Linux Archive

"With thousands of packages to maintain, most important part of any distribution is indeed its package management system. PiSi is the package manager of Pardus, written from scratch in Python. By writing another package manager, our purpose was not to reinvent the wheel but to create a new kind of wheel that takes distinctive ideas from existing ones with also easy integration and maintanence in mind."

Ian Murdock blogs about the importance of backward compatibility. "Yes, it's hard, particularly in the Linux world, because there are thousands of developers building the components that make up the platform, and it just takes one to break compatibility and make our lives difficult. Even worse, the idea of keeping extraneous stuff around for the long term 'just' for the sake of compatibility is anathema to most engineers. Elegance of design is a much higher calling than the pedestrian task of making sure things don't break. Why is backward compatibility important?"

"While the eyes of the IT world have spent years squinting to see Microsoft's slowly unfolding vistas, the companies and individuals that drive open source have been steadily building a case for broader adoption of Linux-based operating systems. Two of the best all-around Linux distributions to emerge from this process are OpenSUSE 10.2 and Ubuntu 6.10, both of which bundle together the best of what open source has to offer into operating systems that merit consideration for desktop and server workloads."

"User Mode Linux allows you to run Linux kernels as user mode processes under a host Linux kernel, giving you a simple way to run several independent virtual machines on a single piece of physical hardware. Let's take a look at UML and how it can give you more bang for the hardware buck, or make it easier to debug the kernel."

Dell's love affair with Linux is a clandestine affair these days, conducted in secret, away from disapproving eyes. But now the pair have been spotted in China. When Michael Dell first saw the web-footed beauty, he fell head over heels. Six years ago Dell pledged a series of strategic investments in Linux companies, including Eazel and Red Hat. The romance attracted the disapproval of Microsoft however, and barely lasted weeks. Very quietly, Dell dumped the bird.

"For only being a release candidate the Linux 2.6.20 kernel has already generated quite a bit of attention. On top of adding asynchronous SCSI scanning, multi-threaded USB probing, and many driver updates, the Linux 2.6.20 kernel will include a full virtualization (not para-virtualization) solution. Kernel-based Virtual Machine (or KVM for short) is a GPL software project that has been developed and sponsored by Qumranet. In this article we are offering a brief overview of the Kernel-based Virtual Machine for Linux as well as offering up in-house performance numbers as we compare KVM to other virtualization solutions such as QEMU Accelerator and Xen."

At OSNews, I try to bring to attention smaller Linux distributions that try to be different, such as SymphonyOS, or more recently, Elive. Today, I want to introduce you to the LG3D-LiveCD, a distribution using Sun's Looking Glass desktop environment. Version 3 was released yesterday: "The new release features lg3d release 1.0, the possibility to install lg3d-livecd to an USB device and an experimental harddisk installer."

"Today, you can do everything you want with a Linux desktop, except play the latest games. Even there, Linux is catching up. So, why do only a handful of people run Linux instead of Windows? Here are my top-four reasons why Windows wins and Linux loses."

About a week ago the Elive project released version 0.6 of their E17-based (installable) live CD. Since Elive is one of the few distributions using E17 as its standard desktop environment, we thought we would treat you to a nice screenshot tour.

"Proprietary kernel modules are flaky, out of date, and the bane of a Linux professional's existence - right? Maybe not. This three-part (part I | part II | part III) series makes a case for formalizing the uneasy truce between GPL-clean and 'tainted' modules."

"It has come to be expected. Linux and open source news in 2006 was a potpourri of topics that included Windows-Linux interoperability, wild acquisitions and corporate spending sprees and stories of enterprise-level companies buying into open source and Linux en masse. Even better than that, many of yesterday's Linux and open source stories listed below still have the legs to become tomorrow's big news all over again."

"Let's be honest here. When most of us think of open source and free software, we really aren't thinking of something flashed to a BIOS ROM chip. And yet when it comes to the Linux BIOS project - that's exactly what's happening here. The LinuxBIOS is a project designed to work out any perceived shortcomings from existing BIOS options distributed on today's motherboards. Started back in 1999, it has been in development steadily for quite some time now."

"Irish Free Software developers Brian Brazil and Paul O'Malley have developed a new distribution, appropriately named gNewSense. Made with the philosophy of Debian and the structure of Ubuntu, it aims to be the freest distribution out there. It's so 'free', that it earned an official endorsement from the Free Software Foundation. Linux Online is grateful to Messrs. Brazil and O'Malley for taking time out of their busy schedules to answer a few questions about their project."

"In the year to come, we expect to see Linux maintain its torrid development pace, with major new enterprise releases from Red Hat, which is set to ship RHEL 5 in January, and Novell, which will also ship an update to its Open Enterprise Server early next year. What's more, we expect to see one or two new releases from each of the all-free leading-edge distributions we track - including Ubuntu, Fedora and OpenSUSE - alongwith new developments from the swelling horde of smaller Linux flavors, inboth commercial and noncommercial quarters."