Looking Forward to Distro Octoberfest

October is going to be an exciting month for Linux enthusiasts. Three big-time distributions namely Debian, Mandriva, and Ubuntu will unleash their latest and hopefully their greatest distro versions.

Let's start with Mandriva Linux. Just recently, the second Release Candidate of Mandriva 2009 has been released, and if all things went according to plan, the final stable version will arrive this coming October 9. I expect this upcoming edition to be even better than Mandriva 2008 as it will for the first time integrate the shiny new KDE 4.1. Here are other things that we can look forward to with Mandriva Linux 2009:

* Linux kernel 2.6.27
* GCC 4.3
* GNOME 2.24
* Firefox 3.0
* OpenOffice.org 3.0
* overhauled installer
* improved boot speed
* improved DKMS (Dynamic Kernel Module Support) management
* enhanced language selection

Here are a few stunning screenshots from the Beta version of Mandriva 2009 courtesy of headshotgamer:




Next up is Ubuntu. Codenamed "Intrepid Ibex, Ubuntu 8.10 is scheduled to be unleashed this October 30. As always, Ubuntumaniacs are all excited for this upcoming version since we will see some major changes. One of which is the redesigned Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex theme. Other important features to watch out for include:

* Linux kernel 2.6.27,
* X.Org 7.4 (xorg-server 1.5), GNOME 2.24, KDE 4.1, OpenOffice.org 3.0
* Compiz 0.7.7
* Official USB installation support for converting ISO CD image files into USB-live compatible files.
* Secret ~/Private folder with encryption
* Improved Network Manager with 3G support

Here are a few screenshots of Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 4 from Ubuntu Kung Fu:

Last but certainly not the least is Debian GNU/Linux. While there's no definite release date, version 5.0, codenamed "Lenny", is expected to come out at any time soon. The Debian team has been planning to get Lenny out this month, but with the way that it’s going, I predict an October 2008 release. Here are some really exciting features of Debian GNU/Linux 5.0:

* Linux 2.6.26
* lspci (pciutils 3.0.0)
* KVM (kernel + qemu-kvm...)
* ntfs-3g (i.e R-W support)
* ksplice(Rebootless Linux kernel security updates)
* GNOME 2.22
* X.org 7.3
* Over 25,000 available binary packages

Debian 5.0 will sport a new artwork called MoreBlue Orbit. Below are some screenshots from Debian Art:




That's about it. Do you feel like celebrating for the distro Octoberfest? If you do, would you like to try some free beer, as in free and open-source beer? :-)