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.
 

Zentyal 2.3-2 has been released

José Antonio Calvo today announced a beta release of Zentyal 2.3, a small business server for managing various network services: "We are glad to let you know that Zentyal has already entered the feature freeze period for 3.0, meaning that from now on we will be focused on polishing and bugfixing until September. Some of the highlights included in this new version are: first version of the brand new HTTP proxy module, with a much simpler interface and improvements like now it is possible to apply different filter profiles on different time periods; new features on Samba4, allowing to set administrator account or edit general settings without having to disable the module; several improvements in Firewall, OpenVPN and Captive Portal modules, featuring support for SNAT rules, MAC filtering and Captive Portal objects and services exceptions...."

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.
 

SystemRescueCd 2.8.1 has been released

SystemRescueCd 2.8.1, a Gentoo-based live CD with specialist utilities for data rescue and disk management tasks, has been released. From the changelog: "Updated standard kernels to Long-Term-Supported linux-3.2.23 (rescuecd + rescue64); updated alternative kernels to latest stable: linux-3.4.5 (altker32 + altker64); updated X.Org graphical environment and drivers to xorg-server-1.12.3; updated Grub2 bootloader to 2.00 (grub-0.97-r12 is also provided); updated Super-Grub2-Disk to version 2.00-beta1 (based on GRUB-2.00); updated lvm2 to 2.02.93, e2fsprogs to 1.42.4; updated GParted to 0.13.0, partclone to 0.2.49; removed Ranish floppy disk image; added spacefm-0.7.8 file manager."

SystemRescueCd is a Gentoo-based Linux system on a bootable CD-ROM or USB drive, designed for repairing a system and data after a crash. It also aims to provide an easy way to carry out administration tasks on a computer, such as creating and editing hard disk partitions. It contains many useful system utilities (GNU Parted, PartImage, FSTools) and some basic ones (editors, Midnight Commander, network tools). It aims to be very easy to use. The kernel of the system supports all of today's most important file systems, including ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS, Reiser4FS, btrfs, XFS, JFS, VFAT, NTFS, ISO9660, as well as network file systems, such as Samba and NFS.
 

Linux Deepin 12.06 has been released

Linux Deepin, one of the most active community distributions in China, today released its version 12.06 that was originally scheduled for the end of last month. This project employs a half-year release cycle and is highly attractive to Chinese university students. The desktop environment in this release is Deepin GNOME Shell, which is the GNOME Shell adapted to the way users prefer to manage the desktop. Three extensions for Hide Message Tray, Kimpanel, and Panel Settings are introduced for better GUI experience. This release incorporates a number of device drivers, particularly for printers. More fonts were included and thus CJK rendering is better supported. This release can even be installed by running a special DeepWin.exe in a Windows operating system. Featured applications are Deepin Music Player, Deepin Media Player, and Deepin Software Center.

Linux Deepin (formerly Hiweed GNU/Linux) is an easy-to-use Chinese distribution based on Ubuntu. Its features include pre-configured Chinese applications and tools, such as Chinese input method, the LibreOffice office suite, Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionaries, and Chinese TrueType fonts. It also delivers a highly customised GNOME 3 desktop and a large number of usability enhancements.

FreeBSD 9.1 beta 1 has been released

Although a bit behind the schedule, Ken Smith today announced the first beta version of FreeBSD 9.1, the upcoming release of the project's stable branch: "The first test build of the 9.1-RELEASE release cycle is now available on the FTP servers for amd64, i386, powerpc64, and sparc64. We hope this will be the only BETA build, to be followed by two Release Candidate builds and then the release itself. If you notice any problems you can report them through the normal Gnats PR system or here on the -stable mailing list. If you would like to use csup/cvsup mechanisms to do a source-based update of an existing system the branch tag to use is 'RELENG_9'. If you would like to use SVN instead use 'stable/9'. Note that if you do an update that way the system will call itself '9.1-PRERELEASE'."

