14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 93rd issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux-based operating systems were announced last week: VortexBox 1.3, CDlinux 0.9.6, antiX MEPIS 8.5, Fedora 13 Beta, OpenSuSE 11.3 Milestone 5 and MythDora 12.23. In other news: Canonical adds new wallpapers for the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) release; Google wants Android back in Linux kernel. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the latest Linux distributions released/updated and the development releases.
Summary:
On April 12th, Andrew Gillis announced the release of VortexBox 1.3, which brings bugfixes and some features. VortexBox 1.3 includes a new version of the SqueezeBox Server app and the Subsonic graphical user interface, which allows users to manage their music collection and stream it to Android or iPod players. 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 1.3:
· Pre-installed and configure Logitech SqueezeBox Server 7.5.0 pre; · Added the Subsonic music interface to allow remote playback; · Covert art and audio tags can be edited with the Subsonic web-based interface; · Added new version of TwonkeyMedia Server; · Fixed USB backup manager; · Automatic re-indexing of files, for Sonos players; · Lots of other bug fixes.
Download VortexBox 1.3 right now from Softpedia.
Also on April 12th, a major upgrade of the CDLinux operating system was announced by Ben Zhao. Most of the packages in CDLinux 0.9.6 were updated, starting with the Linux kernel and the XOrg server, and finishing with the icon themes or various libraries. CDlinux is a minimal Linux distribution that runs with the Xfce window manager, and includes bleeding-edge applications.
Highlights of CDlinux 0.9.6:
· Linux kernel 2.6.33.2; · XOrg Server 1.8.0; · Mesa 7.8.1; · GTK+ 2.18.9; · QT 4.6.2; · Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 Update 19; · Mozilla Firefox 3.6.3; · GPart 0.52; · GOffice 0.8.1; · Bash 4.1.5; · AbiWord 2.8.3; · Google Earth 5.1.3533.1731; · HandBrake 0.9.3; · mtPaint 3.30; · Midnight Commander 4.7.0.4; · NTFS-3G 2010.3.6; · ...and many more!
Download CDlinux 0.9.6 now from Softpedia.
Also on April 12th, antiX announced the release of antiX MEPIS 8.5, a lightweight Linux distro aimed at older hardware and live environments. It comes with several desktop and window manager options and frugal apps for the most common computing tasks, Internet browsing, multimedia, and so on. It also comes with several new features making an interesting choice as a live USB install. You can set up a persistent home for the live environment, remaster the read-only components ‘on the fly,’ and the antix2usb tool should make it easy to install it on USB flash drives.
Highlights of antiX MEPIS 8.5:
· Linux kernel 2.6.32-11 from MEPIS; · X.org 7.4; · ROX-filer 2.10; · Fluxbox 1.1.1; · Wicd 1.7 with Wicd-ncurses; · Pidgin 2.6.5; · Ceni 2.7; · Dillo2; · antix2usb gui; · Persistence and 'remaster on the fly then install feature;' · MEPIS tools updated; · Dependency based booting; · Ext4 option now available; · New icewm/fluxbox menu structure; · New artwork for both iceWM and Fluxbox; · Better localization of antiX apps; · IceApe replaces IceWeasel as the default web browser; · Sysv-rc-conf replaces Rcconf; · System-config-printer replaces GtkLP; · Gamix replaces aumix; · Asunder replaces Gnormalize; · Geeqie replaces GQview; · Meta-installer for the KDE4, XFCE, LXDE and GNOME desktop environments; · MPD, NCmpcpp, Mpdpss added; · Gxine, apvlv, dwm and dmenu, wmii, Imagination Slideshow added; · Smbc included for samba shares; · pyNeighborhood added to install-meta; · Extra cheatcodes at boot menu; · Cdw and aptitude removed.
Download antiX MEPIS 8.5 right now from Softpedia.
Also on April 13th, Fedora Project announced the release of Fedora 13 “Goddard” Beta, after being delayed almost a week. Fedora 13 promises to be a solid release with all-round improvements and enhancements. Usability is one of the themes of the upcoming release, with an emphasis on automating some of the more menial administrative tasks. An example is the automated installation of printer drivers, making it trivial to plug in your new printer and just start using it.
Highlights of Fedora 13 Beta:
· Printer drivers are automatically installed; · Experimental 3D support in the open source Nouveau drivers for Nvidia; · NetworkManager enhancements; · Improved iPod/iPhone support; · Improved DisplayPort support - AMD/ATI and Nvidia graphics cards now supported; · Python 3 can be installed alongside Python 2.6; · NetBeans 6.8 IDE with Java EE 6 support.
