Unusual, Obscure, and Useful Linux Distros 221
angry tapir writes "Most people will be familiar with some of the big names when it comes to Linux — distributions like Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Debian, and Mandriva. Most of the well-known Linux distros are designed to be used as general-purpose desktop operating systems or installed on servers. But beyond these distros are hundreds of others either designed to appeal to very specific audiences or to fulfill the somewhat niche needs of some users. We rounded up some of the most interesting Linux distributions that you might not have heard of."
The most useful distro is... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:The most useful distro is... (Score:4, Informative)
Ever heard of unetbootin [sourceforge.net]? In some cases it's even easier than burning a distro to a CD, because it will even handle downloading the ISO for you. Just stick in a formatted fat32 flash drive and within 15 minutes you can have a liveusb stick working.
Re:The most useful distro is... (Score:5, Informative)
... the live CD you have with you.
Which is ALWAYS System RescueCD - I've never come across a better emergency disc.
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Oh, please, does it have LVM support, Ext4 and a linux kernel that can boot off CD-ROM over USB?
Needs a mirror? (Score:5, Informative)
"One of the benefits of open source software that many people are most familiar with is that it's free to download.
This means you can grab great applications — such as Mozilla's Firefox Web browser, the OpenOffice.org office suite or the GIMP photo editing program — without paying a cent.
However, the other major benefit of truly open source software (some "open source" software licences are more restrictive than others) is that you're allowed to modify a program and redistribute your altered version so other people can enjoy it.
Linux is a classic example of this: there are hundreds (at least!) of different Linux-based operating systems. Most people will be familiar with some of the big names — distributions like Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Debian and Mandriva.
Most of the well-known Linux distros are designed to be used as general purpose desktop operating systems or installed on servers. But beyond these distros are hundreds of others either designed to appeal to very specific audiences or to fulfil the somewhat niche needs of some users.
We rounded up some of the most interesting Linux distros out there that you might not have heard of.
Insecure by design: Damn Vulnerable Linux
Damn Vulnerable Linux is "The most vulnerable and exploitable operating system ever" according to its Web site.
It's designed for security training; it includes training material and exercises (as well as a whole bunch of flaws to exploit). As Mayank Sharma notes: "Damn Vulnerable Linux (DVL) is everything a good Linux distribution isn't. Its developers have spent hours stuffing it with broken, ill-configured, outdated, and exploitable software that makes it vulnerable to attacks."
Indulge in paranoia: Tinfoil Hat Linux
Tinfoil Hat Linux is pretty much the opposite of Damn Vulnerable Linux: it's designed for the paranoid among us.
"It started as a secure, single floppy, bootable Linux distribution for storing PGP keys and then encrypting, signing and wiping files.
At some point it became an exercise in over-engineering." According to its developers, a possible reason for using it is that that "Illuminati are watching your computer, and you need to use morse code to blink out your PGP messages on the numlock key." They're joking. Probably. (In case you want more tinfoil protection, there are some links to a site about aluminium foil deflector beanies and tinfoil suits.)
CSI Linux: CAINE
CAINE (Computer Aided INvestigative Environment) is probably one of the coolest niche Linux distributions around. It's designed for digital forensics (so sadly, no blood spatter analysis) and was developed at the Information Engineering Department of the University of Modena e Reggio Emilia in Italy. It includes software such as TheSleuthKit and Autopsy Forensic Browser for examining file systems, data recovery applications, steganography tools and utilities for securely wiping drives (you know, in case someone else has a copy of CAINE).
Open source engineering: CAELinux
Eminently embeddable: Zeroshell
Zeroshell Linux gets its name from being designed to be solely administered through a Web interface. It's intended to be used on servers and embedded devices.
Its features include load balancing, support for 3G mobile broadband connections and RADIUS support.
Ditch Windows Media Centre: Mythbuntu
Mythbuntu is not really a niche distribution, but it is designed for a specific task rather than being a general desktop distro.
Mythbuntu is used to run PVRs and media centre PCs. As its name indicates, it's derived from Ubuntu Linux.
