14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 154th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux-based operating systems have been announced last week: PCLinuxOS KDE 2011.6, Vinux 3.2, Linux Mint 11 LXDE RC and Mandriva 2011 RC1. In other news: The KDE developers unleashed the Release Candidate version of the upcoming KDE Software Compilation 4.7 environment; the Free Software Foundation release the improved GCC 4.6.1 compiler; Opera Software announced the final and stable release of the Opera 11.50 web browser; The Document Foundation released LibreOffice 3.4.1 office suite with lots of bugfixes. For this week we prepared two interesting reviews, one for the TiltShift Generator 1.0 app and another one for the Alien Arena 2011 7.51 FPS game. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the new and updated Linux distributions, and the development releases.
Summary:
On June 27th, the PCLinuxOS Team announced the final and stable release of the PCLinuxOS KDE 2011.6 operating system. This is the first update in six months and is now available in the 32-bit flavour. PCLinuxOS KDE 2011.6 is packing all of the latest software, such as Firefox 5 and KDE SC 4.6.4.
Highlights of PCLinuxOS KDE 2011.6:
· Linux kernel 2.6.38.8; · KDE SC 4.6.4; · Firefox 5; · X.Org Server 1.10.2; · GCC 4.5.2; · Glibc 2.10.1; · Thunderbird 3.1.11; · Pidgin 2.9.0; · VLC 1.10.0; · Clementine 0.7.1.
Download PCLinuxOS KDE 2011.6 now from Softpedia.
Also on June 27th, Tony Sales announced the immediate availability of the Vinux 3.2 operating system, now based on Ubuntu 11.04. It also comes with recent versions of Orca, Speech-Dispatcher and the other specialized tools. Vinux 3.2 decided to stick to the classic Gnome 2 desktop, instead of the custom-built Unity for Ubuntu. However, while Gnome 2 is the default, users can also switch to Unity if they want the latest desktop innovations and their computers can handle it.
Vinux 3.2 also comes with a number of command line tools which aid with accessibility even without a graphical desktop. The CD edition includes: sox gpm screen, splitvt, figlet, cmatrix, txt2html, html2text, pdf2svg, pstotext, units mc, trash-cli, vrms, dict, sc, htop, linuxinfo, w3m, elinks-lite, urlview, finch, axel, calcurse, tdl.
Download Vinux 3.2 now from Softpedia.
On June 28th, Clement Lefebvre announced the Release Candidate version of the upcoming Linux Mint 11 operating system. Linux Mint 11 LXDE RC brings all of the new features from Linux Mint 11 along with customizations and tweaks specific to the LXDE environment. Linux Mint 11 LXDE is based on the most recent Ubuntu 11.04 release. It also comes with a modern Linux kernel 2.6.38.
The Update Manager has gotten a revamp as well, including a performance upgrade. The Update Manager now has better dependency handling, improved changelog retrieval and some UI tweaks. The Desktop Settings tool is now universal, it works regardless of the desktop environment you're using, be it Gnome, KDE, XFCE, LXDE or Fluxbox. Linux Mint 11 LXDE features the same artwork and GTK theme from the regular Linux Mint 11, including the overlay scrollbars, borrowed from Ubuntu 11.04.
Download Linux Mint 11 LXDE RC now from Softpedia.
On June 29th, Eugeni Dodonov announced the immediate availability for testing of the first Release Candidate version of the upcoming Mandriva 2011 Linux operating system. Mandriva 2011 RC1 contains a huge number of changes, compared to the previous development release, Mandriva 2011 Beta 3. It has updated applications, such as Mozilla Firefox 5.0, Opera 11.50, Pidgin 2.9.0, as well as a new revamped interface with new artwork.
Highlights of Mandriva 2011 RC1:
· Linux kernel 2.6.38.7; · KDE SC 4.6.4; · New amazing design; · New login manager; · New desktop themes; · New Plasma widgets; · New icons; · New wallpapers; · New splash screens; · New launcher; · New boot screens; · New Mandriva Control Center; · Mandriva Sync; · Mandriva Sphere; · Mozilla Firefox 5.0; · Opera 11.50; · Xorg Server 1.10.2; · Mesa 7.10.3; · Pidgin 2.9.0; · KDEPim 4.6.0; · iptables 1.4.11.1; · Chromium web browser 12 and 13; · Improved booting process; · Wireshark 1.6.0; · VLC 1.1.10; · Shotwell 0.10.1; · Clementine 0.7.1; · Samba 3.5.9; · GCC 4.6.1; · Octave 3.4.2; · GIT 1.7.6; · rsyslog 5.8.2; · FFMpeg 0.7.1; · KDevelop 4.2.3; · Wine 1.3.23; · Horde Groupware 3.3.11 · SQlite 3.7.7; · Pulseaudio 0.9.23; · coreutils 8.12; · Python 2.7.2; · Blender 2.58; · Mozilla Thunderbird 3.1.11; · Drizzle 2011.06.19; · systemd 29; · hugin 2011.0.0; · WebKit 1.4.1.
