Links: Distribution Reviews, Sabayon Linux 5.3 “Extra Spins”, Fedora Community Web Site Design
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2010-07-22 08:20:47 UTC
- Modified: 2010-07-22 08:20:47 UTC
Summary: Distributions news accumulated in recent days
One or two of the five distros I mentioned yesterday had been labeled as “lightweight” either by their designers or the community around them, and I was probably pushing that definition just a little bit when I gave them the chance to run at 150Mhz on 32Mb of memory.
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Reviews
Unity Linux had their first release on 09/07/2010 after around 1.5 years of development. The project was created in 2009 by former developers from the PClinuxOS (hereafter abbreviated PCLOS) community. One of them was KDulcimer who at the time had his own project TinyMe based on PCLOS, which according to the website started in 2006. His distribution would in the future be based on Unity Linux. So much for how the two are intertwined.
[...]
I have to say I like this basic distribution and the philosophy behind, there is definitely a niche for it. The artwork is an inoffensive non-blinding white swirl on dark-blue background, good for my sensitive eyes, with a Mint leaf floating around giving a fresh impression, and for convenience sake you got 'halt' and 'logout' buttons on the desktop to access these functions. Mandrake/Mandriva has always been my favourite rpm based distribution and one of the first I used back in the 90's, and I'm glad to see it and its many innovations living on in so many forms. Mandriva is of course in ongoing financial troubles and after so many years of it I'm a bit pessimistic if that will change any time soon. So what will projects like Unity Linux do if Mandriva disappears?
For the moment at least they are still around, so let's enjoy this little spin-off if you don't have long term planning needs.
Unity also runs well in Virtualbox, with guest additions pre-installed. As you would imagine due to its size, it ran well with 384MB memory, but will probably be happy with less.
Unlike Microsoft Windows, Linux has a deserved reputation as a bullet-proof operating system. To teach computer security a University lecturer has deliberately produced the most damn vulnerable Linux you’ll ever see.
I didn't have many complaints when it came to Zenwalk's security. The install process sets a password for the administrator and allows the user to create additional, unprivileged accounts. I did have two concerns. While I was using the distro the repositories were populated with updates, but there didn't seem to be any notification for the user when security updates were available. I've been spoiled recently by systems which automatically check for me. My other concern is Zenwalk runs a secure shell service by default, which allows remote root logins. Preventing root from remotely logging into a machine is a policy I'd like to see more distributions adopt.
Lucid Puppy Linux 5.0 was released back in May of 2010, but as one of my favorite distros, I have been playing with it heavily since then. I have been so impressed with the new version that I wanted to take a moment and write a quick review of this release.
You can find the official release page here, along with download information.
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New Releases
Our crew, is happy to announce the immediate availability of XFCE, LXDE and SpinBase/OpenVZ Sabayon 5.3 “Spins” built on top of Sabayon “SpinBase” ISO images.
Under the “Extra Spins” umbrella, the Sabayon developers are going to experiment new Stable Releases with different package compositions.
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Red Hat Family
The open source remote access project will include 3D acceleration, network tunneling, and perhaps iPad, iPhone, and Android tablet support
Server maker Hewlett-Packard and commercial Linux juggernaut Red Hat have teamed up to help shops using Oracle's Sparc/Solaris platforms make the jump to Linux-based x64 iron.
While the two companies did not say so, the migrations services being offered today through HP Services are no doubt a reaction to Oracle's spiking of HP's Solaris OEM agreement last month. Under that agreement, HP was able to bundle Solaris on its ProLiant rack and blade servers and sell Solaris support contracts, much as it does for Microsoft's Windows, Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Red Hat's Enterprise Linux.
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Fedora
When it was launched in late 2004 it was up against a number of distributions that had been in development for years: Red Hat, Fedora, Suse Linux and Mandriva (then still called Mandrake). These were well-developed distributions with their own fans and unique features. Ubuntu, based on Debian, had a solid base but had a long way to go to be as user-friendly as it planned.
Fast forward almost six years and Ubuntu has delivered. For many users it has been the perfect starting point for their Linux adventures. For others it offers the stability that they want from an operating system. It also has a huge fan-base and is the dominant voice in Linux marketing.
