14 DAY TRIAL // The Zenwalk Team announced yesterday the stable release of Zenwalk 5.2 Gnome Edition. This version brings a number of features, such as the latest stable Gnome Desktop (2.22.3), together with impressive Zenwalk artwork and a familiar Zenwalk Desktop. Also featured in this release are the 2.6.25.4 Linux kernel, the latest Netpkg package manager and the next generation X.Org 7.3 pack of X servers.
The specific "one app per task" Zenwalk philosophy is present in this version, while Zenwalk users will also find numerous default applications like: iceweasel and icedove for net surfing and email services; brasero for CD/DVD burning; wicd for an easy to establish wireless connection; the GIMP for image manipulation; abiword and gnumeric for office tasks; gtkam for digital camera management, and gmusicbrowser for having easy access to vast music collections.
As for multimedia, Zenwalk Gnome 5.2 includes the Totem player, which uses the xine backend. A very nice feature of this multimedia tool is that it allows you to search for YouTube videos and to play them, even if there's no flash installed on the system. It goes without saying that you have the option to install a flash package, which works with iceweasel, if you so desire and provided that you accept the Adobe Flash license.
A complete programming environment is provided for coders, by featuring the Geany integrated development environment. This small and fast IDE has many of the characteristics a programmer can't do without, such as: syntax highlighting, code completion, large number of languages supported, autocompletion and more.
System administration is centralized within the Zenpanel, which allows certain settings like kernel module configuration, user creation/modification, network settings, localization etc. Also, from the main Gnome panel you can reach the Gnome Control Center, where all user settings are located.
You can download Zenwalk Gnome 5.2 from Softpedia.