14 DAY TRIAL // Klaus Knopper, the main developer of Knoppix, announced the availability of Knoppix 5.3.1 a couple of days ago. It sports KDE 3.5.9 with compiz-fusion as 3D-window manager, the 2.6.24.4 version of the Linux kernel and many other updates.
The initial boot system was changed from initrd to initramfs to allow easier customization, and ntfs-3g was updated with the "visible alternate data streams" extension. As I mentioned above, compiz made its way into Knoppix. The interesting thing is that the developers chose compiz 0.7.3 with experimental compiz-fusion modules for Knoppix 5.3.1. If hardware detection works fine, you will have a 3D desktop in no time. In case you don't want the effects provided by compiz, you can disable them by using the "no3d" boot option. The Linux kernel comes with the following custom modules: gspca, qemu, kvm, VirtualBox, ndiswrapper and avm.
As you might already know from Knoppix 5.3, ADRIANE (Audio Desktop Reference Implementation and Networking Environment), the solution targeted especially at blind people, that have no or a few computer skills, is included. It brings a dialog-based menu, supported by speech output that aids the user in the most common tasks, like surfing the Internet. Besides ADRIANE, the Orca graphical screenreader is present to help you out.
When you might need virtualization, Knoppix provides the solution: VirtualBox OSE, one of the best virtualization applications available at this moment. It's easy to setup, run and use and, of course, free and open source.
Knoppix got its dist-upgrade to Debian Lenny (testing+unstable), with cloop 2.624 realtime decompression with threads and experimental "suspend" feature. Iceweasel and Icedove were also updated.
OpenOffice 2.3.1, the leading open source office software suite, will help you out with all when you need to write a document, make some spreadsheets, presentations, etc.
If you want to install Knoppix on your hard disk, you should know that the "0wn" (Zero work needed) installer was updated, and some bugs squashed.
Download Knoppix 5.3.1 right now from Softpedia.