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Other features
One other new feature that deserves a mention here is Devil-Linux 1.0
now has the ability to run completely from a USB pen drive (instead
of CDROM). A script is included to install the ISO image to a USB
device. A motherboard that will boot from a USB drive is required.
This feature has great possibilities because this gives us the ability
to build a complete firewall or server with no moving parts!
Think about that for a minute ...
In addition to what I already mentioned, there is a lot of other new
software included in Devil-Linux 1.0. Instead of duplicating the list
here, I'll let you go to the
Devil-Linux home page
and click on the Introduction link. While you're there, be
sure to read the advantages of running a CD based firewall/server.
The future
There are areas that still need improving to make the distribution
more user friendly, such as adding configuration for other services
to the "setup" program and better hardware detection. Some of the
new features planned for future releases (beyond 1.0) are dialup
networking configuration in the setup program, Apache/PHP
(already in 1.1-beta) and much more ...
Coming clean
If you're read this far without falling asleep, I need to come clean
with you on my current involvement with the Devil Linux distribution.
After using (and liking) Devil-Linux 0.5 for a long time, I wanted
some software added to the next release, plus I had ideas for improvements
in the area of installation and configuration. This motivated me to put
my time where my mouth was, so in early 2003 I started writing and
contributing code to the developers. In May 2003, I officially joined the
Devil-Linux core development team and I've been working on the soon-to-be
released version 1.0 (and 1.1) ever since.
When I wrote this article from the perspective of an independent
reviewer, I was not trying to mislead anyone. I was merely trying to
tell my story and experiences in my own way. I tried to be as fair as
possible, showing the strong points of Devil-Linux, along with the
areas that still need improvement.
In closing, I would like to thank Devil-Linux founder/leader/developer
Heiko Zuerker and developer Friedrich Lobenstock for helping me learn
the development system, along with everyone else who contributed their
time to making Devil-Linux the quality distribution it is today.
People who are interesting in discussing, or contributing to
Devil-Linux should join the mailing list(s) mentioned on the
Devil-Linux home page.
You are also welcome to
send comments directly to me about this article.
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