A member of the SAM Linux Team announced a few hours ago the release of SAM Linux 2009. This distribution is based on PCLinuxOS 2009.1 and is fully compatible with its packages, but later releases will be based on another distribution, unspecified at this moment.

SAM Linux 2009 features the Linux kernel version 2.6.26.8, XFCE 4.6.1, enhanced WLAN hardware compatibility and support for the MSI Wind architecture. All upstream packages have been updated to the version they were at on the 18th of July, 2009. Also, Thunderbird has been dropped and now e-mail support is provided by Opera.

It is notable that, in fact, this release of SAM Linux is identical to the open beta testing ISO that was given to the community three weeks ago, since there haven't been found any important issues that needed addressing in that version.

Highlights of SAM Linux 2009:

· Linux Kernel 2.6.26.8
· XFCE 4.6.1
· Mozilla Firefox 3.5.1
· Opera 9.64
· The GIMP 2.6.6
· Abiword 2.6.8
· Pidgin 2.5.8
· VLC Media Player 1.0.0

Although the developers are planning to move away from PCLinuxOS for further versions and stop hosting their own custom repository, they promise to maintain the support for SAM Linux 2009 for as long as this distribution will be used by its community. Apart from that major change, the SAM Linux Team is currently going through a team leader change, and this release "should also be seen as a farewell to our former teamleader Nico Reuter." - the team states on the official forum.

About SAM Linux:

SAM Linux Desktop is a LiveCD containing a modern and complete desktop OS, which can also be installed to your computer's hard drive.

Download SAM Linux 2009 right now from Softpedia.