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1 • Linus Torvalds at CNN.com (by Ariszló on 2006-05-22 10:50:43 GMT from Budapest, Hungary)
I have just found this:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/05/18/global.office.linustorvalds/
2 • No subject (by Tjotser on 2006-05-22 11:26:55 GMT from Schiphol, Netherlands)
I noticed lg3d was out a long time already so i informed DW. Didn't work on my nvidia. Great to hear ShipIt is back in business. I ordered 5 of each the versions of Ubuntu. Great site as always!!!
3 • Front page link broken (by Allan on 2006-05-22 11:55:59 GMT from Perth, Australia)
Great issue guys but you may want to fix the last link in the front page announcement for this issue.
On another note, I was disappointed to see Ubuntu's ShipIt is restricting the number of copies you can order. Last time I ordered 20 and they were snapped up by work colleagues in under 2 days. This time I could only order 10.
Cheers, Allan
4 • Ubuntu 6.06.06??? (by hobbitland on 2006-05-22 12:08:20 GMT from London, United Kingdom)
Hi, will Ubuntu release on 06.06.06???
5 • SUSE review (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-05-22 12:27:20 GMT from Milano, Italy)
Adam Doxtater's review is really good and not without some nice sense of humor: it should give people a lot to think about.
As to the year of Linux on the desktop, it was 2003 for me, and that was mainly thanks to another great SUSE release: 9.0
6 • Suse 10.1 et al (by william johnson on 2006-05-22 13:11:31 GMT from Wilmington, United States)
I find it quite curious that people are willing to obtain a distro
like Suse 10.1 and others where one has to add and set up
multimedia ,mp3,and such. I guess the word for it would be
masochism.
In view of the fact that PCLinuxOS .92 "right out of the box"
plays audio cds,plays dvd movies,plays mp3s,plays Real
media, has flash and java,and streams radio stations way
better than any other distro ,i'll take a pass on Suse.
Thanks Texstar, from all us non-geeks out here.
7 • Frugalware (by Ben Woods on 2006-05-22 13:14:08 GMT from Dalkeith, Australia)
I have used frugalware a lot and I really like it.
It is a good system with very good developers.
If you are curious - give it a try!
8 • re. #6 (william johnson's post) (by serge on 2006-05-22 13:20:24 GMT from Clarkson, Canada)
william: Couldn't agree with you more. Very well put !!!
Regards,
serge.
9 • Symphony OS (by Marc on 2006-05-22 13:23:24 GMT from Beloeil Village, Canada)
Any reason why SymphonyOS's iso is so BIG
since there is not much applications on it ?
I think it will be something great when completed.
Thanks to all it's developpers.
10 • Comment #6 (by Michael on 2006-05-22 13:49:24 GMT from Bellville, South Africa)
Well are you aware that PCLOS will be switching to a gcc 4 base? I want to see how stable things are going to be then.
11 • RE: Suse 10.1 et al (by Olli on 2006-05-22 14:23:44 GMT from Amsterdam, Netherlands)
I understand your comments about distributions not delivering all that out of the box, yet you have to understand that this whole Linux thing is about FREE sofftware. So with that philosophy you are not gonna bundle your distribution with all kinds of commercial/closed source applications or codecs.
The idea is to create an OS which supports open standards and hopefully inspire other to develop content based upon those standards, to help interoperability and preventing vendor lock-ins as we see over at Microsoft for example.
12 • Re: Symphony OS (by Ryan Quinn on 2006-05-22 14:31:46 GMT from Dubuque, United States)
One major reason that Symphony OS' ISO is so large is because the install includes most GTK and Qt libs so most KDE and Gnome apps will run with very few dependancies needing to be installed. This is also our first release based on a pure debian testing base system and we still have quite a bit of work to do to slim it down. If all goes as planned, the next release will be much speedier, include more apps, and reside in a smaller image.
