14 DAY TRIAL // The release of Netrunner 2 has been announced. The Kubuntu-based Linux distro comes with quite a few changes from the previous release, the most notable one being that it makes the switch to KDE. This represents a shift for the project which will now focus on improving Kubuntu. However, several GNOME apps are also included to bring the best of both worlds.
“Today, we released the official Netrunner 2 – Blacklight ISO.Compared to the RC, we fully integrated Ubuntu Software Center back again,and updated VLC to 1.1.0,” Jason Melton said in the short official announcement. “Netrunner 2 has switched from Gnome to KDE!Yet, it still aims to be Ubuntu/Gnome/GTK-compatible!,” the developer added on the features page.
Highlights of Netrunner 2:
· KDE SC 4.4 - the latest stable release of the KDE desktop environment; · Nautilus - GNOME file manager; · Synaptic - GTK-based package manager; · Mozilla Firefox 3.6.3 - web browser; · Oracle Java and Adobe Flash Player - popular web browser plugins; · VLC 1.1 - media player; · OpenOffice.org 3.2 - office suite; · Mozilla Thunderbird - email client; · Wine 1.1.42 - tool for running Windows software on Linux; · GIMP - image editor; · Audacious - music player; · Pidgin - instant messaging; · Vuze - file-sharing program.
With Netrunner 2, the developers are moving away from GNOME and adopting KDE as the default desktop environment. The idea is to be to Kubuntu what Linux Mint is to Ubuntu. The team has built on top of Kubuntu by bringing some GNOME apps, which they believed were better than their KDE-based alternatives. Netrunner 2 is the first step, there are plans to expand on this idea, of having a KDE-based install which is fully compatible with Gnome.
Netrunner 2 is available for download here on Softpedia.