![[LWN Logo]](http://old.lwn.net/images/lcorner.png)
![[LWN.net]](http://old.lwn.net/images/dist.png)
|
|
|
 Sections: Main page Security Kernel Distributions Development Commerce Linux in the news Announcements Back page All in one big page See also: last week's Distributions page. |
DistributionsPlease note that security updates from the various distributions are covered in the security section. XLinux. Jyan-Min Fang dropped us a note to point out a possible new Linux distribution: XLinux. Unfortunately, the press releases he could provide to us were in Chinese and therefore not too informative, (unless you know Chinese, which we unfortunately do not). We checked out the website, but with little success, since it is under construction. At that point, we contacted them via email for more information, receiving this file (originally in Word format) in response. Despite the appearance that gave, it does appear that a real distribution is being supported, from a real company, formerly Taiwan Wahoo Cc, now XLinux.com. Whether the distribution is called "XLinux" or "Power Linux" is a bit less clear. In any case, it is being developed as a "Multi-Lingual" version of Linux, with initial support for twelve different languages using GCS (Giga Character Set) which they claim is technically superior to Unicode for multi-lingual support. Please understand that the Word document in question has obviously been translated from Chinese and includes references that we have not yet researched. As a result, we currently have more questions than answers about this distribution. Nonetheless, it looks interesting and we hope to learn more about in the future. Corel LinuxLinuxPlanet has reviewed Corel Linux. "Newcomers who have little or no exposure to Linux will find this a user-friendly and usable operating system that can serve the needs of most mainstream computer users. Experienced Linux users will marvel at how well Linux can be positioned for the mass market, both in terms of installation and in terms of everyday usability."Debian GNU/LinuxDebian Weekly News. The first Debian Weekly News of 2000 covers the last-found Y2K issues, which are resolved with updates to the ntpdate, sendfile, webalizer, birthday, cbb, pilot-manager, slrn, xinetd, http-analyze, and hyperlatex packages. It also talks about issues of new maintainers, tracking the active status of old maintainers and more. Meanwhile, a pre-freeze moratorium on new packages has been imposed.Distribution reviews in LinuxPlanet. LinuxPlanet ran this review of Debian GNU/Linux 2.1. "Weighing in at over 2,000 packages, the Debian distribution provides the largest and most varied collection of software available on any distribution.... In spite of its size, Debian is remarkably coherent and stable. Linux exhibits these attributes largely due the open-development model. It's only natural that Debian should exhibit similar attributes for the same reason." Definite LinuxDefinite Linux has released an updated sharutils package which fixes the Y2K problem found there.Red Hat LinuxRed Hat Y2K update to sharutils. It seems a last-minute year-2000 bug turned up in sharutils, so Red Hat has put out an updated version.More last-minute Y2K updates. Red Hat has released updates to the groff and libtiff packages which fix "apocalypse-inducing" year-2000 bugs. Slackware LinuxThe Slackware Changelogs report no updates or modifications since Christmas Day, 1999.Spiro LinuxThe guys over at Spiro have started developing a version of Spiro to serve as an easily-installed Firewall. Check out the Freshmeat announcement for more details, but note that this is a very rough, firstcut effort.SuSE LinuxSuSE 6.3: Linux from the Deutschland (LinuxPower). LinuxPower reviews SuSE 6.3. "A lot of the defaults are still in German. The default page for the install help you click on the KDE desktop gives you online help in German. Also, a reasonable amount of the online help is not available in English."SuSE Linux for PowerPC available in beta form. SuSE has announced that a beta of its 6.3 distribution for the PowerPC is available. Section Editor: Liz Coolbaugh |
January 6, 2000
| |
Copyright © 2000
Eklektix, Inc., all rights reserved
Next: Development