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News and Editorials

Collaboration between Debian and Ubuntu

Ubuntu showed up in September 2004, a Debian derivative, that proved to be extremely popular. Ubuntu owes its existence to Debian, but there are philosophical differences and (sometimes) binary incompatibilities between the two.

Here's a look at how the two projects are working at improving this relationship. Fabio Tranchitella has written a small script to track the differences between Ubuntu and Debian packages. The Ubuntu wiki has the UbuntuForDebianDevelopers wiki page that looks at the differences between the projects and looks at how Debian developers can address concerns, get patches and minimize the differences between packages.

The most significant effort is the Utnubu project, which was announced over a year ago. This is a Debian Project aimed at improving the relationship between Ubuntu and Debian and, in particular, taking the best of Ubuntu back to Debian. The Utnubu Team has created mailing lists, an SVN repository and other resources to help with this goal.

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New Releases

FC6 prerelease available

The Fedora Project has another prerelease of FC6 available fixing some install-blocking bugs from test3.

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Mandriva Linux 2007 released

It's now official: Mandriva Linux 2007 is available. It has all the new stuff, but also a certain amount of proprietary software (LinDVD, for example), so there is no downloading without purchasing the distribution first. "The key innovation of Mandriva Linux 2007 is the spectacular AIGLX and Xgl 3D-accelerated desktop. Mandriva is the only distribution to provide both technologies, making it compatible with the widest range of hardware; a special tool features auto-detection of the best 3D solution for your hardware. Mandriva is particularly happy to have achieved this major breakthrough in desktop appearance."

Correction: As some commenters have pointed out, there is a free version available for download - they just don't make it easy to find. We blew it, and regret the error.

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Slackware 11.0 is released

Slackware 11 is out. The announcement (click below) has the details; this release includes leading-edge software like XFce 4.2.3.2, KDE 3.5.4, and a 2.4.33.3 kernel (2.6.17.13 is also available). "Another Slackware exclusive: Slackware's ZipSlack installation option is the fastest, _easiest_ Linux installation ever. ZipSlack provides a basic text-based Linux system as a 70 megabyte ZIP archive. Simply unzip on any FAT or FAT32 partition, edit your boot partition in the LINUX.BAT batch file, and you can be running Linux in less than five minutes."

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Trustix Secure Linux 3.0.5 Beta 2

A second beta of Trustix Secure Linux 3.0.5 has been released. "This release fixes some critical issues in the installer and also adds support to new features for easy installation. In addition, most of the packages has been brought up to their latest stable versions." Click below for release highlights and download information.

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Announcing Ubuntu 6.10 Beta

The first beta release of the Ubuntu 6.10 distribution (Edgy Eft) is out. According to the release notes: "The Edgy Eft Beta is the first beta release of Ubuntu 6.10, and with this new beta release comes a whole host of excellent new features. Improvements have been made all around such as faster system boot up times, faster GNOME start up times, improvements to the user interface, a shiny new optimized kernel, GNOME 2.16, and much, much more."

The 6.10 Beta release of Kubuntu, the KDE-based version of Ubuntu, has also been released.

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Zeroshell Linux 1.0.beta2

ZeroShell Net Services 1.0.beta2 is out. "This Linux distribution, available in the form of live cd or compact flash image for embedded devices, provides the main network services a LAN requires."

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Distribution News

BLAG50002 release

A revised release document for BLAG50002 is available (click below). Find out (almost) everything you need to know about the Fedora Core 5 based BLAG50002 including new and updated packages, useful links and download information.

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Debian announcements

Debian Project Leader Anthony Towns has posted two Bits from the DPL messages. One looks forward to the etch release, next year's DebConf in Edinburgh, and beyond. The other looks around at Debian derivatives.

Andreas Barth has posted an etch release update. "Many of the long-standing bugs are either about license issues, some of which we hope to address with a General Resolution; or will be fixed with the removal of mozilla or the addition of X.org 7.1. This means that we are doing better now, but it is too early to relax. As long as we keep up the momentum of recent weeks, a December release is still in sight!"

The first call for votes is out on a General Resolution to clarify the scope and applicability of item 2 of the Debian free software guidelines.

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Debian events

The BSP Marathon continues with a Bug Squashing Party in Dijon, France and another in Zurich.

The first Venezuelan MiniDebConf is scheduled for October 14 - 21, 2006 in the city of Maturin in Venezuela.

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Mandriva teams up with TransGaming

TransGaming Inc. and Mandriva have joined forces to provide a "gaming-enhanced" MandrivaLinux 2007. "The combination of Cedega and FlatOut is seamlessly integrated within the MandrivaLinux 2007 installer, giving Linux users access to top tier titles as part of the operating system, while also allowing them to play hundreds more games, right out of the box. In addition to FlatOut, users will be able to play blockbuster titles with Cedega such as Battlefield 2, World of WarCraft, Civilization IV, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Madden 2006 and more."

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OpenSUSE moving away from reiserfs with 10.2

SUSE has used ReiserFS as the default installation file system for some time, but that is about to change. Click below for the reasons why ReiserFS will be replaced with ext3 in openSUSE releases, with a possible switch to OCFS2 for the root file system in the long term.

