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ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE Changelog

What's new in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2014.1 R9

Apr 21, 2017
  • Most of the system libraries, compilers and system/user software were updated to their new/latest versions (glibc, boost, gcc, clang etc)
  • A new additions to the repos were made such as ldc (the D language compiler), meson (an open source powerful build system) and many others.
  • Added the glibc patch drastically boosting the loading speed of the dynamic shared objects (DSO)
  • The Provides QML-generator was added into RPM
  • Some installation issues and Live mode booting issues were fixed (for some systems)
  • Kernel version is 4.9.20 LTS which permits the R9 installation on the latest Intel Skylake machines
  • Some serious issues affecting the hibernation mode for kernel 4.9 on 32-bit systems were fixed
  • Mesa version 17.0.3 with OpenGL support up to version 4.5 and improved performance for video games running on the free video drivers. The support for the new API Vulkan is also included.
  • The proprietary NVidia drivers now use external GLVND libraries which helps the debug process and to avoid some graphical software issues.
  • The proprietary AMD driver AMDGPU PRO was added into ROSA 64-bit repositories (experimental feature)
  • The support for the proprietary driver fglrx was dropped.
  • The input devices in X11 now use libinput
  • The Firefox 32-bit version crash issue on YouTube and some other sites was fixed.
  • The RPM repositories were reorganized, some popular packages were added to the Main repo (darktable, rawtherapee, krita, synfigstudio, LMMS, ardour, librecad, geany, boomaga, sigil, qbittorrent, deluge, smplayer, remmina etc) which means the improved QA quality for those packages from now on during the versions upgrade.
  • Added OpenCL for FFmpeg

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2014.1 R8.1 (Mar 7, 2017)

  • Several bugfixes for fix installation and booting problems in Live-mode on some systems;
  • Linux kernel 4.9.x LTS is included right out of the box, you can use our new ROSA Desktop Fresh R8.1 release on latest Intel Skylake chipsets;
  • Mesa now is 13.0.2 with OpenGL 4.5 for better working of free drivers on some modern games;
  • Rsyslog are disable by default for better booting performance and less trash in logs, we use only journalctl instead now;
  • NetworkManager and NTPD services are fixed;
  • Fixed bug in NetworkManager, when using pptp with incorrect MTU parameters;
  • Mozilla Firefox is now ESR version out of the box;
  • Latest CUPS drivers included;
  • Some bugfixes for better Epson scanners support in SANE;
  • Some security fixes for ~/.gvfs directory, backing-up home directories made smoothly;
  • New modems are supported, and you can now see traffic graph in modemmanager app;
  • ROSA desktop theme is fixed for better work with no effects;
  • Bugfixes when working with shared folders in VirtualBox;
  • OpenSSL version supports GOST cipher algorithms;
  • Hardware acceleration for some video editing software (MLT) is on by default.

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2014.1 R8 (Aug 3, 2016)

