14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to our 19th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
Here’s what you can read about in this edition: the OpenSuSE team releases the fourth beta of the upcoming openSUSE 11.1 Linux distribution; Jesse Keating announces the Preview release of the Fedora 10 Linux; the third beta version of Amarok 2.0 arrives with a few important fixes and new functions; the third maintenance release of the K Desktop Environment brings enhancements to KHTML, Kopete and Dolphin. Also, you can check out our step by step tutorial on how to install the Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) operating system, and don't forget the latest Linux distributions released/updated last week, at the end of the article!
Summary:
• On November 3rd, the openSUSE team announced the fourth beta version of openSUSE 11.1. The new development release, openSUSE 11.1 Beta 4, includes a few important bugfixes and some improvements in different areas. However, the most important thing to mention about this release is the full support for common fingerprint readers on the market and out-of-the-box support for many webcams. Here are the updated packages since openSUSE 11.1 Beta 3:
· Linux 2.6.27.4 · GNOME 2.24.1 · VirtualBox 2.0.4 · Mono 2.0.1 · Evolution 2.24.1 · Banshee 1.3.3
Download openSUSE 11.1 Beta 4 right now from Softpedia.
• On November 4th, Jesse Keating announced the immediate availability of the Fedora 10 Preview release. Dubbed Cambridge, Fedora 10 Preview offers a faster boot experience (with the help of Plymouth), better printing, improved wireless network connection sharing, better software maintenance and update (with the help of PackageKit and RPM 4.6), virtualization storage, and adds a new security tool for IDS (Intrusion Detection System) called SecTool. The development cycle of Fedora 10 will conclude with the final release somewhere at the end of November 2008. Below are some of the highlights of Fedora 10:
· Linux kernel 2.6.27 (with improved webcam and WiFi support); · GNOME 2.24; · KDE 4.1; · Eclipse 3.4; · RPM 4.6; · Faster boot; · An enhanced version of the PackageKit package manager; · An updated PulseAudio sound server; · Improved Apple Macintosh hardware support; · Improved HDTV support in X.Org; · A new icon theme called Echo; · Remote virtualization.
Download Fedora 10 Preview right now from Softpedia.
• Also on November 4th, the Amarok team announced the Amarok 2.0 Beta 3 version of the audio player for the K Desktop Environment (KDE). The new development release is dubbed Ataksak, and comes packed with a database importer for all those that still use the version 1.4 of the Amarok player, and who want to conserve their song rating and statistics when the time comes to migrate. The team also added a new shortcut that allows them to jump to the current song in the playlist, and... as a bonus, they've revived the "sorting by year and album" function in the Collection Browser. Amarok 2.0 Beta 3 also brings a revamped statusbar and playlist, better Last.fm integration. Moreover, it is more polished and stabler than the previous releases.
Download Amarok 2.0 Beta 3 right now from Softpedia.
• On November 5th, the KDE community announced the immediate availability of the third maintenance of the K Desktop Environment, one of the most popular desktop managers, also known as KDE. The new release, KDE 4.1.3 (dubbed Change), ships with numerous bugfixes, some translation updates and many performance improvements. Here is a list with the most important changes brought by KDE 4.1.3:
· Two important bugs in Dolphin, the KDE 4 file manager, that could make the application hang and crash, were fixed; · Numerous bugs were fixed in KHTML, the HTML rendering component of KDE 4, which powers the Konqueror web browser. Also, some optimizations were implemented; · Kopete, the KDE 4 multi-protocol Instant Messenger, received some bugfixes and enhancements.
Download KDE 4.1.3 right now from Softpedia.
• On November 5th, the Ubuntu developers discovered a new vulnerability in the Linux kernel packages of Ubuntu 8.10, that could "help" an attacker execute malicious code as root (system administrator), or caused DoS (Denial of Service) attacks to hang or crash a vulnerable system. Even if this regression, found in the Ubuntu 8.10 Linux kernel packages, was discovered on November 5th, we wanted to inform and encourage users of the Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) operating system to update their systems as soon as possible.
Read more about it here.
• Tutorial of the Week: · Ubuntu 8.10, also known as the Intrepid Ibex, arrived exactly one week ago (on October 30th, 2008), and is the ninth release of Ubuntu OS. The following tutorial will teach you how to install Ubuntu 8.10 on your PC, and is addressed to people that have just heard about Ubuntu, people that have never installed Ubuntu before and want to test it, but don't know how. This guide will make things very simple for you, but if you get stuck somewhere in the middle of the installation and you need help, do not hesitate to use our commenting system at the end of the article.
Read here the full tutorial!
• Distributions Released Last Week:
· TurnKey LAPP stack LiveCD 2008.11.05-hardy-x86 · iMagic OS Business Edition 1.0 · iMagic OS Business XP 1.0 · iMagic OS Ultimate 1.0 · TurnKey Django Live CD 2008.11.09-hardy-x86 · Ubuntu Netbook Remix 1.0.1
• Distributions Updated Last Week:
· Puppy Linux 4.1.1 · XtreemOS 0.10.1 · Bauer-Puntu Linux 8.10 · Frugalware Linux 1.0 Pre 1 · GParted LiveCD 0.3.9-9 · LivEPICS fc5 1.03 · grml 2008.11 RC1 · KDE 4 Live CD 1.1.72 · Cooperation IWS 0.5.2 · Damn Small Linux 4.4.8 · Comfusion 2.0 · OpenSolaris Indiana 2008.11 RC1 · SabayonLinux x86 3.5.1 · SabayonLinux x86-64 3.5.1