ROSA Desktop is a Linux distribution derived from Mandriva Desktop and developed by ROSA, a technology outfit based in Moscow, The Russian Federation. ROSA Desktop 2012 beta is the first pre-release edition of what will become ROSA Desktop 2012. It is supposed to be a Long Term Support (LTS) edition, with a 5-year support period.

Given that the status of Mandriva is still a big question mark, it is good to see activity coming from the folks at ROSA. This article is a short review of this beta release. A detailed review will be published when the final edition becomes available.