Libranet On The Rocks

An anonymous reader writes "Following the death of his father Jon, it looks as though Tal is going to finally throw in the towel with regards the running of Libranet. Given his age and his personal circumstances who can blame in? But on a purely selfish level, is there anyone out there who can help save my favourite distribution?"

Comments

Re:I'm sorry, but who?

[HiThere]

LibraNet is a Debian clone that has a very nice added administration package, and also can install Nvidia drivers off the CD. (Granted that most commercial distributions can do that, but a bog-standard Debian Sarge can't, and as a result my screen displays at unacceptably low resolution.

LibraNet is really "only" a Debian that's been smoothly polished...but that only covers a lot of usability. (I prefer using my system to tinkering with it. I may be a programmer, but I prefer to work at a considerable remove from the hardware.)

one man wonder distros

[Anonymous Coward]

This is why you should never rely on one-man-wonder distros like libranet or slackware for anything beyond hobby machines.

Re:one man wonder distros

[Pop69]

Slackware has a thriving community that is capable of stepping in to maintain the distro if anything were to happen to Pat Volkerding. This was pretty much proven during his recent illness.

Libranet doesn't seem to have attracted the same kind of following unfortunately.

Re:one man wonder distros

[martinultima]

By the way, yes, it is true that Slackware does have a community that is more than willing to take over if anything bad happens to Mr. Volkerding. (Sorry if this is redundant, but it is true.) As for my own distribution, a good number of packages are indeed hand-built, and it may in fact become independent of Slackware if worst comes to worst. Ubuntu, on the other hand, has stated explicitly that they would be nowhere if Debian were to disappear.

By the way, I will admit that while Shuttleworth does raise a few good points about binary compatibility, I would rather have a distribution that is compatible down to the very last bit with its "parent" – that way, if a package is available for the one system but not the other, one can simply download and install the package that's already available.

For example (correct me if I'm wrong), let's have a package pika which is in Debian but not Ubuntu or Libranet. If Libranet is indeed binary-compatible with Debian like I've heard, I could just download pika from Debian and install it on Libranet. Ubuntu, on the other hand, I'd have to either Google it, or if no one else had the package, build it from source, which can be a mess – especially with my favorite example of wireless drivers, which involve a lot of low-level stuff that can fail pretty easily if done by someone with little experience.

The same thing holds true with Ultima/Slackware, by the way – may as well just put in a quick shameless plug here while I'm at it. Let's say that someone wants FVWM2 on Ultima Linux, which doesn't have it in the default install [because I don't use it much, and Ultima's based mostly on what I use]. Rather than being forced to build it from source or Google it, the user could go to Slackware's site and download the package from there, because FVWM2 is included in Slackware proper. Because I try to develop Ultima to be as close to Slackware as possible, including using the same compiler and glibc versions and all that fun junk, it should work without a hitch.

OK, now to try and get back on topic, the point I'm trying to make is that if I were to choose a Debian derivative, Ubuntu or Libranet, I'd go for Libra. Really is too bad that they're closing... :-(

Re:one man wonder distros

[martinultima]

"heh, you prove the point: since you're the creator and maintainer the distro will only last as long as your interest in it or your life span, anyone else would be kind of silly to use it for production. My guess is slackware and ubuntu would only really last a short time beyond the lifespan of their leaders. For that matter, if Linus T. takes up another hobby or goes to the big happy hackery in the sky, I could see the Linux kernel flying apart in at least four major directions."

Well, as the saying goes, nothing gold can stay, eh? Although then again, the same could easily be said about Bill Gates & Micro$oft, or Steve Jobs & Apple... I have yet to see any of them dead yet, so who knows? Besides, even if I were the only user (not currently the case, I've gotten more e-mails from people using it than I know what to do with now ;-) at least it's a system that works for me.

"Ubuntu now has a very clean looking package management, and also synaptic. And AFAIK it does wireless pretty well when it supports your adapter."

Just out of curiosity, have you ever used it? Because if you haven't, I see no reason to listen to you. In my own experience, though, it didn't support any of the adapters I own. Even though none of them had a problem with Slackware, Ultima, or even Damn Small.

"If this post wasn't a blatant advertisement, then I dont know what is."

I congratulate you on your ability to discern acute details. I would have never known. But seriously, yes, it was technically an advertisement, I'll admit, but advertising aside,

#! /usr/bin/python
if ( "one man job" == "unreliable and poorly built" ):
print "Well, maybe you're right."
else:
print "I told you so!"

