14 DAY TRIAL // We reported the other day that the openSUSE Project had plans on publishing the first development milestone of their anticipated openSUSE Leap 42.1 operating system, which promises to change the openSUSE Linux distribution as we know it.
Today, July 24, Douglas DeMaio posted news on the OpenSuSE Project's homepage that the openSUSE Leap 42.1 Milestone 1 is now available for download and testing, based on the source code of the acclaimed SUSE Linux Enterprise operating system.
Powered by the long-term supported Linux 4.1 kernel series, the first development milestone of openSUSE Leap 42.1 delivers exciting new technologies that fill the gap between SUSE Linux Enterprise and the rolling-release version of openSUSE, Tumbleweed.
“This is where the excitement for Leap begins,” said Richard Brown, chairman of the openSUSE board. “The opportunity for topping this SLE core with the things you want in a long-term release really makes this attractive and I see people wanting to get involved with this next chapter of openSUSE.”
A top-quality distro for Linux users, developers, and system administrators
Probably the most exciting thing about openSUSE Leap 42.1 Milestone 1 is the fact that it's powered by a highly optimized kernel from the Linux 4.1 LTS series, bringing power enhancements to x86 and ARM hardware, as well as encryption support to the EXT4 file system.
The final release of the openSUSE Leap 42.1 operating system will be unveiled sometime in November 2015, during the SUSECon event that will take place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Europe. It will bring the latest versions of the KDE Plasma 5 and GNOME 3.16 desktop environments, and many other recent pieces of software.
Until then, the openSUSE developers promise to add more general improvements and updated drivers in the second development milestone of openSUSE Leap 42.1, which should see the light of day in the coming weeks. Download openSUSE Leap 42.1 Milestone 1 right now from Softpedia, where it's distributed only as an installable DVD.