I am currently compiling a list of upcoming releases of as many Linux distribution as possible. This includes alpha, beta, release candidate and full-release dates. The main resources for getting this information is DistroWatch and, of course, the individual distribution websites. Unfortunately, many of the official schedules are difficult to find and even if they readily available it seems as though the dates are shifting constantly. For this reason I would invite anyone to email me upcoming release schedules (along with links to the information, if possible) for any distribution.

Of course, I will be doing my own research to get the list started, and will be subscribing to many RSS feeds, but any help would be great! Also, a big site redesign is planned to take place in August and I would like to tie this release schedule compilation into the page design.

It is my hope that this schedule will be a great resource to those who are always looking to try the latest and greatest.

Now time to get back to this SimplyMEPIS 6.5 review!

Cole

PCLinuxOS 2007, also referred to as PCLOS, was released on May 21st, 2007 to rave reviews. Also, PCLOS has gained immense popularity having been the number two distribution over the last 6 months and number one since the release of the 2007 edition just over three weeks ago (according to the DistroWatch rankings). Want to know more about PCLOS? Lets go to DistroWatch to get an overview.

“PCLinuxOS is an English only live CD initially based on Mandrake Linux that runs entirely from a bootable CD. Data on the CD is uncompressed on the fly, allowing up to 2GB of programs on one CD including a complete X server, KDE desktop, OpenOffice.org and many more applications all ready to use. In addition to the live CD, you can also install PCLinuxOS to your hard drive with an easy-to-use livecd-installer. Additional applications can be added or removed from your hard drive using a friendly apt-get front end via Synaptic.”

Something I have been wondering recently is how the name PCLinuxOS came about. The name has never appealed to me, but it must to others judging by the DistroWatch rankings of late. As always, this review will be focusing on the “out-of-the-box” capabilities of PCLinusOS 2007 on my Inspiron 8500 laptop.

Follow the link for the rest of the review! (Read more…)

With the positive reception my Linux Mint 3.0 review received, I figured I would make reviewing various distributions a regular occurrence here at Shift+Backspace. Once again, this review will focus on my opinion of Fedora 7 straight “out-of-the-box” and what it can do with minimal intervention. Lets get to it!

Fedora 7 was released on May 31, 2007 by Red Hat and the Fedora community. The overview on the DistroWatch website gives a great explanation of the deep history behind Fedora.

“The Fedora Project is an openly-developed project designed by Red Hat, open for general participation, led by a meritocracy, following a set of project objectives. The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from open source software. Development will be done in a public forum. The project will produce time-based releases of Fedora about 2-3 times a year, with a public release schedule. The Red Hat engineering team will continue to participate in building Fedora and will invite and encourage more outside participation than in past releases. By using this more open process, we hope to provide an operating system more in line with the ideals of free software and more appealing to the open source community.”

According to the DistroWatch rankings, Fedora is currently the 4th most popular distribution based on the last 6 months of data, and is the 3rd most popular distribution based on the last 30 days of data. I think it’s great to see such a classic distribution (going back to Red Hat) at the top of the rankings.

Follow the link for the rest of the review! (Read more…)

Do you have questions regarding Linux, open-source or anything else tech related? Now is your chance to ask! If you have a question email them to me and I will do my best to get answers out within the next week. Also, if you have any thoughts or ideas for further content on Shift+Backspace, let me know as well. Due to the overwhelming response to the Linux Mint 3.0 review I have been plugging away on new reviews, most notably for Fedora Core 7.

Being on the questions,

Cole

Back to some Linux and open-source news! A couple of days ago, the first alpha (Tribe 1) of Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 (successor to Feisty Fawn 7.04) was released. Please be aware that this is by no means even close to what the final product will be as there are 3 more alphas to be launched before the first beta release. In spirit of my Linux passion, I figured I would download the Gutsy and see how it performed on my laptop. I realize that in my review of Linux Mint 3.0 I said that I would be hesitant to format…well…I did!

With Gutsy still being in the early alpha stage I figured a review would not be fair anyway whatsoever, thus this is more of a brief discussion of Tribe 1. First, if you decide to download the Tribe 1 image, do not install and expect to have a stable machine.

As far as the installation is concerned, the LiveCD booted as usual and installation performed just as in Feisty, however, it did take about 40 minutes versus the usual 20. Upon boot I was promoted to install some updates, most notably a new window manager, Compiz (Beryl was a branch of Compiz, but the two are joining back together). I was unable to install the restricted drivers for my Nvidia 4200 Go video card, which I never had a problem with before, but it was not a big deal since Gutsy was going to be on my machine for only a few hours. I did not experience any ill-effects while using Gutsy, but I was only browsing the web using Firefox. One more note on Tribe 1, Pidgin has replaced GAIM as the instant messenger (as expected) and the OpenOffice Draw application was added.

