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DistributionsNews and Editorials Distribution list update Every now and then I like to provide a update on the LWN.net Distributions List. Our last update was nine months ago (see the Distributions page for July 15, 2004) at which time there were 355 active distributions. Fifty distributions have been added since then bringing the total to 405. That averages out to between 5 and 6 new distributions per month.Each week at least a dozen entries are updated. Most updates are minor and go unmentioned, but alert readers may notice these weekly changes, but there's no change log. This week the entries for Fedora, Fedora Legacy, SUSE, Ubuntu, Beyond Linux From Scratch, BLAG Linux and GNU, Buffalo Linux, Specifix Linux, tinysofa, YES Linux, Plamo Linux, Pingwinek GNU/Linux, Caixa Mágica, Trustix Secure Linux, A/DeMuDi, Overclockix, Puppy Linux, ADIOS, Damn Small Linux, Gibraltar, KANOTIX, KNOPPIX, Linux LiveCD Router and SLAX have all been updated. A family of live CDs from Sweden has joined, and of course the entries for Mandrakelinux and Conectiva have been replaced with an entry for Mandrivalinux. Possible distributions such as the Ichthux project will not be added until they have more ware and less vapor. Live CDs remain the high growth category as more and people create CDs to scratch a particular itch. The "enterprise" entries seem to be slowing down slightly, just over half a dozen have been added since the last update, less than one per month. The following distributions have been removed from the list over the past nine months: innominate Bootable Business Card, Linuxcare Bootable Business Card, HAL91, Relax Linux, JBLinux, Eagle Linux, LGIS GNU/Linux, LRs-Linux, Haydar Linux, Definite Linux, DLX, Finnix, JAMD-Linux, Leka Rescue Floppy, Netserva Dlite, Stampede Linux and Ares Desktop. We still plan to move the list to a searchable database, some day. For now it remains a flat file, limited to one category per entry. However, if you think we have something in the wrong category or have other corrections, dead link reports, additions, or comments let us know with a comment to this article or mail to lwn@lwn.net.
New Releases Ubuntu 5.04 released Ubuntu 5.04, the "Hoary Hedgehog release," is available; see the announcement for details. It includes GNOME 2.10.1, Firefox 1.0.2, X.org 6.8.2, etc. It's a single-CD download, or, if you ask, they will mail a CD to you.The Kubuntu 5.04 distribution, which provides a KDE-based version of Ubuntu, is also available.
Mandriva Limited Edition 2005 released Mandriva (the company formerly known as Mandrakesoft) has announced the availability of "Mandriva Limited Edition 2005," the promised transitional release of the (formerly) Mandrakelinux distribution. There's a number of new features, Xbox support, and more. There is also the claim that "Limited Edition 2005 is the only Linux system to allow the seamless installation and running of 32-bit applications on 64-bit platforms," which is perhaps overreaching a bit. Click below for the full announcement.
Fedora Core 4 Test 2 available The second Fedora Core 4 test release is now available. Numerous bugs have been fixed, and the current releases of GNOME and KDE have been integrated; click below for details and mirror locations.Also worth noting: the Fedora Project is dropping support for Fedora Core 2; that release is now the responsibility of the Fedora Legacy Project.
Distribution News Branden Robinson is the 2005 Debian Project leader The results are in: Branden Robinson has won the election for Debian Project leader; click below for the details.
Fedora Docs Steering Committee formed The Fedora Project has formed a new Documentation Steering Committee, with an accompanying wiki site. Red Hat's Karsten Wade explains: "My objective, in chairing the committee and running the project, is to get relevant Fedora documentation written. My emphasis is on quality over quantity. You will see the FDSC active on the list, working out processes, and working within and without process to get stuff done."
SPI Special Meeting Notice: April 26 Software in the Public Interest, Inc., Debian's parent organization, will have a special meeting to be held Tuesday, April 26, 2005, at 19:00 UTC on irc.oftc.net #spi. "The agenda for this special meeting consists solely of our upcoming tax filing. The meeting is being called so that we can ensure we are on track for an on-time, correct, filing, and to do whatever is necessary to make it happen. Our filing deadline is May 15."
New Distributions ExTiX and other Swedish live CDs ExTiX (currently at v1.4) is a live CD supporting English and Swedish, created by Arne Exton. Arne has created several other Swedish localized live Linux CDs: KNOPPIX-EXTON v3.7, KNOPPIX-EXTON Gnome Version, PCLinuxOS-EXTON p8.1a, Adios-EXTON v4.10 and EXTON-Slack v10.1.
Distribution Newsletters Debian Weekly News The Debian Weekly News for April 12, 2005 covers Debian Project Leader election results, PHP3 support, the Creative Commons License committee, the Acenic Firmware rewrite, automatic testing of Debian packages, and several other topics.
