source: projects/web/trunk/vlmagazine/20110617.dat @ 4230

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1<date>
22011,06,17
3
4<author>
5shaolin
6
7<title>
8Brief Introduction to Vine Linux for non-Japanese people
9
10<description>
11</p>
12
13<h3>PREFACE</h3>
14
15<p>
16<em>This article was originally prepared and would have been released
17before the 3.11, but was forgotten somewhere in my harddrive for several months.
18Now on the day the first beta version of Vine Linux 6 was released,
19this humble document is finally here...<br />Jun. 17, 2011<br />Kohji 'Shaolin' Matsubayashi</em>
20</p>
21
22<br />
23
24<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2>
25
26<p>
27It's been <strong>over eleven years</strong> since the first release of the
28<strong>Vine Linux</strong> (version 1.0) was out - over eleven years.
29Interestingly, there had been so many variations of Japanese GNU/Linux
30distributions so far - community-based, commercial products, or whatever.
31Many of them had been discontiuned after the sweet old "Linux Boom" was
32over in the last decade - and some "mainstreams" - Red Hat (and Fedora),
33Debian, Ubuntu, etc. - have survived.
34</p>
35
36<p>
37Our distribution also had some ups and downs in its own history,
38but anyway we are still cruising gently the vast sea of the Open/Libre Source
39world. And now we are now working very hard on our next major release,
40version 6.0.
41</p>
42
43<p>
44Our distribution, Vine Linux, has always been aimed for people who lives
45in Japan and for people who primarily use Japanese language on computers
46- mainly for desktop and small server purpose.
47As a matter of fact, almost all information on Vine Linux has been
48available only in Japanese language (except a small amount of brief
49introduction in English, such as on
50<a href="http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=vine" target="_blank">DistroWatch.com</a>.
51We once had English version of our website as well as Japanese version,
52but the contents sometimes tended to be a bit outdated,
53and recently have been not available since our site renewal this year.
54</p>
55
56<p>
57So I think it better to have a <strong>brief</strong> introduction here
58in our own words, on our own website - wouldn't it be better than nothing?
59</p>
60
61<br />
62
63<h2>BRIEF HISTORY</h2>
64
65<p>
66Vine Linux is completely a community-based distribution,
67whose ancesor was a collection of &ldquo;Japanese add-on&rdquo; packages.
68Since its start, every developer has been also a daily Vine Linux user.
69</p>
70
71<p>
72Our newest release is Vine Linux 5.2 (out in Nov. 2010),
73a bugfix and enhanced version of Vine Linux 5 (Aug. 2009)
74...slow progress? Maybe.
75</p>
76
77<p>
78Here's the matrix how we have stepped forward like a slow
79but steady snail:
80</p>
81
82<blockquote><pre>
83Nov. 1998       The first announcement of Vine Linux development
84Mar. 1999       Vine Linux 1.0 (i386)
85Jun. 1999       Vine Linux 1.1 (i386)
86
87Apr. 2000       Vine Linux 2.0 (i386)
88Jul. 2000       Vine Linux 2.0 (ppc, for PowerPC Macs)
89Nov. 2000       Vine Linux 2.1 (i386,ppc,sparc,alpha)
90Mar. 2001       Vine Linux 2.1.5 (i386,ppc,sparc,alpha)
91
92Apr. 2002       Vine Linux 2.5 (i386,ppc)
93Nov. 2002       Vine Linux 2.6 (i386,ppc)
94
95Aug. 2004       Vine Linux 3.0 (i386,ppc)
96Nov. 2004       Vine Linux 3.1 (i386,ppc)
97Sep. 2005       Vine Linux 3.2 (i386)
98
99Nov. 2006       Vine Linux 4.0 (i386,ppc)
100Feb. 2007       Vine Linux 4.1 (i386,ppc)
101Dec. 2007       Vine Linux 4.2 (i386,ppc)
102
103Aug. 2009       Vine Linux 5.0 (i386,x86_64,ppc)
104Feb. 2010       Vine Linux 5.1 (i386,x86_64,ppc)
105Nov. 2010       Vine Linux 5.2 (i386,x86_64,ppc)
106
107Jul. 2011       Vine Linux 6.0 (scheduled, i686, x86_64)
108</pre></blockquote>
109
110<p>
111Similar to popular versioning schemes in the computer software field,
112the first digit (before the decimal point) denotes the major version,
113while the digit after the decimal point stands for the minor version.
