The author of debtree, a program that illustrates dependencies between .deb packages, has posted a brief rant about the size of Gnome desktop installations in recent Debian releases. Specifically, he notes that a default Gnome install in Etch (4.0) was 1,360MB - but in the upcoming 6.0 release it'll be over 3,000MB.

Novell has launched SUSE Studio, a service that allows anyone to create their own Linux distro respin using nothing more than their web browser. But did you know Novell already has plans to open source the new technology it contains? We spoke to Nat Friedman to get more information, then took it for a test drive ourselves...

We love Debian, but it's hardly the most spritely distro around when it comes to popping out regular releases. Historically, part of the problem has been determining when it's finished - and the old adage "it's ready when it's ready" doesn't really make much sense unless you have a very clear set of goals. Now the Debian team has announced that it's moving to two-year time-based release freezes. This doesn't mean that a release date will be announced well in advance, as with Fedora, Ubuntu and co, but that there will be a cut-off point for adding new features.

Leonidas (either named after the king of Sparta who led his troops to victorious annihilation in the Peloponnese or the chain of chocolate shops), is the 11th release of the Fedora operating system. Along the way there have been a few duds, but in recent times Fedora has been really delivering on its promise of the four Fs: "Freedom, Friends, Features, First". Fedora 10 was a rock-steady release that introduced a slew of new features, and Leonidas is promising more of the same.

Other smart folk were quick off the bat to review Fedora 11, but we're not like that. Instead, it takes us a few weeks to properly settle down into a distro to see what we make of it. Read on for our findings, then read the comments to our earlier post to see what other people think...

Now in its seventh iteration, codenamed Gloria, Linux Mint aims to bring easy-to-use Linux to the masses. It's based upon the ubiquitious Ubuntu, and as such it shares many of the same features; the installation routine, for example, is virtually identical and takes under 30 minutes to complete. However, there is far more to Mint than just Ubuntu minus the brown colour scheme.

If you read our guide to choosing the best Linux distro for you and want to know why this new release of Linux Mint is worth trying, read on to find out why we gave it a 9/10 rating...

Give a man Ubuntu, and he'll learn Ubuntu. Give a man SUSE, and he'll learn SUSE. But give a man Slackware, and he'll learn Linux. Well, so the old internet maxim goes, but while it's normally used with a touch of humour, there's a great deal of truth in it too.

If you've ever wondered what it is about Slackware that makes it so popular amongst Linux veterans, read on for a bit of history, and hands-on installation guide, plus some tips to help you get started...

It's a wee bit later than originally planned, but finally we have a shiny new version of Fedora to play with. Codenamed Leonidas, Fedora 11 brings together a bunch of tweaks and enhancements, described in boring business-like language in the official announcement and with a fantastic, surreal slant in the Fedora mailing list post. Grab a full-on DVD installer ISO or a smaller CD Live version from this page, and see after the break for a summary of the changes.

If you like your Ubuntu green and with loads of extra add-ons, you'll be chuffed to bits with Linux Mint 7, codenamed Gloria. Highlights include a new 'suggestions' feature in the mintMenu panel that tries to guess what you want to do. There's also a "featured applications" panel in mintInstall that lists useful apps that you might not have heard of, while mintUpdate can now show changelogs from Mint-specific packages, and not just Ubuntu.

Uh-oh. The C library is an essential core component of any Unix-like operating system, and for Debian to switch from the well-established Glibc is big news. This blog post explains the reasons behind the move to EGLIBC, noting technical aspects such as a consistent stable branch, support for different shells and the ability to optimise for size (using the -Os GCC flag).

It also points to dissatisfaction with Glibc maintainer Ulrich Drepper's attitude towards potential contributors: eg "Stop wasting people's time! Nobody cares about this crap." Or take a look at the comments here for some, er, lively debate.

Since Manchester University's Owen Le Blanc released MCC Interim Linux (generally agreed to have been the first Linux distribution), way back in 1992, there have been hundreds of ways to get the world's favourite free software operating system on to a computer. The diversity of alternatives reflects the diversity in the development community, with distros split along technical, functional, linguistic and even ideological lines.

There have been large distros, tiny ones, bleeding edge and rock-solid stable distros. Easy for the newbie to install, or downright impenetrable to the uninitiated. Created exclusively with free software as a badge of pride, or so proprietary in attitude that not even the toolchain was fully GNU (hello Red Flag Server 4.1, built with the Intel compiler in 2004).

So with all the variety that's already out there, why would anyone want to create their own distro? Well, that's down to you. But we want to show you how to get started the easy way, as well as giving you some advice along the way to help make your distro stand out in the crowd. Read on!