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IIRC you need to use jigdo to assemble them from the packages. This page hints at that:

http://www.debian.org/releases/lenny/debian-installer/

Maybe I'm just overlooking the obvious, but where IS the Blu-Ray ISO image? I can see it mentioned in the SHA1SUMS file, for instance, but it doesn't appear to be on the cdimages server, neither as an ISO nor as a .torrent.

While it's easy to pile on with the melodrama, the last stable release, Etch, was in the middle of '07.

According to the release note, it's been 22 months, one month longer than Etch.

Etch took one month less than lenny.

Don't do this. Squeeze won't be supported by the testing security team in the beginning: http://lists.debian.org/debian-testing-security-announce/2008/12/msg00019.html

This weekend was a tentative release date, jackass.

http://wiki.debian.org/DebianOnFreeRunner

A valid analogy to Exchange would be if ClamAV fell to a buffer overflow while trying to scan attachments.

You mean like this?

I work daily with humongous text files. I have found no other editor that performs as well when you work with text files that are in several gigabytes range.

Not in Debian (or maybe all of Linux?) it doesn't.

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=139510

This bug is 7 years old, and a variant of it still exists.

Was this all on the same hardware?

Consider trying memtest86+.

except for not being able to find the root partition, that could mean a problem with grub or lilo after a kernel or initramfs upgrade.

Well, Duh, it's Red. :D

Actually, I thought that they would have gone with either Red Flag Linux or the super-stable backbone of free Linux: Debian.

Some paper and pencil is a good thing; too much teaches people that math is monotonous and boring and to never bother doing math again once they are out of school.

Well, I'll partly give you that point. I think I enjoyed math more because I learned it according to European approaches of the time, which involved introducing Algebra and word problem solving a lot earlier (grade 4/5) than in North America. While I had already gotten a lot of repetition in memorizing addition and times tables by that point, the word problems provided a way to make the math more analytical, more relevant, and thus more interesting. It also provided a good base for later problems in scientific studies. By grade 5, I also already had exposure to fractions and decimal notation, which I didn't get until grade 8 in N.A.

Now the repetition aspect is one of the things that I think computers can make more fun by turning it into a game. For instance, try out Tux, Of Math Command. The repetition is necessary, but a good use of computers is in making it less boring.

Actually, I would really like to see an RPG for older kids where at regular points in the game you need to solve (word-type) problems to progress. It should certainly be possible to fit into the storyline simple kinematics problems for instance, basic arithmetic/algebra/compound interest problems. It might also help kids see how that sort of math is applicable in everyday life. Maybe you could start with an open sourced game engine like Quake's as a foundation for a virtual environment that you can explore, and then build on it. As you master one skill and start learning new ones, new map areas open up. I wonder if Alan Kay and Viewpoints Research might be interested in pursuing that approach.

I suppose what I'm thinking of is somewhat inspired by the software for the "desks" in Ender's game. I think that with current hardware, a simplified version of that is now becoming possible. I would rather my kid play with something like that than GTA 007 - Licence to Kill.

Bit late reply but...

The official Debian FAQ recommends the use of aptitude over apt-get for package installations and system upgrades.

It's roughly competitive with Python 3

Python 3 is much slower than 2.x. Hopefully they'll get it back on track in a point release.

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=python&lang2=python3

Python 2.x still mostly beats Ruby 1.9
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=yarv&lang2=python

It's roughly competitive with Python 3

Python 3 is much slower than 2.x. Hopefully they'll get it back on track in a point release.

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=python&lang2=python3

Python 2.x still mostly beats Ruby 1.9
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=yarv&lang2=python

It's roughly competitive with Python 3

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u32q/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=yarv&lang2=python3

Of course, it's not going to match C, OCaml or even Java in terms of speed. Speed isn't a strengh of dynamic languages, but that doesn't mean it isn't important and it is a weakness relative to Ruby's direct competitors (other dynamic languages and other implementations of Ruby).

Take the comparison of Ruby with Python on the language shootout:
http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=python&lang2=ruby

With a 2x increase there, Ruby is still behind Python (which isn't standing still) and not doing that well on memory usage either. That can be the difference between handling everything on one server, or buying two.

http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/gp4/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=yarv&lang2=php

I have used Python, with both the scientific packages, and packages for building interactive applications, binded with a bit of C. I have had a huge success with this. I wrote a paper on this, trying to share the good decision that made this experiment-control system better than the other ones I worked with ( http://gael-varoquaux.info/physics/agile_computer_control_of_a_complex_experiment.pdf ). The data acquisition debian page ( http://cdd.alioth.debian.org/science/tasks/dataacquisition.html ) is also a useful resource.

Debian does not autosubscribe the reporter to the bug. I don't know who made that design choice originally, but it really makes the system a pain in the ass to use. I usually just bypass debian's system altogether unless it's a packaging bug because of this issue.

The reason why they're not automatically susbcribed is because not everyone wants to know about the process of resolving their bug; they just want to know when it gets fixed. That said, adding the ability to subscribe at submit@ time is on the todo list.

By filing bugs in it, of course.

By filing bugs in it, of course.

Quite honestly, when you look at what a SoC can achieve these days, I wonder why you would even look at an "embedded computer". See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuVwh_VrIxk for example.

I think we are getting to a point where we should starting to draw a line between PC and Embedded Device. Yes, both run Linux, and the support for say, ARM architectures is extremely good (go to http://packages.debian.org/stable/allpackages and pick one package at random, and fine one that's not available on ARM or ARMel). An embedded device is as powerful as a PC was a few years ago, and I don't really see that trend changing. I don't think anyone expects an embedded device to run as fast as a desktop computer, so the real quality is going to come from the applications that people are going to develop for them; regarless of the form factor. One example is the NIT http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS3555890464.html

KDE 4 is unfinished. It says everywhere in the official sources. Since KDE 2 the .5 releases basically where the stable targets. It's only with 4 that with the .0 release they didn't care about finish at all, and thus provides Über-suckage. 4.5 will be the stable finished 4 release. No news here. What's the big fat hairy deal?

How about the fact that distributions all ship KDE 4 by default? If it's not done, don't release it.

Fedora 10: KDE 4.1.2
OpenSUSE 11.1: 4.1
Kubuntu 8.10: 4.1

(The only exception is Debian, shipping 3.something. Of course, that matches the Debian reputation of shipping everything slow.)

If that's the case, then please send me all the source code to every Open Source program the "Intelligence Community" uses. I mean, it's truly Open, right?

When the Intelligence Community distributed to you software under the GNU GPL (v2), they gave you either

1. The source code;
2. A written offer to give anyone the source code (valid for at least three years); or
3. The instructions you need to get the source code [see the GPL for details].

If you want the source, you have the means. Use them, mm'kay? ;)

If the object code you got is under a non-copyleft license (such as the X11, MIT or BSD), no one is required to give you anything.

If you want to learn more, I can recommend http://www.gnu.org/philosophy, http://www.gnu.org/licenses, http://www.opensource.org/ and http://www.debian.org/social_contract among others.

Open Source doesn't mean you can point at anyone who uses it and say "give me that code". It means that they, in some cases, can point at the people who gave it to them and say "give me the code for that".

I hope I've cleared things up a bit, and keep on lovin' the open code :)

Anyway, it would be nice to see a proper "full" linux distribution.

You might want to look at Debian. It has been running on ARM for quite a while.

Or you could run Debian Testing. If that is still not cutting edge for you, move to unstable.

I didn't have to go to some obscure store either, I got them at main outlets, an asus eee at a big german electronics store

Yes, I've got one of those too. More specifically an Asus EEE 701 4G. The repositories haven't been updated in ages. Firefox is still in version 2.0 and not even the latest one and it's not supported anymore. Try installing Firefox 3.0 manually (or better don't... You'll fuck up the machine. Okay, that was partially my own fault for assuming that /opt/firefox wouldn't be used for Firefox.)

I switched mine to the EEE version of Debian. Everything worked out of the box there: painless install using the bootable USB image they provide. After that, it was just a matter of selecting just the basic installation and then type:

aptitude install xorg lxde iceweasel icedove gnumeric abiword

(Basically, I surely have installed a few more packages by now.. but not by much: 1.2G is used on the internal SSD)

There's also Angstrom which you might call a PDA style distro but has a growing repository. They also manage ports to several ARM variations.

And of course there's the Debian ARM port. I wouldn't be surprised if Ubuntu is basing their work off of this.

I worked on ARM devices for many years so a full Linux distribution on ARM is exciting

You mean. for example, Debian GNU/Linux on ARM ?

vrms's one seems reasonable...

microsoft AD is several well integrated things in one. But in this FOSS world you get all the building blocks, but you may have to assemble them yourself..
Thus you get great flexibitity, and power. But it may be that you are not very interested in tinkering with the internals. And building your enviroment from the ground up.
You should atlest test out the Debian Edu /Skolelinux [1] distribution, It's made to be easy to admin for a part time teacher /part time admin. And comes with openldap+bind+saba+winbind out of the box.
You can easily join linux, mac, and windows machines into the domain. have central authentication, and roaming profiles. And is tailor made just for your use case.

Debian Edu Homepage http://skolelinux.no/en/
Debian Edu Wiki http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu

Ronny Aasen

According to TFA the parent linked to (the FAQ), the patent agreement appears to comply rather nicely with the Debian Free Software Guidelines (which are identical to the requirements OSI published) since according to the FAQ, "You are free to download VP3, use it free of charge, implement it in a for-sale product, implement it in a free product, make changes to the source and distribute those changes, or print the source code out and wallpaper your spare room with it. "

Where is that Flash plugin for my PPC system?

Um, here?

Debian package search tells me that the Gnash Flash plugin for Mozilla is available for alpha, amd64, arm, armel, hppa, i386, ia64, mips, mipsel, powerpc, s390, and sparc, at least for Debian users. So it at least compiles and does something on all those platforms.

It's not the official Adobe plugin, but they claim it supports at least Flash 7 and can handle YouTube.

Strange this isn't picked up in the Linux Standard Base.

Then why are you using Debian and not using an actually secure OS OpenBSD or FreeBSD?

Did you try it??? there is no such package in Debian reps.

See http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=nvidia&searchon=names&suite=all&section=all

Not ranting against Debian, but Ubuntu didn't require me to know in advance a package name, but after installation there was a suggestion to install that "propietary driver". Why people should know that there exists such a thing? I guess a lot of Debian users do not use the driver just because they don't know it exists (same for other hardware.)

That is how I think, since I use KDE, I don't even install a DE with Debian, just the basic system, and them go with aptitude. But I wouldn't advice that for any distro that hopes to attract people. Really, almost everybody likes to have the kitchen sinc already installed and running.

These data are collected via the popularity contest package which (at least in Debian) defaults to a disabled setting during install, so people have to choose to enable it themselves. Furthermore the aggregrated statistics are anomymized.

Using the proprietary nVidia driver makes you a "newbie"?

I think these statistics reflect adherence to the Debian's social contract more than number of noobs.

Debian users care most about using open source software, where Ubuntu users care most about what "just works."

Ubuntu presents much lower voting percentages (quoted) than Debian. "Votes" are known to be highly inaccurate becuase it depends on atime, which can be disabled (noatime) or updated artificially from popcon's perspective by backup software. I wonder whether this is some systematic thing such as Ubuntu defaulting to mounting drives with noatime.

These issues are discussed at Debian bug 298760.

Bootbooster caches various bits of the BIOS probing to the disk and allows the Eee to finish the BIOS phase faster than normal (providing you are booting off the internal SSD). The link is slightly inaccurate in so much as it doesn't speed up grub but instead cuts the time it takes to get to grub.

I have read the article in question, and it takes a specific "performance test" to task over bad methodology. I have not endorsed said methodology but referred to an article on the topic of performance that is more in depth.

If you have any information about the methodology applied in this article, please let me (and the author) know.

I also referred to this one, again not the one with the flawed methodology. If you feel there is anything wrong with either of these, please feel free to enlighten me.

As the benchmark here shows, java is very competitive with C++.

Sure, until you add the memory used back in ... and then it falls to mid way between C and Python. Of course you then add in "size of code" (read: programmer time) and it's about par with Python ... and it's much easier to hook C code into python for the bits that need to be fast.

And the new "shootout" specifically asks for the "simplest" versions in each language, so I'd say it significantly underreports C/C++ code's speed compared to other things (I see a lot of "in the wild" C code that does really weird stuff so it can, supposedly, get a tiny speed/mem imporovement).

But, sure, feel free to take note of only the bits of info. that makes your point look credible and be shocked that everyone doesn't automatically agree.

am aware that Java 5 (aka 1.5.x) made some major speed improvements, but this is the first I have heard anybody claim that it "competes" with C++.

Well, I am glad that you say "first I have heard" since that explains it. You simply haven't been around that much to hear. Perhaps you do not work in the right industry. Perhaps you haven't been keeping up with Java at all. For one, Java is at 6, and it has been competitive for quite some time. As the benchmark here shows, java is very competitive with C++. This is for CPU intensive benchmarks. Once you add disk and database access into the mix, as you do in most applications, the speed difference between Java and C++ applications becomes negligible.

I think your opinion is highly colored by your prolonged lack of information about Java and benchmarks since Java performance parity with C++ for a large number of tasks was widely reported at least five or six years ago. Particularly the IBM Java VM gained a rep for being very fast, with subsequent inclusion of similar features in the Sun VM. You can read about it for example here.

Remember, a Java application can do something no (or most) C++ applications can not do, namely run-time performance tuning.

For a number of tasks C++ will probably always be faster than Java, but those tasks are fewer and further between every day, and for the tasks that so many people work on today, namely creating good web-based stuff, Java is probably the fastest language there is since C++ is not a widely used web-app development language.

So, given context, namely web-based applications, it is perfectly fine to use "high performance" about a Java solution since it is the best performer of them all. There are very few web-apps written in C++.

Java is quite fast, thank you.

Indeed, it's the known bug in 2.6.21 as mentioned on the debian lists: http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2009/01/msg00006.html

So now I know, thanks slashdot!

My box crashed also. I've never had a kernel crash before. I asked at http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2009/01/msg00006.html . One other person reported a similar problem. Someone mentioned it is a known problem with pre 2.6.21.6 kernels though I was running a more recent version.

deb http://www.backports.org/debian/ etch-backports main contrib non-free

to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. (contrib and non-free might not be required) Be sure to remove the "[backports.org]" thing that slashdot adds behind links.

I'd like to amend to my earlier statement. Since you already own the hardware, just download a copy of Ubuntu or plain vanilla Debian and install that. Get all the updates and relax. But if you plan on getting a new machine, an iMac is the way to go. http://www.ubuntu.com/ http://www.debian.org/