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DistributionsNews and Editorials A new APT for Debian SidAPT is also known as the Advanced Packaging Tool. Wikipedia describes APT as a package management front-end, but then notes:
There is no single "apt" program as such; APT is a C++ library of functions
(known as libapt) which are used by front-end programs for dealing with
packages, such as apt-get and apt-cache. They are commonly used in examples
due to their simplicity and ubiquity; apt-get and apt-cache are of
"important" priority in all current Debian releases, and are therefore
installed in a default Debian installation. Several other front-ends to APT
exist, which provide more advanced installation functions and more
intuitive interfaces.
APT is both a front-end for dpkg and it is also the underpinning for more advanced front-end tools like Synaptic and aptitude. APT is often described as one of the best things about Debian. A new version of APT was uploaded to Sid (Debian's unstable branch) last weekend. Version 0.7.2 is a big merge of the version in debian/experimental and the version in Ubuntu. It's an ABI breaker, meaning that until all the packages depending on libapt are rebuilt, Sid will be very unstable. By now though Sid should be settling back down. The new APT contains translated package descriptions, support for the new dpkg "Breaks" field, apt-https support (based on libcurl), automatic removal of unused dependencies moved into libapt, automatic installation of recommends like aptitude and support for unattended installing security upgrades. Michael Vogt notes that the automatic removal of unused dependencies is a long-standing feature request for synaptic, so having it integrated into libapt will be of great benefit there and for other apt front-ends. The automatic installation of recommended packages is currently off by default although that will change at some point in the future. Joey Hess notes several places where the Debian installer will have to change to support this feature and there are likely other places within Debian where changes will need to be made. It would be nice to see this properly implemented and integrated through-out Lenny. Apt development has been moved to the bazaar-ng (bzr) revision control system; the APT Development Wiki Page is the best place to track that development.
New Releases Ubuntu Tribe 1 releasedUbuntu Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 1 has been released. "Tribe 1 is the first in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Gutsy development cycle. The Tribe images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Gutsy."
Distribution News Fedora Board ElectionsMax Spevack reports: "We are due for our first round of Fedora Board elections. There have been some threads recently on fedora-advisory-board that have been working to clarify what the Board's role should be as it goes into its next term." Three of the nine seats are open for election in this current iteration, the process is similar to other Fedora elections, and anyone who is a Fedora contributor (regardless of where they are employed) may run and vote.
New mailing list and forum for 64 Studio usersThe 64 Studio distribution has a new forum and a new mailing list for user questions and general discussion.
End of Fedora Legacy mirror at Iowa StateThe Fedora Legacy mirror at Iowa State will be shutting down on July 1, 2007. "Max Spevack announced last month that Fedora Core 5's end of life would be June 29th. That gives us a good milestone for removing our Fedora Legacy mirror. Traffic was high for two months after the announcement of Fedora Legacy's demise but has dwindled since April. So, beginning July 1, 2007, Iowa State will no longer offer a mirror of Fedora Legacy. Grab what you would like between now and then." The ATrpms.net mirror will also be shutting down soon.
New High-Performance Linux Distro for Security and MonitoringnPulse Networks has announced it will release a new Linux distribution in August. Catapulta borrows from Debian and Ubuntu and is designed for network monitoring and security applications. From this summary page: "A key to the project was the substantial tuning required to common Linux distributions to achieve high packet throughput. nPulse eventually built its own custom distribution, named "Catapulta" which it is now placing in the public domain for general usage, and in the expectation of drawing on-going contributions from a user community to continue to enhance the distro."
New Distributions Granular LinuxGranular Linux aims to be an easy to use, user-friendly desktop distribution for both new and experienced Linux users. It's based on PCLinuxOS and features easy switching between the KDE and XFCE desktop environments. Granular 0.90 is available as a test release. See the announcement for details.
KaroshiKaroshi is a server operating system designed for schools. Karoshi is based on PCLinuxOS and it provides a simple graphical interface that allows easy installation, setup and maintenance of your network. The latest version is 5.1.3 (announcement).
linuX-gamers.net live DVDlinuX-gamers.net has announced the first public release (v0.9) of a live DVD for gamers. The DVD contains Nexuiz, Warsow, Glest, Torcs and much more.
