Been a while since I posted For some strange reason, recently I got an urge to try out ArchLinux. After much deliberation finally decided to try out ArchLinux again, in VirtualBox. My little install guide I compiled as I was reading through the Official ArchLinux Install Guide + Beginner’s Guide.

Please note: This is highly customized according to *my* requirements and nowhere as thorough /generalized as the official guides. Still, it might help you. Here we go -
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It’s been a while since I last used Ubuntu – I have generally shunned away from Ubuntu since Fiesty – for the main reason that I’m more of KDE guy, I never really liked Gnome, and my experience with Fiesty was rather unsavoury. You might say ‘hey you want KDE try Kubuntu’ -  Kubuntu – well I won’t get started on that. I’ve been using Sabayon and was pretty darn impressed with that. With Jaunty being due for release soon, I decided to check Jaunty, even more so after Manish kept raving about Jaunty’s performance.

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The folks behind openSUSE have released the next version of the extremely popular (and my favorite) Linux distro – openSUSE.

openSUSE 11.1 comes with KDE 4.1.3, GNOME 2.24.1, and for those who (still) don’t want to shift to KDE 4, yes openSUSE 11.1 comes with KDE 3.5.10

You can download openSUSE via HTTP, FTP or via BitTorrent, just head over here.

Bang of the release schedule, the next version of Ubuntu, Ubuntu 8.10 dubbed the Intrepid Ibex was released on October 30th.

Ubuntu Intrepix Ibex brings in some new features like

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With just few days ago to Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) ShipIt – Canonical’s service of sending Ubuntu CDs FREE of cost to your doorstop has now started accepting pre-orders for delivery requests of Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10). You can order either the Desktop edition or the server edition, and it will be delivered FREE of cost to you(yes, you don’t even have to pay for shipping).

Although Canonical states delivery can take upto 10 weeks – I’ve generally received them here in India with 3 weeks. Although the default request is that of a single CD, by placing a special request, you can order any number of CDs – though I suggest against this – instead, order a single CD, and make copies of it yourself and distribute it!

Admin’s Note: This is a guest post by Aditya. Though this post was drafted on 1st July, my work commitments and rather bad memory prevented this post being published. Due apologies.
I know that a title is a bit harsh but I am afraid it is true.
First lets get into some technical stuff.
Dream Linux is a Debian based distro(like Ubuntu) . It has both Xfce and Gnome interface. I’m reviewing the Gnome version.

The Installation

The first screen you get after booting into the CD ask you to choose the interface(Gnome or Xfce)
It also has memtest for testing memory but the CD cant be checked for defects, which is a very important feature, since the disk has to be free of defects as it is an operating system.
I choose the Gnome interface and booted. Here’s where I faced my first nightmare. The whole thing is pretty slow. Even after booting completely. I do know that a live CD is slow as it is limited by the optical drive but this was way slower than other live C.D’s.

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The alpha release of Fedora’s next version, Fedora 9 was release today

The Alpha release provides the first opportunity for the wider community to become involved with the testing of Rawhide: representing a sanitised snapshot of Fedora’s development branch, which sees rapid changes and will become the next major release, it should boot on the majority of systems, providing both an opportunity to get a look at what new features will be included in the next release and also an opportunity to provide feedback and bug reports to help ensure that the next release is as good as possible.

Some highlights of Fedora 9 Alpha:

* GNOME 2.21 Development Release
* KDE 4.0
* Firefox 3 Beta 2
* Support for resizing ext2, ext3 and NTFS partitions during install
* Support for creating and installing to encrypted filesystems
* PackageKit
* Kernel 2.6.24

And numerous other improvements and enhancements.

Getting it:

The Alpha release is available both through mirroring system and via bittorrent.

For direct http access to a local mirror:

http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/test/9-Alpha/

For a list of mirrors carrying the content and the various protocols they support:

http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/publiclist/Fedora/9-Alpha/

For bittorrent:

http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/

More Information:

For more information regarding the Alpha release, please visit the release notes page:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/9/Alpha/ReleaseNotes

Technorati Tags: Linux, opensource, Fedora

Every one is trying out linux, if you don’t want to be left out read on.
This topic covers what you need to know to shift to the boon called Linux.

Firstly why do you need Linux? Linux is for geeks and their geek factor right?
Well the answer is no. Linux is for those who need a peace of mind.

Let’s take an example here.
You come home tired after a long day’s work and all you want to do is sit in front of your computer and relax but as soon as you turn it on you get a message could not find system32 and windows wont start whatever you do.
So you call your system mechanic and he will comes the next day reinstalls windows an charges you a good 500 bucks. Now your system runs fine and also faster than before and all is well again right?
Again the answer is no.
Within a month or two you will experience the same or a new problem and again its 500 bucks gone.
Now you might ask if I mean to say that Linux is problem-free. I would say no to that. At present all Operating Systems do have their own problems but in the case of Linux it is lesser and you will find more stability and configurability. If this is not compelling enough then read on and I am sure you will reconsider.

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