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.

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.

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.

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.

Linux Mint 14 has been released

Clement Lefebvre has announced the final release of Linux Mint 14, code name "Nadia", in MATE (version 1.4) or Cinnamon (version 1.6) editions: "The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 14 'Nadia'. For the first time since Linux Mint 11, the development team was able to capitalize on upstream technology which works and fits its goals. After 6 months of incremental development, Linux Mint 14 features an impressive list of improvements, increased stability and a refined desktop experience. We're very proud of MATE, Cinnamon, MDM and all the components used in this release, and we're very excited to show you how they all fit together in Linux Mint 14." 

Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based distribution whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including browser plugins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java and other components. It also adds a custom desktop and menus, several unique configuration tools, and a web-based package installation interface. Linux Mint is compatible with Ubuntu software repositories.

Manjaro Linux 0.8.2 "LXDE" has been released

Philip Müller has announced the release of Manjaro Linux 0.8.2 "LXDE" edition, an lightweight desktop distribution based on Arch Linux: "The culmination of substantial refinements and exciting new developments, Manjaro 0.8.2 is the most polished, feature-rich, and accessible release yet. A lot of people asked me for a LXDE edition. Here it is. It has the same look and functionality as our Xfce edition. With this release you get a better EFI-support through rEFInd, it includes support for Steam gaming, automatic desktop notifications for new system updates, and -- developed exclusively for Manjaro -- a user-friendly graphical interface to easily manage and maintain the system. A more detailed overview of the improvements in the 0.8.2 release is as follows: the default Linux kernel series has been changed to 3.4-longterm for better upstream support; LXDE got updated to 0.5.5.

Manjaro Linux is a desktop-oriented, user-friendly distribution based on Arch Linux. Some of its more pronounced features include an intuitive installation process, automatic hardware detection, special Bash scripts for managing graphics drivers, and extra desktop configuration options. Manjaro Linux comes in three editions featuring the Xfce, GNOME 3 (with the Cinnamon Shell) and KDE desktops.

openSUSE 12.3 Milestone 1 has been released

Will Stephenson has announced the availability of Milestone 1, which is the second official test build on the way to the stable openSUSE 12.3: "News fresh from the Factory - the openSUSE release team has made the openSUSE 12.3 Milestone 1 available for testing and feedback. There has been lots of plumbing in the infrastructure, with most prominently the removal of SuSEconfig - the capitalization of its name should give a hint about its age. If you want to get a taste of the upcoming release or want to help test and develop this awesome, green Linux distribution - come and get it! With Milestone 1, things start getting interesting. For starters, the init system continues to evolve rapidly. SysVinit has now been removed, following some discussion."

The openSUSE project is a community program sponsored by Novell. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, this program provides free, easy access to openSUSE, a complete Linux distribution. The openSUSE project has three main goals: make openSUSE the easiest Linux for anyone to obtain and the most widely used Linux distribution; leverage open source collaboration to make openSUSE the world's most usable Linux distribution and desktop environment for new and experienced Linux users; dramatically simplify and open the development and packaging processes to make openSUSE the platform of choice for Linux developers and software vendors.

Arch Linux 2012.11.01 has been released

Pierre Schmitz has announced the availability of Arch Linux 2012.11.01, the latest of the regular installation CD images that the project providing a popular rolling-release Linux distribution now makes available at the beginning of each month. This is mostly a bug-fix release. From the release announcement: "The latest snapshot of our install and rescue media can be found on our download page. The 2012.11.01 ISO image mainly contains minor bug fixes, cleanups and new packages compared to the previous one: first media with Linux kernel 3.6; copytoran can be used to not copy the image to RAM on network boot - this is probably unreliable but an option for systems with very low memory; cowfile_size boot parameter mainly for persistent COW on VFAT.
 

Arch Linux is an independently developed, i686- and x86_64-optimised Linux distribution targeted at competent Linux users. It uses 'pacman', its home-grown package manager, to provide updates to the latest software applications with full dependency tracking. Operating on a rolling release system, Arch can be installed from a CD image or via an FTP server. The default install provides a solid base that enables users to create a custom installation. In addition, the Arch Build System (ABS) provides a way to easily build new packages, modify the configuration of stock packages, and share these packages with other users via the Arch Linux user repository.

FreeNAS 8.3.0 has been released

Josh Paetzel has announced the release of FreeNAS 8.3.0, a free and open-source Network-Attached Storage (NAS) operating system based on FreeBSD: "The FreeNAS development team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of FreeNAS 8.3.0-RELEASE. FreeNAS 8.3.0 is based on FreeBSD 8.3 with version 28 of the ZFS file system. This is a major milestone in FreeNAS development, bringing in the plugin system with ZFS version 28. Development of the FreeNAS 8.2 branch has come to a halt, as both ZFS version 15 as well as FreeBSD 8.2 are no longer supported. There have been no major changes between 8.3.0-RC1 and RELEASE, mostly bug fixes and minor usability improvements to the GUI."


