The Mageia development team has outlined its initial plans for Mageia Linux 10, including a tentative release schedule and a review of the status of key software components as the distribution prepares to enter its next development phase.
According to devs, the first alpha release is expected as soon as possible, followed by an initial beta in the first half of January 2026 and a second beta roughly a month later.
A release candidate is planned two weeks after the second beta, with the final stable release currently targeted for April 2026. The goal is to avoid shipping outdated components while maintaining Mageia’s quality standards.
What’s its raison d’être?
To continue Mandriva development (same as OpenMandriva does).
Mandriva started as Mandrake Linux in the 90s. It was a Red Hat Linux alternative built for polish and performance. It was compiled for Pentium when Red Hat was still built for 386. Back in the day, it was popular and well respected.
Mandrake Linux was corporately backed in France and that company merged with Connectiva out of Brazil to create the Mandriva distro.
When Mandriva failed as a company, many of the devs continued the distro as Mageia.
Some of the original Mandriva devs later started the OpenMandriva project to make the naming even more confusing. But Mageia actually came first.
So it is mostly a distro that exists for historical reasons and as an established community. As for where it shines now, I am not sure.
Cool. Thanks!