 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 41, 22 March 2004 |
Welcome to this year's 12th edition of DistroWatch Weekly. It is going to be a great week for the fans of GNOME and GIMP, as both projects are about to announce new major releases, accompanied by release parties. You can find out more about the GNOME 2.6 release parties at FootNotes, while those interested in attending one of the GIMP 2.0 festivities can consult wiki.gimp.org for venues. On a different note, DistroWatch is proud to announce an initiative to offer financial support to Free Software projects.
Content:
Announcement: DistroWatch to offer financial assistance to Free Software projects
DistroWatch is proud to announce an initiative to offer financial assistance to Free Software projects. The extent of this assistance will be set to 10% of DistroWatch's income from advertising, sale of merchandise and related products and services, and can initially be expected to reach between US$150 to US$500 per month. These funds will be donated to various Free Software projects as determined by the maintainers, contributors and visitors of DistroWatch. The donations will have no strings attached.
The first benefactor of this initiative will be the GnuCash project (after all, what other project would be more suitable to receive the first donation than the one we use to track DistroWatch finances?). The second benefactor will be the Debian GNU/Linux project, which has been our preferred operating system to host the DistroWatch web site since it moved to a dedicated server over a year ago. Readers are welcome to submit suitable candidates for consideration to receive financial assistance, either in the reader forums in each issue of DistroWatch Weekly, or by private email. There are no rules other than these projects have to be of non-commercial nature, and they have to be developed with the goal of advancing the adoption of Linux.
The donations will be paid on the 1st of each month. The GnuCash project will receive the donation on 1 April 2004 and the Debian project will receive theirs on the first of the month following the release of Debian 3.1 Sarge. Announcement about the donations will be made in DistroWatch Weekly on the first Monday of each month.
We would also like to challenge all Linux web sites, large or small, to set up a similar fund. We would especially like to challenge those Linux web sites that display Microsoft's anti-Linux advertisements on their sites (you know who you are!) to channel 10% of their income from advertising and services to support Free Software projects. It is the belief of the DistroWatch maintainers that these funds will help to accelerate the development of high-quality applications and distributions to advance the adoption of Linux in all areas of our lives - in our homes and places of employment, on servers, desktops, in embedded devices and any other place where it can be used to our benefit.
News round-up: Debian keeps non-free, Fedora moves to XOrg, SUSE releases YaST under GPL
Many interesting things worth mentioning happened during the past week. The Debian developers have voted to re-affirm support for the non-free branch of Debian GNU/Linux: "Choice 1: Cease active support of non-free [3:1 majority needed]" failed to even win simple majority." The result will no doubt displease the Free Software Foundation, which has been campaigning against using any software that does not adhere to the principles of Free Software. Yet, it shows that the FSF ideals, pure as they may be, are not always practical, even rejected by the developers of a popular non-commercial distribution, such as Debian.
The current stand-off between distributions and the XFree86 projects over the new XFree86 4.4.0 license was further emphasised last week by the apparent decision of the Fedora project to replace, in the long run, XFree86 with XOrg. Many Fedora beta testers have been trying out the new package, which is still in early development and not nearly as mature as XFree86, but it does provides a possible viable alternative to the long established leader in X Window System implementation. It will also undoubtedly contribute towards faster development and debugging of XOrg. Since all major distributions have rejected the new XFree86 license and refused to include version 4.4.0 in their products, it is becoming clear that, unless XFree86 reverses the decision of releasing the product under the controversial new license, its days as a dominant X Window System on UNIX/Linux are numbered.
In SUSE land, the distribution's users and fans have been excited about the announcement by Novell, that a new version of SUSE LINUX will be available in late April or early May, depending on your geographical location. SUSE LINUX 9.1 will come with kernel 2.6, KDE 3.2 and all the other goodies normally included in this popular distribution. Even more good news was found in another announcement by Novell saying that SUSE's administration utility YaST will, from now on, be licenced under the terms of the GPL. These moves should alleviate the suspicion expressed by some users after Novell acquired the German distribution maker late last year, and pave the way for further deployment of SUSE LINUX, especially in the enterprise.
Kernel 2.6 ready for prime time?
It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Linux kernel 2.6 is not yet ready for mass consumption. This is especially true for many desktop systems, where a large variety of hardware combination often means that a certain piece of hardware that worked fine under 2.4 is no longer operational under 2.6. Most major distributions deploy various kernel patches to address some of the issues; however the patches have potential to introduce new bugs into the kernel.
So when will the new kernel be ready? One interesting indication of its acceptance for general deployment is Slackware's "current" branch. Once the new kernel is in Slackware "current", we know that there is enough confidence by the Slackware developers (who have more than 10 years of development experience), to impose the new kernel on any system. The reason for this is simple - Slackware Linux is the only major distribution that uses the original kernel without any patches. If Slackware "current" still does not have the 2.6 kernel (despite the fact that the distribution's 9.1 release was declared "kernel 2.6 ready"), then we know that it still has plenty of unresolved issues.
This is not to say that the kernel 2.6 is unusable - there are undoubtedly many people who use it without any trouble. But if you happen to have some unlucky hardware, you'll be better off with kernel 2.4 for the time being.
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| Released Last Week |
Aurox Live 1.4.1
The Aurox Linux project has released a new live CD: "This issue, numbered as 1.4.1 is based on full (installable) version of Aurox Linux 9.3. What will You find in Aurox Live 1.4.1: graphical environments: KDE 3.1.5 and Fluxbox; ACPI power management (used in modern laptops); FAT32 and NTFS support; Windows partitions are mounted automatically; OpenOffice.org 1.1; Flash plug-in for Mozilla; NVIDIA drivers (3D acceleration); games: Tuxracer, Neverball, Glaxium; audio and video (also DVD) players; many other applications from Aurox 9.3." See the full announcement on the distribution's home page.
