Just a quick note to everyone who had shown interest in this: I have now released version 0.01 of Katian. This release mirrors pretty much the state of my machine right now and I am putting it out for anyone who liked the first version but is looking for fresher packages based on Xubuntu Karmic. I do not, however, recommend installing it. This version is still very rough around the edges and also a bit transitional since I will try to base .02 on Ubuntu proper (with Gnome). The reason for this is that I have run into some limitations with Xfce — I still love Xfce, but I think full Gnome is getting a lot faster on Ubuntu and since I’m not really concerned with .iso sizes I will try if it suits me more. And yes, this distro is bloody massive already.  If you want to try it out, I really recommend using UNetbootin to make a bootable USB stick — It’s so much more 21st century and also saves the planet by not coating it in unused Linux distro discs.

If despite all the warnings you still want to try this new version out, you can download it here. Make sure you have a recent backup and enjoy! And keep your eyes on this blog or on the Launchpad page for news of version 0.02 which should be arriving relatively soon…

As I have briefly talked about on Episode 87, I have spend the last month or so remastering Xubuntu according to my personal tastes. I build the final .iso image yesterday and installed the first version of Katian on my main machine this morning. It still has a few bugs, but it’s mostly working and so I have released it earlier today as Katian Crow 0.00 — in case you are wondering, the distro itself got its name the same way that Debian did and the first release series is named after Crow, Adelai Niska’s henchman from the Firefly episode “The Train Job“. As suggested by this naming choice, we are talking about extremely unstable alpha software here. You are welcome to try it, but don’t blame me if your system looks like it went through a spaceship engine afterwards…

As I have said on the show, this isn’t really a distro and it isn’t really meant to be used by people other than me. It’s more about my personal choices in packages and desktop customisation than anything else and it is decidedly freedom-hating. It is also massively bloated, weighting in at around 976 MB, you could even call it Big Damn Linux in a way. I have learned a lot dabbling in creating this and will probably keep it up, if only to maintain my own versions for personal use. I am also looking at publishing a detailed howto article to document the process I’ve followed since a few people have expressed some interest in it. I will keep you posted on that endeavour. In the meantime, enjoy tinkering with the first release and file some bugs if you encounter any. Just remember to back up all of your stuff before downloading this!

Miguel de Icaza

Welcome to the new blog everyone, I hope you like it. Fab has done a lot of hard work here and I think it’s really paid off. I’d like to share some exciting news with you all and hopefully get your input too. We had Dan Washko from TLLTS on a while back talking about why he doesn’t like Mono and even removes it from all his systems. At the time I said we wanted to get someone on the show to give the pro-Mono viewpoint as we don’t want to appear biased on this subject. I kept mentioning this over the weeks as it dragged on, I was having trouble finding someone really involved in the project to come and talk to us but now we’ve fixed all that, big time! We’ve only gone and gotten the main man himself Miguel de Icaza to agree to join us on episode 74. In case anyone doesn’t know, Miguel is the creator of Mono. He also created Gnome (a true love of mine) and he’s currently working hard on Moonlight, an open and cross-platform implementation of Microsoft’s Silverlight. He’s also the Vice-President of Developer Platform at Novell. So it’s safe to say he’s a pretty big cheese, in fact think of the biggest cheese you’ve ever seen and then grate some more on top and we’re getting close.

I’m pretty excited about all of this as you can probably tell and I’m really looking forward to hearing what he has to say about his work at Novell and the wider issues in the Free Software world. I’m a bit late in writing this as the interview is only 3 days away now but I wanted to give everyone the chance to post your questions for Miguel too. To that end I’ve created a new thread on our Linux Outlaws forum for you to post your questions. Feel free to post anything you like, I can’t promise we’ll have time to read them all but we’ll use as much as we can.

Listener input is always important to us so please get involved.

I’m currently listening to Miguel’s interview on LugRadio Season 5 Episode 1 and I recommend it to anyone interested in Mono and the whole Microsoft relationship. We’ll try not to ask all the same questions but perhaps cover how things have changed since late 2007 when that interview was conducted.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts, thanks guys

Dan

EDIT:

We’ve had to postpone the interview for personal reasons so it may not be in episode 74 but will be as soon after as we can. We’re still very keen to do this and so is Miguel, it WILL happen I promise that. In the meantime you can continue to post your questions and discuss the topic on the forums. Thanks everyone, I’ll give you more information as soon as I have it.

Dan

Just a quick note wishing you all a happy holiday and a good start into the new year. I am leaving for my parents’ place in Duisburg tomorrow and after a quick stopover back home to release the final episode for 2008, I will be on my way to the Netherlands to spend the “time between years” in Zeeland like I did last year. I hope to see all of you refreshed and ready for more Linux Outlaws action in 2009!

Remember, we will skip the first week of 2009 but will be right back in the swing of things around the 10th, so stay subscribed to those feeds!

I recently created a simple, white Linux Outlaws wallpaper for my desktop because I wanted something LO-themed but more appropriate to the winter months. The design I came up with is nothing fancy but it ties nicely into the holiday mood, I think. It also goes well with any of those ultra clean & crisp glassy-looking themes that seem to be so popular right now. In fact, it is so simple, that it kinda fits any theme I could think of (it certainly goes well with the stock Ubuntu paintjob).

Since I have been enjoying this wallpaper so much the last couple of days, I have decided to release it to the public in the wallpaper section of the site for all of you to enjoy. Take it as a small Xmas present from your favourite Linux podcast. Enjoy!

On a side note, Dan and I will record the last episode for this year tomorrow and release it on Thursday night. We will then take a break over the holidays as I will absent myself to an isolated cottage on the windswept southern isles of the Netherlands that has no Internet connection whatsoever (I intend to bring loads of good, old-fashioned books). As I like to do from time to time, I am looking forward to spending a few days completely out of touch with the technology side of the world so that we can pick up the show fully refreshed in the first week of 2008. We will only miss one week, and I think that is legitimate over Xmas.

Update:

As I mentioned on the show, I visited Berlin over the weekend — which is my excuse for being way too late with the show notes this week. I also promised to link to some photos of the trip, so here they are. I do have to admit that I have used Lightroom to process these which is one program I was never able to find an adequate open source replacement for, forcing me to keep using it in VMware on Ubuntu.

I hope you will nonetheless enjoy these pictures and maybe leave a comment or two on my Flickr page.