Distributions

News and Editorials

The anatomy of a Linux distribution

The anatomy of a Linux distribution is pretty simple. It is a distribution of packages that includes a Linux kernel, bundled together to work on a given piece of hardware. There are plenty of other kernels to choose from; BSD, Hurd, Solaris, etc.; and plenty of distributions that include a similar package set. For example, the GNOME desktop looks about the same on OpenSolaris as it does on Linux.

The type of hardware may impose certain constraints. Embedded devices of all kinds run a Linux kernel, but the package set varies with the function of the device. Linux runs on a wide variety of hardware and the overall set of Linux kernels currently in use is quite large, as each distributor makes their own tweaks and twists to get the best performance on their hardware.

Most people reading this article are using some type of desktop Linux. The most common hardware is x86, but there will be many readers using x86_64, PPC, or something else entirely. Still, the packages on the desktop will be similar.

This is, perhaps, one reason why there are so many Linux distributions. That number continues to grow: over 300 on our list a couple of years ago, now it's over 500 on the list. Each one is unique in some way. Sure, they all have some type of Linux kernel, but there are older kernels and newer kernels, and kernels that support non-x86 hardware of all kinds. Some of these distributions are not maintained anymore, but the source code remains available and someone, somewhere may find it useful.

It was and still is very common to take a particular distribution and modify it until it becomes a unique distribution. Red Hat Linux used to be a very common base distribution. Now the most common base is Debian, but there are also distributions based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora and Ubuntu. Knoppix, the original live CD, was spawned from Debian and now has dozens of spin-offs, each with their set of packages.

These days we are seeing a new explosion of custom distributions. Fedora has spins and Ubuntu has flavors. Anyway you look at it the tools to create a customized distribution are maturing and becoming more usable. While the total number of Linux distributions is not likely to shrink any time soon, we may start to see a few base distributions take over the customized desktop.

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New Releases

Linux From Scratch 6.3-rc2 release announcement

LFS 6.3-rc2 has been released. You can see all that's new since the last release here.

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Announcing openSUSE 10.3 Beta 1

openSUSE 10.3 beta 1 is out. Click below for a list of important changes since alpha 7 and the most annoying bugs you might run into during testing. Live/install CD images are available, one with GNOME and one with KDE.

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Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 4 released

The Ubuntu project has announced the availability of Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 4, a milestone CD image that will lead up to Ubuntu 7.10. "Tribe 4 is the fourth 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 show-stopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Gutsy."

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Distribution News

Feature: Fedora Electronic Lab

Chitlesh GOORAH has been working on packaging open source tools for electronic engineering on Fedora. By the time that Fedora 8 ships there should be enough for a fairly complete Fedora Electronic Lab.

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reducing power usage of Fedora - how you can help!

The Fedora project is taking a serious look at reducing power consumption. There are a few ways you may be able to help out. Click below to find out more.

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Site for Chilean users of Fedora

Fedora users and enthusiasts in Chile have a new web site and local Yum mirror.

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New Lunar screenshot/images website launch

Lunar Linux has launched a screen shots website so developers and users alike can show off their desktops.

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Distribution Newsletters

Fedora Weekly News Issue 100

The Fedora Weekly News for August 6, 2007 looks at announcements on Virtual FudCon8 and Fedora 8 Test 1. Ask Fedora answers questions on Intel IP2200 Wireless in Fedora 7, Distribution Upgrades And Peripherals and Yum Reverse Dependency Removal. In Daily Package there are few good reviews on Qcad - Simple 2D CAD program, Gscan2pdf - Frontend for scanning utilities, Xephyr - New nested X server and Really Slick Screensavers. Also to celebrate the 100th issue, one lucky winner will receive "Fedora 7 Bible" by Christopher Negus. See the Extras Extras section for more information.

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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter

The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for July 30, 2007 covers NVIDIA Drivers update, Portato review, Planet Summer of Code 2007, GUADEC 2007, and several other topics.

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Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #52

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for August 11, 2007 covers the release of Tribe 4, promoting Ubuntu through the use of viral videos, progress of the US Loco Teams Project, security breaches in community hosted servers, and much much more.

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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 215

The DistroWatch Weekly for August 13, 2007 is out. "It was a great week for all those who enjoy testing open source software; not only are all the major Linux distributions busy readying their upcoming releases, the two main desktop environments, GNOME and KDE, are also keeping us interested in their latest desktop innovations. The openSUSE project especially has been generating plenty of news; it has published an update to its online software installation service and has released a new openSUSE live CD set. To add to the growing presence of openSUSE in the headlines, we have asked Stephan Kulow, the new Project Manager who took over in the middle of July, a few questions about the distribution's future direction. Also in this issue: ex-Gentoo's Daniel Robbins talks about the Portage package manager and DragonFly BSD's Matthew Dillon defends the BSD licence."

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Distribution meetings

Meet the Fedora desktop team

The Fedora desktop team will be holding regular public meetings on IRC every Wednesday. "We'd like to start holding regular public irc meetings -- "meet the desktop team", if you want. The official form in which this happens in Fedora is in a SIG, so we will form a "Desktop SIG" and invite interested members of the Fedora community to work with us on making the Fedora desktop spin the best desktop in its class."

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First Ever Ubuntu Live Conference Brings Developers and Business Together

Dawn Applegate presents a wrap up of the Ubuntu Live conference that preceded OSCON. "Co-sponsored by Canonical, Ltd. and O'Reilly Media, Inc., this first year gathering was the key forum for developers, experts, established companies, and newcomers alike to exchange thoughts and knowledge about the world of Ubuntu. Keynote presentations included industry leaders such as Mark Shuttleworth, Stephen O'Grady, and Jeff Waugh. In the spirit of community, the keynote presentations included interactive Q&A sessions that allowed conference attendees direct contact with industry experts."

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Newsletters and articles of interest

Interview: Matthew Dillon (KernelTrap)

Jeremy Andrews interviews Matthew Dillon, creator of DragonFly BSD. "In this interview, Matthew discusses his incentive for starting a new BSD project and briefly compares DragonFly to FreeBSD and the other BSD projects. He goes on to discuss the new features in today's DragonFly 1.10 release. He also offers an in-depth explanation of the project's cluster goals, including a thorough description of his ambitious new clustering filesystem. Finally, he reflects back on some of his earlier experiences with FreeBSD and Linux, and explains the importance of the BSD license."

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Ubuntu tries to go LoCo in all 50 states (Linux.com)

Linux.com looks at Ubuntu's Local Community (LoCo) teams in the United States. "The Ubuntu community is seeking to get approved Local Community (LoCo) teams in all 50 states in the US by the end of this year, and it's making impressive progress. A LoCo team is a local group of Ubuntu users who help promote the operating system in their local community."

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Distribution reviews

Sabayon Linux: Something for everyone (Linux.com)

Linux.com reviews Sabayon Linux. "The Sabayon Linux live DVD distribution, based on the unstable branch of Gentoo Linux, has been in development for several years and caters to a wide variety of users. Having started out with a beautiful but mainstream appearance, it now boasts one of the most unique looks in Linux and more usability options than most other distros. The distribution offers premium open source games, accelerated desktop effects, a large and varied software suite, and several variations. Besides the full release, Sabayon also comes in a Business Edition and usually a Mini edition. With all it has to offer, Sabayon has something for everyone."

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