14 DAY TRIAL // Mandriva Linux 2008 has recently added a beta 2 version to its releases. This new release, codenamed Galillee, has come with some major new features but unfortunately it is not available as a LiveCD yet. Also some of the new features mentioned in this version are not actually working yet, as they are not completely implemented.
As the Mandriva team writes in their official release announcement, the Galilee beta is available as a Free edition for the x86-32 and x86-64 architectures. Among new features the beta also comes with some changes to the installer and upgrade instructions, changes to the supported hardware and also some changes regarding software packages.
Highlights:
- Kernel 2.6.22 - X.org 7.2 - KDE 3.5.7 - GNOME 2.19.6 - Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6 - OpenOffice.org 2.2 - the Compiz Fusion desktop technology to replace former Beryl and Compiz 3D - new network management tool - support for WPA-EAP - installation to partitions beyond the 15th on IDE disks no longer supported
As I've said earlier this version also comes with improved hardware and drivers support. Apart from the graphics card support, the support for other devices could be mentioned:
- NVIDIA Geforce 8400, 8500 and 8600 series graphics cards - Intel 4965AGN wireless chipsets - Intel Santa Rosa drive controllers - ATI SB700 chipset motherboards - many newer onboard sound devices using the High Definition Audio codec, particularly on motherboards using Intel chipsets - Wacom Graphire and Intuos tablet input devices - Realtek 8187 USB and ZyDAS ZD1211/ZD1211B USB wireless controllers
XFS, the X Font Server, is no longer used by default in Mandriva Linux 2008. It is still available and will function normally if manually enabled. This reduces the weight of the system with no regression in functionality in almost all cases. The Mandriva development team also does not recommend the use of GCC 4.2 for Java development purposes. Also GCC 4.3 is available in the package gcc4.3, in the main repository and should be used for the purposes of Java development.