Aug 6, 2011 23:01 GMT  ·  By

Welcome to the 159th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!

The following Linux-based operating systems have been announced last week: Oracle Linux 5.7 and Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 3. In other news: The Document Foundation company announced the release of the LibreOffice 3.4.2 open source office suite; Google released the final and stable version of the popular Google Chrome 13 web browser; Linus Torvalds hates GNOME 3 and switches to the Xfce desktop environment. For this week we've also prepared a very nice tutorial about how to install KDE Software Compilation 4.7 on the Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the new and updated Linux distributions, and the development releases.

dots Summary:

dots OracleOn August 1st, Oracle announced the immediate availability for download of the Oracle Linux 5.7 operating system, a Red Hat Enterprise clone. Oracle Linux 5.7 brings all of the new features and fixes found in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7, which has been available for a little over a week, plus a few patches of its own.

For all intents and purposes, it is fully compatible with RHEL 5.7, all apps and components should work the same, which was always the aim, but it is missing the Red Hat logos, artwork and other specific components. The first is Oracle's own Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 2.6.32 (200.13.1.el5uek) which is also the default. The second option is the vanilla Red Hat compatible kernel 2.6.18 (274.el5), which is also installed by default, but is not the default option.

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Oracle Linux - Image courtesy of DistroWatch

Download Oracle Linux 5.7 now from Softpedia.

dots UbuntuOn August 4th, Canonical announced the third Alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system. Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 3 is now powered by the latest stable version of Linux kernel 3.0 and the GNOME 3.1.4 desktop environment. Mozilla Thunderbird 6.0 is now the default email client and Mozilla Firefox 6.0 is the default web browser. Unity menu and launcher integration has also been added for Thunderbird.

This release features experimental versions of Compiz and Unity. Moreover, the old ALT+Tab functionality has been replaced with CTRL+Tab one, the launcher and panel perform better, and the indicator stack was ported to GTK3.

Last but not least, a lot of new options for a pleasant desktop experience have been added to the power indicator, such as easy access to setup your monitor, bluetooth devices, startup applications, printers, USB devices, and system updates. Ubuntu Software Center got a new "top rated" views feature to all the subcategory pages and the main category page. Moreover, installing individual deb files is a lot faster now.

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Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 3

Download Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 3 now from Softpedia.

dots Other NewsOther News:

· On August 1st, The Document Foundation company announced the second maintenance release of the LibreOffice 3.4 open source office suite software for Linux, Windows and Macintosh platforms, bringing several bugfixes. LibreOffice 3.4.2 fixes some important bugs found in previous releases, which makes it ready to be deployed for production needs on enterprise environments. LibreOffice 3.4.2 is available for download for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. It is much stable than the previous versions and everyone is encourage to update. Read more about it here.

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· On August 2nd, the Google Chrome developers at Google proudly announced the stable release and immediate availability for download of the Google Chrome 13 web browser for Linux, Windows, Macintosh and Chrome Frame platforms. The new Google Chrome 13 web browser includes various exciting new features, such as the highly anticipated Instant Pages prerendering technology. Read more about it here.

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· Gnome 3 doesn't have too many fans among power users and when the father of Linux, Linus Torvalds, speaks out against Gnome 3 and switches to Xfce, it doesn't look good. Linus believes that Gnome 3 has serious usability issues. Of course, Linus Torvalds is not representative of a broad user base, not even of a regular Linux user, but his words carry a lot more weight than almost anyone else in the Linux community. Read more about it here.

dots Tutorial of the WeekTutorial of the Week: How to Install KDE SC 4.7 on Ubuntu 11.04

· After another six months of hard work, the famous KDE Software Compilation (SC) suite reached version 4.7 on July 27th, 2011. With lots of bug fixes, many new features, new applications, breath-taking effects, KDE SC 4.7.0 is composed of the KDE Plasma Workspace, the KDE Applications and the KDE Development Platform.

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KDE SC 4.7 on Ubuntu 11.04

Today's tutorial is for those of you who want to install KDE SC 4.7 on their Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) systems. In other words, with this guide, we will teach you, step by step, how to install KDE SC 4.7 on your existing Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) installation.

Read the compete tutorial here.

dots Video Clip of the WeekVideo Clip of the Week: Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Alpha 3 First look & Review

· For this week we've posted an 1080p HD video clip that reviews the recently released Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) Alpha 3 operating system. The video has 7 minutes and 22 seconds, and it was posted by quidsup. Enjoy!

Download from SoftpediaNew Distributions:

· Ascendos 1.0

Download from SoftpediaDistributions Updated Last Week:

· StressLinux 0.7.106 · 4MLinux Server Edition 2.3 · Ultimate Edition Lite 3.0 · Parted Magic 6.6 · Knoppix 6.7.0 · LPS-Public 1.2.3 · PureOS 4.0 · Pinguy OS 10.04.3

Download from SoftpediaDevelopment Releases:

· Tiny Core Linux 3.8 RC3 · Frugalware Linux 1.5 RC2 · VectorLinux Light Live 7.0 Alpha 5 · Kubuntu 11.10 Alpha 3 · Edubuntu 11.10 Alpha 3 · Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud 11.10 Alpha 3 · Mythbuntu 11.10 Alpha 3 · Lubuntu 11.10 Alpha 3 · Ubuntu Server 11.10 Alpha 3

See you again at the end of next week for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.