Club Linux Coffs Harbour

Corrections are now available to address security problems to the stable distribution Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (codename lenny). Also offered are a few adjustment to serious problems in the Debian project's third update. However, the update does not translate into a new version of Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 instead users can expect updates from some of the packages.

Sudoku is a puzzle game consisting of a grid partially filled with numbers. The presence of a number in a particular square may tell you that in some other squares certain numbers cannot be placed, or that in some other squares certain numbers must be placed. You can then deduce how to fill all the squares on the grid.

The Debian package management system may tell you that if a particular software package is to be installed on your system, certain other software packages cannot be installed on the same system, or that other packages are required to be installed on your system.

Obvious next step - if you're insane - work out how to express a Sudoku puzzle as a set of Debian packages, and let the package management system solve the puzzle for you.

Only Microsoft Windows has a longer and less predictable release cycle, but the release of "Etch" is still big news for freedom lovers everywhere. It's not the ideal newbies operating system, but if you know what you want in a system, and want to customise yours precisely to your liking, Debian is a good place to start. Also if (like me) your livelihood depends on a stable, secure operating system you can't go past Debian. I've been using Etch since January on one of my web servers, and it's been running like a dream, precisely as you would expect from Debian.

Being included in a stable Debian release also confers an aura of trustworthiness over free software projects, and this release sees packages like OpenOffice.org 2, GNOME 2.14, KDE 3.5, PHP 5, and MySQL 5, enter the boringly reliable stage of their lives.

Also included in this release is the very familiar-looking Iceweasel web browser, thanks to the Mozilla project's misguided trademark policy, along with Icedove and Iceape.

As flocks of pigs soar majestically above the permafrost of Hell, Debian has announced a December 2006 release target for the next version of it's GNU/Linux operating system.  Incoming Debian project leader Anthony Towns promised to increase the "tempo" of releases, but I think it's fair to say few people expected such a dramatic result.

You have to feel sorry for Microsoft.  You know your operating system has serious problems if Debian can manage two releases in the time it takes you to get one out the door.