Download Fedora 13 Beta 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 April 14th, James Mason announced the immediate availability for testing of the openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 5 operating system. In this new development version, we can find lots and lots of overall improvements, bug fixes and updates to various applications, such as X.Org 7.5 and XOrg Server 1.8.0, RPM 4.8.0, Perl 5.12.0, and many others. As usual, Live CDs with KDE Software Compilation 4.4 and GNOME 2.30 are available for everyone who wants to test the openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 5 development release.
Highlights of openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 5:
· GNOME 2.30.0; · X.Org 7.5; · XOrg Server 1.8.0; · Added Nouveau video driver for Nvidia graphics cards; · Perl 5.12.0; · Parted 2.2; · KMS integration for Nouveau and Intel video drivers; · PackageKit 0.6.2; · Added librcc and librcd for on-the-fly language translation and detection; · Added xdiskusage, a disk space analyzer tool; · RPM 4.8.0; · Zypper 1.4.1; · NetBeans 6.8; · JACK Audio Connection Kit 1.9.5; · Gutenprint 5.2.4; · GNUPlot 4.4; · SeaMonkey 2.0.4; · pm-utils 1.3.0; · Added Dungeon Crawl, a nethack game; · Fixed gnome-keyring to work under LXDE; · Fixed mouse drivers in VMWare; · Fixed a bug in OpenOffice.org; · Generic Token Card (PEAP-GTC) is now supported by NetworkManager; · Fixed Uacklight controls for MacBooks with Intel video cards; · ...and many more!
Download openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 5 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 April 17th, Ryan Pisani announced the release of MythDora 12.23, bringing recent packages and marking the move to Fedora 12 as the base distro. MythDora is aimed at DVR enthusiasts and bundles the popular open-source DVR software MythTV with the latest stable Fedora release. Apart from updating the two big components, Fedora 10 is replaced with Fedora 12 and MythTV 0.21 is replaced with MythTV 0.23 RC2, it also comes with an updated kernel, Linux kernel 2.6.32.11-99, and other improvements.
Highlights of MythDora 12.23:
· Based on Fedora 12 with all the updates; · MythTV 0.23 RC2; · Linux kernel 2.6.32.11-99; · LIRC 0.8.6-6; · IMDB-bulk-update 1.16; · Gnome, KDE, LXDE, XFCE, and ratpoison desktops; · NVIDIA drivers 195.xx, 173.xx and the older 96.xx; · Handbrake 0.9.4; · Added the ability to change timezone in firstboot's configuration; · Removed the auto-installation method; · The frontend now heavily relies on the timezone of the system matching the backend; · Removed MythFlix, MythPhone and MythStreamTV; · Includes only themes based on the new API; · atilibusb and other ir devices are now standardized under the devinput userspace (lircd and lircrc files have changed); · Mythdora setup runs automatically with firstboot; · Stock RPMFusion based MythTV packages, settings and themes; · Better hardware support thanks to updated firmware.
Download MythDora 12.23 right now from Softpedia.
· On April 15th, Softpedia presented the new wallpapers for Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Ludic Lynx), which will be released this year, on April 29th. Being an LTS (Long Term Support) release, Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) will be definitely a stable, secure, reliable and good-looking operating system! Read more about it here.
· Linux enthusiasts have been keen on declaring ‘the year of the Linux desktop’ every year for almost a decade now. But, while Linux offerings for the PC are as robust as they’ve ever been, in terms of market share the penguin hasn’t made much progress. That’s a completely different story on mobile devices, specifically mobile phones. Thanks to the success of Android in particular, Linux now has a significant market share on the mobile front, 25 percent of the smartphone market, and it’s growing at a healthy pace. Read more about it here.
Video Clip of the Week: Fedora 13 Beta Gnome LiveCD First Look!
· For this week, we've posted a 720p High Definition video clip that showcases the new features of the upcoming Fedora 13 Linux distribution. The video has 8 minutes and 24 seconds, and it was posted by thisweekinlinux. Enjoy!
· Peppermint Private Beta · FreeSentral 1.1 · Slack4Christians 12.2 i686 RC1
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· Xange 2010.04 · PelicanHPC 2.1 · Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 Update 5 · Netrunner 1.1 · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.5-2 · GParted LiveCD 0.5.2-8 · Berry Linux 1.02 · ZEN-mini 2010 · TurnKey 2009.10-2-hardy-x86 Releases · PCLinuxOS GNOME 2010 · GNU/Fiwix 0.6.3 · PING 3.00.04 · MyWolfe 013
· ALT Linux 6.0.0 Alpha · BlankOn 6.0 Alpha 1 · Parsix Linux 3.5 Test 2 · infinityOS 1.0 RC3 · Tiny Core Linux 2.11 RC1
See you again next Monday, April 26th, for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.