13 • Ubuntu ShipIt disks (by Ken Yap on 2006-05-22 15:00:09 GMT from Canberra, Australia)
Why not help out by making copies of ShipIt disks for friends and colleagues instead of requesting shipments from far away? CD-R blanks are very cheap. Or do they not have the "authenticity" of something with an official jacket from Canonical?
14 • free software (by Marius Cirsta on 2006-05-22 15:15:24 GMT from Timisoara, Romania)
I agree that it would be nice to have only free and open source packages in Linux distros but that's not possible .
If you have an AMD then you have no choice but to use nvidia or ATI and the open source drivers for those are poor . You can't really do without flash or java and that's not really well supported in open source.
Most ridiculous thing though is not having mp3 support , i mean come on how many have only music in the ogg format ....
I think as long as we have distros like Suse and Ubuntu that don't have these things working or provide an easy way to get them working people are just going to say , oh well it works in Windows ... back to that then .
The PCLinuxOS way is the way to do it . It doesn't care about the licenses and all that silly stuff . If Linux is going to gain market share it's gonna have to do some compromises and not worry so much .
15 • No subject (by reuben on 2006-05-22 15:38:28 GMT from Northbrook, United States)
"Or do they not have the "authenticity" of something with an official jacket from Canonical?"
The pressed discs look much better than CD-Rs with "Ubuntu Dapper Drake" written with a sharpie.
16 • Ubuntu Shipit Disks (by Misty on 2006-05-22 16:29:56 GMT from Elizabethtown, United States)
"Or do they not have the "authenticity" of something with an official jacket from Canonical?"
Actually, that *does* make them more trustworthy to some. If someone were to donate a bunch to the local library, image peoples' reactions if it had an official Canonical label versus being labeled with a black marker.
17 • Ubuntu ShipIt disks (by Ken Yap on 2006-05-22 16:39:25 GMT from Canberra, Australia)
Point taken about image of trustworthiness, for people whom you are not acquainted with, but then you are not a total stranger to the people you give the disks to are you?
As for libraries, you will find the criteria more strict. Many librarians are concerned about not violating copyright, or inadvertently distributing malware, and perhaps in our cautious times, not being seen to favour what at first glance looks like a commercial product. One person in Scotland has been through this exercise of getting FLOSS into libraries (mainly in the context of OpenOffice.org) and wrote up a howto on it. It's worth reading if one is serious about doing that sort of thing.
18 • To #6 (by dukeinlondon on 2006-05-22 16:53:24 GMT from New York, United States)
High profile GPL distros can't afford to ship with patented and copyrighted wares without proper licensing.
Less public distros and individual packagers have been able to do so with no issues for some years now.
As long as Linux doesn't get more user share, it will be fine. If something changes, then everyone will need to do what Linspire does : negociate distribution licenses with copyright holders
19 • Free Software (reply to Marius et all) (by G.Geoffrey on 2006-05-22 17:13:16 GMT from Omaha, United States)
Marius, your comment about "licenses" being "silly stuff" is not well thought out.
Consider the interview with Miklos Vajna of Frugalware in this very issue of DW - - "DW: Does Frugalware include non-free software and support for proprietary file formats (ATI/NVIDIA graphics drivers, Opera, Acrobat, Flash Player, Real Player, Windows media codecs, MP3 support, etc.) or is there an easy way to install them?
MV: When there is no free alternative available and the license allows this then we provide packages for non-free software."
And Miklos is one of your neighbors! And to prove that point, look at the project Mepis is supporting - that asks all Linux users to complete the enhancement request at Macromedia for continued "Flash" support for Linux. We are at the mercy of this company, unless the open version of Flash is developed soon. There's a real life example of why Open Source & Free Software do matter.
20 • Non-OSS Software (by |TG|Mateo on 2006-05-22 17:18:55 GMT from Quincy, United States)
It's really a question of size, isn't it?
Novell, Red Hat, Mandrake, even Ubuntu are not going to violate licensing to make their end-user's life easier: they are litigation targets.
Smaller distros do not have that issue, since the cost of litigation would be more than what the license holders would recoup. It's not that they are able to distribute Flash Player, or MP3, as examples, but that the license holders have not enforced their rights.
