Honoring Opensuse Wiki Reviewing Contributions

we previously put a lot of efforts into encouraging the community to contribute to our Wiki Usability Concept for both the English and the German Wiki, i.e. to participate in the Reviewing Process of currently existing pages in order to provide the best openSUSE documentation resources possible. That said, a lot has been done since we started this initiative and I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone already involved for their hard work. It’s awesome to see the engagement of both wiki- and forum members coming together in working for a better openSUSE wiki .. great community spirit!
But still, there’s a lot to do and we urgently need even more engaged community members to participate in our efforts in order to complete the Reviewing Process in a reasonable timeframe. Contributing into support- and documentation resources of openSUSE actually is just as important as contributing in a developing capacity actually is. That said, we’d like to honor your work with the Reviewing (past, present and future) and I therefore announce that every community volunteer contributing to our Reviewing efforts for both the English and the German Wiki will receive ..
- openSUSE Cap for 10
- openSUSE Shirt for 20
- openSUSE 11.2 Box Product for 30 reviewed pages
- Chumby for MVP (see below)
After completing the whole Reviewing for both the English and the German wiki, the MVP, i.e. that particular community member with the very most reviewed pages will receive a special prize to honor his/her engagement, a Chumby. Certainly, if the MVP isn’t easily identified, we’ll find a work-around for that situation too. While I hope that this goes without saying, please do your reviewing with care (our goal is to come up with something awesome) .. “free-riding” certainly won’t be honored, our efforts are very important to the success of the openSUSE Project.
OK, in order to get started, please have a look at the Transition Guidelines[1a/b] and the Transition Tables[2a/b] for the English and the German Wiki respectively:
[1a] http://en.opensuse.org/Transition_Guidelines#Step_1_:_Articles_review
[1b] http://en.opensuse.org/Transition_list_table
[2a] http://de.opensuse.org/Transition_Guidelines#Schritt_1_:_Artikel_sichten
[2b] http://de.opensuse.org/Übertragungsliste
Feel free to participate either in the English or the German Reviewing or both, that’s up to you. Subscribing to the opensuse-wiki and/or opensuse-wiki-de mailing lists is recommended here in order to sync/keep in touch with the existing Wiki teams. Also joining the IRC channels #opensuse-wiki and/or #opensuse-wiki-de on irc.freenode.net would be appreciated for the very same purpose.
Please send an email to Rupert Horstkötter once you think you qualified for one of the prizes listed above (that certainly applies to all efforts since we started the whole Reviewing initiative .. past, present and future contributions). Special thanks goes to both open-slx and Novell for supporting this.

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The 10 Best Linux Distributions

I've had several people ask me what I think the best, top, most user friendly, ultimate, and so on distribution is--so now I'm publishing my Top 10 Linux Distributions in reverse order of preference. Ease of installation, commercial support, community support, updates, administrative tools, stability, performance, and to a lesser extent--their ranking on DistroWatch.com.

10. SuSE (SLED, OpenSuSE, etc.) - This bottom spot belongs to Novell's Linux offerings mostly due to the commercial version's lackluster performance and overall updatedness (if that's a word). SuSE Linux seems to be a bit behind the curve for updated hardware drivers. Though it's community-supported OpenSuSE is quite up to date, SuSE takes this last place position with flying colors. Novell's sleeping with the enemy status also helps drop it into the Linux distribution dregs.

9. Slackware - This one is really hard for me to put this low in the list because it was my first Linux love and the oldest Linux distribution (1993). I installed it using 3.5" floppy disks on a Compaq desktop PC in the fall of 1995 leaving out the almost impossible to configure X Window system (would have been 2 more boxes of diskettes). Slackware's Patrick Volkerding and his loyal following have done a great job over the years in keeping the distribution alive but sadly I haven't used it in years due to its lagging development and infrequent releases. It is also only developed for the i386 platform.

8. Mandriva (Mandrake Linux, Connectiva, Lycoris) - Though wildly popular in other countries, I never really caught on to this one. In fact, I even turned down doing an article for a european magazine that was focusing on Mandriva. I am not repulsed by Mandriva but have just never found a reason to embrace it for myself or recommend it to others as an option. The reason for its placement higher than either SuSE or Slackware is its popularity in Europe and South America. Mandriva has made significant inroads in converting many european cities and companies to it--so for that alone it deserves higher than average marks.

7. Fedora - I used Red Hat Linux from version 4.0 up to version 9.0 when Red Hat, Inc. stopped creating and supporting it. Fedora grew out of that original Red Hat Linux project. Once Red Hat, Inc. made that decision, I fired off a scathing email to them criticizing their abandonment of a huge and loyal following. Fedora has never lived up to the same quality or stability of Red Hat Linux whose pinnacle was the 7.3 distribution. I tried using Fedora for a couple of years but have totally removed it from my arsenal of available and recommended distributions. Its popularity is the only reason it is included in this position or this list at all.