FreeNAS is a tiny FreeBSD-based operating system which provides free Network-Attached Storage (NAS) services (CIFS, FTP and NFS).

Chakra GNU/Linux 2012.10 has been released

Anke Boersma has announced the release of Chakra GNU/Linux 2012.10, an updated release of the KDE-centric desktop Linux distribution: "The Chakra project team is proud to announce the third 'Claire' release. It took a good six months of preparations to get to this point, but the full switch to systemd is here. To do so udev is merged into systemd, with systemd being updated to 194. This meant a first .so file jump for libudev, meaning many packages depending on libudev were updated and rebuilt. It also meant the removal of ConsoleKit, handled now by Polkit and logind. Among all the other updates on this release, KDE 4.9.2, Linux kernel 3.5.6, kmod 0.10, CUPS 1.6.1, D-Bus 1.6.4, Qt 4.8.3, Calligra 2.5.3 to name a few."

Chakra GNU/Linux is a user-friendly and powerful distribution and live CD originally forked from Arch Linux. It features a graphical installer, automatic hardware detection and configuration, the latest KDE desktop, and a variety of tools and extras.

Puppy Linux 5.4 "Precise" has been released

Barry Kauler has announced the release of Puppy Linux 5.4 "Precise" edition, a small Linux distribution built from Ubuntu 12.04.1 and compatible with Ubuntu 12.04 DEB packages: "This is it, the very first official release of Precise Puppy. Precise Puppy is built from Ubuntu 'Precise Pangolin' 12.04.1+ binary DEB packages, hence has binary compatibility with Ubuntu and access to the vast Ubuntu package repository. Couple that with Puppy's tiny size, speed and ease of use, and this is one incredible pup. It is assigned version 5.4 to indicate its position relative to the other puppies, such as Wary 5.3 and Slacko 5.3.3 (5.4 coming soon). A lot of work has happened at the 'Woof level' since the release of Wary 5.3 in April 2012 - of particular importance to Precise are the many enhancements to the Puppy Package Manager (PPM)."

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.

Ubuntu 12.10 has been released

The 12.10 release of Ubuntu has seen Canonical skew the Linux distribution toward a variety of young web technologies for developers eager to get ahead in the cloud.

Along with Juju support and the expansion of its metal-as-a-service bare metal provisioning tool to work for Calxeda servers, 12.10 also brings support for the latest 'Folsom' release of the open-source cloud platform OpenStack.

Ubuntu is a complete desktop Linux operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit. "Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

Slackware Linux 14.0 has been released

After more than two months of testing, Patrick Volkerding has finally announced the release of Slackware Linux 14.0: "The long wait is finally over and a new stable release of Slackware has arrived! Since our last stable release, a lot has changed in the Linux and FOSS world. The kernel has moved on to major version 3 (we're using the long-term supported 3.2.29 kernel for this release), X.Org has released X11R7.7, and Firefox has had a whopping 11 major releases to arrive at version 15.0.1! We've brought together the best of these and other modern components and worked our magic on them. You'll find new compilers (including the LLVM/Clang compiler that's becoming a popular alternative to GCC), development tools, libraries, and applications throughout, all prepared with our careful and rigourous testing. If you've used Slackware before, you'll find the system feels like home."

The Official Release of Slackware Linux by Patrick Volkerding is an advanced Linux operating system, designed with the twin goals of ease of use and stability as top priorities. Including the latest popular software while retaining a sense of tradition, providing simplicity and ease of use alongside flexibility and power, Slackware brings the best of all worlds to the table. Originally developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991, the UNIX-like Linux operating system now benefits from the contributions of millions of users and developers around the world. Slackware Linux provides new and experienced users alike with a fully-featured system, equipped to serve in any capacity from desktop workstation to machine-room server. Web, ftp, and email servers are ready to go out of the box, as are a wide selection of popular desktop environments. A full range of development tools, editors, and current libraries is included for users who wish to develop or compile additional software.

