Anne Nicolas has announced the first alpha release of Mageia (code name Cantine). The 32-bit or 64-bit DVD should be landing on mirrors very soon. In addition, Nicolas said that package RPMs are also being made available for those that wish to update Mandriva installs.

Nicolas warns this release isn’t production ready, but also adds it’s not "reviewer" ready either. But there’s little doubt the name Mageia will cross the title of many blogs in coming days. Further, she states there will probably be little there to impress even end-users and this release is directed primarily for developers. Their first goal is "to have a rock solid factory and system."

This first release means for the project:

* Mageia repositories are ready, with cleaned up packages and our own policies * The build system up and running well * Packagers are working hard, and about 4800 packages have been updated and uploaded * There is a working ISO to run and installs * They have a basic working operating system