Pardus Linux 2008 Beta 1

Ekin Meroğlu has announced the availability of the first beta release of Pardus Linux 2008: "We're happy to announce Pardus 2008 beta 1, the first beta for upcoming Pardus 2008. This beta includes most of the enhancements planned for the final release. Some of the highlights of this beta are: Pardus-specific tools and technologies - the new dbus-based COMAR, the fastest-ever PiSi, the new YAlI, the new Display-Manager tool and enhanced Kaptan; seamless desktop integration - full PolicyKit, ConsoleKit, dbus/Comar integration, PulseAudio, automatic printer recognition; new visual design - from bootsplash to icon theme, all Pardus visuals have been redesigned; up-to-date packages and repositories; components - GCC 4.3.1 RC, glibc 2.8, kernel 2.6.24.7, OpenOffice.org 2.4.1.3, Firefox 3.0 RC1." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details and known issues. Download the installation CD image from here: Pardus-2008_Beta1.iso (697MB, SHA1).

Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility 9.0.0.1008

The Intel(R) Chipset Software Installation Utility installs Windows INF files to the target system. The INF files inform the operating system how to properly configure the chipset for specific functionality, such as AGP, USB, Core PCI, and ISAPNP services.
This software can be installed in three modes: Interactive, Silent and Unattended Preload. Interactive Mode requires user input during installation; Silent Mode and Unattended Preload do not. This software also offers a set of command line flags, which provide additional installation choices. The command line flags are not case sensitive.

INF files outline to the operating system how to configure the Intel(R) chipset components in order to ensure that the following features function properly:
- Core PCI and ISAPNP Services
- PCIe Support
- IDE/ATA33/ATA66/ATA100 Storage Support
- SATA Storage Support
- USB Support
- Identification of Intel(R) Chipset Components in the Device Manager

The Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility is validated on the following Microsoft operating systems:
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1
- Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition
- Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
- Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2
- Microsoft Vista

The Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility contains support for the All Intel Chipsets.

Size: 2.39 MB

Freeware

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Resulinux 2.9

Resulinux is a Brazilian desktop distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. A new version 2.9, code name "Chesed", was released yesterday. From the changelog: added option to choose one of the four available desktop themes; KDE 3.5.9 with Compiz; new configuration and package installation panels; security improvements; major applications - OpenOffice.org 2.4.0, Firefox 3.0; Linux kernel 2.6.23.13 enhanced for performance; bug fixes in Kaffeine and scripts for installing the ATI and NVIDIA proprietary video drivers; new script for configuring wireless networking and miscellaneous other networking improvements. Please visit the distribution's download page (in Portuguese) to read the complete changelog. Get the live CD image from here: resulinux2.9chesed.iso (696MB, MD5, torrent).

Radeon HD 4850 up close and personal

What's better than press photos of the upcoming Radeon HD 4850 but not as good as actual performance results you ask? Since it's Saturday and we're feeling pretty lazy let's just say non-press photos. Not coincidentally that's exactly what you can see below, some real, up close and personal pictures of the cheapest RV770-powered card currently in plan, the Radeon HD 4850.

The new card is set to offer 480 Stream Processors, a 256-bit memory interface, 512 MB of GDDR3 memory and something that apparently Nvidia can only dream about, DirectX 10.1 support. From the looks of it, the HD 4850 is not very different from its predecessor, with the upcoming card's length, cooling solution and connectivity being strongly resembling the HD 3850. The Radeon HD 4850 is expected to be released around June 18.

SiS UniVGA5 Graphics 5.12

This package consists of SiS VGA Drivers, AGP Drivers, VGA Utilities, and Installation for Windows Vista. Utilities include Control Center and SiStray. The Control Center provide some settings like gamma correction, video, TV output, driver mode, screen rotate, and product information. The SiStray provide Control Center entery and some settings like resolution, refresh rate,and rotation. The Installation are capable of installing/uninstalling drivers and utilities respectively.

Supported

Chipset

SiS671FX , SiS671 , SiSM671 , SiSM671MX , SiS672FX , SiS672 , SiSM672MX , SiSM672

Silicon Integrated Systems Corp.

Trend Micro reports whitehouse.org serving up malware

Joining the growing list of Web site compromises is whitehouse.org, the “officious” parody site of current U.S. White House administration, and all the colorful punditry that accompanies it.

According to Trend Micro Advanced Threats Researcher David Sancho, whitehouse.org has been compromised to harbor some malicious, obfuscated javascript code which “background downloads” code to unsuspecting visitors of the site, where a malicious file is downloaded (which is detected by Trend Micro as TROJ_DELF.GKP ).

Of course, the official White House Web site is whitehouse.gov, and although it has been reported that some people believe whitehouse.org is the real deal, even those looking for this site specifically should be forewarned. whitehouse.com, which used to be a porn site, is now a political blog site.

This incident is yet additional proof that Web threats are no joke (pun intended).

openSUSE 11.0 RC1

Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier has announced the availability of the first release candidate for openSUSE 11.0: "The openSUSE Project is proud to announce the openSUSE 11.0 Release Candidate 1 (RC1). The good news is that we're closing in on the final release of 11.0, but it's not time to relax just yet. We’re getting really close, so we need all hands on deck to help test this release candidate. Since beta 3 we've fixed 578 bugs and resolved 1,118 bugs! Read on to see how you can help get 11.0 into top shape." See the rest of the release announcement for information on how to help with testing and to learn about known bugs. Download (MD5) one of the installable live CDs from here: openSUSE-11.0-RC1-KDE4-LiveCD-i386.iso (646MB, torrent), openSUSE-11.0-RC1-GNOME-LiveCD-i386.iso (662MB, torrent), openSUSE-11.0-RC1-KDE4-LiveCD-x86_64.iso (685MB, torrent), openSUSE-11.0-RC1-GNOME-LiveCD-x86_64.iso (680MB, torrent).

