Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 22

Welcome to the 22nd issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!

We'll start this week's newsletter by letting you know that we've added a new section called "Video Clip of the Week," in which we will present some of the most interesting videos about Linux and other Open Source projects. The week starts with Amarok 2's first release candidate, which brought new features and improvements. Fedora announced its 10th release, with bleeding edge technologies. Ubuntu Privacy Remix brings advanced data-protection into a Live CD based, of course, on Ubuntu. Elive's new development version introduces an improved kernel, new bookmarks, and a better and stable network configuration tool. Philip Newborough announced the new version of his CrunchBang Linux distribution, based on Intrepid Ibex. Joe Brockmeier presents the features of the last development release of the upcoming OpenSuSE 11.1 Linux distribution. The Ubuntu development team announced a major security update for the following Ubuntu distributions: 6.06 LTS, 7.10, 8.04 LTS and 8.10. This year's Black Friday brought Ubuntu Inspiron Mini 9 for $299 to U.S. consumers. Also, don't forget to check out the latest Linux distributions released/updated last week, at the end of the article!

Summary:

On November 24th, the Amarok team announced Amarok 2.0 RC1 (codename Narwhal), which brings the following important changes since the third beta:

· You can now delete or rename playlist browser items, by using your keyboard; · The Last.fm service now shows the Users' Recommended radio; · Last used page will be always remembered by the settings dialog; · The latest improvements in the iTunes Importer allow you to import your iTunes statistics; · When editing a filename scheme, the Basic and Advanced view are now synchronized; · You can now edit the Track Information directly from the file browser; · In order to define a filename scheme, a delete button was added to the Advanced view; · The "Show active track" option has been moved to the playlist toolbar. It was previously shown in the playlist context menu; · The Organize Collection dialog has been redesigned; · The Last.fm scrobbling function will be enabled by default when you login to Last.fm; · The Last.fm and video applets have been removed and they will be re-added in later releases of Amarok 2; · The playlists added manually by the user will be updated on every collection (re)scan.

Download Amarok 2 RC1 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an unstable release and it should not be used on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.

On November 25th, Jesse Keating announced one of the most expected Linux distributions of the year, Fedora 10 (Cambridge). The new release offers the latest stable version of GNOME 2.24 and KDE 4.1, faster boot experience (powered by Plymouth), better printing, better webcam support, improved wireless network connection sharing, better software maintenance and update (powered by PackageKit and RPM 4.6), and virtualization storage. Plus, it adds a new security tool for IDS (Intrusion Detection System) called SecTool. In Fedora 10, users will enjoy a brand new theme called "Solar," and a new lightweight desktop environment called LXDE. Developers and system administrators will enjoy the power of Eclipse 3.4 and NetBeans IDE. 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 right now from Softpedia.

On November 26th, we introduced to you a new Live CD based on the popular Ubuntu operating system, called Ubuntu Privacy Remix, or UPR for short. What is UPR? It is a heavily customized Linux Live CD that tries to provide a working environment for people that deal with highly-sensitive data. It's a well-known fact that there are many ways to spy and monitor people's computers today (rootkits, trojans, keyloggers), therefore this Live CD is like the Forth Knox of computer operating systems. Highlights of Ubuntu Privacy Remix:

· No hard drive installation · Read-only filesystem · No Internet connection · TrueCrypt encryption software · Extended TC-Volumes · GNOME 2.22 desktop environment

Download Ubuntu Privacy Remix 8.04 RC9 right now from Softpedia.

On November 26th, the Elive team proudly announced another development release of their GNU/Linux Live CD, Elive 1.9.18, which brings a new and improved kernel (version 2.6.26.8) that includes the following improvements:

· Wireless improvements: The kernel now contains all the available wireless drivers, including ath9k from Atheros; · Apple MacBooks improvements: With the introduction of the ath9k wireless driver, the WEP encryption bug in MacBooks has been solved.

Moreover, they've finished the Net-Connector tool, which is now working at full capacity. Also, they've added new and useful bookmarks for the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

Download Elive 1.9.18 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an unstable release and it should not be used on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.

Also on November 26th, Philip Newborough announced the third release of his fast and lightweight Linux distribution: CrunchBang 8.10.01. The new version is based on Intrepid Ibex a.k.a. Ubuntu 8.10 and it brings the following changes since the previous release:

· A new theme. Darker than before!; · OpenOffice.org has been replaced by Gnumeric and Abiword; · Tablaunch and AcidRip have been removed; · By popular demand, dmenu has been installed. It can be activated with the Alt+F3 key combination; · Twitux has been replaced by Gwibber; · Mirage has been replaced by GPicView; · pypanal has been replaced by lxpanel; · Because it's a Qt4 application, the popular VLC media player has been replaced by Totem; · Last but not least, some additional default shortcut keys have been added for the Main Menu and dmenu.

Download CrunchBang 8.10.01 right now from Softpedia.

Joe Brockmeier announced on November 27th the first release candidate and probably the last development version of the upcoming openSUSE 11.1 Linux distribution. This RC includes a new and improved kernel, lots of bug fixes, a new license and many software updates. Here's the list of changes brought by openSUSE 11.1 RC:

· Linux kernel 2.6.27.7 · Amarok 2.0 RC1 · Zypper 1.0.1 · glibc 2.9 · The license was shortened · Added more translations

Download openSUSE 11.1 RC right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an unstable release and it should not be used on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.

Also on November 27th, the Ubuntu developers announced the availability of a major security update for the following Ubuntu distributions: 6.06 LTS, 7.10, 8.04 LTS and 8.10 (also applies to Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu). The update patches nine security issues (see below for details) discovered in the Linux kernel packages. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to update your system as soon as possible!

Read more about it here.

November 28th was Black Friday, a day that allowed consumers all over the United States to purchase a number of products at a lower price tag. This goes for all consumer products, which have had their prices reduced for this one day of the year, thus becoming more accessible to an increased number of users. One such deal comes from Dell, which has decided to significantly reduce the price point of its small-sized, low-power portable computer system dubbed the Inspiron Mini 9, powered by the popular Ubuntu operating system.

Read more about it here.

Video Clip of the Week: TouchScreen and XGL on Linux!

For this week, we've picked up a video clip from YouTube, called "3D Desktop! TouchScreen and XGL on Linux!" and posted by billbarsch. The guy uses Gentoo Linux, a Penmount touchscreen, the GNOME desktop environment and XGL. Enjoy!

Distributions Released Last Week:

· Foresight Linux 2.0.6 · Fedora Electronic Lab LiveCD F10 · Wicker 8.04 2008-11-21 · CacheGuard OS 5.3.7 · KDE 4 Live CD 1.1.80 · VectorLinux 6.0 Beta 1 · Poseidon Linux 3.1 · Berry Linux 0.93 · grml 2008.11 RC2 · Parted Magic 3.2 · GParted LiveCD 0.3.9-13 / 0.4.1-1 · CRUX 2.5 RC1 · GParted LiveCD 0.3.9-13 / 0.4.1-1