14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 87th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux-based operating systems were announced last week: Tiny Core Linux 2.9, PC/OS OpenWorkstation 10.1 GNOME, Elive 2.0 and SimplyMEPIS 8.5 RC2. In other news: CodeWeavers announced the revamped CrossOver 9.0 application for Linux users; KDE cooked and delivered the first maintenance release of KDE SC 4.4; Nvidia announced the greatly improved Nvidia 195.36.08 video driver (it is no longer available due to some fan speed issue); Canonical refreshed the look of Ubuntu. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the latest Linux distributions released/updated and the development releases.
Summary:
On March 2nd, Robert Shingledecker announced Tiny Core 2.9, the latest update to the frugal Linux distribution. It comes with a number of upgraded packages and components under the hood, but also fixes several bugs and adds a few new features. Some of the changes to the very light Linux distribution also make Tiny Core 2.9 compatible with more hardware platforms.
Highlights of Tiny Core 2.9:
· Upgraded to Udev 151 with several rule adjustments and new rules added. · Updated libstdc++ 6.0.9 to support exceptions. · Updated glibc 2.9 to support i486. · Updated wbar - eliminated background relics. · Updated appbrowser - added "Provides" to search for "What provides," also error handling & speed improvements. · Updated appsaudit - added "Display All Not Depends On." · Updated tc-config - persistent home and/or opt, changed EXT only support; no Microsoft file systems support. · Improved language support by auto loading locale support extension(s) when both "lang= " and the "-locale.tcz" extension(s) are available in tce/optional. · Updated OnDemand to also support re-launching applications. Now one can always use the OnDemand menu section. · Updated support for easy mode remastering /opt/tce now uses onboot.lst, copy2fs flag and list in static base /opt/tce.
Download Tiny Core 2.9 right now from Softpedia.
On March 3rd, Roberto Dohnert announced PC/OS OpenWorkstation 10.1 GNOME, the first release in the PC/OS family to be based on the GNOME desktop environment, as the Linux distribution has traditionally been based on XFCE. It is also the first stable release of PC/OS OpenWorkstation 10.1. The developers say that they are targeting more high performance users with this release, but the minimum requirements are still very manageable.
Highlights of PC/OS OpenWorkstation 10.1 GNOME:
· GNOME 2.28; · Linux kernel 2.6.31; · Empathy replaces Pidgin as the default IM; · OpenOffice.org 3.1; · Exaile; · Gambas2; · WideStudio; · Full multimedia codecs; · Sun Java 6; · Evolution Groupware Suite; · GnomeBaker; · Exaile; · VLC; · GIMP (With all plugins); · Google Chrome; · Nimbus GTK theme and Metacity.
Download PC/OS OpenWorkstation 10.1 GNOME right now from Softpedia.
On March 4th, the Elive developers finally unleashed the next major and stable release of their amazing and eye-candy Elive Live CD Linux operating system. Dubbed Topaz, Elive 2.0 is still powered by the Debian mammoth and the lightweight Enlightenment E17 desktop environment. The developers state that the new release is so light that it eats only half of the resources on a system with less than 128 MB of system RAM. Now, that's amazing, considering that it also looks fantastic!
Highlights of Elive 2.0:
· Linux kernel 2.6.30.9; · Enlightenment E17 window manager; · Better autolaunchers; · Added lots of user Configurators; · Support for 3G phones; · Compiz powered desktop effects; · Amazing, new features to the Elive Installer (upgrade mode, migrate, reinstall, etc); · Nurse mode, a repair and recovery tool; · Support for bluetooth; · Ability to create USB bootable sticks with Elive; · OSS compatibility support; · Improved Autologin; · Broadcom 43xx drivers; · Added audio configurator utility; · Added special kernels with support for systems with more than 4 GB of RAM; · User friendly; · Added new translations; · ...and many more other breathtaking features!
Download Elive 2.0 right now from Softpedia.
Also on March 4th, Warren Woodford announced the second release candidate of SimplyMEPIS 8.5. While SimplyMEPIS 8.5 RC1 was released in the middle of the past week, the developers didn't have time to add any new features. They only fixed a few bugs reported by users. The SimplyMEPIS 8.5 RC2 release is ready for testing for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.
Highlights of SimplyMEPIS 8.5 RC2:
· Linux kernel 2.6.32.8; · X.Org 7.3; · Support for EXT4 filesystems; · KDE SC 4.3.4; · Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6-2; · OpenOffice.org 3.1.1-12; · Google Gadgets 0.11.0-2; · digiKam 1.1.0; · Ghostscript 8.71; · wl-modules 5.60.48.36.
Download SimplyMEPIS 8.5 RC2 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a development release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.
· CodeWeavers' CEO, Jeremy White, announced on March 2nd the availability of the CrossOver 9.0 application for both Linux and Macintosh operating systems. Dubbed Snow Mallard, the new CrossOver 9.0.0 release has a brand-new user interface for Linux users! This new GTK2-compatible graphical user interface is a dream come true, expected by all CrossOver Linux users. Read more about it here.
· The first maintenance release of KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC) 4.4.0 was unleashed on March 3rd, by the KDE developers. Dubbed Clara, KDE SC 4.4.1 is here to update various translations, fix a great number of bugs and improve the overall performance. KDE SC 4.4.1 is composed of the KDE Plasma Workspace, the KDE Applications and the KDE Development Platform. Read more about it here.
· Nvidia announced on March 3rd the Nvidia 195.36.08 video driver, which adds support for a few of the latest graphics adapters from the chip maker, specifically Quadro FX 880M, GeForce GTS 350M and GeForce GTS 360M. Nvidia 195.36.08 driver also adds support for NVIDIA 3D Vision Stereo with Quadro GPUs. It also comes with a lot of updates and changes for the VDPAU API Nvidia developed to offload video processing and decoding to the graphics unit. Read more about it here.
· Mark Shuttleworth and the Canonical design team presented the brand-new look for their upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) operating system. Yes! That means, no more Human theme! The new look will also be applied to Ubuntu's derivatives Kubuntu and Xubuntu. So, what has been changed? Everything! Canonical will use a new font style for their logos, new banners, a new design for the ubuntu.com website & for the freely available Ubuntu CDs, and, last but not least, a whole-new look for the Ubuntu 10.04 LTS operating system. The new style is called "Light." Read more about it here.
Video Clip of the Week: Elive 2.0
· For this week, we've posted a 720p High Definition video clip that showcases the new Elive 2.0 (Topaz) operating system. The video has 4 minutes and 12 seconds, and it was posted by juanfdo4. Enjoy!
· infinityOS 0.5.1 · OpenNode 1.0 Beta · Absolute-13.0.9-Live CD/USB Beta · 504box Live i686 Fluxbox
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· Vine Linux 5.1 · PLoP Linux 4.0.4 · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.4-14 · aLinux 12.9 · Viper OS 3.0 · Mandriva Linux MUD LXDE Edition 2010.0 Edition 3 · Frugalware Linux 1.2
· Lubuntu 10.04 Alpha 3 · Easy Peasy 1.6 Beta 1 · openmamba GNU/Linux 2.0 Pre 1 · Devil-Linux 1.4 RC3 · openSUSE Linux 11.3 Milestone 3 · Nexenta OS 3.0 Beta 1 · wattOS 1.0 RC1
See you again next Monday, March 15th, for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.