PC/OS Open64 Workstation released

Today we are pleased to announce the availability of PC/OS Open64 Workstation 10. This release targets specifically 64 bit hardware systems. This release is based on the Ubuntu 9.04 base system and has been updated with all the security and bug patches as of May 25, 2009.

Some of the new features include:

XFCE 4.6

Openoffice.org 3.1

QT 4

Monodevelop

VLC

Exaile

Sun Java

Flash 64 bit plugin

Multimedia and development tools and libraries

All multimedia codecs

of course there are some issues and here are the known ones:

When you boot to the liveCD it comes up to the GDM you have to wait 10 seconds for it to login. Canonical introduced this in Ubuntu 9.04.

No usplash. Yes I know some people want the elegance but many of the custom Usplash files failed to load up. We are working on this and hope to have Usplash back in PC/OS Open64 Workstation 10.1.

On the LiveCD the panel launchers do not work. This is due to XFCE including a working directory structure to panel launchers. You can right click hit properties and set it and they will work fine.

There will only be 3 releases of Open64. Workstation, Server and core coming out later this month we are currently testing these other two releases.

We will not be releasing an Open64 desktop CD image unless there is significant demand for it.

To download the release you can get it here

You can get the md5 file from here

To support the project do consider buying the release from on-disk.com for $49.99 or make a donation.

PC/OS open64 workstation to be released this week

You read it right. Its done and the development team says why sit on it. We are going to spend the next day or so testing installations and make sure nothing fails then its time for release. stay tuned. Due to the holiday we didnt want to release today.

PC/OS Maintenance Pack 3 and PC/OS 2009.3

We are going beyond what we had decided for the LTS release. PC/OS 2009 Maintenance Pack 3 will be released on schedule, so thats not an issue. But, come mid June we will release PC/OS 2009.3. We decided to continue to build upon PC/OS 2009 due to customer and user demand. This will help extend customers investments and if users want an updated ISO. PC/OS 2009.3 will have all of Maintenance Pack 3 integrated and some new features such as XFCE 4.6 and OpenOffice.org 3.1 and the new SystemReport script and will follow the new policies regarding Appliance and WebStation as well as the Firefox initiative. It will be a great release as well. Maintenance Pack 3 for OpenServer will be released end of June. We do this due to the extensive testing necessary for a server release.

This will not affect PC/OS 10, or PC/OS Open64.

PC/OS pre-bundles

We have scrapped the plans to create our own hardware. Thats right, we have decided that creating our own hardware and making moves like Sun and Apple were not the ways to go. So we have decided that instead of creating our own hardware we will find commodity hardware that runs best with PC/OS. We will go with a vendor that has a good Linux compatibility record and we will go with a vendor that produces desktops, notebooks and netbooks. More on who this vendor is later. The reason for scrapping, the OpenCube and OpenBriq? It takes a lot of resources and a lot of manpower to produce, test and ship hardware. We are only a six-man team and we want the initiative to be successfuls. Whatever vendor we go with the results wont be dull.

Window Decoration

We had included the Window decoration on PC/OS Open64 and PC/OS 10 as the XFCE default. Such is not the case. We will be retaining the friendly and much loved Yellow tab decoration. So those of you that were crying that it went away, it hasnt. PC/OS will have the same Window decoration as it has in the past.

PC/OS Open64 and 10 changes

These are some changes that will be taking place in PC/OS Open64 and 10.  

First and fore most we will be moving up to the updated 9.04 kernel.  This increases hardware compatibility and stability especially on the 64 bit platform.

The web browser is constantly a struggle.  We tend to choose the one that has the best features and what we think the users want and you have spoken and we have listened.  In PC/OS Open64 and PC/OS OpenWorkstation 10, Firefox and Thunderbird will replace Opera.  Opera will remain the default on OpenDesktop 10 and WebStation 10.   The moonlight plugin will also be included we are looking at the Moonlight codec situation, whether to include those or not.

OpenOffice 3.1.0 will be the default office suite with AbiWord and Gnumeric remaining on OpenDesktop

A few more Prism apps will be added, users can tell us which ones they really want to see.