FreeBSD is a UNIX-like operating system for the i386, amd64, IA-64, arm, MIPS, powerpc, ppc64, PC-98 and UltraSPARC platforms based on U.C. Berkeley's "4.4BSD-Lite" release, with some "4.4BSD-Lite2" enhancements. It is also based indirectly on William Jolitz's port of U.C. Berkeley's "Net/2" to the i386, known as "386BSD", though very little of the 386BSD code remains. FreeBSD is used by companies, Internet Service Providers, researchers, computer professionals, students and home users all over the world in their work, education and recreation. FreeBSD comes with over 20,000 packages (pre-compiled software that is bundled for easy installation), covering a wide range of areas: from server software, databases and web servers, to desktop software, games, web browsers and business software - all free and easy to install.

 

Sophos UTM 9 has been released

Angelo Comazzetto has announced the release of Sophos UTM 9, a network security solution previously known as Astaro Security Gateway and now called Sophos Unified Threat Management: "UTM 9 is a major new version that offers over 60 new features and abilities. We now offer the ability to manage antivirus and device control on your desktops with the same finesse that has made our RED branch office product and integrated wireless management offerings so popular. There is a new captive portal system, allowing you to create wireless hotspots for guests in your company, hotels, coffee shops, or other public places. The Antivirus system has been bolstered with the addition of Sophos' enterprise-class scanner, while UTM 9 remains one of the only products to offer dual scanning engines in parallel to give you extra security and choice. We yet again lead the way with a totally new HTML5 VPN system that is a true clientless system for accessing desktops and servers remotely."

 Astaro offers an integrated software solution that provides superior performance in an all-in-one firewall. Its hardened operating system, stateful packet inspection, content filtering (virus & surf protection), application proxies and IPsec based VPN provides a powerful solution to today's security issues. It is designed to maximize your networks security without compromising its performance enabling telecommuters, branch offices, customers and suppliers to safely share critical business information. Our proprietary user interface, WebAdmin allows ease of use and manageability of all open source firewall components, as well as the Up2Date service via the Internet. It is easy to install with all components on one CD achieving simple implementation and integration to existing network environments.

GParted LiveCD 0.13.0-1 has been released

Steven Shiau has released a new version of GParted Live, a live CD based on the Debian unstable release with graphical tools for disk management and data recovery. From the changelog and the release announcement: "The underlying GNU/Linux operating system is based on the Debian sid repository (as of 2012/Jul/14). The most significant enhancement is with GParted 0.13.0, which now shows when there is a difference between the file system size and the partition size. Thanks to work by Mike Fleetwood this resolves bug #499202 that has been open since 2007. With this new feature, users can learn if there is unallocated space within a partition that can then be put to good use. Another important application change is a fix for bug #678831 which resolves a problem with overlapping partitions when resizing an extended partition. Also new in this release: adds web browser icon to desktop; adds menu button keyboard shortcut to bring up Fluxbox root menu (bug #578842); useful when using GParted Live without a mouse; updates Linux kernel to 3.2.21-3."

GParted LiveCD is a business card-size live CD distribution with a single purpose - to provide tools for partitioning hard disks in an intuitive, graphical environment. The distribution uses X.Org, the light-weight Fluxbox window manager, and the latest 2.6 Linux kernel. GParted LiveCD runs on most x86 machines with a Pentium II or better.
 

Vector Linux 7.0 64 bit has been released

For around a decade only the i386/i486 edition of VectorLinux has been available, which is a Slackware-based distribution optimised for business and office use. Today Robert Lange announced the first 64-bit edition of VectorLinux 7.0 Standard under the name "VLocity": "The main desktop is based on Xfce-4.8 with a custom theme and artwork unique to us. All the VectorLinux trademarks are included: DVD playback, audio and video codecs, multimedia and Java plugins are installed and working out of the box. The best of the open source world is included: GIMP, Inkscape for graphics; Firefox, Opera, for Internet Browsing; pidgin and xchat for instant messaging; Brasero for CD burning; MPlayer, Exaile for playing most available media formats. The office applications are Gnumeric, Abiword and Epdfviewer. Wireless networking has been extended with updated drivers and firmware, wicd has been employed to manage wireless and non-wireless networking. UFW is included for firewall protection and there is added support for several webcam makes and models."

