Episode 048 – Happy Birthday Mary

Podcast: Play in new window

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

http://smlr.us

Downloads:

MP3 format (for Freedom Haters!)
OGG format (for Freedom Lovers!)
Total Running Time: 1:13:22

Un-edited Live session – http://youtu.be/N126dsvJP48

Contact Us:

show (at) smlr.us or the Contact us page

Summary

Kernel News: Mat
Time: 2:53
Distro Talk: Tony
Time: 5:27
Mary Distro Review
Time: 19:23
Tech News:
Time: 37:43
Is it Alive? – Mary
Time: 49:47
Listener Feedback
Time: 59:45
Outtro Music
Time: 1:06:56

Intro:

Tony Bemus, Mat Enders, and Mary Tomich
Intro Sound bite by Mike Tanner

Kernel News: Mat

Time: 2:53
Release Candidate:
On at, 8 Sep 2012 23:43:45
Linus Torvalds released kernel Linux 3.6-rc5
But there was no announcement

Mainline:
3.5

Stable Updates:
none

Kernel Developer Quote:
Is from Greg Kroah-Hartman

“”Real” boats all lined up in the harbor, and Kay Sievers trying to paddle away from me as fast as possible”

Distro Talk: Tony

Time: 5:27

Distrowatch.com

• 9-01 – OLPC OS 12.1.0 – Linux distribution created under the initiative of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project to provide children in developing countries with low-cost laptops
• 9-01 – Zorin OS 6.1 “Educational Lite” – “Educational Lite” edition, a lightweight Lubuntu-based distribution specially created for deployment in schools
• 9-02 – Liberté Linux 2012.3 – Gentoo-based live CD distribution with strong Internet privacy features
• 9-02 – Linux From Scratch 7.2 – a book of instructions on how to build a base Linux system from scratch by utilising an existing Linux system or a live CD
• 9-02 – SolusOS 1.2 “Legacy” – Debian-based desktop Linux distribution with GNOME 2
• 9-03 – Slackel KDE-4.8.5 – Slackware-based desktop Linux distribution
• 9-03 – SystemRescueCd 3.0.0 – live CD containing a large number of data rescue and disk management utilities
• 9-04 – Qubes OS 1.0 – Fedora-based security distribution for the desktop with a number of isolated domains implemented as lightweight virtual machines running under Xen
• 9-05 – openSUSE 12.2 –
• 9-06 – Kiwi Linux 12.08 – Ubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution with many popular extras, such as browser plugins, media codecs, archiving tools, etc
• 9-06 – Ubuntu Christian Edition 12.04 – Ubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution designed for Christians, as well as churches, Bible study schools and other religious organisations
• 9-07 – Network Security Toolkit 2.16.0-4104 – a Fedora based live DVD with a good collection of open-source network security applications
• 9-08 – PCLinuxOS 2012.09 “KDE FullMonty” – Linux distribution with a special desktop layout and a large number of applications
• 9-08 – Arch Linux 2012.09.07 –
• 9-08 – Chakra GNU/Linux 2012.09 – an updated build of the project’s distribution featuring the new KDE 4.9.1 desktop

Distro of the Week: Tony

5. PCLinuxOS – 1268
4. Ubuntu – 2045
3. Mageia – 2246
2. openSUSE – 2759
1. Mint – 2947

Mary Distro Review

Time: 19:23

Turnkey Linux Review
100 distros of Linux on the wall; 100 distros of Linux.
Take one down, boot in the cloud, 99 distros of Linux on the wall…

I must confess that preparing this Linux distro review was one of the most interesting and fun activities I have had to date, except when I won that bet with Mat! What I found so fun about Turnkey Linux is that it’s not really a single distro, but over 100 specially constructed, ready-to-use distros. These distros are special purpose distros—preloaded with an application package tuned and ready to go.

For this week’s Linux review I had to throw out my standard format—you know where I tell you the default browser, mail client, office suite, etc., because it didn’t apply.

