 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 170, 25 September 2006 |
Welcome to this year's 39th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! With Mandriva Linux 2007 and Slackware Linux 11.0 expected any time now, and Ubuntu 6.10 beta also scheduled for release later this week, the next few days are likely to provide enough excitement to keep all "distro watchers" busy with brand new products. But will Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 "etch" be on time too? A highly controversial way of making that happen has stirred the Debian developer community to the point that some of them are calling for the removal of the project's elected leader! In other news, we report about a new init system for Fedora Core, a graphical Xgl/Compiz configuration tool for openSUSE, and a new distribution designed for those who just can't leave their previous desktop interface behind. A "First Look" section featuring SabayonLinux 3.0 is then followed by several statistical reports indicating that your interest in DistroWatch and open source operating systems have been increasing at a rather phenomenal rate. Happy reading!
Content:
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
|
| Miscellaneous News |
Debian and money, Ubuntu's ShipIt update, new init for Fedora, Compiz Manager for openSUSE, Linux XP
 In the world of Debian GNU/Linux hardly a week goes by without a major war of words erupting on one of its mailing list or the Planet blogs. This time, it was all about Dunc-Tank, an experiment to raise money in order to pay two Debian developers to work full-time on Debian "etch" for a duration of one month each. The proponents of the idea argue that by providing what is effectively a full-time employment for a short period, the project will be able to release Debian "etch" in December this year, as planned. Historically, Debian has suffered from bad press when it consistently failed to meet its own projected release dates; in fact, its current stable version was delayed by over 18 months from the original release proposal.
However, the idea did not go down well with some Debian developers many of whom believe that the project should continue to be a strictly volunteer organisation. Some of them started to question the value of their own volunteer work, while others went as far as calling for the removal of the current Debian Project Leader from his position. Joey Schulze: "I have to wonder again if my work for a formerly honorary project is useful at all. Maybe I have been an idiot spending so much time and money on the project in the past." Denis Barbier: "I would like to propose that we answer to the valid question quoted in the second paragraph above by recalling our Project Leader." Alexis Sukrieh: "Debian is completely hijacked by that thing we call 'money'. We have to face the reality - as soon as the money came into the game, Debian lost a point."
What do you think? Is it a good idea to pay a couple of Debian developers for their work? And will two months of paid employment guarantee a timely release of "etch"? Or do you believe that Debian should continue to operate on a volunteer basis, as it has being doing so successfully for the past 13 years? Please discuss below.
* * * * *
 In a surprise move, Canonical has announced that it will not provide free CDs of Ubuntu 6.10 "Edgy Eft" through its popular ShipIt programme: "The current plan is to continue to ship Ubuntu 6.06 LTS, due to it being a long supported release, while Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) will be available for download only." The "Edgy" CDs will, however, be made available to the Ubuntu Local Community Teams and other large distributors who are found to be in a good position to spread the Ubuntu message. Other Linux communities, who are interested in obtaining larger quantities of Ubuntu CDs, may order them at a cost of €1.50 per CD. For more information please see the ShipIt plans announced item in last week's Ubuntu Weekly News.
* * * * *
 It seems that the old "init" way of booting a Linux distribution is slowly giving way to various newer methods. We recently reported about Ubuntu's replacement of "init" with what they call "upstart", but now it seems that the Fedora project has also decided to look at a more modern solution for booting its distribution. Fedora New Init System is an article which not only describes the drawbacks of "init", but also lists several alternatives.
* * * * *
 Last week we mentioned that the upcoming release of Mandriva Linux 2007 would be the first Linux distribution to ship with a graphical configuration tool for its Xgl/Compiz 3D effects. What we didn't anticipate was the fact that openSUSE would actually beat Mandriva to it! Called "Compiz Settings Manager", the new GNOME application is now available for installation on openSUSE 10.1 via YaST. All you need to do is to add a new install source to YaST (or a new channel as RPM MetaData if you prefer SMART) and install the new software package in the usual manner. Detailed instructions and a couple of screenshots are available here. Compiz Settings Manager can also be installed on Ubuntu and other distributions.
