Chakra is a free, user-friendly and extremely powerful liveCD and/or operating system based on the award winning K Desktop Environment and on the GNU/Linux distribution for connoisseurs: Arch Linux.
With rolling releases, freshly cooked packages, its graphical tools and a small but strong and diverse community, it is the computing environment you may have been waiting for. Chakra and Arch's community-driven development is grounded in the concept of KISS, which has been proven to be superior for people who really want to learn something about Linux or dont want to deal with administrative overhead, or are just lazy nerds like ourselves.
The team of Chakra's goal is to provide a operating system for desktops that is easy to use, but still has all the functionality, clarity, power and speediness of a KISS operating system. In the long term, the team want to build an operating system based on Arch Linux that meets most requirements desktop users have today, like easy installation of software, graphical system administration, configuring power management on mobile devices or sharing an internet connection. To be better able to fulfill this goal, they strongly rely on users who report bugs, send in feature requests and ideas for improvements, and of course participate in development.
Although this might sound like a distro for Linux newbies, these are not its primary target audience, at least not for the moment. Chakra is made for techy people and competent GNU/Linux users with a passion for KDE, KISS and such stuff, who dont fear to get their hands dirty but want to set up a usable desktop system quickly and easily.
By the way, you can download this live CD at Here.
Kubuntu is an official derivative of Ubuntu using the KDE environment instead of GNOME. It is part of the Ubuntu project and uses the same underlying system. It is an exciting distribution that showcases the full potential of the KDE desktop. Kubuntu shares the same repositories as Ubuntu, and relies on the same underlying architecture.
The K Desktop Environment
A powerful graphical desktop environment, combines the ease of use, contemporary functionality, and outstanding graphical design with the technological superiority of the Kubuntu operating system. KDE version 3.5.5 is the current stable release and Kubuntu 6.10 is the first distribution to include it.
Photo Management
Digikam is now included by default. This advanced digital photo management application provides you with the tools necessary to view, manage, edit, enhance, organise, tag and share photographs. Organising both photos and photo albums is a snap with Digikam as it allows you to sort chronologically, by directory layout, or by custom collections.
Power Management
Kubuntu received a new power management overhaul with the latest release. Guidance, the power management system, allows users to select various functions to control the power of their portable computing system, whether it is controlling the brightness of the display during low battery, locking the system upon closing the lid or controlling access to multiple batteries.
Easy Networking and Printer Sharing
Zeroconf and print sharing let you browse the local network for available services. Both are now simple to setup and maintain requiring nothing more than ticking a box to enable the feature.
Accessibility Profiles
Kubuntu now offers users the ability to use a preconfigured accessibility profile depending on the type of disability right from the initial point of setup. This provides users the accessibility features they need in order to not only install the Kubuntu 6.10 operating system but to use the system on a daily basis for all of their computing needs. Press F5 at the CD boot screen to choose a profile.
You can get Kubuntu now by visiting here.
Technalign, Inc. has announced the release of the Pioneer Basic 3.1 workstation, Stagecoach 3.1 the combined server and workstation, and it's enterprise server MigrationSERVER 3.1. These workstations utilize the KDE desktop and run off a Live CD for users to test before installation. Pioneer Linux is a desktop-oriented, Kubuntu-based distribution targeted at new as well as experienced Linux users.
The new releases maintain the 7 year lifecycle and those running previous versions of Pioneer Basic will be able to run the update manager to bring them up to the current version. All known and reported critical bugs have been repaired in this final release.
Changes to the version include Technalign's Electricity, powered by Wine-doors, software which allows the end user to run many of their Windows? applications. Along with Electricity; the Cowboy, Cowgirl, and Wrangler Repositories, which where created in partnership with Automatix, are included and are available to other communities.
The Cowboy repository contains Electricity powered by Wine-Doors and Icedtea (open source Java), Cowgirl contains items that require licensing, but free, including Real Player, Skype, Opera, and Adobe products, and finally Wrangler will contain only commercial products such as HIATLANTIS, the Technalign CRM/Supply Chain Management application.
More info and download links can be found at here.
After long wait of release time, the most expected project of 2007, KDE 4, has finally seen the light today! KDE 4 is the next generation of the popular K Desktop Environment, which seeks to fulfill the need for a powerful yet easy-to-use desktop, for both personal and enterprise computing. KDE project's goal for the 4.0 release is to put the foundations in place for future innovations on the FREE desktop.
Today, we will take a closer look at the main features incorporated in the final release of KDE 4. First of all, I should let you know that for these tests, I've used the Kubuntu 7.10 KDE 4.0 Remaster that can be downloaded from Softpedia. Let's see the highlights of KDE 4.0!
Plasma, the brand new desktop shell and panel, is an amazing piece of technology that makes your KDE experience better than ever. Its role is to offer, to the end-users, an efficient and ergonomic access to their desktop. A few Plasma applets or widgets (also known as Plasmoids) were created by various developers and can be found here, if you would like to make your KDE desktop more funky and modern!
