 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 103, 6 June 2005 |
Welcome to this year's 23rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Amid obvious signs that the long-awaited new Debian stable release is about to be unleashed on the impatient public, the euphoria in the Debian land was spoilt last week by a truly sad news about the death of Libranet's founder and President Jon Danzig. Meanwhile, the Fedora users will have to wait another week before they can put their hands on the distribution's latest release - Fedora Core 4. GoboLinux is our featured distribution of the week and Robert Storey shows you how to configure SpamAssassin to kill off email from online pharmacies and other unscrupulous businesses. Happy reading!
Content:
- News: Release of Sarge imminent, Fedora Foundation, Mandriva special editions
- Featured distribution of the week: GoboLinux
- Released last week
- Upcoming releases: Fedora Core 4 postponed, FreeBSD 6.0, Yellow Dog Linux 4.1, X/OS Linux 4
- Donations: Audacity receives US$250
- New additions: Honeywall CDROM
- New on the waiting list: AstLinux, ITIX, NetMAX DeskTOP, PLoP Linux, Sistema FeniX, Voltalinux
- Applications: SpamAssassin
Release of Sarge imminent, Fedora Foundation, Mandriva special editions
 The wait is almost over. After nearly three years of development and testing, a new stable version of Debian GNU/Linux is about to be unleashed on the thoroughly impatient Linux users. Some readers have already emailed us about the availability of 3.1 ISO images on the Debian's main server and some mirrors. As expected, this is the biggest ever Debian release; in fact, this is probably the biggest distribution release ever to be produced by any company or organisation. If you are going to download all binary and source CD images for the i386 architectures you will need no fewer than 29 blank 650MB CDs! But even if you don't need the source code, the binary images will take up fourteen 650MB CDs or two 4.5GB DVDs. Is there any wonder that it took such a long time to put it all together and to make sure that everything is as bug-free as possible?
The official announcement is expected shortly; in the meantime, you can entertain yourself with this release announcement preview and Sarge release notes. As always, we'll be on a high alert throughout the day and let you know as soon as "Sarge" becomes officially stable and the testing branch is renamed to "Etch".
* * * * *
 As was widely reported last week, Red Hat, Inc has decided to turn the development of Fedora Core over to an independent entity called Fedora Foundation: "Red Hat is changing course again with its free Fedora version of Linux, announcing Friday that it will turn over copyrights and development work to an outside entity called the Fedora Foundation." Red Hat's deputy general counsel, Mark Webbink, explains the move: "Red Hat will still provide substantial financial and engineering support, but this move will assure broader community involvement in Fedora-sponsored projects."
Clearly, Red Hat is trying to build a development model that has been working so well for some of the most popular community distributions, such as Debian or Gentoo. Will this decision succeed to attract new developers to work on Fedora? It might; after all Fedora is a widely-used distribution and a base for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and its popular certification programme. But Red Hat needs to make sure that the new foundation is truly free of any corporate interference. It also needs to create an atmosphere where the developers will feel that the new Fedora distribution is their own project, and not Red Hat's. This won't be an easy task - Red Hat has a history of making unpopular decisions, while their lawyers often harass small community web sites and other projects due to trademarks violations. Still, we applaud the courageous move - it certainly looks like a step in the right direction.
* * * * *
 Mandriva has come up with new ideas to increase the attractiveness of Mandriva Club, a €120/year association of Mandriva Linux users. Last week, the company launched the first of what will become a series of specialist distribution releases, designed exclusively for the Club members: " Mandriva has decided to launch new distributions exclusively for Mandriva Club members. Every two months, except when a full release is due, a new distribution restricted to Club members will come out. The first of these releases, named 'Special Mandriva Club KDE 3.4' is now available via BitTorrent, with HTTP/FTP mirrors on request. The initial release is 32-bit and contains 6 CDs. An x86-64 version will be released very soon!" Further details can be found here.
* * * * *
 A truly sad news for all Libranet and Linux fans: "Libranet is sad to inform you that its founder and President, Jon Danzig, passed away this morning. In keeping with our traditions we will be closed until June 13th 2005 at which time Libranet will reopen. During this time emails may not be responded to and delivery of pre-ordered CDs will be delayed. Thank you for your understanding." Visit Libranet.com to read the notice. Libranet GNU/Linux is produced by Libra Computer Systems, a company established by Jon and Tal Danzig in Vancouver in 1984 as a small UNIX company. Its first Linux distribution was released in November 1999. Libranet GNU/Linux 1.0, which was based on Debian, but included an improved installer and many user-friendly enhancements, was an instant success. Its latest version was 3.0 released some six weeks ago. The DistroWatch team would like to express our sincere condolences to the family of Jon Danzig.
