 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 318, 31 August 2009 |
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Welcome to this year's 35th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Operating systems come in many different shapes and sizes. While there is no shortage of projects seemingly wanting to test the upper limits of modern hardware requirements, it's not every day that we discover exactly the opposite. Welcome to Kolibri - a bootable operating system in under 3 MB of download, requiring just 5 MB of hard disk space and less than 10 MB of RAM! Read on to find out more about this extraordinary project. In the news section, Slackware hits the magic 13 with a plethora of new features, Fedora announces the inclusion of a Moblin subsystem into its upcoming version 12, ClarkConnect undergoes a name change and renews its commitment to open source, Arch Linux introduces a new server-oriented kernel for better long term support, and BeleniX launches an early alpha build of its OpenSolaris-based distribution featuring KDE 4. Finally, if you run FreeBSD and want to keep your installed system constantly updated, don't miss a great document describing the various options. Happy reading!
Content:
 Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (26MB) and MP3 (24MB) formats (many thanks to Sonny Chauvin)
 Join us at irc.freenode.net #distrowatch
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| Feature Story |
Kolibri - a desktop operating system in under 3 MB (by Jesse Smith)
 How much memory and disk space do you need for an operating system? If you're running the latest offerings from Microsoft, you probably want several gigabytes of both. For the larger Linux distros, the answer is probably a bit smaller. For mini versions of Linux one might want a few hundred megabytes of disk space and nearly that much RAM. But what if I told you that I was recently running a modern operating system that requires about 5 MB of disk space and about 10 MB of RAM? That sounds like a stretch, doesn't it, even for Tiny Core Linux?
The tiny operating system I'm talking about is called Kolibri. It's a fork of the MenuetOS project and is currently licensed under the GNU GPL. The operating system is designed to run on 32-bit x86 processors and is written entirely in assembly language. Kolibri contains a lot of familiar features, yet stands out with its own identity.
I downloaded the latest release of Kolibri (version 0.7.5) and gave it a spin. The system boots from zero to functioning desktop in under three seconds on my test machine. The user is presented with an attractive background and icons for various commonly used programs. System tasks (text editing and file browsers) are in the top-left corner, documentation and settings are in the top-right. Games occupy both lower corners of the desktop. Some desktop applications have short or odd names, which might put off newcomers. I did a lot of point and click early on, just to see what would pop up. This problem does not extend to the application menu; there everything is named in clear English. The application menu is fairly standard and is located in the bottom-left corner, where Windows and KDE users might expect to find it.
The application menu is broken down into familiar groupings, such as Development, Games, Data Processing, Network and Help. There are also demo programs showing off various graphics and screensavers. Programs are easy to find and most applications work well. The help documentation is a bit scattered, as it covers a number of different topics, but there doesn't seem to be a pattern to what is explained and what isn't. In short, finding help is hit or miss, but what is explained is done so clearly.
Kolibri 0.7.5 - the main menu and some applications
(full image size: 43kB, screen resolution 800x600 pixels)
Kolibri is the Russian word for hummingbirds. This operating system lives up to its name, being both amazingly small and extremely fast. It uses very few resources; applications open virtually instantly and the entire time I was using the system my memory usage never went above 10 MB. The user interface is an interesting combination, mixing characteristics from Linux, Windows and DOS. While the system is different enough that no newcomer is going to feel "at home", it's familiar enough that I was able to fumble through trying things and experimenting without confusion.
Kolibri 0.7.5 - the terminal
(full image size: 158kB, screen resolution 800x600 pixels)
My hardware was handled fairly well. The keyboard and mouse worked without any problems. Sound was detected, but disabled by default and my screen resolution defaulted to a sane setting. I wasn't able to find any way to print or set up a printer. According to posts on the Kolibri forum, USB support is a work in progress, so many modern devices won't work. I found it was possible to get around this by running Kolibri in a virtual machine. But for now, on the physical box, don't count on USB devices working.
The system is customizable and comes with a number of different background images and a few dozen window themes. There is little chance of getting bored playing around with the different combinations and chances are there is something for everyone here.
Kolibri 0.7.5 - configuring backgrounds and themes
(full image size: 95kB, screen resolution 800x600 pixels)
Getting onto the Internet was straight forward. Kolibri detected my network card and my only contribution to the process was manually selecting a menu option to get an IP address. From there on I was connected. However, Kolibri is, currently, a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to accessing the Internet. The web browser that comes with the operating system is, frankly, close to non-functional. It's a bit like downloading the web page and viewing the contents in a text editor; the browser doesn't handle HTML, just displays the raw code. When I was using the web browser was the only time when the system became less responsive and I was able to get normal performance back by killing the browser window. On the other hand, the IRC chat client works fairly well. There isn't a SSH client (or server), but the system does have telnet and FTP clients. The FTP client didn't work for me, but telnet functioned with no problems.
Kolibri 0.7.5 - networking and games
(full image size: 82kB, screen resolution 800x600 pixels)
An unexpected addition to Kolibri is a copy of DOSBox, a program that allows users to run games from the DOS era on modern operating systems. This is a welcome surprise and means many games and small applications will run on Kolibri without requiring tweaks or recompiling from the end user.
Kolibri 0.7.5 - DOSBox running old DOS games
(full image size: 144kB, screen resolution 800x600 pixels)
There is a menu group called "Other", which contains some interesting tools, including a screen magnifier, calendar, clock and a program for taking screenshots. The multimedia section is a bit light, but does include a CD player. These all work well and show Kolibri isn't just about games and proving how small an operating system can get. There is a tool which looks like the beginning of a spreadsheet, image viewers and text editing too, demonstrating that, with some more work, Kolibri could be used as a simple, modern, desktop operating system.
Kolibri 0.7.5 - a demo of a light graphics application
(full image size: 30kB, screen resolution 800x600 pixels)
The system is said to support both English and Russian. Every so often I'd stumble into a screen written in Russian, but that was rare. I tried to change the system language to Russian, but everything stubbornly stayed English. This is actually good news for me (since I don't know much Russian) but probably is a negative point for Russian speakers.
According to the documentation, Kolibri will run off a NTFS partition and can co-exist with Microsoft Windows. I looked over their tutorials and the process looks straightforward. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to test this for myself. Kolibri supports FAT and NTFS, but does not support common Linux or Mac partitions, such as ext2 or HFS+. Hopefully, these will be added in time.
During my time with Kolibri, it appeared that the system did not support separate user accounts. This means the user is always the administrator and has full access to edit and delete files. There is no login prompt, so I'm fairly certain passwords aren't supported either. This makes me a bit leery of running Kolibri on the same disk or partition with another operating system. Accidents sometimes happen and I wouldn't want to wipe out a system folder while experimenting.
Something else that I missed was a package manager. Any new programs need to be manually downloaded and installed. At the moment, there probably aren't many packages out there for Kolibri, so this isn't a big loss. Given Kolibri's nature, I suspect people who crave a new program are expected to write it themselves, much like Linux in its early days.
In conclusion, I am blown away by how much functionality is packed into such a tiny package. The Kolibri ISO is less than 5MB and it has, for the size, a huge collection of software. While much of the operating system feels like a demo of what it can (or could) do, Kolibri shows an immense amount of potential. This project probably won't make it into an office or even onto most home systems, but it would make a great toy, both for hackers and for children. One could easily dust off an old Pentium or 486 machine and run Kolibri on it. With the built-in DOSBox, the possibility for running games is tremendous. My only real complaint about this operating system is its lack of a web browser. Even something small like Lynx would be a welcome addition. I hope we soon see a new release of this project, it has ability to be a great system.
The latest version of Kolibri is available for download from here: kolibri_iso_en.bz2 (2.85MB).
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| Miscellaneous News (by Chris Smart) |
Slackware upgrades to 13.0, Fedora releases Moblin edition, ClarkConnect becomes ClearOS, Arch Linux introduces new LTS kernel, BeleniX starts testing KDE 4, keeping FreeBSD up-to-date
 We'll start this week's news section with information about Slackware Linux 13.0, a brand new release from Patrick Volkerding and his team of contributors. As pointed out in the release notes, the biggest news is that this version comes with an official port for 64-bit computers. Up until recently, users wishing to run Slackware Linux optimised for the x86_64 family of processors had to content themselves with one of the unofficial ports, such as Bluewhite64 Linux or Slamd64, but with Slackware 13.0 those days are now over. The second most interesting change is the switch to KDE 4 as the default desktop. Unlike other major distributions, the developers of Slackware Linux resisted the temptation to switch to earlier versions of KDE that were reportedly unstable and feature-incomplete, but version 4.2.4 was finally declared ready for the end user. Of course, there is a lot more: support for the ext4 file system in kernel 2.6.29.6, the GRUB bootloader in the /extra directory (finally!), a new package compression format (TXZ), updated development packages, including GCC 4.3.3 and Python 2.6.2, X.Org Server 1.6.3, and Xfce 4.6.1 as the alternative desktop. The first reviews should tell us how good this release is, but as always with Slackware, chances are that the new version will prove to be as stable and dependable as ever!
Slackware Linux 13.0 - a major new version from the developers of the oldest surviving Linux distribution
(full image size: 448kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
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 The Fedora Project offers an easy way for users to create custom version of the distro, called "remixes". The official remixed projects are called "respins" and cover a wide array of specialities. Now, Adam Williamson reports that the project is offering daily live remixes built from "Rawhide", Fedora's testing repository: "We're now doing an automated Rawhide build of each official live Fedora spin every night, and publishing them here. Yep, nightly Rawhide live CDs! (Or DVDs, when the generated images are too big for a CD. Which happens.) If you need to quickly test something in Rawhide but you're not in a safe position to install it, just grab the last nightly live CD and boot it up." These live remixes are in addition to the stable releases available and offer a way to test the latest and greatest without having to put your own system at risk.