* * * * *
 If you experienced downtime on some of the Linspire and Freespire web sites over the weekend, then it was because the company behind the two user-friendly distributions has been moving to a new office: "After years at our current location, the time has come for a move! Since our inception, over five years ago, Linspire has been leasing office space and we've now grown to a point where purchasing our own building is more cost effective than continuing to pay rent. In fact, the new office building will be home to all of Michael Robertson's companies and is located just a few miles from our current location in San Diego." Details about Linspire's new address, together with a picture of their impressive new home, can be found on this page.
* * * * *
 The announcement last week about an English edition of Linux XP has caused a major stir among our readers. Commenting on the product, many of you emailed us to express your views of the new release, often in a fairly negative way. One reader had this to say: "When you get to their web site, all you read is how they rave about this distro. Maybe they should get the basic mechanics working before they can say their distro even works (which if it's anything like their web site, it will not)." Another reader complained that the distribution requires a US$40 license key to work properly: "Until one has an activation key, it is 'cripleware' and I believe it expires after 30 days." Or more precisely, after 99 boots. In other words, Linux XP is a commercial distribution (similar to Linspire or Xandros Desktop), which wasn't quite apparent from its release announcement.
But the generally negative sentiment did not stop many of you from visiting the Linux XP page on DistroWatch. In fact, with 6,817 visits from unique IP addresses on the day of the announcement (21 September), Linux XP has become the fifth most visited page in any 24-hour period (as measured from midnight to midnight GMT) in the history of our Page Hit Ranking statistics! Only Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE had received more hits previously. The vast majority of these page views were referred to by our own index page, indicating that it was mostly the regulars who found Linux XP worth checking out, rather than visitors sent directly to the Linux XP page by outside links.
| Rank |
Distribution |
Visits |
Date |
Note |
| 1 |
Ubuntu |
11,300 |
2006-06-01 |
Release Ubuntu 6.06 LTS |
| 2 |
openSUSE |
9,347 |
2006-05-11 |
Release SUSE Linux 10.1 |
| 3 |
Ubuntu |
9,279 |
2005-04-08 |
Release Ubuntu 5.04 |
| 4 |
Fedora Core |
7,812 |
2006-03-20 |
Release Fedora Core 5 |
| 5 |
Linux XP |
6,817 |
2006-09-21 |
Release Linux XP 2006 SR2 |
| 6 |
Ubuntu |
6,527 |
2005-10-13 |
Release Ubuntu 5.10 |
| 7 |
Fedora Core |
6,465 |
2005-06-13 |
Release Fedora Core 4 |
| 8 |
Ubuntu |
6,488 |
2005-04-06 |
Release Ubuntu 5.04 |
| 9 |
Ubuntu |
6,457 |
2005-04-05 |
Release Ubuntu 5.04 |
| 10 |
Ubuntu |
6,403 |
2005-04-07 |
Release Ubuntu 5.04 |
|
Table 1: All-time top ten most visit distribution pages in one day
So why did so many of you click? Is it the catchy name or the attraction of a Linux system resembling a more familiar environment? Or maybe just plain curiosity? And if you downloaded and tried the new release, what do you think of it? Is Linux XP likely to remain on your computer? Have any of you paid the licence fee? If so, why? Please discuss below.
|
| First Looks |
SabayonLinux 3.0
Among the many distributions recently listed on DistroWatch, Sabayon Linux has been gathering rapid momentum in recent months - both in terms of readers' interest in the project and frequency of new releases. The reasons are fairly obvious. The distribution has been trying hard to take advantage of some of Gentoo's strong points without forcing its users to get dirty with compiling applications and solving potential breakages. The seductive enthusiasm and hard work of Fabio Erculiani, the project's lead developer, has further contributed to the growing popularity of SabayonLinux.
So when the new stable version finally hit the Internet earlier this month, I couldn't stop myself from downloading the DVD image and trying it out on a test machine. The result was a mixed bag of experiences. On one hand, SabayonLinux turned out to be a good-looking desktop distribution with plenty of software to keep everybody, even gamers, busy for a long time, but on the other hand, its hardware detection was somewhat sketchy, which, combined with lack of some essential applications, contributed to the feeling that SabayonLinux still has room for improvement.
