Distributions

New Release Season

Right now there are several major distributions preparing new releases. Ubuntu, openSUSE, Mandriva and Fedora are all on semi-regular six-month schedules; releasing each spring and fall. Debian has a much longer schedule, but that project is also nearing the release of Debian 5.0 "Lenny".

Ubuntu 8.10, "Intrepid Ibex" is due for a final release on October 30, 2008. Some new features have been added since the release of Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron". Some highlights include GNOME 2.24 with tab support in the Nautilus file manager and new file types supported by File Roller. X.Org 7.4 has better support for hot-pluggable input devices such as tablets, keyboards, and mice. Ubuntu 8.10 Beta includes Linux kernel 2.6.27, a release with better hardware support and numerous bug-fixes. The ecryptfs-utils package has been included with support for a secret encrypted folder in your Home Folder. The "Last successful boot" recovery entry retains a copy of your running kernel and makes it available from the boot loader as a "Last successful boot" option. Network Manager 0.7 has some new features that are included in this release. There are also a few known issues with the beta release, so check the wiki before installation.

openSUSE 11.1 is currently at beta 2. Some changes since the first beta include VirtualBox 2.0.2, the Intel e1000e have been disabled, OpenOffice.org 3.0RC2 from the openSUSE build service, plus GNOME 2.24.0, KDE 4.1.2, Mono 2.0 RC 3, Compiz 0.7.8, and more. You can see an expanded package list for the factory tree at DistroWatch. Just scroll down to see all the packages with version numbers. You can also find out more about openSUSE 11.1 on this page, which includes links to the most annoying bugs and the roadmap which calls for a final release on December 18, 2008.

Mandriva 2009.0 "sophie" could already be officially released, since it is due on October 9, 2008. The second release candidate wiki site lists some major new features including improved boot speed, support for LUKS encrypted partitions in installer and diskdrake, improved support for netbook hardware, support for Intel G41 graphics chipset, and GNOME 2.24 final. KDE4 is the default desktop for sophie. You can find out more about KDE/Mandriva integration here. The 2009.0 Development page has more information.

Fedora 10 "Cambridge" is currently scheduled for release on November 25, 2008. The accepted feature list for F10 includes an AMQP Infrastructure, that makes it easy to build scalable, interoperable, high-performance enterprise applications. F10 also has better printing, better remote support, faster startup, the Echo Icon Theme, Eclipse 3.4, GNOME 2.24, RPM 4.6, the Sugar desktop (used in OLPC), and much more.

Debian 5.0 "lenny" was originally scheduled for release in September. Now the release date is "when it's ready", which should be soon. We covered lenny in the July 31st edition, at the freeze. "Now to explain what, exactly, we mean by "freeze". The freeze upload policy of uploading changes in through unstable if possible will be continued to apply until the release." Since then there has been lots of bug fixing. See more in the Debian "lenny" Release Information page. Debian 5.0 won't have the newest packages like the distributions mentioned above, but when Debian 5.0 is declared stable you will have just that; a stable system that will be supported for several years.

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ALT Linux 4.1 Desktop is released

ALT Linux 4.1 Desktop has been announced. "This is a general purpose GNU/Linux distribution intended for use on desktop stations, laptops and netbooks."

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New Fedora 9 Re-spins

The Fedora Unity Project has announced the release of new ISO Re-Spins of Fedora 9. These Re-Spin ISOs are based on the officially released Fedora 9 installation media and include all updates released as of October 4, 2008.

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Development Release: openSUSE 11.1 Beta 2 Now Available

A second beta of openSUSE 11.1 is available for testing. Click below for a look at the changes since beta 1, the status of the e1000e issue, in bugs in the OpenOffice.org packages, the call for testing, the most annoying bugs, and download information.

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Platform Development Kit 0.9.6 released

The 64 Studio Platform Development Kit (PDK) is a Free Software tool (GPLv2) that is used to automate the production and maintenance of several different projects. PDK is a kind of version control system for distributions, that facilitate the creation and management of many different custom products based on Debian and Ubuntu sources. PDK has roots in Progeny's Componentized Linux, and is now maintained by 64 Studio.

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Ubuntu 8.10 Beta released

The beta release of Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex" Desktop and Server has been announced. "Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop Edition delivers the features you need for an increasingly mobile digital life, including 3G wireless support and guest sessions that lets users temporarily share computers without compromising security. Ubuntu 8.10 Server consolidates its support for virtualization with an integrated Virtual Machine builder, and brings with it a fully-supported Java stack and support for per-user directory encryption."

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VC4.1 and new Vyatta Reference Guides released

Vyatta has released an update to Vyatta Community Edition v4. VC4.1 fixes some issues and includes some new, experimental features to test prior to VC5. Click below for a peek at the major new features. New reference guides for VC4.1 are also available.

