The second alpha of Mandriva Linux 2012 has been released under a new name: "Moondrake GNU/Linux 2012". In the release announcement, Mandriva Linux Project Leader Per Øyvind Karlsen says that "The name of the distribution used for this release isn't actually the final name chosen, but only one of the likelier candidates under consideration, which we're taking out for a test drive to try it on for now and prepare for a rebranding process." While a possible new name has yet to be chosen for the distribution, last month it was announced that the foundation for the open source project would be called "OpenMandriva".



The name Moondrake GNU/Linux has already worked its way into the installer Code-named "Unnamed loser", the second prerelease version upgrades the KDE desktop to version 4.9.2 – KDE SC 4.9.3 was only just released – and includes an updated ISO creation tool which has been completely rewritten in Python and is said to be "several times faster". The developers have also started work on rewriting the installer and libraries in C++, and the ISOLINUX boot loader has been replaced with GRUB 2.0. Other changes include the addition of a new sound theme and an extended set of packages built for uClibc environment.

According to the current development schedule, the second alpha will be followed by two beta versions and two release candidates ahead of the final release; the developers originally planned a third beta, but say that this will likely be skipped as the new version of the distribution is already behind schedule. At the time of writing, the planned dates for the releases have yet to be updated to reflect the delays.

More details about the second alpha, including a list of known issues, can be found in the mailing list announcement, while a list of proposed features is available on the 2012.0 specs proposal page. Moondrake GNU/Linux 2012 Alpha 2 can be downloaded from one of the project's mirrors. The current stable release of the distribution is Mandriva 2011 from August of last year.

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(crve)