We always try to go the whole nine yards with the Linux Format DVDs, but this month we've gone 27 yards with a triple-booting disc. Yes, boot your PC from this DVD and you can try three Linux flavours without having to burn any CD-Rs. First up is PCLinuxOS 2009, a much-awaited release from the PCL team that sports a gorgeous desktop, super-friendly Control Centre (based on the one in Mandriva) and stacks of great software.

Next there's Mepis 8 from Warren Woodford and his community of developers. Based on Debian 5 (Lenny), Mepis strives for first-rate hardware detection and a highly usable out-of-the-box experience. If you're looking for something fast to run on old machines, try Zenwalk 6, a Slackware-based distro that screams along on modern systems and brings ancient boxes back to life.

There's all the info you need in the Distros section of this DVD and the magazine's disc pages. Along with the distros we have new versions of Mono, MonoDevelop and Ardour, plus HotPicks, new desktop apps, games and more. Oh, and don't miss the latest TuxRadar podcast in the Magazine section -- in episode 5 we (Team LXF) met up with Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth to tackle the biggest topics in free software!

Mike Saunders
New Media Editor