Devil-Linux 1.0.5 and 1.0.5a
The Devil-Linux live firewall has been updated to version 1.0.5. From the changelog: "Updated bind to v9.2.3; updated linux-wlan-ng to v0.2.1-pre16; added Super-FreeS/WAN v1.99.8; removed the standard FreeS/WAN + patches; added kernel patch to fix new mremap vulnerability; added kernel patch for 'Rusty's broken brain' error/failure; IPv6 is now compiled as modules; update_src now checks the md5 checksums of the files; updated zebra to 0.94; menuconfig now correctly sets any missing list values in the config file; fixed named start problem when jail disabled."
Buffalo Linux 1.1.5
Version 1.1.5 of the Slackware-based Buffalo Linux is out: "The latest version of Buffalo Linux has been released. Default kernel is now 2.6.4 with 2.4.24 still available for use. Several new optional Buffalo packages: MySQL with mysqlcc, Scribus-1.1.5, Mozilla 1.6, Netscape 7.1, etc.. A total of 9 new packages and 21 package upgrades. An update from 1.1.4 to 1.1.5 is available. Separate downloads for the optional extra packages are available on site." The full changelog.
Xandros Business Desktop
Xandros Corporation has announced the release of Xandros Business Desktop. The press release lists some of the more attractive features: "Windows 2000 Active Directory server and Windows NT PDC authentication; Sun StarOffice 7 with commercial support from Sun; drag-and-drop CD burning in Xandros File Manager; run MS Office and other key Windows programs; seamlessly share files on Windows networks; thin clients and terminal emulation; Athlon 64 (32-bit mode), SMP, and Hyper-Threading support." Find out more on the product information page. Xandros Business Desktop is available from the company's online store, starting at US$125 for a single licence edition, to US$495 for a 5-pack edition.
Caixa Mágica 8.1
Caixa Mágica 8.1 Desktop has been released. This edition is designed for workstations and includes applications for Office, Internet access and software development. The product is intended as a general purpose business or home operating system, with ease of installation, configuration and use as its main feature. Read the full release announcement (in Portuguese). The Professional edition with printed documentation and support can be ordered online for €78, while a freely downloadable single CD edition is available from the distribution's FTP server.
SME Server 6.0.1
This is the first community release of SME Server (formerly e-smith): "We have just released the first contribs.org ISO of SME Server V6.0.1-01. SME Server 6.0.1-01 (aka 'takeoff') is the first community release of the former e-smith server distribution. This release contains mostly bugfixes and changes in appearance. We advise you to update your current e-smith servers with 'takeoff' from 5.5 and up. If you are using earlier versions of the e-smith distribution (e.g. prior to e-smith 5.5) please upgrade to version 5.6 prior to upgrading to 'takeoff'." The full announcement.
eLearnix (wheel mouse)
Distribution Release: eLearnix (wheel mouse)^eLearnix (formerly known as FreeLoader Linux) is a GNOME-centric, Slackware-based live CD designed for educational purposes: "eLearnix is a self contained, Linux-based, tutorial operating system that comes on a CDROM instead of a book. We give you the instructions to burn the CD and load the whole thing absolutely and positively free. The only way to learn Linux is by running it!" The project has released an ISO image, code named "wheel mouse", for free download.
Vector Linux 4.0 Live CD
A Live CD edition of Vector Linux 4.0 has been released: "The final stable Vector Linux 4.0 Live CD is available now. The main purpose of the Live CD is to let people see what Vector Linux is about. It also happens to work quite nicely as a rescue system. This version still does not have the ability to save settings but that may be coming in the next version." Read the announcement on the distribution's forums.
dyne:bolic 1.2
The dyne:bolic project has released a new version of the multimedia oriented dyne:bolic live CD. What's new in version 1.2? "Dockable system: dyne:bolic can run from hard disk, simply copy the /dyne directory to your partition. [dyne:trax] sound production suite: native ALSA + JACK low latency rackable sound studio. Audio software included: alsa-patch-bay, cheesetracker, freqtweak, jack-rack, ladcca, qjackctl, Soundtracker, spiralsyntmodular, pd with iemlib, zexy and GEM, Hydrogen. More devices supported: usbvision, scpca5xx, acx100 and all other vanilla upgrades in kernel 2.4.22. New games: Liquidwar, Wesnoth..." The full announcement.
QiLinux 1.0
QiLinux 1.0 has been released: "One year of intense and passionate work and QiLinux 1.0 is out. Here are the changes against version 1.0rc1: KDE 3.2.1; update of qmail and integration with antivirus and antispam software; various updates and security fixes; IEEE1394 Firewire bus support; kernel 2.6 ready. The Italian official documentation is also available as OpenOffice and PDF documents and English translation will be available soon. Furthermore there are screenshoots showing the features of QiLinux 1.0." Read the announcement in English or Italian.
INSERT 1.2.5
A new version of INSERT, the Inside Security Rescue Toolkit live CD, has been released. From the changelog: "Added boot time configuration for more keyboard layouts (e.g. dk, es); added mc (Midnight Commander); some minor bug fixes; updated the virus database for clamav to the latest version; the X-server is no longer listening on TCP; made a few minor improvements to the UI (e.g. scroll buffer and scroll bar in rxvt); switched to past tense in the changelog."
KANOTIX 04-2004
KANOTIX "BUG HUNTER" has been updated to version 04-2004. From the announcement: "Kernel 2.4.25 with forcedeth, device mapper and other patches; SMP support; ACPI and DMA enabled by default; i586 optimisation; 128 MB RAM required, 256 MB RAM recommended; AVM Fritz!Card DSL support (PCI and USB); Fritz!Card CAPI support; Eagle USB DSL support; new: Speedtouch USB support (PPPoE/A); KDE 3.2.1; OpenOffice 1.1; ALSA 1.0.3; GRUB boot loader for CD start - ideal for rescue in command line mode; Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool in the extra menu of the boot loader; Extended ALSA support -> when used with CD then it directly works after HD install; extended S-ATA support + Intel RAID."