Elsewhere in Fedora land, just in time for the "Constantine" (version 12) alpha party comes "Fedora Mini", an interface optimised for the netbook using Moblin technology. Peter Robinson writes: "Still a work in progress, Moblin is now in a mostly usable state on Fedora for testing. While the core interface in now there, there's still a couple of packages that will arrive over the next week or so." It's great to see Fedora joining in on the netbook scene and releasing an edition optimised for netbooks, a hugely popular market. Users who are running "Constantine" alpha or Rawhide can test it out by installing the "Moblin Desktop Environment" group and selecting the option from the login screen. Robinson is looking for feedback on Fedora Mini, including information on which specific netbook configurations work well: "I look forward to feedback and help in making it great for Fedora 12, and all other Moblin and Fedora Mini feedback." An official, Moblin-optimised netbook edition would be a great addition to the project.
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 Linux is very popular in the server arena, and that's not just limited to clusters and mainframes. Many users are running Linux on home servers and some of those are using ClarkConnect, an easy-to-configure appliance-like distro optimised for servers. The company behind the project is undergoing some restructuring, which will result in a few changes appearing later this year. The first noticeable change will be the adoption of a new name - ClearOS. The company claims that it's more than just a name change though; re-committing to open source, they intend to include more "enterprise" features into their free version and focus more on their service delivery network technology. The announcement reads: "In the early days of ClarkConnect (2002), we struggled to keep the open-source business afloat. This included using -- what now seems to be ubiquitous in the open source world -- the 'Community' versus 'Enterprise' product differences. Our growth over the years has given us the freedom to unshackle these restrictions in the true spirit of open-source software." The free versions will continue to be available and users are guaranteed of being able to seamlessly update from ClarkConnect to the new ClearOS.
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 Arch Linux, known for its rolling-release method of keeping up-to-date with the latest software, is a popular distribution with many intermediate and advanced Linux users. It is also very flexible, with a ports style init system and build environment. However, the kernel updates can sometimes lead to hardware incompatibilities, which has resulted in some users being reluctant to upgrade to the latest kernel that shows up in the Arch repository. The solution? A stable kernel with long-term support. Andreas Radke writes: "Today I've added a second kernel, called 'kernel26-lts, to our SVN repository. The intention is to have a second choice for the kernel package that is better in certain situations and offer fallback when a reboot after updating the core 'kernel26' fails." The LTS kernel is designed to have fewer external patches and a minimal amount of changes made to it over its life time: "Modifications will be very small in the future during its life cycle. The kernel configuration is based on the last 2.6.27.x configuration form our core package, with optimizations for server usage taken from here. The main changes are: 100 Hz, no pre-empt, deadline I/O scheduler. There will be no third-party modules. And no further patching." Interestingly, considerations for the server configuration options have been taken from Ubuntu's server kernel.
In separate news, it appears that the Archlinux.org server was compromised over the weekend: "Archlinux.org will be down this weekend due to complex server maintenance. Mirrors, including ftp.archlinux.org will remain in operation, as will the AUR. Forums, mailing lists and Wiki will be down as well as the main Arch Linux site. The maintenance is due to an intrusion where an attacker was able to gain root access. The developers have verified that neither the repositories nor the DB were affected, but the machine was compromised, and will need to be cleaned and additional protections added. We're sorry for any inconvenience this has caused."
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 Are you a fan of FreeBSD? If so, Richard Bejtlich has just published an updated draft of his article on how to keep FreeBSD up-to-date, a highly valuable document for anybody who has ever attempted to upgrade a running FreeBSD system: "Four years ago I wrote an article entitled 'Keeping FreeBSD Up-To-Date'. The goal was to document various ways that a FreeBSD 5.2 system could be updated and upgraded using tools from that time, in an example-driven way that complemented the FreeBSD Handbook. I decided to write an updated version that starts with a FreeBSD 7.1-RELEASE system and ends by running FreeBSD 7.2-STABLE. If you'd like to read the document and provide feedback, I'd appreciate constructive comments. The draft is available as a PDF file here. Thank you." The author is hoping to publish the final version of the updated book once the upcoming FreeBSD 8.0 is released.
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 Finally, something that could be of interest to some OpenSolaris users. BeleniX, a KDE-based live distribution built from Sun's open source operating system is an interesting choice for those who prefer OpenSolaris with KDE 4 (as opposed to the default system that uses GNOME). Last week, the project's founder and lead developer Moinak Ghosh announced the availability of a network installer for version 0.8 alpha: "There is an alpha release of BeleniX 0.8 that can be installed directly off the package repository via a network installer. There is no live CD release yet - that will come later. The network installer can be used if you are already using OpenSolaris 2009.xx or BeleniX 0.7.1. It will install 0.8 alpha into a new boot environment leaving your current system untouched. While booting, you will get a GRUB menu option to boot into this environment." As always, a use-at-your-own-risk disclaimer is added to the announcement: "This is an alpha release so things may not work or horribly crash in the new boot environment, although the KDE 4 desktop should be usable. Feedback and bug reports are welcome."
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| Released Last Week |
Vine Linux 5.0
Daisuke Suzuki has announced the release of Vine Linux 5.0, a Japanese community distribution for desktops and servers: "This is Vine Linux version 5 release. Since this is not a commercial edition, non-free applications and fonts are not included on the CD/DVD. Instead of proprietary ATOX Japanese input and Ricoh/Dynacomware fonts, this FTP edition contains Anthy and free TrueType fonts. Vine Linux 5 has the following new features: lightweight and high-speed; restructured software collection; support for x86_64 architecture; look and feel improvements; new user-friendly tools; new USB/DVD installable images." Vine Linux 5.0 is based on Linux kernel 2.6.27 with glibc 2.8 and GCC 4.1.2, the default desktop is GNOME 2.26 using X.Org Server 1.6.3. Besides Japanese, the distribution offers full support for American and British English. Read the release announcement (in Japanese) and release notes (in English) for more information.
Vine Linux 5.0 - a major new release of the popular Japanese distribution
(full image size: 530kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
SimplyMEPIS 8.0.10
Warren Woodford has announced the release of SimplyMEPIS 8.0.10, an updated build of the beginner-friendly distribution and live CD based on Debian GNU/Linux: "MEPIS LLC has released SimplyMEPIS 8.0.10, an update to the community edition of MEPIS 8.0. SimplyMEPIS 8.0 uses a Debian 5.0 'Lenny' stable foundation enhanced with a long-term support kernel, key package upgrades, and the MEPIS Assistant applications to create an up-to-date, ready-to-use desktop computer system. The updated components on the SimplyMEPIS ISOs include recent updates from the Debian 'Lenny' pool and also the security-patched Linux kernel 2.6.27.30, rt2860 driver 2.1.2.0, Firefox 3.5.2, Google Gadgets 0.11.0, ALSA 1.0.20, BIND 9.6.1-P1, and KNetworkManager 0.7. In addition, some minor tweaks have been applied to the MEPIS installer and the MEPIS utilities." Here is the complete release announcement.
iMagic OS 2009.9
Carlos La Borde has released iMagic OS 2009.9, a commercial desktop Linux distribution based on Ubuntu: "The new iMagic OS has arrived. Now featuring the newest software, upgraded plugins, a new way to install Windows software, and the new magicOnline, iMagic OS 2009.9 is all about making your life cleaner and faster. Combined with parental controls, transparent updates, automatic data backup, MP3 decoding, and with help always just a click away, iMagic OS is ready to go. The new magicOnline is now web-based, and has a brand new interface, to make installing software easier than ever. With iMagic OS comes PlayOnLinux, a relatively new way to install Windows software on Linux, in an easy and direct software installation tool that supports more Windows applications and games." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
Scientific Linux 4.8 "Live CD/DVD"
Urs Beyerle has released a set of live CD/DVD images containing Scientific Linux 4.8, a distribution built from source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but enhanced with additional software: "Scientific Linux 4.8 Live CD/DVD has been released for the i386 and x86_64 architecture. The Scientific Linux live CD/DVD is a bootable CD/DVD that runs Linux directly from CD/DVD without installing. It is based on Scientific Linux 4.8. Features: can be installed to local hard disk; runs from USB key; changes can be stored persistently on an external device; can be mounted over NFS (diskless client). Software: Linux kernel 2.6.9; OpenAFS client 1.4.7, X.Org 6.8.2, KDE 3.3.1, IceWM 1.2.37, GNOME 2.8.0 (only on DVD), GIMP 2.0.5, Unionfs and Squashfs for read/write live system...." More information can be found in the release announcement.
Jibbed 5.0.1
Zafer Aydogan has announced the release of Jibbed 5.0.1, a NetBSD-based live CD with automatic hardware detection and Xfce desktop: "It's NetBSD time. The long awaited new version of the live CD has finally arrived. It is freshly built from the NetBSD 5.0.1 sources which includes many bug fixes and contains the latest packages from pkgsrc including Filezilla. As always, it contains X.Org from base and the Xfce desktop. Jibbed is a bootable live CD based on the NetBSD operating system that works directly from a CD without need for a hard drive. Automatic hardware detection provides support for a wide variety of graphics cards, sound cards, network interfaces, and USB devices. This live CD showcases a complete NetBSD environment, including compiler sets, and provides features like tmpfs to simulate read-write access on read-only media." More information can be found in the release announcement.
