The French Linux distribution Mandriva has released the second rolling update for the 2010 major release. The Mandriva 2010.2 edition has 2522 updated packages since the 2010.1 release.
Mandriva is available in three different flavors, the Power Pack with some additional commercial packages and support, the free live CD version One and the free software DVD edition.

• Download Mandriva Linux One 2010.2
• Download Mandriva Linux Free Software 2010.2

The Jolicloud 1.1 Cloud OS is now available. Jolicloud is based on an Ubuntu 10.04 LTS backend with an custom developed Chromium HTML5 user interface. The new release is no longer targeting Netbooks only, the developers claim it's usable with any kind of computer now.
They list following updates from the 1.0 release:

* Resync to Lucid (10.04) for base packages

o Maintained by Ubuntu for security and bug-fix purposes for three years.
o Future patches from Maverick (10.10) will be released under Jolicloud 1.1.

* Kernel upgraded to 2.6.35.4

o Faster bootup/suspend/resume.
o Latest drivers for WiFi, video cards, sound cards, and webcams.
o Automatically integrated Poulsbo, Nvidia, and Broadcom enhanced drivers that work out-of-the-box. No need to manually install any drivers or modules.
o Newly optimized kernel selected for Atom CPUs, further enhancing the performance of the latest Atom N450 and N550 hardware.
o For all other non-netbook hardware, a standard kernel is used to maintain legacy support.

* X.org upgraded to X11R7.5

o Better touchscreen support
o Better accelerated video support
o Support for newly released video hardware

* Gnome, Nautilus, and Metacity upgraded to 2.30

o Better battery life
o Faster system startup time
o Better external monitor support

* Plymouth used for boot-up theme

o New animated and graphical boot splash screen
o Cleaner boot-up and shut-down experience

* SLiM Login Manager

o Simpler and faster than GDM

* Ubiquity and OEM-config upgraded to 2.2.25

o More user-friendly installation process

* Miscellaneous internal OS upgrades

o Mostly non-critical bug fixes and feature enhancements from upstream Debian software vendors.
o Many internal libraries and command-line programs upgraded, like zip, wget, gcc, xterm, etc.

* PackageKit 0.6.8 to manage packages

o Easy installation and upgrade of packages through our HTML5 interface

* Upgraded native apps

o VLC 1.1.4
o Chromium 7.0
o Dropbox 0.6.3
o Abiword 2.8.2
o Banshee 1.6.1
o Firefox 3.6.10
o Gimp 2.6.8
o Miro 3.0.1
o OpenOffice.org 3.2.1

Some weeks ago the SICG had announced their first compositor for Blender with OpenCL acceleration.
The compositor is currently in an early development status and the devs are looking for tests and feedback, later versions may be integrated into the stable blender tree.
A scene on the test system from the developers (Intel Core i7 with NVIDIA GT 220 graphics card) was processed nearly 10 times faster when using the GPU acceleration instead of the CPU processing.

The usage of OpenCL acceleration in this version is limited to the defocus node, blur node, color balance, lens distortion, brightness, rotate and tonemap.

The Fedora Project, Red Hat's test lab, has released the 14th edition of the Fedora distribution. It has a lot of up to date packages, the default desktop is GNOME and alternative versions with KDE, LXDE and XFCE are available too.
The CD images are able to boot a live system or install it on your drives.

shasum
4be4a20bedd4b4bdd51973cf2ee87d79d6ee9781 Fedora-14-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso
dbb62bd71560a09389f5c655d3a204fcf8f527af Fedora-14-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso
d0b2980c62a8196efb560b45410f1e2c05fc0dd6 Fedora-14-x86_64-Live-LXDE.iso
07bcf0c0e516c77d02f1ff7714e1b03d54f303f6 Fedora-14-x86_64-Live-XFCE.iso

The MeeGo Linux Distribution, coordinated under the hands of the FSF and mainly developed by Intel and Nokia, has reached the 1.1 release. This release is targeting OEMs and software developers and is not ready for daily use, of cause the most basics are already in and you can give it a try, when you are interested.

The MeeGo core 1.1 includes Linux kernel 2.6.35, X.org server 1.9.0, Web Runtime, Qt 4.7 and Qt Mobility 1.0.2. On top of this there are three different user interfaces; the netbook UI (Netbook UX), the smartphone UI (Handset UX) and the ui for vehicle embedded devices (In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) UX).

