PLD is a Linux distribution developed since 1998 mainly in Poland. It is a product of bevy of Linux enthusiasts. We have around 200 people expressing their interests in developing PLD, however, number of actively working developers is approximately 50. PLD stands for PLD Linux Distribution. How is PLD different from other Linux distributions? Large software packages are split into functional subbpackages providing the opportunity to install only those pieces of software that are really necessary. Packages very often come in reasonable default configuration, with bunch of useful patches applied. PLD has the best IPv6 support among all Linux distributions. Several choices of crucial servers are available. System comes with highly modularized kernel suitable for most machines. PLD contains rc-inetd - interface for managing inetd services. Packages providing inetd servers (e.g. telnetd, cvs-pserver) use this feature to automatically add particular server to inetd configuration. Similar feature to rc-inetd is rc-boot - a system that allows for easy managing of bootloaders (changing bootloader, updating after kernel upgrade etc). PLD is also very developer friendly. There are compilers and other development tools for wide variety of languages. This includes such "standard" things like C (three compilers available), C++, Perl or Python, but also some less standard things like two implementations of SML and Prolog, OCaml with several utility programs and libraries and even experimental compilers, like Cyclone or Ksi. Apart for plain rpm, PLD provides two specialized and powerfull RPM managers: clone of Debian apt, and our own poldek. Common myths about PLD PLD is not Polish Linux Distribution, nor Polished, or even Polish(ed). Specifically it means that system won't talk to you in Polish, if you won't instruct it to. It can also speak other languages, beside English and Polish.

FHS 2.x supported as directory structure specification Termcap and libtermcap usage is avoided (no package in PLD requires termcap any more) Support for automatic system upgrades, including restarting upgraded services, proper handling of config files, even modified ones No packages are mandatory during installation (eg. MTAs and other daemons). We assume that some packages may be preferred over others, user decides which program to use. The iproute2 tool as a basic tool for network interfaces manipulation. PLD runtime scripts are simpler and shorter then, offering larger functionality compared to RedHat. Initscripts can be easily localized. Support for easy switching to alternative authentication methods (and, if you need it, ciphering) for network communication, such as PAM, GASPI, TSL/SSL etc. It's quite possible that soon SASL will take the lead in authentication systems. In practice this easy adaptation to eg. kerberisation is also achieved by means of rc-inetd, which allows quick replacement of service daemons with their kerberised versions, using eg. socks5 Descriptions of packages and documentation comes in many languages but only choosen language versions will be installed. Many different frequently repeated tasks can be automatically done (with regards to current work methodology and package contents)

There are a few assumptions that are in use during package preparation procedures: documentation files are compressed using gzip static libraries are separated into additional subpackages (used by people who need it) dynamically linked libraries are stripped (debug information can be found in static libraries only)

The rest of assumptions concerns work methodology: CVS is used to maintain and update resources SGML and DocBook are the preferred documentation formats