Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 6

Steve Langasek has announced the availability of the sixth and final alpha release of Ubuntu 8.10, code name "Intrepid Ibex": "Welcome to Intrepid Ibex Alpha 6, which will in time become Ubuntu 8.10. New features: the newest GNOME 2.23.91 desktop environment with tons of bug-fixes and new features; X.Org 7.4 with much better support for hot-pluggable input devices such as tablets, keyboards, and mice; Linux kernel 2.6.27 with better hardware support and numerous bug-fixes; encrypted private directory; guest session; Network Manager 0.7; DKMS, allowing kernel drivers to be automatically rebuilt when new kernels are released; Samba 3.2 with clustered file server support, encrypted network transport, IPv6 support; PAM authentication framework." Find more details in the release announcement and release notes. Download (MD5): intrepid-desktop-i386.iso (696MB, torrent), intrepid-desktop-amd64.iso (698MB, torrent). Also available are alpha 6 CD images for Kubuntu 8.10, Xubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu Studio 8.10.

Pardus Linux 2008.1

Ekin Meroğlu has announced the release of Pardus Linux 2008.1: "We're happy to announce Pardus Linux 2008.1 'Hyaena Hyaena', the first update release in Pardus 2008 series. It contains all the bug fixes, enhancements and new feature additions since the release of Pardus Linux 2008. Features: new and improved Network Manager with Ad-Hoc and 802.1x wireless support; two live CD variants with KDE 3 and KDE 4; support for Swedish; international installation CD with support for 11 languages; updated applications - KDE 3.5.10, Linux kernel 2.6.25.16 with improved hardware support, Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1, OpenOffice.org 2.4.1, KDE 4.1.1; hundreds of free software applications with fewer bugs and updated to the most recent versions...." Read the release announcement and release notes for more details. Download the English/Turkish installation CD or one of the "Calisan" live CDs: Pardus_2008.1.iso (696MB, MD5), Pardus_Calisan_2008.1-KDE3.iso (695MB, MD5), Pardus_Calisan_2008.1-KDE4.iso (687MB, MD5).

DirectX 11: A look at what's coming

It doesn't seem all that long ago when Microsoft first started talking about what DirectX 10 would bring to game development. In fact, it was less than two years ago when we described the new pipeline and since then we've had a couple of generations of hardware from both AMD and Nvidia.

With the release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, Microsoft introduced DirectX 10.1 – we covered this in our RV670 architectural analysis and so far only AMD has adopted the updated API. Nvidia claims that developers wanted other things—like GPU-accelerated game physics—and so it chose to focus on those features in the GT200 architecture.

Some would say it was stifling progression in graphics, while others believe it's the first major shift away from just focusing on just graphics in games. Whichever way you look at it, it was a little controversial given what happened to Assassin's Creed.

And so we arrive at DirectX 11, the next major update to Microsoft's fabled graphics API. Microsoft's DirectX architects haven't been resting on their laurels since DirectX 10's release – in fact, even before DirectX 10.1 shipped with Vista SP1, the company had already started work on what is now known as DirectX 11, but that's certainly not the end of it because developers we've spoken to have even made comments about what they need in DirectX 12!

Microsoft announced the new API at GameFest 2008 in Seattle but it's still a work in progress. Since then we've had the chance to listen to Kevin Gee of Microsoft outline the API at Nvision 2008, and then following that we were able to catch up with a number of developers in order to discuss the new API and its aims. Additionally, we've listened to what was discussed at GameFest as well, since Microsoft has conveniently made all of its presentations—and accompanying audio recordings—available for public consumption.

What follows is the result of all of this information gathering I've done ever since the original announcement was made in July. However, because it's still a work in progress, things may change between now and DirectX 11's RTM date.

sidux 2008-03 Pre 1

The first preview release of sidux 2008-03, a distribution and live CD based on Debian's unstable branch, is available for testing: "Later than planned (due to a hard-to-find bug in VirtualBox), sidux 2008-03 'Ourea' is now ready to enter the preview season for amd64 and i686 systems. As usual, the previews are shipping only as a small, but fully functional, 'KDE-lite' flavours, accompanied by a combined 'Xfce-lite' flavour for amd64 + i386. 'Ourea' concentrates on integrating the changes caused by kernel 2.6.26 and on post-install experiences - by propagating the default user profile to new users as well. As a welcome side effect, hardware for common netbooks and newer chipsets is now supported by sidux. Furthermore, a large number of individual functionality enhancements and bug fixes have been applied to the full package line-up. Read the detailed release notes for further information. Download: sidux-2008-03-pre1-kde-i386.iso (454MB, MD5), sidux-2008-03-pre1-kde-amd64.iso (460MB, MD5), sidux-2008-03-pre1-xfce-i386-amd64.iso (696MB, MD5).

FreeBSD 7.1-BETA, 6.4-BETA

Ken Smith has announced the release of FreeBSD 7.1-BETA (production branch) and 6.4-BETA (production legacy branch): "The FreeBSD 7.1-BETA and 6.4-BETA builds are now available on the FreeBSD FTP mirror sites. This is the first step in the release process for FreeBSD-7.1 and FreeBSD-6.4. These sets of builds do not include pre-built packages. We encourage people to help out with the testing. Problems can be reported through Gnats or on the freebsd-stable at freebsd.org mailing lists. At this point we expect the 6.4-RC1 builds to start in about two weeks, and the 7.1-RC1 builds a week after that." Here is the complete release announcement. Download: 7.1-BETA-i386-disc1.iso (426MB, MD5), 7.1-BETA-amd64-disc1.isoMD5), 6.4-BETA-i386-disc1.iso (536MB, MD5), 6.4-BETA-amd64-disc1.iso (617MB, MD5). (451MB,

CentOS 4.7

Johnny Hughes has announced the release of the CentOS 4.7, a distribution created by recompiling the source code for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7: "The CentOS development team is pleased to announce the release of CentOS 4.7 for i386 and x86_64. This release corresponds to the upstream vendor 4.7 release. Also released in the updates repository for CentOS 4.7 are all updates through September 12th, 2008. Major changes for this version are: password hashing using the SHA-256 and SHA-512 hash functions is now supported; this update implements the use of paravirtualized block device and network drivers, which improve the performance of fully-virtualized guests; there is a technology preview of OpenOffice.org 2.0 included in the updates directory; Firefox is now rebased to version 3.0.x." Read the complete release announcement for further details. Download: CentOS-4.7-i386-binDVD.iso (2,324MB, MD5, torrent), CentOS-4.7-x86_64-binDVD.iso (2,574MB, MD5, torrent).