A few weeks ago, we saw the release of the development version of the most popular Mandriva Linux distribution, Mageia OS. Now another community, OpenMandriva, which also carries on the legacy of the legendary Mandriva Linux, has released an alpha version of the upcoming OpenMandriva Lx 4.2.
The alpha version is mainly used for testing purposes to find and fix all bugs before its stable version. Therefore, you should not use it in your production system. It also comes with major changes in core components and software updates.
OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 Alpha: What's new?
From the base packages, OMLx 4.2 has updated its toolchain which includes Linux Kernel 5.7.8, systemd 245, LLVM / clang 10.0.1, gcc 10.1, glibc 2.31 and Java 14. In addition, for Display subsystems, it has included the latest version of graphics software stacks such as Xorg 1.20.8, Wayland 1.20.8, and Mesa 20.1.
Speaking of the default desktop, OMLx has also refurnished the graphical environment by including the latest KDE 5.72.0, Plasma Desktop 5.19.3 and Applications 20.04.3 frameworks.
In addition, OMLx 4.2 has also updated its other applications such as Digikam 7.0, Calligra Suite 3.2.1, LibreOffice 7.0.0, Firefox 78, Chromium 83, VLC 3.0.11, Kdenlive 20.04.3 and SimpleScreenRecoder 0.4.2.
If you want to know more about the new improvements, read the release notes.
Download OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 Alpha
Now if you want to test alpha version of OMLx 4.2, download the ISO image from here. These images are available for x86_64 systems and current AMD processors from the Ryzen, ThreadRipper, and EPYC families.
Before installation, make sure your system has at least 2 GB of RAM and 10 GB of free hard disk space. For VirtualBox at least 2 GB of RAM is required, otherwise the boot will fail.
