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DistributionsNews and Editorials About Source MageIn a NutshellSource Mage is a source-based distribution intended for power users, system administrators, and hobbyists, who would like an easy way to custom-configure every application and to have each application maintain its configuration through upgrades. All distributed code consists of a package manager called "Sorcery" and a collection of packages, called "Spells". Sorcery and Spells together are known as the "Grimoire". Spells are kept as close to the upstream authors' code as possible and are designed for maximum choice in configuring a system. System commands such as "cast" and "dispel" are consistent with the "sorcerous theme". All Source-Mage-maintained code is written in BASH and GNU-based POSIX utilities, designed to be as minimalistic as possible. For example, GCC doesn't need to build with G++ (the C++ compiler) unlike Gentoo, which requires it for Python. GNU Sed and Awk are used liberally, however Perl is not. This makes Source Mage suitable for small installs and the use of shell script is highly advantageous to a new user. Of Modest BeginningsIn 2001, Kyle Sallee created a source-based linux distribution called Sorcerer GNU/Linux and released it under the GPL. In late 2001 due to differences with Kyle on how to run the project, a fork was created called Lunar Penguin, now known as Lunar Linux. As a result of confrontations with the Lunar developers, Kyle took Sorcerer off the web one night and nobody could update. Many of the developers tried to talk Kyle back into continuing the project, but failed. Ryan Abrams and Eric Schabell took over the GPL'd sources and put up a temporary website. At the request of Kyle, the name was changed, and after a vote, Source Mage GNU/Linux was born. On April 4, 2002, sourcemage.org was registered and website content was put up. A short while later Kyle rewrote much of his code and released it under a non-GPL license that prevents forking. These three distributions have continued since, however the rest of this article concerns Source Mage. System Layout and Organizational Structure as of June 2005Project Leader: Eric Sandall: Source Mage has adopted a social structure similar to Debian GNU/Linux, with a Social Contract and a developocratic system that allows developers to vote for team leaders. Team leaders, in turn, vote and appoint developers. Project DivisionsSorcery Lead: Andrew Stitt: Sorcery is the package manager. Similar to Gentoo's Portage, although developed concurrently to Gentoo and vastly different in approaches and philosophies. Sorcery is intended to be light-weight, well-designed, and a solid core upon which spells and grimoire libraries can function. Sorcery is mature and feature-competitive with Gentoo's Portage or a BSD-style ports collection. Very little of Kyle's original code remains, and it's often in vestigial sections. Grimoire Lead: Arwed von Merkatz: The Grimoire is the collection of spells that are called by sorcery (via the "cast" command). Section maintainers called "gurus", keep the Grimoire up-to-date, typically with a version bump and in many cases an md5 of the source (or the upstream author's PGP signature). The main Grimoire is kept in devel, test, stable-rc, and stable versions. There are also auxiliary Games, Z-rejected, and Hardened grimoires for games, binary spells and those that don't meet FSF license approval (note: not the same as Debian's DFSG), and security-hardened spells. Cauldron Lead: David Kowis: The Cauldron is the code that creates and involves the installer. The Cauldron is undergoing rapid development at this stage, as the original installer inherited from Sorcerer has undergone some bit-rot. The new version of the installer is on track for stable release concurrent with our overall 1.0 release. Additional General StructuresSecurity Lead: Thomas Houssin: The Security Team manages the Hardened grimoire and is responsible for handling security updates, especially to spells in the Grimoire. Quality Assurance Lead: Seth Woolley: The QA Team is responsible for vetting the quality of the various sub-projects before release and is directly responsible for Stable Grimoire releases. Quantitative and qualitative processes are followed to ensure stability. Web Team Lead: Adam Clark: The Web Team is responsible for providing a public face for the project and keeping it up-to-date. Public Relations Lead: Alex Smith: Alex is the reason you're reading this article and is responsible for other aspects of our relations with the public. As our developers are dark, dank, and don't clean up well in public, we chose Alex to represent us. Developer and Codebase MaturitySince we are relatively unheard of, it will help for potential new users to understand how much work has gone into Source Mage already and that we aren't the next fad distro with a short burst of resources and then a fading away after fifteen minutes of fame. Major Contributors (more than a dozen patches)
Approximate Project Size
Where We Are and What to ExpectWe are nearing a 1.0 ISO release. The install and initial setup, which involves compiling and configuring the correct drivers, is probably the most difficult part of using Source Mage GNU/Linux. However, if you are an experienced Linux user, or even somebody without experience who wishes to gain it, you should expect friendly IRC chat rooms and mailing lists that can help you get setup in very little time. Any Gentoo user should be familiar enough with the fundamentals to get Source Mage installed easily. Where the Future LiesWe're mainly focused on ISO development and stability-proofing the existing code. The Second-System effect is mostly through and we're looking forward to many new users that haven't heard of us because we were busy rewriting everything. About the AuthorSeth Woolley is the current Source Mage GNU/Linux Quality Assurance Lead and has been a developer since September 2002 and a user since the project's inception.
