Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 9

Anti and MEPIS announced on 22 August the release of MEPIS antiX 7.5, dubbed "Toussaint Louverture." It brings some new additions, like the antiX Control Centre and the smxi script, and some improved features such as the Fluxbox and IceWM window managers.

Particularly useful to users keen on having a very fast and configurable system, this lightweight OS is based on the MEPIS Linux 7.0 core, featuring the MEPIS 2.6.22 kernel and utilities, together with certain additions from Debian Lenny.

Download MEPIS antiX 7.5 right now from Softpedia.

On August 24, The Zenwalk Team announced the stable release of Zenwalk 5.2 GNOME Edition. The new version brings a number of features, such as the latest stable GNOME desktop environment (2.22.3), together with impressive Zenwalk artwork and a familiar Zenwalk desktop. Also featured in this release are the 2.6.25.4 Linux kernel, the latest Netpkg package manager, and the next generation X11 server, X.Org 7.3.

The specific "one app per task" Zenwalk philosophy is present in this version, while Zenwalk users will also find numerous default applications like: IceWeasel and IceDove, for net surfing and email services; Brasero for CD/DVD burning; WiCD for an easy to establish wireless connection; The GIMP for image manipulation; AbiWord and Gnumeric for office tasks; GTKam for digital camera management, and Gmusicbrowser for having easy access to vast music collections.

Download Zenwalk 5.2 GNOME Edition right now from Softpedia.

Rack-Soft released on August 25 a free browser plug-in, called VoipNow Browser Module, which brings new and useful functionality allowing click to call functions in all web pages previously visited by a 4PSA VoipNow user. Phone numbers within web pages are found and highlighted by this Browser Module, enabling the user to directly call anyone.

Bogdan Carstoiu, General Manager for Rack-Soft, said, "We created this plug-in software because we wanted to offer our customers better integration with software from other vendors. For all applications that work in the browser, we addressed the integration at the browser level. VoipNow users will be able to add click to call features to any application, which is unique in industry. We are offering this experience for free, so our customers do not have to pay for the hidden costs, wait for integrations to become available or install and maintain third party software. Once the browser plug-in is configured, it will work with any web based application."

Read more about it here.

An Ubuntu kernel security vulnerability was discovered on August 25, 2008. It applies to Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, 7.10, 7.04 and 6.06 LTS distributions (and the corresponding versions of Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu). This kernel vulnerability could lead to DoS (Denial of Service) attacks and/or loss of privacy. Read here which are the new versions of the Linux kernel packages that you should upgrade your system to!

Although the beta version of Fedora 10 is nearing its release date, The Fedora Unity Project announced the availability of a new Re-Spin edition for Fedora 8 Linux distribution.

This Re-Spin contains all the updates available since August 14, 2008. They are compatible with i386, x86_64 and PPC architectures but, this time, only a DVD Re-spin has been made available because of some packaging problems.

The following bugs were fixed in this version:

· depsolve hang in F7 to F8 upgrade (a smooth upgrade can now be performed from Fedora 7 to Fedora 8); · anaconda fails on Via VPSD motherboard (The software couldn't be installed on i586 hardware. The fix for this bug has been backported from anaconda development to the Fedora 8 stock, given that, during a release, anaconda isn't updated); · yum upgrade with selinux-policy-strict installed fails (A solution for the dependency problem in selinux-policy-strict during upgrades is included here within an updated package); · anaconda crashes on 'cdrom' line in kickstart (By incorporating certain pykickstart updates in the rebuild installer, this bug has been fixed); · Kickstart file cannot be located file during unattended installation.

Download Fedora 8 Re-Spin 20080814 right now from Softpedia.

The Ubuntu Christian Edition Community has happily announced  the release of Ubuntu CE 4.0 (Christian Edition). Although it has been a rather long time since the last release, this version brings many new additions like The Gimp (for image and photo manipulation), Gnome Office (which replaces the OpenOffice.org suite), InkScape, and an update to the Dansguardian GUI in order to make it work with Firefox 3.

