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DistributionsNews and Editorials Fedora and the LiveContent distributionThe week at LinuxWorld Creative Commons and the Fedora Project released a live CD called LiveContent.The live CD boots Fedora 7 and contains additional content licensed under a free Creative Commons license. From the Red Hat press release:
The Fedora 7 operating system boots directly from the LiveContent CD, making use of the open source tools found in the latest Fedora distribution like Revisor, Pungi and more. The CD features a variety of Creative Commons-licensed content including audio, video, image, text and educational resources. From the desktop, users can explore free and open content and learn more about businesses like Jamendo, Blip.tv, Flickr and others supporting creative communities through aggregation and search tools.
Also included are a number of open source software applications including OpenOffice, The Gimp, Inkscape, Firefox, multimedia viewers, open document templates and others. The LiveContent CD is a product of collaboration across a number of organizations - Red Hat is providing in-kind engineering support via Fedora 7 and many open source community members collaborated on the included software applications. Worldlabel.com, member of the Open Document Format Alliance, is supplying ongoing support for the development and distribution of the LiveContent CD. As Fedora engineer Jack Aboutboul says in this blog post:
The purpose of the LiveContent Distribution is to act as as tool and an enabler to both educate people about what Creative Commons is and does, and to provide them the tools and a selection of content with which they can begin to explore the remix culture and how endless the possibilities really are when a culture of collaboration is fostered, not detested.
The CD can be downloaded from the Fedora torrent site.
New Releases Fedora 8 Test 1 releasedThe first Fedora 8 test release is out. "Test 1 is for 'alpha' users. This is the time when we would like to have full community participation. Without this participation both hardware and software functionality suffers." See the Fedora 8 feature list for an overview of what's new in this release.
Freespire 2.0 releasedLinspire has announced the availability of Freespire 2.0. "Building on the best of open source software using Ubuntu as its baseline, Freespire 2.0 adds legally licensed proprietary drivers, codecs, and applications in its core distribution, to provide a better user experience. Freespire 2.0 also continues to offer users the ability to choose what software they want installed on their computer, without limitations or restrictions, as a result, making available proprietary software where there are no viable open source alternatives."
Mandriva 2008 Beta 1 availableThe first beta of Mandriva 2008 has been released. See the release notes for some indications of what's coming; among other things, this release will feature a switch to AppArmor as the native security framework.
Custom NimbleX Desktop OSThe first release candidate of Custom NimbleX 2 has been announced. Custom NimbleX allows you to generate a customized Linux distribution.
Announcing openSUSE 10.3 Alpha7The seventh alpha release of openSUSE 10.3 is available for testing. Click below for a look at the changes since alpha6, most annoying bugs, things that need testing and the media and download information.
Distribution News Bits from the Debian Project LeaderDPL Sam Hocevar looks at FTP assistants, the Debian Maintainers proposal, APT's Recommends handling and the patch sharing project.
Changes to Debian APTThe latest version of apt in Debian's unstable and testing branches will install recommended packages by default on October 1st.
Results for General Resolution: Endorse concept of Debian maintainersDebian Developers have voted to "Endorse the concept of Debian Maintainers". LWN covered this general resolution last week.
The openSUSE Project Turns Two with Improved Build Service and 10.3 BetaNovell celebrates the second anniversary of the openSUSE project with the release of the first beta of openSUSE 10.3 (due August 9) and the continued growth of the openSUSE Build Service.
openSUSE has New Software Interface with 1-Click Installation OnlineSoftware.opensuse.org has a new face and a new search interface.
Automatix for Ubuntu is "actively dangerous"Matthew Garrett investigates Automatix, a tool for Ubuntu users to install software that is not officially supported. He reports on a short look at problems with the tool. "Automatix exists to satisfy a genuine need, and further work should be carried out to determine whether these user requirements can be satisfied within the distribution as a whole. However, in its current form Automatix is actively dangerous to systems - ranging from damage to small items of user configuration, through removing user-installed packages without adequate prompting or warning and up to the (small but existing) potential to leave a system in an unbootable state."
Distribution Newsletters Fedora Weekly News Issue 99The Fedora Weekly News for July 29, 2007 covers announcements on Fedora 8 Test 1, Virtual FudCon and the new column called AskFedora. Also some questions posed to AskFedora on a License Issue, Backups and Problem with Pup. In Developments, continuing discussions on CodecBuddy, Yum, Kmods, RPM Roadmap, KDE4 Status and more.
Mandriva Linux Community Newsletter Issue # 127The Mandriva Linux Community Newsletter for July 30, 2007 looks at new releases: Corporate Desktop 4.0 and Mandriva Linux 2007 Spring Powerpack CDs, Mandriva at the conferences: aKademy, GUADEC, LinuxWorld, French Ministry of Agricultural and Fisheries chooses Mandriva, and more.
PCLinuxOS Magazine Issue 12The August 2007 edition of PCLinuxOS Magazine covers Lessons from Children, KDE User Guide Chapter 7, and much more.
full circle magazine - issue #3 released!Full Circle, the Ubuntu Community Magazine, has announced its third issue containing Xubuntu install step-by-step, How-To : Get a Stunning Ubuntu Desktop, Learning Scribus part 3 and Ubuntu in Photography, Review of Ubuntu on a Macbook, Preview of several new Compiz Fusion effects and more.
Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #51The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for August 4, 2007 covers job opportunities at Canonical, potential system issues caused by Automatix, the upcoming fourth alpha release of Gutsy Gibbon, coverage of the US LoCo Teams Project and meetup, and much much more.
