Debian Etch, the next major version of the Linux distribution, will only be available on eight architectures, with four getting the boot. Steve Langasek, a release manager at Debian, said in a mailing list posting last week that the official release of Etch, which is due in December 2006, will not be ported to systems based on the ARM, Motorola 68k, IBM S/390 and Sun SPARC architectures. . The move to cut down the number of architectures supported was discussed during a project meeting in March 2005. The Debian release team agreed that it was not sustainable to continue making coordinated releases for as many architectures as the current version supports. "This [move] will drastically reduce the architecture coordination required in testing, giving us a more limber release process and (it is hoped) a much shorter release cycle on the order of 12-18 months," said Langasek in an email at the time. The link for this article located at ZDNet is no longer available. . Fedora intends to embrace six platforms for its upcoming release, dropping two to streamline development and optimize the update timeline.. Debian Architecture, Linux Release Management, Platform Support. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
Any tech magazine is likely to contain abundant references to Linux. What you will not see too often are articles about other widely used open source operating systems. But alternative OSes do exist, even if they do not command . . . . Any tech magazine is likely to contain abundant references to Linux. What you will not see too often are articles about other widely used open source operating systems. But alternative OSes do exist, even if they do not command a great deal of media attention. One such system, NetBSD, is comparable to Linux in features but tends to be ignored by the tech press. In fact, one of the characteristics of NetBSD, according to the project's Web site, is "hype free." Despite the lack of hype, the NetBSD project actually has quite a bit to brag about, though its members generally refrain from doing so. It has been active for more than a decade, but its code has much deeper roots than that. Unlike Linux, the NetBSD heritage can be traced directly back to the original Unix codebase. Specifically, NetBSD evolved from the Berkeley 4.3BSD Networking/2 release and 386BSD. NetBSD's main claim to fame, so to speak, is its portability. Although ports of Linux are available for several platforms, NetBSD blows the penguin's doors off when it comes to platform support. Right now, the NetBSD 1.6 stable release is available for 36 platforms, and there are ports in progress for 53 architectures. The OS runs on everything from Digital VAX machines to the Sony PlayStation 2 . Even other BSDs cannot claim that kind of reach. . Explore NetBSD, an open source OS prioritizing flexibility and performance, renowned for its portability across diverse hardware and customizable design.. Open Source OS, NetBSD Features, BSD Comparison, Unix-Based OS, Platform Portability. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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