Distributions

Vector Linux for Low-End Hardware

[This article was contributed by Ladislav Bodnar]

With the plethora of Linux distributions available all over the Internet, it is too easy to miss some true gems. One of them is Vector Linux.

Vector Linux is a distribution with a difference - its main goal is to be suitable for deployment on old hardware. This can be useful for low-budget institutions, such as schools, or organizations where IT spending has been given low priority. It is also perfect for those Linux developers who create for love, rather than money.

How light-weight is Vector Linux? Its features page claims that the distribution will run fine on systems with 16 MB of RAM, while the full installation only requires 435 MB of hard disk space. And yes, this refers to an installation with a full graphical desktop! If this doesn't sound like quite an achievement, then remember that the most recent versions of Red Hat Linux will refuse to install on systems with less than 64 MB or RAM in text mode and less than 128 MB of RAM in graphical mode.

While running a Linux distribution on older hardware might not always be the most satisfying experience, Vector developers have managed to ease the pain by carefully selecting the lightest applications possible. Thus, Opera is the only available web browser, Sylpheed the sole mail client and AbiWord is the lone office application. The only choice available to user is the presence of two window managers - IceWM and XFce. As a result, the size of the entire ISO image is kept down to 225 MB, download of which could even be considered by patient dial-up users.

What is the philosophy behind Vector Linux? Robert S. Lange, Vector's Chief Architect outlines some ideas in this interview with Tinyminds.org: "Vector's popularity stems from the large base of old hardware users. All of the major distros have pretty much abandoned the old hardware users so I think I have a real responsibility to keep the Vector option open to those people." He continues: "I really see Vector as a midstream distro, somewhere in between the total geek Gentoo and the total newbie distros like Mandrake, Lycoris or (heaven forbid) Lindows. The beautiful thing is, just as in bottled water, there is room for all of us, because as individuals, we all have a choice."

Vector Linux is based on the good old Slackware distribution, while maintaining full compatibility with its more famous cousin. This has an advantage that Slackware packages, both official and community contributed (e.g. by LinuxPackages.net), can be installed on Vector to expand its functionality. Vector Linux also provides a text-mode configuration tool called "vasm" for basic post-install hardware configuration.

Besides the Standard Edition, Vector Linux also offers two other editions of the product. Vector's SOHO Edition is a complete distribution inclusive of KDE, OpenOffice and other tools for small businesses. Vector Live CD Edition is a distribution running directly from CD, provided for evaluation purposes or for use as a rescue disk. The latest versions of Vector's SOHO and Live CD offer hardware auto-detection and configuration. While all these products are available as free downloads, Vector's developers rely on sales of the packaged Deluxe Edition for income and continued development of the product. The newly introduced Club Vec is another way to contribute to the project.

Vector's increasing popularity is reflected in positive reviews in the Linux media. A recently published and very thorough comparison review of several distributions by OSNews concludes that "Vector is an amazing distribution. It integrates some of the best software available into its base install, and it runs flawlessly." Another positive Vector 3.2 Deluxe review has been published by MadPenguin.org.

If you need an OS for that old notebook lying idly under the table, then give Vector Linux a try. And if you happen to enjoy its speed and functionality, Vector's SOHO edition might just be that perfect OS even for your more powerful workstation.

Comments (1 posted)

The LWN Distributions List

The LWN Distribution List has now grown to over three hundred entries. That can only mean one thing, it's time to start cleaning out the dead and dying distributions. We started the process of link checking with our Historical section and have found some dead links and sites which no longer contain a distribution. Three hundred thirty distributions are still listed. The following distributions have been removed:

• 3iLinux
• Armed Linux
• Compact Linux
• Complete Linux
• Elfstone Linux
• nmrcOS
• Progeny Debian
• Prosa Debian
• Serial Terminal Linux
• Yggdrasil Plug and Play Linux

Both Progeny and Prosa are active Linux/free software companies, but they no longer provide a distribution.

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Debian GNU/Linux

The May 14 Debian Weekly News is available; it looks at Debconf 3, the Open Publication License, Sarge release issues, and several other topics.

DPL Martin Michlmayr is working on delegations, finding the right people to fill important Debian jobs.

James Troup reports on the progress of his Debian developer's MIA check. Developers who are no longer active will be dropped from the key ring.

Debian Planet reports on a new script for parsing update_excuses by Bjorn Stenberg, designed to answer questions like "Why is package X not in testing yet?".

Debian Planet also looks at the progress of the Debian Mentors project. To see what's new look at the Debian Mentors Project ChangeLog.

Comments (none posted)

Gentoo Weekly Newsletter -- Volume 2, Issue 19

The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of May 12, 2003 is out, with a look at some upcoming major announcements.

Full Story (comments: none)

Jasmine: The Lycoris Community Magazine

The Lycoris Community Newsletter has returned after a leave of absence, with a new name, and lots of Lycoris news to report.

