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DistributionsNews and Editorials An LWN.net Distribution List updateIt's that time of year again -- the time when we look at how the LWN Distributions List has changed over the past year. Last year's update can be found here. At that time the list had 485 "active" distributions, with an additional 58 listings in the Historical section. This year the list has grown to 491 active distributions, but down to 56 in the Historical listing.We define a historical distribution as one that is no longer under development, but we leave them on the list as long as there is still code to be found. As always, it can be a challenge separating the slow-paced distributions from the historical ones. There are, inevitably, some projects that are still in the active part of the list that have not been developed in years. Occasionally historical projects come out with new releases. Distributions will be removed from the list if their website times out repeatedly over a period of time, but that's not the end of it. Entries are moved to an internal list, where they are rechecked a few more times. Sometimes projects come back and are re-added to the list. In the last year every link on the list has been checked at least once. Almost half the list has been checked again. In addition to regular link checking, new distributions are added and existing entries are updated with new releases and other information. We do our best to keep the list up-to-date. That said, if you know of distributions that should be added, or removed, or changed in any way, just let us know. Now it's time to say goodbye to the distributions that have been removed in the last year, in no particular order. Brutalware, Progeny Componentized Linux, herbix, BeatrIX Linux, Deep-Water/Linux, distccKNOPPIX, LinuxDefender Live!, LNX-BBC, Mandows, Mediainlinux, RunOnCD, RxLinux, LinuxInstall.org, Turkix, XoL, Aleph ARMlinux, UltraLinux, epiOS, APAWS Linux with Gallery, Linux for Windows 9X, Phat Linux, GNU/Linux TerminalServer for Schools, BSLinux, CAEN Linux, FlightLinux, Laonux, LibraNet GNU/Linux, Linux in a Pillbox (LIAP), Mastodon, Phlak, PHP Solutions Live, Sentinix, slimlinux, Snootix, Tunix, uOS, Icepack Linux and Think BlueLinux.
New Releases Belenix 0.7 is available !BeleniX, a distribution that features KDE on the OpenSolaris kernel, has released v0.7. "After a long gap and lots of things happening behind the scenes, we are pleased to announce the availability of BeleniX 0.7. This release marks a considerable change in the evolution of BeleniX."
Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 updatedDebian has announced the final update of sarge. "The Debian project is pleased to announce the eighth and final update of its old stable distribution Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (codename 'sarge'). This update mainly adds corrections for security problems to the oldstable release, along with a few adjustments to serious problems." Click below for more details.
Distribution News Debian GNU/Linux Steve McIntyre becomes the new Debian Project leaderThe preliminary results from the 2008 Debian Project leader election have been posted. With 37% of the eligible developers voting, Steve McIntyre has been elected.
Important changes in dpkg 1.14.18 in sidA new version of dpkg spent a week in experimental before moving to unstable. It looks like lots of new features are in this version. Click below for details.
SUSE Linux and openSUSE openSUSE Project Releases Major Update to openSUSE Build ServiceThe openSUSE project has released a major update to the Build Service. "The 0.9 release will help grow a world-wide network of build service instances. OBS instances can automatically interact with each other and reuse projects residing on other OBS instances. New installations of OBS are automatically configured to work with the main openSUSE Build Service, which makes it easy to set up new instances and minimize network traffic while keeping data in sync automatically."
New Distributions AltimatOS is seeking developers...A new easy-to-use desktop distribution featuring KDE has announced it's existence. AltimatOS is currently working on an installable live DVD, with a preview release expected within the next month. The project is looking for additional developers and is running a logo contest.
Draco GNU/LinuxDraco GNU/Linux is a semi source based GNU/Linux distribution. It's based on Slackware and pkgsrc, a package management system from NetBSD. Draco separates the system from the third-party packages, for a simple and clean distribution to use as you see fit. Draco recently announced the release of v0.3.0.
