14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 50th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
This week's editorial talks about the upcoming Mandriva Linux 2010. In the Linux distribution announcement section you will find the following releases: SystemRescueCd 1.2.1, Fedora 11 LXDE Remix, Parted Magic 4.2, GeeXboX 1.2.2 and Mandriva 2010.0 Alpha 1. In other news: Fedora 9 reaches end of life on July 10th, 2009; CrossOver 8.0 brings support for Internet Explorer 7; Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition is now certified on new HP ProLiant Servers; AMD releases new ATI video driver that fixes some Ubuntu issues; Fedora 12 release schedule and goals announced. For this weekly we also have two nice tutorials for all of our readers. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the latest Linux distributions released/updated last week and the development releases.
Summary:
Editorial: Mandriva Linux 2010 - by Daniel Pop-Silaghi
· After you've went through Fedora 12's schedule and goals and seen the changes in Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 2, it's time to hear some news from another major distro, namely Mandriva. Yesterday, on June 21st, the first Alpha of Mandriva 2010.0 was released and with it, a list containing some of the new technologies you should expect from the upcoming version. But first, if you can't wait to put your hands on a copy, you should know that this first development release only comes on the "Free" DVD version so you'd better prepare an extra partition or fire up a virtual machine as no Live CD is available just yet.
I will begin by telling you what you will actually find in Mandriva 2010.0 Alpha 1 and later discuss some of the planned features. Of course, the latest and greatest desktop environments couldn't miss out on the action: KDE 4.3 Beta 2 (coming with thousands of stability improvements and a bunch of new capabilities), GNOME 2.27.3 (which will in time become 2.28) and Xfce 4.6.1. The Linux kernel was also brought up-to-date and is now at version 2.6.30 bringing broader hardware support, improved EXT3 and EXT4 filesystems, experimental support for NILFS2, faster encryption and snappier booting - only to name a few. The X.org server has also been updated to 1.6.1.901 in Mandriva 2010.0 Alpha and fixes quite a number of issues.
As these may not seem like a whole lot of changes, the final October 15th release will most likely provide much more. Netbooks' popularity is soaring and Mandriva will entice users of such devices by integrating the Moblin User Interface in the operating system and even think of making it the default lightweight desktop environment on all platforms.
If you prematurely wore out your scroll wheel by looking through the timezone list in Mandriva's installer, you will be delighted to hear that Mandriva 2010.0 will finally come with a graphical map for easier location selection.
Another important improvement that should be seen from Mandriva 2010.0 RC1 is a convenient Live operating system upgrade tool, notifying users when a new version is available, but also removing the need of using the installer to upgrade the system.
Appearance-wise, it seems that we will finally have some modern choices for icons to choose from and the Ia-Ora theme will be ported to Cairo. Also, there are some plans to revamp the notification system to make it less intrusive and more good-looking.
OpenOffice.org that was recently upgraded to version 3.1.0 will be the default office productivity suite in Mandriva 2010.0. Amarok and Rhythmbox could receive an Amazon plugin, allowing users to easily buy music from the popular online service.
For the full list of planned changes, check out the PDF, but also head to the Mandriva Ideas Website and have your say in the development of Mandriva 2010.0.
And finally, here's the full release schedule for Mandriva Linux 2010.0:
· June 19th, 2009 - Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Alpha 1 · July 16th, 2009 - Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Alpha 2 · August 6th, 2009 - Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Beta · September 3rd, 2009 - Mandriva Linux 2010.0 RC1 · September 24th, 2009 - Mandriva Linux 2010.0 RC2 · October 15th, 2009 - Final release of Mandriva Linux 2010.0
Linux distributions announced last week:
On June 15th, François Dupoux announced the immediate availability of the SystemRescueCd 1.2.1 Linux distribution. Being powered by Linux kernel 2.6.29.4, the new version of this tiny Gentoo-based OS for system administration and data recovery comes with a few important updated packages and a couple of improvements.
Highlights of SystemRescueCd 1.2.1:
· Updated the standard Linux kernel packages to version 2.6.29.4; · Updated the alternate Linux kernel packages to version 2.6.27.24; · Updated e2fsprogs to version 1.41.6; · Updated the Logical Volume Manager (lvm2) package to version 2.02.45; · Updated NTFS-3G to version 2009.4.4-AR10 (this is the Advanced NTFS-3G Features branch); · Updated FSArchiver to version 0.5.7; · Updated Parted to version 1.8.8-git-20080324; · Added the Cowloop 3.1, a copy-on-write loop driver.
Download SystemRescueCd 1.2.1 right now from Softpedia.
On June 16th, Rahul Sundaram announced the release of a new Fedora 11 remix, especially created for those who want a lightweight desktop environment. The Fedora 11 LXDE Remix Live CD provides optimum integration and compatibility with LXD (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) and is available for 32-bit processor architectures in a 594 MB ISO.
LXDE aims to provide a faster, more efficient desktop experience while maintaining a pleasant and full-featured user interface. Mobile devices, cloud machines, netbooks or old computers can benefit from the low CPU and RAM consumption of LXDE.
Download Fedora 11 LXDE Remix right now from Softpedia.
Also on June 16th, Patrick Verner proudly announced the immediate release of Parted Magic 4.2, a Slackware-based Linux distribution that was created to help users easily partition their hard drivers or perform recovery tasks. Parted Magic 4.2 is now powered by the newly released Linux kernel 2.6.30 and it includes the popular Clonezilla hard disk cloning software. Clonezilla is not provided at boot time, like other similar distributions; instead it is offered as an application accessible directly from the desktop.
