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Debian

Debian-Installer Alpha Released 221

Posted by timothy from the soon-perfection dept.
robstah writes "An alpha release of the next generation Debian installer (Debian-Installer) has been announced. Debian-Installer is an actively developed replacement for the older and now rather delapidated boot-floppies installer. This alpha release is available for i386 only as ports to other platforms are not yet significantly mature. Volunteers are requested to test this new installer and help contribute to Sarge, the next release of Debian GNU/Linux." Now's the time to complain if you want to be heard.
Education

Week-Long Free-Software Class for Kids? 381

Posted by Cliff from the a-boost-in-the-right-direction dept.
mmol_6453 asks: "I have the opportunity to submit a plan for a week-long class about 'Alternative Operating Systems' to our local community college's Computer Camp. The students will be aged 8-16. We've had classes attended by students who used Linux, but we've never set up a class with alternatives as options. We've found that students in this age range, when interested in the material, can absorb a great deal of information in a short time. This means there's a lot of potential to teach them about Linux, *BSD, and open-source. We often get extremely bright students here, the kind who are likely to go out and earn $80,000/yr in a post-90s economy. Some of them are even on Slashdot. I want to give the rest a boost in the right direction."
News

Linux.Conf.Au (and IPv6 Mini Conference) Update 12

Posted by chrisd from the awesome-conference dept.
Lathiat writes "Well its happening! In the last year or so, the use of IPv6 has been booming with the advent of news web sites, increasingly popular tunnel brokers and simply more users! So I have decided to run a mini-conference prior to Linux.Conf.Au. Linux.conf.au is the Australian Technical Linux Conference - it tours around the Australian cities every year organised by the local LUG in that region - this year it is being hosted by PLUG - The Perth Linux Users Group in Perth, Western Australia. The speaker line up for 2003 is looking to be great and is now available on the website - see http://www.linux.conf.au You can register for the IPv6 mini-conference at http://ipv6.ztsoftware.net/register.php and view the current schedule at http://ipv6.ztsoftware.net/schedule.php The IPv6 mini-conference will be held before the start of linux.conf.au on Monday 20th January. To attend the IPv6 Conference - you must also attend the main conference ... or else ... The IPv6 mini-conference is included with every ticket to linux.conf.au! That's two for the price of one - also running on the second day will be the Linux Gaming Mini Conference - for all your fragging needs - as well as the educationaLinux and Debian mini-conferences. We are also looking for more speakers! We currently have 2-3 slots open for other speakers to participate - so give Trent 'Lathiat' Lloyd an email at lath-ipv6(AT)irc-desk(DOT)net - and check out the website at http://ipv6.ztsoftware.net/ (Its IPv6 Connected too!) Well I hope to see all of you registering, coming along and having a LOT of fun, if you have any question just give me a yell - lath-ipv6(AT)irc-desk(DOT)net. - Trent Lloyd (IPv6 Mini-Conference Organiser)" If you've never been to this conference I highly reccomend it.
Linux

What are the Real Differences Between Distributions? 93

Posted by Cliff from the stuff-to-think-about dept.
toblak asks: "Everybody seems to say the Mandrake is a good distro for newbies and Gentoo, Debian, SUSE, etc, are for the Power Users. Other than different updating schemes, when you get 'under the hood' of the distribution isn't it basically the same? If I compile some source code on a Debian system don't I get the same functionality as I would if I compiled the same code on a Mandrake system? I've been using Mandrake for about a year and while I don't consider myself a newbie, I'm not a Power User either. Have I been 'missing out' on something by staying with Mandrake?"
GNU is Not Unix

GNU Free Documentation License Released 7

Posted by timothy from the free-as-in-free-association dept.
Jonathan Riddell writes "The FSF have quietly released The GNU Free Documentation License 1.2. There's been some controversy about the creation of this license and possible abuse of non-editable sections to make documents non-Free. A diff shows that there's been a fair number of changes. The FDL is in my opinion the most flexible way to keep documentation Free while preventing abuse from publishers."
News

University of Twente NOC Destroyed 483

Posted by michael from the debian-users-grief-stricken dept.
JanJoost writes "Around 08.00 CET today the University of Twente Network Operations Center, which amongst other things hosts a SURFnet PoP as well as security.debian.org and non-us.debian.org, caught fire. The UT, which hosted the HAL in august last year is completely unreachable and is not likely to come back up any time soon. The fire department has given up every hope on protecting the server area and is now trying to protect the surrounding buildings. More information can be found at the Telegraaf, Planet Internet and Twentsche Courant. Pictures can be found here and here. It's a shame to see a great infrastructure go down in flames like this."
Linux

