 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 75, 15 November 2004 |
Welcome to this year's 45th edition of DistroWatch Weekly. After moving to a new server, we have a pleasure to greet you from a brand new location, machine and operating system (more details below). Happy reading!
Content:
Gentoo Linux for G5 processors
 A new version of Gentoo Linux was made available at exactly midnight GMT on November 15th. This was the fourth and final Gentoo release of the year 2004. In line with most major distributions, the frequency of future releases will be reduced to just two per year to reduce the pressure on the release engineering team. Frankly, four releases per year did seem rather excessive for a project that supports seamless and continuous updates of the included software, which is one of the main reasons why many users were attracted to Gentoo in the first place.
Those of you who did not read the official announcement, might have missed a very interesting part of it - the newly included support for the ppc64 processor platform. This means that, for the first time, there is a free Linux distribution specifically designed to take advantage of IBM's 64-bit PowerPC processors (such as those found in Apple's PowerMac G5 and iMac G5 systems). This is exciting news indeed and hats off to the developers at Gentoo who have made this possible. Although the Fedora-based Yellow Dog Linux 4 also claims to be compatible with G5 systems, Gentoo has an edge over Yellow Dog in terms of available online documentation, as well as its development model, which is completely open. Let's face it, Apple's hardware is much more affordable than it used to be, so it makes sense to invest in one of its good-looking and innovative machines, and dual-boot Linux with Mac OS.
Do any of you run Linux on a G5 or any other PowerPC machine? If so, what are you experiences? Please discuss below.
* * * * *
 ZDNet UK has published a short article introducing the upcoming release of Debian GNU/Linux, code name Sarge. The story quotes the Debian project leader Martin Michlmayr as saying that Sarge will be released "at the end of this year, or the beginning of next year, depending on how quickly the remaining bugs are fixed." The article also introduces some of the new features and included software, and also mentions another Debian derivative - Ubuntu Linux. You can read the full article here.
If you have been itching to try the latest X.Org release on your Debian system, but were reluctant to compile it yourself, you can grab the Ubuntu Hoary (the Ubuntu development branch) packages and install them on Debian Sid. This is, reportedly (article in Spanish), a workable and tested solution. All you need to do is to add the relevant Hoary repositories to your /etc/apt/sources.list file, then run "apt-get update" and "apt-get install xserver-xorg" to install X.Org 6.8.1. As always, only do this if you are capable of fixing any potential problems!
* * * * *
 Finally, for audio and video addicts, a quick message from StartCom Linux about the distribution's updated multimedia add-on CD: "The MultiMedia Productivity CD lets you transform your Linux system into a productive music recording studio by using your existing hardware (minimum a soundcard is needed) and the provided set of applications. It includes ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) drivers for most soundcards, Jack Audio Server for advanced application interaction, Audacity and Ardour Recording Studio, 24 Track Midi Sequencer, Hydrogen Drum Machine, various synthesizers and samplers for sound manipulation, to mention only the most important features." Read the rest of the announcement. The CD is meant to compliment StartCom MultiMedia Edition, a Red Hat-based multimedia distribution, which is available for free download from the distribution's web site.
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| Featured distribution of the week: Yggdrasil Linux |
Yggdrasil Linux
No, we haven't been smoking anything unusual lately. The reason for including a long-defunct distribution in this section is to reflect on an interesting piece of history for the benefit of those readers who are relatively new to Linux, and for nostalgic reasons. After all, Yggdrasil Linux was one of the first Linux distributions in existence, while Yggdrasil Computing, established in California in 1992 by Adam Richter, was the first commercial Linux company ever created.
The distribution's initial release was produced in February 1993. Tentatively called "LGX Beta", the CD-ROM functioned as a live CD (in text mode), as well as an installation CD containing Linux 0.99.5 and the X-window system. It even claimed to have "multimedia capabilities", but we don't remember what those words used to mean in 1992. Here is the release announcement, together with the order form:
"Yggdrasil Computing, Incorporated is now shipping a beta CDROM release of a bootable Linux/GNU/X-based UNIX(R) clone for PC compatibles, tentatively named LGX. The system uses version 0.99.5 of the Linux kernel, which is being developed from scratch by Linus Torvalds and an international group of skilled contributors working over the internet to complete the GNU project."
