Linux & Open Source - eWeek

Linux & Open Source: Upcoming Linux Distributions in Pictures


The Linux world's three most influential community distributions, Fedora, OpenSUSE and Ubuntu, are each undergoing beta testing toward a late fall release. eWEEK Labs takes a look at some of what's new in this Linux OS trio.
 
  • The GNOME 2.24 graphical environment that ships with all three releases now sports a file manager, Nautilus, with tabbed browsing functionality.
  • All three distributions ship with Network Manager 0.7, which enables users to share their wireless connections.
  • In addition to the connection sharing, Network Manager allows for management of 3G (GSM/CDMA) and DSL (PPP and PPPOE) connections, management of multiple active devices at once, management of devices with static IP configurations, and configuration of custom device routes.
  • There is improved management and handling of printers for ease of setup and use--Fedora and Ubuntu both use the same printer setup tools.
  • The reworked, YaST-based printer setup tool in OpenSUSE 11.1 is a bit more complicated than those in Fedora and Ubuntu, but it works well nonetheless.
  • OpenSUSE 11.1 will ship with basic SELinux support, but AppArmor remains Novell's primary enhanced-security option.
  • Fedora's new audit utility, which Red Hat is calling Sectool, provides a set of system tests for detecting configuration issues regarding permissions, firewall rules and the status of other system security features.
  • OpenSUSE 11.1 boasts its own security audit tool.
  • In Ubuntu 8.10, the User Switcher panel applet now provides an option for launching a session for a temporary passwordless user account with restricted privileges.
  • Ubuntu 8.10 comes with a plug-in for fetching free digital content from the BBC, in addition to the previously available plug-in for watching YouTube videos.
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