Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Puppy Linux 5.4 "Slacko" has been released

Barry Kauler has announced the release of Puppy Linux 5.4 "Slacko" edition, a small and lightweight distribution with packages "borrowed" from the latest Slackware Linux release: "It's out! Slacko is one of our flagship puppies, built with the latest Woof from Slackware 14.0 binary packages. It is all-puppy right through, with the advantage of binary compatibility with Slackware 14.0 and access to the Slackware package repositories. Changes: significant improvements in using the Aufs layered file system; improved automatic detection and configuration of analog and 3G modems; Samba printing issues resolved; the X.Org wizard has improved detection and configuration options; many improvements and bug fixes for boot-up and shut-down scripts.


Puppy Linux is yet another Linux distribution. What's different here is that Puppy is extraordinarily small, yet quite full-featured. Puppy boots into a ramdisk and, unlike live CD distributions that have to keep pulling stuff off the CD, it loads into RAM. This means that all applications start in the blink of an eye and respond to user input instantly. Puppy Linux has the ability to boot off a flash card or any USB memory device, CDROM, Zip disk or LS/120/240 Superdisk, floppy disks, internal hard drive. It can even use a multisession formatted CD-RW/DVD-RW to save everything back to the CD/DVD with no hard drive required at all.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Fedora 18 Beta has been released

The much-delayed beta release of Fedora 18 is finally ready for testing: "The Fedora project team is excited to announce the beta release of its free, fully-functional Linux operating system, Fedora 18, code-named 'Spherical Cow.' Explore what's new in the Fedora 18 beta, including these highlighted release features: Fedora 18 offers a brand-new version of the GNOME desktop, version 3.6, straight from the upstream development process; updates have also been made to the KDE, Xfce and Sugar desktop environments; additionally, the MATE desktop is available for the first time in Fedora; Fedora's new installer user interface enhances the anaconda installer with improvements in ease of use and installation."


The Fedora Project is an openly-developed project designed by Red Hat, open for general participation, led by a meritocracy, following a set of project objectives. The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from open source software. Development will be done in a public forum. The project will produce time-based releases of Fedora about 2-3 times a year, with a public release schedule. The Red Hat engineering team will continue to participate in building Fedora and will invite and encourage more outside participation than in past releases. By using this more open process, we hope to provide an operating system more in line with the ideals of free software and more appealing to the open source community.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Linux Lite 1.0.2 has been released

Jerry Bezencon has announced the release of an updated build of Linux Lite 1.0.2, an Ubuntu-based, beginner-friendly Linux distribution with Xfce as the preferred desktop environment: "Proud to announce the release of Linux Lite 1.0.2. With a number of enhancements, changes and additions Linux Lite 1.0.2 is smaller, leaner and has capitalized on the fantastic feedback it has received from the global computing community to produce a step up from the previous version. Changelog: all system software updated; Firefox 17.0; Linux kernel 3.2 PAE; reduced size of ISO image by maximizing compression of file system; added LibreOffice Impress; added ability to 'dd' the ISO image file; added tool tips for applications; added support for VMware; added libopenal1 for extra sound support; added keyboard shortcuts; PrintScreen key opens the screenshot tool; fixed bug where laptops unplugged from mains power source lost use of USB mouse.


Linux Lite is a beginner-friendly Linux distribution based on Ubuntu LTS and featuring the Xfce desktop.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Cinnarch 2012.11.22 has been released

Alex Filgueira has announced the release of an updated version of Cinnarch, an Arch-based Linux distribution with Mint's Cinnamon as the default desktop interface: "Here it is, a new release of Cinnarch. This is a list of changes: multilingual access from boot menu in syslinux, and redesign (based on Manjaro's work); available languages: English, Spanish, Galician and German; multilingual welcome message; unmuted ALSA channels; fixed screenshot button; support for USB modems and VPN in NetworkManager; Nemo as Cinnarch's new default file manager (chosen by the community); default folders (Downloads, Desktop, Images); support for VIA graphic cards; installed missing dosfstools on Cinnarch Live; option to install GRUB 2 or any UEFI bootloader; LightDM replaces LightDM-Ubuntu; Pantheon greeter replaces Unity greeter.


Cinnarch is a modern, elegant and powerful Linux distribution and live CD based on Arch Linux. It uses LightDM as the login manager, Cinnamon as the graphical desktop and Chromium as the web browser. Cinnarch is a rolling-release distribution and the Cinnarch live CD includes a simple text-mode system installer.