Distributions

Looking ahead to Mandriva 2009

Mandriva developer Adam Williamson recently announced the plans for Mandriva Linux 2009. The schedule and other details are available at 2009 development wiki.

There will be two alpha releases, two beta releases and two release candidates before the final release in October 2008. The first alpha will be available very soon as the scheduled date is June 25, 2008. As usual Mandriva 2009 will be available in the Free, One (live CD) and PowerPack editions.

So what's in store? Users of Cooker, Mandriva's development branch, will have already noticed the churn as gcc is upgraded to 4.3. There's also the switch to newer technologies such as libata and PolicyKit. The final kernel is not yet fixed but will likely be 2.6.26; with server, desktop and desktop586 flavors.

The technical specifications available in SVN, where they are changed to reflect progress. I looked at the PDF snapshot for more information.

KDE 4.1 and GNOME 2.24 will both be available, along with updated packages such as OpenOffice.org 3 and Firefox 3. There's a new design for the installer, and live distribution upgrade mode for MandrivaUpdate. The package management tools will be smarter about the removal of packages that are no longer required. The Windows migration tools have also gotten smarter, making it easier than ever for new users to get started with Linux.

That's just the beginning. There is much more coming up in Mandriva Linux 2009.

Comments (none posted)

Fedora Board & FESCo Recap 2008-JUN-09

The Fedora board and the Fedora Engineering Steering Committee (FESCo) had a joint meeting on June 9, 2008. Click below for the notes.

Full Story (comments: none)

Fedora Board Recap 2008-JUN-10

A recap of the June 10 meeting of the Fedora board is available (click below). Topics discussed include Codeina, secondary architectures, and a lengthy discussion about the path forward.

Full Story (comments: none)

No more updates for Fedora 7

Fedora 7 has officially reached end of life and will no longer be updated. This is in keeping with the Fedora lifecycle where releases of a given Fedora N are supported until Fedora N+2 is released plus one month. Fedora 8 will go the same route one month after Fedora 10 is released, which is currently scheduled for late October.

Comments (none posted)

Council meeting summary for 12 June 2008

A summary of the June 12 Gentoo council meeting is available. Click below for the summary.

Full Story (comments: none)

Accessibility Wiki Launched

Accessibility pages have been created on opensuse.org's Wiki. "The intent is to highlight efforts made within the openSUSE community to improve Accessibility (a11y) standards within our distribution, as well as become more aware of who within our community works on a11y issues."

Full Story (comments: none)

Changes to Gobuntu

The Gobuntu development team has announced that after the 8.04 release of Gobuntu, the project will aim to merge many of the Gobuntu changes into mainline Ubuntu. Ubuntu will feature a "Free Software Only" installer option which only installs software considered free by the Free Software Foundation's definition of software freedom. "This installer option now obviates the need for a separate derivative project, and in the interest of reducing the workload of Ubuntu core developers, the Gobuntu project will instead focus on merging as many changes as possible into mainline Ubuntu."

Full Story (comments: 19)

Intrepid Alpha 1 delayed

The first alpha of Ubuntu's Intrepid Ibex release has been delayed. "We are making every effort to get an installable alpha image together in the coming days. Watch this space for further information..."

Full Story (comments: none)

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #95

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for June 14, 2008 covers Intrepid Alpha 1 delayed, more info about Global Bug Jam, future Brainstorm plans, Server Team Intrepid blueprints, new Ubuntu Members, future of Gobuntu, Kubuntu Tutorial Days, Mark Shuttleworth's response to accusations of proprietary codecs in Ubuntu, open source in UK schools, and much more.

Full Story (comments: none)

OpenSUSE Weekly News/26

This issue of the openSUSE Weekly News looks at openSUSE Launches Merged Forums, Announcing the openSUSE Marketing Team, People of openSUSE: Cornelius Schumacher, Sneak Peeks at openSUSE 11.0, Tips and Tricks: Jigish Gohil: Useful openSUSE One-Click installs from command line, and more.

Comments (none posted)

OpenSUSE Weekly News/27

This issue of the openSUSE Weekly News covers Upcoming openSUSE 11.0, People of openSUSE: Rupert Horstkötter, Sneak Peeks at openSUSE 11.0: KDE with Stephan Binner, Tips and Tricks: Jigish Gohil: Getting NVIDIA and ATI drivers on openSUSE 11.0, Planet SUSE: Ben Kevan: Why upgrade to openSUSE 11 from openSUSE 10.x, and more.

Comments (none posted)

Fedora Weekly News Issue 131

The Fedora Weekly News for June 15, 2008 is out. Topics include Board Elections, website developers wanted, Fedora 7 end of life, and much more.

Comments (none posted)

DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 257

The DistroWatch Weekly for June 16, 2008 is out. "This is openSUSE's week as one of the oldest and most popular Linux distributions prepares for its highly ambitious release. Will the project's switch to Qt 4.x toolkit be a success? And how will the integration of the shaky KDE 4.0.x code into the distribution be received? These are some of the questions many readers are asking before the Thursday release of openSUSE 11.0. In the news section, Mandriva releases Flash 2008.1, a portable distribution on an 8 GB USB key, Debian clarifies the beta status of "Lenny", Linux Mint publishes an important security advisory for one of its utilities, and Sabayon Linux announces the imminent arrival of the final beta for its upcoming version 3.5. Also in this issue, a reader-contributed review of PC/OS 8.04, an Ubuntu based distribution with a BeOS-like user interface, links to two excellent interviews with Mark Shuttleworth, a hands-on guide on turning FreeBSD into a desktop system, and a report on how Microsoft intends to prevent Linux from becoming the operating system of choice on low-cost laptops."

Comments (none posted)

Mark Shuttleworth Interview with Linux-Magazine Italia

Vincenzo Ciaglia from Linux-Magazine Italia talks with Mark Shuttleworth about the release of 8.04 LTS and more. "What do you think about your competitors? Fedora/Red Hat, openSUSE and Mandriva are doing good work as well as Ubuntu. What GNU/Linux distribution do you prefer if you couldn't use Ubuntu? Yes, all of the distributions make contributions to the art and industry of free software. I'm very glad that lots of companies continue to invest in Linux, it makes it a much healthier and more vibrant ecosystem than it would be if just one company dominated it. So I'm very happy with the competition. If Ubuntu didn't exist, I would use Debian."

Comments (none posted)

GNewSense, the Present and the Future (IT Management)

Bruce Byfield takes a look at GNewSense. "At first GNewSense seems virtually identical to Hardy Heron, the latest Ubuntu version. Both use GNOME 2.22, and include such packages as OpenOffice.org 2.4 and GIMP 2.4.5. The branded wallpaper is different, but the muddy brown of Ubuntu's default theme is even visible on the title bar of GNewSense windows. Dig deeper, though, and you'll start to see differences. If you are on a laptop, your wireless card has a strong chance of not working. Your video card probably does only 2-D acceleration, and the desktop has no Restricted Drivers Manager to help you add proprietary 3-D ones. Instead of Firefox, you have Epiphany, another Mozilla-based browser, not because Firefox is proprietary, but because the Mozilla Corporation is strict about enforcing the trademark on its products. At the kernel level, you'll find some 119 firmware files gone, too."

Comments (none posted)