Distributions
News and Editorials
The Optimistic Contributor Returns - Parted Magic Part 2
About eleven months ago, I wrote an article for LWN about the Parted Magic Linux Live CD distribution, a distribution with the elemental purpose of partitioning hard drives. At that time, the primary developer, Patrick Verner, had announced his intention to stop work on the distribution due to lack of support from the community. I lamented the fate of the project and wondered how many other promising projects had died under similar circumstances. I vowed to try and do better to support open software myself and called upon the community at large to do the same. Fast forward to today, and your Optimistic Contributor feels vindicated in his self-appointed choice of title.Why, you may ask? Well, to put it simply, the project did not die. To find out what happened, I spoke again with Verner on September 14th, 2008.
OC - When we last spoke in October of 2007, you had posted on your website that development of Parted Magic would cease after version 1.9 was released. Since that time, you have released many more versions up to 3.0 (with 3.1 on deck). What motivated you to continue the project?
PV - There were very little donations, help with code, or users giving me
at least a pat on the back. Between 1.8 and 1.9 was by far the lowest
point in this project. To this day I still think your article saved the
project, well, sort of. After your LWN article I received the best month
of donations and offers for help. The worse mistake I made was not asking
for help in the first place. Once I started asking for help and starting
directly asking for small donations the project turned around at a rapid
pace. The best advice I could give anybody working on OSS projects is
to ask. People assume you like doing it for free and don't need any help.
The project makes about $400 a month now and it's nice because I can
take the family out bowling a few times a week, buy some new computer
hardware, or buy something for the house.
OC - Since development has continued, the distro seems to have evolved at a steady pace. What features would you like to highlight, or rather, what feature(s) are you most proud of?
PV - The best thing about Parted Magic is the fact it's not based on another
distribution. Parted Magic is it's own entity and has the flexibility to
go where ever it needs to go and add whatever may be required to perform
needed tasks. There really isn't any comparison between Parted Magic
and any other distro. It's really off the wall compared to the rest.
Original thinking and process is what makes Parted Magic different and it's
what I'm most proud of.
OC - You have started what appears to be a project within a project with MiniPM (aka Beef Drapes). What itch were you trying to scratch with this new project?
PV - MiniPM is a small project designed to run partimage over
PXE. It really
wasn't too hard to create and won't be heavily maintained. It fills a
small niche and so far it seems to do what it's supposed to and nothing
more. It's not much of a diversion. http://partedmagic.com/beef_drapes
is my test directory. It's not a separate project or fork.
OC - What do you believe will drive you to continue development on both projects for the foreseeable future?
PV - When this project is no longer useful or donations starting declining
back to 1.8 levels I'm out. I don't want to do this for free. It's fun to
work on and I really enjoy it, but how can I justify the hours spent to my
wife if I'm getting nothing tangible in return? It was always a goal of
mine to do this for a living and I'm still hopeful it could happen. All it
would take is $2 from every person that finds this project useful. I work
50+ hours a week at my day job so things happen pretty slow here. I
couldn't even imagine how fast things would happen and the quality this
project could provide if I just had more time.
OC - If you could give advice to any open source programmer on how to keep a project going, what would you say?
PV - Enjoy what you are doing, grow a thick skin, and find motivation to do
it.
OC - How has your opinion open source community changed in the last 10 months?
PV - Not at all. I failed to ask, that was my problem. If you want anything
from the open source community you need to ask and give back what was given
to you.
OC - Is there anything you would like to add?
PV - Sure. Use http://partedmagic.com/beef_drapes
and tell me what needs to be fixed before the next release. This is a big
benefit to all Parted Magic users.
Now, your Optimistic Contributor would like to take credit for helping to
save the project, but all I did was inform the community of the
situation. It was the community itself that did the actual saving. The
donations, the offers of help, just the notes of thanks were enough to keep
Verner going. Verner's response to one of my questions really resonated:
"If you want anything from the open source community you need to ask
and give back what was given to you.
"
I read that statement several times. After letting it sink in, I realized how effectively Verner got straight to the point. In my previous article I made the common statement that freedom isn't free. Verner has taken that one step further in saying that a community isn't a community without communication and give and take. That sounds obvious after the fact, but I am glad Verner put the idea so clearly in my head. I can only hope (as I am ever the Optimist) that others within the open source community receive the same level of clarity as I have.
So what about version 3.0 itself? Just like the motivation of the project
maintainer, the project itself has undergone a bit of a revolution. Almost
the entire underpinnings have been updated or redesigned. The user
interface still looks very similar to what 1.9 was, but everything just
seems smoother and more polished than before. It is actually hard to
believe that the project is put together by a handful of individuals. The
best way to experience what the distribution is capable of (besides reading
my original article) is to take Verner's last answer to heart:
"Use http://partedmagic.com/beef_drapes
and tell me what needs to be fixed before the next release. This is a big
benefit to all Parted Magic users.
"
New Releases
The Fedora 10 beta is out
The Fedora 10 beta release is available. "There is also a Beta contest! Test five things in the Beta that are important to you as a user. If you find a bug *and* report it, you get the free attention of a package maintainer on a problem personally important to you!" See the announcement for a list of interesting new features in Fedora 10.
Mandriva Linux 2009 RC2 released
Mandriva Linux 2009.1 RC2 has been announced. This is the final release candidate for Mandriva Linux 2009, code named sophie. "As of RC 2, we now encourage the testing of 2009 as an upgrade from 2008 Spring or 2008. Of course, we emphasize testing: as always, you should not use a pre-release on important production systems. However, there is one important thing to be aware of. The physical media - the Free or (for final release) Powerpack DVDs and CDs - will not include KDE 3, due to insufficient space. This means that it is not recommended to upgrade from an earlier stable release to 2009 using the Free or Powerpack CDs or DVDs if you use KDE 3, as it will not correctly handle your KDE configuration. The recommended ways to upgrade from a previous stable release to 2009 if you use KDE 3 are either to upgrade using urpmi or by doing a network installation (which will make KDE 3 available to the installer). Either of these methods will result in a 2009 installation with KDE 3 still available, and your KDE 3 configuration preserved."
Omega 10 beta released
A beta version of a new distribution ("roughly similar to the upcoming Fedora 10 Beta release") called Omega 10 has been released. "
It is a Live CD for regular PC (i686 architecture) systems that includes a variety of free and open source software from Fedora and Livna repository." It would appear to be a version of Fedora with the "make multimedia just work" problem addressed.
Distribution News
Debian GNU/Linux
Bits from the DPL
In these latest bits, Debian Project Leader Steve McIntyre covers Debconf, some press coverage, team updates, Google Summer of Code 2008, and other things that are going on in Debian.
Fedora
Updated Beta images for x86_64 Live KDE and x86_64 Live XFCE
There was a small problem with the image creation for the live KDE x86_64 images, where the content was for the x86_64 Live XFCE. These images have been recreated. Click below for the correct SHA1SUMs for both the KDE and XFCE images.Fedora Board Recap 2008-SEP-23
Here's the recap of the Fedora Board meeting held September 23, 2008. Topics include Codecs and a Trademark update.
Gentoo Linux
Gentoo 2008.1 canceled
The Gentoo Project has announced that it is canceling the 2008.1 release and rethinking its release process in general. "In future releases, Gentoo will focus on a more back-to-basics approach that will give you up-to-date install media on a regular basis and make much better use of our human resources. We're looking into automated weekly builds of the minimal CDs and stage tarballs as well as maybe an annual LiveCD release."
Daniel Robbins on Gentoo release solutions
Daniel Robbins, founder of Gentoo, has a blog post about his redesigned build tool called "Metro". "This is the tool that I use to build my daily Funtoo stages and supports building both stable and unstable (~) stages. It is much more capable than catalyst and has a much better architecture. Metro is a full recipe-based build engine that will allow the larger Gentoo community to build Gentoo (and even non-Gentoo - it is not Gentoo-specific) releases and stages easily and share their build recipes with others." (Funtoo is not officially associated with the Gentoo project.)
Gentoo Council meeting summaries for August & September
The complete summaries & logs for the August and September Gentoo Council meeting have been posted. Click below for a summary of the "most important bits".
Mandriva Linux
Improving boot time on a general Linux distribution, not an easy task
Mandriva's Frederic Crozat has a blog entry describing their efforts to reduce Linux boot time. "I thought it would be interesting to explain the various things we tried to save some seconds when booting, since it is a hot topic these days, with impressive results from various people, including Arjan Van de Ven 5s boot on a EEE 901 PC, even if I don't agree with all Arjan conclusions, mostly because it is not always possible to achieve the same kind of tuning with a flexible distribution which can run on many hardware platform, in contrast of a stripped installation and on a single (and now underpowered) hardware platform".
SUSE Linux and openSUSE
openSUSE election status update
The candidates for the upcoming openSUSE board election have been announced. There are 10 candidates, six non-Novell and four Novell contributors (click below for the list). There will be two weeks of campaigning before the election begins.openSUSE factory changes
The openSUSE Factory distribution is the development branch of openSUSE. There will be some Factory changes. "We are currently in the process of adjusting some things due to the move from SUSE internal AutoBuild to openSUSE Build Service: We are getting rid of all the historical names. Factory from SUSE internal AutoBuild is currently in the directories "SL-OSS-factory", "SL-OSS-factory-debug" and "SL-Factory-non-oss" inside of the distribution directory. These names are inconsistent and have lost their meaning to some degree." There are quite a few other changes which will be implemented soon.
openSUSE-Education 1.0 for 11.0
The The openSUSE-Education Add On for openSUSE 11.0 is ready. This release features better LTSP integration, many package updates and much more.
Ubuntu family
Ubuntu 7.04 reaches end-of-life on October 19, 2008
Ubuntu 7.04, aka Feisty Fawn, will reach its end-of-life on October 19, 2008. "Ubuntu announced the release of 7.04 almost 18 months ago, on April 19, 2007. As with the earlier releases, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for a period of 18 months. The support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 7.04 will reach end of life on Sunday, October 19th, 2008. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 7.04."
Other distributions
MEPIS Community
The MEPIS Community has a new website. "This web site is developed and maintained by the community of Mepis users. Its purpose is to tell you who we are, show you what we do, provide you with relevant news, and point you to where you can get help on using MEPIS Linux. That user-friendly operating system is pre-configured for simplicity and ease of use, and is well supported--by us! Please check the official site to find out how to get MEPIS!"
What's new in the next OpenSolaris release (2008.11)
Alfred Peng takes a look at new features in the upcoming OpenSolaris 2008.11. "Besides Songbird, a big bunch of great applications including the GNOME 2.24 desktop have been delivered into b99(then 2008.11 release). I'll list some of them here."
New Distributions
FREEEEE - 100% Free Software GNU/Linux for EeePC
FREEEEE is a 100% Free Software GNU/Linux distribution for the EeePC. It's a live USB image, brought to you by BLAG and dyne.
