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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Debian Family
-
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
- Brigading Against Women - Part XV - Trying to Put Women in Prisons
- We'll soon get to the 'meat' or the 'beef', showing how "Gas The Jews" Lozza helped Garrett a few days after we had sued him in September 2024
- A Leap in GNU/Linux Usage, Japan's Share in Particular
- One thing that merits attention right now is Japan. It looks like it's adopting GNU/Linux instead of GAFAM.
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Costa-Benefit Analysis: Has the Asset Become a Liability?
- All other things being equal, one could expect the Portuguese political establishment to support Campinos in his reappointment bid. But what if all other things are no longer equal because the former "asset" has in the meantime become a "liability"?
- Brigading Against Women - Part XIV - Mastery of Distraction
- The finger-pointing actions themselves prove the saying that even an accusation is likely a confession
-
- Brigading Against Women - Part XVI - When Your Own Colleagues Complain About You Maybe the Problem is You
- "if 2 people tell you that you're drunk, you go to sleep"
- Links 03/10/2026: Slop-Generated War Songs and "Privatisation Has Failed"
- Links for the day
- Proprietary Software Giant Microsoft is Quietly Laying Off Lots of Employees, Insider Explains How It's Done
- about Microsoft exits
- United States: More Than One in Ten Using GNU/Linux on Laptop/Desktop
- Clownflare Radar seems to show a similar trend
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 02, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, October 02, 2026
- Gemini Links 02/10/2026: Hitchhiking, Dream, Journey of Thoughts, and ROOPHLOCH
- Links for the day
- IBM in Such a Bad Shape That Silent Layoffs Have Come to India
- Make it hard for IBM to hide what's happening
- The Mass Layoffs at Red Hat (Secret Layoffs) Not Limited to This Week or to October 1st
- Red Hat can shed off 10% of its staff without anyone in the media uttering a word
- The Latest "PARTNER CONTENT" at The Register MS is by Chief Marketing Officer at VergeIO
- Maybe The Register MS can just run ads, not articles, and hope nobody will notice
- Links 02/10/2026: Turkey's Censorship of Journalists Grows, "Hong Kong Journalist Arrested After Covering Gathering Linked to 2019 Protests"
- Links for the day
- IBM's Red Hat is a Slave of Microsoft, It Does Not Compete With Microsoft
- As released and shown earlier today in "Red Hat Partner Connect"/redhat.com
- Red Hat: Stop Saying Master, It's Racist. Today's Red Hat: "Master Your Skills" and Adopt Slop Plagiarism
- IBM is shredding Red Hat to pieces while it keeps humiliating the collective intelligence of communities
- Reform UK, Nigel Farage's party/company, admits missing winding-up petition
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Links 02/10/2026: "McDonald's Caught Cheating Consumers for Profit" and "It's Not Illegal If You Buy New Laws"
- Links for the day
- EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part XVII - A Vote for Campinos This Month (Reappointment) Would be an Endorsement of Cocaine
- The harder they try to silence critics, the worse it'll get
- The Cyber Show on "Career Scientists" (Resellers of Establishment Brands Like GAFAM)
- "The "career scientist" - with PhD and research office by their mid-twenties - follows well oiled tracks and institutional signposts, steering away from controversial or "difficult" subjects."
- Reporting Court Matters While Preserving Dignity of Staff
- There's a high and growing probability we'll take our appeal to the Court of Appeal next year
- Broligarchs Speech-Policing, Faux 'Community' or 'Hub' in 'User-Driven' Clothing
- Until a broligarch decides to "flag" inconvenient stories
- Gemini Links 02/10/2026: Haiku, Microsoft EEE ('Linux' as a Container in Windows), and ROOPHLOCH 2026 Roundup
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Promised Them Bonuses, Instead They May Get Laid Off
- Laid off or paid off?
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 01, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, October 01, 2026
- Lots of People Left Red Hat This Week, No Announcement Made of Layoffs
- Companies just find ways and excuses not to announce their layoffs
- Gemini Links 01/10/2026: Gemini-to-Web Proxies Considered Harmful, ROOPHLOCH 2026 at Griffith Park Observatory
- Links for the day
- "SPONSORED FEATURE" of HPE and NVIDIA at The Register MS Has Just Mentioned "AI" 68 Times in One Page!
- Meanwhile, grown-ups ignore the hype and get work done without slop
- Microsoft's XBox Layoffs Not Finished, Won't be Finished, It's Called "Forever Layoffs"
- Microsoft will shut down (XBox) after shrinking it, there's no need to sell anything (a straw man)
- IBM's Red Hat Lost Lots of People Today, Chief People Officer (CPO) Dethroned
- Headcount falls shortly in secret.
- Microsoft is "Pushing Up Daisies" Amid Mass Layoffs (Secret Ones)
- "Longtime Microsoft research leader Peter Lee and former LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky to depart"
- Links 01/10/2026: "Lawyer Cites ChatGPT-Invented Fake Witnesses in Murder Appeal" and The 'Linux' Foundation Technical Advisory Board (TAB) Has Vacuum
- Links for the day
- Brigading Against Women - Part XIII - The Offer We Didn't Ask For (and Under Threats to a Lady at the Webhost, a Form of Extortion From America)
- Two and a half months ago Garrett made an offer to my wife
- Creditors beware: VMS Enterprises Ltd vs Brexit Party (Reform UK Party Ltd)
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Techrights Turning 20 Next Month
- Our image is under attack, our finances are constantly under attack and so on
- Links 01/10/2026: "Meat Proxies" and "Japan’s Far Right Is Courting Young Voters"
- Links for the day
- Red Hat Being Phased Out of Existence (Like Many Other Companies That IBM Bought)
- The "Red Hat" brand (and badge) is being dissolved some more today [...] IBM is imploding 'creatively'.
- IBM Layoffs Cover-up
- thelayoff.com is censoring threads
- "Restricted Boot" Garrett's State is Now Implementing Kill Switches (Just What We've Warned About All Along)
- The underlying concept is hardly new
- Brett Wilson LLP Has Had No Annual Report in 16 Months
- A cynic might hint that they try to hide something
- Reform UK last minute accounts filing
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Gemini Links 01/10/2026: "Babel With Better Hardware", Software Input That's Slop, and DWeb Cascadia 2026
- Links for the day
- Today is D-Day at Red Hat and People Leave in Droves
- They said there would be "bluewashing", we're mostly seeing people announcing they're leaving
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 30, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, September 30, 2026