14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 89th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux-based operating systems were announced last week: Linux Mint 8 RC1 LXDE Edition, OpenSuSE 11.3 Milestone 3, Berry Linux 1.01, PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 2, SimplyMEPIS 8.5 RC3, SystemRescueCd 1.5.0 and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 1. In other news: Amarok 2.3.0 brings new features to its users; Mandriva announces Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.1; Canonical announces new kernel update for its supported Ubuntu distributions; and Fluendo presents its brand-new Fluendo Media Center for Linux systems. For this week, we've also prepared an in-depth review of the popular Amarok 2.3.0 music player, and a tutorial about how to skin the Google Chrome web browser for Ubuntu 10.04's new look. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the latest Linux distributions released/updated and the development releases.
Summary: · Announced Distro: Announcing Linux Mint 8 RC1 LXDE Edition
· Announced Distro: openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 3 Comes with GCC 4.5
· Announced Distro: Berry Linux 1.01 Is Based on Fedora 12
· Announced Distro: PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 2 Comes with Linux Kernel 2.6.32.10
· Announced Distro: SimplyMEPIS 8.5 RC3 Is Here, the Final Release Candidate
· Announced Distro: SystemRescueCd 1.5.0 with Linux Kernel 2.6.32.10
· Announced Distro: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 1 Out for Testing
· Other News: Amarok 2.3.0, Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.1, New Kernel Vulnerabilities in Ubuntu, and more...
· Review of the Week: Amarok 2.3.0
· Tutorial of the Week: Ubuntu 10.04 Radiance and Ambiance Themes for Google Chrome
· Video Clip of the Week: Linux Mint 8 LXDE Community Edition Review Screencast
· New Distributions: Pack4Linux 0.7 RC1
· Distributions Updated Last Week: gOS Gadgets 3.1 SP1, Absolute Linux 13.1.0, CacheGuard OS 5.6.0, and more...
· Development Releases: Tiny Core Linux 2.10 RC2, Parsix Linux 3.5 Test 1 and MCNLive Kris Beta 2
On March 15th, Clement Lefebvre and the Linux Mint community proudly presented the first release candidate of the upcoming Linux Mint 8 LXDE Community Edition. Being powered by Linux kernel 2.6.31, the new edition includes X.Org 7.4, Openbox 3.4.7.2 and PCManFM 0.5.2. The Linux Mint 8 RC1 LXDE Edition has been created for people who want a fast, lightweight and good-looking operating system, for their antique hardware.
Highlights of Linux Mint 8 RC1 LXDE:
· Based on Linux Mint 8 (Helena); · Linux kernel 2.6.31; · X.Org 7.4; · Openbox 3.4.7.2 window manager; · PCManFM 0.5.2 file manager; · Exaile music player; · Improved Linux Mint Menu.
Download Linux Mint 8 RC1 LXDE right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an unstable release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.
Also on March 15th, the openSUSE developers announced the third development release of the upcoming openSUSE Linux 11.3 distribution. The biggest update in this release is the move to GCC 4.5 as the default compiler, but there are plenty of bug fixes and other updates as well. Most major packages haven't been updated since Milestone 2, as they were already at the most recent versions.
Highlights of openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 3:
· Fixed a bug in Milestone 2 that prevented mounting of encrypted home folders; · Zypper can now interrupt PackageKit, via dbus, eliminating a major annoyance during updates and additional installs; · Fixed a Milestone 1 issue with starting xorg on i915 hardware; · Pam mount has been updated to the current version, as the version used prior is “unsupported;” · Qt has been removed from the Gnome Live CD, clearing room to potentially add some more apps; · Sax2 was removed from the Gnome version; · Epdfview, a pdf viewer akin to evince but without any gnome-lib dependencies, was introduced in the Gnome version; · The network-manager applet for KDE has gotten a usability update, in the form of an updated icon set.
Download openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 3 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an unstable release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.
