The second alpha of Mandriva Linux 2010.0 was launched last night, on July 31st, by the Mandriva team. The development cycle of Mandriva Linux 2010.0 will continue with a beta release at the end of August, two release candidates scheduled for September and October, and the official public release expected around November, 2009.


Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Alpha 2 is still not available as a Live CD, the only way for you to test it is to grab the DVD and install it. It is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.

The features of this release are exactly what everyone was expecting, the newly released GNOME 2.27.5 and KDE 4.3 RC3 desktop environments, Linux kernel 2.6.31 RC4, and many more.

Highlights of Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Alpha 2:
· Linux kernel 2.6.31 RC4;
· KDE 4.3 RC3;
· GNOME 2.27.5;
· Xfce 4.6.1;
· X.org Server 1.6.2;
· OpenOffice.org 3.1.0;
· KOffice 2.0.1;
· Amarok 2.1.1;
· Digikam 1.0 Beta 3;
· Kipi plug-ins 0.5.0;
· KMess 2.0.0;
· Apache 2.2.22;
· PHP 5.3.0;
· Improved Drakxtools;
· Device permission handling changes.

Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Release Schedule:
June 19th, 2009 - Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Alpha 1
July 31st, 2009 - Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Alpha 2
August 20th, 2009 - Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Beta
September 17th, 2009 - Mandriva Linux 2010.0 RC1
October 8th, 2009 - Mandriva Linux 2010.0 RC2
November 3rd, 2009 - Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Final release

Download Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Alpha 2 right now from Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, and Here.
Remember that this is an alpha release and it should not be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only. Please report bugs to the Mandriva Bug Tracker.

By: Marius Nestor

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Download Threat Analysis and Modeling 3.0 Beta - With support for Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

The Beta milestone of Threat Analysis and Modeling 3.0 is live on the Microsoft Download Center and available for download. The tool is designed to allow business users to perform threat modeling and essentially to streamline application risk management. According to Microsoft, the work poured into version 3.0 is designed, on top of expanding the solution with new features, to enhance performance while reducing costs associated with threat modeling. Threat Analysis and Modeling 3.0 Beta is capable of putting together a threat model after being served with information including business requirements and application architecture, but also to deliver security artifacts on top of pointing out threats.

“TAM v3.0 release is focused on 3 main areas of the tool including: threat modeling methodology; gathering application architecture; and security guidance,” revealed Anil Kumar Venkata Revuru, senior software development engineer for Connected Information Security Group.

Customers running Threat Analysis and Modeling 3.0 Beta will be able to enjoy backward compatibility. Revuru noted that “V3.0 is completely backward compatible with v2.1 threat models. A new plug-in has been added in the import section for users to import v2.1 threat models.” At the same time, the Redmond company has taken the necessary steps to ensure that users are always running the latest version of TAM. In this respect, version 3.0 comes with an Auto Updated Client, designed to inform customers of the latest refreshes available for the threat analysis and modeling tool and to point to the downloads.

Microsoft enumerated the new features specific to version 3: “Azure based CTL store; Visio drawing surface for use cases; Intelligent TFS Sync; automated tool update detection; modified methodology to make threat modeling simpler; Composite Threats and single threat for a call; improved Automatic Threat Generation; v2.1 Import with automated countermeasure mapping; updated countermeasure structure; other minor UI and functionality tweaks.”

Threat Analysis and Modeling 3.0 Beta is available for download here.

By: Marius Oiaga

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Marco Ghirlanda, team leader of ArtistX, announced the immediate availability of version 0.6, now created with the help of Remastersys Live CD creation software. Using the 2.6.27 Linux kernel, ArtistX 0.6 lets you choose between GNOME 2.24 and the recent KDE 4.2 desktop environments and has Compiz Fusion included for a full 3D-effects experience.

Having plenty of space on a DVD, ArtistX 0.6 comes with almost 2500 free multimedia applications designed for all Linux users. This version is based on the latest stable Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) release and features the Ubiquity installer.

The software packages that are included in ArtistX 0.6 are, among many others:
· The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), Inkscape, Nip2, Krita, Cinepaint, Synfig, Rawstudio, Skencil and Hugin for the 2D Graphic suite;
· Blender, Wings3D, K3D, Kpovmodeler and Povray 3.6 for 3D Graphics;
· Cinelerra, Kino, Openmovieeditor, Kdenlive, Pitivi, Avidemux, Devede are some of the video editing tools;
· MPlayer, Helix Player, VideoLAN (VLC media player), Xine, Kaffeine, Kmplayer, LastFM for playing audio and video files;
· PD, Rosegarden, Ardour, TerminatorX, Cecillia/Csound, Gnusound and Mixxx for creating and editing audio files.

About ArtistX
ArtistX Linux Live DVD, an Ubuntu based distribution, transforms a normal computer into a full-featured multimedia production machine. Containing almost all available free audio, video and 2D/3D graphics tools, ArtistX is a good choice for multimedia enthusiasts, professionals and amateurs alike. Being a Live DVD, there is no need to install ArtistX on the hard disk, thus leaving your partitions untouched. All the created files can easily be saved on USB drives and even burned on CDs or DVDs.

Download ArtistX 0.6 right now from here, here.