114We are working on the next major version, 6.0 (will be out hopefully
115next month), but we have only five major versions so far in the last
116eleven years.
117</p>
118
119<br />
120
121<h2>OUR POLICIES</h2>
122
123<p>
124This slow progress on the other hand shows one of our policies
125- <strong>keep our distribution stable</strong>,
126don't go too rapid, too cutting-edge.
127</p>
128
129<p>
130The world of Open/Libre Source evolves so fast, year by year, day by day,
131time after time - GNU/Linux kernel itself, glibc (GNU C Library)
132and other core libraries, desktop environments, X Window System,
133applications, etc. - if we switched every component to a newer one
134very quickly, a compatibility problem would always arise.
135Basically, we could say we are not "too fast" technology geeks - I mean,
136we are not "cutting-edge" addicts - our distribution is always aimed
137for GNU/Linux users for daily basis - either at home, for SOHO purpose,
138or in educational/research institutes. We don't want to be too outdated,
139but stability (and maintainability) takes precedence over following
140the latest. However, we don't ignore fancy features on such latest versions
141- we try to "backport" the features onto stable versions when needed.
142It can be said as: "a well-balanced between stability and latest features."
143</p>
144
145<p>
146Another policy we have on our distribution is,
147<strong>keep the core distribution compact, consisting of carefully
148screened packages</strong>.
149In other words, we include one specific "recommended" package for
150one purpose - Firefox for web browsing, Sylpheed for e-mail,
151Leafpad for text editing, Pidgin for instant messaging, etc.
152- so that every user don't need to get confused which application
153to use for a specific purpose. Vine Linux had been provided within
154the size that does not exceed that of CD-ROM (700MB),
155since our initial release 1.0. However, since the release of
156Vine Linux 5.0, both by popular demand and to accommodate enlarged
157filesize of every package, we also started providing
158the DVD edition (1GB) which includes more of our recommended packages.
159</p>
160
161<p>
162Furthermore, we have always provided extra package collections
163under the name of "Vine Plus" - containing so many "well-maintained"
164packages that can be easily installed via such package managers as
165<code>apt-get</code> and <code>synaptic</code>.
166</p>
167
168<br />
169
170<h2>6.0, SOON-TO-COME NEW MAJOR UPGRADE</h2>
171
172<p>
173Here is a preview of our new version 6 (will be out hopefully next month):
174</p>
175
176<ul>
177  <li>updated components
178  <ul>
179    <li>kernel-2.6.35.13
180    <li>glibc-2.11.1, gcc-4.4.5
181    <li>X.org X11R7.6+
182    <li>rpm-4.8.1
183    <li>upstart-1.2
184    <li>GNOME-2.32.1
185    <li>Fx 4.0.1 (Firefox 4.0.1 based) for web browsing
186    <li>sylpheed 3.1.1 for e-mail
187    <li>ptexlive-20100711 for enriched Japanese TeX environment
188    <li>emacs-23.3
189    <li>TuxOnIce-3.2 for system hybernation
190  </ul>
191  <li>other notable topics
192  <ul>
193    <li>ext4 as a default file system
194    <li>optimized for the i686 (Pentium Pro or likes) archtecture and up
195    <li>slick Plymouth boot splash screen to hide lengthy boot messages
196    <li>updated VL Gothic (our original Japanese TrueType font)
197    <li>Elementary-based GNOME Desktop default theme
198    <li>Japanese Input: ibus + mozc replaces scim + anthy
199    <li>self-build: a powerful framework to download, build and install programs that cannot be distributed in forms of rpm packages (due to license issue)
200    <li>vine-app-install and install-assist: easy installation assistance
201    <li>vbootstrap + vbuilder to support flexible Vine Linux development
202  </ul>
203</ul>
204
205<p>
206You can grab and try the Vine Linux 6 beta 1 release (in DVD ISO image)
207at <a href="http://beta.vinelinux.org/">http://beta.vinelinux.org/</a>.
