The OpenMandriva community has announced the release of OpenMandriva Lx 6.0, codenamed Rock, a fixed point release (unlike the rolling branch ‘Cooker’) that brings major improvements and new additions for both desktop and server users.

OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 featured image

🚀 What’s New in OpenMandriva Lx 6.0?

✨ KDE Plasma 6 Desktop by Default

The star of the show is the KDE Plasma 6 desktop environment, available with both X11 and Wayland sessions. For VirtualBox users, X11 is recommended due to some known issues with Wayland and the emulated GPU.

🖥️ Community Spins Galore

OpenMandriva continues to embrace choice with updated spins featuring:

  • LXQt 2.2.0
  • GNOME 48.1
  • XFCE
  • COSMIC 1.0 Alpha

🧰 OM-Welcome Tool Enhanced

The OM-Welcome startup and configuration utility for KDE Plasma has seen notable improvements to enhance the first-time setup experience.

🧠 Under the Hood Upgrades

The distribution comes packed with up-to-date software:

  • KDE Applications: 25.04.0 (and 23.08.5)
  • KDE Frameworks: 6.13.0 (and 5.116)
  • Qt: 6.9.0 (and 5.15.15)
  • Kernel: 6.14.2 and 6.15.0-rc2 (built with Clang)
  • LibreOffice: 25.2.3 with Plasma 6 integration
  • Web Browsers: Chromium 135.0 with Google spyware disabled and JPEG-XL enabled, Firefox 137.0.2, Falkon 25.04.0
  • GIMP 3.0.2, VirtualBox 7.1.8

⚙️ Dev Tools & Libraries

  • LLVM/Clang 19.1.7, GCC 14.2.1
  • Systemd 257.5, Mesa 25.0.4
  • Glibc 2.41, Java 24

Also included is Proton support via OpenMandriva’s own proton and proton-experimental repositories — bringing Steam-like game compatibility without non-free components.

🛡️ Privacy and Security

All recent vulnerabilities have been addressed promptly, reinforcing OpenMandriva’s commitment to user privacy and system security.

🔁 Upgrade Notes

Users of OpenMandriva Lx 5.0 are advised to perform a fresh install to take full advantage of the new Plasma 6 desktop experience.

🖧 Introducing the First Official OpenMandriva Server Edition

Unlike many general-purpose Linux distributions, OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 introduces a radically different server edition:

  • No GUI — designed for experienced administrators.
  • Disk image format — optimized for VM deployment via QEMU, OpenStack, cloud providers, or physical hardware.
  • Pre-configured user: omv / password omv
  • Supports cloud-init for cloud automation.

🧰 Minimal and Modular

The server image includes a minimal set of packages, ready for tailored installations. Need a web or database server? Just use dnf install.

🔁 Hardware Support

  • Generic x86_64
  • Aarch64 with UEFI (tested on Ampere eMAG/Altra)
  • Optimized builds for AMD Zen (Ryzen, EPYC, Threadripper)

📚 Further Reading & Support