Jibbed 5.0.1 - a NetBSD-based live CD with Xfce
(full image size: 59kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Slackware Linux 13.0
Patrick Volkerding has announced the release of Slackware Linux 13.0, a major update of the world's oldest surviving Linux distribution: "After one of the most intensive periods of development in Slackware's history, the long-awaited stable release of Slackware 13.0 is ready. This release brings with it many major changes since Slackware 12.2, including a completely reworked collection of X packages (a configuration file for X is no longer needed in most cases), major upgrades to the desktop environments (KDE 4.2.4 and Xfce 4.6.1), a new .txz package format with much better compression, and other upgrades all around -- to the development system, network services, libraries, and major applications like Firefox and Thunderbird. We think you'll agree that this version of Slackware was worth the wait. Also, this is the first release of Slackware with native support for the 64-bit x86_64 architecture!" See the release announcement and release notes for more information.
VectorLinux 6.0 "Light Live"
Robert Lange has announced the release of VectorLinux 6.0 "Light Live" edition: "The VectorLinux team is happy to announce VectorLinux 6.0 'Light Live'. This edition is intended as a preview of the traditional installable release. It closely mirrors the original VectorLinux 'Light', but some packages have been added or upgraded, including the 2.6.27.29 kernel. This is a great way to test VectorLinux before committing to a hard drive install. For us who already use it, our favorite operating system is now portable. Another practical use is as a live toolbox for troubleshooting and/or repair. There is a boot option for using it as a rescue disc for a previously installed system. Re-mastering VectorLinux 'Live' has been made easy for those who want their very own, personalized edition." Here is the brief release announcement.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| DistroWatch.com News |
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New distributions added to database
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Spri Linux. Spri Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution that replaces many of the heavier applications with smaller, lighter alternatives. Most notably, GNOME and its windows manager is replaced with IceWM.
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DistroWatch database summary
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And this concludes the latest issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 7 September 2009.
Chris Smart and Ladislav Bodnar
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Slackware (by Woody Ochs on 2009-08-31 10:52:17 GMT from United States)
Slackware 13.0 looks great so far: Slackware has always been Number One in my opinion (could this be Comment Number One of this week?).
2 • Slackware 13 (by Sean on 2009-08-31 11:02:25 GMT from United States)
Wondering about the effects of the latest release of Slackware on other distributions (Vectorlinux released their new version just after their "parent").
Does the distro forked or derived from have to be released before its related distros finish development?
3 • Slackware 13 (by Simon on 2009-08-31 11:34:10 GMT from New Zealand)
At last, Slackware supports x86_64. Now it is perfect. Except for the inflated version number. What is it really...version 10?
:)
4 • iMagic (by Gene Venable on 2009-08-31 11:54:13 GMT from United States)
I naively paid $19 or whatever for the iMagic system, which I saw on DistroWatch, figuring that since it was based on Ubuntu it would be an interesting thing to try on my fairly new Gateway, dual booting with Win 7. Probably it will be some day, but it didn't install for me, I got no error messages and I soon gave up and put on the latest Linux Mint instead, which worked perfectly, of course. Moral: you don't necessarily get what you pay for.
5 • ...ubuntu link? (by Andrew on 2009-08-31 12:14:47 GMT from Australia)
The contents item: "Upcoming releases: Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 5" made me think that you've got some news to report - though it just links to the 'upcoming releases' section....Are we trying extra hard not to write anything about Ubuntu?
On a seperate note, I vote the next Distrowatch cheque goes to Kolibri!!
6 • kolibri (by socola on 2009-08-31 12:27:24 GMT from Germany)
OMG! I test Kolibri iso file under wmware fusion, it is unbelievable fast!!! Google was announcing Chrome OS, I definitely think that Google needs to learn from this OS (or I expect Chrome OS should boot fast like Kolibri). I could not believe in what I see. Kolibri team is doing a great job. Well done, keep going!!!
7 • Slackware 13 (by A.J. Venter on 2009-08-31 12:35:46 GMT from South Africa)
Sean, I can't speak for all of them but I can speak for Kongoni and quote for Bluewhite64 (I'm a former contributor to the latter and the lead developer of the former). Bluewhite64 tracks slackware releases and only releases it's own primary distro upon slackware releases (while tracking current throughout) (this policy does not apply to it's custom live versions - which follow their own schedules).
Kongoni uses a best-per-case approach to match our rolling release with regular ISO's approach, but essentially we track slackware (for the stable ones) and hold back on disruptive changes until a stable upstream release is out, however we do backport from current such features as are stable and will be needed to minimize the change impact when that happens (of course kongoni is a much more complex distro than Vector so we just started the 2.13.0 tree and will still have a full alpha/beta cycle before release).
Kongoni however is in some ways often ahead of slackware on some packages (right now an up-to-date kongoni user will have KDE 4.3.0 while a slackware 13.0 user will be using KDE 4.2.1) - but we only do so where we have a clear reason to do it as maintaining maximum compatibility with slackware (both ways) is very important to us (in fact Eric Hameleers who did most of the work on slackware64 helped with a lot of the information we needed to prepare kongoni64 to switch to it as upstream rather than bluewhite64).
Either way that's two of them I can speak for. Some of the others like slax have their own schedules entirely - some track current, basically, there are many slackware derivatives with different goals and different development styles and the degree of impact a slackware release has on them varies accordingly. For kongoni - it's a crucial thing as it means the point where we open a new branch in the ports tree and begins work on the next major release, for slax it barely matters as they proceed at their own pace without being concerned about compatibility.
8 • kolibri (by greenpossum on 2009-08-31 12:50:12 GMT from Australia)
Wow, that was really cute. I ran it in a VM and was impressed by what it could do in 16MB of RAM of which it only used half once up. Thanks for bringing to our attention these little interesting projects, even if they are not Linux, BSD, Solaris or any big free OS I might have missed. I'm impressed by what determined coders can do. More power and less RAM to them! :)
9 • Linux and Netbook (by Tim on 2009-08-31 13:02:47 GMT from United States)
Hello all. I got my first netbook this weekend and I am looking for idea on the right linux match for it. I am looking to see if there is something that will run from an SD card of thumbdrive. If needed the netbook is an Acer AO751h. Any ideas on what I should try on this?
Thanks All,
Tim
10 • Arch net install?? (by Michael Raugh on 2009-08-31 13:08:51 GMT from United States)
I spent a chunk of my Sunday afternoon trying to install Arch on my "Odyssey" system (http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20090727) with results that were interesting -- as in, "May you live in interesting times." The net install kept failing to find any catalog, so it offered only the "core" package group, but then failed to even get that from the network source. I tried multiple mirrors with the same result. Figured it might be a name resolution problem I tried using dig, nslookup, even host, but none of those are on the Arch live CD. Ping was, and it correctly resolved the mirror names and pinged them, so local network config appears to have been fine. I tried looking up the error but archlinux.org was down for maintenance and all the promising-looking search results pointed there. Not my day, clearly.
I can, and probably will, try again using the full-install CD but I was wondering, is this a common thing? Those of you who have tried or use Arch, have you done a net install recently? What was that experience like?
-mr
11 • No subject (by Nobody Important on 2009-08-31 13:18:17 GMT from United States)
@10 When I installed Arch I used the Net install without any issues. Are you sure you configured your network properly? It's rather complicated at first but you get the hang of it.
Cool lead story, DWW. I like the look of that project.
I've been playing with Arch again. I like to cause pain to myself, yes. It's all fun.
12 • Oh, and (by Nobody Important on 2009-08-31 13:19:17 GMT from United States)
Take a look at the Arch Linux website before it comes back up :)
13 • 90's (by Mikkomies on 2009-08-31 13:48:44 GMT from Finland)
The last fast, usable, operating system was (/still is?) AmigaOS. I still have workin A1200/Blizzard-060 machine. Windows, OSX and Linux -systems are just slow.
Okay... haven't tried kolibri :D
14 • @12 (by stuckinoregon on 2009-08-31 13:59:12 GMT from United States)
Quite possibly one of the best place holders for server maintenance EVER!!!
Very interesting review on kolibri. I also enjoy seeing these kinds of offerings alongside the standard linux, BSD, solris based distros.
Maybe we can even get through this week without all the whinging. One can hope, right?
15 • Net install Arch (by Michael Raugh on 2009-08-31 14:02:06 GMT from United States)
@11: Not all that complicated, really. Same DHCP server dealing out the same IP, gateway, and DNS information that it gives out for anything else that I boot that machine into. I did verify that the network connection was working with ping (and was a little surprised that the mirrors actually responded to ICMP and replied).
archlinux.org is still down for server maintenance, so I guess any further Googling will have to wait. Yeah, the page they're showing now is cute. Completely unhelpful, but cute. ;^)
-mr
16 • Arch (by Tom on 2009-08-31 14:34:34 GMT from United Kingdom)
Is reputed to be quite tough to install but a real joy once completed. Rites of passage? Aargh, footballers on the front homepage! Nooooo, & it's too blue for me. Just imagine if they closed down every Windows Server that had such a 'minor' issue as being able to root remotely! Lol. It reminds me of Hancock's "Docter, Docter, it hurts when i do this", Docter - "Well, don't do it then". Were Arch running their servers off LiveCds or Windows?
I am amazed at the age of the kernel Scientific are using 2.6.9?!!?!?
Is iMagic trying to incur the wroth of Apple? or Microsquish? What is this 'new' way of running Windows stuff on linux? I think we really need to support Wine and help that move forwards, maybe healthy competition will do that? I did really enjoy the Codeweavers video about their trip to Steve Ballmer, taking carpet samples with them.
