14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 88th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux-based operating systems were announced last week: Frugalware 1.2, PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 1, SME Server 7.5 RC1, SME Server 8.0 Beta 5, Fedora 13 Alpha, VortexBox 1.2, PC/OS 10.1 OpenWorkstation and Mandriva Linux 2010.1 Alpha 3. In other news: Canonical announced that Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud would be deployed on Intel hardware and that Ubuntu would be present in Google's Summer of Code 2010; Softpedia presented the new artwork of the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) operating system. For this week, we've also prepared an in-depth review of the famous Google Chrome 5 Beta web browser. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the latest Linux distributions released/updated and the development releases.
Summary:
On March 6th, the PCLinuxOS development team announced the first Beta release of the upcoming PCLinuxOS 2010 Linux operating system. With a customized version of KDE Software Compilation 4.4.1 on board, PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 1 is powered by Linux kernel 2.6.32.8 with the BFS scheduler, for an amazing desktop performance on modern 32-bit computers. The included kernel also supports machines with 4 GB of system RAM.
Highlights of PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 1:
· Linux kernel 2.6.32.8; · KDE SC 4.4.1; · Plymouth boot splash manager; · Plymouth themes in the repositories; · Speedboot technology for faster startup times; · 3D desktop effects powered by Compiz Fusion; · Support for Bluetooth; · OpenOffice.org installer; · Unified KDE System Administration Control Center; · Full support for audio and video files; · DVD playback support; · Support for wireless devices; · Support for printers; · Adobe Flash Player 10; · Repository speed test.
Download PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 1 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a beta release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.
On March 8th, the Frugalware development team announced the release of Frugalware 1.2, the 12th stable release of the Linux distribution. Frugalware 1.2 comes with only a number of bug fixes from the second release candidate, but there are some pretty big changes from the previous stable release, Frugalware 1.1. The biggest update is the move to KDE 4 code based on the aging KDE 3.5 one, as the software pack was deemed mature enough to make it to the stable release. There are also plenty of package updates.
Highlights of Frugalware 1.2:
· KMS (Kernel Mode-Setting) is now enabled by default for Intel and Radeon cards. · PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) is now part of the base system. · Introduced devtmpfs: you can now exclude /dev from backups, along with /proc and /sys. · Removed several large games from the install images (CD/DVD), which means one less DVD or 4 less CDs. · Upgraded KDE (and related) packages to the 4.x branch. The work started back in April 2009 and the developers thought it was a good move to merge that testing repository. · Updated the bluez userspace stack to the 4.x branch, which allowed the developers to improve both GNOME and KDE bluetooth support.
Download Frugalware 1.2 right now from Softpedia.
Also on March 8th, The SME Server development team released not one but two testing versions of upcoming releases, SME Server 7.5 RC1 and SME Server 8.0 Beta 5. The release candidate version, SME Server 7.5 RC1, is mostly a bug-fixing build, while SME Server 8.0 Beta 5 also comes with a couple of bigger changes.
Highlights of SME Server 8.0 Beta 5:
· Based on CentOS 5.4. · Samba 3.4.3: has been updated from sources provided by ClearOS. This version of Samba provides support for Windows 7 domain logins. · PHP 5.2.10 is provided by the Red Hat Application Stack 2. It is needed by recent web applications such as OScommerce. · LDAP authentication: third-party applications can authenticate against SME Users passwords. LDAP is still read-only, built automatically from SME databases.
Download SME Server 8.0 Beta 5 and SME Server 7.5 RC1 right now from Softpedia. Remember that these are testing releases and they should NOT be installed on production machines. They are intended to be used for testing purposes only.
On March 9th, Fedora Project announced the Fedora 13 "Goddard" Alpha release, the first step towards the upcoming Fedora 13 operating system, due in May. This first development release comes with a lot of new features and updates catering to all user groups, regular users, developers and system administrators. Ease of use was a main focus and Fedora 13 comes with automatic printer drivers and language packs installation, saving the users quite a bit of time.
Highlights of Fedora 13 Alpha:
· Linux Kernel 2.6.32; · KDE SC 4.4; · Support for webcams; · Mozilla Firefox 3.6 web browser; · Enhanced Init System; · Topology Awareness; · Improved Anaconda Installer; · Improved software management; · 3D Support for Nvidia Systems; · Automatic installation of printer drivers; · Language packs are automatically installed; · Revamped user management interface; · Improved NetworkManager; · Color management; · SystemTap static probes; · Zarafa Groupware; · NetBeans 6.8; · Python 3 support; · Btrfs snapshots integration.
Download Fedora 13 Alpha right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an alpha release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.
Also on March 9th, Andrew Gillis announced version 1.2 of the VortexBox Fedora-based operating system, which brings lots of new features. Trying to be one of the best NAS (Network-Attached Storage) for SqueezeBox and Sonos players, VortexBox 1.2 includes now version 7.4.2 of the SqueezeBox Server and repairs some reported issues in the VortexBox Player, introduced in the previous release. With VortexBox, you can rip Audio CDs to the FLAC and MP3 formats, add ID3 tags, grab album art and stream music files on your network.
