Development Release: FreeBSD 9.0-BETA1

Ken Smith has announced the availability of the first beta release of FreeBSD 9.0: "The first beta build of the 9.0-RELEASE release cycle is now available. Due to lack of support for boot floppies and issues with the new ATA_CAM infrastructure the pc98 architecture is being dropped to Tier-2 status. Note that some time between now and beta 2 we will finalize the list of shared libraries that need to have their versions bumped (only a subset of libraries have been converted to symbol-versioning) and take care of doing the bumps. So at the moment packages built for current should work. But when the bump happens you will need to recompile any applications you have installed and there will likely be a delay for suitable pre-built packages to become available on the FTP sites." The release announcement. Download: FreeBSD-9.0-BETA1-i386-disc1.iso (498MB, SHA256), FreeBSD-9.0-BETA1-amd64-disc1.iso (607MB, SHA256).

NEW • Distribution Release: Ultimate Edition 3.0 "Lite"

Ultimate Edition "Lite" is a Lubuntu-based distribution featuring the LXDE desktop environment. Version 3.0 was released today: "Well, ladies and gents, we now have Ultimate Edition 3.0 Lite. Ultimate Edition Lite was built off Lubuntu; it is intended to be run on low-resource computers, such as netbooks. Ultimate Edition Lite contains only the bare minimum, a browser, a music player and a few other tools. The desktop environment is LXDE / Openbox which has a look similar to Windows XP. This release, being as large as it was to begin with, did not leave me much to work with to keep its CD size. Unfortunately I was unable to pre-install the updates for you as I was in Ultimate Edition 2.8 Lite. I have enhanced the wireless support since this release is intended for notebooks." See the release announcement and release notes for more details. Download (MD5): ultimate-edition-3.0-lite.iso (703MB).

NEW • Development Release: Mandriva Linux 2011 RC2

Eugeni Dodonov has announced the availability of the second (and last) release candidate for Mandriva Linux 2011: "Today Mandriva and ROSA teams proudly announce that Mandriva 2011 RC2 is available for download. In this release candidate we fixed more than 300 bugs and added or changed about 700 packages. Here are main changes since RC1: we added VirtualBox guest additions by default, now testing in VirtualBox gives more pleasure than ever; minor fixes in programs for configuring pptp/vpn/wi-fi; more network cards from Atheros and Intel are supported; restored some old and added some new Epson, HP and Lexmark printer drivers; now USB 3G is supported much better; we are working hard to improve KDM and Dolphin...." Check out the release announcement for a full changelog and a list of known bugs. Download: Mandriva.2011.RC2.i586.2.iso (1,643MB, MD5, torrent), Mandriva.2011.RC2.x86_64.2.iso (105MB, MD5, torrent).

PostgreSQL 9.0 Final Release Available Now!

Posted on 2010-09-20
Posted by press@postgresql.org

PostgreSQL 9.0 is here! The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announces the availability of our most eagerly awaited release. PostgreSQL 9.0 includes built-in, binary replication, and over a dozen other major features which will appeal to everyone from web developers to database hackers.

9.0 includes more major features than any release before it, including:
Hot standby
Streaming replication
In-place upgrades
64-bit Windows builds
Easy mass permissions management
Anonymous blocks and named parameter calls for stored procedures
New windowing functions and ordered aggregates

... and many more. For details on the over 200 additions and improvements in this version, developed by over a hundred contributors, please see the release notes.

"These kinds of feature additions continue to make a strong case for why mission-critical technology tasks can continue to depend on the power, flexibility and robustness of PostgreSQL,” said Afilias CTO Ram Mohan.

More information on PostgreSQL 9.0

NEW • Development Release: Mandriva Linux 2010.1 Beta 1

The first beta release of Mandriva Linux 2010.1 is ready for testing: "The time has came for the first beta release of the 2010.1 version of Mandriva Linux. It's now available as 32-bit and 64-bit DVD images, as well as live CD images with GNOME or KDE. This release includes GNOME 2.30 and a preview edition of GNOME-Shell, which will be part of GNOME 3 (which is planned for release in September 2010). Of course, KDE 4.4.2 is also available, as well as various updates for many programs in the distribution. As usual, your feedback is really important to help with improving the quality of distribution. You can report improvement proposals and/or bugs in Mandriva Bugzilla." See the release announcement and release notes for a detailed list of changes and new features. Download the installation DVDs (i586 or x86_64) or the live CDs (i586 only) from here: mandriva-linux-free-2010-spring-i586.iso (4,206MB, MD5), mandriva-linux-free-2010-spring-x86_64.iso (4,366MB, MD5), mandriva-one-2010-spring-beta1-KDE4-i586.iso (697MB, MD5), mandriva-one-2010-spring-beta1-GNOME-i586.iso (676MB, MD5).

