Linux vs Windows vs Mac

KDE 4.1 is finally out today, as you probably already know, and it comes with a lot of innovations for the Linux desktop. KDE 4 is the next generation of the popular K Desktop Environment, which seeks to fulfill the need for a powerful yet easy-to-use desktop, for both personal and enterprise computing. The new version provides increased stability over the first KDE 4 version and more eye candy!

So, if you don’t want to download an openSUSE-based KDE 4.1 Live CD or to wait until a stable distribution is released with KDE 4.1.0 as the default desktop, we will teach you how to install it on your existing Ubuntu 8.04 or 8.04.1 LTS desktop.

Step 1 - Add KDE 4.1.0 Repositories

Go to System -> Administration -> Software Sources…

…enter your password and the Software Sources window will appear. Click the second tab “Third-Party Software,” then click the ‘Add’ button and paste the following code in the new window that will appear:

When the download is over (it will take a while if you have a slow bandwidth) you will be asked to choose a display manager (GDM or KDM-KDE4). Just click Forward…

The first release candidate version of Linux Mandriva 2009 has KDE 4.1.1 as default desktop.

The new version brings a greatly improved package management tool, with automatic mirror selection and repository configuration. Also replaces the old madwifi wireless driver with the brand new ath5k, for all Atheros cards, and brings further improvements to the Ora theme.

These are some features that could be part of Mandriva 2009 final, scheduled for release on October 9, 2008:/p>

• Linux kernel 2.6.26
• GCC 4.3
• GNOME 2.24
• KDE 4.1
• Firefox 3.0
• OpenOffice.org 3.0
• revamped installer
• improved boot speed
• improved DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support) management
• improved language selection
• implementation of the PolicyKit and PackageKit technologies
• improvements to the Mandriva Windows Migration and Parental Control utilities
• Live Upgrade (same as Ubuntu’s update-manager tool)
• initscript improvements
• Splashy will replace the actual boot splash
• lots of desktop improvements

There are also some rumors that X.org 7.4 and GRUB2 will be included in Mandriva 2009.

A new version of the popular and free unix/linux desktop environment KDE 3 is available.Curent version KDE 3.5.10 features translations in 65 languages, improvements to KPDF and Kicker, the KDE3 Panel. 

KDE 3.5.10 packages are available for Kubuntu 8.04, the Hardy Heron.
 

Update instructions:

The updated packages for Kubuntu 8.04 are located in the hardy-backports repository. To update to KDE 3.5.10, please follow these instructions:
 

1.  Launch Adept
2.  In Software Repositories enable Unsupported updates in Updates.
3.  Click on Full Upgrade.
4.  Commit changes.

About KDE

KDE is an international technology team that creates free and open source software for desktop and portable computing. Among KDE’s products are a modern desktop system for Linux and UNIX platforms, comprehensive office productivity and groupware suites and hundreds of software titles in many categories including Internet and web applications, multimedia, entertainment, educational, graphics and software development. KDE software is translated into more than 60 languages and is built with ease of use and modern accessibility principles in mind. KDE4’s full-featured applications run natively on Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows and Mac OS X. 
 

Bluewhite64 Linux 12.1 KDE4 LiveDVD RC1 is now available. Featuring the young but beautiful KDE4.1 desktop, this release candidate of the Slackware based linux distro called Bluewhite64, brings you the Amarok 1.90 music player, Krusader 2.0.0 file manager, KTorrent 3.1.2 and other cool KDE apps on a live DVD.

The Bluewhite64 live DVD contains the KDE3 runtime libraries, so you can easily run KDE3 desktop instead of the default KDE4 desktop.

The official release announcement is posted on the Bluewhite64 linux website:

"I have the joy announcing a new version of the Bluewhite64 Linux 12.1 KDE4 LiveDVD release candidate one.

This release is built on a fresh install of the standard version of Bluewhite64 Linux 12.1 and includes all patches packages from the patches directory and the newly released KDE 4.1. Also, in addition to this release, we have added KDE4 applications like Amarok 1.90, Guidance Power Manager 4.1.0, Krusader 2.0.0, Ktorrent 3.1.2, KDE3 runtime libraries which allows you to run KDE3 applications, and many more. Take a look at the KDE4 LiveDVD ChangeLog to see more details about the added packages and see the Gallery with some nice captures.

To download, please select one mirror close to you form the Get Bluewhite64 page (the main mirror is down, consider this time the primary FTP and HTTP from ROEDU). The ISO is located at the bluewhite64-12.1-iso directory:

md5: 4f9d2e269cd0e9282e9732569cbaf909 Bluewhite64-12.1-KDE4-LiveDVD-RC1.iso

We like to be tested as much as you can in order to release the final and stable version, which is scheduled at September 1’st, and post your feedback at our forums or send email to info at bluewhite64 dot com.

I’d like to thanks to Kenjiro Tanaka for building the KDE 4.1 packages using Robby Workman’s SlackBuilds scripts, Virgil Moldoveanu for building the applications for KDE4 and all others who will test this release .

Enjoy and happy testing!"

Ubuntu Christian Edition, also known as UbuntuCE.

