14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 57th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The weekly starts with a first look at the brand-new KDE 4.3.0 desktop environment, followed by the Linux distributions announced last week: Linux Mint 7 KDE Edition, PTS Desktop Live 2009.3, Slackware 13.0 RC2, Arch Linux 2009.08 and Trisquel 2.2. In other news: Canonical announced that they would release Landscape Dedicated Server Edition in late September; After six months of hard work, the KDE community released KDE 4.3.0; Google updated its Chrome web browser for Linux and Macintosh operating systems. This week's tutorial will teach you how to install KDE 4.3.0 on Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the latest Linux distributions released/updated last week and the development releases.
Summary:
From the article: The desktop is quite impressive, even with all the gloss and shading; there is no menu lag or window dragging slowdown, which was to be expected since the proprietary graphics card driver wasn't installed. Even so, the memory usage was not great, KWin alone using more than 250 megabytes of memory and the whole system topping at more than 700 megabytes. Our test system's hardware configuration doesn't feature an Nvidia graphics card from the 8000 or 9000 series, so we weren't able to test KDE's performance after the recent bugfixes for those cards when hardware acceleration was enabled.
Read the entire article here.
Linux distributions released last week:
On August 3rd, Clement Lefebvre and the community behind the Linux Mint project proudly announced the immediate availability of the final release of Linux Mint 7 (Gloria) KDE Community Edition operating system. Being based on the Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) distribution, Linux Mint 7 KDE is powered by Linux kernel 2.6.28 and is built on top of the KDE 4.2.4 desktop environment. Just like the other editions of Gloria, this one also includes brand-new artwork, updated applications and many, many new breathtaking features.
Highlights of Linux Mint 7 KDE:
· Based on Ubuntu 9.04; · Linux kernel 2.6.28; · X.Org 7.4; · KDE 4.2.4; · Amarok 2.1; · New artwork; · Improved boot speed; · Improved mintMenu; · Improved mintInstall; · Improved mintUpdate; · Improved mintUpload; · Added mintWelcome; · Added apt version, inxi and rtfm command-line tools; · Moonlight/Silverlight support.
Download Linux Mint 7 KDE right now from Softpedia.
On August 4th, Michael Larabel and the team from Phoronix Media announced the immediate availability of their first Linux-based operating system, PTS Desktop Live 2009.3. Dubbed Gernlinden and based on Ubuntu Linux, PTS Desktop Live provides a platform for achieving automated and reproducible hardware benchmarks and system tests in an effective way. PTS Desktop Live 2009.3 consists of a minimal Linux environment upon which the Phoronix Test Suite's profiles and suites have been added, making it easy to perform Linux benchmarks from a Live DVD or Live USB stick, without the need to install a full Linux distribution or a large set of packages.
Highlights of PTS Desktop Live 2009.3:
· Easy to use Linux desktop; · System Performance measurement and stability testing; · Graphical user interface for benchmarking; · Integration with Phoronix Test Suite 2.0; · More than 50 Test Profiles and 10 Test Suites immediately available; · Phoronix Global access for sharing benchmark results with others; · It works as a live environment, no installation required.
Download PTS Desktop Live 2009.3 right now from Softpedia.
On August 6th, the Slackware's creator, Patrick Volkerding, announced that the second release candidate of the upcoming Slackware 13.0 Linux distribution was available for download. This update brings numerous new base packages, like the Linux kernel version 2.6.29.6, X.Org Server 1.6.3 and the K Desktop Environment 4.2.4. However, there are no official ISO builds for this release, but those interested in testing Slackware 13.0 RC2 can get it by using the download link below.
Highlights of Slackware 13.0 RC2:
· Upgraded the MySQL database to version 5.0.84; · Rebuild of the kdebase-runtime 4.2.4 package - includes changes from patchset 969192 that fix improper clipping of text labels under icons (such as in KMail); · FetchMail 6.3.11 - an update that includes a security fix for an SSL NUL prefix impersonation attack; · Xfce 4.6.1 - some missing icons were added and Terminal was updated to version 0.4.0; · Java 2 Platform Standard Edition Development Kit Version 6.0 update 15; · Mozilla Firefox was upgraded to version 3.5.2; · A new and improved Intel Graphics driver.
Download Slackware 13.0 RC2 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a development release and it should not be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.
On August 9th, Dieter Plaetinck announced the immediate availability of Arch Linux 2009.08. Released 6 months after the previous version, this latest edition includes kernel 2.6.30.4-1, udev 141-5 and an upgrade to the distribution's package manager, packman 3.3.0-2. Arch Linux 2009.08 features a new installer, AIF, which supports installation automation and customization, better disk and date/time handling, usability improvements and other enhancements.
