OpenMandriva Lx

Officially released back in summer of ‘98, the Mandrake Linux operating system promised a unique desktop experience for all fans of the famous KDE (K Desktop Environment) project. It promised a RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) Linux distribution that provided an eye-candy desktop environment, which was supposed to make its users extremely happyful.

Mandrake, Mandriva, Conectiva

A few years later, the distribution has been merged with Conectiva Linux, a Brazilian operating system, and renamed to Mandriva Linux, as it was developed and distributed by a French company named Mandriva.

Unfortunately, in summer 2011, Mandriva Linux was discontinued and most of its developers started a new project, called Mageia. In the mean time, the Mandriva spirit was not dead, and various members of its “still active” community joined their forces and created a new distribution, called OpenMandriva Lx.

Uses the KDE Plasma desktop environment

OpenMandriva Lx provides an open source, completely free, easy-to-use, powerful, out-of-the-box and modern Linux operating system that combines modern technologies with an attractive desktop environment, based on the latest version of the well known KDE Plasma Workspaces and Applications project.

Comes pre-loaded with top-notch apps

Because it’s a 100% community-driven Linux operating system, OpenMandriva Lx comprises only open source software and technologies, bringing some of the best tools that both regular and advanced Linux users require for their daily tasks.

For example, Dolphin is the default file manager, the default web browser is Mozilla Firefox, Amarok takes care of all your music collection, LibreOffice can be used for all your office needs, KMail is the default email client, VLC Media Player is used for movies, your photo collection can be viewed with Gwenview, and Kopete is the main app for those late night conversations with your friends and family.

The best operating system for workstations and office PCs

Being available in several languages, the OpenMandriva Lx distribution is one of the best operating system for workstations and office computers. Even if it doesn’t provide support for cloud computing, it comes with several useful utilities that will make your life much easier.

Distributed as 32-bit/64-bit Live DVDs

The latest NVIDIA, AMD and Intel graphics cards are well supported under the OpenMandriva Lx operating systems. OpenMandriva Lx is distributed as Live DVD ISO images, supporting both 64-bit and 32-bit architectures, that can be used without any installation, directly from a USB flash drive or a DVD disc.

When testing OpenMandriva Lx directly from a live media, please keep in mind that nothing will be saved when you will end your session and reboot the computer. To install OpenMandriva Lx on your PC or laptop, use the designated installer.

What is new in this release:

• This 3.01.1 ISO fixes the calamares bug not yet corrected at time of 3.01 release.

What is new in version 3.02:

• This 3.01.1 ISO fixes the calamares bug not yet corrected at time of 3.01 release.

What is new in version Lx 3.01.1:

• This 3.01.1 ISO fixes the calamares bug not yet corrected at time of 3.01 release.

What is new in version Lx 3.01:

• KDE Plasma 5.8.4
• KDE Frameworks 5.29.0
• KDE Apps 16.08.3
• Qt Framework 5.6.2
• Kernel 4.9.0 with BFQ as a default CPU scheduler
• Systemd 232
• Xorg 1.19.0
• Mesa 13.0.2
• Wayland 1.12.0
• LLVM/clang 3.9.1
• F2FS support - A filesystem for SSD

What is new in version Lx 3:

• KDE Plasma 5.6.5
• KDE Frameworks 5.24.0
• KDE Apps 16.04.3
• Kernel 4.6.5
• Systemd 231
• Xorg 1.18.3
• Mesa 12.0.1
• F2FS support - A filesystem for SSD

What is new in version 2014.2 / Lx3 Beta 2:

• Kernel 4.6.2
• Systemd 230
• Xorg 1.18.3
• Mesa 12.0-rc4
• F2FS support - A filesystem for SSD

What is new in version 2014.2 / Lx3 Beta 1:

• The use of the Clang/llvm compiler to generate the majority of the code combined with Link Time Optimisation (LTO) has created and operating system that is fast stable and efficient.
• The release features the latest KDE Plasma 5.6 based desktop along with full KF5 framework of apps which are supported by version 1.18.2 of the Xorg server and Mesa 11.2.
• KDE Plasma 5 now runs under the Wayland graphical server which offers smooth and fast graphical rendering. This configuration is experimental.
• The lightweight LXQt desktop is available when fewer resources are available. For those who wish to use a gtk based desktop xfce4 may also be installed.