However, it's ditched the Gnome and by default utilises the relatively barebones Xfce desktop environment.
Damn Small Linux is damn cool
Damn Small Linux (DSL) is actually quite a well known distribution. It's not nearly as small as the amazing MenuetOS (which is a non-Linux OS writ
Coral Cache (Score:2)
http://www.goodgearguide.com.au.nyud.net:8080/article/351651/12_most_interesting_unusual_useful_linux_distros/ [nyud.net]
Come on submitters, just hit it once before you hit submit, that way a mirror exists somewhere.
Re:Needs a mirror? (Score:5, Funny)
Damn Vulnerable Linux
Finally the distro I'm been waiting for. I'm ditching Vista!
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Bill....Is that you?
No, Bill is a grown-up.
Morse code on LED (Score:3, Informative)
According to its developers, a possible reason for using it is that that "Illuminati are watching your computer, and you need to use morse code to blink out your PGP messages on the numlock key."
Nice. For the uninitiated, this is (spoiler alert) an allusion to one of the coolest (realistic) hacks in all of fiction, which occurs in the novel Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Required reading for computer and cryptography geeks.
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Re:Needs a mirror? (Score:4, Funny)
Ubuntu Christian Edition? What's the matter? Jesux [pudge.net] wasn't holier-than-thou enough?
Re:Needs a mirror? (Score:5, Funny)
I hope they get along.
Last thing we need is a literal distro holy war.
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Jesux is a spoof, and a very clever and funny one. It sends up the attitudes of American, right wing, fundamentalist weirdos, extremely well, and is almost believable.
I wish I had thought of it.
If there is a distro holy war, it should be between UCE and Ubuntu Satanic Edition.
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I was more partial to Ubuntu Satanic Edition [ubuntusatanic.org]
Re:Needs a mirror? (Score:4, Funny)
Did they turn gksudo into UAC?
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From the Jesux website:
No encryption provided; Christians have nothing to hide We have had concerns about the "no encryption" item ... but no worries, crypt(3) will still be there. Sorry for the confusion, we do not generally consider it as encryption, though, of course, technically it is. But since it is generally unsuitable for anything other than password authentication, we don't see any problem with it.
Umm, how about SSL for secure web purchases or banking? Or do you not mind if I have your credit card details and bank account passwords? Nothing to hide my ass. How about using the saved passwords feature on a browser? Might that encrypt your passwords? Silly Silly Silly.
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We need a new instant mirror site for slashdot. Any suggestions?
Coral Cache [coralcdn.org] fits the bill quite well, I have no idea why the editors don't use it. It'll create a mirror of any url you link to and navigate through, and they can take a slashdotting :)
Follow this link [nyud.net] to check out the CCed version of the article.
If you're on Firefox the TADSEE extension [mozilla.org] provides a handy shortcut to a Coral Cache mirror when you right click a link.
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These distros should become meta-packages. (Score:5, Insightful)
These distros should become meta-packages for larger distros. You should not need to install a specialized OS because you need specialized applications or specialized configurations. The application developer would be better served working with the larger Linux community, to ensure that the usefulness of the given applications is compatible and availible across all distros and platforms. Linux should always have a diverse ecosystem, but Linux should also have a universality about it, that a given meta-configuration can be established to a given Linux with automatic dependency resolution.
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How do you propose adding to Debian to make tinycore?
Re:These distros should become meta-packages. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Yeah, I've just had to use Parted Magic recently (great little distro - a utility, but nicely put together and presented) but it sure wouldn't be my core desktop distro.
As for the meta-packages idea, they'd either end up a) having to get included in the core distro and its repos (which will be difficult in Ubuntu, as they'll want a certain level of confidence in it) or b) stashing it in a separate add-on repo that you've got to install yourself after the main install. Either way around, it isn't as self-con
You do it (Score:2)
What gives you the right to tell others what they should do?
If someone wants to make a carbon copy of Ubuntu but written entirely in Perl on a single line, that is THEIR business. NOT YOURS.