The Vitals:
Name: Turnkey Linux
Maintainer: Alon Swartz and Liraz Siri
Distro Latest Birthday: 12.0 on 8/30/2012
Derivative: Debian Squeeze 6.0.4 (transitioned from Ubuntu with this release)
Kernel: 2.6.32
Review Desktop: N/A

Turnkey Linux is a set of ready-to-use applications—called appliances. TurnKey Linux appliances fall into these major categories:

Web development (LAMP stack, NginX , Ruby on Rails)
Content management (Drupal, Joomla, OpenPhoto, OsCommerce, etc.)
Business management (SugarCRM, SimpleInvoice, BambooInvoices, ProcessMaker, Lime Survey)
Messaging (phpBB, Zimbra, etc.)
Issue tracking (Collabtive, IceScrum, Bugzilla, Trac, etc.)
Database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, CouchDB)
SDK (cloud app development for Google, Amazon, etc.)

I was amazed at the breadth of available appliances. Each consists of Turnkey Linux Core

The Install Process:

There are several options for installing Turnkey Linux: locally (either on a virtual or physical machine—I used Virtualbox for my local testing) or via Amazon Web Services, specifically EC2 with an option to back up to Amazon S3.

You don’t need an account at Turnkey Linux to download and test an appliance locally, but you do need an account at Turnkey if you want to use Amazon Web Services. Setting the account up is easy but requires a form of payment such as a credit card.

Each appliance can be downloaded in six different builds from the Turnkey Hub: ISO, VMDK, OVF, OpenStack, OpenVZ, Xen. The two I tested were VMDK and OVF. Each is handled differently by VirtualBox—you import OVFs and set up VMDKs as existing hard drives.

http://www.turnkeylinux.org/docs/builds

I encountered a minor glitch during the process, and attributed to me not changing the default network setting in VirtualBox from NAT to bridged. As soon as I made the change, the Turnkey appliance booted without incident.

Launching in Amazon EC2

Rather than set your passwords, etc in the application during its install, Turnkey Hub takes care of it for you during setup.

Installed Environment:

When you first boot your appliance, you’re asked if you want to install security updates. TurnKey Linux is configured to auto-install security updates on a daily basis.

You manage your appliance status from the Turnkey Linux Hub site, including rebooting:
After booting, security updates are installed:

Good-bye Lime Survey:

Admin access to your turnkey appliance is accomplished via several options on the turnkey hub site.

1. Admin access to the application, to configure the user interface, manage the system, and other administrative-level tasks. add photos, etc.
2. Shell in a box provides command line access to the file structure of your appliance. Like any shell access you need to know the root user/password.
3. Webmin also is available and provides a robust GUI to a multitude of server administration tools.
4. SSH to the turnkey appliance.

Webmin’s interface:

Backups are handled by the Turnkey Linux Back-up and Migration tool—TKLBAM. By default TKLBAM is designed to work with Amazon S3 service, although it can be configured to work with non S3 addresses. Although the backup service is initiated from your hub dashboard, starting the service is done via web shell or of the service

If you already have an S3 bucket—you won’t see your TKLBAM backup volume. TKLBAM stores its data in an isolated area on S3. Consequently, generic S3 tools such as the AWS management console, or S3Fox can’t access the storage buckets in which TKLBAM backup volumes reside.

You can manage your backups from the comfort of your web browser using Webmin. Log into your appliance’s command line as root (e.g., SSH or web shell) and perform your first backup:
tklbam-backup. No other configuration is needed but you can set a passphrase if you prefer.

When the backup completes, you’ll be able to manage the new backup record in the backups dashboard. I did not spend any significant time working with backups. The command to kick it off includes a dash and for some reason shell in a box did not recognize the dash on my keyboard. Every other key on that row but the dash…go figure. Regardless of that, I was very impressed with turnkey Linux.

Rating: 4.5 cups of a very tasty brew.

Tech News:

Time: 37:43
Kenya Dumps Proprietary Software

The Kenyan government has issued a statement that they are getting rid of their proprietary software. They will be switching to Open Source alternatives. The purpose of the move is an attempt at cost cutting. The move is expected to reduce their software cost by 20% initially. This expected to grow to 80% over the next three years. The move is going to start with databases being moved to Open Source alternatives in the following departments the Kenya Revenue Authority, the Central Bank of Kenya, the ministry of finance and the department of integrated population.

---

Red Hat Buys BPM Technology Developed By Polymita

This purchase builds on Red Hats desire to improve productivity for end users. The move will greatly increase their move into the Business Process Management arena. This acquisition will help augment JBoss their enterprise middleware software. Here is what Red Hats vice president and general manager of middleware, Craig Muzilla, had to say:

“The ability to change rapidly is an absolute necessity for businesses in today’s enterprise environment. Organizations that do not empower their business users to quickly and effectively modify automated business processes forfeit the ability to remain agile, competitive and relevant. Polymita’s technology enhances Red Hat’s JBoss Enterprise Middleware portfolio and specifically complements JBoss Enterprise BRMS and jBPM.”

---

KDE Korner

KDE SC 4.10 Release Schedule
KDE SC 4.10 Release Schedule has just been made official. If everything goes to plan (and we have been able to keep with schedules quite good lately) we should be enjoying new 4.10 goodness by late January 2013.

http://tsdgeos.blogspot.com/search/label/release%20schedule

KDE 4.9.1 Released

The release only contains bugfixes and translation updates so it is a safe and pleasant update for everyone, including my favorite bug: 304249 – Long delay when moving window through title bar
14 bugs were fixed Sin Dolphin alone

http://dot.kde.org/2012/09/04/kde-ships-september-updates-plasma-workspaces-applications-and-platform

DigiKam Software Collection 2.9.0 is out…
bug-fix release. 
http://www.digikam.org/drupal/node/664

New KDE Game to be released.
What you see up there is a icon for a new KDE App Picmi, a kinda sudoku like game but more fun.. It’s still a work in progress but I think its looking nice and retaining that level of fun that games like this have…

http://pinheiro-kde.blogspot.com/2012/09/back-to-basics.html
=========================
Other “K” News…

Kubuntu release the first beta of12.10. Screenshots were included—and can be found here.

http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/09/07/kubuntu-12-10-beta-1-screen-shots/
=========================

How to develop your own Raspberry Pi operating system
Why use an existing operating system if you can bake your own? Well, for one thing, writing an OS is not an easy feat. It requires a lot of knowledge in a lot of areas regarding OS development.And it will take a long time (for some folks, anyway) to get it to the point where it even comes close to existing OSs. But it can be done, if you have the requisite coding skills, time and patience.
http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2012/09/04/how-to-develop-your-own-raspberry-pi-operating-system/

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/freshers/raspberrypi/tutorials/os/

Is it Alive?

Time: 49:45

Is It Alive (or is it dead…)?

During this segment of the show, Mary challenges Mat and Tony to identify whether a Linux Distro is alive or dead? This week is not twist week The items for the September 9 show:

====================================
Euronode was a linux distribution based on Debian.which transformed a simple computer into a high-performance server or router in a few minutes. Euronode scripts automated the process of installation and configuration: auto-detection of devices, partitioning, automatic installation, and auto-configuration of the system and services. Euronode never made it past its first release candidate

http://euronode.org/

MAT: Dead
TONY: Alive
VERDICT: Dead

====================================
Linex was a Linux distribution developed by the Extremadura Regional Government in Spain. gnuLinEx is based on Debian GNU/Linux, a distribution that, thanks to its design, makes it easy to create other distributions that can inherit its advantages and get rid of some of its faults.

MAT: Alive
TONY: Alive
VERDICT: Dead

===================================
GALpon MiniNo or Pussycat SHED is a GNU / Linux designed to run on computers with limited hardware resources.

MAT: Dead
TONY: Dead
VERDICT: Alive

===================================
Arc-Live is a Brazilian distribution live dvd and pendrive. The choice for x86 was made as this is most familiar to most users, but installations for other architectures are not structurally.

http://arcosvn.sourceforge.net/template/arcosvn_project.html

MAT: Alive
TONY: Dead
VERDICT: Alive

===================================
RIP – Recovery Is Possible is a small, specialized Linux distribution based on Slackware that includes system maintenance and recovery applications on a live CD or USB flash drive. The RIP disc comes in two flavors: one with the X Window System and one without

http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip/

MAT: Dead
TONY: Alive
VERDICT: Alive

===================================
Kaella (Knoppix Linux Azur) was a French effort at remastering the KNOPPIX live CD with complete support for French.

MAT: Dead
TONY: Dead
VERDICT: Dead
===================================

Mat: 3
Tony: 2

While preparing for this week’s show, I discovered that the Linux Console’s web site was hacked.

---

Listener Feedback:

show (at) smlr.us or 313-626-9140

Time: 59:45
Omar and That Dude – Same alphabet different letters!! Hilarious 

---

Outtro Music

Time: 1:06:56
Ibiza by Electrance

This content is published under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.