Distributions

Xandros Desktop OS

Xandros has announced the availability of "Xandros Desktop OS". Although this is the first release for Xandros, this distribution has a long history.

Xandros acquired the Corel Linux Business Division's software development team in 2001. Corel Linux, many will remember, was Debian 2.2 (potato) based. The distribution relied heavily on Wine to run Microsoft applications, including other Corel software products. ZDNet wrote about the launch of Corel Linux in November 1999: "Corel Linux is file-compatible with Windows. With its graphical file manager, users can wander a Windows 9x like file manager that enables users to access floppy drives, CD-ROMs, Simple Message Block (SMB), Network File System (NFS), file transfer protocol (ftp) sites and normal local Unix file systems as easily as Windows users can wander about their network neighborhood. In particular, new Linux users will never need to know the pain of having to mount floppy and CD-ROMs before using them."

It wasn't long, however, before Corel realized that making a Linux distribution wasn't all that profitable. Over the next couple of years the distribution languished. Regular updates and prompt security patches went from rare to none at all. By 2001 Linux advocate and Corel CEO Michael Copeland was out, along with the entire Linux division.

For nearly a year Xandros has been updating and improving Corel's distribution, to create a Linux desktop to tempt the diehard Windows user. A partnership with CodeWeavers created "CrossOver for Xandros", to run Microsoft applications on this Desktop OS. CodeWeavers CrossOver technology is not open-source. It does utilize Wine, and while CodeWeavers is a stanch supporter of the Wine Project, free software purists will find this a major drawback to Xandros.

eWeek notes that LindowsOS also uses CrossOver technology, but says the Xandros version is better. "While this is not the first time Windows compatibility technologies from CodeWeavers have found their way into Linux -- they were included last year in the Lindows operating system from Lindows.com Inc. [CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy] White said the CrossOver technologies integrated in Xandros Linux are more advanced and robust and work better than those built for Lindows.com."

Xandros plans to release a server version. Says Xandros VP for software development Ming Poon in this Consulting Times interview, "We will do a server version, and we will develop enterprise management tools to help large corporations to deploy the desktop installation."

Will Xandros live up to all the hype? Can it compete with big names like Red Hat, SuSE and Mandrake, or even with small names like Lycoris? Time will tell.

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Debian GNU/Linux

The Debian Weekly News for October 22, 2002 has items by Matt Black, Andre Lehovich and Tollef Fog Heen. Also the NASA's FlightLinux project which uses a real-time variation of the Linux Kernel for onboard spacecraft use; a geek ski-trip; and much more.

The Debian Desktop subproject is a group of volunteers who want to create the best possible operating system for home and corporate workstation use. Our motto is "Software which Just Works". In short, our goal is to bring Debian, GNU, and Linux to the mainstream world.

A new Debian installer is in the works, but Progeny has one available now. The i386 Debian 3.0 (woody) installer image is based on PGI, the Progeny Graphical Installer.

LinuxOrbit.com looks at how to use GRUB on a Debian system. "Why use GRUB instead of LILO? Well, if you're reading this HOWTO, you're likely to already have your reasons for switching. But to give a couple quick reasons, you only install GRUB in your MBR once, it doesn't need to be reinstalled each kernel change like LILO, and you can also edit the boot entries, etc. from GRUB itself without having to boot first and change the config file. These are just some of my reasons, you can find more for yourself - but how do you set it up the Debian way?"

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Mandrake Linux

The Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter for October 17, 2002 highlights some of the benefits of Mandrake Club. The business case of the week looks at Mandrake Linux as a conference server; and much more.

MandrakeSoft has released new devfsd packages fixing a problem in how ida devices are handled. The harddrake program does not display unknown hardware in the tree list and the Danish translation for the drakxtools is broken. This update for drakxtools corrects both problems.

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Red Hat Linux

Red Hat has updated kernel packages to fix DB2 and IBM JDK problems.

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Slackware Linux

There have plenty of changes on the Slackware current tree. See the change log for full details.

