TeX Live 2009 released
November 9th, 2009 by Stefan Kottwitz
After development and many weeks of testing, final bug fixing and translations the new TeX Live 2009 has been released today.
Some changes and improvements in 2009:
- pdf(La)TeX now automatically converts included eps files to pdf, using the epstopdf package, if graphics.cfg is loaded and pdf output is chosen.
- The execution of certain external commands, for example epstopdf, makeindex, and bibtex, using \write18, is now enabled by default. The texmf.cnf file determines those commands.
- Updated AMS Type 1 fonts are included, the Euler fonts have been reshaped.
- The new editor TeXworks is included for Windows and MacTeX. Other distributions like Ubuntu and Debian Linux will provide this cross-platform editor with their own packaging system.
- Asymptote is included for several platforms.
- dvipdfm has been replaced by dvipdfmx.
- pdf is now the default output format for Lua(La)TeX. dvi output can be achieved by using the new executables dviluatex and dvilualatex.
In my opinion it’s a big step forward because several Linux Distributions like Ubuntu and Debian Linux are clinging to TL 2007 until now. While TL 2008 has been skipped the packaging for TL 2009 for Debian and Ubuntu is in progress, thanks to the work of especially Norbert Preining and Frank Küster. Though v2008 and v2009 worked fine on Linux it’s important to provide TeX with the distribution repositories, less workarounds will be necessary.
This text is available in German. Dieser Text ist auch in Deutsch verfügbar.
This entry was posted on Montag, November 9th, 2009 at 22:19 and is filed under TeX Live, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 11th, 2009 at 00:19
[…] TL2009 in French by far while Joseph Wright and Stefan Kottwitz have also contributed blog posts in English and in […]
November 11th, 2009 at 00:55
Unfortunately, restricted write18 and automatic eps to pdf conversion features has been removed in the last minute due to security concerns. There is some more work required to ensure that restricted commands remain restricted.
November 21st, 2009 at 16:54
Any more news on when TL 2009 will be available in the Debian/Ubuntu repositories?
November 21st, 2009 at 23:49
Experimental TL 2009 Debian packages have been uploaded by Norbert Preining today (texlive-base 2009-2, texlive-extra 2009-2, texlive-bin 2009-2). If more people would contribute in packaging and testing TL 2009 would be available sooner, at the moment we could be thankful that Norbert does so much work. Without him I would not expect a Debian release of a current TeX Live version. I wish I would have time to contribute by myself but I’m involved very much in my work.
November 22nd, 2009 at 20:17
Stefan,
thanks. And also a huge thanks to Norbert for doing that job.
Januar 23rd, 2010 at 18:11
[…] my Debian Unstable/”Sid” jumped over to TeX Live 2009 a couple of days before (after being backward with 2007 as standard TeX distribution for a long time […]
Februar 16th, 2010 at 15:17
When will we have Texlive 2009 for (K)Ubuntu 64?
It is already 2010, and I have wanted a new version (because of the promised Package Manager) since 2007…
Juni 27th, 2010 at 18:15
Hi venik212,
(K)Ubuntu 10.04 provides TeX Live 2009. I’m not sure if the package manager tlmgr works, because Ubuntu and Debian use their own package management. At least it’s the latest TeX Live release. I installed TL using its net installer instead of the Ubuntu repositories.
Btw. I assume TL 2010 will be relased in July.
Stefan