It's not that hard to enable multimedia or Flash: you can enable a non-free repository, and install them, within minutes.
21 • Frugalware (by fireedo on 2006-05-22 17:53:40 GMT from Surabaya, Indonesia)
If u want to use a great,stable and complete distro so use Frugalware...
it has everything, at least all that I need :)
and maybe if u asking for what will Frugalware become in 5 years later so the answer is it will become a famous and rock solid distro ..... wohoooo :)
22 • Ubuntu repos gone RC? (by Jesper Sandström on 2006-05-22 18:05:20 GMT from Stockholm, Sweden)
I noticed earlier today, that my Dapper Drake install read "LTS" instead of development branch, upon console login. Perhaps does this mean that packages for the RC are in the repos now already?
23 • Frugalware (by darkcoldalone on 2006-05-22 18:22:31 GMT from Kajaani, Finland)
Thank you very much for interviewing Miklós Vajna from Frugalware. The interview is most informative and Frugalware is a great distro. I've used it since the 0.4 release and I'm quite convinced that I won't find (or need) a better distro.
24 • RE: #6 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-05-22 19:46:39 GMT from Milano, Italy)
The oldest distros (Debian and Slackware) don't give you any non-free stuff out of the box either.
But SUSE *does* give you RealPlayer, Flash, Java, Acrobat Reader...
Only *illegal* stuff (playing DVDs and WMP codecs) are not included.
As to "geekness" there are easy tutorials everywhere.
As to PCLinuxOS it might be the best thing after sliced salami but in my case it doesn't install a bootloader to the root partition, so it is no good for me.
25 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2006-05-22 19:52:23 GMT from Portland, United States)
Since when does end user software that is used on a GNU/Linux system have to be free???
26 • Non-OSS software and PCLinuxOS (by scott on 2006-05-22 20:04:14 GMT from Mansfield, United States)
I think most Linux users have no problem loading non-free software on their machines. What makes PCLinuxOS great in my opinion is the ability to remaster your hard disk install with all updates and changes as a livecd that you can reinstall on your computer or any other x86 32 bit computer. It makes restoring your linux setup as easy as Nero's Backitup restores a windows setup. By the way, starting in PCLinuxOS .93 non free software is installed via their repository.
27 • RE: #25 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-05-22 20:42:10 GMT from Milano, Italy)
"Since when does end user software that is used on a GNU/Linux system have to be free???"
That is open to endless debate. Or did you miss the Kororaa case?
Personally I am in favour of OSS and non-free software living happily together, but there are plenty of people out there who feel the opposite.
In any case you can't ask a big distributor to include libdvdcss or win32-codecs: doing so it is illegal in most countries.
28 • anon penguin 24 and 27 (by AC on 2006-05-22 21:34:34 GMT from , United States)
A bit of nitpicking.
Slackware does include non-free software, just not the obvious stuff. One example is pico but iirc there are some others as well.
The GPL and the DFSG explicitly make allowances for combining free and non-free software on the same medium. The issues with mp3s, Java, Flash, et al, are often on the non-free side, so the GPL and DFSG don't get any say. The issue in the Koraa case is pretty narrow, if it's legitimate at all: whether the glue that allows the GPL kernel and the proprietary driver to interact is itself a derivative of the kernel and therefore a derivative work that must be GPL, but cannot be because it contains binary blobs from Nvidia.
29 • ps (by AC on 2006-05-22 21:49:19 GMT from , United States)
The fact that pat ships pico actually illustrates the point. Anyone strongly committed to Free Software would ship nano instead as it is a perfectly capable free clone. So, his reasons for not including some of the more troublesome cases is not ideological. He really does see himself as at risk for doing so and I'm sure doesn't need the legal headaches.
30 • kubuntu development newsletter (by kmon on 2006-05-22 21:54:33 GMT from Madrid, Spain)
FYI there's a new newsletter in town:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/kubuntu-devel/2006-May/001217.html
I i¡thnk it would be nice to add it to the rest of the newsletters.
