| Mandriva 2009 debuts with KDE 4 desktop |
Oct. 09, 2008
French software firm Mandriva has released its Mandriva 2009 Linux distro, moving to KDE 4 as the default desktop. Other new features include a revamped installer and "Control Center," netbook compatibility, and a variety of updated applications.
Although KDE 4, or more specifically 4.1.2, is now the Mandriva default, the GNOME desktop has also been bundled and upgraded to version 2.24. Other updated applications include OpenOffice 3.0, and Mozilla Firefox 3. It now includes version 2.6.27 of the Linux kernel.
The KDE 4 desktop offers new features including:- "Plasma" desktop shell in which each desktop entity is constructed as a "Plasmoid" widget
- Phonon multimedia framework
- Support for "advanced visual effects" in the KDE window manager
- New applications, including "Dolphin" file manager, "Okular" document viewer, and "Dragon Player" media player
- Nepomuk metadata framework for tagging and rating files in KDE applications
The company is touting Mandriva 2009's specific support for Asus Eee PC, Acer Aspire One, and MSI Wind netbooks. Several weeks ago, Mandriva released Mandriva Mini, a version of its Linux distribution designed for netbooks. Aimed at original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs), Mandriva Mini is touted as being a faster booting, smaller footprint version of the Mandriva desktop distribution.
Availability
Mandriva Linux 2009 is available in three editions: One, Powerpack, and Free, for both i586 and x86-64 architectures. One and Free can be downloaded free of charge from official Mandriva mirrors and via BitTorrent. More information and links to download sites may be available here.
-- Eric Brown
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