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 Latest News and Updates |
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| 2026-05-01 |
NEW • Development Release: Linux Lite 8.0 RC1 |
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(8.0)
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Jerry Bezencon has announced the availability of the initial release candidate for the upcoming Linux Lite 8.0, a major update of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution featuring the Xfce desktop. The release delivers a new high-performance Linux kernel, the Calamares system installer, and a custom distribution builder: "Linux Lite 8.0 RC1 is now available for testing. Platform changes: based on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (up from 24.04 LTS); new - Linux Lite High Performance Custom Kernels; all GUI applications ported to GTK4; APT sources migrated to DEB822 .sources format (replaces .list files); installer - Calamares replaces Ubiquity; Python 3.14.4+ (up from 3.12); new Plymouth boot theme - animated feather spinner (script-based, replaces text-based); OEM installer for hardware vendors. New applications: Firefox is back; Lite Distro Builder - create your own version of Linux Lite and share it with others; Lite About - new GTK4 system information app displaying CPU, GPU, memory, storage, network and audio hardware details; Lite System Monitor - real-time CPU, memory, storage and network monitoring (based on System Monitoring Center); Linux Lite High Performance Custom Kernels; Lite Core - strip Linux Lite down to its bones and build it your way; Starship replaces Powerline in the Terminal, significant start up difference." Read the rest of the release announcement for a complete list of changes. Download: linux-lite-8.0-rc1-64bit.iso (2,534MB, SHA256, torrent, pkglist). |
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| 2026-04-30 |
NEW • OS Release: Sculpt OS 26-04 |
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(9.0)
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Genode has announced the release of Sculpt OS 26-04, the latest version of the project's independently-developed open-source operating system for PC hardware, the PinePhone, and the MNT Reform laptop: "Sculpt OS 26.04 gives the user unprecedented transparency and interactive control over all components underpinning the operating system. Version 26.04 of the Genode-based general-purpose OS lays all building blocks of the operating system into the hands of the user, including all formerly hard-wired components. It invites the user to explore, customize, and restructure the system architecture on the fly. Right after booting the new version, one is presented with all the running components ready to be (literally) touched, controlled, and extended. Below the surface of the administrative user interface, a major paradigm shift awaits the user when risking a look under the hood. The system no longer processes configuration data as mere input to its internal data model but it exposes the data model directly to the user. Thereby Sculpt OS not only lays the entire construction plan of the system into your hands for inspection but the construction plan is live." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details. Sculpt OS 26-04 is available for download as IMG and OVA image files; here are the download links: sculpt-26-04.img (35.8MB, signature), sculpt-26-04.ova (33.4MB, signature). |
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| 2026-04-30 |
NEW • Distribution Release: Grml 2026.04 |
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(9.5)
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The Grml project, which develops a Debian-based distribution, has published a new snapshot, Grml 2026.04. The new version provides a base which is up to date with Debian's "Testing" branch and offers builds for x86_64 and arm64 machines. The blog post reports: "We are proud to announce our new stable release version 2026.04, code-named 'CashFloh'. Grml is a bootable live system based on Debian. Grml 2026.04 brings you fresh software packages from Debian testing/forky, switches from ISOLINUX to GRUB2 for BIOS boot, enhanced hardware support and addresses known bugs from previous releases. Like in the previous release 2025.12, Live ISO image are available for 64-bit x86 (amd64) and 64-bit ARM CPUs (arm64). For a detailed overview of the changes from Grml 2025.12 to 2026.04, please check out the official release announcement. Important changes:
this release is based on Debian 'Testing' as of April 2026; BIOS boot uses GRUB2 instead of ISOLINUX; en_DK.UTF-8 is used as new default for LC_TIME." The release notes provide further details and a list of changes since the 2025.12 release of the distribution. Download (pkglist): grml-full-2026.04-amd64.iso (1,049MB, signature), grml-small-2026.04-amd64.iso (610MB, signature). |