In the following years, Yggdrasil (incidentally, the term "Yggdrasil" was derived from a tree of life found in Norse mythology) continued to produce regular CD-ROM images containing all the latest and greatest software applications as written by Linux, GNU and other open source software developers. Although its ISO images were never released for free download, the content of some of Yggdrasil's CD was (and still is) available for download from some FTP mirrors. To compliment their software, the company also wrote what was probably the world's first comprehensive, commercially available Linux book - The Linux Bible.
Unfortunately, Yggdrasil's business of selling Linux CD-ROMs and books did not seem to result in sustained profitability. Its final attempt at achieving financial success came in the year 2000 when the company released a Linux Open Source DVD, containing some 23GB of compressed software and documentation:
"The value of every product we have ever shipped is convenience", said Adam Richter, President of Yggdrasil Computing. "The growth of free software has increased the size of our Archives product to eight CDs. If you have to switch among that many discs, it's not very convenient. So, we decided to really push the technology to address this problem."
After this, we never heard from Yggdrasil Computing again. The company's web site became dormant shortly after the DVD release and was eventually taken off-line. But despite its relegation to the dustbins of history, Yggdrasil's early contribution to the Linux movement is indisputable.
Yggdrasil's Plug-and-Play Linux.
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| Released Last Week |
Mandrakelinux 10.1 PPC and X86-64 Editions
Mandrakelinux 10.1 for PowerPC systems has been released: "Finally there's a new Mandrakelinux to install on your fruity, metallic, white, black or beige PowerMac. 10.1/PPC has many new and updated programs, some new features, and probably also a few new bugs, so something interesting for everyone. Software updates include Linux kernel 2.6.8.1,X11R6.7, OpenOffice.org 1.1.3, Mozilla 1.7.2, GNOME 2.6, and KDE 3.2. A notable new feature is the ability to install on and boot from FireWire and USB devices." Read the full announcement at Mandrakeclub. The x86-64 edition of Mandrakelinux 10.1 has also been released: "Mandrakesoft has just released Mandrakelinux 10.1 for x86-64, a version of its Linux operating system that runs on AMD x86-64 and Intel EMT architectures. Linux has always been ahead of the competition in this area: it was the first operating system to support 64-bit architectures. This new release of Mandrakelinux, featuring EVP and mixed software support, will help ensure Linux is the only reasonable choice when it comes to 64-bit - the future of computing." For more information, please read the official press release and visit the product page.
Trustix Secure Linux 2.2
Trustix Secure Linux 2.2 is now available: "It's official! Linux is the world's fastest growing operating system, and with version 2.2, Trustix continues to demonstrate day on day why this is so. Bringing together enhancements in speed and security, Trustix Secure Linux 2.2 now offers support for Serial ATA disk drives and the leading open source antispam and antivirus solutions - SpamAssassin and ClamAV. Trustix remains committed to the open source community with Trustix Secure Linux 2.2 being the next step in the evolution of the world's most secure commercially supported Linux distribution." Read the rest of the release announcement for more self-glory.
Fedora Core 3
Fedora Core 3 has been released: "Fedora Core 3 is now available from Red Hat and at distinguished mirror sites near you, and is also available in the torrent. Fedora Core has expanded in this release to four binary ISO images and four source ISO images, and is available for both x86-64 and i386. Please file bugs via Bugzilla, Product Fedora Core, Version 3, so that they are noticed and appropriately classified. Discuss this release on fedora-list." See the release announcement on the Fedora Project page and read the release notes (i386) for more details.
SAM Mini Live Linux 1.1
SAM Mini Live Linux 1.1, a Mandrakelinux-based bootable live CD, has been released. What's new? "Included is the Firefox 1.0 (final) release, the first preview of GIMP 2.2, Gaim 1.0.2, some new and exchanged games (now 13), Ctorrent and some more updates. You can use 'transset' to check out the transparency effects of X.Org 6.8.1. Also new is Zenity to give bash scripts nice GUI dialogs. The first one included is a GUI for SAM's 'configsave'." Here is the full release announcement.
Kurumin Linux 3.31
Two new Kurumin Linux releases have been announced by the distribution's developers. The stable branch (kernel 2.4) has been updated to version 3.31, while the development branch (kernel 2.6) has a new alpha release of the upcoming version 4.0. Kurumin Linux 3.31, a maintenance and bug fix release with no new features, will be the last version from Kurumin 3.x series. Here is the release announcement (in Portuguese). The second alpha release of Kurumin 4.0 comes with newly included drivers for wireless networking and modems - read more in this announcement (also in Portuguese).