  • Changes in DE-independent components:
  • The installer will now eject the DVD automatically after the installation of the system has completed. This simplifies OS installation in the virtual machines.
  • Rosa Image Writer was improved to handle the changes in the list of available USB devices correctly.
  • Problems with detection of the file name encodings in zip archives were fixed in 7-zip.
  • The update system was improved to avoid removing packages in case of errors in the repository mirrors. Earlier, the system suggested to remove the installed packages if their dependencies were missing at the mirrors.
  • The default settings of PulseAudio were changed so that Skype no longer mutes the sound in other applications during its notifications.
  • Disabled anti-aliasing of the fonts in GIMP to get rid of the green borders of the symbols.
  • For security reasons, support for SSLv2 protocol was disabled in OpenSSL.
  • Added support for changing screen resolution in SDDM login manager in VirtualBox.
  • Fixed the problems that prevented gawk and grep from correct processing of some national-language symbols, e.g. Syrian ones.
  • traceroute no longer requires root privileges.
  • Fixed the rendering of the rouble sign as well as drawing of some shapes in LibreOffice.
  • Fixed the discrete GPU not turning off in the hybrid graphics systems when user switched to the integrated GPU.
  • The opensource implementation of OpenGL provided by Mesa supports OpenGL 4.1 now.
  • Steam was updated to make it easier to use the libraries from the default repositories of ROSA rather than from the bundle it downloads.
  • Several missing icons were added to the ROSA icon theme.
  • ...And much more.
  • Updates of major components:
  • LTS kernel 4.1.25 is used by default. Kernel 4.4.x (x86_64, i586) and 4.6.x (x86_64, i586) are available in additional repositories.
  • Mesa was updated to 11.2.2
  • PulseAudio was updated to 8.0
  • NetworkManager was updated to 1.2.2
  • Chromium was updated to 51.0
  • Firefox was updated to 46.0.1
  • New Moon was updated to 26.3.3
  • Thunderbird was updated to 38.6
  • LibreOffice was updated to 5.1.4
  • Qt5 was updated to 5.6.1, KF5 was updated to 5.24.0
  • FFmpeg was updated to 2.8.7
  • GStreamer and its plugins was updated to 1.6.3
  • Graphical drivers for NVidia video cards have been updated:
  • nvidia361 — to version 361.42
  • nvidia-current — to version 364.15

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2014.1 R7 (Jan 26, 2016)

  • Updates of Major Components:
  • LTS kernel 4.1.15 is used by default. Separate repositories are avaialble with kernel 4.2.x (x86_64, i586) and 4.3.x (x86_64, i586).
  • X11 server has been updated to version 1.17.4, X11 drivers and libraries have been updated, as well.
  • Mesa has been updated to 11.0.6.
  • PulseAudio has been updated to 7.1.
  • Chromium has been updated to 47.0.
  • Firefox has been updated to 43.0.4.
  • Thunderbird has been updated to 38.3.
  • LibreOffice has been updated to 4.4.7.
  • Qt5 framework has been updated to version 5.5.1. KF5 - to version 5.18.0. GTK3 - to version 3.16.7.
  • FFmpeg has been updated to 2.8.5.
  • GStreamer and its plugins have been updated to version 1.6.2.
  • Graphical drivers for NVidia video cards have been updated:
  • nvidia352 — up to 352.63;
  • nvidia340 — up to 340.96;
  • nvidia304 — up to 304.131;
  • nvidia-current — up to 358.16.
  • Drivers for AMD video cards (fglrx) have been updated to version 15.201.1151 (corresponding to AMD Catalyst 15.9).
  • Changes in DE and System Components:
  • Fixed issues with installing ROSA Linux from USB3 drives.
  • Significantly imrpoved support for machines with AMD and Intel video.
  • Improved support for ThinkPad USB keyboards.
  • Kernel update policy has been changed. Now updates will be provided automatically only within the scope of the same kernel branch. If you ant to switch to a new branch, you should do this explicitly.
  • Fixed issues with creating Wi-Fi access points by means of NetworkManager.
  • Fixed issue with switching to virtual console in case when graphical subsystem fails to start.
  • Fixed displaying of a splash image during system start and shutdown.
  • KLook now supports video encoded with h.265.
  • Improved Clementine integration with Dolphin to support playback of the whole folders from context menu.

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2014.1 R6 (Jul 25, 2015)

