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First Look at Turbolinux 11 "Fuji"

There aren't many Linux companies that were established in 1992 and are still going strongly today. With the exception of Slackware, Turbolinux is probably the only one, its beginnings dating back to that year when it was established in Tokyo under the name of Pacific HiTech. The company later moved its headquarters to the United States, but returned to Japan shortly after the dot-com bust where it changed hands several times. Currently concentrating on markets in Japan and China, it recently recorded a profit for the first time and, according to an analyst firm, it consistently beats all other Linux suppliers, including Red Flag, in terms of new server shipments in China.

In November, a new version of Turbolinux was released. Version 11, better known as "Fuji", was the company's first major product in over two years and, similar to its previous version, it is primarily intended as a desktop operating environment designed to simplify migration from Windows to Linux. Besides the standard base system with Linux kernel 2.6.13, X.Org 6.8.2, KDE 3.4.2 and GNOME 2.10, the product bundles a large number of third-party applications, which makes Turbolinux a heavily customized proprietary Linux distribution. It is currently available in Japan only where it retails for a hefty $143, although a low-end edition without some of the proprietary components is available for about $49. An international edition is planned for release in early 2006. All products are supported with security updates for 5 years.

Turbolinux was kind enough to send me a review copy of the product and I installed it on my test system - a 1.4GHz Pentium 4 machine with an ASUS P4T mainboard, 384 MB of RAM, Matrox Millennium G450 graphics card, and Realtek 8139too network card. The Turbolinux installer, called "Mongoose", provides little to write about other than to say that it is a nicely-designed and intuitive graphical installer with support for English (en_US), Japanese (EUC) and Chinese (GB18030 and Big5). After copying the base system from the first two CDs, the installer gives an option to install the proprietary applications (both commercial and some gratis ones, such as Flash Player) from the third CD. I chose to install all that was available - partly to see what Turbolinux ships with and partly to evaluate the usefulness of these applications, especially in the light of the high price tag.

After the trouble-free installation of the system and spotless hardware auto-configuration, I rebooted and was pleased to see that the Turbolinux GRUB menu listed not only Turbolinux, but also all other Linux distributions on the two hard disks. By default, the system boots straight into a good-looking KDE desktop, automatically logging in the first user created during system install. The boot process was remarkably fast and KDE was ready for use in as little as 45 seconds after boot (for comparison, SUSE Linux 10.0 takes 117 seconds to boot into KDE on the same system). The company's way of preventing illegal copying of its products is to supply a serial number which the user needs to transmit to Turbolinux to obtain a license file. Without it, some of the included custom utilities, such as "TurboPlus" for product updates, will not work.

Now it was time to investigate the proprietary components of the distribution. After all, Turbolinux's marketing strategy clearly revolves along the lines of providing enough added value to justify the product's high price. The first utility that hit my eyes after browsing through the KDE menu was TurboPlus. Designed to provide a convenient way to keep the product up-to-date with security and bug fixes, this custom application is pre-configured to connect to the Turbolinux server (once a day by default) to check for package updates and optionally update the system. Roughly one month after the release, TurboPlus listed 6 packages that needed security updates and 42 packages were lined up to receive bug fixes. Besides software updates, the application also serves to install and uninstall software and plugins, and to create desktop and menu shortcuts.

The next on test was "DAVID". Spotting its icon in the system tray and not being able to make out the purpose of the application from its name, I clicked on the icon to launch what looked like a file manager, with the right pane containing unusual icons labeled as "a:", "c:", "d:", "f:", "z:". Upon some investigation it turned out that DAVID Explorer, as is the application's full name, is indeed a file manager - but with a difference. Here, "c:" represents a Windows directory as created by the WINE emulator and pre-configured with many common file extensions, while "f:" is the user's home directory and "z:" is the root directory. Very unusual if you are a seasoned Linux user, but perhaps a more familiar directory layout for those just moving over from Windows. The application's interface is in Japanese only.