NEW • Distribution Release: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5

Red Hat, Inc. has announced the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.5, the fifth update of its commercial, enterprise-class Linux distribution: "Red Hat is pleased to announce the availability of the latest update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, release 5.5. Highlights of the release include hardware enablement for the Intel Boxboro-EX platform, AMD Magny-Cours processor and IBM Power 7 processor. Virtualization is improved, with support for multiple 10 GigE SR-IOV cards, and automatic usage of hugepages for virtual guest memory when enabled on the system. Interoperability improvements include updates to OpenOffice.org for Microsoft Office 2007 filters, Samba for Windows 7 compatibility and boot support for virtual machines using Microsoft-based PXE services." See the release announcement, press release and release notes for a detailed list of changes and improvements. Installation ISO images for RHEL 5.5 are available to existing subscribers via Red Hat Networks, while new customers can download a 30-day trial edition from here.

NEW • Distribution Release: Sabayon Linux 5.2

Fabio Erculiani has announced the release of Sabayon Linux 5.2, a Gentoo-based desktop Linux distribution with GNOME/KDE and with a custom (binary) package manager: "The best, refined blend of GNU/Linux, coming with bleeding edge edges, is eventually here. Say hello to Sabayon Five-point-Twoh, available in both GNOME and KDE editions. Dedicated to those who like cutting-edge stability, out-of-the-box experience, outstanding desktop performance, clean and beauty. You will find outstanding amount of new applications and features, like XBMC 9.11, KDE 4.4.1, GNOME 2.28. Features: based on new GCC 4.4.1 and glibc 2.10; shipped with desktop-optimized Linux kernel 2.6.33; installable in 10 minutes; faster boot time and lightweight default system...." Read the rest of the release announcement for additional details. Download the GNOME (G) or KDE (K) edition from here: Sabayon_Linux_5.2_x86_G.iso (1,680MB, MD5, torrent), Sabayon_Linux_5.2_x86_K.iso (1,944MB, MD5, torrent), Sabayon_Linux_5.2_amd64_G.iso (1,791MB, MD5, torrent), Sabayon_Linux_5.2_amd64_K.iso (2,038MB, MD5, torrent).

NEW • Development Release: Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 1

Steve Langasek has announced the availability of the first beta release of Ubuntu 10.04, code name "Lucid Lynx", a long-term support (LTS) version: "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the first beta release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop, Server, and Netbook editions and of Ubuntu 10.04 Server for Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) and Amazon's EC2. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Desktop and Netbook editions continue the trend of ever-faster boot speeds, with improved start-up times and a streamlined, smoother boot experience. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Server edition provides even better integration of the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, with its install-time cloud setup." Read the release announcement and release notes for further details. Download (SHA256): ubuntu-10.04-beta1-desktop-i386.iso (675MB, torrent), ubuntu-10.04-beta1-desktop-amd64.iso (679MB, torrent). Also release today were 10.04 beta 1 builds of Kubuntu (download, release notes), Xubuntu (download), Edubuntu (download), Mythbuntu (download, release announcement) and Ubuntu Studio (download).

NEW • BSD Release: FreeBSD 7.3

FreeBSD 7.3, the latest update of the project's older, legacy series, has been released: "The FreeBSD Release Engineering team is pleased to announce the availability of FreeBSD 7.3-RELEASE. This is the fourth release from the 7-STABLE branch which improves on the functionality of FreeBSD 7.2 and introduces a few new features. There will be one more release from this branch to allow future improvements to be made available in the 7-STABLE branch but at this point most developers are focused on 8-STABLE. Some of the highlights: ZFS updated to version 13; new boot loader gptzfsboot supports GPT and ZFS; hwpmc enhancements; new mfiutil and mptutil tools for widely-used RAID controllers; NULL pointer vulnerability mitigation; BIND updated to 9.4-ESV; GNOME updated to 2.28.2, KDE to 4.3.5 and Perl to 5.10." See the release announcement and release notes for a complete list of new features. Download (torrents): FreeBSD-7.3-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso.gz (1,929MB, SHA256, torrent), FreeBSD-7.3-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso.gz (2,000MB, SHA256, torrent).

PHP 5.3.2 Release Announcement [04-Mar-2010]

The PHP development team is proud to announce the immediate release of PHP 5.3.2. This is a maintenance release in the 5.3 series, which includes a large number of bug fixes.