Thanks again Jesse for another interesting and yet easy read :) I am still linking people to Caitlyn's article on Intel Graphics. Although to be fair i also managed a link to her PekWM article. It's great to have such excellent writers here! :)
Obviously my main high-point this week has been the new release of Slackware. I think trying to get a major distro to slow-down it's releases to help distros that have forked off it would be doomed even without the herding cats issue. (thx CM)
Kolibri is interesting because of speed and non-american slant but i prefer more fully featured distros such as Wolvix, Vector, ZenWalk and all the rest. Kongoni looks more debian based to me i was quite surprised to hear it's slackware based too :) But then i have only just realised Knoppix is Debian based. The boot-up is soo pretty and almost identical colours to Mandriva that i thought it was a Mandriva LiveCd type distro.
Hey, Happy Mondays everyone ;)
Regards from
Tom :)
17 • Where'd it go? (by SlipSlap HappyFlap on 2009-08-31 14:34:38 GMT from United States)
I haven't heard anything about the Summer of Code this year. Was that a one time thing only?
18 • #10 Arch mirrors (by Xtyn on 2009-08-31 15:16:22 GMT from Romania)
I had the same problem you had. I chose the mirror from Romania (there's only one in the list) and it didn't work. After that I chose a mirror from the Netherlands which I knew it works (nluug.nl). Oddly enough, after a while it stopped working too so I switched to a mirror from Bulgaria.
Both mirrors were slow but I installed and configured everything.
After a while I came back to Debian, I just like it more.
19 • No subject (by Nobody Important on 2009-08-31 15:17:27 GMT from United States)
@15: It's not complicated if you know what's you're talking about. Not only do I not have that in store (Arch is always fun when you have no idea what's going on), but I can't assume anyone else knows what they're talking about either.
From what you described there shouldn't be any issues. I did the same thing that you did.
@16: Someone should contact iMagic OS and ask for the source code. They are using GPL code after all. I'd like to see what happens.
@17: Oh, it happened, it was just a little low-key this year. I know Battle for Wesnoth got a whole bunch of new development from the SoC volunteers.
@anyone: Off topic, I am trying to find a good Wi-Fi manager for a Fluxbox installation in Arch. Wicd doesn't work with my Wi-fi network. It never has - it's a widespread symptom the forums are littered with that the devs aren't responding to. So I need something else.
There's a tool in AntiX and sidux called "Ceni" that really "just works" with my Wi-Fi but I can't figure out how to install it on a non-Debian system.
20 • Kolibri (by Jesse on 2009-08-31 15:55:25 GMT from Canada)
I'd like to thank the people who have taken time to comment on my Kolibri review. I had a lot of fun playing with the system -- it's one of the few operating systems I've continued to play with after my review was written. I hope the project continues to develop and grow.
21 • Scientific kernels and stuff (by Michael Raugh on 2009-08-31 16:16:54 GMT from United States)
@16: Tom, you're looking at their recent 4.8 release I'm guessing. That's the version that tracks RHEL 4, hence the 2.6.9 kernel. No matter how many updates and patches go into that it's still going to be 2.6.9.something because that's how Red Hat does things. RHEL5(/CentOS 5/Scientific 5) is on kernel 2.6.18-128.7.1 today, reflecting its 2007 initial release. Last I read RHEL6 is due out in 1Q10, so it'll probably have the 2.6.30 or something fairly close to that.
@19: Basic NIC configuration never struck me as all that difficult. Maybe for an MCSE. ;^) I tend to assume that the problem is on my end just because I find that more believable than the idea that a serious distro would put out a net install image with buggy mirrors in it. Mind you, would it kill the Arch folks to at least provide the location for each mirror? Sure, you can guess roughly by the domain, but how much nicer would it be if I could've picked mirrors that I knew for sure were relatively nearby?
And NI, have you looked at wifi-radar? Not sure offhand what its roots are but I've known people using it on a couple of different distros.
BTW, when my Arch install failed I whipped out Sidux and tried that. It installed quite easily and nicely but nuked my original grub configuration and rendered my base camp Ubuntu install unbootable. It wasn't too hard to restore grub, of course, but it did leave a nasty taste in my mouth.
-mr
22 • @19 Arch WiFi Client (by CaptainShanks on 2009-08-31 16:26:27 GMT from United States)
Have you considered just going with networkmanager? Google Cached link to the Arch wiki article on it since the site is down atm: http://tr.im/xzgO
23 • RE: 21 (by Landor on 2009-08-31 17:11:03 GMT from Canada)
It's been discussed here a few times. The best way to actually multi-boot/test multiple distributions via GRUB is to only install the new distribution to it's boot partition and not MBR. Then all you have to do is chainload each distribution below your main. It's a bit of editing (at first) but the practice is far more sane, which leaves the user a far more sane when there's no headaches.
HTHs someone, somehow..
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
24 • RE: 23 (by Landor on 2009-08-31 17:16:08 GMT from Canada)
Oops...
"he best way to actually multi-boot/test multiple distributions via GRUB is to only install the new distribution to it's boot partition and not MBR."
That should be Root partition, not boot partition...
25 • FreeDOS and GEM (by Bryan on 2009-08-31 17:35:19 GMT from United States)
FreeDOS with GEM can also provide a GUI interface with less than 10 MB of RAM. I have had it running in virtualbox with just 8 MB of RAM...
26 • Kolibi (by Anonymous on 2009-08-31 17:38:34 GMT from United States)
Finally a linux use for the FAT32/NTFS file partitions after windows is removed (or un-updateable).
I had been using FreeDos/GEM and in some cases Puppy.
Lets hope they get Iceweasel or even Opera running on it and some other installable packages for it. I think I got at least 96kb on all my machines to use.
27 • DOS web browser (by Zwirty on 2009-08-31 17:43:31 GMT from Finland)
Could the Arachne DOS web browser work in Kolibri?
28 • Kolibri could have a huge future. (by Davey on 2009-08-31 18:11:15 GMT from United States)
If it can get some good gui browsers and a few other apps working with tiny resources, it sounds like Kolibri could find its way to being a contender in the smartphone/netbook arena. Definitely worth a look and further development. Off-the-wall stuff like this on DW is what makes Monday tolerable.
29 • No subject (by Viralnexxus on 2009-08-31 18:32:33 GMT from United States)
10 • Arch net install?? (by Michael Raugh on 2009-08-31 13:08:51 GMT from United States)
I am pretty familiar with Arch and the installation process. I too had problems with HAL detecting my Wlan (Wireless Network Card) but it did however, detect my eth0 (Wired Network Card). You can do quite a few things to work around it. 1) At the Bash (Terminal) type [yourname@arch~]# ifconfig -a and see what interfaces are available.(should say something like eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:23...........etc.etc. (if it is blank or partially missing than you will most likely need to locate the brand of Network Card you are using and download it from another computer) 2) Check your rc.conf settings and make sure you have your Interface uncommented(# symbol removed), and try using "dhcp" instead of manually setting your IP and network configs.) Download wgetpaste if you can somehow and upload your configuration files over at Arch so that myself or other Archies can help you out! ;)
30 • Kolibri (by mchlbk on 2009-08-31 19:09:48 GMT from Denmark)
Kolibri + decent browser + usb support = wow!
31 • No subject (by ac on 2009-08-31 19:11:31 GMT from Hungary)
@17: Google's SoC is going strong:
http://socghop.appspot.com/document/show/program/google/gsoc2009/faqs#number_orgs
32 • @10 (by andk on 2009-08-31 20:16:23 GMT from Denmark)
i have successfully installed arch several times but one time i had the exact same problem and i still don't know the reason for it. It just refused to connect to any mirrors, and i know the network worked.
Even after several test the installer just couldn't get any packages from any mirrors. What solved it was that i installed fedora to the drive and then i directly tested installing arch after, and then it had no problems at all... very strange.
However this only happend once for me, i have had no problems installing arch on several machines after.
33 • best netbook OS... (by andE on 2009-08-31 20:29:08 GMT from Austria)
re:9 • Linux and Netbook (by Tim on 2009-08-31 13:02:47 GMT from United States)
I have played with xandros (for about 5minutes!!!), gOS for a month or 2, pure ubuntu intrepid but then found easypeasy - and am TOTALLY happy with this. Iam on 1.1 (based on intrepid) right now but 1.5 RC2 seems to have just been released (based on jaunty). It just works and is for me the best of all seen so far. I have eeepc 701 4G. On anything bigger it would be even better. I think it MAY have problems with 2G...
would be great though to see an article on this...
34 • Kolibri... eh? (by Anonymous on 2009-08-31 20:38:08 GMT from United States)
I tried Kolibri a little while back in a virtual machine. For what it is--an OS that runs in under ten megs of RAM--it's special. In fact, Kolibri is one of the only operating systems to run halfway decently in a VM on my machine, since I could get by only allocating 16 megs of RAM (by the time I start allocating 64+ megs to a machine, swapping starts quickly).
However, beyond that, I would honestly rather run Windows 98SE. Or hell, even DOS. They both suck, and Win98 is certainly not light (still runs decently in 64MB, though), but they both have a good selection of software and a pleasant nostalgia. Kolibri is seriously lacking in software, and what comes with it all seemed like demos. A fun toy to play with for a few minutes in a VM though.
I'm anxious for the Haiku alpha to be released which, if all goes as planned, is supposedly coming out in about 8 days. Can't wait for that. Again, not as small and light, but likely to be much more practical.
35 • Ooooh (by Nobody Important on 2009-08-31 21:20:19 GMT from United States)
@34:
Haiku's hitting alpha? It's abou time; I can't wait to see how that project fares.
