From:	 Michael Shigorin <mike@lic145.kiev.ua>
To:	 cool@lwn.net
Subject: Re: (new distro) ALT Linux fills LWN distro survey!
Date:	 Tue, 7 May 2002 07:46:06 +0300
Cc:	 lwn@lwn.net


			LWN DISTRIBUTION SURVEY
			     version 0.32

     The LWN distribution survey is a tool to gather comparable
     information about Linux distributions.  All provided surveys
     will be made publicly available in their entirety.  They
     are dated, so that multiple versions of a survey for a
     specific distribution can exist, providing historical
     information.

______________________________________________________________________________


Survey Date:

	May 03 2002

Name of person providing information:

	Michael Shigorin

E-mail address:

	mike@altlinux.org

Connection with this distribution:
   (note, survey information from distribution creators/developers
    will replace information from other interested parties, wherever
    available.)

	Participating in development

1.   What is the name of your distribution?

	ALT Linux Master

     What is the website for your distribution?
     
        http://altlinux.org
        http://altlinux.com
	http://altlinux.ru (in Russian)
	
2.   What is the derivation of your distribution?

    _ SLS
    
    _ Slackware

    _ Jurix
    
    _ Red Hat

    _ Debian

    _ rolled from scratch

    X other  (Please name)

    	Linux-Mandrake


2a.   If you answered anything besides "rolled from scratch", do
      you still consider your distribution "tied" to its derivation,
      e.g., you release updates to your distribution based on updates
      from the original distribution?
      
	No

2b.  If you answered "rolled from scratch" or other, 
     do you use a package management system?  

     If yes, which one?
     
	RPM4 plus APT (Conectiva apt/rpm port)

3.   What languages do you support?  Please list, including English,
     if appropriate.
     
        English, Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainian, French, German
	as primary concern; special emphasis is made on correct i18n.

4.   Would you classify your distribution as a "mini"-distribution?
     (This is a very flexible term, covering Linux distributions 
     sized for a floppy or smaller, up through CD or disk-based
     Linux distributions that are on the small size.  It is more a
     matter of perception, in terms of whether you define the
     distribution partially by its small size compared to generic
     distributions like Debian, Red Hat, et al.)

     _ yes

     X no

4a.  If you answered yes to the above, please mark any of the
     following that are applicable:

     _ CD-based, e.g., intended to be booted from and run directly
       from a CD without requiring a hard disk.

     _ Disk-based, small, but intended to be run from a hard disk.
       Presumably too large for a floppy.

     _ Floppy-based

       How many floppies for the base distribution?

       How many floppies for supported add-ons?

     _ Flash-disk-based

     _ Other 
     
       Please explain:


5.   Hardware Support.  Please mark all the hardware platforms that
     your distribution supports.

     _ Alpha

     _ ARM

     _ IBM S/390

     X Intel x86/Pentium

     _ IA64

     _ NEC Mobile Gear PDAs

     _ Sparc

     _ Sparc64

     _ PowerPC

     _ PowerPC G4

     _ RS/6000

     _ Microcontrollers

     _ Other, please list:

	
5a.  For what hardware platforms do you provide optimized binaries,
     if any?
     
	i586

6.  Why did you decide to produce a Linux distribution?

	Originally it was Linux-Mandrake Russian Edition by IPLabs Linux
	Team, but not all significant changes found their way back to
	Mandrake -- and the team itself went stronger, finding
	opportunities to do things better.

	Now there's a line of distributions targeted towards different
	audiences ranging from beginners to highly experienced
	administrators and covering tasks from desktop to NOC operation,
	from multimedia station to corporate server with RSBAC support.

7.  What is the target audience for your distribution?
	
	Generic distribution aimed at wide range of applications; light
	OEM/SOHO/beginners version, Junior, is available -- and
	server-oriented RSBAC-enabled Castle is now at beta3.

8.  Would you consider your distribution to be:

    X general purpose, e.g., useful for servers, desktops, and
      requiring tailoring for specific purposes.

    _ special purpose, e.g., specifically tailored for a single
      functionality or a small group of functionalities.

8a. If you consider your distribution to be special purpose, 
    below are a list of possible purposes.  Please check all that
    apply and add any that are missing:

    X Appliances, such as:
       X Communications Server
       X Router/Firewall
       X Web Cache

    X DOS/Windows support, via:
       X DOS partition
       X DOS/Windows install, separate boot
       _ Windows Users, accessible from Windows

    _ Diskless Terminal support

    X Education/Schools

    X Ease-of-use, for non-technical users

    _ Embedded Systems

    _ High-end and Cluster computing

    X Non-exportable crytographic support

    _ Older, slower hardware (pre-Pentium, for example)

    X Optimized performance

    _ Reduced memory usage

    X Rescue disk

    X Security

    _ Targeted user market, such as:
      _ ISPs
      _ E-commerce sites
      _ Highly Experienced, Technical users
      _ Physically challenged 
      _ other

9.   Who are the primary developers for your distribution?  
     Please provide email addresses.

	Alexander Bokovoy 
	Alexey Novodvorsky 
	Anton Farygin 
	Dmitry V. Levin 
	Ivan Zakharyaschev 
	Konstantin Volckov 
	Mikhail Zabaluev 
	Sergey V Turchin 
	Stanislav Ievlev 

9a.  How many developers in total are working on the distribution?