  • Technical part changes in comparison to the previous release:
  • Changes in the default applications list on KDE4 ISOs. Were included by default: GIMP, Audacity, Kdenlive, EasyTag, Filelight. Chromium browser was added as the second default browser, being FireFox the first. The GUI was added for the hw-probe, the ROSA hardware database client.
  • The default settings of the SimpleWelcome menu and the RocketBar were changed, some seldomly started from the menu applications were combined into groups. In the Live mode the '/home/live' directory and some others are now mounted into tmpfs, since the tmpfs provides increased performance for file write operations and at lower cost. The amount of memory for storing the write operations is now optional (with only 512MB earlier) and can be set during the Live mode boot process, so the live sessions are now more vital and more prolonged than before the R6 release.
  • The default LTS kernel is now 3.14.44 (the 4.1.x kernel x86_64 and i586 builds are available in repos)
  • Some recent updates:
  • Mesa 10.5.3.
  • PulseAudio 6.0
  • Chromium 43.0.2357.134
  • Firefox 39.0 (classical interface Firefox ESR 24.8.0 also available from the repos)
  • Thunderbird 38.0.1, with Lightning Calendar add-on coming by default
  • LibreOffice 4.4.3 with pager extension by default
  • Audacity 2.1.0
  • Kdenlive 15.04.3
  • Kmix updated to the v.15.04.3 (fixes the low system boot time issue with pulseaudio-module-x11 installed)
  • Qt4 4.8.7, Qt5 5.4.2
  • tcl/tk 8.6.4 (fixes the program crush issue because of only partial PNG support)
  • ffmpeg 2.5.6
  • nvidia-340 proprietary drivers v.340.76, nvidia-346 v.346.47
  • AMD (fglrx) 15.101 (which corresponds to the AMD Catalyst 15.5)
  • Hw-probe 0.9.2, more useful options added with increased number of logs gathered
  • Qt Creator 3.4.1 with qtc-cppcheck by default (needs to be activated in the settings menu)
  • DE and system:
  • KDE Frameworks 5 and Plasma 5 packages were added to the repos. Some programs now use KF5 (kdenlive and partitionmanager), also the framework integration package may help in Qt5 software integration into the KDE4.
  • Number of issues were fixed, including:
  • partial support for the cursors themes in the Qt5 applications
  • Qt5 applications crush on the VirtualBox machines with 3D activated
  • Automatic audio profiles/devices switch issue while connecting the headphones
  • MUltiple Authentication request Firefox issue while connecting through NTLM proxy
  • Also:
  • Wine is now build with the Staging and Gallium Nine patchsets by default (earlier only with Staging patchset)
  • Some popular Realtek WiFi drivers (RTL8723BE, RTL8812AU etc) packages are now available for the kernel 3.14
  • XFdrake settings menu for the free graphical drivers was 'cleaned' and made more simple from the user experience point
  • Some possible issues which could be caused by switching from the free graphical drivers to proprietary
  • XFdrake automatic detection and configuration of the current graphical system settings
  • Better NVidia Optimus and Primus support
  • Some cups-filters issues were fixed, thus improving the legacy printers support
  • HPLIP was updated to the version 3.15.6 with Python3 environment support
  • The issue of PDF documents with cyrillic fonts not printing from applications (Ocular, etc) was fixed
  • Installer:
  • Users who installed ROSA on pen-drive earlier now can boot into it using the menu option, which is useful for booting directly into the working system instead of Live mode
  • Links in the GRUB2 menu: added the GRUB_OS_PROBER_LINKED option, eliminating the multiple 'Advanced options' entries by only one menu entry which redirects user to the corresponding config
  • Multiple fixes for UEFI, Secure Boot and GPT disks support

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2014.1 R5 (Dec 25, 2014)

