Fedora 19 Alpha

Dennis Gilmore has announced the alpha release of Fedora 19, the first development build of the popular Red Hat-sponsored Linux distribution: "The Fedora 19 'Schrödinger's Cat' alpha release has arrived with a preview of the latest fantastic, free, and open-source technology currently under development." Some of the more interesting features of this release include: "Developer's Assistant - a tool that helps you to get started on a code project with templates, samples and toolchains for the languages of your choice; Syslinux optional boot tool integration brings simplified booting; systemd Resource Control lets you modify service settings without a reboot; GNOME 3.8; KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.10, MATE Desktop 1.6..." Read the full release announcement for more details. Download (torrents, SHA256): Fedora-Live-Desktop-x86_64-19-Alpha-1.iso (997MB, torrent), Fedora-Live-KDE-x86_64-19-Alpha-1.iso (888MB, torrent), Fedora-Live-XFCE-x86_64-19-Alpha-1.iso (755MB, torrent).

Linux Deepin 12.12 Alpha

A preview version of Linux Deepin 12.12, a popular Chinese community distribution, has been unleashed for testing. This is the first version that ships with the brand new Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE), which replaces GNOME Shell as the default desktop. DDE along with its Deepin System Settings (DSS) is regarded as a milestone for the Deepin project. DSS is implemented with the Deepin UI library and it features automatic screen brightness adjustment, support for the Chinese lunar calendar, convenient network configuration, and so on. Also included in Deepin 12.12 Alpha is Deepin Software Center 3.0 Alpha, where the software applications are reorganized with better classification. Multimedia utilities for video and audio playback as well as screenshots have been upgraded to new versions for testing. Check the complete release announcement (in Chinese) for more information including known issues. Download: deepin_12.12_alpha_zh-hans_amd64.iso (702MB, MD5).

SolusOS 2 Alpha 7

The seventh alpha of SolusOS 2 has been released for testing. SolusOS is a Debian-based distribution project that has recently forked the GNOME 3 Fallback mode into a brand-new Consort desktop environment. From the release announcement: "The SolusOS team is pleased to announce the release of SolusOS 2 Alpha 7. This release is intended to demonstrate the Consort desktop, which will be the flagship desktop of SolusOS 2. Please note that this is an alpha release and should not be used in a production environment. Currently only the 32-bit PAE ISO image is available for testing. New features and addressed issues: Consortium (Metacity fork) now has side-by-side window tiling; issues with 'shadow trails' and 'latent shadow boxes' left behind by tool tips, DND icons and menus are gone; Consort Panel is now fully usable; gnome-applets has also been forked into consort-applets to undergo active development...." Download: SolusOS-2-A7.iso (995MB, MD5, torrent).

Kubuntu 13.04 Alpha 1

Stéphane Graber has announced the availability of the first alpha release of Kubuntu 13.04: "The first alpha of the 'Raring Ringtail' (to become 13.04) has now been released. This alpha features images for Edubuntu and Kubuntu. At the end of the 12.10 development cycle, the Ubuntu flavour decided that it would reduce the number of milestone images going forward and the focus would concentrate on daily quality and fortnightly testing rounds known as cadence testing. Based on that change, the Ubuntu product itself will not have an Alpha-1 release. Its first milestone release will be the final beta release on the 28th of March 2013. Other Ubuntu flavours have the option to release using the usual milestone schedule." See the release announcement and release notes for further information. Download (SHA256): raring-desktop-i386.iso (972MB, torrent), raring-desktop-amd64.iso (954MB, torrent). Alpha 1 images for Edubuntu 13.04 (download, release notes) are also available.