The first impressions weren't particularly favourable. Although the DVD booted reasonably fast, its hardware detection routine made no effort to suggest a native driver for my test system's graphics card, defaulting to "vesa" instead. The screen resolution was also set to less than the optimal value. Perhaps the Sabayon developer team has a valid reason for configuring X Window to use a generic driver, although I expected better from a distribution targeting desktop machines. Even X.Org's configuration utility does a better job than SabayonLinux's X configuration routine.
My second major gripe with SabayonLinux 3.0 was the absence of Vim (or vi) from the live DVD. This might sound like a trivial issue, but those of you who, like myself, have been using the world's "most unintuitive text editor" exclusively for several years will understand. While other console text editors will certainly do the job, it's hard not to feel frustrated when your usual finger dancing habits have to be forgotten and replaced with something else. That's especially true when considering that SabayonLinux is a huge, 3.2 gigabyte DVD! It's not a mini-CD, or normal CD where space constraints might inevitably lead to decisions to leave certain applications out. No, it's a DVD which can easily fit another 2.4GB worth of software on it. There is enough space to even include Emacs!
Luckily, once I re-configured xorg.conf to load the "mga" driver and fixed the screen resolution issue (in an editor called "nano"), things started to look much better. I was impressed with the default look of the KDE desktop. It uses two panels: the bottom one gives quick access to some of the popular applications and it also houses the taskbar, while the top one shows the available virtual desktops and the system tray. Even if you've been using KDE for years, you always learn something from the way other KDE users organise their working environment. The only icon that seemed out of place was the one for KSynaptics - I thought it was fairly trivial to detect the presence of a touchpad and enable or disable the utility accordingly. Apparently not.
SabayonLinux 3.0: the default desktop
(full image size: 414kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Some of the items on the default desktop looked enticing. Cold War (demo) and Quake IV (demo) should provide a few hours of entertainment to anybody wishing to test the latest Linux games, while Google Earth is ready to engage you in world travel - without leaving the comfort of your home. Of course, all these applications require a 3D accelerated graphics card, drivers for which are conveniently provided on the live DVD. Those Linux users who are looking for a distribution with pre-configured support for playback of many popular audio and video formats won't be disappointed either.
One new feature in SabayonLinux 3.0 is that hard disk installation is now available via the popular Anaconda installation program developed by Red Hat. It is not clear why the SabayonLinux developers dropped the native Gentoo installer, but it might be due to Anaconda's more refined look and elegant simplicity, especially when compared with the many complex-looking screens of the Gentoo installer. Anaconda seemed to work rather nicely, making it possible to select a default desktop from a list of popular desktops that included KDE, GNOME, XFce, Enlightenment and Fluxbox. I found it interesting to see Anaconda implemented as a method of installing a distribution from a live CD; an earlier effort at porting the popular installer to Gentoo by the VLOS project did not provide such an option.
SabayonLinux 3.0: Anaconda's desktop selection screen
(full image size: 131kB, screen resolution: 810x638 pixels)
Once you start browsing the available applications you'll be quickly overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of software, many of which have yet to find their ways into other distributions. In this respect, SabayonLinux has to be one of the most progressive operating systems available today, with many of the latest drivers, new software and best non-free and binary-only applications now integrated into the distribution. Best of all, they are expertly pre-configured and ready for use without any extra work.
In conclusion, SabayonLinux is a uniquely designed live and installation DVD, best appreciated by those with modern hardware, a 3D accelerated graphics card, and plenty of horse power to take advantage of the amazing desktop eye candy. It wasn't meant to be installed on computers with anything less than that. If you are using a system that is a few years old or one without a high-performance graphics card, SabayonLinux is not for you. But if your machine is on a high-end side of the hardware scale -- and despite a few minor annoyances -- you are likely to have plenty of fun with SabayonLinux. This is a project that has succeeded in combining the best Linux applications available today into a fantastic all-round distribution for the desktop. Do give it a try.
|
| Statistics |
Origin of DistroWatch visitors
It is always fun to look at some of the statistics regarding the readership of DistroWatch.com. With between 80,000 - 100,000 visitors loading the index page every working day (slightly fewer on weekends), the web logs give us a fairly representative sample of readers who are interested in Linux, BSD and other open source software. Although only about a third of our visitors use a Linux-based operating system to access these pages, two thirds of you now prefer Firefox, Konqueror, Mozilla or other open source browsers to view the site's content. The log files also tell us that while 5 years ago, over 80% of our readers preferred Internet Explorer to browse DistroWatch, these days the share of the Microsoft browser has dropped to just 20%.