  • Changes In Technical Part In Comparison With Previous Release:
  • KDE4 desktop environment has been updated to version 4.14.3.
  • Firefox has been updated to version 34.0. ROSA repositories also provide Firefox ESR 24.8.0 with classical UI theme.
  • Fixed video playback problems in KLook and TimeFrame caused by migration to GStreamer 1.0 API.
  • Fixed issues with video preview in Dolphin (fixes have been developed for KDE upstream bugs: #334924, #339882, #337033, #337107).
  • Fixed problem with copying large files (>2Gb) by means of kamera KIO slave (KDE upstream bug #340908).
  • K3b settings in "Configure Your Desktop" have been moved to the root section.
  • A new section named "Games->Emulators" has been added to kickstart menu. All game emulators have been moved to these category.
  • Kernel and System Components:
  • Added support for booting with Secure Boot mode enabled (how to turn Secure Boot on without reinstalling).
  • The LTS kernel used by default has been updated to version 3.14.25. Users can also find the new 3.17.6 kernel in a separate repository.
  • OpenCV libraries have been updated to version 2.4.10 and switched to GStreamer 1.0 API. This allowed to eliminate Digikam crashes caused by simultaneous usage of GStreamer 1.0 and 0.10.
  • Support for "status notifier item" mode for systray elements has been added to Qt4. In order to activate this mode, one should install sni-qt package which provides systemtrayicon plugin for Qt4.
  • Python3 bindings have been added for Qt4 and Qt5.
  • Users can now setup automated launch of TRIM for SSD drives by installing ssd-utils package. By default, TRIM will be launched once a week.
  • Fixed work of Samba on machines with long names.
  • Fixed issue with printing on Samba printers.
  • Fixed automated launch of Shorewall with default settings.
  • Added installer option to skip bootloader installation (for those who wish to keep their existing bootloader).
  • Graphics:
  • Mesa has been updated to version 10.3.3.
  • NVidia proprietary video drivers (nvidia340) have been updated to version 340.65.
  • AMD proprietary video drivers (fglrx) have been updated to version 14.301.1001 (corresponds to AMD Catalyst 14.9).
  • Support for video cards with hybrid Intel+AMD graphics has been added. We have also fixed issues with configuring of Intel+NVidia hybrid graphics on several video cards.
  • Optimizations in Nvidia proprietary video driver that perform on-the-fly modifications of the executable code are now disabled by default since with current versions of drivers they lead to application crash (for example, in case of Pipelight and FS-UAE programs).
  • A lot of issues have been fixed in configuration tools for AMD Radeon video cards.

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2014.1 R4 (Oct 8, 2014)

  • Installer:
  • EFI installation support
  • the root partition encryption
  • The desktop enviroment:
  • KDE v4.13.3 (you may install KDE 4.14.1 from the KDE backports http://abf-downloads.rosalinux.ru/kde4_backports_personal/repository/rosa2014.1/ repo and the offical KDE update till the v4.14 will be available after the KDE 4.14.3 release)
  • Phonon 4.8.0
  • Phonon-GSteamer and Qt-GStreamer use GStreamer API 1.0
  • the default Network connections utility is Plasma NM (you may install knetworkmanager from the repos)
  • the system screen settings are handled by kscreen
  • TimeFrame switched from Nepomuk to Baloo
  • support for grouping together the less used applications in SimpleWelcome
  • User applications:
  • Firefox 32.0.2 (you may install the classic interface Firefox ESR 24.8.0 from the repos)
  • Mozilla Thunderbird 31.0
  • Clementine 1.2.3
  • VLC 2.1.5
  • XBMC 13.2
  • Digikam 4.3.0
  • LibreOffice 4.3.1
  • FFmpeg 2.3.3
  • Pipelight https://launchpad.net/pipelight (fom the Restricted repos)
  • the testing version of the Fresh Player Plugin https://github.com/i-rinat/freshplayerplugin is available from the Contrib
  • check out the experimental version of ROSA Freeze http://wiki.rosalab.ru/en/index.php/ROSA_Freeze the rollback utility, keeping your system safe from those weird developers' 'bad days'
  • The system:
  • GCC 4.9.2_2014.08 Linaro
  • Glibc 2.19
  • FPC 2.6.4
  • Lazarus 1.2.4
  • LLVM/Clang 3.5
  • Lua 5.2
  • OCaml 4.01.0
  • Perl 5.18.2
  • Python 2.7.8
  • Python3 3.4.1
  • Ruby 2.1.2
  • NetworkManager 0.9.10
  • ModemManager 1.4.0
  • Samba 4.1.9
  • Xorg 1.15, Mesa 10.2.7
  • MariaDB instead of MySQL
  • Kernel&drivers:
  • kernel 3.14.x (3.14.15 by default after installation/upgrade) with support for BFQ I/O scheduler v7r5
  • Nvidia proprietary modules: 340.x, 304.x, 173.x (XFdrake installs the most appropriate driver automatically)
  • better support for hybrid graphics Nvidia/Intel
  • Minimal system requirements:
  • 2GB RAM for 64-bit systems, 1280MB for 32-bit
  • 10GB disk space

