See also: last week's Distributions page.

Distributions

News and Editorials

TopologiLinux returns. TopologiLinux somehow managed to get overlooked during the process of moving from the old list to the new list. Thanks to TopologiLinux guru Tobias Svensson, it has returned to the list under the DOS/Windows install heading.

New Distributions

Tinfoil Hat Linux. Tinfoil Hat Linux started as a secure, single floppy, bootable Linux distribution for storing PGP keys and then encrypting, signing and wiping files. At some point it became an exercise in over-engineering. Now at version 1.0, THL is released under a BSD style license. You'll find it in the list under Floppy based distributions.

Here is a vnunet article about Tinfoil Hat. "What started out as a secure, single floppy, bootable Linux distribution for storing PGP keys, and encrypting, signing and wiping files, turned into a useable Linux distribution for the totally paranoid."

Distribution News

Debian News. The Debian Weekly News for February 13 is available, with coverage of the Debian Leader election, the orphaning of PHP4, Security Enhanced Debian, and more.

Here's a release status update for Debian Woody. The bottom line: the worst bugs have been fixed, a release is coming soon, and a whole bunch of "less important" packages are about to be removed if they don't get fixed in a hurry.

We also have a wrap-up on last weekend's 7th Debian Bug-Squashing Party for Woody.

Martin Schulze sent us this note on the progress of the latest revision of the stable Debian distribution. "The plan is to get this revision of Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 (codename `potato') out within the first week of March this year (2002)."

Nominations for Debian project leader are underway now and will remain open until February 27, 2002. This note from the Debian Project Secretary contains more information.

HA Linux. Motorola has paved a way for 6NINES telecom applications with the release of HA Linux 3.0 which boasts "considerable new features and functions".

Mandrake Linux. The February 13th issue (#30) of the Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter contains more information about the Mandrake Linux 8.2 beta2 release, an interview with Frédéric Bastok, and much more.

Red Hat News. Red Hat has issued some bug fix advisories. New modutils packages are available to fix a limitation of argument processing, and to fix problems with GPL-only symbols. Packages are available for Red Hat Linux 7.1 - alpha, i386, ia64 and Red Hat Linux 7.2 - i386, ia64. New initscripts packages are available for Red Hat Linux 7.2 (i386, ia64). These new packages fix various bugs, including those dealing with changing the IP addresses of network interfaces.

Slackware Linux. There is a new version of binutils-2.11.93.0.2 available for the Slackware current Intel branch. See the changelog for details.

Minor Distribution updates

Astaro Security Linux. Astaro Security Linux has released v2.022 with some major security fixes.

GENDIST. GENDIST (the Linux Distribution Generator) has released v0.9.7. Support for ISOLINUX-based bootable CDs was added with this release.

OpenNA Linux. OpenNA Linux has released a Beta 3 development version with some major bug fixes.

proxyfloppy Linux distribution. Proxyfloppy has released v1.1 with minor security fixes.

ttylinux. ttylinux has released v1.19 with minor bug fixes.

Distribution Reviews

Installing Libranet 2.0 (Linux Journal). Linux Journal reviews Libranet, a Debian based distribution. "All in all, Libranet is a very pleasant Debian installation. It still boots remarkably fast despite the 2.4.16 kernel and KDE 2.2.2. The installation is still not ideal for newbies, it remains the domain of the Linux user who understands the mechanics of partitioning."

Mandrake Cooks Up a Winner (or Two). Open for Business reviews Mandrake Linux. "Mandrake Linux is a distribution with an interesting history. Its first edition, based on RedHat Linux 5.1 and aptly named "Linux-Mandrake 5.1," provided essentially nothing more than RedHat with additional packages such as KDE, which the elder distribution had decided not to include. For quite awhile after that, MandrakeSoft spent their time in RedHat's shadow, however in recent years Mandrake Linux has moved on to be a very good distribution in its own right."

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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