Screenshot: KANOTIX 04-2004: possibly the fastest way to install Debian Sid to one's hard disk.
(full image size 421kB)
CentOS 3.1
The cAos project has released CentOS 3.1, an enterprise level distribution rebuilt from Red Hat Enterprise Linux source RPMs: "Thanks to all who have tested - CentOS 3.1 has now been released. The release includes all security updates for RHEL released by 18th March. CentOS-3 also now includes the RHEL documentation, both on the CDs (CD3/docs) and also on the mirrors in the 3.1/docs/ directory. All RPMS in 3.1 are now signed with the CentOS-3 GPG key, as is the list of md5sums on the server." The full announcement.
Linux Netwosix 1.1
The Netwosix project has announced the release of Linux Netwosix 1.1: "The Netwosix Linux distribution (v. 1.1) is now available. What's Netwosix? Linux Netwosix is a powerful and optimised Linux distribution for servers and network security related jobs. It can also be used for special operations such as penetration testing with its big collection of security oriented software and sources. It's a light distribution created for the requirements of every system administrator; it's very portable and highly configurable." Read the full announcement for further details.
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
SUSE LINUX 9.1
"Novell today unveiled SUSE LINUX 9.1 Personal and SUSE LINUX 9.1 Professional, the first complete commercial Linux products based on the 2.6 kernel, providing the only significant retail Linux products on the market." The new product will be available on 23 April in Europe, and 6 May in the rest of the world: "SUSE LINUX 9.1 will be available at store.suse.com and from bookstores and software suppliers on May 6. The recommended retail price of SUSE LINUX 9.1 Personal (two CDs, installation guide, 30 days of installation support) is $29.95. SUSE LINUX 9.1 Professional (five CDs, two double-sided DVDs, user guide and administration guide, 90 days of installation support) is $89.95. The update edition of SUSE LINUX 9.1 Professional is $59.95." Read the full press release in German or English, and further reports at NewsForge, eWEEK, MadPenguin and The Register.
Gentoo Linux 2004.1
The Gentoo Linux project is preparing a new release, version 2004.1: "With the release of Gentoo Linux 2004.0 at the end of February, planning and work on release 2004.1 have already begun. The goals for this release include: clear and concise guidelines so that the release goes much more smoothly and enjoyably; a better use of infrastructure by revamping the current way releases are coordinated to be put on the mirrors; catalyst enhancements and bugfixes; better communication from releng to the arch release coordinators, and vice-a-versa; Internet-based GRP for Portage's binary download and install functionality; completion of all items on the 2004.1 Feature Request list." The new release is tentatively scheduled for 28 April 2004; read the latest edition of the Gentoo Weekly News for further details.
Knoppix 3.4
Knoppix 3.4 has been announced: "The new version of KNOPPIX will be available as a printed edition at CeBIT 2004, 18.-24.3.2004, Hall 11, booth D39 (Rheinland-Pfalz booth), Hannover, Germany. Klaus Knopper will also give presentations at the Heise-Booth in Hall 5, E38. New features: Linux Kernel 2.4.25 and, as a boot option, Kernel 2.6.3, both ACPI-enabled; new IRDA/Bluetooth-Setup; GPRS internet-connection ready; enhanced hardware autodetection and driver updates; also boots from (some) USB- and Firewire CD-ROMs now; Internet-based software 'live-installer', installs add-on packages in ramdisk or on persistent home directory; free ticket to LinuxTag 2004, Europe's leading Linux and Free Software event, included." More information on the distribution's home page. The CeBIT edition is expected to be followed by a downloadable edition on Knoppix within the next week or two.
Trustix 2.1 (Enterprise)
The Trustix developers have announced a new product - Trustix Secure Enterprise Linux, as well as a re-release of Trustix Secure Linux 2.1, inclusive of some bug fixes, but exclusive of the Trustix stack protection technology, which will be now reserved for (or more precisely, turned on by default in) the Enterprise edition: "Trustix Secure Enterprise Linux will soon be released to the market. The initial differentiation in the Enterprise market will focus on the Stack protection technology required by this market, but it will also consist of support packages and support across multiple platforms etc. Trustix Secure Linux in its freely available version will be re-released at revision 2.1, removing the stack protection support. Both versions will then migrate forward in thefuture." The full announcement, causing some tension on the mailing list, can be found here.
Astaro Security Linux 5.0
Astaro Security Linux 5.0 has been announced: "Astaro Corp. (www.astaro.com), developers of the most popular Open Source-based security product, today announced Version 5 of its Astaro Security Linux. The perimeter security solution, which protects more than 20,000 installations in over 60 countries, now includes Intrusion Protection capabilities that protect networks against complex attacks, and added Virus Protection for HTTP and FTP. Version 5 will also stop viruses in password-protected zip attachments." The new product will be released on 31 March 2004; see the press release for details about new features.
BLAG 10000
The BLAG project has unveiled a roadmap towards future BLAG releases: "BLAG 9000 series is based on Red Hat 9. The 10000 series, which doesn't have a stable release, will be based on Fedora Core 1. Development versions have been made. BLAG 20000 will be based on Fedora Core 2. Fedora Core 2 hasn't been released, but test1 has been released. A development version of FC2 has been made of test1, but is unreleased. Kernel 2.6 will come with 20000." Visit this page for further details.
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| Web Site News |
No more Timesavers
The Timesavers programme has been discontinued with immediate effect.
Launched in January 2003, the idea behind Timesavers was to get extra income in exchange for providing special features (custom comparisons charts, searches and other requested features) for those who were willing to support the site financially. Unfortunately, the programme did not prove particularly popular, with an average of only 12 people joining each month. Replacing the login dialog with a Google advertisement is financially more beneficial, without the overhead of writing and maintaining new code, and dealing with members.
After 15 months of procrastinating and promising to start working on the Timesavers features next week and next week..., I have to admit defeat. I just don't have the time and motivation. With nearly 300 distributions listed on the site, all my time is taken up by posting news, adding new distributions and maintaining existing information. Besides that, I am also a regular contributor to the distribution section of Linux Weekly News and an irregular contributor to NewsForge. Hard as I tried, I couldn't find a way to extend days beyond 24 their hours.
Also, my earlier appeal to attract a third-party developer to work on the Timesavers features turned out to be unsuccessful - although a developer started working on the features, he has not logged in to the server for several weeks and all attempts to contact him during the past few weeks failed.
If you have joined Timesavers and are disappointed by the programme's demise, here are your options:
- Get a refund. If you'd like a refund, please email me (my email address is at the bottom of this page) about your preferred way of receiving the refund (PayPal or cheque) and the relevant details.
- Get a DistroWatch T-shirt for US$10. The standard price for a DistroWatch T-shirt is US$17 + shipping and handling, but you can have it for US$10, including shipping and handling. If you'd like to take advantage of this offer, please email me the details of your physical address and pay US$10 to DistroWatch (via PayPal or 2CheckOut, details are on the advertiser's page). I will then place the order for the T-shirt on your behalf.
- Support Free Software projects. You can ask for your joining fee to be placed into a pool to be donated to Free Software projects. This is a newly launched initiative, details of which are announced in this issue of DistroWatch Weekly.
- Do nothing. Just enjoy the feeling that you have helped supporting your favourite web site financially :-)
Despite the bad news, all is not lost. I still hope to attract a volunteer PHP coder who will be willing to implement some of the often requested features (such as the custom comparison chart). These will then be available to all visitors free of charge.
Finally, my sincere apologies to all of you who have supported this site and who have been looking forward to seeing the new features implemented in the near future. Despite my unfulfilled promise, I hope that you will continue visiting DistroWatch and enjoy the existing content.
DistroWatch T-shirts
Order your own official DistroWatch T-shirt from Hackerthreads.
New additions
- Danix. Danix is a Knoppix-based desktop-oriented Linux live CD designed with support for the Czech language.
- Euronode. Euronode is a set of Debian GNU/Linux-based distributions, which transform a simple computer into a high-performance server or router in a few minutes. Euronode scripts automate the process of installation and configuration: auto-detection of devices, partitioning, automatic installation, and auto-configuration of the system and services. The Euronode project provides three product branches: "Minimal Woody" (basic debootstrap); "Simple DSL/cable Firewall" (a simple and secure Internet connection sharing with auto-detection of ethernet and USB modems) and "Advanced DSL/cable Firewall" (Simple Firewall + anti-virus + anti-spam + home web hosting).
New on the waiting list
- MaLiGNUz. MaLiGNUz is a Slackware-based live CD designed for system administration and recovery.
- APAWS. APAWS (Automated Photo Album Web Server) is a customised Linux mini distribution with Gallery w/netpbm and SpiderEyeballs. It runs mostly in RAM but also mounts an ext2 partition for storage.
- AFU-Knoppix. AFU-Knoppix is a Knoppix-based Live CD designed for radio amateurs.
Discontinued distributions
- Immunix Secure Linux OS. According to full story at NewsForge, the development of Immunix Secure Linux OS has been discontinued: "The Immunix Linux distribution never became profitable. A big reason for this may have been competition from NSA's Security-Enhanced Linux, which had about the biggest name there is in electronic security behind it and started getting all the Linux "security buzz" almost from the day it was released. ... The most recent version of the Immunix OS, 7.3, was released in December, 2003, and it looks like it will be the last standalone one released."
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of distributions in the database: 274
- Number of discontinued distributions: 32
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 67
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| Reader Feedback |
Slackware Live CD
KR writes: "Although a full-blown install distribution, Slackware also provides a live CD with their distribution, as well as a downloadable ISO of the CD. You may have to dig a little on the site to find out about it, but the Slackware Store (http://store.slackware.com/cgi-bin/store) lets you know that one of the disks is a bootable live CD."
Debian packages
HY writes: "In Debian, bind 9.x is provided as bind9 package, now its version is 9.2.3-3. dhcp3 package is available, too. Its version is 3.0+3.0.1rc13-1. If users look at the Debian page in Distrowatch, they would think 'Debian does NOT have updated packages. It's too old...', maybe."
This issue comes up quite often, so just a reminder about the note displayed above every table discussing default packages in distributions; please read it before submitting any similar feedback. As for Debian not having up-to-date packages, I don't believe Debian's primary goal is to be as up-to-date as possible - there are other distributions that are trying to achieve that. Debian's value is in its stability by using well-tested packages at the expense of being "out of date" in certain respects. If users decide not to try it because "it's too old" then they probably don't deserve Debian anyway.
That's all for this week, see you next Monday :-)
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • DistroWatch to offer financial assistance to Free Software projects (by maceto on 2004-03-22 09:33:34 GMT)
COOOOOOL that rocks. True Linux spirit!
We`ll hammer you with hits, if the banners are measured by hits or klicks..?
hehe
2 • Timesavers (by Penguin Domesticus on 2004-03-22 10:13:36 GMT)
Thanks for the great site, with or without Timesavers. So you can keep my Timesavers money as a donation to DistroWatch...:-)
3 • Bayanihan (by Victor at 2004-03-22 11:33:26 GMT)
Dear Lad,
First, let me thank you for your commendable initiative to offer funding to free software projects. Indirectly, you are encouraging those developers to excel and to help drive this civilization forward to new frontiers with Linux. Kudos!
Secondly, I am not sure why Bayanihan Linux is not visible on the HPD list. This distribution is solid and dependable; comes with apt-get and the latest software. It is simple to install (Anaconda based), has a clean desktop and comes with the latest OpenOffice (1.1.0). I have used other Linux distros but each time I'll always come back to Bayanihan Linux. I think the developers deserve a pat on the back for producing a Red Hat based distro containing everything a desktop user needs on one disk.
And, by the way, keep up the good work of presenting to the world a no-holds-barred website for useful information on Linux.
4 • Floppy-based distros (by Varga Péter at 2004-03-22 13:13:30 GMT)
Hi,
I hope the Google AdSense will bring loads of money.
It would be good if you could add a page like "Distros by category", so extending the current CD-based, source-based and major distro sections.
Some useful categories would be:
-Floppy-based
-Architecture-specific with subcategories
...
Thanx
5 • RE: Floppy-based distros (by ladislav at 2004-03-22 13:24:37 GMT)
There is an actively maintained list of floppy-based distros on the links page: http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=links#floppy
6 • Great! (by Eavy at 2004-03-22 14:07:00 GMT)
It's great that DistroWatch will offer financial assistance to Free Software projects!
Here's a related idea I've had: If you could keep track of individual distro pages' ad impressions, it would be possible to divide the money accordingly. The most popular distros would get more hits and thus more money. Visitors vote by visiting their favorite distro's page, just like they do now, but instead of just its popularity its income could be boosted as well.
Of course, the disadvantage could be that then there would be even more of an incentive to try artificially boosting the rankings...
7 • RUNT Linux and timesavers (by Joel Ebel at 2004-03-22 15:04:07 GMT)
While I understand the lack of time to develop timesavers, I am saddened by their demise. I see the number of distributions constantly rising, and I can only imagine the time it takes to maintain a database containing all this information. In light of that, and as a result of last weeks pleas to not create distributions in DWW, I am concerned that I could be any part of the problem.
I Created RUNT Linux because I wanted a fully USB Pen drive based distribution. I was encouraged to make it publicly available by friends, and thus I did so. While it has received some popularity, it is certainly not at the top of the HPD. Since I created it, a few other distributions have also announced USB based versions. As for who came first, I don't know, but when I created it, I certainly couldn't find any. So, my concern is whether or not RUNT is a worthwhile projuct to continue? Is it unique enough to be worth Distrowatch's time to maintain? I'd like to think so. I still don't know any distros entirely USB based, and Patrick Volkerding himself sent me a couple emails telling me he thought RUNT was pretty cool. But I want to know what people think? Is RUNT Worth it? Should I try to merge RUNT back into slackware or some other project? Or is RUNT unique enough that it shoudl remain separate, deserving the time and attention of me and the Distrowatch team?
Thanks for the comments,
Joel Ebel
8 • Integrate (by Rahul on 2004-03-22 15:32:56 GMT)
Hi
There are such distros like RUNT which advance quickly through a market space for offering something unique. I sincerly believe though that by working with debian mandrake of fedora will help more users to use your hard work rather than creating an entire new distribution. If you distrubition's only advantage is USB it probably wont last for long. Please integrate your work into other distros and help Linux improve
regards
Rahul
9 • Contributions (by jlowell at 2004-03-22 15:41:15 GMT)
Ladislav,
While I feel that your initiative to fund truly free software projects is commendable, I am struck by the fact that a decision has already been made to fund GNUCash and Debian despite your avowed intention to leave the selection of beneficiaries to "maintainers, contributors and visitors of DistroWatch". Since advertising revenues and those generated from the sale of Distrowatch merchandise will represent the whole of the corpus of funds used for this purpose, one would be hardput to criticize any decision you might make respecting beneficiaries. But to the best of my knowledge, no "maintainers, contributors and visitors of DistroWatch" were consulted as to the GNUCash and Debian comittments. It makes little sense to announce a principle and violate it in its first instanciation, it seems to me. I would encourage you to hold off these initial contributions until you've solicited the input you say you want. It would be a shame to see this project get off on the wrong foot.
jlowell
10 • Supporting Distrowatch (by bin on 2004-03-22 16:21:08 GMT)
I regularly check Distrowatch. I also always surf with images turned off because banner ads are annoying. I've been slowly coming around to the fact that I should be supporting sites I frequent, where possible. While I can't afford to do it with outright cash outlays for something like Timesavers, and I stop visiting sites that insist on registration for content, I did continue to visit Distrowatch because most content was still available.
I've read the headlines about Distrowatch supporting Free Software projects, but didn't check the details yet. Thanks to the dropping of Timesavers, and the goodwill you've earned by the support of Timesavers, I'll make sure to check out some of your advertisers from time to time.
Others planning on doing the same should note that with Google and other advertisers, there are always scams attached. Similar to the Link Exchange scams of years ago for not paying for banner clicks for a multitude of excuses, Google's "Search Words" or whatever they call it, doesn't pay anything if you click on the ad and you don't have javascript turned on. This has the effect of Google getting paid by the advertiser, and the web site owner getting nothing. Don't know if this will affect Distrowatch if it is banner ads instead of the "Search Words" or whatever they call it, but I would expect the same, attempting to wiggle out of paying so that they increase their profits at the expense of the web site owner. After all, they are paying something, right? So what right do web site owners have to complain?
11 • Re: Contributions (by jlowell) (by elijah at 2004-03-22 16:22:05 GMT)
jlowell seems to be missing the boat entirely. He states that 'no "maintainers, contributors and visitors of DistroWatch" were consulted as to the GNUCash and Debian committments.' I'm a little confused as to what exactly jlowell thinks that Ladislav is. Perhaps a magician that snaps his fingers to make the distrowatch site magically appear out of thin air? Ladislav _is_ a maintainer, a contributor, and a visitor of DistroWatch. He picked the first two projects, now he's asking others for their input. Sounds to me like he's following his principle perfectly.
