Distribution release available TileOS 1.0 «T-Rex», built on a Debian package base and offering a desktop that uses tiling window managers. TileOS aims for the same goals as the distribution Ubuntu Sway Remix (developed by the same author), providing a ready-to-use interface that requires no additional configuration and is aimed at both experienced Linux users and newcomers who want to try a tiling window manager environment without spending a lot of time on setup.
However, unlike Ubuntu Sway Remix, TileOS is much more open to various modifications and customizations, and is free from any potential copyright issues (Ubuntu Sway Remix uses registered trademarks of Canonical, but no official response regarding the inclusion of the distribution in the official Ubuntu family has been received so far). For download the builds for amd64 architecture are prepared (support for arm64 is planned in the future, particularly for Raspberry Pi boards). The source code of the components of TileOS is available at GitLab.
TileOS focuses primarily on window managers that utilize the Wayland protocol. Official editions with desktops are available Sway and River, while editions with SwayFX (a fork of Sway augmented with various desktop effects) are under development. QtileThe distribution uses a Debian Stable package base, but various improvements, fresher versions of some software and graphics drivers are brought in from the testing branch. In addition, a number of fixeshave been included that optimize the disk subsystem and memory usage, and some improvements from Ubuntu have been transferred, such as mounting drives in the file manager without a password prompt, among others.
Key features of TileOS:
- Linux kernel 6.6.15 with improved response time (option CONFIG_HZ=1000, Debian uses CONFIG_HZ=300).
- Open video driver set, Mesa 23.2.1, and Xwayland 23.2.2.
- The Zram mechanism is enabled by default, using the zstd compression algorithm.
- A significant number of non-free drivers and firmware are pre-installed, greatly expanding support for various hardware.
- Repositories with additional software, such as VirtualBox, Visual Studio Code, Librewolf, OnlyOffice, and Brave, are enabled by default.
- The ability to select additional software in the Calamares installer has been implemented.
- D-Bus Broker is used as the implementation of the system bus D-Bus.
- A PipeWire sound server is used.
- User session management is handled by systemd, allowing for the proper termination of running applications and components during reboot, shutdown, or logout, and ensuring the correct handling of application autostart.
- In the Sway edition, systemd-oomd is used as the OOM Killer daemon. In other editions, EarlyOOM is used.
- A unified theme is used for styling applications Catppuccin, which employs soft pastel colors.
Features of the edition Sway:
- The desktop evolves alongside the Ubuntu Sway Remix distribution, ensuring mutual transfer of certain changes.
- Many utilities from the NWG-Shellproject are utilized, such as the automatic tiling script Autotiling, a fullscreen applications menu nwg-drawer, a utility for adjusting display settings nwg-displays, a utility for customizing appearance nwg-look, a session manager nwg-bar and nwg-wrapper, allowing you to display the contents of any scripts on the desktop (this is how hints for the hotkeys used in the distribution are implemented).
- A minimal set of components is pre-installed, including the file manager PcmanFM-Qt, text editor Pluma, terminal emulator Alacritty, archiver Engrampa, and others. Additional software can be selected during the installation process or installed immediately after the system installation.
Features of the edition River:
- A dynamic window manager River, written in the zig programming language, incorporates many features from DWM, Awesome, and Bwpwm. River stands out for its ease of configuration (the configuration file is a standard shell script that sequentially executes commands for the IPC bus riverctl), wide flexibility, and lower resource consumption compared to Sway. As River is currently under active development and still significantly lags in functionality behind Sway, the TileOS River edition is considered experimental.
- As with the Sway edition, NWG-Shell project components are utilized, except for those which do not explicitly support River (for example, wdisplays is used instead of nwg-displays).
Source: linux.org.ru