Highlights of Parted Magic 4.2:
· bzip2 was replaced with pbzip2; · gzip was replaced with pigz; · Fixed the "save session" function in the LiveUSB edition; · Better support for Italian key maps; · Fixed the multiple instances issue in the menu; · The Xvesa settings are now saved if the "save session" option is used.
Download Parted Magic 4.2 right now from Softpedia.
On June 19th, the GeeXboX team proudly announced the release of their media center Linux distribution, GeeXboX 1.2.2. This new version boasts quite a few exciting new features, of which the most important one has to be the experimental support for multi-threading video decoding.
Highlights of GeeXboX 1.2.2:
· Upgraded MPlayer and its codecs; · Improved automount daemon; · The GOOM audio visualizations were removed; · The DVD CSS descrambling functionalities have been extended; · Support for the latest encryption method – DVD MovieProtect.
Download GeeXboX 1.2.2 right now from Softpedia.
On June 21st, Mandriva announced the first alpha version of the upcoming Mandriva Linux 2010.0. This version is only available as a "Free" DVD edition for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. Mandriva 2010.0 Alpha 1 brings the current development versions of KDE and GNOME and the latest version of Xfce. The Linux kernel was also updated to the recently released 2.6.30.
Highlights of Mandriva 2010.0 Alpha 1:
· Linux kernel 2.6.30; · KDE 4.3 Beta 2; · GNOME 2.27.3; · Xfce 4.6.1; · X.org Server 1.6.1.901; · OpenOffice.org 3.1.0.
Download Mandriva 2010.0 Alpha 1 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an alpha release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.
· Jon Stanley announced on June 15th the end of life for Fedora 9 (Sulphur). This means that, starting with July 10th, users of Fedora 9 will no longer receive security/critical fixes and software updates. Therefore, all Fedora 9 users are urged to upgrade to the most recent version, Fedora 11. Read more about it here.
· CodeWeavers, through Jeremy White, announced on June 16th the release of a new version of its CrossOver application for both Linux and Mac operating systems. CrossOver 8.0 brings support for Internet Explorer 7, Quicken 2009 and a lot of fixes for supported applications. Moreover, there is a plethora of fixes that apply to MS Office 2003/2007, QuickTime 7, Outlook 2000, Acrobat Reader and FrameMaker. Read more about it here.
· Following the February announcement that HP and Canonical started collaborating towards providing Ubuntu certification on HP machines, the companies have recently revealed that Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition is now fully supported on the latest HP ProLiant G6 servers. In total, there are now 17 energy-efficient HP ProLiant configurations for which Canonical provides Ubuntu Server Edition support. Read more about it here.
· Advanced Micro Devices released on June 16th a new version of its ATI proprietary video driver for Linux. With version 9.6, the ATI Catalyst driver updates the software to version 8.62, brings several new features and a lot of bug fixes. ATI Catalyst 9.6 brings production support for SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) and SLED 11, as well as early support RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 4.8. Read more about it here.
· While every Fedora fan enjoys the newly released Fedora 11 Linux-based operating system, the developers are working hard on the next release, Fedora 12, due for launch in November-December 2009. For Fedora 12, the development team will prepare new and exciting features. Read more about it here.
Tutorial of the Week: How to: Easily Share Files with Dropbox
· From the tutorial: Online storage services became very popular in the last year or so... especially the ones that offered substantial free storage. Canonical and Mandriva also announced recently that they would offer such services for their operating systems in the next months. To be honest, Ubuntu One from Canonical seems very promising... but until it will be available for everyone, we have a very nice alternative for you: Dropbox!
Read the full tutorial here.
Tutorial of the Week: How to: Fix Yahoo Problem in Pidgin
· From the tutorial: Two days ago, Yahoo! Inc. did something to its messenger servers, something that practically blocked all the Linux IM clients, such as Pidgin, Kopete, Empathy or Gyachi. While many of us thought it might be an ISP issue, some very smart people found out the truth: Yahoo! changed the login method! However, at this moment (June 21, 2009), none of the aforementioned Instant Messenger clients for Linux can connect with the Yahoo protocol. This is, of course, not the first time when it happens, and Linux users are treated like outsiders. But, let's not start again with the endless question “Why Yahoo! doesn't update the Linux client?” and let's fix the problem (like we always do).
Read the full tutorial here.
Video Clip of the Week: Linux Pronunciation
· For this week we've posted a fragment from an interview with Linus Torvalds where he is asked about the pronunciation of the Linux word. The video has 15 seconds and it was posted by kaoru392. Enjoy!
· Eden Live 0.1 · Mer 0.14 · Linux Mangaka One CD 1.0 · Photo Artists Workshop RC-2
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· Fedora Games Spin 11 · Fedora Xfce Spin 11 · Fedora Electronic Lab LiveCD F11 · Webconverger 4.9 · DRBL Live Xfce 1.0.0-3 · Hymera 20090618 · Macpup Opera · Astaro Security Linux 7.402 · Ultimate Edition 2.2 · TITAN LEV 9.04.1 · iMagic OS 2009 9.6
· Tiny Core Linux 2.1 RC1 · Easy Peasy 1.5 Beta 1 · PureOS 2.0 Beta 1 · ALT Linux 5.0 Beta · Pardus Linux 2009 Beta · ClarkConnect 5.0 RC2 · BackTrack 4.0 Pre-Final · Debris Linux 1.8.2 Beta
See you again next Monday, June 29th, for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.
The Softpedia Linux Editorial Team.