208</p>
209
210<p>
211The image is hybrid ISO, so if you write the image onto your USB flash drive
212(with such tools as <code>dd</code>, <code>usb-imagewriter</code> or
213<code>Win32 Disk Imager</code>), you can boot the installer from the
214flash drive, that will speed up your installation process.
215</p>
216
217<br />
218
219<h2>GUYS IN THE VINE LINUX</h2>
220
221<p>
222There have been so many people who contributed improving Vine Linux.
223It's really grateful that we now have dozens of active developers
224and contributers. And I should name and pay homage to all contributors
225who did excellent contributions to our distribution in the past.
226</p>
227
228<p>
229But in the meantime let me introduce some of the
230<a href="http://vinelinux.org/projectvine.html">current core members</a>
231of our Project here.
232</p>
233
234<p>
235The Founder and the current President (representative)
236<strong>Daisuke Suzuki</strong>
237has been one of the earliest adopters of GNU/Linux since the Linux kernel
238version was even before 1.0 - he was one of the members of
239JE (Japanese Extension) and PJE (Project Japanese Extension),
240both of which were Japanese add-on package distributions for non-Japanese
241Linux distribution like ancient Slackware, Red Hat Linux etc.
242Then in 1998 Daisuke and other guys there started their own
243distribution which became the Vine Linux.
244He's still one of the important source of power to keep Vine Linux improved.
245</p>
246
247<p>
248<strong>Munehiro Yamamoto</strong>, a mood-making guy with humors
249and puns, is one of the fresh members who joined the Project in February 2010
250- he's been working very hard on TeX components (as he is a TeX professional)
251to make Vine Linux provide the most enriched TeX environment built-in.
252He also has been busy on publicity activities, heading the Project
253to participate various Linux/OpenSource-related events.
254</p>
255
256<p>
257Diligent guy <strong>Yasumichi Akahoshi</strong> has been doing very
258earnest, patient and continus efforts on better Vine Linux documentations,
259as well as improving Japanese translations on various packages.
260His name can be found at
261<a href="http://l10n.gnome.org/users/yasumichi/" target="_blank">GNOME Japanese Translation Team</a> for example.
262</p>
263
264<p>
265<strong>Satoshi Iwamoto</strong> and <strong>Katsumi Ikeda</strong> has been
266the vital force to keep the Vine Linux secure as it could. They have been
267watching security-related information on various sources, and making
268updated packages to be approved before the actual security errata releases
269are published on our web site.
270</p>
271
272<p>
273Cool guy <strong>Kenta Nakamura</strong>, another fresh member since Feb. 2010,
274has worked very hard to develop and release the x86_64 version of Vine Linux 5.
275</p>
276
277<p>
278<strong>Ryoichi Inagaki</strong>, yet another new member, has done
279excellent job to maintain toolchain, GNOME and KDE packages on Vine Linux.
280</p>
281
282<p>
283And me, <strong>Kohji Matsubayashi</strong>, previously a Mac geek since 1986,
284joined the Project Vine in 2000, when the Vine Linux 2.0 for Power Macintosh
285(initially started as my personal project in 1999) was released.
286Now as a Vice President of the Project (and hopefully Daisuke's
287right-hand man), I've been always trying to keep in mind to manage the project
288fresh and ongoing from cool-headed standpoint.
289</p>
290
291<br />
292
293<h2>YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME</h2>
294
295<p>
296I don't think there are so many non-Japanese people who gets interested
297in a distribution from the Far East that Japanese people are primarily targeted.
298But sometimes we've got surprised to get some feedbacks from people abroad.
299We will always gladly welcome you all over the world who wished to give us
300any feedbacks, make some contributions to our distribution
301(from translating our Japanese website/documentations to English,
302to maintaining specific packages for Vine Linux).
303</p>
304
305<p>
306Again, you are always welcome.
307</p>
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