Intel had made ready to use images for different Intel Atom devices while Nokia made an special image for their ARM processor powered N900 smartphone. You will find them on the MeeGo download page.

• Download meego-netbook-ia32-1.1.img (Intel x86) @ Pl4anet 64B1t.c0m

The Jolicloud guys have released the final 1.0 version of their special netbook Linux distribution.

Joliclound claims to be other than regular Linux distributions. It uses a netbook screen size optimized user GUI and the GUI is mainly based on HTML5. Joli users can chose between many web applications, stay always connected to different web services, save their personal data in the cloud and, of cause, they are able to run standard Linux programs as well.

It should run on the most of the available x86 based netbooks.

sha1sum Jolicloud-1.0.iso
9e309c4634b738f6a4d826ca72ed6fd99b2ee2b3 Jolicloud-1.0.iso

• Download Jolicloud-1.0.iso @ Planet 64B1t.c0m

Mandriva hat heute die Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring Distribution vorgestellt. Die Packete können ab sofot im Mandriva Store gekauft werden, eine Version ohne Support und kommerzielle Programmpakete gibt es auch zum Herunterladen.

• Download mandriva-linux-free-2010-spring-dual.iso (Installation ISO) @ Planet 64B1t.c0m
• Download mandriva-linux-one-2010-spring-GNOME-europe-americas-cdrom-i586.iso (Instant run)@ Planet 64B1t.c0m
• Download mandriva-linux-one-2010-spring-KDE4-europe1-americas-cdrom-i586.iso (Instant run) @ Planet 64B1t.c0m

Zum diesjährigen Linuxtag in Berlin hatten die linuX-gamers wieder eine aktualisierte Version ihrer Live-Gaming Distribution bereit gestellt. Es gibt eine kleine CD-Version und eine 4,7 GiB große DVD-Version, beide Versionen können natürlich auch auf USB-Sticks installiert werden.

v0.9.6 (linuxtag2010-release):

* updated games
* added a few games
* added more user applications
* improved user experience over all
* updated drivers, kernel (2.6.33!) and base
* LAN hosting makes it possible for other clients in your LAN to boot from the network!

Hardware requirements Your PC must at least meet these requirements:

* i686-capable architecture
* 512 MB ram
* videocard with 3d acceleration

Note: If the computer you try live.linuX-gamers out on is older than 6 years, you should try the Lite version as it contains mostly games suited for older computers.

sha1sum
a4c9f84c2f683452968c0f60ab937998a9499342 lglive-0.9.6-i686-hybrid-big.iso
f9ca1bd7ddd63c72b2ec87e14e6b7c3f375d5d56 lglive-0.9.6-i686-hybrid-lite.iso

Die fertige Version von Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Linux ist ab jetzt erhältlich. Auch die Diverate Kubuntu Edubuntu und UbuntuStudio gibt es in der neuen Version 10.04.

The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Long-Term Support). This release incorporates the Desktop Edition and the Server Edition. The Server Edition can be used on physical servers, on Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC), and on Amazon's EC2 public cloud. Codenamed "Lucid Lynx", 10.04 LTS continues Ubuntu's proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

We are also pleased to announce Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition, which is not a long-term support release.

Read more about the features of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in the following press releases:

Desktop and Netbook editions
http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-10.04-desktop-edition
Server edition http://www.ubuntu.com/news/ubuntu-10.04-server-edition

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will be supported for three years on desktops and five years on servers. Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition will be supported for 18 months.

Thanks to the efforts of the global translation community, Ubuntu is available in 29 languages. For a list of supported languages and detailed translation statistics for these and other languages, see:

http://people.ubuntu.com/~dpm/ubuntu-10.04-translation-stats.html

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is also the basis for new 10.04 releases of Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, UbuntuStudio, and Mythbuntu:

Kubuntu http://kubuntu.org/news/10.04-lts-release
Xubuntu http://xubuntu.org/news/10.04-release
Edubuntu http://edubuntu.org/news/10.04-release
Mythbuntu http://mythbuntu.org/10.04/release
Ubuntu Studio https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/10.04release_notes

Die Firma Unigine hat für ihre gleichnamige Game Engine eine weitere Technologiedemo bereit gestellt. Die Unigine Heaven 2.0 Demo enthält auch einen Benchmark Modus. Die Unigine Engine wird z.B. im Spiel Primal Carnage verwendet, welches in einigen Monaten erscheinen soll.

