Fuduntu 14.9 Stable Released, Replaces Bottom Gnome Panel With AWN

Fuduntu is a Fedora remix designed for netbooks and laptops (but works on a desktop too) that integrates a lot of very interesting tweaks. Check out our previews Fuduntu posts for more info.

Fuduntu 14.9 stable was released today and it now features Avant Window Navigator by default which is automatically adjusted based on your computers ability to run Compiz. But if you want to use the regular Gnome panel instead, Fuduntu provides a tool that automatically restores it - simply go to System > Preferences > Bottom Panel Chooser and select "Restore my bottom panel".

Further more, when you first run Fuduntu 14.9, your computer is tested if it can run Compiz and if so, Compiz is enabled.

Here's a screenshot with the latest Fuduntu 14.9 running in VirtualBox (without Compiz):

and another screenshot - by Fewt - in which Compiz is enabled (thus AWN looks a lot better):

The artwork was also updated and Fuduntu now ships with quite a few new wallpapers. The first time you log in, your wallpaper will be chosen automatically from one of these wallpapers.

The Fuduntu repository now provides the latest stable Adobe Flash, Chromium (9), VLC or OpenShot.

For a complete list of changes in the latest Fuduntu 14.9, see the release announcement on Fewt's blog.

Download Fuduntu 14.9 (available for both 32bit and 64bit).

Fuduntu Continues To Improve, Reaches Version 14.7

Fuduntu, a Fedora 14 Remix optimized for netbooks and laptops (but works on desktops too) has reached version 14.7, getting some further improvements which make it stand out, like Firefox cache moved to /tmp to improve flash performance out of the box (Fuduntu already had /tmp and /var/log moved to RAM disk). The new version also comes with Adobe Flash, ntfs support and Fluendo MP3 codec installed by default along with other tweaks.

But the above changes are just for the latest 14.7, however since our last Fuduntu post there have been many other changes, including a new default minimalistic theme and icons (Faenza Cupertino):

The default application selection has been changed a bit too: Nautilus Elementary is now default (see screenshot above), Thunderbird has been added, Empathy is now default instead of Pidgin and Inkscape is no longer default.


But as always, Fuduntu is mostly about under the hood tweaks and since out last Fuduntu post, it got BFS scheduler and the deadline IO scheduler has been made default which should give Fuduntu a further speed boost.


Download Futuntu 14.7 (available for both 32bit and 64bit) | Fuduntu developer (Fewt) blog

Fuduntu Is A Fedora 14 Remix For Netbooks And Laptops

We've covered Ubuntu-based remasters which add a lot of tweaks, default applications and eye-candy. Today, I've tested something different: Fuduntu.

Fuduntu is a Fedora 14 remix (remaster) designed especially for Asus Eee (but you can of course use it on other netbooks and any laptop/desktop computer) and comes with some interesting performance tweaks by default. It was created by Fewt, the Jupiter (an hardware and power management applet for netbooks and Laptops) developer.

Among the tweaks you'll find in Fuduntu are:

• Enabling OOo quickstart
• Moving /tmp and /var/log to RAM disk - read more about this.
• Setting swappiness to 10
• Adding Jupiter for power savings
• and others

Also, being designed for netbooks/laptops, Fuduntu comes with a default font size of 8. And of course, Jupiter comes installed by default along with some other applications such as Revelation (password manager), Tomboy, GIMP, Inkscape and VIM Enhanced. I'm not sure why applications such as GIMP and Inkscape are installed by default in a netbook edition - I think an easier to use application would have been better for Fuduntu (although I personally always install GIMP, no matter the device I'm using; this includes my netbook of course) since most of the times you won't need to do advanced graphics on a netbook.

Fuduntu has also replaced/removed some of the default applications: Pidgin is installed instead of Empathy and the following applications have been removed: Gnote, Simple Scan, Gnome Games, Transmission. I have to agree with most these: you usually don't use a scanner for a netbook and you don't have a high speed internet connection when traveling with your netbook (so you don't need a Bittorrent client). Although some might miss the games.

Fuduntu has a funny name but is a serious distro, designed to be light (although the live ISO has almost 1 gb) and fast. Most of the changes are under the hood but that might change in the future.

Download Fuduntu | Fewt's blog