Major package versions updated this release:

- Kernel 3.2.13 - Chromium 17 - Firefox 11 - Thunderbird 11 - Pidgin 2.10.2 - LibreOffice 3.5.1.2

Platform Changes: Mirror Infrastructure: During this cycle, the Fuduntu team has made many changes to improve the overall experience with the distribution. The largest, and most welcomed change is the shift from SourceForge as our package host to a new mirrorable infrastructure (add link to "Improved hosting at Fuduntu").

In addition to building and enabling the new infrastructure we are pleased to announce that several open source mirror providers have begun replicating our repositories. This change improves speed and availability of software available for installation, as well as package updates.

If you are responsible for hosting an open source mirror, and would like to help the project by hosting Fuduntu it couldn't be simpler to get started. We expose the entire repository via public read only rsync which is available at rsync://packages.fuduntu.org/repo. If you do want to mirror; do a full sync,

schedule an ongoing sync, and then contact the Fuduntu team at team at fuduntu dot org or visit us in #fuduntu on Freenode.

Our new package repository utilizes a virtual dedicated server (vds). In order to fund hosting this new platform Fuduntu held a donation drive (add link to donation drive) in February securing funding for the first full year of service within just a few days. We would like to thank the entire community for stepping up doing what was needed to improve this service critical to the project. Remember, this service must be renewed yearly so keep those donations flowing (add link to donations page).

To help make sure users are optimized to use the mirror closest to them, the YUM fastest mirror plugin is now enabled by default on all new installations. This plugin walks through the mirror list seeking the fastest mirror available and then uses it.

For those of you that do not have it installed, the mirror list is spooled rotating every 15 minutes. This ensures that users connecting to the repository via mirror list without the plugin enabled are not flooding a single mirror.

Default IM Client: Another welcome change this cycle is the shift from Empathy to Pidgin. Pidgin is a much more feature rich IM client and is now installed by default, replacing Empathy.

Firmware: Beginning with Fuduntu 2012.2, all available firmwares are installed by default. This small change improves the odds that your WIFI adapter is detected and ready to use out of the box. This helps reduce the amount of work necessary to configure your computer while using Fuduntu as a Live CD or after installing.

Driver Support: Fuduntu hosts multiple kmod packages in the repository. These packages make it simple to enable a proprietary video driver, or WIFI adapter.

Included in the repository: - NVidia display driver 290.10 (nvidia-kmod) - ATI Catalyst display driver 12.1 (catalyst-kmod) - Broadcom WIFI Adapter driver 5.100.82.112 (wl-kmod)

An additional staging kmod pack is available (kmod-staging) containing drivers for many devices not supported by default.

Wiki: We now have a Wiki!(add link to wiki) An icon has been placed into your panel under System > Online Help. This link requires external connectivity, and will take you to our new Wiki. The Wiki is a community supported help platform, editable by all community members. If you have a few minutes and an idea or recently solved problem, please take a moment to add it to the Wiki so your knowledge will be available to everyone else who may need it.

Community: Our community is growing at an astounding pace, with an average visible growth rate of hundreds of new installations per week. As we grow, we are starting to see many in the community become actively involved helping out in the forum / IRC channel and contributing to the Wiki. We would like to personally thank everyone in the community, you all are doing a wonderful job, keep up the great work!

In addition I would like to announce that the Fuduntu team has two new team members on board with a primary focus on software packaging. Please welcome Fufu, and Dinivan to the team! With their help, we should be able to process packaging requests much more quickly.

Lastly, we would like to thank you all for a great first quarter of 2012, and we sincerely hope that you continue to use and enjoy Fuduntu.

Fuduntu Website - Fuduntu.org Fuduntu Community - Fuduntu Forum

Distrowatch - Fuduntu IRC: #fuduntu @ Freenode

MD5 Sums: 32 bit: 570b9d821acd9a15c531ddccf757a128 64 bit: cdabbd2219a78b2f4e8491852142460c