14 DAY TRIAL // The following Linux-based operating systems have been announced last week: GeeXboX 2.0, Pardus Linux 2011.2, Kororaa Linux 15 and Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 2. In other news: The GNOME Project released the GNOME 3.2 Release Candidate development version of the popular desktop environment. For this week we've also prepared an nice tutorial about how to easily turn off the LCD monitor of your laptop to save battery life and an interestin review for the Warzone 2100 2.3.8 game. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the new and updated Linux distributions, and the development releases.
Summary:
On September 17th, the GeeXboX team proudly announced the immediate availability for download of the final and stable release of GeeXboX 2.0, the perfect MediaCenter distribution for HTPCs. Dubbed Love It or Shove It, GeeXboX 2.0 boasts quite a few exciting new features. It is now powered by the popular XBMC Media Center, as the default frontend.
Highlights of GeeXboX 2.0:
· Linux Kernel 2.6.38.8; · Xorg Server 1.10.3; · XBMC Media Center 10.1 frontend; · Mesa 7.11; · Systemd 29; · BusyBox 1.19; · Connman Network Manager 0.76; · OPKG Package Manager 0.18; · USB persistent user data storage; · Support for TV shows and movies with subtitles; · Support for Music collections, Pictures and Slideshows; · Blu-Ray (unencrypted), CDDA and DVD support; · Support for Media Database; · Internet TVDB and MovieDB metadata, and artwork grabbers; · ALSA 1.0.24.1; · Support for SPDIF, HDMI and Analog output devices; · Support for nVidia, Intel, Matrox, VIA and ATI GPUs; · Support for HDMI, LCD and CRT output devices; · OpenGL|ES and OpenGL hardware assisted graphics acceleration support; · VDPAU, Crystal HD and VA-API hardware assisted video decoding for nVidia, Broadcom and Intel GPUs; · Support for Synaptics touchpads; · Support for HID keyboards; · Support for remote controls; · Support for NFS shares; · Samba auto-discovery support; · DLNA and UPnP media discovery support; · ZeroConf services announcements support; · HTTP and FTP server support; · Lots of skins!
Download GeeXboX 2.0 now from Softpedia.
On September 19th, Gökçen Eraslan proudly announced the immediate availability for download and upgrade of the popular Pardus 2011.2 Linux-based Turkish operating system. Dubbed Cervus elaphus, the new Pardus 2011.2 Linux operating system brings important security updates, new packages and lots of bugfixes. Pardus 2011.2 comes as an Installation DVD and Live ISO images for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.
Highlights of Pardus Linux 2011.2:
· Linux kernel 2.6.37.6; · KDE Software Compilation 4.6.5; · LibreOffice 3.4.3; · NetworkManager 0.8.5.91; · ModemManager 0.5 (with 3G support); · CUPS (Common UNIX Printing System) 1.4.8; · New Nvidia video drivers; · Updated the Adobe Flash Player plugin; · The GIMP 2.6.11; · Fixed a MPlayer/libass crash when playing subtitled videos.
Download Pardus Linux 2011.2 now from Softpedia.
On September 20th, Chris Smart proudly announced the immediate availability for download and upgrade of the highly-anticipated Kororaa Linux 15 operating system. Dubbed Squirt, the new Kororaa 15 OS is now based on the Fedora 15 release, it features both KDE SC 4.6 and GNOME 3 desktop environments, and it is available for download (see download links at the end of the article) for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.
Highlights of Kororaa 15:
· Linux kernel 2.6.40.4; · Customized GNOME 3 desktop environment; · Customized KDE SC 4.6 desktop environment; · Mozilla Firefox 6 as default web browser; · VLC as default video player; · Pidgin as the default IM client; · Extra repositories for installing Adobe Flash Player, Google Chrome, RPMFusion and VirtualBox; · Gwibber and Choqok microblogging clients; · Out-of-the-box multimedia support; · Adobe Flash Player installer; · Jockey Device Driver Manager to easily install Nvidia and ATI video drivers; · Shell and Fallback desktops switcher for GNOME 3; · OpenShot and Kdenlive video editors; · SELinux enabled; · Australian and British English support and dictionaries; · DownThemAll add-on for Firefox; · Linphone VoIP client (for the KDE edition); · Removed KSplice; · Removed Add/Remove Extras script; · Lots of other improvements and bugfixes.