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| 2026-04-30 |
NEW • Distribution Release: Commodore OS Vision 3.1 |
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(8.7)
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A new version of the Commodore OS Vision Linux distribution has been released with a focus on greatly reducing the size of the project's ISO image file. "I am pleased to announce the official release of Commodore OS 3.1 today, which is available as an installable ISO, now reduced to a much more manageable size of approximately 10GB. This is a significant reduction from the 37GB Commodore OS 3.0 ISO. To achieve this, some content had to be removed, but we believe we have retained the essential Commodore flavoured experience while adding new features that make this distribution even more distinctive. The Linux games, retro system content, including demos, games, MODs and SIDs, non Commodore emulators, and a number of more specialised applications have been removed from the ISO. Many of these will become available again through the new custom application installer in the coming months. For users who wish to retain their existing Commodore OS 3.0 content, an online update to version 3.1 will be available from the menu System - Commodore OS - Update Commodore OS. The update is approximately 3 GB, and this is the upgrade path I personally recommend over downloading the new ISO image." The release announcement goes on to list new features introduced in version 3.1 of the distribution. Download: CommodoreOS3_1-20260428_0617.iso (9,439MB, MD5, torrent, pkglist). |
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| 2026-04-29 |
NEW • Distribution Release: Nyarch Linux 26.04 |
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(6.7)
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Francesco Caracciolo has announced the release of Nyarch Linux 26.04, the latest update of the project's Arch-based Linux distribution designed for "weebs" (non-Japanese persons interested in anime, manga, cosplay and other aspects of the Japanese culture). This version brings a new edition, with a themed KDE Plasma desktop: "Nyarch 26.04. A new edition of Nyarch is here, Nyarch KDE; main Nyarch apps rewritten in Qt for the new edition; support for Material You, also themed GNOME applications; NekoPlay, a video player specifically made for anime supporting 4K upscaling, has been added; Nyarch Assistant has been updated adding advanced agent functionality; Catgirl downloader has been updated supporting multiple sources; Bazaar is preinstalled, replacing GNOME software as the default app store on the GNOME edition; Nyarch Scripts now has scripts to add/remove CachyOS, Chaotic AUR or Nyarch repositories in one click; new profound structural changes; reduced ISO image size; Nyarch applications will not be installed as flatpak by default; we now have our own repositories that will keep Nyarch apps up to date; new GRUB theme and new Plymouth themes...." Continue to the release notes for more details. Download (pkglist): Nyarch-Gnome-26.04.iso (3,667MB, SHA256), Nyarch-KDE-26.04.iso (4,635MB, SHA256). |
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| 2026-04-29 |
NEW • Distribution Release: Bazzite 44 |
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(8.5)
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Kyle Gospodnetich has announced the release of Bazzite 44, a major update of the project's Fedora-based immutable distribution with atomic updates and an integrated Steam client, designed primarily for Linux gamers. The new version synchronises the Bazzite system and packages with the just-release Fedora 44: "The Bazzite 44 update is here for our desktop users. This is the big one - new kernel, new versions of GNOME/KDE, and more. Major changes include: KDE Plasma 6.6 with new Plasma Login Manager; GNOME 50; OGC Linux kernel 6.19.x, with 7.0 coming in the near future (yes, we will include the Valve VRAM patchset with 7.0); Mesa 26.0.5; Bazaar 0.7.15; Ptyxis has been dropped from our KDE images and the new Konsole terminal is available with container support; SBOMs (which now power our changelogs), Build Attestation, OpenSSF security scanning and signed ISO images; built-in support for Elgato 4K capture cards; images reduced by 1GB thanks to moving in-image QEMU and ROCM to Bazzite-DX for users who need them; access to the latest and greatest ASUS Linux patches for use with ASUSCtl...." See the release announcement for more details. Download (pkglist): bazzite-stable-amd64.iso (KDE Plasma, 7,162MB, SHA256), bazzite-gnome-stable-amd64.iso (GNOME, 6,272MB, SHA256). |
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| 2026-04-29 |
NEW • OS Release: ToaruOS 2.3.0 |
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(--)
