Try Peppermint OS - a fast and efficient Linux distro

Peppermint is a Linux-based operating system with a strong focus on web apps. It is based on Ubuntu, and was designed for enhanced mobility, efficiency, and ease-of-use.

System Requirements

• i386 or derivative processor
• 192 MB of RAM
• 4 GB hard drive space

There are two flavors of Peppermint -  Peppermint One and Peppermint Ice. The main difference is that Peppermint One uses Mozilla's Prism technology, while Peppermint Ice uses Peppermint Ice SSB [Site Specific Browser]. Also, One uses Firefox, and Ice uses Chromium.

I installed Peppermint Ice on my netbook, and I like it a lot. I did choose Ice over One mainly because I prefer Chromium over Firefox. Also, I was curious about the Peppermint Ice SSB installed on Ice.

If you encounter the 'Your battery might be old or broken' message, there's a solution for that.

1. You'll need to install gconf-editor, using Software Manager [Menu > Software Manager].
2. After successfully installing gconf-editor, open a terminal window [Menu > Accessories > LXTerminal].
3. Type gconf-editor in the terminal
4. Navigate to the Apps folder
5. Navigate to the gnome-power-manager sub folder
6. Navigate to the notify sub folder
7. Find the setting called "low_capacity"
8. Remove the tick next to it

So far, I'm impressed with Peppermint Ice, and I'll be using it on my handy-dandy netbook.

More about Peppermint OS >>

Chromium OS USB Drive Version Now Available

Hexxeh has recently released a build for the Chromium OS USB Drive Version. This will let you install the OS to a thumb drive.

Instructions for Windows, Linux, and Mac are available.

More info at the Hexxeh site >>

(Thanks to Joel for the heads up!)

IceRocket Tags: chromium, os, usb

VirtualBox 2.2.4 – Open Source Virtualizer

VirtualBox 2.2.4 (Windows, Open Source, 63MB) [alt DL] s a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware. Targeted at server, desktop and embedded use, it is now the only professional-quality virtualization solution that is also Open Source Software.

Changes:

• Windows Installer: fixed a potential hang during installation
• Windows Installer: fixed several problems
• Solaris hosts: make it work with Solaris build 114 or later
• Solaris hosts: fixed a bug serial port character handling found during loopback
• Linux hosts: adapted vboxdrv.sh to the latest changes in VBoxManage list runningvms
• Windows hosts: fixed a crash caused by host-only/bridged networking
• Mac OS X hosts: fixed access to host DVD with passthrough disabled
• Guest Additions: fixed problems with KDE 4 not recognizing mouse clicks
• Windows Additions: fixed incorrect 8-bit guest color depth in Windows 7 guests
• GUI: warn if VT-x/AMD-V could not be enabled for guests that require this setting
• VMM: fixed occasional crash due to insufficient memory
• VMM: fixed hanging 64 bits Solaris guests
• VMM: restore from a saved state occasionally failed
• And much more fixes and enhancements

IceRocket Tags: virtualbox, virtualizer, windows open source

VirtualBox 2.2.0 – Open Source Virtualization Software

VirtualBox 2.2.0 (Windows, Open Source, 63.4MB) [alt DL] is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use.

Changes:

• OVF (Open Virtualization Format) appliance import and export
• Host-only networking mode
• Hypervisor optimizations with significant performance gains for high context switching rates
• Raised the memory limit for VMs on 64-bit hosts to 16GB
• VT-x/AMD-V are enabled by default for newly created virtual machines
• USB (OHCI & EHCI) is enabled by default for newly created virtual machines (Qt GUI only)
• Experimental USB support for OpenSolaris hosts
• Shared folders for Solaris and OpenSolaris guests
• OpenGL 3D acceleration for Linux and Solaris guests
• Added C API in addition to C++, Java, Python and Web Services
• And lots of fixes and enhancements

IceRocket: virtualbox virtualization os, windows open source

VistaOEM 1.2c – Personalize Your Windows Vista OEM Info

VistaOEM 1.2c (Windows Vista, Freeware, 662KB) [alt DL] lets you edit the OEM Information of Vista and give your Vista-Copy a personal Touch. The OEM Information is displayed in the Control Panel in the System-Information window.