36 • Slackware 13 (by Barnabyh on 2009-08-31 22:07:52 GMT from United Kingdom)
Beautiful and running great (as in stable and fast), that's all I can say. Currently helping out seeding the torrents, but there are a couple of old slackers that are not happy, about what they call childish colour scheme, and KDE4 in general. I sympathise, it's not nice having to relearn a bunch of apps and change one's ways. But yeah, one can get by without running anything K after all.
Barnabyh
37 • No subject (by canuck on 2009-08-31 23:34:10 GMT from Canada)
23 • RE: 21 (by Landor on 2009-08-31 17:11:03 GMT from Canada)
I find vmware a good & easiest alternative.
38 • PlayOnLinux / iMagicOS (by Mike Thomas on 2009-09-01 00:03:58 GMT from United States)
iMagic isn't really doing anything innovative. The software they use, PlayOnLinux, can run on other distros. It's mainly a bash & python scripting tool for installing applications and games. The underlying software is still wine. Whether it's the best option for the user depends on the user needs.
see www.playonlinux.com
Cheers,
Mike T
39 • iMagic (by Jesse on 2009-09-01 00:12:36 GMT from Canada)
I tried contacting iMagic to talk about a few things. Sadly, their e-mail server seems to be down. I've tried contacting them from a few different e-mail accounts and all message to them come back with a 550 error.
Maybe they got a lot of press and it took them off-line. I'll try again later. It looks like they're trying to take over the niche Xandros had.
40 • slackware 13.0 (by 潘林 on 2009-09-01 00:21:27 GMT from China)
slackware 13.0 终于出来了，已经等了很长时间。
从刚开始接触linux开始，便用的slackware。
希望slackware 一切都好，谢谢开发者。
41 • Slackware benefiting from kernel, KDE4, X, etc. (by 1369ic on 2009-09-01 01:05:39 GMT from United States)
I haven't seen anybody talk about how Slackware is benefiting from the changes in the kernel and KDE4, etc., and it's really too bad. I started with 8.1, and even when we hit the 2.6 kernel, it was still a much more manual system than it is now. Things like HAL and so forth in the kernel, and improvements in X and KDE4 have allowed Patrick Volkerding to keep offering vanilla packages, but get the benefits of distros that patch seemingly everything in sight and add all kinds of their own utilities. I've been using -current (now 13) on this laptop and I didn't have to mess with cpufreqd, the trackpad or, once I installed wicd, wireless. Those used to be the three trials of getting this thing fully functional. Now I just have to install a couple of extra packages from the DVD.
There are still some things you have to do on your own or know a bit about Linux to do, but it takes a lot less knowledge and a lot less work to get a system that anybody can use. And you get the stability and speed of Slackware without accepting the bugs and slowness of the heavily modified distros.
Of course, you can still boot to the command line and use Fluxbox to get a fast, clean system. It really is a very versatile distro.
42 • Kolibri. (by m wallack on 2009-09-01 01:05:55 GMT from Canada)
Kolibri.zips downloaded from the link you provided came up as a trojan in Norton antivirus...
43 • Slackware 13 (by RollMeAway on 2009-09-01 01:35:02 GMT from United States)
It has been awhile since I did a fresh install of Slackware. Usually I follow the "upgrade" instructions
or am running slackware-current. The text mode installer works as well as it did years ago.
I was surprised lilo or none were the only choices for a boot loader. The world is on grub2 now. Yes, I know grub is available.
2nd surprise was no user was created during install or at boot.
You boot into your fresh 5 GB install, to a terminal prompt, and root is the only user. Impressive?
Of course slackware users already know how to adduser and change /etc/inittab to boot into init 4,
but really, would a simple script to prompt a new user to do these things be asking too much?
Starting up kde4 was just as un-impressive. I can't think of another distro as bland and bare.
After several hours of tweaking, kde 4.2.4 is becoming useful. The only apps I find missing are
yakuake and keepassx. The former was available in Slack builds, latter still missing.
Now to explore what applications were installed.
44 • RE: 21 + the main article (by Landor on 2009-09-01 01:42:09 GMT from Canada)
RE: 21
Any virtual install is pretty good for testing but it still doesn't tell you about your hardware, just how the system looks and feels. In fact, anyone using virtual machines to write reviews drives me literally insane, and I've come across a number of reviewers (not here so far) that "only" review virtually. What a total waste, and sadly, these (cough) reviews are on reputable sites.
I find the main article decent of course. I did find quite a bit missing. You kept hearing mention of this or that app, or odd naming, but you never once heard any actual name of any app in use. A couple other things, but all in all, the review was ok.
I personally can't understand the hype about this Operating System. Is it even Linux? This is another one of my peeves about this week's article, no mention of what it actually is (that I read) or a kernel. Anyway, I'm getting off track...
I don't find any reason for all the hype. Yes it's small. Yes it has a tiny resource foot print. Will it remain that way? Probably not. Everyone is excited and yet I remember the same kind of excitement for Slitaz or Tiny Core.
It's like the EEE PC, or any netbook. You start off with something extremely tiny, a completely new innovation and you can't fathom making it even smaller. There's only one intelligent conclusion, the project either stagnates in the mire of its one innovation or it loses what made it famous, thus making it just another hum-drum niche distribution that "once" did something astonishing.
Right now, in my opinion projects like this are ok, fun, but in all truth, truly useless in the broad scheme of things. Unless you want to put it on your toaster or stove, maybe play Doom while you're making KD. There's a sponsor for it, Proctor-Silex or General Electric.
I'm sorry, I just see this type of innovation, unless it's pure hobbyist to test out a theory, a waste of time. A dev, or devs with these kinds of abilities should be working on a mainstream project, maybe even something like Moblin.
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
45 • kolibri (by RollMeAway on 2009-09-01 02:38:37 GMT from United States)
I too find this all but useless.
It apparently recognizes only 8139 net cards. Guess most virtual machines will work.
Looking at the source code for distrowatch.com is ugly! Ha! and useless.
The forums say a working web browser is high priority.
The terminal lists 20 very elementary commands.
I believe only windows file systems are accessible.
Is this really based on linux?
Perhaps we are looking prematurely? It just forked from another project.
Maybe check back in a few months?
46 • kolibri - not a *recent* fork (by Mike-OH-USA on 2009-09-01 03:02:26 GMT from United States)
RollMeAway... you mentioned that Kolibri "just forked from another project". Well, that is not quite accurate, as it forked years ago. I actually started playing with it, and modifying the Kolibri source-code, for kicks over a year ago - making it boot into higher-resolution VESA modes by default and a couple other things. It has come a long way since then too, though it has a long way to go.
To me, the roughest part of Kolibri is that a lot of the code is assembler (I actually do not think it is *all* hand-coded assembler, as this review states, but that rather much is converted to assembler as an intermediate step from other things like C; I could be wrong). Either way, the code is a bit rough to work with unless you are willing to dive into Assembler.
Next, I think the project focuses too much on older technology, and would have been better off setting the hardware-bar a bit higher, since by the time the OS is at version 1.0, all the old hardware they have targeted for support will be even more dusty and obsolete. I think this is where many OS attempts go wrong, but that is just my opinion.
Either way, Kolibri is quite a neat little OS and the guys building it seem quite capable, although perhaps a bit slow to get any kind of regular release-schedule to occur.
47 • Kolibri (by Dave on 2009-09-01 09:35:13 GMT from Germany)
i cant find a 0.7.5 version on the project page of Kolibri. the newest version is 0.7.1. mistake from distrowatch?
48 • Recent slackware developments, #41 (by Barnabyh on 2009-09-01 10:14:02 GMT from United Kingdom)
Yeah, Slackware is the new Ubuntu :) . Trackpad and wireless with wicd already worked fine since at least 12.1 (that's the first time I tried Slackware on a laptop). Cpufreq was a bit more involved though editing rc.modules. It's nice if that works out of the box now. I second your opinion that 13 is a serious improvement for most desktop end users in terms of starting out with a more functional full install, through progress in the kernel and in KDE4.
At the same time this may introduce new problems though, i.e new users not learning any longer how to set things manually if required- the old debate: ease of use or dumbed down?
But it's a moot point for Slackware, it's going whereever Linux and the wider universe of software projects is going.
49 • network cards/adapters (by Sean on 2009-09-01 10:30:29 GMT from United States)
It's one thing to "recognize" 8139s, etc. Many distros have for a while now, thankfully. But (this is anecdotal I know) Sabayon is the first distro to *hold the connection indefinitely* for me on this laptop with an RTL 8139b network adapter.
Indeed, that literally stopped my distro hopping for this machine.
Odd, because Vectorlinux would not do that, but is the only distro to properly operate the hardware on my old PC in the other room and two other ones at work.
So glad there are many linux distributions to try on these varying boxes and laptops.
50 • Play On (by Tom on 2009-09-01 11:20:33 GMT from United Kingdom)
PlayOnLinux does sound excellent, and it's great that it uses something that's already there (Wine) and 'just' adds improvements to make it more noob friendly. I think that's exactly the sort of thing that could really help Wine and might help people move away from Microsquish. Mike Thomas, thanks for the links there :)
Perhaps iMagic is too busy dealing with calls from Microsquish and Apple?
If the first time you try something is the one time it doesn't work then you get a very different impression than if that had been preceded by a ton of times of it working very smoothly. Hopefully we are big enough to try it again someday. I will try VectorLinux again but Wolvix just keeps on working so it's easier to stick with that, sorry if that's dull and boring of me :)
I am intrigued about Slackware's switch to Kde. Would it be easy for someone to write a program that set-up a new user plus all the usual folders that other distros have and add that to all the LiveCds that only run as root user initially - or would that be too dumb?