Distribution Newsletters
Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #110
The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for September 27, 2008 covers: Potential hardware-damaging e1000e driver: Intrepid, Ubuntu 8.10 beta freeze now in effect, Ubuntu 8.10 beta approaching, Ubuntu 7.04 reaches end-of-life on October 19, 2008, Intrepid Release Parties, Ubuntu Upstream Report, Ubuntu Server Survey launched, Introducing the Ubuntu Wanted project, Progress of Romanian Translation Team, Regular Bug Jams in Berlin kicked off, ABLEconf co-hosted by Ubuntu Arizona LoCo, Mark Shuttleworth named "IT Community Hero of the Year", Full Circle Magazine #17, Ubuntu-UK Podcast #15, Ubuntu Community interview with John Crawford(johnc4510), Linux Foundation opening doors to individual participation, and much more.OpenSUSE Weekly News/40
This issue of the OpenSUSE Weekly News covers: openSUSE 11.1 Beta 1 Now Available, Serious e1000e Driver Issue in SLE 11 Beta 1 and openSUSE 11.1 Beta 1, openSUSE Build Service Did It!, Board Election Phase 1 Started, openSUSE Homepage Redesigned, and much more.Gentoo Monthly Newsletter: 30 September 2008
The Gentoo Monthly Newsletter for September 2008 looks at Gentoo news, Release strategy changes, Trustees Meeting Summary, Council Meeting Summary, what's coming up, Gentoo-Quebec training, highlights from Planet Gentoo, tips and tricks, and much more.Fedora Weekly News #145
The Fedora Weekly News for September 28, 2008 is out. "This week's issue brings plenty of insights into the Fedora 10 theme decisions, as covered by longtime FWN writer, Nicu Buculei. Max Spevak reports on several recent linux events and the Fedora acivity there, as well as relays final Fedora 10 schedule changes and other announcements. Oisin Feeley updates us on Fedora development activity with deactivation of some dormant services and discussion of PackageKit. Jason Taylor highlights the many release notes completed for the upcoming Fedora 10 release. Dale Bewley brings us up to date on activity with four separate discussion lists in Fedora virtualization. Svetoslav Chukov, in the marketing beat, celebrates Fedora's fifth birthday with a wonderful, generous reflection of the project by OpenSUSE's community manager, Joe Brockmeier, and Runa Bhattacharjee covers the freeze activities surrounding translation and internationalization for Fedora 10."
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 272
The DistroWatch Weekly for September 29, 2008 is out. "A second attempt at creating a comprehensive package management cheatsheet is the main topic of this week's edition of DistroWatch Weekly. While still far from perfect, the table lists more package management tasks and utilities than the first version, but as always, corrections and suggestions are always welcome. In the news section, Linux distributions warn over a hardware damaging kernel bug, Debian publishes a list of supported languages in "Lenny", Fedora announces a further delay of its upcoming version 10, and Linux Mint unveils its first-ever 64-bit edition. Also, plenty of Gentoo-related news, including an upcoming distribution build tool called "Metro" and an alternative package management utility named "Paludis". Finally, check out Klikit-Linux, a community project based on Kubuntu, which was added to the DistroWatch database last week."
Distribution meetings
Debian-Edu Skolelinux Developer Gathering and User Conference
Skolelinux, aka Debian-Edu, is having a Developer Gathering (October 10 - 12) followed by a User Conference (October 13, 2008) in Oslo, Norway.
Newsletters and articles of interest
Lessons learned from five years of Fedora (ZDNet Blog)
Joe Brockmeier, community manager of the openSUSE project, finds lessons from Fedora. "The most valuable thing I've learned watching Fedora is this: Patience. It takes time and steady, incremental growth to build a solid community. If you'd asked me two years into Fedora's development whether the project would succeed, I'd have been somewhat skeptical, but looking at the project five years down the road, I'm convinced."
Distribution reviews
Devil-Linux distro bundles router/firewall and server in one live CD (Linux.com)
Linux.com has a review of Devil-Linux. "Devil-Linux uses the Linux From Scratch (LFS) build system, which means you can customize the distribution easily. The latest version is 1.2.15, which runs on an old kernel 2.4.36.6, but with mostly updated router, firewall, and server services. Devil-Linux uses the usual iptables and Netfilter firewalls to create rules and open source services that can support routing protocols such as Routing Information Protocol (RIP), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF). It supports Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) by including the necessary services, and it features a firewall builder tool to aid in setting up the firewall policies. For improved security, it also includes the grsecurity patch to protect the distribution's kernel."
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol
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