Pinguy OS 11.04 Released With Classic GNOME 2.32.1 Desktop

Pinguy OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution that comes with a lot of applications installed by default, trying to cover everyones needs. But it's not the default application selection what makes Pinguy OS so interesting and easy to use (though it's a plus if you use most of the default applications in Pinguy OS) but Pinguy's attention to detail: every single aspect of the desktop is carefully customized to provide a great out of the box experience. From drivers (and Compiz enabled by default) to pre-installed Firefox addons, themes and so much more from both the Ubuntu and Linux Mint worlds.

Pinguy OS 11.04 (based on Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal) has been released yesterday. The new Pinguy OS comes with GNOME 2.32.1 and uses the classic GNOME desktop while Unity has been completely removed from the CD. Let's take a look at what's new in the latest Pinguy OS 11.04. Read on!

Default package selection changes

There are a lot of new default applications in the latest Pinguy OS 11.04: Ultracopier, Oracle Java, Rapid Photo Downloader, XBMC, Vino, wxBanker Finance Manager, Vineyard and more. Also, UNetbootin has been replaced with LiveUSB Install:

There's also a new Conky config tool that lets you change between two themes, launch it at startup, remove Conky and so on:

Other packages included by default are: overlay scrollbars, the patched NotifyOSD which lets you specify the notification bubbles timeout, close them and more, qtnx - the package required to testdrive applications from the Ubuntu Software Center without installing them.

There are also some applications that were removed from the latest Pinguy OS 11.04 like LuckyBackup which Pinguy says is a bit hard to use. But Deja Dup is still there by default so this area is still covered in Pinguy OS. Mumble has also been removed.

Fixes and tweaks

Pinguy OS is all about getting everything ready so no further tweaking is needed. So along the old tweaks like NotifyOSD notifications for caps lock / num lock, pre-installed Firefox extensions and so on, a few more tweaks have been added in this version. For instance, Skype has been added to the Messaging Menu:

Other tweaks in the latest Pinguy OS 11.04:

• unnecessary menu items have been removed (like CoverChooser, Gloobus Preview, etc). You don't run these from the menu so there was no reason for them to show up in the menu.
• extra WiFi support by default
• the theme was fixed for LibreOffice
• warning message when running Nautilus as root
• lots more

(Warning message when running Nautilus as root)

OEM

Pinguy OS 11.04 comes with build-in OEM support. To use this feature, install Pinguy OS with "oem" for both the username and password and once you're done customizing it, run:

sudo oem-config-prepare

Then restart the computer and on the next boot it will ask you to setup your account and will delete the original "oem" account.

Note: Compiz is kind of buggy because of the recent changes in Ubuntu, so the issues that you'll encounter with Compiz in Ubuntu will also be present in Pinguy OS.

Get Pinguy OS 11.04

For more info on Pinguy OS, see: Pinguy OS 11.04 videos | Pinguy OS forums | Pinguy OS Facebook page.

Download Pinguy OS 11.04 (available for both 32bit and 64bit).