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| Featured distribution of the week: GoboLinux |
GoboLinux
You will be forgiven if, after trying several major Linux distributions, you have come to a conclusion that they don't really differ from each another that much. They might come with different installers, configuration tools and packages, and some of them might even provide a unique system for managing software. But under the surface, they all include a version of the Linux kernel, together with many popular open source applications - all sitting on top of a tried-and-tested file system hierarchy.
There is one Linux distribution, however, that does things very differently - GoboLinux. The developers of this unusual project have decided to trash the cryptic, almost 40-year old UNIX file system hierarchy and make things more logical from a user's perspective. Therefore, instead of the usual /bin, /boot, /dev, /etc, etc, the top-level directory in GoboLinux consists of /Depot, /Files, /Mount, /Programs, /System and /Users. The /Programs directory is where all executable files and settings are stored, while /Users is roughly equivalent to /home on a traditional Linux or UNIX system. The /Files directory contains plugins, fonts, documentation and other non-executable files. /Depot is a general directory for storing files shared between users, and the /System directory contains symbolic links to executable files for legacy reasons.
Why would somebody design a system that departs from established standards so much? Well, it all started by accident. Hisham Muhammad, one of the project's lead developers, needed to install new applications on a computer where he did not have root privileges. As the only place with write access was his home directory, he started installing applications there, placing every one of them into its own subdirectory. Libraries and headers were placed into separate subdirectories. He found this new setup very practical, so when his home computer's hard disk crashed, he decided to rebuild the entire system using this original file system structure. This eventually led to a public release of a new Linux distribution, which he named GoboLinux.
That happened in October 2002. The project has matured considerably since those early days and GoboLinux has become a very usable operating system, despite being incompatible with any other Linux distribution out there. The latest version is 012 (GoboLinux uses an octal versioning system), released last weekend. Although it has yet to be officially announced, the ISO image, which serves both as a live and installation CD, can be downloaded from one of the project's mirror servers.
GoboLinux has to be one of the most unusual and fun distributions available today. To find out more about the project, please read the FAQ section of its web site.
GoboLinux - a distribution with a radically reorganised file system hierarchy
(full image size: 346kB)
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| Released Last Week |
Whoppix 2.7.1
Whoppix is a stand-alone penetration-testing live CD based on KNOPPIX, designed for security auditors and penetration testers. The latest version is 2.7.1, which is a minor bug-fix upgrade to version Whoppix 2.7, released earlier this month: "Minor release 2.7.1 is out! Changelog: added Centrino 2100 and 2200 updated drivers; fixed missing 'Autoscan' scanner; added a few tools to the 'Cisco' section, such as nemesis." Visit the distribution's user forums to read the brief release announcement.
INSERT 1.3.5
A major new version of the Inside Security Rescue Toolkit (INSERT) has been released. From the release notes: "This is a major new release. INSERT now boots linux kernel 2.6.11.6; this should improve support for modern hardware (e.g. S-ATA) drastically. INSERT is now based on the release 3.8.2 of Knoppix, which means it uses UnionFS, making the complete system writable during execution. INSERT now uses the KDrive X-Servers (XVesa and XFbdev). This frees up a lot of space (approx 12MB) which in turn has been eaten up by the new kernel and loads of package updates. See the changelog for details. Due to the vast number of changes here again comes the plea to send bug reports and/or suggestions."
KNOPPIX 3.9
KNOPPIX 3.9 has been released. The changelog is very brief, but it comes with some interesting package upgrades, including OpenOffice.org and KDE: "V3.9-2005-05-27. OpenOffice.org 2.0 BETA (German and English); KDE 3.4.0 from Alioth; kernel 2.6.11.10; small WIFI and hwsetup updates; Unionfs update; dist-upgrade from sid. This will probably be the last 'single CD' version of KNOPPIX. Starting from Version 4.0 (coming soon), the project will be split into a 'Light' CD version, and a 'Maxi' DVD release." See the complete release announcement for more information.
KNOPPIX 3.9 - now with KDE 3.4 and a beta release OpenOffice.org 2.0
(full image size: 1,170kB)
Foresight Linux 0.8.1
Foresight Desktop Linux has been upgraded to version 0.8.1: "This is mainly a service release to ensure better stability towards version 1.0. It fixes the firstboot problem, as well as some smaller bugs like an improved hardware detection via HAL. Of course, we updated nearly all packages (among them conary and mono) to live up our claim to be a bleeding-edge distribution. We also added a new application: Gnome-Art, a tool for browsing, downloading, and installing themes and wallpapers. In order to make Foresight Linux as beautiful as innovative, we also added a new GDM theme. Other artwork will follow." Here is the full release announcement.
