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Yep, you saw that right. PCLinuxOS has bumped Ubuntu from the top spot on distrowatch. This is the first time since the release of Hoary Hedgehog several years ago that [tag]Ubuntu[/tag] has not held the number one spot. This blogger seems extraodinarily surpized by it, citing all the things which Ubuntu does right and [tag]PCLinuxOS[/tag] does wrong. But he doesn’t mention what PCLinuxOS has done right all along, and Ubuntu never did. See there were basically three generations of Linux distributions in history. The very first generation was largely confined to programmers and consisted of basically building the whole thing from nothing. Technically these were not even really distro’s. Modern source distributions like Gentoo cannot be considdered first-gen btw. since they do have structured install methods and packages. The second generation started with Slackware really, and the main difference was that they used prebuilt packages to install the distribution’s various software pieces. Distro’s like redhat, suse and Debian are still 2nd generation today, and 2nd-gen distro’s are the best server distro’s around. However, since the turn of the century a third generation began to appear.

These are primarily recognizable by one thing: they ship as liveCD’s, which can be modified live while booted, and installed ready to use (with such modifications in place). This has massive advantages for a desktop distribution – particularly as it lets the user verify his hardware compatibility prior to the actual installation. The major groundwork that would lead to 3rd-gen distro’s was laid by knoppix, though knoppix never really considered installation important and therefore never really became a complete 3rd-generation. It could be installed, but this was difficult and even today is largely manual.

To the best of my knowledge, the first true third-generation distro was OpenLab 4.0 – which I designed (due credit, I had a lot of outside influences). This made OpenLab actually a successful contender against the might of Ubuntu’s marketing forces. But OpenLab was just the first, since then a number of other distributions have followed suit. The best known being PCLinuxOS and SimplyMepis. These were true 3rd-generation distros. PCLinuxOS even shares with OpenLab the design concept of having a login screen on the LiveCD where a guest user is just a normal livecd experience, but the root account is used for installations.

Third-generation distributions do not leave the concept of packages behind, they are still used for the user to install add-on software later, but skips the complexity of packages for the basic install, providing a solid set of pre-installed and preconfigured packages right from the get-go.

Ubuntu is still not a true 3rd-generation distribution, although it did copy the basic feature in some later versions this remains unstable and Ubuntu states that it is still not the prefered method of installation.

It doesn’t end there. Ubuntu has a habit of ignoring bugs that aren’t fun, leaving users to struggle with things that (to them) are critical. For the longest time Ubuntu users had no way of graphically setting up a pppoe connection, in fact to do it at all you had to download a package… hold on – that’s right, to get online, you had to be online first (by comparison, OpenLab had this included before Hoary Hedgehog was ever released)

This lack of attention to detail is why Ubuntu never deserved to be in the topspot. Ubuntu was always a lot of hype, never anything else. I couldn’t say this when I was a distro developer, but now, not being one anymore I can give an unbiassed view that Ubuntu was never all that good and in fact the number of newbies who were referred to it probably did Linux growth more harm in recent years than even the Novell/Microsoft deal. I stand by my belief that there is no better desktop distribution available today than PClinuxOS.

Having said that, I don’t believe Ubuntu is always a bad distro, I myself recommended kubuntu to a customer on a major recent project. But, I knew I would be the one setting it up. That changed everything – I knew that no linux newbie would ever have to deal with the first six weeks of life with Ubuntu. Everywhere else, I will keep recommending PCLinuxOS until there is something truly better (which may be just the next version of it).

It took a long time, but finally, people are starting to see through the hype, and PCLinuxOS is holding the postion it should have had all along.

Nov 292006
 
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Today’s post is more of a thank you note than anything else.
Specifically I wish to thank Jamie Jackson and Nick Hill. These two enthusiasts went to significant trouble to work out all the subtleties of getting zybacafe’s dependencies (particularly postgres) installed and configured on Ubuntu, and contributed a script package to make the install much simpler.
I have made some very minor changes to it, mostly just to ensure it will be forward compatible with new releases without requiring changes, and built a derivative for OpenLab/Slackware.

You can download both the packages from this site. Choosing either Ubuntu or OpenLab..

I will add the download links for these to the zybacafe section of the site when I next update it, as well as hopefully finding time to actually update the user manual with the new features.

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Oct 032006
 
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The most venerable and revered and excelently designed distro of them all, has released version 11. (http://www.slackware.com/announce/11.0.php) Something everybody who uses/loves it has been waiting for, for a long time. As most of you know, ((slackware)) is the parent distro of ((openlab (http://www.getopenlab.com))) and one the core design requirements for ((

 
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With the official release of the new beta just days away, I thought I would post a highlights package from the changelog – to give everyone an idea of what's coming. This is not the full changelog which spans several pages – this is just the most interesting bits from it. Entries are, as compared to 4.1alpha and are in no particular order. Improvements to sound detection.Major look and feel enhancements for installerKDE 3.5.4 with standard OpenLab patchesKDEpim patched with phone synching supportOpenOffice.org 2.0.3Bugfixes to hotplug systemMajor bugfixes in wifi-support (and updated madwifi drivers)Kernel 2.6.17.11HFS IPod SupportAmarok 1.4.2 with Itunes and Libgpod supportImproved support for some Intel hardware particularly centrino based.Better on boot graphics defaultsMany enhancements and bugfixes to WOLE.New German installer translationAbility to play games during installationInstalls approximately 38% faster than any previous version on any given hardware. Lockup watchdogs for common culprits on LIVEcdSignificant bugfixes in OLAD Package synchronised to slackware 11RC1FireFox 1.5.0.6Major bugfixes in printer subsystemsBritish English and Afrikaans language support in LIVEcdkdetoysSignificantly more stable X configuration with Sax2 Integration.Faster boot up on LIVEcd.Core libraries from freerock gnome – most gnome apps will runUpdates to slapt-get and gslaptAbility to install on a reiserfs partition. This is an UNSUPPORTED configuration.LIVEcd boot up cheatcode support (press F5 on the bootscreen)Verified: fastest openlab (http://www.getopenlab.com) ever !

