14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to our 15th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
Here’s what you can read about in this edition: The Amarok team releases the second beta of Amarok 2.0 music player; Puppy Linux reaches version 4.1 and Barry Kauler steps down as leader; new Fedora 9 Re-Spins are released; Mandriva Linux 2009 is finally here; Linus Torvalds announces Linux kernel 2.6.27; new wallpaper available for Ubuntu 8.10. Also, don't forget to check out the Linux distributions released/updated last week at the end of the article!
Summary:
• The Amarok team proudly announced, on October 6th, the second beta release of the upcoming Amarok 2.0 music player for KDE lovers (and not only). The much-anticipated release, dubbed Nujalik (first beta's codename was Nerrivik), makes one step further towards the final 2.0 version, by bringing lots of improvements, new features and numerous bug fixes. The most important changes in Amarok 2.0 Beta 2 are:
· Incremental scanning support; · Download and listen to public domain audio books, thanks to the LibriVox library included in this version; · The Last.fm and Lyrics applets were fixed; · Improved stability.
Read more about it here and download it here.
• Also on October 6th, Barry Kauler, the father of Puppy Linux, announced the immediate availability of Puppy Linux 4.1, a major version that includes a lot of updated packages and new features, such as:
· Two ISOs available (one with Linux kernel 2.6.25.16 and the other one with 2.6.21.7); · Lots of hardware drivers; · Built-in SCSI drivers; · The 2.6.25.16 kernel is LZMA-enabled; · The PCMCIA support was greatly improved; · Improved boot speed; · Pup_event, a new service that detects more hardware components than before; · Upgraded SeaMonkey to version 1.1.11; · Support for the Multitech USB GPRS modem; · Better modem support; · Psip VOIP, Puppy Linux's own VOIP chat/telephone/instant messenger software; · PPLOG blog, Puppy Linux's own blog; · Pmusic, Puppy Linux's own audio player; · Improved Network Wizard; · Added Xfprot, f-prot GUI (virus checker).
Download Puppy Linux 4.1 right now from Softpedia.
• On October 7th, the Fedora Unity Project announced the availability of new ISO Re-Spins (DVD Sets only) for Fedora 9. The Re-Spin ISOs are based on the official Fedora 9 (codename Sulphur) installation media, with all the updates available as of October 4th, 2008. They are compatible with i386, x86_64 and PPC architectures - however, this is a DVD only release, because of some packaging problems.
Download Fedora 9 Re-Spin right now from Softpedia.
• EnGarde Secure Community 3.0.21 Linux distribution, an open source server operating system, was announced on October 7th by the Guardian Digital. The new maintenance release comes with a lot of bug fixes, updated packages, and many improvements, such as:
· Fixed support for AMD 690V and SB600 chipsets (bug #0000205); · The mbstring was enabled for PHP 5.2.5-2 (bug #0000201); · Fixed support for the Intel Pro Gigabit Controllers (bug #0000202); · The Samba installer bug, where it couldn't update the application after an upgrade to EnGarde 3.0.20, was fixed. · The Health Center backend was completely redesigned, and it should output more accurate and reliable results; · The Convert::ASN1 (version 0.22) Perl module was added. It is an ASN.1 Encode/Decode library; · Guardian Digital WebTool enhancements; · SELinux policy package enhancements.
Download EnGarde Secure Community 3.0.21 right now from Softpedia.
• October 9th was a special day for all Mandriva users, because the MANDRIVA S.A. released into the wild the new and greatly improved version of the Mandriva Linux operating system. With the 2009 edition, Mandriva Linux will try to compete with the upcoming Ubuntu 8.10 (October 30th), and even to "steal" some of its devoted users. Highlights of Mandriva 2009:
· Revamped Control Center; · Redesigned installer; · Improved boot speed; · Repositories are automatically configured; · Better mirror management; · Out of the box support for many webcams; · Improved DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support) management; · Improved language selection; · Implementation of the PolicyKit and PackageKit technologies; · Improvements to the Mandriva Windows Migration and Parental Control utilities; · Live Upgrade (same as Ubuntu's update-manager tool); · initscript improvements; · Atheros wireless network (WLAN) drivers; · Splashy boot splash system; · Support for Netbook hardware like ASUS Eee PC, Acer Aspire One and the MSI Wind; · Support for the Intel G41 graphics chipset; · system-config-printer, the new printer configuration utility; · and also lots of desktop improvements and new artwork!
Download Mandriva 2009 right now from Softpedia.
Download Mandriva One 2009 right now from Softpedia.
• On October 9th, Linus Torvalds announced Linux kernel 2.6.27, which brings improved support for many webcams, lots of new drivers and many other interesting features, such as:
· Lockless page cache and get_user_pages(); · Delayed allocation for Ext4 filesystem; · Kexec jump: kexec/kdump based hibernation; · OMFS and UBIFS; · Support for block layer data integrity; · Multiqueue networking; · Support for sysprof and ftrace; · Mmiotrace; · External firmware; · Better webcam support thanks to the gspca driver; · Extended file descriptor system calls; · Current and Voltage regulator.
Read more about it here and download it here.
• October 10th brought a brand new wallpaper for Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) Linux distribution, which is still in heavy development, but it looks like many users are excited about this. Among the new features in Ubuntu 8.10 is the glamorous GNOME 2.24 desktop environment, which brings a file manager with tabs, the ability to mount archives, an improved Fast User Switch applet that works in collaboration with Pidgin, a better archive manager that adds support for the ALZ, RZIP, CAB and TAR.7Z file types. Also the "just released" Linux kernel 2.6.27 will be present and, as you (probably) already know, it offers out of the box support for many webcams and wireless network devices. Moreover, the GIMP 2.6.1, OpenOffice.org 3.0.0 and Firefox 3.0.3 will also be present in the final release!
Read more about it here.
• Distributions Released Last Week:
· Privatix Live-System 8.09.28 · Bluewhite64 KDE 4 LiveDVD 12.1R1
• Distributions Updated Last Week:
· INX 1.0 · Incognito Live CD/USB 2008.1-r1 · Hakin9 Live 3.0 · ALT Linux 4.1.0 · FCCU GNU/Linux Forensic Boot CD 12.1 · Momonga Linux 5 · CDlinux 0.6.2 · Parted Magic 3.1 RC1 · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.1-2