[manjaro-general] Manjaro 0.8.9 Community Editions Released!

[Manjaro Linux | Manjaro Linux: Manjaro Team]

Our official releases went very well, but we aren't stopping there. We've now finished all of our community editions, which include Fluxbox, MATE, Cinnamon, Gnome, Enlightenment, LXDE, and the Netbook!

Community Editions are released as bonus flavours in addition to those officially supported and maintained by the Manjaro Team. Provided that the time and resources necessary are available to do so. You can find all of them at Sourceforge, though they might be slightly out of date. The main things we've changed are the artwork and theming, as well as all of the notable package updates. Everybody can find an edition that suits them, as we now have 7 different community releases.

With our Gnome 3.10.2 edition we feature an intuitive desktop environment catering for both traditional desktops and touchscreen devices. Although Gnome is very easy to learn and use, it's customization options are limited, and it can be unsuitable for those looking to tweak and personalise. This edition is good for beginners, or for people who want a desktop that just works.

The Cinnamon 2.0.4 edition uses the flagship desktop environment from Linux Mint, which is based on Gnome and utilizes a large panel style menu to access applications. Breaking away from it's Gnome origins, it offers more extensive customisation options and a familiar interface. Users of Windows Vista or Windows 7 are likely to find Cinnamon's interface comfortable & familiar.

The next community release features MATE, an environment also known for its use in the popular Linux Mint distribution. Similar to the XFCE desktop environment, a 64 bit installation of Manjaro running MATE uses only about 200 MB of memory. MATE itself was developed to appease users of the Gnome 2 desktop (on which it is based) after the radical interface transformation that was undertaken for Gnome 3. MATE also has a high degree of compatibility with the Compiz window manager, which can enhance the interface significantly.

There's also the LXDE edition. LXDE is a lightweight desktop that's similar to Xfce, though more simplistic and lacking compatibility with Compiz. It provides a rather basic desktop that excludes some modern features that many would expect, such as a search bar to find applications. However, this is also one of its strengths. If you don't wish to use a WM but you still require a low resource desktop, then LXDE is a great choice. It has a low memory footprint, but still has a sleek look-and-feel.

One of our most noticeable community editions is the Netbook Edition. This is thanks to Rob McCathie, another new team member. We recommend this edition for most netbooks, since it has several features and optimizations for small screens and common netbook hardware. This edition uses a lightweight Xfce implementation with a modified XFWM4 and DockBarX. An Intel Atom-optimised kernel is available and a normal kernel remains available for people on other hardware. But it doesn't stop there: this edition also features a specific Flash plugin version and configuration that provides jolt-free full-screen 360p Flash video playback. 

The Enlightenment desktop provides an efficient yet breathtaking window manager based on the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries along with other essential desktop components like a file manager, desktop icons and widgets. It boasts an unprecedented level of theme-ability while still being capable of performing on older hardware or embedded devices. Enlightenment is not just a window manager for Linux/X11 and others, but also a whole suite of libraries to help you create beautiful user interfaces with much less work than doing it the old fashioned way and fighting with traditional toolkits, not to mention a traditional window manager. It covers uses from small mobile devices like phones all the way to powerful multi-core desktops (which are the primary development environment).

Fluxbox 1.3.5 is a stacking window manager for the X Window System, which started as a fork of Blackbox in 2001, with the same aim to be lightweight. Its user interface has only a taskbar, a pop-up menu accessible by right-clicking on the desktop, and minimal support for graphical icons. All basic configurations are controlled by text files, including the construction of menus and the mapping of keybindings. Fluxbox has high compliance to the Extended Window Manager Hints specification and supports tabbed windows.

We hope you enjoy these releases!

kind regards,  
The Manjaro Development Team

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**Links:**

  * [Release announcement][1]
  * [Download Manjaro 0.8.9][2]

   [1]: http://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=11125.0
   [2]: http://manjaro.org/get-manjaro/

URL: http://manjaro.org/2014/03/01/manjaro-0-8-9-community-editions-released/