The Linux Ninja

In what we hope to become a weekly ritual, we bring you an overview of the distributions released in the last 7 days with a little help from DistroWatch. Please let us know of any corrections that need to be made date- or information-wise.

February 8:

• TinyMe 2009 Acorn Alpha 1 TinyMe is a minimalist distribution based on PCLinuxOS. The 2009 alpha 1 release contains a newer kernel, some removed packages and many other changes. Hit up the release link for more information.

February 9:

• SimplyMEPIS 8.0 RC3 SimplyMepis is a Debian-stable based distribution that aims for simplicity and ease of use, expect the final version of the release soon now that Lenny is official
• System Rescue CD 1.1.5 System Rescue CD is a Gentoo-based live cd distribution aimed at data rescue and hard disk management tasks. The release page has all the information on changes for this release.

February 10:

• MOPSLinux 6.2.1 MOPSLinux is a Russian-based distribution based on Slackware. This release (assuming Google translate is correct) appears to contain KDE 4.2.1, updated drivers for nvidia, ati and virtualbox,  mpkg updates, fixed and completed ncurces-interface mpkg and some other package updates  (NOTE: the link goes to distrowatch instead of the website since the website appears to be Russian only).
• KNOPPIX 6.0.1 KNOPPIX is a popular livecd/dvd debian-based distribution. This release is a minor update that includes newer versions of many packages.
• BackTrack 4 Beta BackTrack is a security-focused based livecd/liveusb distribution that came out of the merging of the Auditor and WHAX security distributions. This release contains many significant updates, the biggest being that they switched from being Slackware-based to being Debian-based. They also have included many new features and updated many of the packages from their 3.0 release. More info on new features on their blog.
• NetBSD 5.0-rc2 The NetBSD dev team announced a new release candidate for their upcoming 5.0 release. Not as familiar with the new features in this one so I’ll leave it to their website to explain more.
• ClarkConnect 5.0 Alpha1 ClarkConnect is a (new-to-me) CentOS-based internet server and gateway solution that offers a pay-for “Enterprise” version and a free community edition. Hit the link for more information on the 5.0 alpha1 release.
• Debian 4.0r7 The r7 release of Etch is mainly comprised of security fixes and some serious bug release fixes. The link contains a list of updates packages and the reasons for the updates and a complete diff of updated packages can be found here.

February 11:

• GeexBox 1.2.1 The 1.2.1 release of the HTPC-focused GeexBox distribution is a security fix release. They fixed a potential MBR-destroying bug in  installator when trying to install to a USB thumbdrive and  “a few minor bugs with EeePC 701 frequency scaling and parallel port LCD driver support”.

February 12:

• G: Noblin 3.0.beta01 Another new-to-me disto, G:Noblin is a Brazilian GoblinX-based distribution that uses GNOME. This beta contains an update to GNOME plus some other package updates.
• CDLinux 0.9.1 CDLinux is a compact linux distribution and their 0.9.1 release contains many updates that will bring them closer to their 1.0 release. Package list and Release notes.
  
• GParted 0.4.3-r1 GParted is a livecd system (re-)partitioning tool. This maintenance release contains bugfixes and language updates with the key changes being “Corrected name of lock taken by hal-lock (The lock is needed to prevent automounting of file systems)” and “Fixed crash on startup with some languages.”
• Mandriva 2009.1-beta Mandriva have announced the availability of the beta for their 2009 Spring release. Full release notes here.

February 13:

• antiX-M8 antiX is a MEPIS-based distro that aims to be fast, lightweight, and easy-to-install livecd. Hit the link for more information.
• trixbox 2.6.2.2 trixbox is an Asterisk-based IP-PBX distro. The 2.6.2.2 release is a rollup release with bug fixes and package updates.
• Parsix 2.0r0-TEST-2 Parsix is a GNOME-centric Debian-based distro from KANOTIX. Hit the link for more information on the new release.

February 14:

• RIPLinuX 7.6 (R)ecovery (I)s (P)ossible Linux is a rescue system cd . Full changelog here.
• Parted Magic 3.6 Parted Magic is a system partitioning livecd that uses the GParted and Parted tools. The 3.6 release contains some major changes so read the release page to get a full overview of all the changes.
• ArtistX 0.6 ArtistX is an Ubuntu-based live DVD distro that aims to turn your computer into a multimedia production studio. The 0.6 release contains tons of updates including and upgrade to the Ubuntu 8.10 core, 2.6.27 kernel, compiz fusion for 3d desktop effects, GNOME 2.24, KDE 4.2,  and Ubiquity Installer for installing to disk.
• sidux 2009-01 sidux is a Debian sid-based live cd that focuses on hard disk installations, a clean upgrade path, and additional software and hardware upgrades. Full releasee info in the link.
• Debian 5.0 “Lenny” And the BIG one: Debian 5.0 is the latest release for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and marks a culmination of 22-months of work by the release team. From the release page: “This release includes numerous updated software packages, such as the K Desktop Environment 3.5.10 (KDE), an updated version of the GNOME desktop environment 2.22.2, the Xfce 4.4.2 desktop environment, LXDE 0.3.2.1, the GNUstep desktop 7.3, X.Org 7.3, OpenOffice.org 2.4.1, GIMP 2.4.7, Iceweasel 3.0.6 (an unbranded version of Mozilla Firefox), Icedove 2.0.0.19 (an unbranded version of Mozilla Thunderbird), PostgreSQL 8.3.6, MySQL 5.0.51a, GNU Compiler Collection 4.3.2, Linux kernel version 2.6.26, Apache 2.2.9, Samba 3.2.5, Python 2.5.2 and 2.4.6, Perl 5.10.0, PHP 5.2.6, Asterisk 1.4.21.2, Emacs 22, Inkscape 0.46, Nagios 3.06, Xen Hypervisor 3.2.1 (dom0 as well as domU support), OpenJDK 6b11, and more than 23,000 other ready-to-use software packages (built from over 12,000 source packages).”