The Mad Penguin web site offers a review of Libranet and also an interview with Jon Danzig, its founder.
Mad Penguin introduces Libranet 2.8.1
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I tried Libranet. It’s nice but it’s just Debian…
I had Debian sid and next to it Libranet. I could not tell the difference.
I am a supporter of Libranet. It’s basically a modified debian where everything is done for you. What a wonderful system I have to say. I have tried them all and I am sticking with Libranet.
never have time to put it into production. Somehow it works differently from RH a bit.
But it is a lot easier than Debian, especially if you dont really have time to read docs, and if you dont already know everything.
Is it true that I can apt-get and upgrade to what they offer in 2.8.1 from 2.8? No needa pay for another download?
use kernel 2.6.x from the installation on, ’cause all the latest distros I have tried didn’t work with my new computer which depends on USB mouse and keyboard.
Just to be fair, only Knoppix did the job after I passed “nousb” to it.
I was able to install redhat 9 passing “nousb” during the installation. But after the installation I simply couldn’t set “nousb” on the kernel params.
My hope ? well, the 2.6.x series should have better support for usb, for God’s sake.
To those using Libranet, when you install Java, RealPlayer, etc using Libranet’s built-in tools, will that work with any browser you have installed, or just Mozilla ? Also, how easy/hard is it to move up to Gnome 2.4 from the default install?
but they have to be installed before you load them (plugins installed before firebird, for e.g.)
I bought Libranet 2.8.0, and I really love it. It is simple to install, up-to-date and powerfull. Happily sitting next to NetBSD and Slackware
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When TurboLinux first came out, it was kind of cool; it had Afterstep configured with a black and yellow theme, and had a little administrative interface a lot like the one in Libranet today.
Someone mentioned that it’s just Debian, and that’s the great part. It’s Debian all ready to go, no need to download an unofficial CD in order to have modern file system support or to avoid the need to spend a couple of hours in dselect bringing your system in line with unstable.
It’s put together well, and is worth the money if you love Debian but don’t love installing and configuring it for the 50th time.
Also, how easy/hard is it to move up to Gnome 2.4 from the default install?
I would wait for the newer software, like Gnome 2.x, first to be included in Debian unstable, and then (after adding Debian unstable to the APT sources) a simple apt-get update, apt get upgrade will upgrade all the software including Gnome. That’s what I would recommend. But if you want Libranet to mostly stay in Debian Sarge/testing (Libranet default) and only upgrade Gnome software to some bleeding edge versions, well, that may be much more difficult and can hardly be recommended.
However, new software is included in Debian unstable relatively fast, fast enough for most people, and mostly Debian unstable is very usable as a desktop system – and stable as only Debian unstable can be;-)
Installed the free download over the weekend. The easiest to configure linux distro out there. Great job, I recommend it to anyone.
but they have to be installed before you load them (plugins installed before firebird, for e.g.)
Are you saying you have to install the plugins BEFORE the browser, and not the other way around?
the plugins can still be used on newly installed browsers eg:
when i got my connection sorted out, i uninstalled mozilla and installed mozilla-firebird. all i had to do to get mozplugger installed in firebird was to
cp /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/* /usr/lib/mozilla-firebird
of course if you’re not comfortable with the command line yet, just reinstall mozplugger
Metic wrote:
“But if you want Libranet to mostly stay in Debian Sarge/testing (Libranet default) and only upgrade Gnome software to some bleeding edge versions, well, that may be much more difficult and can hardly be recommended.”
Maybe I’m just misreading… but once Gnome2.4 is in Sid, you can change your apt.sources.list to sid, apt-get update, apt-get upgrade gnome, go back and change the sources list to sarge, apt-get update and keep leading your safe life OR you can fly with the eagles and keep on Sid with a dist-upgrade. No?
That’s how I got Mozilla 1.4 because I wanted to try Epiphany (the latter depends on Moz 1.4). I’m back on sarge using both.
But if you want to have it NOW, then, you have to do it from source. Eh?
Just add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list.
deb http://people.debian.org/ ~fpeters/gnome2.4/
Then ‘apt-get update’ and ‘apt-get upgrade’ and you’ll be good to go. At least hopefully. These packages were made for sid, but he may also have some woody backported ones on there.
Well, backports may work, or the bebop described method may work, but sometimes they mey cause problems too, at least when mixing too many sources and Debian versions.
Lots of Gnome-related software and libraries are quite central in (GNU/)Linux, used also outside Gnome, like GTK+ etc., so if some packages are from Sid, some from Sarge and/or Woody, some from Libranet’s own sources, and perhaps some from yet other sources, that may cause problems, at least when you later install and update other software. I’ve experienced that too many times, to recommend mixing too many Debian branches.
However, if you want to use newer software than what is available in say Debian testing, I rather recommend dist-upgrading the whole OS to Debian unstable than mixing sources too badly, the resulting Debian unstable-based system is probably more stable than a too badly mixed one. Though, of course, the name “unstable” is not just a joke, sometimes it may indeed be unstable, though usually not so much as the name suggests. But when using Debian unstable aka Sid, one can use apt-pinning (http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html) to make some perhaps problematic or too unstable software to stay in Sarge/testing versions which has solved the problems of Debian unstable for me.
The safest bet for Libranet users is, of course, not to alter the default sources-list at all, but just wait until the new sofware is available there (=Debian testing & Libranet’s own repository). That way Libranet may well be clear of most if not all dependency problems.