Ultima Linux 8.4 is released!

The Ultima Linux Project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Ultima Linux 8.4, a release so profoundly important, we’ve returned to creating real HTML pages rather than an endless series of forum posts. No gadgets, no gimmicks, no three-dimensional surfaces: Just a fast, “set-and-forget” distribution that gets things done without getting in your way.

This release includes over 850 packages, including the Linux kernel 2.6.24.7; X.org 7.3, with ATI and NVIDIA proprietary drivers; KDE 3.5.10 desktop environment; Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird 2.0.0.16 browser and mail client; Opera 9.52 Internet suite; OpenOffice.org 2.4.1 comprehensive office suite; GCC 4.3.0 compiler (4.1.2 and 3.4.6 are also available); glibc 2.7 C library; The GIMP 2.4.7 image editor; Amarok 1.4.10, MPlayer 1.0rc2, and Xine 0.99.5 media players; Apache 2.2.9, Sendmail 8.14.3, MySQL 5.0.51a servers; and many more. A complete package list is available from the main FTP site.

A complete list of changes is available in the release notes, and package-specific details are available in the ChangeLog.txt file on the server. Here’s a quick summary of the highlights in this release:

All-new codebase based on the ultima-scripts package and LiveCD build system. The new codebase replaces the majority of Slackware-derived code; the only remaining code from Slackware’s upstream is the pkgtools.
More optimized base system, including i686-optimized kernel and glibc on x86, and greater use of native code on AMD64. (Adeona, GRUB, and Macromedia Flash are the only non-native packages on 64-bit.)
Improved hardware support for wireless, ATI and NVIDIA drivers, and some “netbooks” such as the ASUS Eee PC, among others. Also numerous fixes to hardware detection, X autoconfiguration, and the LiveCD scripts; and the ability to boot the system from USB (see the manual page for mkliveusb).
Cleaner, more refined desktop with numerous Ultima tweaks and enhancements. The desktop is now even flatter and less interesting than in Ultima Linux 8.3, and for frequent distro-hoppers, should provide a refreshing alternative to the clutter and unnecessary eye-candy so prevalent in other distributions today.
Better privacy and security, including the addition of Adeona (open-source theft prevention and recovery); Tor and Privoxy for anonymous browsing; and integrated support for disk encryption in the Wolvix Control Panel installer. Server apps such as Apache and Sendmail also ship with encryption and other security features enabled by default*.
Numerous miscellaneous fixes and improvements to the system.

* Some manual configuration is required. For Apache, an appropriate SSL key must be generated in /etc/httpd; for Sendmail, the /etc/mail/generate-sendmail-key.sh script may be used.

In addition to the software included on the CD, all packages in the Ultima distribution (along with system updates) are available from a public package repository. Gslapt, the default package management tool, is also pre-configured for easy access to LinuxPackages.net and other third-party sites, providing a greater package selection beyond Ultima Linux proper.

The distribution is available for free download from the Ultima Linux homepage, or on inexpensively-priced physical media from OSDisc.com (sales help fund continued development). Commercial support is not presently available, but free help is available on the Ultima Linux Support Forums, and other support options – including an official IRC channel – are presently being considered.

For more information, please see the release notes on the Ultima Linux Documentation Wiki.