September 18, 2008 -- Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 6 has been released as the final alpha build for Intrepid Ibex. This release ships with the latest GNOME 2.24 and Linux 2.6.27 bits along with X Server 1.5.0. Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 6 also supports Samba 3.2 with clustered file server support, encrypted network transport, IPv6 support, and better integration with recent versions of Microsoft Windows clients and servers. Another package addition to Ubuntu is the pam-auth-update-tool, which is a management interface for PAM authentication on both desktops and servers.

August 14, 2008 -- As the first and only Intrepid Ibex test release in August, Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 4 was released into the wild this morning. This release is coming two weeks before the Ubuntu 8.10 feature freeze and the first artwork deadline. Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 4 provides support for a GNOME guest-session mode, an encrypted private directory, and it integrates NetworkManager 0.7. Of course, this is already on top of Ubuntu 8.10 shipping with the Linux 2.6.26 kernel, X.Org 7.4 / X Server 1.5, and many other updated packages.

August 05, 2008 -- Fedora 9 had shipped earlier this year with kernel-based mode-setting support, an early release of NetworkManager 0.7, PackageKit integration, install-time encryption support, initial EXT4 support, the Upstart daemon, and many other improvements. Now, however, it's time start getting excited over Fedora 10. The first Alpha release of Fedora 10 (codenamed Cambridge) was released this morning. In this article we have screenshots of Fedora 10 along with some of the features you can expect when this Linux operating system ships in October.

July 14, 2008 -- With Canonical having pulled many new packages into Ubuntu 8.10 from Debian unstable and there being the Linux 2.6.26-rc8 kernel, a near-final version of X.Org 7.4 / Mesa 7.1, and GCC 4.3 among them, we've decided to run a few early benchmarks of Intrepid Ibex. In this article we have enclosed 32 benchmark results from the Phoronix Test Suite comparing Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS to Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 2.

July 06, 2008 -- In recent times the Gentoo Linux and its foundation has been plagued with a multitude of problems and times have certainly been challenging for this once popular distribution. It's already July and we are now finally seeing Gentoo's first official release of the year. In this article we are taking a brief look at Gentoo Linux 2008.0 and its changes.

June 28, 2008 -- The first development snapshot for the forthcoming release of Ubuntu 8.10 (codenamed Intrepid Ibex) is coming out two weeks late -- likely due to Canonical's focus on getting the Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS update out next week -- but what matters is that it's finally here. Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 1 is far from meeting the quality standards for end-users (there isn't even a desktop LiveCD spin of this release), but that didn't stop us from playing with this latest build from the Canonical camp. In this article we are looking at the few changes in the Intrepid Alpha 1 release for Ubuntu and Kubuntu as well as looking at some of the changes they have planned before this release goes gold in October.

June 24, 2008 -- Two months after Ubuntu 8.04 LTS was released and almost one month after Ubuntu Netbook Remix was first showcased, Ubuntu MID Edition 8.04 has been released. This is the newest Canonical product in the Ubuntu family and is designed for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). Ubuntu MID Edition is a cut-down version of Ubuntu 8.04 for the desktop but with many packages sliced away and with optimizations for Intel's Atom Processor and mobile software enhancements as a result of the Moblin project.

June 10, 2008 -- Linux Mint, one of the popular desktop distributions that's based off Ubuntu, has come out with version 5.0 "Elyssa" that builds upon the 8.04 Hardy Heron release. Linux Mint 5.0 brings updates to the unique Mint Tools, GNOME 2.22, performance improvements, and other features that come because of rebasing against this latest Ubuntu release. In this article we are taking a brief look at some of the Linux Mint features, for those that have never explored this fast-growing distribution.

June 09, 2008 -- Canonical's Netbook Remix won't be appearing on mobile devices until later this year -- and these software changes are still very much under development -- but interested parties can already check out the source-code and Debian packages for this work. Canonical is publishing this work under the GNU GPLv3 license. For now this work isn't available through any of the Ubuntu repositories, but the packages are hosted within a Launchpad PPA (Personal Package Archive).

June 08, 2008 -- Last week we released Phoronix Test Suite 1.0 and one of the article requests we received as a result was to do a side-by-side comparison between the popular desktop Linux distributions. Ask and you shall receive. Today we have up 28 test results from Ubuntu 8.04, Fedora 9, and Mandriva 2008.1.