Highlights of Arch Linux 2009.08:
· Usage of new AIF installer; · Better disk editor with support for dm_crypt and lvm setups; · Support for automated installations using config files (deprecates quickinst); · A framework to build your own installation procedures; · Better date/time setting with ntp support; · Refactored grub installation routines; · Usability improvements; · Aufs instead of unionfs; · Enhanced boot device detection on image start; · Ftp images are renamed to netinstall to avoid confusion; · Over 48 bugs and feature requests fixed.
Download Arch Linux 2009.08 right now from Softpedia.
Also on August 9th, the Trisquel GNU/Linux team announced the release of Trisquel 2.2, codename "Robur." This is the third and last maintenance update for the Trisquel 2.x LTS branch, tracking the releases of Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron, on which it is based. However, this Linux distribution doesn't use Ubuntu's package repositories, but instead hosts its own, with all the non-free software removed. The 2.x branch is a long-term support version, which will receive updates until mid-2011 and will have its security flaws patched until 2013. Since the Free Software Foundation is now hosting a mirror, package downloads will be faster, especially for United States residents.
Highlights of Trisquel 2.2:
· Linux-libre kernel 2.6.24; · GNOME 2.22.3; · OpenOffice.org 2.4.1; · Trisquel Web Browser 3.0.11 (Firefox rebrand); · The GIMP 2.4.5; · X.Org 7.3.
Download Trisquel 2.2 right now from Softpedia.
· The Google Chrome developers announced on July 30th the immediate availability of another important update of their wonderful web browser for Linux and Mac OS X platforms. Among the major features brought by Google Chrome 3.0.196.0, we should mention that users can now drag tabs into new windows (restoring is also possible) and the fact that it uses the system font settings, such as antialiasing and hinting. Also, some ugly crashes were fixed and the tab focus experiment was reversed. Read more about it here.
· Canonical announced on August 4th that a standalone version of its Landscape system monitoring and management service, Landscape Dedicated Server Edition, would be available for purchase in late September, 2009. This new standalone edition of Landscape will offer users the ability to install it locally and gain full control over their Ubuntu system. Being one of the most requested features, Canonical paid heed to its users and modified the hosted edition of Landscape in order for it to be operated locally. Landscape Dedicated Server Edition includes all the major features of the original edition, such as: auditing, management and monitoring. Read more about it here.
· Dubbed Caizen, the amazing KDE 4.3.0 desktop environment was released on August 4th by the KDE community. This is the next-generation KDE desktop environment for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X platforms, and it is here to deliver the most modern, beautiful and attractive desktop environment! Currently, the KDE 4.3.0 desktop environment ships with many packages, including web development applications, educational tools, administrative programs and more, all of which are available in over 50 languages. Read more about it here.
Tutorial of the Week: How to Install KDE 4.3 on Ubuntu 9.04
From the article: After six months of development, the K Desktop Environment 4.3.0 was launched, on August 4th, 2009. It fixes over 10,000 bugs and brings about 2,000 features. Among some of the most interesting ones in the KDE 4.3.0 desktop environment we can mention the new Arora web browser that will replace Konqueror, the beautiful Air theme, new eye-candy effects, a redesigned run dialog, lots of Plasma improvements, a new network manager, updated applications and many more. With this said, the KDE 4.3.0 is the most modern and beautiful desktop environment to date.
Today's tutorial is for those of you who don't want to wait until late October for the Kubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) release, which will come with a default KDE 4.3.0 installation, and it will teach you, step by step, how to install the brand-new KDE 4.3.0 desktop environment on your existing Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) installation.
Read the entire tutorial here.
Plasma on Netbook, August 2009
· For this week we've posted a video clip that showcases the status of Plasma development on Netbooks: autohide panel, default icon grid, and several layout fixes. The video has 2 minutes and 6 seconds, and it was posted by maybenotmart. Enjoy!
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· openmamba GNU/Linux 1.1 · KDE 4 Live CD 1.3.0 · PING 3.00.03 · AUSTRUMI 1.9.4 · GoblinX (XFlash) 2008.2 · PCLinuxOS MiniME 2009.1 · LazyDragon GNU/Linux 2 · GParted LiveCD 0.4.6-1 · paldo 1.19 · flexxxpup 1.7
· Frugalware Linux 1.1 RC1 · Bluewhite64 13.0 RC2 · Vine Linux 5.0 Beta 2 · Absolute Linux 13.0 RC4 · openSUSE Linux 11.2 Milestone 5
See you again next Monday, August 17th, for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.