The distribution is powered by Linux kernel 3.16

Apr 21, 2015 05:23 GMT  ·  By

Paweł Pijanowski had the pleasure of announcing the immediate availability for download of the first ever KDE spin of his SparkyLinux operating system based on the Testing branch of the well-known Debian GNU/Linux distribution.

SparkyLinux KDE 4.0 Release Candidate is now ready for testing and features a graphics environment based on Qt Stack, Linux kernel 3.16.0, a great selection of default applications, out-of-the-box support for multimedia codecs, an ultra-flat iconset, and the Qtcurve theme.

"Sparky KDE is targeted to users of newer machines. The minimum of RAM memory is 1 GB (2 GB recommended). CPU 1 x 2GHz or faster. [...] If you think that there is something can be fixed, installed or removed from the KDE spin’s iso image, simply let us know that," was stated in the announcement.

As expected, the KDE flavor of SparkyLinux includes various open-source applications designed for the KDE desktop environment, including KMail, KTorrent, Choqok, KOrganizer, Konversation, Akregator, Kopete, KGet, KDEConnect, Amarok, K3b, KMix, Skanlite, Gwenview, Okular, Kate, Klipper, KSnapshot, KScreensaver, KNotes, and KCalc.

SparkyLinux KDE includes non-KDE open-source applications

Among the non-KDE pre-installed applications in SparkyLinux KDE 4.0 RC, we can mention the Iceweasel web browser, LibreOffice office suite, SMPlayer multimedia player, SMTube YouTube player and downloader, GIMP image editor, VLC Media Player, Gufw firewall, as well as the Print-manager utility for managing print jobs.

SparkyLinux is one of those GNU/Linux distributions that feature multiple editions built around various open-source desktop environments or window managers, including GNOME, LXDE, Xfce, JWM, Enlightenment, MATE, Openbox, LXQt, Trinity, and Razor-Qt.

You can download SparkyLinux KDE 4.0 RC (Release Candidate) edition right now from Softpedia, where you will find Live DVD ISO images for both 64 and 32-bit computer platforms. However, please note that this is a development version that might contain unresolved issues. Thus, it not recommended for production machines.