Well, there you have it, nothing exciting thus far, but really, do not expect much before the beta release in September. I will probably give the remaining 3 alphas a try when they are released and post about what appears to have changed (please note that I am not looking “under-the-hood” with these releases). The official release of Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 is scheduled for October, 2007.

For the official release notes on Tribe 1, please checkout this website.

Cole

One website that has been eating up my time the last few days is Wine Library TV. The face behind Wine Library TV is that of Gary Vaynerchuck, Director of Operations at Wine Library. Gary may look extremely young and may initially look to inexperienced with the wine industry, but do not be fooled! Gary is not only passionate and knowledgeable about wine, but is widely known for his skills, which have been documented in GQ Magazine, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and now his own online television show. I encourage you to read more about him.

If you have watched any episodes of this show (currently 251 available and generally range from 5 to 25 minutes each), you will notice the intensity Gary brings forth. While this may scare away many wine enthusiasts, I believe the intensity is creating a new market for the wine industry. The wines on the show range from cheap $8 bottles to those that cost many hundreds of dollars.

If you are a wine enthusiast or are interesting in hearing an excitable person review wines please check out a few episodes at Wine Library TV. If you would rather read the notes Gary has made, as well as his ratings, head over to his wine listing page.

Cole

PS. He has a great sign off at the end of each show saying, “Because YOU, and a little bit of me, we’re changing the wine world.”

Google Blogoscoped is one of the hundreds of feeds that I have in Google Reader. Yesterday, they posted links to two fantastic videos regarding blogs, images and general posting online. The ads are aimed towards young teenagers, but I think they are very appropriate for everyone.

Now, I have been reading comments on various sites about these videos and the overwhelming consensus appears to be positive towards the Ad Council campaign. However, there have also been many comments about how people should already know all of this before posting and that society should change with Web 2.0 focusing so much on social networking. I understand both of these arguments, but firstly, while people that post online should understand that anyone can view what they are doing, there are many that do not have this understanding or capacity to understand.

The second argument that society should change is a very compelling and even contemporary . I definitely agree that with so many young people using websites like Facebook and MySpace, social norms are changing. However, there are still creeps that use the internet to prey on unsuspecting victims. Hopefully, over time, society will begin to adjust to such technologies and gain further respect for the online privacy of individuals, but until then I see no harm in the release of these commercials, but do feel their effect on young people will be minimal.

Please head over to Google Blogoscoped to watch the videos!

Cole

Just a few minutes ago I was looking through statsistics as to where my site traffic comes from and noticed a new website, FSDaily.com, on the list. I had never heard of this site, even with all of my research into free and open-source software. The name stands for Free Software Daily and the site is essentially a user-contributed community like that found on on Digg, but with a focus on free software. My Amarok review was posted on the site and I was very impressed with how popular it appeared to be with the FSDaily community. FSDaily also uses the Pligg Content Management System, which I have been considering for the upcoming redesign of Shift+Backspace.

I was so impressed, not just with the content, but also the overall design of the site so I decided to email the creators in praise of their work and what they appear to be contributing to the free and open-source community. Unfortunately, I was unable to find any contact information, although I do believe I added one of the creators as a friend. Hopefully one of the creators will find this article and send me an email as I would love to learn more about FSDaily, its purpose and perhaps grab an interview.

I encourage anyone interested in free and open-source software to bookmark FSDaily.com, visit often and add me as a friend (username: antiprophet).

Keep up the great work FSDaily,

Cole

Last night I was sitting around watching some baseball when I decided to bring out my aging and dying laptop in hopes of writing a new article for Shift+Backspace. I booted the old Inspiron 8500 to find out that I still had an old beta version of Linux Mint 3. This spawned a great idea! I immediately downloaded the image file of the full-release version of Linux Mint 3.0 Cassandra. I now had my topic for the evening…a review of a complete operating system!

What is Linux Mint? For a nice succinct summary lets go to DistroWatch, the all-knowing Linux information site:

“Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based distribution whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including browser plugins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java and other components. It is compatible with Ubuntu software repositories.”

According to the DistroWatch ranking system, Mint has quickly jumped from a ranking of 44th in 2006 to 9th over the last 6 months to 5th and then 4th over the last 30 and 7 days, respectively.

Follow the link for the rest of the review! (Read more…)

Yay! Over a month ago I placed an order with Amazon.ca for three books. I knew they would not be shipping until early June as none of them were currently in stock. Anyways, I received them today and am so excited to begin reading and posting reviews on each book. Unfortunately, I am currently swamped with schoolwork and Shift+Backspace, so it may take quite a while to get some reviews out.

Here are the three books I received, 2 of which will fit in very well with topics on Shift+Backspace:

The Success of Open Source, by Steven Weber

Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software, a collection of works from many authors

The Ecology of Commerce, by Paul Hawken

Currently, I am working my way through No Logo, by Naomi Klein, but may have to set it aside to begin my new books!

If anyone has any comments on these or any other books you would like to suggest please post a comment or email me.

Cole