NepaLinux awarded the prestigious Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Chris Nicol Free

NepaLinux, a localized Linux Distribution in Nepali developed by Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP),Nepal has been awarded the prestigious international APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize 2007, jointly with Free Geek (an organization based in the United States of America and working for the promotion of FOSS), as announced in the official website http://www.apc.org/english/chrisnicol/ today. The APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize is a biennial prize established to honor a long time FOSS advocate and activist as well as APC member, Chris Nicol who met an untimely death in the year 2005. The prize is awarded to individual or group doing outstanding works in making FOSS accessible to ordinary endusers.
Earlier in August this year, the names of seven finalists had been shortlisted among which NepaLinux was one of them. MPP has been developing NepaLinux since the year 2004, through the support of the PAN Localization Project, with an aim to provide free, easy and appropriate access to computers to the English nonproficient masses of Nepal by developing the localized operating systems along with software applications in Nepali. Already three different versions of NepaLinux, respectively 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 have been released by MPP. Currently works are underway for NepaLinux 3.0 to be released sometimes in March 2008. With every release, the NepaLinux Team have been trying to make the system as less technical and as much userfriendly as possible. NepaLinux is being planned to deploy in some 30 rural schools and 5 telecenters of Nepal. As a pilot project, it has already been deployed in three remote schools and the results have been very encouraging. “The winning of the prize has proved the acceptance and recognition of our works internationally as well. It will further motivate the team in carrying out further research and development to realize our objectives of making computers more accessible to the larger Nepali population who have been deprived so far”, says the director of MPP, Mr. Amar Gurung.

Encrypted Ubuntu 7.10

Great News for Ubuntu users.. that everything of the current version of ubuntu can be encrypted including swap files. Marius Nestor Writes:

"I know you wanted this, the Ubuntu team also knew and they've implemented it in the new version of Ubuntu, Gutsy Gibbon. Unfortunately, it's only available in the text mode installer, but that's why this guide is here, to help you install a fully encrypted Ubuntu OS on your computer. This process is completely safe and it is recommended to be used by anyone out there who wants to protect his/her sensitive data. To break it down to you: No more living in fear!
Your data will NOT be stolen anymore!

What are the benefits of this encryption?

• Everything on that disk (including the swap space) are fully encrypted. Encrypting temporary (swap) files is important, as they can reveal important confidential data.
• With full disk encryption, the decision of which files to encrypt is not left up to users.
• Support for pre-boot authentication.
• Immediate data destruction! How? By simply destroying the cryptography keys. However, if security towards future attacks is a concern, file wiping or physical destruction is advised.

The only disadvantage of this encrypted installation is that it will take between 6 to 10 times longer than a normal (unencrypted) installation." ReadMore

openSUSE

The openSUSE formerly SUSE Linux project is a worldwide community program sponsored by Novell that promotes the use of Linux everywhere. The program provides free and easy access to openSUSE, a complete Linux Distribution.

The initial stable release from the openSUSE project was SUSE Linux 10.0, released on October 6, 2005 and the latest version available is 10.3 that was released on October 4, 2007.

Download OpenSuse
As Torrent
From FTP

For More about openSUSE Check:
openSUSE.org : Official openSUSE Site
DistroWatch