Thanks
kmon
31 • RE: #28 & 29 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-05-22 22:05:05 GMT from Milano, Italy)
You have got a good point. If you remember Pat used to ship Netscape instead of Mozilla.
32 • RE: #24 (by Greg on 2006-05-22 22:07:50 GMT from Victoria, Canada)
PCLinuxOS will install a boot loader to the root partition. It is an option in the installer. PCLinuxOS doesn't give you an option to create a separate boot partition though. Maybe that is what you were thinking. I really wish the livecd installer had that option but you would manually have to install it and create it yourself. Not a newbie friendly thing when you require a boot partition.
33 • RE: #29 (by Tor on 2006-05-22 22:14:40 GMT from Dresden, Germany)
Indeed. Patrick Volkerding releases his own Slackware scripts under BSD license.
34 • 31 33 (by AC on 2006-05-22 22:31:40 GMT from , United States)
Anon Penguin, you're quite right. It's been so long since I've messed with that distribution, I'd forgotten about that. I'd recalled the pico thing because I'd recently encountered a Slacker who used pico and had never heard of nano, which struck me as peculiar until I'd recalled my own excursions into Slack. I prefer nvi for quick edits of configuration files, because its fast and always available (or something similar will be) and GNU Emacs for anything else (not that anyone asked) but nano is what I always recommend to newbies.
Tor, the BSD license if Free/Open by FSF and DFSG and OSI standards. I may prefer the GPL, but I certainly can't fault him for that choice as he's still choosing freedom.
35 • RE: #32 (by Anonymous Penguin on 2006-05-22 22:58:11 GMT from Milano, Italy)
"PCLinuxOS will install a boot loader to the root partition. It is an option in the installer."
Yes I know it should, but as I said, it doesn't work here.
To be honest it is not the only distro which doesn't install a boot loader to the root partition in my case, but the vast majority don't have any problem at all. Grub seems to have a better chance than Lilo.
36 • re:12 (by Marc on 2006-05-23 00:49:47 GMT from Beloeil Village, Canada)
Thanks for the Infos, will be trying it out
as soon it's all downloaded.
37 • Frugalware is really good! (by Antoine on 2006-05-23 02:47:54 GMT from São Paulo, Brazil)
I'm a 16 yo Brazilian and the only OS in my PC is Frugalware. It comes with everything I normally need and also has the flexibility to permit my changes in the system the way I want it! Congratulations, Miklós!
38 • RE # 35 (by tom on 2006-05-23 04:29:45 GMT from Helena, United States)
I had this problem with PCLinux as well. The solution is very easy:
Install the boot loader into the root partition twice. The first time you will get an error message, second time works like a charm.
As recall I had this problem with other "live" distributions as well.
Good luck !!!
39 • RE: #34 (by Tor on 2006-05-23 07:16:38 GMT from Dresden, Germany)
AC, you seem to be talking about two different things without realizing it. In your post that I commented on (#29) you talk about strong commitment to Free Software. In your latter post (#34) you talk about choosing freedom. These are two different things altogether.
Choosing the BSD licence can be considered choosing a free license over non-free, but such choice has nothing to do with being committed to Free Software. On the contrary, the BSD license has been designed to make it easy to turn Free/Libre/Open Source Software into closed source software.
BSD advocates are always happy to point out how companies like Microsoft and Apple have adopted lots of BSD licensed code from FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD into their closed source products. If you are committed to Free Software, you always choose GPL over BSD licence. Patrick Volkerding has made a different choice.
40 • 39 (by AC on 2006-05-23 07:27:12 GMT from , United States)
I am well aware that I am talking about two different things. And I see them as two different things.
In post 29, I implicitly said that Pat did not have a strong commitment to Free Software, because, e.g. he didn't replace pico with nano.