What is new in version 2014.2 / 3 Alpha:

• With this release you can boot the installer or live system from memory stick or DVD on any EFI or BIOS based machine. If you have one where it doesn't work tell us we really want to know. The installer now offers full EFI support you can even choose which ESP partition you install to. What's more it offers the option to create a BIOS boot partition which means you can install OpenMandriva in BIOS mode on a GPT partitioned disk and you can do this independently of any EFI installs. The release notes give help on how to do this.
• Desktop The OMA-welcome application has been updated to reflect the new versions of software. This application introduces users to OpenMandriva Lx and shows them some of the features available, as well as providing quick links to common tasks such as updating, installing new software, and configuring your desktop.
• Multimedia Stack. The entire multimedia stack has been updated and rebuilt to the latest available versions Some of the more popular MM applications have been updated in the contrib repository.
• Xorg Xorg is version 1.15.2, and Mesa - 10.4.7 these releases have proved to be very stable. A Compose cache is now incorporated which speeds up application startup times and reduces memory usage especially in locales with large Compose tables (e.g. all UTF-8 locales). We recommend that the composite manager in KDE be changed from XRender to OpenGL mode . This gives transparency the proper blur effect. This also allows our theme and it's decorations to be shown at their best.
• KDE 4.14.3 This is the main window manager. If you don't know what KDE is, learn more at their website. We've switched our default menu launcher to Homerun kicker this comes in two forms; a traditional menu based version or a full screen selector. To learn more about Homerun, check out its features page and the release notes. The network management, media centre, and mobile device support have also been updated.
• LibreOffice 4.4.3 The latest LibreOffice featuring much faster load times and many bug fixes. Firefox 38 The latest Firefox with it's new graphical interface and all the latest features. You may wish to suspend desktop effects when Firefox is in full screen mode, as it speeds up scrolling.
• Java 7-8 The OpenMandriva Java stack has been entirely rebuilt to version 7 and is completely functional. We currently provide Eclipse Kepler by default. Eclipse was broken on 2014.1 and is now fixed.
• Printing Improved printing support, with an emphasis on the latest HP printers.

What is new in version 2014.1 / 3 Alpha:

• 3: We've moved to a sequential number scheme instead of our year scheme. Our packages will still show 2015.0, however.
• Initial UEFI Support: For newer computers, this provides a better boot process for your computer. As this support is new, and tampers with your boot process, we strongly advise you to check the release notes before proceeding.
• Calamares: A new installer to better help you install OpenMandriva Lx.
• The LXQt desktop environment: A lightweight desktop environment that helps you be productive, with low hardware requirements for those low-end computers.
• sddm: A better, more visually appealing login screen to welcome you into using OpenMandriva Lx.
• Common desktop software, like LibreOffice, Calligra, Krita, Firefox, and Chromium.
• Lots of other components have been updated - including postfix 3.0 if you're interested in the server side.
• smplayer: A new default multimedia player with mpv as its backend - providing support for numerous extra codecs.
• VLC: A new version supporting the new Qt5 frontend.
• wine has been updated and now includes the wine-staging patchset - among other things, this adds a native Direct3D 9 implementation that makes some Windows games run a lot faster.
• Gamers will be happy to find updated versions of wesnoth, 0ad, warzone2100 and many other popular games. The Steam client is also available to install with our software manager.
• Printing and scanning support has been updated with cups 2.0.2 and updated foomatic drivers and database
• LLVM/clang is now the default compiler. We've rebuilt all our software to use clang, and we provide workarounds for software that still require gcc.
• Kernel has been updated to 3.18.11 of our own special nrjQL flavour.
• Python 3 is now the default Python interpreter. If you need Python 2, you need to explicitly use python2 instead of python.
• bsdtar and bsdcpio are now the default tar and cpio. You may need to adjust your tar or cpio commands (or use gtar/gcpio).
• Perl has been updated to 5.20.1.
• systemd has been updated to 219, which brings many new features like:
• systemd-networkd, which detects and activates network devices to get a basic internet connection out of the box
• systemd-timedated and systemd-timesyncd, which automatically sets the current date and time of your system, and fully replaces ntpd and chrony
• systemd-resolved, which manages network name resolution, and fully replaces resolvconf
• Sound subsystem now uses ALSA 1.0.29 and PulseAudio 6.0
• Graphics subsystem now uses Xorg server 1.17.1 and Mesa3D 10.5.3

What is new in version 2014.1 / 2015.0 Alpha:

• kernel 3.15.10 with new nrjQL patchset
• KDE 4.13.3
• Firefox 32.0.3
• x11-server-1.15.2
• mesa 10.2.6
• an updated bash with the latest security fixes
• many updates for drivers and other software

What is new in version 2014.0:

