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.