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SuSE Linux

SuSE Linux announced that SuSE Linux 8.1 is now available in the US and Canada. Check your favorite stores for the SuSE 8.1 Pro-Office CD with StarOffice 6.0..

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Trustix Secure Linux

Trustix has issued a bug fix advisory for freeswan. Trustix recommends an upgrade for versions prior to 1.98b.

Gerald Dachs found a problem in the /etc/pam.d configuration file, and his fix has been implemented in the TSL 1.5 ppp package.

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GENDIST (the Linux Distribution Generator)

GENDIST has released v1.4.6 with minor feature enhancements.

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KNOPPIX

KNOPPIX has released v3.1-16-10-2002 with minor bugfixes. Version 3.1-22-10-2002 was released shortly after. This releases fixes typos, removes the apt-available database (due to a space problem), adds tuxpaint, bonnie++, and smartsuite, removes gpc, and adds g++, gcc, and gcj 3.0. XFree has been updated to version 4.2.1-3.

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Lonix

Lonix has released v1.0rc4 with major feature enhancements. "Changes: sendmail, procmail, fetchmail, and mutt were added. Two new compilers were added. Partition managing aplications like partimage were added. Problems in pppsetup and lonixconfig were fixed."

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MoviX

MoviX has released v0.6pre3 with major feature enhancements. "Changes: MPlayer has been recompiled with smarter flags and using gcc 3.2 to speed it up. Support for Dxr3/H+ cards and for the "aa" (ASCII art) driver has been added. The kernel config has been modified to make vmlinuz as small as possible. This is to make it possible to produce a MoviX floppy boot disk (FB support is now available as a module). A bug in mkmovixcd concerning isolinux.bin has been fixed. A patch for the Rage128 has been applied to mplayer, so maybe now it will display movies again in full color. Finally, the movix.pl script has been updated to take care of all the new stuff."

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PXES Linux Thin Client

PXES Linux Thin Client has released v0.5.1-4 with minor feature enhancements. "Changes: Hardware autodetection has been improved and is now supported for network cards and sound. You're now allowed to build a common image for a set of supported thin clients, independently of the hardware details. This has been achieved with a patched version of pciutils (the patch has been sent to the pciutils maintainer)."

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uClinux

uClinux has released v2.5.44uc0 with major feature enhancements. "Updated the kernel, merged in nommu and mm, and made lots of cleanups."

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Review: Mandrake Linux 9.0 (ExtremeTech)

ExtremeTech reviews Mandrake Linux 9.0. "Mandrake is particularly appealing because a person who is unfamiliar with Linux software can learn a little at a time with this distribution, yet Mandrake still offers features that the experienced user and administrator will also appreciate. Mandrake offers a complete graphical interface through which the user will learn to manipulate and use the system while learning more and more, much like Windows would be to someone newly initiated to the PC."

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Red Hat Linux 8.0 Tops Desktop Class (eWeek)

eWeek reviews Red Hat Linux 8.0. "eWeek Labs' tests of Version 8.0 of Red Hat Inc.'s eponymous Linux distribution, which shipped late last month, showed this operating system raises the bar for design polish among desktop Linux options without sacrificing Linux's valuable flexibility."

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Review: SuSE 8.1 (ExtremeTech)

ExtremeTech reviews SuSE 8.1, the lastest release from SuSE Linux. "The new YaST (Yet another Setup Tool) excels both in the graphical environment as well as on the command line. Improved hardware detection, the latest SuSE kernel, tested versions of important system components, the automated installation of external software, and the YaST Online Update (YOU) enable you to keep your system up to date."

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Xandros Linux: "It just works," even with Windows stuff (NewsForge)

NewsForge reviews the Xandros Desktop. "Xandros seems to be what Lindows could have been if it had stayed true to its Linux roots, both product-wise and philosophically. I like Xandros; I like the ease of use combined with common-sense security options and configurability; I like that it reaches out to Windows users without alienating the Linux community; it may just end up becoming the main distribution in my house."

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