October 14, 2007 -- For this article we've decided to not only deliver power benchmarks from Ubuntu 7.10 and Ubuntu 7.04 to compare the tickless kernel effect, but we have went back and retested all of the Ubuntu releases going back to Ubuntu 5.04, or also known as Hoary Hedgehog. With the past six Ubuntu releases we had tested the power consumption of a Lenovo laptop when running from its AC charger and off the battery, when the system was idling and then again under load. We had also monitored the temperature of the Intel Centrino mobile processor. You may be surprised by the results of Ubuntu's power usage.

October 11, 2007 -- A week from today marks the official release of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon along with all of the other official Ubuntu derivatives. However, coming out of Canonical camp today is the release candidate for Gutsy Gibbon, which is essentially the final version except for any bug fixes that are addressed between now and next week. While we've covered the Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon cycle quite extensively, today we have some screenshots of the latest builds of Xubuntu 7.10 and Kubuntu 7.10, which are the Xfce and KDE versions respectively.

October 10, 2007 -- If you have wanted to encrypt your Ubuntu installation on your hard drive quickly and easily, with Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" it's become even easier now that the alternate installer supports encrypting partitions. However, the Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" Ubiquity installer currently lacks LVM and dm-crypt support.

October 04, 2007 -- There's still a month until the final release of Fedora 8, but Fedora 8 Test 3 is now available, which has a wealth of a new features. Among these new features is an Online Desktop powered via BigBoard, KDE 3.5.7 can be found on the KDE Live images, improved Live installations, improved yum performance for package management, IcedTea is now installed by default, CodecBuddy has been included for handling codecs, and improved power management. Also getting into Fedora 8 Test 3 is secure remote management capabilities for the supported virtulization paths, Eclipse 3.3, and better support for Bluetooth devices. Making Fedora even easier to become a base for derivative Linux distributions, a generic-logos software package has been made to assist in re-branding. This third test release is designed for beta testers and all willing and able Linux users are encouraged to try it out.

September 27, 2007 -- We are just about three weeks out from the final release of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon, but those wishing to try out the new release early or wish to help in testing, the Ubuntu 7.10 Beta release is available today. This Ubuntu Beta release, which will be succeeded by the Ubuntu 7.10 Release Candidate and then the final release, contains GNOME 2.20 and other updated packages such as GIMP 2.4.0-rc2 and Pidgin 2.2.0. The Ubuntu 7.10 Beta is coming out one month since the last development release, Tribe 5, since Tribe 6 was never released to the public. The new Gutsy Gibbon artwork and wallpaper are also present in this test release.

September 23, 2007 -- Not only was this week marked by the Intel Developer Forum, but the final version of KateOS 3.6 was also released earlier in the week. KateOS 3.6 features a new LiveCD installer, hundreds of updates to packages, a software-powered hibernation system, a new version of update-notifier, and new internationalization support. KateOS is not nearly as popular as Ubuntu or Fedora, but we highly recommend checking it out if you're after a Xfce-powered desktop.

September 16, 2007 -- Kanotix 2007 Thorhammer RC6 has been released, which signifies re-basing Kanotix against Debian Etch as opposed to Debian Sid. Kanotix 2007 Thorhammer RC6 also includes the Linux 2.6.22 kernel based upon the Ubuntu kernel with some modifications and extra patches. This release candidate also features the Acritox installer, Beryl 0.2.0, X.Org 7.1.1, NTFS-3g support, KDE 3.5.5a, and IceWeasel. Give Kanotix Thorhammer a try and if you run into any problems or wish to provide feedback, stop by the Phoronix Forums where Kano (the Kanotix distribution creator) is a member.

September 13, 2007 -- Fedora 8 Test 2 hit the web this morning and accompanying this release are now four LiveCD images. There is the traditional Fedora Live CD version followed by a KDE version and now there is a developer Live edition and FEL. FEL is short for Fedora Electronic Lab and is designed to be a LiveCD edition for those engineers working on electronics. Anyhow, Fedora 8 Test 2 features the latest test release in the GNOME 2.19 series, is based upon the Linux 2.6.23 kernel, and PulseAudio is now used as the advanced sound server. These days the Fedora project isn't generating as much buzz as Ubuntu, but Fedora 8 Test 2 is certainly worth checking out for any Red Hat enthusiasts and those wishing to live on the bleeding edge. If there's one thing to enjoy about Fedora 8, the artwork improvements since Fedora 7 are absolutely great!

September 09, 2007 -- The first release candidate for Copernic, or perhaps better known as the codename for Mandriva Linux 2008, has been released. Mandriva Linux 2008 includes GNOME 2.20, the Linux 2.6.22 kernel, Compiz Fusion, and XDG menu migration and XDG user directory system. Mandriva 2008 also complies with the FreeDesktop.org icon theme draft specification.

September 01, 2007 -- Among Linux distributions, Zenwalk is really an unsung hero. This distribution is great when it comes to the quality of the software, package selection, and the all-around feel of the distribution. Zenwalk is shortly coming up on its v4.8 milestone and earlier this week the first beta was released. New in Zenwalk Linux 4.8 Beta is the Linux 2.6.22.5 kernel as well as IceWeasel and IceDove replacing Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird accompanied by the GMusicBrowser. The Xfce user interface has also been tweaked slightly and new artwork can also be found in Zenwalk 4.8. Zenwalk 4.8 is shaping up quite well from what can be seen in the beta release and it's highly recommended to check it out if you have time over this Labor Day weekend.