As you might already know the “Hardy Heron” has started its flight. (Translation for non geeks: Ubuntu 8.04 is final )
The upgrading to the new Base System has begun. Together with this upgrade we also upgraded the good old apps, like Magi 1 that was updated to Version 1.01 with minor bugfixes. Then we are constantly working on Magi 2: Codename Cyberghost that has reached Build 010 now, including a new Development Tab and first works on a Settings Center. This Settings Center includes only the IcePanel Configuration Tool for now. (IcePanel allows you basic configuration of the panel).
The next big update is our effort in Replacing K3b with Brasero + Gencoder .
Gencoder base is more or less at its final stages. The only thing missing right now is GUI.
The work on the IceWM Configuration Tools is also going on well.
New plans and visions for new crazy but very usefull applications is the last thing to report for today.
zeVenOS will be good, very good, when we are ready So stay tuned !
As we are constantly working on the switch to the lighter GTK Apps, we are also writting and adding new interesting applications.
One of the biggest changes in Beta 5 will be the desktop manager switch from rox-filer to pcmanfm.
PcManFM has finally a state where we think it is useable on the desktop and stable enough.
With the help of some new programmers we are also making progress in replacing our existing beloved apps such as k3b with something that is at least as powerfull as k3b. For basic burning we will include brasero burning app. But to replace k3b we needed a little bit more. A nice tool that can create VideoCDs/DVDs. But thats not everything it has a lot more features you can see in our next Beta release.
So thanks for all programmers and community members who are supporting us
As you might know IceWM has lots and lots of configuration files but no really good configuration tool.
We are developing some tools for making this configuration easier.
Two tools are more or less ready for rollout in Beta 5.
The first tool lets you easily configure the panel. You can set the panel position with one click and activate or deactivate ACPI Battery Monitor.
If you want to easily set a application for autostart we included a new autostart editor.
As you might know, Beta 4 ships with IceWM as the default window manager. The default theme looks a little bit greyish and old. So we updated the default theme to make it look very cool.
Take a look:
If you like it and want to download it, here is the download link: DOWNLOAD
Short Instruction for installation. Extract the package and move the directory yellow to ~/.icewm/themes(overwrite the old one, make a backup of the old one if you want to keep it) .
As you might already know we had to change the name of our project. It is now called zeVenOS.
With the name change we also adjust the goals of our Linux Distribution.
This goals will be explained on our new Website as soon as its ready.
For a happy easter egg we announce zeVenOS Beta 4 (alias Rebuild).
As you might already notice from codename, we completely rebuild this version and make it smaller and faster.
We started work on the OneClick Installer . This will provide an easy way to install whole application bundles like a completely Gaming Pack for example.
There are several other ideas around that to make it an easy and quick Installer.
OpenOffice Startuptime optimizing has made some significant progress as you can see here:
The warm startup of OpenOffice Writer takes about 0.019 seconds. Thats a significant time.
The cold startup of OpenOffice Writer takes about 6.376 seconds. Thats fast too I think.
The System is really really running smooth so that I decide to stop it at this stage and work on something else. The MAGI .
The MAGI is really nice little tool that helps you to manage your Computer and ressources. The new ‘Fix’ Tab introduced in Beta 3 is really handy if you have problems with nvidia driver and suspend. The current development Version of MAGI got a new feature that allows you to mount FAT 16 & 32 aswell as NTFS and B(e)FS and place a line in /etc/fstab to mount them on every start.
Bernd and the Zebuntu Team decided to go different ways. This has some consequences to Zebuntu.
The next Beta version will be shipped with a new icon and window theme.
The development of the BeOS Compatibility Layer and integration therefor is now freezed.
We will concentrate on debuging, bugfixing and creation of new application.
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