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Kevin Lange has announced the release of ToaruOS 2.3.0, the latest version of the independently-developed hobby operating system built from scratch. It comes with a bootloader, kernel, drivers, C library and userspace, as well as a composited graphical user interface, a syntax-highlighting text editor and a network stack. Although newly added to DistroWatch, the project has been in continuous development since 2011. "ToaruOS 2.3 is now available. What's new? Terminal tabs - the terminal emulator now supports multiple tabs, create tabs with Ctrl-Shift-T, swap with Alt-1 through Alt-9. Manual viewer - a full man stack has been added, combining a roff formatter and a more complete more, plus a bunch of manual pages. Kernel improvements - tons of a new system calls like pread/pwrite, sigsuspend, sigqueue, fcntl, support for FD_CLOEXEC and FD_CLOFORK, TTY line control and hangups. And more - the latest Bim and Kuroko versions; tons of new utilities and new options in existing utilities." Visit the project's release page on GitHub for a detailed changelog, known issues and screenshots. The same page also offers an ISO image to download; it is a standard x86_64 PC build with native bootloaders and, according to the developer, should work in most virtual machines using BIOS. Here is the download link: v2.3.0/image.iso (7.14MB). |
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| 2026-04-28 |
NEW • Distribution Release: Fedora 44 |
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(8.3)
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The Fedora Project has announced the release of Fedora 44. The new version of the experimental distribution introduces changes to the system installer, updates the Workstation desktop environments to GNOME 50 and Plasma 6.6, and improves OpenSSL certificate file handling. "For those of you installing fresh Fedora Linux 44 spins, you may notice a change in how Anaconda handles network devices. Anaconda now only creates network profiles for devices configured during installation (by boot options, kickstart, or interactively in UI) instead of providing default profiles for all devices. This change will simplify post-installation network configuration for users who need to customize after installation. Fedora Linux 44 Workstation ships with the latest GNOME release, GNOME 50. This comes with a long list of refinements to your desktop, including everything from accessibility to color management and remote desktop. Many of the applications that are installed by default on Fedora Workstation have also seen improvements, from Document Viewer to File Manager and Calendar. To learn more about these and other changes, you can read the GNOME 50 release notes." Additional information is provided in the release announcement. Download (pkglist): Fedora-Workstation-Live-44-1.7.x86_64.iso (2,719MB, SHA256, torrent), Fedora-KDE-Desktop-Live-44-1.7.x86_64.iso (3,212MB, SHA256, torrent), Fedora-Server-dvd-x86_64-44-1.7.iso (3,731MB, SHA256, torrent). |
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| 2026-04-27 |
NEW • Distribution Release: umbrelOS 1.7.0 |
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(--)
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Umbrel, Inc. has announced the release of umbrelOS 1.7.0, an updated build of the company's Debian-based Linux distribution for home servers, featuring a web-based user interface and an online app store. This version adds home screen shortcuts and brings 17 new language translations: "umbrelOS 1.7 brings home screen shortcuts, a built-in text editor in Files, advanced networking controls, network sharing for folders on external drives, 17 new languages, and several performance improvements and bug fixes. New features: Shortcuts - add shortcuts to websites, custom ports and Docker containers directly to your home screen, complete with icons and titles; text editor in Files - open and edit text files, code files, markdown, dot-files and more right inside Files; advanced networking - change your Umbrel's hostname, choose your DNS server, and set a static IP for ethernet connections, with a built-in confirmation flow to help prevent getting locked out; file sharing in Settings - enable and manage shared folders more easily directly from Settings; faster Files - Files now opens faster, remembers your last visited folder, has better keyboard navigation and previews, and feels more responsive overall; more languages - umbrelOS 1.7 adds 17 more languages." Here are the complete release notes with screenshots. Download (SHA256, signature, pkglist): umbrelos-amd64-usb-installer.iso (1,778MB), umbrelos-amd64.img.xz (1,211MB). |
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| 2026-04-27 |
NEW • Distribution Release: Talos Linux 1.13.0 |
Rate this project
(9.6)