In post 34, I said that, in making his scripts BSD licensed, he was choosing freedom. Not that he had a strong commitment to free software - if he did he'd replace pico with nano - but that in that particular case he had chosen not to limit the freedom of others. Whether his choice prevents other parties from denying people freedom is another matter, but while I consider GPL licensing superior, I do consider the BSD license itself to be free, whatever some other may do with BSD licensed code.
Incidentally, I know many BSD advocates who aren't particularly happy to point out the use of BSD licensed code in proprietary work. Some of them are indifferent and simply want to write good code and see it used, regardless of how, some would prefer that proprietary software not be used, but think the GPL is not the appropriate means to do it.
I don't share their views. As I said, I consider the GPL to be superior. But I also think that we should represent those with differing views fairly.
41 • Re Free Software (by EmyrB on 2006-05-23 09:25:14 GMT from Aberystwyth, United Kingdom)
Today on TechProGuild, the senior editor John Sheesley discusses his fustrations with Fedora Core 5 and Suse Pro 10.0 not having any media players that support WMV's and MP3's and the work he had to do to get RealPlayer to work with FC5. He has a point that all this extra work will cause the "non technical" people to go back to Windows. Heck, I have had a right run around with Kubuntu 6.06 and Amarok this past week getting MP3's to play so I can demo this distro to some friends who are interested in this Linux "thing". It took a lot of reading wiki's and questions fired to the forums to get it sorted, but I am quite happy with the end result and as a plus, I learned a bit about Kubuntu and Ubuntu in the process.
But sadly, not many people out there are as bloody minded as myself to get the problem sorted, when Windows does it "out of the box".
As a side note, I downloaded Elephant's Dream and it played with no problems on Linux (as you would expect) but the trouble I had to get Windows to play this AVI "out of the box" was a real pain :)
42 • pass it on to the user then (by Marius Cirsta on 2006-05-23 11:35:32 GMT from Timisoara, Romania)
OK I understand Ubuntu and the large distros are afraid of putting mp3 support and things like that . But I do think that whatever they don't want to ship they should provide clear and simple instructions on their site on how to enable . Like add this repo and install this . They could even out a message when Linux starts for the first time because everybody needs mp3 support. It's then the user's business if he wants to install the stuff or not and it's his responsability if it's legal in his country or not .
In Windows it's easy and everybody know hows to do it , you put winamp and a codecs pack package and that's that you can play and watch everything .
People put Linux on and they have to do all sort of google search and do all kind of thinks the wikis tell them when they're new to Linux . Some end up thinking ... oh crap this can't even play mp3s without working on it for a couple of hours ... back to Windows and this is how Linux looses people .
43 • Berry vs. Kororaa? (by Wanlace on 2006-05-23 12:44:58 GMT from Buffalo, United States)
Did anyone else but me notice that the Berry release described above seems to do exactly what Kororaa has been getting into hot water for?
"...Berry Linux 0.70, the first Fedora-based live CD with integrated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers, Xgl graphics subsystem and Compiz compositing manager (available as an option in the GRUB boot menu)..."
This seems to be an issue that needs an answer for a whole lot of other distros besides Kororaa. I think Kororaa deserves a lot of credit for trying to sort through the issues, even if their efforts have been inconclusive so far.
44 • preference survey (by JaDy on 2006-05-23 14:09:48 GMT from Cherry Hill, United States)
Linux distribution preference survey
Been reading much about Linux distribution surveys.
The major complaint is inaccuracy, especially multiple voting.
Have I minimized the problem with my
http://www.PsyPlan.com/LinuxVote web page?
Please evaluate, criticize, comment.
The purpose of the survey is to determine Linux distribution
preferences while preventing redundant voting.
All votes and confirmations are recorded with timestamp,
user IP address and distribution preference,
allowing further analysis of questionable votes.
Periodic surveys are planned.
The first edition is expected to close at the end of June 2006.
The idea is two-fold:
1. Track changes in preferences.
2. More food for analysis.
The code is available for peer review, see the
http://www.PsyPlan.com/LinuxVote.htm?show=code page.
