Gentoo Linux 2006.1 LiveCD review

The Gentoo Release Engineering team proudly announces the release of Gentoo Linux 2006.0

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 698958K Developer: Gentoo Foundation, Inc.

0

The Gentoo Release Engineering team proudly announces the release of Gentoo Linux 2006.0. Gentoo Linux 2006.0, the first release in the 2006 series, represents improvements across many architectures since the 2005.1 release.

Major highlights in the release include KDE 3.4.3, GNOME 2.12.2, XFCE 4.2.2, GCC 3.4.4 and a 2.6.15 kernel. This is also the first release with the Gentoo Linux Installer officially debuting on the x86 LiveCD, which will fully replace the Universal and PackageCD set. The LiveCD also features a fully-fledged Gnome environment. Later releases will include KDE support as well as a new LiveDVD.

The PPC64 team has made significant improvements in its release media. IBM's hardware donation to the team greatly helped this and ensured a smooth release. The CDs feature 64-bit kernels and 32-bit userlands rather than the previous pure 64-bit environment. Optimized stages are available for the G5 and POWER5 processors, making Gentoo the first distribution optimized for POWER5 out-of-the-box. The new release includes an experimental CD with full framebuffer support for dual-core G5 machines along with thermal management features. This makes Gentoo the first to market with release media with this level of support.

PPC and PPC64 profiles received further reorganization. They now match those of other 32/64-bit architectures such as SPARC and MIPS, unifying the look of the tree and allowing easier creation of specific profiles (for example, for server use) in the future. The PPC discs improve support for newer Apple laptops such as the last series of PowerBooks, which 2005.1 did not support, and feature improved OldWorld support with BootX on the universal CDs. The PPC team now produces the PackageCDs in a G4 and a ppc-generic configuration, especially useful for older and slower machines.

The Hardened team is pleased to release both 2.4 and 2.6 kernel targeted stages for the x86 platform. The previously experimental non-multilib AMD64 stages are now part of the 2006.0 release, while Hardened Gentoo with multilib on AMD64 has become possible and the team is releasing experimental stages.

The 2006.0 AMD64 release moves EM64T support out of the experimental realm. The InstallCDs feature support for NVIDIA SATA and for SysKonnect Yukon2 network cards as well as the inclusion of 32-bit Java Support. An experimental LiveCD is also available, featuring the Gentoo Linux Installer.

The Alpha team now provides split NPTL profiles as part of the 2006.0 release -- NPTL must use a 2.6 kernel, and those who require a 2.4 kernel or do not wish to enable NPTL can use the no-nptl subprofile instead to not take advantage of the new threading model. Stage tarballs are now provided for both variants, and the InstallCD provides both 2.4 and 2.6 kernels.

SPARC has moved to GCC 3.4.5 from the older 3.3 series and also to glibc 2.3.5 from 2.3.3 -- the profile features a 2.6 kernel and headers. However, this feature remains experimental and the SPARC team built the release media with the 2.4 subprofile. Testing from SGI Quality Assurance allowed the IA64 team to update its InstallCD to boot on SGI Prism machines.

Gentoo Linux is a community-driven project committed to producing a high-quality open source distribution; more information regarding this release, such as detailed release notes will be available on the Gentoo Release Engineering team's project page.

Gentoo Linux uses an enhanced BSD ports-style package system.