The IP address logged by the web server also tells us where our readers come from. By extension, this can indicate the popularity of open source software in different countries and enthusiasm for Linux and BSD-related news. Once the data is organised along a historical scale, we can also see how much the interest in open source software increased or decreased over time in different countries. This is the main purpose of today's statistical analysis.
The tables below summarise visitor access to the DistroWatch.com's index page during two 6-month periods in the last three years. The one on the left provides data during the period between 1 March and 31 August 2006, while the table on the right shows equivalent data during the same time span three years earlier, in 2003. The columns named "Visits" represent the total number of visits per month, while the columns named "Index" shows the total number of visits per months per one million inhabitants. As an example the first line tells us that the DistroWatch.com index page was accessed by an average of 881,747 visitors located in the USA per month. This number was then multiplied by 1,000,000 and divided by the number of inhabitants living in the United States to give as a "per capita" figure (or more precisely "per million capita" figure) in order to provide a more realistic comparison between countries of different sizes (in terms of population).
To avoid situations where a handful of enthusiastic Linux users would make a small country look like a major adopter of open source software, only countries with more than 1,000 visits during the 6 month period were included in the statistics.
As we can see, Estonia is currently on the very top of the ranking, with Finland and tiny Andorra following on the second and third spot respectively. Scandinavian countries in general seem to be the most ardent followers of the DistroWatch news, a fact that barely changed from three years ago. What did change over the last three years, however, is the rapidly growing access from some of the countries and territories in the Caribbean, with frequent visits from Aruba, Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados now a regular occurrence. Singapore was the top country in Asia, while the Indian ocean island paradise of Seychelles was the highest ranked African country. Some of the big, populous countries come disappointingly low in the table; while India and China often figure in various press releases from Novell, Red Hat and other big technology companies, it seems that interest in Linux and open source software in those countries is far lower than the big international Linux companies would like us to believe.
| 2006 (March - August) |
|---|
| Rank |
Country |
Visits |
Index |
| 1 |
Estonia (EE) |
9,761 |
7,370 |
| 2 |
Finland (FI) |
33,216 |
6,349 |
| 3 |
Andorra (AD) |
322 |
4,520 |
| 4 |
Sweden (SE) |
38,602 |
4,281 |
| 5 |
Norway (NO) |
17,834 |
3,868 |
| 6 |
Iceland (IS) |
1,123 |
3,749 |
| 7 |
Canada (CA) |
123,448 |
3,730 |
| 8 |
Netherlands (NL) |
52,346 |
3,174 |
| 9 |
Slovenia (SI) |
6,147 |
3,058 |
| 10 |
Luxembourg (LU) |
1,417 |
2,987 |
| 11 |
USA (US) |
881,747 |
2,954 |
| 12 |
Denmark (DK) |
15,992 |
2,934 |
| 13 |