Another unique piece of software shipping with Fuji is "Turbo Media Player". This time there was no need to guess what the application was for, although a closer examination after its launch revealed that it is nothing more than a revamped Kaffeine 0.7.1. Turbolinux previously released a multimedia edition which featured a licensed DVD player (a Linux edition of PowerDVD) to play encrypted videos on Linux, but I was disappointed to see that Fuji does not include it. The only difference between standard Kaffeine and Turbo Media Player is the latter's ability to play Windows Media files out of the box (Turbolinux has licensed the codecs from Microsoft). But it certainly doesn't play encrypted DVDs and there is no easy way to install the required plugin.

One of the most important value-added applications in Fuji is a Linux edition of ATOK, a proprietary input method for the Japanese language, together with 5 Japanese TrueType fonts. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to change the language and, being unfamiliar with ATOK, I couldn't figure out whether it was possible to use it while the language was set to English. At that point I decided to re-install the system, choosing Japanese this time. After this, ATOK was available by default - by the way of a floating toolbar in the bottom right corner of the screen. Trying to type Japanese, ATOK indeed turned out to be a much more intelligent and intuitive input method than any of the free ones, offering choice in case of ambiguous input and automatically inserting correct characters wherever possible.

Fuji also comes with the new StarOffice 8 (or StarSuite, as it is called in Japan), RealPlayer, Java, Acrobat Reader, and Flash plugin. There is TurboSearch, a desktop search engine, similar to Beagle or Kat and nicely integrated into the KDE panel. I was unable to check the GNOME implementation of Turbolinux because the KDE's "End Session" button would simply re-start KDE without taking a breather at the login screen - this was one of the few bugs I noticed during the day of examining the distribution.

So how does Turbolinux's new product rate in the grand scheme of things? As proprietary distributions go by, Fuji certainly offers a fair share of extra bells and whistles, all pre-configured and ready to use. The company has obviously gone to great length to make the product acceptable to new converts from Windows and to minimize the stress associated with learning a new operating system. Users already familiar with Linux might prefer to save their money by choosing a free distribution, then do a bit of work to install plugins, OpenOffice.org, and one of the freely available software for Japanese input. But it is easy to see how Turbolinux can be a viable choice for medium-size companies which might prefer a pre-configured product with long-term support. Given the company's good financial results in recent years, it seems that many of their customers in Japan do indeed see good value in the product - despite its relatively high price tag and other negatives of a proprietary operating system, such as vendor lock-in.

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New Releases

NetBSD 3.0

The NetBSD Project has announced the release of NetBSD 3.0. "NetBSD is widely known as the most portable operating system in the world. It currently supports fifty seven different system architectures, all from a single source tree, and is always being ported to more. NetBSD 3.0 continues our long tradition with major improvements in stability, performance, networking, security, also includes support for two new platforms (iyonix and hp700), and many new peripherals."

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KANOTIX 2005-04

KANOTIX has released version 2005-4 in a Lite-Version with Koffice 1.4.2, a Full-Version with OpenOffice 2.0.0-5, and a new AMD64-Version.

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New releases from Linux Netwosix

Linux Netwosix has announced the release of stable version 1.3 with many updates and enhancements. Development version 2.0-rc1 has also been announced. "This is the first release of the 2.x branch and include a new improved setup tool based on Crux-Linux. Among the many program updates and distribution enhancements you will find a stable, complete and cleaned GNU/Linux box for your network-security related jobs. Linux Netwosix 2.0-rc1 uses the latest 2.6.14.5 stable kernel bringing you advanced and reliable performances." A new forum for the Linux Netwosix community is also available.

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New Trinity Rescue Kit available

Version 3.0 of Trinity Rescue Kit (TRK) has been announced (click below). TRK is a live CD for rescuing dead systems, Linux or Windows. "Aside from the features already in TRK 1.1, many rescue and management features have been added and existing seriously improved and debugged."

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YDL 4.1 beta ISOs Available from YDL.net

Yellow Dog Linux v4.1 is in beta testing. This version features Linux kernel version 2.6.15-rc5, X.org 6.8.2, USB device auto-mount under both KDE & GNOME, and more.

