| DistroWatch Weekly |
| A d v e r t i s e m e n t |
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| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 275, 20 October 2008 |
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Welcome to this year's 42nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Mandriva Linux 2009 took the centre stage during last week as many Linux users had a chance to install and check out the latest and greatest from the company that recently celebrated 10 years of existence. The reports varied widely, ranging from praise for the excellent way KDE 4 was integrated into the distribution to outright recommendations to skip this release due to a surprisingly high number of bugs. In other words, it's the story of Linux distributions - they will work great on one combination of hardware, but will fail miserably on another. In the news section, Debian presents updated artwork for "Lenny", Linux Mint releases its first stable 64-bit edition, the developers of KPackageKit introduce a new universal way of managing software, and K12LSTP Linux, a Fedora-based distribution for thin servers and clients, becomes K12Linux. Finally, don't miss the latest entrant into the world of BSD-based live CDs - BSDanywhere, or OpenBSD with Enlightenment. Happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in ogg (8.1MB) and mp3 (8.2MB) formats (many thanks to Russ Wenner)
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story |
Linux and BSD package management cheatsheet, part 4
The fourth and final part of the DistroWatch package management cheatsheet gets two additions: netpkg, a graphical and command-line package management utility developed by Zenwalk Linux (many thanks to Claus Futtrup who kindly provided the necessary information) and a table for managing binary and source packages in FreeBSD. We won't reprint the entire table this time - for those who want to see the rest of the cheatsheet, please read our last week's issue here). As always, we welcome your corrections and suggestions.
The final task (pending any further corrections), will be to create a dedicated page to the package management cheatsheet and to provide a printable edition in PDF format. This we hope to complete before next week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. Once done, the link to the dedicated package management page will be provided in the main navigation toolbar.
| Task |
pkgtools
Slackware |
slackpkg
Slackware |
slapt-get
Vector |
netpkg
Zenwalk |
| Managing software |
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| Install new software from package repository |
-- |
slackpkg install pkg |
slapt-get --install pkg |
netpkg pkg |
| Install new software from package file |
installpkg pkg |
slackpkg install pkg |
slapt-get --install pkg |
netpkg pkg |
| Update existing software |
upgradepkg pkg |
slackpkg install pkg |
slapt-get --install pkg |
netpkg pkg |
| Remove unwanted software |
removepkg pkg |
slackpkg remove pkg |
slapt-get --remove pkg |
netpkg remove pkg |
| Updating the system |
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| Update package list |
-- |
slackpkg update |
slapt-get --update |
(automatic) |
| Update system |
-- |
slackpkg upgrade-all |
slapt-get --upgrade |
netpkg upgrade |
| Searching for packages |
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| Search by package name |
-- |
slackpkg search pkg |
slapt-get --search pkg |
netpkg pkg repo |
| Search by pattern |
-- |
slackpkg search pattern |
slapt-get --search pattern |
netpkg list | grep pattern |
| Search by file name |
-- |
-- |
-- |
netpkg file repo |
| List installed packages |
ls /var/log/packages/ |
ls /var/log/packages/ |
slapt-get --installed |
netpk list I |
| Configuring access to software repositories |
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| List repositories |
-- |
cat /etc/slackpkg/mirrors |
cat /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc |
netpkg mirror |
| Add repository |
-- |
(edit /etc/slackpkg/mirrors) |
(edit /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc) |
(edit /etc/netpkg.conf) |
| Remove repository |
-- |
(edit /etc/slackpkg/mirrors) |
(edit /etc/slapt-get/slapt-getrc) |
(edit /etc/netpkg.conf) |
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| Task |
packages
FreeBSD |
ports
FreeBSD |
| Managing software |
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| Install new software from package repository |
pkg_add -r package |
cd port_dir && make && make install |
| Install new software from package file |
pkg_add path_to_package |
-- |
| Update existing software |
pkg_add path_to_package |
portupgrade -R pkg |
| Remove unwanted software |
pkg_delete pkg |
pkg_delete pkg |
| Updating the system |
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| Update package list |
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csup -L 2 -h cvsup.FreeBSD.org path_to_supfile
portsnap update |
| Update system |
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portupgrade -a
portmanager -u
portmaster -a |
| Searching for packages |
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| Search by package name |
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cd /usr/ports && make search pkg |
| Search by pattern |
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cd /usr/ports && make search pattern |
| Search by file name |
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| List installed packages |
pkg_info |
pkg_info |
| Configuring access to software repositories |
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| List repositories |
-- |
-- |
| Add repository |
-- |
-- |
| Remove repository |
-- |
-- |
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| Miscellaneous News |
Upgrading Mandriva with mdkonline, Blu-ray sets for Debian "Lenny", Linux Mint 5 for 64-bit systems, interview with KPackageKit developers, K12Linux update
 Mandriva Linux 2009 has been out for around 10 days, so many users had a chance to give it a spin and report about their findings in various forums and blogs. As is often the case with such a major distro update, the reaction varies widely. Some users can't find a fault with the new release, even though the long errata suggested that it was released with a large number of known issues. Others, however, have had miserable experiences trying out Mandriva 2009, preferring to remain with the well-tested and stable version 2008.1 and wait for another six months before possibly upgrading to 2009.1. Some of the problems can reasonably be attributed to the introduction of KDE 4 into the distribution (openSUSE and Fedora have been through similar pains), but others also reported issues unrelated to the KDE desktop. Interestingly, for those who wish to take the plunge and upgrade, Mandriva's Luis Menina offers an option to do so with the graphical "mdkonline" applet -- all without downloading any ISO images. Although it didn't go completely without a glitch, in the end, the process turned out to be a success.