Damn Small Linux 0.8.4
The development of Damn Small Linux continues at a fast pace, with version 0.8.4 now available for download. Changes since the previous release: "New Siag Office word processor; new Siag Office spreadsheet; dropped Ted; dropped ABS; adjustments to smbclient GUI; adjustments control panel for backup; adjustments to mydslgui color legend; some cleanup and removal of old files." You can find the full release notes here.
RUNT Linux 4.0
Version 4.0 or RUNT (ResNet USB Network Tester), a Slackware-based distribution designed to run from a 128MB USB pen drive, has been released: "It's late in coming, but it's worth the wait. This is the biggest advancement RUNT has ever had! Here's a few of the new things RUNT 4.0 has to offer: new logo (thanks to Ken Elliot); scripts to make USB booting easier then ever; the bootdisk can be created from the pen drive, you don't need to download the floppy image separately; keyboard layout selection by typing keymap at the boot prompt; based on Slackware 10.0 with kernel 2.4.26; now has support for nForce built in ethernet devices; forum online; Bugzilla for bug reporting online." Read the release announcement and installation instructions on the project's home page.
OpenLab GNU/Linux 3.2
A new version of OpenLab GNU/Linux has been released: "It gives me great pleasure to announce the release of OpenLab GNU/Linux version 3.2. OpenLab is a different approach to the design of a GNU/Linux distribution, built on the premise of 'working out of the box'. Version 3.2 makes significant strides toward an ever greater user experience. For example, OpenLab makes the setup of a thin-client server easier than it has ever been before. All you need to do is say 'yes' when asked if you want it. No further user input is required. ... Our prime focus has always been, and will always be education, and OpenLab includes many unique innovations and designs that allow it to function ever better in school environments." Read the rest of the release announcement.
Gentoo Linux 2004.3
As reported in the latest issue of Gentoo Weekly Newsletter, Gentoo Linux 2004.3 has been released: "This is the fourth and final release of Gentoo Linux in 2004, with its main focus on bug fixes and making the release tools more robust and easier to use. Releasing for 2004.3 are all the major architectures supported by Gentoo: amd64, hppa, ppc, sparc, x86, and an initial ppc64 release. ... 2004.3 has been pushed to the mirrors in the past few hours, and is also available via BitTorrent. Delivered to the public as scheduled by 0:00 UTC on Monday, 15 November 2004, it marks the last version in the quarterly schedule adopted for 2004 that is going to be replaced by six-monthly releases next year, with 2005.0 and 2005.1 to be expected in early and mid-2005." More information on the release pages and ChangeLog.
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
ProMEPIS
The developers of MEPIS Linux have announced an internal beta release of ProMEPIS, a distribution designed for Linux enthusiasts and professionals. Besides standard software included in SimplyMEPIS, the ProMEPIS edition will come with a full complement of development and server applications, as well as GNOME packages. The internal beta test will be followed by a public release candidate. You can find out more about ProMEPIS in the beta release announcement.
Libranet GNU/Linux 3.0
A roadmap of the upcoming Libranet GNU/Linux 3.0 has been published on the distribution's web site. The current work revolves around package upgrades and improvements to the Adminmenu system administration module. The first beta release is scheduled for December 8, with a final release shortly after that.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Web Site News |
DistroWatch has moved
As many of you know, we moved DistroWatch.com to a new server late last week. The old Celeron 1.7GHz with 512MB of RAM was struggling during peak hours with over 70,000 visitors per day recorded on the main page during most working days in recent weeks. After evaluating several possibilities, we settled for a dedicated server by NetSonic.net, a company based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA. The specifications of the new machine are impressive: dual Xeon 2.8GHz, 2GB of RAM, 160GB of hard disk space, and 1TB of bandwidth per month. This should last for a while.
We switched operating systems too - from Debian 3.0 Woody to FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE. The reason? After pondering various options, we found a strong inclination towards a more recent version of an operating system, something that won't need a major upgrade for several years. Some would argue that Debian releases are easy to upgrade, so we could have continued using Woody and upgrade as soon as Sarge is released. However, doing a major upgrade on a remote server is always risky, especially if it includes a kernel upgrade (we would feel nervous about the possibility of ending up with an unbootable system with no physical access to the machine). Furthermore, the Woody installation on the old server was no longer "vanilla", it included several new packages from backports.org, such as PHP and Postfix, which could possibly complicate the upgrade.