Security Enhancements and Fixes in PHP 5.3.2:
Improved LCG entropy. (Rasmus, Samy Kamkar)
Fixed safe_mode validation inside tempnam() when the directory path does not end with a /). (Martin Jansen)
Fixed a possible open_basedir/safe_mode bypass in the session extension identified by Grzegorz Stachowiak. (Ilia)

Key Bug Fixes in PHP 5.3.2 include:
Added support for SHA-256 and SHA-512 to php's crypt.
Added protection for $_SESSION from interrupt corruption and improved "session.save_path" check.
Fixed bug #51059 (crypt crashes when invalid salt are given).
Fixed bug #50940 Custom content-length set incorrectly in Apache sapis.
Fixed bug #50847 (strip_tags() removes all tags greater then 1023 bytes long).
Fixed bug #50723 (Bug in garbage collector causes crash).
Fixed bug #50661 (DOMDocument::loadXML does not allow UTF-16).
Fixed bug #50632 (filter_input() does not return default value if the variable does not exist).
Fixed bug #50540 (Crash while running ldap_next_reference test cases).
Fixed bug #49851 (http wrapper breaks on 1024 char long headers).
Over 60 other bug fixes.

For users upgrading from PHP 5.2 there is a migration guide available here, detailing the changes between those releases and PHP 5.3.

Further information and downloads:

For a full list of changes in PHP 5.3.2, see the ChangeLog. For source downloads please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/.

Welcome to 4G

(from cnet dot com)

Fourth-generation technology, or 4G, is gaining traction and carriers are promising even faster data speeds.

So what is 4G?
To start, think of wireless technology as a family that gets faster with each generation. Second-generation (2G) networks were faster than the original first-generation wireless technology; third-generation (3G) is faster than 2G; and 4G is faster than 3G. Speed is important for data transmission (not so much for voice) because a faster network lets you do more with your phone. The 3G networks that we use today allow us to stream video, download music tracks and other large files, and surf the Web on full HTML browsers. Think of it like moving from a dial-up Internet connection to cable or DSL--suddenly you could do more with your computer and do it faster.

That's why it's easiest to think of 4G not in terms of what it is, but rather in terms of what it can do. While 3G offers data speeds of about 1.5 to 2 megabits per second (Mbps), 4G will double that--and it could go even faster. It's important to remember, however, that promises are just that. As any iPhone user can tell you, 3G speeds can vary widely in everyday use, so 4G performance won't always be perfect.

Types of 4G
Just as there are different types of 3G (EV-DO, UMTS, and HSDPA) there are two main types of 4G. I'll tell you the basics, but before we start it's important to note that 4G more or less marks the end of the traditional CDMA/GSM divide. Carriers can choose which technology they're going to employ--they aren't limited by what they're using now. That's why you'll get Verizon Wireless and AT&T both choosing the same 4G solution. They won't necessarily be interoperable, but they will be similar.

LTE
LTE, aka long-term evolution, is the natural outgrowth of current 3G technologies. As it has an all-IP architecture, it treats everything it transmits, even voice, as data. Verizon Wireless and AT&T have chosen LTE, and it's expected that T-Mobile will go that way as well. At the time of this writing, no commercial LTE devices are available in the U.S. market, though we expect to see announcements later this month at the annual CTIA show in Las Vegas.

Verizon said Monday that LTE testing in Seattle and Boston has gone well and that it will bring the technology to 25 to 30 markets this year. According to the carrier, its network is capable of download speeds of 40Mbps to 50Mbps and upload speeds of 20Mbps to 25Mbps. Average speeds, however, will more likely range from 5Mbps to 12Mbps for downloads and 2Mbps to 5Mbps for uploads.

In contrast, AT&T is a bit further behind. The carrier announced in February that it will begin LTE testing later this year and will deploy commercial networks in 2011. So, at least for the time being, don't get your hopes up that a 4G-capable iPhone will arrive at AT&T this summer. T-Mobile will be playing catch up for some time, too. Last month at the Mobile World Congress, T-Mobile CTO Cole Brodman said the carrier will expand its HSPA+ network to more U.S. cities this year. Though Brodman billed it as 4G technology, HSPA+ is an advanced 3G technology.

WiMax
In contrast to LTE, WiMax, which stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, isn't an evolution of current cellular systems. Rather, it's more related to current Wi-Fi technology. The initial version for mobile use is based on the 802.16e wireless standard (Wi-Fi is 802.110). It has potential for very long range transmission (up to 30 miles) and could offer speeds of about 10Mbps.

