Earlier today, December 21, the developers of the Debian-based SparkyLinux computer operating system have had the great pleasure of announcing the release and immediate availability for download of SparkyLinux 4.2.
Being based on the latest Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" (Testing) software repositories, with which it is fully compatible, SparkyLinux 4.2 is the second installment in the 4.x series, bringing a huge number of changes, which include software updates and under-the-hood improvements.
Powered by Linux kernel 4.2.6, SparkyLinux 4.2 has been synchronized with the Debian Testing software repositories as of December 15, 2015, and includes the brand new Enlightenment 0.20.0 desktop environment on a separate Live CD edition. Users are being informed that Enlightenment 0.20.1 is already in the distro's repos.
"New iso images of SparkyLinux 4.2 'Tyche' are ready to go. Sparky 4 is based on and fully compatible with Debian testing 'Stretch.' This is the second update of Live/Install iso images of SparkyLinux 4.x, which provides a some changes and improvements," say the SparkyLinux developers.
What's new SparkyLinux 4.2
Prominent features of SparkyLinux 4.2 include the KDE Plasma 5.4.3, LXQt 0.10.0, Xfce 4.12.2, Openbox 3.6.1, LXDE 0.99.0, and MATE 1.10.2 desktop environments. Also worth paying attention to are LibreOffice 5.0.4 RC1 office suite, Iceweasel 38.2.1 ESR web browser, Icedove 38.4 email and news client, as well as Wine 1.8 RC3 free implementation of Windows on Unix.
Among other new features implemented in SparkyLinux 4.2, we can mention the replacement of the KWin window manager with the Openbox one, automatic login via the SDDM display manager for the KDE edition, the replacement of the MintStick tool with Sparky USB Live Creator, and the removal of the Boot-Repair utility.
Additionally, the Xfce edition now includes the MenuLibre package, there's a new tool called obmenu-generator for generating dynamic or static menus for the Openbox edition, the Sparky First Run app has been added for new users, and the old SparkyLinux wallpapers have been removed from the ISOs.
For the KDE edition, the developers have managed to make the default wallpaper load correctly on startup, the pulseaudio-plugin package replaces the xfce4-mixer plugin one on the Xfce edition, SparkyLinux localization tools have been added, various obsolete packages have been removed, and the Tor Messenger IM client has been added.
Download SparkyLinux 4.2 KDE, SparkyLinux 4.2 Xfce, SparkyLinux 4.2 LXQt, SparkyLinux 4.2 Enlightenment E20, SparkyLinux 4.2 MATE, SparkyLinux 4.2 LXDE, and SparkyLinux 4.2 Openbox right now from Softpedia. More details about this release can be found in the official announcement.