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I think some already are, like MythBuntu. I might be wrong, but I think it uses the same mythtv package you can install on plain Ubuntu, the distro just drops many of the standard packages and makes you boot directly into myth. The latter might be good reason to have a separate distro, what a "sane" detault is probably depends on whether it's a dedicated appliance box or not.
Unslung (Score:2)
Slashdotted (Score:5, Informative)
Coral Cache:
http://www.goodgearguide.com.au.nyud.net/article/351651/12_most_interesting_unusual_useful_linux_distros/ [nyud.net]
List of the distros:
steveha
Gaming distro? (Score:2)
But really, I think this is all the common people would want/need if they want to replace Windows.
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> The same as I doubt Myth will ever take the place of WMC, or even windows based add-ons like Mediaportal.
> It takes a hell of a lot of work to support all that hardware, and writing drivers? Really not fun. With
> Myth I spent nearly a week fighting the damned thing trying to get it stable, whereas with Win7 WMC it was
> plug and play.
That's really funny considering all of the stuff you have to add to WMC just to get basic video playback working.
MCE is NOTHING to hold up as an example.
HELL, have
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> Example please?
You just provided it. This sort of nonsense is why people buy Apple products.
HELL, Windows 7 doesn't even have out of the box support for simple stuff like ION. That was a nice shocker.
Sure, it's cool if you can be satisfied with the very basic low level out of the box experience.
In this case, the Internet TV options you alluded to are nice. Although they are not limited to
MCE and are available on software that's not Windows only.
OTOH, Windows in general has a nasty habit of failing in n
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Which is why I guess I just won't "get it" with regards to all the resources wasted on trying to make Linux do jobs it simply isn't good at
Your point? What was Linux good at when Torvalds first started it back in 1991? Should he have just said, oh, this kernel isn't good at anything, I think I'll just stop now.
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Solitaire (card game)
MineSweeper (puzzle)
Other games of course will require additional installations.
Now, if you look at the games available to Linux and WINE with additional installs and tweaks, then the list becomes more or less identical.
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Here is a challenge: Get Team Fortress 2 to run under wine. If you can figure out how, let me know because I've tried on and off for a month. The only results I get are something that looks like it's running on a half-finished emulator. TF2 isn't even that demanding of a game.
You do Linux no f
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A few of these are actually decent games - Wesnoth is well-designed and a lot of fun, as is Scorch3d even if it's not nearly so original - but there are a couple of major failings of that list. First of all, there's none of the big-name games, the ones that would be expected by any PC gamer looking to switch operating systems. Second, none of the games that I recognize are specific to Linux, meaning that they are not, in and of themselves, a reason to switch (at best, they are a reason not to avoid switchin
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I am not a gamer, but I found Wesnoth incredibly addictive. It is easy to learn, but strategy is fairly complex, it is involving, it is just plain fun.
TA Spring? (Score:3, Interesting)
I haven't checked on the TA-Spring (or simply the spring project) updates anymore... but a year ago, that seemed like one of the best (ever) real time strategy games - as far as I'm concerned up there with the likes of Starcraft... meaning it's up there with the popular windows games.
It has it's problems for the installation (you need separate bots, maps, and sets of units), but that's really why I was hoping to have it included in this gaming distro.
Puppy Linux Arf Arf (Score:5, Informative)
Ubuntu for Christians? (Score:3, Interesting)
Unusual, Obscene, and Useful Linux Distros (Score:4, Funny)
That was how I read the title at first glance. So disappointed.
Re:Unusual, Obscene, and Useful Linux Distros (Score:5, Funny)
We could have had distro's with names like DebDoesIan and YouCanLeaveYourRedHatOn
Ubuntu Christian Edition (Score:5, Funny)
2. Who needs backups when you have faith?
3. Wait until you see our "firewall"!
4. Well, good, at least they're trying to convert those Linux heathens.
5. Some tools not included: head, finger, fsck...
6. "missionary" the only available filesystem (mount -t missionary - and then only for procreation)
7. Good news! Jesus healed the Gimp! Zombies raised from the dead!
8. Thou shalt not take the hostname in vain.
9. Honor thy PPID.
10. Thou shall not kill -9.
11. Those are penguins, not nuns!
Known bugs:
Sometimes Jesus thinks he's Richard Stallman.
vlc only plays G-rated AVIs.
