14 DAY TRIAL // Welcome to the 68th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!
The following Linux distributions were announced last week: Fedora 12 Beta, CentOS 5.4, Ubuntu 9.10 Release Candidate and Elive 1.9.51. In other news: Novell releases the second beta version of the upcoming Banshee 1.6 player and Ubuntu 9.04 offering from Dell. An in-depth review of the KeePassX 0.4.1 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 October 20th, the Fedora Project team announced the Beta release of the upcoming Fedora 12 operating system. This release is powered by Linux kernel 2.6.31.4, and it includes the KDE 4.3.2 and GNOME 2.28.0 desktop environments. Moblin support was also added in Fedora 12 Beta, as well as better power management, audio, webcam and video codec support. GNOME Shell is also available for testing, in the default software repository, and it will offer a preview of how GNOME 3 will look like. However, checking the feature list for Fedora 12, it appears that the developers completed all of them.
Highlights of Fedora 12 Beta:
· Linux Kernel 2.6.31.4; · Dracut, the new booting system; · Plymouth graphical boot splash; · KDE 4.3.2; · GNOME 2.28.0; · New artwork; · Empathy Instant Messenger; · Moblin support; · Better webcam support; · Spanning desktop support; · Improved HD video codecs; · Network Manager mobile broadband for GSM networks; · EXT4 is the default filesystem; · x86 optimized for the Intel Atom processors (compiled for i686); · RPM XZ compression; · Guest virtual machines for KVM; · Automatic bug reporting tool (ABRT); · New NetworkManager with better IPv6 and Mobile Broadband support; · Improved power management support; · Support for Intel BIOS-RAID; · Better support for Intel hardware; · Clustered Samba support; · Improved PulseAudio; · Improved PackageKit; · Improved KVM virtualization; · Fedora Studio; · BSoD (Bluetooth Service On Demand); · NFS4; · NetBeans 6.7; · Ogg Theora 1.1.0; · PolicyKit 1.0; · Improved SystemTap.
Download Fedora 12 Beta right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a beta release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.
On October 21st, Karanbir Singh announced the immediate availability of CentOS 5.4. This new release comes in i386 and amd64 versions and, unexpectedly, Live disks are also available for these two architectures. Previously, CentOS Live CDs were built exclusively for i386 processors and they were usually made available a week or two after the main version was released. Notably, the amd64 LiveCD weighs in at 757MB, being larger than a standard CD, so it requires higher capacity optical disks.
For CentOS 5.4, the upstream package repositories have been combined into a single one, making it easier for users to manage their software sources. External package repositories can be enabled during the installation, as this feature has been added to the distribution's installer. Also, starting with this CentOS version, fast-track rpm packages will be available in the distribution's fasttrack repository, which will be populated during the next few weeks. This also means that CentOS will have a functional yum-security setup, but more details on this subject will be released on the 15th of November, 2009.
Download CentOS 5.4 right now from Softpedia.
Download CentOS 5.4 Live CD right now from Softpedia.
On October 22nd, Canonical unleashed the Release Candidate version of the upcoming Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) operating system. What's new in Ubuntu 9.10 RC? Well, this is the last development version of the upcoming Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) operating system and much of the new features that will be part of it were presented here, on our website. Nothing really changed from the Beta release, except many bugfixes and lots of updated packages. But, there is a better login screen now, and some nice fade-in/fade-out animation to the boot splash.
HAL has been replaced by DeviceKit-power, DeviceKit-disks and udev, in order to provide a better power management, better handling of the hotkeys on laptops and better handling of storage devices. The kernel packages have been updated a lot in the last two weeks, and they are now based on Linux kernel 2.6.31.1. The old Linux-restricted-modules package has been replaced by DKMS, and KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) is enabled by default for the owners of Intel's graphic cards.
Download Ubuntu 9.10 Release Candidate right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a development release and should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.
On October 23rd, the Elive development team announced the immediate availability of Elive 1.9.51, a new development version of this Debian-based operating system. One of the greatest features that have been added is the compressed filesystem that can help users with limited hard drive space get the most out of their computer. The entire operating system will fit in 1GB, and the files that are created by the user will be automatically compressed, transparently and in real time.
The Live mode has been enhanced and a few problems have been fixed. Selecting Catalan in the boot menu now works as supposed, and running the system completely from RAM is now possible again. If you already have Elive installed, you can test this latest version without writing it to a CD. All you need to do is access your Administration menu, click "Upgrade Elive" and point it to the downloaded ISO image. Reboot your computer and, presto, you have the new version running. This feature is great for reinstalling the system.