Source: http://akupunyasitus.blogspot.com/

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The Kubuntu team announced on Saturday (February 21) the second maintenance release of Kubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), which is supported with security fixes and maintenance updates until October 2009. Kubuntu 8.04.2 brings to its dedicated users a lot of security updates and corrections (over 200), all with a single goal: to keep Kubuntu 8.04 a stable and reliable Linux distribution!

"In all, over 200 updates have been integrated, and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates, and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Kubuntu 8.04." - said the Kubuntu team in the official release announcement.

Highlights of Kubuntu 8.04.2:
· The K Desktop Environment was updated to version 3.5.10;
· Kaffeine's codec installation loop bug was fixed;
· KHelpCenter's indexer now works with dash;
· Kopete's latexconvert now works with dash;
· Repaired a dash latexconvert incompatibility;
· Fixed some Kontact crashes, when using GCal;
· The hdparm power management was set to 128 for all hard disks while on battery, and 254 while on AC (please note that the suspend/resume functions still crash this and a complete fix will arrive in the third maintenance release of Hardy Heron);
· Added support CDs with compressed packages, which will allow everyone to upgrade to future release using CDs;
· Updated the MySQL 4.1 packages, which will allow a smooth upgrade from Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake);
· Repaired the checksum recheck, after reset, for Asus Eee PC 1000.

For the complete list of the changes, please check the official release notes.

About Kubuntu
Kubuntu is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, and built on top of KDE (K Desktop Environment). Kubuntu can be used on your desktop or server. Among its features we can notice a fast and easy install, regular releases, a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default, every other package you can imagine available from the network, and professional technical support from Canonical Ltd. and hundreds of other companies around the world.

Download Kubuntu 8.04.2 (Hardy Heron) right now from here.

Source: http://akupunyasitus.blogspot.com/

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Slamd64 12.2 Released - Brings important system-wide updates. Fred Emmott announced yesterday the release of version 12.2 of his Linux distribution, Slamd64, a system compatible with both 32- and 64-bit hardware. Its multilib capability enables this distro to have an increased support for both 32-bit software and 64-bit binaries, but without the cluttering of the root directory. The nspluginwrapper viewer is still included in the distribution, making it easy to install and use 32-bit plugins on 64-bit versions of Firefox and Konqueror, which are included in this release.

"Like previous releases of Slamd64, 12.2 provides seamless FHS-compliant 32-bit compatibility, via a multilib system (/lib for 32-bit libraries and /lib64 for 64-bit libraries). [...] nspluginwrapper is still included in c/, allowing you to easily use 32-bit browser plugins (such as Adobe Flash) in the included 64-bit browsers, such as Firefox and Konqueror - given the availability of prerelease 64-bit versions of Adobe Flash Player and Sun's Java Plugin, this will hopefully vanish soon." – said Fred Emmott in the official release announcement.

Highlights of Slamd64 12.2:
· Linux kernel 2.6.27.7
· GCC 4.2.4
· Apache HTTPD 2.2.10 server, with SSL support and PHP 5.2.8
· Updated development tools
· KDE (K Desktop Environment) 3.5.10
· XFCE 4.4.3
· The latest Mozilla Firefox 3.0.5
· Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.19
· Sun's Microsystem Java (JRE and JDK) 6 update 11

Fred Emmott also reminded that the support for Slamd64 11.0 would soon be dropped.

About Slamd64
Slamd64 first appeared in 2004 as an unofficial port to the 64-bit architecture of Slackware Linux. Because of this, almost all packages created for the x86 version of Slackware can be run by Slamd64. The minimum system requirements are: 128 MB of RAM, 100 MB disk space for the text-only install or 3 GB for the full version and a VGA card. 3D graphics are also supported with a recommendation to use NVidia or Intel cards.

Download Slamd64 12.2 right now from here.

Source: http://akupunyasitus.blogspot.com/

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Automatic Wallpaper Changer - Create image playlists with the least effort. BioniX Wallpaper is an advanced desktop wallpaper cycler and wallpaper manager.

Features:
Low memory usage
Can "smart stretch" big images
Can tile/stretch/center an image
Low flicker when changing desktop image
Automatically starts at Windows startup
Interface can be transparent
Possibility to load more external skins
Doesn't mess your system/registry with dirt
It can remember user's settings

The desktop background of the computer may seem of little importance to some but other users pay very much attention to the image set as background of the screen. It either says something about their personality or it is simply an image conveying their state of mind.

Although the process of changing a desktop background is nothing complicated and implies opening a wallpaper with Windows' image viewer and choosing the option from the context menu, there are ways of completely automating it. BioniX Wallpaper Changer is one of the most appreciated wallpaper managers on the Internet and it comes jam-packed with options.

The application has three versions, one for every pocket: the Lite edition is absolutely free, the Extreme version is $14.2 and the Insane edition is $21.4 but you can get a 30% discount for the last two if you use the coupon code Disc30 upon purchasing from the developer's website. All three are differentiated by the number of active features. For a complete list of features for each of the mentioned versions you can check up this link here.

We're going to test the Insane version, which has all the features of the Lite and the Extreme editions and then some. Besides lifetime access to updates, it gives access to over 125 application skins, enables the wallpaper change shortcut, makes available the “lock on folder” feature and supports an unlimited amount of images in the playlist.

From the moment Bionix Wallpaper Changer is launched you can clearly see that the developer did not aim to impress with the aesthetics of the software but with its slew of features and options. Even so, there are a bunch of skins available to change the main application window and make it more pleasantly looking.

