British developer Philip Newborough has released updated images of CrunchBang 10, his Debian Squeeze-based Linux distribution with an Openbox-based desktop. The R20120207 update is available as two sets of images – "stable" and "backported" – instead of just one. Newborough says that the change came about because of some concerns expressed over the default use of backport packages. "The new images do not constitute a new release," he notes "at least not for anyone who is content with using the previous 20111125 images".

Stable Debian is known for the predictability of what versions of software are included, but for users who want more up to date programs the backports repository provides the latest versions of applications compiled with the older libraries of the stable system. By splitting into two editions and now providing a stable edition, Newborough hopes to satisfy both parts of the CrunchBang community.

The stable edition ships with Debian's 2.6.32 stable kernel and X.org 7.5, while the backported version includes the more recent Linux 3.2 kernel and version 7.6 of X.org. The backported edition also automatically tracks any packages that enter the Debian backports repository; both versions of CrunchBang 10 R20120207 use backported versions of Iceweasel 10, the re-branded version of Firefox for Debian, and the Geany text editor, specifically Geany 0.20. The new 32-bit images also ship with the 686 kernels instead of the 486 kernels as, Newborough says, "any system that cannot run the 686 flavour kernel is going to struggle to run #! at all".



CrunchBang 10 in action The developer also notes that the GNOME display manager (GDM), which had been removed and replaced by SLiM, has been restored as the default display manager because of some issues found in the previous release. However, SLiM packages will remain available in the repositories for those who want to continue using it.

Work on the next CrunchBang release, code-named "Waldorf", has already begun; version 10 is named "Statler" after the other old man in the Muppet character duo.

Further information about the update can be found in the forum release announcement. CrunchBang 10 R20120207 images are available to download for 32- and 64-bit systems from the project's site; users are asked to provide feedback and report any issues they find in the CrunchBang Linux Forums.

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(crve)