See also: last week's Distributions page.

Distributions

News and Editorials

spyLinux returns to the list. spyLinux was one of those distributions that disappeared from our Distributions List during the recent upgrade. But it wasn't really gone, only moved to a new web site. And now, thanks to doks, we welcome spyLinux back to the list. spyLinux is (s)mall (py)thon (Linux), a single disk distribution of Linux based on tomsrtbt with mxCGIPython. You'll find listed with the Floppy-based distributions.

RedHawk Linux. Concurrent Computer Corporation's RedHawk Linux is an industry-standard, POSIX-compliant, real-time version of Linux, based on the Red Hat Linux distribution. RedHawk features high I/O throughput, fast response to external events, and optimized interprocess communication. Other real-time Linux versions are small, embedded species. Not RedHawk! This real-time OS tackles the larger industry applications that require both a full featured OS and real-time abilities. While not really new, it's a newcomer to the LWN Distributions list, where it's now listed with the Special Purpose distributions. Concurrent sells complete systems; hardware, software, support and service. See this week's Commerce page for an announcement about the the iHawk(TM) Series 860 high-performance Intel-based multiprocessors running RedHawk.

Distribution News

Debian News. The Debian Weekly News for the week of April 3rd picks the best of April Foolery, and an essay entitled "Debian's Problems, Debian's Future".

Here is the latest Woody Release Status report, dated April 6, 2002. "In that vein, I'm becoming increasingly confident in woody's release readiness. So, to go out on a limb:
Debian 3.0 (codenamed woody) will release on May 1st, 2002." A Woody CD image is available for testing.

The third and final call for votes for the Debian Project Leader Election 2002 has been announced. Participation levels are currently lagging behind previous years, so if you are a Debian developer, and you haven't voted yet, vote now.

The 2nd Annual Debian Conference registration page is now available. Debconf 2 will be held in Toronto, Ontario, at York University, from Friday, July 5, to Sunday, July 7, 2002.

FreeBSD. A Developer Preview release of FreeBSD 5.0-CURRENT is now available for widespread testing. This preview is a significant milestone towards the eventual release of FreeBSD 5.0 in late 2002.

Lindows.com's LindowsOS, Sneak Preview 2, Available for Digital Download. Lindows.com has announced the release of Lindows Sneak Preview 2. "One of the new features showcased in LindowsOS Sneak Preview 2 is Click-N-Run(tm) (www.lindows.com/clicknrun), a powerful new tool that opens the door to a world of high-quality software solutions by allowing LindowsOS users to instantly zap software to their machines with one click."

The Future of Mandrake Linux? The Answers!. Gaël Duval answers questions concerning the MandrakeClub. "Did you become concerned after reading the "Future of MandrakeSoft" message that was released on March 11th? Do you feel that MandrakeClub is not an ideal solution for a "for-profit" company? Do you support the idea of the Club, but have been unable to pay? Would you prefer to become a shareholder? Here are the answers to many of these questions and more."

More Mandrake Linux News. The Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter for April 3, 2002 is available. Topics include 8.2 PPC Beta 2; improved printer drivers for HP Inkjets; 8.2 errata online; and more.

Various packages are being provided as bugfix updates to the Mandrake Linux 8.2 release.

Red Hat News. The announcement begins: "It's time for another installment of "As The Packages Churn." In today's episode, the young Cups McDriver continues her quest to wrestle away control of Printers, Ltd. from the powerful L.P.R. Meanwhile a visitor to Skipjack, Alternatives de Debian, tries to mend fences between Hendrik Postfix and Pixie Sendmail. Also Mayor Kernel, still recovering from recent recompiling, tries to bring peace within the Desktop crime syndicate, as the war for control escalates between Keyser Denis Edwards and Gnome Widget."

The second public beta of Red Hat Linux: Skipjack is packed with the very latest technology, including: the 2.4.18 kernel; XFree86 4.2.0; GNOME 1.4, including Evolution; Mozilla 0.9.9; and much, much more.

This week's bug fix advisories:

• Updated up2date and rhn_register clients are available for Red Hat Linux.
• New python-popt packages are available to fix incorrect an dependency.

Slackware News. The testing version of Slackware has seen many upgrades recently, including improvements in nearly every package. Slackware 8.1 is getting closer. See the changes for this week.

Turbolinux News. Newsforge is running a press release from Turbolinux about Birkenstock USA. Apparently Birkenstock is running its ecommerce site on Turbolinux Cluster Server 6.

Embedded Distribution updates

MontaVista Linux. MontaVista announced MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition 2.1, the first carrier-grade quality Linux distribution targeted for edge and core telecommunications including applications for the converging IP and voice networks, optical networks, signaling gateways and Voice over IP (VoIP) gateways, and many other applications.

TimeSys Linux. TimeSys Corporation announced the release of a board support package (BSP) for Embedded Planet's PowerPC-based RPX Lite 823 single board computer (SBC) based on the Motorola PowerPC 823e processor.

Minor Distribution updates

2-Disk Xwindow System. The 2-Disk Xwindow System has released v1.4rc05 with minor feature enhancements.

CRUX. CRUX announced the availability of the CRUX Network Setup, which lets you install CRUX over FTP (i.e. without burning a CD).

Gentoo Linux. Gentoo Linux has announced the release of Gentoo Linux 1.1a. Changes since Gentoo Linux 1.0 include important pam/shadow/util-linux security fixes; support for pppoe installs from our install CDs; various important improvements to Portage; a new design for our nvidia-glx, nvidia-driver and xfree ebuilds; and very many upgrades and improvements to a bunch of packages.

Kondara MNU/Linux. Kondara MNU/Linux has given notice of the termination of releasing "Jirai", a former development branch which is no longer maintained..

Linux From Scratch. Linux From Scratch has released stable version 3.3 with minor bug fixes.

Netstation Linux. Netstation Linux has released development version 0.6 with major bug fixes.

tomsrtbt. A major new version of Tomsrtbt has been released. Version 2.0.0 contains a kernel upgrade (from 2.0.39 to 2.2.20) and lots of other stuff.

Virtual Linux. Virtual Linux will soon release v1.1. A new website is in progress here.

Distribution Reviews

Lindows opens new 'Sneak Preview' (ZDNet). ZDNet reviews the second Lindows preview. "The two features added with the new Lindows software are 'Click-N-Run', an automated process for downloading and installing software, and a set of file viewers designed to handle formats like Word, Excel and Powerpoint."

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.

Distribution Lists:
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Linux.com
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