The window manager of KDE 4, KWin, comes now with Solid (a sophisticated hardware API) and Phonon (a multimedia framework) and with some amazing desktop effects. In the System Settings window, at Display, you can activate these desktop effects, which are independent from Compiz Fusion. These are brand-new effects that can be found only in KDE 4! However, running them kinda slows down your entire desktop if you have 512 RAM. I've also tested it on a machine with 1 GB of RAM and works better. So, I guess the KDE developers still need to patch this in the 4.1 release.
Some of the old applications, that can still be found in KDE 3.5.x, are gone now and some brand new applications have taken their place. All known KDE applications, such as Konqueror, which is the default file manager and web browser, KGet, KColorPaint, Konsole, Kopete, SuperKaramba, are now greatly improved and I'll bet you will not even recognize some of them! Last but not least, KDE 4 uses a new and very beautiful icon theme, called Oxygen.
As an alternative file manager, Dolphin is included for those of you who have already been using it. Sadly, but Amarok is not included and it can't be installed. Don't know why!? Moreover, I really miss an important (for me) function in Konqueror that cannot be found in any other browser. The "Search & Replace Text" function, that could be activated with the CTRL+R key combination, is now replaced by the "Reload" function! I guess this happens because Konqueror is now powered by WebKit?!
In conclusion, it's not yet perfect, but from our test (until now) KDE 4 runs pretty good and looks amazing. I strongly suggest you download one (Kubuntu is preferred) of the CDs below and install (or just run directly from the Live CD) this final and groundbreaking version of KDE.
Btw, you can get Kubuntu 7.10 with KDE 4 at here, and source for KDE 4 at here.
Source: Kubuntu and KDE sites.
With the KDE 4 release date approaching fast, the developers of Kubuntu have joined openSUSE and Debian GNU/Linux in providing a live CD featuring the latest release candidates of the popular desktop environment."The second release candidate of KDE 4 has been released and packages are available for Kubuntu 7.10. If you want to test KDE 4 without installing packages download the live CD (466MB). This CD includes a preview of the Konqueror Webkit engine." said the Kubuntu development team.
The latest KDE 4.0 release candidate looks considerably more polished than the betas; if you'd like to take a peek, you can download the Kubuntu live CD from here.
Kubuntu 7.10 removed the feistiness, becoming the gutsiest release to date. Improved desktop, updated applications and increased usability features are just a few of the surprises with this latest release.
The goal for Kubuntu 7.10, codenamed Gutsy Gibbon, was to remove the edge and the feistiness from previous releases and to continue on the creation of a secure and stable desktop environment, on a road to becoming the perfect KDE based operating system.
Whats New?
The K Desktop Environment, a powerful graphical desktop environment, combines the ease of use, contemporary functionality and outstanding graphical design with the technological superiority of the Kubuntu operating system. The stable release of KDE in Kubuntu 7.10 is right up to date at version 3.5.8, released earlier this week.
Dolphin is a KDE file manager, now the default file manager in Kubuntu 7.10, which allows quick navigation through the file system. Dolphin is not a replacement for Konqueror as Dolphin only acts as a file manager. Some of the main features of Dolphin are: a navigation bar for quick navigation through the file system, view properties are saved for each folder, split views, undo and redo functionality, renaming of multiple selected items in one easy step.
Kubuntu 7.10 now includes the same Restricted Drivers Manager as Ubuntu. The Restricted Drivers Manager is a control module that allows you to simply install drivers for your hardware that are of the non-free variety. Such drivers include the NVIDIA 3D graphics driver, the ATI 3D graphics driver, Broadcom wireless drivers and more. Though Kubuntu makes these drivers readily available to you, as non-free software they are not officially supported by the Kubuntu community, and if they break you can only receive fixes through the manufacturers of the drivers.
Kubuntu 7.10 includes OpenOffice.org 2.3, which is an open-source office suite similar in functionality to that of other office suites. The included applications are: Writer, a fully functional word processor, Calc, an advanced spread sheet program and Impress, a tool for creating effective multimedia presentations. OpenOffice.org is compatible with all major office suites.
For those of you wanting something lighter, KOffice is a simple install away. It includes world leading applications such as Kexi the database manager and Krita the image editor.
Kontact, the Personal Information Manager in Kubuntu 7.10, unites an entire suite of PIM applications in one central environment. We now include the Enterprise version of Kontact, for advanced functionality.
KDE 4, the largest update to ever come out of the KDE community, is present in the Kubuntu 7.10 universe repositories. KDE 4 Beta 3 is the version available released only the day before Kubuntu 7.10. Still recommended only for the developer minded as it is highly unstable, however it is getting to the point of much better usability. If you are interested in seeing how the future of desktop computing is shaping up, then take a look at our KDE 4 Beta 3 packages.
Not only can you use Kubuntu and install Kubuntu from the Desktop CD or the DVD, but you also have some popular Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) available to install on your Microsoft Windows operating system. Advantages of this software include being absolutely free of charge, being free to modify and being free to copy and distribute. The applications provided are: Scribus, an advanced desktop publishing utility; Mozilla Firefox, a secure and fast web browser and Mozilla Thunderbird, a full-featured email client - reclaim your inbox!