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Distribution News

Novell: OpenSUSE doing great

Novell has sent out a press release on how well OpenSUSE is doing. "SUSE Linux is installed more than 7,000 times every day, an average of one installation every 12 seconds. The openSUSE project features easy access to builds and releases, and will soon offer new resources and programs for open access to the development process used to create SUSE Linux..."

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Debian release team update

The Debian 'etch' release team has sent out an update; the plan is still to have a new major Debian release in December (of this year!). The first freeze is still almost seven months away, but the release managers say the time has come to start paying more attention to fixing release-critical bugs. Click below for the full posting.

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Release candidate architecture requalification results

This December post from the Debian Release Team notes that four architectures have not met the release criteria for 'etch', so far. These are arm, m68k, s390 and sparc. "And to the porters of the other eight architectures (alpha, amd64, hppa, i386, ia64, mips, mipsel, and powerpc): let me caution you that this is not the final word on the subject. :-) You can all take a deep breath now if you like, but please don't treat this requalification as a reason to ignore the port's health from now until release. The issues identified as release criteria are genuinely important, and we are counting on porters to help us keep up the pace for etch."

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Results for Declassification of debian-private list archives

For those following the declassification of debian-private, the votes are in. The results show option 2 to be the winner. A declassification procedure will be established for future posts. Anthony Towns, author of the original proposal, has this analysis of the results. (Found on DebianPlanet)

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Mark Shuttleworth's Perspective on the DCC (DebianPlanet)

The folks at DebianPlanet have been checking the Ubuntu-Sounder list and found this post from Mark Shuttleworth on the DCC Alliance. "The Premise. The vision behind DCC, which is indeed compelling, is that it would provide a common platform for certification, and that the distros that make up the DCC would all ship exactly that same core. But it strikes me that this approach has never worked in the past. In fact, every distro ALWAYS modifies elements of the core, and with good reason. And while we would love that not to be the case, the truth is that the reasons to specialise outweigh the benefits of homogeneity."

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SELinux kills multiboot

Here's a report that FC5test1 with SELinux can be hazardous to older ext3 root filesystems, they can become unbootable. "These compatibility problems seem to be even worse than the ones that resulted from the xattr-on-symlink bugfix to ext3 more than a year ago, when Fedora Core 2 zapped RedHat 9 and earlier ext3..."

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DebConf6: Final call for sponsorship requests

DebConf6 will be held in Mexico next May. This announcement (click below) is the final call for sponsorships. If you would like to go, but need help with financing you have until the 15th of this month to apply.

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New Distributions

IBLS (Itty Bitty Linux Server)

IBLS is a compact, easy to use webserver that you can run from a live CD, even on older hardware. It will run on a P133 with 32MB RAM, or possibly less. IBLS got its start in the UK, using Damn Small Linux as a base. It has since been rebuilt from scratch by an international community of developers. IBLS is modular and uses its own package management system, designed to run from the CD or from a hard drive. Although designed to be a server, there are plenty of packages available to build any type of system.

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FoX Desktop

FoX Desktop is based on Fedora Core and designed for the desktop. It offers a single CD install with a KDE desktop and lots of other desktop software, optimized for i686. FoX joined our list with FoXDesktop 1 released December 25, 2005.

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Nepali version of Linux launched in Kathmandu (People's Daily)

The People's Daily Online covers a Nepali version of Linux, NepaLinux. "The main features of the NepaLinux are NepaLinux dictionary, Lexicon and Spell Checker and Grammar Checker, the statement noted, adding, "NepaLinux is a Free/Open Source Software in which the source code is open and the users have the freedom to use, study, modify according to one's needs and redistribute it," the statement noted."

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KDE 3.5 Based Pardus 1.0 Released (KDE.News)

KDE.News introduces the Turkish distribution Pardus. "Turkish distribution Pardus, one of the first GNU/Linux distributions to feature KDE 3.5 as its desktop, has announced its first stable release. All Pardus specific desktop applications, including the installer and package manager are developed using the powerful KDE and Qt libraries."

