Debian developer Ben Hutchings has announced that Debian 7.0 (Wheezy), due for release in around a year’s time, will use a version of the Linux kernel 3.2 that was released in early January.

Debian 7.0 is due to be moved from the unstable to the testing repository soon. Hutchings also noted that the development team was open to backporting selected new features from later kernel versions in to the Debian three.2. kernel to improve the latter’s hardware support.

According to current designs, Debian developers are not intending to build any multi-architecture specific kernel versions, and OpenVZ and VServer specific versions will be dropped unless someone steps in to rescue them. There will, at least for the AMD64 architecture, be a kernel offering enhanced real-time characteristics based on kernel extensions from the RT tree.

Together with Ubuntu developers, who are deploying the three.2 kernel in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, the Debian development team intends to maintain Linux version three.2 as a long-term kernel. Kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman recently elevated Linux kernel three.0 to long-term kernel status, meaning that it will continue to be patched for a year period. The developers behind the RT patch are also planning to maintain the patch for Linux three.0 for a similar period. RT patches for Linux 3.2 are still at the experimental stage.

The Debian project is delighted to announce the fourth update of its stable distribution Debian 6.0 (codename “squeeze”).

This update chiefly adds corrections for security issues to the stable release, along with a few adjustments to serious issues. Security advisories were already published separately and are referenced where obtainable.

Note that this update does not constitute a new version of Debian 6.0 but only updates a number of the packages included. There is no require to throw away 6.0 CDs or DVDs but only to update by an up-to-date Debian mirror after an installation, to cause any obsolete packages to be updated.

Those who often install updates from security.debian.org won’t must update plenty of packages and most updates from security.debian.org are included in this update.

New installation media and CD and DVD images containing updated packages will be obtainable soon at the regular locations.

Upgrading to this revision online is usually done by pointing the aptitude (or apt) package device (see the sources.list(five) manual page) to of Debian’s plenty of FTP or HTTP mirrors. A comprehensive list of mirrors is obtainable at:

http://www.debian.org/mirror/list

More @www.debian.org

ownCloud 3.0  has been released recently with some chilled new features, such as:

- Built-in cloud text editor;

- Integrated PDF viewer;

– Application Store;

- Photo gallery application;

- PIM Improvements;

- Other changes in ownCloud three:
Application Store: support for installing third party applications and addons through a central repository, directly from the ownCloud interface
new calendar interface
various calendar and contacts improvements
A brand spanking new “external” application that lets you integrate outside applications (like an outside webmail interface for example) in to the ownCloud interface.

How to upgrade to ownCloud 3.0:

First thing that you need to know is:  ownCloud 3.0 will automatically migrate the database to the newest version when you upgrade.

Then upgrading from ownCloud 2 to ownCloud 3 is really simple:

Just replace all your files in you ownCloud 2 installation with the new ownCloud 3 files.

Make sure that you keep the config and the data directory. The rest of the migration will happen automatically when you login the first time again.

That’s it. Enjoy.

- Built-in cloud text editor:

ownCloud Version three gives users the unique ability to access & edit
documents in multiple ways. Users can access files directly if ownCloud
is mounted by WebDAV, access them offline if the file is synced locally with
the upcoming syncing client, or access & edit files directly from within
a browser with the new text editor.

The browser based text editor supports 35 programming languages for syntax
highlighting, drag & drop text, automatic indent &
outdent, unstructured / user code folding & live syntax checker (for
JavaScript, Coffee & CSS). The editor is based on the ACE
JavaScript Editor. The editor supports basic text fles. Editing more
advanced formats like doc(x) & ODT is planned for future releases.

- Integrated PDF viewer:

ownCloud Version three ships with an integrated PDF viewer for convenient viewing & printing of PDFs, even with browsers that don´t have a PDF plugin installed. The viewer is based on the pdf.js library.

– Application Store:

ownCloud three supports installation of new third party applications and addons
directly from a central repository of ownCloud applications. Developers who
need to offer new features can upload new ownCloud applications at
apps.owncloud.com. ownCloud users can browse and install the new
applications directly from within the ownCloud Admin interface. Both users and developers can create and use this new application store!

- Photo gallery application:

ownCloud 3.0 adds a picture gallery application to help view &
organize photographs of different file types. Picture albums are automatically
created for uploaded photographs.

More @ owncloud.org/owncloud-3-release/

KDE is happy to announce the immediate availability of version four.8 of both the Plasma Desktop and Plasma Netbook Workspaces. The Plasma Workspaces have seen improvements to existing functionality, as well as the introduction of significant new features.

KDE 4.8 Screenshots below article:

The Window Switcher that is often assigned to the Alt+Tab shortcut now has six feasible layouts. These choices are useful for systems that don’t use Desktop Effects. Task Switcher choices can be found at the Window Behavior module inside Technique Settings. Another round of significant performance improvements in KWin, Plasma’s window manager and compositor further improve the user experience.

KDE Power Management Process Settings have been redesigned. The user interface has been simplified and the layout improved. Power management no longer depends on user created profiles. In lieu, it provides presets: On AC Power, On Battery and On Low Battery. In addition, power management is now multi-screen aware and adapts to the user’s current activity. This means, for example, that power settings can be set to never dim or never turn off the screen in a Photographs or Video Activity. If needed, power management can be deactivated quickly by the battery desktop applet.

A new splash screen implementation makes use of QtQuick. This release debuts a visually and feature-wise re-implementation of the device notifier widget as the first default widget of Plasma Desktop that moves to QtQuick for simpler maintainability, a smoother user experience and more touch-friendliness. The on-screen keyboard has seen numerous improvements in terms of bug fixes and performance. Taskbars and docks work better thanks to improvements from Craig Drummond’s Icon Tasks Plasmoid. This includes nicer context menus, improved support for launchers, and a lot of bug fixes. A new picture-of-the-day wallpaper plugin allows new astronomy, flickr, Wikipedia or other picture on your screen every day. Performance improvements, usability fixes round up the general user experience.

KSecretService offers shared password storage, making saved passwords obtainable to other applications. This provides a more secure technique and better integration of non-KDE apps with the Plasma Workspaces. With this feature, it is no longer necessary to contend with different password storage systems when using non-KDE applications.

More info @Kde.org

What's new :
  - Completion of the DIB engine.
  - Improvements to the C++ runtime.
  - A number of fixes in the audio drivers.
  - Unnecessary Direct3D options removed from WineCfg.
  - Some fixes to the built-in Internet Explorer.
  - Various bug fixes.

You can download wine from here:

  http://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/emulators/wine/wine-1.3.37.tar.bz2
  http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wine/wine-1.3.37.tar.bz2

More info@ winehq.org