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 214The DistroWatch Weekly for August 6, 2007 is out. "The late Sunday release of Arch Linux 2007.08 provided some excitement on the otherwise quiet distribution release week, during which both Fedora and Mandriva failed to deliver the promised first development builds of their upcoming products. But on the distro news front, things were a lot more exciting: MEPIS has announced that it will switch to a Debian base before its next stable release, Ubuntu has published a detailed analysis of Automatix, Kevin Carmony has announced resignation from Linspire, a Swedish manufacturer has unveiled the world's cheapest laptop (running Fedora), and Ian Murdock has given some hints about Sun Microsystems Project Indiana in an interview. We also take a quick look at the current status of KNOPPIX and Gentoo and publish some interesting statistical data about the DistroWatch readership in Latin America and the Caribbean. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of the July 2007 DistroWatch donation is the FreeNAS project."
Newsletters and articles of interest Controlling and managing Edubuntu users' desktops (Linux.com)Linux.com has an excerpt from The Official Ubuntu Book, Second Edition. "The community-driven Edubuntu project aims to create a version of Ubuntu specially tailored for use in primary and secondary education. Perhaps the most useful feature present in the Edubuntu OS is the Linux Terminal Server Project environment, whose applications are not limited just to eduction. The LTSP model centers around one powerful machine that acts as a server and several often much lower-powered machines that act as clients and boot from an installation of Ubuntu on the server. Though you will not be installing anything on them, there are still some maintenance tasks specifically directed at clients."
MEPIS begins return to Debian Linux with alpha release (DesktopLinux)DesktopLinux reports that MEPIS Linux will return to using Debian as its base. "With this pre-beta, which is a preview of the upcoming SimplyMEPIS 7, MEPIS has discontinued using Ubuntu binary packages in favor of a combination of MEPIS packaged binaries based on Debian and Ubuntu source code. These programs will run on top of a Debian Stable OS core, which will also be using packages from the Debian package pools."
Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony resigns (Linux-Watch)Linux-Watch reports that Kevin Carmony has resigned as CEO of Linspire. "Carmony also said that Linspire is stronger than ever. "I can't speak for Linspire now, but I believe the upcoming release of Freespire 2.0 and open CNR (Click N' Run) will be great for Linspire and desktop Linux.""
Distribution reviews Absolute Linux is an absolute winner (Linux.com)Linux.com has a review of Absolute Linux. "Absolute, a lightweight Linux operating system based on the respected Slackware Linux distribution, just released version 12.0. It features kernel version 2.6.21.5, IceWM and Fluxbox window managers, and many graphical and ncurses-based configuration tools. Its goal is to provide a lighter, easier-to-use Slackware appropriate for newcomers and experienced Linux users alike. It is built for speed and performance but doesn't neglect stability or security."
EnGarde -- Secure Linux Server (PolishLinux)PolishLinux.org has a review of EnGarde Secure Server 3.0.16. "EnGarde is a server oriented distribution equipped with WebTool -- a web based interface for managing the system and various types of servers (HTTP, mail, FTP and many other). There are two editions of EnGarde -- the free Community edition and the commercial Professional edition. EnGarde and all it components are published on the GPL license. EnGarde is available for i686 and x86_64 architectures, uses RPM packages managed by APT-GET."
Graphics pros will find good tools in compact Grafpup distro (Linux.com)Linux.com reviews Grafpup 2.0. "Grafpup 2.0 is a compact Linux distribution based on Puppy Linux and aimed at graphics professionals. It offers a variety of options for installation, a custom set of configuration utilities, and a niche suite of applications for digital artists. The graphics are soothing, and the Openbox desktop runs smoothly even on older hardware. Despite a few problems, Grafpup is a good choice for graphic designers and writers on the go."
openSUSE 10.3 Alpha 7 report (TuxMachines)TuxMachines takes a look at openSUSE 10.3 Alpha 7. "So, all in all, it appears to me that openSUSE 10.3 is shaping up. We're still really early in the development process, so there's plenty time left. Things are looking better and working better for the most part. I get more excited each release but this one has really raised my pulse rate. I can hardly wait for final."
Red Hat releases Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 beta (Linux-Watch)Linux-Watch takes a look at the first beta for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1. "If it seems like it was only months ago that Red Hat launched its new major operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, that's because it wasn't quite five months ago. Unlike Microsoft, which is still playing coy about when it will replace Vista Service Pack 1, Red Hat has just announced the beta to its next upgrade: RHEL 5.1."
Vyatta releases 2.2 beta (Linux.com)Linux.com reviews Vyatta 2.2 beta. "The beta release of Vyatta -- which is essentially a Debian-based Linux distribution focused on networking -- includes Border Gateway Patrol (BGP) enhancements, Network Address Translation (NAT) usability enhancements, improvements to the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server and DHCP relay, and new options for the "show version" command."
Wolvix 1.1.0 Mini-Review & Screenshots (TuxMachines)TuxMachines has a mini-review of Wolvix 1.1.0. "Wolvix is a Linux distribution released as an installable liveCD. Originally based on Slax, it is now built upon Slackware and seems to concentrate highly on multimedia. It features XFCE4 and Fluxbox and comes with a large suite of software. Version 1.1.0 was released a few days ago and comes in two variations. Hunter is the traditional more complete version, while Cub is a smaller edition designed to fit and run on 256MB USB Flash Drives. I've been a fan of Wolvix since the beginning because of it's unique look and feel while offering exceptional functionality and lots of useful applications. Realizing that I haven't looked at it in a while, I decided to give Wolvix 1.1.0 a little spin this weekend. Since on-disk beat me to the punch, I'll just post a mini-review and my screenshots."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol |
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