Um alle Effekte der Unigine Demo zu sehen ist eine GPU mit Shader 5 Fähigkeit notwendig, bei älteren Karten fehlen die entsprechenden Effekte, eine OpenGL 2.0 kompatible GPU ist jedoch Mindestvoraussetzung.

Mit einer alten NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT erreicht man schon keine spielbaren Geschwindigkeiten mehr, einige Benchmarks habe ich zum Vergleich trotzdem mal durchlaufen lassen.

Die Screenshots wurden alle bei 1280*1024 mit 4xAA und 8xAF und maximal möglichen Details, aber natürlich ohne Tesselation, da nicht unterstützt, aufgenommen.

Für den taktischen Multiplayer Shooter Legends the Game gibt es das BT-Mappack in einer neuen Version. Die Liste der Änderungen findet ihr hier, zudem soll es bald den Patch 0.4.1.45 mit diesen Änderungen geben. Die hartgesottenen Legends Gamer treffen sich meistens Sonntags zum Zocken.

Der freie, nicht-lineare Video-Editor für Linux, OpenShot steht jetzt in Version 1.0 zur Verfügung.

OpenShot's Features include:

* Support for many video, audio, and image formats (based on FFmpeg)
* Gnome integration (drag and drop support)
* Multiple tracks
* Clip resizing, trimming, snapping, and cutting
* Video transitions with real-time previews
* Compositing, image overlays, watermarks
* Title templates, title creation
* SVG friendly, to create and include titles and credits
* Scrolling motion picture credits
* Solid color clips (including alpha compositing)
* Support for Rotoscoping / Image sequences
* Drag and drop timeline
* Frame stepping, key-mappings: J,K, and L keys
* Video encoding (based on FFmpeg)
* Key Frame animation
* Digital zooming of video clips
* Speed changes on clips (slow motion etc)
* Custom transition lumas and masks
* Re-sizing of clips (frame size)
* Audio mixing and editing
* Presets for key frame animations and layout
* Ken Burns effect (making video by panning over an image)
* Digital video effects, including brightness, gamma, hue, greyscale, chroma key (bluescreen / greenscreen), and over 20 other video effects

OpenShot provides extensive editing and compositing features, and has been designed as a practical tool for working with high-definition video including HDV and AVCHD.

Broadcom bietet mit dem Chrystal HD einen zusätzlichen Video-Beschleuniger Chip, der besonders energiesparend arbeitet und sich für den Einsatz in Notebooks eignet, an.

Linux Software

To encourage the development of Linux media player applications using our HD video decoders, Broadcom is releasing the Linux kernel driver source code under the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2 as well as application and library source code on a royalty-free basis under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), version 2.1, as published by the Free Software Foundation.

Current driver source supporting all kernels >= 2.6.11 (12/29/2009)

* Download Crystal HD driver source

Note: The binary firmware files included in the source archive continue to be covered under Broadcom's standard software license agreement and are not distributed either under the GPL or LGPL.
Legal Disclaimer

The Crystal HD video decoder open source software is provided under the GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1, as published by the Free Software Foundation ("LGPL"). This software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY SUPPORT OR WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the LGPL for more details. A copy of the LGPL is available at http://www.broadcom.com/licenses/LGPLv2.1.php or by writing to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

Zum Jahreswechsel gab es noch ein Update bei der Alien Arena.

Major 7.33 features

1 - Major performance optimizations.
2 - Automatic video setting detection on first run(improved).
3 - In game IRC client
4 - Access to player rankings and stats, and skill matchmaker
5 - Improved disruptor effects
6 - New map, Dm-Deathray
7 - Vastly improved antilag code
8 - GLSL shell effects
9 - Headshots
10 - Improved player skins and other gfx
11 - Various client and server bugfixes

Für die x86 Virtualisierungsumgebung VirtualBox gibt es heute wieder ein größeres Update.