Fuduntu 2012.4 has been released

Andrew Wyatt announced the release of Fuduntu 2012.4, an updated version of the project's rolling-release distribution forked from Fedora: "The Fuduntu team is proud to announce the immediate availability of Fuduntu 2012.4. This is the fourth quarterly release for 2012. Like all previous Fuduntu releases, this release follows our tradition of making small incremental distribution improvements that don't sacrifice the stability of our Linux distribution. Existing Fuduntu users have already rolled up to 2012.4, as all of the updates available are released to our stable repository. This release comes with several changes, new features, and improvements. There have been changes to the way TMPFS works. With this update, the management of TMPFS mount points has been optimized. Several mount points have been mounted under /run to reduce disk I/O, increasing speed and battery life."

Fuduntu, originally Fedora-based, but later forked, is a Linux distribution that earns its name by its ambition to fit somewhere in-between Fedora and Ubuntu. It is designed to be aesthetically pleasing, and is optimized for netbook and other portable computers, as well as general-purpose desktop machines.

Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2 has been released

The second and final beta release of Ubuntu 12.10, code name "Quantal Quetzal", is ready for testing: "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the final beta release of Ubuntu 12.10 Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products. Some of the new features available since beta 1 are: Quantal beta 2 includes the 3.5.0-15.23 Ubuntu Linux kernel which is based on the 3.5.4 upstream Linux kernel; Unity has been updated to version 6.6 which contains the new default web application in the launcher, a new shopping lens, improvements to the dash and multiple bug fixes; GNOME has been updated to 3.5.92 for most components (some to 3.6.0); accessibility is turned on by default." 

Ubuntu is a complete desktop Linux operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit. "Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.
 

Release Schedule for Ubuntu 13.04

For Ubuntu 13.04, the developers decided to return to a normal development cycle and modified the release schedule to two Alpha versions, one Beta release and one Release Candidate. Without further ado, here's the official release schedule for Ubuntu 13.04.

Alpha 1	December 6th, 2012
Alpha 2	February 7th, 2013
Beta	March 7th, 2013
Release Candidate	April 18th, 2013
Final Release	April 25th, 2013

Fedora 18 alpha has been released

The delayed alpha build of Fedora 18 has been released: "The Fedora 18 'Spherical Cow' alpha release is plumping up! This release offers a preview of some of the best free and open-source technology currently under development. Features: NetworkManager hotspots improve the ability to use a computer's WiFi adapter to create a network hot spot; the redesigned installation system adds flexibility to the installation process while simplifying the user interface; desktop updates galore - GNOME 3.6, KDE Plasma Workspace 4.9, Xfce 4.10, Sugar 0.98, and the introduction of the MATE Desktop in Fedora." 

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.

Mandriva Linux 2012 Alpha has been released

Per Øyvind Karlsen has announced the availability of the first alpha release of Mandriva Linux 2012: "As many of you might already be aware of, our first Mandriva Linux 2012 alpha has been ready for release for almost a week now, yet it only made its way to the public mirrors today, so with that I declare it as officially released! Some of the highlights since 2012 Tech Preview include: faster, smaller and much improved installer; installer text-mode is now working again; a slimmer, much-improved and fixed rescue mode; dual architecture CD image has been improved with a more complete set of packages filling it and also LXDE now shipped with it and installed by default; switch to Linaro's GCC 4.7 branch has been completed; HAL has finally been put to rest for good...."

Mandriva Linux was launched in 1998 under the name of Mandrake Linux, with the goal of making Linux easier to use for everyone. At that time, Linux was already well-known as a powerful and stable operating system that demanded strong technical knowledge and extensive use of the command line; MandrakeSoft saw this as an opportunity to integrate the best graphical desktop environments and contribute its own graphical configuration utilities to quickly become famous for setting the standard in Linux ease of use. In February 2005, MandrakeSoft merged with Brazil's Conectiva to form Mandriva S.A., with headquarters in Paris, France. The company's flagship product, Mandriva Linux, offers all the power and stability of Linux to both individuals and professional users in an easy-to-use and pleasant environment.

Snowlinux 3 "E17" has been released

Lars Torben Kremer has announced the release of Snowlinux 3 "E17" edition, a Debian-based distribution featuring the latest Enlightenment 17 desktop: "The team is proud to announce the release of Snowlinux 3 E17. Today is a very important day for Snowlinux. It is getting a new project with the latest E17 build desktop environment. Snowlinux 3 E17 is based upon Debian 7.0 'Wheezy' and is powered by the Linux 3.5 kernel. We're using DuckDuckGo as the default search engine. It has Firefox 14.0.1, Thunderbird 14, AbiWord, Shotwell, Audacious and GNOME MPlayer installed by default. New features: desktop profiles (SnowOSX, Snowlinux Classic, Snowlinux GNOME 2); live installer; Snowlinux LightDM theme; Plymouth; Neptune E17 theme and Faenza icons; terminal colors; Linux non-free firmware...."

