14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 67th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux distributions were announced last week: Dreamlinux 4.0 XFCE Edition, Parsix GNU/Linux 3.0r0, OpenSuSE 11.2 RC1 and LinuxConsole 1.0.2009. In other news: Novell releases the second beta version of the upcoming Banshee 1.6 player and Ubuntu 9.04 offering from Dell. An in-depth review of the LyX 1.6.4 application is also present in this edition. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the latest Linux distributions released/updated last week and the development releases.
Summary:
On October 13th, the Dreamlinux team announced the immediate availability of the alpha version of the upcoming Dreamlinux 4.0 XFCE Linux distribution. This Xfce edition of the Dreamlinux operating system is a new project that tries to combine the good looks of the main Dreamlinux distribution with the speed of the Xfce 4.6.1 desktop environment, and it is also powered by Linux kernel 2.6.29.
Highlights of Dreamlinux 4.0 XFCE Alpha:
· Linux kernel 2.6.29.3-dream-1; · Xfce 4.6.1.2 desktop environment; · Included packages from the Debian Squeeze software repositories; · Added the Smart Package Manager software; · Included various multimedia packages from the Debian Multimedia Testing repositories; · The Engage dock was replaced by Wbar; · Added a new "Applications Folder" for the DEM (Dreamlinux Executable Modules) packages; · Added the popular and powerful SMPlayer package for all your audio and video needs (including HD playback); · Added the Go_Steel GTK theme, based on the Aurora GTK engine.
Download Dreamlinux 4.0 XFCE Alpha right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an alpha release and it should not be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.
On October 15th, Alan Baghumian proudly announced the release of Parsix GNU/Linux 3.0r0 (codename Kev), a Linux distribution based on Debian and designed for laptop and desktop users. In Parsix 3.0 everything is new, starting with the Linux kernel 2.6.29.6 (contains extra drivers and patches), GNOME 2.26.3 and continuing with the EXT4 filesystem and GRUB 2 bootloader, which is capable of detecting any other installed operating system.
Highlights of Parsix 3.0r0:
· Linux kernel 2.6.29.6; · GNOME 2.26.3 desktop environment; · Xorg Server 1.6.3; · GNU Iceweasel web browser 3.5.3; · OpenOffice.org office suite 3.1.1; · The GIMP image editor 2.6.7; · VirtualBox OSE 3.0.6; · VLC media player 1.0.1; · Adobe Flash Player 10.0.32.18; · xFarDic multilingual dictionary 0.11.7; · GParted partition editor 0.4.6; · Pidgin IM 2.6.2; · Compiz Fusion 0.8.2; · Synaptic package manager 0.62.7; · Exaile audio player 0.2.14; · SquashFS and LZMA 3.4; · Glibc 2.9.
Download Parsix 3.0r0 right now from Softpedia.
Also on October 15th, Novell launched the first release candidate of the upcoming openSUSE 11.2 operating system, as it nears its November 12 due date. In it you will find the Linux kernel version 2.6.31.3, GNOME 2.28 and PulseAudio 0.9.19 and Qt 4.5.3, to name just the more important packages that have received updates.
Highlights of openSUSE 11.2 RC1:
· Postfix 2.6.1; · Bluez 4.55; · RadeonHD 1.3 X.Org driver; · Blender 2.49a; · Evolution 2.28; · Gnumeric 1.9.13; · KMyMoney 1.0.2; · Konversation 1.2; · SeaMonkey 2.0 RC1.
Download openSUSE 11.2 RC1 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a development release and should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.
Also on October 15th, Yann Le Doare proudly announced the immediate availability of his LinuxConsole 1.0.2009 operating system, now powered by Linux kernel 2.6.30.5. The LinuxConsole distribution comes now in three main editions: CD, DVD and Multimedia, but the good news is that the LinuxConsole Jukebox is also available for those who want to build their own custom ISO images!