Aruba (AW) |
203 |
2,821 |
| 14 |
Australia (AU) |
52,044 |
2,568 |
| 15 |
Antigua and Barbuda (AG) |
175 |
2,530 |
| 16 |
Belgium (BE) |
26,194 |
2,524 |
| 17 |
New Zealand (NZ) |
9,390 |
2,304 |
| 18 |
Switzerland (CH) |
17,130 |
2,277 |
| 19 |
Seychelles (SC) |
182 |
2,230 |
| 20 |
Singapore (SG) |
9,256 |
2,060 |
| 21 |
Hungary (HU) |
19,834 |
1,987 |
| 22 |
Bulgaria (BG) |
13,718 |
1,857 |
| 23 |
Italy (IT) |
106,325 |
1,835 |
| 24 |
United Kingdom (GB) |
107,880 |
1,780 |
| 25 |
Slovakia (SK) |
9,668 |
1,777 |
| 26 |
Israel (IL) |
11,169 |
1,758 |
| 27 |
Portugal (PT) |
18,532 |
1,747 |
| 28 |
Germany (DE) |
142,295 |
1,726 |
| 29 |
Austria (AT) |
13,699 |
1,672 |
| 30 |
Barbados (BB) |
434 |
1,549 |
| 31 |
France (FR) |
92,474 |
1,519 |
| 32 |
Latvia (LV) |
3,246 |
1,427 |
| 33 |
Poland (PL) |
53,389 |
1,385 |
| 34 |
Lithuania (LT) |
4,881 |
1,361 |
| 35 |
Brunei (BN) |
497 |
1,310 |
| 36 |
Malta (MT) |
517 |
1,291 |
| 37 |
Hong Kong (HK) |
8,739 |
1,259 |
| 38 |
Spain (ES) |
50,628 |
1,253 |
| 39 |
Czech Republic (CZ) |
11,839 |
1,157 |
| 40 |
Greece (GR) |
11,934 |
1,117 |
| 41 |
Romania (RO) |
23,901 |
1,072 |
| ... |
... |
... |
... |
| 59 |
Japan (JP) |
47,781 |
375 |
| 70 |
Brazil (BR) |
27,317 |
145 |
| 71 |
South Africa (ZA) |
6,276 |
142 |
| 74 |
Mexico (MX) |
13,995 |
130 |
| 79 |
Russia (RU) |
12,817 |
90 |
| 105 |
China (CN) |
24,080 |
18 |
| 110 |
India (IN) |
12,532 |
11 |
|
| 2003 (March - August) |
|---|
| Rank |
Country |
Visits |
Index |
| 1 |
Iceland (IS) |
496 |
1,655 |
| 2 |
Finland (FI) |
8,104 |
1,549 |
| 3 |
Sweden (SE) |
10,713 |
1,188 |
| 4 |
Estonia (EE) |
1,552 |
1,172 |
| 5 |
Canada (CA) |
34,349 |
1,038 |
| 6 |
Luxembourg (LU) |
439 |
926 |
| 7 |
Denmark (DK) |
4,995 |
916 |
| 8 |
Belgium (BE) |
9,260 |
892 |
| 9 |
New Zealand (NZ) |
3,604 |
884 |
| 10 |
Norway (NO) |
3,741 |
811 |
| 11 |
Netherlands (NL) |
13,095 |
794 |
| 12 |
Slovenia (SI) |
1,437 |
715 |
| 13 |
United States (US) |
202,460 |
678 |
| 14 |
Australia (AU) |
11,222 |
554 |
| 15 |
Singapore (SG) |
2,469 |
550 |
| 16 |
Hong Kong (HK) |
3,639 |
524 |
| 17 |
Switzerland (CH) |
3,730 |
496 |
| 18 |
Israel (IL) |
2,785 |
438 |
| 19 |
Austria (AT) |
3,463 |
423 |
| 20 |
Taiwan (TW) |
9,716 |
422 |
| 21 |
Portugal (PT) |
4,472 |
422 |
| 22 |
United Kingdom (GB) |
23,757 |
392 |
| 23 |
France (FR) |
19,055 |
313 |
| 24 |
Hungary (HU) |
3,062 |
307 |
| 25 |
Czech Republic (CZ) |
3,113 |
304 |
| 26 |
Germany (DE) |
24,240 |
294 |
| 27 |
Spain (ES) |
10,960 |
271 |
| 28 |
Cyprus (CY) |
200 |
255 |
| 29 |
Bulgaria (BG) |
1,830 |
248 |
| 30 |
Italy (IT) |
13,476 |
233 |
| 31 |
Lithuania (LT) |
760 |
212 |
| 32 |
Ireland (IE) |
772 |
190 |
| 33 |
Latvia (LV) |
396 |
174 |
| 34 |
Japan (JP) |
21,307 |
167 |
| 35 |
Slovakia (SK) |
906 |
167 |
| 36 |
Greece (GR) |
1,778 |
166 |
| 37 |
Croatia (HR) |
655 |
146 |
| 38 |
Uruguay (UY) |
498 |
145 |
| 39 |
Romania (RO) |
3,197 |
143 |
| 40 |
Poland (PL) |
5,229 |
136 |
| 41 |
Kuwait (KW) |
294 |
122 |
| ... |
... |
... |
... |
| 48 |
Argentina (AR) |
2,804 |
70 |
| 51 |
Brazil (BR) |
7,245 |
39 |
| 53 |
South Africa (ZA) |
1,461 |
33 |
| 57 |
Mexico (MX) |
2,301 |
21 |
| 59 |
Russia (RU) |
2,777 |
19 |
| 67 |
China (CN) |
6,063 |
5 |
| 69 |
India (IN) |
