14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 146th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux-based operating systems have been announced last week: Bayanihan Linux 5.4, Ubuntu 11.04, Slackware 13.37, Lubuntu 11.04 and Ubuntu Rescue Remix 11.04. In other news: Clement Lefebvre announced the end-of-life for the Linux Mint 5 LTS operating system; Canonical announced the Ubuntu Open Week 2011 event, which will take place between May 2nd - May 6th; Google released the stable version of Google Chrome 11 web browser for Linux. For this week we've also prepared a nice tutorial, about how to install the Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the new and updated Linux distributions, and the development releases.
Summary:
On April 25th, Tracy Melissa C. Decena announced the release of Bayanihan Linux 5.4, the latest update for Bayanihan Linux 5, introducing several new packages as well as plenty of updates and fixes. Bayanihan Linux 5 Revision 4 now comes with LibreOffice as an alternative office suite, though OpenOffice.org is still available.
The switch makes sense, despite the fact that Bayanihan is aimed at lower spec hardware, since Firefox 4 is significantly faster and more efficient than the Firefox 3.6 it's replacing. Since Bayanihan is based on Debian, albeit the old stable branch not the latest Debian 6.0 Squeeze, upgrading and updating is straightforward and the team provides in the release announcement a step-by-step explanation of how to get the latest software available to existing users via Synaptic.
Download Bayanihan Linux Desktop Edition 5.4 now from Softpedia.
On April 28th, Canonical announced the release of the Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system, available on mirrors worldwide. Ubuntu 11.04 is the 14th release of the Ubuntu OS and it will be supported for 18 months on both desktops and servers.
Highlights of Ubuntu 11.04:
· Unity interface; · GNOME 2.32.1; · Linux kernel 2.6.38.3; · X.Org 7.6; · Xorg Server 1.10.1; · Compiz Fusion 0.9.4; · New artwork.
Download Ubuntu 11.04 now from Softpedia.
On April 27th, Patrick J. Volkerding proudly announced the release of the Slackware 13.37 operating system, the latest major stable update to the venerable Linux distribution, the oldest surviving project that still sees active development. Many packages have been updated, including the desktop environments, and Slackware 13.37 comes with a recent Linux kernel.
Slackware 13.37 is based on the Linux kernel 2.6.37.6 and offers several builds that cater to different hardware configurations and user needs. However, if want or need a newer build, the Linux 2.6.38.4 kernel is also offered as an alternative and there are ways of installing the Linux 2.6.39-rc4 kernel as well.
Download Slackware 13.37 now from Softpedia.
On April 28th, Mario Behling proudly announced that Julien Lavergne has released the lightweight Lubuntu 11.04 operating system. Lubuntu 11.04 is, of course, based on the lightweight LXDE desktop environment and Ubuntu 11.04, with the PCManFM 0.9.8 as the default file manager, LXDM as the default display manager, and Chromium as the default web browser.
Highlights of Lubuntu 11.04:
· Based on Ubuntu 11.04; · PCManFM 0.9.8; · Added Audacious as the default music player, replacing Aqualung; · Added File-Roller as the default archiver, replacing Xarchiver; · Added gUVCView for webcam support, replacing Cheese; · Added Gucharmap; · Added Lxkeymap; · Added various documentation; · Removed HAL from the system; · New default theme created by Raphael Laguna; · Lxrandr can now save the configuration; · Lxappareance can now configure the font antialiasing and openbox; · Users can now configure the number of workspaces via obconf; · Ubiquity installer was updated to support installation of Lubuntu (layout and screenshots) and autologin configuration; · The desktop icons are now movable; · Reimplemented fake transparency; · Ubuntu font is now used by default; · Updated the boot theme; · Correctly translated menus; · Added Preference and Administration sub-menus in the menus; · Lubuntu session layout can now be changed with Lxkeymap; · Fixed a critical crash on kvm/qemu (thanks to the Fedora developers); · Up-to-date translations; · Up-to-date LXDE desktop environment.
