ROSA Desktop Fresh LXDE is the end-user edition of ROSA Desktop that uses the Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment. This is not the same as the LXDE edition which was released in June 2012. That one is the enterprise edition, which ships with Debian-style stable Linux kernel and software, and uses the Marathon code name. (See ROSA 2012 LXDE review

.)

This alpha release, like the other end-user releases, uses the Fresh code name, and ships with bleeding-edge software and the latest or close-to-the-latest Linux kernel. Note that the default desktop environment of both the Marathon and Fresh line of ROSA Desktop is KDE. And there is also a GNOME 3 edition. You may view screen shots from a test installation of the pre-release version of that GNOME 3 edition here.

Since this release is the first alpha edition, it is not feature complete, but some important components are already in place, while some others have yet to be implemented. A short list of the main features that are already in place follows:

Kernel 3.8.x (in the beta edition, the kernel will be 3.8.5)

LightDM as default desktop manager

Systemd DM setup (you need now use systemctl enable/disable xyzDM for setup)

NetworkManager in place of ROSA drakx-net network scripts

X-server 1.13.3 with detect improvements

Intel driver 2.21.6

Some initscrips improvements

Features that are yet to be completed are:

GTK3 theme

lxde-control-center is still buggy

Rewriting of drakedm for use with systemd

Lighdm still needs some improvements

List of installed and available software is incomplete

Here are a few screen shots of this alpha release taken from a test installation in a virtual environment. Please note that installation images have not be made available for public download. And I’ve not been told when that will happen.

The default desktop.



The output of uname -r.



The control center.



another view of the control center.



An advanced view of the control center.



The graphical software manager.



The beauty of this edition of ROSA Desktop is it will provide users (when it becomes available for public download) with a beautifully configured lightweight desktop that will run just as smoothly on computers will low resources as it will on the latest hardware. Plus all the bleeding-edge software and kernel you expect to find on any edition of ROSA Desktop Fresh line. Stay tuned!