Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 1

Kate Stewart has announced the availability of the first beta release of Ubuntu 11.10, code name "Oneiric Ocelot": "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 1. Some of the new features now available are: DVD images have been revised into extended desktop images with additional language support and a few extra applications, and thereby reduced to a more manageable size of around 1.5 GB. 'Lenses' (formerly 'Places') now integrate multiple sources and advanced filtering like ratings, range, categories. Thunderbird is included as default email client including menu and launcher integration." Read the release announcement and release notes for more detailed information and known issues. Download (SHA256): ubuntu-11.10-beta1-desktop-i386.iso (699MB, torrent), ubuntu-11.10-beta1-desktop-amd64.iso (691MB, torrent). Beta 1 CD/DVD images for Kubuntu (download, release notes), Xubuntu (download), Lubuntu (download), Ubuntu Studio (download), Edubuntu (download) and Mythbuntu (download) are also available.

openSUSE 12.1 Milestone 5

Bryen Yunashko has announced the availability of the third milestone release of openSUSE 12.1: "openSUSE 12.1's milestone 5 is now ready for download. Here are some interesting things you can expect to see when you try milestone 5: further changes have been made to systemd which replaces the SysInitV system, the default is still SysInitV but we encourage testing of systemd so that we can switch the default for the next release; we are focusing on the GPL-ed OpenJDK version now, this milestone is the last one that comes with the binary Java provided by Oracle; GNOME 3.1.5 is another step closer to GNOME 3.2; glibc has been updated to version 2.14." For more details please see the full release announcement. Download (mirrors): openSUSE-KDE-LiveCD-Build0250-i686.iso (696MB, MD5, torrent), openSUSE-GNOME-LiveCD-Build0250-i686.iso (664MB, MD5, torrent), openSUSE-KDE-LiveCD-Build0250-x86_64.iso (689MB, MD5, torrent), openSUSE-GNOME-LiveCD-Build0250-x86_64.iso (678MB, MD5, torrent).

Mandriva Linux 2011

Viacheslav Kaloshin has announced the release of Mandriva Linux 2011, code name "Hydrogen": "We are happy to announce that Mandriva 2011 is out." Some of the main new features in this release include hybrid live/installation DVD images, a revised system installer, new graphics theme, RPM 5, a series of new desktop utilities from Rosa Labs, and KDE as the only officially supported desktop environment: "GNOME, Xfce and other desktop environments and window managers are no longer included in the official Mandriva packages. However, contribution packages from the Mandriva community are available for these desktop environments. Starting from Mandriva 2011 only KDE 4 is officially supported." Here is the brief release announcement, but more details can be found in the release notes and on this 2011 tour page. Download: Mandriva.2011.i586.1.iso (1,647MB, MD5), Mandriva.2011.x86_64.1.iso (1,692MB, MD5).

Fedora 16 Alpha

Featuring the GRUB 2 bootloader, a GNOME 3.1 development release, and improved support for virtualisation, the alpha release of Fedora 16 is ready for testing: "The Fedora 16 'Verne' alpha release is available. This release of Fedora includes a variety of features both over and under the hood that show off the power and flexibility of the advancing state of free software. Fedora 16 introduces GRUB 2, the long-awaited next-generation bootloader for Linux. GRUB 2 automatically recognizes other operating systems, supports LVM2 and LUKS partitions, and is more customizable than the previous version." Read the release announcement and release notes for a full list of new features. Download (torrents): Fedora-16-Alpha-i686-Live-Desktop.iso (585MB, SHA256, torrent), Fedora-16-Alpha-i686-Live-KDE.iso (646MB, SHA256, torrent), Fedora-16-Alpha-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso (585MB, SHA256, torrent), Fedora-16-Alpha-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso (645MB, SHA256, torrent).

Arch Linux 2011.08.19

Dieter Plaetinck has announced the release of Arch Linux 2011.08.19, the first new release of the Arch Linux installation media in 15 months: "Time for a much needed update to the Arch installation media, as the last release (2010.05) is not only quite outdated, but now yields broken installations if you do a netinstall. What has changed in this period of more than a year? Experimental support for Btrfs and NILFS2; support syslinux bootloader; changes to configuration formats to support new rc.conf and Linux 3.0; make selecting source more flexible; show package descriptions when installing packages; snapshot of current core, including Linux kernel 3.0.3, pacman 3.5.4, glibc 2.14, mkinitcpio 0.7.2, initscripts 2011.07.3 and netcfg 2.6.7...." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details. Download (MD5): archlinux-2011.08.19-core-i686.iso (371MB, torrent), archlinux-2011.08.19-core-x86_64.iso (377MB, torrent).

IPFire 2.9 Core 51

Arne Fitzenreiter has announced the release of IPFire 2.9 Core 51, an updated build of the project's specialist distribution for firewalls: "Core 51 is addressing several security issues in the Linux kernel as well as stability fixes, performance optimization and driver updates. It is recommended to install this update as soon as possible and please take notice that a reboot is required to complete the installation. The update includes the latest Linux long-term kernel of the 2.6.32 series (2.6.32.45) and includes a lot of security fixes and driver improvements. A couple of years ago, there have been problems with some TCP/IP options so these options were disabled to cause less trouble. As technology has developed, these options have now been re-enabled which improves the network throughput a lot." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details and a list of updated device drivers. Download (SHA1): ipfire-2.9.i586-full-core51.iso (73.4MB, torrent).