Debian GNU/Linux 3.0r6
A new revision of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 "Woody" is now available: "This is the sixth and final update of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (codename 'woody') which mainly adds security updates to the stable release, along with a few corrections to serious problems. Those who frequently update from security.debian.org won't have to update many packages and most updates from security.debian.org are included in this update. Please note that this update does not produce a new version of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 but only adds a few updated packages to it. Upgrading to this revision online is usually done by pointing the 'apt' package tool (see the sources.list(5) manual page) to one of Debian's many FTP or HTTP mirrors." Read the release announcement for a complete list of changes. The list of Debian FTP and HTTP mirrors can be found on this page.
ASLinux Desktop 2.0 Official
This is the "official" release of ASLinux Desktop 2.0, a 2-CD set of installation ISO images. What's new? "This release includes 2 CDs, one of which boots up with a basic desktop system, and the other includes add-ons. A smart installation system was implemented. The partition manager (QTParted) is accessible within the installation system. The kernel was updated to 2.4.30. The winetools control panel, Cedega and Crossoffice demos, and wizards to install third party software are included." Read the full release announcement (in Spanish) for more details.
ParallelKnoppix 2005-06-02
A new version of ParallelKnoppix has been released. What's new? "Update to Knoppix 3.9 base, KDE is now at 3.4.0; added pgapack, a parallel genetic algorithm - includes lots of neat C and FORTAN examples; minor tweaks to package list." More details are available on the project's home page, together with a brand new online forum for users of the distribution, launched earlier today.
ParallelKnoppix - provides an easy way to set up a cluster of machines for parallel processing
(full image size: 242kB)
B2D 20050603 PureKDE
This is a new release of the PureKDE edition of B2D Linux, a Taiwanese Knoppix-based live and installation CD with support for traditional Chinese. This release adds Unionfs support, which allows on-the-fly installation of software while running the distribution as a live CD; the klik software repository can now be used for installing extra applications. The xcin Chinese input method editor has been replaced with scim. Other improvements include better Chinese font handling, fixed server toolbox, changed default applications for opening certain file types, additions to context menus, newly included Beep Media Player and gThumb. Read the full release announcement (in Chinese) for more details.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Fedora Core 4 (delayed)
If you are expecting a new release of Fedora Core today, you will be disappointed. Red Hat's Bill Nottingham informs us that: "due to some unforeseen complications, Fedora Core 4 is now scheduled for general availability on June 13. We apologize for the inconvenience." One more week of waiting then...
FreeBSD 6.0
The first release of the FreeBSD 6.x series is scheduled for 15 August 2005, while FreeBSD 5.5 is expected one month later. This is according to a mailing list post by Scott Long: "The long anticipated and much feared 6.0 code freeze is about to begin! From June 10 until the release, the number one priority is fixing bugs. All of the dates after June 10 are somewhat fluid and subject to change depending on where we are with stability. We won't release 6.0 until it is ready, but I'm pretty confident that we'll have it ready by August." Read the mailing list post for more details.
Yellow Dog Linux 4.1
Terra Soft has released the first beta of the upcoming Yellow Dog Linux 4.1: "We are pleased to announce support for the latest Apple Power Mac G5s (towers), Power Mac G5 sound support, internal Mac Mini sound support, and dual head support for new Apple Aluminum Cinema Displays. Yellow Dog Linux v4.0.91 is immediately available for download from YDL.net Enhanced accounts, under the new 'betas' directory." Here is the full release announcement.
X/OS Linux 4
The X/OS project, which builds a Linux distribution from source RPM packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, has announced that its version 4 is now scheduled for release during the first half of June: "Release 4 delayed to include major update. The final release of X/OS Linux 4 is now scheduled for the first half of June to include important updates from RHEL4 Update 1 (U1)." The announcement can be found on the distribution's home page.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Web Site News |
Donations: Audacity receives US$250
The recipient of our May 2005 donation is the Audacity project. What is Audacity? "Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. Supports WAV, AIFF, Ogg, and MP3 formats. Features include envelope editing, mixing, built-in effects and plug-ins, all with unlimited undo." Audacity was registered at SourceForge in May 2000 and has now evolved into a major project with over 20 contributing developers. You can find more information about Audacity on their main web site and also on the Audacity Team site, which includes a Wiki and a developers' mailing list.