Download Lubuntu 11.04 now from Softpedia.
Also on April 28th, Andrew Zajac proudly announced the immediate availability for download of the Ubuntu Rescue Remix 11.04 operating system. URR (Ubuntu Rescue Remix 11.04), the rescue and computer forensics Linux distro, is based on the most recent Ubuntu 11.04 release. It comes with lots of updated packages and an up-to-date infrastructure.
Among new applications included in Ubuntu Rescue Remix 11.04 we can mention Dump, a powerfull backup/restore solution, and ClamAV, one of the best free-libre antivirus software. Ubuntu Rescue Remix 11.04 includes up-to-date free/libre and open source data recovery applications, such as GNU ddrescue, The Sleuth Kit, Gnu-fdisk and Photorec.
Download Ubuntu Rescue Remix 11.04 now from Softpedia.
· On April 25th, Clement Lefebvre and the community behind the Linux Mint project announced on their official blog that Linux Mint 5 LTS (Elyssa) operating system will reach end-of-life on April 28th, 2011. Starting with April 28th, 2011, the Linux Mint 5 LTS (Elyssa) operating system will no longer be supported with security or critical fixes, and software updates. This comes right after the EOL (end-of-life) announcement for Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron), issued by Canonical two weeks ago, on April 11th. Read more about it here.
· On April 27th, Canonical announced that the Ubuntu Open Week event for Natty Narwhal (Ubuntu 11.04) will take place between 2nd to 5th May, 2011, on the Ubuntu IRC, in the #ubuntu-classroom channel. If you are an end user and you want to attend the Ubuntu Open Week, you can connect using your web browser or any IRC client to the following IRC address: irc.freenode.net The Ubuntu Open Week event was created to teach end users who to work with the tools included in the Ubuntu operating system. Read more about it here.
· On April 27th, the Google Chrome developers at Google proudly announced the stable release and immediate availability for download of the Google Chrome 11.0.696.57 web browser for Linux, Windows, Macintosh and Chrome Frame platforms. The new Google Chrome 11 browser contains some interesting improvements, such as speech input through HTML, which helps developers to create useful and innovative web applications like the Google Translate’s speech feature. Read more about it here.
Tutorial of the Week: Installing Ubuntu 11.04
· Even if the Ubuntu 11.04 operating system includes a smarter installer, we've created the following tutorial to teach both Linux newcomers and existing Ubuntu users how to install the Ubuntu 11.04 operating system on their personal computer.
This tutorial is also addressed to people who have just heard about Ubuntu, those who have never installed Ubuntu before and want to test it, but don't know how! The tutorial will make things very simple for you, but if you get stuck somewhere in the middle of the installation and you need help, do not hesitate to use our commenting system at the end of the article!
Read the entire tutorial here.
Video Clip of the Week: Ubuntu 11.04 Features in action
· For this week we've posted a video clip that showcases the main features of the newly released Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) operating system. The video has 1 minute and 41 seconds, and it was posted by omgubuntu. Enjoy!
· Bayanihan Linux Government Edition 5.3 · LDR 1.06 · PLATYPUX v6
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· CacheGuard OS 5.6.7 · AUSTRUMI 2.3.4 · Chakra GNU/Linux 2011.04 · Kubuntu 11.04 · Ubuntu Server 11.04 · Edubuntu 11.04 · Mythbuntu 11.04 · Xubuntu 11.04 · Ubuntu Studio 11.04 · PLoP Linux 4.1.1 · Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud 11.04 · Absolute Linux 13.2.2 · R.I.P. 12.1 · Tiny Core Linux 3.6 · Superb Mini Server 1.6.0
· BlankOn Sajadah 7.0 Alpha 5 · Mageia 1 Beta 2 · Kororaa 14 Beta 6 · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.8-35 · Salix OS Xfce Live 13.37 RC1 · Pinguy OS 11.04 Beta
See you again on May 9th for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.