Linux Archive

The Fedora Project has just announced the latest version of its popular Linux distro, codenamed “Constantine”. They say that the new version will be leaner and more efficient than the previous, and will also have special optimizations built in for Atom processors.

“The speed and power management tools will be welcome improvements for all users, but particularly for those using the Moblin netbook spin. As of Fedora 12, all 32-bit software packages have been compiled with special optimizations for the Intel Atom processors used in many netbooks, which makes the Fedora Moblin Spin quite a bit faster.”

For the Fedora Moblin users this will be a welcome advancement, and should make for longer battery lives which netbook users always like.

The beta is available for download here.

The newest version of Moblin Linux for netbooks is now available for download. You can get the iso here. Here are some of the new features in version 2.1:

• Support for 3G data connections
• Bluetooth device management
• Updated browser with plug-in support
• Integrated application installer for Moblin Garage
• Connection manager now supports Ethernet, WiFi, WiMAX, and 3G
• Support for more screen resolutions (important for running Moblin on a nettop or all-in-one PC)

These features are still works in progress. For instance, the only 3G modem that’s supported is the Ericsson MBM, but support for additional models is expected soon.

You can find a full list of the new features at the Moblin v2.1 project release page.

It looks like there is some hope for the video performance of our netbooks with Intel integrated graphics after all. At a Moblin Linux development meeting in Germany this week several demonstrations were setup showing netbooks with Intel GMA chipsets running HD videos and graphics intensive games.

Probably the most impressive demo showed an MSI Wind U115 with an Atom Z530 processor and GMA 500 graphics running Quake III in HD resolution on an external display at about 35 frames per second. It looks like this performance is due to the highly tweaked and efficient Moblin drivers, because you definitely won’t see this happening on a Windows machine.