An update of the noteworthy Cooker changes was long overdue. Here’s a short, incomplete summary:

• KDE is now at version 4.2.98 aka KDE 4.3 RC 3. Other KDE related updates include KOffice 2.0.1, Amarok 2.1.1, Digikam 1.0 beta 3, Kipi plug-ins 0.5.0. The KMess MSN Live instant messenger had its first stable KDE 4 release with version 2.0.0.
• GNOME 2.27.4 is the latest development version of GNOME which will finally lead to stable version 2.28. Thanks to client-side windows in GTK+, flicker will be reduced, the volume control applet has improved support for 5.1 configurations. Mandriva now also includes GNote, a C++ port of Tomboy.
• Alpha versions of Mutter, Zeitgeist and gnome-shell are available. These will be the basis of a future version GNOME 3.0.
• The Liferea RSS reader is now at stable version 1.6.0.
• The LiVES video editor has reached version 1.0.0. LinuxJournal has two nice articles about LiVES.
• Miro video and podcast player version 2.5 has improved start-up time and a redesigned library window.
• Bacula, an advanced network back-up tool, is now at version 3.0.2. One of the highlights of this major new version is the accurate back-up functionality.
• A Mandriva specific GUI for configuring the Tomoyo security framework is now available.
• The kernel-tmb packages are now based on 2.6.31 release candidate kernels. The standard Mandriva kernel will soon switch to 2.6.31-rc too.