See also: last week's Distributions page.

Distributions

News and Editorials

Sorcerer, Sorcery, and Lunar-Penguin. Last week we reported that Sorcerer GNU/Linux (SGL) was no longer available. Numerous people wrote in with additional information, so this week we have a more complete story to tell. It's the kind of story that illustrates that a good open source project is difficult (if not impossible) to kill.

SGL was first released by Kyle Sallee in April 2001 and in just a few months it became one of the most popular source-based Linux distributions around. Gaining in popularity also meant gaining a larger development team, as is the nature of free software. Unfortunately though, not everyone shared the same vision of SGL and its future. Without getting into all the nasty details, we'll just jump to the part where Kyle left the project and removed the source code from its accustomed repository (and the mirrors). He apparently did try to stop the other SGL team members from going on with the project from there, but as we mentioned, it's very hard to stop a good software project. The source was already out there. So, from the ashes of Sorcerer grew two new distributions. Kyle doesn't seem to be working with either one at this time, but we wish him well on his next project (whatever that is). Most of all, we'd like to thank all the people who wrote to LWN with additional links and information.

Lunar-Penguin has its roots in SGL, but it's quickly evolving into something else. If you like SGL, but want something a bit faster paced, more leading edge, then LP could be just for you. Current SGL users should be able to switch to LP now, but that's guaranteed not to last for long. LP released the ISO image lunar-20020321.iso.bz2 on March 21, 2002.

Sorcery GNU/Linux or possibly Sorcerer GNU/Linux is project created by former team members of SGL, after Kyle's departure. It strives to remain a popular, source-based distribution. Sorcery 0.1.2 was released into cvs on March 19, 2002, and a new Sorcery tarball, 0.1.3, has been released since. This posting at the Sorcery Linux site contains some additional information on the birth of Sorcery, and talks about some future development plans for the new SGL.

The site SorcererLinux.org was created as an impartial resource, with links to both new projects, and other Sorcerer resources including a link to the original Sorcerer documentation.

Distribution News

Debian News. The Debian Weekly News for March 20 is out, with coverage of the Debian Leader election, the latest boot floppies, offensive content, CeBIT, and more.

Debian users will now find cryptographic software in the main archive. Anthony Towns provides an explanation of why it wasn't there before, and what can be found there now.

There is another revision of 'potato', Debian GNU/Linux 2.2r6 due out at the beginning of April 2002.

The Call For Votes is out now. "NOTE: The vote must be GPG signed (or PGP signed) with your key that is in the debian keyring."

The Kernel Cousin Debian Hurd #115 For March 19, 2002 is available.

Mandrake Linux News. The Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter #35 for March 20, 2002 talks about Mandrake Linux 8.2 (Intel version available; a note from the Developers; 8.2 PPC Status Report) and more.

The release of a second beta version of Mandrake Linux 8.2 for the PowerPC architecture has been announced.

MandrakeSoft has announced the availability of StarOffice 6.0 Final for its MandrakeClub "Silver" members and above. This ZDNet article clarifies Mandrake's download policy.

Red Hat Linux Advanced Server. Red Hat has announced the launch of its "Red Hat Linux Advanced Server" distribution, "the first enterprise-class Linux operating system." It starts at $800, and includes a one-year Red Hat Network subscription, a 12-month (minimum) release cycle, a number of kernel patches (i.e. asynchronous I/O), a Java-based web console for cluster management, and more.

Skipjack - the latest Red Hat beta. We mentioned it last week, but here's the official announcement on the release of "Skipjack," Red Hat's latest beta release. "As always, we do not recommend the use of beta software on mission critical or production systems. In fact, we may laugh at those who try."

SuSE Linux. usr local bin is a new site dedicated to updated RPM packages for SuSE Linux, mainly offering GNOME software builds.

Yellow Dog Linux 2.2 ships. Terra Soft Solutions has announced the release of Yellow Dog Linux 2.2. It's based on Red Hat Linux 7.2, but, of course, it runs on the PowerPC.

Minor Distribution updates

2-Disk Xwindow System. The 2-Disk Xwindow System has released v1.2.9 with minor feature enhancements.

Astaro Security Linux. Astaro Security Linux has released v3.041 with major feature enhancements.

Icepack Linux. Icepack Linux has released v2.0, "a complete rewrite of our version 1.0, but of course still offering the features you appreciated in our first release".

Leka Rescue Floppy. Leka Rescue Floppy has released v0.6.0 with minor bug fixes.

Recovery Is Possible!. Recovery Is Possible! (RIP) has released v51 with minor feature enhancements.

ttylinux. ttylinux has released v2.0 with minor bug fixes.

Wolverine. The Wolverine firewall and VPN product (based on Embedded Coyote Linux) has released Alpha 3 (Build 153) with major feature enhancements.

Distribution Reviews

Mandrake 8.2 First Impressions. Anthony Barker reviews Mandrake Linux 8.2. "Mandrake has done a lot of work cleaning up the user interface and making Linux more intuitive. Moreover, it is supposed to be more stable - the kernel as well as Mandrake's tools ( although I have not experience that so far). Perhaps I have been a bit harsh because I lost my data directory (my own fault - but of course I internally blame the vendor). Overall, I think mdk 8.2 is the best Mandrake release so far, a candidate for the best linux distribution, and perhaps my favorite desktop operating system."

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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