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See also: last week's Distributions page.

Distributions


Please note that security updates from the various distributions are covered in the security section.

Red Hat 6.2 vs. Caldera 2.4 eDesktop. Here is a detailed, combined review of Red Hat 6.2 and Caldera 2.4 eDesktop by Eric Lee Green. "It is rare that Linux distributions rev on almost the same day, but that's what happened with Red Hat 6.2 and Caldera 2.4. Both are tasty, but in different ways. Having tired of reading shallow distribution reviews by people who have no idea of the enterprise environment, I decided to remedy that situation. In this article I attempt to tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly of each one, and which one you might want to use in various situations."

Debian GNU/Linux

Wichert Akkerman released doc-central this week. doc-central is a new system for browsing Debian's documentation easily with a web browser; he wrote it out of frustration with the current documentation tools and as a project to learn Python. More information can be found in Wichert's announcement.

IBM and Alcôve partner to support Debian GNU/Linux Alcôve has announced (in French) that it is partnering with IBM to provide support for the Debian distribution in several parts of the world, including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Middle East, and Africa. The service seems to consist primarily of phone support, and appears to be limited to IBM hardware. English text is also available. (Found in Portalux News).

Debian Weekly News. This week's Debian Weekly News by Joey Hess looks at the problem of insuring the integrity of Debian packages on mirror sites and a few other short subjects.

Hard Hat Linux

MontaVista Software ports to IBM PowerPC 405GP. MontaVista Software has announced a port of its Hard Hat Linux distribution to IBM's PowerPC 405GP processor.

Hard Hat Linux for ARM. Applied Data Systems (ADS) has launched a new commercially-available Linux, the Intel StrongARM SA-1110 platform. The ADS Virtual Linux Development Team is supplying the ARM port to Monta Vista, who will then deliver Hard Hat Linux for ARM.

Kha0s Linux

Kha0s Linux gets a new project leader. The Kha0s project ("better living through extreme paranoia") has set itself a goal of developing "an ultra-secure, Linux-based operating system that will appeal to security minded systems administrators." The project got off to a good start under leader Scott Fallin; their early releases were downloaded by people at NASA, the FBI, and the NSA, among others. In recent times development has slowed somewhat; Mr. Fallin has also taken on new "real job" responsibilities and has not been able to devote much time to the project.

Thus the announcement that Mr. Fallin is stepping down as the leader of Kha0s, to be replaced by Moshe Bar. Mr. Bar's name may be familiar to many who have seen his articles in places like the Linux Journal, Linux Magazine, and Byte, but writing is not his profession. Instead, he works as an OS researcher for clients worldwide - a job that has him dealing with security issues frequently.

Mr. Bar is also one of the initial developers that started work on Kha0s, and the author of its crypto layer. As one of the people who have shaped Kha0s thus far, he was an obvious choice to be the new project leader. In that role, he hopes to revitalize the project and, helped by a somewhat reduced set of objectives, to get a working alpha version out by September. He is, of course, looking for more developers to help move things along...

Linux-Mandrake

Perfect...except for the documentation... LinuxPlanet reviews Linux-Mandrake 7.0. "Linux-Mandrake comes this close to being the perfect Linux distribution.... So why aren't we jumping up and down, proclaiming that Linux-Mandrake 7.0 is the best Linux distribution ever? For one reason: the poor quality of the documentation in the shrink-wrap version. Much of what's great in Linux-Mandrake 7.0 is simply undocumented or misdocumented..."

IBM to support Linux-Mandrake in France. MandrakeSoft has announced (in French) that IBM's Global Services will be offering support for the Linux-Mandrake distribution in France. English text is available via Babelfish. (Found in Da Linux French Page).

Red Hat Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Edition. Red Hat has announced its "Enterprise Edition," which prominently features the "ARCserveIT" storage management package from Computer Associates.

Large-scale Red Hat deployment. Red Hat has announced that epicRealm, an Internet service provider, will be deploying 1,000 servers running Red Hat Linux.

Slackware Linux

Installing Slackware manually is fun. For those of you who are not impressed with four-click installation procedures, here is a lengthy document describing how to install Slackware 7 manually. Expect it to take a while... As an added challenge for some of us, the document is in French; a partial translation is available via Babelfish. (Found in Da Linux French Page).

SuSE Linux

SuSE 6.4 reviewed. Pro-Linux.de has put up a review (in German) of the SuSE 6.4 distribution. A partial translation (the article is long) is available via Babelfish.

Trustix

The 1.0 version of Trustix Secure Linux has been released. Trustix is working at building a secure, server-oriented distribution. There is little information about what they are up to on their web site; a quick look at the download site shows the familiar signs of a Red Hat-derived product, however.

TurboLinux

A TurboLinux discussion forum has been established for those who would like to gather and talk about their experiences with the distribution.

Section Editor: Liz Coolbaugh


April 13, 2000

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


Leading
Caldera OpenLinux
Debian GNU/Linux
Linux-Mandrake
Red Hat
Slackware
SuSE
TurboLinux

Also well-known
ASPLinux
Best Linux
Conectiva Linux
e-smith

Progeny
Rock Linux

Non-technical desktop
easyLinux
Icepack Linux
Independence
LibraNet
Redmond Linux
WinSlack

Education
Boston University
kmLinux
LinuxFromScratch
OpenClassroom
Red Escolar

General Purpose
Alzza Linux
aXon Linux
Bad Penguin Linux
BearOps
Black Cat Linux
BluePoint Linux
BYO Linux
CAEN Linux
Cafe Linux
ChainSaw Linux
Circle MUDLinux
cLIeNUX
Complete Linux
Console Linux
Corel Linux
CRUX
Darkstar Linux
DLite
easyLinux
Elfstone Linux
ESware Linux
Eurielec Linux
eXecutive Linux
Fried Chicken
FTOSX
FullPliant
Gentoo
Go!Linux
HA Linux
Halloween Linux
HispaFuentes
IceLinux
Ivrix
ix86 Linux
J-LINUX
JBLinux
Jurix
KRUD
KSI-Linux
Lanthan Linux
Laonux
LASER5
Leetnux
Linpus Linux
Linux Cyrillic Edition
Linux MLD
LinuxOne OS
LinuxPPP
Linux Pro Plus
Linux-SIS
LNX System
LoopLinux
LSD
Lute Linux
MageNet
Mastodon
MaxOS
minilinux
MSC.Linux

NoMad Linux
Omoikane GNU/Linux
PingOO Linux
Plamo Linux
PLD
Project Ballantain
PROSA
Rabid Squirrel
Repairlix
Root Linux
Scrudgeware
Serial Terminal
Sorcerer
spyLinux
Stampede
Stataboware
TechLinux
TimeSys Linux/RT
Tom Linux
Trinux
Turkuaz
Ute-Linux
VA-enhanced Red Hat
Vine Linux
Virtual Linux
WholeLinux
WinLinux 2000
XTeamLinux
ZipSpeak

Country-specific
Argentina
GNU/Linux Ututo
Britain
Definite Linux
Eridani
China
COSIX
Red Flag
France
Linux/MNIS
Italy
LinuxEspresso
Madeinlinux
Vedova
Spain
Linux Esware
Thailand
Kaiwal Linux
Thai Linux Extension

Related Projects
Chinese Linux Extension

Historical (Non-active)
Dualix
Gentus
Giotto
MCC Interim Linux
OS2000
Storm Linux


 

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