Linus Torvalds Is Now Finally an US Citizen

Linus Torvalds, Linux's architect and leading figure, has finally become an US citizen after spending more than a decade living there. The Finish-born programmer is responsible for creating Linux and sparking the open-source revolution, achieving a somewhat legendary status in the process.

Torvalds revealed the fact in passing in a comment on the Linux kernel mailing list. "I'll test that myself (but in a bit - I need to go do voter registration and socsec update first, though - I became a US citizen last week)," he said.

"We'd have had to renew our green cards in a year anyway, so it wasn't like we could avoid any paperwork - one way or another, we'd have to update our status," Torvalds told OregonLive.com. Torvalds lives near Portland, Oregon.

Linux Mint 9 Fluxbox Released

The Linux Mint team has released Linux Mint 9 Fluxbox, the last of the official versions for this release cycle. Linux Mint 9 Fluxbox comes with all of the updates and new features in Linux Mint 9 built around the Fluxbox windows manager.


"Based on Lubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, Linux 2.6.32, Fluxbox 1.1.2 and Xorg 7.6, this edition features a lot of improvements and the latest software from the Open Source World," the Linux Mint team announced.

"Featured improvements in this release: 30,000 applications catalogued and reviewable both online and in the new software manager, brand new incremental backup tool for both data and software selection, USB installers, 3 years support, look & feel improvements," the announcement added.

Specific to Linux Mint 9 Fluxbox is the Tint2 panel which replaces the default Fluxbox panel to function as a task manager, system tray and clock area.

The Thunar file manager gets a "Delete" and a "Move to trash" option, just like Linux Mint 9 Xfce.

The major updates to Linux Mint 9 are also present, obviously, like the completely rewritten package manager, which now has over 30,000 available.

A new backup tool has been introduced in Linux Mint 9, which enables users to easily do a fresh install of their operating system without losing their personal files.

The latest release also comes with a visual refresh including new background images, new welcome screen and other updates. The overall theme is also common across all official versions of the Ubuntu-based distro.

openSUSE 11.4 Milestone 1, the First Step

The first development build of the next major openSUSE release has now been made available. openSUSE 11.4 Milestone 1 is the first step towards the final build in March next year. In the meantime, there will be six milestone builds and two release candidates.

Ubuntu 10.10 Beta Is Available for Download

A few minutes ago, the Ubuntu development team unleashed the Beta version of the up-coming Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) operating system, due for release in October 10th, 2010. As usual, we've downloaded a copy of it in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest changes in the Ubuntu 10.10 development.

What's new in Ubuntu 10.10 Alpha 3? Well, this is the most important development release of the up-coming Ubuntu 10.10 operating system, and everyone should get it and test it!

Ubuntu 10.10 Beta contains new wallpapers and an improved theme, a new installer, and the powerful Shotwell photo organizer and editor.

GNOME 2.32 Beta 1 is now the default desktop environment, and most of its components were updated. Mozilla Firefox was updated to version 3.6.9 and the Transmission BitTorrent client to version 2.04.

The kernel packages were updated to version 2.6.35-19.28, based on the final release of Linux kernel 2.6.35.3.

Last but not least, users will be able to purchase applications, via Ubuntu Software Center, which has been revamped (again)! See the screenshot below for details...

What's new in Kubuntu 10.10 Beta? Well, the Beta version of Kubuntu 10.10 is built on top of KDE Software Compilation 4.5.0, which brings many attractive features.

PulseAudio is now the default sound server, BlueDevil is the default bluetooth stack, Global Menu has been set by default for Plasma Netbook, Rekonq is the default web browser, and the Ubiquity installer has been revamped.

What's new in Xubuntu 10.10 Beta? The Beta version of Xubuntu 10.10 is built on top of the Xfce 4.6.2 desktop environment. A new wallpaper has been added (see the screenshot below)!

On October 10th, 2010, Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) will become the thirteenth release of the Ubuntu operating system. See you again at the end of the month (September 30th), for the Release Candidate version of the upcoming Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) operating system.

The Maverick Meerkat Release Schedule:

June 3rd, 2010 - Alpha 1 release;
July 1st, 2010 - Alpha 2 release;
August 5th, 2010 - Alpha 3 release;
September 2nd, 2010 - Beta release;
September 30th, 2010 - Release Candidate;
October 10th, 2010 - Final release of Ubuntu 10.10.

NVIDIA 256.53 Linux Display Driver Adds Preliminary Support for Xorg-Server 1.9

The latest and greatest NVIDIA graphics card drivers for Linux are now available for those how must live on the cutting edge.


