The next generation ZevenOS-Neptune 1.9 is ready for testing as Release Candidate 1.

This version is based upon Debian Squeeze and ships with the KDE SC 4 Desktop. Just like every ZevenOS Release this release comes fully packed with software. Appls like K3b, Smplayer, Audacity, Kdenlive, Chromium-Browser and Developmentapps like Eclipse aswell as Networkanalysis with Aircrack, Kismet and Wireshark are part of the default apps we ship. OpenOffice.org is the default Office Application.

Download : http://www.wuala.com/Neptune%20Share

The main theme of this version stands under the topic USB Live System. We ship an EasyUSB Installer that allows you to easily create your usb live stick from iso. Persistent-Creator creates a persistent image that allows you to store configurations and applications easily on your live usb stick.

Screenshots:

KDE 4 Standard Desktop

Lowmemory Desktop (based on fluxbox)

Be aware that this is a development version. The default language is set to german. You can set it to english aswell if you wish.

Since the release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS the update manager, allows for upgrading to 10.04.

Be aware ZevenOS 2.0 is not compatible with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS and shouldn’t be upgraded to this version!
ZevenOS 2.0 is based on Xubuntu 9.10 and the next version 3.0 will be shipped November 2010.
You can disable the upgrade notice in Synaptic packagemanager > Settings > Repositories > Updates.

(Thanks to rolan for this notice)

Main features are complete new user interface with zeebar and xfce4-panel. Core components like MAGI , MAGI 2, Encode and others were updated. We added the fabulous video editor OpenShot and added a ZevenOS-Hardwaredriversmanager. All in all this release is by far the best release we ever put out and therefor deserves the codename “Next Gen”.

NOTICE: Please read the following before you install the update.

This update will enable the dynamic menu automatically. This needs to be configured before working properly.
If you want to enable the old static menu :

If you want to have the old static menu again just rename the hidden .deskbar_newmenu file in your home folder into .deskbar_menustatic.

It will allow you to create categories by placing a directory in the hidden folder .menu (in your home folder). Any .desktop file from /usr/share/applications can now be placed in the menu very easily.

The new deskbar feature as well as some patches will be automatically obtained by packagemanager on update.

If you want to have the old static menu again just rename the hidden .deskbar_newmenu file in your home folder into .deskbar_menustatic.

Here are some of the future plans we made for the upcoming months and years for ZevenOS.

ZevenOS Release Cycle :
Basically 1 year cycle with release every October/November.
Detailed list here

TODO ZevenOS 3.0:
——————
- central configuration file for Deskbar
- make fastlaunchbar customizable
- global optionsdialog for deskbar (set positioning, sticky, …)
- dynamic menu for deskbar (!? how ? help appreciated!)
- add magi-kit-setgui (graphical user interface for setting magi-kit apps)
- add center (fullscreen, media-center like app starter for small display devices)
- add clock (fullscreen, alarm clock app for small display devices, maybe included in center)
- code cleanups and bugfixing
- …

Screenshots of early development versions of Center and Clock :

The team wishes everyone a merry christmas and a happy new year !

ZevenOS 2.0 Release

Chat and E-Mail

Chat with friends and colleagues through Pidgin which integrates Yahoo, GTalk, MSN, Jabber, AIM,Gadu-Gadu, ICQ and many more.

Claws-Mail gives you email, an address book and has support for SSL and IMAP and works well on small display devices like Netbooks and MIDs.

Internet and Network made easy

ZevenOS includes Mozilla Firefox 3.5 for faster and safer browsing. Including HTML5 support for video Tags and Flash Player for commonly used video portals. For filesharing there is gFTP, Transmission and Giver. Those allow you to easily exchange small and big files through the network.

SMB and NFS shares can be easily accessed via the networking tool gigolo. It also allows you to connect to the internal disk of your mobile phone via Bluetooth.