VectorLinux is a small, fast, Intel based Linux operating system for PC style computers. The creators of VectorLinux had a single credo: keep it simple, keep it small and let the end user decide what their operating system is going to be. What has evolved from this concept is perhaps the best little Linux operating system available anywhere. For the casual computer user there is a lightening-fast desktop with graphical programs to handle daily activities from web surfing, sending and receiving email, chatting on IRC to running an FTP server. The power user will be pleased because all the tools are there to compile programs, use the system as a server or perhaps the gateway for home or office computer network. Administrators will be equally pleased because of the small size and memory requirements, so the operating system can be deployed on older machines that have long been forgotten.

Parted Magic 2012 07 13 has been released

Parted Magic 2012_07_13, a live CD with utilities for disk management and data rescue, has been released: "Major GParted bugfix and feature release! From the GParted site: 'This release of GParted adds the ability to show if partition size differs from file system size. This new feature enables you to identify unallocated space within a partition and can suggest how you can put this space to good use. Also included are bug fixes and language translation updates. Key changes include: Show difference if partition size differs from file system size. Avoid end partition overlap when resizing extended partition.' There are also some other notable changes. Parted Magic now uses the Tango Icon Theme. It creates a very uniform look and feel. Btrfs-progs has been updated to the latest git version so it's possible to create smaller file systems. Udev has been updated to version 182." 

 

Parted Magic is a small live CD/USB/PXE with its elemental purpose being to partition hard drives. Although GParted and Parted are the main programs, the CD/USB also offers other applications, such as Partition Image, TestDisk, fdisk, sfdisk, dd, ddrescue, etc.

Finnix 105 has been released

Ryan Finnie today announced the availability of Finnix 105, a live CD distribution for system administrators based on Debian's testing branch: "I am pleased to announce the release of Finnix 105, a major architectural update to the Finnix series. Finnix 105 brings major organizational changes to the build and boot systems, along with the usual assortment of software updates. Finnix 105 is the first Finnix release to be produced under Project NEALE (Normalized Extraction and Assembly of LiveCD Environments), a new set of procedures to build Finnix CDs from a minimal base Debian bootstrap. This allows for a consistent build process each time, and between architectures. It also allows for more future options, such as a native userland AMD64 release." 

Finnix is a small, self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution for system administrators, based on Debian GNU/Linux. You can use it to mount and manipulate hard drives and partitions, monitor networks, rebuild boot records, install other operating systems, and much more.

OpenSUSE 12.2 RC1 has been released

Will Stephenson has announced the first release candidate of openSUSE 12.2: "Since Beta 2 the following changes have been made, from the bottom of the stack to the top. grub2 was updated to 2.0 final, notably fixing serial console support by respecting the console width. Its branding was also updated. There were fixes to udev, and to udisks and udisks2 to hide LVM RAID partitions, and many fixes came to autofs from an updated upstream patch. A lot of systemd fixes came in, including a crash and memleak fix when rotating journals. Many packages now include systemd unit files natively, so these were removed from the systemd package itself...." 

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.

OS4 Linux 12.5 has been released

Roberto Dohnert has announced the release of OS4 12.5, a custom Linux distribution previously known as PC/OS that is based upon Ubuntu and is built for fun, compatibility, security, and mobility: "OS4 12.5 has been designed from the ground up to satisfy the needs of casual PC users all the way to the professional user. It is available in 32 and 64 bit releases. Built for the professional: With OS4 you have a quality multi processing core in your system, and with support for 3D graphics and audio, everyone from the digital animator, video editor, musician all the way to the researchers studying DNA sequencing to working in clusters, OS4 will fit your needs. With a fine set of standard applications, to the extensibility of installing thousands of more applications, OS4 was built for you."

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.
 

CentOS 6.3 has been released

Karanbir Singh has announced the release of CentOS 6.3, the latest version of the enterprise-class Linux distribution derived from the source code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3: "The CentOS team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of CentOS-6.3 for i386 and x86_64 Architectures. CentOS-6.3 is based on the upstream release EL 6.3 and includes packages from all variants. All upstream repositories have been combined into one, to make it easier for end users to work with. There are some important changes to this release compared with the previous versions of CentOS and we highly recommend reading this announcement along with the Release Notes. There is also a minimal install CD that will get you a very small base install that you can add to."

 
CentOS as a group is a community of open source contributors and users. Typical CentOS users are organisations and individuals that do not need strong commercial support in order to achieve successful operation. CentOS is 100% compatible rebuild of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux, in full compliance with Red Hat's redistribution requirements. CentOS is for people who need an enterprise class operating system stability without the cost of certification and support.

Parsix GNU\Linux 4.0 test 1 has been released

Alan Baghumian has announced the availability of the first test release of Parsix GNU/Linux 4.0, a desktop Linux distribution and live DVD based on Debian's testing branch: "This is the first test version of the upcoming Parsix GNU/Linux 4.0 release. This version has been synchronized with Debian's testing repositories as of July 1, 2012 and brings a lot of updated packages. Parsix 'Gloria' is the project's first release with GNOME 3 and ships with LibreOffice productivity suit. Gloria has a brand new software manager. Highlights: GNOME 3.4.2, X.Org 7.6, GRUB 2, GNU Iceweasel 13.0, GParted 0.12.1, Empathy 3.4.2.3, LibreOffice 3.5.4, VirtualBox 4.1.16 and a brand new kernel based on Linux 3.2.20 with TuxOnIce, BFS and other extra patches."

Parsix GNU/Linux is a live and installation DVD based on Debian GNU/Linux. The project's goal is to provide a ready-to-use and easy-to-install operating system based on Debian's testing branch and the latest stable release of the GNOME desktop environment. Extra software packages are available for installation from the distribution's own software repositories.
 

Porteus Linux 1.2 has been released

Jay Flood has announced the release of Porteus 1.2, a Slackware-based minimalist live CD set with a choice of KDE 3 (Trinity), KDE 4, Xfce and LXDE desktops: "The Porteus community is proud to announce the release of Porteus version 1.2. Major changes from Porteus 1.1 include: Linux kernel bumped to version 3.4.4; KDE upgraded to 4.8.4; Trinity upgraded to 3.5.13.1 (R14); LXDE upgraded to the latest stable components; Xfce (4.10) editions have been added for both architectures as standalone ISO images; Firefox upgraded to version 13.0.1; replaced wicd with NetworkManager; new and improved applications to handle system configuration; optimized boot time - with current implementation of rc scripts Porteus is one of the fastest booting live Linux distros out there...."

 

Porteus is a fast, portable and modular live CD/USB medium based on Slackware Linux. The distribution started as a community remix of Slax, another Slackware-based live CD (which is no longer actively maintained), with KDE 3 as the default desktop for the i486 edition and a stripped-down KDE 4 as the desktop environment for the x86_64 flavour. The lightweight LXDE is available as an alternative desktop environment.

Calculate Linux 12 beta has been released

Alexander Tratsevskiy has announced that the first public beta release of Calculate Linux 12, a Gentoo-based distribution for desktops and servers, is available for testing: "We're happy to announce that Calculate Linux 12 has entered its final phase - a beta-testing version is now available. Main features: network client-server solutions via SOAP/WSDL are supported; both console and graphical interfaces are implemented; multiple installations are supported - you can install CL on several storage media at once, locally as well as remotely; system settings can now be configured either from the command line or in a graphical environment; the Xfce edition has a better appearance with the new Adwaita theme." 

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.

Descent OS 3.0 alpha 2 has been released

Brian Manderville has announced the availability of the second alpha release of Descent|OS 3.0, an Ubuntu-based distribution featuring the MATE desktop environment: "I am pleased to announce that Descent|OS Alpha 2 has been released. Lots of packages are now updated, and the MATE desktop seems to be behaving nicely. That said, the only work really left to do until our projected release date of August 29th is mainly cosmetic. The Plymouth theme needs to be changed and branded into a Descent|OS boot screen, and the Ubiquity install slide show has to be done as well. Apart from that, I am confident it can be used daily, but am only calling it another alpha in case more bugs show up and the fact that cosmetics are not completely finished. Happy testing!"

 

Descent|OS is an Ubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution featuring a traditional desktop environment (GNOME 2 in the 2.x series, MATE in later versions). The project's mission is to provide an intuitive and modern desktop environment anybody can use.