VirtualBox 3.1.0 (released 2009-11-30)

This version is a major update. The following major new features were added:

* Teleportation (aka live migration); migrate a live VM session from one host to another (see the manual for more information)
* VM states can now be restored from arbitrary snapshots instead of only the last one, and new snapshots can be taken from other snapshots as well ("branched snapshots"; see the manual for more information)
* 2D video acceleration for Windows guests; use the host video hardware for overlay stretching and color conversion (see the manual for more information)
* More flexible storage attachments: CD/DVD drives can be attached to an arbitrary IDE controller, and there can be more than one such drive (the manual for more information)
* The network attachment type can be changed while a VM is running
* Complete rewrite of experimental USB support for OpenSolaris hosts making use of the latest USB enhancements in Solaris Nevada 124 and higher
* Significant performance improvements for PAE and AMD64 guests (VT-x and AMD-V only; normal (non-nested) paging)
* Experimental support for EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface; see the manual for more information)
* Support for paravirtualized network adapters (virtio-net; see the manual for more information)

In addition, the following items were fixed and/or added:

* VMM: guest SMP fixes for certain rare cases
* GUI: snapshots include a screenshot
* GUI: locked storage media can be unmounted by force
* GUI: the a log window grabbed all key events from other GUI windows (bug #5291)
* GUI: allow to disable USB filters (bug #5426)
* GUI: improved memory slider in the VM settings
* GUI: the VirtualBox website couldn't be opened from the help menu (bug #4559)
* 3D support: major performance improvement in VBO processing
* 3D support: added GL_EXT_framebuffer_object, GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array support
* 3D support: fixed crashes in FarCry, SecondLife, Call of Duty, Unreal Tournament, Eve Online (bugs #2801, #2791)
* 3D support: fixed graphics corruption in World of Warcraft (#2816)
* 3D support: fixed Final frame of Compiz animation not updated to the screen (#4653)
* 3D support: fixed incorrect rendering of non ARGB textures under compiz
* iSCSI: support iSCSI targets with more than 2TiB capacity
* VRDP: fixed occasional VRDP server crash (bug #5424)
* Network: fixed the E1000 emulation for QNX (and probably other) guests (bug #3206)
* NAT: added host resolver DNS proxy (see the manual for more information)
* VMDK: fixed incorrectly rejected big images split into 2G pieces (bug #5523, #2787)
* VMDK: fixed compatibility issue with fixed or raw disk VMDK files (bug #2723)
* VHD: fixed incompatibility with Hyper-V
* Support for Parallels version 2 disk image (HDD) files; see the manual for more information
* OVF: create manifest files on export and verify the content of an optional manifest file on import
* OVF: fixed memory setting during import (bug #4188)
* Mouse device: now five buttons are passed to the guest (bug #3773)
* VBoxHeadless: fixed loss of saved state when VM fails to start
* VBoxSDL: fixed crash during shutdown (Windows hosts only)
* X11 based hosts: allow the user to specify their own scan code layout (bug #2302)
* Mac OS X hosts: don't auto show the menu and dock in fullscreen (bug #4866)
* Mac OS X hosts (64 bit): don't interpret mouse wheel events as left click (bug #5049)
* Mac OS X hosts: fixed a VM abort during shutdown under certain conditions
* Solaris hosts: combined the kernel interface package into the VirtualBox main package
* Solaris hosts: support for OpenSolaris Boomer architecture (with OSS audio backend).
* Shared folders: VBOXSVR is visible in Network folder (Windows guests, bug #4842)
* Shared folders: performance improvements (Windows guests, bug #1728)
* Windows, Linux and Solaris Additions: added balloon tip notifier if VirtualBox host version was updated and Additions are out of date
* Solaris guests: fixed keyboard emulation (bug #1589)
* Solaris Additions: fixed as_pagelock() failed errors affecting guest properties (bug #5337)
* Windows Additions: added automatic logon support for Windows Vista and Windows 7
* Windows Additions: improved file version lookup for guest OS information
* Windows Additions: fixed runtime OS detection on Windows 7 for session information
* Windows Additions: fixed crash in seamless mode (contributed by Huihong Luo)
* Linux Additions: added support for uninstalling the Linux Guest Additions (bug #4039)
* Linux guest shared folders: allow mounting a shared folder if a file of the same name as the folder exists in the current directory (bug #928)
* SDK: added object-oriented web service bindings for PHP5