What's new in Sabayon Linux Xfce 14.01
Dec 21, 2013
- Linux Kernel 3.12.5 with BFQ iosched, updated external ZFS filesystem support, GNOME 3.10.3, KDE 4.11.4, Xfce 4.10, LibreOffice 4.1.3, UEFI SecureBoot support for 64 bit images (with bundled UEFI shell), systemd as default init system, a greatly improved version of the Entropy package manager supporting concurrent activities (like parallel installation of applications) and PackageKit 0.8.x support with backend parallelization enabled. Last but not really least, the integration of Steam and a new install profile called Steam Big Picture mode (also improperly known as SteamBox on my blog) that turns your computer into a powerful Linux gaming machine.
- These are just some of the awesome things you will find inside the box.
New in Sabayon Linux Xfce 13.04 (May 1, 2013)
- Linux Kernel 3.8.8 (3.8.10 available through updates, 3.9 available in hours) with BFQ iosched and ZFS, GNOME 3.6.3, KDE 4.10.2, MATE 1.6 (thanks to infirit), Xfce 4.10, LibreOffice 4.0, production ready UEFI (and SecureBoot) support and experimental systemd support (including openrc boot speed improvements) are just some of the things you will find inside the box.
New in Sabayon Linux Xfce 11 (Feb 16, 2013)
- Reliably Rolling:
- As many of you know, Sabayon is a rolling distribution with some tweaks to the model to make the experience less painful and more predictable. This also mean that our official releases (or snapshots) are becoming stale very quickly, which is a reason why we have “daily” live media images available as well. Now, we want to take it further and, in the near future, offer semi-automatic monthly (or bi-monthly) releases. During this release cycle and the upcoming one, the focus has been and will be on distribution-wide continuous integration and testing. This also means that your contribution in terms of feedback, bug reporting and donations is going to be even more important for us!
- EFI, UEFI and UEFI SecureBoot:
- Starting from Sabayon 11, all the x86_64 live images can boot and install on {U,}EFI only systems through GRUB bootloader. While we debate the way SecureBoot is implemented and its key management governed, we decided to make Sabayon bootable on systems where SecureBoot is enabled, through shim-signed, by Matthew Garrett. The process is simple: at the first live boot, you will be asked to enroll the Sabayon SecureBoot key, which is available in the “/SecureBoot” directory on the live media. However, in order to give you full control of your system, during the installation a new and personal SecureBoot keypair will be generated (and put into /BOOT/EFI/sabayon/enroll-this.cer). This means two things: you must also enroll this new key at the first boot after install and you will be able to sign your own binaries without depending on any third-parties (including us).
- To learn more about SecureBoot in Sabayon, also read this blog post.
- NVIDIA Optimus and Bumblebee support:
- Sabayon 11 gained out of the box support for NVIDIA Optimus through Bumblebee (and bbswitch). Optimus systems are automatically detected and configured on your behalf if a NVIDIA GPU, an Intel GPU and NVIDIA proprietary drivers are installed.
- Tons of updates and new packages:
- As always, the amount of software updates is huge, and you can search for your favorite software through our web interface. Here are some worth a mention: all our Linux kernels (server, desktop, hardened, ec2, arm) at the time of this writing, have been updated to 3.7.4, GNOME has been updated to 3.6.2, KDE to 4.9.5 (and 4.10.1 is in the works), LibreOffice to 3.6.3.2 (and 4.0 will arrive soon), MATE saw its 1.4 release and XBMC 12 is finally here. Last but not least is Steam! Yes, we now have it in our repositories as well.
- The Sabayon repositories have now reached almost 14000 packages available for each of the main architectures currently supported (i686, x86_64). This has been made possible by our new internal continuous building tools (Matter and Cosmos), and your donations of course.
- Rigo improvements, Equo rewrite:
- Rigo, the Google-style graphical application browser, received a tremendous set of small but important speed and usability improvements thanks to your feedback. For example, a whole new set of keyboard accelerators has been implemented: CTRL+F for switching to the search bar, CTRL+M to load the preferences menu and CTRL+P to move the focus to the results list area.
- For those of you who love Equo more, it may be interesting to know that the whole Equo codebase has been rewritten from scratch and the old stinky code that was around since 2007 has been eventually thrown away. While the command interface is still the same, you will be able to realize that some new features have appeared here and there, and most importantly, that now every equo sub-command has built-in support for bash completion and man pages. Fore more details about the new Equo, have a look at this blog post.
- Free all the MySQLs:
- Three MySQL flavors are now available in our repositories, and I personally feel quite proud of this: Google MySQL 5.1, Oracle MySQL 5.5 and MariaDB 5.5. We expect to migrate to MariaDB as the default MySQL implementation once version 10.0 is released as stable.