This highlights a major problem with Debian - long times between stable releases. While a two-year release cycle is not unreasonable for a pure server environment, anything more than that is bound to make people hesitate about its deployment. The world of software development is moving fast, and excellent new features, designed to save time and effort required to accomplish our computing tasks, are being implemented all the time. With Debian developers now talking about stable Sarge coming out as late as in January next year, it would mean that nearly 2.5 years will have passed between Woody and Sarge. That's unacceptably long.
Luckily, we happen to be living in an era of plenty, at least in terms of great operating system software available to us at no cost. We shortlisted a few distributions with Ubuntu Linux as one of the strongest contenders, but it was the maturity of the FreeBSD project and its reputation for being an extremely reliable operating system that eventually won us over. DistroWatch.com is now served by Apache 2.0.50 (compiled with the worker.c module) with PHP 5.0.2, all running on top of FreeBSD 5.3.
Unfortunately, migrating our PHP and (especially) Bash scripts from Debian to FreeBSD wasn't as straightforward as one would expect, given that both are essentially UNIX operating systems. There are a number of important differences between them, which had us stumped for a while. Many commands have different switches and some of our Bash scripts containing "stat", "date", "sed" and other commands needed to be re-written to conform to FreeBSD's implementation of those commands. Crontab too behaves differently on FreeBSD - it does not care about user's environment variables, so commands that are meant to run by crontab need to be specified with their full paths or the variables have to be defined within scripts. We had other (non-OS related) issues with some of our PHP and Bash scripts - some old "features" in PHP 4 and Bash 2 were deprecated in PHP 5 and Bash 3, so these scripts also needed attention.
Overall though, things have worked out quite nicely and we are happy to serve your favourite distribution web site from such a powerful machine. As always, it is likely that some bugs still remain on the site, so please email us if you spot any.
New distribution additions
Because of the server move, no new distributions were added to DistroWatch last week.
New on the waiting list
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of Linux distributions in the database: 356
- Number of BSD distributions in the database: 9
- Number of discontinued distributions: 42
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 76
That's all for today; see you again next Monday!
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Hoary Array1 available (by Peter at 2004-11-16 12:31:10 GMT)
Also, last week a new milestone for Ubuntu was reached with the release of Hoary Array 1 CDs.
Relevant links:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=5068
http://cdimage.ubuntulinux.org/releases/hoary/array-1/
and I guess:
http://wiki.ubuntulinux.org/HoaryHedgehog_2fReleaseSchedule
2 • this is not y2k (by nic seow on 2004-11-16 12:38:41 GMT)
'This was the fourth and final Gentoo release of the year 2000.'
it should be the year 2004 right?
3 • yggdrasil linux (by kimchi at 2004-11-16 13:01:31 GMT)
Thanks for the memories. I remember this distro being given prominent coverage in Linux Unleashed - in 1997. And I was wondering where it had disappeared to. Sad to learn of its demise. Thanks for giving due credit to one of the pioneer Linux distros!
4 • FreeBSD and GNU Tools (by Nix_User on 2004-11-16 13:20:19 GMT)
FYI: There are various GNU Tools available for FreeBSD in the ports collection (IE: gsed-4.0.9_1). There are a few, it might have made some of the scripting a bit easier.
Have a great monday.
5 • RE: FreeBSD and GNU Tool (by ladislav at 2004-11-16 13:27:56 GMT)
There are various GNU Tools available for FreeBSD in the ports collection (IE: gsed-4.0.9_1)
Yes, I had to replace all 'sed' commands with 'gsed' just to get the scripts work as before. I felt a bit promiscuous by doing that, but it seemed easier than to learn about the differences between the two.
6 • FreeBSD (by directhex at 2004-11-16 13:48:14 GMT)
Did you consider a nice spicy OS jambalaya - Debian GNU/NetBSD or Debian GNU/KFreeBSD, for example?
7 • Hosted by FreeBSD (by P. Pearson on 2004-11-16 14:02:06 GMT)
I gotta wonder - if you hadn't included the BSDs as part of DistroWatch, would you have considered it for the move? I can just see it if this were still "Linux only", but you ended up hosting on FreeBSD - the irony would have been painful.