$ mesg y
$ write god
write: god is not logged in
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I cracked myself up with "Honor thy PPID".
I swear to $DEITY I've never heard of Ubuntu Christian Edition before now.
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To paraphrase an old joke:
Jesus saves.... but Moses has invested in an off-site backup system!
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If we're talking Specialist Distros... (Score:3, Informative)
Surely BackTrack needs a mention. One stop shop for Penetration Testing, Ethical Hacking, Security Analysis and pretty much anything else security-related. It might not qualify as a fully-blown "distro" depending on your definition, but it's a lot more customised than your standard "Clonebuntu" variants.
If you are even remotely interested in Network Security or Penetration Testing, it's a really invaluable tool.
I want 64bit distro that has working Flash & S (Score:2, Insightful)
I just want a 64-bit distro that has working Flash and sound drivers. Even if I had to buy a specific sound card I'd be happy.
Of course the first time I updated it would probably switch to some new sound driver which wouldn't work.....
And then there's the issue of Adobe dropping support......
I want to use Linux, I really do! But I need to get some work done, not spend all my time tracking down drivers and patches.
Re:I want 64bit distro that has working Flash & (Score:2)
Being a flash developer? :P
I also run Debian (now Ubuntu) on my now 3 year old laptop with no sound issues and perfectly stable Flash 10 plugin (though I did install it manually, not using the ndiswrapper)
They forgot Jesux! (Score:2)
The original Christian distribution: Jesux [pudge.net]!
The interesting bits (Score:2)
The highlights
DansGuardian http://dansguardian.org/ [dansguardian.org] web filtering not something I'm bothered with for myself but anyone with kids should be concerned with what their children see.
Its built into ubuntu christian edition along with bible study software and other religious junk but obviously would work for any ubuntu edition.
http://ubuntusatanic.org/screenshots.php [ubuntusatanic.org] ubuntu satanic edition has some really nice art work not mentioned in the article but in the comments also there is sabily A muslim edition of ub
Unusual, Obscure, and Useful (Score:2)
Is this like fast, cheap, and reliable - choose any two?
Backtrack 4 (Score:2)
I'm suprised no-one has listed backtrack yet. I always have one flash drive and one dvd of it in my kit with me at all times (among some other things listed). It rocks for throwing up metasploit or cracking WEP real fast. It is a merge of Whax and Auditor) I also miss PHLAK.
Nobody ever gives props to ... (Score:3, Interesting)
live.linuX-gamers.net is down (Score:2)
Re:pfsense? (Score:4, Informative)
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pfSense is based on FreeBSD, not Linux.
Yeah. There're several Linux-based firewall distros, though; IpCop is perhaps closest to pfSense.
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I used IpCop a long time ago and switched to pfsense. At the time I was under the impression that IpCop was based off of smoothwall and (IpCop) was pretty much a dead project.
Re:The abbreviated list (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The abbreviated list (Score:5, Interesting)
What surprises me is no SLAX. When i first found it SLAX was a very usable live-cd which would fit on those tiny 8cm CDs (before large enough USB sticks were affordable enough to just have a few in your bag) and had an easy startup option to load the entire image into ram
Then i check it a few months ago, it now offers an interface on the website to select from a very large library of software, click the boxes you want and presto, instant live-image completely to your own taste
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Quote "Most people will be familiar with some of the big names when it comes to Linux -- distributions like Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Debian, and Mandriva."
Scientific Linux is Red Hat Enterprise Linux, like CentOS.
But anyhow, the submission is wrong.
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Really?
Pretty much all I've ever used at home over the past years has been Gentoo. [gentoo.org] I don't find any problems with downloading and installing it.
Their help forums, IMHO, still continue to be some of the most helpful and friendly ones I've ever encountered.
