Announcing Bluewhite64 Linux 12.0! ================================== Bluewhite64(tm) Linux is a complete pure 64-bit GNU/Linux distribution. Bluewhite64 can be deployed on a single or multi core 64-bit AMD64 Athlon, Opteron, Sempron, Turion and Intel EM64T (Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology) based servers and desktop computers. Bluewhite64 Linux is reached version 12.0. Many changes, upgrades, new feature additions and improvements have been done here since the Bluewhite64 11.0. Among the many program updates and distribution enhancements, you'll find two of the most advanced desktop environments available today: Xfce 4.4.1, a fast and lightweight but visually appealing and easy to use desktop environment, and KDE 3.5.7, the latest version of the award-winning K Desktop Environment. We have added to Bluewhite64 support for HAL (the hardware Abstraction Layer) which allows the system administrator to add users to the cdrom and plugdev groups. Then they will be able to use items such as USB flash sticks, USB cameras that appear like USB storage, portable hard drives, CD and DVD media, MP3 players, and more, all without requiring sudo, the mount or umount command. Just plug and play. Properly set up, Bluewhite64's desktop should be suitable for any level of Linux experience. This version of Bluewhite64 Linux combines Bluewhite64's simplicity (and close tracking of original sources), stability, and security with some of the latest advances in Linux technology. Expect no less than the best Bluewhite64 yet. Bluewhite64 12.0 Advanced Features =================================== Bluewhite64 Linux support two Linux kernels at boot, the 2.6.21.5 (huge.s) and the latest stable version 2.6.22 (test26.s). These kernels supports all major file systems like EXT2, EXT3, ReiserFS, and Xfs. Beyond this, you will find IDE, SATA and SCSI controllers support, SCSI and ATA RAID volume support, Software RAID, LVM (the Logical Volume Manager, KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) and encrypted file systems support. Also, 10/100/1000/10000 Mbit Network adapters and Wireless LAN support is present. USB, Firewire, TvTuners and much more are completing the Bluewhite64 Linux kernels support. The kernels also support IA32-emulation for those who need to run 32-bit programs. The IA32-emulation is a lib-based emulation and you will need to install all the IA-32 packages from the /testing/ia32-emulation. Installing only the A (base) software series of Bluewhite64 12.0 you will have a minimal system with Bash 3.1.017 (GNU Bourne Again SHell), Bzip2 1.0.4 (a block-sorting file compressor), Coreutils 6.9 (core GNU utilities), Cryptsetup 1.0.5 (utility for setting up encrypted filesystems) Cups 1.2.11 (Common UNIX Printing System), Dcron 2.3.3 (Dillon's Cron daemon), Device-mapper-1.02.19 (device-mapper for logical volume management), Dosfstools 2.11 (tools for working with FAT filesystems), E2fsprogs 1.39 (Utilities needed to create and maintain ext2 and ext3 filesystems), File 4.21 (utility to determine file type), Findutils 4.2.31 (utilities to locate files) Genpower 1.0.5 (UPS monitoring daemon), GPM 1.20.1 (general purpose mouse server), hdparm 7.6 (read/set hard drive parameters), Gzip 1.3.12 (file compression utility), LiLo 22.8 (Linux Loader), LVM2 2.02.09 (Logical Volume Manager version 2), Mdadm 2.6.1 (manage RAID arrays), Pciutils 2.2.5 (PCI utilities), Pkgtools 12.0.0 (The Bluewhite64 package maintenance system), Sysklogd 1.4.1 (Linux system logging utilities), Udev 111 (dynamic device directory system) zoo-2.10 (archiving and compressing utility) and much more. A Linux system without applications is like a car without gas ;) . You may want to install the AP (console application) software series where you will discover dvd+rw-tools 7.0 (collection of tools to master DVD+RW/+R/-R/-RW media), enscript-1.6.3 (converts text files to PostScript and other formats), Hplip 1.7.4a (HP print/scan/fax support), Ispell 3.2.06 (spelling checker), Joe 3.5 (Joe text editor), Jove 4.16.0.61 (Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs), Linuxdoc-tools 0.9.21 (utilities for working with DocBook and SGML), lm_sensors 2.10.3 (hardware monitoring package), Madplay 0.15.2b (MPEG audio decoder and player), Man 1.6c (format and display the on-line manual pages), MC 4.6.1_20070309 ((Midnight Commander file manager), Mysql 5.0.37, (SQL-based relational database server), Sudo 1.6.8p12 (give limited root privileges to certain users), Sysstat 7.0.0 (system performance monitoring tools), Vim 7.1.012 (Vi IMproved), Xfsdump 2.2.38_1 (backup tools for the XFS filesystem) and much more. If you are a programmer or developer then you will need the D (development) software series where you will find Binutils 2.17.50.0.17 (GNU binary development tools), Ccache 2.4 (a fast compiler cache), Clisp 2.41a (a Common Lisp implementation), Cmake 2.4.6 (cross-platform, open-source make system), Cvs 1.11.22 (Concurrent Versions System), gcc-4.1.2 gcc (Base GCC package with C , C++, Fortran, Ada, Java, and Objective-C laguages support), Gdb 6.6 (the GNU symbolic debugger), Git 1.5.2.2 (the stupid content tracker), Make 3.81 (GNU make utility to maintain groups of programs), Perl 5.8.8 (Practical Extraction and Report Language), Python 2.5.1, (object-oriented interpreted programming language), Ruby 1.8.6 (Interpreted object-oriented scripting language), Strace 4.5.15 (trace system calls and signals), subversion-1.4.4 (a version control system) and many more. The E software series is reserved for the GNU Emacs 21.4a editor/environment. If you are new to Linux, the F software series is for you. This contain the Linux FAQ collection from ibiblio.org and HOWTOs from the Linux Documentation Project. Need to build your custom Linux kernel? Just install the K software series which brings to you the Linux kernel version 2.6.21.5, or, if you want to try out new kernel features then install the Linux kernel version 2.6.22 from the /testing/packages directory. The KDE software series brings to you the latest version of the award-winning K Desktop Environment KDE 3.5.7, Amarok 1.4.6 (music player), K3b 1.0.2 (The CD Creator), Knemo 0.4.8 (The KDE Network Monitor) and Koffice 1.6.3 (KDE office productivity suite). The KDEi software series contain KDE and Koffice International Language support and k3b-i18n (internationalization files for the CD Creator). The L (libraries) software series contain the system libraries needed to run all programs. Some major libraries like Glibc 2.5 (GNU C libraries), Gtk+ 1.2.10 (graphical user interface toolkit) Db44 4.4.20 (Berkeley database library version 4.4.x), Gd 2.0.35 (a graphics library), libmad 0.15.1b (high-quality MPEG audio library), Libogg 1.1.3 (Ogg Bitstream library) Libpng 1.2.18 (Portable Network Graphics library), Qt 3.3.8 (a multi-platform C++ graphical user interface toolkit) and many more can be found. Also, here you will find the Dbus 1.0.2 (D-Bus message bus system) and Hal 0.5.9 (The HAL Hardware Abstraction Layer). The N (networking) software series will help you communicate with other servers or computers across the internet private or public LANs. Here you will find Bind 9.4.1 (DNS server and utilities), Bluez utils and libs 3.9 (Utilities for working with Bluetooth(TM)), Bridge-utils 1.2 (network Ethernet bridging utilities), Cyrus-sasl 2.1.22 (Simple Authentication and Security Layer), Dhcp 3.0.5 (DHCP server and client utilities), Ethtool 5 (a tool for examining and tuning a network interface), Getmail 4.7.4 (POP3 mail retriever), Gnupg 1.4.7 (The GNU Privacy Guard), Htdig 3.2.0b6 (web indexing and searching system), Httpd 2.2.4, (The Apache HTTP Server), Inetd 1.79s (Internet super-server), Iproute2 2.6.16_060323 (IP routing utilities), iptables 1.3.8 (IP packet filter administration), Links 2.1pre28 (WWW browser for the console), Mtr 0.72 (a network diagnostic tool), Ncftp 3.2.0 (user interface to the Internet standard File Transfer Protocol), Net-snmp 5.4 (Simple Network Management Protocol tools), Nfs utils1.1.0 (Network File System daemons and utilities), Openssl 0.9.8e (Secure Sockets Layer toolkit), Openssh 4.6p1 (Secure Shell daemon and clients), Openvpn 2.0.9 (secure IP tunnel daemon), Php 5.2.3 (HTML-embedded scripting language), Proftpd 1.3.0a (FTP server daemon), Samba 3.0.25b (SMB file and print server), Sendmail 8.14.1 (mail transfer agent), Vsftpd-2.0.5 (Very Secure FTP Daemon), Wireless-tools-28 (utilities for wireless networking) and many more. The X (X.org server) software series brings the X.org 7.2 modularized version with XGL and Compiz support. You will notice many more X package than before, and it's probably best to install them all. There's been much activity in the X development world, and the improvements here in terms of performance and hardware support are sure to be only the beginning. X applications. This is the XAP software series where you will find the most important X applications such a Audacious 1.3.2 (A relatively powerful media player), Blackbox 0.65.0 (Blackbox window manager), Gimp 2.2.15 (The GNU Image Manipulation Program), gxine-0.5.11 (GTK+ media player based on Xine), Imagemagick-6.3.3_9 (a robust collection of image processing tools), Mozilla firefox 2.0.0.4 Web Browser, Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.4 mail application, Pidgin 2.0.2 (GTK+ instant messaging program), Xfce 4.4.1 (a fast and lightweight desktop environment for X), vim-gvim-7.1.012 (a fast and lightweight desktop environment for X) and many more. Downloading Bluewhite64 12.0 ============================= The full version of Bluewhite64 Linux 12.0 is available for download from the primary mirror hosted by inode.at: http://mirror.inode.at/data/bluewhite64 If the sites are busy, see the list of official mirror sites here: http://bluewhite64.com/page.php?5 Support Bluewhite64 Linux ========================== Please help support the Bluewhite64 Linux Project. Bluewhite64 Linux software is offered free over the Internet, so many users choose to make a voluntary contribution to support continued Bluewhite64 maintenance. Donations can be done using credit cards, PayPal or bank transfer. Please see: http://store.bin-sh.ro/bluewhite64 Enjoy Bluewhite64 Linux 12.0 ;) --- arny -- arny[at]bluewhite64.com http://www.bluewhite64.com