Update: Mozilla, Mandrake Make Quiet Releases

According to various published blurbs on the Internet, a new release from the 1.0 tree of Mozilla and a beta release of Mandrake Linux 9.1 have both been quietly placed out on the Net.

Mozilla 1.0.2 was released with little fanfare on the Mozilla.org Web site on January 7. It is termed a "stability" release, and contains no new features beyond those in Mozilla 1.0.

"Mozilla 1.0.2 contains stability and security improvements. 1.0.2 also has fixes for standards support, UI correctness and polish, performance, and site compatibility. This is not a feature release. For new features, Mozilla 1.0 users are encouraged to upgrade to Mozilla 1.2," reads the What's New section of the 1.0.2 release notes.

Users can download the 1.0.2 release from Mozilla.org.

News about the Mandrake beta release was more sketchy, until official word was made by MandrakeSoft late Friday morning. The news was first mentioned on the Tux Reports site, and later picked up by OSNews.

Neither site had much news regarding the beta release, other than to say it was there and that it appeared to contain only one .iso CD image. Each site's blurb, however, contains separate download links to that ISO file. The OSNews blurb also has links back to Tux Report's image gallery, where two screenshots of the new beta have been posted.

On Friday morning, MandrakeSoft's Web page had this announcement:

"Mandrake 9.1 Beta has started to be mirrored and will be available for tests soon. This pre-version includes Linux 2.4.21pre2, XFree 4.3Beta and a port of the installation procedure and several Mandrake applications to Gtk2.0. Final desktop look is not available in this release yet. Additionally, the first Beta of Mandrake Linux 9.1 has been downsized to only one CD. We will use the RPM-voting system as a way to determine which applications must be included in the distribution, which can be safely removed, and what packages should be handled on a priority basis. This way we should be able to optimize our resources and produce a better distribution. Who knows the needs of the community better than the users themselves? You can add the packages you need and vote for them here. Don't forget to download the new beta as soon as it is available from usual places, and start to report bugs."

Related Stories:

• OfB.biz: A Critical Look at Mandrake 9.0(Jan 03, 2003)
• LinuxWorld: Mandrake 9.0 & Xoops Revisited(Dec 24, 2002)
• UnixReview.com: Review: Mandrake Linux 9.0(Dec 20, 2002)
• Mozilla.org: Stable Mozilla 1.0.1 and Bleeding-Edge Mozilla 1.2 Alpha Released(Sep 12, 2002)