Welcome to our 10th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly! In this edition, you can read about: the new release of PC/OS, which introduces Flock and Audacious; MidnightBSD 0.2.1 includes improved support for new hardware devices; Fluxbox 1.1.0 arrives after 11 months of development; KDE 4.1.1 comes with performance improvements; Scientific Linux 4.7 is now based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7; the release candidate of Mandriva 2009 includes KDE 4.1.1; VirtualBox 2.0 has some hot new features, and our very popular Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 5 screenshot tour shows the latest changes in the Intrepid development. You can also read an interesting review of the Sage application, and don't forget to check out the Linux distributions released/updated last week, at the end of the article!
Summary:On August 30, the PC/OS team announced the final release of their Linux distro,
PC/OS 2008v2. It comes with various updated packages, as well as all of Ubuntu's (8.04.1) bug fixes and distribution updates. Two versions are provided with this release, the client and the server editions. Let's take a look at some of the leading features for the PC/OS client:
· Linux kernel 2.6.24-19
· Firefox 3.0
· Totem
· Audacious and GTKPod
· Screenlets 1.4
· Gnome PPP
· Picasa
· Google Gears
Download PC/OS 2008v2 right now from
Softpedia.
On September 2,
MidnightBSD 0.2.1, a FreeBSD fork aimed at providing an easy-to-use desktop experience, included improved support for new hardware devices such as Nvidia, ATI, or Intel SATA controllers. It also added better wireless networking support and many new packages. Updated software in MidnightBSD 0.2.1:
· GCC 3.4.6
· Bind 9.4.2-p1
· Sendmail
· Bzip2
· OpenSSH 5.0p1
· PPC compiler added (i386)
· Removal of gnu cpio for BSD licensed version
· cpdup added
· IPv6 fixes
· mksh added
| MidnightBSD 0.2.1 with WindowMaker |
Download MidnightBSD 0.2.1 right now from
Softpedia.
Fluxbox 1.1.0 is now available, after almost a year since the release of Fluxbox 1.0.0 in October 2007. It introduces some new commands such as Attach, ClientMenu, SetDecor, new options to client patterns like fullscreen, shaded, urgent, as well as some important bug fixes like, for instance, for the gcc 2.96 compile problem. One important adjustment present in Fluxbox 1.1.0 is the window cycling syntax, which behaves a bit differently now. The format of window cycling functions has been changed from a bitmask to a list of options separated by commas and enclosed in {} followed by a pattern, much like the one used in the apps file. The following new commands were introduces in this release:
· Attach
· ClientMenu
· Delay
· Focus
· ForEach
· GoToWindow
· If
· StartMoving
· StartResizing
· StartTabbing
· SetDecor
· SetTitle
· SetTitleDialog
· SetLayer
| The Fluxbox window manager |
Download Fluxbox 1.1.0 right now from
Softpedia.
The KDE community announced on September 3 the release of
KDE 4.1.1, the latest version of one the most popular desktop environments. Many new additions are featured, including web development applications, educational tools, administrative programs and more, all of which are available in over 50 languages. Here are the most important:
· Konqueror (KDE's web-browser) and KHTML have seen considerable improvements in interaction, rendering correctness and performance.
· Stability, user interaction and rendering fixes in Plasma, the KDE4 desktop shell.
· Okular, the document viewer, has seen PDF backend fixes.
· Lots of fixes in the image viewer Gwenview, regarding thumbnailing; also, images with broken metadata can now be more robustly retrieved and displayed.
· Stability and interaction fixes in KMail.
| The KDE 4.1.1 desktop environment |
Download KDE 4.1.1 right now from
Softpedia.
Scientific Linux 4.7 (based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 7) was released on September 3, with major improvements and package updates. The following tools were added, compared to Red Hat Enterprise 4:
· 915resolution (a tool to modify Intel graphics chipsets’ video BIOS)
· alpine (a tool for reading, sending, and managing electronic messages)
· apt
· cfitsio (Flexible Image Transport System support)
· Cluster Suite & GFS
· dropit
· FUSE (Filesystem in userspace)
· Graphviz (Graph Visualization Tools)
· IceWM (Simple window manager)
· Intel wireless firmware (Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 and 2200 driver)
· and many more...
Download Scientific Linux 4.7 right now from
Softpedia.
On September 4, Mandriva announced
the first release candidate version of Mandriva 2009, which brings a greatly improved package management tool, with automatic mirror selection and repository configuration. Dubbed camelopard, this first RC replaces the old madwifi wireless driver with the brand new ath5k, for all Atheros cards, and brings further improvements to the Ora theme.
| Mandriva 2009 RC1 with KDE 4.1.1 |
Download Mandriva 2009 RC1 right now from
Softpedia.
Remember that this is a development release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.xVM VirtualBox 2.0, Sun's open source, free and very efficient virtualization tool was released on September 4, together with Sun xVM VirtualBox Software Enterprise Subscription, with support for enterprise users. This release is a major upgrade as it brings 64-bit guest OS, a new and improved GUI, a new version notifier, and also guest information interface.
Download Sun xVM VirtualBox 2.0 right now from
Softpedia.
Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Alpha 5 was released on September 5. This version comes with Linux kernel 2.6.27, GNOME 2.24 Beta 2, X.Org 7.4 and DKMS, a new tool that automatically rebuilds all kernel modules when the system's kernel are upgraded. The following applications are included:
· Kernel 2.6.27-2 (based on Linux kernel 2.6.27 RC)
· X.Org Server 1.5
· Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1
· OpenOffice.org 2.4.1
· The GIMP 2.4.7
· F-Spot 0.4.4
· Pidgin 2.5.0
· Brasero 0.8.1
· Transmission 1.33
· Rhythmbox 0.11.6
· Ekiga 2.0.12
· Evolution 2.23.91
· Nautilus 2.23.91
· Vinagre 2.23.90
| Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 5 showcasing Firefox 3.0.1 |
Download Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 5 right now from
Softpedia.
Remember that this is a development release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.Another week, another review by Mihai Mircea for Softpedia Linux. This time, it's for the Sage application, a free mathematical software, released under the GPL license. Read this comprehensive review of Sage 3.0.2
here.
Distributions Released Last Week:·
Hadron Gnu/Linux·
HackerOS 20jun2008Distributions Updated Last Week:·
Greenie Linux 3.1H Beta·
DragonFly BSD 2.0·
Zenwalk GNOME 5.2·
KDE 4 Live CD 1.1.1·
Momonga Linux 5 Beta 1·
R.I.P. 6.4·
Webconverger 3.4·
Damn Small Linux 4.4.5·
m0n0wall 1.235·
Linux LiveCD Router 2.0.30·
PC-BSD 7.0 Beta 2
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