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
- [Meme] When the People Who Falsely Accuse You of Pedophilia Turn Out to be Projecting
- When you attack something or someone using falsehoods, as happens a lot to Richard Stallman (RMS), there's risk that the attacks will backfire, badly
- Why I Continue to Believe That at the End Software Freedom Will Win
- a short and incomplete list of factors which I believe contribute to the sentiment that we can - and will - win the battles over hearts and minds in the "Tech" realm
- Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part X
- By Dr. Andy Farnell
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- Brian Fagioli's Latest "Linux" Article Appears to be Fake
- Another form of plagiarism/ripoff using bots?
- IBM (and Red Hat) is a Patent Troll, Still Leveraging Software Patents to Extract Money Out of Other Companies by Suing Them
- Basically, when it comes to patents, IBM is demonstrably part of the problem, not the solution
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, December 17, 2024
- IRC logs for Tuesday, December 17, 2024
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- Vista 11 was a failure
- Saving What's Left of Decent and Independent Journalism on the Web
- We increasingly (over time) try to make local copies (hosted on our server) of important documents; it's hard to rely on third parties
- [Meme] They Don't Want the Public to Know What "Responsible Encryption" Really Means
- They also blame "China" for their own back doors (because China learned how to exploit those)
- The Linux Foundation's Certificate Authority (CA) Significantly and Suspiciously Raises the Number of Certificates It Issues (Quantity Increase/Inflation) by Lessening Their Lifetime in the Name of 'Security' (That Barely Makes Sense!)
- LE made 3 months the "standard" for most, soon to become just 6 days instead of 6 months?
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- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 17/12/2024: The Streisand Effect and Productivity-systems Desiderata
- Links for the day
- Links 17/12/2024: More "Tesla Autopilot" and "Hey Hi" (AI) Blunders
- Links for the day
- Instead of Promoting GNU/Linux (or Ubuntu) Ahead of Vista 10's EoL Canonical is Marketing Microsoft's Proprietary Software
- It's like Canonical employs people who work for Microsoft, not for Canonical
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- Links for the day
- Content Management Systems (CMS) Bloat/ Static Site Generators (SSG) Trouble
- some Web site management stories
- DEI Room at fedoraproject.org Pretty Much Dead
- We're not against diversity but against its weaponisation by greedy people who do not value diversity at all
- The "Latest Technology News" at BetaNews is Slop About Slop
- This is at the very top of the "news" (front page) at the moment
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, December 16, 2024
- IRC logs for Monday, December 16, 2024
- Gemini Links 16/12/2024: Invisibles and 20 Years of GNU/Linux on the Desktop
- Links for the day
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- Operating System Market Share Africa
- Swaziland: GNU/Linux Leaps to 7.24%, Based on statCounter
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- A Birthday Wish
- My birthday is a few hours away
- [Meme] Definitely Not Your Role Models
- Hypocrite Neckbeard Meme
- Changes or Variation of Logo at the FSF as 40th Anniversary is Near (Months Away)
- Next year the FSF turns 40
- Mobile Usage Nearly 90% in Maharlika (Philippines)?
- Microsoft has become just a footnote
- Push Back and Become More Vocal for LLM Abuse and Misuse to Stop
- We hope that more people out there (sites too) will call out the people who saturate particular topics on the Web with machine-generated junk
- The Media Failed to Hold GAFAM Accountable (and Now It Suffers From It and For It)
- This recognition of the problem emboldens us to carry on
- Botswana: New Highs for GNU/Linux, All-Time Lows for Microsoft
- No wonder Microsoft has so many layoffs in Africa this year
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- Links for the day
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- The evidence (real message)
- Links 16/12/2024: emacs, Drawabox, “You Should Have Your Own Website”
- Links for the day
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- Nadella has bet the farm on a Ponzi scheme
- [Meme] Microsoft is Not a Country
- Reporting crimes is essential for democracy
- There's Not Much Time Left for President Biden to Pardon Julian Assange and Signal to Journalists That Exposing States' Crimes or Rich People's Misbehaviour is Lawful
- Apathy towards this is part of the problem
- Image Fusion is Not 'AI' (LLMs Aren't Either)
- Such fakes can (and always could) be done by a digital artist, it's just a little more expensive and time-consuming
- GNU/Linux at New Highs in Bosnia And Herzegovina
- Quite a few Balkan nations show high adoption rates for GNU/Linux
- From Scientists to Pigeons: The EPO Has Turned Patent Examination Into a Process Made by Computers and Improperly Trained Staff Which Doesn't Meet the Requirements of the European Patent Convention (EPC)
- Might as well abolish this entire system if this is the current trajectory
- Razik Menidjel Will No Longer be Chief Operating Officer Operations at the EPO
- What does the EPC say about slop and should it be updated to deal with trouble such as slop?
- Underpaid and Inexperienced Workers Overwhelm the EPO, Granting Many Invalid Patents and Placing Pressure on Veteran Examiners
- So-called "production" (giving monopolies) pressure is "compromising the quality of our products" [sic] according to a new report
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
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- IRC logs for Sunday, December 15, 2024