2,853 |
3 |
|
Table 2: Ranking of countries in terms of "per capita" visits on DistroWatch.com in 2006 and 2003
The good news is that compared to three years ago, almost every single country recorded an increase in visitor numbers. This increased averaged at almost 500%, with some of the countries in the Caribbean and ex-communist countries in Europe recording the highest gains, possibly due to easier availability and better affordability of high-speed Internet connections in those countries. Here, Puerto Rico recorded the highest increase in terms of readers visiting DistroWatch, but Venezuela, Slovakia, Costa Rica, Egypt and Poland all recorded over 1,000% increases in visitor numbers. The smallest increase was recorded in Taiwan followed by Japan and Iceland, while the only country from which the number of visitors actually declined over the last three years was Libya.
| Rank |
Country |
% Change |
| 1 |
Puerto Rico (PR) |
1,214% |
| 2 |
Venezuela (VE) |
1,175% |
| 3 |
Slovakia (SK) |
1,067% |
| 4 |
Egypt (EG) |
1,029% |
| 5 |
Costa Rica (CR) |
1,028% |
| 6 |
Poland (PL) |
1,021% |
| 7 |
Peru (PE) |
890% |
| 8 |
Latvia (LV) |
820% |
| 9 |
Italy (IT) |
789% |
| 10 |
Bulgaria (BG) |
750% |
| 11 |
Romania (RO) |
748% |
| 12 |
Croatia (HR) |
682% |
| 13 |
Greece (GR) |
671% |
| 14 |
Hungary (HU) |
648% |
| 15 |
Lithuania (LT) |
642% |
| 16 |
Estonia (EE) |
629% |
| 17 |
Mexico (MX) |
608% |
| 18 |
Philippines (PH) |
595% |
| 19 |
Germany (DE) |
587% |
| 20 |
Turkey (TR) |
579% |
| 21 |
Saudi Arabia (SA) |
550% |
| 22 |
Ireland (IE) |
521% |
| 23 |
Malaysia (MY) |
517% |
| 24 |
France (FR) |
485% |
| 25 |
Norway (NO) |
477% |
| ... |
... |
... |
| 64 |
Hong Kong (HK) |
240% |
| 65 |
Kuwait (KW) |
239% |
| 66 |
Iceland (IS) |
226% |
| 67 |
Japan (JP) |
224% |
| 68 |
Taiwan (TW) |
149% |
| 69 |
Libya (LY) |
66% |
|
Table 3: Ranking of countries with the highest increase in visits on DistroWatch.com during the last three years.
Disclaimer: The origin of visitors is generated by using Maxmind's GeoLite Country database, which claims 97% accuracy of its data. As always, please don't take the data too seriously. They are simply provided as an indicator of interest in DistroWatch (and, by extension, in Linux and other open source operating systems) in various countries, but they certainly don't represent physical installations or distribution downloads.
|
| Released Last Week |
Mandriva Corporate Server 4.0
Mandriva has announced the immediate availability of Mandriva Corporate Server 4.0: "Mandriva launches Corporate Server 4.0, a full, open solution that will let you deploy servers in any environment in just a few minutes." Some of the product's highlights include: "Xen: allows the simultaneous execution of several Linux instances, and takes advantage of hardware acceleration for virtualization through Intel VTTM; OpenVZ: a solution optimized for large numbers of virtual servers through very large numbers of Linux instances, without the performance penalty of full hardware virtualization; VMware: allows the creation of completely virtualized machines, avoiding the need to support a wide range of hardware." Read the press release and visit the product pages for more information.