Re:What is the definition of 'distro'? (Score:5, Interesting)
Damn Vulnerable Linux unknown
Tinfoil Hat Linux unknown
CAINE Ubuntu
CAELinux Ubuntu
Ubuntu Christian Edition Ubuntu
live.linuX-gamers.net unknown
Parted Magic Ubuntu
GMusix GNU+Linux Debian
Zeroshell Linux LFS methods (i.e., actually rolled themselves)
Mythbuntu Ubuntu
Damn Small Linux Debian
Tiny Core Linux unknown
Ubuntu 41.6%
Debian 16.6%
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Known Distros 58.3%
Unknown distros 33.3%
Original works 8.3%
Feel free to reply with updates if you know the origin of the unknown's.
I know from personal experience, rolling your own distro is hard work. I tried, using other distros (Slackware and LFS methods) as a guide. Just taking someone elses patched beyond usefulness sources and calling them your own isn't your own work. You aren't building, and you can't go back to the original author and submit a fix. Mine was to stay true to the original author's work, since I've seen so many problems which are directly (correctly) attributed to some distro haphazardly patching (and breaking) things.
I spent a lot of spare time writing and rewriting build scripts, hunting down sources (real quick, where is the authors site for the most current version of "ps"?), building a build environment, building the sources into installable packages. It sounds like an awful lot of fun, until you've already spent a month putting things together, and you've just gotten past the low level stuff (basic system utilities, filesystem utilities, compilers, major required libraries, and the boot loader of your choice). Wow, a month later, and we don't even have X, a desktop manager, or occasionally useful things like a web browser. Now you have to go back and check all your versions against the current version available from the author. Unless you have a rather dedicated team of folks with no day jobs nor personal lives, you'll spend your days just verifying that your packages are built from current sources.
God forbid there's a change in say glibc, which breaks some other application. Now you're notifying the author of the application, which can be a job in itself to go back and forth with them about what distro you're running (built it myself). Oh, you're own? That's good and bad. What versions of the compiler and required libraries are you using? "Sign up to my mailing list, so we can all work on it." Two weeks later, you may have a patch which may become a released version two more weeks later. If you're a good guy, and somehow have way too much time on your hands, well versed in every programming language and methodology, a genetic disposition to not sleeping, and a serious speed habit, you may be patching it yourself, and handing that patch up to the author. What? Your patch was refused because it didn't follow his methodology? It doesn't work in recursion and will break older distros (like the one right before the glibc update). Now you've fallen into what others do. I'll patch mine, but just this one, I swear. It'll be the authors true code when he releases the right fix. On to the next!
Re:What is the definition of 'distro'? (Score:5, Insightful)
Curse you, mod point allocation bot! I need to mod parent 'eye-opening if, like me, you never considered how much work goes into a distro'.
Re:What is the definition of 'distro'? (Score:5, Insightful)
hehe. Thanks. :)
Really, I hadn't thought it was so hard until I tried. I'm glad I did. It's something every really serious senior Linux admin should try at least once. Besides a very interesting understanding of how things work beyond "type this command, watch this happen", it taught me to respect my elders, and watch for mistakes that are made (like the patching chaos that is the Redhat/Debian/derivatives world).
After that dive in, I pray to the Slackware god, since he does things pretty damned close to the way I like. There are several finer points that I could probably argue with Patrick about over beers sometime (assuming we're ever in the same place at the same time, and he'd accept a free drink or three). Not that the argument would get anywhere, but it would be a nice discussion, and a fun excuse to drink. Bah. Who needs excuses for that? :)
Re:What is the definition of 'distro'? (Score:4, Informative)
" Damn Vulnerable Linux unknown"
It's based on Debbian and Knoppix. See: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=damnsmall
" Tinfoil Hat Linux unknown"
Not listed on Distrowatch, or at least I couldn't find it :(
" live.linuX-gamers.net unknown"
It's based on Arch, see: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=linuxgamers
" Tiny Core Linux unknown"
Independent (self-rolled). See: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=tinycore
If you want details about Linux Distributions there's no better place I know of, or more comprehensive, than distrowatch.com. Really surprised Tinfoil is not listed!
