The second beta of the next GNOME release has arrived full of bug fixes and updates. Many of the standard packages have been updated for GNOME 2.32 Beta 2 (2.31.91) and more translation work has been done.

Ubuntu 9.10 is causing outrage and frustration, with early adopters wishing they'd stuck with previous versions of the Linux distro. Blank and flickering screens, failure to recognize hard drives, defaulting to the old 2.6.28 Linux kernel, and failure to get encryption running are taking their toll, as early adopters turn to the web for answers and log fresh bug reports in Ubuntu forums.

What's new in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Beta 2? Well, the most important feature of this second beta release is the brand-new GNOME 2.30 desktop environment, which brings lots and lots of new and exciting features that will make Ubuntu 10.04 LTS a good-looking and modern operating system.

Fedora 17 GNOME beta, as well as the beta of the KDE, LXDE and Xfce Spins, were released yesterday – almost two weeks past due date. This, however, is not highly unusual for the Fedora project. Unlike Ubuntu, their release schedule is not cast in concrete. They are more interested in getting stuff that works out the door, instead of shoving something out to meet a set deadline.

The new version of GNOME 2.28 has been released (complete release notes).

Which menu-applet is the best? I cannot possibly give an answer to this that will apply to everyones taste, but what I can do is give an overall review of the three contestants and tell you what I feel is the good, and bad, things about them.

Since 1995, when Patrick Volkerding announced that he would no longer include GNOME in Slackware, people had to rely on projects like GWARE, GNOME Slackbuild or Dropline to enjoy their favourite desktop environment on the oldest Linux distribution around.

This is my first look at gnome shell. I guess this is going to be the big thing for gnome when gnome 3 comes out in 2010. Gnome shell is in it’s early stages yet, but I miss having the ability to place things on the panel.

"As part of the Django 1.2 release process, tonight we've released Django 1.2 beta 1, a preview/testing package that gives a little taste of some of the new features coming in Django 1.2.