14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 135th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux-based operating systems have been announced last week: Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2 (Natty Narwhal), Debian 6.0 (Squeeze), aptosid 2011-01 and ArtistX 1.0. In other news: Canonical announced that the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud operating system will come pre-installed on Dell's PowerEdge C2100 and PowerEdge C6100 server systems. For this week we've prepared a very nice video clip, created by "This Week In Linux," that overviews the newly released Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2 (Natty Narwhal) operating system. The weekly ends, as usual, with the new and updated Linux distributions, and the development releases.
Summary:
On February 3rd, Canonical announced the second Alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system. Lots of things are new in Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2 (Natty Narwhal), but the most important change is that the old OpenOffice.org 3.2 office suite from Oracle has been finally replaced with the new and lightweight LibreOffice 3.3 open source office suite from The Document Foundation. Moreover, Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2 is powered by Linux kernel 2.6.38 RC2 and all the main packages are now built with Python 2.7.
Highlights of Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2:
· Linux kernel 2.6.38 RC2; · X.Org 7.6; · X.org Server 1.10; · Mesa 7.10; · LibreOffice 3.3.0; · Banshee media player 1.9.2; · Mozilla Firefox 4.0 Beta 10; · Transmission 2.13; · Powernap 2.0; · GNOME 2.91.6.
Download Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2 now from Softpedia.
On February 6th, the Debian Project team proudly announced the immediate availability for download of the final and stable version of the highly anticipated Debian 6.0 (Squeeze) Linux-based operating system. Dubbed Squeeze, Debian 6.0 includes lots of updated applications, new features and improvements. Among these, we can mention the inclusion of four important desktop environments (KDE, GNOME, Xfce and LXDE), compatibility with FHS 2.3, support for nine architectures.
Highlights of Debian 6.0:
· Linux kernel 2.6.32; · X.Org 7.5; · KDE Software Compilation 4.4.5; · GNOME 2.30; · Xfce 4.6; · LXDE 0.5.0; · OpenOffice.org 3.2.1; · GIMP 2.6.11; · Iceweasel 3.5.16; · Icedove 3.0.11; · PostgreSQL 8.4.6; · MySQL 5.1.49; · GCC 4.4.5; · Apache 2.2.16; · Samba 3.5.6; · Python 2.6.6, 2.5.5 and 3.1.3; · Perl 5.10.1; · PHP 5.3.3; · Asterisk 1.6.2.9; · Nagios 3.2.3; · Xen Hypervisor 4.0.1 (with support for dom0 and domU); · OpenJDK 6b18; · Tomcat 6.0.18; · and more than 29,000 various applications, built from about 15,000 source packages.
Download Debian 6.0 now from Softpedia.
Also on February 6th, Stefan Lippers-Hollmann announced the release of the aptosid 2011-01 operating system. This version is based on Debian 6.0 and comes with a new Linux kernel, some updated packages and the latest patches from Debian "sid" unstable branch. The transition to the "aptosid" branding, the project was previously sidux, has been completed as well.
aptosid 2011-01 is based on the Debian sid repositories as of February 5, 2011. One of the big changes is the introduction of the latest Linux kernel 2.6.37, updated from the earlier kernel 2.6.36. This means a couple of new drivers, support for the new Intel Sandy Bridge chips and an update for the Atheros USB wireless network cards.
The latest kernel version also comes with improved EXT4 performance and USB Attached SCSI Protocol used by USB 3.0 external storage devices. All major packages however haven't seen any big updates, thanks to the freeze on the 'unstable' repositories during the transition to Debian 6.0 stable.
Download aptosid 2011-01 now from Softpedia.
Also on February 6th, Marco Ghirlanda announced the release of ArtistX 1.0 Multimedia Studio, an Ubuntu-based distro that aims to enable artists and creators from a number of fields to work via a live and free environment. ArtistX 1.0 is based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and comes with updated versions of the packages included in the long-term support branch of Ubuntu.
ArtistX 1.0 is a customized build of Ubuntu 10.04. There are no architectural changes and the only things that differ are the software included on the DVD and installed by default as well as some of the visual elements, wallpapers, default theme and so on.
Download ArtistX 1.0 now from Softpedia.
· Canonical has been able to push Ubuntu as a server solution, despite the entrenched competition, through a number of interesting tactics. For one, it offers Ubuntu Server Edition ISOs for free, unlike most of its rivals. But probably the most successful, was its focus on the cloud. Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud has proven incredibly popular for deploying private clouds so it's no big surprise that it now comes pre-installed on a couple of Dell rack servers. On February 2nd, Dell has announced that it will be shipping the Dell PowerEdge C2100 and PowerEdge C6100 with Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud to enable businesses to build the infrastructure needed for a local cloud with ease. Read more about it here.
Video Clip of the Week: First Look at Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Alpha 2
· For this week we've posted an 1080p high-definition video clip that presents a review of the newly released Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2 (Natty Narwhal) operating system. The video has 6 minutes and 45 seconds, and it was posted by thisweekinlinux. Enjoy!
· Mythbuntu 11.04 Alpha 2 · Ubuntu ARM 11.04 Alpha 2 · Parabola GNU/Linux-libre 2010.12.29
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· IPFire 2.9 Core 45 · Knoppix 6.4.4 · CacheGuard OS 5.6.3 · moonOS K 1.0 · Debian Live 6.0.0 · ArchBang 2011.02
· Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.7-7 · Foresight Linux 2.5.0 Alpha 2 · Ubuntu Studio 11.04 Alpha 2 · Edubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2 · Xubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2 · Kubuntu 11.04 Alpha 2 · Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud 11.04 Alpha 2 · Ubuntu Server 11.04 Alpha 2 · Slax-LFI 2.0 RC2 · BlankOn Sajadah 7.0 Alpha 1 · Openwall GNU/Linux Current-20110205 · Zenwalk 7.0 RC1
See you again on February 14th for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.