If you wish to connect to a virtual private network (vpn) ZevenOS 2.0 includes VPNC-Gui which manages you different vpn profiles.

MAGI 2 & Magi-Kit

Magi 2 got lots of improvements in the overall design. Underneath we implemented magi-kit a standard application layer which allows you to set global standard apps which are used by all ZevenOS programs then. Changing the standard browser or e-mail application so is as easy as pie. It also includes an graphical installer(magi-kit-install) which uses synaptic to install packages via the apt-get system of Ubuntu. Installing 3rd party apps like Skype or Opera is only a click away.

Multimedia

Plug in your PSP, iPod, MP3 player and use Rhythmbox to download, store, buy and play music.

Share playlists with your friends. Access Last.fm directly through Rhythmbox to stream your favourite music. Stream and play video from YouTube, BBC and others.

Upload photos and images from your camera or phone to Gthumb. Manage, tag, share and sort your photos. Create Web-Albums and upload them to the internet.

Create VideoDVDs or CDs with Encode. Transcode your favorite movie to store it on your mobile media device. Encode now allows you to even choose more audio and video codecs and extract the audio part from a video. Saving files with a different name and to a custom folder is now supported as well.

Create and edit Podcasts with Audacity. It allows you to use many different effects and filters to create the best audio experience. Avidemux is the Video equivalent for Audacity. It allows you to cut and edit videos, add effects and save them in many different formats.

Screencasts can be recorded with gtk-RecordMyDesktop. Videofiles from online videoportal sites can be easily extracted and saved with YAVTD. The new version supports lots of new video sites, like golem.de, dailymotion, spiegel.de, vimeo.com, clipfish.de and sevenload.com .

Burning AudioCDs, VideoCDs/DVDs or DataCD/DVDs can be accomplished by using Brasero. It includes a CoverEditor to create a custom made cover for your CD/DVD.

Professional image editing is possible with The Gimp.

Office

Create professional documents, spreadsheets and presentations with Abiword and Gnumeric.

Both are compatible with all office applications including Microsoft Office.

Save your contacts as people VCard files and exchange them with your friends or family.

Manage appointements with Orage save or import them as iCalender or VCalender files.

Remaster ZevenOS

Let your creativity fly and create own custom build of ZevenOS. With Remaster-Kit it never was easier to remaster a LiveCD.  Just create your own project and start editing the live system. Remaster-Kit will automatically build and create checksums for your custom build ISO. Try perhaps taking one of the many new themes of ZevenOS 2.0 and build your own custom themed version of ZevenOS. The possibilities are almost unlimited.

Additional Software

Instant access to thousands of free and open-source applications with the Ubuntu Softwarerepositories.

Categories include Education, Games, Sound and Video, Graphics, Programming and Office.

Simply select the applications you want to use and Synaptic will add them to your computer.

Notice

There are a lot of under the hood changes in ZevenOS. The switch to pulseaudio aswell from hal to device-kit might show some regressions with special hardware devices or configurations. Because of the amount of critical changes we don’t support upgrading from ZevenOS 1.x to 2.0 .

Beaware that we now use a static menu system in the deskbar. So newly installed applications can be either accessed by using ZevenOS -> Tools -> more apps or right clicking the desktop and go to the applications submenu. ZevenOS 2.0 also included GRUB 2 as a new bootloader. It is still beta software and might show some unusual behavior.

If you encounter any problem or bug please feel free to visit our IRC Channel #zevenos on freenode.net or our Forum .

Here you can find a small video with a describtion of some of the changes within ZevenOS 2.0

Download

This includes the official ZevenOS 1.1 package repository that will be soon be upgraded to store packages for ZevenOS 2.0. Excluded are Updates and Fixes provided by the Ubuntu package repository.

Support in form of questions in forum or by mail will be continued until the end of 2010.

Anyone that loved BeOS needs to try out Haiku r1 alpha 1 from : http://www.haiku-os.org