 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 57, 12 July 2004 |
Welcome to this year's 28th edition of DistroWatch Weekly. This issue departs from the usual format in some peculiar ways, due to a new maintainer and an almost unbelievable string of weird circumstances that have occurred in the past week. Details of this exciting tale and other (more relevant) subjects can be found below. Enjoy!
Content:
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| Holidays in Hell - Robert Storey's First Week at Distrowatch |
As was announced in last week's Distrowatch Weekly News that - after three years of non-stop slaving in front of his computer - Ladislav Bodnar (and his "significant other") have finally decided to take that long-planned badly-needed summer vacation to Europe. Obviously not wanting to see all his hard work go down the tubes during his absence, Ladislav recruited me (Robert Storey) as a substitute website maintainer. I was honored to be entrusted with this sacred task! In preparation, I spent a week camped out on the floor of Ladislav's apartment, and diligently paid attention as he carefully instructed me on all the technical details. As the date of the "handover" approached, I felt a growing sense of confidence - it was going to be a piece of cake.
Perhaps you've heard of Murphy's Law? The first indication that all might not go smoothly occurred on the eve of Ladislav's departure, when I was rushed to the hospital doubled up in pain. I got to spend the entire night on a morphine drip (much less fun than it sounds), but was released the next morning and allowed to go home with the understanding that I would follow up with a doctor's appointment and some tests. I went back to Ladislav's house and began updating Distrowatch, but within a few hours I was back at the hospital with more of the same. I'd like to point out that this is not something I usually do.
The hospital misdiagnosed my condition, and indeed almost did a (wrong) emergency surgery. I'll spare my readers all the gory details, but to make a long story short, I got on my cell phone and called "the little woman," who hopped on a plane and retrieved me from the clutches of the medical staff. We made it as far as the airport, where I collapsed again, and we were thus unable to board our flight. We took a taxi to a nearby (different) hospital, and actually this proved to be a good move. The staff at this medical institution were far more competent, and within the hour I was properly diagnosed with a (drumroll, please) kidney stone. After spending one more fun-filled evening in the emergency room, I (we) finally succeeded in getting on an airplane and flew back home.
Until a few days ago, I barely knew the difference between a kidney stone and the Rosetta Stone, but needless to say I've boned up on the subject considerably (thank you, Google). Indeed, I almost feel like an expert (again, I'll spare readers the details). Although my original plan to house-sit for Ladislav (and enjoy his broadband connections) is now in tatters, I believe I can maintain Distrowatch from home with my slow 56K modem. Fortunately, every cloud has its silver lining, and I actually was very happy to leave the BIG city (where Ladislav lives) and get back to my rural backwater to play with my desktop computer, my motorcycle, my two dogs, and "the little woman," though not necessarily in that order.
Not surprisingly, during the past week I was remiss in my duties of updating Distrowatch, which really needs to be done on a daily basis. I also neglected to answer my email, including a few really important ones. In all fairness, I must say that I had a splendid excuse. However, time waits for no one, so (assuming no more nasty surprises) I'm going to put my nose to the grindstone and see if I can clear out the backlog of news which has been piling up in my inbox.
So that's how I spent the first week of my summer vacation. I hope yours was better.
By the way, if anyone is interested, I'm running Distrowatch on Knoppix. I don't mean the Distrowatch server (which resides in a web hosting service half-a-world away), but rather my own machine on which I build the website. I chose Knoppix in large part because the server runs on Debian, and it's very convenient to have both my desktop and the server so nicely compatible (everything in the same directories). Aside from all that, I really like Knoppix.
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| Little Known Open Source Apps |
Normally every week we like post a topic that triggers some readers' discussion and debate. As you now all know, I didn't get to spend any time in front of the computer last week reading tech news, or any other news - indeed, had World War III broken out, I probably wouldn't have heard about it. However, I did get to spend a considerable amount of quality time lying in bed thinking about Distrowatch, and one interesting topic that flashed through my mind was "useful open source applications." In particular, open source applications which are not well known.
Sure, everyone has heard of Mozilla, The Gimp and OpenOffice (well, at least everyone who reads this website). But I wonder how many people here have ever heard of Gramps (a genealogy program)? Not that I personally use it (since I'd rather not know who my ancestors were), but my brother is a real genealogy buff and he says that Gramps is good. I'll take his word for it.
