14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 90th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux-based operating systems were announced last week: Parted Magic 4.9, Tiny Core 2.10, Trisquel 3.5, OpenSuSE 11.3 Milestone 4, Sabayon Linux 5.2 and SliTaz GNU/Linux 3.0. In other news: Novell declines a $2-billion takeover bid; Opera Software releases first Opera 10.51 snapshot for Linux systems; Canonical unleashes the Ubuntu One Music Store for public testing; FreeBSD 7.3 operating system released; Google releases Google Chrome 5.0.342.7 Beta; Dell starts offering cloud blueprints based on Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the latest Linux distributions released/updated and the development releases.
Summary:
On March 21st, Patrick Verner announced the availability of the latest Parted Magic 4.9. It is mostly a bug-fixing release, but there are several new packages and some big changes as well. Google Chrome has been replaced with Chromium, the open-source alternative, and support for old IDE drivers was removed in Parted Magic 4.9 from the Linux kernel that is now at version 2.6.32.9.
Download Parted Magic 4.9 right now from Softpedia.
Also on March 21st, Robert Shingledecker announced the release of Tiny Core Linux 2.10, the latest version of the frugal live CD Linux distribution. The new version comes with several updates, focusing on the custom files and configurations, and also with some brand-new art to liven up things a little, though you'd be hard pressed to spot the differences for this spartan distro.
Highlights of Tiny Core 2.10:
· Updated Appbrowser - no popups, GUI redesign, dropped menu for buttons, added status area; · Updated Appbrowser/tce-load - to fully support recursion; · Updated FLWM (Fast Light Window Manager) - moved location and look of iconize button; · Updated Apps Audit - added wait cursor during selective updates; · Updated Control Panel - cursor support and removed full paths; · Updated FLWM ondemand - now fully automatic; · Updated TC-functions - additive home setup support; · New hsetroot replaces Esetroot for logo png support; · Updated Backgrounds/wallpaper for hsetroot support; · Updated exittc to not call exitcheck, backup occurs within exittc; · Added missing rule for MMC support; · Added directory indicator for improved AppsAudit "On Boot" selection; · Updated TC-config PXE tftp http for onboot.lst and "no-ping" support; · Removed unneeded libthread_db* from base; · New default background and title bar colors and new Tiny Core logo.
Download Tiny Core 2.10 right now from Softpedia.
On March 22nd, Rubén Rodríguez Pérez announced the immediate availability of Trisquel GNU/Linux 3.5. Trisquel is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, which emphasizes free software. The latest release, Trisquel GNU/Linux 3.5 codenamed Awen, is based on the current Ubuntu 9.10 stable release, but comes with a different package list, partly because of the desire to include only free software and partly because of developer preferences.
Highlights of Trisquel GNU/Linux 3.5:
· Linux-libre kernel 2.6.31; · Xorg 7.4; · GNOME 2.28; · OpenOffice.org 3.1.1; · Mozilla-based Web Browser 3.5; · Pidgin 2.6.2; · The GIMP 2.6.7.
Download Trisquel GNU/Linux 3.5 right now from Softpedia.
On March 25th, Andreas Jaeger announced the release of the openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 4 Linux distribution. Development is moving at a fast pace, so the new release comes with plenty of updated packages, but it's mainly an evolutionary build, thus there's not that much in terms of new features. There will be three more Milestone releases of openSUSE 11.3 and the final one is slated for July 15.
Highlights of openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 4:
· OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 Beta1; · NetworkManager 0.8 - better support for bluetooth and GSM; · CUPS 1.4.2 - improved Bonjour/DNS-SD support, supply level and status reporting for network printers via SNMP; · Mono 2.6.3; · Python 2.6.5 RC 2; · Samba 3.5.1; · GNOME 2.30 RC (2.29.92); · Empathy as the defaul IM; · KDE 4.4.1; · Amarok 2.3.0; · k3b 2.0 RC3; · PCManFM 0.9.3 and libfm 0.1.9; · LXSession 0.4.3 - adds d-bus support.
Download openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 4 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 26th, the developers behind the Sabayon Linux project announced the release of Sabayon Linux 5.2. True to its mission statement, Sabayon 5.2 comes with pretty much cutting-edge software for both its GNOME and KDE flavors. The latest kernel, the newest GNOME and KDE software and eye candy for the most demanding users, they're all here.
Highlights of Sabayon Linux 5.2:
· Linux kernel 2.6.33 - optimized for desktop performance; · GCC 4.4.1 and Glibc 2.10; · X.Org 7.5 - with recent open-source video drivers for NVIDIA and AMD graphic cards; · GNOME 2.28 - with GNOME Shell; · KDE 4.4.1 - with new KNetworkManager; · XBMC 9.11 - for use on an HTPC/Media Center PC; · OpenOffice 3.2; · Great 3D graphic effects thanks to apps like Compiz, Compiz Fusion and KWin; · Faster boot time and lightweight default system; · Ext4 filesystem as default; · Encrypted filesystem support; · 2,000 new and updated packages since Sabayon 5.1.
