

Snowlinux 2 Cream in action Snowlinux Project founder Lars Torben Kremer has published version 2 of Snowlinux, code-named "Cream", the latest release of the project's Linux distribution. Unlike Snowlinux 2 "Ice", which is based on Debian, the new version is built on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, incorporating a number of changes and new features from that release. According to its developers, the major update is "extremely stable and fast", and 100 per cent compatible with Ubuntu's Repositories.

The Cream release of Snowlinux features the MATE GNOME 2.x fork as its default desktop. Bundled software packages include version 12 of the Thunderbird news and email client, Firefox 12 and Chromium 18. Other changes include the addition of new "Metal" themes and icons, as well as various performance improvements that should result in better overall responsiveness.

Following the initial release of Snowlinux 2 MATE over the weekend, the developers had to pull the new version due to a critical conflict between MATE and GNOME components that caused the theme and icon set to crash with an error. Once the bug was addressed, a new re-spin was made available yesterday.

A full list of changes and new features can be found in the announcement blog post. Snowlinux 2 MATE can be downloaded as an ISO image for 32- and 64-bit systems from the project's site. Like Ubuntu 12.04, Snowlinux 2 "Cream" is an LTS (Long Term Support) release and will be supported with updates until April 2017.

(crve)