14 DAY TRIAL // The Mageia project released over the weekend a new beta version of the upcoming Mageia 7 Linux operating system series, which is expected to launch sometime this year.
Mageia 7 beta 2 comes approximately three months after the first beta release with updated components, which include the latest Linux 4.20 kernel series, the Release Candidate (RC) version of the upcoming Mesa 19.0 graphics stack, RPM 4.14.2 system-wide package manager, as well as the KDE Plasma 5.14.2, GNOME 3.30, and Xfce 4.13.4 desktop environments.
Also included in Mageia 7 beta 2 is the Mozilla Firefox 64.0 and Chromium 70 web browsers, along with the recently released LibreOffice 6.2 office suite. Various programming languages were updated as well in this new development release, which enhances AppStream metadata support for a richer software selection experience in KDE Plasma and GNOME.
Mageia 7 to ship with KDE Plasma 5.15 and GNOME 3.32
Among other changes implemented in the second beta release of the upcoming Mageia 7 Linux operating system series, we can mention better support for laptops with the Nvidia Optimus GPU switching technology, better support for ARM devices, and lots of bug and security fixes. A complete list with all the updated components since beta 1 can be found in the ISO's idx file.
The final release of the Mageia 7 operating system is expected to land sometime this year with the latest KDE Plasma 5.15 and GNOME 3.32 desktop environments, but not before a third beta release, which should be out in the coming weeks. Until then, you can download Mageia 7 beta 2 right now if you want to give a test drive on your personal computer.
Mageia 7 beta 2 is available as live images with pre-installed KDE Plasma, GNOME, and Xfce desktop environments for 64-bit and 32-bit (only Xfce) systems, as well as classical installer images for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. Of course, if you find any bugs, don't hesitate to report them here.