14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 53rd issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux distributions have been announced last week: Sabayon Linux 4.2 KDE Edition, CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01, Parted Magic 4.3 and SystemRescueCd 1.2.2. In other news: VLC reaches version 1.0.0 after eight years of activity; Canonical announces the end of life for Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Desktop Edition; the KDE Community releases the second release candidate of the upcoming KDE 4.3 desktop environment. For this weekly we've prepared a nice review for the popular Songbird application. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the latest Linux distributions released/updated last week and the development releases.
Summary:
On July 5th, Fabio Erculiani proudly announced the immediate availability of the Sabayon Linux 4 KDE operating system, now with KDE 4.2.4. Being based on the previous version, this second KDE edition of Sabayon Linux 4 brings a "ready to use" version of the powerful and popular XBMC Media Center, a complete KDE4 desktop experience, OpenOffice.org 3.1.0 and all the other applications you'll need. Sabayon Linux 4.2 KDE is available for the x86 and x86_64 architectures, featuring a custom Linux kernel 2.6.29 with the Tuz logo and support for the EXT4 filesystem, which is enabled by default in the installer!
Highlights of Sabayon Linux 4.2 KDE:
· Linux kernel 2.26.9; · Default filesystem is EXT4; · X.Org 7.4 with support for Nvidia and ATI video cards; · KDE 4.2.4; · OpenOffice.org Office Suite 3.1.0; · Entropy Package Manager 0.96.26; · XBMC Multimedia Center; · Amazing desktop effects powered by Compiz Fusion 0.8.4; · World of Goo Demo; · Very beautiful artwork; · and many more!
Download Sabayon Linux 4.2 KDE right now from Softpedia.
On July 8th, Philip Newborough proudly announced the next major version of his lightweight Linux distribution, CrunchBang 9.04.01, which is based on Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) and is powered by the Openbox window manager. CrunchBang is now available for both 32-bit and 64-bit platforms.
Highlights of CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01:
· Based on Ubuntu 9.04; · Improved boot speed; · Improved wireless support; · Support for the EXT4 filesystem; · lxpanel was replaced by the tint2 panel, as the default taskbar; · Deluge was replaced by Transmission, as the default BitTorrent client; · Added a full version of the Vim editor; · Added PyRoom, a free fullscreen editor; · Improved documentation; · Added Openbox menu items, for various config files; · Improved the existing GTK and Openbox themes; · Added new GTK and Openbox themes. ...and many more!
Download CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01 right now from Softpedia.
Download CrunchBang Linux 9.04.01 Lite right now from Softpedia.
On June 9th, Patrick Verner announced the immediate release of Parted Magic 4.3, a Slackware-based Linux distribution that was created to help users easily partition their hard drivers or perform recovery tasks. Parted Magic 4.3 is here to fix some of the bugs found in previous releases, but it also brings updated packages and applications.
Highlights of Parted Magic 4.3:
· Fixed support for Reiser4; · Fixed the msftres bug; · Fixed SSH2 connections with gFTP; · Fixed some keyboard bugs; · Fixed the Clonezilla entry in LILO; · Fixed Clonezilla/Samba password prompt bug; · Fixed unmount issues with Clonezilla; · Fixed boot issues with the HDD edition; · Fixed other small bugs.
Download Parted Magic 4.3 right now from Softpedia.
On July 13th, François Dupoux announced the immediate availability of the SystemRescueCd 1.2.2 Linux distribution. Being powered by Linux kernel 2.6.29.6, 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 1.2.2:
· Updated the standard Linux kernel packages to version 2.6.29.6; · Updated the alternate Linux kernel packages to version 2.6.27.25; · The sysresccd-cleansys script was updated with a list of new packages; · Updated Aufs2 to version git-20090622, for Linux kernel 2.6.29; · Updated FSArchiver to version 0.5.8; · Updated e2fsprogs to version 1.41.7; · Updated mtd-utils to version 20080907; · Updated GNU Mac Changer to version 1.5.0; · Updated NTFS3G (Advanced NTFS-3G Features) to version 2009.4.4-AR12; · mdadm support was added in the initial boot process; · Fixed the PXE boot package to allow thttpd to send files that have the execution permission.
Download SystemRescueCd 1.2.2 right now from Softpedia.
· Dubbed Goldeneye, VLC 1.0.0 was released on July 7th and it brings some of the highly anticipated features, lots of bug fixes and many improvements. Among the new features we can notice support for some HD streams. Read more about it here.
· Dear Ubuntu users, the time has come to say goodbye to the Desktop Edition of the first LTS (Long Term Support) release of the popular Ubuntu operating system, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake), as on July 14th it will reach end of life. This means that, starting with that date, Canonical will stop "feeding" its Ubuntu 6.06 LTS operating system with security/critical fixes and software updates! Read more about it here.
· The KDE community proudly announced, on July 9th, the immediate availability of the second release candidate of KDE 4.3, the next-generation KDE desktop environment for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X platforms. KDE 4.3 RC2 contains a few bug fixes over the previous release, and it is once again intended to fix the remaining issues before the final release comes out, at the end of July, 2009. When it will be launched, KDE 4.3.0 will definitely be the most modern, beautiful and attractive desktop environment! Read more about it here.
Review of the Week: Songbird 1.2.0
· From the review: A positive first impression comes from the Songbird official website, which offers community-created packages for most popular Linux distributions. As such, Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuSE or Gentoo users are happily provided with DEBs, RPMs or ebuilds. I tested Songbird 1.2.0 on an Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) machine, so, obviously, I downloaded the 16.9 MB DEB package and quickly installed it. Once the installation process is complete, you will be able to find the new menu shortcut in the "Sound & Video" category.
Songbird is an extremely versatile, featureful audio player, offering you much more than simply playing your songs. A good-looking interface, plugin support or the integrated Internet browser are only some reasons to give Songbird a try.
Read the entire review here.
Video Clip of the Week: Crunchbang Linux Demo
· For this week we've posted a video clip that showcases the Crunchbang Linux distribution's features. The video has 10 minutes and 11 seconds and it was posted by RPCJerkobi. Enjoy!
· Mundus OS 1.0 · PIAPARA LiveCD 0.132 · Sugar on a Stick 1.0 · Element GNU/Linux 1.0
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· Slack Mini Server 1.4.4 · TurnKey Joomla Live CD 2009.07-hardy-x86 · KaufKauf Slim Linux 2.5 · Astaro Security Linux 7.404 · Calculate Linux Desktop Xfce 9.7 · ClarkConnect 5.0 · Kongoni 1.12.2
· Frugalware Linux 1.1 Pre 2 · Tiny Core Linux 2.2 RC1 · Elive 1.9.33 · Pardus Linux 2009 RC2 · wattOS 1.0 Beta 3 · KDE 4 Live CD 1.2.96 · Vine Linux 5.0 Beta 1 · Momonga Linux 6 Beta 1
See you again next Monday, July 20th, for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.