Alpha Release: Fedora 8 Test 1

Excerpts from the release announcement.

Fedora 8 Test one has been loosed upon the world today. Included in this release is a "Fedora" installable 'choose your own adventure' style set of isos and trees for i386, x86_64, and ppc(64). Also included are Live images of both the Fedora Desktop and the Fedora KDE desktop. These are available for both i686 and x86_64 (x86_64 is DVD size only). Remember these can be used on USB media via the livecd-iso-to-disk utility available in the livecd-tools package.

Test 1 is for "alpha" users. This is the time when we would like to have full community participation. Without this participation both hardware and software functionality suffers. We need your help. Join us!

Read the full release announcement here.
Download here.

Final Release : Sabayon Linux 3.4e

Excerpts from the release announcement.

Distribution updates:


Introduced a (teaser) pre-alpha release of the Entropy stack (Equo application)

Updated Portato to 0.8.0

Updated Compiz Fusion to work with XGL and AMD/ATI cards

Updated WINE to 0.9.42 and fixed Wine Doors

Reintroduced sudo after Install

Updated Second Life to 1.18.0.6

Fixed Partitioning issues on some system caused by dmraid stack (disabled by default now)

Reintroduced old and stable ipw3945 driver (keeping ipw4965 one)

Updated pommed to 1.7 (better MacBook support)

Reintroduced old bcm43xx wireless driver (disabling mac80211 one)

Read the full release announcement here.
Download here.

Alpha Release: Damn Small Linux 4.0 Alpha 2

Excerpts from the release announcement.

Change log for DSL v4.0 Alpha2

• * Fixed bug reported upon shutdown - cleanup now working.
• * Added more associations for dfm.
• * Updated exit.lua to support swm "exit to prompt".
• * Fixed bug with dfm when booted "legacy".
• * Added .mtoolsrc mtools_skip_check=1
• * Cut rarely used modules (will be available as a separate download).
• * Restored netfilter modules for rc.firewall.
• * Fixed bug in cpanel concerning start of cron (MyCron).
• * Fixed bug in dsl-config for hard drive installations.
• * Fixed wrong cloop in core affecting hard drive installations.
• * Improved hard drive installation for new MyDSL system.
• * Fixed bug in flux2jwm affecting menu items doubling up.
• * Updated many icons for better appearance.
• * Red folder now opens with root privileges.
• * Commented out xload monitor in jwm since torsmo provides this.
  

Read the full release announcement here.
Download here.

Beta Release : Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 Beta 1

Excerpts from the release announcement.

Red Hat is pleased to announce the availability of the *beta* release of 5.1 (kernel-2.6.18-36.el5) for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 family of products including:

- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Advanced Platform for x86, AMD64/Intel(r) 64, Itanium Processor Family, and IBM POWER
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server for x86, AMD64/Intel(r) 64, Itanium Processor Family, IBM POWER, S/390 and System z
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Desktop for x86, and AMD64/Intel(r) 64

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 is still in development and therefore the contents of the media kit, the implemented features, and the supported configurations are subject to change
before the release of the final product. The supplied beta packages and CD images are intended for testing purposes only.
Remember that this early access software is not supported and is not intended for production environments. Do not publish any benchmark or performance results based on this beta release.
Upgrading from beta releases to the GA product will not be supported. The beta testing period is scheduled to continue through September 4, 2007.