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 Every new stable release of Debian GNU/Linux breaks a few records and "Lenny" will be no exception. With over 25,000 packages for 13 supported architectures, the upcoming release of the world's largest Linux distribution will come on 414 CDs or 64 DVDs. But now, for the first time ever, Lenny will also be released as a set of 25 GB Blu-ray discs: "We are now producing some Blu-ray images alongside the existing CD and DVD images with each weekly 'Lenny' build. As a standard Blu-ray disc will hold up to 25 GB of data, that means that, for the first time in several years, users should be able to fit all of the packages for one architecture on a single disc. The downside of adding yet another image type is that potentially we could use up huge amounts of disk space and bandwidth on our central servers and mirrors to accommodate them."
Another sign that "Lenny" is edging closer to the release was given when the latest version of the package called desktop-base was moved to the testing tree (which in time will become a stable "Lenny"). This means new bootsplash, logins screens and wallpapers, all specially designed for Debian 5.0: "Re-label background as 'Lenny' in GNOME properties; merge wallpapers and backgrounds directories; remove deprecated splash and wallpapers; add MoreBlue Orbit GRUB and splash sources; add MoreBlue Orbit widescreen; add MoreBlue Orbit Splashy theme; add Nightly GNOME and KDM splash. Thanks to Robert Jahene."
Debian has updated its artwork in preparation for the stable release of "Lenny"
(full image size: 338kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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 Good news for those who always wished there was a 64-bit edition of Linux Mint: "Linux Mint is proud to announce that Linux Mint 5 'Elyssa' is now available on AMD64 for 64-bit processors. The purpose of the x86_64 edition is to offer the same desktop features as the Main edition but in a 64-bit environment. It aims to be as similar to the Main edition as possible. Due to the nature of its architecture, its package base and its origins, it differs in the following ways: Linux Mint x86_64 edition was forked from Ubuntu 'Hardy' as opposed to Ubuntu 'Edgy' for the Main edition; it comes with a Java plugin implemented by OpenJDK, as opposed to Sun for the Main edition; it comes with XChat instead of XChat-GNOME; it comes with Flash 9 instead of Flash 10." Read the release announcement and release notes for further details. Download (MD5): LinuxMint-5-x64.iso (682MB).
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 As we have seen from our current series on package management tools, the wide variety of options for managing software in distributions can be confusing at times. Isn't there a way of unifying the various utilities under one set of commands that would work on all the different Linux systems? PackageKit, developed by Fedora, is trying to do just that. Here is a nice interview with the developers of KPackageKit, a graphical front-end to PackageKit. So what exactly is it and how does it work? "PackageKit is an abstraction layer above several package managers (YUM, APT, Conary...). It hence defines a standard interface to interact with the package manager on any system, and allows deeper integration with the desktop. PackageKit is a daemon started on demand via dbus, all the commands to the daemon are also passed via dbus, which makes it platform independent. The actions are controlled by PolicyKit, which allows to define precisely the rights of each user. Historically, PackageKit was shipped with a glib-based abstraction library, and a GTK+ front-end."
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 As thin servers and clients go, it's hard to beat the Fedora-based K12LTSP Linux, a project that develops a complete solution for classrooms and similar environments. Last week, the project announced that it would rename its distribution to K12Linux in order to make it easier to pronounce when explaining its purpose to a non-technical audience. At the same time, the project announced the availability of the first release candidate of what would be the inaugural release of K12Linux: "It is with great delight that we announce that K12Linux Release Candidate 1 is now available for download. K12Linux is LTSP 5 built on Fedora 9, and is slated to become the successor to the highly acclaimed K12LTSP. K12Linux comes as a live image which can be used to create a live USB or live DVD with the client chroot already installed and configured. RC1 includes: Fedora 9 and updates as of October 12, 2008, LTSP 5.1.26, ldm 2.0.13, ltspfs 0.5.5, many bug fixes, new K12Linux-themed artwork for the login screen." The K12Linux terminal server is available for download from here.
