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.
Mandriva has announced the 2008.1 Release Candidate 1 release.
Among other things includes WPA support, KDE 3.5.9 or 4.0.1 for the KDE fans, some new default applications, the latest OpenOffice 2.4 and, at last, NTFS writing support among other features.
This release candidate is the fifth one on the way to the final Mandriva 2008 Spring and is available in the Free edition as an installation DVD for each 32 bit and 64 bit arquitectures or in the Mandriva One edition, as either a LiveCD with GNOME or KDE, 32 bit only. Here’s the mirror list.
While this is not a final release but a testing one, it may be just too early to jump into the Mandriva 2008 Spring wagon. The last full release (Mandriva 2008.0) has scored so many good reviews that it could be interesting what the coming Spring is up to.
OpenGEU the distro that brings together Ubuntu’s usability with Enlightenment’s beauty and GNOME’s robustness released Luna Nova, the distro’s version 7.10, based on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon, last december.
It’s available as an installable LiveCD you can get here. But if you already have a Gusty Gibbon running in your machine, you can bring the coolnes of OpenGEU’s E17 desktop by adding a repository to your Synaptic and installing a few .deb packages. You can see the OpenGEU’s wiki pages for further instructions.
If you used to be among the linux guys that wondered why the hell Enlightenment never turned into a real desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE and had to resign yourself to use it because of its lack of development, OpenGEU is the just the thing for you. You get the whole Ubuntu thing along with an extremely efficient E17 desktop.
Among the customizations peformed by the distro’s developers are the use of Thunar (XFCE’s file manager) instead of Nautilus (which is GNOME’s) and the XFCE panel. Both things will make your system go faster.
In the words of the Sirius Cybernetics Company: Share and enjoy!