Re:What is the definition of 'distro'? (Score:5, Informative)
The busybox "cp" flags are:
cp [-a] [-d] [-p] [-R] Source
The posix "cp" flags are:
cp [-f] [-H] [-i] [-p] [-r | -R] [--] Source
There are others, I've just had quite a few occasions to boot to a Busybox based CD, and then my commands don't work. Or worse, a script on the machine doesn't work because the flags don't work.
So the distro tally is up to:
Damn Vulnerable Linux Debian
Tinfoil Hat Linux self-rolled (?)
CAINE Ubuntu
CAELinux Ubuntu
Ubuntu Christian Edition Ubuntu
live.linuX-gamers.net Arch
Parted Magic Ubuntu
GMusix GNU+Linux Debian
Zeroshell Linux self-rolled - LFS methods
Mythbuntu Ubuntu
Damn Small Linux Debian
Tiny Core Linux self-rolled
Ubuntu (5) 41.6%
Debian (3) 25.0%
Arch (1) 8.3%
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Known Distros (9) 75.0%
Original (3) 25.0%
That's still a long way from a list of distros to check out, unless you like checking out the same thing over
BTW, sorry for the code formatting. I wanted to keep my columns straight in the data parts of the post, and I don't know of a better way on here to do it.
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I was interested in the bit about busybox (namely, wondering why they wouldn't include such useful and dead-simple flags like -f), and the first page I discovered (http://www.busybox.net/downloads/BusyBox.html [busybox.net]) listed the following for cp:
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" Tinfoil Hat Linux unknown"
Not listed on Distrowatch, or at least I couldn't find it :(
Hence the name...
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BusyBox with a custom kernel could probably have been pulled off in that time frame. As long you were quite aware of it already.
I find some of the more obscure and useful stuff is simply about finding it.
Plop is a nice busybox variant which has been design to boot and run entirely in ramdisk. I designed several rack burn utilities with plop so I could test on a closed network. The advantage of creating a single head and moving onto the next host with my usb stick was quite handy.
However, getting to that poi
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I had busybox on my list of tools I used and cut a systems with it using slack, but I got paranoid
after the latest kernel requirement and bailed to debian for the tools. In the end, I SUCKED and DIED.
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You forgot
anything Ubuntu Debian
Re:mod up (Score:5, Interesting)
I only did it to differentiate between those who have chosen to use Ubuntu, and those who didn't. I know Ubuntu is a pretty skinned Debian with some extra patches. Ubuntu patches on top of Debian patches, on previously good code, what could possibly go wrong. Oh, lots.
It's similar to CentOS being a patched derivation of RHEL. It's another layer of people messing with perfectly good code, and making it not so perfectly good. In the list provided, there were no CentOS, RHEL, nor Fedora variations, so I didn't mention them.
I'm anything but a fan of messing with someone else's code, unless it's for internal use. Sure, I'll make my own changes to your code, but I won't then distribute it as if it was as good as the original. I know there are a lot of authors and software companies/groups who agree with me on that. My changes are usually performance patches (as necessary), and usually commented in the code that the change may be acceptable. For example, here's one I use on Apache for my web servers:
cd apache_$apache/src/include ; cat httpd.h | sed -e s/HARD_SERVER_LIMIT\\ 256/HARD_SERVER_LIMIT\\ 4096/g > httpd.h.new ; mv httpd.h.new httpd.h.
(that's just one line of my 152 line Apache/PHP/mod_ssl build script. It's 76 lines without the comments and stdout messages showing the status of the build)
I don't pass it off my Apache as the official Apache version though. It's known if you use my Apache/PHP/mod_ssl build script, it will make some minor changes like this. If you use my build of Apache, it's a given I've made some changes. It's amazing, I can drop this on just about any server, and it's blazing fast compared to the RH provided one. I can't comment on what changes Debian or Ubuntu make to their installed version of Apache, I haven't needed to deal with that yet for a high load production environment.
Re:mod up (Score:4, Informative)
Debian patches are usually kept to a miniumum, as long as upstream is still active. (Debian has become the de facto upstream for some packages, including a few GNU packages.)
