14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 145th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux-based operating systems have been announced last week: Parted Magic 6.0, Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 2, Mandriva 2011 Beta 2 and Fedora 15 Beta. In other news: Canonical announced the end-of-life for the Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Desktop Edition (Hardy Heron) and Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Server Edition (Dapper Drake) operating systems; Nvidia announced a new version of its Linux video driver with support for Xorg Server 1.10 and Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal). The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the new and updated Linux distributions, and the development releases. Happy Easter!
Summary:
On April 12th, Patrick Verner announced the immediate availability of the Parted Magic 6.0 operating system. Several changes have been implemented in Parted Magic 6.0, which should make booting significantly more reliable. Many booting issues should be fixed now, though, since this is a new system, others may have creeped in.
Highlights of Parted Magic 6.0: · Linux kernel 2.6.38.2; · Cryptsetup 1.2.0; · LVM2 2.02.84; · Nwipe 0.03; · Util-linux 2.19; · Udev 165; · Btrfs-progs 20110327; · Glibc 2.13; · JFSutils 1.1.15; · Usbutils 002; · XFSprogs 3.1.4; · Squashfs 4.2; · SimpleBurn 1.6.0.2 ;· BusyBox 1.18.4; · Memtest86 4.20; · NTFS-3G 2011.4.12.
Download Parted Magic 6.0 now from Softpedia.
On April 14th, Canonical announced the immediate availability for testing of the Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Beta 2 operating system. As usual, we've grabbed a copy of it in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 11.04 development cycle.
What's new in Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 2? Well, not much has been changed since Beta 1, only bug fixes and various improvements, especially to Unity, which will be the default for the final version of Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal).
Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 2 is powered by Linux kernel 2.6.38 and includes the following applications: Unity 3.8.6, LibreOffice 3.3.2, Mozilla Firefox 4.0, Banshee 2.0, GCC 4.5, Python 2.7, dpkg 1.16.0, Upstart 0.9, X.org 1.10.0, Mesa 7.10.1, Shotwell 0.9.1, Transmission 2.13 and Evolution 2.32.2.
Download Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 2 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 April 18th, Mandriva, through Eugeni Dodonov, announced the immediate availability for testing of the second and last Beta version of the upcoming Mandriva 2011 Linux operating system. Mandriva 2011 Beta 2 is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures (see download link at the end of the article).
Highlights of Mandriva 2011 Beta 2:
· Linux kernel 2.6.38.3; · KDE SC 4.6.2; · Mozilla Firefox 4.0; · Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1.9; · LibreOffice 3.3.0; · Clementine 0.7.1; · K3b 2.0.2; · Systemd 24; · GCC 4.6.0; · Dragon Player 2.0; · The GIMP 2.6.11; · Bash 4.2.
Download Mandriva 2011 Beta 2 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 April 19th, The Fedora Project, through Dennis Gilmore, proudly announced the immediate availability for testing of the Beta version of the upcoming Fedora 15 operating system, due for release at the end of May 2011. Fedora 15 Beta is dubbed Lovelock and it is powered by the newly released GNOME 3 desktop environment and Linux kernel 2.6.38. It also includes the powerful LibreOffice 3 office suite and KDE SC 4.6.2.
Highlights of Fedora 15 Beta:
· Linux kernel 2.6.38.2;
· The GNOME 3 desktop environment;
· Gnome Shell user interface;
· LibreOffice 3.3 open source office suite;
· Mozilla Firefox 4.0 web browser;
· BoxGrinder appliance (virtual machines) builder;
· KDE Software Compilation 4.6.2;
· Dynamic firewall;· RPM 4.9;
· Python 3.2;
· Rails 3.0.3;
· OCaml 3.12;
· Maven 3;
· GNU Debugger (GDB) 7.3;
· GCC 4.6;
· Updates to the LXDE and XFCE 4.8 desktops;
· Sugar .92 environment;
· eCryptfs support in authconfig;
· LZMA comperssion for Live images;
· Power Management improvements;
· Retrace server;
· Robotics suite.
Download Fedora 15 Beta 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.
Other News:
· On April 11th, Canonical announced the end-of-life (EOL) for the Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) operating system, on May 12th, 2011. Ubuntu 8.04 LTS was Canonical's second LTS (Long Term Support) release and it introduced features such as GNOME 2.22.1, Linux kernel 2.6.24.3 (with dynticks support and a new process scheduler), X.Org 7.3, PulseAudio 0.9.10, iSCSI support, PolicyKit 0.7, ActiveDirectory integration and KVM integration. Read more about it here.
· On April 19th, Canonical announced the end-of-life (EOL) for the Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) Server Edition operating system, on June 1st, 2011. Announced five years ago, on Wednesday, June 1st, 2006, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) was the first long-term-support version of the Ubuntu operating system and it was powered by Linux kernel 2.6.15 and GNOME 2.14. Read more about it here.
· On April 20th, Nvidia launched version 270.41.06 of its graphics driver, which brought initial support for Xorg Server 1.10 and support for the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system. The new Nvidia Display Driver 270.41.06 introduces support for new GPUs, such as GeForce GT 520, GeForce GT 525M, GeForce GT 520M, GeForce GT 445M, GeForce GT 530, GeForce 405, GeForce GTX 590, GeForce GTX 550 Ti, GeForce GTX 560 Ti, GeForce GT 420, GeForce GT 440, GeForce GTX 470M, GeForce GTX 485M, GeForce GT 550M, GeForce GT 555M, NVS 4200M, Quadro 1000M, Quadro 2000M, Quadro 2000 D and Quadro 400. Read more about it here.
Video Clip of the Week: Fedora 15 "Lovelock" Beta 1 Test Drive
· For this week we've posted a 720p video clip that previews the main features of the upcoming Fedora 15 operating system with the GNOME 3 desktop environment. The video has 28 minutes and 26 seconds, and it was posted by genlleecsa1. Enjoy!
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· Privatix Live-System 11.04.11
· Epidemic GNU Linux 3.2
· Openfiler 2.99.1
· Astaro Security Gateway 8.163
· Netrunner 3
· DEFT 6.1
· StressLinux 0.7.105
· 4MLinux Allinone Edition 2.1
· R.I.P. 11.9
· CacheGuard OS 5.6.6
· GnackTrack R6
· Debian Live 6.0.1
· Scientific Linux 4.9
Development Releases:
· Kongoni 2011 Beta 2
· BlankOn Sajadah 7.0 Alpha 4
· Chakra GNU/Linux 2011.04 Milestone 5
· Mythbuntu 11.04 Beta 2
· Ubuntu Studio 11.04 Beta 2
· Xubuntu 11.04 Beta 2
· Kubuntu 11.04 Beta 2
· Ubuntu ARM 11.04 Beta 2
· Ubuntu Server 11.04 Beta 2
· Sabily 11.04 Beta
· Frugalware Linux 1.5 Pre1
· Tiny Core Linux 3.6 RC3
· Zenwalk Live 7.0 RC1
· Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.8-29
· Chrome OS 1.2.725 RC
· Salix OS 13.37 Beta 3
See you again on May 2nd for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.