Current version 4.0 and features the Gnome Desktop Environment. OpenOffice has been replaced with GnomeOffice (AbiWord, Evince, Evolution, Gnumeric). BibleTime has been added in this release; also you have more resources for BibleTime and Gnomesword.

The official release announcement has been posted on UbuntuForums:

"We are excited to announce the release of Ubuntu CE 4.0! Ubuntu CE has been on hold for quite a while for various reasons, but we are back up and running. This is a "back to the basics" release. We have discontinued most of the Windows program installers that we had a previous releases due to the difficulty in maintaining them and changes in some of the Windows programs that made it very difficult to install them automatically. We have added BibleTime as well as a bunch more resources for BibleTime and Gnomesword. We have replaced OpenOffice with GnomeOffice to keep the iso size below the 700mb threshold. For a complete list of changes check out the ChangeLog. We have also updated the site with a cleaner Web 2.0 feelCheck it out at UbuntuCE.com."

Zenwalk Gnome is using the latest stable Gnome 2.22.3 Desktop, with a familiar Zenwalk Desktop layout and beautiful Zenwalk artwork. Included in this release, are Linux kernel 2.6.25.4, the latest X.Org 7.3 suite of X servers and the next generation of the Netpkg package manager.

Zenwalk Gnome follows the "one app per task" Zenwalk philosophy and the Gnome Desktop comes with all default applications known to Zenwalk users: iceweasel and icedove for all your browsing and email needs, wicd for easy connecting to wireless networks, brasero for burning CD/DVD discs, abiword and gnumeric for your office needs, the GIMP for editing graphics files and photos, gtkam for managing your digital camera and gmusicbrowser for handling huge collections of music. Totem (using the xine backend), with its clean interface, is the multimedia player of choice, you can even find, browse and view youtube videos with it, even if you don’t have flash installed! Of course a propriatery flash package which works with iceweasel is included in the installation if the user decides to accept the adobe flash licence.

As usual, Zenwalk Gnome provides a complete programming environment for coders. Geany provides a fast and light IDE for developing code in a great number of different languages.

The complete collection of Zenwalk system tools is present in Zenwalk Gnome. The Zenpanel provides a centralized place for all system administration, such as user creation/modification, network settings, localization, kernel module configuration etc. All user settings can be easily reached from the Gnome Control Center, only a click away in the main Gnome panel.

Mandriva is proud to announce the release of Mandriva Linux 2009 Beta 2 ‘okapi’.

This beta includes a completely new installer for the Free (and, in the final release, Powerpack) edition, and is testing the Fedora system-config-printer printer configuration tool as an alternative to printerdrake.

The new beta also brings Firefox 3, OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta, and support for the ethernet adapter used in many new Eee (and other netbook) models.

As always, Mandriva reminds you not to use pre-releases in any critical situation; install them only on a test system or partition, or in a virtual machine.

Additionally, we strongly discourage using this pre-release to upgrade from any earlier release of Mandriva Linux, as the transition process from KDE 3 to KDE 4 is not yet fully implemented and you are likely to end up with an unusable system. Please make sure to read the Errata and Release Notes, and file any bugs not covered in those pages on Bugzilla.

This article no longer exists on this website! It  was copyrighted and has been removed.

Please check the original article Development Release: Red Flag Linux 7.0 Preview.

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Designed for NetBooks & NetTops, gOS 3 Gadgets BETA is the third, best version of the Linux OS that debuted at Wal-Mart stores less than one year ago. Today, gOS 3 Gadgets BETA will be shipping with NetBooks and NetTops in the US and internationally.

gOS 3 Gadgets BETA instantly launches Google Gadgets for Linux on startup, introducing over 100,000 possible iGoogle and Google Gadgets to the desktop.
Google Documents, Calendar, and Mail launch in Mozilla Prism windows to closer resemble desktop applications.
The newest release of WINE 1.0 is included to now support thousands of Windows software for our advanced users.

gOS 3 Gadgets BETA is based on the solid Linux distribution base of Ubuntu 8.04.1.

The minimum requirements for gOS Gadgets are:

• 700 MHz x86 processor
• 384 MB of system memory (RAM)
• 8 GB of disk space
• Graphics card capable of 1024×768 resolution
• Sound card
• A network or Internet connection

Steve Langasek has announced the availability of the delayed first alpha release of Ubuntu 8.10, code name "Intrepid Ibex":

"Welcome to Intrepid Ibex Alpha 1, which will in time become Ubuntu 8.10. Alpha 1 is the first in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Intrepid development cycle. The primary changes from Hardy have been the re-merging of changes from Debian and the upgrade of the Linux kernel to a pre-release version of 2.6.26.

As with the beginning of any development cycle, the Intrepid one has seen the merge floodgates open once again. This merge not only brings in lots of new version of various packages, but also a fair number of totally new applications." Read the release announcement and release notes for further details. Only the "alternate" installation images have been made available with this release; download them from here: intrepid-alternate-i386.iso (698MB, MD5, torrent), intrepid-alternate-amd64.iso (697MB, MD5, torrent).

Also released: Kubuntu 8.10 Alpha 1 and Xubuntu 8.10 Alpha 1.