Sprint is the only U.S. carrier to adopt WiMax, but for now the carrier's network is more widely available than LTE. Sprint and Clearwire have a WiMax network in 27 cities with at least eight more slated for the first half of this year. Sprint is promising average speeds of 3Mbps to 6Mbps with peak speeds up to 10Mbps. The carrier also has no 4G phones for now, but it introduced a WiMax-capable router last January at CES. And we expect to see it roll out some real 4G phones at CTIA.

Development Release: FreeBSD 7.3-RC2

Ken Smith has announced the availability of the second release candidate for FreeBSD 7.3: "The third and what should be last of the test builds for the 7.3-RELEASE cycle, 7.3-RC2, is available for amd64, i386, pc98, and sparc64 architectures. The target schedule, as well as the current status of the release is available here. The schedule has slipped by a bit over a week so the actual target for the release announcement is really about a week and a half from now. If you notice problems you can report them through the normal Gnats PR system or on the freebsd-stable mailing list. There are known issues with the Radeon video driver that have caused some people problems. The problems have been nebulous enough that we have decided to not hold up the release due to that specific issue." Read the rest of the release announcement for additional notes. Download: FreeBSD-7.3-RC2-i386-dvd1.iso.gz (1,927MB, SHA256), FreeBSD-7.3-RC2-amd64-dvd1.iso.gz (1,998MB, SHA256).

Development Release: Fedora 13 Alpha

Jesse Keating has announced the availability of the first alpha release of Fedora 13: "The Fedora 13 'Goddard' alpha release is available. Among the top features for end users, we have: automatic print driver installation so when you plug in a USB printer, Fedora will automatically offer to install drivers for it if needed; automatic installation of language packs; redesigned user management interface; color management to better set and control your colors for displays, printers, and scanners; NetworkManager improvements include CLI; experimental 3D extended to free Nouveau driver for NVIDIA cards." See the release announcement and release notes for further details. Download (torrents): F13-Alpha-i686-Live.iso (835MB, SHA256, torrent), F13-Alpha-i686-Live-KDE.iso (714MB, SHA256, torrent), F13-Alpha-x86_64-Live.iso (842MB, SHA256, torrent), F13-Alpha-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso (705MB, SHA256, torrent).

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

NetBeans IDE 6.8 Now Available for Download!

The NetBeans team is proud to announce the availability of NetBeans IDE 6.8!
Download NetBeans IDE 6.8

NetBeans IDE 6.8 offers best-in-class support for the entire Java EE 6 specification and the GlassFish Enterprise Server v3 platform. Simplify Java application development with Java EE 6 language features: less XML configuration and more POJO-like development; easily target and deploy to GlassFish v3.

NetBeans IDE continues to be the tool of choice for top development languages; this release includes new features and improved support for PHP 5.3 and the Symfony framework, the latest JavaFX SDK 1.2.1, C/C++, Ruby, Maven and more. Integration with Project Kenai, a collaborative environment for hosting open-source projects, now offers full support for JIRA, as well as improved issue tracker integration. And as always, the NetBeans Platform provides a rock-solid application framework that can save years of development time.

Supporting Java EE 6 improvements first, NetBeans IDE 6.8 boosts developer productivity and lets developers take advantage of today's latest language and platform features.

More information:

NetBeans IDE 6.8 Features
NetBeans IDE 6.8 Tutorials and Documentation
NetBeans Platform 6.8
Videos of NetBeans IDE 6.8 in Action
NetBeans IDE 6.8 is available in English, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese and Simplified Chinese. There are several community-contributed localization efforts underway to support additional languages. Join the efforts today.

As always, we welcome feedback about your experience using NetBeans software. Share your thoughts on our mailing lists and forums. To keep track of NetBeans news, subscribe to the NetBeans Weekly Newsletter, and follow NetBeans on Twitter.

NetBeans IDE 6.8: Get Tomorrow Today!

PostgreSQL update releases now available

The PostgreSQL Project today released minor versions updating all active branches of the PostgreSQL object-relational database system, including versions 8.4.1, 8.3.8, 8.2.14, 8.1.18, 8.0.22, and 7.4.26. This release fixes one moderate-risk and two low-risk security issues: an authentication issue, a denial of service issue, and a privilege-escalation exploit. All users should upgrade their database installations as soon as reasonably possible.

This update release also fixes the "could not reattach shared memory" issue which has plagued many Windows PostgreSQL users, and updates time zone files for several countries. There are 23 other minor fixes, many of them affecting only version 8.4. See the release notes for full details.