8 • RE: Hosted by FreeBSD (by ladislav at 2004-11-16 14:18:17 GMT)
if you hadn't included the BSDs as part of DistroWatch, would you have considered it for the move?
No, of course not. I only started playing with *BSDs after I included them on DistroWatch. I was very impressed with FreeBSD and Robert Storey is a big fan of OpenBSD, but both of us still use Debian on our home desktops/laptops. And while on the subject of operating systems, I'll let out a little secret - I have pretty much decided to get myself an iMac G5 later this month. I've never owned a Mac and never used Mac OS, but I expect to be impressed. I doubt that I'll get addicted by Mac OS and return to the world of proprietary OS/software, so I am thinking in terms of dual booting (with possibly Gentoo) with an occasional reboot to Mac OS on weekends. I am also working on a more complete page devoted to PPC distributions only - I hope I can get it finished this week.
Now I understand why Eugenia over at OSNews is such an OS junkie :-)
9 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2004-11-16 14:21:51 GMT)
Hm... Why isn't Solaris listed on your OS list yet - They open-sourced it.
10 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2004-11-16 14:26:53 GMT)
Is Solaris Linux or BSD?
11 • i686-optimized distros (by Ariszló at 2004-11-16 14:33:22 GMT)
A list of i686-optimized binary distributions has been requested several times so here is what I collected from DistroWatch with data span set to 6 months.
Top 10 i686-optimized binary distributions:
1. Yoper #14
2. Arch #23
3. Vidalinux #27
4. Lorma #29
5. Buffalo #30
6. Onebase #31
7. Ark #37
8. Crux #48
9. Navyn OS #49
10. YourESale #75
Debian-based i686-optimized distribution:
1. Munjoy (not among top 100)
Slackware-based i686-optimized distributions:
1. Buffalo #30
2. Frugalware (#26 with data span set to 1 month)
RPM:
1. Yoper #14
2. Lorma #29
3. Ark #37
4. YourESale #75
5. CCux #95
6. PLD #97
Other:
1. Arch #23
2. Vidalinux #27
3. Onebase #31
4. Crux #48
5. Navyn OS #49
6. GoboLinux #86
7. EvilEntity #93
8. SoL #94
12 • Classing distros (by Marauder1 at 2004-11-16 15:15:27 GMT)
Would be nice to have a ranking system
list on Distro types in Distrowatch.
Would ease the choice on picking the
right one for your computer type.
And also give you the right numbers
of what people are searching on the
site and not the numbers of what they
are scrolling for nothing.
13 • in responce to Ariszló (by Mirak at 2004-11-16 15:37:26 GMT)
umm, yoper is debian based, as well as accepting rpm's
14 • Yoper is not Debian-based (by Ariszló at 2004-11-16 16:01:06 GMT)
It's based on Linux From Scratch.
15 • upgrade (by ray carter at 2004-11-16 16:34:04 GMT)
Glad you've done the upgrade. People were gnashing their teeth over the 'unavailability' issue (we really needed the IP addresses during the trnsfer), but it looks like the change will be worth the wait. I'm glad that you considered the ramifications before deciding on the switch.
I'm inclined to agree that Solaris should be included now - maybe it's time to review the real emphasis - since you've expanded from Linux to 'Linux and BSD', maybe now is the time to admit 'all open source alternatives'.
Your info has been invaluable for me. At the current time, I'm 'playing' with Ubuntu on my main machine while waiting for the public release of Mandrake 10.1 (at which time I plan to upgrade from MDK 9.0), and I'm seeing some impressive things. Meanwhile, I've installed Gentoo on my mini-itx box since it allows me to more easily make good use of all the unique hardware associated with the VIA M10K board. I think this ends my search for the 'perfect' distro for this platform - Gentoo is probably as close as you can come, especially now that I have distcc working with Ubuntu on my 2.4ghz box.
16 • Distros for PPC (by Bill H. on 2004-11-16 17:23:38 GMT)
"I am also working on a more complete page devoted to PPC distributions only - I hope I can get it finished this week."
Your timing couldn't be better. About 50 Powermac 7500s (PPC 601) and a handful of other NuBus and PCI Powermacs just came into my care, all running System 7.5. Linux might be just the thing to rescue these old beasts. Thanks Ladislav!!
