ROSA Desktop Fresh R8 is a distribution for enthusiasts in a constantly changing Linux world. It's the last release based on rosa2014.1 platform. R8 is a stable release with 2 years of extended support (security updates will be provided until Fall 2018).
ROSA Desktop Fresh R8 features 4 desktop environments:
KDE 4 - stable desktop environment, recommended for home users.
GNOME 3 - simple and easy to use desktop environment.
Plasma 5 - new version of KDE, recommended only for Linux enthusiasts because it's not as stable as KDE 4 yet.
MATE - fast and lightweight desktop environment for the older hardware.
You can install a lot of additional software from ROSA repositories. In order to do this, launch "Install and Remove Software" program from the System Settings panel (aka "Configure Your System").
In particular, in ROSA repositories you will find:
We recommend to use the versions from our repositories.
If for some reason you are not satisfied by OpenJDK provided with ROSA, you can install Oracle Java from the official site. Due to license restrictions, we cannot put it to our repositories.
In addition to the desktop environments mentioned above, you can install one of these environments on your desktop just by installing corresponding task- package.