New Versions of Arch Linux and Zenwalk

Just over a month after the previous release, the Arch Linux team has released its new 2007.08-2 version. Besides bugfixes, the new version includes the latest kernel and new features. "arch_addons" have been disabled on booting. To use them, users need to specify a boot parameter. The installation environment can now access the package repositories of the two supported architectures, i686 and x86_64, and both free and Intel versions of WLAN drivers are available. Users are required to set a boot parameter to enable the Intel drivers. For more details on changes and enhancements, please refer to the changelog.

The new 2007.08-2 Arch Linux release is the first to use the new repository structure. Users can choose either to download the complete distribution as an ISO image, or just download an installer that uses ftp to fetch the remaining packages. Various mirrors are available for the download.

In its release notes for version 4.8 the Zenwalk team emphasizes the changes to Mozilla products. For licensing reasons the distribution has renamed Firefox and Thunderbird to Iceweasel and Icedove. Screen output has been improved. Video/X.org auto configuration now provides better support for widescreen displays and full support for Synaptics touchpads. The desktop and bootsplash have also been redesigned.

The Zenwalk image, which weighs in at around 440MB, is available from various mirror servers. Four different versions of the distribution are available. Besides a Live Edition, there are the Standard, Core and Server Editions. Standard gives users a complete system, whereas Core contains just the bare necessities for designing your own system. Server Edition is optimized for server use. Besides the selection of program packages supplied with the editions, another 1000 are available in the Extra repository, such as OpenOffice 2.3, Gnome 2.18.3. Zenwalk is based on Slackware, but it comes with its own package management system and other modifications.