Ubuntu 15.10 Alpha 2

The Ubuntu Release Team has announced the availability of a new test release of Ubuntu's community distributions. These community distributions are independently maintained while sharing infrastructure and resources with Ubuntu. The new release, version 15.10 Alpha 2, is still under heavy development and is intended for testing purposes only. From the release announcement: "The second alpha of the Wily Werewolf (to become 15.10) has now been released! This alpha features images for Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Kylin and the Ubuntu Cloud images. Pre-releases of the Wily Werewolf are not encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu flavor developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this release ready. Alpha 2 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing." Downloads: kubuntu/wily-desktop-amd64.iso (1,275MB, SHA256, torrent, pkglist, release notes), lubuntu/wily-desktop-amd64.iso (728MB, SHA256, torrent, pkglist, release notes), ubuntumate/wily-desktop-amd64.iso (1,038MB, SHA256, torrent, pkglist, release notes), ubuntukylin/wily-desktop-amd64.iso (1,310MB, SA256, torrent, pkglist, release notes).

blackPanther OS 14.1

The developers of blackPanther OS, a Hungarian distribution that originally forked from Mandriva, have announced the launch of blackPanther OS 14.1. The blackPanther distribution ships with the KDE 4 desktop and offers users a unified settings panel that combines KDE's System Settings and Mandriva's Control Centre. "We are sure you’ll enjoy the many improvements. We’ve done our best to bring the latest technology to blackPanther while still maintaining the stability and security that you have come to expect. blackPanther OS is well known for its simplicity and the fact that we try to bring software to you in the condition that the authors intended. blackPanther OS v14.1 (Walking Dead) brings many updates and enhancements, KDE 4.14, a recent stable release of the 4.1x.x series of the award-winning KDE desktop environment." Further information is available in the project's release announcement (English, Hungarian). Download: blackPantherOS-v14.1-WalkingDead-i586-CD.iso