Alpine Linux is a popular choice among users who prefer a lightweight Linux distro experience. Interesting bit: What started off as a fork of the LEAF Project now focuses on two key things: Security, and Reliability.
Over the years, Alpine Linux has been receiving regular updates with varying degrees of fixes and improvements. One such update is the recently introduced Alpine Linux 3.2.0 release, which has some important changes to offer.
Let's take a brief look at it.
🆕 Alpine Linux 3.2.0: What's New?
Powered by Linux kernel 6.6, Alpine Linux 3.2.0 is a stable release with the following key highlights:
- Initial RISC-V Support
- Desktop Environment Upgrades
- Refined Packages
Initial RISC-V Support
For the first time with this release, we now have initial support for the RISC-V platform on Alpine Linux.
Details on this are scarce, but the developers have mentioned in the release blog that there is now support for 64-bit RISC-V implementations.
It's great to see another popular Linux distro adding support for this! 😀
Desktop Environment Upgrades
On the desktop environment side of things, Alpine Linux comes equipped with the recent GNOME 46 release. You can take advantage of things like better notifications, fractional scaling support, a reorganized settings app, updated core apps, and more.
Sourav Rudra
If you are not interested in that, then there's the inclusion of KDE Plasma 6, which brings about improvements like HDR support, an improved Discover app, a new wallpaper, Wayland by default, etc.
Sourav Rudra
Refined Packages
And, to wrap this up, we have many up-to-date packages. Some notable ones include:
- Go 1.22
- Rust 1.78
- LLVM 18
- .NET 8.0
- Crystal 1.12
- Python 3.12
- Node.js 20.10 (LTS)
For more details on Alpine Linux 3.2.0, you can refer to the release blog.
📥Get Alpine Linux 3.2.0
The latest Alpine Linux release is available on the official website, and for existing users, head to the wiki for official upgrade instructions.
💬 Did this release got you interested? Will you be getting it?
Here's why you should opt for It's FOSS Plus Membership
- Even the biggest players in the Linux world don't care about desktop Linux users. We do.
- We don't put content behind paywall. Your support keeps it open for everyone. Think of it like 'pay it forward'.
- Don't like ads? With the Plus membership, you get an ad-free reading experience.
- When millions of AI-generated content is being published daily, you read and learn from real human Linux users.
- It costs just $2 a month, less than the cost of your favorite burger.
