 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 110, 25 July 2005 |
Welcome to this year's 30th issue of DistroWatch Weekly. It is "shoulder season" in the distribution land. Apart from several minor distribution releases, it was a slow week, with only the launch of the Utnubu initiative and a new beta release from Mandriva providing some excitement. Prompted by a satisfied user, we have taken a closer look at StartCom MultiMedia Edition, an interesting distribution based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Apart from these topics, we have all the usual columns, complemented by a quick tip for using digital cameras, mobile phones and music players under Linux. Happy reading!
Content:
Utnubu, Mandriva 2006 0.1.1, why FreeBSD, Planner
 Utnubu is a new Debian initiative that examines Ubuntu patches and applications missing from Debian in order to merge some of Ubuntu's ideas back into Debian: "I invite everyone interested to join the Utnubu Team. Utnubu stands for doing what Ubuntu does, just the other way around: we want to take the things Ubuntu does and that are missing in Debian, and - where applicable - put them in Debian." More information about Utnubu is available in this mailing list post.
 A new beta version of Mandriva Linux 2006 appeared on the mirrors over the weekend. Like the first one a week ago, the new beta release, labelled as 2006 0.1.1, has not yet been officially announced, but the good news is that the mirroring problems we mentioned in last week's DistroWatch Weekly have been solved and the new release is now available from the usual Mandriva mirror sites. The differences between the two betas seem to be minor: a few package upgrades and bug fixes, but no apparent new features.
 Why FreeBSD? If you are a Linux user wondering about that other big open source operating system, then this article, published by IBM developerWorks, provides some answers: "The FreeBSD operating system is the unknown giant among free operating systems. Starting out from the 386BSD project, it is an extremely fast UNIX-like operating system mostly for the Intel chip and its clones. In many ways, FreeBSD has always been the operating system that GNU/Linux-based operating systems should have been. It runs on out-of-date Intel machines and 64-bit AMD chips, and it serves terabytes of files a day on some of the largest file servers on earth."
 The July issue of Red Hat Magazine was published last week. Brimming with well-written and to-the-point articles, Red Hat Magazine is a truly valuable productivity resource - and not only for Red Hat or Fedora users. Take this article on Planner, a project management application: "Project management software is a useful tool in planning and scheduling a project. Planner is an application that attempts to make project planning easier by presenting your information in easy-to-read charts and tables." The excellent article provides a step-by-step guide about creating and managing a project, accompanied by a number of screenshots.
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| Featured distribution of the week: StartCom MultiMedia Edition |
StartCom MultiMedia Edition
Last week, a reader sent us an enthusiastic email: "Just wondering why StartCom isn't in the [top 100 page hit ranking] list? This distro rocks over SUSE and Mandriva! I actually like it better than Ubuntu also. StartCom deserves to be known about as they are better than many other distributions!" As always, this is just a personal opinion of one user, but it still prompted us to download and install the recently released StartCom Linux 4.0.4 MultiMedia Edition, code name "Raam". Is it possible that a true gem is hiding behind a seemingly unimaginative name "StartCom Linux"?
First, a little bit of history. StartCom Linux is a relatively new Linux distribution, barely one-year old. It is developed primarily by Eddy Nigg, a coder from Eilat (אילת), which is the southernmost city of Israel. Initially, Eddy's idea was to create a "free" edition of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) by recompiling its source RPMs, thus duplicating the effort of CentOS, White Box and other similar projects. However, the difference between these and StartCom is that Eddy has also built several specialist editions, which further extend the capabilities of RHEL. Of these, the MultiMedia Edition is probably the most interesting.
We asked Eddy about the key differences between RHEL and StartCom Multimedia Edition and here is his answer:
"The base is exactly the same. We kept all the server and development tools, which we used to remove from previous StartCom MultiMedia versions. Many users complained about that previously, so we left all intact. However there are many additions we made to our MultiMedia Edition:
- Media applications: Xine, MPlayer (with full MP3 and DVD playback)
- File sharing tools: BitTorrent, aMule
- Extra Office applications: AbiWord, Dia, QCad
- Special software for recording purposes: there is a whole recording studio with mixers, recorders, sequencers, synthesisers and many, many related effect tools and other stuff you need to run a production studio. This section is rather big, but well-integrated into the distribution.
- Other popular applications missing from RHEL: Blender, Kino
For more information about StartCom MultiMedia Edition, please visit the project's home and features pages. CD and DVD ISO images are available for free download from the distributions many mirror sites.
StartCom MultiMedia Edition with Audacity, BEAST, Kino, MPlayer, Sound Juicer, Rosegarden, Xine and other software for audio/video enthusiasts.
(full image size: 237kB)
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| Released Last Week |
Puppy Linux 1.0.4
A new version of Puppy Linux is out: "Puppy Linux version 1.0.4 is released. The great news for this release is the Puppy live CD now has Gnumeric, the premier Linux spreadsheet editor. This is version 1.4.3 and includes the full set of plugins. MUT (Media Utility Tool) version 0.0.5 is now in Puppy. This is a greatly enhanced drive mount/unmount alternative to Pmount. Printing support has been improved, with a patched AFPL Ghostscript version 8.51 and a patched AbiWord version 2.2.7...." Visit the project's news page to read more about the changes in Puppy Linux 1.0.4.
