Mandriva announced last night the immediate availability of Mandriva Linux 2009.1 RC2. Once again, we thought it would be nice to offer a visual tour of this second release candidate of the upcoming Mandriva 2009 Spring.

We loaded and ran the 2009 (10th Anniversary) edition of Mandriva Linux One, which we reviewed earlier this week.

The RC2 release of Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring (code name Estephe) is now available. This RC2 version provides some updates on major desktop components of the distribution, including KDE 4.2.2, GNOME 2.26,X.org server 1.6, kernel 2.6.29.

The Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring range is now available in the office format which corresponds to your choice, KDE, GNOME or LXDE and all this in more than 70 languages. You will find following version: Free edition (100% open source software) in 2 DVDs for 32 and 64 architecture, One edition (installable live CD, available in KDE and GNOME versions). All Mandriva Linux isos are hybrid one.

I installed Mandriva 2009 with the new KDE 4.1 desktop by default and was impressed with the over all feel. Compared to older versions of Mandriva, Mandriva 2009 seemed quicker and snappier and gave me a clean feel while browsing. I enjoyed the theme, background and panel tones much more in this latest release of Mandriva.

Mandriva has today released Mandriva Linux 2009 RC2, the last pre-release before the final release. 2009 is a significant release, featuring KDE 4.1.1 as the default desktop, GNOME 2.24, Firefox 3, OpenOffice.org 3, kernel 2.6.27 and many more significant updates. It also comes with a redesigned installer and Mandriva Control Center.

Mandriva has gained huge reputation for delivering easy to use Linux distro with support for many multimedia and proprietary format. Earlier when Mandriva was known as Mandrake, it was the most popular GNU/Linux but some unavoidable circumstances turns the table towards Mandriva and after that Mandriva didn't stood up like it used to..

The second alpha for Mandriva Linux 2009 is now available. There is information about the new release in various places:
* Mandriva Linux 2009 release notes: these will be updated to reflect the status of the current pre-release.
* Mandriva Linux 2009 Errata: these will be updated to reflect the status of the current pre-release.

Thanks to the Mandriva Xfce volunteer development team, a community Xfce One edition of Mandriva Linux 2009 is now available for download from all official Mandriva mirrors. A list of download locations can be found on the Wiki page. This release gives you all the benefits of Mandriva Linux 2009 along with a fast and stable Xfce desktop.