The Frugalware Developer Team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware 1.6, our sixteenth stable release.

No new features have been added since 1.6rc2, but 93 changes have been made to fix minor bugs. If you didn’t follow the changes during the pre/rc releases, here are the most important changes since 1.5 in no particular order:

• Updated packages: Linux kernel 3.1.10, XOrg server 1.11.2, GNOME 3.2, KDE SC 4.7, LibreOffice 3.4.5.2, Mozilla Firefox 10.0 to name a few major components.
• i686 and x86_64 ISOs are now hybrid. We no longer build separate USB images for these arches.
• cpupower can be used to configure your CPU power management, and is now our recommended method for doing so.
• UEFI/EFI support has been removed from i686. This is because it is rare on i686.
• UUIDs are now used by the installer when generating the /etc/fstab for new installs.
• fw32, which maintains an i686 chroot on x86_64, is now more mature and usable. If you find it lacking, make a request.
• HAL has been deprecated in favor of udisks
• i686 and x86_64 now use an initrd. See installation documentation for instructions on how to properly upgrade this.
• Cinnamon desktop is included now.
• fwlive is more mature and usable now.

Please refer to the Frugalware Fermus ChangeLog for more information.

The Frugalware Developer Team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware 1.6rc2, the second technical preview of the upcoming 1.6 stable release. Here are some of the major improvements, fixes and updates since 1.6rc1:

• Package updates:
  • Linux kernel 3.1.10
  • LibreOffice 3.4.5
  • ~100 updated packages
  • 27 new packages
• New features:
  • New cpupower (LWN article) and perf packages
  • kmod replaced module-init-tools
• Fixes:
  • The installer now handles network timeout errors
  • Documentation updates

Please refer to the Frugalware Testing ChangeLog for more information.

Before too much of the new year goes past we wanted to take the opportunity to review the achievements of 2011 and look ahead to what’s planned for 2012. It’s an exciting period in Frugalware’s development with the development team making progress in many areas. This article highlights some of the major achievements and planned projects but not all of them. If you are interested in following the progress of any particular project, subscribe to the appropriate mailing list: frugalware-devel if you’re interested in development discussion of all Frugalware projects, and frugalware-git-commits if you want to track individual commits.

The Frugalware Developer Team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware 1.6rc1, the second technical preview of the upcoming 1.6 stable release. Here are some of the major improvements, fixes and updates since 1.6pre2:

• Package updates:
  • Linux kernel 3.1.8
  • Systemd 38
  • Firefox 9.0.1
  • 383 updated packages
  • 121 new packages
  • 8 replaced packages
• New features:
  • After being away for 6 releases, Fwlive is back on the scene!
  • Cinnamon Desktop is available as package.

Please refer to the Frugalware Testing ChangeLog for more information.

In few hours, it’s Christmas, and guess what ? The Frugalware Developer Team is pleased to offer you a gift: the new version of FWLive (Frugalware Live CD/DVD).

• FWLive is available in different versions:
  • GNOME Desktop Live-CD (fwlive-gnome-*.iso)
  • KDE Desktop Live-CD (fwlive-kde-*.iso)
  • XFCE Desktop Live-CD (fwlive-xfce-*.iso)
  • LXDE Desktop Live-CD (fwlive-lxde-*.iso)
  • Educative Edition Live-CD (fwlive-education-*.iso)
  • Gamer Live-DVD Edition (fwlive-gamer-*.iso)
• To know:
  • By default, the keyboard is qwerty
  • For now, the only languages available are: en,de,fr,it,hu
  • Default user login and password are: fwlive.
  • Root’s password is: fwlive
  • The Frugalware Graphical Installer is added by default
  • The Educative Edition is dedicated for kid’s learning
  • The Gamer Edition is a live DVD full of opensource games

NOTE: This version is still beta

The Frugalware Developer Team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware 1.6pre2, the second technical preview of the upcoming 1.6 stable release. Here are some of the major improvements, fixes and updates since 1.6pre1:

• Package updates:
  • Linux kernel 3.1
  • XOrg server 1.11.2
  • KDE SC 4.7.4
  • Firefox 8.0.1
  • Chromium 16.0.912.63
  • Blender 2.60
  • 1.1.0 release of the core EFL component
• New features:
  • All services used by the default installation now have native systemd units
  • Installer images now use isohybrid on x86, separate USB images no longer provided.
  • Chrony is now the default NTP client.
  • /boot/grub/menu.lst and /etc/fstab now contains UUID’s on new installs

Please refer to the Frugalware Testing ChangeLog for more information.

Our live-cd will be back soon since Baste has taken over as maintainer of the project Fwlive. Some ISO images are available here. We are looking for testers. These ISO images are still beta and only in English and French. Please report bugs, feedback and requests to Baste on #frugalware IRC channel or the Bug Tracker System.

We have a new bug tracker system. Flyspray is obsolete since a while and we have chosen trac. All reports have been imported. If you has an account with the previous bts, you must reset your password as indicated on the main page.

Special thanks from Frugalware developers to Xarkam for his work!

The Frugalware Developer Team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Frugalware 1.6pre1, the first technical preview of the upcoming 1.6 stable release. Here are some of the major improvements, fixes and updates since 1.5:

• Package updates:
  • Linux kernel 3.0
  • GNU C Library 2.14
  • GCC 4.6
  • GNOME 3.2
  • KDE SC 4.7
  • Perl 5.14
• New features:
  • rsyslog is the new default syslog daemon
  • udisks replaced hal in the default installation
  • The fw32 package replaced the emul-extra group, bringing seamless integration for e.g. Skype on x86_64.
  • kernels are now built with an initrd. be sure to update your boot config to use the initrd at /boot/initrd.img.xz.

Please refer to the Frugalware Testing ChangeLog for more information.

The newsletter’s aim is to keep you up to date with what’s happened recently in the world of Frugalware.

Features of this issue include:

• Frugalware Release Party was “up in the air”
• Slown is officially a developer
• Cedynamix is back!
• Tips and Tricks - “Bash shell aliases” and “Tell me when you’re finished”
• Focus on Packages - Gource and Duplicity
• Frugalware Exam #3 - Answers

You can read it here. We hope you enjoy reading it.