Viewing newswire

The Debian Project turns 18 today, 2011Aug16. Thanks to Ian Murdock, the Free Software Foundation, all the Debian developers and everyone else who has made Debian successful.

Throw a party for Debian Day 2011, post a Thank You to the Debian Project, or just browse the over 35,000 packages for something fun to play with today.

In part one we wrote a basic bare bones port check program, in this part of the series we take the next step and fixup a few issues plus begin breaking out the code. This small program is a decent introduction (but definitely not definitive) to network programming.

While the name "Netscape" is now mostly dead, its progeny continue to survive and develop. Many are familiar with Mozilla's efforts on the browser side, but Netscape also had another business -- a directory server business now run and expanded upon by Linux vendor Red Hat. Red Hat has been busily building out a major new evolution of Netscape Directory Server that will officially be called Red Hat Enterprise IPA (Identity, Policy and Audit).

Reminiscing aboutmy days at Progeny has me thinking back even further to Stormix Technologies. As a commercial venture, Stormix was a disaster, with an especially virulent strain of dot-com fever infecting everyone. Still, I'll always remember it as my first professional introduction both to free software and general management practices, as well as a snapshot of a surreal time in technology history.

Two weeks ago, I heard that Progeny Linux Systems of Indianapolis had closed its doors for the last time. The end was a long-time coming – in fact, six years longer than I predicted. All the same, I paused last week for a bit of nostalgia. Working for the company in 2000-01 gave me my first sense of my potential and gave me a sense of self-worth at a time when I badly needed it.

Founded by Ian Murdock and John H. Hartman in 2000, Progeny Linux Systems seemed for years like a modestly successful free and open source software (FOSS) company. Although it abandoned its original plans for revolutionizing networks, it survived the dot-com crash while many other companies had gone under, and its efforts to commercialize Debian were profitable after its first year and a half. By early 2005, Progeny had reinvented itself by offering update services and modular components for building specialized GNU/Linux distributions. Yet on April 30, Progeny ceased operations. What happened?

Bug stamp-out list for December 22, 2006

Return values are not just important but as age has taught me - essential. Use return values to your advantage and wrangle them when you can. Breaking things out helps, but making sure you let everyone know that you did break out some code might be just as important.

Bugreport for December 15, 2006

Bugreport for December 8, 2006

Bug stamp-out list for December 1, 2006

Bug stamp-out list for November 17, 2006

Bug stampout list November 10, 2006

Release-critical Bugreport for November 3, 2006

Release-critical Bug Report for October 27, 2006

Bug stamp-out list for October 20, 2006

Release-critical Bugreport for October 13, 2006

Release-critical Bugreport for October 6, 2006

I think that to our regular readers, I don’t have to explain who Ian Murdock is. But maybe there are people who came here from using other operating systems, and who may want to visit the following links to update themselves:

Some bugs have an additional set of tags indicating they only apply to a particular release: O for oldstable (woody), S for stable (sarge), T for testing (etch), U for unstable (sid) or E for experimental. X indicates that the package is not in testing.

Bug report for Debian. Some bugs have an additional set of tags indicating they only apply to a particular release: O for oldstable (woody), S for stable (sarge), T for testing (etch), U for unstable (sid) or E for experimental. X indicates that the package is not in testing.

LXer Feature: 04-Aug-2006

GNU/Linux -- Like No Other Hotrod, Ever

While others appear to be going backwards, Linux just keeps racing ahead.

'Linux supports more devices, "out of the box", than any other operating system ever has.'

"Yes, that's right, we support more things than anyone else. And more than anyone else ever has in the past. Linux has a very long list of things that we have supported before anyone else ever did."
-- Greg Kroah-Hartman, OLS 2006 Keynote

Linux vendor Xandros Inc is lining up new business desktop and server releases for the coming months as it looks to establish itself as the Debian distribution of choice for the enterprise.

The founder of the Debian Linux project and of a company called Progeny to commercialize it has taken a new job trying to standardize elements of the open-source operating system.

Founder of Debian Linux project and of company called Progeny to commercialize it takes job trying to standardize elements of OS.

Overwhelming demand for downloadable version of the LiveCD caused the site to crash.
Placeholder page with server links and instructions put instead.

Earlier today we posted an article about the dispute between the Debian Project and the former Debian Common Core Alliance, now known as the DCC Alliance. Before press time we had not received a response from DCCA leader Ian Murdock, the founder of Progeny. Now we have.

The DebCentral team is proud to announce the official launch of DebCentral.org, the first online community dedicated to both Debian GNU/Linux, and the many derivative distributions it has spawned.

In a timely -- and enlightened -- move, Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) Latest News about Novell has expanded the OpenSuSE project and increased investment in the China market. With the launch of opensuse.org.cn, Novell signals a commitment to build a strong developer community in what is potentially the largest global market for their Linux platform. According to an article at VNUNet.com, Novell claims OpenSuSE will be the only fully localized project for a global Linux distribution in China. Well, they may be for now, but they won't be for long, you can bet on that. Novell also unveiled plans for the opening of a research and development center in Beijing, a move bound to fan the flames of the Beijing/Shanghai IT rivalry.

At this year's LinuxWorld, the .Org Pavilion was a special section of the Conference reserved for not-for-profit organizations developing cutting-edge projects. The .Org Pavilion participants included X.org, Gnome Foundation, Fedora, and Debian, among others. But the news wasn't who was there, but who wasn't--the OpenOffice.org folks.