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New Distributions

Indian schools to use homebrew Debian distro (DesktopLinux)

DesktopLinux covers the Debian based IT@School GNU/Linux distribution. "IT@School GNU/Linux is a customized, single-CD distribution that includes the applications typically required by a high school student or teacher, according to the project. Apart from a wide range of typical desktop software, it also contains educational programs such as TuxPaint, Ghemical, Kalzium, DrGeo, and Gcompris, school spokesperson Vimal Joseph told DesktopLinux.com." (Found on GnomeDesktop)

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Distribution Newsletters

Gentoo Weekly Newsletter

The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for September 25, 2006 covers a media refresh for 2006.1, NASA uses Gentoo on robots, using GNU screen, and several other topics.

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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 171

The DistroWatch Weekly for October 2, 2006 is out. "The unusually long development of Slackware Linux 11.0 continues with an ever growing changelog and more bug fixes. Will we see the final release this week? As Mandriva prepares to unveil its latest and greatest, some of the company's developers are found questioning the suitability of Linux for the desktop. Also in the news: Fedora quietly releases an unscheduled testing set of CD and DVD images of Fedora Core 6, Debian finds itself in a position of not being able to comply with the Mozilla trademark, and Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth talks about Dapper and the future of the project. A quick introduction to Instalinux.com is followed by a statistical titbit from our web logs, before we conclude the issue by awarding the September donation to Inkscape and Cape Linux Users Group."

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Package updates

Fedora updates

Updates for Fedora Core 5: guile (bug fixes), perl-Net-DNS (upstream version 0.59), openoffice.org (bug fix), tar (downgrade to solid stable tar-1.15.1, backport patches), gzip (bug fixes), gnome-python2-extras (spec file cleanup), anacron (fix problem with "strange" emails), frysk (new upstream version), tar (bug fix).

Thanks to Alain Portal KBackup 0.5 is now included in FC 5.

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Mandriva updates

Updates for Mandriva Linux Corporate Server 4.0: fibric (better interaction with curl).

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rPath updates

Updates for rPath Linux 1: initscripts (fixes live CD issues), chkconfig, ntsysv (fix requirements), httpd, mod_ssl (gracefully restart apache).

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Trustix updates

Updates for Trustix Secure Linux 2.2 and 3.0: bind (various bug fixes).

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Ubuntu updates

Updates for Ubuntu 6.06 LTS: amarok_1.4.3-0ubuntu8~dapper1, ktorrent_2.0.2-0ubuntu1~dapper1, konversation_1.0-0ubuntu5~dapper1, libvisual-plugins_0.4.0.dfsg.1-1ubuntu1~dapper1, cpio 2.6-10ubuntu0.1, phpgroupware_0.9.16.011-1~dapper1, acidrip_0.14-0.2ubuntu2~dapper1, gnomebaker_0.6.0-0ubuntu1~dapper1, ktorrent_2.0.2-0ubuntu2~dapper1, altermime_0.3.7-2~dapper1, debootstrap_0.3.3.0ubuntu5~dapper1, acidrip_0.14-0.2ubuntu4~dapper1, sg3-utils_1.21-1ubuntu1~dapper1.

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Newsletters and articles of interest

Linux-based LiveKiosk offers low-cost browsing (Linux.com)

Linux.com looks at Linux systems from LiveKiosk. "LiveKiosk produces a thin client Linux distribution and administrative interface, called EZWebPC, with a locked-down browser. Clients boot off the CD-ROM, eliminating the need for a local operating system or hard drive. It loads the browser with a custom configuration that will highlight a single site or allow the user access to the entire Internet, as long as a broadband connection is available. Because the system runs from the network and a CD-ROM, no local operating system or hard drive is required."

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Running Internet Explorer in Debian and Ubuntu Linux (Debian Admin)

Debian Admin shows how to run Internet Explorer in Debian and Ubuntu. "IEs4Linux is the simpler way to have Microsoft Internet Explorer running on Linux (or any OS running Wine). No clicks needed. No boring setup processes. No Wine complications. Just one easy script and you'll get three IE versions to test your Sites. And it's free and open source.This may be very helpful for software developers and web developers to test their applications."

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Distribution reviews

Going live, part 2: Introducing Musix and Studio To Go (Linux Journal)

Dave Phillips reviews two music-oriented live CDs for the Linux Journal. "I have no reservations about recommending Musix. It's obviously a labor of love, and I look forward to enjoying its evolution. You should try it, you might like it. And while you're trying it, be sure to check out Marcos's 'Zyn-techno' demo for Rosegarden combined with the ZynAddSubFX synthesizer. It's a sweet groove, just like Musix itself."

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SUSE Pairs Well With Xen (eWeek)

eWeek takes a look at Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10. "During tests, eWeek Labs found that Novell has tightened up the Xen configuration module that's built into SLES' suite of configuration tools, Yast. We installed versions of SUSE in our Xen virtual machines and found that the installations ran smoothly when we prepared for them by first using SLES' installation server feature to create install sources. We did this for the x86-64 and x86 versions of SLES, as well as for an alpha release of OpenSUSE 10.2."

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