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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?"
Just curious, but what is noteworthy about Libranet? Is it an especially well balenced linux distro?
Libranet is a great distro for the non geek to get up and running with a debian box. I found it to be a great learning distro that put awesome tools, including a kernel compiler, into the hands of the average person. Without it, I would not have had the successes with linux I have had. There is nothing it can do that you can't do elsewhere, and it mix of stable, testing, and unstable may put some folks off, but I feel it is an invaluable tool for a niche part of the linux community. Libranet will be missed.
both libranet and ubuntu are based on debian. They both use debian's package system. Libranet is dead, long live ubuntu.
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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This is why you should never rely on one-man-wonder distros like libranet or slackware for anything beyond hobby machines.
You just *might* have found out if you had clicked on the article link. They're there for a reason, y'know?
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
is a Debian fork as I understand it...not pure Debian like Libranet.
I'm willing to help in whatever way I can.
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.
Although not a LibraNet user (I've been using Mandrake since 9.0, now switching over to Ubuntu), I have to acknowledge LibraNet's help in getting me past Linux's steep learning curve.
Having had trouble downloading Linux, I had ordered a stack of some 20 CD's or so of every Linux distro imaginable (to me at the time). LibraNet was one of them, sandwiched among Lycorix, Peanut Linux, Slack, FreeBSD, Pink Tie linux (Red Hat was going to sue unauthorized users of the term "Red Hat"), and the nine CD's of the main Debian 3.0 distro. For some reason I would keep getting errors installing (including the vaunted Mandrake with its "user-friendliness").
LibraNet was the first to install successfully, and make it easy to switch between KDE, GNOME, and ICEwm with the click of a button. It showed me what Linux was capable of. Even more impressive was the big button which simply said, "Recompile kernel". I never used it, but it was a shock to me that one could recompile the kernel as easily as clicking on a button. LibraNet impressed me with its multitude of screensavers. (Basically these were X screensavers, for which I have yet to find an equal that works with KDE --why are KDE screensavers so sluggish?)
LibraNet gave me the motivation to keep moving forward, to find what could be done with Linux. Kudos to the maintainers.
(I should sneak in a line or two about BasicLinux by Steven Darnold, who also showed what Linux was capable of, installed on a lowly 386 through a diskette.)
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
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).
Twinstiq, game news
Come on, can't you see the humor in an Anonymous Coward offering help?
I don't agree with your opinion : Score:0, Flamebait
As a former Libranet user (now running Kubuntu I might add), I find this statement to be poorly reasoned as well as off-topic. Just because they both are Debian based does not preclude that one has somehow usurped the other. Furthermore, Libranet has been around longer than Ubuntu, and the founder of Libranet recently passed away. Show some respect.
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
Good now that libranet is dead...maybe they'll open source their adminmenu tool so other distros can use it.
If it was in so much demand someone would of created an opensource version. Yast will be open source, Debian and Ubuntu both have projects. Most people seem to be fine with synaptic, apt-get and aptitude.
As for "Good" that libranet is dead is rather harsh, libranet showed how someone could take opensource software and create a business out of it.
Debian is a large scale (thousands of people) non profit with branches in many countries. Its less likely to fold than GE. It might gradually fall off but not fold. Further Debian is at this point a meta distribution. I'd say Debian folds when Linux like OSes are no longer needed or desired which means Ubuntu is pointless.
Isn't YAST already open? I know Mandrake/Mandriva has a solid GPL commitment.
Honestly I find it sort of disappointing that more distro's haven't taken advantage of these open gifts we've been given. Fedora with its clunky up2date and yum solutions is a good example. Urpmi and Rpmdrake have solved the problems associated with rpm's ages ago. YAST is a strong second.
Quack, quack.