Highlights of VortexBox 1.2:
· Pre-installed and configured SqueezeBox Server 7.4.2 from Logitech; · Improved support for MP3 files; · Fixed critical bugs in VortexBox Player; · New Package Manager; · Lots of bugs squashed!
Download VortexBox 1.2 right now from Softpedia.
On March 11th, Roberto Dohnert proudly announced the immediate availability of the main edition (with the XFCE desktop environment) of the PC/OS 10.1 OpenWorkstation operating system. Being powered by Linux kernel 2.6.31, this release includes many enhancements and bug fixes over the previous stable release. The next version, PC/OS 11, will be an LTS (Long Term Support) release!
Highlights of PC/OS 10.1 OpenWorkstation:
· Linux Kernel 2.6.31; · OpenOffice.org 3.2; · Firefox 3.5.8; · Amazon MP3 downloader; · Empathy for IM; · GNOME utils 2.28; · GnomeBaker for burning CDs and DVDs; · VLC is now the default video player; · WINE 1.2 is now included; · Google Gears is now included so that Webstation users can access Google Docs and other web apps offline; · New Simplified menu structure; · USB Creator can now be used to create a bootable USB drive; · UI design is now unified with the GNOME release.
Download PC/OS 10.1 OpenWorkstation right now from Softpedia.
On March 13th, Mandriva announced Mandriva Linux 2010.1 "Spring" Alpha 3. Those wanting to see what the Mandriva team has cooked up for this release will be a bit disappointed, as Mandriva Linux 2010.1 Alpha 3 doesn't come with any new or updated features specific to Mandriva and is focusing on third-party packages for now.
Highlights of Mandriva Linux 2010.1 Alpha 3:
· Linux kernel 2.6.33; · X.Org 7.5; · Xorg Server 1.7.5; · KDE SC 4.4.0; · GNOME 2.29.91; · Mozilla Firefox 3.6; · OpenOffice.org 3.2 RC 5; · Amarok 2.3 Beta 1; · Deluge 1.2.0; · Songbird 1.4.3; · Transmission 1.83; · Chromium (on which Google Chrome is based); · Nouveau driver; · Mesa 7.7; · Intel video driver 2.10.901; · NTFS-3G 2010.03.06; · Glibc 2.11; · GDB debugger 7.0.1; · Ruby 1.9.1; · Munin 1.4; · Spamassassin 3.3.0; · QT 4.6.2; · KTorrent 4.0 Beta 1; · Digikam 1.1.1.
Download Mandriva Linux 2010.1 Alpha 3 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an alpha release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.
· On March 11th, Canonical, the company behind the very popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, announced that it recognized the potential of the emerging market and had partnered with Intel and Eucalyptus to promote its Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) offering as part of Intel's Cloud Builder program. Read more about it here.
· On March 12th, Canonical, through Daniel Holbach, announced that Ubuntu would be present in Google's Summer of Code 2010. Ubuntu is now looking for students who aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty coding for Ubuntu this summer, but also for mentors to help them out. So, if you're thinking about a fun project you'd like to complete during the summer holiday, it's time to start planning. Students will be able to start applying for a project from March 29 and the registration period runs until April 9. Read more about it here.
· With the Beta release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS knocking on our doors, on March 13th we decided to give you a glimpse at the new Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) artwork. In this article, we showcase the new themes, boot splash, login screen, boot prompt and logos of the upcoming operating systemm, due for release on April 29th. Read more about it here.
Review of the Week: Google Chrome 5 Beta
· From the review: There's hardly a piece of software more important for a desktop operating system these days than the web browser. Even the most casual of users will end up employing one several times per day. You could argue that Linux has always had a wide variety of browsers to choose from and, if you just look at the numbers you're definitely right. But, with the risk of getting a lot of people aggravated, I'll say that there has been only one real option for Linux users and that is Mozilla Firefox. Everything else, from Konqueror to Opera, just doesn't stack up and not for lack of trying.
Google Chrome is one of those things that you either love or hate. In fact, it will probably be a mixture of the two but one thing's for sure: there's little about it that you'd call boring or ignorable. There's plenty to like about Google Chrome and it gets a lot of things right, which is why plenty of other browser makers are taking more than a few cues from Google's browser.
Read the entire review here.
Video Clip of the Week: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS New Look
· For this week, we've posted a 720p High Definition video clip that showcases the new look of the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) operating system. The video has 8 minutes and it was posted by tomasballon. Enjoy!
· MUD Navigation 2010.0 Edition 1.0 · MUD Netbook-Edition 2010.0 3.0 · quaggOS 0.1 Alpha 1 · Gosalia 1.0
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· EeeMC 9.10.1 · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.4-19 · Tor-ramdisk 20100309 · GParted LiveCD 0.5.2-1 · eBox 1.4-1 · Astaro Security Linux 7.504
· Tiny Core Linux 2.10 RC1 · MCNLive Kris Beta 1 · Unity Linux 2010 RC1 · Trixbox 2.8.0.4 Beta
See you again next Monday, March 22nd, for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.