Good luck and regards to all from Tom :)
51 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-01 11:23:13 GMT from United Kingdom)
Recent distros.
Has anyone "noticed" that a lot of recent distros are described as being able to run "live" with no need to install? I know this has long been the case but it seems to me this feature is being plugged a bit harder these days.
I wonder (tongue firmly in cheek...) if it is easier to state this in the dev's copy (blurb) than have to sort out any partitioning/file system probs for tyros?
And of course, what with much more RAM and faster procs being the order of the day, the performance is probably more than adequate to do the basics, so to speak. What with more and more fairly high spec'd business machines appearing on the used market, and, RAM wafers becoming very affordable, it is unlikely to break the bank, even in these troubled times...
I would posit if sound or video editing was your hobby or business, say, you would use a more specialised distro(s), installed to h/d, on as fast a machine as you could acquire.
I have been playing with Vector 6, see homepage, running as live and it just installed and found the wifi with no issues to remark on. BUT, it did not find my ext h/d. Did not have enough time...it was very late... to find out why but I don't suppose this is a unique occurence. Anyone else found simiar? (I found no issues with some other distros in "live", btw.)
52 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-01 11:26:40 GMT from United Kingdom)
Oops, ref V6, there is an option to change the PW, on the desktop, BEFORE you sort out the internet connection, LOL.
53 • Re: 23 (by Michael Raugh on 2009-09-01 12:16:58 GMT from United States)
@23: Thanks, Landor. I don't do a lot of multiboot; I tend to think of rebooting in the middle of the day as a thing Windows users have to suffer through and hate the idea of sitting through a reboot just so I can run Program X. Up to now I've always relied on the second OS to respect the first, which has usually worked. Going forward I'll do it as you suggest.
-mr
54 • @47 Kolibri version (by Jesse on 2009-09-01 12:25:26 GMT from Canada)
If you look at the top of their main page (http://www.kolibrios.org/) the first news item is a statement saying 0.7.5.0 is ready for download. That is the version used for the review.
55 • Karmic Koala Ubuntu 9.10 (by 10ksnooker on 2009-09-01 12:46:30 GMT from United States)
I think the standard version of Firefox for Ubuntu's upcoming Karmic Koala is 3.5. Your charts still show the older version 3.0.13 for Firefox.
56 • 23-24 Grub2 menu (by Verndog on 2009-09-01 13:18:21 GMT from United States)
Landor, for Grub2 users, I think this might work:
Example of Windows and NewDistro
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP" {
set root=(hd0,2)
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Chainload NewDistro on /dev/sda3" {
set root=(hd0,3)
chainloader +1
PS-Yes, I know all about the "/etc/default/grub" files.
57 • Kolibri, Avast! & Vector (by Elder V. LaCoste on 2009-09-01 13:18:54 GMT from United States)
Thank you for the review on Kolibri. This is exactly why DWW is the best. I have played around with Kolibri and was very impressed, but the lack of a browser is the big thing. I actually appreciate the fact that the developers are focused on older hardware. I think there are many other distros that can be easily used on newer, fancier, machines. I don't know where DSL is going, but there is really nothing that can take it's place at the present time.
#42 You should try using Avast!.
On another subject, I just tried out the new Vector 6.0 Live Light cd. The boot up was quick and flawless. It detected all my hardware and rolled me right onto a very pleasant desktop that looks like Icewm(?). It is nicely appointed with all the usual applications one would expect to find in a small distro. One little peeve of mine is volume control. There was no default volume control in the bottom panel. Other than that, it is a winner. I am going to try the usb installer right now. Cheers.
58 • @9 about netbook (by twodogs on 2009-09-01 16:58:17 GMT from United States)
check out crunchbang. it uses openbox and is very nice, minimalistic and fast!
59 • #9: Netbook distros (by Caitlyn Martin on 2009-09-01 22:26:47 GMT from United States)
I don't have an Acer so I can't address your particular hardware. With my Sylvania netbook I found that Pardus 2009 correctly detected all my hardware and "just worked". I installed Xfce and I am using it rather than the KDE 4.2.4 default desktop to get the most out of my netbook's resources. I'm very happy with the results.
I also have had good luck with Vector Linux 6.0 Standard (not Light) with Xfce but I did have to add additional drivers for my webcam to get it functional. Also, the graphical installer is not netbook friendly and things were cut off with a 1024x600 resolution. The old text (ncurses) based installed worked perfectly. Once installed everything did work except my webcam.
I would avoid any Ubuntu release based on Jaunty (9.04) if you have an Intel graphics chipset and that, I believe, includes Crunchbang. The problems are well documented in the Ubuntu forum. If you are an Ubuntu fan either go with Karmic (9.10) alpha 4 which is already more usable than Jaunty is or else go back to the LTS release (8.04.3) as it works flawlessly on my machine. The main issue with Hardy (8.04) is that it's built on an older kernel and you may have to go out and add drivers to get all your hardware working. The Ubuntu Netbook Remix is streamlined for netbook use. I don't care much for their netbook desktop but it's just two clicks to go back to the "classic" GNOME desktop.
60 • Kolibri project (by ezsit on 2009-09-01 23:27:39 GMT from United States)
[quote]It's a fork of the MenuetOS project and is currently licensed under the GNU GPL. The operating system is designed to run on 32-bit x86 processors and is written entirely in assembly language.[/quote]
To those recent posters who did not read the review, Kolibri is not Linux at all, it is based on MenuetOS, which is a unique, original operating system developed in Assembler language to be small and light. MenuetOS has been around for many years, at least 10 years if not more, and is a personal project. Menuet has no roots within UNIX or the POSIX standards, nor is it based on any operating system.
61 • Re: Netbooks (by Sertse on 2009-09-02 00:00:25 GMT from Australia)
I was using Pardus KDE, and now Debian (Sid) KDE, in my personal experiences - KDE runs fine (Aspire One, 1 gig ram), but not that well if your cpu freq is set at powersave, which I do when running on battery. (throttled at 800mhz just doesn't cut it....). A lighter DE/WM is recommended.
Both are pretty lovely on a decent system though.
Anyone noticed, on those totally arbitrary rankings, that Mandriva has somehow overtaken Debian?
62 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2009-09-02 00:37:28 GMT from United States)
@59: I updated my default Ubuntu install and the Intel drivers worked fine. Did I do something different? I assumed they just fixed the issue.
63 • #62: Intel graphics driver issues (by Caitlyn Martin on 2009-09-02 02:40:08 GMT from United States)
@Anonymous: No, it is not fixed in Jaunty. If you update the kernel and the Intel driver it *may* be better if you tweak your xorg.conf... or not. If you read the detailed description of the status of the issue three weeks ago in DWW you will note that not all Intel chips suffer from the problem, and that some do in 3D only and not in 2D or vice versa. There are a number of factors involved. However, for most of the mobile Intel graphics chips used in netbooks Ubuntu Jaunty is a disaster. It is mostly fixed in Karmic and the performance is visibly improved. Please remember that the discussion was about netbooks.
64 • DE/WM (by Anonymous on 2009-09-02 02:48:44 GMT from United States)
Desktop Enviroment
Window Manager
What is the difference?
Where is this published?
Thank You
65 • @64 (by Nobody Important on 2009-09-02 03:01:30 GMT from United States)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment
Next time, use Google. The first one's on me, though. :)
66 • @61 (by Pingus on 2009-09-02 10:15:33 GMT from United States)
"Anyone noticed, on those totally arbitrary rankings, that Mandriva has somehow overtaken Debian?"
Uh huh
http://forum.mandriva.com/viewtopic.php?t=116190&highlight=
Everyone start clicking!
67 • Slackware 64, is it worth the hassle? (by Dopher on 2009-09-02 10:35:43 GMT from Belgium)
I've been using slackware for a couple of years in the past. And I enjoyed it a lot. But nowadays I use one of it derivatives (in my case vector linux) and another distro that i won't mention, because of last week, as my main OS.
Let's say you have a 64 bit compatible machine. And you go for slack64. And you need 32bit compatibility. Then you must be a student, it'er with spare time at work, or unemployed to have the time to maintain such a system.
First you have to install slack64, and add the multilib to it. If that was the only thing, it wouldn't be a problem.
The real hassle in my opinion is keeping track of all the updates, updates to your 32 bit libs or extra 32libs you need, the multilib scripts (which where only introduced recently with slack64, and probably will be updated every now and then). And be very carefull with updating in general since you have a multilib environment.
Next you probably want more software/libs, So you go and compile with the help of slackbuild.org, and compile apps and libs from source, and their dependencies.
And with the above, you haven't even actually used your computer.
The good thing probably is, that you can actually make it all work on slackware with this work and tinkering.
If you have a dayjob, a house (that needs maintainance) and a family, then prepare for sleeping on the couch a lot, because your household needs some attention to.
So, my conclusion is that for people with limited time, I wouldn't go for slackware 64 yet (wait 5 years when the transition time is behind us) , but instead stick to slackware 32 bit, or go for a derivative.
I hope I helped you keeping your partner with this information
68 • RE:67 (by dopher on 2009-09-02 10:49:40 GMT from Belgium)
The above, comment 67, was only an advice for the sane people. ;)
Because I to can't actually resist setting up slackware64 with 32bit compatibility, on an encrypted disk with lvm, compile all the apps i need , and configure a nicely looking JWM interface, so that it meets all my needs. But that will probably take a whole weekend, time i don't have, so i have to smear it out over a couple of days where i have some time to play.
Anyway, have fun all!
69 • #9 (by Notorik on 2009-09-02 12:36:14 GMT from United States)
Give AntiX a try.
