GNOME 2.22 is the new version of the most widely used Linux desktop graphical environment.
It’s now ready for use after half a year since the last stable GNOME release (the GNOME project releases new stable versions bianually).
Among the many new goodies in GNOME 2.22 are:
- The GVFS virtual filesystem framework an under-the-hood improvement so that external mounted volumes become more transparent to the desktop environment and all of its apps.
- The PolicyKit framework aims to make privilege management safer for users.
- Cheese is a free clone inspired by Apple’s Photoboot, an app developed to take and process photos from your webcam and also video.
- Vinagre a remote desktop client.
- Evolution remains GNOME’s mail and calendar client but now it supports Google Calendars.
- Totem has now better subtitle management.
GNOME 2.22 will become available in a distro near you in the following weeks. Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron and Fedora 9 will feature it but, if you just can’t wait, Foresight Linux 2.0 is released now, at the same time GNOME 2.22, was and it already has it. For more details, new characteristics and some photos go to the GNOME Project official release notes web page.
Linux Mint 4.0 KDE community edition is available.
Dont’ get confused: this is not a KDE 4.0 or KDE 4.01 demo LiveCD but a full desktop system in a LiveDVD based on KDE 3.5.
In Linux Mint 4.0 KDE Community edition you’ll find the 2.6.22 kernel (Ubuntu Gutsy’s), KDE with a customized Compiz, many Linux Mint custom apps (mintInstall, mintWiFi, mintUpdate), customized versions of FireFox and Sunbird and many other typical Minty perks such as automatic support for NTFS partitions reading and writing, out-of-the box multimedia codecs.
The bad news is that in order to fit everything into a single disk, it had to be a DVD (996 MB). The good news is that it isn’t so big. Here’s the download mirror list.
Linux Mint 4.0 has been available since last November, which is the reason this post is included in the belated category.
Daryna, as it’s codenamed was released in two editions, standard and light, it’s based in Ubuntu but features some improvements in terms of out-of-the-box experience such as pre-installed multimedia codecs.
The installation LiveCD includes CompizFusion, Gnome 2.20, NTFS read and write support, migration assistant and many other good features have made Linux Mint 4.0 one of the big moves and shakers. Even the guys at distrowatch have hailed Daryna as THE distro for newcomers.
More information in the release notes and download link’s here.
PS. Ok, so GNOME is not your thing… XFCE, Fluxbox and KDE Linux Mint Editions are on the way, so just be patient.
Knoppix new releases have not been that common in the last few months, but the distro is alive and kicking. Klaus Knopper, the distro’s founder, has announced that Knoppix 5.3.0 will come to light at the CeBIT expo in Hannover, will be mad available through inclusion in the c’t magazine to be published during CeBIT and will be made available for download a bit later on.
The kernel will be 2.6.24, it will feature KDE 3.5.8 with Compiz, Iceweasel and Icedove, OpenOffice 2.3.1 and some other experimental features.
Get Knoppix 5.3.0 LiveDVD now.
While you can’t download it from any mirror now, the fine guys at Distrowatch have located a bittorrent in LinuxTracker for you to download: here’s the link.
The Sidux team decided to give us all a treat last december by releasing a fifth Sidux edition just after christmas. The Debian-Sid-Based distro came up with a LiveDVD (don’t jump, it’s only 1.4 GB) wich supports both i386 and x64 architectures in the same media. Extended hardware support for WiFi devices and ATI graphics cards and stability improvements, Xorg 7.3, and new initial localisations for languages other than German and English.
Among the newly supported WiFi chipsets are:
- Intel 3945
- Broadcom b 43
- Ralink rt2×00
- Realtek RTL8187
More information available in the release notes or, if you just can’t wait to get it, you can proceed to the mirror list.