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2012 R3 (May 31, 2014)

  • Major features, changes and improvements of ROSA Desktop Fresh R3:
  • All core applications are updated to their newest stable versions available — Firefox 28.0, Chromium 34, Mozilla Thunderbird 24.4, Clementime 1.2.2 (built with support for Russian social networking service "VKontakte" ), VLC 2.1.3.
  • Kernel version 3.10.34 with support for BFQ v.7, with patches backported to improve the acpi backlight driver functionality for some laptop models (see bug 60682 https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=60682).
  • Added 'urpmi-recover': a recovery tool with command line and GUI interfaces for RPM rollbacks management (based on the antique Mandriva tool of the same name).
  • Better device management through the PTP protocol (digital cameras, etc) and through the MTP (Android 4.x phones and so on).
  • KDE graphical desktop environment version 4.12.
  • Systemd version 208, basic system services previously using SysVinit were switched to systemd as well.
  • All the recent system security updates and bugfixes.
  • Installer improvements:
  • The initial system setup stage (previously launched after the first reboot) was included into the installation process so the users get a ready-to-run system right after the first reboot.
  • Swap file support added; if the custom partitioning was configured without a swap partition, user will be prompted for the swap file in the root partition.
  • Сreated partitions are aligned to megabytes instead of cylinders (optimal for SSD drives and modern HDD; no more unallocated areas between partitions).
  • Some bugfixes for encrypted partitions creation and use.
  • Maximum size of the automatically created root partition is now 20Gb.
  • Time zones list can now be localized (at the moment, only Russian translation is present); the list was cleaned from the "garbage" items, and some rarely needed items were moved to the "Other" category.
  • Keyboard layout is now set before the Time zone to ease the location search process by entering first letters of its translated name in the user's native language.
  • Default hardware clock setting (UTC or local time) is now automatically determined by comparing the BIOS clock value with rosalab.ru clock.

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2012 R2 (Dec 6, 2013)

  • Installer features:
  • The language and locale settings, keyboard layout and time zone are set automatically through the GeoIP service if the network connection is up
  • Better btrfs support
  • The desktop environment features:
  • The KDE graphical desktop environment updated to version 4.11.3, various KDE bugs and regressions were fixed (including some upstream issues as well)
  • Phonon updated to the version 4.7.0
  • Userspace software updates include:
  • LibreOffice v4.1.3 with fixed "freeze" bug while using the integration mode and Python3 support
  • Clementine v1.2 with Russian social network VKontakte support
  • Firefox v25.0.1
  • Thunderbird v24.1.1
  • System software:
  • Kenel v3.10.19 with MEI patches fixing the Intel processors freezes and better display autodetection features
  • X-server v1.14.4
  • Intel graphics drivers updated to the v2.99.905, NVIDIA v325.15 and NVIDIA304 v304.88 (for graphical cards < 8xxx), AMD Catalyst (fglrx) version 13.8
  • Mesa 9.2
  • FFmpeg 2.1 with Atrac3+ codec support added
  • Linaro GCC 4.7 (version 4.8 is available from additional repo)
  • NetworkManager 0.9.8.2
  • Cups 1.7.0
  • "Testing" repos are available for better testing user experience (not enabled by default)
  • The x64 installation include 32-bit main and non-free repos to give user the possibility for installing skype, wine, teamviewer, steam and some other programms without 64-bit support
  • Printing and scanning settings are now supported by Draksec (the tool for flexible management of system administration access)
  • The user passwords mechanism is now using the sha512 algorythm
  • GRUB2 in EFI mode is now able to detect and boot the Windows installations
  • Base EFI support was added into installer, users are able to install system into EFI computers using GRUb2 and efibootmanager, but still not in the automated mode.
  • Systemd features:
  • Systemd was updated to the version 204
  • The following subsystems were switched to systemd:
  • the keyboard layout and locale management now support both localectl and drakkeyborad/draklocale settings
  • the time zone management now supports both drakclock and timedatectl settings
  • the ROSA native systemd generator for EFI partition mount without obligatory dependence on efivars
  • the migration of legacy init.d ervices onto systemd services is in progress