Requires .NET Framework 3.5.

Changes:

• Bug fix: Exception when no/invalid OEM Logos are present
• Bug fix: Now works correctly on Windows Vista 64bit (all editions). Note: This is now a separate download
• Bug fix: Installer - don’t allow installation on non Vista machines
• Bug fix: Installer - don’t install 32bit version on 64bit Vista and vice versa

IceRocket: vistaoem vista oem info personalize, windows freeware

VortexBox 0.2 – Open Source Music Server OS

VortexBox 0.2 (Open Source) is a free, open source, quick install ISO that turns your unused computer into an easy to use music server/jukebox. Once VortexBox has been loaded on an unused PC it will automatically rip CDs to FLAC and MP3 files, ID3 tag the files ,and download the cover art. Vortexbox will then serve the files to network Media player such as Logitech Squeezebox. The music files can also be streamed to a Windows or Mac OSX system.

Features:

• Convert an old PC to a CD ripper / jukebox / NAS in 15 minutes.
• Based on Fedora so it’s easy to modify.
• Automatically tags all files from CDDB.
• Automatically downloads the cover art.

System Requirements: 500mHz PIII with 256MHz of RAM

Changes:

• Logitech SqueezeCenter 7.3.1 pre installed and configured
• Based in Fedora 10 for maximum hardware compatibility
• Support for new automatic Sharing formats
• AppleTalk - for OSX or bonjour for Windows
• DLNA - for all DLNA players, xbox 360, etc
• DAAP - Automatically shares all MP3s for streaming to iTunes and Roku Soundbridge
• NFS - For Linux Boxes and almost anything else, Solaris etc.

IceRocket: vortexbox, music server operating system

Fedora Linux 10 Final

Fedora Linux 10 Final (Linux, Freeware, 3GB) [alt DL] is an openly-developed project designed by Red Hat, open for general participation, led by a meritocracy, following a set of project objectives.

The goal of The Fedora Project is to work with the Linux community to build a complete, general purpose operating system exclusively from open source software. Development will be done in a public forum. The project will produce time-based releases of Fedora (Core) about 2-3 times a year, with a public release schedule. The Red Hat engineering team will continue to participate in building Fedora (Core) and will invite and encourage more outside participation than in past releases. By using this more open process, we hope to provide an operating system more in line with the ideals of free software and more appealing to the open source community.

If you are itching to try a new Linux distro, Fedora Linux 10 is ready for your evaluation.

IceRocket: fedora linux, operating system

Fresh UI 8.19 – Configure and Optimize Windows Settings

Fresh UI 8.19 (Windows, Freeware, 1.5MB) [alt DL] is the fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings, this software covers the customizing and optimizing technique that you'll be glad to know.

Change: Internet Explorer settings.

IceRocket: fresh ui, configure optimize windows

ReactOS 0.3.7 – Project Creating an Open Source Version of Windows OS

ReactOS 0.3.7 (Windows, Open Source, 30.3MB) is an open source effort to create a Windows NT 4/2000/XP+ compatible operating system licensed under the GNU public license. In partnership with the WINE project, ReactOS also supports drivers which work under Microsoft Windows.

Changes:

• Improved x64 architecture support
• The start of a real MSVC compiler support project
• Kernel improvements and bug fixes in quite a few parts: Configuration Manager, IO Manager, KE, Memory Manager, Object Manager, Process Manager
• Network stack improvements: leakage fixes, increased functionality
• Filesystem driver fixes, making them more compatible with the Microsoft NT cache manager
• Win32 subsystem improvements and synching of most of the Wine usermode DLLs

IceRocket: reactos, windows, os, open source

Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) – Debian-based Linux Distro

Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) (Linux, Open Source, 699MB) [alt DL] is a Linux distribution that starts with the breadth of Debian and adds regular releases (every six months), a clear focus on the user and usability (it should "Just Work", TM) and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of support for every release.

