Aptosid 2010-03 Comes with Linux Kernel 2.6.36.2

Aptosid 2010-03 codenamed "Apate" has been released. The second release to sport the Aptosid name comes with an updated kernel and plenty of fixes related to the name change. Aptosid is the new name of the rather popular sidux Linux distro. Aptosid 2010-03 still offers an upgrade path from previous sidux installs, but support is limited to the few days left in 2010.

"Now that kernel 2.6.36.2 has entered the archive with many KMS related bugfixes, we have the pleasure to announce the immediate availability of the final aptosid 2010-03 'Ἀπάτη' release," Stefan Lippers-Hollmann announced.

"New features in aptosid 2010-03 'Ἀπάτη' are in particular kernel 2.6.36.2 and numerous integration and stabilization fixes after the rename," he explained.

"Kernel 2.6.36.2 doesn't only improve and stabilise hardware support for newer devices, it also features improved KMS support for ATi Radeon and Intel graphics cards and performance improvements for Intel Westmere graphics chipsets. Wlan support has been consolidated," he added.

Highlights of Aptosid 2010-03:

· Based on Debian sid, as of 2010-12-26;
· Linux kernel 2.6.36.2;
· X.org 7.5 and xserver-xorg-core 1.7.7;
· KMS support for ATi and Intel based graphics chipsets;
· DRI (3d) support for ATi Radeon chipsets up to r7xx;
· KDE 4.4.5;
· Iceweasel 3.5.16.

Aptosid 2010-03 comes with the expected list of updated packages along with the upgraded kernel. Bug fixing was one of the big focuses of the release, both in the generic Debian packages and the Aptosid specific ones.

A lot of work was dedicated to coping with the name change and making sure that everything still works properly. Making sure that users have an upgrade path from previous sidux installs was also an important issue.

However, this is a time-consuming undertaking and the upgrade path was only offered for a limited time, until the end of the year. The team is now announcing that starting in 2011, old sidux installs won't be able to upgrade to the latest Aptosid release and support will be terminated as well.

Aptosid 2010-03 is available for download here on Softpedia.