Chakra GNU/Linux 2012.7 has been released

Anke Boersma has announced the release of Chakra GNU/Linux 2012.07, the final update of the project's "Archimedes" series of distribution releases featuring the KDE 4.8 desktop: "The Chakra development team is proud to announce the final 'Archimedes' release, this codename has followed the KDE SC 4.8 series. With this release a big move to /usr/lib has occurred to prepare Chakra for a complete move to systemd, Linux kernel is updated to version 3.4.3, udev to 182, new initscripts used, kmod is at 8, mkinitcpio at 0.8.8, to name a few of the newer base packages included. These base updates made the third 'Archimedes' release no longer usable for simple updates, thus a new ISO image was needed to avoid a situation where new users are confronted with a need to force an update right away."

 

 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.

DoudouLinux 1.2 has been relased

The DoudouLinux development team has announced the availability of an updated stable release of DoudouLinux, a Debian-based distribution designed for children: "'Gondwana', the stable version of DoudouLinux, has been updated to version 1.2. The changes are the following: official support for Finnish, Galician, and Norwegian (Nynorsk) which increases the number of official languages to 28; the size of the application launcher icons in the advanced activities is now computed based on screen resolution; internal disk partitions of the computer are now mounted read-only at boot; translations and PDF documentation have been updated. This will be the last update to 'Gondwana'. The next stable release will be based on its successor." 

DoudouLinux is a Debian-based distribution targeting young children. Its goals are to make computer use as simple and pleasant as possible while also making information technology more accessible to all children on earth, without discrimination. DoudouLinux uses a heavily customised LXDE desktop with a simple navigation system that offers links to about fifty applications for education, fun, work and multimedia tasks.

Fuduntu 2012.3 has been relased

Andrew Wyatt has announced the release of Fuduntu 2012.3, a new quarterly update of the project's rolling-release distribution originally forked from Fedora: "I would like to announce the immediate availability of Fuduntu 2012.3, our third 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 2012.3, as all of the updates available are released to our stable repository. This cycle focused on many improvements under the hood, including core platform updates like GCC 4.6.3 and Anaconda 16. In addition, Fuduntu now ships GRUB 2 as our default bootloader."

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.

Snowlinux 2 KDE has been released

Lars Torben Kremer has announced the release of Snowlinux 2 "KDE" edition, a Debian-based distribution showcasing the KDE 4.4.5 desktop: "The team is proud to announce the release of Snowlinux 2 'Ice' KDE. It comes with the Qt 4 theme Fushigi Plasma, the Icon set was set to Snowlinux Metal and the system font is Ubuntu by default. Also present in this edition is an improved live installer which detects country, offers keyboard variants and uses UUID in fstab. It has installed a firewall called gufw. To improve the difference between user and root terminal the terminal colors were introduced. To be more out-of-the-box OpenJDK 6 Java has been made available in the default installation. Snowlinux 2 'Ice' KDE comes with the Chromium browser, Icedove, Banshee, Shotwell." 

 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.

Ultimate Edition Linux 3.4 has been released

Ultimate Edition 3.4, now based on Ubuntu 12.04 and featuring the GNOME 3 desktop, has been released: "Ultimate Edition 3.4 was built off Ubuntu 12.04 'Precise Pangolin'. All updates fully applied, old kernels purged, new initrd and vmlinuz rebuilt. Ultimate Edition 3.4 is what 2.6 series was - a stable environment. GNOME, the default environment is rock solid. Ultimate Edition 3.4 has a new GTK+ 3 theme and a comprehensive set of software packages. I have really placed thought and diligence into what this product is. Ultimate Edition 3.4 takes things to a whole new level. It was developed with stability in mind, sorry KDE users, we will catch you in Ultimate Edition 3.5. This OS will be my primary OS for some time to come. That statement alone says a lot for my feeling on this operating system."

 

Ultimate Edition, first released in December 2006, is a fork of Ubuntu and Linux Mint. The goal of the project is to create a complete, seamlessly integrated, visually stimulating, and easy-to-install operating system. Single-button upgrade is one of several special characteristics of this distribution. Other main features include custom desktop and theme with 3D effects, support for a wide range of networking options, including WiFi and Bluetooth, and integration of many extra applications and package repositories.