February 28, 2006 -- Gentoo is one of the more popular Linux distributions with die-hard enthusiasts, while also being dubbed one of the hardest distributions to grasp. The team of Gentoo developers have announced the availability of Gentoo v2006.0 as we approach the end of February. Some of the improvements in Gentoo 2006.0 include KDE v3.4.3, GNOME v2.12.2, GCC v3.4.4, and the Linux 2.6.15 kernel. In addition, this premiere 2006 release includes many optimizations for various processing architectures. Today at Phoronix Gentoo v2006.0 is the focus of our spotlight.

February 26, 2006 -- GoblinX Mini, the distribution based off of GoblinX Premium, has reached version 1.2.2. Included in GoblinX Mini v1.2.2 is a new "liveupgrade" feature for remastering the entire Linux distribution, improvements to the "goinstall" script, corrected various small errors and corrections, and have shaped up into a fairly nice release and is the focus of the Phoronix spotlight today. GoblinX v1.2.2 also uses the Linux 2.6.15 kernel and X.Org v6.8.2, all of which is contained on the LiveCD with Xfce v4.2.2.

February 21, 2006 -- We at Phoronix have long been supporters of the Fedora Core Project since the release of Yarrow (Fedora Core 1) and continuing with Tettnang, Heidelberg, and Stentz. Sticking with Red Hat's 9-month release interval for the Fedora Project, we are on the heals of the Fedora Core 5 launch, which is expected to be released on March 15. Striking the Internet this week was the final test build of Fedora Core 5, which also marks the continual freeze of the development process except for fixing critical bugs. With that said, today we have delivered our first Phoronix examination of Fedora 5 as well as the first official benchmarks coming out for this next release. Our primary focus today is on its benchmarking performance with our long-standing platter of tests at Phoronix, as well as seeing if Fedora Core 5 is truly ready for prime time.

February 18, 2006 -- Berry Linux, the distribution based off of Fedora Core, has released version 0.67. Inside of this LiveCD is the Linux kernel 2.6.15.4, KDE v3.5.1, Kudzu v1.2.25, hwdata v0.174, and Firefox v1.5.0.1. The previous Fluxbox desktop environment has been replaced by a custom in-house window manager called Rasp-UI v0.01. In addition to providing all of the Linux and Fedora essentials, Berry v0.67 now includes WINE v0.9.2, GIMP, Inkspace, and Sylpheed.

February 06, 2006 -- Pentoo, a Network Security Consortium distribution based off of Gentoo, has released their Mini-Pentoo v2006.0 build. This distribution does include such packages as GAIM and Firefox, however, its key purpose is to provide elite applications and tools to perform penetration testing. Not only is this a great LiveCD security distribution, but it comes without many of the hassles beginning Linux users have faced when attempting to run Gentoo, and of course Emerge is included. Pentoo utilizes the Linux 2.6.14 kernel and Enlightenment environment. Some of the tools include changing a Windows NT password from a hard drive, changing or resetting CMOS passwords, John The Ripper, and Ethereal Network Sniffer.

February 04, 2006 -- Sticking with Novell's weekly BETA releases of SuSE/OpenSuSE v10.1 up to its February 16 release candidate, this week we experienced the launch of SuSE v10.1 OSS BETA 3 that is code-named Agama Lizard. In the release announcement no changes are directly mentioned, however, this latest BETA includes the Linux 2.6.16-rc1 kernel, X.Org v6.9.0, GNOME v2.12.0.1, and KDE v3.5.1. Looking over this release, there are a great deal of modifications in store from the present OpenSuSE v10.0 release.

January 30, 2006 -- SLAX, one of our favorite mini LiveCD distributions here at Phoronix, has released their v5.0.7 release. Contained in the Slackware-based SLAX Standard v5.0.7 is X.Org v6.9.0, KDE v3.5, Squashfs v3.0, and Linux kernel v2.6.15. Meanwhile, a whole list of changes have been added into this latest release, making it well worth checking out with everyone from the casual Linux user to even the Microsoft Windows folks.

January 17, 2006 -- The talented developers at Red Hat have unleashed Fedora Core 5 Test 2, after a one month delay due to development reasons. Making its way into FC5T2 is GNOME v2.13.4, KDE v3.5.0, Linux v2.6.15, and X.Org v7.0. Unlike some past Fedora builds, there is a great deal of changes in this development release on the road to Fedora 5, which is presently scheduled to make its debut this March. With the time we have spent thus far with Fedora Core 5, we can say it is very much worth trying out and is shaping up into becoming one of the best releases thus far.

January 14, 2006 -- The Dutch developers of Nonux have embarked upon yet another release. Enhanced in this v2.2 release is the Linux kernel 2.6.14.5, GNOME 2.12.2, OpenOffice 2.0.1, and vast improvements to the hard disk installer. This weekend we took Nonux v2.2 for a spin, but if you are interested in giving it a shot, remember to bring a translator.

January 11, 2006 -- Of the many abilities for Linux, one of its advantages is the ability to be localized to fit almost anyone's need from the Italian government to support in Indian languages for FOSS. One of the distributions to take aim at Indian users is IndLinux, which has recently released its first BETA for the upcoming v1.0 Rangoli. IndLinux Rangoli serves as a LiveCD with support for both GNOME and KDE along with multilingual capabilities (Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati and Punjabi, Nepali, and Dzongkha). Unlike many distributions which is based off of the ever popular Knoppix, IndLinux swears by Morphix. Packaged in this first BETA is the Linux 2.6.11 kernel, OpenOffice 2.0, X.Org 6.8.2, GNOME 2.10.1, and KDE 3.4.3.