Software News

6

September 2004

www.linux-magazine.com

N E WS

Software

If you’re looking for a desktop Linux in
the smallest possible package, you’ll be
happy to know that Damn Small Linux
just released Damn Small Linux 0.7.2.

Damn Small Linux comes on what is

known as a Bootable Business Card
(BBC). A BBC is a business-card-sized
CD that holds a complete operating sys-
tem. You can literally keep a Linux
system in your wallet and start it from
any reasonably Linux-friendly computer
with a bootable CD-ROM drive.

Several Linux BBC systems are avail-

able, most notably the LNX-BBC system.
However, systems like LNX-BBC are
intended primarily as command-line sys-
tem recovery tools. Damn
Small Linux, on the other
hand, is an end-user system
on a business card. The
Damn Small Linux distribu-
tion is described as a “nearly
complete desktop.” It is
based on Knoppix, which is
actually based on Debian.

The whole system is

smaller than 50 MB, so you
won’t find some of the famil-
iar, but bulky, components
you’ve come to know on

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A Very Little Linux

other Linux systems. There is no room
for KDE or Gnome, but you’ll find the
Fluxbox window manager (which you
learned about in Issue #43 / June of
Linux Magazine), as well as the Dillo
web browser, Sylpheed email, the
Ted=GTK word processor, emelFM file
manager, and several tools for editing
and graphics. You’ll also find a DHCP
client, a web server, a SSH/SCP server
and client, and support for USB, pcmcia,
and wireless.

You can purchase a Damn Small Linux

business-card-sized CD for US$ 5.50
plus shipping or equivalent.

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

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Fire and Thunder

Mozilla announced the latest version of
their Thunderbird email client and also
released Firefox 0.9, which they call “the
award winning preview of
Mozilla’s next generation
browser.” These initial
releases were soon fol-
lowed by incremental
updates. The versions cur-
rently available at the
Mozilla website are Thunder-
bird 0.7.1 and Firefox 0.9.1.

The Mozilla foundation describes

Firefox as its “first product squarely
aimed at end users.” Mozilla has long
been a favorite with the Linux faithful,
but the foundation feels the greater pub-
lic wants features and more flash. The

Firefox project is designed to give
Mozilla the bells and whistles of the full-
featured proprietary browsers. This latest

release brings Firefox closer to the

upcoming debut of Version 1.0,

which aims to truly bring

Mozilla to the masses.

Firefox 0.9 includes sev-

eral new features, including

a new SmartUpdate tool,

tools for easing migration from

IE and other browsers, an exten-

sion/theme manager, and a new online

help system. Firefox 0.9 also has a
smaller (4.7 MB) download, making the
package more accessible to users with
dial-up Internet service. Firefox’s migra-
tion feature lets the user import

favorites, history, settings, cookies, and
passwords from Internet Explorer.

Thunderbird offers some of the same

advantages provided with Firefox,
including the extension manager and
smaller download. The Thunderbird
package includes advanced spam filter-
ing tools that auto-identify spam and let
you auto-delete or quarantine suspicious
messages.

The 0.7 release also provides a built-in

spell checker, a more customizable user
interface, and a new three-column view
of the workspace. Security features
include S/MIME, digital signing, mes-
sage encryption, support for certificates,
and support for security devices.

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http://www.mozilla.com

■

Leaving Windows with

Scalix

Scalix Corporation announced the
release of Scalix 9.0. The company calls
Scalix 9.0 “the most significant release to
date” of its Linux-based email and calen-
daring platform. Scalix 9.0 provides
cross-platform messaging and sche-
duling for enterprise environments
supporting Windows, Linux, Unix, and
Macintosh systems.

Scalix is compatible with Microsoft

Outlook XP, 2000, and 2003; Ximian Evo-
lution; Entourage, Eudora, Mozilla Mail,
and Blackberry handheld devices. Other
advanced Windows compatibility fea-
tures include a single Windows sign-on
and integration with Active Directory.

The web access infrastructure in-

cluded in the Scalix 9.0 release lets users
operate within their preferred environ-
ments, then translates messaging and
scheduling functions among dissimilar
clients. According to Scalix, this
effortless integration occurs with the
con-venience of a web browser and the
performance of a desktop application.

The cross-platform capabilities of

Scalix 9.0 make it an ideal choice for
companies that wish to gradually make
the transition from the Windows
messaging environment to native Linux-
based messaging. Scalix 9.0 is priced at
US$ 60 or the equivalent in £ per user.
Volume discounts are available.

