ALT Linux releases Platform Five products

ALT Linux announces public availability of two products based on Platform Five: ALT Linux 5.0 Ark, a suite designed for making integrated solutions, and ALT Linux 5.0 School, a suite that is targetted at secondary and high schools.

ALT Linux 5.0 Ark includes 2 distributions for 2 architectures (i586 and x86_64):

• ALT Linux 5.0 Ark Server;
• ALT Linux 5.0 Ark Desktop.

Details are available at http://en.altlinux.org/ALT_Linux_5.0_Ark

You can download ISO images of ALT Linux 5.0 Ark from
ftp://ftp.altlinux.ru/pub/distributions/ALTLinux/p5/iso/ark/ , or your nearest ALT Linux mirror (the list of mirrors, as usual, is available at http://www.altlinux.com/en/go/download).

ALT Linux 5.0 School consists of 4 distributions:

• ALT Linux 5.0 School Server
• ALT Linux 5.0 School Lite
• ALT Linux 5.0 School Junior
• ALT Linux 5.0 School Master

Details are available at http://en.altlinux.org/ALT_Linux_5.0_School

(will be available shortly)
You can download ISO images of ALT Linux 5.0 School from
ftp://ftp.altlinux.ru/pub/distributions/ALTLinux/p5/iso/school/ , or the nearest mirror.

The most prominent features of the server distributions are:

• Enterprise-class network organization
• Host-based authorization of users and services
• Connecting distributed systems together via VPN
• Host-based updates of servers and workstations throughout your LAN
• Network installation and setup of workstations
• Virtualization environment based on OpenVZ and KVM technologies
• Automated host-based backup and restore functionality for all the network, including single files restore
• A unified file storage with quota support
• Automatic RAID1 setup if two or more identical discs are detected
• Simple and convenient administration by means of an innovative web-interface that doesn't require profound administration skills
• Moodle and MediaWiki are bundled and installed along with School Server

Desktop distributions sport the following features:

• Graphical desktops: GNOME (Ark Desktop, School Junior), XFCE (School Lite), KDE 4 (School Master)
• Improved interaction with server distributions and virtual machines that use Platform Five technologies, including out-of-the-box availability of a terminal service
• Ready to use office suite to work with WWW, e-mail, common office documents including those stored in OpenXML formats
• Host-based authorization (needs support from the server; all Platform Five servers support this)
• Seemless integration with the server file storage (needs support from the server; all Platform Five servers support this)

Both suites increase the productivity of everyday work greatly, when you use the server and the desktop along in the same network. Host-based authentication, automatic network resources mounting, Zeroconf publish-subsribe technology. A useful and important feature is virtualization, with OpenVZ and KVM technologies available, depending on a virtual machine profile. Even unexperienced administrators can deal with Platform Five servers thanks to a convenient and easy to use AJAX-enabled web-interface based on ALTerator system.