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Clusters: Mandrake's CLIC and openMosix

Linux clusters may be one area in which Linux has already achieved World Domination. Clusters running some variant of the Linux operating system are in use at universities, large corporations and research centers worldwide. There are systems made with older hardware, some mix a variety of operating systems and processors in the cluster, but when a special version of the Linux operating system is combined with a set of rack-mounted high-end boxes, Linux clusters are among the fastest and most powerful supercomputers in the world. Clusters present unique challenges for an operating system. Good cluster distributions make it easy to get a large number of boxes up and running, and they make it easy to keep them up-to-date with the latest security and bug fixes. They have kernel patches and other software that enables them to best utilize CPU time. Right now there are several Linux distributors that do this very well, however World Domination requires constant work to maintain. Competition in this arena can only strengthen an already strong product, and keep Linux on top.

Enter MandrakeSoft, who along with partners Bull and INPG/INRIA, has announced the first release of a new Linux Clustering Distribution named "CLIC", a project publicly funded by the French Agency for New Technologies (RNTL). The first CLIC version features rapid deployment, auto-configuration, MPICH, LAM and PVM support, a large number of mathematical libraries, and Netjuggler (a parallelized virtual reality 3D engine). Given the desktop success of Mandrake Linux, we can well imagine that CLIC is easy to use and maintain. CLIC is published under the General Public License (GPL). Users can download the first ISO here.

Also working to keep Linux ahead in clustering is the openMosix Project which has announced the release of openMosix version 2.4.19-6. openMosix is a Linux kernel extension for single-system image clustering, available under the terms of the GPL.

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Distribution News

Debian Weekly News - October 29th, 2002

This week's DWN includes items by Matt Black and Andre Lehovich; an IndustryWeek report on corporate Linux are adoption; a very verbose installation walkthrough by Clinton De Young and much more.

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Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter - Issue #65

Here is the Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter for October 24, 2002. "This Week's Summary: Upcoming Frankfurt LinuxWorld Expo; Mandrake in the News; The Latest MandrakeClub Activities; Financial Corner; Linux Training; Desktop Fun; New Russian Mailing List; Software Updates; Headlines from MandrakeForum"

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Slackware Linux

Slackware has a few more updates this week, including some tweaks to gcc. See the change log for full details.

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SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop to launch in January

SuSE has sent out a press release on its upcoming "SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop" offering. It is a new version of the SuSE distribution which is intended to coexist well with Microsoft installations and offer easy administration. It's based on StarOffice for productivity applications, but CrossOver Office is also thrown in so that Windows applications can be run. The whole thing should become available in January at a price of EUR 139.

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SuSE: Supported Distributions

With the release of the SuSE Linux 8.1 i386 ftp version, SuSE has announced that the SuSE Linux 7.0 distribution will be discontinued. Vulnerabilities found after Monday, November 4 2002, will not be fixed for SuSE Linux 7.0 any more. If you are still running versions 7.0 or earlier it is time for an upgrade.

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Minor distribution updates

BanShee Linux/R

BanShee Linux/R has released v0.61 with major bugfixes. "Changes: In this release, E3 was upgraded to 2.4 and BusyBox was upgraded to 0.60.5, which fixes many problems."

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Cool Linux CD

Cool Linux CD has released v2.00. "Changes: The boot procedure has been changed to be more compatible with some hardware. Some problems have been fixed, and a lot of software has been added."

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Familiar Linux Distribution

The Familiar Project has a major new release of its iPAQ distribution. Version 0.6 has many improvements. Busybox was added to decrease the size, make it smaller, ipkg was upgraded, the GPE login manager now allows non-root logins and much more. Here's the v0.6 Freshmeat link.

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LEAF (Linux Embedded Appliance Firewall) Bering

LEAF Bering has released v1.0rc4. "Changes: This should be the final rc version before 1.0 stable is out. It includes a lot of minor bugfixes, an update to Shorewall 1.3.9b firewall, and major extensions to the documentation (both the installation and the user's guide)."

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Lonix

Lonix has released v1.0rc5. "Changes: Ncftp, lftp, compression tools, and network utilities were added. The system translation to English is now complete. Small problems with sendmail and proftpd were fixed. Lonixconfig was recoded to make it cleaner."

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NSA Security Enhanced Linux

NSA Security Enhanced Linux has released v2002102211. "Changes: The base 2.5 kernel version has been updated to 2.5.44. The base 2.4 kernel version remains at 2.4.19, but many changes have been made to the 2.4 LSM patch and to the 2.4 SELinux module since the last release. The modified login, sshd, and crond programs have been updated to use a new configuration scheme. Socket handling has been improved. Internally, precondition functions have been removed in favor of early initialization support. The modified tar has been updated to tar-1.13.25. A number of other improvements, bugfixes, and policy enhancements have taken place."

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PXES Linux Thin Client

PXES Linux Thin Client has released v0.5.1-6. "Changes: Mouse autodetection problems have been solved. lspci has been patched and included."

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Sentry Firewall

Sentry Firewall has released v1.4.0-beta2. "Changes: This version includes several package and kernel updates. The howto has also been updated."

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VectorLinux

VectorLinux has released v3.0. "Changes: The distribution has been rebuilt to be totally Slackware 8.1-compatible and mostly LSB-compliant. Glibc was updated to 2.2.5 and the kernel to 2.4.19. reiserfs was added as an install option. All the preinstalled software has been updated to the latest version. A clone of Debian's apt program called Autopkg was added that makes installing packages and keeping the system up-to-date a breeze. New instant messaging and CD burning tools were added. Installation has been improved with the novice Linux user in mind."

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Warewulf

Warewulf has released v1.3. "Changes: This release adds many minor bugfixes, some enhancements, and support for the Sun Gridengine and Ganglia."

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xbox-linux

xbox-linux has released v26-10-2002. "Changes: This release includes an audio driver update."

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Distribution reviews

Review: Lycoris is Desktop Dream

ExtremeTech reviews Lycoris Desktop/LX. "I personally used Lycoris Desktop/LX, Amethyst Release, Update 1 on a regular basis between February and July. I was very happy with it, enough so that it got more use on my desktop than either Mandrake or Libranet, my two other personal favorites. But when Amethyst Release, Update 2 (Build 46) came out, I was even more impressed."

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SuSE Linux 8.1 Professional (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal reviews SuSE Linux 8.1 Professional. "SuSE Linux 8.1 includes kernel 2.4.19 and gcc 3.2. The Powertweak program allows experienced Linux admins to modify kernel parameters to maximize performance."

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SuSE 8.1 illustrates MS' fear (Register)

The Register reviews SuSE 8.1. "The user experience is so close to XP now that one can expect it to surpass it in the next edition or the one following. Now add to that Linux's resistance to viruses, the comparative speed with which open-source security bugs get fixed, the wealth of free applications included, and the GPL enlightenment that allows you to install it on as many machines as you please and upgrade it free of charge on your own, and you can see why MS is feeling the heat around the corner and not taking it terribly well."

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Xandros Desktop 1.0: Another Winning Debian Distro (ExtremeTech)

ExtremeTech reviews Xandros Desktop 1.0. "Xandros is another debian based distro, geared toward the desktop and promising good Windows compatibility. Our initial impression of Xandros is very positive. It lives up to a lot of its potential, with a few drawbacks."

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