Most of the Windows program installers present in the last release have been discontinued due to various difficulties. The complicated maintenance, as well as some changes in certain Windows programs, made it hard to implement an automatic installation.

Download Ubuntu Christian Edition 4.0 right now from Softpedia.

The BLFS development team has recently announced the launch of BLFS 6.3 (Beyond Linux From Scratch), along with many new package additions, as well as updates and various adjustments. Among the highlights of this version are Gnome 2.18.3, KDE 3.5.9, Firefox 2 and Pidgin.

As we all know, BLFS 6.3 is the complement of the LFS 6.3 book, although the latter was released almost a year ago. Due to Editor inactivity, this version has been postponed for a rather long time, in so delaying its desired appearance shortly after an LFS launch. The good news is that this version features an abundance of bug fixes, refinements, new and updated packages.

Download Beyond Linux From Scratch 6.3 right now from Softpedia.

The 10th maintenance update to the popular K Desktop Environment (KDE) 3.5 was released on August 26. KDE 3.5.10 brings bugfixes to applications such as KPDF, KGPG and even Kicker, the KDE panel. Let's take a closer look at other improvements included in this new version of the KDE 3 desktop:

· The visibility on transparent backgrounds was greatly improved; · Many applets received antialiasing and layout fixes; · The missing arrow buttons on some applets were themed.

For detailed information about how to upgrade your current KDE 3.5 desktop environment to the latest 3.5.10 version, please visit this page. Also, you can download the KDE 3.5.10 sources right now from Softpedia.

On August 27, the Debian Live team proudly announced the immediate availability of the first beta version of Debian Lenny's Live CD editions. Debian Live 5.0 Beta 1 comes in three different flavors, for GNOME, KDE and XFCE users. Highlights include:

· Debian Lenny based · Three different flavors (KDE, GNOME and XFCE) · Different image types (for CDs, DVDs, USB sticks and net boot) · Live Magic (live-helper scripts GUI) · Live Installer

Download Debian Live 5.0 Beta right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a beta release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.

The PC-BSD team proudly announced, on August 28, the immediate availability of the first beta version of PC-BSD 7.0. Dubbed Fibonacci Edition, this beta is based on the FreeBSD 7.0 stable release, powered by the popular KDE 4.1 desktop environment, and comes with many software updates/bugfixes over previous versions. Highlights of PC-BSD 7.0 include:

· FreeBSD 7-STABLE · KDE 4.1 · Xorg 7.3 · KDE Language Packages · KDE Educational Games 4.1 · KDE Toys 4.1 · KDE SDK 4.1 · OpenOffice 2.4.1 PBI · Opera 9.51 PBI · FireFox 3.0.0.1 PBI · K3B 1.0.4 PBI · FreeBSD Ports Tree · FreeBSD System Source

Download PC-BSD 7.0 Beta 1 right now from Softpedia. Remember that this is a beta release and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only.

The KOffice development team announced, also on August 28, KOffice 2.0 Alpha 10. Among the changes this version brings, there are: some modifications in KPresenter, plenty of improvements in KWord, and also a few adjustments to Krita and Karbon.

Following the idea of the previous alpha versions, KOffice 2.0 Alpha 10 only aims to offer a preview of the new ideas and technologies of the KOffice 2.0 series. Another important aspect is that KOffice 2.0 will probably not provide all the features whose foundation is set in this alpha release.

KOffice 2.0 is under development at the moment and, therefore, it isn't recommended you use it for real tasks as it can fail at anytime. This alpha release features important changes in many areas including the infrastructure, and numerous bug fixes and new features.

Download KOffice 2.0 Alpha 10 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.

Another week, another review by Mihai Mircea for Softpedia Linux. This time, it's for the Last.fm Player application, a music player for the popular Last.fm personalized radio. Read this comprehensive review of Last.fm Player 1.4.2.58240 here.

Distributions Released Last Week:

· Bluewhite64 12.1 RC1 · WorkBench Linux 1.4 · Medianix 0.7 · GUFI 5.2.3 · moonOS K 1.0

Distributions Updated Last Week: