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Distributions


IBM Thinkpad users have another resource, in addition to the web-pages we've mentioned in the last couple of Distribution sections. Bill Mair, author of this IBM Thinkpad webpage, has also started a mailing list, linux-thinkpad. His note provides details on getting signed up.

Caldera

Caldera OpenLinux 2.2 seems slated for release on Monday, April 19th, according to this news.com article, dated April 12th. "Caldera Systems will introduce a consumer-friendly desktop version of OpenLinux next Monday that lets users install and run the upstart operating system without ever seeing a confusing command line interface". No confirmation of this report has yet been seen, but it is likely correct.

Debian

Both the April 6th and April 12th versions of the Debian Weekly News are now available.

From these editions, we learned that a point release for Debian 2.1 (slink) is definitely in the cards, in order to bring in the 2.2.5 kernel and fix a list of bugs.

Red Hat

Timely security updates are on the mind of this Red Hat user, who correctly points out that Red Hat has not produced any security updates since April 1st, even though security reports on packages such as procmail have been widely posted. This is unacceptable, especially from Red Hat who previously had one of the best track records.

Of course, that track record was earned in part as a result of their willingness to accept the knocks they received for security problems after the release of their 5.X versions of Red Hat Linux and to dig in and produce the security fixes needed. The timing of the problem is also significant. Red Hat is ramping up for the Linux Expo at the end of May, along with the release of Red Hat Linux 6.0. This is a time where the small size of Red Hat (even with the recent growth spurts) shows. Regular maintenance items suffer as they push to meet the upcoming major goals. Hopefully they will notice the problem and clear the decks for at least one person to get back to the issue of security.

Slackware

Important updates to the grep, fgrep and egrep packages were made. Apparently symbolic links from fgrep and egrep to the base grep package no longer work, so full binaries are provided instead. This is an important fix, since the problem was causing a variety of obscure hassles. Check the April 9th Changelogs for more details.

Updated slackware packages over the past week include xcdroast-0.96e, xemacs-20.4, jdk_1.1.7-v1a-libc5-x86, yp-tools-2.2, ypbind-3.3, and ypserv-1.3.6. Check the current Changelogs for more information.

UltraPenguin

Some updates to UltraPenguin (a version of Red Hat for UltraSparc systems) have been announced. They are looking for testers to make sure they have a good system for the 1.2 release.

Section Editor: Liz Coolbaugh


April 15, 1999

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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