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http://www.scalix.com

8

September 2004

www.linux-magazine.com

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File Systems for Clusters

HP announced a new file sharing prod-
uct for Linux clusters. HP StorageWorks
Scalable File Share (HP SFS) is a self-
contained file server that distributes files
in parallel across a cluster. The client
application sees a single file system
image regardless of the number of stor-
age devices supporting the system.

According to HP, HP SFS can span

dozens to thousands of clustered Linux
servers. HP SFS is based on the Lustre
protocol. In addition to better perfor-
mance, HP SFS provides better
protection from hardware failure with
built-in fail-over and recovery.

Meanwhile, Red Hat has been working

on its own distributed file system for
clusters. The Red Hat Global File System
(GFS) also lets a single file system span
across multiple storage devices. GFS was
originally released under the GPL, but
the controlling company, Sistina Soft-
ware, decided to make it proprietary in
2001. The move was controversial. Some
complained that Sistina’s plans were
kept secret while unsuspecting commu-
nity developers continued to work on the
code. The community forked a rival
OpenGFS project as GFS continued to
develop the GFS system under a propri-
etary license.

Red Hat acquired Sistina in December

2003, leading to the recent announce-
ment that the proprietary GFS will rejoin
the GPL.

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http://www.hp.com/go/technicalstorage

N E WS

Software

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Slack like Unix

The Slackware Linux Project, which cel-
ebrated its 11th anniversary in April,
announced the release of Slackware 10.0.
While many of the better known Linux
distributions have grown bigger and
GUIer in recent years, Slackware has
gained a reputation for back-to-basics
simplicity. The organization’s stated goal
is to produce “the most UNIX-like Linux
distribution out there.” You’ll find almost
no evidence of the recent trend for mak-
ing Linux more like Windows.

Slackware 10.0 comes with version

2.4.26 of the Linux kernel. But if you are
anxious to try out the 2.6 kernel, Slack-
ware 10.0 provides a pre-compiled 2.6.7
kernel, along with source code and

instructions on how to install it. Other
components include GNOME 2.6.1, KDE
3.2.3, and the latest X Window release
X11R6.7.0. Version 10.0 also includes
updates to the Slackware package man-
agement system that make it easier to
track and manage packages.

The ZipSlack installation option is

another interesting Slackware feature,
and another indicator that the free-
wheeling Linux spirit still reigns at
Slackware. ZipSlack provides a text-
based Linux system as a 45 megabyte
ZIP archive.

According to Slackware, you can simply

unzip the archive on any FAT or FAT32
partition, edit the boot partition in the

LINUX.BAT file, and you can be running
Linux in less than five minutes.” The Zip-
Slack system is designed to fit on a Zip
disk. Carry the ZipSlack zip disk with you
wherever you go, and plug it into any PC
with a Zip drive to boot Linux.

You can download the full version of

Slackware Linux 10.0 at the Slackware
FTP site. Or, if you just want to learn
more about the steady, inexpensive, and
uncluttered Linux distribution known as
Slackware, visit the home page:

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http://www.slackware.org
ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/
slackware-10.0
ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/
slackware-10.0/zipslack

Zeus Technology announced the release
of Zeus Web Server 4.3. The latest
release of the high-end
Zeus Web server provides
enhanced SSL performance
and improved stability.
According to Zeus, version
4.3 also includes closer
integration with PHP, more
flexible CGI management,
updated mod_perl support,
improved directory listings,
automatic MIME type
detection, and additional
reporting and analysis
capabilities.

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Heavy Lifting for XML

Cladonia Limited has released version
2.0 of its XML-editing tool Exchange
XML Editor. Exchange XML Editor sup-
ports XML Schema, RelaxNG, and
DTD-based editing. The editor also
features tag prompting, XPath and
regular expression searches, schema
conversion, and SOAP invocations.

Version 2.0 of the Exchange XML

Editor includes a comprehensive XSLT
debugger, a WSDL analyzer, and
support for the XML signature specifi-
cation. The SOAP functionality has
been extended to include SOAP with
attachments.

Exchange Editor 2.0 comes with

two licensing options. The commer-

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Zeus Unveils Web Server 4.3

The Zeus Web server is part of a suite

of web server and management tools

that also includes Zeus
Load Balancer, Zeus
Extensible Traffic Man-
ager, and Zeus Mass
Hosting Application. Zeus
also recently announced
a new release of Zeus
Extensible Traffic Man-
ager.

You can download a

free evaluation copy of
Zeus Web Server 4.3 from
the company’s website.

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http://www.zeus.com

cial license is available for US$ 98, £ 60,
EUR 85 and the academic/non-profit
license costs US$ 45, £ 29, EUR 39.

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http://www.exchangerxml.com