Welcome to the 72nd issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux-based operating systems were announced last week: Parted Magic 4.6, Fedora 12 and KNOPPIX 6.2. This week's YouTube-powered video clip showcases the magical powers of the upcoming Chrome operating system from Google. At the end of the weekly you will find the latest Linux distributions released and updated last week, and, of course, the development releases. Enjoy!
On November 16th, Patrick Verner announced the immediate availability of Parted Magic 4.6, a Slackware-based Linux distribution that was created to help users easily partition their hard drives or perform recovery tasks. Parted Magic 4.6 comes with improved support for netbooks, Super Grub Disk, the Clamav anti-virus and lots of other new packages, improvements and bug fixes.
Highlights of Parted Magic 4.6:
· Improved support for netbooks;
· Fixed the "ERROR: Current NTFS volume size is bigger than the device size!" error in GNU Parted;
· The Parted Magic Save Session function now uses the xz compression algorithm instead of the 7-zip one;
· Added the Clamav anti-virus tool (the definitions must be downloaded manually, for now);
· Adobe's Flash Player can now be downloaded and installed from the Application Launcher in the Panel;
· Added the epdfview for reading PDF manuals;
· Added a small tool on the desktop, to easily change the keyboard layout;
· Added the lxrandr package to be able to resize the display while in the X11 session;
· Removed Clonezilla from the main ISO image. Parted Magic – Clonezilla is provided as a replacement;
· Recreated the syslinux menus to add sub-menus and more options;
· Redesigned boot menu;
· Linux Software RAID and Device Mapper RAID are now located under the RAID options;
· Device mapper will no longer start at boot time;
· Included Super Grub Disk 1 and 2 (under the syslinux "Extras" sub-menu);
· Numlock will no longer be activated at boot;
· Removed the "sleep=10" boot option, as the boot script of Parted Magic no longer needs it.
Parted Magic 4.6
Download Parted Magic 4.6 right now from Softpedia.
On November 17th, the hard working people behind the Fedora Project announced the release of Fedora 12. The new version is powered by Linux kernel 2.6.31, and it includes the KDE 4.3 and GNOME 2.28 desktop environments. Just like Mandriva, the Fedora developers introduced support for Moblin, as well as improved power management and webcam support, audio/video codec support and many more!
Highlights of Fedora 12:
· Linux Kernel 2.6.31.5;
· Dracut, the new booting system;
· Plymouth graphical boot splash;
· KDE 4.3.2;
· GNOME 2.28.0;
· New artwork;
· Empathy Instant Messenger;
· Moblin support;
· Better webcam support;
· Spanning desktop support;
· Improved HD video codecs;
· Network Manager mobile broadband for GSM networks;
· EXT4 is the default filesystem;
· x86 optimized for the Intel Atom processors (compiled for i686);
· RPM XZ compression;
· Guest virtual machines for KVM;
· Automatic bug reporting tool (ABRT);
· New NetworkManager with better IPv6 and Mobile Broadband support;
· Improved power management support;
· Support for Intel BIOS-RAID;
· Better support for Intel hardware;
· Clustered Samba support;
· Improved PulseAudio;
· Improved PackageKit;
· Improved KVM virtualization;
· Fedora Studio;
· BSoD (Bluetooth Service On Demand);
· NFS4;
· NetBeans 6.7;
· Ogg Theora 1.1.0;
· PolicyKit 1.0;
· Improved SystemTap.
Download Fedora 12 GNOME Live CD right now from Softpedia.
Download Fedora 12 KDE4 Live CD right now from Softpedia.
On November 18th, Klaus Knopper proudly announced the release of KNOPPIX 6.2, the famous Live Linux distribution. Being based on Debian Lenny (Testing and Unstable), the brand-new KNOPPIX 6.2 is powered by Linux kernel 2.6.31.6, X.Org 7.4 and it uses the lightweight LXDE as a desktop environment. The Live CD version of KNOPPIX, entitled "Microknoppix," has been completely rewritten based on the KNOPPIX boot system, from the 6.0 and 6.1 versions. Also included in KNOPPIX 6.2 is the A.D.R.I.A.N.E. 1.2 (Audio Desktop Reference Implementation And Networking Environment) talking menu, especially designed for the visually impaired.
Highlights of KNOPPIX 6.2:
· Based on Debian Lenny;
· Linux kernel 2.6.31.6;
· X.Org 7.4;
· LXDE desktop environment;
· Fast startup;
· GNOME and KDE4 desktop environments on the Live DVD;
· Added NetworkManager and nm-applet;
· Persistent ISO image.
· Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, announced on November 17th a new version of its versatile ATI Catalyst proprietary display driver for Linux users, for both x86 and x86_64 architectures. The ATI Catalyst 9.11 suite updates the software to version 8.671 and brings production support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 and initial support for openSUSE 11.2. Read more about it here.
· Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google, announced on November 19th the immediate availability of the source code for their upcoming Chrome Operating System, under the name of Chromium OS. The actual Chrome OS, as Google said, will be released sometime at the end of 2010, one year from now, and it will be available at first for netbooks and, later on, high-end machines. Read more about it here.
Video Clip of the Week: What is Google Chrome OS?
· For this week, we've posted a video clip that showcases the powers of the upcoming Google Chrome OS. The video has 3 minutes and 21 seconds, and it was posted by the googlechrome. Enjoy!
Well, I don't know about others but I still do stuff in programs and not to keen on saving my stuff out in the Internet where it can get lost or looked at by lawyers with orders from a court etc.. Not to mention my Internet at least is not that reliable. Not to mention I don't think my company (the one that owns this PC) would be too happy with me putting documents that belong to them up on the Internet. Not to mention many of my friends are still on dial up because there is no broadband where they are. This will appeal to some but not to the masses. At least that's my guess. I for one, pass.. thank you anyway google.
I agree with Scott, its just a bit of uncertanties with storing your stuff on the cloud. Who has access, who can get access, will it be erased?
Also, congrats on PartedMagic 4.6 that is a great tool. Although, their rsync still stalls and powers off my laptop eventually but still good release overall and plus thats what the --partial is for.
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