14 DAY TRIAL // Chakra Linux, a distribution specially built to take advantage of KDE Software Compilation and the Plasma desktop, is now at version 2013.01.
Chakra Linux 2013.01, dubbed “Claire,” follows the development of the KDE SC 4.9 series and is named in the memory of Claire Lotion.
The previous version of Chakra Linux 2012.12 was supposed to be the last in this branch, but the developers have decided to launch another version.
“The day the 2012.12 release was announced as the final ISO in the "Claire" series, KDE announced there was going to be a KDE 4.9.5, that fact combined with KDE 4.10 release being pushed back 2-3 weeks and many base packages updated, the team decided to have one more "Claire" release,” stated the official announcement.
Chakra is no longer shipping a GUI for package management. Apparently, Appset-qt was the GUI for pacman, but it was not handling complex updates as it should, so it was dropped from this ISO.
Highlights of Chakra Linux 2013.01:
• KDE was updated to version 4.9.5; • Linux kernel was updated to version 3.6.6 (3.0.43 optional); • The ISO is now provided as a DVD image, including all locales and a nice selections of apps; • Kapudan, Chakra's desktop greeter, and all around first setup tool, has been implemented; • An artwork theme called "Dharma" has been added; • Latest openssl 1.0.1c, krb5 1.10.3, curl-7.28.1, libssh2-1.4.3 have been added.
Also, users can install a lot of additional applications from the repositories.
Moreover, a decision was made to no longer provide an i686 image. If you want to test the distribution, keep in mind that Chakra's ISO's do not support unetbootin, and CD/DVDs need a burn speed no higher than 4x.
A complete list of new features and updates can be found in the official announcement.
Download Chakra Linux 2013.01 right now from Softpedia.