14 DAY TRIAL // A preview version of Manjaro KDE 0.8.11, a Linux distribution based on well-tested snapshots of the Arch Linux repositories and 100% compatible with Arch, is now available for download and testing.
Until now, only the Xfce flavor for the upcoming Manjaro 0.8.11 OS could be tested by users, but the KDE version has been made available as well. The Manjaro KDE flavor is different from most of the other distros out there and the devs have made a real effort so that their distro feels unique.
Most of the KDE-based operating systems don't fiddle with KDE too much and that means they look pretty much the same. On the other hand, Manjaro is very different, but at the same time, any user will notice right from the start that a KDE desktop has been used.
“We present to you our first preview of Manjaro KDE Edition. We updated our kernel to Linux 3.14 LTS and use the latest MESA release with latest free and proprietary drivers. Also you find our latest graphical tools we develop to get Manjaro easier to be managed with a few mouse clicks,” note the devs.
This is a very strange choice because the stable version of Manjaro 0.8.10 has just ditched the 3.4.x branch of the kernel. That particular version has reached end of life and it's no longer maintained. It's very likely that this kernel version integrated in the Manjaro KDE 0.8.11 Preview will be replaced with a newer one before the development cycle is concluded.
“With Manjaro Settings Manager 0.2.3 we offer you an enhanced kernel and graphic driver management experience. We will notify you about newer drivers and kernels, tell you when you run an unsupported kernel or new language packages are available,” reads the official Manjaro blog.
The integrated office suite is now Caligra and the latest drivers (free and proprietary) have been included on the installation media.
Most of the Manjaro flavors are actually developed by the community and not by a central team. In fact, the Manjaro ecosystem is so large that it would be very difficult for just one team to take care of all the versions.
More details about this release can be found in the announcement. You can download Manjaro KDE 0.8.11 Preview right now from official website.
Remember that this is a development version and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.