	52 persons have the right to build (signed) packages for
	repository.

9b.  How many of these developers are working full-time?
	
	10 (counting people from official ALT Linux Team)

10.  Is there a packaged or commercial version of your distribution
     for sale? if so, please gives the names and URL's of the
     company or companies that provide it.
     
	Yes, every distribution can be ordered on CDs (even unstable snapshots)
	as well as downloaded; support is readily available.

	It can be ordered at several Internet shops, as well as
	purchased at a number of local software/hardware stores.

	See http://altlinux.com/?module=buy-inet
	
11.  What other Linux distributions do you consider to be
     most similar in design goals and target audience?
     
	Linux-Mandrake and Debian

12.  What version of the kernel are you currently shipping?

	Patched 2.4.18

13.  What C libraries are you supporting:

     _ a.out
     
     _ glibc

     X glibc2

13a.  Which C library is the default for your builds? (Check only one):
      (Note, we have distributions on the list whose primary reason
      for existing is to support older libraries -- this is meant to
      be a check for such a distribution).

     _ a.out (libc4)
     
     _ glibc (libc5)

     X glibc2 (libc6)

14.  How large is your default installation?

	Depends on free disk space and distribution. Minimal
	installation of generic/desktop is ~ 150--200Mb
	
15.  How many packages are provided, including both default and
     optional packages?
     
	Sisyphus, the base repository, has more than 2500 packages, plus some
	unsupported/orphaned ones.

16.  Is there a paid support service available?

	Yes. Boxed distributions may include support in retail price.

17.  If appropriate, in what area, geographically, are the
     developers and/or company located?
     
	The headquarters are situated in Moscow, Russia; developers
	are mainly situated in CIS countries.

18.  When was your distribution first made available on the
     Internet?
     
	Near to Linux-Mandrake 6.0.

18a. If it is available on CD, when was it first made available on CD? 

	The same time

18c. When was it first publicly announced?

	The same time

19.  Do you have any documentable statistics on usage that you
     could share?  Such as downloads, commercial box sales, etc.
     
	Don't know but quite well-known and widespread here.

20.  Does this distribution conform to the Linux Standards Base
     as published so far or the File Hierarchy Standard?
     
	It is FHS-conforming and moving towards LSB-compliance.

20a.  If your distribution only partially conforms with the
      LSB/FHS, please describe what portions it conforms with
      and in what instances it does not conform (and why, if
      you wish to give that background).

      	LSB is a bulky specification, and it takes time to implement
	it fully.  As of this writing, no major distribution is LSB-
	compliant, too.

	The outstanding part is i18n support which is being done 
	with greatest care and correctness.

21.  Please provide information on any public mailing lists you
     provide for general user support (including URLs, archive
     sites, instructions, etc.)
     
	Community mailing list
	Community@altlinux.org
	http://altlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/community
	http://www.altlinux.org/pipermail/community

	Castle mailing list
	Castle@altlinux.org
	http://altlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/castle
	http://www.altlinux.org/pipermail/castle

	Sisyphus mailing list
	Sisyphus@altlinux.org
	http://altlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/sisyphus
	http://www.altlinux.org/pipermail/sisyphus
	
     	Lists are conducted in Russian, with no objections regarding
	creation of English one.
	
22.  Please provide information on any public mailing lists that
     follow the development of your distribution (including URLs,
     archive sites, instructions, etc.).
     
	devel@altlinux.org (in Russian, too)
	http://www.altlinux.org/pipermail/devel

	Archive is public, but subscription is per developer.
	
22.  Optional Formal Description:

	ALT Linux distributions get formed from snapshots of the main product
	-- Sisyphus RPM package repository, the unstable/current branch.

	The development focus is to bring quality products to diverse user
	categories, making starting using Linux easy while helping in making
	addressing complex problems possible.  One of core features of that 
	kind is employing APT-RPM to ease system administration.
	
	Some essential OEM-supporting effort is being made in form of Junior
	(1CD) distribution which is perfect at home and office tasks.

	On the server side, heavily-fortified (but otherwise spartan) Castle
	distribution is being prepared, utilizing RSBAC technology in
	particular (scheduled for autumn).

23.  Optional Comments (to provide information not covered above):

	Distributions can be characterized as well-formed and quality; some
	local "oddities" (as suppressing daily work under root account)
	regularly cause disgruntled users who are surprised with root not being
	able to receive mail or build packages -- but those same users thank
	after being accustomed to those "oddities" :)

	The project tends to be a "magnet" for various other developments, 
	providing means to communicate (and hosting).  As such it reminds a kind
	of RPM-based semi-centralized Debian -- all development is done on open
	basis, causing the users and developers community to grow steadily.
	
24.  Survey Comments (e.g., questions you think we should have asked
     or suggested improvements for the existing questions):
     
	These days most non-specialized distros have different branches
	or shipments (say RH has plain, Pro, Deluxe; Enterprise,
	embedded) -- how and when should these be reported as different
	distributions or as one with variations?