As with other minor releases, users are not required to dump and reload their database in order to apply this update release; you may simply shut down PostgreSQL and update its binaries. Users skipping more than one update may need to check the release notes for extra, post-update steps.

Release Notes
Installation Packages
Source Code
Details of Security Issues

Distribution Release: Sabayon Linux 5.1

Fabio Erculiani has announced the release of Sabayon Linux 5.1, a Gentoo-based desktop distribution with GNOME or KDE desktops: "The best, refined blend of GNU/Linux, coming with bleeding edge edges, is eventually here. Features: based on the new GCC 4.4.1 and glibc 2.10; ships with a desktop-optimized Linux kernel 2.6.31; provides extra server-optimized and OpenVZ-enabled kernels in repositories; installer now available in multiple languages; complete ext4 file system support; features X.Org 7.5 and up-to-date FLOSS, NVIDIA, AMD video drivers; containing GNOME 2.28 (with GNOME Shell) and KDE 4.3.4; outstanding 3D desktop applications (Compiz, Compiz Fusion and KWin)...." See the release announcement for a complete list of new features and changes. Download the KDE (K) or GNOME (G) edition for your preferred architecture: Sabayon_Linux_5.1-r1_x86_K.iso (1,936MB, MD5, torrent), Sabayon_Linux_5.1-r1_x86_G.iso (1,734MB, MD5, torrent). Sabayon_Linux_5.1-r1_amd64_K.iso (2,032MB, MD5, torrent), Sabayon_Linux_5.1-r1_amd64_G.iso (1,882MB, MD5, torrent).

NEW • Distribution Release: Ultimate Edition 2.5

Glenn Cady has announced the release of Ultimate Edition 2.5, an Ubuntu-based live DVD in over 3 gigabytes - with GNOME, KDE, Xfce and thousands of applications: "Ultimate Edition 2.5 was built off Ultimate Edition 2.4 (Ubuntu 9.10 based), all upgrades pre-installed as of current. It has KDE, Xfce and GNOME, user-selectable at login, three new themes and tons of applications. This release is huge, obviously bigger then Ultimate Edition 2.4. I am not going to spend my time writing a web page, just a post, even though it is a very worthy release and deserves a web page. I have a lot on my plate in programming and other activities. It has been out about a week, forum users have been grabbing it left and right." For more information please see this brief release announcement. Download (MD5): ultimate-edition-2.5-x86.iso (3,040MB), ultimate-edition-2.5-x64.iso (3,057MB).

NEW • Development Release: Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 1

Steve Langasek has announced the availability of the first alpha release of Ubuntu 10.04, code name "Lucid Lynx": "Welcome to Lucid Lynx Alpha 1, which will in time become Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. New features: updated packages, Linux kernel 2.6.32, KDE 4.4 beta 1, HAL removal. Known issues: the nv driver used by default for NVIDIA video chipsets on the live CD is reported to lead to X server crashes; the firmware for the bnx2 driver is not available on the alternate and server installer images at install time; manual partitioning in the graphical installer is reported to cause the installer to crash; clicking on the installer icon on the Kubuntu desktop CD fails to launch Ubiquity; the Kubuntu alpha 1 desktop ISOs are too large to fit on a CD." See the release announcement and release notes for more details. Download (SHA256): lucid-desktop-i386.iso (685MB, torrent), lucid-desktop-amd64.iso (690MB, torrent), lucid-server-i386.iso, lucid-server-amd64.iso. Also released today: Kubuntu 10.04 alpha 1 (download, release notes) and Xubuntu 10.04 alpha 1 (download).

Distribution Release: KNOPPIX 6.2

Klaus Knopper has released KNOPPIX 6.2, a new version of the popular Debian-based live CD/DVD with LXDE as the default desktop: "The current version 6.2 has been completely updated from Debian 'Lenny', 'Testing' and 'Unstable', and uses kernel 2.6.31.6 and X.Org 7.4. Microknoppix is a complete rewrite of the KNOPPIX boot system from version 6.0 and up, with the following features: high compatibility with its Debian base; accelerated boot procedure; LXDE as graphical environment - a very slim and fast desktop with extremely short start time and low resource requirements; amount of installed software greatly reduced in the CD edition; network configuration handled by NetworkManager...." Read the rest of the release notes for more details. Download the DVD, CD or the special ADRIANE edition with accessibility features for the visually impaired: KNOPPIX_V6.2DVD-EN.iso (3,675MB, MD5, torrent), KNOPPIX_V6.2CD-EN.iso (691MB, MD5, torrent), KNOPPIX-ADRIANE_V6.2CD-EN.iso (691MB, MD5, torrent).