ClarkConnect Server/Gateway 4.0
A major new version of ClarkConnect Server and Gateway has been released: "ClarkConnect 4.0 represents Point Clark Networks' most significant platform release. Thousand hours of research, software development, integration and testing have been invested in the 4.0 feature set." The new version includes a large number of new features including LDAP user management, group management; calendaring and collaboration with Outlook Connector; Horde webmail, Flexshare, Cyrus POP3/IMAP, DSPAM protection (in addition to SpamAssassin), ClamAV antivirus for mail protection (in addition to optional Sophos), SSL certificate manager, 1:1 NAT and MultiWAN, fault tolerance option in MultiWAN, AdZapper, Graphical Console and many other additions and software updates. See the product information page for a complete list of new features.
Dreamlinux 2.1
An updated version of Dreamlinux, a desktop-oriented, Debian-based distribution with a Max OS X-like interface, has been released. The major focus of the release was on fixing bugs reported in the earlier version. As for new features, the release announcements report about improved hardware detection modules with new drivers, addition of automount, Internet sharing, NTFS read/write support and Powernow functionality, and package updates (Inkscape, OpenOffice.org...) to bring Dreamlinux in sync with Debian's "testing" repository. For more information please read the release announcements available in English or Portuguese.
Myah OS 2.2
Jeremiah Cheatham has announced the release of Myah OS 2.2, a Slackware-based, desktop-oriented live and installation CD with focus on multimedia and graphics design: "Myah OS 2.2 is available for download. 2.2 is running on the very latest Slackware 11 packages with the exception of the KDE packages. I used an older release because of some problems with mounting media that are happening due to Slackware's lack of HAL. I have also used the Firefox 2.0 b1 version not the current b2. Here are some of the software you will find in 2.2: Linux kernel 2.6.17.8 with Bootsplash, Squashfs, Unionfs, KDE 3.5.3, Firefox 2.0b1 with Polyesterfox, Flash, Java, MPlayer plugin, Greasemonkey and Pklaunch, Thunderbird 1.5.0.7, RealPlayer 10 Gold, xine 0.99.4 with codecs and DVD support, Amarok 1.4.1, Nvu 1.0, Blender 2.42a, Kino 0.9.0, ATI and NVIDIA video drivers." Read the full release announcement for more details.
Linux XP 2006 SR2
Linux XP is a Fedora-based, beginner-friendly desktop distribution that mimics the look and feel of Windows XP and provides extensive compatibility features with the Microsoft operating system. An updated version, now with support for English, has been released: "We just made the first international release of Linux XP Desktop!" The many new features in this release include: experimental network manager, system information dialogue, Microsoft Active Directory integration, system updates dialogue, and upgrades of several major applications. Linux XP uses a customised edition of GNOME with XP-like icons and theme. For more information please see the release announcement, read the release notes and take a look at the screenshots.
BeleniX 0.5
The OpenSolaris-based BeleniX live CD has been updated to version 0.5: "A new release of BeleniX is available after some delay. This brings in several new features and software upgrades with more upgrades coming soon. As what happens with most deadlines, the plan to implement packaging based on Pkgsrc has been pushed back a little, but it is being definitely worked on. The significant feature of this release: support for read-only mounting and accessing both ext2 and NTFS partitions on either primary or logical partitions; updated to a recent pre-build48 snapshot of OpenSolaris; XFce has been upgraded to 4.4 Beta2...." Visit the project's home page to read the complete release announcement.
Berry Linux 0.74
Yuichiro Nakada has announced a new version of Berry Linux, a Fedora-based, desktop-oriented distribution and live CD with support for both Japanese and English. According to the changelog, Berry Linux 0.74 has been released with the following changes: upgraded a number of popular applications, including Firefox and Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 (both Japanese and English editions); GIMP 2.2.13; WINE 0.9.21 and NdisWrapper 1.23; added Audacious 1.1.2, a free software media player for Linux (a fork of Beep media player); removed Beep, XDirectFB and K3b. This version is based on Linux kernel 2.6.17.11 with SMP, ndev/udev and bootsplash patches, and includes the latest stable KDE desktop, version 3.5.4.