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Debian Family
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Canonical/Ubuntu
“Does Ubuntu have a firewall, and how do I turn it on?” is a popular question among new Ubuntu users. The answer is a bit complicated, but it’s an understandable inquiry for those migrating from the Windows world. WorksWithU addresses that question below by taking a look at Ubuntu’s firewall and some of the tools available for managing it.
In This Issue
* Ubuntu Free Culture Showcase calls all artists to contribute to next version of Ubuntu
* Operation Cleansweep: We Need You!
* Ubuntu Accessibility Team Personas Survey
* ISO testers for the Hall of Fame
* Ubuntu User Days Wrap-Up
* Ubuntu Stats
* Rocking The LoCo Council
* Ubuntu: a computer operating system built around community
* Ubuntu Chicago Bike Tour
* The Early-Summer LoCo BBQ at hutchnate's house was a tasty success!
* Ubuntu Honduras LoCo Team Wakes up
* Launchpad News
* Ahmed Kamal Joins the Horsemen
* Reviewers Team and Operation Cleansweep
* Ubuntu Manual Project core philosophy
* Man Your Browser
[...]
I’m an Ubuntu and FOSS kinda guy, I’m not happy with software that isn’t FOSS and I don’t find any sense in proprietisation of code. Having said that there are times when I must be a little more considered and not simply shun an entire site because it’s not foss.
Heaven known that deviantArt is one of the most proprietary, confused and messed up places I know. Bad copyright advice, no public domain option, admins that consistently ignore open formats like png and svg. FOSS Software isn’t promoted at all in any way. So why in Slartibartfast’s fjords would I want to hang my coat over there?
Well no matter what I do there _will_ be artists over there who use Ubuntu, people who may need help with wacom tablets, upgrades or finding help. There will be people who use Windows or Mac but don’t have FOSS tools yet or perhaps wouldn’t do better with Ubuntu instead. There are artists who’d love to get involved with the wider community but for what ever reason are disconnected by social chance.
Officially, Ubuntu does not come with built-in support for the GMA 500 drivers. We gave a workaround to this problem way back in Oct 2009 when the Ubuntu had just released Ubuntu 9.10. People expected Ubuntu to include these drivers in the Ubuntu 10.04 that never happened.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Hopping From One Set of Buzzwords to the Next
- Rotating hype and vapourware
- Currys PCWorld Hates GNU/Linux Even Though It Runs the World
- If more and more people choose to remove Windows, then Currys PCWorld will feel the financial impact of its dumb policies
- The Register MS Takes More Money to Boost Slop Hype, This Time From Snyk, a Notorious FUD Source
- At some stage or at some point they might even decide to stop doing so
- "AI" Hype or LLM Slop is Not About Efficiency, It's About Lowering Standards
- It does not seem like IBM is genuinely committed to the same goals (or commitments) as the original Red Hat
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- Moral Standards From the Masters of Linux
- They get hung up on minor language issue and promote this crazy theory that racism will go away if only everyone spoke a little differently (no matter where he or she came from)
- Links 14/08/2025: Data Brokers Hiding Opt-Out Pages From Google, "Fight Chat Control"
- Links for the day
- FSF Infrastructure Under Constant Attack
- The disconnect (literally) has had an effect on credibility
- Feels Like The Register MS is Trying to Diversify a Bit
- If The Register MS goes back to being The Register US (or UK), that will be a nice improvement
- Gemini Links 14/08/2025: Reading Journal and LLM Fatigue Revisited
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 13, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, August 13, 2025
- Internet Relay Chat and Gemini Protocol Help Us Relive the Net of the Dial-Up Era
- The kids were alright
- "GPT-5" is Another Microsoft Dead Cat Trying to Bounce
- The hype, the momentum (or the inertia) is wearing off
- Microsoft Windows Losing Its Grip Near Turkey and Russia
- The 'corridor' nations connecting Iran to Europe
- Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Google News, and Serial Slopper (SS)
- The slop, the bad, and the ugly
- Links 13/08/2025: The “Incriminating Video” Scam and Corruption in South Korea
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 13/08/2025: Movie Memories and Mystery Machine Bus
