Linux Archive

Frank alerted us to the new cartoons IBM presents on their website. Though generally out of character for OSNews.com, here's a little weekend humor. Linux Animations (requires Flash or Realplayer).

Timothy R. Butler writes "Former Red Hat employee Bernhard "Bero" Rosenkraenzer has resurfaced, after leaving Red Hat last fall, with a brand new GNU/Linux distribution meant for the average user. According to the distribution's web site, "The Ark Linux distribution is based primarily upon a Red Hat Linux 7.3 / 8.0 foundation. On top of this, we have added a new easy-to-use installer (an Ark Linux installation is only four mouse clicks away!) and extensively tailored the software applications and utilities included - all in an effort to ensure that Ark Linux provides superior ease-of-use and the features and functionality end users have told us they want." Read more here." The ArkLinux home page.

"What is an embedded device? Is it simply a low-resource 'PC', so all you need is a scaled down Linux and off you go? Not really. In this article, a few thoughts on principal differences will be brought up that may need direct addressing by the embedded Linux community to foster the use of Linux in the embedded market." Read it at LinuxDevices.

Linux Para Todos gladly announces the availability of LPT Desktop for Yellow Dog Linux 2.3. It includes GNOME 2.0.3 desktop envoiroment, plus other goodies like Mozilla-1.2.1 (not Xft), galeon-1.2.7, xmms-1.2.7, pilot-Link-0.11 and GNOME Pilot 0.1.71. Everything in RPM packages available as APT repositories. The whole package list and official announce (in spanish) available at Linux Para Todos.

ZDNet is running an article that coincides with the big consumer electonics show in Las Vegas that highlights the use of Linux in electronic (non-computer) devices. Monta Vista is the vendor that has been most successful in selling its version of "embedded" Linux into devices, and they're set to release a new version especially for consumer electronics. The article gives a good background on Linux' adoption in the consumer space, in places where people don't know, and don't care, what OS their gadget is running.

"The good news for Linux as an operating system for the desktop--as opposed to the server--is that it is set to become No. 2 after Windows in the next year or so. The bad news is that its growth does not look to be as explosive as some advocates might have hoped." Read more at ZDNews.

I just love year-end recaps, so here's another one, from Open for Business, with an analysis of Linux in 2002: This year has proven most interesting for GNU/Linux. While there were not any amazing surprises, there were numerous events that are noteworthy for review. The upshot to all of this is that most of what happened was good overall for the Free Software community.

A Newsforge article posits that a lot of the action in Linux development in the near future will be in Asia. Much of this is because in many parts of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa there is not as much entrenched IT infrastructure as in Europe and North America, so consumers will chose the most apt and economical solution available, without the burden of backward compatibility or prejudice. Also, with the concentration of electronics manufacture in places like Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and China, Linux is increasingly the OS of choice for devices.

Have you ever been in situations which made you think "I wish I had Linux running right now", or are you a person who just would like to try Linux quickly? Knoppix Linux might just be your thing!

LinuxDevices.com is pleased to publish the proceedings from the Fourth Real-Time Linux Workshop held December 6-7, 2002 in Boston, MA at the Computer Science Department, Boston University. The conference was organized by the Real-Time Linux Foundation.

There is an interview up at TinyMinds.org with the developer of the Slackware-based Linux distribution called VectorLinux. VectorLinux works great on both old and new hardware and yet it is very up-to-date in terms of software versions.

The project is pleased to present Arch 0.4 to the public for general consumption. The ChangeLog and package list are at their usual locations.

Yoper Limited, the New Zealand Linux company, is proud to announce Release Candidate 2 of Ydesktop, the first part of 'Your Operating System that Yoper Limited' ("Yoper") is developing. This second public release contains dozens of fixes and updates from over 5000 downloads of Ydesktop-rc1.

Companies selling Linux for embedded devices such as set-top boxes took one step back and one forward Tuesday as Motorola agreed to acquire once-hot Embedix, formerly called Lineo, and Toshiba invested in MontaVista Software. Read the articles at ZDNews and LinuxDevices.