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Debian 3.0r6 Released
Polkan Garcia writes "The Debian group has released an update to the 'Woody' distribution of the popular GNU/Linux OS. From the site: 'This is the sixth and final update of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (codename 'woody') which mainly adds security updates to the stable release, along with a few corrections to serious problems. Those who frequently update from security.debian.org won't have to update many packages and most updates from security.debian.org are included in this update.' More good news: r6 is the final update of woody, the new stable release is coming."
...is YOUR woody secure?
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
before the usual rants about debian begin....
let he who has donated at least one line of code, cast the first stone...
I have really been looking forward to this release!
What the hell do you mean, finally? The last update to Woody was April 16th of this year.
Unless you know what you're talking about, please don't try to troll. It just makes you look bad.
The Yasashii Syndicate ||
Enough with the disney names. Name it something cool like Debian Kvlt Edition and you'll get your damn user base.
Once he'd got the employees up and running with Debian we let them try it out. It all seemed fine to start with: The Debian systems was a pretty good replacement for those shitty Windows boxes we'd used before and the employees could still do their work as normal.
Alas it did not stay that way. After a few days, I had lost count of the number of complaints received from our employees. Users could not do things they could before (like read their email). The final straw came when one employee lost several hours work when OpenOffice suddenly froze up, destroying the 70 page legal document he had been working on (subsequently, the defendant was sentenced to death.)
Needless to say, the Debian community, having been stagnant for half a decade, offered no support whatsoever. I made the employee destroy the Debian systems and lets just say he's not with us anymore.
As much heat as Woody gets from the Slashdot crowd, I think it is a good idea to have a stable release that doesn't update very quickly. Keep in mind that, as "old" as Debian is, it was released in 2002. It is no older than Windows XP (2001-2002 release) and is a good deal younger than Windows 2000 (1999 release). One of the servers I have an account on is a RedHat 7.2 machine, which is of the same era as the first Woody release. While I develop on Fedora Core three, I make sure my software compiles as is on a RedHat 6.2 system (2000 era).
For servers and corporate desktops, an update every three years is a frequent update. I am glad that Debian has been current with security updates on this three-year-old release; I would rather have that than the updgrade treadmill Fedora has me on. (The Fedora Legacy project seems to be comatose) In fact, I'm going off of the treadmill--my next Linux will be CentOS (a no-cost generic clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux) which will allow me to have sane updates--once a year or two instead of once every six months.
If it's set up by an admin, then I would add Gentoo to that list. Sure it's a PITA that you have to emerge a desktop environment and compile it, but Portage makes it worthwhile, and if you really nail it with Stage 1 installs (which would of course take a whole weekend for just a small office) users could have marginally improved performance on Linux.
SuSE probably the best option because of tech support for corporate customers though.
I only have a modem here and the closest I can get to a system that has some packages on it without sitting here waiting for three weeks to download is by running Knoppix, which is based on Debian.
My servers (all 19 of them) run RHE...
MP3 Search Engine
I use Linux on my desktop. Have been doing so since 2000. First few years I ran Mandrake, now I run ArchLinux. I also use Linux (debian) on my servers. I have 1 solitary windows XP machine sitting idly in the corner, in case I need it for something... so far it has been fired up when I need to play some commercial games. Even the majority of the games I'm currently playing (UT2004, Doom 3 and NWN) run natively on Linux.
Meh.
I've used Debian since RH sold its soul to the Devil. Debian is the most well-designed OS I have ever used... and I've used a lot. apt-get is simply amazing. Dozens of distros are based on Debian... why? Because, it's the most well-designed OS in the world. It just screams of good, thoughtful design that just works. I can install Debian and have a useful machine for 5 - 7 years (that's how good apt-get is).
Ubuntu and Knoppix are heavily modified to be bleeding edge desktop distro's, even if they started out as debian underneath. Come, every Linux geek knows this!
Meh.
Debian base install, even testing or unstable, is not setup as a desktop distro right from the get-go. You need to work at it to get it to the point of Ubuntu or Knoppix.
Meh.
This is the third nearly identical post you have made to seperate stories. Enough already.
Is there a SPARC port available on the new release?
Need a color? Try 100 random colors
Heck, I run ArchLinux myself on my desktop... and I needed to tweak it quite a bit before it was an everyday useable and productive desktop system. I really love ArchLinux, but would never dream of deploying it in the office.
Meh.
Any one know if or when Debian will transition away from xfree86? I know that 4.3.0 version is in Sarge (and Sid) and getting bug fixes. But what is the long term plan for X on Debian?
Do not read this
Alternate answer:
No. Maybe someone else knows more about this.
I have anecdotal evidence that binary distribution is faster than "source and compile" distribution, but I'm not even going to present it since my point is so weak (being anecdotal and all).
Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. -Anonymous
Is there any chance of Debian adopting autopackage http://autopackage.org/? I wish they did because though it (autopackage) might have its quirks, the best implementation to package manegement will not necessarily help in World domination. I undertsnd that M$ also is relevant here.
like "Debian Striker" or "Debian Savage" or "Debian Archon" would be cooler.
Meh.
well, the problem with your scroll wheel can be solved by adding a line to your xorg.conf file. Searching the gentoo forums should quickly lead you to the answer.
And a stage 1 install won't give you a noticeably faster system. It's generally considered a waste of time. Unless your on x86 and you wanted gcc 3.4.3 and nptl, a stage 3 should be fine.
I recently did a stage 3, then changed some settings so it would install gcc 3.4.3 and nptl and it took a few days to get the system running, but it runs pretty well. Besides, I don't think most people use gentoo because they think compiling from sources will give them a faster system, I think they use it because once you understand the system, it's easier to maintain than going through GUIs and such with other distros.
As much as people may complain about the age of packages that make up Debian stable releases, they serve a niche well and the project sticking to its goals on supporting many platforms and keeping the stable distribution static has provided a good alternative for those not willing to climb the upgrade ladder with distributions like fedora or ubuntu, or deal with any issues that arise by running unstable or newer debian branches. To each their own, and every release is a positive move for the stable users out there who value its characteristics.
Business Voyeur
Mod parent up, informative.
This isn't a bad thing.
That sounds good, but I hope that they're not just succumbing to deadline pressure and shoving this thing out the door half baked.
And get a brand new one for the price of a Windows Longhorn III license.
I run archlinux, which is a spinoff from slackware. debian and gentoo aren't the only two original GNU/Linux systems. I'm sure there are even many more.
Meh.
1. unfortunately no damn desktop environment on initial install
2. not all, but some Gentoo users are so far up their own arse they think it's reasonable to tell newbs to get lost and that if they stopped using Gentoo, Gentoo would benefit. Nice. However, I put up with Apple's support - like the bitch who couldn't give a damn when one of their computers was ordered early December as a present for Christmas and was delivered mid-January, so a stuck up volunteer based support community is better than a stuck up professional support community, and quicker too.
Yeah, I've edited /etc/X11/xorg.conf to include
#Option "Buttons" "5"
I'm hoping a reboot solves this as it recognised the 3 buttons, but not the 4th and 5th for up and down.
His retarded Debian? His retarded red hat? His retarded devil?
Speak up.
I forget what 8 was for.
I'm confused. So far As I can tell, the only difference between SPARC and SPARC64 Linux is the kernel. Debian of course has a SPARC port, so why not just choose the kernel as appropriate (or compile your own in the unlikely event that they don't provide both versions precompiled)?
Yep, I spend a lot of time hardening my woody...
"It's the smell! If there is such a thing." Agent Smith - The Matrix
The poster just copied and pasted some text. That troll has been around for quite a while now...
Without a proper flamewar, Anonymous was undecided on what shell to run.
Try this, champ: Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" Google for ZAxisMapping if that doesn't work for you, that's the right area to be mucking with.
All your complaints are obsolete. You know Ubuntu's ultra-mega-spiffy installer? Guess what? That's the new debian-installer which will be "official" when Sarge becomes the stable version.
You don't have to wait for that, however...
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Still, it's a pretty clever karma hack to re-post an insightful comeback to the re-post of a troll.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
The retarded poster's grammar is retarded. It should have been :
You're retarded.
The Internet's nature is peer to peer - 20050301_cs_profs.pdf
Thanks, I'd already set that, and changed the setting to where it pointed to by default to find /dev/input/mouse0 instead of /dev/mouse or something similar, and tried a cat /dev/input/mouse0. Clicking the scrollwheel here does produce cursor movement and weird keystrokes, so there's probably only one or two things out of place. I'm still emerging OOo and GIMP, so it'll be morning before I can reboot. Thanks for the tips, much appreciated. Especially considering the thread it's in where "Don't fucking comment if you don't know what you're talking about" is modded up to Insightful, and all these comments were parented initially by a troll - which I only regretfully realised a long time after my initial post and means I feel no guilt whatsoever abusing this thread for lite tech support and off-topic banter. :-P
<Algorithms> DareDevil2002: I am saying I am wishing for stable woody
<PaC> Algorithms: perhaps viagra can help you with that
--bash.
