14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 63rd issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux distributions were announced last week: SystemRescueCD 1.3.0, Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6, Puppy Linux 4.3, Mandriva 2010.0 RC1 and Parted Magic 4.5. In other news: AMD releases ATI Catalyst 9.9 video driver suite for Linux systems and the KOffice theme made available for testing the second beta version of the upcoming KOffice 2.1 open source office suite. An in-depth review of the BleachBit 0.6.3 application is also present in this edition. The weekly ends with the video clip of the week, the latest Linux distributions released/updated last week and the development releases.
Summary:
On September 14th, François Dupoux announced the release of SystemRescueCD 1.3.0, a version that brings the latest and greatest Linux kernel 2.6.31, along with btrfs-progs 1.41.9, thus incorporating support for the new Btrfs filesystem. This release of SystemRescueCD has NTFS improvements all around, through FSArchiver 0.5.9 and an advanced release of NTFS-3G, version 2009.4.4-AR17 (Advanced NTFS-3G Features).
Linux's Extended File System hasn't been forgotten either, with e2fsprogs being bumped to 1.41.9. If the EFI GPT partition table that's keeping track of all these filesystems and their location on disk needs fixing up, you have gdisk (GPT fdisk) 0.3.1 at your fingertips.
Download SystemRescueCD 1.3.0 right now from Softpedia.
On September 17th, Canonical unleashed the sixth and last alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) operating system, due for launch in late October this year.
What's new in Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6? Well... there's no more Usplash (the boot splash screen). So, it appears that the team has successfully managed to fulfill its initial plans for making a faster startup where a boot screen is no longer necessary. Therefore, when Ubuntu will start, you will see a black screen, after the BIOS POST, followed by the X-based splash screen (xsplash) that we've presented a few weeks ago. If the login manager is enabled, after login... xsplash will appear again (this time, loading the desktop in the background).
The Ubuntu Software Store application is now present and it is available under the System menu. Its appearance has been greatly improved for an easy usage, but the basic software installation, search and removal functions remain.
Download Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an alpha release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.
On September 18th, Barry Kauler released Puppy Linux 4.3, a massive upgrade from the 4.2 series, with almost all the components updated or replaced. Also, the whole system through which this Linux distribution is being built has been replaced with a completely new one, called Woof. The switch imposed the creation of a new package management system, called Puppy Package Manager, which supports the use of packages from any distribution within Puppy.
As expected, Puppy Linux 4.3 is powered by the 2.6.30.5 Linux Kernel, which is configured to support multiprocessor systems, EXT4 filesystems and is patched to work with Aufs2. Legacy dial-up modems are well supported, with drivers included for Agere, ESS, Lucent, Conexant, Smartlink, Pctel and Intel chipsets. More up-to-date methods of connecting to the Internet are also supported, including the use of 3G modems.
Download Puppy Linux 4.3 right now from Softpedia.
On September 19th, the Mandriva developers released the Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Release Candidate 1 to the awaiting supporters of this Linux-based operating system. There are a lot of versions to choose from: the well-known Mandriva One, both with GNOME and KDE, the Free edition that is made exclusively from open-source software, a dual Arch CD ISO that has both 32-bit and 64-bit support, and some VirtualBox images for those who just want a quick test in a virtual machine.
This release candidate fixes many bugs that were present in Mandriva 2010.0 Beta, especially the desktop environment-related ones and the problems with the distribution-specific network tools. You will also find the 2.6.31 stable Linux kernel.
Download Mandriva 2010.0 RC1 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 September 20th, Patrick Verner announced the release of Parted Magic 4.5, a new version of the popular partitioning and data-recovery Linux distribution. It includes many fixes and improvements, especially for Intel graphics cards and the newly introduced point-to-point networking support.
Running Parted Magic 4.5 on computers with low hardware specs is now made easier, as running the distribution from RAM now requires 192MB of physical memory, which is quite an improvement from the 256MB requirement in Parted Magic 4.4. Also, you can get it to start with only 48MB of memory if you select the "Live with low RAM settings" boot option.
Download Parted Magic 4.5 right now from Softpedia.
· AMD announced on September 9th a new version of its versatile ATI Catalyst proprietary display driver for Linux users, for both x86 and x86_64 architectures. The ATI Catalyst 9.9 suite updates the software to version 8.65 and brings production support for OpenSuSE 11.1 and initial support for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and Server 10 SP3. Read more about it here.
· The KOffice team announced on September 15th the second beta release of the upcoming KOffice 2.1 open source office suite. This new development version contains lots of bug fixes, especially for translations and various typos. However, the most important improvements are definitely the Microsoft Office and Powerpoint import filters implemented in the KWord and KPresenter, respectively. The aforementioned filters received lots of new formatting features and the team expects that KOffice 2.1 will be better than ever at reading the Microsoft Office file formats. Read more about it here.
Review of the Week: BleachBit 0.6.3
From the review: The main BleachBit window is quite simple-looking – you have a list of applications and categories on the left, a couple of buttons on the toolbar and that's all. By manipulating the categories on the left you will get to see, checkbox by checkbox, just how powerful BleachBit is. If you're wondering what one of the options does, just click it and a short description of it will appear on the application's main pane. The descriptions may be a little bit sparse for some of the cleaning profiles, and BleachBit isn't a very safe tool in the hands of novice computer users, that's why I think it could be expanded. A nice feature is the way warnings appear when selecting slow or potentially dangerous options.
BleachBit is a very nimble tool in the hands of a computer-savvy user. It can be dangerous when used by novices, but even the worst case scenario should only result in nothing more than an inconvenience and the need to reset some options.
Read the entire review here.
Video Clip of the Week: Ubuntu 9.10 X-based Splash
· For this week, we've posted a video clip that shows the brand-new, X-based splash screen artwork implemented in the Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6 operating system. The video has 26 seconds and it was posted by Softpedia. Enjoy!
· Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 Update 4 · Bran 1.0 Beta 1 · Chrome OS 0.4.206 Beta · Kahel OS August 2009 · Salix OS 13.0
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· Debian Live 5.0.2 · Vixta.org 2009.09 · Ubuntu Privacy Remix 9.04r2
· TinyMe 2009 Alpha 2 · Mythbuntu 9.10 Alpha 6 · Ubuntu Studio 9.10 Alpha 6 · Xubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6 · Kubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 Alpha 6 · Kubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6 · Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud 9.10 Alpha 6 · Ubuntu Server 9.10 Alpha 6 · Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 Alpha 6 · Edubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6
See you again next Monday, September 28th, for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.