Snowlinux is a set of Linux distributions based on Debian's latest stable release and featuring four different desktop environments - GNOME, KDE, LXDE and Xfce. It aims to be user-friendly, incorporating many useful tweaks and carefully selected software applications. The project also develops a separate, Ubuntu-based edition featuring the MATE (a GNOME 2 fork) desktop.

Zentyal 3.0 RC2 has been released

Heidi Vilppola has announced the availability of the second and final release candidate for Zentyal 3.0, an Ubuntu-based server distribution: "The Zentyal development team is glad to announce that the second release candidate of Zentyal 3.0 is now available for download and testing. This version is based on the new Ubuntu 12.04.1 installer and besides all the bug fixing done since the first release candidate, it features a new Samba 4.0 beta8 and lots of additional improvements and polishing. The release of the Zentyal 3.0 is almost here, so your help in finding bugs now is more important than ever to make Zentyal 3.0 the best release in history. So, don't forget to report any bugs you come up with, either through the bug tracker or the official Zentyal forum."

Zentyal (formerly eBox Platform) is a unified network server that offers easy and efficient computer network administration for small and medium-size businesses. It can act as a gateway, an infrastructure manager, a unified threat manager, an office server, a unified communication server or a combination of them. These functionalities are tightly integrated, automating most tasks, avoiding mistakes and saving time for system administrators. Zentyal is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and runs on top of Ubuntu.
 

Ubuntu 12.10 named "Quantal Quetzal" beta 1 has been released

Kate Stewart has announced the availability of the first beta release of Ubuntu 12.10, code name "Quantal Quetzal": "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the first beta release of Ubuntu 12.10 Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products. Some of the new features now available are: consolidated client images now support the logical volume manager (LVM) as well as full disk encryption; Update Manager has been renamed Software Updater and now checks for updates when launched; a new X.Org stack has been introduced which includes X.Org Server 1.13 candidate versions, Mesa 9.0, and updated X libraries and drivers; Unity has been updated to version 6.4 including support for dash previews and coverflow view." 

Ubuntu is a complete desktop Linux operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit. "Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

Zentyal 3.0 RC1 has been released

José Antonio Calvo has announced the availability of the first release candidate for Zentyal 3.0, an Ubuntu-based server distribution for small and medium-sized businesses: "The Zentyal development team is proud to announce that you can now download the Zentyal 3.0-rc1 installer for testing. This is the first release candidate for the 3.0 stable series - the next stable Zentyal server version, Zentyal 3.0, will be published on the 13th of September. This version comes already with all the Zentyal 3.0 features. From now on, all the focus will be on bug fixing, polishing details and also preparing the migration process from 2.2 to 3.0. Changes: brand new look & feel of the user interface; new Samba module; improvements in Zarafa...."

Zentyal (formerly eBox Platform) is a unified network server that offers easy and efficient computer network administration for small and medium-size businesses. It can act as a gateway, an infrastructure manager, a unified threat manager, an office server, a unified communication server or a combination of them. These functionalities are tightly integrated, automating most tasks, avoiding mistakes and saving time for system administrators. Zentyal is released under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and runs on top of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu 12.04.1 has been released

Kate Stewart has announced the release of Ubuntu 12.04.1, the first of the regular updates planned throughout the product's life cycle: "The Ubuntu team is very pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS (Long-Term Support) for desktop, server, cloud and core products. The Ubuntu LTS flavors are also being released today. In the 12.04.1 release, we've added support for the Calxeda ECX-1000 SoC family, so businesses can prepare for a data centre dominated by low-energy, hyperscale servers by testing their workloads on the new hardware now. The Ubuntu Cloud archive also makes its début."


Ubuntu is a complete desktop Linux operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit. "Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

Frugalware Linux 1.7 has been released

Frugalware Linux 1.7, the latest version of the general-purpose distribution designed for intermediate Linux users, has been released: "The Frugalware developer team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware Linux 1.7, our seventeenth stable release. No new features have been added since 1.7rc2, but 157 changes have been made to fix minor bugs. Here are the most important changes since 1.6: updated packages - Linux kernel 3.4.8, X.Org Server 1.12.3, GNOME 3.4, KDE SC 4.9, LibreOffice 3.5.4, Mozilla Firefox 14.0.1; slocate was removed and replaced by mlocate; Catalyst has dropped support for all ATI Radeon HD hardware before the 5000 series; cpupower has replaced all CPU scaling daemons; all packages that still used SysVInit have been converted to use systemd; GRUB 0.x has been replaced by GRUB 2."

 Frugalware Linux is an independently developed general purpose desktop Linux distribution designed for intermediate users. It follows simple Slackware-like design concepts and includes the "pacman" package management utility from Arch Linux.

