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LinuxOrbit Looks At Libranet GNU/Linux 2.7
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."
I can't comment on BSD, but I can comment on Slack vs. Debian.
I've used Mandrake, Slack, and Debian for my server. Mandrake almost maxed out my 2GB harddrive (/home was a separate 3GB harddrive, and was used for all data), Slack had it at approximately 53% disk usage, Debian currently has it at 37% usage. In addition, I noticed significantly better performance immediately under Debian, and much better stability (I had something like 5 kernel panics over the course of 6 months under Slack, none so far in 8 months under Debian). Security updates are also much easier to perform on Debian (a crontab entry to do updates from security.debian.org can do them unassisted in most cases). I liked Slack... but maintaining it was too non-trivial to justify my time.
I've used Libranet and loved it. For a desktop, it was more user friendly than Redhat, and even Mandrake.
My only bitch is the lack of GUI wireless PCMCIA card setup, which is present in Mandrake, Xandros, etc. In MS Windows, you plug it in and it works. In linux, it's not that simple at all.
The menu paradigm in the GUI world was taken from that of NCURSES. All you need to know is TAB, Arrow Keys, Spacebar, and Enter. The menus usually have some sort of message like 'Use the tab key to move between fields' and sometimes the same for the Enter and Spacebar keys.
Ncurses is fine, it takes literally one paragraph for someone to learn how to use it, and most pick it up intuitively. If you're going to run a distro like libranet and you can't figure out NCURSES then you'll suck a lot when it boots up too. There's a reason mandrake and lindows exist
Photos.
Not Linus Torvalds, the original creator of Linux.
See their about page
--mandi
I had something like 5 kernel panics over the course of 6 months under Slack, none so far in 8 months under Debian
What did you change?
I've been running Slackware for 5 years (on a couple of dozen servers, and on my home and work desktops and laptop), and have never _once_ had a kernel panic, in any version (from 3.0, up to and including Slack 8.1)
Performance was fine too - I don't know what you mean by "significantly better performance", perforance doing what?
crontab entry to do updates from security.debian.org can do them unassisted
You've never run an important box then, because no sysadmin worth his salt would ever trust something as critical as security updates to an automated process. You manually test each update on an offline machine to make sure nothing breaks (like maybe the config file changed?), then deploy it on the live machines. Trusting software install to a script is just asking for trouble.
And another commercial distro, Xandros, based off of Corel Linux 3 (which is, in turn, based off Debian), is due out in the next 3 weeks.
http://www.xandros.com/anticipated.html
"Our manufacturer indicates the product should be available for shipping in the week of October 21."
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
Progeny is still in business, but they no longer sell their Debian-based distribution; they have upgrade instructions for current customers to migrate to Debian Woody. So far as their being a distro vendor, Progeny is out of the market.
You can do this in regular Debian too, with kernel-package.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." - Thomas Jefferson
[Sorry, repost. I had cookies turned off in this browser so my login didn't work. Please mod down the Anonymous Coward version as redundant, not this one; thanks.]
Progeny Linux comes to mind as a commercial Linux distribution company whose Linux product met with good reviews, but couldn't remain in business.
I guess I have Santa Claus to thank for the paychecks I've been getting every two weeks for the past 2 years plus, then.
Progeny did discontinue its Progeny Debian product, but we remain in business and continue to do interesting things, IMO.
Address-collecting spam robots don't know how to crack ROT13. Do you?
Doesn't matter. You only need for it to crap out once to lose your job. I would never install anything on a production server without testing it first. It's just asking for trouble. Isn't that like the first rule of sysadm?
May no camel spit in your yogurt soup.