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What you can do for "Lenny"

The Debian project is looking for folks to help them kick "Lenny" out the door. To that end, they have created a detailed list of tasks suitable for regular users as well as developers. "The big question is: What can you do, to help release "Lenny" at least in this quarter? That's pretty easy: Fix rc-bugs, take care, that the fixed packages are migrated to "Lenny", do upgrade tests, document problems in the release-notes. Pretty simple, isn't it? Click below for the full list.

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Fedora Board Recap

Click below for a brief summary of the Fedora Board meeting, held September 30, 2008. Topics include Codecs (again), a Trademark Update, and some new business.

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Notice of discontinuation of Mandriva Linux 2007.1

Mandriva Linux 2007.1 will no longer be supported as of October 13 2008. "Any users still using 2007.1 are encouraged to upgrade. As well, as of October 9 2008, Mandriva Linux 2008.0 will be moving to a basic maintenance mode and will no longer be receiving desktop-related updates."

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Advance notice of discontinuation of openSUSE 10.2

openSUSE 10.2 is nearing the end of its supported life. "SUSE Security announces that openSUSE 10.2 will be discontinued soon. Having provided security-relevant fixes for more than two years, we will stop releasing updates after November 30th 2008."

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Third anniversary of openSUSE Project's first release

The openSUSE project is celebrating its third anniversary. The project was announced at LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco in August of 2005, and announced the release of openSUSE 10.0 on October 6, 2005. Happy birthday openSUSE.

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Ubuntu Foundations team meeting minutes

The minutes for the Ubuntu Foundations team meeting held September 24, 2008 are available. The agenda includes Outstanding actions from last meeting, Chris to upload openoffice.org3 to the ~openoffice-pkgs PPA (carried over), Alexander to write mobile broadband MIRs (carried over), Any business from activity reports, Open``JDK's compiler targets Java 1.6 bytecode, What should we do with acpi-support?, some bugs, and more.

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Ubuntu Has New Sample Content Art (Linux Pro Magazine)

Linux Pro Magazine covers the results of contest to provide example-content for Ubuntu 8.10. "While Ubuntu users submitted a host of audio samples, there were only two video submissions. The winner in the audio category was Andrés Vidau of Mexico. Bacon's blog includes Vidau's instrumental track that he created using the free OGG format. The video category winner was 14 year old Andrew Higginson with his stop motion animation produced almost exclusively with free software (Whiteboard, Ffmpeg, Mencoder among others). The 2-Mbyte video can be seen on the archive.org site. Vidau's and Higginson's submissions will become part of the next Ubuntu 8.10."

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Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter #111

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter for October 4, 2008 covers: Ubuntu 8.10 Beta released, Intrepid Countdown banner, Intrepid CDs for Approved LoCo's, New Ubuntu Members, Ubuntu Testing Day, Kernel Hug Day, PackageKit call for testing, Ubuntu 8.10 release party(San Francisco), MOTU news, LoCo News, Launchpad News, Ubuntu Kung Fu by: Keir Thomas, e1000e patch, and much more.

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OpenSUSE Weekly News/41

This week, the openSUSE Weekly News covers Advance notice of discontinuation of openSUSE 10.2, openSUSE-Education 1.0 for 11.0 is Ready, openSUSE 11.1 Beta 2 Now Available, Board Election - Phase 1: Nomination of second voters, openSUSE News: Status of the e1000e Issue, and more.

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Fedora Weekly News #146

The Fedora Weekly News for the week ending October 5, 2008 includes the announcement of the beta for Fedora 10 (Cambridge) and several other topics.

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Echo Monthly News, Issue 2

Echo is a new theme for Fedora 10. The Echo Monthly News provides a look at new icons, tutorials, and more. Echo is currently enabled in Fedora Rawhide.

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DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 273

The DistroWatch Weekly for October 6, 2008 is out. "After two weeks or refining the package management cheatsheet, DistroWatch takes a break from this project to update its rapidly ageing Major Distributions page. Linux Mint, which has become the third most-often used Linux-based operating system among the visitors of this web site gets a well-deserved place among the elite, while CentOS, an increasingly popular community distribution among users preferring stability and reliability over bleeding-edge features also enters the exclusive list for the first time. Read on for brief overviews of the two projects. In the news, Barry Kauler resigns from the position of a benevolent dictator at Puppy Linux, OpenSolaris 2008.11 gets a range of excellent new features, and DistroWatch is showcased on Voice of America's Website of the Week. Also in this week's issue, two new distributions for those users who like to preserve their privacy while surfing the Internet: the Gentoo-based Incognito and the Debian-based Privatix. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the recipient of the DistroWatch September 2008 donation is Miro, an Internet video player."

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Omega 10 Live CD Beta: Fedora With Added Multimedia (Red Devil's Blog)

Steve Lawson reviews Omega 10, the recently announced Fedora remix that includes multimedia. "Intrigued by this latest development, I decided to take Omega 10 for a spin. It proved to be an interesting experience - and changed my whole view of Fedora. Where previously I have always been impressed by its professional look and performance, I have always been put off using it on a more permanent basis by the amount of user intervention required to make it do what so many other, equally good, distributions do from the outset."

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