Full Story (comments: none)

Mandrake Linux

The Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter for May 8, 2003 is out, with a look at the shipping of 9.1 packs, the release of Corporate Server 2.1 for AMD Opteron, and much more.

A number of issues were present in the drakbackup tool, which have now been fixed in this updated drakxtools package.

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Red Hat Linux bug fix

Red Hat has an updated redhat-config-network package which fixes many bugs, now available for Red Hat Linux 7.3.

Full Story (comments: none)

End of life for SuSE 7.1

SuSE has announced that, as of May 16, no more security updates will be created for SuSE Linux 7.1. Versions 7.2 and beyond (along with the Enterprise Server products) remain supported.

Full Story (comments: 5)

Astaro Security Linux

Astaro Security Linux has released v4.005 with minor bugfixes. "Changes: This Up2Date improves LDAP Authentication with more user configurable options, adds an "Enforce IPSec policy" flag to IPsec policies, and a "Caching" option to HTTP Proxy. It also adds three new categories to Surf Protection and fixes some bugs from the known issue list."

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College Linux

College Linux has released v2.3 with major feature enhancements. "Changes: The installer has been duly corrected. USB/PCMCIA hotplug functionality has been added. Preconfigured file sharing network support has been added."

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Desktop ROCK Linux

Desktop ROCK Linux has released v2.0.0-beta2 with minor bugfixes. "Changes: This release fixes some minor bugs, updates some packages, and fixes some package build problems."

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DyneBolic

DyneBolic has released v1.0 alpha 5 with major feature enhancements.

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Eagle Linux

Eagle Linux has announced the release of Eagle Linux version 2.2. "Eagle Linux provides documentation which covers, in full detail, all steps neccessary to create a Linux distribution in less than 4MB which is fully network capable."

Full Story (comments: none)

LEAF (Linux Embedded Appliance Firewall)

LEAF Bering has released v1.2 with minor feature enhancements. "Changes: This release provides the latest grsecurity patch (1.9.9h), shorewall 1.4.2, ebtables support, pcmcia-cs 3.2.4, and better support for wireless devices."

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MoviX and MoviX2

MoviX has released v0.8.0pre6 with major bugfixes. "Changes: This release adds many big and small bugfixes, support for a few new hardware devices (e.g., Aureal audio cards and IEEE1394 devices), new subs fonts, and improved DVD support."

MoviX2 has released v0.3.0pre4 with major bugfixes. "Changes: In this release, NVidia support was fixed, USB mice were fixed, the TV-out code was improved, support for IEEE1394 devices was added, Aureal audio card modules were added, support for extra MPlayer skins was added, and there were several script bugfixes."

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Trustix Secure Linux

Trustix Secure Linux has announced the release of TSL 2.0 beta 2 (Hurricane). This is your chance to test and comment on it before it evolves into TSL 2.0.

Full Story (comments: none)

Guarding Your Systems With Guardian Digital (LinuxPlanet)

Linux Planet looks at EnGarde Secure Linux. "EnGarde Secure Linux, designed to be a massively secure Linux platform, definitely falls towards the more specialized end of the distribution spectrum. Its Guardian Digital makers have consistently maintained their focus on this purpose for the product, and so far, the results are coming along nicely."

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SuSE 8.2 -- better than Mandrake for new users? (NewsForge)

Here's a NewsForge review of SuSE Linux 8.2. "I'm trying to think of any other tricks that might make SuSE 8.2 easier for you to use, but I doubt that you'll need any unless you're going beyond standard desktop applications, and if you spend a bit of time rooting around either in the SuSE manuals or in their extensive (and easily searched) online knowledge base you'll almost certainly find an answer to any question you may have." (Thanks to Lenz Grimmer)

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Lindows in the living room - can you live with it? (Register)

The Register takes a Lindows Media Computer for a test drive. "The LMC is essentially a standard iDOT low-footprint miniITX system with LindowsOS preinstalled. LindowsOS is essentially an implementation of Debian designed to offer the consumer a non-threatening and cheap alternative to Windows, and the business model is heavily dependent on 'Click-N-Run', which is a sort of combination of support mechanism, online store, discussion group and walled garden. And the living room PC? That will probably come out as we progress."

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Red Hat Linux 9.0 Professional (ZDNet)

ZDNet reviews Red Hat Linux 9 Professional. "In terms of technology, version 9.0 combines a few new elements with an upgrade to existing ones. It runs on Linux kernel 2.4.20, with desktop environments KDE 3.1 and GNOME 2.2. Both the Web server, Apache 2.0, and the C library, GNU libc 3.23, are the most recent versions, as well. Experienced Linux users should note that Red Hat 9.0 implements the new Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL), which replaces linuxthreads as the library for multithreaded programming. NPTL promises to make Linux more stable and consistent--although technically, Linux kernel 2.6 is supposed to be the first kernel capable of fully supporting NPTL, so Red Hat may be jumping the gun in implementing it now. We didn't experience any stability problems as a result, however."

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