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| Released Last Week |
NetBSD 4.0.1
Manuel Bouyer has announced the release of NetBSD 4.0.1, the first update of the stable NetBSD 4.0 branch: "The NetBSD Project is pleased to announce that update 4.0.1 of the NetBSD operating system is now available. NetBSD 4.0.1 is the first security/critical update of the NetBSD 4.0 release branch. This represents a selected subset of fixes deemed critical in nature for stability or security reasons, no new features have been added. NetBSD 4.0.1 runs on 54 different system architectures featuring 17 machine architectures across 17 distinct CPU families, and is being ported to more. The NetBSD 4.0.1 release contains complete binary releases for 51 different machine types." Read the detailed release announcement for further information.
XO Software 8.2.0
XO Software 8.2.0, a Fedora-based distribution designed for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project's XO Laptop, has been released: "Announcing the general availability of XO Software release 8.2.0. Release 8.2 is based on a child-focused graphical interface called Sugar, a Fedora 9 Linux operating system and OLPC customized implementations of core software including power management, wireless drivers, NAND flash file system, Open Firmware, and other components. Major new features: an updated Home view and Journal with new options for finding and organizing activities; an enhanced Frame for collaborating with other XOs and switching between running activities; a graphical Control Panel for setting language, network, and power preferences...." Read the release announcement and release notes for more information and installation instructions.
BSDanywhere 4.3
BSDanywhere is a new OpenBSD-based (non-installable) live CD consisting of an OpenBSD base system, graphical desktop (with Enlightenment 17), collection of software, and automatic hardware detection. The project's first stable release, version 4.3, was announced earlier today: "After eight months of work we're now ready to release the final version of BSDanywhere 4.3 - Enlightenment at your fingertips, the OpenBSD live CD. There aren't many changes since beta 3: we have removed bsd.rd to motivate people getting pure OpenBSD; we added more packages - besides Galculator, which has been integrated into the E17 menu, we have now mboxgrep, nemesis, NewsFetch, Queso, radiusniff, ScanSSH, Smtpscan, ssldump, stress and Stunnel; while releasing 4.3, we're also making our official artwork publicly available." Read the full release announcement for further details.
CentOS 4.7 "Server CD"
Karanbir Singh has announced the release of CentOS 4.7 "Server CD", a single-CD, server-only edition of CentOS based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7: "The single CD server install for CentOS 4.7 has now been released and is available from all active mirrors. Notes: this installer will only work with i686-based CPUs; the included packages are a subset of all packages available in the CentOS distribution, however yum has been pre-configured to use the entire repository; in order to ensure that drivers and other third-party applications maintain compatibility, the package set used on the Server CD is from release time CentOS 4.7, you are strongly encouraged to run a 'yum update' immediately after installation; the ISO size is lower than the 650 MB acceptable for a single CD - feedback on what other packages should be added or removed from this CD for the next release are welcome." Here is the complete release announcement.
Plamo Linux 4.5
Mitsuhoro Kojima has announced the release of Plamo Linux 4.5, a Japanese community distribution modelled on Slackware Linux and designed for more technical Linux users. This is the project's first stable release in 12 months. Some of the new features in version 4.5 include: Linux kernel 2.6.25.17 with glibc 2.7 and GCC 4.2.4; X.Org 7.3; GNOME 2.22, KDE 4.1.0 and Xfce 4.4.2 desktops; split of packages into package sets (base, minimum, x11, xfce, gnome, kde, ooo, etc.); increase in system requirements; introduction of the ext4 file system (marked as ext4dev due to its experimental nature, ext4 is not compatible with ext3 and it isn't possible to mount ext3 partitions from an ext4 file system); user and group IDs (UID/GID) fixes. See the release announcement and release notes (both links in Japanese) for further details.
Parted Magic 3.1
Patrick Verner has announced the release of Parted Magic 3.1, a minimalist live CD with a collection of software for hard disk management tasks: "Parted magic 3.1 released with only minor changes from RC1. One of the most important new developments is the HDD edition. This is a new concept in rescue and partitioning environments. It's basically a copy and paste USB distribution for system administrators and is the future of the Parted Magic project. Version 4.0 will be largely based on Slackware Linux and will offer package management and most things you would expect from a small rescue environment. My honest opinion is the death of CDs and DVDs is closer than most people think and the dominance of Flash media with read-write is the future of any system administrator's toolbox. This forum post describes the new HDD edition." Visit the project's news page to read the release announcement.
Parted Magic 3.1 - now with the LXDE desktop
(full image size: 1,003kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
openSUSE 11.1 Beta 3 Delay
The openSUSE project has announced a slight delay in its current development process due to a recent power outage: "openSUSE 11.1 beta 3 will be delayed by several days. We originally scheduled the release for October 16 but the power outage last Friday left us unable to check in packages temporarily, and pushed the schedule back by several days." A new status update was posted over the weekend: "The DVD installation ISOs were not complete by Friday night, and only the x86 live CDs have built correctly - the x86_64 images are too large to fit on CD-R media. Building the distro was not finished until end of business Nuremberg time. The team will try another test build Monday morning and see what the state of the build is. If those work well, we should be able to push out a release Tuesday. Otherwise beta 4 will be delayed further and we will provide further updates."
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
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New distributions added to database
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New distributions added to waiting list
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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, 27 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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