And many more features thats Kubuntu brings in this new release. Btw, you can download it here now.
The 8th maintenance update to the popular K Desktop Environment (KDE) 3.5 (and probably the last before the KDE 4.0) has just been released. Version 3.5.8 brings bugfixes to applications like Konqueror, Kolourpaint, KMail and even KOrganizer. Let's have a detailed look at the improvements and bugfixes included in this release:
- Improvements in Konqueror and its web browsing component KHTML. Bugs in handling HTTP connections have been fixed, KHTML has improved support of some CSS features for more standards compliance.
- In the kdegraphics package,
- lots of fixes in KDE's PDF viewer and Kolourpaint, a painting application, went into this release.
- The KDE PIM suite has, as usual, seen numerous stability fixes, covering KDE's email client KMail, the organizer application KOrganizer and various other bits and pieces.
Go to KMenu -> System -> Administration and open the Software Sources application.
Type your password and hit enter. Make sure that multiverse and universe repositories are checked, then go to KMenu -> System -> Konsole and type:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Updating process runs. Wait till finish and then reboot your Kubuntu.
Grafpup is a compact distribution containing the Linux kernel and various Open Source and freeware programs. It is especially well suited towards graphic artists and other imaging proffessionals but has many other tools available as well. Grafpup has been loosely based upon Puppy Linux, which is a creation of Barry Kauler. However, there are a lot of unique features which set it apart both from it's parent and most other Linux distributions.
Grafpup strives to provide a complete workflow for the digital artist, from beginning to end. As such along with the major graphics applications like Gimp and Inkscape you will also find a variety of support programs and extra features. Color management is enabled for all applications that support it, and there is a basic selection of color profiles included in the standard install. For those doing photographic work there is almost complete support for raw image formats via both dcraw and the ufraw plugin (both Gimp and Cinepaint), as well as the gtkam utility for directly connecting a wide variety of cameras. Scribus and Abiword take care of publishing needs, and Gutenprint provides a wide range of printer drivers.
Desktop
One of the big problems with a lot of mainstream Linux distributions is that they have become quite bloated and slow. The prevailing mood seems to be that in order for a desktop to be functional and good looking it must also be huge, ponderous, and slow. Grafpup aims to shatter that myth with an extremely efficient yet good looking desktop based around the Openbox window manager and the Lxpanel desktop panel/taskbar. A slightly customized ROX-Filer makes file management easy and provides desktop icons. Tyinh all of these disparate elements together is a full suite of custom configuration tools, wizards, and other gadgets. Most of these are graphical, too, and better yet most of them use the gtk+ toolkit for a nice uniform look. Most file formats should open right up in an appropriate application just by clicking on them in a filer window.
At this point a few people will probably be thinking "Hey, gtk+ is really slow. This guy doesn't know what he's talking about!". But then most distros aren't small enough to run fully in RAM and still leave plenty of free memory for your applications! That's right, in most cases Grafpup loads totally into memory, and all of the applications will open within a couple seconds and respond instantly to your input. The base distro is distributed as a live cd that weighs in slightly more than 100MB. But Grafpup can also be installed quite easily to a usb pendrive, ide flash, a "frugal" install on your hard drive, or in a conventional manner with all the files decompressed onto your hard drive. Even in this last case it will only take up @2-300MB, depending on what extra applications are installed. Even if you just want to run the live cd though, you will still be able to save your files to a hard drive, flash media, or even back to the disk itself.
Extension
Speaking of extra packages, Grafpup comes with a pretty good package manager that resolves dependencies, and there are well over a thousand applications in the repository (and growing). These range from basic command line utilities to full office suites, audio and video production tools, and Java. Both KDE and XFCE desktops are available too.
In addition to conventional packages Grafpup is also able to load compressed modules (they have the .sfs extension) very much like Slax does. This capability is used to package very large applications like OpenOffice, or the full development environment. Just place one of these where you have your save file located and it will be found the next time you boot up. Coming soon there will be a tool to add them in on the fly (we already had this, in a limited fashion, in Grafpup-104).
Security
Most people are aware that Windows has a teriible track record with security. Maybe that is why you are investigating Linux in the first place. Being based on a very recent Linux kernel Grafpup is by it's very nature more secure than Ms Windows. However, some live distros (Puppy Linux included) compromise security somewhat by running all graphical applications as the system administrator. Grafpup is a big departure in this regard and runs a full multi-user environment, just like a conventional *nix is supposed to do. Now it's probably not the world's most secure OS (if you want that run OpenBSD) but the philosify is that things should be secured from the ground up. That means instead of nagging you with passwords and extra security "features" (which are really just ugly patches on a broken system) you have a hardy system which allows you to get your work done. Need to configure something or install a few software packages? Just give the admin password once and do what you need to do. Nothing too difficult here.
Download here or here and try it.
