| VectorLinux issues v5.8 SOHO RC2 prerelease |
Apr. 12, 2007
The VectorLinux team on April 9 released VectorLinux 5.8 SOHO RC2, built on the base of VL 5.8 standard GOLD. This edition addresses all the bugs reported and suggestions given since the RC1 release, and features a custom 2.6.20 kernel and the KDE 3.5.6 desktop with Kmyfirewall, the team said.
The SOHO (small office / home office) edition is not to be confused with VectorLinux 5.8 Standard, which is based on Slackware 11.0 and uses the Xfce desktop as a default.
"There is a whole new look and feel, from the boot menu to the desktop," the Canada-based team said. "We have added ... binary NVIDIA and ATI drivers. We felt it was time to give our users the best out-of-the-box experience, and in today's world, video performance is a must."
The team also developed an in-house firewall called "vleasytables" that "we think users will find easy to use and easy to configure," the team said.
"Please be reminded this is a RC [release candidate] release, and although this was prefaced by the RC1 release, we expect that there are still bugs to be squashed," the team said.
The newest VectorLinux includes a custom 2.6.20 SMP kernel, compiled with bootsplash, squashfs, lzma, and realtime patches. It supports reading and writing to NTFS-formatted media via fuse and ntfs-3g, the team said.
Updated standard features, according to the team, include:- amaRok 1.4.5 media player
- OpenOffice.org 2.2 office suite
- VLC 0.8.6a
- Mplayer 1.0RC1 media player
- K3B-1.0
- GIMP 2.2.13 graphics editor
- Xara Xtreme version 0.7 graphics editor
Vector Linux is touted as a relatively small, fast, Linux operating system for x86-based PCs. According to the project, the distribution offers casual users a fast desktop with graphical programs to handle daily activities such as web surfing, email, chatting (IM, ICQ, IRC, etc), and running an ftp server. Additionally, "power user" tools are provided for compiling programs, or for using the system as a server or gateway for home or office networks, according to the project's website.
You can download your own free copy of the 700MB ISO image at the team's download site here.
Alternatively, you can download the RC2 ISO image via this direct link.
Screenshots are available to view here.
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