Mageia 1

Version 1 of Mageia, a Linux distribution built and maintained by many former developers and contributors to Mandriva Linux, has been released: "We are the Mageia community, and today we are happy to tell everyone that our first release, Mageia 1, is out and available for download. Mageia began in September 2010 as a fork of Mandriva Linux. It is supported by a not-for-profit organisation, governed by a body of recognized and elected contributors, and made by 100+ people around the world. Our work adds to the excellent work of the wider Linux and free software community. We aim to bring one of the best, most stable, reliable and enjoyable experience and platform we can make; for a regular user, a developer, or a business. Read the release announcement and release notes for more information. Download (mirror list): mageia-dvd-1-i586.iso (3,826MB, MD5, torrent), mageia-dvd-1-x86_64.iso (3,726MB, MD5, torrent). Quick links to the live CDs supporting English and other major European languages: mageia-livecd-1-KDE4-i586.iso (693MB, MD5, torrent), mageia-livecd-1-GNOME-i586.iso (621MB, MD5, torrent).

openSUSE 12.1 Milestone 1

Jos Poortvliet has announced the availability of the first milestone release of openSUSE 12.1: "Milestone 1, the first step towards the upcoming openSUSE 12.1 release, is now available. With over 800 updates, including minor and major updates, the current milestone is ready for some serious testing. This iteration already sees some major upgrades taking place, with the kernel moving on to 2.6.39 and GNOME to 3.0. In addition we have popular GNOME applications like Evolution, Eye of GNOME and others all synchronized, and KDE's Plasma Desktop coming along nicely with a minor version upgrade to 4.6.3. You will also find upgrades to GCC, glibc, Perl, Python, and the RPM package manager. See the full release announcement for more details. Download (mirrors): openSUSE-KDE-LiveCD-Build0032-i686.iso (695MB, MD5, torrent), openSUSE-GNOME-LiveCD-Build0032-i686.iso (695MB, MD5, torrent), openSUSE-KDE-LiveCD-Build0032-x86_64.iso (687MB, MD5, torrent), openSUSE-GNOME-LiveCD-Build0032-x86_64.iso (693MB, MD5, torrent).

Netrunner 3.1

Clemens Toennies has announced the release of Netrunner 3.1, a Kubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution and live DVD with a customised KDE desktop and integrated GTK+ applications: "We updated Netrunner 'Chromatic' with a maintenance release to 3.1. Changes from version 3.0 include: updated KDE from 4.6 to 4.6.1; updated Firefox from 3.5 to Firefox 4; replaced the default KDM theme with a customized one; fixed the plasma-netbook mode to the default plasma-desktop; changed the desktop theme to a transparent one. Netrunner comes with VLC media player and extended codec support for many proprietary formats such as MP3, QuickTime, WMV, DivX, Xvid. Version 3.1 comes pre-installed with Linux kernel 2.6.35, Firefox 4.0 with Java 1.6 and Flash 10.1 plugins, WINE 1.3.12, Audacious, OpenOffice.org 3.2.2.... Here is the brief release announcement. Download (MD5): netrunner-3.1.iso (1,276MB, torrent).

Oracle Linux 6.1

Oracle Corporation has announced the release of Oracle Linux 6.1, a distribution built from source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1: "Oracle is pleased to announce the general availability of Oracle Linux 6.1 for x86 (32-bit) and x86_64 (6-bit) architectures. Oracle Linux 6.1 ships with two sets of kernel packages: Unbreakable Enterprise kernel installed and booted by default, and Red Hat compatible kernel installed by default. Oracle Linux 6.1 includes both a 32-bit and a 64-bit Unbreakable Enterprise kernel. By default, both the Unbreakable Enterprise kernel and the Red Hat compatible kernel are installed. Unbreakable Enterprise kernel shipped in this update has following driver updates: updated tg3 to version 3.113; updated bnx2 driver and firmware to version 2.1.6; added support for bnx2fc (version 1.0.2).... See the release announcement and release notes for further details. The product should be available for free download from Oracle's E-Delivery page (registration required) shortly.

Mandriva Linux 2011 Beta 3

Eugeni Dodonov has announced the availability of the third beta release of Mandriva Linux 2011. This is an unscheduled beta release on the pathway to the delayed 2011 version which is to be followed by a release candidate before the final release on an as-yet-unspecified date. From the release announcement: "As was previously announced on the Cooker mailing list, the Mandriva and Rosa teams have decided that additional time will be needed to finish the stabilization of Mandriva 2011 and Rosa 2011 desktop editions. Therefore I am gladly presenting Mandriva 2011 beta 3. Among the highlights of this release, the following items are present: from now on, the images contain non-free software for improved desktop experience; new UI theme for widgets, KDM and KDE environment, developed by ROSA Labs, is provided by default; new features in system panel, stack folders and system start menu.... Download: Mandriva.2011-beta3.i586.iso (1,557MB, MD5), Download: Mandriva.2011-beta3.x86_64.iso (1,607MB, MD5).