One thing needs to be mentioned about BioniX Wallpaper Changer: it is not a regular wallpaper manager as it is capable of handling an entire folder of images and change them according to a user-set time interval. It can shuffle them for a touch of ‘the element of surprise’ or roll them in the exact order they are stored on the hard disk.

In the main screen of the software there is a set of options very similar to the controls of an audio player. These can help you skip to the next or previous image and start/stop the countdown timer, which can be set down to a second but in this mode you will notice a computer drag as the CPU is used pretty intensely.

The main application window contains a drop-down menu that, once unrolled, gives you access to different menus situated in the lower part of the window: Desktop, Enhance and Lock on Folder. The Info tab shows the amount of free space on the drives of the system. Each of them contains options for configuring the wallpaper style, choosing the resampling quality and the contrast, saturation and brightness for the best looks.

Given the tooltips popping up upon mouse hovering over an option and their brief explanation, working with the application should be a cinch. The list of resample filters includes the famous Lanczos and Mitchell filters as well as B-Spline, Hermite and Bell.

The Lock on Folder feature allows you to spin the images in a specific folder automatically every time you start the program. They make for the software playlist and you can add as many pictures as you want after the locking has been enabled because the application will simply count them all.

Playlist view can be enabled from the main application window (top right) and, just like in an audio player, you get to create as many of them as you want and save them on the hard disk. Sort options let you randomize the list or reverse the order of the items.

Configuring BioniX Wallpaper Changer is nothing complicated and allows for setting up the action to be taken at software start (change wallpaper and then close, start the countdown timer or do absolutely nothing). It can also be set up to start with Windows in minimized mode.

The application supports additional interface tweaks besides the various skins available, consisting of changing the opacity and making it transparent.

Additional options relate to the Playlist Editor. Here you can choose the action attributed to the Delete button (removing the file from playlist only or from the hard disk as well) or select the default resample mode.

If the tooltips are popping up too slow, their appearance time can be changed, together with the duration they remain on screen. The place these can be set up is the Icon/Help tab of the Advanced Settings.

A very interesting option present in the Insane version of the software is the system-wide hotkey. This enables you to change the current wallpaper with the next one instantly without calling on complicated menus. You just press a key combination that supersedes all apps on your computer and the desktop background is immediately switched with the next in line. However, you should be careful for the hotkey not to double with a different action in a different piece of software.

BioniX Wallpaper Changer makes for a great wallpaper manager both in terms of options and regarding the ease of use. It may not be the greatest looking application but its looks are irrelevant compared to the discounted price and the set of features it puts on the table. System resources are kept down to a minimum (in our case peak RAM usage was registered at 9MB while CPU was used only when changing the wallpaper) and it can help you create multiple playlists and load them up one at a time, just like in an audio player.

An exciting caboodle is represented by the Tools menu. It gathers options for hiding desktop icons and even the taskbar. These come in handy when combined with a lower wallpaper change delay as you can watch an whole playlist just like a slideshow on the entire monitor screen, without any hindrance from the shortcuts.

One of the biggest drawbacks of BioniX are the looks. The interface and even some of the skins are not in tone with Vista's shiny slick looks, not to mention with the upcoming Windows 7. Also, we noticed that the main application window and the Playlist Editor do not stick together when moved more vigorously.

The Good
BioniX Wallpaper presents an amazing set of options and features dedicated to automating the way your wallpapers change on your desktop. It is extremely easy to use, runs on low computer resources and can give you details on the fill level of the various drives available on the system.

You can select the time interval for the desktop background to be changed and select a specific folder for the application to take the images from. Each image can run as it is or you can tweak the contrast, saturation and brightness to make it more artsy.

The tested version makes available no less than seven resample modes for the wallpapers to show their best.

The Bad
The looks are nothing Bionix should be proud of. Not even some of the skins can do a better job and the Playlist Editor just can't keep stuck to the main application window if the latter is shaken a tad quicker.

The Truth
If the current discounted prices remain ($9.9 for the Extreme edition and 14.9 for the Insane one) I'm sure BioniX will rake a whole lot more adepts. However, even without the discount BioniX makes for a pretty tempting offer.

It works quite well and besides the aforementioned mischiefs there is little to add on the downside. It can start with Windows and run minimized, you can use a system-wide hotkey to immediately change the current wallpaper and it can be set up to take user-specific actions once it is launched.

Try the Lite version for free for as long as you want, compare the features of the other two versions and decide if it is worth the money (hopefully, the coupon code will become a permanent offer). Download BioniX Wallpaper right now from here.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action:

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Paul Sherman, father of the Absolute Linux, announced on January 8th, a new bug fix release of his Slackware-based operating system. Absolute Linux 12.2.1 delivers updated versions for the Pidgin (2.5.2), Samba (3.2.7), the GIMP (2.6.4), WPClipart (7.1), Audacity (1.3.6) applications and the following Mozilla products: Firefox 3.0.5, Thunderbird 2.0.0.19, Seamonkey 1.1.14. Moreover, this point release version of Absolute Linux 12.2 updates the PTP camera auto-mounting feature, the wireless/wired networking manager (wicd 1.5.8) and it also introduces a newer version of the Help System, which is now located on the second disc and works properly. Last but not least, wxPython was updated to version 2.8.9.1 and it replaces the older wxPython and wxGTK packages.