Download Elive 1.9.51 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is an unstable release and should NOT be installed on production machines.
· MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition is an embedded development platform that allows telephone operators to implement systems that feature high reliability, availability and serviceability. The latest release of this platform builds a whole range of new features on top of a Linux Standard Base compliant system powered by the 2.6.21 Linux kernel. Read more about it here.
· On the 20th of October, Ubuntu celebrated its 5th anniversary. Version 4.10, code name "Warty Warthog," was announced on October 20th, 2004, and it was the first representative in a line of operating systems that were made by human beings for human beings, aiming to let normal people use Linux. Read more about it here.
· On October 21st, we decided to write a little article about some recent compression algorithms found in various bleeding-edge Linux distributions, especially for newcomers to the Linux-based operating systems. With this article, we will introduce you to two high-compression utilities: LZMA and XZ. Why? Simply because, you will definitely encounter in the near feature more and more tar.lzma or tar.xz archives, and you will either have no idea what they are and what to do with them, or you will not have the required packages to extract such archives. Read more about it here.
· On October 21st, IBM and Canonical launched a software bundle targeted at companies that packed productivity applications along with underlying system infrastructure in a well-integrated product. For it, the two software creators have stacked the IBM Client for Smart Work, a collaboration and productivity package that was released just a month ago, on top of Canonical's well-known Ubuntu Linux operating system. Read more about it here.
· If you are anxious to get your hands on a very nice CD with the Karmic Koala operating system, then you should know that it can be pre-ordered from Ubuntu's ShipIt service, free of charge (a free account or an OpenID is required). It has started taking the orders a few days ago, so hurry up! Read more about it here.
Review of the Week: KeePassX 0.4.1
From the review: System administrators and computer security experts keep reminding users that they should use strong passwords and change them regularly. Unfortunately, strong passwords are usually complicated and hard to remember, therefore prone to be forgotten or misused. Even if you do manage to remember one or two complicated passwords, using them for all your different accounts is a pretty bad idea, since, if one of them is compromised, the others that share the password are sitting ducks.
KeePassX's documentation is pretty scarce. You only get a short description of the KeePassX project, the system requirements and an installation guide that isn't useful at all if you already installed the application from your Linux distribution's repository. The largest part of the documentation is represented by the Quick-start Guide, which covers the basics of using the application and in which you will find a short guide on setting up Auto-Type. KeePassX is currently available in 17 languages, but, if you feel like adding one yourself, you will find the necessary information and tools on the project's website.
Read the entire review here.
Video Clip of the Week: Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) Release Candidate (RC) - review
· For this week, we've posted a video clip that will offer you a short review of the Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) Release Candidate operating system. The video has 4 minutes and 50 seconds, and it was posted by the DistroTV. Enjoy!
· JULinux 0.1.4.7 · Slax Router 0.2
Distributions Updated Last Week:
· Gentoox Home 7.1 · Fermi Linux 5.3 · GKLinuxOS 2.0 · Greenie Linux 5.1j · PelicanHPC 1.9.2 · DEFT 4.2.1 · Trixbox 2.8.0.2 · TurnKey Django Live CD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · TurnKey Core Live CD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · TurnKey LAPP stack LiveCD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · TurnKey AppEngine Live CD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · TurnKey Drupal 6 Live CD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · TurnKey Joomla Live CD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · TurnKey LAMP stack Live CD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · TurnKey MediaWiki Live CD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · TurnKey MySQL Live CD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · TurnKey phpBB Live CD 2009.10-hardy · TurnKey PostgreSQL Live CD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · TurnKey Ruby on Rails Live CD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · TurnKey Tomcat Apache Live CD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · TurnKey WordPress Live CD 2009.10-hardy-x86 · Berry Linux 0.99
· Myah Linux 3.1 Alpha · Myah Linux Dragon 3.1 Alpha · Inquisitor 3.1 Beta 2 · Clonezilla LiveCD 1.2.3-5 · Chakra LiveCD Fuzzy · Edubuntu 9.10 RC · Mythbuntu 9.10 RC · Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud 9.10 RC · Kubuntu 9.10 RC · Kubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 RC · Xubuntu 9.10 RC · Ubuntu Studio 9.10 RC · Ubuntu Server 9.10 RC · Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10 RC · grml 2009.10 RC1 · ALT Linux 5.0.0 RC · sidux 2009-03 Preview 1 · Tiny Core Linux 2.5 RC1
See you again next Monday, November 2nd, for another issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly.