04 May 2010, 12:13

Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring Beta 2 arrives

The Mandriva developers have announced the availability of the second beta for Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring (2010.1). According to the developers, compared to the previous Beta 1 release, Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring Beta 2 includes a number of updates and improvements to the included desktop components and third-party software. The second beta will be followed by a release candidate on the 13th of May, after which the final version is scheduled for the 3rd of June, 2010.

The latest development release is based on the 2.6.33.2 Linux kernel and features the latest GNOME 2.30.1 and KDE 4.4.2 desktop releases. The Mandriva tools, including data encryption, parental control and network profiles, have received updates, guest account management has been improved and new functionalities to help users manage a LDAP directory have been added to the Mandriva Directory Server (MDS). Updated packages include Firefox 3.6.3 and version 1.92 of the Transmission BitTorrent client. Other changes include use of the Nouveau driver for NVIDIA graphics hardware and several KDE related updates, such as KTorrent 4.0 Beta 2 and version 2.3.1 Beta 1 of the Amarok music player.

As with all development releases, use in production environments and on mission critical systems is not advised. Users testing the release are encouraged to provide feedback and report any bugs that they encounter. Due to "unresolved issues with KDE, GNOME and maybe other windows managers", the developers also suggest the beta be installed "clean" and not be used to upgrade existing Mandriva installations.

More details about the release, including a list of known issues, can be found in the release notes and in the Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring technical specifications PDF document. Mandriva 2010 Spring Beta 2 is available to download as a DVD image file for 32 or 64-bit systems and is released under the GPL license. The latest stable release is Mandriva Linux 2010.0 from early November of 2009.