The most common changes include adding a manpage if one does not exist, and tweaking the install paths so the system conforms to the FHS. Now sometimes larger changes do occur, but usually that is because upstream has not yet accepted the patch, or is sometimes a cherry picked back-ported patch from the development branch, but we try to keep these to a minimum.
Let us look at Debian's apache2 patches for an example.
The first patch adjusts "httpd --version" to display LSB_release information (i.e. identify the build as a Debian patched build).
The next patch changes an example script's she-bang line to use "/usr/bin/perl" instead of "/usr/local/bin/perl".
The next patch tweaks configuration include globbing so as not to include extra files that dpkg may create in /etc/apache2 while asking the user if they want to use the the shipped configuration file (if it has changed since the version installed, or use the customized file the user has created, or merge the changes.) This is clearly specific to dpkg-based distros.
The next patch tweaks the apxs script to not bother checking if Apache was compiled with shared library support, because Debian always configures it with shared library support, and Debian allows apxs to be used even when the "httpd" binary is not installed.
The next patch tweaks the config.layout file (which is explicitly designed to be customized by distributions!) to conform to the FHS. It also adjusts the configure script so the correct directories are used, and finally adds a #define to ap_config_layout.h.in that specifies the location of the default PID log.
The next patch further adjusts the apxs script to use httpd.conf rather than apache2.conf, tweaks the permissions it uses, and a few other path related adjustments.
It patches unixd.c to work correctly is suexec is built as a a shared library module.
The next patch changes the dbmmanage script to support both hash and btree based DBM files.
The next patch tweaks how the apxs script calls libtool to keep it from issuing an inappropriate warning.
The next patch tweaks envvars-std.in so that LD_LIBRARY_PATH is not propagated, since Debian has no need to for that, and copying in the building user's personal LD_LIBRARY_PATH is undesirable.
The next patch fixes prevents a buffer overflow attack on the htdigest executable.
The next patch changes suexec.c to use the close-on-exec flag for file descriptors, allowing the resulting error to be logged, which the existing code does not properly support (despite the claimsin the comments). This patch has also been comitted upstream.
The next patch tweaks the usage message to exose the -X flag.
The next patch tweaks logresolve to support line lengths greater than 1024 bytes. Many distos have this patch, but I am unsure if upstream has fixed it. I don't see any bug for it in Apache's bugzilla database.
The next patch is one for the configure script to permit the option "--enable-modules=none" to build an httpd with no optional modules enabled.
The next patch fixes a known security vulnerability (CVE-2007-1742) in suexec.c
The next patch fixes a segfault caused by inaproprtiately freeing memory in ab.c. This patch has been accepted upstream.
The next patch disbabled mod_deflate for HEAD requests to mitigate a ptential DOS attack.
There are more, but I am getting tired of typing them up.
Slackware is even better now... (Score:3, Interesting)
Its always been a great distro for people who just want a stock Unix on their PC rather than a Wannabe-Windows clone but it was frequently a bugger to get some hardware working properly and also Xwin configuration was very tedious. I defected to Suse for a while because of this but now Slackware is more or less plug and play. I installed 13.0 on my Acer laptop and desktop Dell at work and it Just Worked. The only issue I had was with the wifi on the laptop but that was a kernel bug - I compiled a later kern
Re:Slackware is even better now... (Score:4, Interesting)
What is it with Slackware that attracts so many wannabe "hacker" types like yourself? Those "Wannabe-Windows clones" you speak of can all be just as "hardcore" (as if compiling a kernel is hardcore in any way), and the only notable architectural difference between Slack and "Wannabe-Windows clones" is that Slack uses a BSD style init instead of the not exactly Windows-like SysV.
Yes, Slack is good and well respected, but I swear that among the clueless faux-elitist morons I've come across, more are using Slack than all the other OSes combined.
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Nothing to do with faux elitism. Its to do with having a clean filesystem layout, sane rc.d startup files (no , its not strictly BSD like - try looking at the FreeBSD startup and you'll see what I mean) and avoiding having 10 gigs of crap that i'll never use installed on the box. Also slackware uses the stock kernel, not some hacked about version like most of the other distros so its easy to upgrade to whichever version you want , not be stuck with whichever one the distro-of-your-choice decides to offer y
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"See, this is why I think you're a faux-elitist moron: there is nothing keeping you from installing a stock kernel in other distros."
