Distributions

All aboard the SmoothWall Express

The SmoothWall Open Source Project recently released SmoothWall Express 3.0. This is the first release of this free/open source firewall/router distribution in some time. SmoothWall Express 2.0 dates back to December 2003, although an update became available in December 2006. Version 3.0 is the first version to use the 2.6 kernel and adds support for 64-bit processors.

In fact the release notes contain a lengthy list of new features and improvements since 2.0. This release comes in four editions: user and developer editions for 32-bit and 64-bit systems. The developer editions contain everything in the user editions and add the needed tools for working on Express itself, including complete builds, check outs and commits. Those who choose the developer version should read the build notes.

Your editor recently installed the 32-bit user edition of SmoothWall Express 3.0 on an old computer whose sole function is to provide a home network. This box plugs into a cable modem with one ethernet card and into a SnapGear Lite (four port) box through another ethernet card. SmoothWall Express is small, so it doesn't take very long to download the ISO or to burn a CD. Installation is very easy and prompts you to enter setup during the install. The setup program can also be run at any time after the install. During setup both ethernet cards were correctly identified and were soon configured to use DHCP. My main desktop was back on the net only minutes after beginning the SmoothWall Express installation.

SmoothWall Limited provides support and funding for the SmoothWall Open Source Project. This support includes two SmoothWall employees to head the open source development team. As the commercial arm of the SmoothWall community, SmoothWall Limited offers a range of supported security solutions to schools, enterprise networks and small/medium businesses. The SmoothWall Open Source Project produces SmoothWall Express which is released under the GPL and can be downloaded from this page. You can also get VMWare images. Installation and Administrator guides are also available in the download area. There's also a web forum and an IRC channel available for those who need more help.

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Linux From Scratch Version 6.3 Release Announcement

The LFS team is proud to announce the release of LFS-6.3. The book can be downloaded, or read online here. The book contains a full changelog.

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Announcing openSUSE 10.3 Beta2

openSUSE has released the second beta of openSUSE 10.3. Click below for a look at some important changes, most annoying bugs, the call for testing and download information.

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Ubuntu Tribe 5 Released

The Ubuntu release team has announced Tribe 5, the fifth alpha release in the Gutsy cycle. Images are now available for Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Edubuntu. Tribe releases are for developers and testers only, do not use them if you need a stable system.

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Ubuntu's Launchpad 1.1.8 released!

Launchpad 1.1.8 has been released. Launchpad is the suite of tools used to create Ubuntu and it's sister distributions. This release sees a great deal of activity in the Bug Tracker, an important new feature in Code, an exciting development in the Personal Package Archive beta and improvements right across every other part of Launchpad.

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Introducing the Hardy Heron

For those of you who have been wondering what the next Ubuntu release will be named, the long wait is over: Ubuntu 8.04, due next April, will be called "Hardy Heron." "Not only will the Ubuntu community continue to do what it does best, produce an easy-to-use, reliable, free software platform, but this release will proudly wear the badge of Long Term Support (LTS) and be supported with security updates for five years on the server and three years on the desktop." Goals for the release will be hammered out at the developers' meeting in October.

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(Ubuntu) IcedTea - a first step towards OpenJDK

Matthias Klose takes a look at IcedTea, a temporary fork of OpenJDK, as packaged for Ubuntu's Gutsy release.

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(Ubuntu) new architecture lpia

The Ubuntu Mobile project uses a new architecture "lpia". "[T]he architecture resembles "i386", but uses different optimizations options in the compiler, different configuration and build options for some packages. Because Ubuntu Mobile uses only a subset of main, and almost nothing of universe, a large part of the archive is not yet built for this architecture."

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Fedora Board Recap 2007-AUG-21

Click below to see a recap of the August 21, 2007 meeting of the Fedora Board. Topics discussed include Job Descriptions, Leadership Impact, Future of Fedora and Quality.