Features
---------

This beta release includes the following improvements:

* Virtualization improvements
+ Completion of virtualization support on Itanium2 platforms
- PV (para-virtualized) and HV (fully-virtualized) Itanium2 guests are now fully supported on Itanium2 hardware (HV requires hardware support)
+ Support for 32-bit PV guests on 64-bit AMD64/Intel(r) 64 hosts
+ Improved support for HV guests
- Hot-migration support for HV guests
- General performance improvements
- Host infrastructure for PV drivers (the actual drivers will be delivered separately in the context of the individual supported guest operating systems)
+ Update of the libvirt management layer

* Laptop and Desktop improvements
+ Improved ACPI power management support including support for S3 suspend to RAM and S4 hibernate
+ Technology Preview of a Firewire stack which will be fully supported in a subsequent minor release

* Storage improvements
+ Improved support for autofs load balancing with replicated servers
+ Added replication and migration support for NFSv4 referrals
+ Support for installation to and boot from dm-multipath
+ Update of the Sata sub-system
+ Significant stability improvements to the GFS2 file system
+ Ext3 filesystem now fully supports filesystem sizes of up to 16TB
+ Updated CIFS to version 1.48aRH
+ Technology Preview of the iSCSI target device (iSCSI server)

* Serviceability improvements
+ Improvements to the "crash"-analysis tool
+ IPMI and HPI updates
+ Added Kexec/Kdump support for the host in a virtualized environment

* Networking
+ Update of the Infiniband support and addition of RDMA over Ethernet
+ Technology Preview of the new Devicescape wireless network stack
+ Expand in-kernel socket api
+ IPv6 improvements
+ Technology Preview of new mac80211 wireless stack (ipw 4965 wireless adapter) support. Note the iwl4965-firmware package is not in Beta ISOs but is available on RHN

* Windows Interoperability
+ Samba update for improved interoperability
+ PAM/Kerberos and NSS-LDAP updates for improved integration in Active Directory environments

* Security
+ Improved auditing
+ Smartcard support for SSH
+ Integration of LSPP certification related changes

* Other Kernel Improvements
+ Add support for shared page table for hugetlb pages

* General bug fixing and driver updates

Read the full release announcement here.

Stable Release : Sabayon Linux 3.4

Excerpts from the release announcement.

Distribution Features:

• The most advanced: Linux Kernel 2.6.22 with extra Power Management (PowerTop), Wireless (mac80211), Ext4 Filesystem, Scheduler (CFS) and Virtualization (KVM,Virt-Manager,VirtualBox) support
• Gaming oriented: featuring,

1. Savage 2
2. FlightGear
3. DangerDeep
4. Warsow
5. Nexuiz
6. Torcs
7. Battle of Wesnoth
8. Second Life

• Latest NVIDIA (100.14.11) and AMD (8.38.6) GPU drivers
• The most Windows-aware: supporting NTFS in read/write and Wine Doors utility, that let you install Windows applications as easy as 1-2-3 (using Wine 0.9.40).
• The first to support Ext4 File System: for the braves, Sabayon Linux Installer can easily handle it.
• The most Stable Cutting Edge DVD: featuring Compiz Fusion and Metisse (Technology Preview) integration
• Much more flexible: the Installer now features a really improved execution speed, RAID10 support, Ext4 Support, UUID device naming support, a Packages Selector, a Boot Services Selector and also a Core/Minimal Install Method (Server deployments)
• The Most Laptop Aware: tested and optimized also for Laptop usage
• X.Org 7.3 with automatic Monitor configuration
• KDE 3.5.7
• GNOME 2.18.2
• Strong identity: no Server applications installed (you will find them in the Business Edition)
• Less Duplicated Packages: removed about 140 duplicated applications
• Better Mactel support: added support for Intel ICH8M, Atheros Wireless cards, Backlight management and new Synaptics touchpads
• Better Out of the Box hardware support: Agere et131x,
• VMware Guest Installation Support
• Media Center capabilities: featuring GeeXbox 1.1 and Elisa Media Center (Technology Preview)
• Incredible set of installed and preconfigured Applications (see Packages List below)
• The most tested Stable Release: in the last 4 months, our Core Beta Team have done a great work to accomply our always growing QA standards. This transformed Sabayon Linux 3.4 in the most reliable version ever released.

Read the full release announcement here(Download links on the same page).

Alpha Release : Ubuntu 7.10 Alpha 3

Excerpts from the release announcement.

Hello Ubuntu developers,

Welcome to Gutsy Gibbon Tribe 3, which will in time become Ubuntu 7.10.

Pre-releases of Gutsy are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, or even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.

Tribe 3 is the third in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Gutsy development cycle. The Tribe images are known to be reasonably free of show-stopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Gutsy. You can
download it here:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/gutsy/tribe-3/ (Ubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/gutsy/tribe-3/ (Kubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/gutsy/tribe-3/ (Edubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/gutsy/tribe-3/ (Xubuntu)

See http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mirrors for a list of mirrors.

Another set of new features landed in Tribe 3, and are ready for large-scale testing. Please refer to the following web pages for details:

http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/tribe3 (Ubuntu)
https://wiki.kubuntu.org/GutsyGibbon/Tribe3/Kubuntu (Kubuntu)
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GutsyGibbon/Tribe3/Xubuntu (Xubuntu)

This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs. Among these are the following (so you don't need to bother reporting these if you encounter them):

* The desktop CD hangs on a lot of systems, especially slower ones with little RAM. Sometimes it is just slow, sometimes it will hang eternally. If you experience this and waiting a bit longer does not help, try to restart the computer and the live CD. If that still does not help, please use the alternate CD.
(https://launchpad.net/bugs/126964)

* On Edubuntu server installs, the "Building LTSP root" step takes a very long time (in the order of 15 minutes) without visible progress. It will eventually finish, though.
(https://launchpad.net/bugs/121547)

If the graphical system does not come up or is very slow, please file a bug against compiz:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+filebug

Please include a copy of the files ~/.xsession-errors and /var/log/Xorg.0.log, and the output of glxinfo and xdpyinfo.

If you're interested in following the changes as we further develop Gutsy, have a look at the gutsy-changes mailing list:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/gutsy-changes

Please be aware that this list usually has several dozen mails every day.

We also suggest that you subscribe to the ubuntu-devel-announce list if you're interested in following Ubuntu development. This is a low-traffic list (a few posts a month) carrying announcements of approved specifications, policy changes, alpha releases, and other interesting events.

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce

Bug reports should go to the Ubuntu bug tracker:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu

Read the full release announcement here.

Alpha Release: openSUSE 10.3 Alpha 6

Excerpts from the release announcement.

AJ used to write here, that he's glad to announce. I can't say I am - I am relieved I can announce openSUSE 10.3 Alpha6 to you. I didn't have a chance to put too much testing into more than the i586 DVD5 and the KDE CD. But I didn't want to wait any longer either. So I'm left with hoping the best.

Important Changes Since Alpha5
==============================

* Linux 2.6.22
* libzypp 3.11.8
* gcc 4.2
* Continued splitting of packages to reduce size
* Introduction of x86_64 CDs for both KDE and GNOME

This is a first alpha release containing the new refactored libzypp software management library. The goal was to deliver a working version for this alpha, so expect rough edges, unusal slowdown and behavior, for example YaST integration is really alpha quality. All bug reports are very welcome.

Media and Download
==================

openSUSE 10.3 Alpha6 for i386, x86-64 and ppc comes as different media sets:
* 1 DVD containing the contents of the 5 CDs and the NonOSS AddOn CD
* 1 CD with a default KDE installation (not for ppc yet)
* 1 CD with a default GNOME installation (not for ppc yet)
* 1 AddOn CD with only NonOSS packages on it
* 1 AddOn CD with language packages that are used for extra languages (the DVD contains support for english, french, italian, spanish, german, chinese, japanese, czech, danish, norwegian, khmer, hungarian, polish) (the DVD has support for installation in all languages, just extra packages are only on this extra media)
* DVD/CDs containing the sources corresponding to the media

We have created Delta ISOs from openSUSE 10.3 Alpha5. Please use them for download.

The DVDs and the source media are only available via bittorrent.

Read the full release announcement here.
Download here.