Mandriva 2008.1 Beta 1 Released

The first Beta version of Mandriva Linux 2008.1 was released a few days ago and includes some major new features, like XML-based package meta information system, multimedia key support and much more. Let's take a more detailed look at them:

New XML-based package meta-information system
Just as before, the basic information necessary for installing packages is present in a synthesis hdlist file. The trick is that rather being a single full hdlist file for each repository containing further information, the information has been split across several XML-formatted files for each repository. If a new repository is added, the synthesis hdlist will always be retrieved.

Multimedia key support
Nowadays, many keyboards have multimedia keys, that's why this pre-release will provide out-of-the box support for these keys. Simple functions like changing the sound volume work in an instant now.

Perl 5.10
Since the release of Alpha 2, Perl has been updated to version 5.10, which brings a major change required for rebuilding several hundred packages.

Revert previous replacement of teTeX with TeX Live
The teTeX system was replaced with TeX Live in Alpha 2, but due to some problems and necessary features that were unimplemented in TeX Live, Mandriva 2008.1 Beta 1 will use again teTeX as default TeX system.

Latest NVIDIA and ATI proprietary drivers
This release comes equipped with the latest proprietary drivers from NVIDIA and ATI, 169.09 and 8.45.2, respectively.

KDE 4.0.0 Available
The final release of KDE 4.0.0 is available in the Cooker /contrib repository along with this pre-release.

Major Nautilus / GVFS changes
The latest version of Nautilus, the GNOME file and desktop manager, is included in this pre-release. It is now based on the new GVFS VFS system, which replaces the old gnome-vfs system.

Kernel 2.6.24 RC8 with ALSA 1.0.16 RC1
The latest available release candidate of kernel version 2.6.24 made its way into Beta 1, and provides the widest possible hardware compatibility.

Source: news.softpedia.com