PC/OS Appliance and Webstation will be merged.  Given that hard drive storage on Netbooks have grown and the kiosk features built into XFCE 4.6 we have decided to end Appliance and merge those repositories into Webstation.  This will allow your netbook, should you decide to be the perfect web 2.0 vessel.  We will tailor specific netbook images for different people for a fee, please contact us for pricing.

Usplash is causing conflicts so we have removed it.  We will try to introduce something prettier for users in the near future but considering usplash is more or less for asthetics we dont see this as a big deal.

Any future improvements will be communicated here.

PC/OS Open64 screenshots

Here are some screenshots of PC/OS Open64.  This is the release that will be put out June 1st and of course there are some issues with it, some bugs and we are trying to squash em as quick as we can.  But as you can see, it is usable and this post was made using the liveCD instance.  As you can see it has the same functionality as the 32 bit release.  It includes full development environments and also contains the full multimedia extention packs.  It has almost all the same software components of the 32 bit release with some differences but not many.  As always when we release we will give you a run down of the differences.

OpenOffice.org 3.1 for PC/OS

We have put up on the download site a new OpenOffice.org 3.1 installation pack.  We have two versions, one for x86 and one for x64.  These releases work on PC/OS 2008/2009, Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint.  Make sure you follow the instructions.  The 64 bit release works on PC/OS Open64, for you beta testers, Debian GNU/Linux and Ubuntu 9.04 64 bit.  Those are the only releases tested.

They can be downloaded from Ibiblio

PC/OS Status update

We are very close to releasing PC/OS Open64 Workstation.  On June 1st we will be releasing PC/OS Open64 Workstation 10 and we will be releasing PC/OS 2009 Maintenance Pack 3.  PC/OS Open64 Server System 9  will be released in mid June to early July.  Let me reiterate the differences in releases here.  The versioning seems to be complicating some people and some find it confusing.

When we make a release such as PC/OS 2009, this is what we call an LTS release, a long term release.  You get updates for 3 years on the desktop and you get updates for 5 years on Server and Core.  Server and Core are only built for these releases. These long term releases are targeted towards individuals who wish to have systems and not have to continuously update.  When we have PC/OS 2009v2, these v2 releases contain a lot of application and system fixes, this helps stabilize the system to clean up code.  Basically the v2 release is very simply put, the maintenance packs integrated into the system.  A lot of times these v2 releases also contain cosmetic and other changes but we continue to just make Maintenance Packs available for people who dont want to reinstall on their system.  After v2 we normally dont release a v3, we release Maintenance Pack 3 and follow up with Maintenance Packs, this contains specific fixes for core system functionality only.  No application updates unless of course the application can compromise system security, ie the web browser for example.

Now, when we say PC/OS 10.  This is only a Workstation and Desktop release.  Core and Server dont get built for this type of release.  These are the cutting edge releases that are often updated every 6 months.  We dont do maintenance packs because the release schedule is just so close together.  The support cycle is 18 months for this release.

So in short, thats how we stabilize PC/OS and we will continue on this route as it has proved to work the best.

PC/OS Open64 close to release

PC/OS Open64 is very close to the official release. The first coming is PC/OS Open64 Workstation with Open64 Server coming in late June. With this there have been several enhancements coming in play since the crude tech preview in January. After much market research most 64 bit mac hines come with DVD roms and dont come with CD roms so Open64 Workstation will come in DVD format only with 2 exceptions, Open64 Core and Open64 Server.

The new PC/OS shell will debut with the hybrid Mac OS /OS/2 interface which everyone around here adores which we hope all the users will as well. PC/OS Open64 Workstation we can now say functions properly on all Sun Microsystems 64 bit systems, let me reiterate, we work on ALL configurations. Other 64 bit systems can be hit or miss but not to worry, file the reports and the bugs and we will crush them.

Open64 editions sans core will retail for $49.99 from on-disk with a fully bootable, non-installable Live DVD image becoming available. Availability will be on June 1st 2009.