Aug 212006
 
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KDE recently announced the availability of the first developers preview of KDE4.0 – it is not ready to use and not only is the name very appropriate (krash) but it is also still very incomplete. However what Krash does provide is all the fundamental technologies exporting their interfaces as they will look – so although it's still several months from completion, krash will allow for developers to start porting their apps to the KDE4 platform in time for release and also for third party developers who would like to create programs for the platform to get started. In other news, the release of slackware 11 is getting ever more imminent with the second RC in as many weeks being released today. This is of particular interest to OpenLab users as well because as I said it's part of the intention that OL4.1 be package synchronized with slackware 11 – which means we cannot release our final version until afte slackware 11 final is released. In this case it is not ipso facto the best possible thing for us – but it is the best possible thing for our users as most external packages will be built for the slackware 11 base.However, unlike with version 4.0 we have the advantage here of having started around the same time as the slackware 11 tree, we've kept the various 4.0 builds synchronized to slackware-current meaning that the final adjustments for slackware 11 compatibility will be one or two packages at most. Indeed OpenLab does patch many of the packages – in particular the KDE packages, but the largest segment of our work is in extra packages not included in slackware by default – as this is of course critical to our highly regard design principle of binary compatibility. I follow the slackware changelogs very closely and would like to give a quick hat-lifting to Pat who has been working really hard since recovering from his illness and is about to deliver a very good platform – not just great for slack users but also for those like me who build on top of this platform – and for our users in turn. Pat you are a stallwart of the GNU/Linux world – well done yet again.

Jul 062006
 
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The rest of yesterday was …eventful to say the least. I first went into a talk by the French jeue-de-libre project (free software computer games project) where I got a list of some amazing games projects that I was hitherto unaware off – I reckon there are some definite possibilities for the next KARMAcd in there. Then I hooked up with Paul Rouget and his friends at the conference pub, where we spent the afternoon talking about firefox, linux and related ideas. Paul it turns out is a slackware user, so when I started telling him how OpenLab relates to slackware, he sounded very impressed – I reckon he may well be a convert . After that it was off to Nancy town hall in Place Stanislas where the conference delegates were invited for a cocktail party with the Mayor. I could not understand his speech, but I did pick up the word 'Africue' and Paul told me he was talking about how proud Nancy was to host an information technology conference with guest from as far afield as South Africa. Once more it seems that as much as I have that whole Kurt Cobain don't wanna be famous thing going on, I cannot help it.Once the cocktails were consumed, me and the firefox guys snuck away and went for dinner and beers. Which was when the soccer match started. After Paul et. all. went home, I met up with with Ana – meantime the match was in full swing and every bar in Nancy was spilling out onto the street with people wanting to watch on the big screens. When France defeated Portugal – Stanislas square exploded. This was my first experience of a European soccer party -and it's amazing. A giant crowd of people chanting, singing and cheering. Fireworks being shot into the sky, dancing in around the square, crazy people climbing Monseur Stanislas' statue, shouting – the biggest noise I have ever heard (and I like rock concerts)… my parents would have been aghast but I had the time of my life. I almost felt like an honorary Frenchman just for being there and I cheered as loudly as the locals.This morning I had some urgent things to deal with – most importantly was finalising my major talk (the one for the telecast with Taiwan), which deals with SchoolNet Namibia, Haiti and related successes within the overall African context.I will post the talk on this site after it is delivered for those who cannot read it.Please allow me to remind any European readers that the conference is free (as in speech and beer) so if you feel like dropping by and saying howzat , please feel free.Off now to go listen to a few talks, I have already developed enough of a French ear to mostly understand even the French talks (if they use presentations at least) – but I am still a far cry from holding a conversation in the language of course. Update:Right after I wrote this, I bumped into Wim Vandenput, an OpenBSD developer from Belgian, and we had a delightfull chat. I am ever more convinced that the classic story about Afrikaans being a primarilly Dutch language is simply not true. I spoke with him in Afrikaans, and he spoke in Flamish – and we could constantly understand one another without the slightest difficulty. I can understand Dutch if they speak slowly, and they can understand me if I speak slowly – but Flamish… well let me put it this way, it sounds to my ear like somebody speaking Afrikaans with a Dutch accent. Literally our accents differ, but for all practical matters we speak exactly the same language. Afrikaans may have come from a Dutch colony, but I am convinced the actual colonists must have been primarilly Flamish – it is the only way to explain the remarkable similiarity between the languages. Afrikaans is significantly more similiar both in vocabulary and pronounciation to Flamish than to Dutch.

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