Frankly, I think his first two picks are perfect choices. I vote for them. In fact, why spread the funds thin? I think concentrating the funding on those two projects would be a great idea (despite the fact that I really don't use either one much).
12 • Re: Contributions (by MixMatch at 2004-03-22 16:35:18 GMT)
I think the decision to support GNUCash and Debian first was based on the fact that they have directly helped the distrowatch project. With that in mind, I think it is more than appropriate to give them the first chance...
As for me, I would like to see Knoppix supported, as they have proven to be one of the most revolutionary distros of the decade. Other projects that I find to be outstanding are Mozilla, OpenOffice, Apache, Blender 3D, Xine, and Wine.
13 • about money for free stuff (by Peter Damoc at 2004-03-22 17:43:48 GMT)
Well the idea is good at the core BUT I think it is applied the wrong way. Money is power, use this power, if you have it, to obtain something palpable. Initiate a reward system and give the money as a reward for something truly useful. There are so many things that need work in the Open Source universe.... pick some and make them atractive for the casual programer (everybody likes money) :D
A good example is documentation, most open source projects have "not so good" documentation because developers are too busy developing and yet good documentation is crucial for the begginer. For 150-500$ you'll find A LOT of people willing.... :D
another idea would be to organize "clean-up" contests where people would dive in "stinky" code from various projects and try to clean it up. There are a lot of bright students whom have free time and for whom the money you promise might mean a new machine or an much needed upgrade to some key component.
150-500$ are small change for big projects like Debian or GNUCash, let organizations like Apache Foundation take care of them, use the money wiser.
14 • XOrg shouldn't be *that* much less mature than XFree86 (by J. J. Ramsey at 2004-03-22 18:34:16 GMT)
From <http://xorg.freedesktop.org/Software/XOrgRepository>:
"The tree has been kept in sync with XFree86, through the release of their version 4.4 with the exception of changes to their files that contain their new version 1.1 license."
In short, XOrg is roughly the same as XFree86 4.4.
15 • thank you (by FlS on 2004-03-22 18:59:53 GMT)
Thanks for financially supporting those Free Software projects!
You truly are a great person! :)
16 • Nominate MythTV (by Matt R on 2004-03-22 19:50:55 GMT)
I would like to nominate MythTV http://www.mythtv.org/
The project is doing an outstanding job bringing PVR capability to Linux. In fact MythTV is probably the best PVR software available including Windows based offerings.
17 • RE: Contributions (by ladislav at 2004-03-23 00:03:22 GMT)
I wanted to avoid it, but it looks like I will have to put up some small print about "the decision being final and once it's made, no further communication will be entered into", or something similar.
If you'd like to nominate a candidate for receiving the next donation, please do so.
18 • RE: about money for free stuff (by ladislav at 2004-03-23 00:15:24 GMT)
You make good points. I just want to emphasise again, that the donations will be available to all worthy projects - if somebody wants to write documentation for an application that lacks it, we'll be happy to consider donating to this kind of project. This would, however, brake the "no strings attached" policy, which is easier to apply to well-established projects. But I agree that this is a good idea: we can invite people to write documentation and earn some cash in the process.
Anyway, I am open to other suggestions during this week and we can summarise things up in next week's DistroWatch Weekly.
19 • Nominate Quanta Plus for funding (by Eric Laffoon at 2004-03-23 04:47:11 GMT)
Hi, I think it's great you're offering the challenge to fund FLOSS projects. I have personally funded our project quite a bit and we have others in the community helping, but we have grand goals. Currently we sponsor one developer full time. I'm in communication with two other developers at this time. Probably I will start one or both of them part time. Hopefully an announcement when we reach that point will help generate community support. However at this time I'm sure we will be making additions. This will make a substantial amount of sponsored development for a very popular project. If you decide to give us the nod that would be nice and it would be put to good use.
20 • Nomination (by Andrew on 2004-03-23 07:10:27 GMT)
I'd like to nominate Puppy Linux for funding, I feel they're doing great work and are not just redoing Knoppix with a different slant, which seems to be the flavour of the month.
21 • RE: about money for free stuff (by Peter Damoc at 2004-03-23 08:47:12 GMT)
I know is hard but... provide leadership. DistroWatch is already the leader of news about Linux distros, use this leader position to stear development.
It is not enough to say "donations will be available to all worthy projects" instead name things that need to change, offer rewards, raise the rewards.
I don't think you need more examples but here goes another one:
Gaim is praised as "THE ONE", after all, Gnome uses it, but hey where the heck is audio conference? or video conference? ok, ok... you can say some things about the protocols and the fact that they are proprietary BUT why not provide fallback for the think-alikes? I mean if I use Gaim and my friend uses Gaim we should be able to do everything (text-voice-video) if one of us has a static IP and there are no nasty firewalls involved in our conversation.
I would not pay 500$ for such a feature BUT you can and if 500$ is not enough offer 1000$, 2000$, whatever.
I refuse to believe that what I'm suggesting is imposible to do.
22 • mailing list (by Peter Damoc at 2004-03-23 08:51:51 GMT)
how about turning DistroWatch Weekly into something people can subscribe to?, something like a mailing list.
23 • Financial support (by dukeinlondon on 2004-03-23 11:34:44 GMT)
I always assumed that any profitable open source related shop (website, distros, consultants) was supporting a number of projects that they see as important for there own development.
I hope I am right. Commercial Linux distros should maybe list their yearly contributions, in code or in cash.
24 • Nitpick over wording of Debian's decision to keep Non-Free (by Syntaxis at 2004-03-23 16:15:54 GMT)
"Yet, it shows that the FSF ideals, pure as they may be, are not always practical, even rejected by the developers of a popular non-commercial distribution, such as Debian."