SLAX 5.0.6
SLAX 5.0.6, complete with KDE 3.4.1 and KOffice 1.4.0, has been released: "It's my pleasure to let you know that SLAX 5.0.6 is available for download, together with all the special editions. The most important changes include: added Linux Kernel 2.6.12.2 with ALSA sound drivers 1.0.9b; added better default GTK2 theme, so all GTK2 applications will look nicer; module extension (.mo) is now integrated into KDE context menu; removed 15MB of pcf fonts, this drops Chinese support; fixed bug in configsave / websave, which caused each even session to be wrong. Many bugs have been fixed in Unionfs filesystem so I hope it will be more stable then before...." Read the rest of the changelog for more details.
Berry Linux 0.60
A brand new version of the Berry Linux live CD has been released. This is the first release based on Fedora Core 4, but with several updates, including kernel 2.6.12 with SMP support + devfs + bootsplash, and KDE 3.4.1. Other interesting package upgrades include K3B 0.12, GIMP 2.2.8, and MPlayer 1.0pre7. Besides a development version of OpenOffice.org 2, the distribution now also ships with the free editions of the TextMaker word processor and PlanMaker spreadsheet. See the complete changelog for more details.
Berry Linux 0.60 - the first Berry live CD based on Fedora Core 4
(full image size: 841kB)
StartCom AS-4.0.0 and ML-4.0.4 Update One
An updated set of ISO images of StartCom AS-4.0.0 (Enterprise Linux) and ML-4.0.4 (MultiMedia Edition) have been released: "StartCom released today updated versions of its newest operating systems StartCom Enterprise Linux (AS-4.0.0 Barak) and StartCom MultiMedia Edition (ML-4.0.4 Raam). These releases include security and bug fixes of over 170 updated packages each, including the latest updates of the kernel, OpenSSL and Kerberos. The updates include the very latest security and bug fixes including important security updates to ensure the best possible reliability." Find more information in the formal press release.
Devil-Linux 1.2.6
A new version of Devil-Linux, a Linux live CD designed for firewalls, routers and servers, has been released: "I'm proud to announce v1.2.6 of Devil-Linux. The changes include Kernel 2.4.31, various program updates and the addition of missing netfilter modules. See changelog for details." Many other packages have been upgraded to their newest versions; these include PHP 4.4.0, Postfix 2.2.4, MySQL 4.1.12, PostgreSQL 7.4.8, OpenLDAP 2.2.26 and OpenSSH 4.1p1, just to name a few. Read the release announcement and changelog for more information.
AnNyung LInux 1.2
AnNyung LInux is an i686-optimised Korean server distribution, originally based on Red Hat Linux 7.2. Despite its relatively old code base, the distribution includes many updated packages and provides timely security updates. Version 1.2 was released today. The main changes are: updated kernel 2.4.31; support for SATA drives; support for remote network boot via PXE; new boot splash screen. Besides the update kernel, the new version also comes with the latest OpenSSH (4.1p1) and PHP (5.0.4). Read the full release announcement (in Korean) for further information.
* * * * *
Development and unannounced releases
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Minislack, Rubyx renamed
The developers of Minislack have announced a new name of the project, which will come into effect with the upcoming new release: "A new version of the distribution is under testing at the moment. Many packages were updated (more than 100), as the current changelog shows. A new hardware discovery service has been added, along with GNOME System Tools and CUPS configurator. We've decided to change the name of the project, many thanks all fair users that contributed to this difficult choice. The name and new release will be announced at the same time." Read more in this announcement.
A reader has also informed us that the source-based distribution formerly known as Rubyx now operates under a new name - Heretix. The project's new web site can be found at h-e-r-e-t-i-x.org.
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Web Site News |
New distribution additions
DistroWatch database summary
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| Tips and tricks |
Digital cameras, mobile phones and music players under Linux
These days, if you buy a digital camera, mobile phone or a digital music player, it is likely to come with a CD containing applications that make it easier for your new device to interact with a personal computer. Invariably, though, the software can only be installed on a system running a recent version of Microsoft Windows and, in case of a few broader-minded companies, on a Macintosh. But what about us, Linux users?
Luckily, we can still use many of these gadgets. That's because they often act as ordinary USB storage devices, which means that you can simply plug them into the USB port, then mount them to browse the directories, photo images, media files, etc. If you are using one of the recent distributions with hotplug and udev, this is a very simple process - first create a new directory, then mount the device like this:
mkdir /mnt/usb
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/usb
Now you can browse the content of the mounted device in Konqueror, Nautilus or any other file manager you prefer.
Some distributions make things much easier. For example, the latest Linspire will detect a digital camera in your USB port and will automatically launch Lphoto, an application designed for managing digital photographs. Besides Lphoto, there are several other image viewers, including the GTK+-based GQview (this is our favourite, with great zoom options and configurable slide shows) or the QT-based KView, among many other choices.
That's all for today. We hope that you enjoyed this week's DistroWatch Weekly!
Ladislav Bodnar
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Tuquito
Tuquito was a Ubuntu-based distribution and live CD made in Argentina. It features automatic hardware detection, excellent support for scanners, web cams and digital cameras, and compatibility with MS Office file formats. It was designed for beginners and intermediate Linux users.
Status: Discontinued
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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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