSS). Miro is designed to be easy to use and to give you an elegant full-screen viewing experience. There are thousands of free Internet video channels that you can watch. You'll be able to download all the videos that each channel offers and when new ones are released, Miro will grab them automatically. Unlike tiny videos on web sites like YouTube, Miro videos are usually very of high quality and look great when watched in full screen. Since Miro downloads videos completely before you watch, your videos will never skip or stutter while they are playing." More and more distributions now include Miro in their repositories; the latest version (1.2.7) can be found in Fedora's and Mandriva's development repositories, but slightly older versions are also available for openSUSE, FreeBSD and Arch Linux, among many others.
Miro - an free and open source Internet video player
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As always, this monthly donations programme is a joint initiative between DistroWatch and two online shops selling low-cost CDs and DVDs with Linux, BSD and other open source software - LinuxCD.org and OSDisc.com. These vendors contributed US$50.00 each towards this month's donation to Miro
Here is the list of projects that received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme (figures in US dollars):
- 2004: GnuCash ($250), Quanta Plus ($200), PCLinuxOS ($300), The GIMP ($300), Vidalinux ($200), Fluxbox ($200), K3b ($350), Arch Linux ($300), Kile KDE LaTeX Editor ($100) and UNICEF - Tsunami Relief Operation ($340)
- 2005: Vim ($250), AbiWord ($220), BitTorrent ($300), NdisWrapper ($250), Audacity ($250), Debian GNU/Linux ($420), GNOME ($425), Enlightenment ($250), MPlayer ($400), Amarok ($300), KANOTIX ($250) and Cacti ($375)
- 2006: Gambas ($250), Krusader ($250), FreeBSD Foundation ($450), GParted ($360), Doxygen ($260), LilyPond ($250), Lua ($250), Gentoo Linux ($500), Blender ($500), Puppy Linux ($350), Inkscape ($350), Cape Linux Users Group ($130), Mandriva Linux ($405, a Powerpack competition), Digikam ($408) and SabayonLinux ($450)
- 2007: GQview ($250), Kaffeine ($250), sidux ($350), CentOS ($400), LyX ($350), VectorLinux ($350), KTorrent ($400), FreeNAS ($350), lighttpd ($400), Damn Small Linux ($350), NimbleX ($450), MEPIS Linux ($300), Zenwalk Linux ($300)
- 2008: VLC ($350), Frugalware Linux ($340), cURL ($300), GSPCA ($400), FileZilla ($400), MythDora ($500), Linux Mint ($400), Parsix GNU/Linux ($300), Miro ($300).
Since the launch of the Donations Programme in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$19,183 to various open source software projects.
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New distributions added to database
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Incogninto LiveCD. Incognito LiveCD is a Gentoo-based distribution with a goal of providing a secure and anonymous use of the Internet on the go. It can be used from either a CD or a USB drive and has several Internet applications (web browser, IRC client, mail client, instant messenger) pre-configured with security in mind. All Internet traffic is anonymised by routing it through the Tor network. Incognito is officially endorsed by -- but not part of -- the Tor project.
- Privatix Live-System. Privatix Live-System is a Debian-based live CD featuring enhanced encryption and privacy. It can be used either as an installer to set up a Debian GNU/Linux system with a persistent home on an encrypted USB storage device or as a live CD for rescue and administration work requiring encryption tools. The live CD also enables anonymous Internet surfing with Tor, Firefox and Torbutton.
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DistroWatch database summary
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And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 13 October 2008. Until next week,
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 283 (2008-12-22): First look at openSUSE 11.1, firmware in Debian 5.0, Gentoo weekly snapshots |
| • Issue 282 (2008-12-15): Custom Ubuntu install for a lean system, openSUSE 11.1 sneak peeks |
| • Issue 281 (2008-12-08): First look at VectorLinux 6.0 beta 2, OpenSolaris 2008.11, DragonFly BSD overview |
| • Issue 280 (2008-12-01): Linux and economic crisis, VectorLinux graphical installer, Glendix |
| • Issue 279 (2008-11-24): Novell vs SCO, Linux netbooks in stores, Fedora user count |
| • Issue 278 (2008-11-17): DWW - end of an era |
| • Issue 277 (2008-11-03): Overview of Ubuntu editions, Plymouth, NetBSD 5.0 features |
| • Issue 276 (2008-10-27): KDE 3 vs KDE 4, Intrepid Ibex, Fedora 10 features |
| • Issue 275 (2008-10-20): Package management cheatsheet, Debian Lenny on Blu-ray, KPackageKit |
| • List of all DWW issues |
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