Arch Linux 2009.08 released

Arch Linux Release Engineer Dieter Plaetinck has announced the release of the project's official 2009.08 installation images. Arch Linux is a simple and lightweight Linux distribution for i686 and x86-64 platforms that includes support for the Ext4 file system. The distribution is aimed at Linux users who want to create "their own ideal environment" and only want to install what they need. Compared to the previous 2009.02 release from mid-February, Arch Linux 2009.08 includes several bug fixes and major software updates.

Arch Linux 2009.08 features the 2.6.30.4 Linux kernel and version 3.3.0 of its Pacman package manager, similar to apt-get (Debian / Ubuntu) or Zypper (openSUSE). In addition to a wide variety of bug fixes, boot device detection has been enhanced and Aufs2 (advanced multi layered unification filesystem version 2) replaces the UnionFS used in previous versions. The AIF (Arch Linux Installation Framework) installer also includes several updates, adding support for automated installations using config files, better date/time setting with NTP, various usability improvements and a new framework for users to build their own installation procedures. The developers note that the FTP images have been renamed to netinstall in order to avoid any confusion.

More details about the release can be found in the developer wiki and Getting Started guides are provided. In his release announcement, Plaetinck notes that Arch Linux 2009.08 is not yet available to download from the project's official download page, however, most of the mirrors already have the current images for the release.

The components of Arch Linux are distributed under a variety of licenses.

(crve)