On March 17th, Yuichiro Nakada announced the release of Berry Linux 1.01, based on the Fedora 12 operating system. The new release comes with updated packages, especially the very latest stable versions. It uses a customized KDE 4 environment, the latest version plucked from Fedora 12, KDE 4.4.0. Both Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird are now at the newest versions and the Microsoft Windows networking suite Samba has also been updated.
Highlights of Berry Linux 1.01:
· Based on Fedora 12; · KDE 4.4.0; · X.Org 1.7.5 - with AIGLX; · SLiM 1.3.1 - login manager; · SRWare Iron 4.0.275.2 - web browser based on Google Chrome (Chromium); · Firefox 3.6 - Japanese and English locales; · Thunderbird 3.0.3 - Japanese and English locales; · Samba 3.4.7; · Wine 1.1.38; · LXTerminal 0.1.6.
Download Berry Linux 1.01 right now from Softpedia.
Also on March 17th, the developers behind the PCLinuxOS project announced the second beta of the upcoming PCLinuxOS operating system. PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 2 comes with an updated kernel and a big number of bug fixes, surprisingly for such a brief period of time since the initial beta, less than a week ago. The latest release also brings a big number of desktop environments as options besides the default KDE 4 suite.
Highlights of PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 2:
· Linux kernel 2.6.32.10 - with the BFS scheduler; · KDE SC 4.4.1; · Amarok 2.3.0 - the latest version of the audio player and manager; · Audacity - the popular open-source audio editor has been added; · Plymouth - boot splash manager; · Plymouth themes in the repositories; · Speedboot technology for faster startup times; · 3D desktop effects powered by Compiz Fusion; · Plenty of other features already available in PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 1.
Download PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 2 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.
Also on March 17th, Warren Woodford announced the release of SimplyMEPIS 8.5 RC3. The new version comes with several updates, both upgraded packages and fresh features, and is available for 32-bit, as well as 64-bit platforms. There is no clear time frame for the final release but this is the last release candidate version and SimplyMEPIS 8.5 should be coming in a week or two.
Other than the updated kernel, which is now at the latest stable version - 2.6.32.10 - there don't seem to be that many updated packages, as SimplyMEPIS 8.5 RC 3 is focused more on new features. The changes mostly concern the Live CD environment, which is now more flexible thanks to the fresh hardware detection tool. SimplyMEPIS 8.5 RC 3 also comes with better localization and international support.
Download SimplyMEPIS 8.5 RC3 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.
On March 18th, François Dupoux proudly announced the immediate availability of SystemRescueCd 1.5.0. The new version comes just a few weeks after the previous version was released. The update brings some updated packages, including the latest stable Linux kernel, and several updates focusing on initramfs, the temporary file system used by the Live CD environment.
Highlights of SystemRescueCd 1.5.0:
· Linux kernel 2.6.32.10 - for both rescuecd and rescue64; · Util-linux 2.17.1 - adds support for hard drives with 4Kb blocks; · Parted 2.2 - standard text based partitioning tool; · Gparted 0.5.2 - graphical partitioning tool; · Ntfs3g 2010.3.6 - driver that provides read-write access to NTFS partitions; · Gdisk to 0.6.5 - fdisk utility for GPT based hard disks; · Added option for network boot changed to "netboot=proto://" (http, tftp, nfs, nbd); · Plenty of updates for initramfs.
Download SystemRescueCd 1.5.0 right now from Softpedia.
On March 19th, Canonical unleashed the first Beta version of the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) operating system, due for release in late April this year. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 1 has a brand-new look, composed of two new themes (Ambiance and Radiance), one is dark and the other one is light. Click the link above to access a very nice article we created last week, to showcase the new themes, logos, font, boot splash and boot prompt.