17 • solaris is NOT open source (by Anonymous on 2004-11-16 17:38:05 GMT)
all you have is press releases from sun. stop lying
18 • how to create multiboot Linux Cd's (by Deepak at 2004-11-16 17:58:28 GMT)
hello all
can anyone tell me how i can burn the following live distros
Puppy
System Rescue CD
Slax
Vector Linux
(all iso's total make up for some 670 MB)
onto a single bootable CD
i.e. to say i can choose which live distro to boot from??
any ideas
thnx
deepak
19 • bsd and linux differences (by wouter on 2004-11-16 18:16:21 GMT)
I have had a lot of trouble myself with scripts written on one system being ported to another (coincidently, also between FreeBSD and Debian Linux, and also with 'date'). Linux uses GNU, while many BSD tools are more or less derived from the 'original' BSD/Unix variants (let's not nitpick the exact semantics, they are just different branches or often complete different implementations). But if all this porting is too time consuming, I think you can install the GNU alternatives in the FreeBSD system quite trivially, and that will solve all of your problems.
Another thing that could be done is to rewrite your scripts in Perl or another scripting language, ofcourse. Then you shouldn't have any difficulties with portability.
20 • Multiboot cd (by Norbert Body at 2004-11-16 18:25:25 GMT)
deepak! Take a look at :
http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/May2003/article298.shtml
hope it helps ...
21 • Yggdrasil LGX (by nomenon at 2004-11-16 18:59:09 GMT)
did you notice this combination Linux/GNU/X in 1992 and now we have only GNU/Linux
22 • No subject (by NemesisBLK on 2004-11-16 19:16:00 GMT)
So under what open source license has Solaris 10 been released under? Oh yea thats right, they haven't decided on that part yet. Its free for non-commerical use now(free != open source), yes but it is not open source yet. And even then who knows what Sun's interpretation of "open source" is. Will I be able to contribute code to the os and/or fork my own distribution based off of Solaris 10? Or am I just allowed to view the source code?
23 • About making a PPC specific list... (by Big Moron on 2004-11-16 19:24:07 GMT)
Good... It shoud help many with their decisions on wich OS to chose if they could know before hand if it works on their platform/hardware (CPU types).
NOW... may I sugest that it gets a bit more usufull, like maybe a list of the OS's that work on lets say... all (of the more known CPU/hardware)...
Like:
(you will have this one soon)
PPC 64 (G5)
PPC (G4 and bellow)
(what about...)
AMD 64
Itanium
and so on...
or simply put
PPC
x86 (intel an the like)
64x86 (AMD 64, and watever comes after)
all those other wierd CPUs (as your time, or the volunteer times' permits)
After you finish the PPC one you migh consider expanding (making others)... I mean AM thinking like if this were like the top 5 thinggy I sugested last time... I dont know if I am mixin thing up... not that it will be like it... it is all abot platforms (hardware and CPUs) not something that will be plase because of their popularity...
Also... am lost, where is the list at on the page... It souns like if there was one allready an that you wanted to update it... do you have one allready? I faill to find it... or is it that you are on to that now?
Well anyhow... that just me typing too much... thinking to little...
Keep it up!
24 • PPC (by MarkV at 2004-11-16 19:40:08 GMT)
Glad to hear about the PPC page.. congarts on the move!
older Mac's are well built and ripe for "upgrading" been doing it here, for niegborhood kids for about a year.
25 • BSD, Linux and Solaris (by Nix_User on 2004-11-16 20:13:47 GMT)
"No subject (by Anonymous on 2004-11-16 14:26:53 GMT)
Is Solaris Linux or BSD?"
The orginal version that came from Sun was SunOS which was based on BSD. Along the way, Sun purchased some of the rights to Sys V Release ???
The Svs V was called Solaris. Somewhere along those lines Solaris 2 came out and had a little bit of both in the OS itself (mostly sys v).
As for the individual stating that Solaris is Open Sources and said stop lying. Well, try to use a little more respect to posters on this board. Sun has made a promise of releasing the OS under Open Source. Sun has in the past done a great job in releasing software to the Open Source community. Here is a couple of examples:
1) NIS
2) NFS
3) Their video system (something like X server). Sorry, i dont remember the name.
4) Working on something for Java. However, Sun doesnt want Java to split but yet maintain a slightly more restrivtive license.
5) I believe Looking Glass is getting or has been release under Open Source.
6) Sun's Cobalt Server Software.
So before any one starts beating up Sun, remember that they had done quite a few things for the Open Source Community already and they are continuing to do so.
