The extremely active community behind the French Linux distribution Mageia, which was created as a fork from Mandriva Linux in 2010, now has the upcoming version 9 with new desktops for testing released. The project, which is under GPLv3, is supported by a non-profit organization.
Community distribution is updated
Based on the current operating system kernel Linux 6.0, Linux 6.0.9 is used, and the new standard desktop KDE Plasma 5.26, which is already available in the latest point release 5.26.3, has the Mageia community released its upcoming operating system Mageia 9 for testing.
In total, the user has five updated desktop environments, including the preliminary version of the resource-saving Xfce 4.17 and LXQt 1.2.0 as well as various window managers such as Openbox and IceWM to choose from.
- KDE Plasma 5.26.3
- MATE Desktop 1.26
- Gnome Shell 43.1
- Cinnamon 5.6
- LXQt 1.2.0
< li>Xfce 4.17
Besides the updated desktops and window managers, Mageia 9 will also provide the new software packages such as the Firefox 102.5 ESR and Chromium 106 browsers, as well as the open source office suite LibreOffice 7.4.2. Also new on board is the video editor Kdenlive in version 22.08.3 as well as the VLC Media Player 3.0.17 and the image editing software GIMP 2.10.32.
Fresh software packages included
The systematic collection of tools supplied with every distribution, the so-called “toolchain”, as well as the corresponding runtime environments and APIs are given a makeover.
- PHP 8.2
- RMP 4.18.0
- Python 3.10
- Mesa 3D graphics stack 22.2.3
- GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) 12.2.1
- Linux Kernel 6.0.9
- Systemd 252.1
- GTK 3.24.34
< p class="p text-width">The linuxiac.com website has already had a detailed look at the Mageia 9 pre-release including desktop Xfce 4.17, a development version of Xfce 4.18.
Mageia 9 with Xfce 4.17 (Image: linuxiac.com)Project is behind its own roadmap
Mageia 9 and the Mageia community are currently running about 2 months behind their own roadmap. The final release of the Linux distribution was originally supposed to be completed on November 12th.
Mageia 9 Roadmap (Image: Mageia Community)Try Mageia 9< /h2>
Experienced users who already want to try Mageia 9 can download the system image (ISO) from the community servers. The final release is now scheduled for early 2023.
As usual, the official release notes provide further information.