The LinuxConsole 1.0.2009 Multimedia Edition includes the following new features: Linux kernel 2.6.30.5, X.Org 7.4, IceWM window manager, ROX-Filer file manager, iDesk, Mozilla Firefox 3.5.3, Adobe Flash Player 10, MPlayer. This edition is about 200 MB in size and it was designed for your multimedia needs. Based on the Multimedia ISO, the LinuxConsole 1.0.2009 CD Edition includes the GNOME desktop, the Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS), The GIMP, the GCompris, the FooBillard and the Frozen Bubble. On the other hand, the LinuxConsole 1.0.2009 DVD Edition is based on the CD one and includes the following extra packages: ATI Catalyst 9.9 video drivers for ATI cards, Nvidia 185.18.36 video drivers for Nvidia cards, VirtualBox 3.0.6, PlayOnLinux, Qjackctl + ardour 2 Qjackctl, Ardor 2, and many games, such as OpenArena, Warsow or TORCS.
Download LinuxConsole 1.0.2009 right now from Softpedia.
· Novell proudly announced on October 13th the second beta release of the Banshee 1.6 media player. This new development version, also known as Banshee 1.5.1, brings some awesome features, such as an Auto DJ mode, three new shuffle modes, support for WebOS devices (like Palm) and support for the Samsung Galaxy Android phones. The Auto DJ feature appears to be the star of this release, and you should know that it will keep the Play Queue "busy." Among the new shuffle modes introduced, we can mention "Shuffle by artist," "Shuffle by album" and "Shuffle by rating." Another feature is the ability to keep the currently playing song selected and visible in the playlist. Read more about it here.
· Until now, Dell has been shipping Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) with its Linux computers and, frankly, this operating system is more than a year and a half old. Well, thanks to the Dell fanboys and girls who submitted requests to the IdeaStorm project, the computer manufacturer decided to honor its customers' requests and now you can get your Dell computer with a custom version of Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). Read more about it here.
From the review: Most users, when they need to write a document of some sort, will most likely use a "what you see is what you get" office suite that requires things to look just right on the screen before anything can be expected from the printed version. This type of document creation is good for small and medium length papers and where style consistency and advanced formatting aren't particular concerns, but if you want to write a scientific work that will be scrutinized by a great number of people and, on top of that, contains mathematical formulas or other special features, you're in for a world of trouble. Of course, various typesetting systems have been created for this kind of work, but they require you to get familiar with the special formatting language or with a convoluted interface, both very time consuming.
Since LyX isn't a word processor, importing a document made with one isn't an easy task. You can only import LyX documents created by older versions of this program, HTML markup, plain text or LaTeX documents. Even if you do import your documents, they will probably need quite a lot of editing to take advantage of LyX's consistent styling and automatic functions. The same goes for exporting a document; you won't be able to switch from a conventional document editor and back. You can save it as a PDF or DVI file, various forms of LaTeX, postscript or plain text. If you are technically inclined you can also plug your own renderer into LyX and export into whichever format you want, but that is not a task for the novice user.
Read the entire review here.
Video Clip of the Week: clicfs eats CPU on openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 8
· For this week, we've posted a video clip that showscases how much CPU clicfs eats on openSUSE 11.2 Milestone 8. The video has one minute and 24 seconds and it was posted by the 09427560. Enjoy!
· VAST 2.71 Beta · DigAnTel 1 · Portable Linux 1.0
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· GParted LiveCD 0.4.7-1 · CacheGuard OS 5.5.0 · Baltix 4.1 · Damn Vulnerable Linux 1.5 · Trisquel 3.0 · Zenwalk GNOME 6.0.1 · Chaox 7.0 · Bee Linux 1.0.3 · SOAD Linux 3.2.1 · VortexBox 0.9 · ZevenOS 1.6 · PaiPix Linux 9.6.19 · BrowserLinux 353 · Puppy Linux 4.3.1 · Absolute Linux 13.0.3
· Brasillinux Desktop RC6 · Nexenta OS 3.0 Alpha 1 · Kwort Linux 3 Pre-Release · XtreemOS 2.0 RC6
See you again next Monday, October 26th, for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.