Foresight Linux 2.0.2

Ken VanDine has announced the release of Foresight Linux 2.0.2, an rPath-based desktop distribution featuring the latest GNOME technologies: "Announcing the release of Foresight Linux 2.0.2 GNOME edition. Some highlights: GNOME 2.22.2; GNOME Display Manager 2.22; 2.6.25.4 kernel; NetworkManager, more stable than ever; Mono 2.0 beta (now uses less memory); Banshee 1.0 beta. Foresight GNOME edition is a Linux distribution for your desktop that features a rolling release schedule that always keeps your desktop up to date; a revolutionary package manager, Conary; the latest GNOME desktop environment and an innovative set of excellent, up-to-date packages." Read the release announcement and release notes for further details. Download (SHA1): foresight-2.0.2-x86-dvd1.iso (1,166MB, torrent), foresight-2.0.2-x86_64-dvd1.iso (1,236MB, torrent).

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 Beta

Red Hat has announced the availability of the beta release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4.7: "Red Hat is pleased to announce the availability of the beta release of 4.7 (kernel 2.6.9-70.EL) for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 family of products. This beta release includes the following improvements: virtualization enhancements; laptop and desktop enhancements; encryption and security enhancements; tuning and debugging - systemtap; tools enhancement (added JRockit 1.6.0); networking and IPv6 enablement; storage improvements; platform enhancements; kernel improvements; new driver support and driver updates; technology previews for the Frysk system monitor and GCC 4." Read the complete release announcement for a detailed list of all changes and improvements. Existing subscribers who are interested in beta testing this release can download the installation ISO images from Red Hat Networks.

Vispa 0.2.2.1

vispa is a small software, securing your Windows Vista installation and protecting your privacy. In addition to so-called Antispy features, it disables common security threats and increases your Windows performance.

There are many reasons why you wouldn't want your operating system connect to Microsoft's server, be it for practical reasons or pure idealism. Based on the source-code of the award-winning xpy (version 0.9.8), Vispa allows you to easily tweak your Windows Vista for better privacy and security, even system performance. Do a few clicks rather than finding the writeprogram settings. registry keys or

The only recommendation I can give is not applying settings without vague knowledge of what you're doing. Not every setting is desired in every environment. Vispa is no tool for beginners, just a more convenient way of tweaking your operating system.

Important: Some antivirus software might report Vispa as Spyware or a Trojan. Vispa is an executable written and compiled using NSIS, false-positives are unfortunately quite common among NSIS compiled programs. The NSIS development team is aware of this situation and constantly works with software companies to solve such issues.

Changes in v0.2.2.1 (2008-05-30):
* fixed bug in bitmap-graphics

Homepage - http://vispa.whyeye.org

Size: 69 KB

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nVIDIA Gelato for Windows 2.2

Release 1 NVIDIA® Gelato® rendering software allows anyone with an NVIDIA GPU to create stunning images fast. A hardware-accelerated, non-real-time renderer, Gelato was originally designed for the creation of 3D visual effects and animation in feature films. But Gelato is a powerful tool for any number of industries, including film & broadcast, CAD, architecture, and print.

Gelato is a software program that leverages the NVIDIA GPU as a floating point math processor. This allows Gelato to render images faster than comparable renderers, but without the quality limitations traditionally associated with real-time graphics processing on the GPU.

If you require extra power in your 3D rendering pipeline, you can upgrade to Gelato Pro. With Gelato Pro you get the features required for production rendering:
* NVIDIA® Sorbetto™ interactive relighting technology
* DSO shadeops
* Network parallel rendering
* Multithreading
* Native 64-bit support
* Maintenance and support from NVIDIA's High-Quality-Rendering Team

New In Gelato/Gelato Pro 2.2:
* Speed and memory improvements – scenes with huge displacement amounts now have can be rendered 5 times faster than before.
* Refined ray-traced reflection - the ability to handle multiple reflection rays with improved anti-aliasing.
* More accurate subsurface scattering techniques – by defining “albedo” and “Meanfreepath” coefficients.
* Enhanced texture converter – which lets you select, replicate and re-order individual color channels when creating textures.
* Mango now supports Maya Hair. - And includes a new shader for “Shave and a Haircut”, as well as, a new velvet shader.
* Windows XP Professional x64 support.

In addition to these changes, the Mango plug-in for Maya makes Gelato 2.2 easier to use and allows multiple versions of Maya to run simultaneously on your workstation. Other modifications include an updated User Interface, data exporting improvements, new pull-down menus and right-click functionality, standard placement of generated files in Mayaproject folders, better Maya batch rendering and other options via a custom Gelato XML file make workflow effortless and a more flexible SDB file system.

Homepage - http://www.nvidia.com/page/gz_home.html

Size: 81.3 MB

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2

Red Hat has announced the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.2, the second update to its RHEL 5.x product series: "Today we released the second update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. As with earlier minor releases, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 comes with a broad set of bug fixes, updated hardware support capabilities, quality improvements, and a set of new software features that have been backported from upstream open source projects to the Enterprise Linux 5 code base. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 enhancements are primarily focused in six areas: virtualization, laptop and desktop improvements, encryption and security, cluster and storage enhancements, networking and IPv6 enablement, serviceability." Read the press release and release notes for more details. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 is available to existing subscribers Red Hat Networks - either as a set of new installation media or via the usual upgrade mechanisms.