Gentoo Weekly Newsletter The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of April 11, 2005 is out. Topics this week include a web site face lift, forum staff changes, Jochen Maes aka SeJo is the developer of the week and much more.
Mandrivalinux Cooker Weekly News The Mandrivalinux Cooker Weekly News for April 12, 2005 reports that the final version of 10.2 should be ready for final testing and the cooker will be completely frozen. Plus a look at some ways for users to get feature requests to the developers, perl policy, and much more.
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 95 The DistroWatch Weekly for April 11, 2005 takes a look at the end of BitKeeper in Linux kernel development, Ubuntu (Hoary Hedgehog) reviews, some FAQs about CUPS, a mini-review of FreeBSD 5.4-RC1 and more.
Minor distribution updates tinysofa classic server tinysofa has released version 2.0 (Ceara) of the tinysofa classic server. ""Ceara" features: The Linux 2.6.11 kernel, grsecurity support, APT for advanced package management, the next generation PHP 5 environment (5.0.3), high availability features such as DRBD (0.7.10) and UCARP (1.1), the latest development tools and languages (gcc 3.4.3, Python 2.4), and much more."
Announcing YES Linux 2.2 Build 2 available now! YES Linux Release Team has announced (click below) the immediate availability of YES Linux 2.2 Build 2. This release of YES Linux features many updates and adds several features including User Management and Autonomous Backup Applications.
Package updates Fedora Core 3 updates Updates for Fedora Core 3: wireless-tools-27-1.2.0.fc3 (update to final wireless-tools-27), glibc-2.3.5-0.fc3.1 (update to glibc 2.3.5 release), selinux-policy-targeted-1.17.30-2.94 (prepare policy for kernel rebase), selinux-policy-targeted-1.17.30-2.96 (allow snmpd to communicate with self:fifo_file, add execmod/execmem privs), autofs-4.1.3-114 (bug fixes), gcc-3.4.3-22.fc3 (bug fixes), gcc4-4.0.0-0.41.fc3 (update from CVS), libtool-1.5.6-4.FC3.2 (rebuild to get the libtool script to correctly use the gcc 3.4.3 update).
Mandriva updates shorewall packages Updated Shorewall packages are available for Mandrivalinux 10.1 that provide minor fixes.
Miscellaneous Articles My first 48 hours enduring Ubuntu 5.04 Here's a detailed weblog entry by Matthew Thomas listing a long set of usability problems (from his point of view) encountered in Ubuntu 5.04. "Create two new folders. Open the first one, then open the second one. The worst possible size and position the file manager could choose for the second folder window would be putting it exactly on top of the first one. Sure enough, that is what it does."
My Workstation OS: Fedora Core 3 (NewsForge) NewsForge presents one view of Fedora Core 3. "Fedora is a bleeding-edge distribution that contains the best of the open source world within its four installation CD-ROMs and DVD. I use KDE 3.3 for my desktop, Zsnes for my gaming, Rhythmbox for music, Firefox for Web browsing, and Evolution for email. Fedora includes them all in its default installation, and runs them all well. (Although KDE is my favorite desktop environment, Fedora is by defauilt a GNOME distribution that includes the very latest GNOME version at the time of each release.)"
Distribution reviews Ubuntu 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog Review (Forever Geek) Forever Geek reviews Ubuntu's Hoary Hedgehog. "Overall, Ubuntu: Hoary Hedgehog is a rock solid distro, and is a great choice for a user with any level of Linux experience (it's also a great distro for beginners or people completely new to Linux.) The install process and initial system use should be fairly straightforward for beginners, and Ubuntu has very decent hardware detection. In fact, the only major complaint I have about Ubuntu is the release name (I mean, come ON, "Hoary Hedgehog?") Ubuntu may or may not be as great a distro for advanced users, as it is slightly less customizable than, say, Gentoo (you don't get to compile your own kernel, etc.) However, Ubuntu isn't meant to be highly customizable. It is meant to install and work simply, elegantly, and well. It definitely achieves this goal, and I give it two thumbs up."
Linux in Government: Linux Desktop Reviews, Part IV - Linspire (Linux Journal) Linux Journal continues reviewing Linux desktops with a look at Linspire. "Linspire helps further the relative advantage of Linux. Linspire provides an ease of use that people see as so necessary for adoption. Linspire is willing to license technologies to make it easy for people to use Linux. That might not fit the totally free mentality of open source, but it furthers its adoption."
Distribution review: Linare Professional (NewsForge) NewsForge takes a look at Linare Professional. "Linare Professional is a commercial GNU/Linux distribution based on Fedora Core. It is themed to look and feel like Windows XP and aims to be a full-featured well-integrated desktop OS. Sadly, I've found it offers little more value than Fedora Core, and that value comes at a cost."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol |
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