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2012 R1 (Jun 10, 2013)

  • Windows Azure and Hyper-V Support:
  • Microsoft Hyper-V support allows to deploy ROSA in public Microsoft Azure cloud data centers and private clouds used to organize virtual workstations. In the nearest future images that can be used to deploy ROSA in Azure «out of the box» will be published at VM Depot.
  • Steam Support:
  • Possibility to connect the game service and get access to a large variety of high-quality Linux games. Steam requires proprietary NVIDIA or AMD video drivers.
  • Desktop Environment:
  • Thanks to new rasterizer from Adobe and Google, font smoothing has been improved significantly.
  • ROSA graphical theme has got a lot of modifications, including new decoration for window titles (with "shadow" support), renewed set of widgets included in RocketBar by default, brand-name ROSA Elementary theme for Chromuim/Google Chrome and updated QgtkStyleAlt theme engine with several bug fixes.
  • The primary desktop environment - KDE - has been updated to version 4.10.3 (the freshest one as of the end of the May, 2013). Besides the update itself, several issues have been fixed (including some upstream problems and regressions). Several localization issues have been fixed, as well.
  • Updated versions of the system with Gnome and LXDE desktop environments will be presented later.
  • Further development of ROSA brand-name applications and tools:
  • TimeFrame is now able to show video directly in the preview window.
  • TimeFrame is now integrated with KLook.
  • A new widget "All desktops" (Expo) has been added to RocketBar which displays all user desktops in a single grid. Number of virtual desktops available for user right after installation is increased from one to four.
  • ROSA Desktop Fresh R1 includes the new version of ROSA Media Player - 1.6 - with the following improvements:
  • Complete integration with YouTube, including video search, possibility to choose stream quality, etc.
  • Possibility to record presentation from display and add audio from microphone or line-in.
  • Improved IPTV support;
  • DVD menu support;
  • Significantly renewed module responsible for Internet browsing.
  • User-level Software Updates:
  • Major user-level applications have been updated to the latest stable versions:
  • Libreoffice - 3.6.6
  • Firefox - 21
  • Thunderbird - 17.0.5
  • Chromium 27
  • System part:
  • Kernel has been updated to 3.8.12
  • Added patches for X-Server 1.13.3 to improve monitor detection
  • Video drivers have been updated - Intel up to version 2.21.6, NVIDIA - 319.17 and NVIDIA304 304.88 (for cards prior to 8xxx), AMD Catalyst (fglrx) - 13.4
  • NetworkManager has been updated to the freshest version 0.98
  • System installer has got a new slide show
  • All repositories are now connected and enabled out of the box, so users can get system updates just after installation
  • In 64-bit systems, main and non-free repositories for 32-bit platform are enabled by default to make it possible to install such programs as skype, wine, teamviewer, steam and others that are absent in 64-bit repositories.
  • Updated Consolehelper to use the same configuration rules as upstream. Draksec tool (aimed to control access permissions for administration actions) has been rewritten to use new rules. All other programs that use consolehelper have been updated, too.
  • Consolekit и PolicyKit are completely dropped from the system. These components are obsolete and now they are replaced with systemd analogues. Session management is now performed by means of logind.
  • Urpmi and rpmdrake now don't calculate orphaned packages by default; this significantly speeds up package installation and removal.
  • Urpmi and rpmdrake now install updates more aggressively - when updating a single package, by default all its dependencies will be updated automatically.
  • '--download-all' option for urpmi is now set by default to avoid problems with large updates.
  • Systemd:
  • Systemd has got patches to fix several issues and implement new features. Experimental support for hybrid sleep has been added.
  • The following subsystems have been completely migrated to systemd:
  • DM subsystems. Prefdm and lookupdm scripts have been dropped. Systemd services for the main DMs (KDM, GDM, SLiM, LightDM) have been added. Now one should run systemctl enable xyzdm.service to choose a DM systemctl disable xyzdm.service and to disable it. Note that configuration line in /etc/sysconfig/desktop related to DM selection is ignored from now on. DM can be also switched using drakedm.
  • Network subsystem: drakx-net has been completely dropped, we have also dropped network-up and network-auth parts from init scripts. Now we only have CLI (network) and NM subsystems.
  • pm-utils is replaced with systemd. For compatibility with KDE, a hybrid solution based on modified upower is used.