45 • How about a public google calendar of the releases? (by Quazatron on 2006-05-23 14:10:00 GMT from Carnaxide, Portugal)
It'd be very useful to be able to subscribe to a google calendar with the scheduled releases. What do you think?
46 • Ubuntu (by Scott Wilson on 2006-05-23 15:03:34 GMT from Phoenix, United States)
Lets see, about 8 more days till Drapper Drake is out offically, I am itching to upgrade,but I will wait till the first.
I have been using centOS to learn about RHEL, I must say the look and feel of centOS and the same for fedora, have me thinking that Ubuntu's the default brown is starting to get really ugly. But then again its my only complaint againts Ubuntu.
47 • Frugalware blogs and Xgl support (by darkcoldalone on 2006-05-23 22:21:16 GMT from Kajaani, Finland)
Frugalware developers' blogs are worth checking out if you want to keep track of the latest news in Frugalware development.
http://blogs.frugalware.org/index.php
One of the many cool things in Frugalware is Xgl & Compiz support. Check out the Wiki page that explains how to get it going. :-)
http://wiki.frugalware.org/Xgl
48 • Re: #14 (by warpengi on 2006-05-23 22:44:02 GMT from Calgary, Canada)
" If you have an AMD then you have no choice but to use nvidia or ATI and the open source drivers for those are poor "
That is not the case at all. There are open source drivers that work just fine for all ATI cards. The drivers don't provide 3D acceleration for the newest cards but if you need 3D acceleration and want open source drivers any recent version of Xorg or Xfree has that included for Radeons prior to the 8500 and older ATI cards.
You seem to be implying that Intel graphics drivers are open source and of good quality. I don't know if that is true but someone using Intel graphics is not playing Quake 4 on Linux anyway. What I mean to say is that the Intel 3D capabilities are pretty limited.
49 • Kid-Safe LiveCD (by Anonymous on 2006-05-24 03:11:56 GMT from Camberley, United Kingdom)
For those interested Kid-Safe LiveCD
This is a remaster of PCLinuxOS p93-MiniME.
The root and guest accounts have been left virtually untouched.
A new kidsafe user has been added, and all customizations
have been done under this account.
The LiveCD will auto-login to the kidsafe account.
Home Page http://bellsouthpwp2.net/w/i/wizard_rb/kid-safe
Review/screenshots http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/6898
50 • google calendar for the releases (by Jose Almeida on 2006-05-24 08:44:02 GMT from Carnaxide, Portugal)
Here is one google calendar with the ubuntu releases.
http://www.google.com/calendar/ical/nldf85csih9r20i2vgdpg2iigs@group.calendar.google.com/public/basic
This would be nice to see for all the distos.
51 • Fedora Extras & Zenwalk Extra - why not tracked? (by Ariszló on 2006-05-24 09:15:31 GMT from Szeged, Hungary)
According to its DistroWatch page, Fedora has no KOffice but it does. You install it with:
yum install koffice-suite
http://fedoraproject.org/extras/5/i386/
Likewise, Zenwalk's KDE packages are not listed either.
http://download.zenwalk.org/i486/current/packages/
52 • Re: preference survey (by Ariszló on 2006-05-24 09:24:22 GMT from Szeged, Hungary)
Gentoo and Mepis? Not Ubuntu and SUSE?
53 • almost... (by Kyra on 2006-05-24 11:54:21 GMT from Schiphol, Netherlands)
Next week DistroWatch weekly exists for 5 years.
oh the sleepless nights!!!!! Anything special planned?
54 • The new Zenwalk is out !!! (by Caraibes on 2006-05-24 12:30:52 GMT from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)
Hey Folks,
here's the new ZW !!!!!
DOwnload it and give it a try, you have 7 days to go until formatting everything for the new Ubuntu, give those 7 days to Zenwalk, so you get to know why a bunch of us are using it a main OS !!!