Download Mandriva 2011 RC1 now from Softpedia.
· On June 25th, the KDE team has announced the Release Candidate version for the upcoming KDE Software Compilation 4.7, a version that is focusing on fixing last-minute bugs and finishing the required documentation and translations. KDE Software Compilation 4.7 will be released this summer and it will bring various exciting features, such as support for OpenGL-ES 2.0 on KWin window manager, major improvements on Dolphin file manager, support for GRUB2 bootloader on KDM (KDE's login manager), and support for offline address search on Marble. Read more about it here.
· On June 27th, the Free Software Foundation released GCC 4.6.1 with lots of interesting changes. The new GCC 4.6.1 compiler brings general optimizer improvements, compile time and memory usage improvements, new languages and language specific improvements, new targets and target specific improvements, documentation improvements and some installation changes. Good news for Android apps developers, as GCC 4.6.1 now provides support for the Bionic C library, offering an easy way of building native Android applications and libraries. Read more about it here.
· On June 28th, Opera Software proudly unleashed the new, improved and highly anticipated Opera 11.50 web browser for Linux, Macintosh and Windows platforms. Dubbed Swordfish, the new Opera 11.50 web browser brings lots of new exciting features, overall improvements, code cleanup, and thousands of bugfixes, which makes it the fastest and most stable Opera browser ever! Read more about it here.
· On July 1st, The Document Foundation company announced the first maintenance release of the LibreOfficeb 3.4 open source office suite software for Linux, Windows and Macintosh platforms, bringing several bugfixes. LibreOffice 3.4.1 is available now (see download links at the end of the article), for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. The new release fixes some important bugs and updates several translations. Overall it is much stable than the previous release and everyone is encourage to update. Read more about it here.
Review of the Week: TiltShift Generator 1.0
· Tiltshift Generator is an application that tries to mimic the results of a special camera lens which produces some kind of artistic photographs in which the subject seem to be, in most cases, little toys or just stuff in a really small diorama.
Tiltshift Generator is a lot of fun and it continues to amaze, no matter if you are a beginner or a professional. Nonetheless, camera lenses will offer superior quality and the overall result will always be better when is back-up by hardware. If you don't want to throw a ton of money on a dedicated tilt-shift lens, then this software is just the thing to make your friends wonder how did you get “that” picture.
Read the complete review here.
Review of the Week: Alien Arena 2011 7.51
· Alien Arena is yet another multiplayer shooter that tries to carry the torch of old games from the last century, literally. It strives to do the best it can, with its technology, and it does it rather well, but there is almost nothing spectacular about this title and this can be seen in the gameplay and the replay value.
Alien Arena is a standard multiplayer shooter. It features nothing gamers haven't seen before, but it's main attraction is not the gameplay (although is quite fun), but the stylish design of characters and various levels.
Read the complete review here.
Video Clip of the Week: Mandriva 2011 RC1 - First Look
· For this week we've posted an 720p HD video clip that reviews the newly released Release Candidate version of the upcoming Mandriva 2011 operating system. The video has 9 minutes and 22 seconds, and it was posted by MarrkDaviid. Enjoy!
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· R.I.P. 13.5 · eXPress-linux 2011.06 · Android-x86 1.6-r2 · 4MLinux Allinone Edition 2.2 · NanoNAS 2.1 · Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.2.1 · Netrunner 3.2 · Calculate Linux Desktop 11.6 · Calculate Linux Desktop Xfce 11.6 · Calculate Linux Directory Server 11.6 · Calculate Linux Scratch 11.6 · Calculate Linux Scratch Server 11.6
· Chakra GNU/Linux 2011.06-ms1 · Chrome OS 1.4.797 RC · ConnochaetOS 0.9.0 RC1 · Zentyal 2.1-2 Beta
See you again at the end of next week for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.