After a year of development OpenMandriva developers announced the release of the new version of OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 that comes with some very interesting news, of which we can highlight the creation of port for devices with ARM processors, as well as the update of packages and other things.
For those who are unfamiliar with OpenMandriva Lx, they should know that this is a Linux distribution created and oriented for all types of users, this distribution is distributed and developed by the association called OpenMandriva, which is a non-profit association.
This Linux distribution It is based on Mandriva Linux which was a French distribution, not so popular among Linux users, but one that some users came to recommend at the time.
For those people who do not know the name Mandriva Linux I can comment on the following about this Linux distribution that ended its development several years ago.
Mandriva Linux was a Linux distribution published by the French company Mandriva intended for both beginners and experienced users, oriented to personal computers and servers with a focus on users who are introducing themselves to the world of Linux and free software.
Main new features of OpenMandriva Lx 4.2
In the new version it is highlighted that a port for 64-bit ARM processors has been prepared (aarch64) and mounts have been started for Pinebook Pro, Raspberry Pi 4B / 3B +, Rock Pi 4A, 4B and 4C, Synquacer, Cubox Pulse, as well as a general mounting for server boards that support UEFI.
Also, based on the above work is underway to create a variant of OpenMandriva for smartphones, since the developers have generated the corresponding experimental assembly for the PinePhone device and work began on a port for the RISC-V architecture, which was not included in version 4.2.
As for the part of the updates, in this new version of OpenMandriva Lx 4.2 the update of the desktop environment stands out KDE Plasma 5.20.5, KDE Frameworks 5.78.0 and KDE Applications 20.12.2, while the chart stack components have been updated to Wayland 1.20.10, Mesa 20.3, Xorg Server 1.20.10 and Qt 5.15.2.
The OM Welcome application has been improved, designed for initial configuration and familiarization of the user with the system, in which it was possible to quickly install standard additional programs that are not included in the basic delivery.
They were updated system components, including Linux kernel 5.10.14, systemd 247, GCC 10.2, GLibc 2.33, Java 15 and the installer was updated to version Calamares 3.2.35.
It is also noted that the Desktop Presets configurator (om-feeling-like) has been updated, which offers a set of presets that allow you to give the KDE Plasma desktop the appearance of other environments (for example, make it look like the interface of Ubuntu, Windows 7, Windows 10, macOS, etc.).
Moreover, the Linux kernel includes support for compression using the Zstandard algorithm, which has been used to speed up loading. As in the previous version, in addition to the standard Linux kernel compiled with GCC (package "kernel-release-desktop"), a version of the kernel compiled with Clang (kernel-release-desktop-clang) is provided.
The Clang compiler used to build packages has been updated to the LLVM 11 branch. To build all the components of the distribution, you can only do it with Clang.
Of the other components of the system, of the most noteworthy are the updated versions of the following applications included LibreOffice 7.1.0, Falcon 3.1, Firefox 85, Chromium 88 (beta 89, dev 90), Krita 4.4.2, GIMP 2.10.22, Calligra Suite 3.2.1, Digikam 7.2, SMPlayer 21.1. 0, VLC 3.0.12, Virtualbox 6.1.16 and OBS Studio 26.1.2.
Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it About this new release of OpenMandriva Lx 4.2, you can check the details In the following link.
Get OpenMandriva Lx 4.2
For those interested in being able to download this new version can get ready-made system images for different devices, from the official website of the distribution.
In it you will find the 2.4 GB Live image (x86_64), «znver1», optimized for AMD Ryzen, ThreadRipper and EPYC processors, as well as images for use in ARM Pinebook Pro devices, Rock Pi 4 (A / B / C), Raspberry Pi 400, Raspberry Pi 4B, and Raspberry Pi 3B +.