"This is primarily a security update. [...] Also in this release, PTP camera auto-mounting has been updated as well as wicd (wireless and wired networking manager), GIMP has been updated twice since the last release, and the newer version of the help system now works properly and is on CD2. Just a couple other updates and you may also notice that the package for WPClipart-7.1 is online and ready to install onto Absolute (note that the complete package is well over 700 MB)" - said Paul Sherman in the official release announcement.

Absolute Linux is a lightweight modification of the Slackware Linux distribution. It makes maintenance and configuration much easier, and it has common applications installed and configured. Absolute Linux allows you to play audio CDs, DVDs and movies "out of the box," and is easy to configure and use. Highlights of Absolute Linux include:
· icewm/ROX_Filer as a window/file manager combination;
· Time-saving utilities;
· Preconfigured shortcuts/menus;
· Desktop-oriented software;
· Customized installer;
· Manuals, HOWTOs and other useful documentation.

Absolute Linux includes applications such as:
· Pidgin (multi-protocol instant messenger)
· Avidemux (video editor)
· Azureus (P2P client)
· Mozilla Firefox (web browser)
· Mozilla Thunderbird (mail client)
· OpenOffice.org (office suite)
· Scribus (desktop publisher)
· Adobe Acrobat Reader (PDF viewer)
· Bibletime (Bible study application)
· Deluge (BitTorrent client)

If you want a fast, lightweight, Slackware-based Linux operating system for your personal computer, you can download Absolute Linux 12.1.1 right now from here and here.

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Patrick Verner announced a few days ago the third maintenance release of Parted Magic 3, a Slackware-based Linux distribution designed to help users with partitioning tasks. Parted Magic 3.3 contains a few new applications, brings improved support for video drivers, adds NFS support, and updates various packages. On top of that, the USB edition of Parted Magic 3.3 was drastically cleaned up (see the following quote for details).

"Files in the USB version have moved. GRUB files are in the /boot/grub folder and syslinux files are in the /boot/syslinux folder. The proper command to boot the USB is 'syslinux -d /boot/syslinux /dev sdXX' for Linux and 'syslinux -ma -d /boot/syslinux X:\' for windows." - said Patrick Verner in the official release announcement.

Changes since Parted Magic 3.2 release include:
· Improved support for video drivers by downgrading the xorg-server package to version 1.4.2;
· Included all the extensions and drivers, such as GLX and DRI, from the standard build;
· udhcpc is no longer used for obtaining DHCP leases;
· NFS daemons will automatically start at boot. To cancel them use the nonfs boot parameter.

The following packages were updated in Parted Magic 3.3:
· NTFS-3G 1.5130
· Udev 135
· GParted 0.4.1
· Busybox 1.13.1
· hdparm 9.3
· XArchiver 0.5.2

The following packages were added in Parted Magic 3.3:
· gFTP 2.0.19
· dhcp 3.0.7
· dhcpcd 2.0.8
· Portmap 6.0
· nfs-utils 1.1.2

Parted Magic is a business-card operating system, based on Slackware Linux, with programs that allow you to partition hard disks with ease. Programs like Partition Image, TestDisk, fdisk, sfdisk, dd, ddrescue, and a good documentation will help you in your partitioning tasks. Parted Magic is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and it can be downloaded right now from here and here.
Source: http://linuxarticle.blogspot.com/

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Clement Lefebvre and the Linux Mint community proudly announced last night, on the official Linux Mint Blog, the final release of Linux Mint 6 (dubbed Felicia), a popular Linux distribution based on the Ubuntu operating system. Linux Mint 6 is a new and important step in the evolution of the Linux Mint OS, it is based on Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10), and it includes all the latest technologies, such as Linux kernel 2.6.27, GNOME 2.24 or X.Org 7.4. Why is Linux Mint 6 so important? Because it now offers a new, in-house tool called mint4win, which will allow everyone to install the Linux Mint operating system directly from Microsoft Windows!

"The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 6 “Felicia”. Congratulations and thanks to all the people who contributed to this release, to all the translators, to the upstream developers and projects which made this possible and above all to the development team for their continuous support." - said Clement Lefebvre, developer of Linux Mint, in the official release announcement.

Highlights of Linux Mint 6:
· mint4win allows you to install Linux Mint from the Microsoft Windows operating system;
· mintInstall 5 with a new offline interface, software versions information and support for multiple portals;
· mintUpdate 3 with a revamped GUI, proxy support, updates history;
· mintUpload 2 with support for FTP transfers;
· mintNanny, a useful parental control tool;
· Giver, a LAN (Local Area Network) transfer tool;
· Gufw, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) frontend for the ufw firewall;
· Flegita, an utility for scanners.

On top of that, the Linux Mint team is proud to present the introduction of the Linux Mint Universal Edition, a customized version of Felicia, available as a Live DVD. The Universal Edition contains the following features:
· Installs all the missing audio and video codecs;
· Offers support for English, Italian, German, Spanish, Indonesian, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, Hindi, Greek, Urdu, Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, Danish, Filipino, Bulgarian, Czech, Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Thai, Arabic, Hebrew, Korean, Catalan, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian and Farsi languages;
· Available as a Live DVD.

What are recommended system requirements? To install Linux Mint 6, you will need minimum 512 MB of RAM (however, the system will work very well with 256 MB of RAM after installation). Be aware that the installation may hang if you have less than 512 MB of RAM. As a solution, you can try to repeat the installation process several times. Also, you must have at least 3 or 4 GB of free hard drive space.