New in Sabayon Linux Xfce 8 (Feb 8, 2012)
- The first and best way to try a Gentoo-based Linux distribution at its full power, with all working out-of-the-box and no compilation needed at all
- The first Extreme-Rolling Release distribution, with automated repository package version bumping, thanks to Entropy Matter ebuild tracker
- Faster, cleaner and more evolved than any other rolling distro out there: we work hard to bring you the most stable rolling release experience
- Keep up-to-date your system in minutes while maintaining full Gentoo Portage compatibility
- Focusing on performance: GCC 4.6 with Graphite Loop Transformation infrastructure and Link Time Optimizations enabled
- Always up-to-date Linux Kernel 3.2 (and experimental "Fusion" Kernels available in repositories)
- Providing extra Server-oriented Linux kernels (OpenVZ, Vserver, Generic Server)
- Natively supporting the btrfs filesystem (besides ext4, aufs, and others)
- Transform Sabayon into an full-featured HTPC Operating System (Media Center) using XBMC 10.1 (11.0 available soon)
- GNOME 3.2.2 Visual Environment
- KDE 4.7.4 Desktop Environment (4.8.0 available in a few days)
- Improved Xfce 4.8 out-of-the-box experience (for those missing GNOME2)
- Improved LibreOffice integration, updated to 3.4.4
- Migrated to libav as ffmpeg replacement
- Migrated to Java 7 and Subversion 1.7
- Cinnamon and Razor Qt available in repositories
- Entropy Framework (Package Manager, Web Services) updated to 1.0_rc86, consolidating stability and performance
- Support for IME and non-roman fonts at install time
- Support for non-latin languages at install time
- More than 12000 packages available for x86_64, i686
- ARMv7 versions already available, with more than 2000 packages ready to be installed
New in Sabayon Linux Xfce 7 (Oct 12, 2011)
- Features:
- Ultra-optimized Linux Kernel 3.0 (Experimental Fusion Kernel available after install)
- Providing extra Server-optimized, OpenVZ-enabled, Vserver-enabled kernels in repositories
- Natively supporting the btrfs filesystem (besides ext4, aufs, and others)
- Transform Sabayon into an full-featured HTPC Operating System (Media Center) using XBMC 10.0
- GNOME 3.2.0 Visual Environment
- KDE 4.7 Desktop Environment
- Improved Xfce 4.8 out-of-the-box experience (for those missing GNOME2)
- Improved LibreOffice integration, updated to 3.4.3.2
- Entropy Framework (Package Manager, Web Services) updated to 1.0_rc59, containing tons of improvements
- Improved support for IME and non-roman fonts
- Improved support for non-latin languages
- Semi-automated package updates, for more extreme rolling
- 4000 application updates since Sabayon 6 (yay for rolling release model)
- Important Fixes:
- Make possible to boot Sabayon off USB via dd (bug 2685)
- Disable GNOME Shell when fglrx is in use due to broken drivers (patch)
- Clickpad Touchpad fixes (bug 2517)
- Failsafe mode not showing login prompt (bug 2539)
- Fbsplash framebuffer 1280x800 size fixes (bug 2542)
- Properly set CONSOLEFONT variable (bug 2582)
- Switch to man-db (bug 2583)
- KDE: replace Clementine with Amarok (bug 2662)
- KDE: Improve/fix file associations (bug 2464)
- KDE: provide proxy settings menu (bug 2538)
- Installer: make possible to enable/disable firewall
- Installer: write proper keyboard layout for Russian (bug 2580)
- Installer: set proper console font for Russian (bug 2582)
- Installer: move language packs options to Language wizard page (bug 2518)
New in Sabayon Linux Xfce 7.0 (Oct 12, 2011)
- Features:
- Ultra-optimized Linux Kernel 3.0 (Experimental Fusion Kernel available after install)
- Providing extra Server-optimized, OpenVZ-enabled, Vserver-enabled kernels in repositories
- Natively supporting the btrfs filesystem (besides ext4, aufs, and others)
- Transform Sabayon into an full-featured HTPC Operating System (Media Center) using XBMC 10.0
- GNOME 3.2.0 Visual Environment
- KDE 4.7 Desktop Environment
- Improved Xfce 4.8 out-of-the-box experience (for those missing GNOME2)
- Improved LibreOffice integration, updated to 3.4.3.2
- Entropy Framework (Package Manager, Web Services) updated to 1.0_rc59, containing tons of improvements
- Improved support for IME and non-roman fonts
- Improved support for non-latin languages
- Semi-automated package updates, for more extreme rolling
- 4000 application updates since Sabayon 6 (yay for rolling release model)
- Important Fixes:
- Make possible to boot Sabayon off USB via dd (bug 2685)
- Disable GNOME Shell when fglrx is in use due to broken drivers (patch)
- Clickpad Touchpad fixes (bug 2517)
- Failsafe mode not showing login prompt (bug 2539)