"What does slashdotting mean?"
"You've never heard of slashdot?"
"I know it makes websites not work."
Actually, I've been diddling with Debian (testing) on the desktop, and I find it a lot more amenable to running out-of-the-box than, say, any recent Red Hat release. Just apt-get new applications and go. Simple. The thoughtful design behind Debian makes installing a wide range of packages really smooth.
"The reason why there are so many based on Debian is because the Debian project leaders suck huge. RH may have sold its soul to the devil, but Debian is like the really promising super smart kid who found the joys of weed, and spent the rest of his life in a basement smoking dope, watching tripped out screensavers, and eating brownies.
Debian was great. Now it's just an old decrepid remnant of its former self. Many others have picked up in its wake though, so it's all good. Nothing lost, and all to gain!"
You're out of your mind. Debian is well designed, and that IS the reason other distros use it as a base. If it sucked as a whole, they would only use parts instead of using it virtually intact with nothing more than some individual configurations and a couple of custom packages. Debian is one of, if not THE largest single software project in the world. You think it's easy to keep up with something that huge? Exactly HOW is Debian "an old decrepid remnant of its former self"? Have the servers that run it suddenly started hobbling along or something? Not the last time I checked anyway. The #1 reason I see from the people for whom Debian is actually geared towards that are eager for a new stable version is so they can bring in new hardware. It's certainly not so they can have the latest version of KDE or anything. Those that do are wanting the latest and greatest bleeding edge desktop distro (note, this is not the target market of Debian by a long shot). So they went to check out Ubuntu. You think its decrepid too? No? Well how about this, all but a handfull (and a very small handfull at that) of packages that are in Ubuntu are *older* than what is currently in Sarge. So Sarge won't ship with the buggy xserver that's in Ubuntu. To me that's a good thing, how bout you? So Gnome won't have the 3rd menu item on the taskbar. So frickin what? Debian IS great. Doesn't HAVE to have a new release every 6 months, or even every year. Guess what? That's a GOOD thing. It's a core server distro (that actually provides a decent, solid and reasonably up to date desktop.. good for workstations, maybe not so good for the bleeding edge software snob). What's the comment about "picked up in it's wake".. last I checked, the child distros still depend HEAVILY on current Debian development.
BTW, I just saw the most inane thing ever on your website, the thing about the code in the ad which was obviously meant as a joke. Dude, IT'S A JOKE. Get it? Joke, as in supposed to be funny? As can be seen from you, seeming to take it all too serious...
"If you're a programmer you'll probably notice immediately that the code on the ad is totally invalid in any language. Not only that but it's formatted horribly!
I find this hilarious. No self respecting programmer would sign up with a company that gets something that wrong. And no self respecting company should hire someone who's that stupid.
Is this really the state of things? I guess I already have my answer."
Man, get out an have some fresh air or something.. or do you really have that terribly impaired sense of humor?
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "PS/2"
Option "Device"
"/dev/input/mouse0"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
Option "CorePointer"
EndSection
Lemme just try switching that to /dev/input/mice instead........
Much valued advice.
Need much sleep now.
I wish I had the time to write a program to compare the packages in the two distros. It shouldn't be that hard. I have wondered if some of the Ubuntu hype is based on the glitz of their web site vs. the spartan Debian web site. People want to feel good about what they are using, and the Debian site, while functional, is pretty unslick. Personally, I have been happy with Debian for years, and was tempted to try Ubuntu until I realized it is Gnome-centric. I am aware of Kubuntu, but the beauty of Debian is I can try both and be pretty much assured it will work. I don't want to have to change distros just to check out a different desktop.
or are there 7 discs to install this thing ?
Why on earth do they need 7 full CDs to install this OS ? That always throws me off and I end up burning 4 Fedora discs instead.
I will be trying out Sarge though, when it makes it out. I have heard too many good things about debian not to try it out.
I switched from Debian to Gentoo when I bought my first Athlon chip a few years ago. My reasoning was, why use a distribution optimized for a 20 year old architecture, when I can use one that takes advantage of my CPU's capabilities?
