http://www.desktoplinux.com/?kc=rss All About Linux on the Desktop en-us DesktopLinux.com's publisher, Ziff-Davis Enterprise, has been acquired by a Californian company -- as yet undisclosed, but rumored to be Foster City-based QuinStreet. Future plans for the site have not yet been announced ... At this point, the future of DesktopLinux.com is uncertain. What we can say http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS4966284750.html?kc=rss Red Hat has extended the life cycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 and 6 from seven to 10 years, with RHEL 6 now supported through 2020. Meanwhile, Linux kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman left Red Hat rival SUSE to join the Linux Foundation as a fellow. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5438696135.html?kc=rss Version 4.8 of the KDE desktop environment and software bundle was released, featuring improved, adaptive power management and new windowing layouts. KDE 4.8 is also faster and more stable, and offers new features like Qt Quick-based Plasma widgets and the KDE Telepathy IM framework, says the community. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5394047765.html?kc=rss Canonical unveiled a search-oriented Head-Up Display (HUD) interface that will debut in Ubuntu 12.04. Aiming to reduce dependence on menus and eventually replace them with the help of gesture and voice interactions, HUD could find its way into future versions of Ubuntu designed for smartphones and TVs. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5606476749.html?kc=rss Canonical, Red Hat, and Arch Linux have released patches that fix a vulnerability in Linux kernels 2.6.39 and above that enable attackers to gain system root access. The distro patches followed a kernel patch to fix the vulnerability, but proof-of-concept exploit code examples have already been posted. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7878870944.html?kc=rss The Linux Mint team announced a "fully stable" version of its "Cinnamon" fork of GNOME 3.x. Available for several major Linux distributions, Cinnamon 1.2 is more customizable than GNOME 3.x, restores much of the GNOME 2.x interface, and adds features such as desktop effects and layout options. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS8012945624.html?kc=rss Linux jumped to 1.4 percent desktop market share from 0.97 percent in July, according to Net Applications. Meanwhile, a Linux Foundation survey on enterprise Linux says 79.8 percent of organizations are planning to increase their Linux deployments, citing affordability, technical features, and security as Linux advantages. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5075762402.html?kc=rss The Linux Foundation posted a calendar of its 2012 conferences. These include the Linux Kernel Summit, which will be held Aug. 26-28 in San Diego, where it will be co-located with the larger LinuxCon North America event and the Linux Plumbers Conference, both held Aug. 29-31. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2803325460.html?kc=rss Linus Torvalds announced the release of the Linux 3.2 kernel, featuring file-system enhancements such as support for Ext4 block sizes up to 1MB, and faster Btrfs scrubbing. Linux 3.2 also adds some process scheduler improvements, better thin provisioning support, and new Wi-Fi, graphics, and DSP drivers. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS5058390071.html?kc=rss A week after releasing CentOS 6.1, the CentOS project launched version 6.2 of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) clone, while Oracle released its own RHEL 6.2 variant with Oracle Linux 6.2. Meanwhile, Red Hat unveiled a beta of RHEL 5.8, and announced strong third-quarter earnings. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7818519637.html?kc=rss CentOS 6.1 has arrived to bring the features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 to those who can live without a Red Hat subscription. CentOS 6.1 offers non-proprietary improvements found in RHEL 6.1, including virtualization performance optimizations, enhanced development tools, and some YUM package management enhancements. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7508546730.html?kc=rss Ubuntu users who dislike the Unity desktop environment have other alternatives besides sticking with "Maverick Meerkat" or jumping ship to another distro. An illustrated DeviceGuru tutorial shows how to load the GNOME Fallback mode on Ubuntu 11.10 and configure it to provide a GNOME 2.x-like experience. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS4987735027.html?kc=rss Red Hat revised its enterprise-focused Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) distribution with claims for greater performance and scalability on multicore platforms. RHEL 6.2 also offers enhancements in resource management, high availability, storage and file system performance, and identity management, says the company. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS8416134956.html?kc=rss The Mint project released the final Linux Mint 12 ("Lisa"), which offers "MGSE" extensions to GNOME 3.2 that let users create a more GNOME 2.3x-like environment. Based on Ubuntu 11.10 and Linux 3.0, Linux Mint 12 features upgrades to Firefox 7.0, LibreOffice 3.4.3 and Thunderbird 7.0.1. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS8804921439.html?kc=rss The OpenSUSE project released OpenSUSE 12.1, featuring Linux 3.1, GNOME 3.2, KDE 4.7, plus support for KDE's "OwnCloud" cloud platform. OpenSUSE 12.1 introduces the SystemD configuration utility and Google's Go programming language, and integrates a Btrfs-based "Snapper" tool for rolling back system updates and configuration changes. http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS4968533300.html?kc=rss