News and Editorials
Fedora 7 was originally scheduled to be released on May 24, 2007. That
target slipped a week, to May 31, 2007, so it may be out by the time you
read this article. Fedora 7 has been
called
"
the most ambitious release of Fedora that we've undertaken".
The merger of Core and Extras alone was an ambitious project, and F7 has
much more.
Not all of the features
that were targeted for Fedora 7 made it in, but very many new features will
be found in this release. Here's a list of some of the new features in
Fedora 7:
- Consolidated dictionaries for each language - instead of a separate
dictionary for OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Thunderbird and aspell there is
only one dictionary shared by these applications.
- Eclipse plugins.
- Fast User Switching allows multiple desktop sessions that are easily
switched between without logging out.
- An Install Everything spin for those who want it all.
- A KDE spin for those who want KDE and not GNOME.
- The Prime spin can be used for a
desktop/workstation/developer/server install.
- The ability to create a Targeted spin - include only the packages
you want without the clutter.
- An improved firewire stack.
- Support for KVM in the kernel and virtualization tools.
- F7 uses libata for parallel ATA support, instead of the 'old-ide'
stack.
- Installable Live CDs and DVDs.
- Core and Extras merged into a single CVS root and a single build
system.
- A snapshot of the nouveau driver.
- RPM and Yum Enhancements.
- The default kernel is tickless for improved power management.
- Bodhi is the new Fedora Update System, rewritten for the new
combined universe.
- Pungi is used for tree building instead of the internal
builddistro/etc scripts.
- More wireless firmware support.
- Smolt is a hardware reporting tool that will allow Fedora developers
to understand the hardware that Fedora runs on better.
Additional documentation for Fedora can be found here.
Comments (1 posted)
New Releases
Technalign, Inc.
has announced the release of their Pioneer Basic 2.1 desktop Linux
operating system.
"
Pioneer Basic R2.1 is similar to Basic R2.0 with several exceptions. The biggest exception is that Pioneer Release 2.1 is based on Feisty and not Edgy while it continues to be based on Kubuntu. Adept is nolonger incorporated as the update manager, but is now replaced with Synaptic per the business and consumer communities. Also notable are the Guarddog Firewall as well as the KlamAV anti-virus utilities that have been added and OpenOffice 2.2."
Comments (none posted)
Distribution News
HP has announced the release of version 4.0 of its Linux Common Operating
Environment system. "
Essentially, it lets someone custom design a system running Linux via
the LinuxCOE System Designer website (choosing from over 100 Linux
distributions), download a customized boot image onto a USB drive or CD
and then install elsewhere according to the original design. Once a
system is up and running, LinuxCOE provides continued lifecycle support
for patch and package updates."
Full Story (comments: 12)
There are many teams within Debian, each with its own habits and tools. A
wiki site is currently under
construction that will help people find out more about Debian teams.
Full Story (comments: none)
Familiar is a Linux
distribution for handheld devices.
Synergy allows you to share a
single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different
operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware.
So, if you have a handheld device running Familiar you can now use Synergy
to control your handheld with your computer mouse and keyboard.
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The Fedora Project
website has
received a face lift. "
Prior to today that site went straight to the
wiki, which is largely developer content with good (but somewhat hard to
find) docs. Now we're expanding on fedoraproject.org and adding some more
user-centric content like that found at http://docs.fedoraproject.org/."
Full Story (comments: none)
OpenPKG has announced its support (and use) of RPM5. "
As OpenPKG
depends on RPM and Ralf S. Engelschall is both an Open Source software
developer and a strong supporter of important foreign Open Source software
projects, he agreed to actively support Jeff Johnson's new stated roadmap
towards the forthcoming RPM 5.0 by providing him and his newly formed RPM
project team the necessary central project infrastructure. rpm5.org was
chosen by Jeff Johnson as the new location, under which today the RPM
project was finally relaunched by him."
Full Story (comments: 2)
OpenSUSE has moved both YaST and ZYPP to svn.opensuse.org - other
repositories will soon follow.
Full Story (comments: none)
A new
mailing
list has been created for Ubuntu Masters Of The Universe mentoring. If
you would like to become a MOTU, this list is for you.
Full Story (comments: none)
Distribution Newsletters
The Fedora Weekly News for May 26, 2007 covers the Fedora Project Web face
lift, Fedora 7 RC2 "Fedora" spin i386 available, Fedora 7 at Respins.org
and much more.
Full Story (comments: none)
The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for May 27, 2007 covers Dell's long awaited
release of computers with Ubuntu preinstalled, the newly created Wine team,
a new planet has been added to our blog solar system for US LoCos, an
interview with Corey Burger, the newly approved Community Council member, a
quick summary on the new procedure to become an Ubuntu Core Developer, and
the spotlight is on the Catalan Team this week which was recently
officially approved.
Full Story (comments: none)
The
DistroWatch
Weekly for May 28, 2007 is out. "
Fedora 7, the latest and
arguably most ambitious release from the increasingly community-friendly
Fedora Project, will hit the download mirrors later this week. With its
installable live CDs, merged package repositories and much improved
artwork, the new Fedora should prove a major attraction on the 2nd quarter
release calendar. But will it be able to regain some of the market share it
lost in recent years to the more aggressive desktop Linux distributions?
We'll have to wait and see. In other major news of the week, Dell has
fulfilled its promise and started shipping the first desktop computers with
Ubuntu pre-installed. Finally, don't miss our first look review of
PCLinuxOS 2007 by Chris Smart and check out the list of four new Linux
distributions that have been added to the DistroWatch database: BeaFanatIX,
Granular Linux, Openfiler and Parted Magic."
Comments (none posted)
Newsletters and articles of interest
HowtoForge has tutorials on setting up
the
perfect server with Mandriva 2007 Spring and
the
perfect desktop with PCLinuxOS 2007.
Comments (none posted)
Distribution reviews
Linux.com
reviews
Gentoo 2007.0 code-named Secret Sauce. "
Gentoo 2007.0 is available
in several formats for various platforms. As per its torrent download
statistics, most popular are the live DVD, the live CD, and the minimal CD
for x86 and AMD64 platforms. The live CD contains Linux kernel 2.6.19, Xorg
7.2, GNOME 2.16.0, OpenOffice.org 2.1.0, Firefox 2.0.0.3, Thunderbird
1.5.0.10, Evolution 2.8.2.1, and X-Chat and Gaim (now Pidgin) for IRC and
instant messaging. The DVD version has everything the CD has, along with
KDE 3.5.5, XFCE 4.4.0, GIMP 2.2.14, Abiword 2.4.6, KOffice 1.6.1, and
several other applications, tools, and libraries."
Comments (none posted)
LinuxDevices
looks at a
server-oriented Linux distribution for Sony's Playstation3. "
Helios
describes its PS3 distro as a version of TerraSoft's Yellow Dog Linux (YDL)
for the PS3 that has been simplified and optimized for use as a server
OS. The simplifications are said to result in 40 percent more RAM available
for server applications. Optimizations include AppleTalk support in the
kernel, and a Java 1.5 environment pre-installed." A
press release is
available from HELIOS.
Comments (none posted)
ServerWatch
takes a
look at Voyage Linux. "
Voyage Linux is pretty amazing. The stock
image can be run from a bootable live CD or installed into any storage
medium you want. It supports all bootable media, including PXE network
boot. It's designed for wireless routers, but because it includes apt-get
it is easily and highly customizable. If you've been wishing for a tiny
Linux you can easily tweak to meet your needs, starting from the smallest
possible image and adding what you want, this just might be it."
Comments (none posted)
Page editor: Rebecca Sobol
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