UnitedLinux Ready for Official Launch

Anonymous Coward writes " PCWORLD has the word that UnitedLinux has completed beta testing of the first release of its open source Linux operating system and is ready to launch the product as planned next month, said company manager Paula Hunter Tuesday at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in Frankfurt, Germany."

Comments

IMHO

[Znonymous Coward]

I have beta tested SCOs version of UnitedLinux. UnitedLinux is basically Caldera mixed with SuSE. It's not hat great unless you really like SuSE stuff (YASTA, etc).

Re:IMHO

[haggar]

Me too (betatested, that is). I was dismayed they didn't integrate COAS into it. I liked COAS.

On the other hand, I have to admit they packed a LOT of server and network management-related utilities in it.

All in all, it felt rather solid and professional. yast was a bit buggy and some features were missing, apparently. I am totally curious how the configuration is in the final product.

Shame they don't know what "Open Source" means

[Phil Hands]

UnitedLinux has completed beta testing of the first release of its open source Linux operating system
(emphasis mine)

Given that United Linux uses YaST as it's installer, the operating system is dependant up on that non-free (and hence non Open Source) program, which renders the whole thing non-free.

United Linux, like SuSE, is not Free Softwae, so it is not Open Source.

Re:Shame they don't know what "Open Source" means

[DickBreath]

From section 3 of the YaST license...

It is forbidden to reproduce or distribute data carriers which have been reproduced without authorisation for payment without the prior written consent of SuSE Linux AG or SuSE Linux. Distribution of the YaST programme, its sources, whether amended or unamended in full or in part thereof, and the works derived thereof for a charge require the prior written consent of SuSE Linux AG.

Re:Shame they don't know what "Open Source" means

[Phil Hands]

Since when does free software == open source?

since the Open Source Initative was initially set up to market Free Software to corporate types that don't like the F word, but do like the software.

Alternatively, since the Open Source Initiative based their Open Source Definition on the Debian Free Software Guidelines.

In other words, Open Source was always supposed to refer to the same thing as Free Software.

Of course, the Apple license went and screwed things up slightly, because the OSI decided to accept that as Open Source, whereas Debian, and the Free Software Foundation don't like the 12-month pulication upon deployment clause for various reasons. If you ignore that slight wrinkle, FS == OS

Either way, YaST isn't either of those things.

Re:No Info on UnitedLinux.com?

[Alarion]

Apart from price, UnitedLinux is introducing new features, such as larger memory support, to differentiate itself from the competition, Hunter said.

Uhh, large memory support is standard in the kernel? Any idea what this /really/ means?

note, that's larger memory support.

According to this whitepaper they are increasing the supported memory size from 1gb to 64gb. Here is a quote from it:
Large memory support
The Linux kernel is ordinarily limited to 1 GB of physical memory on the x86 32-
bit platform, with 4 GB of virtual addressing space. With large memory support,
Linux can take advantage of the Intel Physical Address Extension to support up to

64 GB of physical RAM and the full 4 GB of virtual addressing space per process.
In addition, with AMD x86-64, Linux can enable highly efficient flat 64-bit memory
addressibility for enterprise systems.