There is if you want everything to work properly and also don't want to fart about having to edit a copy of /proc/config.gz
"you just come across as a pretentious cunt."
And you come across as a rude little little kid who talks big but knows FA.
Go get yourself a clue.
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You'll often have to reconfigure your kernel if upgrading between vanilla kernels as well, but configuring it by hand editing "a copy of /proc/config.gz" (better unpack it first) from the old kernel is going to suck, no matter what. Just do a 'make oldconfig' and take it from there, if you want to keep your sanity.
To reiterate: everything you've said just makes it evident that you're a pretentious cunt.
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"What! 94! I was using slackware in 92 (Linux 0.97, 0.99pl10, 0.99pl12, 0.99pl14, ...)."
I was using HP-UX at that time. Linux wasn't usable for anything useful in 92.
Compiling a kernel is hardcore for the ubuntu crowd which my rather tongue in cheek comment was aimed at. If you want to go willy waving give George Micheal a call. I'm not interested.
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Re:Slackware is even better now... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the implication about the "Wannabe-Windows clones" was that there are a lot of "1337" Ubuntu users who go around preaching about how awesome Linux is even though they lack any in-depth knowledge of it, they just popped in a Live-CD and installed it using the GUI installer (which is pretty much just a matter of hitting Next until it's done).
Now, I'll admit that back in the 90s I was a bit of a Open Source evangelist but at least I had some basic knowledge of *nix, these days I keep ending up in conversations with friends of mine who have never used a terminal emulator where they try to convince me of how awesome Ubuntu is (because it's Linux!) and even when I point out that my day job involves keeping a load-balanced Linux cluster running and that I have no Windows machines at home they will keep badgering me with teh awezoomnes of Ubuntu and telling me how I should move from FreeBSD, OS X, Debian and other distros to Ubuntu. Without trying to brag about my own skills it does feel a bit like a random recently converted christian of the protestant kind trying to convert a catholic bishop to his brand of christianity even though he himself knows little of the bible beyond "jesus and god good, satan bad"...
These are the kind of users who almost exclusively run "Wannabe-Windows clones" and apply cargo-cult solutions to any problem they may have. I can understand the frustration with them.
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Xorg became almost mindless to get configured. Just run xorgconfig, and let it do it's thing. Ok, so it's not well documented, or at least I don't read the documentation.
I was having an argument at one job, where they were very insistent that they *MUST* run a Redhat derivative. I was working on one specific machine, so it wasn't just identical hardware, it was the same machine. I found it I installed various verions of Redhat, Fedora, CentOS, and Slackware. Slackware performed like a c
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Just organize the differences you make as a set of SlackBuilds and release those. Call it a derivative (unless you are a financial institution).
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I was using Slackbuilds, but those can get complicated, with programs that require complex setups. I wish everyone just set up for "./configure && make && make install", of course with setting an install prefix so it doesn't just go stomping all over the running filesystem.
For my old work, we ran our own Slackware mirror, and let it pull additional packages as needed. It was a very smooth operation. You have to love a network of about 150 machines, where there
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I read your post and i'm not really sure why you are taking something someone else did and trying to keep "loyal" to his work.
If your making your own distro/branch/whatever. You snapshot whatever source your taking it from, and then just work from that. If you keep going back to the source and trying to add updates to your NOT finished work, you will never get your project finished.
You take the source, do what you need to do to get it working. Then you can go back to the updates and work them in.
Plus
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Not an attempt to be a smartmass; but, had you considered building a distro just for building distros? Database, web crawler for tracking source updates, virtual box included for compiling/testing, svn, etc....all the tools for building a maintaining a distro over time.
In some respects, I think that's what Gentoo is.
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What is interesting though, is to catch your work in action under someone else's name! I was writing scripts for mIRC (I know!) in the 90s and did some cool stuff. So one day in a channel I see familiar format and I'm like hmmmm. So of course, being a little sneaky afte
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