KaOS 2014.08

 Anke Boersma has announced the release of KaOS 2014.08, a desktop Linux distribution featuring the just-released KDE 4.14 desktop: "With KDE releasing the new major version, KDE 4.14.0, offering primarily improvements and bug fixes, KaOS is happy to be able to present you a new ISO image with KDE 4.14.0 the same day it is released. KDE Applications 4.14 is not about lots of 'new and improved stuff'. As with KaOS, many KDE developers are focused on the Next Experience (Plasma 5) or porting to KDE Frameworks (based on Qt 5). Mostly, the 4.14 release is needed by aspects of the workflow. This release offers more software stability, with little emphasis on new and less-proven stuff. For KaOS, a new major KDE is not the biggest news on this ISO, that part goes to the all new installer." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information and screenshots. Download the live DVD image from SourceForge: KaOS-2014.08-x86_64.iso (1,696MB, MD5).

Tanglu 2.0 Alpha 1

Matthias Klumpp announced the availability of the first alpha build of Tanglu 2.0, a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution with a choice of GNOME 3.12 or KDE 4.13 desktops: "We are proud to announce the release of alpha 1 of Tanglu 2 today. The release mainly brings updated software and loads of fixes regarding systemd services. There also has been a lot of work on the Debian installer to make it work for Tanglu and initial work exploring a port of Ubiquity (the Ubuntu installer) to Tanglu has started - although this project is only an experiment so far. There have also been improvements to KDM (systemd integration), but we expect the final release of Tanglu to ship with SDDM instead of KDM. The whole Tanglu distribution is now built on debile and there have been several other infrastructure improvements alongside that large change." The release announcement. Download links (SHA256, pkglist): tanglu-1.80-Alpha1-gnome-live-amd64.hybrid.iso (960MB), tanglu-1.80-Alpha1-kde-live-amd64.hybrid.iso (1,058MB).

Scientific Linux 6.5 "Live"

Urs Beyerle has announced the release of "Live" editions of Scientific Linux 6.5, a distribution built from source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 but enhanced with extra software applications for use in academic and scientific environments: "Scientific Linux 6.5 LiveCD, LiveMiniCD and LiveDVD are officially released. Changes since 6.4: software based on Scientific Linux 6.5; CUPS, Pidgin, Brasero, Qt, Gcalctool, gdisk, LFTP, spice-client, minicom and nc were removed from 'LiveCD' to save disk space. Notes: the live images are based on the Fedora LiveCD tools; if you install LiveCD to hard drive, the installation of the live image is done by Anaconda similar to the normal SL6 installation, all changes done during LiveCD usage are lost; you can install LiveCD on an USB stick with persistent changes using liveusb-creator included in sl-addons." See the full release announcement for further information. Download (SHA256): SL-65-x86_64-LiveDVD.iso (2,564MB, includes GNOME, IceWM, KDE), SL-65-x86_64-LiveCD.iso (698MB, GNOME only), SL-65-x86_64-LiveMiniCD.iso (514MB, IceWM only).

ReactOS 0.3.16

ReactOS is a free and open-source operating system intended to be binary compatible with application software and device drivers made for Microsoft Windows NT versions 5.x and up. Today the project announced the availability of the latest alpha release - version 0.3.16: "The ReactOS project is pleased to announce the release of version 0.3.16. A little under a year has passed since the previous release and a significant amount of progress has been made. Some of them include completion of the CSRSS rewrite and the first stages of a shell32 rewrite. 0.3.16 is a prelude to several new features that will provide a noticeable enhancement to user-visible functionality. A preview can be seen in the form of theme support which can be turned on to demonstrate the Lautus theme. Another user-visible change is a new network card driver for the RTL8139." Here is the brief release announcement. Download (MD5) the installation or live CD image from SourceForge: ReactOS-0.3.16-REL-iso.zip (75.5MB), ReactOS-0.3.16-REL-live.zip (53.1MB).

How to Install ClassicMenu Indicator 0.08 from PPA in Ubuntu 13.10/13.04

ClassicMenu Indicator is a useful application indicator that once installed and executed will show a menu in the top panel of Ubuntu Unity that allows users to easily and quickly access system tools and software without the need to use the Dash menu.

Here is a screenshot of ClassicMenu Indicator under Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander):

ClassicMenu Indicator 0.08 Installation

For PPA installation under Ubuntu 13.10/13.04, enter these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diesch/testing 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install classicmenu-indicator

Use the dash menu to start it:

For other distributions, you can install it manually by entering this sequence of commands:

cd /tmp 

wget http://goo.gl/cVAKtS -O classicmenu-indicator_0.08_all.deb 

sudo dpkg -i --force-depends classicmenu-indicator_0.08_all.deb 

sudo apt-get -f install

Once installed, the application will be added automatically to the list of software that will be started automatically after you log in. If you want to disable it, start the dash menu and open "Startup Applications":

Then disable it:

Endian Firewall 3.0 Beta 2

Endian has announced the availability of the second beta build of Endian Firewall 3.0, a major new version of the Red Hat-based distribution for firewalls and routers: "Hey folks, take a look at the Endian Firewall Community 3.0 BETA 2. The new release includes new features relevant to email security, OpenVPN, logging and reporting module and a number of improvements as well. Features, improvements and bug fixes include: SMTP delivery status notification configuration; connections page for VPN users - frontend and backend; add the option "required" to the multiline validator; HTTP proxy information popup is not shown correctly; YAML traceback in domain routing until first domain route configuration; spam blacklists and whitelists typo in tooltip displayed text...." Here is the brief release announcement, with further details summarised in the release notes. Download: EFW-COMMUNITY-3.0.0-beta2.iso (203MB, MD5).