- Fbsplash framebuffer 1280x800 size fixes (bug 2542)
- Properly set CONSOLEFONT variable (bug 2582)
- Switch to man-db (bug 2583)
- KDE: replace Clementine with Amarok (bug 2662)
- KDE: Improve/fix file associations (bug 2464)
- KDE: provide proxy settings menu (bug 2538)
- Installer: make possible to enable/disable firewall
- Installer: write proper keyboard layout for Russian (bug 2580)
- Installer: set proper console font for Russian (bug 2582)
- Installer: move language packs options to Language wizard page (bug 2518)
New in Sabayon Linux Xfce 6.0 (Jun 23, 2011)
- Linux Kernel 2.6.39.1 and blazing fast, yet reliable, boot
- Providing extra Server-optimized, OpenVZ-enabled, Vserver-enabled kernels in repositories
- Natively supporting btrfs filesystem
- Completely reworked artwork and boot music intro, thanks to our little Van Gogh (Ian Whyman)
- Improved theming for 16:9 and 16:10 widescreen monitors
- Transform Sabayon into an full-featured HTPC Operating System (Media Center) using XBMC
- Entropy 1.0_rc10, bringing outstanding speed and reliability. Entropy Store (Sulfur) went through a massive speed rework. Entropy Web Services foundation library has been introduced in order to support User Generated Content contributions in a more powerful way, bringing our Package Manager in the Social Internet age. Added support to delta packages downloads, parallel packages download, differential repository update through simple HTTPS protocol
- Several Sabayon Installer improvements, especially with dealing with crypt, LVM and swRAID environments
- Added a non-intrusive firewall tool called "ufw" and its frontends for GNOME and KDE
- X.Org Server updated to 1.10
- Sane Desktop Compositing now enabled by default
- Switched to IcedTea6 as bundled Java VM
- Switched to jpeg-turbo library, boosting JPEG images rendering speed
- Switched to LibreOffice 3.3.3
- Switched to Chromium/WebKit as bundled Web Browser
- Split nvidia-drivers and ati-drivers into userspace and kernel modules, improving reliability over kernel migrations
- Updated to GNOME 2.32.2 and KDE 4.6.4
- Updated to GRUB 1.99
- Introduced the "kernel-switcher" tool, to easily switch between available Sabayon Linux kernels
- Python toolchain updated to version 2.7
- Updated to GCC 4.5.2
- Dracut and Plymouth ready (expect them in Sabayon 7)
- Thousands of updates and bug fixes that flew in, during these last 4 months
- We're still here! (it's a feature), only thanks to your donations, please keep donating, donate now!
New in Sabayon Linux Xfce 5.4 (Sep 30, 2010)
- More than 1000 updated packages since Sabayon 5.3 and more than 100 bugs (stability, usability and performance) fixed
- Shipped with Desktop-optimized Linux kernel 2.6.35
- Providing extra Server-optimized, OpenVZ-enabled, Vserver-enabled kernels in repositories
- Installable in 10 minutes
- Fast boot time and lightweight default system
- Ext4 filesystem as default
- Official Btrfs filesystem support
- Encrypted filesystem support
- Featuring X.Org 7.5 and up-to-date Open Source, NVIDIA, AMD video drivers
- Containing GNOME 2.30 (with GNOME Shell!) and KDE 4.5.1
- Outstanding 3D Desktop applications (Compiz, Compiz Fusion and KWin) working out of the box
- Bringing Entropy Framework (Package Manager) 0.99.50.2, faster than ever!
- Shipped with OpenOffice 3.2 productivity suite, Multimedia applications
- Transform Sabayon into an full-featured HTPC Operating System (Media Center) using XBMC
- Shipped with World of Goo Demo - best 2D game ever!
- Refreshed Skin! (as usual)
- Try it out from Windows, just kick the DVD in and use Sabayon via QEMU virtualization!
New in Sabayon Linux Xfce 5.3 (Jun 6, 2010)
- Based on new GCC 4.4 and Glibc 2.10
- Shipped with Desktop-optimized Linux kernel 2.6.34
- Providing extra Server-optimized and OpenVZ-enabled kernels in repositories
- Installable in 10 minutes
- Fast boot time and lightweight default system
- Ext4 filesystem as default
- Official Btrfs filesystem support
- Encrypted filesystem support
- Featuring X.Org 7.5 and up-to-date Open Source, NVIDIA, AMD video drivers
- Containing GNOME 2.28 (with GNOME Shell!) and KDE 4.4.3
- Outstanding 3D Desktop applications (Compiz, Compiz Fusion and KWin) working out of the box
- Bringing Entropy Framework (Package Manager) 0.99.46.9
- Shipped with OpenOffice 3.2 productivity suite, Multimedia applications
- Transform Sabayon into an full-featured HTPC Operating System (Media Center) using XBMC
- Shipped with World of Goo Demo - best 2D game ever!
- Sexiest Skin ever! (Light blueeee!)
- Try it out from Windows, just kick the DVD in and use Sabayon via QEMU virtualization!