Ubuntu ships with the latest Gnome release as well as a selection of server and desktop software that makes for a comfortable desktop experience off a single installation CD.

At first, I did an upgrade of my Ubuntu 8.04 installation using the 8.10 alternate CD. The upgrade process went through without any problems.

I also wanted to see how Ubuntu 8.10 was like out of the box, so I did a clean re-install. Here are my first impressions:

1. My wireless card (a USB device based on the Realtek rtl8187 chipset) worked “out of the box”, but only had a signal strength of around 16%. While the wireless connection was usable, I opted to use Windows drivers via ndiswrapper. Using ndiswrapper, I get about 76% signal.

2. Launchy for Linux wasn’t working properly under Ubuntu 8.10. Trying to launch Firefox or Flock resulted in the opening of a file using gedit.

3. Graphics seem to be quite buggy: the topbar of windows become blank from time to time. I’m not sure if it’s due to the Nvidia drivers included in Ubuntu 8.10.

If you use Ubuntu in your main PC and as your main OS, my suggestion would be to hold on to Ubuntu 8.04 LTS for a while. If you are itching for an upgrade, maybe it’s a good idea to wait for a possible 8.10.1, or just wait for Ubuntu 9.04.

IceRocket: ubuntu, 8.10, intrepid, ibex

Fresh UI 8.18 – Configure and Optimize Windows

Fresh UI 8.18 (Windows, Freeware, 1.5MB) [alt DL] is the fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings, this software covers the customizing and optimizing technique that you'll be glad to know.

Change: More settings for taskbar.

IceRocket: freshui, configure, optimize, windows, freeware

Fresh UI 8.17 – Configure and Optimize Windows

Fresh UI 8.17 (Windows, 1.5MB) [alt DL] is the fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings, this software covers the customizing and optimizing technique that you'll be glad to know.

Change: Options for taskbar.

IceRocket: freshui, configure, optimize, windows, freeware

Fresh UI 8.16 – Configure and Optimize Windows

Fresh UI 8.16 (Windows, Freeware, 1.5MB) [alt DL] is the fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings, this software covers the customizing and optimizing technique that you'll be glad to know.

Change: Options for taskbar.

Technorati: fresh, ui, configure, optimize, windows, operating, system, os, freeware, utility

Fresh UI 8.15 - Configure and Optimize Windows

Fresh UI 8.15 (Windows, Freeware, 1.5MB) [alt DL] is the fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows.

Change: Options to disable password in control panel

Technorati: freshui, configure, optimize, windows, system, os, freeware

VirtualBox 2.0.2 - General Purpose Virtualizer

VirtualBox 2.0.2 (Windows, Freeware, 32.8MB) [alt DL] is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware.

Changes:

• VMM: fixed inability to run more than one VM in parallel (AMD-V on CPUs with erratum 170 only; bug #2167)
• VMM: VT-x stability fixes (bug #2179 and others)
• VMM: fixed Linux 2.6.26+ kernel crashes (used by Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha, Fedora 10 Alpha; bug #1875)
• VMM: fixed 64 bits Linux 2.6.26 kernel crashes (Debian)
• VMM: fixed Vista (32 bits) guest crash during boot when PAE and NX are enabled (applied to 64 bits hosts with VT-x enabled only)
• VMM: fixed OS/2 guest crashes during boot (AMD-V; bug #2132)
• GUI: fixed crash when trying to release an inaccessible image in the virtual disk manager
• GUI: fixed invalid error message for a changed snapshot path even if that path wasn't changed (bug #2064)
• GUI: fixed crash when creating a new hard disk image (bug #2060)
• GUI: fixed crash when adding a hard disk in the VM settings (bug #2081)
• GUI: fixed a bug where VirtualBox isn't working with the new QGtkStyle plugin (bug #2066)
• GUI: fixed VM close dialog in seamless mode (Mac OS X hosts only; bug #2067)
• GUI: fixed standard menu entries for NLS versions (Mac OS X hosts only)
• GUI: disable the VT-x/AMD-V setting when it's not supported by the CPU (or on Mac OS X hosts)
• VBoxManage: fixed crash during internalcommands createrawvmdk (bug #2184)

