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Introduction:::…

With Linux marching on to the desktop, covering more and more areas with more and more distributions, the race is on for more application to become available on the platform. As Linux becomes more mature, the need for more mainstream applications becomes apparent.

Distributions like Linspire, Mandrake or SuSe, to name but a few, have built more heavily on GUI based desktops, easy to use for newcomers to Linux.

This process of growth is of course still continuing and Nero AG has decided to jump into the mix, with a Linux version of their popular Windows disk authoring software, NeroLinux.

NeroLinux is in essence a CD/DVD burning tool with some comprehensive features. It brings some of the features we are used to in the Windows based Nero to the Linux desktop.

This release seems to make the Linux desktop get one step closer again to becoming more mainstream and it seems to extend the burning capacity of Linux.

Company Profile:::…

Nero AG was formed in 1995 by Richard Lesser and has been privately owned ever since. The company combines vision and innovation with the ability to adapt complex technologies. These characteristics make it one of the leading manufacturers of CD-R/RW, DVD and Internet audio software applications, and one of the foremost suppliers of optical recording solutions.

Nero AG products are developed by an eminent international team of software engineers. They are Macintosh and Windows compatible and available in numerous languages. Nero AG software is defined by its unrivalled stability, as well as the ability to meet the requirements of both beginners and advanced users 

Nero AG has its headquarters in Karlsbad-Itterbach, Germany and could quickly secure its position in the American and international market. The US subsidiary Nero Inc. was founded in Glendale, California in October 2001. The Japanese subsidiary Nero K.K. based in Yokohama, was subsequently founded in April 2004.

Some of Nero AG’s other products are:

• Nero 6.6 Reloaded
• InCD 4
• NeroMix - Play&Burn
• SIPPS™/SIPPSTAR IP-PBX

For more info, click here.

Features:::…

Here’s a list of supported features and functionalities:

þ      NeroLINUX uses NeroAPI for low-level operations (burn process)          

o        Autodetection and support for all types of internal CD and DVD recorders supported by NeroAPI 6.6

o        Autodetection and support for all types of external CD and DVD recorders connected to the USB port and supported by

o        NeroAPI 6.6

o        Kernel optimizations

o        Ultra Buffer support

þ      Supports hot plug for external USB devices, without any application restart          

þ      Stores and reloads compilations in XML format           

þ      Fully compatible with FreeDB, to automatically get disc information over the Internet         

þ      Supports the new 2.6 IDE driver interface (non SCSI emulation)

þ      Audio encoding and decoding done on-the-fly, using external utilities (mpg123, ogg123)   

þ      Supports 2.4 and 2.6 kernel flavors  

þ      Provided as RPM or Debian package for easy installation

þ      NeroLINUX is able to burn the following formats

o        Data CDs/DVDs (ISO9660, UDF and UDF/ISO9660 Bridge)

o        Bootable CDs/DVDs using the El-Torito standard

o        Audio CDs (CD TEXT Infos can be added)

o        Mix Mode CDs

o        Enhanced CDs (CD EXTRA)

o        CD and DVD Images (ISO, NRG and Cue Sheets)

o        Ability to burn multisession CD/DVD

o        Double Layer DVDs

þ      Copy CD or DVD as under Windows

þ      Image Recorder is available

þ      Digital Audio Extraction for audio tracks

System requirements:::…

These are the 32-bit Linux distributions that are supported so far.

Although some distributions are not mentioned, it’s likely that NeroLinux will install and run with some manual intervention.

Of course these distributions have to run on a computer that supports it and you need a CD/DVD burner to be able to burn.