14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to our 21st issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
Here’s what you can read about in this edition: Adobe decides to release a 64-bit version of its marvelous Flash Player for Linux users; Ubuntu 8.10 has a new unofficial edition, Ubuntu Muslim Edition 8.10, which brings updated software and Quarn recitations; The KOffice team releases another development version of the upcoming KOffice 2.0 suite, with full ODF support; Playstation 3 users have a greatly improved Yellow Dog Linux to play with; First alpha of Ubuntu 9.04 arrives and we have the first screenshot tour! Also, don't forget to check out the latest Linux distributions released/updated last week, at the end of the article!
Summary:
• November 17th was a historical day for Linux users around the world, as Adobe finally decided to listen to them and released a 64-bit version of its Flash Player. Yes, you read that right... Linux users, not Windows or Mac, who will have to wait for Adobe to make their dreams reality by releasing a 64-bit version.
Until this, 64-bit Linux users had to install the 32-bit version of the Flash Player, which was forced to work with the help of the NSPlugin wrapper package and the 32-bit libraries.
However, this could cause some issues, and I'm pretty sure that users of the 64-bit Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) operating system know about the "grey box" problem of the Flash Player plugin, and are aware of the fact that they had to reload the page to see a flash movie, or even restart their browser... which was very annoying in some cases.
Download Adobe Flash Player 64-bit for Linux right now from Softpedia.
• On November 19th, the hard working team behind the UbuntuME (Ubuntu Muslim Edition) project announced a new version of their Linux-based operating system. Ubuntu Muslim Edition 8.10 is based on Intrepid Ibex, also known as the Ubuntu 8.10 operating system. It includes only open source applications, which have been changed in such a way to make it easy for the Microsoft Windows users to migrate to an Open Source Linux-based operating system. The new version, UbuntuME 8.10, brings updated/new applications, overall improvements and some new Quran recitations. It is available only as an installable DVD image, and has the following changes since version 8.04:
· In the multimedia section, the UbuntuME team added libraries for reading DVDs, Adobe's Flash player, the beloved VLC player, and a lot of audio/video codecs; · In the education section, they added the Kturtle, TuxMath, GCompris, TuxPaint, Stellarium and Celestia applications; · The language-pack-ar, aspell-ar, acon and bicon packages were added for better Arabic support; · Other new tools and utilities: InkScape, VirtualBox, Adobe Reader, Skype, Ubuntu Tweak, EnvyNG, Scribus, compizconfig-settings-manager, nautilus-open-terminal, Glipper applet, galternatives, Startup Manager, Pessulus and many more.
Download Ubuntu Muslim Edition 8.10 right now from Softpedia.
• Also on November 19th, the KOffice team announced the third beta release of the upcoming KOffice 2.0 open source office suite for KDE (K Desktop Environment) users, and not only. KOffice 2.0 Beta 3 introduces improvements in all its components, such as Karbon, Krita, KPlato, KChart, KPresenter, KSpread, KWord, the KOffice libraries, and plug-ins. It also repairs many of the issues related to the non-translatable strings, and improves the layout of many dockers. Highlights include:
· Unified Look and Feel · Platform Independence · Native Support for ODF
Download KOffice 2.0 Beta 3 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a beta release and it should not be used on production machines. It is intended to be used only for testing purposes.
• Looks like November 19th was a good day for Linux releases, as Fixstars, the company that acquired Terra Soft the week before the last, on November 11th, announced a new release of the Yellow Dog Linux operating system for SONY's Playstation 3, Apple PowerPC G4/G5, IBM Power Systems and YDL PowerStation. Yellow Dog Linux 6.1 is based on the CentOS Linux distribution, a RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) derivative, and it offers several nice improvements over the previous version, plus bleeding edge software. Highlights of Yellow Dog Linux 6.1 include:
· Linux Kernel 2.6.27; · X.Org 1.4.999 with xrandr 1.2.2; · GCC 4.1.2; · Cell SDK 3.1; · Mozilla Firefox 3.0; · OpenOffice.org 2.3 (version 3.0 will be available soon from YDL.net Enhanced); · Wireless network was dramatically improved; · Added frontend (GUI) to configure YDL.net; · Added Bluetooth support for PS3's SIXAXIS controller; · Barcelona Supercomputing Center CellSs; · Added ps3vram for a fast, temporary file storage or SWAP using video RAM of Playstation 3.
Buy Yellow Dog Linux 6.1 from Fixstars' Store.
• On November 22nd, the first alpha version of Ubuntu 9.04 (codename Jaunty Jackalope), which is scheduled for release in late April next year, was uploaded on the official mirrors. As the development team did not prepare a Live CD for this first alpha version of Ubuntu 9.04, we had to install the Alternate edition.
Our conclusion for this first alpha: There's nothing new on the surface... the same wallpaper, same GNOME version as in Ubuntu 8.10. Under the hood, some of the packages were updated, while others are the same builds as the ones in Intrepid. Oh, and no, there's still no OpenOffice.org 3.0 (it will be available in the next releases). The system is fast as usual, with no major problems at the moment, except for the Ekiga software, which crashed the first time we started it.
Anyway, the truth is that no one expects something exciting from the first, or even the second, alpha of a new Ubuntu release... Probably starting with the third or fourth alpha, which will be available next year, we will see some big changes, like that professional theme everyone is waiting for.
Download Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) Alpha 1 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an alpha release and it should not be used on production machines. It is intended to be used only for testing purposes.
· We decided to release yet another "terminalless" tutorial about how to install the 64-bit edition of Adobe's Flash Player on Ubuntu and other Linux-based operating systems.
From the tutorial: "64-bit Linux users had to install the 32-bit version of the Flash Player, which was forced to work with the help of the NSPlugin wrapper package. Moreover, the "grey box" issue in Firefox 64-bit for the Ubuntu 8.10 AMD64 (Intrepid Ibex) operating system is a known and unresolved problem, as is also the fact that users had to reload the web pages to see the flash content, or even to restart Firefox."
Read the full tutorial here!
• Distributions Released Last Week:
· CRUX PPC 2.4 · CAINE 0.3 · Suriyan Linux 8.10 20081113 · VortexBox 0.1 · Mandriva One Xfce 2009.0 · TurnKey Ruby on Rails Live CD 2008.11.18-hardy-x86
• Distributions Updated Last Week:
· AUSTRUMI 1.8.0 · Damn Small Linux 4.4.10 · PC/OS 2009 · CacheGuard OS 5.3.6 · MiniKnoppix 2005 · EasiLiX 1.2 · Xubuntu 9.04 Alpha 1 · Ubuntu Studio 9.04 Alpha 1 · Kubuntu 9.04 Alpha 1 · SME Server 7.4 · GParted LiveCD 0.3.9-12 · Greenie Linux 4I · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.1-18