Berry Linux 0.74: now with a new desktop wallpaper and Internet Explorer icon
(full image size: 1,365kB, screen resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
Elive 0.5
After many months of development, a new stable version of Elive has been released. Called "Revolution", the updated version of the distribution that features the newest Enlightenment desktop comes with the following new features: "Uses Dsslive for the live CD mode; ATI cards working again with 3D acceleration; auto-launchers for USB sticks, DVD movies, audio CDs and Windows CDs; complete suite for setting the correct refresh rate of graphics cards; audio manager for setting audio programs to use ALSA or ESD; kernel 2.6.15 with miscellaneous drivers and wireless modules; an installer feature to upgrade an old Elive system; two different looks for both Elive systems...." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details, then visit the screenshot pages to see Elive 0.5 in action.
Kurumin Linux 6.1 "Light"
A new, stripped-down edition of Kurumin Linux 6.1 has been released. The Kurumin project, which started in 2003 as a 200MB bootable CD, but has since expanded to include OpenOffice.org, Java and many other popular software applications, is returning to its roots with "Kurumin Light". Besides eliminating some of the larger software packages, as well as dropping support for scanners and 3D accelerated graphics cards, this 182MB live CD has been optimised for fast booting and reduced memory consumption. As such, Kurumin "Light" fits on any mini-CD and 256MB USB storage device, and it can also serve as a quick hard-disk installation media. Please see the release announcement (in Portuguese) for further information.
Hiweed GNU/Linux 1.0
Hiweed Desktop 1.0 has been released. Some of the changes and new features in the Ubuntu-based Chinese distribution include: improved driver installation for NVIDIA and ATI graphics cards; Firefox default page set to a simple FAQ page; screen snapshots can now be captured with the PrtScr key; Xfmedia replaced by Totem; Xgl and Compiz upgraded to their latest versions; OpenOffice.org upgraded to version 2.0.3; added Chinese translation for XChat and XFce; Gaim upgraded to support SIP; the Fcitx input method editor upgraded to version 3.3, featuring conversion between simplified and traditional Chinese (i.e. instant "translation"). Please refer to the release announcement (in Chinese) for more information.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
FreeBSD 6.2
The FreeBSD project has updated the release schedule for its upcoming version 6.2. Following the first beta build released last week, the second beta is expected on 1 October, which two release candidates following later that month, in roughly 2-week intervals. The final release of FreeBSD 6.2 is currently scheduled for 13 November 2006. See the FreeBSD 6.2 schedule page for more information.
OpenBSD 4.0
The OpenBSD project has published information about the new OpenBSD 4.0, scheduled for release on 1 November 2006. Builds for new hardware platforms, improved and extended hardware support, new tools and functionality, code clean-up, upgraded changes and OpenSSH 4.4 are among the most important improvements of the new release. Full details can be found on the OpenBSD 4.0 page. Readers who enjoy and use the security-oriented operating system are encouraged to pre-order the official CD set through the project's ordering system (US$50.00).
Freespire 2.0
Freespire has announced that contrary to its original roadmap, it has dropped the idea of releasing version 1.1 later this year and will instead concentrate on a major new version to be released early next year: "It has been decided, that the next version of Freespire will be named version 2.0, rather than 1.1. This decision was based on the significant changes between the current version of Freespire (1.0) and the next version, such as a new Kernel, new KDE, refreshed sync with Debian, etc. There are so many significant changes, we believe it makes more sense to call it 2.0." More information can be found in this forum post and on the updated Freespire roadmap page.
* * * * *
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- NimbleX. NimbleX is a Slackware-based mini-distribution, bootable from mini-CDs or USB storage devices. It provides a customised KDE desktop and includes the usual applications for browsing the Internet, writing documents, listening to music, playing movies and many others. It even offers basic server functionality.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
And that concludes our latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next issue will be published on Monday, 2 October 2006. Until then,
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
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BSD Router Project
BSD Router Project (BSDRP) is an embedded free and open-source router distribution based on FreeBSD with Quagga (a software routing suite) and BIRD (an open-source implementation for routing Internet Protocol packets). Unlike other embedded networking tools, BSDRP focuses exclusively on routing packets and not on advanced firewall techniques. Additional functionality can be added to the operating system via FreeBSD's ports collection.
Status: Active
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