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Robert Strohmeyer wrote on PC World website about two well known Linux distributions, Ubuntu 8.04 and Fedora 9.

Ubuntu 8.04

Ubuntu 8.04 is the best-assembled and most polished Linux distribution I’ve ever used. Ubuntu 8.04 performs well where Windows XP and Vista screech to a halt, particularly on older hardware. And since it comes with OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Evolution Mail, and a host of other apps right out of the box, it may be the best way to breathe new life into a seemingly moribund PC.

Ubuntu 8.0.4 offers a level of functionality comparable to that of Mac OS and Windows, from delivery to installation to daily use. Unfortunately, the ties that bind all Linux distributions–primarily a lack of support for major Windows- and Mac-based business, design, and gaming applications–still hold Ubuntu back from mass popularity. For users with such moderate computing needs as Web browsing, e-mail, and basic document creation, however, Hardy is a compelling option.

Fedora 9

For users who are already familiar with Linux, Fedora 9 is an excellent choice. Robust security features and installation options make it somewhat more versatile than Ubuntu, which offers a more streamlined (and therefore more restricted) installation. For most users, though, including millions interested in trying Linux for the first time, Fedora lacks the polish and ready-to-run simplicity of its more popular rival.

 You can read the rest of article here.

About a week ago, Fedora 9, codename Sulphur was released to the public. Fedora 9 comes with a lot of new features and updated softwares such as the latest Gnome 2.22, KDE 4.0.3, Xfce 4.4.2, Mozilla Firefox Beta 5, Open Office 2.4 and a 2.6.25 based kernel. Here are some of reviews about Fedora 9 that I have found over the internet.

Linux.com conclude that:

Aside from the problems with PackageKit — and, to a lesser extent, the inclusion of KDE 4.0.3 — Fedora 9 manages to balance innovation with a high degree of usability. Over the last few months, Fedora has been increasingly compared favorably with Ubuntu on both accounts, and, to a large extent, it deserves this praise. If anything, it has probably exceeded Ubuntu in innovation, with at least a dozen major new ideas in every release. It is a rare release, too, in which Fedora’s menus and dialog do not show minor tinkering to fine-tune the user experience.

Yet the problems in Fedora 9 emphasize how difficult a balance the Fedora project tries to maintain. The fact that improvements are coming for both KDE and PackageKit, and that, meanwhile, workarounds exist, is beside the point — these facts are lucky accidents, and nothing that Fedora has done.

Although Fedora’s innovations make it one of the more interesting distributions to use and watch these days, the project needs to temper its creativity with more consideration of how changes affect users. Perhaps these relatively minor problems will help the distribution correct its release policies before a major disaster happens in a future release.

Source: Fedora 9: Leading edge or bleeding edge?

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On May 6, 2007 first beta version of Banshee 1.0 has been released to the public. In this released, three new features has been added and over 30 bugs has been fixed.

New Features:

• MTP and iPod device support: Now you can drag and drop the music and video files from your library to your device and it will be synced immediately. Album art will also be synced. Banshee also will convert the files to format which your player supports automatically. Alternatively, you can set what format and quality of the files you want.
• Smart by Default: The default smart playlist and other predefined smart playlist can be edited and created from the New Smart Playlist dialog.
• Minimode: Minimode is a view extension which enable Banshee to be displayed in a smaller windows. Minimode can be enable using the extension manager .
• Fullscreen video is now supported.

Installation

Ubuntu: For Ubuntu user, please read my previous post.

Fedora: Install via yum: yum install banshee

Foresight 2.0: Install banshee-1 from PackageKit, or in a terminal type, sudo conary update banshee-1

OpenSUSE 10.3: