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DistributionsNews and Editorials Exherbo announced. Sort of... A new distribution called Exherbo has announced its existence. It's at least partly inspired by Gentoo and has borrowed some Gentoo code.
Exherbo is not a Gentoo fork in the conventional sense. Although it
shares some code with Gentoo, and although many concepts are similar, and
although many of the people involved were or are Gentoo developers, most
Exherbo code is rewritten from scratch.
Exherbo is not your average distribution, nor does it aspire to be. In fact, Exherbo is not for users at all. Exherbo is designed to be a developer's playground. A place to experiment, to innovate, and to break packages with impunity. So far there isn't much there. The projects page lists only two projects so far: Arbor, an exheres-format (the Exherbo package format) repository for base system and assorted useful packages, and Genesis, which aims to be a replacement init daemon. There are two mailing lists available, the main development list and a commit mailing list. The source repository has some packages in git and a few more in subversion. There's a Bugzilla bug tracker too. So there isn't much yet, but the infrastructure is there to support what may come. Perhaps the most interesting part of the site for most people is the Planet Exherbo, a typical blog space for developers to talk about what they are doing, or would like to do, or whatever. For example you'll find this post [warning, site is currently reported by Firefox 3 as an "Attack Site", content can also be found on the Planet site] by Anders Ossowicki which explains:
First of all, Exherbo was announced because some elements of it will be
discussed at an upcoming conference. Rather than having a blank page and
let people start various rumors it seemed wise to at least let people
know what was going on. But in an effort not to hype it above what it
was, we didn't hand over all available information and code.
Unfortunately Slashdot picked up the announcement because some tard decided it would be a great idea to submit it to them. We did not do that ourselves because, as we state on the website, we have no need for users at the moment and exherbo won't fulfill users demands for the foreseeable future. That is not to say exherbo won't ever become useful but we're not there at the moment. Some very basic things still need to be worked out properly. So there it is. Do not download and expect a working distribution. Do not expect a release of a working distribution any time soon. But if you are a developer with an itch to scratch, this might be the place to so. Just to keep it all together, here's the original LWN announcement and all associated comments.
New Releases rPath Linux 2.0 available rPath has announced that rPath Linux 2 is now available. "rPath Linux is a base operating system platform on which you easily build customized virtual or software appliances, or even an entire operating system of your own. Building on the rPath Linux foundation, use rPath's tools to create and maintain your own minimal operating system stack, with "Just Enough OS" to support the applications and services you include."
Novell Delivers SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Enhancements in Service Pack 2 Novell has announced the availability to customers worldwide of SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 2 (SP2). With this release SP1 goes into a 6-month maintenance period.
Announcing openSUSE 11.0 Beta 3 The third beta of openSUSE 11.0 is available. "Over 700 bugs were fixed since beta 2, more new artwork was added and several new package versions were includes. The live installation has seen great improvements and should work flawless now."
Fedora 9 Everything Spin released Fedora Unity has announced the release of the Fedora 9 Everything Spin, for those who want it all. The Everything Spin includes everything available at the time of the release of Fedora 9.
Distribution News Debian GNU/Linux Bits from the DPL In this edition of Bits from the DPL (dated May 15th), Steve McIntyre points to several interviews, recent delegations, team reviews, Summer of Code 2008, DebConf, Lenny, and openssl. Click below for all the bits.
Perl 5.10 transition: Done The Perl5.10 transition has now been completed, with about 400 source packages in testing getting updates. "Please also note that this new perl version is the last major update to the Debian toolchain for lenny."
Fedora Cooperative Bug Isolation for Fedora 9 The Cooperative Bug Isolation Project (CBI) is now available for Fedora 9. CBI is an ongoing research effort to find and fix bugs in the real world. "We distribute specially modified versions of popular open source software packages. These special versions monitor their own behavior while they run, and report back how they work (or how they fail to work) in the hands of real users like you. Even if you've never written a line of code in your life, you can help make things better for everyone simply by using our special bug-hunting packages."
Gentoo Linux Gentoo Foundation officially reinstated by New Mexico The Gentoo Foundation has been reinstated and returned to good standing by the state of New Mexico, USA. "This accomplishment allows other aspects of the foundation's work to proceed again. The foundation takes care of Gentoo's intellectual property (copyrights, trademarks) and money. It ensures that nobody violates our copyrights and trademarks, serves as a place to hold money, and decides where to devote that money."
New Distributions GKLinuxOS 2008 GKLinuxOS is based on PCLinuxOS 2007 and comes with lots of applications including OpenOffice.org and other office software, graphics and drawing, multimedia audio-video programs, programs for web-browsing, email and chat, and much more. GKLinuxOS 2008 with KDE 3.5.x is available.
Distribution Newsletters Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #91 The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for May 17, 2008 covers the OpenSSL/OpenSSH vulnerability, FOSSCamp 2008 Prague, The Art of Release(Mark Shuttleworth), 5-a-day and Loco teams, Linux distro Smack Down(Podcast), Metalinks, what are those?, Ubuntu on Berlin metro system, Ubuntu featured in Vermist(Movie), and much more.
OpenSUSE Weekly News/22 This edition of OpenSUSE Weekly News covers Linuxtag 2008 - latest information, People of openSUSE: Marcus Hüwe, and much more.
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 253 The DistroWatch Weekly for May 19, 2008 is out. "Fedora 9 came out last week as expected, but the many experimental features and software packages in the distribution seem to detract some would-be users from upgrading their distribution. Do you enjoy testing the latest and greatest the Linux development world has to offer? Then Fedora 9 is for you. Otherwise look elsewhere. In the news section, Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth calls on greater release synchronisation between the major Linux vendors, Debian struggles to come to terms with a massive OpenSSL vulnerability, ComputerWold Australia interviews Ian Murdock, the Sun Microsystems' vice president in charge of OpenSolaris, and Gentoo succeeds in reinstating Gentoo Foundation in New Mexico. Also in this issue, an explanation why DistroWatch does not focus more on GPL violations and other legal topics, and an opinion piece on the subject of growing mistrust of users towards Canonical and Ubuntu."
Distribution meetings Ubuntu Live 2008 canceled Ubuntu Live 2008, originally scheduled for July 21-22, 2008, has been canceled. "We are planning to include some Ubuntu content in the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON), also happening July 21-25 in Portland, Oregon."
Miscellaneous Articles A review of rPath Linux 2.0 (LinuxDevices) LinuxDevices has a brief overview and review of rPath Linux 2.0. "rPath Linux is a specialized Linux distribution designed for use by ISVs (independent software vendors) wishing to deliver their products as pre-installed hardware appliances, or as 'software appliances.' The latter are pre-configured Linux server stacks suitable for installation by users on real or virtual commodity hardware."
Distribution reviews Ubuntu - 8.04 (Review) (techpark6.com) techpark6.com has a review of Ubuntu 8.04. "With such an expansive operating system like Ubuntu 8.04 you'll likely encounter the gamut of opinions ranging from praise to unsatisfied complaints. Having used Ubuntu 8.04 since the early alpha testing period, I can say that I find Ubuntu 8.04 to be one of the more (if not the most) polished and ready for widespread use Linux operating systems made to date."
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