FYI: one of the hold ups for the release of Solaris are some of the binarys that were done by 3rd parties. Now, Sun cannot relase those because they do not belong to Sun. All, in all, time will tell and I have a little more faith in Sun based on their long history with the community.
26 • Re: BSD, Linux or Solaris (by jmirles at 2004-11-16 21:10:17 GMT)
Regarding Sun's contributions to Open Source. You left out the biggie, Open Office!
Sun purchased Star Office and then later released most of the code to Open Source. Some of the code was commercial and could not be released, mostly in the database area.
While I am no fan of Sun, the certainly have released a good bit of code to the Open Source Community. Now if they would just let go of Java
27 • Do any of you run Linux on a G5 or any other PowerPC machine? (by Derek at 2004-11-16 21:30:12 GMT)
The PPC page sounds great!
When I started using Linux yellowdog was the first distro.
Installed a second hard drive in my Powermac Quicksilver G4. This hard drive was just for Linux, and I was dual booting with OS X.
Switched to Debian Sarge then Ubuntu.
The experience had been great as Linux runs very well on PPC.
Thanks Ladislav!
28 • Slackware's Patrick Volkerding's serious dicease (by Penguin on 2004-11-16 22:30:33 GMT)
This is probably news to some, so I thought to mention this here. From OSnews:
"It was revealed that recent lack of updates of Slackware -Current has been caused by Patrick Volkerding's serious dicease. Pat asks for help."
http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=8889
http://slackware.osuosl.org/slackware-current/PAT-NEEDS-YOUR-HELP.txt
29 • Re: Yggdrasil LGX (by kimchi on 2004-11-16 23:59:07 GMT)
nomenon wrote:
"did you notice this combination Linux/GNU/X in 1992 and now we have only GNU/Linux"
That's probably because not many in the "PC compatible" world used GUIs in those days. Windows 3.1 wasn't even released yet. :-)
30 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2004-11-17 03:26:28 GMT)
Nem - There have been other "open source" releases with odd deals such as Solaris, i.e.; Lycoris and Sun's JDS. Yet they are still listed. And I'm pretty sure from the chat yesterday it will be 100% free.
But... Then again, it's Sun.
31 • Solaris (by John on 2004-11-17 03:43:37 GMT)
Solaris is a huge addition and should be added when sun picks a license and actually makes the source available.
Solaris is more mature, stable and reliable than either Linux or the BSDs. Now SUN says that the new solaris 10 is even faster than Linux of x86. It is worth a look for any application that's for sure.
32 • HATE MEPIS (by nunogomez on 2004-11-17 04:13:17 GMT)
OK Mepis is a great distro, their hardware recognition is the best, but they are truly unfriendly to open source. They are feeded from the open source, but they do not give back anything to open source.. Why don't they release the source codes of their patches to linux kernel so that we can take them and use in our own mandrake/redhat boxes..
33 • reply to nunogomez (by kimchi on 2004-11-17 04:48:57 GMT)
Don't hate MEPIS just because of its kernel patch!
The only obvious patch Warren applied to the kernel was the bootsplash patch. That you can download from www.bootsplash.org. If you're complaining that MEPIS includes unique hardware support patches, it doesn't, AFAIK. You can try the latest kernel 2.6.9 to see if it can work with your hardware. MEPIS uses only kernel 2.6.7 or 2.4.26.
34 • g5 (by dale on 2004-11-17 05:16:44 GMT)
"I've never owned a Mac and never used Mac OS, but I expect to be impressed. I doubt that I'll get addicted by Mac OS and return to the world of proprietary OS/software, so I am thinking in terms of dual booting (with possibly Gentoo) with an occasional reboot to Mac OS on weekends."
I am thinking the same, with a bit of a head start on trying out the OSX. It's a wonderful blend of a beautiful exterior, with a solid interior, like a high performance sports car.
I also figured I'd be back on linux with a dual boot setup, and maybe I'll try out Gentoo now that I'm ready to have linux running again. Nothing wrong with OSX, but I miss the community and excitement. There is not much to figure out or do on MAC, it all just works!
I wait for your PPC page anxiously.
Thanks!
