Mageia 9 RC1 Now Available for Download
The developers of Mageia have announced the availability of the latest RC candidate for the upcoming version of their Linux distribution, which includes plenty of updates, resolved issues, and security fixes.
The first release candidate of Mageia 9 is now available. This first look at the latest release follows the last beta release from May 2023 and has resolved several "stubborn" issues as well as included a number of security fixes and updates.
As far as updated packages are concerned, you'll find kernel 6.4.3, glib 2.36, gcc 12.3.0, rpm 4.18.0, Chromium 114.0.5735.198, Firefox ESR 102.13, LibreOffice 7.5.4.2 and Mesa 23.1.3.
As far as desktops are concerned, Mageia 9 makes available the following: KDE Plasma 5.27.5, GNOME 44.2, Xfce 4.18.4, and LXQt 1.3.0.
You'll find installation media for both 32 and 64-bit architecture. The latest release installation media has been reduced in size and is, in fact, the smallest since Mageia 4.
It's also important to note that the Mageia RPM database no longer uses the old/unmaintained Berkeley DB. In its place, Mageia 9 uses SQLite. If you're upgrading from version 8 of the OS, that database will be automatically converted.
As expected, this is still a testing release and shouldn't be used for production or your daily driver.
You can read the full release notes and download the RC1 candidate from the official Mageia download page.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
EndeavorOS Mercury Neo Available
A new release from the EndeavorOS team ships with Plasma 6.3 and other goodies.
-
Fedora 42 Beta Has Arrived
The Fedora Project has announced the availability of the first beta release for version 42 of the open-source distribution.
-
Dash to Panel Maintainer Quits
Charles Gagnon has stepped away as maintainer of the popular Dash to Panel Gnome extension.
-
CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux
If you're looking for an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is hardened for business use, there's a new version of Rocky Linux that's sure to make you and your company happy.
-
Gnome’s Dash to Panel Extension Gets a Massive Update
If you're a fan of the Gnome Dash to Panel extension, you'll be thrilled to hear that a new version has been released with a dock mode.
-
Blender App Makes it to the Big Screen
The animated film "Flow" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards held on March 2, 2025 and Blender was a part of it.
-
Linux Mint Retools the Cinnamon App Launcher
The developers of Linux Mint are working on an improved Cinnamon App Launcher with a better, more accessible UI.
-
New Linux Tool for Security Issues
Seal Security is launching a new solution to automate fixing Linux vulnerabilities.
-
Ubuntu 25.04 Coming Soon
Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) has been given an April release date with many notable updates.
-
Gnome Developers Consider Dropping RPM Support
In a move that might shock a lot of users, the Gnome development team has proposed the idea of going straight up Flatpak.