Reliability of Journalling Filesystems Under Linux? 66

Posted by Cliff from the checking-the-accuracy-of-your-journal dept.
chrysrobyn asks: "Every write-up I see about journalling file systems under Linux discusses efficiency (embedded) or speed (desktop/server). Have any studies been done on reliability? I've used Linux since Slackware 96 (and kernel 2.0.0), and put it on 9 or 10 machines over the years (Slackware on x86 and Debian on PPC), but I've never strayed from ext2. Always, when the uptime gets high, 20-50 days, the filesystems start to get minor fsck errors. Not that I repair the system and expect it to stay live, I just use the fsck -n to help me decide when a repair is in order. Since the same thing has happened on a variety of hardware (386-PII and every interface in between and 601 and 750 processors with Apple hardware), I'm leaning on blaming the ext2 filesystem for these, the slightest of problems. I typically keep my servers up for as long as possible because 95% of my hardware problems have happened during resets and cold power-ups. It's time for my every-other-year rebuild of my personal server, with another on its way, so I was hoping to incite some anecdotal Slashdot conversation on the journalling file systems available for Linux. Personally, I'm most interested in hearing about the file systems supported under Debian stable for ease of administration for this machine which is a 5 hour drive away from home. I've been around the block a few times, so I'm not fearful of patching the kernel with better patches, but I'm respectful of the work the Debian assurance teams have done."
Debian

Knoppix for Rapid Desktop Deployment 343

Posted by michael from the ooooh-ahhhhhh dept.
heretic108 writes "From first boot to full desktop in 20 minutes! Knoppix has shot into the spotlight as a GNU/Linux distro suitable for demonstrating quality Open Source Software, standing out for its ability to self-configure itself into a vast range of hardware, and to run entirely off a CD boot without interfering with any existing system setup. That, plus its fat catalogue of pre-installed desktop software. But OSS enthusiast David McNab has poked a bit deeper, and found that Knoppix can install itself to disk, resulting in a completely configured GNU/Linux desktop system, ready to use, in 20 minutes, hassle free. CD no longer needed! Best of both worlds - use as a GNU/Linux demo disk, and if the user likes it, it's a snap to install permanently. I can't think of any distro that comes close to this, for ease and speed of setup. I found McNab's short Knoppix Installation Howto which gives a very brief and easy guide. With this rapid setup ability, Debian-based Knoppix makes a great contribution to the catalogue."
Debian

Installing/Configuring ALSA Sound Modules In Debian 221

Posted by Hemos from the how-to-make-the-sounds dept.
GonzoJohn writes "Linux Orbit explains how: "A very common question that comes up when trying Debian GNU/Linux is how the heck do you get Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (a.k.a. ALSA) sound modules set up properly? In this HOWTO we'll show you how to compile and install the ALSA kernel modules, and then setup things using the ALSA Debian script so that modules are automatically loaded and unloaded, and your mixer levels are saved and restored on boot up. Here are some things you'll need to have before you start this HOWTO""
Debian

The Very Verbose Debian 3.0 Installation Walkthrough 302

Posted by timothy from the making-possible-the-impossible dept.
Gentu writes "Cited the general displeasure which accompanied the Debian 3.0 release, mostly regarding its dated installation procedure, Clinton De Young wrote an easy-reading but long article for OSNews going through the Debian installation step by step. Of course Progeny released recently the PGI graphical installer, but it is not as complete as the current Debian text-based installer and it will definately be quite some time before it get adopted by the project."
Debian

Debian, Past Present & Future 157

Posted by CmdrTaco from the i-spell-love-a-p-t dept.
solferino writes "Christoph Lameter, a major guru in the debian project, has put up a very well written talk that he gave earlier this week that addresses debian's past, present and future. He includes a good background history of the project, some interesting sets of figures and projections (30,000 packages by the end of 2004!), a good discussion of the pros/cons of source based distros and his ideas about a new package manager he is developing (uPM). In all a very good read, whether you are just now considering dipping a toe into the debian well-spring or have been drinking from the source for a long time already."
Debian

GNOME 2 To Hit Debian Unstable This Sunday 20

Posted by timothy from the you-have-x-many-hours dept.
steveha writes "Colin Walters announced that GNOME 2 will go into Sid (the unstable branch of Debian) this Sunday. Good experimental packages have been available for a while, but there wasn't any upgrade from GNOME 1.x; you lost all your settings. Now there are transition scripts, and the Debian GNOME 2 developers would like people to test the transition scripts as much as possible before Sunday... to quote Colin Waters, '...if you haven't helped us out by testing them already, then you will be forced to anyways this Sunday :)'"
Debian