Download Sabayon Linux 5.2 GNOME Edition right now from Softpedia.
Download Sabayon Linux 5.2 KDE4 Edition right now from Softpedia.
On March 28th, Christophe Lincoln proudly announced the release of SliTaz GNU/Linux 3.0, which brings quite a lot of updates, but also new features and packages. SliTaz now runs a fully fledged X server, X.Org 7.4, and uses the light-weight, Webkit-based Midori web browser. SliTaz 3.0 is powered by Linux kernel 2.6.30.6 and a completely new toolchain.
Highlights of SliTaz GNU/Linux 3.0:
· Linux kernel 2.6.30.6; · X.Org 7.4 – switched from Xvesa; · Binutils 2.19.1, GCC 4.4.1, Glibc 2.10.1 – completely new toolchain; · Midori 0.2.4 (based on WebkitGTK+ 1.1.22) – Is now the default web browser; · Full UTF-8 support; · Faster boot thanks to rewritten boot scripts; · Tazctrlbox, tazhw, wifibox, burnbox, mountbox, netbox, serverbox, installer – all home-made boxes improved; · Better support out of the box for WiFi cards, webcams, 3G-modems, printers, scanners; · Visual enhancements – better themes and desktop integration; · Faster virtualization with lguest; · OpenERP, LAMP, GLPI and more in SliTaz pro; · Tazlitobox and tazusbbox – easier to customize LiveCD and LiveUSB; · Tazpkg – packagee manager can now convert deb, rpm, Arch, Slackware, ipk packages to the Slitaz native format; · Tazbb – packages are now automatically built by a build bot; · 900 packages added to the database and many updates.
Download SliTaz GNU/Linux 3.0 right now from Softpedia.
· Opera 10.50 has been available for a couple of weeks on Windows and Opera 10.51 has just been released, but Linux fans are still stuck at Opera 10.10. Hopefully, this won't be for much longer, as the new browser is packing some serious punch and is coming with an impressive feature list. The final release isn't here, but Linux users finally received for testing Opera's latest creation on March 20th, as the first snapshot builds of Opera 10.51 6252 for Linux have been made available by the development team. Read more about it here.
· Novell announced on March 21st that it had declined a takeover bid from New York-based hedge fund Elliott Associates L.P. saying that the bid "undervalued" the company. The open-source software maker says it is looking at other alternatives to "enhance stockholder value" including looking for other potential buyers. Elliott Associates offered to buy Novell a couple of weeks ago, valuating the company at $2 billion. Read more about it here.
· On March 22nd, Canonical opened up public beta testing of the upcoming Ubuntu One Music Store slated for release along with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid Lynx about a month from now. If you have been testing Ubuntu Lucid on your machine or firing it up occasionally in a virtual box, you should now see a link to the Ubuntu One Music Store in Rythmbox, below the existing Jamedo and Magnatune stores. With only a month until launch, Ubuntu developers are asking users to put the store through its paces to iron out any remaining bugs. Read more about it here.
· On March 23rd, the stable legacy branch of the popular BSD-based operating system FreeBSD was updated to FreeBSD 7.3. The release is a housekeeping update that brings some newer packages and some security fixes, but no new features. FreeBSD 7.3 is now available for the amd64, i386, pc98, and sparc64 architectures. Read more about it here.
· On March 24th, Google announced the release of Google Chrome 5.0.342.7 Beta for Linux users ahead of the Windows and Mac builds in order to address an SSL issue. The biggest, new feature in Google Chrome 5.0.342.7 Beta, apart from the usual array of bug fixes, is the automatic translation tool, which landed on Windows a couple of weeks ago. Read more about it here.
· Canonical is somewhat of a new player in the Linux server market, but it has been making great headway in the past years, especially thanks to its more unusual approach of offering Ubuntu Server for free unlike popular alternatives from Red Hat or SUSE. But one area where Ubuntu has really caught on is cloud computing thanks to its Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud offering. Canonical announced on March 24th another win in the market with a partnership with Dell. Read more about it here.
Video Clip of the Week: OpenSUSE 11.3 Milestone 4's VirtualBox guest tools
· For this week, we've posted a 720p High Definition video clip that showcases the VirtualBox guest tools on the newly released LiveCD of openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 4. The video has 4 minutes and 56 seconds, and it was posted by vivab0rg. Enjoy!
· Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.1 · Loaded Linux 0.0.2 · MyWolfe 012
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· Dotsch/UX 1.2 · moonOS LXDE Edition 3.0 · ttylinux 11.0 · Tritech Service System Community Edition 2.0.1 · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.4-32 · Element GNU/Linux 1.1.0 · LinuxShark 2.0.0 · Leeenux 3.0
· Wolvix 2.0.0 Build 56 · Openwall GNU/Linux 20100323 · grml 2010.04 RC1 · ZEN-mini 2010 Beta 1
See you again next Monday, April 5th, for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.