Manjaro Linux 0.8.0 has been released

Philip Müller has announced the release of Manjaro Linux 0.8.0, a user-friendly desktop distribution based on Arch Linux and featuring the latest Xfce desktop: "We are proud to announce our default Manjaro edition featuring Xfce 4.10, Linux kernel 3.4.9, X.Org 7.6 with X.Org Server 1.12.3 and GCC 4.7.1. Manjaro Linux targets beginners and advanced users at the same time. We provide user interface tools and scripts to make life easier. Manjaro supports NVIDIA's Optimus technology out of the box. You can choose between Nouveau/Intel or NVIDIA/Intel drivers combination. Manjaro hardware detection tool will configure your graphic cards automatically and with help of Bumblebee bbswitch it is possible to switch to your desired graphic mode."

Manjaro Linux is a desktop-oriented, user-friendly distribution based on Arch Linux. Some its more pronounced features include an intuitive installation process, automatic hardware detection, special Bash scripts for managing graphics drivers, and extra desktop configuration options. Manjaro Linux comes in three editions featuring the Xfce, GNOME 3 (with the Cinnamon Shell) and KDE desktops.

OS4 1.0 "OpenDesktop" has been released

Roberto Dohnert has announced the release of OS4 1.0 "OpenDesktop" edition, a Xubuntu-based distribution targeting legacy 32-bit hardware, ultrabooks and netbooks: "Today we are proud to announce the general availability of OS4 OpenDesktop 1.0. OS4 OpenDesktop is a 32-bit offering that runs on all legacy 32-bit hardware as well as the newer ultrabooks and netbooks. With this release we focus on mobility and cloud computing. Along with this release the system comes with Audacious, Totem, and Google Chrome. Some of the web applications that come bundled with the system are: Angry Birds, Pandora, Netflix, Flixter, GMail and offline GMail, Google Drive, eBuddy, Weather Channel, Google Books, Google Music, Google Calendar, New York Times, Hotmail and WebCam toy. All multimedia codecs are supported as is DVD playback."

PC/OS is a user-friendly desktop and server Linux distribution based on Xubuntu. Some of its most interesting features include support for popular browser plugins, addition of packages for multimedia production, content creation and software development, and an innovative desktop layout.
 

Slackware Linux 14.0 RC2 has been released

The second release candidate for the upcoming Slackware Linux 14.0 is ready for testing. Patrick Vokerding in today's changelog: "Getting close! Hopefully we've cleared out most of the remaining issues and are nearly ready here. We'll call this release candidate 2. Unless there's a very good rationale, versions are frozen. Any reports of remaining bugs will be gladly taken, though." The changelog entry also includes a bug-fix rebuild of GNU grep, among other updates: "Merged upstream patches to fix problems with sparse or compressed files, and with file systems that store tiny files within the metadata. This should fix issues with compiling on file systems such as Btrfs and ZFS."

The Official Release of Slackware Linux by Patrick Volkerding is an advanced Linux operating system, designed with the twin goals of ease of use and stability as top priorities. Including the latest popular software while retaining a sense of tradition, providing simplicity and ease of use alongside flexibility and power, Slackware brings the best of all worlds to the table. Originally developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991, the UNIX-like Linux operating system now benefits from the contributions of millions of users and developers around the world. Slackware Linux provides new and experienced users alike with a fully-featured system, equipped to serve in any capacity from desktop workstation to machine-room server. Web, ftp, and email servers are ready to go out of the box, as are a wide selection of popular desktop environments. A full range of development tools, editors, and current libraries is included for users who wish to develop or compile additional software.

BackTrack 5 R3 has been released

Offensive Security has released BackTrack 5 R3, an updated version of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution with a collection of security and forensics tools: "The time has come to refresh our security tool arsenal - BackTrack 5 R3 has been released. R3 focuses on bug fixes as well as the addition of over 60 new tools – several of which were released in BlackHat and Defcon 2012. A whole new tool category was populated - 'Physical Exploitation', which now includes tools such as the Arduino IDE and libraries, as well as the Kautilya Teensy payload collection. Together with our usual KDE and GNOME, 32/64-bit ISO images, we have released a single VMware Image (GNOME, 32-bit)." 

BackTrack is an Ubuntu-based distribution with a collection of security and forensics tools. It was created by merging Auditor Security Linux with WHAX (formerly Whoppix).
 