6. Gentoo - This is where it gets really tough for me because I'm including this distribution in a relatively high place though I don't care for it at all. So, why the high status? Gentoo is a source-based distribution that offers extreme performance, has some of the best developers and community in the world, and it uses the FreeBSD-like Portage for updates. Gentoo has an extremely loyal and religious following--who I'm sure I'll hear from because of its 'bottom 5' positioning. Hey, it's at the top of the bottom 5, if that's any consolation. Gentoo is not a distribution for casual users but if you're really into Linux and like to create something awesome, you should give it a try. Personally, I just don't have the time.

5. Knoppix - Knoppix is the original Live Linux CD and is still the force to be reckoned with in that area. Almost all other Live Linux CDs use Knoppix as a starting point. It is Debian-based and has absolutely never failed me. It is the best equipped Live CD I've seen to date and takes the top spot amongst all its competitors. If you want to use a Live Linux distribution, this is the one to choose.

4. Red Hat - Red Hat, Inc. is the top commercial Linux company in the world. Like it or not, companies that use Linux in the Enterprise, use Red Hat Linux--it's that good. Red Hat is perhaps only second to Debian in spawning new and interesting distributions and projects. Red Hat now focuses on Enterprise Linux and recently acquired Qumranet to bolster its position into the virtualization realm.

3. CentOS - Community ENTerprise Operating System is my personal Linux distribution of choice. Once I abandoned Fedora Linux, I needed another distribution that had a true Enterprise capability without the costs associated with that level of performance and stability. I chose CentOS. CentOS developers use SRPMS (Source Packages) from Red Hat to build this distribution so basically I'm getting the latest incarnation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for free. By License (GPL), Red Hat must make the distribution available for free. The CentOS developers and community receive my highest praise for their efforts and I hope they keep it up for years to come. If you haven't tried CentOS, you should--I highly recommend it and use it daily.

2. Debian - For years, I shunned Debian as the outsider in the Linux World. To me, it was kind of the ugly puppy that you want to give away first so that you aren't stuck with it. It takes this coveted second place because of several factors: It has the largest worldwide community of volunteers who support it, it's one of the oldest distributions, it supports more platforms and languages than any other distribution, and has spawned more distributions and projects than all other distributions put together. I see Debian as more of a tool than as an end user distribution. To me, it's for developers and creative types to use as a base for other projects, distributions, and systems. On its own, it's quite capable but as a distribution base, it's limitless in scope. I recommend it to all those who want to build and distribute your own Linux flavor.

1. Ubuntu - You knew it didn't you? Ubuntu is the obvious choice for many reasons: It's Debian-based, has top-notch commercial support from Canonical, it's free, has frequent updates (twice per year for major releases), and its founder and benefactor Mark Shuttleworth is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet--who gives freely of his time, money, and energy to a myriad of causes--Ubuntu being only one. Ubuntu employees also appear to be the happiest of any I've ever met. They are congenial, inviting, engaging, and are truly excited about what they do.
Ubuntu offers a second-to-none Desktop Edition and a hard-to-beat Server Edition. Currently at 8.04 (April 2008), its fans patiently await the 8.10 release which happens in just over two weeks from now. Get Ubuntu and free yourself from doing Windows.

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New Ubuntu Release Available for Desktops and Servers, with Long Term, Global Support

Ubuntu, which has become one of the world's most popular Linux distributions in recent years, launched its latest version on June 1 following months of intense testing. The new release is titled Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Long Term Support), and has a specific emphasis on the needs of large organisations with both desktop and server versions.

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS introduces functionality that simplifies common Linux server deployment processes. For system administrators setting up large numbers of web, mail and related servers, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS offers the fastest and most consistent path to deployment, combined with the availability of global commercial support where needed. "Ubuntu has a reputation for working well out of the box on desktops, and we have worked to bring that same ease of deployment and configuration to the server marketplace" said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu project. "Based on our analysis of the ways people were already deploying Ubuntu on servers, we have aimed to streamline their experience while expanding the range of software available to people deploying Ubuntu in the data centre."

Ubuntu is freely available, including security updates for five years on servers, with no restrictions on usage and no requirement to purchase support contracts or subscriptions per deployment. Full telephone & online support on commercial terms is available globally from Canonical Ltd and other companies. "The economics of Ubuntu deployment are fundamentally different from those of other leading Linux distributions that offer commercial support" said Jane Silber, COO of Canonical Ltd. "Companies and individuals can deploy Ubuntu widely, and purchase support only for the machines where they need the assurance of a Support Level Agreement. This makes Ubuntu the preferred choice for large scale deployments where support contracts are not essential on every machine."

Sun Microsystems and Canonical also announced this week that Ubuntu 6.06 LTS will support the UltraSPARC T1 processor on Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers. These SPARC-based systems join the list of architectures for which Canonical will offer technical support on a paid, commercial basis, starting at $700 USD per year for a single server. For more information, please see the ubuntu support pages.

The Server Edition of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS includes a unique mechanism to set up a standardized, certified, and supported LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) server with a single command. The feature greatly reduces the setup time for companies providing hosted LAMP services, as well as making it easier for organizations to set up and maintain their own LAMP-standardized servers. Canonical Ltd. Also provides technical support for the full suite of components in the LAMP stack.

“This new (LAMP) functionality is the first of several planned fully-certified free software stacks in Ubuntu,” said Fabio Massimo Di Nitto, product manager of Ubuntu Server Edition. The acronym LAMP refers to four ingredients of the world's most widely used framework for dynamic website publishing. While many variations on the LAMP theme exist, these four components are most commonly deployed together. The process of integrating these components will often take several hours per server and leaves room for the introduction of security vulnerabilities or unnecessary variation in configuration between different systems. "LAMP servers were the most popular use of Ubuntu in the data center, so we focused on that stack first" added Adam Conrad, Ubuntu's lead LAMP developer.

Ubuntu 6.06 LTS also has a new mechanism to make commercial software available, enabling businesses and individuals to download select software from Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). There are a variety of solutions available this way already, including data management software from Arkeia, cross-platform development tools from Raining Data, PC sharing from Userful and virtualisation from VMware. Additional software for Ubuntu from ISVs will be added in the coming months.

" Ubuntu and VMware have worked together to incorporate VMware’s industry-leading virtualization capabilities in a freely available and easy to use manner for Ubuntu 6.06 LTS," said Dan Chu, senior director of developer products. "Any Ubuntu user can automatically install VMware Player from the Ubuntu package manager, and join the four million plus users of VMware worldwide for running virtualized servers, desktops, and virtual appliances. Hundreds of thousands of users have already adopted Ubuntu Virtual Appliances using VMware, and the increased integration between Ubuntu and VMware will further enable broad uptake of Ubuntu Virtual Appliances."

Ubuntu is part of the Debian family of distributions. As such it has an extremely wide selection of software that is instantly available to Ubuntu users, and includes some of the world's best-regarded software for the management of software updates and changes. "Debian is integral to the success and popularity of Ubuntu" said Matt Zimmerman, CTO of Ubuntu. "The combined efforts of more than 1,000 developers create a unique platform in Debian, which allows Ubuntu to focus on the specific needs of our users." Ubuntu is believed to be the leading version of the Debian system that includes skills certification from LPI, as well as certifications from hardware and software companies.

A special added bonus of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS is the inclusion of several chapters from “The Official Ubuntu Book”, which Prentice Hall Professional will publish in July 2006, under an Open Content licence. The book represents the collaborative effort of more than a dozen Ubuntu community members from around the world, in addition to the primary authors: Benjamin Mako Hill, Jono Bacon, Corey Burger, Jonathan Jesse, and Ivan Krstic. “We’re thrilled to have been able to develop this book in such close partnership with the Ubuntu community,” said Paul Boger, VP/Publisher for the Pearson Technology Group. “This book is truly by and for the Ubuntu community.” The book can be pre-ordered at http://www.prenhallprofessional.com/ubuntu.

The word "Ubuntu" is a special word in many African languages. It translates loosely as "human-ness" and speaks to the importance of the role each individual plays in their community. In celebration of that, this release of Ubuntu also includes unique video footage of an interview with Nelson Mandela, who speaks on the relevance of this philosophy today.

About Ubuntu

Since its launch in October 2004, Ubuntu has become one of the most highly regarded Linux distributions, with millions distributed and in use around the world. Ubuntu will always be free, and will not have restrictive licenses associated with it. With these goals in mind at all times, Ubuntu aims at being the most widely used of all Linux systems, and is the centre of a global open source software ecosystem. The latest version can be downloaded at here.

About Canonical Ltd.

Canonical Ltd. is committed to the development, distribution and promotion of open source software products, and to providing tools and support to the open source community. With a global organization headquartered in Europe, Canonical has employees throughout Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Australia.

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Ubuntu Server Evolution

The Ubuntu server is the most innovative distribution for servers. It enables administrators to gain access to cutting edge technology and implement that with new ideas. If you are looking for the latest and greatest, this is the server option for you.

Focus: rating 9
The Ubuntu focus is to provide an Enterprise level server that is cutting edge in technology and innovative in ideas doing this all with an interest in simplicity. The stated goal of the Ubuntu Server Team is “working on simplifying the system administrator’s life, while focusing on advanced features, rock-solid stability, and high performance”(https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/).

Source: rating 9
Debian was the source of the Ubuntu Server but in time, the distance between these two have increased as innovation has brought new ideas and technologies to Ubuntu. The distance is also created by Canonical’s determination to make two releases every year, on time no matter what. At this point Ubuntu is independent in terms of where it is going and so has no real dependency upon any other distributions and their development. Having a history rooted in Debian’s huge application base fits well with the Ubuntu Server focus and has brought many experienced administrators from the Debian camp to show interest in Ubuntu.

Stability: rating 8
Stability is based upon a user base of installations that provide feedback as well as a determined testing cycle. Unfortunately, Ubuntu cannot be cutting edge and innovative and be as stable as administrator’s would like. The biggest negative feedback that I have received from administrator’s who run Ubuntu in production environments is the number of bugs that seem to creep into the system. If you are unwilling or unprepared to solve small bugs on a regular basis, choose another distribution. Now, not to say that Ubuntu is not stable, it is, but you will consistently be nagged by small issues. The 6 month release cycle does not contribute to stability, other distributions like Debian and Red Hat have learned that.

Security: rating 8
Security and stability work together. As an administrator, you may be concerned about the small bugs and what they do with security. That is certainly something to consider. Again, Canonical cannot provide innovative ideas and hardware device drivers that are cutting edge and at the same time provide the highest level of security, it just is not possible to have both worlds. Developers have tried to implement security principles like logging into the system as an unprivileged user. Complex aspects of security that an administrator may choose like SELinux and ACLs are available but not installed by default. If your organization wants to employ SELinux choose CentOS/RHEL which is designed from the beginning for that purpose.

The Uncomplicated Firewall is designed to be an easier way to manage a firewall from the command line. Unfortunately it is not activated on start up so your server has no network protection initially. The Ubuntu 9.10 server brings three new features to the UFW firewall; outgoing filtering update, filtering by interface and bash completion. This now brings a total of 12 new features since the UFW was first released in version 8.04. Finally, the UFW is reaching a mature stage where you can use it instead of writing rules with iptables. This is a good example of an innovative security option that adds value to the system but was in an immature state for 2 years as it developed.

AppArmor enables protection against those zero day bugs, which is great but, AppArmor has several serious issues. First the future is in question for this application as the developers now work for Microsoft and second, AppArmor requires a creation of a security profile for each application. This creation process is limited by the amount of time an administrator needs to use to implement the application and will never be system wide in scope like SELinux. That said, more profiles are available all of the time.

Blocking the loading of additional modules into the kernel after boot is a security feature added to Ubuntu server among many others.

Cost: rating 9
Access to the install CD and repositories of course is free. Documentation from the community is better than most distributions. Ubuntu as a whole has a fabulous community and they are known for their contribution to documentation and forums. However, any consideration of cost must include the cost of solving small issues that arise with cutting edge software so be prepared to allow administrators time to work with these issues. Also, consider Ubuntu training options for administrators to enhance their ability to understand the Ubuntu system and how to use it effectively.

On the flip side of the coin, developers have been true to their goal of making the Linux server easier to deploy. Without actually installing a wide range of Ubuntu servers you would not be able to understand the hard work that has gone into the Ubuntu server config files. For example, when you install Postfix mail server the default configuration already has keys and TLS set up to make your work a little easier. These innovations are small points that Ubuntu servers do not always get credit for and they certainly will save an administrator time.

Features: 10
In terms of available features Ubuntu servers certainly are rated 10 for ideas that you may want to deploy like, Cloud Computing. The Ubuntu server supports the latest apache, MySQL, PHP, FTP, etc. This distribution is an excellent choice if you need cutting edge versions. Again, what Ubuntu gives up with security and stability it makes up for with features and versions.

JeOS provides a version of the Ubuntu server that is created for appliances. This provides an efficient way to use technology on those lightweight devices that so many organization depend upon.

Landscape, for a fee, allows you to manage a large number of servers from one location.

Ease of Management: rating 10
The use of apt-get is legendary and is a great tool for management. Innovative additions to applications like the configuration offered for Postfix make administration easier and installation process provides simple ways to install applications with security enhancements like MySQL, PHP and apache. Overall, management of the Ubuntu server is made easier by the concepts built into the server install.

Support: rating 9
Support provided by the community in bug reports, forums, and documentation cannot be beat by any distribution. Commercial support is provided by Canonical for those difficult issues that you may be facing.

Summary:
If you are using the latest hardware or if you want cutting edge technology supported by innovative ideas, Ubuntu server is the choice for you. One of the reasons we provide Ubuntu server training is that it provides a real contrast to that of CentOS.

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