The next Neptune release will have the codename “Fluid”. It represents the fluid transition to 32-Bit/64-Bit Hybrid system.
Besides that we decided to officially change our name from “ZevenOS-Neptune” to the shorter name Neptune which also helps improving differntiating it from the ZevenOS distribution. The logo and the base design will only go through a small adjustment no big changes are planned for them. The website will be adapted to the new name in the coming weeks. A completely new webdesign is wished but currently we don’t have the man power to start this. (if you are interested in helping us out here and take responsibility to newly design the Neptune homepage, please contact us)
With this new version we will produce our last official LXDE (called Minimal) Edition system. To support LXDE even after our “Fluid” release we created a metapackage (called neptune-lxde-desktop) which should ensure that you can also install LXDE(with all the applications we ship currently in the Minimal Edition) on a base Neptune system.
KDE will be still our main desktop for the Neptune “Fluid” release. We will continue to ship it with changes and adjustments to the default settings that we consider useful. We also continue to ship the latest and greatest KDE release that is available with updates included.
One of the most impacting changes in the next version will be the switch to ‘Rolling-Release Minor Kernel Releases’. This means that you will get automatic updates of minor kernel releases on a normal update. So if you have kernel 3.3.3 installed and a bugfixed kernel 3.3.4 is coming out you will eventually (depending on the changes of the kernel and if we consider it worthful updating) get this new release with a online update. A version change from 3.3 to 3.4 will not result in a kernel upgrade on normal Neptune update. To ensure to have a working system a kernel update will not delete the older kernel so that you still have the possibility to boot the older kernel. But this also means you need to manually remove old kernels (we already ship the Grub2 configuration tool in systemsettings and a commandline tool ‘remove-oldkernel.sh’ which can be used to delete older kernel versions).
Automatic updating kernel for live media systems (i.e. usb sticks) is planned but currently not technically implemented and probably will not make it until the Neptune “Fluid” release. A manual upgrade is however (if there is the technical knowledge) possible.
Big changes need good testing. For this reason we will release a Beta version before the final release of Neptune “Fluid” which allows users to test out new features and us to bugfix the release.

All in all is the Neptune team is really working hard to get the latest and greatest out of the Neptune “Fluid” release and to provide the best desktop experience for linux users out there. The plan is to release Neptune in this month but this is depending on open and serious bugs and maybe delayed.

The ZevenOS Team whishes all its users happy easter.

Step 1: Create a 64-Bit Kernel and ship it alongside the 32-Bit Kernel on the next Neptune release.
Step 2: Create a minimal core 64-Bit basic build system
Step 3: Start transition of the stable & unstable repository from 32-Bit to 64-Bit (recompile and rebuild packages) <--- This needs the longest time
Step 4: Full Neptune 64-Bit only release

As you can see from our current plan we intend to create a smooth transition to 64-Bit. So the next version of Neptune will be 32-Bit & 64-Bit Kernel with 32-Bit userland. And we will ship both in one ISO. As the Minimal Edition is intended for computers with low memory it does not make much sense to have a 64-Bit Version of it. So most likely the Minimal Edition will go away with the transition to 64-Bit. It will however be supported with the next version and should be supported with updates from Debian. A full upgrade process from a 32-Bit Neptune system to a 64-Bit Neptune system will be not supported. To have a full 64-Bit Neptune system you need to reinstall.

Update:
The measured cost for a transition from 32-Bit to 64-Bit is round about 4000 € (5 333,2 US$). This includes the server cost for buying an additional server to host our 10 GB repository aswell as the man working hours. We hope you can donate something so that we can reach our 4000 € goal. You can find the donate button on the right site of the page.

Donated already: 108 € (137,3402 US$)

Installation instructions:

If you encounter problems while upgrading follow this rules:

1.Open up a terminal and type in: sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
2.The second command will most probably fail due to a conflict in the packages. Just ignore the error and continue with typing in
sudo dpkg --configure -a
3.After this try fixing the depedencies of installed packages with sudo apt-get install -f.
4.This will also fail for 2 packages. Just remove them with sudo dpkg --remove kdebase-workspace-data kdebase-workspace-kgreet-plugins
5.Execute sudo apt-get install -f to fix the last dependencies.

Now you should have a running KDE Plasma Workspace 4.8 . Just relogin to use it.

The ZevenOS Team is proud to announce the release of ZevenOS 4.0.

This version is based on Ubuntu Oneiric Ocelot (11.10) and has a bunch of new features and changes. The base system was updated to Kernel 3.0 which brings a bunch of new drivers aswell as an improved implementation of the ext4 filesystem. Also the experimental btrfs filesystem is now supported.

Besides that ZevenOS 4.0 also has a lot of new stuff in the Desktop area. The underlying XFCE desktop was updated to version 4.8 which adds network support for FTP/Samba/SSH/NFS to the default filemanager Thunar. So you no longer need to use gigolo to browse your network. Also new a rewritten thumbnailing system for the filemanager which is faster and more efficient.

Videoediting never made easier with OpenShot 1.4. OpenShot offers many new audio & video effects and exciting 3D effects. Also new is the reworked user interface which now looks even more professional.

Besides those improvements ZevenOS 4.0 also brings new default installed software for various tasks. The biggest changes are in the multimedia sector. Gnome-Mplayer is now the default videoplayer which is faster than Parole and offers more features just like subtitle support and switching between different audio streams.

To manage music we included the newest Deadbeef release. It allows you to manage music, play it back and even has a build in equalizer with foobar2k support aswell as a plugin interface.

When it comes to images and storing them Shotwell is our first choice. It offers a great user interface and easy image editing features. Docky is still available as dock utility which offers to quickly launch applications. Docky requires Compositing features which means we also developed an easy compositing manager which allows you to turn compositing on. Docky offers Drag’n Drop support aswell as theming support.

Firefox still is the default browser for surfing the net and Claws-Mail is still our default mail client. Abiword and Gnumeric take care of the office business you might have.If you don’t like our software choices you have the option to install your favorite tool or search for a new tool in the new Software-Center.

ZevenOS 4.0 comes with the good known Haiku-like Design with an completely updated Icon-Theme and GTK3+ theme. The desktop is based upon the newest XFCE 4.8 aswell as the windowmanager Sawfish which comes in the newest version 1.8.2. Installing & Upgrading your already available Ubuntu system can be done by installing zevenos-desktop from our repository. deb http://www.zevenos.com/packages/zevenos4/ ./

Video Preview
Differences between ZevenOS & ZevenOS-Neptune (In Short (SVG, use cursor keys to navigate)
How to install ZevenOS 4.0 ontop of Ubuntu 11.10 (Video OGV)

Screenshots

Downloadpage

Packagelist

Known Issues:

ISOLinux Bootmenu not translated
Deskbar Bookmarkmenus only accessable after first launch of webbrowser
People only saves to partitions with extended attributes enabled. Use Export to Vcard instead if you don’t want or have a partition type that supports extended attributes.

We also ship a new major version of lxkeymap which now supports restoring the keyboard layout on restart.