[conspire] Distros available for installation at CABAL

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

One of the Linux distributions that has been repeatedly recommended at
CABAL meetings has been Libranet. There is a brand-new version of that
available now, but it's a paid-only version. The current redistributable
version of it remains the one previously available at CABAL.

If anyone is really short on space, the 1.0.1 release of Damn Small Linux
will be available at the next CABAL meeting.

The best-known RPM-based distributions have all been revised:

Fedora Core 4 was released prior to the last CABAL meeting, but FC,
although perfectly installable as a distro, should not be thought of as
such. Instead, we can consider FC to be a resource base from which to
build a distro, the best-known of which is RHEL. For those looking for a
redistributable distro based on FC, the new release from the Brixton Linux
Action Group will be available for installation at the next CABAL meeting.
The second iso, which contains everything that's on the first plus all of
FC3 and some "extra bits," will not be at CABAL due to size/space
concerns.

Conectiva has merged with Mandrake to form Mandriva. This is likely to
compensate for previous Mandrake inadequacies. The 2005 edition of
Mandriva has been released on a paid-membership basis, but may be
net-installed for free from either two floppy disks or a 14MB iso, which
may be downloaded at this coming CABAL meeting if anyone so chooses.
Redistributable full installation isos should be released by the following
CABAL meeting. Mandriva will be available for i586 and x86_64.

SUSE Linux 9.3 has been released in the retail market. There are three
forms of SUSE that are redistributable: the "live" version, the "eval"
version, and the "ftp install" version. These names are anything but
descriptive. The "ftp install" version refers to a boot floppy that
net-installs the full SUSE distro. The "eval" version is an iso that
installs the base system plus whatever else you choose in the distro. The
"live" version is an iso that contains a version of the distro that runs
from the optical drive without any installation. Version 9.3 should be
available in the "eval" and "ftp install" forms within a couple of months.
In the meantime, one may install from the 9.2 "eval" previously available
at CABAL, and update using YaST Online Update (YOU). The brand new 9.3
"live" will be available at this coming CABAL meeting for both i586 and
x86_64 to anyone who brings blank DVDs and preferably a DVD burner.