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Distributions

News and Editorials

A mini review of KRUD 7.2. KRUD is an acronym for Kevin's Red Hat Uber Distribution. An initial installation of KRUD looks just like a typical Red Hat Linux installation. But with a modest subscription to KRUD, you also get a monthly CD with all the errata and package updates for your Red Hat Linux installation. KRUD is produced by tummy.com.

So when I decided that my work system needed an upgrade, I decided to get some KRUD. I initially installed KRUD 6.2, it didn't take very long and then I had a stable system, but the 7.2 discs beckoned and I went for it. The anaconda installation was smooth. I was able to easily configure my network. Before long I had the newly upgraded system I'd been looking for, with Nautilus, a Mozilla browser, ext3 filesystem, and lots of other good stuff. And, I didn't have to go browsing all over the net to get the latest security updates, those get installed as the system is built. Check this space next week for a better list of KRUD features.

SnapGear offers uClinux distribution. SnapGear has announced the availability of a new uClinux distribution which supports several microprocessors and embedded system configurations. There is a choice between the 2.4.10 or 2.0.39 kernels; FreeS/WAN and PPTP are included as well.

New Distributions

DyneBolic. DyneBolic is a GNU/Linux based live bootable CD-ROM. Leave the MS Windows on the disk, if you must. DyneBolic runs off the CD and won't effect your hard drive. (Thanks to Joe Klemmer).

KNOPPIX. KNOPPIX is a complete GNU/Linux installation which runs from CD, with automatic hardware detection and configuration for many graphics and sound cards, SCSI devices, and peripherals. KNOPPIX can run as a Linux demo, as a training CD, as a rescue system, or as a platform for commercial software product demos. There is no need for any installation on the host system's fixed disk. The KNOPPIX disk hosts up to 2 gigabytes of executable software via transparent decompression of the disk image. Thanks to Karsten M. Self for the pointer and for this translation of the German web site.

Distribution News

Mandrake Linux. MandrakeSoft has announced the availability of Mandrake Linux 8.1 for the Itanium architecture.

Check out the Advent Calendar, based on stories of how Mandrake Linux is being used in businesses.

The "Mandrake Linux Users Club" has been launched. This is a nice way to show your support for Mandrake Linux.

Another new web site launched at MandrakeSoft is MandrakeSecure. Find out what you need to know about Mandrake Linux security.

You know that Mandrake is cooking up a PPC version, right? Well now there's a hands-on guide to Mandrake PPC Cooker.

Red Hat. RLX Technologies announced that Red Hat Linux 7.2 is available immediately pre-installed on energy-efficient, ultra-dense RLX ServerBlades.

Red Hat has release bug fix advisories with updates for gdb and also up2date and rhn_register.

Slackware. LinuxSalute.com is looking for several persons interested in participating in the beta test of its collection of binary packages for Gnome on Slackware systems.

There have been several changes to the Slackware-current Intel branch. See the ChangeLog for details.

Tim Patterson told us about UserLocal.com and we are passing it on. Here is Tim's Installing Apache, PHP4 and MySQL On A Slackware 7.x or 8.x Linux Server How-To!

Minor Distribution updates

Coyote Linux. The Coyote Linux web site had some problems recently, but it's now back on line with more bandwidth than ever before.

DragonLinux. DragonLinux has released the DragonLinux v2r2 pre-release. This version has a more up to date base system, but was released with much less testing and documentation changes. Handle with care.

Engarde update for imap. Engarde Secure Linux has issued a bug fix advisory that addresses a problem with imap certificate files. "The default certificate for the simap and spop3 services expired on Tuesday, November 27, 2001. This update re-issues those certificates."

Gentoo Linux. Gentoo Linux is an x86-based Linux distribution geared towards developers and network professionals. Version 1.0_rc6-r11 was released December 1, containing mostly minor bugfixes.

Linux From Scratch. The Linux From Scratch project is intended for Linux users who want to build their own custom Linux system. Version 3.1 was released December 3.

Mindi-Linux. Mindi-Linux uses a skeleton ramdisk and your kernel, modules, and tools to build a boot/root disk set. Version 0.46, released November 29, contains minor bugfixes.

Distribution Related Interviews

DesktopLinux.com interviews Redmond Linux CTO Joseph Cheek. Rick Lehrbaum interviewed Redmond Linux founder and CTO Joseph Cheek, to learn more about the company, its new Linux distribution, and its future plans. "RL: How did Redmond Linux begin? When and how did you begin the project?

Cheek: A year and a half ago. Everyone I tried to explain Linux to had a difficult time if they didn't have lots of computer and Linux experience. It was hard for new users to pick up. I wanted to change that."

DebianPlanet: Interview with Adam Di Carlo (of Debian-Boot). This interview with Adam Di Carlo investigates the past, present and future of the Debian installation system.

What does the future hold for the installer beyond woody?

Well, after woody, the boot-floppies package will be removed; we're changing over to a new system called 'debian-installer'.

It should be noted here first that the boot-floppies system is a very ancient code base. I believe there still some lines in there from Eric Raymond! It has some very deep design flaws, the worst being overall fragility and too much "coupling" in the technical parlance. It is very sensitive to changes in the base system of the Debian archive. The build process is a monster. And the installer itself isn't modular and doesn't do the right thing when it fails.

Section Editor: Rebecca Sobol

Please note that not every distribution will show up every week. Only distributions with recent news to report will be listed.

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