Distribution Newsletters Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #86The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for April 12, 2008 covers Ubuntu 8.04 LTS archive freeze, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS LoCo Team CDs, Brainstorm update, Ubuntu UK Podcast #3, Euro-Parliament testing Ubuntu, and much more.
Fedora Weekly News Issue 128The Fedora Weekly News for April 14, 2008 looks at Planet Fedora articles "FLSCo elections slipped", "FLSCo elections slipped", "Random Fedora musings" and "Recovering Data from Windows systems by using Linux", and several other topics.
Debian misc development news (#6)This collection of Debian Developer News looks at Python 2.5 by default, use a recent devscripts, dpkg-buildpackage sets default value to CFLAGS, etc., please help test "etch and a half", FTFBS on packages build-depending on libqt4-dev, and more.
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 248The DistroWatch Weekly for April 14, 2008 is out. "The release of Mandriva Linux 2008.1 last week started a small avalanche of distro releases that will keep us busy downloading and installing new distributions for weeks. But which of them will eventually become the "keeper"? One way to evaluate them all is to follow the development branches of the major distributions as they converge towards the point when they are declared stable and ready for deployment. This is the topic of today's feature story. In the news section, Debian elects a new project leader, ASUS releases a Software Development Kit for the Eee PC, gOS and Symphony OS continue to experiment with unusual user interfaces, and Darkstar Linux announces the availability of Disk Manager, a new utility for managing hard disk partitions. Also worth a read - a rare interview with Texstar, the founder of PCLinuxOS, and another with Jeremy Katz, a well-known Red Hat and Fedora developer."
Interviews Interview: Fedora developers Seth Vidal and Will Woods (Red Hat Magazine)Red Hat Magazine has an interview with Fedora developers Seth Vidal and Will Woods.
In Fedora, the supported method for upgrading from one release to the next
is by downloading the media and rebooting from the media and using
Anaconda. Why was this the case, and what's wrong with a yum upgrade?
Seth Vidal: Anaconda has the advantage of running outside of the system it is upgrading. This means it can do certain tricks in the event of big changes. The lvm->lvm2 migration, for example. Yum can't do this. Changing the partition or fs type on a running partition is a bad idea :) Will Woods: Another good example: In Fedora 9 we have (experimental) ext4 support, and Anaconda is capable of migrating your ext3 filesystems to ext4 automatically. But yum upgrades can't handle this.
Linux Magazine Italy InterviewBill "Texstar" Reynolds, founder of PCLinuxOS (PCLOS), was interviewed by Linux Magazine Italy. An English translation was later posted to the PCLOS forum. "In the summer of 2003 I became interested in livecd technology after looking at knoppix and a fresh distribution from a fellow named Warren called Mepis. I was interested in helping Warren with Mepis at the time but I had no clue how to build Deb files. Coming from 5 years of packaging rpms and not really wanting to learn a new packaging system I happened to come across a South African fellow by the name of Jaco Greef. He was developing a script called mklivecd and porting it to Mandrake Linux. I along with Buchanan Milne (Mandrake contributor) and a few others began working with Jaco to help debug the scripts. I got an idea to make a livecd based on Mandrake Linux 9.2 along with all my customizations just for fun. I had previously provided an unofficial 3rd party repository for the users of Mandrake Linux for many years but had since parted ways. Mandrake was a trademarked name, so myself and others decided to name the livecd after our old news site and forum pclinuxonline thus PCLinuxOS."
Distribution reviews Review: Hat Trick For Fedora 9 Beta (ChannelWeb)ChannelWeb has a glowing review of Fedora 9 Beta. "On the desktop front, Fedora 9 Beta offers GNOME 2.22 and KDE 4.0.2 as the defaults. GNOME 2.22 in Fedora 9 has better file system performance, security improvements, and the ability to manage power right at the login screen (quite handy on a laptop). There's better Bluetooth integration, especially for Palm devices."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol |
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