As always, our donations programme is a joint initiative between DistroWatch and LinuxCD.org, which contributes US$50 every month. LinuxCD.org is an online store selling low-cost Linux/BSD CDs - they have the largest selection, inclusive of all the latest releases, and they offer the lowest prices. Next time you need to order your favourite Linux or BSD CDs, get them from LinuxCD.org.
This is the PayPal receipt for our donation:
This email confirms that you have paid OSDN / VA Software $250.00 USD using PayPal.
------------------------------
Payment Details:
------------------------------
Transaction ID: 0SG37155MK4322709
Total: $250.00 USD
Item Title: Donation
Invoice ID: 238010
Business: OSDN / VA Software
Here is the list of projects that received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme:
* * * * *
New distribution additions
- Honeywall CDROM. Honeywall CDROM is a Fedora-based distribution with the goal of capturing the activities of cyber threats and analysing the captured data. It has a GUI-based interface for system configuration, administration, and data analysis, and supports the new 3.x branch of Sebek. The CD, release under the General Public License, is a product of the Honeynet Project, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the security of the Internet by providing cutting-edge research for free.
* * * * *
New on the waiting list
- AstLinux. AstLinux is a custom Linux distribution built to run from Compact Flash. It fits on a 32MB Compact Flash card. This Compact Flash card stays mounted read-only 99% of the time. AstLinux has two "images" available. One specifically for the Soekris Net4801, and one for generic PC hardware of i586 MMX and higher. It is by no means a standard Linux distribution. It is targeted for a firewall, NAT, DHCP server, DNS proxy, or Asterisk do-it-all magic box tucked away in a closet somewhere.
- ITIX. ITIX is a Linux distribution for Italian technical schools (ITIS). It is based on KNOPPIX and uses an OpenMosix kernel optimised for real-time operation. It includes NetBeans, SDE, Druid, Kdbg, Cervisia, MySqlAdmin, openMosix auto-discovery, cluster management tools, and OpenMosixView. It provides an environment for programming with Java, C/C++, UML, SQL, JSP, and JSTL.
- NetMAX DeskTOP. NetMAX DeskTOP is an independently-developed live CD distribution of Linux. It seeks to fill the role of a fully-functional enterprise class desktop system without licensing fees. In contrast to many of the other live CD distributions out there, it has been designed to be intuitive enough for non-computer savvy folks to use -- including integrated Windows application support. Power users will find that this distribution puts security first, adheres to published standards, and thus behaves in the way they expect it to. Unlike previous attempts to simplify Linux for the desktop, the power and customisability that has gained the hearts of the open-source community has not been removed.
- PLoP Linux. PLoP Linux is a small distribution on a CD, DVD or USB flash drive / memory stick. It is designed to rescue data from a damaged system. An antivirus program is also included.
- Sistema FeniX. Sistema FeniX is a Brazilian company producing a Linux-based installation CD for desktops, as well as a live CD.
- Voltalinux. Voltalinux is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Slackware Linux and the pkgsrc package system from NetBSD. The project offers a pre-built distribution where the user can enjoy the clean design of Slackware Linux with the availability of over 5,000 NetBSD ports ready to be installed.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
- Number of Linux distributions in the database: 409
- Number of BSD distributions in the database: 11
- Number of discontinued distributions: 52
- Number of distributions on the waiting list: 117
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| SpamAssassin (by Robert Storey) |
SpamAssassin
The poor patronise the pawnshops, the rich patronise the pharmacies.
- Chinese proverb
I suppose I should be grateful to my "online pharmacist." He, or she (or it) has greatly inspired me. Not inspired me to buy Viagra or Valium, but to research the intricacies of email for the sole purpose of making sure that I never hear from him/her/it again.
I still remember the dawn of the spam era (circa 1995). Back in those innocent times, I used to get upset if I received about five emails a day offering to coach me to quit smoking, lose weight, get out of debt, win the lottery and "make her smile." How the world has changed. Now I consider it a great victory if only five spams daily get through my filters (which send 300 or more spams into digital oblivion on an average day).
The Apache SpamAssassin Project is the open source software answer to the scourge of unsolicited commercial email (UCE - also known as "spam"). The good news is that once you've got SpamAssassin properly set up, it does a very effective job of keeping the online riffraff out of your mailbox. The bad news is that SpamAssassin setup was designed for servers (what else did you expect from Apache?) and fresh-faced newbies might be somewhat overwhelmed. If you look at the project's web site, you will find copious quantities of information. Unfortunately, the more you read, the more complicated it looks. However, with a little guidance (which I will attempt to give below), the process is not quite as horrid as it looks.
