MandrakeSoft S.A. has released the first beta release of their upcoming Mandrake Linux 9.0 distribution.

This release include the latest software like KDE 3.0.2, XFree86 4.2, Apache 1.3.26, Mozilla 1.0, or Evolution 1.08.

What's new in Mandrake Linux 9.0:

New desktops:

KDE 3.0.2 and GNOME 2.0 with

new icons on the KDE desktop
new user images
new wallpaper

Tools:

A new tool has been added to the 'drakxtools' family: The 'Drakbugreport' client is included with the current beta, and the server version will be ready for Beta 2. These tools allow users to easily report bugs for the entire drakxtools family.

Many tools have been reworked (bugfixes, better ergonomics, added functionality, etc), such as:

Diskdrake now supports SMB ACLs
urpmi has been rewritten to perform much faster
Harddrake now uses the same detection engine as DrakX and therefore supports many more hardware devices
XFdrake has been rewritten to make configuring the X server a snap
DrakXTV now supports a larger selection of TV cards for you couch potatoes
Draknet has been renamed 'Drakconnect'

Install:

The new Beta uses ISOlinux instead of Syslinux (a new way to boot from CD-ROM). Please test as many different types of CDROM drives as possible and report any problems.

Packages:

Of course you will find the latest greatest versions of the main packages, including:

kernel 2.4.19 RC1
XFree86 4.2, which supports many video cards previously only supported in 3.3.6
glibc 2.2.5
Apache 1.3.26
Evolution 1.08
KDE 3.0.2
GNOME 2.0
Galeon 1.2.5
Mozilla 1.0.0
GCC 3.1.1
and much more

Screenshots
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