55 • 44 (by AC on 2006-05-24 15:11:41 GMT from , United States)
It's definitely an interesting survey, but as any researcher will tell you, self-selecting surveys are always of limited value. For one thing, you'll be skewed to the desktop enthusiast market (just my suspicion), because people in enterprise and soho settings may be less likely to take an interest. And of course, promoters of some distros can influence results by encouraging their users to go vote while other distributions may not. It has an advantage over Distrowatch in that it measures preference rather than interest, e.g. I strongly prefer Debian but seldom visit the Debian page. I regularly visit other pages though, sometimes of distros I never even try but am mildly curious about. (Why would someone regularly click the page of a distro that they use regularly? Don't they know most of that info? Well, if they're an enthusiast, they may do it just to influence results.)
56 • non-OSS software (by Misty on 2006-05-25 22:59:09 GMT from Elizabethtown, United States)
I agree that non-OSS software should be left out of the distro itself because the devs can get into a heap of trouble because of licensing, but I do think that the devs could put off-site download links to the most popular non-OSS apps on the distro's web site. I don't see why that would be so difficult, just have one page of links on the navigation sidebar that almost all distro pages have. Sound logical?
57 • 56 Misty (by AC on 2006-05-26 09:07:31 GMT from , United States)
A few difficulties here. The most obvious is that some software could actually be or clearly is illegal to distribute in certain countries because they are taken to violate patents and/or copyright protection laws. And a lot of this software is considered essential by users, so listing some things (like where to download Java) but not others (even informing people of how to get libdvdcss could violate the DMCA) might actually lead to greater confusion rather than less. The other issue is that distributions like Debian and Gentoo have social contracts that could reasonably be taken to exclude this sort of promoting non-free software as a matter of policy. Finally, while it may be trickier to learn initially, it is probably better that users learn to utilize their distribution's package management systems than to encourage the habit of downloading things from a variety of sources. (We know how well that works for Microsoft.) For example, adding contrib and non-free and marillat to one's sources.list may be trickier in the beginning - only because it's less familiar - in the long run it is more efficient and safer.
58 • The Kororaa (Nvidia/ATI kernel module) controversy: (by Jade on 2006-05-27 06:38:51 GMT from Beijing, China)
Here is some more info on the Kororaa (Nvidia/ATI kernel module) controversy:
Quote taken from: http://linux.coconia.net/politics/kmodsGPL.htm
The above mentioned possibility of hiding the entire code of a program as an application library, is the reason that the GPL demands that any application that links to GPL'd shared libraries, must itself be GPL'd (a program is GPL'd, if it is licensed under the GPL).
It has been claimed that distributing a GPL'd kernel with binary closed source kernel modules is illegal. This claim has been advanced, to stop Linux distributors from shipping with Nvidia and ATI drivers that work "straight out of the box". A recent example of this is the Kororaa controversy.
Those wishing to cripple Linux, make many unsubstantiated claims, some of which are wrong, in order to prevent Linux distributors shipping Nvidia and ATI drivers that work "out of the box". Here is a sample:
1) GPL and non-GPL components cannot be included together on a CD.
2) Closed source kernel modules distributed with a GPL'd kernel clearly violates the GPL.
3) Don't include closed source kernel modules as the situation is murky. You might get sued.
4) Closed source kernel modules link to the kernel in the same way that applications link to libraries, therefore you cannot include them with a GPL'd kernel.
One, is wrong. Two, is not clear at all. Three, which sounds correct, is also wrong. Think about it, who is going to sue you? The Free Software Foundation? Not likely. Perhaps Microsoft might be interested in enforcing the GPL. Four, seems to have some merit, but is wrong..........
For the full article, see http://linux.coconia.net/
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| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
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| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • 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 |
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DRBL Live
DRBL (Diskless Remote Boot in Linux) was server software to boot and operate remote desktop clients. The DRBL software allows client machines to run as stateless, thin-client style computers which are managed by the DRBL server. DRBL Live was a Debian-based, live disc distribution of the DRBL server software which can be run from a USB drive or CD/DVD. It includes a desktop environment to assist users in configuring the server.
Status: Discontinued
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