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 Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Linux History Letters All in one big page See also: last week's Distributions page. Note: The list of Linux distributions has moved to its own page.
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DistributionsPlease note that security updates from the various distributions are covered in the security section. News and EditorialsLinux Counter - The distribution of Distributions. Many people will already be aware that Linux Counter recently updated its
database of registered Linux users. Entries that had not been
updated in over two years were removed, deleting thousands of
entries. So it seems like a good time to look at their view of
which distributions are the most popular, while the data is
relatively fresh. Here's how it looks:
The picture of 'Tux wearing a Red Hat' and other 'Linux Geeks', drawn by Franck Alcidi, can be found in Linux User Caricatures at Linux Gazette. Red Hat on Top. Linux Counter's statistics can only reflect those Linux users that have actually registered and entered a distribution in the survey. No doubt there are thousands (millions?) of Linux users that have not been counted, and many of those thousands probably don't run Red Hat. Still, there is no question that Red Hat Linux is a major force among Linux distributions, and is likely to remain so for some time. Therefore it seems appropriate to continue with some Red News. Hewlett-Packard and Red Hat, Inc. announced grants of Red Hat Linux Software to selected universities as part of HP and Intel Corporation's Itanium-based Systems Grants program. Red Hat Linux 7.1 and a one-year subscription to Red Hat Network will be provided to the 40 universities that received grants from the program. Red Hat Linux 7.2 and Red Hat Linux Professional are available in stores and other outlets. Key new features of Red Hat Linux 7.2 include:
Shipping with RH 7.2 are the Forte for Java integrated development environment (IDE) from Sun Microsystems and integrated support for Broadcom Corporation's e-Commerce security solutions. Red Hat Linux also turned up the winner in PC Magazine's Editor's choice awards. Read Choosing Linux for reviews of Red Hat and other Linux distributions. Turbolinux 7 Server on December 7. Turbolinux users may not have registered at Linux Counter, but they are out there. Fans will be happy to see Turbolinux 7 Server, to be released on December 7. Advertised features include large file support, the logical volume manager, and, they say, the first distribution to conform to the LI18NUX internationalization specification. Distribution NewsDebian runs a close second. Debian users are probably not surprised that their favorite distribution ranks a close second in Linux Counter's statistics. The loosely knit group of volunteers that spend their free time working on the Debian Project have put together an outstanding distribution, whichever flavor you chose. The Debian Weekly News for November 8th, 2001 contains news about 2.2r4 (potato), the freeze, recognizing IRC channels, the default Mail Transport Agent, and much more. Debian GNU/Linux 2.2r4 has been released. This is a bug fix update, containing mostly security updates and fixes for a few serious problems. The sixth Debian Woody Bug-Squashing Party will be held on the weekend of November 9 through 11, 2001. Squash those bugs, but make waves because there's a freeze in place. Freeze Update! Woody has been frozen. Any further changes to packages need to be made by unanimous agreement amongst all the maintainers the change will affect. Red Hat Bugfix advisories. The following are bugfix or enhancement advisories:
Slackware. There were several packages updated in Slackware-current (Intel) this week.
New DistributionsAurora Sparc Project. The Aurora Sparc Project has been announced. The Aurora Sparc Project is building a Sparc system starting with Red Hat 7.2. Build 0.1 includes the basic pieces needed. Glibc, kernel-headers, gcc 2.96, X, gnome-libs, perl, python, and bash. Minor Distribution updatesAstaro Security Linux. Astaro Security Linux is not really a full distribution. It is more of a proprietary firewall product, but it is Linux 2.4-based. Version 2.015, released November 5, contains a major bugfix in the virus-scan detection engine. Devil-Linux 0.5 Beta 2 released. Devil-Linux 0.5 Beta 2 has been released with lots of changes. Devil-Linux is a special Linux distribution, used for firewalls/routers and released under the GNU GPL. mkLinux. Updates for BIND (9.1.3), OpenSSH (2.9p2), and OpenSSL (0.9.6b) are available on ftp.mklinux.org. These not really security fixes, but these are packages you want to have up-to-date. Distribution ReviewsBig OSes can learn from OpenBSD (ZDNet). Here's an introduction to OpenBSD from ZDNet. "Unlike other operating systems, with the exception of close relative NetBSD, the open source OpenBSD was built from the ground up to be secure. How do they do it? In no small part, it's by constantly auditing the operating system's code for potential security problems." Redhat 7.2 launch eclipsed by XP blitz (CNN). CNN reviewed Red Hat 7.2. "A week of daily Redhat 7.2 use has shown it to be a stable platform with only a few minor issues. There's a wide range of fonts, and a hard-to-read script-like font sometimes becomes the default in the wrong places." RedHat Linux 7.2 Review (LinuxLookup). LinuxLookup was (mostly) impressed with Red Hat 7.2. "Installation was a snap. Be sure to pay close attention, especially if you want to migrate your old ext2 partitions over to ext3. The new and improved disk druid was pretty slick. When you clicked on an older partition it would provide you its old mount point. But I just have to say this again, migrating file systems is the biggest plus yet! A full installation of RedHat 7.2 yields over 2 gigabytes!" Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol |
November 8, 2001
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