Beryl 0.2

That is what I call good news in the end of the week :D
Finally, Beryl 0.2 is here. This is the second stable version.
Check you repository for it.

Beryl 0.2.0 is a complete overhaul of Beryl. The last stable release 0.1, featured a very fun, and eye-candy based compositing window manager. However, since it’s release, many parts of beryl have been rewritten, replaced, or simply dropped. The Beryl team has put in numerous hours to bring you this release. It’s filled with fun, eye-candy, better user support, new features, and most of all, stability. While Beryl has had numerous developer releases, known by their 0.1.X versions, 0.2.0 has been throughly tested by many more users.

Here is the list with the new cool features:

* New Plugins
- Thumbnail: Thumbnails on the taskbar (window list) which show a mini view of the actual window
- Snap: Allows windows to “snap” to each other, or provide edge resistance
- Opacify: Makes windows behind the active window transparent
- Group: Allows windows to be group, to easily switch between a set of windows

* New system requirements check
- The improved check has much better accuracy
- The check is a lot faster

* New Window Decorators
- Since 0.1, we have two new window decorators
- Heliodor: Uses metacity themes
- Aquamarine: Uses Kwin themes.

* Newly Rewritten Beryl-Settings
- Written in Python
- More user-friendly UI
- Better profile support

* New Translations

I am going to test as soon as I can. Enjoy.

Kino 1.0.0

This is the newest stable version of Kino. Kino is a non-linear DV editor for GNU/Linux. It features excellent integration with IEEE-1394 for capture, VTR control, and recording back to the camera. You can load multiple video clips, cut and paste portions of video/audio, and save it to an edit decision list (SMIL XML format). Most edit and navigation commands are mapped to equivalent vi key commands. Also, Kino can export the composite movie in a number of formats: DV over IEEE 1394, Raw DV, DV AVI, still frames, WAV, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4.

Here are the release notes:

• New http://blip.tv/ uploading feature for movies and still frames! Watch a screencast for more information.
• Fixed audio handling on big endian CPU architectures (thanks, Pavel Fedin)
• Improved generic video import script when using mencoder: faster, no bulky intermediate file, less compatibility problem between mencoder and ffmpeg, and retains interlacing in ITU-R 601 sources
• Added support for X-Keys Editor USB Jog/Shuttle (thanks, Shawn Rutledge)
• Added support for Jog/Shuttle to FX (jog wheel and button actions that scrub only--no shuttle ring support)
• The USB Jog/Shuttle hotplug integration was changed to use udev. The new configure option is --enable-udev-rules-dir, which defaults to $sysconfdir/udev/rules.d/ The following configure options were removed: --enable-hotplug-script-dir, --enable-hotplug-usermap-dir
• Added private copy of ffmpeg source code for static linking with new configure options: --enable-local-ffmpeg(=yes by default), or --disable-local-ffmpeg NOTE: This option builds a statically linked, kino-specific version of the ffmpeg transcode utility named 'ffmpeg-kino' that is invoked by the Kino import script. ffmpeg-kino contains a bugfix for reading the audio on imported files. However, when --enable-local-ffmpeg=no, then the import script uses the normal ffmpeg found in the PATH.
• Updated Italian translation
• bugfixes, of course

Ubuntu Feisty Fawn Herd 5 Released

This is the last test version of Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, which is going to be released in month. Here is the list with the newupdated stuff:

VPN - VPN can now be easily used with the use of Network Manager and VPN plugins.

Desktop Effects - Graphical Desktop Effects will be made extremely accessible, with one click activation in the system menu.

Xorg 7.2 - weee :) Version 7.2 comes with significant stability and correctness fixes, including improved autoconfiguration heuristics, enhanced support for GL-based compositing managers such as Compiz and Beryl, and improved support for PCI systems with multiple domains. Some of these features are not implemented in Herd 5 but will be available in the final version.

Artwork - here is the new Human theme and the new wallpaper:

Download Herd 5:

• Ubuntu
• Kubuntu
• Xubuntu
• Edubuntu
  

Musix GNU+Linux 0.99

Musix GNU+Linux is a 100% free software multimedia operating system for artists and general users. This is the most stable and user friendly version for now.

Since version 0.79, Musix GNU+Linux is focused on multimedia content creation and specially on music, that is: music production, audio edition, video edition, 3D animation, graphic design, image edition, web design… without forgetting the usual software for desktop’s PCs.

The most important programs in this distribution are Ardour 0.99.3 (audio sequencer), Rosegarden 1.4.0 (audio/midi sequencer), Cinelerra (video edition), Bluefish (web design), GIMP (image manipulation), Inkscape (vectorial graphic design) and Blender3D (3D animation).

Homepage: Musix
Download: Musix

Damn Vulnerable Linux

Damn Vulnerable Linux (DVL) is a Linux-based (modified Damn Small Linux) tool for IT-Security & IT-Anti-Security and Attack & Defense.
Actually, it is a perverted Linux distribution made to be as insecure as possible. It is collection of IT-Security and IT-Anti-Security tools. Additional it includes a fullscaled lesson based environment for Attack & Defense on/for IT systems for self-study or teaching activities during university lectures. It's a Live Linux Distro, which means it runs from a bootable CD in memory without changing the native operating system of the host computer. As well it can be run within virtual machine environments, such as qemu or vmware. There is no need to install a virtual machine if you use the embedded option. Its sole purpose in life is to put as many security tools at your disposal with as much training options as it can. It contains a huge ammount of lessons including lesson description - and solutions if the level has been solved by a community member at crackmes.de.

Homepage: Damn Vulnerable Linux
Download: Damn Vulnerable Linux