And for the record, I actually do try other distros, and am open to suggestions and stuff. How else do you think I come up with new ideas? ;-)

Re:one man wonder distros

[squiggleslash]

As long as the OS is under the GPL, or some other Free Software license, there's absolutely NO REASON to avoid one-person outfits. If the maintainer bows out, at worst you can support yourself, and in practice there will always be a sizable community ready to join in for all but the most obscure systems. The nearest thing there is to a problem amongst free software enthusiasts is that many have an aversion to forking, but there's no reason for that, especially when a distribution no longer has a maintainer.

While there are a lot of vanity distributions, it's also true that most of the innovation has started with individuals saying "This just doesn't work for me, how can I do this in a better way?" Slackware, for instance, had the first "packages" as we'd recognize them today (ironically, because of the work Debian and RedHat did to fix the flaws in Slackware's original model, there's a lot of people now who think it doesn't have packages at all. However, the concept of breaking up the install into packages of specific applications and bundles of tools and related files, with the user installing by saying "I want this, this, this, not that, this, this..." (etc) was something that originated with Slackware); Libranet is clearly popular (as this thread shows) with people who've used it who saw it as the first time someone had actually come up with a GNU/Linux distribution easy enough for them to understand.

I agree with you about proprietary operating systems. That's why I wouldn't touch, say, SkyOS with a ten foot pole. But GNU licensed Free Software? Why the hell not? What do I have to lose?

Re:I'm sorry, but who?

[oscartheduck]

Libranet is, as already noted, a Debian based distribution; at heart it is pure Debian. The major innovation is an administration tool called adminmenu. Adminmenu covers a lot of stuff, from rolling in a new kernel to administering user accounts to managing print jobs, to setting up a graphics card; all the little things that are otherwise a bit of a pain in the ass to a beginner. It's a one stop shop for almost every common administration problem. It takes the pain out of administering your GNU/Linux distribution.

Libranet is one of few

[node357]

Libranet is one of the few Debian-derived systems that can claim to be 100% compatible with Debian. Its main distinguishing feature is the Libranet Adminmenu, which is on par with Mandrake (Mandriva) Control Center and YAST. Adminmenu is simple and effective, and has allowed novice users to see results of "technical" procedures first-hand, which they can learn from without having to pass the grade just to use their computers. The greatest merit of Libranet is its tightly knit and devout user community, where humor and spirit abound and the answer to any question is usually contributed mere hours after it is posed. Libranet has a rich history, a great following, and a future that its proprietor really ought to consider hard before giving it up. Anyone who hasn't tried this distro has really missed out on a unique and effective approach to Debian GNU/Linux.

Re:Libranet is one of few

[gooman]

I agree. Libranet is a very nice distro. It always seemed a bit expensive, being Debian, but it offered some unique value, first of which is Adminmenu. Adminmenu is simple, powerful and polished. Using IceWM as the default GUI makes for a familiar interface without the sluggishness of KDE or Gnome (Great for older hardware). The selection of applications is well thought out. Of course there's apt get if you need something not included. For the newbie, it is extremely friendly and fast, a great way to learn Linux. I've recommended it for years. For the experienced user, it's just Debian, but still a very nice "Linux for the Desktop" distro.

My highest compliments regarding Libranet after Adminmenu is the community. The community is very knowledgeable and helpful and generally polite. I set my parents up with Libranet for that very reason, I knew they could ask questions in the forum and get answers without getting flamed and never wanting to try that again.

Since Jon's death, this was kind of expected. Nonetheless it is very sad news for a great distro.

Adminmenu

[HalAtWork]

Libranet allows adminmenu (screenshot), which makes it well suited for desktops because novice users can easily configure important settings such as Firewall, DNS & IP, manage device drivers, and configure/compile a kernel, through one simple interface similar to KDE's Control Center.

While kernel compiling and other more advanced functions may not be necessary for novice users, it allows people interested in learning more about GNU/Linux a springboard to access its deeper features and perhaps become more proficient with the OS & software.

IMHO, Linux could benefit from more tools such as this, not to hold the hands of people who have no business tweaking such features, but to allow users to "break the ice" with advanced Linux ditro features.

I hope that Adminmenu or YAST could be easily integrated into other distros, as long as these tools don't cry when users want to start tweaking settings from the commandline (then again YAST has a complete curses implementation, which allows you to use the same tool for remote administration as local administration through GUI, neat).