At this point, I should back up and point out that on Linux/BSD systems, there are two basic approaches you can take to email. The simple easy one is to use an email client like Kmail, Sylpheed, etc, and configure it to receive mail using POP3 or IMAP via your ISP's SMTP server. This is so easy to set up that I won't bother to discuss it further. You won't be able to use SpamAssassin if you take this approach, but consider a simpler (though less effective) anti-spam strategy such as Mailfilter.
Mail Server
The more complex approach to email is to configure Kmail/Sylpheed/etc to pick up mail "locally". In order for this to work, you need to be running a mail server (officially called a Mail Transfer Agent or MTA). Well known examples include Sendmail, Postfix, Exim, Courier IMAP and Qmail. Fortunately, most distros come with one of these pre-installed and pre-configured, and probably the only thing you'll need to do is make sure it's set to start-up at boot time. If you need to install an MTA, Postfix is probably easiest to deal with, but feel free to try one of the others. You can only run one mail server at a time, so I wouldn't recommend installing all of them just to "see what will happen."
Fetchmail
A mail server won't retrieve mail from your ISP (or elsewhere). For that, you need a utility that will "fetch", and your best choice is the appropriately named Fetchmail. If your distro doesn't already include it, you can download a source tarball from the Fetchmail home page. Debian users can simply do an apt-get install fetchmail, and most RPM-based distros also have a similarly easy-to-install package.
To use Fetchmail, you need to create a hidden file in your home directory called .fetchmailrc. You can do this using the included fetchmailconf utility. See the fetchmailrc man page for more details. Or feel free to take my .fetchmailrc (below) and modify it:
set postmaster "bob"
set bouncemail
set no spambounce
set properties ""
poll distrowatch.com with proto POP3
user 'robert' there with password 'mypassword' is 'bob' here options fetchall
poll pop.gmail.com with proto POP3 port 995
user 'robert.storey' there with password 'mypassword' is 'bob' here options ssl fetchall
Note that on my local machine I am user "bob" whereas out "there" I am known by a variety of names. As you can see (above), I'm checking two email accounts. Gmail requires that I fetch on port 995 and use the option ssl which encrypts the password. Also make note of the option fetchall (which fetches all messages and won't skip previously read ones - this is not mandatory but a good idea nevertheless).
Once you've created .fetchmailrc, make sure it is only readable and writable by the user:
chmod 600 .fetchmailrc
Once properly configured, you simply type fetchmail at the command line. If you want to set Fetchmail so that it fetches in the background once every 15 minutes (900 seconds), type this:
fetchmail -d 900
All Fetchmail does is retrieve messages and place them in a file found in /var/mail (or possibly /var/spool/mail depending on your distro). Since I am user "bob", Fetchmail sends my messages to /var/mail/bob. That's nice, but you still have to jump through a couple more hoops before you'll be able to actually read your messages.
Procmail
Next up is to install and configure Procmail. Procmail is a "mail processor" - in a nutshell, it's designed to filter mail, but our main interest here is to use it to call SpamAssassin. Most distros already have Procmail installed - type which procmail to make sure it's there.
I recommend that you create a subdirectory named procmail in your home directory (that's where your Procmail log file will go). Procmail's hidden configuration file is named, not surprisingly, .procmailrc, which you also create in your home directory. I offer mine below, free for your use (without copyright and software patents):
#### Begin Variables section ####
SHELL=/bin/sh
PMDIR=$HOME/procmail
LOGFILE=$PMDIR/pmlog
LOG="
"
VERBOSE=yes
MAILDIR=$HOME/Mail
#### End Variables section; Begin Processing section ####
## INCLUDERC=$PMDIR/rc.testing
## INCLUDERC=$PMDIR/rc.subscriptions
#### End Processing section ####
# The lock file ensures that only 1 spamassassin invocation happens
# at 1 time, to keep the load down.
#
:0fw: spamassassin.lock
* < 256000
| spamassassin
# Mails with a score of 15 or higher are almost certainly spam (with 0.05%
# false positives according to rules/STATISTICS.txt). Let's put them in a
# different mbox. (This one is optional.)
:0:
* ^X-Spam-Level: \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
almost-certainly-spam/
# All mail tagged as spam (eg. with a score higher than the set threshold)
# is moved to "probably-spam".
:0:
* ^X-Spam-Status: Yes
probably-spam
# Work around procmail bug: any output on stderr will cause the "F" in "From"
# to be dropped. This will re-add it.
:0
* ^^rom[ ]
{
LOG="*** Dropped F off From_ header! Fixing up. "
:0 fhw
| sed -e '1s/^/F/'
}
#EOF
SpamAssassin
At this point, we're all ready for SpamAssassin - all we've got to do is install it. You can grab the source (which is a bunch of Perl modules) from the SpamAssassin web site. However, a package is easier - (apt-get install spamassassin for Debian users, or the equivalent for other distros).