35 • Yggdrasil LGX (by pinky at 2004-11-17 08:56:38 GMT)
Spooky - while having a clear out last week, I found my old Yggdrasil LGX booklet. I decided to see how it would work on a modern system, only to find that the CD is lost, and no ISOs can be found :(
If anyone can get hold of a disc, please let me know, as I would like to complete the collection.
pinky at acmelabs dot co dot uk
36 • re: reply to nunogomez (by nunogomez on 2004-11-17 11:11:58 GMT)
Do you say that kernel 2.6.9 supports most of the winmodems?
37 • reply to nunogomez (by kimchi on 2004-11-17 16:02:23 GMT)
The kernel patch for (some) winmodems is freely available. I googled for "kernel 2.6.9 winmodem support" and one of the links is about getting the lucent winmodem kernel patch for kernel 2.6.8.1.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&postid=1275010#post1275010
If that's not your winmodem, i think you'll be able to get lots of good results by searching on google too.
38 • Ubuntu Xorg packages in Sid (by Zipslack on 2004-11-17 19:50:11 GMT)
Has anybody managed to get this to work? When I tried, it gave me a package mis-match error and would not go. I didn't want to force it.
39 • Arch clickbox (by Lord-Storm on 2004-11-18 05:29:22 GMT)
A clickbox on the main page like distro would be cool since I would prefer a x86_64AMD distro. OpenSun OS will this be included in the distrowatch?
40 • Re - iMac G5 (by Got Debian? on 2004-11-18 06:06:06 GMT)
A quick bit of advise on that new shiney OSX box. Don't install X from the OSX install discs and grab yourself fink and use finkgui to install X and a lot of the softtware you are use to., of course it's free.
"The Fink project wants to bring the full world of Unix Open Source software to Darwin and Mac OS X. We modify Unix software so that it compiles and runs on Mac OS X ("port" it) and make it available for download as a coherent distribution. Fink uses Debian tools like dpkg and apt-get to provide powerful binary package management. You can choose whether you want to download precompiled binary packages or build everything from source."
http://finkgui.sf.net
41 • Re: Arch clickbox (by Ariszló at 2004-11-18 08:03:02 GMT)
Yes, it would be a good idea to sort distributions by architecture.
42 • PPC Distro (by KaZe on 2004-11-18 17:25:31 GMT)
I've been using MacOsX since 1 week now, and I find it fabulous !
I'm the happy owner of the last version of iBook G4 (14" with combo), and dual-boot between OsX, and Mandrake (the only one PCC distro I found which worked out of the box : Radeon 9200 card, Mac-fr keymap, ...).
Since Mandrake is installed, I never used it. MacOsX is such usable, I'm feeling like I'm discovering computers for the first time.
Be careful ! OsX is really temptating and makes me forget Linux a little for the moment...
OsX is the dark side :) (but what a side !)
43 • re: Xorg on Ubuntu (by Staggerfort at 2004-11-19 23:56:34 GMT)
Yeah, I tried it and every things worked fine for me. So I've just been following the Hoary branch along as it goes, to see where it leads. Whole slew of upgrades, almost every day. Only one broke -- sed -- and that was an easy fix. I quad boot two machines, so I have lots of alternatives if it breaks, but so far, it hasn't. Seem like a pretty nice bunch of folks, too, feeding the stuff they learn back to Debian. Been having a lot of fun this month with MEPIS, KANOTIX (that's a real gone one, but it looks like crap when it first comes -- that's easy to fix), Fedora (seems like a lot of work to get the same thing you get with 1-disk Debian-based distros). And I really like what they've done with SLAX. Berry Linux is cute as heck and works. Something better there almost every month. Debian's a lot easier to install now. SUSE's good but I'm broke so I don't know what 9.2 is like, other than that live demo. To me, they're all good, all fun, all useful, all promising. And there's a bunch I didn't mention that I like, too, like DSL, Feather. SAM'S got a couple of good ideas. ARK's cool, if you follow their deveopment line. The problem with Linux these days is there are so many, it don't leave time to try BSD.
I was never pissed at Microsoft before. Live and let live. But Ballmer's latest FUD in Asia really rusted my bucket. Never called them a MONOPOLY before today, but I will now.
Tnx, all. Linux is HOT (bet BSD is, too, if I had time to try it). Many roads to the same destination.
Stag
44 • @Staggerfort (by Ariszló at 2004-11-21 08:41:48 GMT)
"SUSE's good but I'm broke so I don't know what 9.2 is like, other than that live demo."
Try the new Novell Linux Desktop and you will see:
http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/eval.html
Number of Comments: 44
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