14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 143rd issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux-based operating systems have been announced last week: Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 (Natty Narwhal), Parsix GNU/Linux 3.6r2 and Puppy Linux 5.2.5. In other news: Softpedia takes a first look at the Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 (Natty Narwhal) operating system; Likewise Software announced that its product, Likewise Open, has hit 100,000 business downloads by the end of March, 2011; Canonical announced the Ubuntu App Developer Week event, which will took place from 11th to 15th April, 2011; Clement Lefebvre sadly announced the end-of-life of its Linux Mint 8 (Helena) operating system. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the new and updated Linux distributions, and the development releases.
Summary:
On March 31st, Canonical announced the first Beta version of the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system. The kernel packages in Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 were upgraded to version 2.6.38-7.39, based on Linux kernel 2.6.38, which re-enables the vesafb module in order to prevent screen corruption and GPU hangs on boot.
Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 includes the highly anticipated multiarch support. Unity has been greatly improved in this Beta version and Canonical wants you to test it and report back. At this moment, Unity allows you to drag & drop icons, re-order icons, quick-lists on the right-click context menu, keyboard navigation, keyboard shortcuts, ability to switch between running apps.
Download Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a beta release and it should not be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.
On April 2nd, Alan Baghumian has announced on April 2nd, the immediate availability for download of Parsix GNU/Linux 3.6r2. It's the second update to Parsix in the 3.6 series, bringing a lot of new features and technical fixes and of course the latest stable packages in GNOME environment.
Highlights of Parsix GNU/Linux 3.6r2:
· Linux 2.6.32.26; · GNOME 2.30.2; · Xserver-xorg 1.7.7; · GNU Iceweasel 3.5.18; · Chromium Browser 10.0.648.204; · OpenOffice.org 3.2.1; · Glibc 2.11.2; · !SquashFS+Lzma 4.0; · Gparted 0.6.2; · Empathy 2.30.1.1; · GIMP 2.6.8; · CompizFusion 0.8.4; · Synaptic 0.63.1; · VirtualBox-OSE 3.2.6; · Exaile 0.3.0.2; · VLC 1.0.6; · xFarDic 0.11.7.
Download Parsix GNU/Linux 3.6r2 now from Softpedia.
Also on April 2nd, Berry Kauler, the father of the Puppy Linux project, has announced on April 2nd that Puppy Linux 5.2.5 has been launched and is available for download. Puppy Linux 5.2.5 is the second update this year, this version being release only two months later. It has over 50 contributors, making it one of the most worked on distributions out there.
According to the official announcement the architecture of this distro has remained “pure” Puppy which means that most of the libraries, applications and utilities are Ubuntu binaries. Puppy Linux 5.2.5 also incorporates the latest Wary Puppy, recently released by Barry Kauler, which brings the advantages of Puppy to vintage hardware, was also built with Woof, using compiled T2 binaries.
Download Puppy Linux 5.2.5 now from Softpedia.
· On March 30th, Softpedia had the pleasure of reviewing the Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 operating system, in a special First Look article. Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Beta 1 is powered by Linux kernel 2.6.38, GNOME 2.32.1 and X.Org 7.5. It will included applications such as LibreOffice 3.3.2 as the default office suite, Banshee 1.9.4 as the default audio player/organizer and Mozilla Firefox 4.0 as the default web browser. A set of seventeen new and beautiful wallpapers will also be present in the Beta release, to please every Ubuntu user out there. Read more about it here.
· On March 31st, Likewise Software announced that Likewise Open has hit a milestone, toping over 100.000 downloads from organizations all over the world, thus becoming the most used method for sharing desktops across multiple platforms. For those who are unclear of what Likewise Open does, then you should know it's a cross-platform environment meant to bring together radical different platforms like Unix, Linux and Mac. If for instance you have an office in the United States and another in Europe and different operating systems, but still want to easily exchange information, then Likewise Open environment will do that for you. Read more about it here.
· On March 31st, Canonical, through David Planella, announced that the Ubuntu App Developer Week will take place between 11th to 15th April, 2011, on the Ubuntu IRC channel. Ubuntu App Developer Week was created to inspire developers of all ages, regardless of their skill level, to write applications with tools developed by Ubuntu for the Ubuntu platform. The main session will take place on the #ubuntu-classroom channel and the #ubuntu-classroom-chat channel will be used for the chatroom. Read more about it here.
· On April 4th, Clement Lefebvre and the community behind the Linux Mint project announced on their official blog that Linux Mint 8 (Helena) operating system will reach end-of-life on April 29th, 2011. Announced almost 18 months ago and dubbed Helena, the Linux Mint 8 operating system was based on Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) and it brought interesting features, such as Linux kernel 2.6.31, EXT4 filesystem, X.Org 7.4, GNOME 2.28.1, Upload manager utility, new artwork and lots of other improvements. Read more about it here.
Video Clip of the Week: Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Beta 1 Review with Unity 3D
· For this week we've posted an 1080p high-definition video clip that reviews the Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Beta 1 operating system. The video has 7 minutes and 45 seconds, and it was posted by quidsup. Enjoy!
· Exquisite Beta · Avira AntiVir Rescue System 20110401085109 · n09 OS 6
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· iQunix OS 10.10 SP1 · Astaro Security Gateway 8.162 · Zenwalk Core 7.0 · 4MLinux Server Edition 2.1
· Toorox 03.2011 GNOME3-RC · Otakux 1.1 Anison RC1 · Kororaa 14 Beta 5 · Baltix 10.04.2 RC3 · Edubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 · Kubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 · Ubuntu Server 11.04 Beta 1 · Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud 11.04 Beta 1 · Ubuntu ARM 11.04 Beta 1 · Ubuntu Studio 11.04 Beta 1 · Xubuntu 11.04 Beta 1 · Mythbuntu 11.04 Beta 1 · Pinguy OS 11.04 Alpha 1 · BlankOn Sajadah 7.0 Alpha 3 · Chakra GNU/Linux 2011.04 Milestone 4 · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.8-25
See you again on April 11th for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.