Mandriva Linux 2009.1 Beta

Anne Nicolas has announced the availability of the beta release of Mandriva Linux 2009.1:

"The beta release of Mandriva Linux 2009.1 (code name 'Margaux') is now available. This beta version provides some updates on major desktop components of the distribution, including KDE 4.2.0, GNOME 2.25.90, Xfce 4.6 RC1, X.Org server 1.5, OpenOffice.org 3.0.1, Qt 4.5.0 RC1. This beta version proposes step 1 of Speedboot, which should improve the boot time. It’s not enabled by default, to test it, enter the 'speedboot' keyword at boot time. This release is available as a DVD edition (32-bit or 64-bit) with a traditional installer, two CDs GNOME or KDE with a traditional installer. You will also find live CD 'One' edition with proprietary drivers for KDE or GNOME environment."

See the release announcement and release notes for more details. Download: mandriva-linux-free-2009.1-dvd-i586.iso (4,475MB, MD5), mandriva-linux-free-2009.1-dvd-x86_64.iso (4,461MB, MD5), mandriva-linux-one-2009.1-beta-KDE4-int-cdrom-i586.iso (701MB, MD5), mandriva-linux-one-2009.1-beta-GNOME-int-cdrom-i586.iso (651MB, MD5).

NetBSD 5.0 RC2

Soren Jacobsen has announced the availability of the second release candidate for NetBSD 5.0

"On behalf of the NetBSD Release Engineering team, I am proud to announce that the second release candidate of NetBSD 5.0 is now available for download. Since RC1, 103 tickets were pulled up. Interested readers can find the details of these tickets in src/doc/CHANGES-5.0. RC2 represents a great deal of progress over RC1, but with that amount of change, increased time for testing is required. To put it bluntly, there will definitely be a third release candidate. We are aware of a number of release-blocking issues, but it is important that we get a jump on testing the many changes made since RC1."

Here is the brief release announcement. As always, installation CD images for 40 processor architectures are available for download from these mirrors; quick links to the i386 and amd64 CD images: i386cd.iso (238MB), amd64cd.iso (252MB).

SimplyMEPIS 8.0 RC3

Warren Woodford has announced the availability of the third release candidate for SimplyMEPIS 8.0:

"MEPIS has distributed ISO files for RC3 of SimplyMEPIS 8.0. For RC3, the kernel has been updated to upstream version 2.6.27.15. QEMU 0.9.1+svn, libvirt 0.6, virt-manager 0.6.1, and virtinst 0.400.1 are available from the MEPIS pool to better match the virtualization configuration of the MEPIS kernel. At user requests, Firefox 3.0.6, OpenOffice.org 3.0.0, and libgphoto2 2.4.3 updates were added to the SimplyMEPIS build. Community members have improved the MEPIS Network Assistant, the MEPIS manual and they have added an autorun intro to MEPIS to the CD. When will SimplyMEPIS 8.0 be released? MEPIS developer, Warren Woodford, says, 'MEPIS 8.0 is in good shape but since MEPIS is meant to have a Debian stable core, I'd prefer to wait and declare it final when Debian Lenny is released.'"

Here is the full release announcement. Download: SimplyMEPIS-CD_7.9.96-rc3_32.iso (679MB, MD5), SimplyMEPIS-CD_7.9.96-rc3_64.iso (673MB, MD5).

TinyMe 2009 Alpha 1

The first alpha release of TinyMe 2009, a minimalist Linux distribution based on PCLinuxOS, is now ready for testing:

"It's time for the first alpha of what will become TinyMe 2009 'Acorn'. We've decided that our former naming scheme was too confusing to people and so from now the larger release will be called 'Acorn' (or a translation of that) and the smaller release will continue to be called 'Droplet'. What's different from TinyMe 2008.0? Linux kernel 2.6.26.8; LZMA compression on the live CD; LXPanel now conforms to PCLinuxOS menu system; drives are now identified by UUID rather than /dev/xxx; added Osmo, a personal information manager; added Hv3 as an alternative browser alongside Opera; removed XArchiver as PCManFM has (de)compression abilities already built in; removed gFTP and GThumb; SLiM instead of GDM."

Read the rest of the release notes for further details. Download: TinyMe-2009-Acorn-Alpha-1.i586.iso (186MB, MD5).

Linux Mint 6 "x86_64"

Clement Lefebvre has announced the release of Mint 6 "x86_64" edition, an Ubuntu-based distribution designed for computers with 64-bit processors:

"On behalf of the team I am proud to announce that Linux Mint 6 'Felicia' is now available in a 64-bit edition. This release comes with all the innovations featured in Linux Mint 6 and, for the very first time, with the 64-bit editions of the Adobe Flash and Sun Java plugins! The purpose of the x86_64 edition is to offer the same desktop features as the main edition but in a 64-bit environment. It aims to be as similar to the main edition as possible. More packages are available for i386 than they are for x86_64 and the main edition is also slightly more stable than its 64-bit equivalent. The main edition only recognizes a maximum of 4 GB RAM though and even on computers with less than 4 GB RAM the performance gain provided by x86_64 over the main edition can significantly enhance the user's experience."

Read the rest of the release announcement for more details. Download: LinuxMint-6-x64.iso (682MB, MD5).