14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 131st issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly for 2011!
The following Linux-based operating systems have been announced last week: Puppy Linux 5.2, SimplyMEPIS 11.0 Beta 1, Superb Mini Server 1.5.5 and wattOS R3. In other news: Canonical, through Matthias Klose announced that LibreOffice will be the default office suite for the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system; Softpedia listed some of the best Windows games and apps that run under Linux; the KDE project announced the release of KDE Software Compilation 4.6 RC2 and KDE Software Compilation 4.5.5. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the new/updated Linux distributions, and the development releases.
Summary:
On January 6th, Barry Kauler, the father of Puppy Linux, announced the immediate availability of Puppy Linux 5.2, a major version that is based on the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) operating system.
Puppy Linux 5.2 features lots of updated and improved applications, the new Quickset dialog to easily setup your system (language/locale and keyboard settings, timezone, video resolution), Browser Installer, Browser-Default, Quickpet, improved Puppy Package Manager, and a lot more for you to discover.
Lucid Puppy is dubbed Woof and it is fully compatible with the Ubuntu software repositories, allowing users to install any application or package that is available in the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) operating system.
Download Puppy Linux 5.2 now from Softpedia.
Also on January 6th, Warren Woodford has announced yesterday, January 6th, the immediate availability for testing of the SimplyMEPIS 11.0 Beta 1 operating system, available for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.
SimplyMEPIS 11.0 Beta 1 brings various small bug fixes since the Alpha 4 release, made available on December 8th. It includes a new Linux kernel, version 2.6.36, and an early build of the KDE Software Compilation 4.5 created by the Debian KDE team. Moreover, the Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Beta 8 web browser is present in this beta testing release.
Download SimplyMEPIS 11.0 Beta 1 now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a beta release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.
On January 8th, the developers behind the SMS project have announced the immediate availability for download of the Superb Mini Server 1.5.5 Linux distribution. The latest versio brings plenty of updated packages, some new ones and several new features. One notable addition is support for RAID configurations in both the live CD and the text installer.
Highlights of Superb Mini Server 1.5.5:
· Linux kernel 2.6.35.7; · Acpid 2.0.7; · Bind 9.7.2-P3; · Bluez 4.84; · Cups 1.4.6; · DHCP 4.2.0-P2; · GLib2 2.26.1; · GTK+2 2.22.1; · ImageMagick 6.6.6-9; · MySQL 5.1.54; · OpenSSL 0.9.8q; · Perl 5.12.2; · PHP 5.3.5; · phpMyAdmin 3.3.9; · ProFTPD 1.3.3d; · udev 165.
Download Superb Mini Server 1.5.5 now from Softpedia.
On January 9th, Biff Baxter announced the release of wattOS R3 operating system. The lightweight Linux distro is now based on the latest Ubuntu 10.10 and also comes with updated packages for most of its core applications. Some changes include a new lightweight music player, foobnix, and a new photo editor, Fotoxx. The usual selection of LXDE, OpenBox and PCManFM continues to be the basis of wattOS.
Highlights of wattOS R3:
· Based upon Ubuntu 10.10; · Autologin option for the live CD as well as for hard drive installs; · LXDE desktop environment with OpenBox window manager; · foobnix - new music player and music/video search tool; · Fotoxx - new simple and fast photo editor; · PCManFM -updated, with integrated support for network share browsing, trash, applications listed and many other improvements; · KeePassX - password manager; · Osmo - personal organizer; · RedNotebook Journal; · XFCE4 power manager; · Lots of other small tweaks and improvements.
Download wattOS R3 now from Softpedia.
· Matthias Klose announced on January 3rd, some details regarding the replacement of the old OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 packages with the new LibreOffice 3.3 ones, starting with the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Alpha 2 release. Ubuntu 11.04 will also feature Mozilla Firefox 4 and Linux kernel 2.6.38. Read more about it here.
· We have recently discovered that many people have no idea that games such as the popular World of Warcraft, Call of Duty or Left 4 Dead work flawlessly under Linux. Therefore, on January 5th, we've decided to make a list with all of them, in an article created to inform our readers about popular native Windows games and applications which install and run under Linux-based operating systems, with the help of the Wine software. Read more about it here.
· On January 5th, Linus Torvalds proudly announced the release of Linux kernel 2.6.37. Among the new features includes in Linux kernel 2.6.37 we can mention support for PPP over the IPv4 protocol, lots of enhancements to various important file systems, such as EXT4, XFS and Btrfs, support for I/O throttling, Perf probe improvements, and a Ceph-based network block device. Read more about it here.
· On January 5th, the KDE community has announced that the second release candidate of the upcoming KDE SC 4.6. This late in the development phase, the update only comes with last minute bug fixes and small changes. KDE SC 4.6 RC2 is the last phase before the final release of KDE SC 4.6 later this month. KDE SC 4.6 comes with the usual array of under the hood updates expected with each major release. Read more about it here.
· Hot on the heels of the latest and final release candidate for the upcoming KDE SC 4.6 comes KDE SC 4.5.5, the current stable release of the popular desktop environment and software compilation was announced on January 7th. It's strictly a bug-fixing release, so there should be no issues with the upgrade process. With the next major version launch scheduled for a couple of weeks from now, KDE SC 4.5.5 is also the last release in the 4.5 branch. Read more about it here.
Video Clip of the Week: Kubuntu 11.04 alpha1 (dailybuild) with Kde 4.6rc Overview
· For this week we've posted a 1080p high-definition video clip that reviews the upcoming KDE SC 4.6 environment in the Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system. The video has 11 minutes and 30 seconds, and it was posted by Linux4UnMe. Enjoy!
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· AriOS 2.0 · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.6-58 · OpenXange 2010.10 · GParted LiveCD 0.7.1-5 · DRBL Live Xfce 1.0.0-9 · Nexradix 1.20 · AUSTRUMI 2.2.5 · Myrinix 201101
· Salix OS 13.2 Alpha 1 · Peppermint One 01042011 · Klikit-Linux 0.1-9 RC2 · OpenXange 2011 Beta 2 · CrunchBang Linux 10 R20110105 · Zenwalk Openbox 7.0 Beta · VectorLinux 7.0 Alpha 4.6 · DRBL Live Xfce 1.0.2-43 · Scientific Linux 6 Alpha 4 · Chakra GNU/Linux 0.4 Alpha 3 · Frugalware Linux 1.4 RC1
See you again on January 17th for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.