The Linux Mint Developers have released Linux Mine 8 KDE Edition which is based on Kubuntu 9.10.
It’s shipped with the Linux Kernel version 2.6.31, Xorg 7.4 and package with KDE 4.3.4 and Amarok 2.2.1.
Known Issues
Because of compatibility issues between wubi/mint4win and grub2, Linux Mint 8 comes without a Windows installer. The development team is working on the issue and new ISOs will be [ continue reading... ]

Today the Linux Mint team announced the immediate release of Linux Mint 8 RC1 codenamed Helena.
Linux Mint 8 RC1 KDE which is based on Kubuntu 9.10 will include the 2.6.31 branch of the Linux Kernel, KDE 4.3.4 and will feature Xorg 7.4 along with updates to it’s core open source applications.
Linux Mint 8 KDE will have a few new applications included by default. [ continue reading... ]

The next development release of GNOME has been released as per it’s snapshot schedule.
Here’s an excert from their release:

You can add this using the following repos for openSUSE:

Note: I’m not 100% if you actually require the backports as in previous usage.
Upgrade using:

Here’s a walk through of the Linux Mint 8 Helena. You’ll notice a ton of similarities between the installation process of Linux Mint 8 and the base it’s built from Ubuntu.
The distribution in this walk through is Linux Mint 8 Main Edition, which is bundled with non-free software, which may make some of the debianites cringe. However, the Mint crew also produces another version [ continue reading... ]

Recently Adobe released a native 64-Bit native version of the popular Flash plugin.
Here’s an excerpt from their site:
You can download the packages here.
On my openSUSE installation I went ahead and removed the currently installed flash, that were installed via RPM:
I then downloaded and installed flash plugin, into my browser-plugins directory:
Now you can verify in your browser (Opera or Firefox at least) that your plugin was [ continue reading... ]

Sun Microsystem is holding a webinar for the latest release of VirtualBox 3.1 titled, What’s New in 3.1.
Slated for the Webinar is:

Teleportation
Speedups
Snapshots 2.0
Live demo

You can register at the link below:
https://dct.sun.com/dct/forms/reg_us_0712_490_0.jsp

I forgot my laptop at home today, so I was unable to install Chrome while I was at work. (yes, that’s an embarrassing story). But now I’ve gotten home and installed the RPM using zypper:
sudo zypper in google-chrome-beta_current_`uname -i`.rpm
After doing this, I launched Chrome using google-chrome and it put a smile in my face just knowing that it was in “beta”. Now lets hope [ continue reading... ]

Today Google has annonced that Google Chrome is now in Beta for Linux thanks to the continued work and testing from the Chromium Project.
You can see a funny comic about the release which was inspired by xkcd.com here:
http://www.google.com/chrome/intl/en/w00t.html
You can download the .deb and .rpm packages from:
http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html?hl=en&brand=CHFK
And the main google chrome page can be found here:
http://www.google.com/chrome?hl=en&platform=linux&brand=CHFK
Here is their official statement via e-mail:
Great job to all those [ continue reading... ]

One awesome improvement to KDE 4.4, that doesn’t get enough attention is the move of the Nitrogen upstream and merged with Oxygen.
If you’re not sure what Nitrogen is, you’ll be in for quite a surprise when you see what new features await you with the new KDE 4.4, Oxygen Style.
Here are some screenshots of the new configurations with the newly ported oxygen theme.

Ok,
I have to admit when I first thought or heard of this feature in KDE 4.4, I wasn’t really excited. I thought.. now why the hell would I want that.
Then I started using it.. and found quite a few usage scenario’s for it.
The first one, I realized right after I launched my VirtualBox. I had always hated how VirtualBox had a separate [ continue reading... ]

On Dec 1st, Nokia released QT 4.6.
The major new improvements are: (from nokia’s website)
Here’s a little video of the Hand Gestures:

Do you think QT will be the cross platform IDE of choice in the future? I believe it’s development speed, and improvements could catapult it to being the leading platform in Mobile Devices, and could possibly form Windows to be usable.

arstechnica.com recently discussed Ubuntu’s decision to remove GIMP (a GNU Image Manipulation Program that is popular among the Linux world) on the next release of Ubuntu slated for April 2010, and dubbed 10.04.
Many people think it’s not the right thing to do, but if you think long and hard about the decision, it’s quite simple to realize, that it’s a niche product for a niche [ continue reading... ]

Here are some highlights from the latest release for Linux:
Release Highlights:
Added support for OpenGL 3.2.
Updated the NVIDIA X driver to allow, on GeForce 8 or greater GPUs, more modes to validate on digital display devices whose EDIDs report very constrained HorizSync or VertRefresh ranges.
Fixed a randomly occurring X server crash caused by the PixmapCache option.
Increased the allowed amount of overscan compensation from 100 to 200.
On [ continue reading... ]

From X.org:
Release notes, changelogs, downloads, etc. are available at http://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.5/
Features Added/Enhanced
Xserver build no longer needs to symlink to Mesa sources
MPX: Multi-Pointer X (PeterHutterer)
E-EDID support (AdamJackson)
Input device properties (PeterHutterer)
predictable pointer acceleration (SimonThum)
xorg-server 1.7.0
Add SELinux security module which uses XACE (EamonWalsh).
RandR 1.3 (KeithPackard)
Features Removed
X server libraries: cfb, afb, mfb/xf1bpp
X server support for obsolete/unused/broken/unmaintained extensions: AppGroup, EVI, MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD, TOG-CUP, XTrap, XFree86-Misc, XEvIE
X server command line flags: [ continue reading... ]

To follow updates I will provide for Chrome RPM packages please bookmark or check:
http://www.benkevan.com/blog/tag/google-chrome/

The newest release of the Chrome Unstable browser is upon us..
Here is more information if you want full change logs:
http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel
I’ve made some rpm’s to make it easier for you to install on openSUSE:
The files are located here:
i386:
http://www.benkevan.com/upload/software/openSUSE/google-chrome-unstable-3.0.196.0-1.i386.rpm
x86_64:
http://www.benkevan.com/upload/software/openSUSE/google-chrome-unstable-3.0.196.0-1.x86_64.rpm
You can install using:
x86_64:
sudo rpm -Uvh http://www.benkevan.com/upload/software/openSUSE/google-chrome-unstable-3.0.196.0-1.x86_64.rpm
i386:
sudo rpm -Uvh http://www.benkevan.com/upload/software/openSUSE/google-chrome-unstable-3.0.196.0-1.i386.rpm
Note: If [ continue reading... ]