This could give the impression that Debian vets software freedom in the same manner as the FSF, which clearly isn't the case - Debian uses its own Free Software Guidelines (http://www.debian.org/social_contract.html), not the FSF's Free Software Definition (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html).
The fact that debian-legal has already deemed the GNU FDL as being Non-Free is perhaps the best illustration of the differing views between the two organizations.
25 • MythTV (by vic on 2004-03-23 19:50:50 GMT)
Contrary to another post, I'd have to recommend against MythTV. According to the head developer himself, he is working on the project for his own benefit, not for the benefit of others. His statment, not mine. While many other techies find MythTV great, it is not something designed to be easy to install, or to compete with Tivo on ease of use. Ease of use is what will bring mass adoption, and more development help, and more user support.
While there may exist deb packages and CD distros for MythTV installations, it still is not as easy as it should be, and taken into consideration the head developer's goal of making an app for himself, it won't be made easy to work with any time in the near future.
MythTV is not worthy of support at this time. I hope the development direction changes, to take into account other uses, and ease of use, but until it does, this is not a community project in the true sense of, or following the ideals of, Free Software.
26 • Add a vote for Quanta (by List1 on 2004-03-23 21:51:13 GMT)
I'll add a vote for Quanta support. It's a great project, with great leadership.
While I haven't seen their implementation of wysiwyg, or VPL yet, I'm hopeful that former Dreamweaver users, and even, dare I say it, former Frontpage users find it useable. One of the applications that is frequently cited as holding back individuals and small business owners from migrating to Linux is Dreamweaver (and even Frontpage). They use it to maintain their small business and personal web sites. While wine, vmware, and win4lin are out there, some cost in the hundreds of dollars, and the rest are not trivial to get the needed apps up and running. Quanta Plus offers another tool to eliminate this area as the excuse or block that prevents migration from Windows to Linux.
Quanta Plus is a project that reflects a selfless interest in developing a Free Software application that is useable for a very large group of users. Furthermore, it is an important application that will help further goals of increased usage and an increased installed base, benefitting all Linux users by increasing overall usage of Free and Open Source Software, and benefitting potental Linux users who are suffering through their use of an insecure and expensive operating system such as Windows.
Quanta Plus is a FOSS project that is clearly worthy of support. And due to the structure of the project, even minor support will help a great deal. Please consider this project.
27 • Supporting Distrowatch (by bin on 2004-03-24 17:37:43 GMT)
I regularly check Distrowatch. I also always surf with images turned off because banner ads are annoying. I've been slowly coming around to the fact that I should be supporting sites I frequent, where possible. While I can't afford to do it with outright cash outlays for something like Timesavers, and I stop visiting sites that insist on registration for content, I did continue to visit Distrowatch because most content was still available.
I've read the headlines about Distrowatch supporting Free Software projects, but didn't check the details yet. Thanks to the dropping of Timesavers, and the goodwill you've earned by the support of Timesavers, I'll make sure to check out some of your advertisers from time to time.
Others planning on doing the same should note that with Google and other advertisers, there are always scams attached. Similar to the Link Exchange scams of years ago for not paying for banner clicks for a multitude of excuses, Google's "Search Words" or whatever they call it, doesn't pay anything if you click on the ad and you don't have javascript turned on. This has the effect of Google getting paid by the advertiser, and the web site owner getting nothing. Don't know if this will affect Distrowatch if it is banner ads instead of the "Search Words" or whatever they call it, but I would expect the same, attempting to wiggle out of paying so that they increase their profits at the expense of the web site owner. After all, they are paying something, right? So what right do web site owners have to complain?
28 • My votes go to... (by motub on 2004-03-24 17:45:31 GMT)
Ladislav, great idea, good for you! You've already done (and continue to do) so much with this site, and now you're doing even more.
I'd like to vote for two projects:
GATOS. Linux users with ATI video cards get precious little support from the manufacturer. But because of the GATOS project, I have hope that I might be able to use the TV-in features of my AIW 9800 SE someday in the not-too-distant future. If a bit of cash could enable them to write a few exra letters to ATI, or pay the phone bill to call and request more chipset information, I'd really like to see them get the help.
WINE. What is there to say? Nothing. Everything. There are so many reasons that we (still?) need Wine, and so many things that Wine does better than WineX... but the things that WineX and the commercial versions of Wine do better than "regular" Wine must surely be somehow attributable to money. Money for licenses. Money to feed people while they try to figure out DirectX. I don't know, but if it would help the Wine project blossom into the titan it struggles to grow into, I'm all for it. Because I suspect that there's a whole undiscovered universe of benefits to Wine, far beyond the simple ability to run Windows apps "normally" under Linux.
But whatever you decide, thanks so much for implementing this program. Peter Damoc's idea is really good too, but maybe that's something for "phase 2" :-) .
29 • Money to worthwhile projects (by Ric de France at 2004-03-25 01:47:37 GMT)
Lasislav,
Just a comment on your idea of donating to worthy projects. Kudos to you for standing up and financially helping projects. The only thing I would have like to have seen, but you appear not to allow in your rules, is a donation to Mandrake.
I think news sites (like distrowatch) followed closely the plight of Mandrake as they went into the french version of Chapter 11. I myself know that if it wasn't for distros like Mandrake, I most likely would have given up on Linux a long time ago (I prefer using Gentoo now - what triggered the switch of distros was your article on RPM hell).
Which leads me now to nominating Gentoo as a project to benefit from your generosity.
Keep up the great work. The site is awesome.
30 • Re:MythTv (by hughesjr at 2004-03-25 01:48:51 GMT)
How hard is it to type:
apt-get install mythtv-suite
And the project has mnay people providing support .. not just one.
MythTV is an excellent project that is installable via:
Mandrake using urmpi
RedHat/Fedora via aptrpm
Debian via apt
Gentoo via emerge
31 • Nomination for cdrecord & k3b (by Jalil on 2004-03-25 05:22:03 GMT)
I believe many people use it, that's why I am nominating for cdrecord & k3b as well for KDE and GNOME.