Once installed, we have just a little bit of configuring to do. First, in your home directory, make a new subdirectory called .spamassassin:
mkdir .spamassassin
Now copy /usr/share/spamassassin/user_prefs.template to this new subdirectory and name it user_prefs:
cp /usr/share/spamassassin/user_prefs.template ~/.spamassassin/user_prefs
With your editor, edit file user_prefs by uncommenting the line that says:
required_score 5
That's the only line you really need in the whole file. However, you can also take this opportunity to whitelist and blacklist email addresses:
whitelist_from robert@distrowatch.com
blacklist_from billg@microsoft.com
Kmail Configuration
For the purpose of this project, I've chosen to use Kmail, though many other free mail clients on the market work equally well. We can still send messages via SMTP, but for receiving messages we have to configure Kmail to use a "local mailbox". Be sure to specify the correct location for the mail spool file (in /var/mail), and to use the Procmail lockfile.
Note the "Location" and "Procmail lockfile".
If you've used Kmail much, you probably already have "filters" (Settings --> Configure Filters). For example, you may have a filter to deliver all messages from the Debian mailing list to a folder called "Debian". This is the correct way to set things up - do not configure Procmail to filter messages. Kmail will complain if you do.
Pull The Trigger
Now go ahead and run Fetchmail. While Fetchmail should retrieve your messages pretty quickly, SpamAssassin (which will kick in automatically when Fetchmail is done because Procmail calls it) can take quite a while to complete its task, especially the first time you run it. If you run top in another window, you might be surprised by how much CPU time is being consumed by SpamAssassin.
Top, showing SpamAssassin using 62.2% of CPU resources.
In the beginning you will find that SpamAssassin does not do a great job. That's because you need to teach it what is spam and what isn't. The way to do that is to collect a lot of spam (ideally several thousand messages) and move them all into the Kmail folder almost-certainly-spam. That folder, by the way, was created automatically by Procmail if you configured it as I did above. You may also want to create a Kmail folder with good (non-spam) messages - it's traditional to call this folder ham. Then periodically, run these commands (you can put this in a script if you like):
sa-learn --spam /home/bob/Mail/almost-certainly-spam/*
sa-learn --ham /home/bob/Mail/ham/*
Of course, your home directory will probably not be /home/bob, so substitute your user login name for "bob". See the sa-learn man page for more details.
The spam/ham databases that you create over time will become a valuable resource, so back these up just as you would other important files. These reside in your ~.spamassasin directory (files bayes_toks, bayes_seen and bayes_journal).
You can set up fetchmail and sa-learn as cron jobs. This will make the whole email process fully automated (well, you'll still have to read your email, the computer can't do that for you).
Learning More
The above article was meant to introduce SpamAssassin for a single-user system. More complex configurations are possible (like for a multi-user network environment). I won't go into all that today, but there is plenty of documentation around.
The already-mentioned SpamAssassin web site will tell you more than you probably want to know. However, if you prefer dead-tree documentation, O'Reilly publishes a book on SpamAssassin. There is a picture of an eagle on the cover (or is that a hawk?). Presumably this symbolises that SpamAssassin watches over your email like an eagle/hawk. Or maybe somebody has a more metaphysical explanation. Rather than wax philosophical on eagles, hawks and dead trees, the only thing I really need to say about SpamAssassin is that it just works. If you want to rid yourself of Viagra and Valium pushers forever, give SpamAssassin a try.
* * * * *
That's all for today. We hope that you enjoyed this week's DistroWatch Weekly!
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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| Random Distribution | 
Redcore Linux
Redcore Linux explores the idea of bringing the power of Gentoo Linux to the masses. It aims to be a very quick way to install a pure Gentoo Linux system without spending hours or days compiling from source code, and reading documentation. To achieve this goal, Redcore provides a repository with pre-built binary packages which receives continuous updates, following a rolling release model.
Status: Active
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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!
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| 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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