Then there was the launch of Slackware Linux 14.0 at the end of September. Dating all the way back to 1993, Slackware is one of the oldest Linux distributions still in existence, and it

aims to offer the most "Unix-like" experience possible. Now, culminating a full year of development, version 14.0 is based on the 3.2.29 kernel and offers enhancements including the Xfce 4.10.0 and KDE 4.8.5 desktops, among many other features. It can be downloaded from .

Making steady progress towards its final release planned for Oct. 18, meanwhile, Canonical late last month also released the second beta version of Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal." Following hard on the heels of the earlier in the month, this final beta version released in late September is perhaps most notable for its addition of the highly controversial to the Unity Dash. Unity has been updated to version 6.6, GNOME has been updated to version 3.5.92 for most components, and accessibility is turned on by default. This beta release can be downloaded for testing purposes .