32 • How to choose from the plethora of candidates? (by fdavid on 2004-03-25 12:55:21 GMT)
I think many open source porjects worth supporting. Almost every visitor of DistroWatch can drop in a new one. How will it be decided, which one of them gets the donation?
I would suggest, that Ladislav should nominate 3 projects every month, to choose from. I would be happy, even if there were no way for us to influence the decision, which project will be donated. After all, it's Ladislav's money. So thank tou, Ladislav, for supporting open source projects.
33 • RE: Nomination of MythTV (by Matt R on 2004-03-25 18:28:51 GMT)
I would like to reemphasize my nomination for MythTV.
On this day the 50th anniversary of color television.
See the article…
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2466940
An excerpt from the article
“TV ownership blanketed the country as far back as 1960, when 87 percent of homes had one, according to the bureau. Now they are nearly universal, in more than 98 percent of homes. “
It seems that if you want Linux penetration and general public support then supporting a Linux application that is applicable to more than 98 percent of all households makes sense.
Therefore, I again nominate MythTV!!!
34 • DW Donations (by Leo on 2004-03-26 19:15:10 GMT)
Thanks a lot Ladislav for the idea :-)
And thank you for asking. I think it would be great if DW donated money mostly to Linux Distros, just because this is the topic of DW.
I am talking about Distros that satisfy certain criteria that you think is reasonable. For instance:
* provide free (gratis) downloads, and/or
* be fully GPL, and/or
* non-commercial, and/or
* "very" active or popular, etc.
All of these things are subjective. I would rather fund Ark than RedHat, because Ark has less ways of becoming profitable. But it's up to you. In any case, defining some criteria and choosing a distro at a time meeting it would be cool. Maybe you can cycle among a pool of distros ...
35 • Why Debian? (by Anonymous on 2004-03-26 22:39:02 GMT)
If you want to give money to open source, give it to projects and not to Linux distributions like Debian, so everyone using an open source operating system (*BSD flavor or Linux distribution) can benefit from that.
BTW, I still don't understand why you monitor lots of Linux distributions (more than a hundred?) and not the three main BSD flavors as well (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD). Afterall, they're open source operating systems and both share some stuff (there are some BSD tools in Linux and some GNU tools in *BSD).
36 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2004-03-27 01:38:21 GMT)
"Yet, it shows that the FSF ideals, pure as they may be, are not always practical, even rejected by the developers of a popular non-commercial distribution, such as Debian." - well, I think FSF ideals are just slightly less than pure, but they're pretty dang close. and ideal is *always* the most practical. just add a little wisdom, and any ideal is practical.
and many thanks for the promotion of the free software foundation! ^_^ I didn't realize you were turning a profit with this wonderful service. the ads fit in so nicely that this page feels so gratis! as it happens, I'm putting in money for a free software project, too, but I don't think anyone will see it for a while. q= development *is* going fast, tho.
when I started selling SuSE loaded systems, I read through the licenses, and the YaST license already read pretty similar to GPL. smart move, though. (-: Novell will benefit greatly by sticking to ideals and producing Linux within standards...
(running SuSE 9.0 on kernel 2.6.4 and Slackware 9.1 on kernel 2.6.0)
37 • Feather 0.3.9 (by Juan T. on 2004-03-28 12:14:07 GMT)
Very good this small distro.
The correction, in the present release, of the ABS spreadsheet size at start, is well done.
*JT.
38 • campesinos - bolivia (by Marco Antonio Mejia Teran at 2004-04-05 01:58:47 GMT)
Santa Cruz-Bolivia, 4 de abril del 2004
Señores:
DistroWatch
De mi mayor consideración.
Mediante la presente carta, tenemos el gusto de dirigirnos a ustedes.
Somos un grupo de voluntarios que trabajamos con organizaciones campesinas e indigenas en Bolivia, este año conjuntamente con otros compañeros que utilizan linux, tenemos planeado impulsar algunas experiencias de poder conformar telecentro comunitarios en el campo para poder facilitar la apropiación de los comunarios de estas tecnologias y contribuir al desarrollo integral de las mismas.
En tal sentido nos hemos enterado que ustedes estan apoyando emprendiientos de este tipo, nos ustaria puedan darnos mayores explicaciones sobre esta ayuda financiera, consideramooque juntos podemos socializar el conocimiento y uso de linux en bolivia, sobre todo en zonas mas marginales del país.
Sin mas que decirles y esperando una respuesta positiva de su parte nos despedimos.
fraternalmente
marco mejia teran, miguel lucana, alejo mamani, julio mejia.
39 • Donations (by Simon Brown at 2004-07-27 00:29:51 GMT)
Donating to those who have contributed code for everyone's benefit is good in itself. If it encourages or enables them to do more this is even better. Presumably the assumption that it will lead to further advancements is true.
One of the biggest impediments to the migration to linux on the desktop is the legacy of software which is compiled only for one operating system, predominantly Microsoft Windows in its various forms. Two complimentary projects address this problem. The first is WINE. This aims to provide an urgently needed short-term solution, but is going painfully slow. It deserves a lot of help. See www.winehq.org. The other is wxWidgets, formerly kmown as WxWindows (www.wxwidgets.org). This lets programmers write GUIs almost independantly of the OS to which they are compiled. If commercial and OS programmers were more aware of wxWidgets we would all benefit.
Number of Comments: 39
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| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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| Random Distribution | 
ESUN Linux
ESUN Linux was an Ubuntu-based distribution containing free software for enterprise management. Developed at the University of Tarapaca in Chile, the project's goal was to deliver a new alternative to students, teachers and the community at large. The distribution includes software for enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), project management, accounting, electronic commerce, human resources, office and database.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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