Technorati: virtualbox, virtual, virtualization, virtualizer, windows, freeware, os

vLite 1.2 - Create a Custom Windows Vista Install ISO

vLite 1.2 (Windows Vista, Freeware 1.6MB) [alt DL] is the tool for easy removal of unwanted components and bootable ISO creation in order to make Vista run faster and to your liking.

Changes:

• New: 'Media Metadata Handler'
• Fix: Cpanel - Features blank after SP1 slipstream
• Fix: Logon loop after removing components with slipstreamed SP1

Technorati: vlite, customize, windows, vista, iso, installer, os

nLite 1.4.9.1 - Customize Your Windows Installer

nLite 1.4.9.1 (Windows, Freeware, 2.5MB) [alt DL] is a tool for pre-installation Windows configuration and component removal at your choice.

Changes:

• fix: Runtime error on browse
• fix: Temp folder change applied late

Technorati: nlite, pre, install, windows, configure, freeware, os

RyanVM's Windows XP Post-SP3 Update Pack 1.0.1

RyanVM's Windows XP Post-SP3 Update Pack 1.0.1 (Windows, Freeware, 25.2MB) [alt DL] is designed to bring a Windows XP CD with SP3 integrated fully up to date with all of the latest hotfixes released by Microsoft since SP3's release. It accomplishes this task via direct integration, where files on the CD are directly overwritten by the updated files. This method has numerous advantages over other integration techniques.

Changes:

• Added KB938464 Hotfix
• Added KB948046 Hotfix
• Added KB949033 Hotfix
• Added KB950162 Hotfix
• Added KB951410 Hotfix. Replaces KB952825 Hotfix
• Added KB951624 Hotfix. Replaces KB951830 Hotfix
• Added KB952079 Hotfix
• Added KB953323 Hotfix. Replaces KB950582 Hotfix
• Added KB955043 Hotfix
• Added KB955535 Hotfix. Replaces KB954956 Hotfix
• Added KB955843 Hotfix
• Added KB955988 Hotfix. Replaces KB953955 Hotfix
• Added KB956072 Hotfix
• Updated Malicious Software Removal Tool registry key to version 2.2

Technorati: ryanvm, windows, post, sp3, update, pack, freeware, hotfix, integrator

Fresh UI 8.14 - Configure and Optimize Windows

Fresh UI 8.14 (Windows, Freeware, 1.5MB) [alt DL] is the fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings, this software covers the customizing and optimizing technique that you'll be glad to know.

Change: Options to clean up unused icon in System Tray.

Technorati: freshui, configure, optimize, windows, freeware

VirtualBox 2.0.0 - Open Source Virtualization Software

VirtualBox 2.0.0 (Windows, Open Source, 32.5MB) [alt DL] is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Changes:

• 64 bits guest support (64 bits host only)
• New native Leopard user interface on Mac OS X hosts
• The GUI was converted from Qt3 to Qt4 with many visual improvements
• New-version notifier
• Guest property information interface
• Host Interface Networking on Mac OS X hosts
• New Host Interface Networking on Solaris hosts
• Support for Nested Paging on modern AMD CPUs (major performance gain)
• Framework for collecting performance and resource usage data (metrics)
• Added SATA asynchronous IO (NCQ: Native Command Queuing) when accessing raw disks/partitions (major performance gain)
• Clipboard integration for OS/2 Guests
• Created separate SDK component featuring a new Python programming interface on Linux and Solaris hosts
• Support for VHD disk images
• And more fixes.

Technorati: virtualbox, virtual, os, operating system, windows, open source