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It’s been little less than a year since my last post, and what could be more symbolic than a long overdue release of Gentoo Linux. Although ‘release’ in the classic sense doesn’t really apply to Gentoo, it’s always exciting when a new version is released.

From the Gentoo Monthly Newsletter:

The 2008.0 final release is out! Code-named “It’s got what plants crave,” this release contains numerous new features including an updated installer, improved hardware support, a complete rework of profiles, and a move to Xfce instead of GNOME on the LiveCD. LiveDVDs are not available for x86 or amd64, although they may become available in the future. The 2008.0 release also includes updated versions of many packages already available in your ebuild tree.

* Updated installer:

The installer now only performs networkless installations using the packages and ebuild tree on the LiveCD. It also contains numerous fixes for extended and logical partitions.

* Improved hardware support:

Moving to the 2.6.24 kernel added many new drivers for hardware released since the 2007.0 release.

* Complete rework of profiles:

Restructuring profiles allowed significant cleanup of redundancies, reducing developer maintenance and confusion. The difference for you is that profiles now appear in /usr/portage/profiles/ under default/linux/ instead of default-linux/. See the upgrading guide for more details.

* Xfce instead of GNOME on the LiveCD:

To save space, the LiveCDs switched to the smaller Xfce environment. This means that a binary installation using the LiveCD will install Xfce, but you’re still free to build GNOME or KDE from source.

* No LiveDVDs on x86 or amd64:

In the interest of getting the release out, the release engineering team decided to postpone LiveDVDs because of problems in their generation. They may show up later—if so, we’ll let you know.

* Updated packages:

Highlights of the 2008.0 release include Portage 2.1.4.4, a 2.6.24 kernel, Xfce 4.4.2, gcc 4.1.2 and glibc 2.6.1.

You can find the download, as well as more information on Gentoo Linux at their homepage

I am happy to announce that Gentoo Linux version 2007.0 has finally been released after numerous delays. If you weren’t aware, Gentoo is my preferred flavor (distribution) of Linux. The Gentoo press release can explain much better than I:

After several delays, the Gentoo Release Engineering team is proud to announce the release of Gentoo Linux 2007.0, code named “Secret Sauce”. This release includes a completely rewritten version of the Gentoo Linux Installer on the AMD64 and x86 LiveCD and LiveDVD images. It also includes GNOME 2.16.2, KDE 3.5.5, Xfce 4.4, Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3, OpenOffice.org 2.1.0, and the 2.6.19 Linux kernel.

The press release also mentions the major changes to the x86/amd64 platforms:

x86/amd64:

Updated hardware support is among the highlights of the x86 release. Besides the many updated office and productivity packages x86 also brings an update to GLIBC 2.5.

On amd64 you can enjoy updated 32-bit emulation libraries improving support for many closed source applications and browser plugins.

x86 and amd64 also provides both hardened and non-hardened stages in this release. Hardened stages are still using GCC 3.4.6 and GLIBC 2.3.6 but it’s possible to upgrade from hardened to non-hardened stages, if needed.

I have been awaiting this new version for a while, even though when it comes to Gentoo, releases are just formalities. Much congratulations to the dedicated teams who made this release possible.

I came across this great site recently known as Open Source Alternatives whose purpose is, you guessed it, to help open source advocates find alternatives for commercial software, such as Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Office, and iTunes. It is a great reference and I have already found many useful linux alternatives.

All linux users should definitely have Open Source Alternatives bookmarked and ready to browse, as it is a priceless utility.