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A Feature Tour of New Distribution Releases

October 5, 2003

This article was contributed by Ladislav Bodnar

A flurry of recent release announcements from Slackware, Mandrake and SUSE have created plenty of excitement, so characteristic of this time of the year, when many commercial Linux companies are finalizing their new products. What can we expect? At first sight, it would seem that this round of distribution releases lacks any visible advancements - at least compared to the March/April release round with the then new XFree86 4.3.0, KDE 3.1, new font anti-aliasing technologies, NPTL threading library, zeroconf and many other interesting features. Six months later, we have a new GNOME 2.4, as well as the first edition of the GNOME Office suite, version 1.0, but the much awaited 2.6 Linux kernel series is still in heavy development and so are XFree86 4.4 and KOffice 1.3, while KDE 3.2 has only just entered the alpha stage. Let's take a brief tour of the features found in the latest distribution releases.

Slackware Linux 9.1

Slackware Linux 9.1, released last week, is a pleasant surprise. Gone are the ugly default fonts from version 9.0 and the overall look and feel of both GNOME 2.4 and KDE 3.1.4, as well as half a dozen of other desktop environments is much improved. This is the first time ever that Slackware Linux ships on two installation CDs - despite the developers' best efforts, it is no longer possible to include the latest versions both GNOME and KDE together with a base Linux system on a single CD. The kernel is version 2.4.22 with support for SCSI and ATA RAID volumes, PCMCIA, CardBus, APM for notebooks and USB hotplug. Advanced package management tools for Slackware packages (slackpkg and swaret) are now included in the /extra directory, so keeping a Slackware installation up-to-date with security patches has never been easier. Also worth mentioning is "ZipSlack", claimed to be the fastest Linux installation ever: "ZipSlack provides a basic text-based Linux system as a 41 megabyte ZIP archive. Simply unzip on any FAT or FAT32 partition, edit your boot partition in the LINUX.BAT batch file, and you can be running Linux in less than five minutes." A highly positive early review of Slackware Linux 9.1 has been published by OSNews.

SUSE LINUX 9.0

SUSE has announced SUSE LINUX 9.0 with general availability on October 24 (slightly earlier in Europe). The occasion was accompanied by substantial design changes to SUSE's web sites, its logo, slogan and even the product name - from "SuSE Linux" to "SUSE LINUX": "As part of the overall effort to update our look, it was felt that upper casing all of SUSE LINUX brought more attention to the name." SUSE's new slogan is "Simply Change", which is: "on one hand a challenge to switch from monopolistic software to the flexibility of SUSE and on the other signifies how simple this shift can be."

On the technical side of things, the LSB-certified SUSE Linux 9.0 comes with a new NTFS partition resizing tool and a much improved -- especially in terms of compatibility with MS Office -- OpenOffice 1.1 final. The overall theme is that of an easy migration from Windows to Linux, both for home and office users. Other improvements include new features for mobile computer users, where the already excellent range of networking and power management features have been expanded by an increased number of supported Winmodems as well as a "profile manager" with a single-click hardware re-configuration for frequent travelers and commuters. The YaST setup tool now comes with a remote administration feature through a web browser and VNC. Last but not least, SUSE 9.0 also comes in a 64-bit edition for the Athlon 64 PC processor.

Mandrake Linux 9.2

MandrakeSoft has yet to provide a full release announcement of the upcoming Mandrake Linux 9.2, expected to ship on October 15, but its beta information page does give some details of what we can look forward to. Besides the usual range of package updates and a new network profiles manager called "Netprofiles", this version seems to be a consolidation release, with main improvements focusing on its look-and-feel, localization and Mandrake configuration utility - DrakConf. Like SUSE, MandrakeSoft has also announced a 64-bit edition of Mandrake Linux 9.2 for AMD64 processors and the first beta release is now available for download and testing.

Technical aspects aside, MandrakeSoft's most significant changes seem to be taking place in the way the company conducts its business. Up until version 9.1, Mandrake Linux ISO images were always available for download immediately after being finalized, and often many weeks before the boxed sets were offered for purchase via Mandrake's online store or traditional software shops. This is no longer the case. Although beta testing of Mandrake Linux 9.2 was completed last week, the product will not be released until boxed sets are manufactured and ready for shipping. Even then, the ISO images will initially be offered exclusively to members of the MandrakeClub and to contributors, with general availability scheduled for the end of November. These measures are designed to help MandrakeSoft overcome its financial setbacks and ensure a speedy recovery.

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