What is Linux Mint? Linux Mint is an elegant, easy to use, up-to-date, 100% free and comfortable Linux desktop distribution based on the very popular Ubuntu operating system. It offers paid commercial support to companies and individuals. Also, free community support is available from the forums and the IRC channel. If you want to give Linux Mint 6 (Felicia) a try, download it right now from here, here (torrent). The Linux Mint Universal Edition can also be downloaded from here.
Source: Linux Articles

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Kris Moore from the PC-BSD development team announced today the immediate availability of the second maintenance release of PC-BSD 7.0 (Fibonacci Edition). "The PC-BSD Team is pleased to announce the availability of PC-BSD 7.0.2, with an updated FreeBSD 7.1-PreRelease under the hood and the latest KDE 4.1.3." - said Kris in the official release announcement.

Therefore, PC-BSD users can upgrade their systems today with the new version, which includes KDE 4.1.3, improved support for NTFS partitions, better desktop performance for owners of Nvidia video cards, enhancements and fixes to HAL, bug fixes to the installation.

Here are the changes since PC-BSD 7.0.1:
· Updated KDE to version 4.1.3;
· Updated HAL to version 0.5.11_8 (fixes an issue when trying to eject a CD/DVD in KDE4, and offers enhanced NTFS-3G support);
· Resolved an issue with the scanner permissions that prevented users to scan;
· Resolved an issue with PBI updates;
· Fixed knotify4 bug, which made the computer hang at shutdown sometimes;
· Better Online Updater utility, which now supports proxy servers and allows the use of TMPDIR;
· The sound-detect script was updated to support various new cards;
· Nvidia cards owners have now a new script (automatically activated on startup), which improves the desktop performance (lag and compositing effects);
· Fixed some empty hard drive installation issues;
· Resolved three System Manager bugs.

How to upgrade? Just apply the update and reboot your PC-BSD system. Remember that it may take 15-25 minutes to complete (depending on your system's specs).

If you want to install PC-BSD, it is recommended to have at least a Pentium 4 or higher CPU (or AMD64 alternatives) with 512 MB of RAM, minimum 12 GB of free hard drive space (either a partition, or an entire disk), a network card, a sound card and a 3D-accelerated video card (Nvidia or Intel).

PC-BSD is a free operating system, based on FreeBSD, created with ease of use in mind. Like any modern system, it allows you to watch movies, listen to your favorite music, work with office documents, and install your favorite applications with a couple of mouse clicks (and a nice setup wizard).
PC-BSD 7.0.2 can be downloaded right now from Here (Link 1), Here (Link 2).
Source: Linux Articles

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Having released Opera 9.5 and Opera 9.6 in 2008, the Norwegian browser maker is now offering the first taste of Opera 10.0. While Microsoft and Mozilla are laboring to hit the Release Candidate stages of Internet Explorer 8 (now at Beta 2) and Firefox 3.1, respectively (now still at Beta 1, and on the verge of Beta 2), Opera is also cooking the next iteration of its browser. The first Alpha development milestone for Opera 10.0 is now available for download.

“It seems like yesterday we released Opera 9.6 and now you can all get your hands on Opera 10.0. Rather than ramble on, here's a quick list of what's new: Presto 2.2 Engine; performance boost; 100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test; auto-update; inline spelling checker; Opera Mail improvements, including rich text composition and delete after X days; Widget Improvements on Linux,” revealed Adam Minchinton, Opera Mac developer.

Opera has tweaked and optimized the core of the browser, and has taken Presto up to version 2.2 from 2.1 in Kestrel. In this context, now Opera 10.0 Alpha 1 passes the Acid3 Test for web standard support to perfection, the browser maker claims. At the same time, the evolution of the engine has delivered a new level of performance, not only in terms of speed, but also in regard to how the broser handles CSS, XML printing, and RGBA and HSLA support.

“The long awaited auto-update functionality is here! That's right, Opera will now update itself as new versions are released. And for those of you who want every single snapshot release just enable the 'Download All Snapshots' setting (opera:config#AutoUpdate). Please be aware that if you do so, you will be upgrading to all snapshots - and, as you know: snapshots contain the latest changes, but may also have severe known issues, including crashes and data loss situations. In fact, they may not work at all,” Minchinton added.

Opera 10.0 Alpha 1 for Windows is available for download here (Link 1), here (Link 2), here (Link 3), here (Link 4), here (Link 5).

Opera 10.0 Alpha 1 for Linux is available for download here (Link 1), here (Link 2), here (Link 3), here (Link 4), here (Link 5), here (Link 6).

Opera 10.0 Alpha 1 for Mac OS X is available for download here (Link 1), here (Link 2), here (Link 3), here (Link 4), here (Link 5), here (Link 6).

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Windows 7 Pre-Beta Build 6801 Leaked and Available for Download - Via torrent websites. The past week, Microsoft delivered the first consistent taste of Windows 7, offering the pre-beta bits of the operating system at the Professional Developers Conference. On October 28, developers attending the event got their hands on a 160 GB drive pre-loaded with various goodies including Windows 7 Build 6801 in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. Subsequently, as it was the case with previous beta or final releases of Windows, the pre-beta bits for Windows 7 Build 6801 were leaked and made available for download via torrent websites.

Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, managed to keep Windows 7 under a translucent veil throughout the development process ahead of PDC2008. However, the conference focused on Windows 7 made the successor of Windows Vista as transparent as possible, as well as “free for all” users with a BitTorrent client. All major torrent hotspots are currently offering downloads of Windows 7 pre-beta build 6801, advertised as untouched.

The pair of Windows 7 pre-beta releases on the original 160 GB drive are: Windows 7 32-bit - 6801.0.080913-2030_Client_en-us_ULTIMATE-ULTIMATE_GB1CFRE_EN_DVD.iso and Windows 7 64-bit - 6801.0.080913-2030_Client_en-us_ULTIMATE-ULTIMATE_GB1CXFRE_EN_DVD.iso. With the pre-beta bits of the next iteration of Windows available outside of Redmond, the software giant promised that the fully fledged Beta of Windows 7 would be delivered early in 2009.

“Windows 7 will offer improved navigation, a new taskbar and a streamlined UI so that common tasks done in Windows are done easier and more quickly. You will be able to share data to all your PCs and devices in your home network or at work. With Windows 7 + Windows Live, you will be able to stay connected to the people that matter to you, and with Internet Explorer 8 you will get a faster, safer, more productive Web experience,” revealed Mike Nash, Corporate Vice President, Windows Product Management.
Source: http://akupunyasitus.blogspot.com/

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Elive team proudly announced last evening yet another development release of their GNU/Linux Live CD, Elive 1.9.18, which brings a new and improved kernel, better network configurator and many other updates. "This version includes a greatly improved new kernel and a lot of upgraded packages." - said the Elive developers in the official release announcement.

As mentioned, the kernel package has been updated (to version 2.6.26.8), and includes the following improvements:

• Wireless improvements: The kernel now contains all the available wireless drivers, including ath9k from Atheros;
• Apple MacBooks improvements: With the introduction of the ath9k wireless driver, the WEP encryption bug in MacBooks has been solved.

The Net-Connector tool introduced in the 1.9.10 release has finally been finished and it is now working at full capacity. The Net-Connector will help Elive users easily configure their networks (wireless and wired).

Last but not least, the Elive team added new and useful bookmarks for the Mozilla Firefox web browser. For example, you will now find a good list with links and tutorials for The Gimp, and some bookmarks with articles about Elive and the EFL development.

Elive is an operating system created using Debian GNU/Linux as its basis. It offers a lot of eye-candy while keeping the resources consumption very low with the help of the Enlightenment window manager.

Elive Linux sports a large number of applications, ranging from office and Internet related applications, to games and entertainment. With Elive, you can watch movies, listen to your favorite songs or chat with friends. E17, the development version of the Enlightenment window manager that comes with Elive Unstable, is brought to you from CVS, and is updated on a regular basis through Elive's testing repository.

If you want to use Elive, it is recommended you use a computer with minimum 128 of RAM and a 300 MHz CPU. Remember that this is an unstable release and it should not be installed on production machines. It is intended to be used for testing purposes only! You can report bugs to Elive's Bug Tracker.
Download Elive 1.9.18 right now from Here.

Source: http://linuxarticle.blogspot.com/

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Windows 7 Direct3D 11 Features - A taste of DirectX 11 is already available for download. As of November 2008, Microsoft is delivering the first taste of DirectX 11 for Windows 7 for download. A release aimed at developers, The November 2008 DirectX Software Development Kit, brings to the table the successor of Direct3D 10.1, namely Direct3D 11. In the SDK package, the Redmond company is offering a technical preview of Direct3D 11, but also the adjacent components and tools. Backwards compatible, content developed for Direct3D 11 hardware will also be compatible with earlier products supporting Direct3D 10 and 10.1 (in Vista SP1). Via the Windows 7 Developer Guide, Microsoft provides an insight into the new features made available by Direct3D 11.

“Geometry and high-order surfaces can now be tessellated to support scalable, dynamic content in patch and subdivision surface representations. To make good use of the parallel processing power available from multiple CPU cores, multithreading increases the number of potential rendering calls per frame by distributing the application, runtime, and driver calls across multiple cores. In addition, resource creation and management has been optimized for multithreaded use, enabling more efficient dynamic texture management for streaming,” Microsoft revealed.

According to the Redmond company, version 11 is designed to deliver an evolution of the functionality of the Direct3D 10 pipeline for Windows 7. In this regard, Microsoft has positioned Windows 7 to take advantage of the next generation of GPUs and multi-core processors when it comes down to the way the operating system will handle games and 3D applications. The software giant has indicated that Direct3D 11 in Windows 7 will support: Tessellation; Compute Shaders; Multithreaded Rendering; Dynamic Shader Linkage; Windows Advanced Rasterizer (WARP); Direct3D 10 and Direct3D 11 on Direct3D 9 Hardware (D3D10 Level 9); Runtime Binaries; D3DX11; Completely Updated HLSL and Direct3D Compiler; D3D11 Reference Rasterizer and D3D11 SDK Layers.

“New general-purpose compute shaders have been created for Direct3D 11. Unlike existing shaders, these are extensions to the programmable pipeline that enable your application to do more work completely on the GPU, independent of the CPU. DrawAuto, which was introduced in Direct3D 10, has been extended to interact with a compute shader. Several improvements have been made to the high-level shading language (HLSL), such as a limited form of dynamic linkage in shaders to improve specialization complexity, and object-oriented programming constructs like classes and interfaces,” the company added.