Debian Desktop Subproject Launched 387

Posted by Hemos from the go-apt-get-go dept.
MrOutlander writes "The Debian Project is now officially addressing its usability on the desktop with the launch of the Debian Desktop subproject. Great to see usability being recognized as a very important part of debian. Other than the sometimes daunting install process, Debian is one of the best linux distributions."
Debian

Progeny Announces Graphical Installer for Debian Woody 231

Posted by CowboyNeal from the gui-but-not-sticky dept.
jdaily writes "In light of recent negative reviews of Debian in which the installer was roundly criticized, this announcement may have particular timeliness and relevance: Progeny has made available an i386 Debian 3.0 (woody) installer image based on PGI, the Progeny Graphical Installer. This is available at Progeny's free software archive." I've installed Debian so many times that I've just learned to cope with the installer, but this is a much needed boost.
Debian

Two Reviews of Debian 3.0 601

Posted by michael from the you-must-be-smarter-than-this-stick-| dept.
FrankNFurter writes "Debian Planet features a review of Debian 3.0 from a user's perspective. Time for a reality check, debianistas." And twstdr00t writes "Linuxwatch.org has posted their review of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 Woody. 'The package managment system is nice and easy to use. But the lack of good configuration and installation takes that all away from Debian.'"
The Internet

W3C Patent Board Recommends Royalty-Free Policy 119

Posted by Hemos from the making-the-smart-choices dept.
Bruce Perens writes "A year ago, the World Wide Web Consortium proposed a policy to allow royalty-generating patents to be embedded in web standards. This would have been fatal to the ability of Free Software to implement those standards. There was much protest, including over 2000 emails to the W3C Patent Policy Board spurred on by a call to arms published on Slashdot. As a result of the complaints, I was invited to join W3C's patent policy board, representing Software in the Public Interest (Debian's corporation) -- but really the entire Free Software community. I was later joined in this by Eben Moglen, for FSF, and Larry Rosen, for the Open Source Initiative." Bruce has written more below - it's well worth reading.
Encryption

WEP Keys in Mac OS X? 37

Posted by Cliff from the securing-your-X-box dept.
antmo asks: "Mac OS X doesn't allow you to specify which WEP key index (1-4) one wishes to use, via the Network preferences. This causes me much pain, since my employer's wireless network uses a key index other than 1. I know the AirPort card allows for this, as I am able to set all four keys in Open BSD and Debian Linux. I don't know whether this is a limitation of Mac OS X's AirPort driver or simply the preferences. I've looked all over the net, posted to many discussion forums (since March of this year), done quite a bit of tinkering with the config files and still don't have a clue how to, if possible, set which key index to send. I have not heard a thing from Apple about this, which leads me to believe they're not going to add this ability. Does anyone know whether a fix from Apple is forthcoming? Anyone know a hack to get this working?"
Linux

BitKeeper EULA Forbids Working On Competition 694

Posted by timothy from the that-isn't-the-santa-clause dept.
Col. Klink (retired) writes "BitKeeper's new EULA forbids working on the competition. Larry McVoy has told Ben Collins that he can't use BK because he works on subversion (a free revision control program). In fact, you can't use BitKeeper if you OR your company have anything to do with competing software. Free Software advocates who were upset when Linus decided to use non-Free software now have the opportunity to say 'I told you so.'"
Debian

LinuxOrbit Looks At Libranet GNU/Linux 2.7 163

Posted by timothy from the polished-goodies dept.
GonzoJohn writes "Linux Orbit has reviewed Libranet GNU/Linux 2.7: Other Linux distribution companies have tried to create commercial Linux products based on Debian GNU/Linux, but few have achieved long term success. Progeny Linux comes to mind as a commercial Linux distribution company whose Linux product met with good reviews, but couldn't remain in business. Libranet is a rare exception to this rule. Libranet GNU/Linux has been around quite a while and continues to build a devoted Linux user base on a commercial product based on Debian GNU/Linux. With their most recent release of Libranet GNU/Linux 2.7, Libranet continues to improve on an already solid Linux distribution."
Debian

Debian Internal Projects Slides by Andreas Tille 10

Posted by michael from the measure-twice-cut-once dept.
lagc writes "In this message to debian-devel, Andreas Tille present the slides he will use in his talks on LinuxDays Luxembourg event. The first explains the structure, motivations e advantages of Debian Internal Projects (Debian-Junior, Debian-Med, Debian-Edu and Demudi for now), the second presents the Debian-Med distribution. That is: Debian is the solid base for specialization in the Free Software World."

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