14 DAY TRIAL // Chakra Linux, a distribution specially built to take advantage of KDE Software Compilation and the Plasma desktop, has been upgraded to version 2014.11 and is now ready for download.
The developers of this distribution usually choose names of famous scientists. The current iteration of the Chakra Linux, which is actually the second version in the branch, has been dubbed Euler, after Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler, who refined calculus and graph theory. Because it follows the KDE releases, it means that we will probably get another version in a few months.
Surprisingly, if you already have Chakra Linux installed, it won't be enough just to keep your system up to date. Upgrading the OS with the provided ISO is quite easy, but if you're doing it manually, then you'll have to follow a rather intricate tutorial on how to do it properly. It's not unusual for developers to make such big changes that result in the usual updating process not working, but sometimes it's necessary.
The latest Chakra Linux is using KDE 4.14.2
The Chakra Linux developers are following the latest KDE branch very closely, but not the latest version. Case in point, KDE 4.14.3 was released yesterday, but Chakra features KDE 4.14.2. On the other hand, the developers go through great lengths to customize the KDE desktop so that it's unique to this particular distribution.
"The Chakra team is happy to announce the second release of the Chakra Euler series, which follows the KDE Applications and Platform 4.14 releases. The main reason for providing this new ISO, in addition to providing a new KDE release, is that Chakra has now implemented the /usr merge changes. If you already have Chakra installed on your system manual intervention is needed, so please follow the instructions on how to properly update. For new installations using this ISO, this is of course not needed."
"The extra repository, which is disabled by default, provides the must-have GTK-based applications and their dependencies. Kapudan, our desktop greeter which runs after the first boot, will allow you to enable it. Please have in mind that our installer, Tribe, does not currently officially support UEFI, RAID, LVM and GPT, although you might find some workarounds in our forums," reads the official website.
The developers also say that the Linux kernel has been updated to version 3.16.4, the systemd component has been updated to version 216, and all of the video drivers, free or proprietary, have been updated as well.
A complete list of new features and updates can be found in the official announcement. You can download Chakra Linux 2014.11 right now from Softpedia.
