User:Wydarr/TFM Linux

TFM Linux is the first Romanian Linux distribution and according to its creators, it is "a Linux operating system that can be used for small enterprises, whose administrators are not so experienced in Linux".

Version 1 of TFM started in 2001 as an offspring of RedHat Linux. Following the release, the team of developers, led by Mihai "Cop" Moldovanu abandoned the idea of a RedHat offshoot, and took upon creating a distribution from scratch, that would fit their needs. Currently, the distribution has a server side (release 3.3 - 32bit and 64bit versions) and a workstation side (release 3.2 - 32bit only). There have been notable implementations of TFM Linux. Currently a significant part of the servers that belong to MediaPro International - one of the largest media trusts in Romania run on TFM-based servers.

Origin of the name
The initials, TFM are an acronym for Technology For Masses, a concept created by Mihai Moldovanu that embodied his ideal to create a solid software platform that is stable, secure, feature-rich and above all, affordable for "the masses".

The crew
The core of developers that make today's TFM Group consists of:

Mihai (Cop) Moldovanu - Lead Developer

Daniel (Bede) Bedeleanu - Programmer

Liviu (Softman) Andreicuţ - Linux developer

Catalin (Bibix) Pop - Web developer

Gabi (Jian) Lisca - Developer / Tester

Qaz - Designer / Web-programmer

Daniel (Monk_Y) - Testing / Deployment

Sorin Toma - Programmer / Tester

Alex (Junior) Giuvara - Programmer

Timeline
The release 1.0 of TFM Linux was in fact a light version of RedHat Linux, modified and cleaned up so that it would meet the security and stability needs for its developers. It was released on 22.03.2001, and it became available via both Romanian and International FTP servers. The group of developers already had their own private FTP located then at ftp://ftp.tfm.ro. Less than 5% of the packages from Red Hat distribution were kept because of the low on security. The rest was replaced with alternate Red Hat packages which proved to be more stable. After the 1.0 release, it was established that the next version of the distribution will be done starting from zero, for having complete control to what is happening in the distribution and the packages interactions. The life cycle of TFM Linux 1.0 ended in 2004.

After the release of TFM Linux 1.0, in March 2001, the major updates gradually became available on the same FTP server. December 29th marked the discovery of the first remote vulnerability, which was promptly corrected.

At the same time, the development of TFM Linux 2.0 was started. The goal was to create a Linux distribution that has nothing to do with RedHat, in the attempt to further tailor the OS in accordance with specific demands, using the intrinsic flexibility of the Linux-based OS.

In March 2002, was released the Alpha version of TFM Linux 2.0 and in parallel, since May 2002, TFM Linux RC3 has started to be used in production systems within MediaPro International.

From then on, the development was made in small and discreet steps. From 2007, the team has been focusing on improving the development server. TFM projects have been presented at conferences such as Open Source means Business (Bucharest - Sept. 13, 2007), ROSDEV 2008 (Bucharest - April 12, 2008), ApacheCon (Amsterdam - April, 2008), BLUG*OS*CON (Bucharest - Dec. 12, 2009).

In December 4, 2009, TFM Workstation 3.2 was released.

TFM Server
The Server (now at version 3.2 for the 32bit variant and 3.3 for the 64bit one) was designed having in mind the needs that arise from coping with the requirements of supporting the most popular TV Station in Romania - PRO TV. Below is a list of the various services the TFM Server Edition has been used for. The list is by no means complete, but it shows a bit on the versatility of the distro.


 * mail server
 * DNS
 * FTP server
 * firewall
 * Web acceleration servers ( squid + masquerading )
 * MySQL (a cluster configuration with one master and five slaves is in use)
 * web farm (10 apache servers in a cluster)
 * storage/serving farm ( 3x2 storages 4Tb each serving video / images
 * geoip server / application
 * Live edge cluster ( 9 Gpbs live streaming ) + 1Gpbs core
 * the news site which is a complex structure of 10 servers plus a fibre channel based storage
 * Loadbalancer (using a state-of-the-art proprietary solution called mytcpproxy)
 * Phone exchange
 * vpn ipsec + vpn pptp
 * reporting, alerts, charts, logs.

The server has been specifically optimized to be deployed in a LAMP configuration (linux / apache / mysql / php) as well as a mail server supporting thousands of users. It also claims an 8 minute install time.

TFM Workstation
Built to accommodate the daily necessities of the developer and of the system administrator, TFM Workstation is the desktop version of TFM Linux. The TFM team chose to use KDE mainly because its interface is closer to Windows and guarantees a smoother transition to TFM Linux for the Windows users. Later, the developers have added Code Blocks and RadRails and are planning on providing support for Java development (netbeans).

The latest release, TFM Workstation 3.2, was available to download on December 4th, 2009. Several improvement on sound editing, video editing and images have been made. The firewall support, iptables, has been improved to incorporate the major changes of the kernel. The distribution included:
 * audacity – Free Audio Editor / Recorder
 * LiVES – Free, Open Source video editor and a VJ tool
 * avidemux – Free video editor designed for simple cutting, filtering and encoding tasks. Recommended when working with x264 files.
 * gpac – Open Source multimedia framework for research and academic purposes in different aspects of multimedia, with a focus on presentation technologies (graphics, animation and interactivity)
 * sox, xvidcore, mkvtoolnix, libmatroska, libebml, openal
 * ffmpeg, vlc, x264, mplayer have been updated to their latest versions svn/git
 * yasm, cairomm, wxWidgets (GTK), tnef.

In addition, the Bluetooth support underwent adjustments, and the inkscape was updated to the latest version to manage directly PDF files.

TFM Workstation 3.2 comes with gimp, Firefox and digikam.

The latest version of TFM Workstation can be downloaded from the TFM website.

TFM Media Station
The TFM Media Station is a standalone solution for delivering close circuit video content. It consists of a PC (usually a barebone, such as the ASUS Pundit) on which a modified version of the TFM Workstation aimed at playing video and audio files is installed. There is an OpenSource version of the software, downloadable from the correspondent development tree, as well as a commercial product, that includes a remote administration console (browser - based), customized installation, depending on the hardware used, technical assistance, and other benefits. The product is aimed towards advertising companies, gyms, shops and other clients that need a robust, flexible and remote-administrable solution.

Other related stuff
Besides creating the Linux distribution, the team has also been involved in various technical and nontechnical projects:


 * Following the signing of a strategic partnership between the Romanian Government and Microsoft Romania, members of the team of developers wrote an open letter to the Romanian Government condemning its hypocrisy by encouraging the expensive closed-source solutions in favor of the cheaper, open-source alternative that would have also meant creating more job opportunities for young Romanian IT specialists, and stemming the flow of highly qualified workforce towards the Western Europe and the US.

Text of the open letter posted prior to the publication on the Romanian Linux Users Group mail list (in Romanian)

http://www.mail-archive.com/rlug@lug.ro/msg58536.html - Transmisia PROFM Live - daca e adaugat in lista lui Guenter Bartsch - proiectul Xine / Gxine.