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Fedora Weekly News Issue 102

Fedora Weekly News issue #102, for the week of August 20th is out. The publication will be taking a few weeks off, the next issue will be after September 21st. Highlights in this edition include disabling "dontaudit" rules for Fedora 8, cleaning old files and packages, Remind, Gallery2, and more. Click below to read it.

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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter

The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for August 20, 2007 covers the upcoming Council elections, including interviews with the candidates, and several other topics.

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Ubuntu Weekly News: Issue #54

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for August 25, 2007 covers Canonical's new store opening, the announcement of UDS-Boston, Gutsy Gibbon's latest alpha release, Launchpad's new features, and much much more.

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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 217

The DistroWatch Weekly for August 27, 2007 is out. "There is little doubt about it - Ubuntu is the most popular desktop Linux distribution on the market. But the great variety of available statistics, usage surveys and web long analyses means that it's often impossible to estimate the true usage figures and switching habits of individual users. Does it all really matter? Read our editorial on the subject and comment in the forums. In the news section, we link to a handful of interesting articles covering the openSUSE package management, Gentoo overlays, and Debian boot process with initng. Finally, the KDE development team has revealed that its official KDE 4 release party will only take place some four months after the release of version 4.0. The reason? Read on to find out."

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Ubuntu Developer Summit Boston 2007 Announced

A Ubuntu Developer Summit for 8.04 will be held in Cambridge, Massachusetts to help shape the next release of Ubuntu.

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Debian stays true to its roots (LinuxWorld)

Bdale Garbee, former Debian project leader and current HP chief technologist for Linux and open source, reflects on Debian in a LinuxWorld article. "The Debian distribution is a fascinating social phenomenon. Imagine a voluntary group of more than 1,000 registered developers who build and distribute software that is equal or superior to any commercial operating system -- and there’s no company backing them. Since Debian isn’t a company, developers don’t have to worry about being bought or sold, going through a hostile take-over, answering to shareholders or going bankrupt. There’s no significant money trail, because Debian is based on donated time and resources. This leaves the developers free to pursue their passion to write and use free software. Outsiders sometimes view this as an unruly group that argues a lot, but don't be fooled by the vocal minority. Debian is an amazingly tight-knit community of people who share a passion and enjoy working and ‘playing’ together."

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Sneak Peeks at openSUSE 10.3: New Package Management (openSUSE News)

openSUSE News takes a look at the new package management stack included with openSUSE 10.3. "openSUSE 10.3 is set to contain a new, significantly improved and more mature package management stack by default. ZMD, the package management component causing problems in SUSE Linux 10.1 and to a lesser extent in openSUSE 10.2, has been completely removed and is now replaced by the new libzypp and its tools. Today we'll be taking a look at the new package management and talking to Duncan Mac-Vicar Prett, one of the central libzypp developers."

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Debian Lenny & initng (Masuran.org)

Here's a review of Debian Lenny, which uses initng for the init system. "Debian Lenny might be called the 'testing' version but I find it stable enough to be used every day as your main OS. The rough edges make it an excellent distribution for the real geek, the computer user that finds that other distributions are either to polished (Ubuntu, SuSe) or too rough (Gentoo, Slackware)."

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openSUSE 10.3 Beta (1 &) 2 Report (TuxMachines)

TuxMachines.org reviews the beta versions of openSUSE 10.3. "I decided to test this release on the HP Pavillion laptop I received for Christmas as I had overwritten 10.2 for a previous review and I missed having an openSUSE install on it. Another reason this seemed like the time was that developers wanted LCD brightness adjustment, suspend, and the Grub installation tested. Also, long story short, I had lost access to the Windows XP partition at some point and needed to restore it first. So, this was the perfect time to test their Grub installation."

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Three MythTV Linux distros compared (Linux.com)

Linux.com looks at three distributions that are built around MythTV. "My Series 1 TiVo is getting old, so I am planning an escape route based on MythTV, a free software system that turns an old computer into a personal video recorder. This week I tested three MythTV-specific Linux distributions: KnoppMyth, MythDora, and MythBuntu. I found MythDora the best overall fit for my needs -- but there are important distinctions between the three that may lead you to a different decision."

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