Mageia
| Company type | Community-driven project |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Predecessor | Mandriva Linux |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Products | Linux distribution |
| Website | www |
Mageia is a Linux-based operating system distributed as free and open-source software. It originated as a fork from the Mandriva Linux distribution. The name derives from the Greek word (), which translates to magic or sorcery.[1]
The inaugural version, Mageia 1, was released in June 2011.[2][3]
History
Established in 2010, Mageia emerged as a fork of Mandriva Linux, initiated by former Mandriva S.A. staff alongside community contributors. On September 2, 2010, Edge IT, a subsidiary of Mandriva, entered liquidation proceedings, resulting in asset sales and workforce reductions by September 17.
The day after, the ex-Mandriva developers responsible for Linux development and community members publicly announced the launch of Mageia, gaining support from developers, users, and former Mandriva personnel.
Desktop environments
Mageia accommodates all prominent desktop environments, with KDE Plasma serving as the default interface, reflecting its Mandriva roots. Users can choose between Plasma and GNOME live DVDs for 64-bit systems, 32- and 64-bit Xfce live DVDs, or install any desktop environment through the comprehensive DVD installer.
The system includes the Mageia Control Center for system configuration and supports additional desktop options such as LXDE, LXQt, Cinnamon, MATE, and Enlightenment.
Application repository
Mageia offers a broad software repository encompassing productivity applications and games. Significantly, it was the first Linux distribution to substitute Oracle's MySQL with MariaDB, improving its database management capabilities.
Development
Originally, Mageia aimed for a nine-month release cadence with each version maintained for 18 months. However, releases are now issued once the development team considers them stable and of high quality.
The most recent stable version is Mageia 9, which was released on 27 August 2023.
Version history
| Version | Release date | End-of-life date | Kernel version |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2011-06-01 | 2012-12-01 | 2.6.38.7 |
| 2 | 2012-05-22 | 2013-11-22 | 3.3.6 |
| 3 | 2013-05-19 | 2014-11-26 | 3.8.13 |
| 4 | 2014-02-01 | 2015-09-19 | 3.12.13 |
| 4.1 | 2014-06-20 | 3.12.21 | |
| 5 | 2015-06-19 | 2017-12-31 | 3.19.8 |
| 5.1 | 2016-12-02 | 4.4.30 | |
| 6 | 2017-07-16 | 2019-09-30 | 4.9.35 |
| 6.1 | 2018-10-05 | 4.14.70 | |
| 7.0 | 2019-07-01 | 2021-06-30 | 5.1.14 |
| 7.1 | 2019-07-16 | ||
| 8 | 2021-02-26 | 2023-11-30 | 5.10.16 |
| 9 | 2023-08-27 | "3 months after its successor's release date" | 6.4 |
See also
- OpenMandriva Lx—a Linux variant that originated from Mandriva Linux
- PCLinuxOS—an autonomous Linux distribution initially developed from Mandriva Linux
- Unity Linux—a Mandriva-based distro designed to serve as a base for user-focused distributions