Slackware Linux 14.0 RC1 has been released

In the most recent changelog entry, Patrick Volkerding declares the Slackware "Current" tree, the distribution's development branch, release-candidate quality: "Good hello and happy Thursday! Mercury went direct early yesterday morning and it was like the bugs started to fix themselves. It's almost enough to get me believing in that hocus-pocus nonsense. So, here's a bunch of updates that fix all of the reported issues in the beta and we'll call this the 14.0 release candidate 1. Still some updates needed for the top-level documentation files, but we're clearly in the home stretch now (finally). Test away, and report any remaining bugs!"

 

The Official Release of Slackware Linux by Patrick Volkerding is an advanced Linux operating system, designed with the twin goals of ease of use and stability as top priorities. Including the latest popular software while retaining a sense of tradition, providing simplicity and ease of use alongside flexibility and power, Slackware brings the best of all worlds to the table. Originally developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991, the UNIX-like Linux operating system now benefits from the contributions of millions of users and developers around the world. Slackware Linux provides new and experienced users alike with a fully-featured system, equipped to serve in any capacity from desktop workstation to machine-room server. Web, ftp, and email servers are ready to go out of the box, as are a wide selection of popular desktop environments. A full range of development tools, editors, and current libraries is included for users who wish to develop or compile additional software.

Snowlinux 3 RC has been released

Lars Torben Kremer has announced the availability of the release candidate for Snowlinux 3, a Debian-based distribution featuring the GNOME 2 desktop: "The team is proud to announce the release of Snowlinux 3 'Crystal' RC. Due to drastic changes with GNOME 3 and Unity, Snowlinux is keeping GNOME 2. The new LTS (long-term support) Linux kernel was integrated. The Snowlinux Metal theme was made GTK+ 3 compatible. Dropbox integration for Nautilus and the possibility for sharing files with Nautilus was done. Also Firefox, Thunderbird and LibreOffice are available in this release. As a nice-to-have feature Snowlinux full HD backgrounds were integrated. Also non-free Linux firmware was integrated to support more hardware out of the box."

Snowlinux is a set of Linux distributions based on Debian's latest stable release and featuring four different desktop environments - GNOME, KDE, LXDE and Xfce. It aims to be user-friendly, incorporating many useful tweaks and carefully selected software applications. The project also develops a separate, Ubuntu-based edition featuring the MATE (a GNOME 2 fork) desktop.

Untangle Gateway 9.3 has been released

Untangle, Inc. has announced the release of Untangle Gateway 9.3, a Debian-based network gateway with pluggable modules for network applications: "Untangle, Inc., a network software company, today announced the release of Untangle 9.3, the latest version of its award-winning multi-functional firewall software. The new version includes full tunnel OpenVPN, performance improvements, and enhanced reporting. Support for full tunnel OpenVPN allows administrators to force all remote client or remote site traffic through Untangle before going out to the Internet. This new feature allows an unprecedented level of control for network administrators using Untangle to protect remote offices and employees. The connected VPN clients and sites can now benefit from Untangle's full suite of features, including web content filtering, application control, anti-virus, spam blocking and more." 

Untangle Gateway is a Debian-based network gateway with pluggable modules for network applications like spam blocking, web filtering, anti-virus, anti-spyware, intrusion prevention, VPN, SSL VPN, firewall, and more.

Arch Linux 2012.08.04 has been released

Pierre Schmitz has announced the availability of a new installation CD/USB image for Arch Linux, version 2012.08.04: "The August snapshot of our live and install media comes with updated packages and the following changes on top of the previous iso image: GRUB 2.00 instead of the legacy 0.9 version is available; the installation guide can be found at /root/install.txt; ZSH with Grml's configuration is used as interactive shell to provide a user friendly and more convenient environment, this includes completion support for pacstrap, arch-chroot, pacman and most other tools; the network daemon, which will automatically setup your network if DHCP is available, is started by default. Note that all these changes only affect the live system and not the base system you install using pacstrap."

Arch Linux is an independently developed, i686- and x86_64-optimised Linux distribution targeted at competent Linux users. It uses 'pacman', its home-grown package manager, to provide updates to the latest software applications with full dependency tracking. Operating on a rolling release system, Arch can be installed from a CD image or via an FTP server. The default install provides a solid base that enables users to create a custom installation. In addition, the Arch Build System (ABS) provides a way to easily build new packages, modify the configuration of stock packages, and share these packages with other users via the Arch Linux user repository.

OpenSUSE 12.2 RC2 has been released

Will Stephenson has announced the availability of the second and final release candidate for openSUSE 12.2: "Today the openSUSE project makes available openSUSE 12.2 release candidate 2 for widespread testing, with a final release targeted for mid September. In the two weeks since the previous release candidate, a flurry of last-minute fixes have arrived, mostly in higher level packages as the basic stack has been stabilized and locked. In a late change to the layout of the release, it was decided to move many manuals and books off the DVD medium to save space. These are now part of a 'books' pattern which can be installed separately. Smaller low-level fixes were made to systemd, KIWI, clicfs and udev."

