Linux Deepin 12.12 Alpha

A preview version of Linux Deepin 12.12, a popular Chinese community distribution, has been unleashed for testing. This is the first version that ships with the brand new Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE), which replaces GNOME Shell as the default desktop. DDE along with its Deepin System Settings (DSS) is regarded as a milestone for the Deepin project. DSS is implemented with the Deepin UI library and it features automatic screen brightness adjustment, support for the Chinese lunar calendar, convenient network configuration, and so on. Also included in Deepin 12.12 Alpha is Deepin Software Center 3.0 Alpha, where the software applications are reorganized with better classification. Multimedia utilities for video and audio playback as well as screenshots have been upgraded to new versions for testing.

Download: Linux Deepin 12.12 Alpha

SystemRescueCd 3.3.0

François Dupoux has released an updated build of SystemRescueCd, version 3.3.0. SystemRescueCd is a Gentoo-based live CD with an extensive collection of data rescue and disk management utilities. The project's changelog reports the following new features and improvements: "Standard kernels are the long-term supported Linux 3.4.27 (rescuecd and rescue64); alternative kernels updated to latest stable 3.7.4 (altker32 and altker64); fixed 'waiting for uevents to be processed' by upgrading udev to 197-r4; updated XFS file system utilities: - xfsprogs 3.1.10 and xfsdump 3.1.2; updated dar 2.4.9 (Disk Archive 2.4.9); added grsync 1.1.1 (a GTK+ frontend to rsync); added fuse-exfat 1.0.0 (exFAT file system FUSE module); fixed Network-Manager applet in the graphical environment; re-based genkernel on latest upstream version; updated NTFS-3G to 2013.1.13.

Downlaod: SystemRescueCd 3.3.0

How to Install Binary Files and Scripts (.BIN/.SH)

Binary files such as (.BIN) and shell scripts (.SH) are another popular format for distributing applications, particularly in the commercial, closed-source world. A good example of this are the Quake 3 and Doom 3 games from id Software. Basically all these files are is a list of commands that are run inside a terminal to copy, move, and create files in your file system. You can run these files like so:

For BIN files:
1. Make sure the file is set to "executable" by running this command:
chmod +x xyz.bin

Read more ►

openSUSE 12.3 Beta 1 Released

The first beta of the upcoming openSUSE Linux 12.3, scheduled for final release on 13 March, is out and ready for testing: "According to plan, today openSUSE 12.3 beta sees the light. The beta comes with mostly smallish changes as we're in serious testing waters now – we hope you're out there to help us clear the way to the final release. The beta comes with 4.10 RC2 of KDE's workspaces and applications. KDE has announced a third RC due to some late changes and this version is part of a testing sprint organized by the KDE Quality team. openSUSE KDE packagers have build a special live image to test this release but we urge you to get the beta packages from software.opensuse.org as they are of course newer.

Download: openSUSE-KDE-LiveCD-Build0348-x86_64.iso - openSUSE-GNOME-LiveCD-Build0348-x86_64.iso

Fedora 18 Final Relase

Fedora 18, the latest stable version of the Red Hat-sponsored community distribution of Linux, has finally arrived: "The Fedora project is incredibly delighted to announce the release of Fedora 18. What's new? The user interface for Fedora's installation software, Anaconda, has been completely re-written from the ground up. Making its debut in Fedora 18, the new UI introduces major improvements to the installation experience. It uses a hub-and-spoke model that makes installation easier for new users, offering them concise explanations about their choices. Advanced users and system administrators are of course still able to take advantage of more complex options. The general look and feel of the installation experience has been vastly upgraded, providing modern, clean, and comprehensible visuals during the process.

Download:
Fedora 18 x86_64 DVD    
Fedora-18-i386-DVD
Fedora-18-x86_64-Live-KDE    
Fedora-18-source-DVD
Fedora-18-i686-Live-KDE   
Fedora-18-i686-Live-Desktop    
Fedora-18-x86_64-Live-Desktop

CentOS 5.9 Released

Karanbir Singh has announced the release of CentOS 5.9, a Linux distribution built from the source code of the recently-released Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.9: "We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of CentOS 5.9 for i386 and x86_64 architectures. New features: the UOP added native MySQL support to Postfix, you might consider moving from the postfix-mysql package from the centosplus repo to this package if you are using the centosplus package only for MySQL support; java-1.7.0-openjdk (Java 7) support has been added in CentOS-5.9, java-1.6.0-openjdk (Java 6) is also still available and most things java in the distribution still use Java 6; ant17 (Ant 1.7.0) has been added to CentOS-5.9, the older ant (Ant 1.6.5) is also still available; Microsoft Hyper-V drivers have been added to allow CentOS to be more efficient as a virtual machine when installed on Microsoft Hyper-V server.


Download: CentOS-5.9-x86_64-bin-DVD-1of2.iso , CentOS-5.9-x86_64-bin-DVD-2of2.iso

How to INSTALLING SOFTWARE RPM

RPM stands for RedHat Package Management, but is pretty universal and used in modern linux Distro's. In many cases a simple click on the RPM icon will open a GUI for easy installation. Sometimes you can even do a test-install to see if all dependencies are correct.

For the commandline we have: ( assuming we want to install samba-2.2.1a-4 )

# rpm -ihv   samba-2.2.1a-4.rpm  ( Will install the package )
# rpm -Uhv samba-2.2.1a-4.rpm   ( Will upgrade the package )
# rpm -e samba-2.2.1a-4.rpm   ( Delete the package )
# rpm -l samba-2.2.1a-4.rpm   ( Will list the files in the package )
# rpm -ql samba-2.2.1a-4.rpm  ( Will list the files and state the installed version of the package )

Read more ►