Bodhi Lives, Jessie Hints, and openSUSE Beta
It's been a busy day in Linux news with top stories featuring new openSUSE 13.2 Beta and Debian 8 packages. Bodhi Linux founder Jeff Hoogland said he has someone to take over the distribution project. Red Hat is changing focus from Linux to OpenStack! Knoppix 7.4.1 update was released and there's been a lot buzz about upcoming GNOME 3.14. And, of course, we have today's latest systemd news.
There was so much exciting news today, and much of it overlapping, it's difficult to decide where to start. Perhaps the best news in today's newsfeeds was the blog post from Jeff Hoogland who stated in no uncertain terms, "Bodhi is not dead and a 3.0 release will be happening still." Last week, Hoogland posted he was no longer able to continue with the project. He said he hoped someone would want to take over and in today's post he announced he has several interested parties. He even said he'd hang around and help the new guys get going. So, fans of Bodhi rejoice. It lives.
Next up is the announcement of openSUSE 13.2 Beta 1. Jos Poortvliet, head cheerleader and community manager, said, "openSUSE 13.2 will have lots of new things" and "will be awesome." He promises. But they need testers. Or as Jos put it, "Test it. Test your use cases and make sure what you need openSUSE 13.2 for will work perfectly. That crazy old system you have set up for your uncle? Test it. That brand new ultrabook of your sister? Test it. That super server you're secretly building in the cellar? Test it. TEST IT ALL!" That potato in your crisper, TEST IT! A release candidate is scheduled for October 9 and final release is expected November 4, 2014.
Some of things in openSUSE 13.2 Beta include:
* Linux kernel 3.16 (going for 3.17)
* GNOME 3.12 (planning for 3.14)
* Plasma Workspaces 4.11, KDE applications 4.13 mixed with 4.14 (will be all 4.14)
* Plasma 5 preview
* LibreOffice 4.3.1.2
* LXDE improvements
* Mate 1.8
* Updated installer
Debian 8 "jessie" packages have started hitting mirrors giving users a glimpse of what's to come. Softpedia.com today reported that Debian 8 will feature GNOME 3.14. Xfce is still default, but GNOME 3.14 is available for its users. In related news, Sam Varghese discusses Debian's decision to move to systemd in upcoming version 8. Varghese quotes Lucas Nussbaum saying, "The Debian Installer has already been modified to install systemd by default, and there are ongoing discussions on how to provide the best user experience during upgrades from wheezy."
Speaking of systemd, a new project has sprung up from the bowels of boycott systemd called uselessd. uselessd is a stripped down replacement init daemon that attempts to take some of failure points and unnecessary functions from systemd. They say it's "the daemon that uses less." In related news, blogger Fitzcarraldo posted a handy guide to changing systemd to text logging in Sabayon that probably could be adapted for other distros.
In other news:
* Red Hat CEO announces a shift from client-server to cloud computing
* Knoppix 7.4.1 Is Now Available For Download
* Emmabuntüs 3-1.00 Review: Xubuntu spin...
Some GNOME 3.14 Buzz:
* GNOME 3.13.92 Officially Released