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
- A Week After a Worldwide Windows Outage Microsoft is 'Bricking' Windows All On Its Own, Cannot Blame Others Anymore
- A look back at a week of lousy press coverage, Microsoft deceit, and lessons to be learned
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- Links 26/07/2024: Tesco Cutbacks and Fake Patent Courts
- Links for the day
- Links 26/07/2024: Grimy Residue of the 'AI' Bubble and Tensions Around Alaska
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 26/07/2024: More Computers and Tilde Hosting
- Links for the day
- Links 26/07/2024: "AI" Hype Debunked and Elon Musk's "X" Already Spreads Political Disinformation
- Links for the day
- "Why you boss is insatiably horny for firing you and replacing you with software."
- Ask McDonalds how this "AI" nonsense with IBM worked out for them
- No Olympics
- We really need to focus on real news
- Nobody Holds the GNOME Foundation Accountable (Not Even IRS), It's Governed by Lawyers, Not Geeks, and Headed by a Shaman Crank
- GNOME is a deeply oppressive institutions that eats its own
- [Meme] The 'Modern' Web and 'Linux' Foundation Reinforcing Monopolies and Cementing centralisation
- They don't care about the users and issuing a few bytes with random characters costs them next to nothing. It gives them control over billions of human beings.
- 'Boiling the Frog' or How Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) is Being Abandoned at Short Notice by Let's Encrypt
- This isn't a lack of foresight but planned obsolescence
- When the LLM Bubble Implodes Completely Microsoft Will be 'Finished'
- Excuses like, "it's not ready yet" or "we'll fix it" won't pass muster
- "An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs"
- The lesson of this story is, if you do evil things, bad things will come your way. So don't do evil things.
- When Wikileaks Was Still Primarily a Wiki
- less than 14 years ago the international media based its war journalism on what Wikileaks had published
- The Free Software Foundation Speaks Out Against Microsoft
- the problem is bigger than Microsoft and in the long run - seeing Microsoft's demise - we'll need to emphasise Software Freedom
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 25, 2024
- IRC logs for Thursday, July 25, 2024
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- Links 26/07/2024: E-mail on OpenBSD and Emacs Fun
- Links for the day
- Links 25/07/2024: Talks of Increased Pension Age and Biden Explains Dropping Out
- Links for the day
- Links 25/07/2024: Paul Watson, Kernel Bug, and Taskwarrior
- Links for the day
- [Meme] Microsoft's "Dinobabies" Not Amused
- a slur that comes from Microsoft's friends at IBM
- Flashback: Microsoft Enslaves Black People (Modern Slavery) for Profit, or Even for Losses (Still Sinking in Debt Due to LLMs' Failure)
- "Paid Kenyan Workers Less Than $2 Per Hour"
- From Lion to Lamb: Microsoft Fell From 100% to 13% in Somalia (Lowest Since 2017)
- If even one media outlet told you in 2010 that Microsoft would fall from 100% (of Web requests) to about 1 in 8 Web requests, you'd probably struggle to believe it
- Microsoft Windows Became Rare in Antarctica
- Antarctica's Web stats still near 0% for Windows
- Links 25/07/2024: YouTube's Financial Problem (Even After Mass Layoffs), Journalists Bemoan Bogus YouTube Takedown Demands
- Links for the day
- Gemini Now 70 Capsules Short of 4,000 and Let's Encrypt Sinks Below 100 (Capsules) as Self-Signed Leaps to 91%
- The "gopher with encryption" protocol is getting more widely used and more independent from GAFAM
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 24, 2024
- IRC logs for Wednesday, July 24, 2024
- Techrights Statement on YouTube
- YouTube is a dying platform
- [Video] Julian Assange on the Right to Know
- Publishing facts is spun as "espionage" by the US government and "treason" by the Russian government, to give two notable examples
- Links 25/07/2024: Tesla's 45% Profit Drop, Humble Games Employees All Laid Off
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 25/07/2024: Losing Grip and collapseOS
- Links for the day
- LWN (Earlier This Week) is GAFAM Openwashing Amplified
- Such propaganda and openwashing make one wonder...
- Open Source Initiative (OSI) Blog: Microsoft Operatives Promoting Proprietary Software for Microsoft
- This is corruption
- Libre-SOC Insiders Explain How Libre-SOC and Funding for Libre-SOC (From NLNet) Got 'Hijacked' or Seized
- One worked alongside my colleagues and I in 2011
- Why We're Revealing the Ugly Story of What Happened at Libre-SOC
- Aside from the fact that some details are public already
- Removing the Lid Off of 'Cancel Culture' (in Tech) and Shutting It Down by Illuminating the Tactics and Key Perpetrators
- Corporate militants disguised as "good manners"
- FSF, Which Pioneered GNU/Linux Development, Needs 32 More New Members in 2.5 Days
- To meet the goal of a roughly month-long campaign
- Lupa Statistics, Based on Crawling Geminispace, Will Soon Exceed Scope of 4,000 Capsules
- Capsules or unique capsules or online capsules are in the thousands and growing
- Links 24/07/2024: Many New Attacks on Journalists, "Private Companies Own The Law"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 24/07/2024: Face à Gaïa, Emacs Timers for Weekly Event, Chromebook Survives Water Torture
- Links for the day
- Why Virtually All the Wikileaks Copycats, Forks, and Rivals Basically Perished
- Cryptome is like the "grandpa" of them all
- A Total Lack of Transparency: Open and Free Technology Community (OFTC) Fails to Explain Why Over 60% of Users Are Gone (Since a Week Ago)
- IRC giants have fallen
- In the United Kingdom Google Search Rises to All-Time High, Microsoft Fell Nearly 1.5% Since the LLM Hype Began
- Microsoft is going to need actual products or it will gradually vanish from the market
- Trying to Put Out the Fire at Microsoft
- Microsoft is drowning in debt while laying off loads of staff, hoping it can turn things around
- GNU/Linux Growing at Vista 11's Expense
- it's tempting to deduce many people who got PCs with Vista 11 preinstalled are deleting it, only to replace it with GNU/Linux
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 23, 2024
- IRC logs for Tuesday, July 23, 2024