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The developers of Talos Linux, a minimalist distribution designed specifically for running Kubernetes (an engine for automating deployment, scaling and management of containerised applications), have announced the release of Talos Linux 1.13.0: "Welcome to the 1.13.0 release of Talos. Important changes: Talos Linux now provides a way to run and attach to the privileged debug container with a user-provided container image, the debug container might be used for troubleshooting and debugging purposes; Talos now supports machine-wide container image signature verification via the new ImageVerificationConfig machine config document - any image which gets pulled on the node will be verified against the configured rules, and if no rule matches, it will be pulled without verification; Talos switched to using CDI and now supports configuring NVIDIA GPU via the gpu-operator helm chart; Talos Linux now supports optionally deploying Flannel CNI with network policy support enabled, the network policy implementation is kube-network-policies; Talos now uses inventory-backed server-side apply when applying bootstrap manifests (including extraManifests and inlineManifests)...." Read the release notes and the what's new document for further details. Download (SHA256): v1.13.0/metal-amd64.iso (318MB), v1.13.0/metal-arm64.iso (201MB). |
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| 2026-04-27 |
NEW • DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 1170 |
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This week in DistroWatch Weekly: - Review: ENux 5.2.1
- News: AlmaLinux expands CPU architecture support, FreeBSD publishes Status Report, Ubuntu MATE skips the 26.04 launch
- Questions and answers: Picking a second distribution
- Released last week: Redcore Linux 2601, Ubuntu 26.04, CachyOS 260426
- Torrent corner: CachyOS, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, TUXEDO OS, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Kylin
- Upcoming releases: FreeBSD 15.1-BETA1
- Opinion poll: How long do you usually stick with a distro?
- Site news: Donations and sponsors
- Reader comments
Read more in this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly.... |
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| 2026-04-26 |
NEW • Distribution Release: CachyOS 260426 |
Rate this project
(8.0)
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The CachyOS project has published a new snapshot of its Arch-based distribution. The new release puts a lot of work into iproving the initial install and configuration process: "First, the installer now ships Shelly as the GUI package manager, replacing Octopi. A clean snapshot is now created immediately after the installation has finished and is retained permanently, providing users with a reliable baseline restore point. GRUB os-prober is now enabled by default to detect other operating systems on the same machine. The UKUI desktop has been dropped from the selection, and the GNOME package selection has been cleaned up and modernised. For AMD GPUs, a different Plymouth theme is now used, as the amdgpu driver was unable to render the previous theme reliably on laptops with a secondary monitor attached. Last but not least, a new option was introduced in the installer that sets up MangoWM with DMS shell. CachyOS-Welcome supports DNS over HTTPS for better privacy. The redesigned DNS page lets you test connection speeds, auto-select the fastest server, or add custom ones. We also added a VRAM Management toggle to optimize graphics memory on AMD and Intel GPUs, full keyboard navigation, and sharper, dark-mode-friendly icons." Additional information is offered through the release announcement. Download: cachyos-desktop-linux-260426.iso (2,919MB, SHA256, signature, torrent, pkglist). |
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| Sponsored Listing |
Featured Distribution: 3CX Phone System |
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3CX Phone System is a specialist, Debian-based Linux distribution designed to run a complete unified communications platform. The 3CX client, included in the distribution, can also be installed separately on most hardware as well as the cloud. It provides a complete open standards-based IP PBX and phone system that works with popular SIP trunks and IP phones. It will automatically configure all supported peripherals and it also comes with clients for Windows, OS X, iOS and Android. The ISO image includes a free license for the 3CX PBX edition. The ISO image contains the standard Debian installer which installs a minimal system with the nginx web server, PostgreSQL database, iptables firewall and Secure Shell. Options not relevant to 3CX have been removed from the distribution. Download the installation ISO image from here: debian-amd64-netinst-3cx.iso (628MB). |
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| Random Distribution | 
Komodo Linux
Komodo Linux was a distribution based on PCLinuxOS with a custom set of packages and a new theme.
Status: Discontinued
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