The Linux Ninja

Another week has passed and it’s time again for the weekly Distro Roundup. Thanks again to DistroWatch for posting this information.

February 15:

• ArtistX 0.6 Based on Ubuntu 8.10, ArtistX is a Live DVD geared towards multimedia production. ArtistX contains almost 2,500 multimedia applications for 2D/3D graphics, audio and video editing and playback, and includes the 2.6.27 Kernel, Gnome 2.24 and KDE 4.2, and Compiz Fusion. For a complete list of included software, check out their website.
• sidux 2009-01 sidux is a full featured Debian sid based live CD with a special focus on hard disk installations, a clean upgrade path within sid and additional hard- and software support. The ISO is completely based on Debian sid, enriched and stabilized with sidux’ own packages and scripts. New additions include the 2.6.28.6-rc1 kernel, the deployment of the opensource OpenFWWF firmware for Broadcom wireless devices, improved support and optimization for SSDs, and general bug fixes. Hit up the link for the full release notes and download links.

February 17:

• Arch Linux 2009.02 Arch Linux is aimed at the more experienced user and offers a simple, lightweight, and flexible system that can be customized to the user’s preference. With 2009.02, Arch Linux added kernel 2.6.28, ext4 support including installation to ext4 root partitions, and a development release of AIF (Arch Linux Installation Framework) – the next generation installer.
• DragonFlyBSD 2.2 DragonFly BSD, a fork of FreeBSD 4.8, announced their latest 2.2 release. The HAMMER filesystem developed by the DragonFly team is now considered production ready. Designed for large storage media (500G and up), HAMMER offers several interesting features including historical data retention that basically gives you a data snapshot every 30-60 seconds. The 2.2 release also represents major stability improvements across the board – new drivers, much better pkgsrc support and integration, and a brand new release infrastructure with multiple target options. For a full list of features and improvements, check out the link.

February 19:

• Epidemic 3.0 Beta 2 Epidemic is a Debian based distro from Brazil. The latest version features Linux kernel 2.6.26, KDE 4.2, OpenOffice.org 3.0 and Iceweasel 3.0; pre-configured Compiz Fusion; several new system administration modules, including Enetwork for network configuration, Easy Channel that provides a one-click method for installing proprietary device drivers, multimedia codecs and non-free software, and Ependrive which allows saving changes made during a live session to a USB storage device; various improvements to the Einstaller; and a dramatic reduction in boot times. (The link goes to DistroWatch.com as Epidemic’s website is not in English)

February 20:

• ALT Linux School Server ALT Linux School Server is based on ALT Linux OfficeServer and is an extended version of the server suite aimed at educational institutions. School Server has no version number as it is intended to represent a new line of distributions. Features in this release are: Linux kernel 2.6.25, base system on glibc 2.5.1; DHCP server; DNS server Bind 9.3.5; proxy server; Squid 2.6.STABLE18 (with statistics viewer); a firewall; network interfaces management console; time server OpenNTPd 3.9p1; Samba 3.0.30 and FTP server ProFTPd 1.3.0rel; repository mirrors setup service (using NFS); printing server CUPS 1.3.9; updates setup tool; backup system based on Synbak 1.2.2; accounts management with OpenLDAP 2.3.41; mail server with a spam filter (Postfix 2.4.9, SpamAssassin 3.2.4); MySQL 5.0.51 (for Moodle and Mediawiki); web-server Apache 2.2.8; OpenSSH 5.0p1 to do protected access; OpenSSL 0.9.8d; Moodle 1.9.2 (with examples) and Mediawiki 1.13.0.