- Links for the day
- Links 13/08/2025: GitHub Trouble and Openwashing by Microsoft OSI With the Typical Buzzwords
- Links for the day
- If Free/Libre Software is Adding Trillions in Value to the European Economy, Then the European Commission Must Crush Software Patents
- Further to what we wrote yesterday
- Microsoft Swallows GitHub Losses
- Only Microsoft knows how much money it has already lost on GitHub
- Gemini Links 13/08/2025: Climate, Coffee, and Deploying Troops in Washington DC After Pardoning 1,000+ Insurrectionists in Washington DC
- Links for the day
- The Register MS Lowered MS Focus This Week
- We hope The Register recognises its errors and tries to make up for them
- Learning Ethics From Jeffrey Epstein's Enabler/Client/Ally, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft Accenture
- Whatever merits vocabulary changes initially had are being tainted or obscured by later iterations, which tell us to avoid word like "normal", which apparently offend some people (so they argue)
- Personal Attacks From Rust People Serve to Confirm They Have Lost the Argument
- "The discussion I find around the net so far has no technical merit and centers around ad hominem"
- Physical Meters and Purely Mechanical Meters Aren't Dumb; It's Dumb to Mock or Dismiss Them as Antiquated
- I've learned a lot this week, both online and over the telephone
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 12, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, August 12, 2025
- GitHub Will End Up like XBox and Skype
- It is not likely that the XBox franchise will survive the next 5 years
- Stones Thrown in Glass Houses
- Projecting? You bet!
- As Europe Gets Increasingly Serious About Software Freedom and Digital Sovereignty It Needs to Enforce a Ban on Software Patents ASAP
- many councils in Europe move to Free software and US policy/companies cannot be trusted
- Windows 12 in Bahrain (Microsoft "Market Share" Down to 12%, an All-Time Low)
- They really ought to get away from Windows even faster
- The Web Needs 'Pest Control' When It Comes to LLM Slopfarms
- The goal is to discourage more sites becoming slopfarms
- Microsoft Can Now Stop Reporting the GitHub Layoffs (Even When They Happen)
- GitHub's original staff will see the true cost of becoming "b0rged" - something that Microsoft earned a bad reputation for
- How to Get Very Bad or Even Malicious Code Into Linux? Write it in a Language That Linus Torvalds and Most Other Linux Developers Don't Understand.
- One point nobody brings up is, what if code gets committed while evading audits and scrutiny?
- Links 12/08/2025: Wikipedia Fails at UK High Court, Perlmutter Still Fights to Squash the Slop Lobby
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 12/08/2025: Field Recording and Digital Legacy
- Links for the day
- Links 12/08/2025: WinRAR Zero-Day, SonicWall Does More Harm Than Good
- Links for the day
- Links 12/08/2025: More Sabotage of Underwater Cable Ahead of Russian Alaska Summit
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman Will Not Miss Microsoft GitHub, It Was Only Good at Harvesting a Lot of Code for Plagiarism-as-a-Service
- investors are apparently willing to lose money for buzzwords
- Slopfarms Slopping Away at "Linux" and Spreading Microsoft Misinformation
- Slopfarms don't comprehend this as they lack actual comprehension, they're just parrots
- Links 12/08/2025: Science, Hardware, and Ukraine Excluded From Negotiations About Its Future
- Links for the day
- GitHub the Company Has, in Effect, Just Died (Time to Look for Alternatives)
- To Microsoft, what's left of GitHub after dismantling/folding it is some "training set" (people's code, without permission to "train" i.e. misuse under the guise of "GenAI" plagiarism)
- Linux Foundation Says "Housekeeping", "Hung", "Normal", "Native Feature/Support" and "Girl/Girls" Are Offensive Words
- Bombing people is OK, just use the right "terms"
- It Looks More Like Microsoft GitHub Layoffs
- GitHub is just losing loads of money
- Gemini Links 12/08/2025: Meditation, OpenStreetMap, Smolweb, and More
- Links for the day
- Google News is Dying: Most of Its Top Stories Now Are LLM Slop With Slop Images (i.e. 100% Fake 'Content')
- Google News has been drowning in this sort of stuff for quite some time
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 11, 2025
- IRC logs for Monday, August 11, 2025
- Our Predictions Were Right: GitHub Dying as Losses Pile Up (as a Company It Cannot Continue to Exist, It's Not 'Free Hosting')
- GitHub always lost money