Progeny, which is aiming to commercialize the Debian version of Linux, is looking to "accelerate our growth," co-founder says.

Major Linux Vendors Form Partnership and Promote Debian in Enterprise

A company specializing in custom Linux distributions for device vendors and others has partnered with a vendor of off-the-shelf and custom appliance hardware. Progeny says NCS Technology can provide its customers with high-quality hardware, while Progeny can create and maintain custom Linux distributions for NCS's customers.

A number of companies are working together to promote the commercial use of the Debian Linux distribution, in a consortium that is due to be announced at LinuxWorld in California next month.

Lead by Progeny, numerous Debian Linux distribution companies and nonprofits consider forming a common core server distribution for the enterprise. But Mandriva and Turbolinux are rethinking their involvement.

Linuxlookup.com is report a story on sources close to Mandriva, Progeny and Turbolinux say the trio of companies will be announcing a new enterprise Linux distribution based on Debian Linux at the LinuxWorld event in San Francisco in August. This new enterprise distribution, which may include other companies as well, will be built on the foundation of the Debian 3.1 "Sarge" Linux distribution.

OSDir.com Weekly Screenshot Tours for June 11, 2005. We had another great week in the screenshot department at OSDir, grabbing nice shots of SLAX 5.0.5 Popcorn Edition, B2D 20050603 PureKDE, Progeny Debian 3.0 Preview 2, Kaella 2.0.1, Kate OS 2.01, Berry Linux 0.58, FoX Linux 0.8, KOffice 1.4 Release Candidate and Klax KDE 3.4.1 Live-CD.

Ian Murdock, founder of the Debian project, chairman and chief strategist of Progeny will be our guest

On April 17, Branden Robinson, a senior employee at Progeny Linux Systems, took over the role of Debian Project Leader (DPL) from Martin Michlmayr. For Robinson, the moment was a long time coming. Having run unsuccessfully for DPL every year since 2001, Robinson had taken to making joking comparisons of himself with William Jennings Bryan, the perennial candidate for the American presidency in the first decades of the 20th Century.

In June 2001, Progeny Linux Systems was in crisis. Looking around, co-founder and CEO Ian Murdock realized that the company needed fundamental changes to survive. Four years later, Progeny is back up to its former staffing levels and showing modest profits. It is also one of the few Free/Open Source Software (FOSS)-based companies from that era to survive. Murdock's assessment of where the company went wrong and his story of how it reinvented itself offer some practical suggestions for other start-ups, especially FOSS-based ones.

In June 2001, Progeny Linux Systems was in crisis. Looking around, co-founder and CEO Ian Murdock realized that the company needed fundamental changes to survive. Four years later, Progeny is back up to its former staffing levels and showing modest profits. It is also one of the few Free/Open Source Software (FOSS)-based companies from that era to survive. Murdock's assessment of where the company went wrong and his story of how it reinvented itself offer some practical suggestions for other start-ups, especially FOSS-based ones. Progeny Linux Systems was founded in early 2001 with modest funding from the Linux Capital Group, a short-lived venture in which Bruce Perens was co-founder and president. By May, Progeny was hiring rapidly and beginning develop Linux NOW (Network of Workstations), an updated version of Sprite, a research operating system developed at the University of California-Berkeley that provided a single system image to a cluster of work stations.

Last week OSDir.com surpassed their 100th Linux and open source screenshot tour, which has become an invaluable resource to the open source community.

Progeny Linux does Debian one step better. If you like Ubuntu you'll love Progeny. A slick GNOME desktop, a solid Debian core, and the Anaconda installer have made Progeny my new desktop of choice. Progeny has also recently become part of the Linux Core Consortium (LCC) to implement Linux Standard Base (LSB) 2.0. Watch your back Ubuntu for Progeny's new 'Progeny Debian 2.0 Developer Edition RC1' release.

At OSDir we just had to install this distro, and take some screenshots. Our screenshot tour will take you from boot, through the installation, to the desktop. Then we'll have a look at the taskbar, menus, system configuration, and a few of the newly added features of this great distro.

Linux could be about to fork. In a worrying parallel to the issue that stopped Unix becoming a mass-market product in the 1980s - leaving the field clear for Microsoft - a recent open source conference saw a leading Linux kernel developer predict that there could soon be two versions of the Linux kernel.

Senior IBM executives claim a few key government departments will drive the momentum around Linux on the client.

We're very pleased to announce that Connectiva, Mandrakesoft, Progeny and Turbolinux today announce the creation of a common implementation of the LSB 2.0 which will serve as the base for future products. The project, called "Linux Core Consortium" (LCC), is backed by Linux supporters such as Computer Associates, HP, Novell, Red Hat, Sun, OSDL, and the Free Standards Group.

While many Red Hat users progressed from Red Hat's versions 7 through 9 into Fedora or Enterprise Linux, some individuals and firms may have been too highly leveraged with production servers to just drop everything and migrate to new operating system installs.

Red Hat is turning off its Red Hat Linux 9 support April 30, but on May 1, Progeny will be turning on its support for the distribution.

To allow optimization for depth, a new kind of distribution is needed--a componentized distribution from which users may build platforms from the bottom up, including only the features and technologies their products require. Progeny is building such a distribution, which we call (cleverly enough) componentized Linux. Furthermore, we are building it in the open as a community project in the hopes that others will be intrigued with the concept, collaborate with us on the component infrastructure and underlying open-source technologies (Anaconda, APT, etc.) and ultimately build their own components too.