2008.0_beta2 is here. Thanks to you, our community, for testing beta1 and filing many bugs. You can help make 2008.0 amazing! Test out this beta and report any functionality issues you encounter. Since this is still a beta, we're looking only for bugs in functionality, not bugs in appearance such as desktop backgrounds or other artwork.

This should be the last beta and will be followed by the final 2008.0 release after further bug fixing.

Get 2008.0_beta2 from the usual places.

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The April issue of the Gentoo Monthly Newsletter has been released. In this month's issue: Summer of Code, Interview with Hyves, Speedup your boot time... and more!

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Council member Mike Frysinger, one of the most experienced and most active Gentoo developers, talked to David Abbott of LinuxCrazy. Download the podcast here.

Mike described his work on the toolchain (gcc, glibc, binutils) and embedded Gentoo, and he explained the short- and long-term goals of the Gentoo Council.

He also told a story about how and why he got into Linux and shortly after into Gentoo, explained the origins of both his nicks, vapier and SpanKY ("I came up with SpanKY because I needed something people would fear"), and described his typical day ("I wake up and keep programming until I fall asleep").

If you would rather read it, Marc Murphy created a transcript of the interview.

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Łukasz Damentko contributed the draft for this announcement.

OpenRC, the replacement for Gentoo's current services system (known as baselayout), will soon reach ~arch on all platforms. It replaces the previous bash-only rc system in baselayout with an rc system that has a C-based core and uses only POSIX-compliant shell code.

OpenRC runs natively on a wide variety of systems. Out of the box, it's compatible with Gentoo Linux, Gentoo/FreeBSD, Embedded Gentoo, and Gentoo VServers. It also works with FreeBSD and NetBSD and, once some installation problems get fixed, will be added to their package repositories, ports and pkgsrc.

Before upgrading, read the OpenRC Migration Guide so you update your system properly once OpenRC and baselayout 2 are installed.

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Doug Goldstein contributed the draft for this announcement.

Roy Bamford, the newly elected President of the Gentoo Foundation's trustees, spoke with David Abbott from LinuxCrazy. You can download the podcast.

He talked about recent challenges the Gentoo Foundation faces, among other topics. You can learn about the reinstatement of the foundation, short- and long-term plans, a possible move to the Software Freedom Conservancy and answers to some common questions, like how you can contribute to Gentoo. On a more personal note, you can hear about Roy's long Linux and Gentoo experience, his hardware and the origin of his nickname, NeddySeagoon.

If you would rather read it, David Hubbard created a transcript of the interview.

David Abbott plans to interview more well-known Gentoo developers. Next on the list is Mike Frysinger, a member of the Gentoo Council and many Gentoo core projects like the base system and the toolchain. We'll keep you posted.

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Łukasz Damentko contributed the draft for this announcement.

Thanks to overwhelming support from the open-source community, Google extended the deadline for student applications until April 7. If you'd like to spend your summer being paid by Google to work on Gentoo, this is your chance. This gives you until next Monday to work on your project idea. If you haven't yet submitted an application, now is the time. Students have submitted many interesting and unique ideas so far, and there's still room for your ideas. For more details, see our Summer of Code page.

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Joshua Jackson and Łukasz Damentko contributed the draft for this announcement.