The November 2008 DirectX Software Development Kit is available for download here.
The November 2008 DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer can be downloaded via this link.
DirectX End-User Runtimes (November 2008) is up for grabs here.
Source: http://akupunyasitus.blogspot.com/

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At the end of September 2008, Microsoft unveiled that the next versions of Visual Studio and .NET Framework would span across not only the client and server operating systems but also across services and devices. Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 are expected to drop either in late 2009 or by the first half of 2010, even though Microsoft failed to confirm a delivery deadline. As far as the next iteration of its runtime environment is concerned, Microsoft is cooking .NET Framework 4.0 while planning a synchronization with the evolution of Windows Server, namely Windows Server Dublin.

“Updates to the next versions of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) are focused on reducing complexity for developers by providing better support for Web 2.0 technologies like REST, POX and ATOM, and increasing performance and scalability in the process. In fact, early tests show these improvements to WCF and WF are, at a minimum, enabling 10X the perf and scalability - and to think we’re still fine tuning here! Second, 'Dublin' makes it easier to deploy, manage and scale these next-generation applications,” explained Steven Martin, Director, CSD Product Management Microsoft.

Windows Server "Dublin" is a collection of enhanced capabilities added to the Windows server platform which will expand to also take Internet Information Services (IIS) to the next level. The end purpose of the improvements planned for the Windows Application Server is to permit developers to handle composite applications in a much simpler way than they can today. Microsoft is in fact looking to streamline processes including installation and management as well as the scalability of composite solutions.

“We will deliver a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, and 'Dublin' technologies at the Professional Developers Conference in October 2008; this will allow us to begin receiving broader feedback from customers and partners. We are committed to driving and prioritizing our development efforts based upon customer and partner feedback; the feedback from this CTP and other customer programs will help inform us as to the exact timing of our beta and RTM,” Microsoft indicated via the Dublin NET 4 Overview whitepaper.

.NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is available for download here.

Source: http://microsoftarticles.blogspot.com/

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Believe it or not, CrossOver, a software that lets Linux and Mac OS X users install popular Windows applications and games, is free for download (yes, FREE)... but only for one day! That day is yesterday (October 28th, 2008), so you better go grab the serial number right now from the CodeWeavers website. Hurry up, because the code you will receive can be unlocked until 23:59 (Midnight) Wednesday, October 29th, Central Standard Time (CST). The software has a limit of 1 copy per customer.

How did this happen? Long story short, three months ago, Jeremy White (CodeWeavers CEO) launched the Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge, to "force" George W. Bush into achieving a major political or economic goal. Jeremy White stated that if one of the six goals would be accomplished, he would give his CrossOver application for free to customers worldwide, for one day. Well, this happened on October 14th, when the average price of gasoline dropped below $2.79 per gallon.

"My fellow Americans. As you probably know by now, we recently succeeded in reaching one of our Lame Duck Presidential Challenge Goals. Of course, we reached it in perhaps the worst way possible - by destroying the world economy. And while ostensibly President Bush was to get the credit/blame for meeting our goals, the bottom line is that I cannot help but feel personally responsible for the greatest financial collapse since the 1930s." - said Jeremy White, CodeWeavers CEO.

Below is a list of the applications and games that can be installed via the CrossOver software:
· Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0
· Adobe FrameMaker 7
· Adobe Photoshop 6 / 7 / CS / CS2
· Cortona VRML Client
· Dreamweaver MX
· EndNote 7.0
· EndNote 8
· Flash MX
· Flash Player
· Internet Explorer 6.0
· iPIX Netscape Plugin Viewer
· Lotus Notes 5
· Lotus Notes 6.5.1
· Microsoft Excel Viewer 97/2000 / 2003
· Microsoft Office 97 / 2000 / 2003 / 2007 / XP
· Microsoft Outlook 2003
· Microsoft Project 2000 / 2002 / 2003 · Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 97/2000 / 2003
· Microsoft Visio 2002 / 2003
· Microsoft Word Viewer 97/2000 / 2003
· Oracle JInitiator 1.1
· Quick View Plus
· QuickBooks
· Quicken
· Quicken 2007 or 2008
· QuickTime 7
· Shockwave Player 8.5
· Superscape Viscape Universal
· VP3 for QuickTime 5
· Windows Media Player 6.4 / 9
· EVE Online
· Guild Wars
· Half-Life
· World of Warcraft

Linux users can grab the CrossOver Office and Games installers right now from here.
Source: http://linuxarticle.blogspot.com/2008/

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Sysinternals Update: Process Monitor 2.01 for Vista and XP But also DebugView 4.76, AccessChk 4.21, Autoruns 9.35. Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell, software architects in the Core Operating Systems Division, introduced the 2.0 major update to Process Monitor at the end of September 2008. Now, the tool has been taken one step further to version 2.01, this time just a minor refresh designed mainly to deal with a few issues associated with v2.0. The Process Monitor 2.01 release is an integral part of a larger update of the Sysinternals suite involving other three applications: Autoruns 9.35, DebugView 4.76, and AccessChk 4.21.

“Process Monitor v2.01 - this release fixes several bugs, including compatibility with Windows 2000, excessive exit delays, and adds the new networking events to the filter dialog's operations list,” explained Curtis Metz, Program Manager, Microsoft Sysinternals. Back in September, version 2.0 of Process Monitor brought real-time TCP and UDP monitoring.

Delivering network tracing capabilities to Process Monitor was Russinovich's next step in the evolution of the utility. Taking Process Monitor from version 1.0 to 2.0 involved adding new low-level capabilities, such as a stronger focus on system memory usage in addition to network tracing.

“Autoruns 9.35 - this Autoruns update adds additional autostart locations, including lsastart, s0initialization, savedumpstart, and servicecontrollerstart, and fixes several bugs,” Metz added. “DebugView 4.76 - debugview no longer truncates the last character of each line of a log file when it loads one back into the display. AccessChk 4.21 - this fixes a bug in the code that checks for malformed security descriptors that could cause spurious warnings.”

The new versions of the four updated utilities have also caused the entire Sysinternals Suite to be refreshed. As of October 16, Microsoft is serving a new release of the Sysinternals Suite now complete with all the touched-up utilities: Process Monitor 2.01, DebugView 4.76, AccessChk 4.21, Autoruns 9.35.

Process Monitor 2.01 is available for download here.
The Sysinternals Suite is available for download here.

Source: news.softpedia.com

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At the start of September 2008, Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich revealed that he was cooking a major update for Process Monitor, one of the components of the Sysinternals suite. As of September 30, version 2.0 of Process Monitor became available for download. The description of the tool authored by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell reveals that Process Monitor 2.0 is designed to integrate seamlessly with both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 2000 SP4 with Update Rollup 1, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1, and Windows Vista.

“Process Monitor v2.0: this major update to Process Monitor adds real-time TCP and UDP monitoring to its existing process, thread, DLL, file system and registry monitoring. You can now see the TCP and UDP activity processes performed, including the operation (e.g. connect, send, receive), local and remote IP addresses and DNS names, and operation transfer lengths. On Windows Vista, Process Monitor also collects thread stacks for network operations,” revealed Curtis Metz, Program Manager, Microsoft Sysinternals.

Concomitantly with the new release of Process Monitor 2.0, the entire Sysinternals suite was update and is also available for download. Russinovich refreshed two additional utilitoes on top of Process Monitor 2.0, namely Sigcheck and Contig. “Sigcheck v1.54: this Sigcheck release fixes a bug in CSV output formatting. Contig v1.55: Contig now supports the -accepteula command-line switch,” Metz added.

Via Process Monitor 2.0, users will be able to monitor in real time the file system of the Windows operating system along with the platform's registry and process/thread activity. Back in early September, Russinovich promised that Process Monitor would indeed evolve with the addition of new low-level capabilities, including a more intimate focus on memory usage, while at the same time delivering network tracing to the utility.

Process Monitor 2.0 is available for download here.
The Sysinternals Suite is available for download here.

Source: news.softpedia.com

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The successor of Firefox 3.0 has entered the Beta development stage as of October 14, 2008. In this context, Mozilla has made available for download Firefox 3.1 Beta 1. The next iteration of the open source browser, codenamed Shiretoko, is making headway in terms of development, having already passed through a couple of Alpha phases. With the 3.1 Beta 1 release, Mozilla is touting various improvements across the browser, including enhancements delivered to performance, web compatibility, and speed.

“This milestone is focused on testing the core functionality provided by many new features and changes to the platform scheduled for Firefox 3.1,” revealed Samuel Sidler, Quality Assurance Engineer at Mozilla. Even though it is nothing more than a development milestone, Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 is available in no less than 36 languages for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Mozilla has added a plethora of features to Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 in comparison to the Alpha 2 release. In this regard, the draft specification for Geolocation was implemented along with support for the @font-face CSS property. However, one of the most relevant enhancements is the TraceMonkey new JavaScript engine, which is yet to be turned on by default. Mozilla informed that users would have to navigate to about:config, and then set javascript.options.jit.content to True, after which a browser restart is required.

Sidler added that “new features and changes in this milestone that require feedback include: Web standards improvements in the Gecko layout engine; added support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 properties; a new tab-switching shortcut that shows previews of the tab you're switching to; improved control over the Smart Location Bar using special characters to restrict your search; support for new web technologies such as the < video > and < audio > elements, the W3C Geolocation API, JavaScript query selectors, web worker threads, SVG transforms and offline applications”.

Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 for Mac OS X is available for download here.
Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 for Linux is available for download here.
Source: http://akupunyasitus.blogspot.com/

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The first Beta for Mozilla's Firefox 3.1 has been released to the public. Beta 1 adds one of the coolest features ever to hit the popular web-browser – a new tab-switching shortcut, bringing an enhanced Mac-feeling to the browsing experience.

First of all, everyone should note that Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. Although the beta includes a host of new features, and performance improvements, it is highly recommended that you read the release notes, as well as the known issues before installing it.

And now for the good stuff. Among the new additions in Firefox 3.1 Beta is added support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 properties. The newly-added support for “CSS @font-face” allows users to specify a true type font file that includes a specific font they want to use to render a web page. This was one of the most widely-request features in Firefox, according to the development team. The Mac version, as well as the Windows one, includes @font-face support. Firefox for Linux, however, doesn't, but adding support is underway and “will be done by Firefox 3.1 final,” according to Mozilla.

Also worth noting is that Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 is the first beta from Mozilla to include support for the

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