A number of improvements have been added with this latest update

Jun 23, 2014 09:05 GMT  ·  By

Manjaro 0.8.10, a Linux distribution based on well-tested snapshots of the Arch Linux repositories and 100% compatible with Arch, has received its first update pack.

Manjaro 0.8.10 has been out for only for a couple of weeks and the developers are already making sure that its users get the latest updates and improvements. The update packs are released regularly for the stable branches of Manjaro. The previous version, 0.8.9, had eight update packs and its users were always using the latest packages.

Most of these updates are only made available so that users can get the latest drivers, Linux kernels, and other important applications. This latest iteration is not all the important, but it should make some users happy, especially the ones who were waiting for the latest KDE version.

“KDE 4.13.2 just came out. We added some more Gnome3 package updates and the latest mesa 10.2.1 with a better working mhwd. Also KF5 got updated to 4.100 version. You still need to add kde-unstable from Archlinux to get a fully working KDE5 desktop going.”

“Beside regular kernel updates you get also the latest upstream packages. We still struggle with systemd v214, that’s why we hold some packages back to be merged with stable/testing until we are certain that it won’t break your systems,” said the devs on their blog.

With this update pack, Manjaro becomes one of the few Linux distributions that allow its users to test the new Plasma 5 desktop, although they will have to take into account the fact that it's still under development.

Here are all the kernels that users have access to from Manjaro: 3.4.92 (long-term stable kernel), 3.8.13.23 (LTS maintained by Canonical), 3.10.43, (default in Manjaro), 3.11.10.11 (LTS maintained by Canonical), 3.12.22 (default in Manjaro 0.8.10), 3.13.11.3, and 3.14.7.

If you already have the operating system installed and you perform regular updates, you won’t have to do anything special in order to get this pack. You also need to be aware that upgrading the Linux kernel can cause some problems. The procedure is usually painless, mostly because the system is based on Arch Linux, but that doesn't mean that the transition is safe.

Manjaro 0.8.10 has just started its life, so it's very likely that many other updates are on their way. More details about this release can be found in the official announcement.

You can download Manjaro 0.8.10 right now from Softpedia, but you can also upgrade your system with the regular updater tool.