The openSUSE project is a community program sponsored by Novell. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, this program provides free, easy access to openSUSE, a complete Linux distribution. The openSUSE project has three main goals: make openSUSE the easiest Linux for anyone to obtain and the most widely used Linux distribution; leverage open source collaboration to make openSUSE the world's most usable Linux distribution and desktop environment for new and experienced Linux users; dramatically simplify and open the development and packaging processes to make openSUSE the platform of choice for Linux developers and software vendors.

10 Classic HD Ubuntu Wallpaper

Kororaa Linux 17 has been released

Chris Smart has announced the release of Kororaa Linux 17, a Fedora-based distribution optimised for desktop computing: "It is my pleasure to announce the release of Kororaa 17 (codename 'Bubbles') which is now available for download. Derived from Fedora 17, this release comes with the usual Kororaa extras out of the box, such as: tweaked KDE and GNOME base systems; experimental support for Cinnamon desktop in GNOME; third party repositories (Adobe, Chrome, RPMFusion, VirtualBox); Firefox as the default web browser (with integration theme for KDE); instant messaging client (Kopete for KDE, Empathy for GNOME); micro-blogging client (Choqok for KDE, Gwibber for GNOME); full multimedia support; Adobe Flash plugin installable via package manager...."

Kororaa Linux was born out of a desire to make Linux easier to use for non-experts. While it has a long history based on Gentoo, in 2010 it was reborn as a Fedora remix and live DVD using a customised KDE as the default desktop. It includes various tweaks and extras to make the system "just work" out of the box.

Calculate Linux 12.0 has been released

Alexander Tratsevskiy has announced the release of Calculate Linux 12.0, a Gentoo-based distribution for desktops and servers: "Calculate Linux 12.0 released. Major changes: Calculate Utilities 3 are now used to install and set up your system - network client-server solutions via SOAP/WSDL are supported, both console and graphical interfaces are implemented, multiple installations are supported, system settings can now be configured either from the command line or in a graphical environment; Calculate Linux Xfce has a better appearance - the new Adwaita theme, a bigger menu, somewhat better response, Geeqie as the default image viewer; a new start page; GIMP was updated to version 2.8 and has now a one-window interface by default." 

Calculate Linux is a Gentoo-based family of three distinguished distributions. Calculate Directory Server (CDS) is a solution that supports Windows and Linux clients via LDAP + SAMBA, providing proxy, mail and Jabbers servers with streamlined user management. Calculate Linux Desktop (CLD) is a workstation and client distribution with KDE, GNOME or Xfce desktop that includes a wizard to configure a connection to Calculate Directory Server. Calculate Linux Scratch (CLS) is live CD with a build framework for creating a custom distribution.

Bodhi Linux 2.0.0 has been released

Jeff Hoogland has announced the release of Bodhi Linux 2.0, an Ubuntu-based distribution and live CD featuring the latest Enlightenment 17 desktop: "Bodhi Linux 2.0.0 released. Well boys and girls the wait is finally over. After two months in the making 2.0.0 is officially our stable release. This build features the stable Linux 3.2 kernel, PCManFM file manager, the latest version of the Midori browser and finally the brand spanking new Terminology terminal emulator. Bodhi 2.0.0 is our first stable release to be offered in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. The Bodhi team and I would like to extend our thanks to everyone who made this release possible. Most notably the E17 team and our community of testers!"

Bodhi Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution for the desktop featuring the elegant and lightweight Enlightenment window manager. The project, which integrates and pre-configures the very latest builds of Enlightenment directly from the project's development repository, offers modularity, high level of customisation, and choice of themes. The default Bodhi system is light -- the only pre-installed applications are Midori, LXTerminal, PCManFM, Leafpad and Synaptic -- but more software is available via Bodhi Software Center, a web-based software installation tool.

FreeNAS 8.2.0 has been released

After four beta versions and one release candidate, FreeNAS 8.2.0 is available for download, which is a free, open-source, Network-Attached Storage (NAS) operating system based on FreeBSD. From the release announcement: "The FreeNAS development team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of FreeNAS 8.2.0-RELEASE. FreeNAS 8.2.0-RELEASE is the first release on new branch of code that incorporates tighter integration between the ZFS command line and the FreeNAS GUI. This release also features the ability to run arbitrary services and interact with them through the FreeNAS GUI in a FreeBSD jail. This jail allows a wide range of third party software to be run on top of FreeNAS, using the PBI format from PC-BSD or FreeBSD packages or ports, as well as official FreeNAS plugins. Additional features include: support for iSCSI target reload; GUI support for SAS and FC multipath hardware; WebShell accessible from the FreeNAS web interface; ZFS scrubs are configurable from the GUI...."