I saw this article and thought I'd look into Debian again, just to see what it's like. I figured since I've always liked apt just a tad better than portage, and I'm now switching to a new architecture (AMD64), the Debian packages for that architecture would be optimized for my chip. To my shock, there is no Debian release (at least not listed under their supported architecture section) for AMD64. They support the MIPS and Alpha chips (has anyone built a MIPS or Alpha CPU in this century?). They support the Motorola 68k series (which makes the Alpha look trendy). And strangest of all, they support the IA-64. AMD's 64-bit chip sales in the first month exceeded Intel's entire IA-64 sales to that point (and it had been out for a long time).
So what I have to wonder is: are they 1) just that far behind the times, 2) anti-AMD/pro-Intel, or 3) just assuming that since i386 binaries run on AMD64 chips, that's good enough?
Given that they expect Athlon32 and PentiumIV users to use the i386 binaries, I'd guess it's option 3. Years ago, I sent an old Celeron 300 and Pentium 166 to Hungary to help support the debian 586 project (according to this page they're still using them), but nothing ever came of it.
Is Debian going to cause its own extinction by not keeping up with the new technology?
An employee suggested to me that we troll on a few Slashdot topics as an evaluation. I was skeptical at first but he explained the benefits of trolling on Slashdot instead of wanking off in a dark closet. I decided to let him troll in 5 topics to see how the trolling got on. Besides, our IT manager had been trolling Slashdot at home and he hadn't reported any problems - why not try it on with our employees?
Once he'd got the employees up and running with Slashdot trolling we let them try it out. It all seemed fine to start with: The Slashdot trolls were a pretty good replacement for trolling on yiffy/slash-porn forums like we'd used to before and the employees could still wank in their closets as normal.
Alas it did not stay that way. After a few days, I had lost count of the number of complaints received from slashbots. Posters got wise to the boilerplate. The final straw came when one poster modified our troll post to make fun of us, destroying the 70 pages of troll feeding we had been working on (subsequently, the poster was modded up.)
Needless to say, the Slashdot community, having been stagnant for half a decade, offered no support whatsoever. I made the employee go back to wanking in his dark closet and lets just say he's not with us anymore.
I thought that apt-get had was unable to handle multiple architectures on a single system, which prevented a fully integrated 64 & 32 bit version of Debian. Has that problem with apt-get been solved yet?
Yes and no. The "biarch" system has been working for several years to support both 32 and 64 bit Sparc software. That same technology could be used now to support mixed 32/64-bit code for AMD64 processors, but Debian developers have opted not to do that. Instead, the new multiarch system will support an arbitrary number of architectures, very flexibly. That will not only address the AMD64 issue but it will also make handling of other x86 subarchitectures easier.
Currently, there are some Debian packages that come in multiple flavors because they benefit significantly from processor-specific optimizations. The kernel, for example, comes compiled for 386, 586, 686, K6, K7, amd64-generic, amd64-k8 and em64t, plus SMP versions of most of those. Mplayer also comes in multiple versions, though not as many. This is handled by having a big list of kernel-image and mplayer packages. With multiarch, you'll be able to specify that you have, say, an AMD64 processor, and then apt-get will understand which subarchitectures will and will not run on your system, and which subarchitectures are preferred. Then you can just pick generic packages and the system will install the best version. It will also handle situations like mozilla and flashplayer. If you install mozilla on an AMD64 box, you should probably get a 64-bit version for best performance. However, if you want flash to work, you have to install the Macromedia plugin and it's 32-bit, so you have to install a 32-bit version of mozilla so that it can use the 32-bit plugin. The new multiarch system will handle all of those dependencies for you.
So apt-get is perfectly capable of handling a mixed 32 and 64-bit system now, but only if the package maintainers set things up carefully (which is what most other distros must do). Debian has opted to forego such a "manual" solution and instead wait until the elegant and flexible general solution is done.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
I've been running on debian unstable for about the last 7 or 8 months - at home and at work. It is exceptionally solid.
Debian unstable for me has been more stable than either Fedora (both 2 and 3), and Mandrake. Dunno about other distros.
Debian packages break a lot less frequently than packages for most other distributions I've played with (slak, RH, Mandrake). Also, the scope of debian's package system is unmatched.
I was amazed when I was trying to install 'bioperl' at work (a somewhat esoteric perl library for handling biology data). I was just joking around and typed 'apt-get install bioperl', thinking to myself "if only life could be that nice". I couldn't beleive my eyes when I realized that bioperl was actually in the package repos. It blew me away.
