Mageia 5 Alpha 1 is powered by Linux kernel 3.15.2, uses systemd 208-15 as the default init system, updates the Plasma desktop to the current stable release at the time of this writing, KDE 4.13.2, and the GNOME graphical environment to the latest unstable version, 3.13.3.
Among some of the updated applications we can mention Libreoffice 4.2.4.2, Perl 5.20.0, and Qt 4.8.6. However, Mageia 5 will use Btrfs as the default filesystem, Samba 4, Drak Tools improvements, Phonon VLC as the default multimedia framework, support for 3D printers, encryption, Homerun Kicker as default application launcher in KDE, and many other cool features.