Manjaro Linux 26.1 Bian-May RC3 Download Links and Features

Manjaro Linux 176 Published 2026-07-24 07:51 by Philipp Esselbach

News

Manjaro Linux has rolled out RC3 of its upcoming 26.1 release, codenamed "Bian-May," with the GNOME minimal ISO already sitting on SourceForge at 4.1 GB. The team is pushing out release candidates at a blistering pace, having shipped the initial preview in late June and RC2 just days ago, all while hunting for install-media feedback. Bian-May packs GNOME 50, KDE Plasma 6.6, and XFCE 4.20 into the mix, delivering expected upgrades like default VRR, fractional scaling, and a completely rewritten installer partitioning flow.

Manjaro Linux Drops RC3 for 26.1 "Bian-May" Ahead of Stable Launch

The third release candidate for Manjaro 26.1 is live on SourceForge, and if you download the GNOME minimal ISO, you're looking at a 4.1 GB file built on the 6.18 kernel. The rest of the stack is trickling out alongside it.

Developer philm originally flagged Bian-May in a May 5 announcement thread, explicitly calling the build a preview meant for install-media testing before the stable drop. The release cadence has been blistering. RC2 landed July 22. RC1 followed on July 10. The initial pre-release shipped June 26. It's been roughly six weeks since that first preview, and the team clearly isn't planning to slow down before the final build ships.

What You're Actually Getting

The GNOME spin is running version 50, codenamed "Tokyo," and it finally brings parental controls to the desktop. For the first time in GNOME history, you can set bedtime schedules that automatically lock the screen, plus the backend for web filtering is already in place. Hardware-accelerated remote desktop sessions are enabled with Vulkan and VA-API, and VRR plus fractional scaling are now the default. NVIDIA users should notice smoother animations after a fresh round of frame-timing workarounds.

KDE Plasma 6.6 heads up that desktop variant, sitting on Frameworks 6.25 and Gear 26.04. You can now save custom global themes as complete day and night bundles, and Plasma's color blindness correction suite just got a grayscale filter. Spectacle's screenshot tool can pull text out of images for the first time, and the installer finally separates disk partitioning from user account setup.

XFCE 4.20 rounds out the lineup with a few practical touches. Thunar gets recursive search and per-file background highlighting for sorting through messy directories. The panel can be sized in exact pixels now, and there's a toggle to keep it pinned above maximized windows. The control center is also being consolidated into a single window with a bunch of new toggles for header bars and multi-monitor behavior.

Bian-May ships with linux71 as the primary kernel, with linux618 and linux612 available for older or more cautious hardware. The XFCE variant is pulling the most weekly downloads at roughly 476, which probably just reflects how many users still run machines that aren't exactly bleeding edge. GNOME and KDE are tracking around 393 to 394 downloads each.

RC3 ISO Downloads

RC3 is a preview build, so expect a few rough edges before the stable release. Manjaro wants you to test the install media and report back if anything breaks. All of the RC3 ISOs are sitting on SourceForge under projects/manjarolinux/files/26.1.0-rc3/, and you will want to verify every file with the accompanying SHA and PGP signature files before flashing anything to a drive.

GNOME Edition

KDE Edition

XFCE Edition

For the full verification suite, check the 26.1.0-rc3 directory for the .sig, .sha512, .sha256, and .sha1 files, plus the .pkgs manifest. You can also jump straight into the testing conversation on the Manjaro forum thread.

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