Distribution Newsletters Fedora Weekly News Issue 91The Fedora Weekly News for June 9, 2007 looks at Cooperative Bug Isolation for Fedora 7, OLPC: Mesh Networking Overview in Red Hat Magazine, Fedora for ARM and cross compilation, Innovation in virtualization management tools, Fedora 7 reviews, Community Control And Documentation Of New Workflows, Fedora On ARM Architecture Opens Up Cross-Compilation Discussion, A World Of Hurt: Making F7 Install CD Set From DVD Using FC6 Pungi, Splitting Terminfo Out Of The ncurses RPM, Eliminating Unwanted RPM Dependencies And Statically-linked Binaries, F7 Images For Mass Production, Exploding Trees and SCM, Why Emacs Is Not Installed By Default, Metalink: A New Way Of Distributing Fedora ISOs?, Quick Notes On Update Image Installer And F8 Desiderata, and several other topics.
Ubuntu Weekly News: Issue #44The Ubuntu Weekly News for June 9, 2007 covers the release of Gutsy Tribe 1, newly approved MOTU Lionel Porcheron, upcoming Ubuntu Hug Day, the new Launchpad release, an interview with Mark Shuttleworth, an Ubucon held by the Colorado LoCo at Google offices, and much much more.
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 206The DistroWatch Weekly for June 11, 2007 is out. "This week marks the start of a slower season on the distribution release calendar; all major new versions are now out and many users have been enjoying their newly updated Linux desktops. But is there still anything exciting going on the distro scene? You bet! This week's DistroWatch Weekly asks the readers to comment on their "distro hopping" habits, reports about Linux Format's annual distribution mega-test, links to an open source software article in The Economist, and reports about the new linuX-gamers live DVD. Finally, don't miss your chance to suggest new packages to be tracked after the upcoming DistroWatch's package database update later this month."
Newsletters and articles of interest HP's LinuxCOE turns 4.0, enables DIY Linux distros (Linux-Watch)Linux-Watch looks at LinuxCOE 4.0, which was announced last May. "If you want to give LinuxCOE a try, you can use it to install a Linux system by visiting the Instalinux website. For the source code and documentation visit the LinuxCOE site."
Pepper, Ubuntu Linux developers make plans to shrink (NetworkWorld.com)NetworkWorld.com looks at another contender for Intel's Mobile Internet Device platform, Pepper Linux. "Pepper Linux, which runs on the slick Pepper Pad Internet browsing appliance, will be ported to Intel's MID platform, with the software being available this fall to equipment makers."
Taking OpenSolaris for a spin (Linux-Watch)Linux-Watch takes a look at Open Solaris. "If you're like most Linux users, you've heard of OpenSolaris, but I'm willing to bet you've never tried it. One reason, as former Debian co-founder and now Sun Chief Operating Platforms Officer Ian Murdock explained, is that OpenSolaris doesn't come as a packaged operating system like Linux does."
Installing Xen On CentOS 5.0 (i386)HowtoForge has a tutorial on installing Xen on CentOS 5.0 (i386). "Xen lets you create guest operating systems (*nix operating systems like Linux and FreeBSD), so called "virtual machines" or domUs, under a host operating system (dom0). Using Xen you can separate your applications into different virtual machines that are totally independent from each other (e.g. a virtual machine for a mail server, a virtual machine for a high-traffic web site, another virtual machine that serves your customers' web sites, a virtual machine for DNS, etc.), but still use the same hardware. This saves money, and what is even more important, it's more secure. If the virtual machine of your DNS server gets hacked, it has no effect on your other virtual machines. Plus, you can move virtual machines from one Xen server to the next one."
Distribution reviews Alternative GUIs: SymphonyOS (TuxMachines)TuxMachines takes a look at Symphony OS. "The SymphonyOS desktop (named "mezzo") seems to be a marriage of the fvwm window manager with Mozilla's scriptable layout engine, Gecko. On the desktop, there are areas with links in them (known as "desklets" and "launchers"). When clicked, the links can bring up Web pages or programs. In the four corners of the desktop, there are hotspots that bring up what are referred to as "menus," which are actually full-page views of four specific functional areas: Computer (settings); Files; Programs; and Trash. In the top center of the main page, there's a hotspot containing the clock, that also works as the way to refresh the desktop after the desktop background image has been changed through SymphonyOS' Desktop Manager."
Granular Linux - What Am I Missing? (TuxMachines)TuxMachines reviews Granular Linux. "Granular Linux is a Linux distribution based on PCLinuxOS and features the XFCE4 and KDE desktops. It appears to have been in development since about the beginning of 2007 and has had one previous release. The developers of Granular have recently released a test of their upcoming .90 and I thought I'd see what it offered."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol |
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