NVIDIA 256.53 display driver fixes several issues, some introduced in the previous release, NVIDIA 256.53, but also adds support for some upcoming features from Xorg-Server 1.9.





Highlights of NVIDIA 256.53 display driver:

· Fixed a bug that prevented XvMC from initializing in most cases;
· Added support for xorg-server video driver ABI version 8, which will be included in the upcoming xorg-server-1.9 series of releases;
· Fixed a bug that caused extremely slow rendering of OpenGL applications on X screens other than screen 0 when using a compositing manager;
· Fixed a regression introduced after 256.35 that caused stability problems on GPUs such as GeForce GT 240;
· Fixed a slow kernel virtual address space leak observed when starting and stopping OpenGL, CUDA, or VDPAU applications;
· Fixed a bug that left the system susceptible to hangs when running two or more VDPAU applications simultaneously.



How to install the Nvidia 256.53 video drivers on your Linux box:

Log out of your current session and hit the CTRL+ALT+F1 key combination in order to enter a text-mode session.

Log in as root (System Administrator), go to the folder where you've downloaded the Nvidia driver installer for your architecture (see below for links), and type the following corresponding command:

For 32-bit users:
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-256.53.run

For 64-bit users:
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-256.53.run

Then, follow the on-screen instructions to install the Nvidia video driver. Please note that the Linux kernel headers and a GCC compiler will be required to complete the installation!

GNOME 2.32 Beta 2 Has Been Released

The second beta of the next GNOME release has arrived full of bug fixes and updates. Many of the standard packages have been updated for GNOME 2.32 Beta 2 (2.31.91) and more translation work has been done.

"This is 2.31.91, and it's out! It's the second beta of what will be GNOME 2.32, enjoy every moment of it, the next beta (2.31.92) will arrive in two weeks," GNOME said in an email announcement.

"With this release we are now string frozen : No string changes may be made without confirmation from the i18n team and notification to release team, translation team, and documentation team," the announcement added.

While the announcement mentions another beta, the official plan is still to have a release candidate version in two weeks and a final release by the end of the month.



GNOME 2.32 is slated to be the last release in the venerable 2.x line. GNOME 3.0 was initially slated to be release this month, but was pushed back for another six months to ensure that it is up to par.



Highlights of GNOME 2.31.91 (2.32 Beta 2):
 · GConf 2.31.91;
· GLib 2.25.15;
· GTK+ 2.21.7;
· Libbonobo 2.31.91;
· Brasero 2.31.91;
· Cheese 2.31.91;
· Empathy-2.31.91;
· Eog 2.31.91;
· Epiphany 2.30.5;
· GNOME Terminal 2.31.91;
· Rygel 0.7.7;
· Vino 2.31.91;
· Various internal GNOME packages have also been updated.

The GNOME 2.32 Release Schedule:
August 18th, 2010 - Beta 1 release;
September 1st, 2010 - Beta 2 release;
September 15th, 2010 - Release Candidate;
September 29th, 2010 - Final release.

KDE SC 4.5.1 Is Now Available

The KDE team has released the first update to the latest major release of the software compilation. KDE SC 4.5.1 is a minor update, focusing on bug fixing and more localization.

"KDE has released a series of updates to the Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, the KDE Applications and the KDE Platform. This update is the first in a series of stabilization updates to 4.5.0, coming every month, as if delivered by a cronjob," the KDE team announced.

"4.5.1 brings bugfixes and translation updates on top of KDE SC 4.5.0. KDE SC 4.5.1 is a recommended update for everyone running KDE SC 4.5.0 or earlier versions," the announcement read.

"As the release only contains bugfixes and translation updates, it will be a safe and pleasant update for everyone. KDE SC 4 is already translated into more than 55 languages, with more to come," it added.

Highlights of KDE SC 4.5.1:

· Fixed some stability issues in several platform components, notably the new shared data cache, in KHTML and in KNewStuff;
· Moving applets inside Plasma panels has been improved;
· Listing of UPnP devices in the network:/ KIO slave has been fixed;
· Fixed a regression in KWin which prevented desktop effects from being used;
· Both the weather and the news applet are now updated when internet connectivity is restored.

KDE SC 4.5.1 is the first stability update to the latest big release. The KDE team plans to provide updates like this at regular intervals, once a month.

KDE SC 4.5.0 brought quite a bit of new features for the platform, the user interface but also for developers. You can read more about the release here.

Let`s begin