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2012 (Dec 20, 2012)

  • The new major feature in SimpleWelcome is possibility to group icons and preview of applications included in the group. The "Welcome" tab got the possibility to pin icons to their positions. And the icon size will be definitely appreciated by touchpad users.
  • The KLook tool was extended with possibility to work with remote file systems using SMB, FTP, WebDav and other popular protocols. The image rendering quality was significantly improved.
  • A memory leak was eliminated in StackFolder when working with large images. Detailed documentation was added which describes stack features and integration with KLook.
  • Several issues affecting stability were fixed in ROSA Media Player. The application got a new theme that made it even more attractive.

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2012 RC (Dec 8, 2012)

  • Among the changes implemented by company engineers especially for the release candidate of ROSA Desktop 2012, one should highlight significant updates in the semantic desktop tool (TimeFrame) and improvements in the GRUB2 boot loader. And GRUB2 modifications have been already accepted by upstream.
  • Experiments with design were continued, as well. They concerned both general graphics theme and standalone applications, as well as dozens of new icons. Thanks to the work done, the system obtained more modern appearance and was even favored with review from designers of Art. Lebedev Studio.
  • The Release candidate includes fresh versions of major system components and user software. It is the emphasis on fresh software versions that makes the major distinction between ROSA Desktop 2012 and other items from the company's product line.

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2012 Beta (Oct 25, 2012)

  • New features:
  • EFI/UEFI support which was included in Alpha2 as an experimental option is now integrated in the main system.
  • Added "Install in basic mode" boot menu item to allow launching ROSA Desktop 2012 installer on almost any hardware.
  • Added components necessary to enable hibernating.
  • Added services to improve compatibility of ROSA Desktop 2012 with Windows 8.
  • Improved work of services responsible for hardware detection.
  • Implemented automated update of Grub2 menu when installing/removing kernels.
  • New version of 2Safe cloud storage desktop client with redesigned user interface and lots of bug fixes.
  • Bug fixes:
  • Reduced system boot time.
  • Interface language of user-level applications (e.g., Firefox Internet browser) now corresponds to system-wide settings selected by user when installing the system.
  • Solved issue with incorrect rendering of some fonts.
  • Fixed issue with launching programs that require administrative privileges.
  • Fixed issue with high power consumption on mobile devices.

New in ROSA Desktop Fresh KDE 2012 Alpha 2 (Oct 11, 2012)

  • Major changes from the first Alpha release include basic UEFI support and update of key system components and user applications. We have also significantly improved functionality of ROSA brand-name applications: SimpleWelcome, RocketBar, StackFolder, KLook and TimeFrame.
  • Kernel 3.5.5
  • GRUB2
  • dracut 23
  • KDE Plasma Desktop 4.9.2
  • LibreOffice 3.6.2
  • Firefox 15
  • Thunderbird 15
  • SimpleWelcome 2
  • TimeFrame 2