 FreeNAS is a tiny FreeBSD-based operating system which provides free Network-Attached Storage (NAS) services (CIFS, FTP and NFS).

Scientific Linux 6.3 Beta 1 has been released

Pat Riehecky has announced the availability of the first beta version of Scientific Linux 6.3, a distribution built from source packages of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and enhanced with extra applications useful in academic environments: "There should be no expectation that a 'yum' upgrade to SL 6.3 will work. A new install is the recommended method to move from 'sl6rolling'(this alpha release) and the released 'SL 6.3'. Major changes the upstream vendor made: LibreOffice - OpenOffice.org has been replaced with LibreOffice. The LibreOffice packages 'provide' the right packages to maintain compatibility for Kickstart and yum installs; Anaconda - Anaconda now alerts users to the beta status of a release when it is tagged appropriately, upstream has added this functionality and we are taking advantage of it for the beta cycle...."

 

Scientific Linux is a recompiled Red Hat Enterprise Linux, co-developed by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). Although it aims to be fully compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, it also provides additional packages not found in the upstream product; the most notable among these are various file systems, including Cluster Suite and Global File System (GFS), FUSE, OpenAFS, Squashfs and Unionfs, wireless networking support with Intel wireless firmware, MadWiFi and NDISwrapper, Sun Java and Java Development Kit (JDK), the lightweight IceWM window manager, R - a language and environment for statistical computing, and the Alpine email client.

Linux Mint 13 "KDE" has been released

Clement Lefebvre has announced the release of the "KDE" edition of Linux Mint 13: "The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 13 KDE. KDE is a vibrant, innovative, advanced, modern-looking and full-featured desktop environment. This edition features all the improvements from the latest Linux Mint release on top of KDE 4.8. The highlight of this edition is the latest KDE 4.8 desktop, which features the following improvements: Kwin optimizations; redesign of power management and integration with Activities; the first QtQuick-based Plasma widgets have entered the default installation of Plasma Desktop; new display engine in Dolphin; new Kate features and improvements; functional and visual improvements in Gwenview."

Linux Mint is an Ubuntu-based distribution whose goal is to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including browser plugins, media codecs, support for DVD playback, Java and other components. It also adds a custom desktop and menus, several unique configuration tools, and a web-based package installation interface. Linux Mint is compatible with Ubuntu software repositories.

Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 3 has been released

Kate Stewart has announced the availability of the third alpha release of Ubuntu 12.10, code name "Quantal Quetzal": "Welcome to the Quantal Quetzal alpha 3 image set, which will in time become the 12.10 release." Some of the features in this release include a streamlined Software Updater and X.Org Server 1.12: "Update Manager has been streamlined and renamed Software Updater. It also now checks for updates when launched. A new X.Org stack has been introduced which includes X.Org Server 1.12, Mesa 8.0.3, and updated X libraries and drivers. The new X.Org Server provides improved multiseat support, better smooth scrolling, and a large variety of bug fixes."

Ubuntu is a complete desktop Linux operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. The Ubuntu community is built on the ideas enshrined in the Ubuntu Manifesto: that software should be available free of charge, that software tools should be usable by people in their local language and despite any disabilities, and that people should have the freedom to customise and alter their software in whatever way they see fit. "Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

PC-BSD 9.1-BETA1 has been released

Kris Moore today announced the first beta build of PC-BSD 9.1, a user friendly desktop operating system based on FreeBSD: "The BETA1 images for the upcoming PC-BSD 9.1 is now available for i386 and amd64 architectures! This beta provides both users and developers a means to test out new features in the upcoming PC-BSD 9.1 release. This snapshot may contain buggy code and features, so users are encouraged to run it only on non-critical systems. Highlights for the upcoming 9.1-release: FreeBSD 9.1; KDE 4.8.4; new system installer greatly simplified for desktop and server installs; new 'PC-BSD Server' installation option - includes command-line utilities like pbi-manager, warden, metapkgmanager and more...."

PC-BSD has as its goals to be an easy-to-install-and-use desktop operating system, based on FreeBSD. To accomplish this, it provides a graphical installation to enable even UNIX novices to easily install and get it running. It pre-configures KDE, video, sound, and networking so that the desktop can be used immediately. A graphical software installation program makes installing pre-built software, known as Push Button Installers (PBI), as easy as other popular operating systems.