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Perl/Linux

Lately it seems that people have been very seriously concerned about a great many things. Is OpenSUSE really free as in freedom? (Yes it is.) Is Fedora really a community project? (Yes and getting better at it all the time). Well, it's time to lighten up and look at something completely tongue in cheek. It's not new, or finished or even maintained at this point, but it is creative.

Perl fans have probably known about it for a while. Yes, it's Perl/Linux, a Linux distribution where all the programs are written in perl.

Actually, if you look at Jay Kominek's list of Perl/Linux software you'll see that some functionality is currently missing. Still, the possibility is there.

Seriously, though we are looking for guest authors to supply some occasional content for this page. Why not get published and write about your favorite distribution for LWN.net? Please have a look at our author guide if you are interested.

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New Releases

YDL v5.0 for the PS3 launches

Terra Soft Solutions has announced the availability of Yellow Dog Linux v5.0 for PlayStation3 via YDL.net Enhanced accounts.

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Xandros Desktop - Professional v4.0 released

Xandros has announced the release of "Xandros Desktop - Professional" version 4, featuring advanced 3D desktop graphics effects, Bluetooth wireless support, desktop search and ISV support and much more.

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openSUSE 10.2 RC1

The first release candidate of openSUSE 10.2 (codename Basilisk Lizard) is available. For those who have been beta testing, delta ISOs are available. According to the announcement we can expect the final version in two weeks.

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First French Version of Linspire Released

Linspire, Inc. has announced the immediate release and availability of Linspire 5 French edition.

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GNUSTEP CD 1.0 released

The GNUstep Live CD project has released version 1.0. This Debian-based distribution includes a GNUstep development environment with some classic games and plenty of network, system recovery and administration tools.

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BLAG50003 released

BLAG Linux and GNU has released BLAG50003, a third update to it's Fedora Core 5 based distribution.

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64 Studio 1.0 'Olympic' released

64 Studio, a distribution for x86-64 systems, has released version 1.0. This distribution, based on Debian, is aimed at "digital content creation," and, thus, emphasizes multimedia applications. "The CD image will install Debian with X.org, the Gnome 2.14 desktop, Linux kernel 2.6.17 with realtime preemption patches (a realtime SMP kernel for AMD64 dual core and multi-processor machines is available on the 64-bit CD) and a selection of creative applications. These applications cover audio and music, video, 2D and 3D graphics, publishing for the web or print, and the internet and office tools a creative user is likely to need for their daily work."

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Distribution News

Fedora considers user metrics

Back in October, LWN covered Fedora's need for metrics on how many people are using the distribution. The project has now put up a page on possible data collection techniques with a request for comments. Quite a few different approaches are being considered. "The fact is that metrics are important for anyone trying to do something with limited resources. It allows us to put what little resources we do have to better use. If the developers spend 20% of their time debugging PPC and our metrics show that they are 1% of our install base, the argument could be made that less time needs to be spent on PPC."

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Debian announcements

The sixth Debian Miniconf will be held at linux.conf.au 2007 in January. Here's the call for participation.

Fabian Fagerholm reports on behalf of the the Cyrus SASL packaging team, that cyrus-sasl2 has been upgraded to a new upstream version. "This new package is a major change compared to the old version. Therefore, we want people to test it as much as possible!"

Andreas Barth looks at autobuilds and non-free packages.

Jamey Sharp reports that XCB packages (xcb-proto 1.0, libxcb 1.0, and libx11 1.1) from freedesktop.org are now in experimental. These packages will not be in etch, they will wait for etch+1 aka Lenny.

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New Distributions

mEDUXa 1.0 Ready to Take Over the Canary Islands (KDE.News)

KDE.News introduces the 1.0 release of mEDUXa, a distribution from the Education, Culture and Sports Department of the Spanish Canary Island's regional government. "mEDUXa is a Free Software GNU/Linux distribution developed for educational purposes based on Kubuntu. It will be deployed on 35,000 computers in 1100 schools, which represents 325,000 possible users (25,000 teachers and 300,000 students) in the Canary Islands state schools."

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Distribution Newsletters

Debian Weekly News - November 28th, 2006

The Debian Weekly News for November 28, 2006 looks at why DWN is not weekly anymore, evaluating Sarge to Etch upgrades, GNOME 2.14 in Etch, DebConf7 registration and call for papers, the Debian Installer release candidate, Etch release update, Debian FAQ call for help, a new Sparc development machine, and several other topics.

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Fedora Weekly News Issue 68

The Fedora Weekly News for November 27, 2006 covers Fedora 7 Artwork Proposals, Peace In Our Time, VanLUG Report, SCALE Readies 'Non-Commercial' Open Source Conference, FC6 reviews and more.

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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter

The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for November 20, 2006 covers a new Bugzilla bug tracker, gentoo-user summaries, gentoo-cluster information about a 5,832 CPU cluster and much more.

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Ubuntu Weekly News #22

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for the week of November 18, 2006 covers Feisty on the Schedule, New LoCo teams announced, New Ubuntu Customization Kit release, Ubuntu-based PBX announced, Ubuntu-uk holds children's auction, Changes in Feisty, and several other topics.

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Ubuntu Weekly News #23

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for the week of November 25, 2006 covers mEDUXa Released, Jono Bacon Interview, Free Geek Burgled, Free Poster for Quiz Winner, LoCo Team News and several other topics.

