Article by George Norman

On 23 Sep 2009

Great news from the open-source world of Linux, several great pieces of news actually that I’ve decided to mash together in this article. First of all, you should know that the 6th Alpha version of Ubuntu 9.10, codename Karmic Koala, has been released. The fact that Karmic Koala is still in Alpha may deter you from downloading and installing it on your machine – but when the operating system reaches Beta on the 1st of October, or RC (Release Candidate) on the 22nd of October you will definitely want to put the software through its paces. Leaving release dates aside (the final Ubuntu 9.0 version is scheduled for October 29th- couldn't help myself), here are the new bits and pieces that Alpha 6 brings to the table:

- A faster, graphical boot-up sequence. The operating system boots up faster (about 20 seconds) and the old animation has been replaced by xsplah (see here – YouTube link).
- Software Store. As the name so adequately points out, a software store has been integrated into the Karmic Koala. It is embedded in the System menu


If you would like to get Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha 6, a download location is available here.

After putting the finishing touches on Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, Canonical will move to the next iteration of the operating system, mainly Ubuntu 10.04. According to a recent announcement by Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth , the codename for the OS is Lucid Lynx and will be released next year in April. See Shuttleworth’s announcement here (YouTube link).

Moving on, Lead Linux Mint Developer Clem Lefebvre, after announcing the release of Linux Mint 7 Gloria XFCE has now made public the improvements to mintInstall in Linux Mint 8, codename Helena. In brief, they are:
- Less branding: you won’t see “mintInstall” nut Software Manager” in the menu
- APT status and removal of applications: queries to APT are sent to discover if a listed application is installed on the system and if it is, what versions are installed.
- No more refresh: the refresh button has been removed. When data is updated the user will get a Level 1 package update in mintUpdate.
- Graphical interface: the GUI has been improved. Check out the before and after images below.

mintInstall Linux Mint 7 Gloria



mintInstall Linux Mint 8 Helena



Last but not least, a change has been made to Linux Mint 7 KDE as well. Actually not to the software itself, but to the logo. The new logo looks like this.





Tags: Linux, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Karmic Koala, Lucid Lynx, Helena

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