Distribution News Slackware freezes for 10.2The August 2 Slackware ChangeLog notice notes that the distribution has been frozen in preparation for a 10.2 release. Time for interested Slackware users to test things out and find the remaining glitches.
Security Support AMD64 SargeDebian's AMD64 port is still not officially in Sarge (it's there unofficially), but it will be getting security support. "Joey Schulze from the Security Team offered to do an accumulative security announce, covering all the amd64 packages which now get added for all the past advisories[1], so expect one big DSA in the near future. (ETA is Monday at the moment). All new DSAs from now on will simply include amd64."
Debian Bug Squashing Party -- August, 5th - 7thDue to numerous transitions, many new upstream versions and rapid development of native packages there has been a large jump in RC bugs in etch. So there will be a bug squashing party this weekend, August 5 - 7, 2005, to try to squash as many as possible.
Distribution Newsletters Debian Weekly NewsThe Debian Weekly News for August 2, 2005 is out. In this edition: Debian turns twelve, the Debian swirl found in a proprietary commercial drawing program, a call for improving package descriptions, successful machine migrations, the popularity contest, Debian Accessibility project issues a call for help, the next generation of init scripts, spam reporting in mail archives, and more.
Fedora Weekly NewsFedora Weekly News, #7 covers the Fedora Bug Day Event, Fedora Extras Build System, the Unofficial FAQ updated for Fedora Core 4, the Unofficial Guide for Fedora Core 4, Boot Fedora Linux Faster, and several other topics.
Gentoo Weekly NewsletterThe Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of August 1, 2005 looks at the Gentoo Developer conference in San Francisco, German translators needed, Bugday 2nd anniversary, a user interview with George K. Thiruvathukal, and more.
Ubuntu MOTU report - issue 6Here's the latest report from the Ubuntu Masters Of The Universe with a look at new members of the MOTU team and more.
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 111The DistroWatch Weekly for August 1, 2005 is available. "SUSE LINUX has always been developed behind closed doors - some believe that it's time to open up and let the community get involved. Are you curious about the current status of the Enlightenment window manager, version 17? If so, we'll show you how to set it up on the recently released VectorLinux 5.1. Also in this issue: "Freedom Toasters" that dispense distribution CDs across South Africa, and an interview with Jonathan Riddell, the lead developer of Kubuntu."
Minor distribution updates Lunar ISO 1.5.1 i686 (rc1)Lunar-Linux has announced the first release candidate of Lunar-1.5.1 (Gallium Arsenide). "This version fixes a few bugs with missing files in /etc/, and adds support for displaying normal device names (/dev/sda, /dev/hda3 etc) in the entire installer. Also, there are now proper default choices in the language, font, charmap etc. menus to guide you. The network now starts by default after installation."
Package updates kde-redhat supports Fedora Core 4 (SourceForge)The KDE for RedHat project has announced the release of KDE packages built for Fedora Core 4.