70 • @63 (by Sean on 2009-09-02 13:10:26 GMT from United States)
Intel graphics chips, as well as CPUs, released at different times but with the same "model" number can differ and thus cause an installation the same machine specs as a successful installation to fail.
I found this out with my Acer laptop about a year ago. I began Googling around and discovered that some retailers around the world strike deals with chip manufacturers for lower priced/specs chips but wanting the identifying numbers to remain the same as the higher, faster and more efficient ones.
I find this scandalous, but apparently it is an ongoing practice and is accepted by all involved.
71 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-02 13:45:34 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref #70
Crikey Sean that seems unbelievable...can you recall any urls? Should this be true, assuming you were not fed plausible garbage of course, then certainly it might explain why GNULinux works on some machines and not others...
...but if it does turn out to be garbage, and for decency's sake I'll keep an open mind on this one, then perhaps some of the chips installed were the below par grade rejects and were flogged off, allegedly...to some manufacturers...in error.
Top Tip or "verb sat" btw Sean, probably NOT a good idea to mention names...on a public forum...in connection with alleged fraud...without proof.
72 • Top 5 (by Tom on 2009-09-02 14:31:06 GMT from United Kingdom)
Has anyone noticed that in the top 5 each distro is from a completely different family :))) (ignoring Mint). Going further, looking at the top 10 there is still very little duplication of family. Getting Slackware in there without Sabayon or Arch bubbling out would make it pretty perfect :)) Hopefully with the 64bit vesion of Slackware and the new release we might make it yet! :)
Diversity breeds serendipity. Competition and 'market' forces keep driving gnu&linux onwards and upwards, maybe one day we might get noticed in the mainstream press! I know it's an unlikely dream for any-time soon but getting noticed out there in the 'real' world would probably help us all quite a lot. Maybe even ati and intel would put resources into decent drivers for their graphics cards! lol (another dream too far)
Good luck and regards to all from Tom :)
73 • Kolibri? (by Anonymous on 2009-09-02 14:44:32 GMT from Italy)
Not without a reason are such OSes called "Hobby OSes", because you can hardly do any productive work with them.
Even "bigger" efforts like SkyOS or Haiku have failed, at least till now, at giving people something remotely usable.
A modern OS is a HUGE effort: the OS itself, drivers for the countless available hardware (unless it is sold bundled with hardware, Apple style), meaningful applications...
An OS like Kolibri can be nice as a proof of concept, just play with it for a few minutes...
74 • @70 (by Sean on 2009-09-02 16:49:50 GMT from United States)
Yes, Forest, I'll re-Google and find it all.
I remember when I started with it I was just curious about what "core duo" was all about wrt CPUs. I happened onto a thread in an Acer forum that was talking about how the mfg "turns off half of the processor for lower-end machines." I was not too surprised at that, but it went on to explain that the self-same model number and name of the processor is used in Best Buy ads, etc.
I'll look around and provide links here.
75 • @61 (by Adam Williamson on 2009-09-02 17:38:18 GMT from Canada)
MDV was ahead of Debian for quite a long time last year, too.
I suspect Debian is somewhat underranked on DW, relatively speaking.
76 • security (by jack on 2009-09-02 17:39:20 GMT from Canada)
"googling Security
How much does Google know about you
by
greg conti (computer science prof.)
Addison -Wesley.2009.
The last chapter is somewhat frightening.
77 • Kolibri (by stuckinoregon on 2009-09-02 19:08:44 GMT from United States)
@44,45,73
Do you really consider an article and a couple of positive comments "hype?"
I see the whole thing as an ambitious project that is working outside of the proprietary worlds of Microsoft and Apple. Is it perfect or super useful yet, maybe not, but it's definitely worth a look and perhaps some encouragement. Just as NeXT and Be were. I also see it as something may develop in to much much more. Do we really expect Linux or the BSDs to be the end all and be all for the opensource world? Isn't there room for something else or improvement?
"Hobbyist OS" - Several have thrown out that moniker. Seriously? You throw that term about as if it were some how disparaging on a board devoted to Linux and BSD? You DO realize that that is the way that much of the rest of the world see's us, right?
Skepticism, I can totally understand, but why not give it a shot objectively and try and find some potential. You just might find something that surprises you. I certainly did about 10 years ago and have never looked back.
78 • OEMs (by Tom on 2009-09-02 19:51:30 GMT from United Kingdom)
In one article Lenovo are hailed as selling pre-installed linux machines and yet on their website fow keyboards and things Lenovo state they only support Windows. Also with Dell it seems that while they have a range of machines with Ubuntu pre-installed they also seem to do far more free advertising for Windows and avoid advertising their own product line? Doesn't this seem a bit strange to anyone else? Are Lenovo 'good' & trust-worthy or should i steer clear of them? A dilhma. Take care if you do answer.
Regards to all again from Tom :)
79 • RE 56,77 & 78 (by Landor on 2009-09-02 21:11:03 GMT from Canada)
56:
Seems they changed things up a bit for Grub2. I've always just used rootnoverify. Guess I should actually take a look at Grub2 since it's on its way. Thanks for the heads up.
77: Well, from what I've seen here (only of course) that the project is quite slow at times. Factor in they're only getting usb support now and the fact that it doesn't have a functioning browser, I would say that comparing how Linux is viewed to that OS is apples and oranges. Yes, it would fall under the term of Hobbyist. Also, if you "may" have noticed, someone even spoke of it going on phones and such. Quite a ridiculous statement in my opinion for something of this nature. But, that's all this is right, multiple opinions.
RE: 78
I can't say about their Linux support of course, but I've owned a couple Lenovo products over the years, the latest is their low-end laptop, and I've always found the quality exceptional. My understanding is Lenovo usually has very little problems running Linux, if any at all. Though again, only my understanding, which may be incorrect, especially based on what I consider small issues when it comes to installing Linux. Expertise plays a big factor in that.
HTHs somehow...
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
80 • Fast boot (by khai on 2009-09-03 03:02:44 GMT from Canada)
sure, kolibri is in early stages and unuseable as an OS, but linux developers should get inspired by lightning fast booting!
81 • #80: Fast boot (by Caitlyn Martin on 2009-09-03 04:48:27 GMT from United States)
@khai: Some Linux developers already have a very fast boot. You'll read about one next Monday in DistroWatch Weekly, I believe. (Ladislav always can change up articles if the need arises so it's not 100%.)
82 • Lenovo & Linux (by Untitled on 2009-09-03 06:37:15 GMT from United Kingdom)
At home I have a Lenovo ThinkPad and at work I have a Lenovo ThinkCentre. Both are running Linux (Kubuntu). Installation was smooth - no need to look for drivers and everyday use is great as well. The home machine has seen some other Linux flavours as well and the only problem I've ever had was with the wifi drivers on Debian Lenny, which were easily solved.
IBM were always keen about supporting Linux on their machines and that's something Lenovo has inherited when they bought IBM's PC division and it looks to me that they're careful to keep it going.
Also, my understanding is that the Chinese government requires its PC suppliers to support Linux and that Lenovo is one of such suppliers.
Lenovo's UK website offered PCs and notebooks with Suse (enterprise) and last time I checked their netbook was also offered with Suse. As for them (and others) "advertising" windows on their websites, I guess this is the way of the world. It reminds me of those PC commercials a few years back when all manufacturers had to show the Intel logo and ad-tone whenever they mentioned Pentium. I don't care much about it but I can tell you that if you're looking for a machine that supports Linux you can't go wrong with Lenovo (at list with their Think* line).
83 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-03 08:49:41 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref the Hobby'Os isssue and Kolibri,,,I got lost in the semantics in this thread.
Of course it is a proof of concept/hobbyist project...what else could it be, LOL! No nice GUI, write your own apps, not really Linux based, no support to speak of, etc, etc.
I suspect LB published the article for interest's sake and nothing else...we could get something on Hurd next, why not, it's all stuff to keep the little grey cells busy.
I was amused (not in an unkind way tho') by the bombshell we, Linux users, were regarded as geeky hobbyists by the "world" and his wife and their children.
I believe that sort of thing may have been true only a short while ago but simply read the DW pages and links thereon...there are dozens of GNULinux open source projects across the planet, all going about the business of bringing computing to the masses in a quiet, unassuming manner.
Slight t-i-c, again...whomever dropped the notion of the NSA or similar, getting MS to include a "secret" backdoor into XP, Vista or W7 wotever, certainly is a master, oops, mistress of intrigue, LOL.
You can only imagine the shock, dismay, anger, consternation, etc, etc, when other nations' secret squirrels read that. Even if nothing iffy was found on investigation would not mean that might always be the case...marketing by "paranoia"...genius...and of course no nasty licence fees to cough up, support by vetted in-house engineers...priceless...
84 • ZdNet (by Tom on 2009-09-03 12:04:31 GMT from United Kingdom)
Lol they suddenly need all kinds of very personal information before letting me log in. Not quite "Who did your granny kiss in '53" but it does ask a lot more than they really need to know. Guess i just wont be going there again.
85 • RE: # 83 (by Anonymous on 2009-09-03 13:35:16 GMT from Italy)
"I was amused (not in an unkind way tho') by the bombshell we, Linux users, were regarded as geeky hobbyists by the "world" and his wife and their children.
I believe that sort of thing may have been true only a short while ago but simply read the DW pages and links thereon...there are dozens of GNULinux open source projects across the planet, all going about the business of bringing computing to the masses in a quiet, unassuming manner."
Absolutely! Linux has drivers, applications... How many? Debian has about 24,000 in its repos, and they are by far not everything available.
