February 02, 2008 -- Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 4 was released yesterday afternoon and today we have screenshots of this latest Hardy Heron development release. Alpha 4 integrates the latest GNOME 2.22 packages such as Vinagre and Brasero, introduces a world clock applet, and virtualization improvements that we already talked about earlier in the week. Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5 will ship in late February and the final release will come this April.

January 30, 2008 -- One of the features that was introduced a year ago into Ubuntu 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" was support for KVM, which is the Kernel-based Virtual Machine. The Kernel-based Virtual Machine provides full virtualization support for Linux when running on x86 hardware with either Intel's VT or AMD-V technology, which means you can run unmodified guest operating systems such as Linux or Microsoft Windows within your Linux host operating system. As we had shared in benchmarks, KVM -- even back to its infancy -- has been quite fast at virtualization when compared to Xen or kqemu. However, the KVM virtualization support found in Ubuntu hasn't been the most user-friendly. Installing and then managing these guest operating systems in Ubuntu 7.04 and Ubuntu 7.10 has required using the command-line interface and thus requiring the user to be familiar with the various QEMU options. However, in Ubuntu 8.04 this has all changed for the better now that virt-manager and libvirt are available from the main Ubuntu repository.

January 26, 2008 -- The Mandriva team is busy cooking up a new spring release with the first development release being codenamed Ophrys. The first beta release for Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring is now available, and it features a new XML-based package meta-information system, new multimedia keyboard support, Perl 5.10 integration, the latest GNOME and KDE packages, and the Linux 2.6.24-rc8 kernel. KDE 4.0.0 is available from Mandriva's Cooker /contrib repository, but in Mandriva 2008.1 Beta 1 it doesn't ship by default.

January 22, 2008 -- Last week OpenSuSE 11.0 Alpha 1 was released, and in addition to including KDE 4.0, PulseAudio integration, and various package updates, Alpha 1 features improvements to the OpenSuSE installer. This installer uses Qt4 and is much improved, which warranted us taking a closer look.

January 03, 2008 -- We've just been notified that gOS 2.0 will be released next week at the 2008 Consumer Electronic Show. This Linux distribution started making news two months ago as the conceptual Google Operating System and shipping on a sub-$200 (USD) Everex PC. This distribution is very easy to use and features integration with popular Web 2.0 services such as YouTube, Google Calendar, and Google Maps. This next gOS release, codenamed "Rocket", adds a few features and more Google love. Accompanying this release will also be a gOS Software Developer Kit.

January 01, 2008 -- Along side Ubuntu Studio and other multimedia-oriented distributions, Musix is a Debian-based distribution led by Argentinian developers that is currently at version 1.0. Released in time for the new year was Musix 1.0r3 Test 4, which contains an arsenal of free software multimedia programs ranging from Ardour to Rosegarden to Audacity. This distribution, which ships KDE as its default desktop environment, also includes other desktop programs such as aMSN, AbiWord, IceWeasel, and more. If you're looking for a deep dive into the Linux multimedia world, Musix is a distribution worth trying.

December 28, 2007 -- While Ubuntu Linux continues to grow -- in both popularity and new advancements for the Linux ecosystem -- and dance in the limelight, it isn't the choice for everybody. For those that may still be searching for their right Linux mate, Zenwalk 5.0 is a distribution worth trying out. Previously we have referred to Zenwalk as an unsung hero among Linux distributions and with the forthcoming 5.0 release it asserts a very well rounded Xfce desktop.

December 21, 2007 -- The second alpha release for the Ubuntu Hardy Heron family is now available. In addition to the new Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 2 build, also updated are Kubuntu, Edubuntu, JeOS, Xunbuntu, Gobuntu, and Ubuntu Studio. The major changes impacting all of these distribution derivatives is a massive Debian update and switching over to the Linux 2.6.24 kernel. With Ubuntu 8.04, PulseAudio is also the default sound server. While KDE 4.0 packages are available for both Kubuntu 7.10 and Kubuntu 8.04, Kubuntu 8.04 Alpha 2 uses KDE 3.5.8 by default. In this release, some of the other updated packages include Amarok, Qt, Dikigam, and there is also Adobe Flash support in Konqueror.

December 19, 2007 -- Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 2 is due out tomorrow, and while we'll have more extensive testing as the Hardy Heron release nears in April, today we are publishing our first -- very initial -- benchmarks of Ubuntu 8.04 using the 12-19-2007 daily build and comparing these results to Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon. These tests are focused upon OpenGL gaming, encoding, disk, and memory performance.

December 12, 2007 -- KDE 4.0 Release Candidate 2 was made available yesterday as the last testing release before the final KDE 4.0 build next month. If you've been wanting to try out this latest version of KDE 4.0, but aren't yet ready to fully upgrade, there are Linux LiveCDs already available that integrate KDE 4.0 RC2. Two of these LiveCDs are the OpenSuSE-based KDE Four Live 0.8 and a KDE 4.0 spin of Kubuntu.