Fedora updatesFedora Core 4 updates KDE to 3.4.2: kdeaddons, kdesdk, kdepim, kdemultimedia, kdelibs, kdewebdev, kdebase, kdevelop, kdeutils, kdenetwork, kde-il8n, kdegraphics, kdegames, kdeedu, kdebindings, kdeartwork, kdeadmin, kdeaccessibility, arts.More FC4 updates: selinux-policy-targeted-1.25.3-6 (fix bugs and bump for FC4), gamin-0.1.1-3.FC4 (bug fix), pam-0.79-9.4 (bug fixes), netpbm-10.28-1.FC4.1 (update to 10.28), libraw1394-1.2.0-1.fc4 (update to 1.2.0), selinux-policy-targeted-1.25.3-9 (fix bugs and bump for FC4), ckermit-8.0.211-2.FC4 (use openpty library), kdegames-3.4.2-0.fc4.2 (don't setgid as default), gphoto2-2.1.6-1.1 (update to 2.1.6 - rebuilt for FC4), coreutils-5.2.1-48.1 (fixes "who -r" and "who -b"), iiimf-12.2-4.fc4.2 (backported patches), gimp-2.2.8-0.fc4.2 (fix gimptool manpage symlink). Fedora Core 3 updates: im-sdk-12.1-10.FC3.1 (added a series of iiimxcf patches), gamin-0.1.1-3.FC3 (bug fix), netpbm-10.28-1.FC3.1 (update to 10.28), mkinitrd-4.1.18.1-1 (fixes boot problems), yum-2.2.2-0.fc3 (fix a few minor problems), gimp-2.2.8-0.fc3.2 (fix gimptool manpage symlink).
Mandriva bug fix advisory MDKA-2005:036Mandriva has updated hal packages that fix USB drive mounting on ML 10.2.
Trustix bug fix advisory TSL-2005-0037Trustix Secure Linux has fixed bugs in several packages including bind, clamav, courier-authlib, courier-imap, dhcp, initscripts, iptables, kernel, nscd, postfix and samba.
Distribution reviews Mono Live Rulez! (O'ReillyNet)O'ReillyNet has a review of Mono Live, an Ubuntu-based live CD featuring Mono. "For me, the stability and tight integration and implementation in Mono Live is superb. For one who has struggled with configuring Mono in the past, using the CD was a huge relief. With just a simple boot from CD, I had a rich Mono platform to explore and use. For that reason, I believe that Mono Live accomplishes what Joseph set out to provide. It especially excels in demonstrating the capabilities of the Mono platform."
Review: Ubuntu 5.04 (PCBurn)PCBurn reviews Ubuntu's Hoary Hedgehog. "Ubuntu has created an extremely pleasing desktop environment. Once the install is finished (only an issue for an unexperienced user) the system itself performs very well. Default applications and preferences have been thought out to make the user instantly productive. People looking for a Debian based system or new Linux users wanting to "get into" it will find this an excellent desktop OS."
Linspire Five-O Desktop Linux Reviewed (xyz computing)xyz computing reviews Linspire Five-O. "Linspire seems to understand some of the things which are keeping consumers off Linux desktop operating systems. In this version they have endeavored to make their OS more complete and easier to use than ever before. This does not only mean throwing in more programs, but also improving Windows file support, easier networking, and minimizing installation problems. The trade-off for making everything easier to work with is that very advanced users may be turned off, but that is a comprise that Linspire is willing to make."
Assess System Security Using a Linux LiveCD (developerWorks)developerWorks takes a look at four live Linux CDs; Auditor, Whoppix (now WHAX), Knoppix-STD and Phlak; that can be used to assess security vulnerabilities. "While everyone agrees that making a security assessment of a system or network is of critical concern and that a thorough assessment is a time-consuming effort that should probably be performed in concert with other testing (such as performance, for example), being able to rapidly check a system for vulnerabilities is also a useful tool, one made possible by these four security-assessment packages in LiveCD format."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol |
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