Vector Linux 6.0 Released

For a few months in the autumn, I used the previous release of Vector Linux as my main desktop in the town where I study. Now the project has released the new stable 6.0 Standard Edition release of the distribution:

The final release of VectorLinux 6.0 (code name 'Voyager') is now available. This release is a major milestone in the ten year history of Vectorlinux. With the unbridled enthusiasm of a community gone wild, we have forged our very own stable GUI installer and our repository now hosts over a thousand packages. VectorLinux is the fastest Linux desktop in it's class. We have exceeded our original goals of VectorLinux 6.0 and produced a beautiful, full featured stable desktop for a rocket fueled experience.

(From the release notes)

Vector Linux is available for download in several versions.

Arch 2009.02 Released

Arch is a very lightweight distribution for advanced users who are not afraid of the command line. The project has released a new ISO a few days ago. I quote from the release announcement:

2009.02 comes with the following features:
- Kernel 2.6.28
- Ext4 support. Installation can be done on a ext4 root partition.
- Rescue and maintenance capabilities for Ext4 root partitions
- Fallback ISOs with the ISOLINUX bootloader, for those that have
trouble booting Grub-based images
- Several bugfixes in the installer
- Brought the included documentation up-to-date
- Inclusion of AIF (Arch Linux Installation Framework), the next
generation installer, currently under development.

I have never used Arch myself but I according to what I've read it is a very good distribution to be installed an old computers. If you are new to Arch, start with the Beginners' Guide.

Another blog by me

As if trying to write one blog in English was not enough, I decided to start another blog for international audience. In my new Niche blogs with Adsense I write about my experiences with using Adsense on several niche blogs.

To be honest, I am not doing more than a few dollars a day with my blogs. But maybe I will learn something about eBusiness while writing for the other blog. At least I have learned incredibly lot about using Linux on old computers when writing this blog.

But don't worry, I will continue writing this blog also in the future!

Debian 5.0 Released

After 22 months of development, the Debian Project has released the new stable release of the distribution. See the release announcement for more information.

antiX M8 released

AntiX 8 'Intifada' was released yesterday. I quote from the project home page:

On behalf of the antiX-team I am proud to announce that antiX MEPIS 8 'Intifada' - a fast and light complete desktop and livecd based on SimplyMEPIS and Debian Testing, with a little bit of sidux,- is now available in full and base editions. This release defaults to a fully customised icewm desktop (fluxbox is also installed) In addition to the SimplyMEPIS 8.0 foundation with its 2.6.27-15 kernel and Assistants, antiX has an improved antiX-Control Centre, new scripts for screenshots, and phonebook. There are improved and extended themes and artwork for icewm and fluxbox. Localisation is much improved in this version. As well as including usual applications such as iceweasel(3.0.6), pigin(2.4), abiword(2.6.4), gnumeric(1.8-3), rox-filer(2.8) and claws-mail(3.5), antiX-M8 also includes the sidux meta-installer, an updated ceni and wicd for wired/wireless connections, UMTSmon - a simple connect program for users using 3g usb modems, firehol firewall, gnomebaker replaces brasero, urxvt replaces wterm. antiX-M8 has X.org 7.3, auto-login with latest SLiM, smxi, inxi, svmi scripts from h2, and Dillo 2. New apps include: zim (wiki), Gjots (notes), Grsync, parted and luckyBackup.

AntiX is designed to work on computers with as little as 64 MB RAM and Pentium II or equivalent AMD processors, but not K5/K6 processors. 128 MB RAM is recommended minimum.

I have used antiX 8 on one of my desktops (Pentium 1 GHz, 256 Mb RAM)for several weeks and I have been completely happy with it. See my comments on the test release in an earlier blog article
"AntiX 8 test release reviewed". I warmly recommend to install this distro on any old computer that has at least 128 MB RAM.

Lightweight Linux elsewhere

Just a short note today. It seems very few people have noticed that I have moved most of my short notes about cool applications or web sites to Delicious. I recommend you to add me to your network if you use Delicious. And if you don't yet use Delicious, I suggest you to try it. It provides a really practical way for bookmarking web sites.

And don't forget I'm at least sometimes active also in Twitter where I often announce my blog articles!

wtf is wtf?

I happened to install last week - quite accidentally - a cool little command line tool I want to share with you today. As I installed the package bsdgames in my antiX box I got quite a few text mode games installed. In addition to the games, wtf was installed in my system.

I'm not quite sure if wtf really is a game. It is a small tool that searches for acronyms and their explanations in a dictionary file. And in case you don't know what the acronym wtf stands for, you can let the tool explain it's name with the command:

wtf is wtf

Now that I have this tool installed in my system, I don't have to remember and google for AFAICR, AYT, CMIIW, FIGJAM and other completely unintelligible acronyms I encounter while reading discussions on different Internet forums.