Washington Area Computer User Group

GNU/Linux CD of the Month

May 2004

All executable programs are for Intel x86 Linux distributions unless stated otherwise.

Size: 645,605,918 bytes

Ardour - v0.9beta14. Free GNU General Public License source code by Paul Davis and packages for Red Hat, Debian and Fedora Core 1. Ardour is a digital audio workstation. You can use it to record, edit and mix multi-track audio. Produce your own CD's. Mix video soundtracks. Experiment with new ideas about music and sound. Generate sound installations for 12 speaker gallery shows. Have Fun. Ardour capabilities include multichannel recording, non-linear, non-destructive region based editing with unlimited undo/redo, full automation support, a mixer whose capabilities rival high end hardware consoles, lots of plugins to warp, shift and shape your music, and controllable from hardware control surfaces at the same time as it syncs to timecode. If you've been looking for a tool similar to ProTools, Nuendo, Cubase SX or Sequoia, you might have found it. Because Ardour uses JACK to handle the hardware interface, it supports a wide range of low-end to high-end audio hardware.

FreeS/WAN - v2.06. Free GNU General Public License source code and RPM source packages by John Gilmore and the FreeS/WAN Project Team. Linux FreeS/WAN is an implementation of IPSEC & IKE for Linux. IPSEC is Internet Protocol SECurity. It uses strong cryptography to provide both authentication and encryption services. Authentication ensures that packets are from the right sender and have not been altered in transit. Encryption prevents unauthorised reading of packet contents. These services allow you to build secure tunnels through untrusted networks. Everything passing through the untrusted net is encrypted by the IPSEC gateway machine and decrypted by the gateway at the other end. The result is Virtual Private Network or VPN. This is a network which is effectively private even though it includes machines at several different sites connected by the insecure Internet. This is the final full release of FreeS/WAN.

Ktouch - v1.3. Free GNU General Public License source code by Haavard Froiland, Andreas Nicolai, Christian Spener and Debian package (ktouch is also included in the kdeedu packages with most distributions). KTouch is a program for learning how to touch-type. KTouch offers you an easy way to learn to type on a keyboard quickly and correctly. Every finger has its place on the keyboard with associated keys to press. Starting with only a few keys to remember you will advance through the levels of the training lecture while more and more keys are introduced. KTouch shows the keys you need to press and the finger you need to use for that key on the screen. KTouch requires QT 3.2 and KDE 3.2.1 libraries.

Train Director - v1.19 and 2.0beta. Free source code for GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows95 by Giampiero Caprino and Claude Marani and packages for Mandrake 9.0, Red Hat 8.0, and Slackware 8.1 Linux. Can you keep the trains running on time? Train Director is a clone of the popular Train Dispatcher simulation software. With Train Director you can simulate the work of the Centralized Traffic Control by controlling the movement of trains by throwing switches and clearing signals. You can also create your own territories with the included track layout editor. Many contributed track layouts from Italy, Portugal and Russia are included.

GNU/Linux Distribution Updates - Security and bug fix monthly updates for Fedora Core 1, and Red Hat Linux 9.

Kernel Source - kernels 2.4.26 with optional 2.4.27-pre3 and grsecurity 2.0 patches and 2.6.6 with optional grsecurity 2.0 patch.