Since I'm a writer by profession, I'm always interested in tools that can help me write more intelligibly (even if not more intelligently). A good example of a little known open source gem is Wordinspect, a GTK-based dictionary client (this is not to be confused with a spelling dictionary). Although it can be used to look up words online, I find it even more useful to combine it with a dictionary package (like Dict-gcide) - this creates a standalone reference dictionary on my hard disk. If you're running a Debian-based distro (as I currently am), you would install it like this:
apt-get install wordinspect dict-gcide
Back in the days when I was using MS-DOS, I went out and bought the American Heritage Dictionary for about US$100. That was a fine tool, but it's not available for Linux or the BSDs. Now I run Wordinspect, which has the added advantage of being free:
Wordinspect
Wordinspect is a fairly large application. On the opposite extreme is Antiword, a tiny little applet that I use frequently. The sole function of Antiword is to turn Microsoft Word documents into ASCII text files.
How does one go about discovering these hidden gems? Aside from word-of-mouth or dumb luck, you can also browse through the massive list of packages in Debian unstable. You can download this as a text file:
http://packages.debian.org/unstable/allpackages.en.txt.gz
Do realize that it's a very long list (over 16,000 packages at this time). There is also the inconvenient little fact that the names assigned to packages by the Debian maintainers don't always coincide with the names that other (rpm-based) distros use. Nevertheless, the Debian package list is a good place to start your search.
But like I said, there is always word-of-mouth, and I would certainly like to hear the opinion of readers. What useful barely known open source apps have you discovered?
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| Released Last Week |
As already mentioned, I've got a lot of stuff piled up in my inbox. It's 3 am here (time zone +8), I've been munching on pain-killers and I'm almost ready to fall out of the chair. But before I go, here's a brief synopsis of what's sitting in the inbox (more details will be forthcoming in the next few days):
Release version '0.5.4c' of 'redWall Firewall' is available through freshmeat.net. All URLs and other useful
information can be found at:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/redwall/
Version '0.7.2' of 'Damn Small Linux' has been released and can be downloaded via freshmeat.net. All URLs and other useful information can be found at:
http://freshmeat.net/projects/damnsmalllinux/
Lormalinux 5 64-bit version beta is now available at:
http://linux.lorma.edu
Again, apologies for the hiatus. I know it was very unprofessional of me to almost drop dead on the job this week. I'll try to make sure that doesn't happen again. Until later...
Robert Storey
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • mm ok (by Vectrox at 2004-07-12 20:11:09 GMT)
Okay, different DistroWatch Weekly than normally...
2 • a kidney stone (by John Coombes at 2004-07-13 01:50:52 GMT)
Robert Storey wrote
QUOTE
very unprofessional of me to almost drop dead on the job this week
END QUOTE
No worries, these things happen - keep up the good work running DistroWatch while Ladislav is away.
3 • Yoper underwhelms The site isn't even working (by distrowatch reader at 2004-07-13 17:11:50 GMT)
Clicking on the links yields "Warning: mysql_connect(): Access denied for user: 'root@localhost' (Using password: NO) in /var/www/localhost/htdocs/forums/ips_kernel/class_db_mysql.php on line 115"
4 • distrowatch weekly note on the main page (by Vince on 2004-07-14 04:38:34 GMT)
been there done that (with the kidney stones i mean).... was no picnic for me either....
just a question.... did i miss the notice that there was a new distrowatch weekly available on the main page, or did you omit to put it up. the reason i ask is that i normally only check there to see if there's a new one before heading over to its page....but then, that's probably just me.
anyways, hope you're on the mend....
5 • re: distrowatch weekly note on the main page (by P.F.Pearson on 2004-07-14 12:29:01 GMT)
I didn't miss the notice, because I noticed Ladislav always puts it out early Monday Morning (GMT-0600). I've got the "current weekly" bookmarked, so that I can track the comments (I need a life!). I did look today, and the notice doesn't appear to be on the announcements page.
6 • We're with you... (by Soloact at 2004-07-15 08:32:50 GMT)
Robert, we're with you all the way. Been there with a k-stone, not a bit of fun at all.
You're doing a great job!
Best to you and yours!
7 • Not to worry (by Zor on 2004-07-15 12:08:21 GMT)
Don't worry, be happy, Robert!
You're doing a great job and you shouldn't worry about the site too much. First things first, your recovery is much more important. 'Cause in this life, you've only got one body...
Number of Comments: 7
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
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| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
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| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
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EzPlanet One Linux
EzPlanet One Linux was a Fedora-based Linux distribution tuned for enterprise solutions. EzPlanet One integrates advanced technologies, flexibility, high availability, security, quality. Built with the enterprise in mind, it features also several tools for the professionals and individual users that make its use more fun. Most of the latest advances in technologies available for Linux have been included in the EzPlanet One distribution. For example it supports most wireless network adapters, including those that do not have specific Linux drivers. EzPlanet One was ready to be used for your server infrastructure and your desktop clients. Quality was the secret of a robust and unbreakable foundation for the technical architect, with the tools and the ease of use to suit system administrators, bank managers, personal assistants, chief financial officers and beginners.
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