And even if you still have doubts about Linux on the desktop, nobody can deny that Linux is a fine server OS, which is a serious matter. Thus no hobby OS, definitely.
86 • Thank you! (by BlueJayofEvil on 2009-09-03 16:40:29 GMT from United States)
This was a wonderful DWW this week! I really enjoyed the FreeBSD article you linked to!
87 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-03 17:31:59 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref #85
Semantics again, LOL.
I believe we are probably agreeing on this one. GNULinux is taken very seriously by the planet, as mentioned above, in many, many different projects, call them what you will.
However, when LB publishes a piece on a Russian or Chinese or Spanish or Portuguese or Brazillian distro, very few folk, if any, mention the fact, even in passing, when posting in the forum.
Whereas the arcane minutiae of a distro we all KNOW will never ever get used as a broad replacement for MS is discussed endlessly, sometimes to the point of causing affront.
And you wonder why GNULinux folk are labeled "nerdy, geeky, hobbyists"? It's because...wait for it...they/we/me just are.
88 • Security, again. Sorry to bring this up. (by Pearson on 2009-09-03 19:52:56 GMT from United States)
I hate to bring this up after it *finally* died out, but I think I must post this.
From the https://blogs.apache.org/infra/entry/apache_org_downtime_reportapache.org incident report for 8/28/2009 :
Our initial running theory was correct--the server that hosted the apachecon.com (dv35.apachecon.com) website had been compromised. The machine was running CentOS, and we suspect they may have used the recent local root exploits patched in RHSA-2009-1222 to escalate their privileges on this machine. (bold added by me).
Disclaimer: I don't know if CentOS applied that RHSA-*** patch quickly, or if the Apache server maintainers applied the CentOS patch as soon as it was available (assuming it was available). I'm also assuming that the RHSA-**** is a RedHat security patch.
I read this announcement as "RedHat provided a patch, CentOS didn't have the patch. We go hacked." This is evidence of why it's important, at least for people running servers, to keep patches as up to date as possible. If Apache can get hacked, then I presume most anyone can.
89 • RE: 88 (by Landor on 2009-09-03 20:59:13 GMT from Canada)
That's a very good hypothesis.
Yes, it's a highly visible website. People forget Ladislav had his run with script kiddies whackin' DistroWatch a while back and fought them off for a little more than 2 days if I'm not mistaken. I'm sure he hasn't forgotten it as well. But, it goes to show you, sites that are actually "extremely" security concious, can, and do get hacked/attacked. What does that say about people that arbitrarily dismiss security?
This has 0 to do with the whole root or su topic as well. It has to do with actual security and keeping up to date, or at least abreast of vulnerabilities.
The great thing about Open Source is that we have literally millions of people available to stamp out these vulnerabilities quickly and efficiently.
Anyway, I too will not go further, but I bet someone jumps on the whole root topic again...
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
90 • Informative interview with Slackware (64-bit) Developer (by Observer on 2009-09-04 05:28:16 GMT from Australia)
Interview with Eric Hameleers: Why You Should Try Slackware
Slackware is one of the first Linux distributions ever and the oldest surviving. With the recent release of version 13.0, the project has announced official support for 64-bit systems. Linux Magazine talks to Eric Hameleers, the man behind the port, about what motivated him to create it and what Slackware has to offer you.
Christopher Smart
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
http://www.linux-mag.com/cache/7502/1.html
91 • slow week, but interesting :) (by Tom on 2009-09-04 09:20:59 GMT from United Kingdom)
Only less than 100 posts this week, less than half the normal traffic :( and only 4 release announcements with one of those being for an alpha release! I am already looking forward to reading another article by Caitlyn if that happens on Monday. It's interesting to see the alpha Koala is going with the Gnome's development - i don't know why that sounds like a dodgy date or something ;) Even more interesting to see such a major release of RedHat pass without comment despite being so huge in gnu&linux as a Server OS. It is great to see Slackware developing so much after being relatively quiet for so long tho. I really think exploring this further is a good move. Lets hope Zenwalk, Vector, Wolvix and all can keep up!
Good luck and thanks for a pleasant tho quiet week, regards from
Tom :)
92 • re #90 Informative interview with Slackware (64-bit) Developer (by DG on 2009-09-04 12:17:16 GMT from Netherlands)
Interesting article. The topic of a multilib version has just been raised this week on the Lunar Linux developers' mailing list, and most of the devs are quite sceptical about any potential benefits.
Maybe Chris Smart can follow up his LinuxMag interview with an article on DWW with the pros and cons of 32-bit only, 64-bit only and multilib approaches for Linux desktops and servers.
D.
93 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-04 12:26:58 GMT from United Kingdom)
Ref #88
Why on earth should you even imagine you have to apologise Pearson. Just because some folk think the security issue is boring is no reason to think we all do.
The linked article should be a wake up call for those who are too blase to worry themselves but doubtless many folk will just hit the snooze button...
From the article I gathered it was partly an issue to do with lax p/w protocols...
94 • Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 5 announcement ... (by Coffee on 2009-09-04 15:29:39 GMT from France)
> ... have been slightly updated to reflect the introduction of a new
> development version of GNOME (2.27.91 as opposed to 2.27.4
> in Alpha 4) and a newer kernel (version 2.26.31-rc8 updated
> from 2.26.31-rc5 in Alpha 4).
There's something wrong with the kernel version in that release
announcement. Shouldn't it be "version 2.6.31-rc8 updated from
2.6.31-rc5 in Alpha 4" ?
(Yes, I know, I'm a bean-counting nitpicker)
95 • Security thoughts (by RollMeAway on 2009-09-04 18:18:51 GMT from United States)
The apache breach referenced @88 suggests:
"We will re-implement measures such as IP banning after several failed logins, on all machines."
This appears to be a missing function in all servers (ssh, ftp, http, etc) I have experienced in
linux. I believe it should be an inherent function of ALL servers. The best fix I have discovered
is 'fail2ban'. Anyone running a server of any kind should use this or something similar, or NOT
run a server at all. If someone logging in can't get the password right in 2 or 3 attempts they
are not legitimate! They should be banned from trying again.
Using fail2ban, and chkrootkit (in a cron job) will give a little peace of mind.
Of course the system log files should be monitored as well.
96 • Conary (by Linux ElTelegraf on 2009-09-05 02:01:35 GMT from Australia)
A possible change of direction for Foresight Linux
http://lwn.net/Articles/347275/
Very informative discussion to be found above. Lots of factual info on the merits of Conary and pros and cons of RPM and DPKG (rpms vs debs) package management.
Excerpt:
>>I would note that capabilities of RPM based systems in some ways have been better. For specifics consider
* Gpg verification, IIRC in RPM based systems first
* Multi-lib support (next Debian release goal)
* Automatic debug info generation (next Debian release goal)
* Delta RPM integration
* Separate patches
* File capability support?
The catching up goes both ways. <<
http://lwn.net/Articles/347285/
97 • @88 CentOS patches (by Johnny Hughes on 2009-09-06 02:21:51 GMT from United States)
First off, you have to gain an SSH shell FIRST, before you can use that
exploit. It is NOT remotely exploitable. No one seems to be sure how they initially got on to the machine ... maybe an unsecure php or cgi app.
Red Hat released their RHSA-2009-1222 on 8/24/2009 at 11:11 UTC
https://www.redhat.com/archives/enterprise-watch-list/2009-August/msg00014.html
CentOS released our rebuild of that update on 20:36 UTC on the same
day, less than 8.5 hours later.
http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2009-August/016110.html
The break in happened on August 27th, starting at about 18:00 UTC.
https://blogs.apache.org/infra/entry/apache_org_downtime_initial_report
So, the update was available before the problem, if they wanted to install the update.
It is NOT a "RedHat provided a patch, CentOS didn't have the patch. We go hacked."
98 • No subject (by forest on 2009-09-06 06:57:51 GMT from United Kingdom)
Try again, ref #97
While reading the links and following subsequent links I happened on this site:
http://www.milw0rm.com/
Might be of interest?
99 • Monomaxos (by ely on 2009-09-06 09:25:33 GMT from Philippines)
I like the menu applet that is used by Monomaxos on the screenshot... I wonder if I could add it in my Ubuntu panel.
100 • Hey (by Nobody Important on 2009-09-06 17:49:46 GMT from United States)
Zenwalk just kind of popped out of the woodwork. Looks like they're doing some good work over there. Hopefully the release doesn't come with a borked video driver out of the box like 6.0, because I really wanted to give it a try.
101 • RE: 100 (by Landor on 2009-09-06 21:27:33 GMT from Canada)
I'm gonna give it a shot myself. I'm really looking forward to the up and coming Frugal release. They do some really good things over in that camp too. There's just tons of great projects. Innovation isn't just limited to the big boys. :)
Keep your stick on the ice...
Landor
102 • Linus weighs in on security (& BSD devs).... (by Anonymous on 2009-09-07 01:00:52 GMT from United States)
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/706950
103 • Zenwalk and Lin-X (by Joe on 2009-09-07 01:45:43 GMT from United States)
I'm currently downloading Zenwalk to give it a try myself. On another note, I found time to try a distro that I downloaded some time ago, Lin-X. I actually like it. Unfortunately, it looks like their web site may be a thing of the past (http://www.lin-x.info). We'll have to see if it resurfaces.
Number of Comments: 103
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| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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BlackArch Linux
BlackArch Linux is an Arch Linux-based distribution designed for penetration testers and security researchers. It is supplied as a live DVD image that comes with several lightweight window managers, including Fluxbox, Openbox, Awesome and spectrwm. It ships with over a thousand specialist tools for penetration testing and forensic analysis.
Status: Dormant
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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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