The Humanity icon theme has also been updated, in accordance with the new GTK2 themes, especially the Desktop icon. Another thing that everyone already knew from various websites around the web is that Ubuntu 10.04 LTS incorporates the Yahoo! search engine on the default Home Page for the Mozilla Firefox web browser. However, this can be easily switched back to the Google search engine by simply selecting it from the Search Bar! Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 1 is powered by the GNOME 2.30 RC (2.29.92) desktop environment and the kernel packages have been updated to version 2.6.32-16.25, based on Linux kernel 2.6.32.9.
Download Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 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 15th, Amarok, the 'next-generation' music player for the KDE desktop environment, was updated with the release of Amarok 2.3.0. Dubbed Clear Light, this new version comes with the usual array of bug fixes, but also a number of new, forward-looking features. Among the things that have gotten more attention in this release are podcast support and saved playlists, but also support for USB mass storage devices. Read more about it here.
· On March 16th, Mandriva announced the availability of the first update to its business-oriented offering, Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.1. The update builds on the strengths of Mandriva Enterprise Server 5 (MES 5) and focuses more on virtualization. It also comes with a new installation wizard and the Mandriva Directory Server tool and API. Read more about it here.
· On March 17th, Canonical announced that a new kernel update was available for the following Ubuntu distributions: 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake), 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron), 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex), 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) and 9.10 (Karmic Koala). The update patches 5 important security issues discovered in the Linux kernel packages by various hackers. Read more about it here.
Review of the Week: Amarok 2.3.0
· From the review: "For a long time, Linux has struggled to be a real alternative on the desktop operating system market. Recently, this hasn't been too much of a problem with modern Linux distributions, the likes of Ubuntu coming with all the software and functionality most users would need. But a few years ago, one area that was still clearly lacking was multimedia. There were plenty of media players out there, yet, for music, most Linux users still relied on XMMS, a decade-old Winamp clone."
"The main reason why the Amarok 2 project was started was to make use of the new KDE 4 framework, so much of the technical underpinnings were created based on KDE 4 technologies. The interface, of course, has been greatly revamped and is a great example of what can be done with KDE 4 and Plasma. On the backend, it uses the Phonon multimedia API and the Solid framework for devices, things like MP3 players, for example."
Read the entire review here.
Tutorial of the Week: Ubuntu 10.04 Radiance and Ambiance Themes for Google Chrome
· From the tutorial: "As we have found in our recent Google Chrome for Linux review, the fledgling web browser is already a viable alternative to established ones like Firefox. However, its innovative UI may be appealing both visually and practically, but it certainly sticks out from among the other Linux apps. A lot of people hate apps that don't integrate well with the visual theme of their OS, so Chrome was probably missing out on a lot of potential users."
Read the entire tutorial here.
Linux Mint 8 LXDE Community Edition Review Screencast
· For this week, we've posted a 720p High Definition video clip that showcases the features of the upcoming Linux Mint 8 LXDE Community Edition operating system. The video has 10 minutes and it was posted by OSGUIShow. Enjoy!
· Pack4Linux 0.7 RC1 · Thorshammer II Mjolnir's Revenge · Arch_Mage i686 Install CD RC1
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· Turtle Kevux 0.9.0 · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.4-28 · gOS Gadgets 3.1 SP1 · Absolute Linux 13.1.0 · CacheGuard OS 5.6.0 · Parted Magic 4.9 · Fedora 12 Re-Spin 20100303
· Tiny Core Linux 2.10 RC2 · Parsix Linux 3.5 Test 1 · MCNLive Kris Beta 2 · Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04 LTS Beta 1 · Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS Beta 1 · Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud 10.04 LTS Beta 1 · Ubuntu Studio 10.04 LTS Beta 1 · Kubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 1 · Kubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04 LTS Beta 1 · Xubuntu 10.04 Beta 1 · Edubuntu 10.04 Beta 1 · Mythbuntu 10.04 Beta 1 · Lubuntu 10.04 Beta 1 · Calculate Linux Desktop 10.4 Beta 1 · 64 Studio 3.3 Alpha 1
· CrunchBang Linux 10 Alpha 1
See you again next Monday, March 29th, for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.