• Kernel:
• The kernel has been upgraded to 3.13.11 nrjQL - a powerful variant of the 3.13.11 kernel that has been configured with desktop system performance and responsiveness in mind.
• To achieve this the CPU and RCU have been configured with full preemption and boost mode, and the CK1 and BFQ patchsets have been added to provide further optimisations including better CPU load and disk I/O schedulers, an improved memory manager using UKSM, and TuxOnIce providing suspension and hibernation services.
• SQUASHFS_MULTI_DECOMPRESSOR within the kernel supports the use of all available CPU's for faster booting of Live Images.
• Some very recent USB patches that partially correct a misinterpretation of the USB standard will improve device compatibility and also ensure that devices re-awake properly after suspend or hibernate.
• NFS has also received some attention with patches that will give faster start up of the NFS services.
• This is first kernel version where we have enabled two new kernel keys to test the "EDID ovverride" feature, with this we should be able to override an incorrect screen EDID with boot time options, we have included EDIDBINS in the ISOs, a package containing 5 basic firmwares for the most common resolutions so that users may force different resolutions than the ones detected automatically by X.
• The CONFIG_ACPI_CUSTOM_DSDT key allows loading of a customised acpi table. Details will be found on our Wiki in the kernel pages.
• Desktop:
• We've introduced oma-welcome, or Welcome to OpenMandriva Lx. This application introduces users to OpenMandriva Lx and shows them some of the features we have, as well as providing quick links to common tasks such as updating, installing new software, and configuring their desktop.
• Xorg:
• We've upgraded Xorg to version 1.15.1, and Mesa to 10.1.1, which brings the latest free drivers for the best performance. A Compose cache is now incorporated which speeds up application startup time and reduces memory usage especially in locales with large Compose tables (e.g. all UTF-8 locales).
• We recommend that users change the composite manager in KDE from XRender to OpenGL mode. This gives transparency the proper blur effect. This also allows our theme and it's decorations to be shown at their best.
• KDE 4.12.4:
• We've upgraded to the latest and greatest version of the KDE desktop. If you don't know what KDE is, learn more at their website.
• We've switched our default menu launcher to Homerun. To learn more about Homerun, check out its features page.
• The network management, media centre, and mobile device support has also been updated.
• LibreOffice 4.2.3:
• The latest LibreOffice featuring much faster load times and many bug fixes.
• Firefox 29:
• The latest firefox with it's new graphical interface and all the latest features.
• You may wish to suspend desktop effects when Firefox is in full screen mode, as it speeds up scrolling.
• Java 7:
• The OpenMandriva Java stack has been entirely rebuilt to version 7 and is completely functional.
• We currently provide Eclipse Kepler by default.
• Printing:
• Improved support for printing, with an emphasis on HP printers.

What is new in version 2014.0 RC1:

• Installer:
• Functional UEFI support
• Easy and intuitive install process
• Kernel:
• The kernel has been upgraded to 3.13.10 nrjQL - a powerful variant of the 3.13.10 kernel that has been configured with desktop system performance and responsiveness in mind. To achieve this the CPU and RCU have been configured with full preemption and boost mode, and the CK1 and BFQ patchsets have been added to provide further optimisations (including better CPU load and disk I/O schedulers, an improved memory manager using UKSM, and TuxOnIce providing suspension and hibernation services. SQUASHFS_MULTI_DECOMPRESSOR within the kernel supports the use of all available CPU's for faster booting of Live Images
• This is first kernel version we enabled two new kernel keys to test the "EDID ovverride" feature,with this we should be able to override the wrong EDID of screens with options at kernel boot,we have included EDIDBINS into the ISOs, so there are 5 firmwares for the most common resolutions the users may force different resolutions than the ones detected automatically by X
• Boot process:
• dracut 037 with special setup for rapid booting
• systemd 208 version with latest patches from systemd-stable upstream git branch
• initscripts 9.52 with support for NetworkManager
• Xorg:
• Updated x11-server to 1.15.1 version and Mesa to 10.1.0. bringing updated free drivers for best performance
• Compose cache greatly speeds up application startup time and reduced memory usage especially in locales with large Compose tables (e.g. all UTF-8 locales)
• Networking:
• enabled firewalld support as a next-step in managing iptables.
• support for realmd for easy and out-of-box user authentication in network environment
• Artwork:
• New Theme for desktop, Grub2, Plymouth, KSplash and the KDE environment. A new screensaver and user avatars.
• Java:
• The java stack has been fully rebuilt, and the work backported to 2014.0.
• Spotlight is a fully functional eclipse 4.3.1.
• KDE 4.12.4
• New menu laucher - Homerun
• Featuring Plasma-nm applet for easy management of network connections
• Featuring Plasma-mediacenter: A new easy interface for playing your favourite media.
• Featuring lastest kio-mtp for MTP support
• Printing:
• HPlip software updated to 3.14.3 version
• CUPS software updated to 1.7.2 version
• Server:
• A switch from MySQL to the fully compatible Open Source MariaDB 10.0

What is new in version 2014.0 Beta:

• Assorted bug fixes [bero]
• mariadb updated to 10.0.9 [bero]
• lots of effort has gone into getting LibreOffice 4.2.3 to work properly, but this will likely be in the rc release only [bero]
• php packaging cleaned up so the different versions (cgi/fcgi/apache module) are always in sync; updated to 5.5.10 [bero]
• assorted updates (qupzilla 1.6.1, wine 1.7.14, ...) [bero]
• sagemath updated to 6.1.1 [pcpa]
• icedtea-web java plugin made functional on firefox [pcpa]
• 0ad game updated to 0.0.15 [pcpa]
• megaglest game updated to 3.9.1 [pcpa]
• initscripts updated to 9.52 [tpg]
• systemd-208 updated to latest stable patchset from upstream systemd-stable branch [tpg]
• KDE updated to 4.12.3 [tpg]
• dracut updated to 036 [tpg]
• kernel from 3.12.13 to 3.13.6 [nicco]