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Distribution Newsletters

Debian Weekly News 2006/01

The Debian Weekly News for January 3, 2006 takes a look at Mohammed Adnène Trojette's 2005 Debian timeline, new CD images for Debian GNU/Hurd, the debian-private list is only private for three years now that the General Resolution has passed, efforts to reduce the archive size, apt-torrent, a report from FOSS.IN, vim as the default vi, and more.

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Debian Weekly News 2005/52

The Debian Weekly News for December 27, 2005 covers an essay on the cost of Free Software in connection to the freedom people gain by using Free Software, package backports for Sarge, the status of Debian unstable, a common power management framework, the kernel package hooks transition, architectures in the next release, XULRunner for Mozilla and friends, Debian in Munich, and several other topics.

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Fedora Weekly News Issue 27

This week the Fedora Weekly News covers the Red Hat Magazine for December 2005, Fedora Core 5 Test 2 slipping until January 16, Fedora Logo Usage Update, Fedora Ambassadors Meeting Minutes, Open source in Africa, Fedora users and contributors - Unite, Fedora Reloaded Podcast #3, Current Gotchas in OpenOffice.org, and several other topics.

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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 132

The DistroWatch Weekly for January 2, 2006 is out. "An unusually high number of interesting releases have kept us busy during the Christmas break. We'll take a quick look at FoX Desktop Linux 1, a nice-looking distribution designed in the style of Mac OS X. We'll also discuss the increased acceptance of non-free software packages in Mandriva, point you to a resource about updating a SUSE 10.0 installation, and reveal the processor architectures that will likely see full support in Debian "etch". A quick tip to make it easier to switch between open applications on KDE and some end-of-year statistics complement the issue. Finally, our December 2005 donation goes to the Cacti project."

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Package updates

Fedora updates

Fedora Core 4 has updated kdelibs (bug fixes), k3b (bug fixes), sane-backends (version 1.0.17 with gphoto2 backend).

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Mandriva updates

Mandriva Linux 2006.0 updates: msec (bug fixes), digikamimageplugins (update to 0.8.0), libgphoto (hotplug usermap restored), nss_ldap (bug fix), mdkonline (bug fix).

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Newsletters and articles of interest

Linux Netwosix Creator Discusses 2.0 Vision, Future (Sys-Con Italia)

The folks at the LinuxWorld News Desk talked with Vincenzo Ciaglia about Linux Netwosix. "LW: What's the vision behind Linux Netwosix? Why are you creating this software? Ciaglia: We think that its light structure could make Linux Netwosix suited for all network security work. For a good network plan, the sysadmin needs a light system that is highly configurable. Every sysadmin wants to configure networks, and work with them, with the possibility of doing everything alone."

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Using a liveCD as your Linux Desktop (DesktopLinux)

DesktopLinux looks at live CD distributions that make good desktops. "[M]any liveCD distros can be used as a day to day desktop without ever installing them to your hard drive. Huh? Wait a minute, everyone installs the OS to a hard disk! Well yes, that's the way it has always been done, but I am not sure why we should continue in that direction... "ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now" (Robert Allen Zimmerman)."

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Distribution reviews

Linux Netwosix Author Responds to Questions (LinuxWorld)

Vincenzo Ciaglia writes about Linux Netwosix. "With the new 2.x release, among the many program updates and distribution enhancements, you will find a stable, complete and cleaned GNU/Linux box for your network-security related jobs. Linux Netwosix 2.0-rc1 uses the latest 2.6.14.5 stable kernel, bringing you advanced and reliable performances. From the 2.0 new branch to the next one, Linux Netwosix will try to offer the first real valid alternative to historically secure systems like the *BSD ones, providing core operating system to deliver stability, performance, and support for mission-critical application deployments. Using Linux Netwosix the user could benefit from outstanding robustness, scalabilty, and reliability."

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My desktop OS: SimplyMEPIS (NewsForge)

NewsForge has an article from a SimplyMEPIS fan. "I've been using SimplyMEPIS happily for six months. I've never had big problems with it. Sometimes applications crash, but it's very rare and it has never ruined my files. I guess SimplyMEPIS just suits my-not-so-adventurous self. I'm not really that fond of configuring stuff, but at the same time I like to do geeky stuff. For me, this OS is a perfect fit."

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