Download Kororaa Linux 15 now from Softpedia.
On September 22nd, Canonical unleashed the second and last Beta version, as well as the last development release, of the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system. Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 2 includes newer kernel packages based on the stable Linux kernel 3.0.4 upstream release, the newly released GNOME 3.2 Release Candidate desktop environment, LibreOffice 3.4.3, Mozilla Firefox 7.0 Beta 6, and Mozilla Thunderbird 7.0 Beta 3.
Starting with Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot), Canonical will provide a DVD ISO image that will be considered an extension to the usual CD image. The DVD will contain all the supported translations (language packs) and popular applications, such as The GIMP, InkScape, PiTiVi, and a complete version of the LibreOffice open source office suite. Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 2 comes with lots of bugfixes, especially for Unity and Compiz, as well as new features, such as a new music lens for Banshee, nicer LightDM theme, improved Unity 2D and full support for Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and other script languages.
Download Ubuntu 11.10 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 September 22nd, the GNOME Project made available for testing the Release Candidate of the upcoming GNOME 3.2 desktop environment. The GNOME team is done with major revamps for a while, GNOME 3.2 RC is all about polish, adding new features and improving existing ones. GNOME 3.2 will come with an integrated chat feature enabling users to chat with friends, share files and even take calls from the GNOME shell without the need of any additional apps. Read more about it here.
Tutorial of the Week: Easily Turn Off LCDs With a Shortcut Key in Ubuntu
· Are you using Linux and you want to save the life of your laptop/netbook's battery? Look no further, we have the solution for you! The following guide will teach you step-by-step with screenshots, how to make a script and create a shortcut key in order to easily turn off your LCD screen with a keystroke, to save the life of your notebook's battery.
We've tested this tutorial on the newly released Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 2 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system and it's working like a charm.
Read the complete tutorial here.
Review of the Week: Warzone 2100 2.3.8
· Warzone 2100 is an open source real time strategy game, with a long history. There aren't many RTS games on the Linux platform and you might think that any title would fill this void. Unfortunately, just because this type of games are few and far between, it's not a guaranty that any of them will be any good, as will see with this rendition of Warzone.
Warzone 2100 is not the best looking game out there. It’s built on 1999 technology and unless you haven’t played anything else in the last 10 years, you might be satisfied with its feel and looks. Otherwise is a bland game, with low textures and poor effects. This is somewhat balanced out by the size of the game (keep in mind there are no CG movies) which maxes out at almost 60 MB.
Read the entitr review here.
Video Clip of the Week: Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Beta 2 Technical Overview
· For this week we've posted an 720p HD video clip that showcases some of the features of the newly released Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 2 operating system. The video has 8 minutes and 44 seconds, and it was posted by quidsup. Enjoy!
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· Macpup 528 · Trisquel 5.0 · IPFire 2.9 Core 52 · Synergy Linux 2 · 4MLinux Rescue Edition 3.0 · CAINE 2.5 · Fuduntu 14.11 · LliureX 11.09 · Incognito Live CD/USB 0.8 · LinuxMCE 810 · GParted LiveCD 0.9.1-1 · LPS-Public 1.2.4 · Dynebolic GNU/Linux 3.0.0
· ArchBang 2011.10 RC · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.10-14 · Mythbuntu 11.10 Beta 2 · Edubuntu 11.10 Beta 2 · Kubuntu 11.10 Beta 2 · Ubuntu Cloud 11.10 Beta 2 · Ubuntu Server 11.10 Beta 2 · Xubuntu 11.10 Beta 2 · Ubuntu Studio 11.10 Beta 2 · Lubuntu 11.10 Beta 2
See you again at the end of next week for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.