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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 179

The DistroWatch Weekly for November 27, 2006 is out. "With the end of the year 2006 approaching fast, many developers are hard at work preparing their latest product releases. A new version of Xandros Desktop, the subject of our first look review, will be announced later this week, while SabayonLinux 3.2 and the PlayStation edition of Yellow Dog Linux 5.0 are also expected shortly. Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 is about to enter its hard-freeze period, while the recent release candidate for openSUSE 10.2 is reportedly shaping up into a highly polished distribution. Many other projects have been making steady progress towards their future releases - Freespire has launched its development process which will lead to a stable version 2.0 in the first quarter of 2007 and many far-reaching changes are also planned for the next release of Fedora Core."

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Package updates

Fedora updates

Updates for Fedora Core 6: m17n-db (bug fix), k3b (update to 0.12.17), tcpdump (bug fixes), sysstat (update NFS mount statistic patch), util-linux (bug fixes), nss (update to 3.11.4), gaim (gaim-2.0.0 beta5 plus several additional fixes from Debian and upstream), vnc (bug fix), mc (update to new CVS snapshot), tzdata (patch for Western Australia DST trial), iscsi-initiator-utils (rebase to upstream open-iscsi-2.0-742), iscsi-initiator-utils (bug fixes), pygobject2 (update to 2.12.3), evolution-data-server (bug fix), system-config-httpd (lots of bugfixes), gnome-panel (bug fixes), gtk2 (bug fix), rhythmbox (bug fix), totem (update to 2.16.3), gstreamer (bug fix and cleanup), gstreamer-plugins-base (update to 0.10.10), hwbrowser (bug fixes), gnome-pilot (update to 2.0.14), mlocate (update to mlocate-0.15), m17n-db (bug fixes), pango (update to 1.14.8), openssl (bug fix), gnome-pilot-conduits (update to 2.0.14), system-config-soundcard (updated translations, cleanup), SDL (bug fix), gmp (bug fix), policycoreutils (fixes for the gui), system-config-printer (bug fixes), spamassassin (update to 3.1.7), traceroute (upgrade to new upstream version), m17n-db (bug fix), vnc (bug fix), jpilot (add KeyRing plugin), nfs-utils (bug fix), planner (bug fixes), selinux-policy (bug fixes), setroubleshoot (new icon and translations), iscsi-initiator-utils (rebase to upstream open-iscsi-2.0-747), tzdata (upstream 2006p), gnome-power-manager (screensaver bug fix).

Updates for Fedora Core 5: nspr (update to 4.6.4), nss (update to 3.11.4), tzdata (patch for Western Australia DST trial), system-config-httpd (lots of bugfixes), xterm (bug fixes), mc (update to new CVS snapshot), spamassassin (update to 3.1.7), traceroute (upgrade to new upstream version), iscsi-initiator-utils (rebase to upstream open-iscsi-2.0-747), tzdata (upstream 2006p).

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Mandriva updates

Updates for Mandriva Linux 2007.0: dbus (bug fix), audacity (bug fix for French locale).

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rPath updates

Updates for rPath Linux 1: conary, conary-build, conary-repository (Conary 1.0.39 maintenance release).

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Ubuntu updates

Updates for Ubuntu 6.10: lvm2 2.02.06-2ubuntu3.1 (bug fix)

Updates for Ubuntu 6.06 LTS: lvm2 2.02.02-1ubuntu1.1 (bug fix), maxima 5.9.2-2ubuntu2 (rebuild with new gcl)

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Miscellaneous Articles

As Etch progresses, Debian's release manager talks turkey (Linux.com)

Linux.com talks with Andreas Barth. "Release managers are not mentioned in the Debian Constitution, yet few positions in Debian are more influential, especially in the final stages of preparation for a release. Recently, Andreas Barth, who shares the release manager position with Steve Langasek, took time from his efforts coordinating the Etch release -- tentatively scheduled for early December -- to talk about the stages in the release process, the goals for the upcoming release, and the short- and long-range problems that he faces in his role. Contrary to some predictions of disaster, he presents a picture of a distribution that is continuing to evolve without sacrificing the openness for which it is often admired."

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Live CD Linux distro borrows Ubuntu, Knoppix bits (DesktopLinux)

DesktopLinux takes a look at X-Evian. "X-Evian, a Linux distribution in English and Spanish that draws from Ubuntu and Knoppix code, last month released a live CD -- version 0.7 -- that features a 2.6.17 kernel and the XFce desktop environment. X-Evian is a compilation which has been carefully chosen and configured for activist users, for liberated cultural, technological and social production, the Spain-based project team said. It is the team's first new release since 2003 -- it was originally built upon Debian GNU/Linux and Knoppix, the team said."

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Tips for new Gentoo users (Linux.com)

Linux.com has some tips for new Gentoo users. "Gentoo is one of the most difficult distributions to learn, though veteran Gentoo users might point out that its friendly community and extensive documentation can help new users. Here are some tips that might make Gentoo easier for anyone who wants to give it a try."

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Japan's Vine Linux 4.0 hits the web (DesktopLinux)

DesktopLinux looks at Vine Linux 4.0. "Japan's Vine Linux project team, whose distribution features an integrated Japanese or English environment for desktop PCs and notebooks, today released its version 4.0 for i386 and PowerPC processors. The distro features a 2.6.16 kernel and the GNOME 2.14.2 desktop environment."

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Distribution reviews

Xandros Linux conquers a hostile Sony laptop (Register)

The Register has this review of Xandros. "My personal favourite, SuSE, won't run on it without a tiring vi session, trying to edit xorg.conf to get a screen to appear. But Xandros Home Edition Premium ran fine right out of the box. Indeed, it has turned out more functional on this Linux-hating computer than even a vanilla Windows installation, which is not something one expects."

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