So yeah. Don't complain about stable being old. Use testing, or even unstable. They're all very good distributions.
-Laxitive
Yes, but did it give you a woody?
See:
1. From the site: 'This is the sixth and final update of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (codename 'woody') [..]
And this:
2. [..] More good news: r6 is the final update of woody [..]
3. ???
4. Profit!
If forcing your operating system ideology on others genuinely were a form of rape, then Ballmer would be as guilty as sin. Remember that. However, I feel that if you, or someone close to you, had actually suffered a serious sexual assault, then you would not be so keen to bandy about the word rape in such a fashion.
Microsoft aren't about doing you any favours: the company typifies the whole souring of the American dream, where a corporation with enough money can always make more money by finding a way to charge ordinary people money for something they already do every day. If somebody invented a garden fence you couldn't talk to your neighbours over, I have no doubt in my mind that an American telephone company would start "giving them away for free" to encourage people to make more phone calls -- and would then begin lobbying to outlaw conventional fences, on the basis that they provided unfair competition.
It'd be funny if my government didn't think that American ideas were worth copying.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
debian point releases have always been a bit on the minimal side mainly because of strict rules on whats allowed in.
however the reason this point release was made now is because the infrastructure won't allow for a woody point release once sarge is stable which fingers crossed should be happening this weekend!
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Debian works just fine on my Russian surplus kerosine-powered 50 pound laptop. Of course, I had to get the kerosine drivers from an external source and modify the kernel during build to not use the coal-powered module.
I was amazed when I was trying to install 'bioperl' at work (a somewhat esoteric perl library for handling biology data). I was just joking around and typed 'apt-get install bioperl', thinking to myself "if only life could be that nice". I couldn't beleive my eyes when I realized that bioperl was actually in the package repos. It blew me away.
And even if a particular Perl module isn't included, you can build a nice Debian package of it from source or right off CPAN with this handy Debian Helper script:
dh-make-perl --build --cpan Some::Perl::ModuleThis works great, as you can easily upgrade or remove it. I use it for DBD::Oracle for instance.
zWhat would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
None of (1), (2) or (3) are true: There's this on Debian's Wiki, Installing Optimized Kernel Package, which points to the package list. The package list for testing/sarge contains 386-, 586-, 686-, K6-, & K7-optimised 2.4 kernels, 32-bit generic, 386-, 586-, 686-, K6-, K7-, 64-bit generic, EM64T- and AMD64-optimised 2.6 kernels.
They haven't even updated gaim in woody since MSN updated their protocol, it is a useless package
There is still AIM, Yahoo, Jabber, ICQ, etc... I wouldn't call it useless yet.
Just so you know... that ad is not meant as a joke. That's the scary part.
As for Debian's lack of stable released being a good thing, I disagree, and so do many many former Debian users. The few of you remaining Deb'ers always tout about that, but the numbers say otherwise.
And you argue that now it's just a core server distro, but that's not how it started. It may be that way now because you could never reasonably use it as a workstation machine, that is true yes. There used be tons of people using Deb as their main computer, now every single one that I knew has reluctantly (or otherwise) moved on to something else.
Look, you can keep living in your fantasy dream world where remaining stagnant is a good thing, but that's up to you. For the rest of us we have a thing called reality.
When 3.1 comes out next week or whenever, will Woody go away or will the existing package list that is Sarge just start to be called Woody? Or will they start calling Stable Sarge, testing Sid and unstable something else?
I'm installing linux on a new server and want to try out Debian. I installed Ubuntu last night which seems fine, except it doesn't seem to include some software I need, like spamassassin. I think I'll give the current testing a whirl, but if I want the sorts of package versions currently found in Sarge, should I install Sarge or Woody? If I wait a week and install 3.1, will I be "stuck" with packages that don't get updated for 2 more years?
These are the questions I ponder.
www.clarke.ca
I imagine in the near future a commercial:
For the sexy salesman in you, it's Oxy Toe Sin, because you want them to do your bidding.
It will be sold in little displays by plaid jackets everywhere. Or next to Rufees.
>>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
So this is Debian Server 2002 Service Pack 42, code name "Duluth".
so one of the last distros to actually support the minor platforms is finally giving up on them :(
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Unfortunately, -586 and -k6 kernels have been phased out. A rather unfortunate move for us since my laptops are -586 and three servers are -k6.
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