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
- Microsoft: Our "Goodwill" Gained Over 51 Billion Dollars in the Past Nine Months Alone, Now "Worth" as Much as All Our Physical Assets (Property and Equipment)
- The makeup of a Ponzi scheme where the balance sheet has immaterial nonsense
- FSFE (Ja, Das Gulag Deutschland) Has Lost Its Tongue
- Articles/month
- Ian Jackson & Debian reject mediation
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- How to get selected for Outreachy internships
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
-
- Lucas Kanashiro & Debian/Canonical/Ubuntu female GSoC intern relationship
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Pranav Jain & Debian, DebConf, unfair rent boy rumors
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Links 27/04/2024: Kaiser Gave Patients' Data to Microsoft, "Microsoft Lost ‘Dream Job’ Status"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 27/04/2024: Sunrise Photos and Slow Productivity
- Links for the day
- Almost 2,700 New Posts Since Upgrading to Static Site 7 Months Ago, Still Getting More Productive Over Time
- We've come a long way since last autumn
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 26, 2024
- IRC logs for Friday, April 26, 2024
- Overpaid lawyer & Debian miss WIPO deadline
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Brian Gupta & Debian: WIPO claim botched, suspended
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Microsoft's XBox is Dying (For Second Year in a Row Over 30% Drop in Hardware Sales)
- they boast about fake numbers or very deliberately misleading numbers that represent two companies, not one
- [Meme] Granting a Million Monopolies in Europe (to Non-European Companies) at Europe's Expense
- Financialization of the EPO
- Salary Adjustment Procedure at the EPO Challenged
- the EPO must properly compensate staff in order to attract and retain suitably skilled examiners
- Links 26/04/2024: Surveillance Abundant, Restoring Net Neutrality Rules (US)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 26/04/2024: uConsole and EXWM and stdu 1.0.0
- Links for the day
- Red Hat Corporate Communications is "Red" Now
- Also notice they offer just two options: MICROSOFT or... MICROSOFT!
- Links 26/04/2024: XBox Sales Have Collapsed, Facebook's Shares Collapse Too
- Links for the day
- Albanian women, Brazilian women & Debian Outreachy racism under Chris Lamb
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Microsoft-Funded 'News' Site: XBox Hardware Revenue Declined by 31%
- Ignore the ludicrous media spin
- Mark Shuttleworth, Elio Qoshi & Debian/Ubuntu underage girls
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Karen Sandler, Outreachy & Debian Money in Albania
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 25, 2024
- IRC logs for Thursday, April 25, 2024
- Links 26/04/2024: Facebook Collapses, Kangaroo Courts for Patents, BlizzCon Canceled Under Microsoft
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 26/04/2024: Music, Philosophy, and Socialising
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Claims "Goodwill" Is an Asset Valued at $119,163,000,000, Cash Decreased From $34,704,000,000 to $19,634,000,000 and Total Liabilities Grew to $231,123,000,000
- Earnings Release FY24 Q3
- More Microsoft Cuts: Events Canceled, Real Sales Down Sharply
- So they will call (or rebrand) everything "AI" or "Azure" or "cloud" while adding revenues from Blizzard to pretend something is growing
- CISA Has a Microsoft Conflict of Interest Problem (CISA Cannot Achieve Its Goals, It Protects the Worst Culprit)
- people from Microsoft "speaking for" "Open Source" and for "security"
- Links 25/04/2024: South Korean Military to Ban iPhone, Armenian Remembrance Day
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 25/04/2024: SFTP, VoIP, Streaming, Full-Content Web Feeds, and Gemini Thoughts
- Links for the day
- Audiocasts/Shows: FLOSS Weekly and mintCast
- the latest pair of episodes
- [Meme] Arvind Krishna's Business Machines
- He is harming Red Hat in a number of ways (he doesn't understand it) and Fedora users are running out of patience (many volunteers quit years ago)
- [Video] Debian's Newfound Love of Censorship Has Become a Threat to the Entire Internet
- SPI/Debian might end up with rotten tomatoes in the face
- Joerg (Ganneff) Jaspert, Dalbergschule Fulda & Debian Death threats
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Amber Heard, Junior Female Developers & Debian Embezzlement
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- [Video] Time to Acknowledge Debian Has a Real Problem and This Problem Needs to be Solved
- it would make sense to try to resolve conflicts and issues, not exacerbate these
- Daniel Pocock elected on ANZAC Day and anniversary of Easter Rising (FSFE Fellowship)
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- [Video] IBM's Poor Results Reinforce the Idea of Mass Layoffs on the Way (Just Like at Microsoft)
- it seems likely Red Hat layoffs are in the making
- Ulrike Uhlig & Debian, the $200,000 woman who quit
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 24, 2024
- IRC logs for Wednesday, April 24, 2024
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day