The Ubuntu Sway Remix 24.04 LTS distribution release is available, providing a pre-configured, ready-to-use desktop based on the Sway tiling window manager. This distribution is an unofficial edition of Ubuntu 24.04, designed for both experienced GNU/Linux users and newcomers who want to try a tiling window manager without the need for extensive setup. Builds are prepared for amd64 and arm64 (Raspberry Pi) architectures.
The distribution's environment is based on Sway — a compositing manager that uses the Wayland protocol and is fully compatible with the i3 tiling window manager, as well as the Waybar panel, PCManFM-GTK3 file manager, and utilities from the NWG-Shell project, such as the desktop wallpaper manager Azote, fullscreen application menu nwg-drawer, screen output utility for script contents nwg-wrapper (used to display hotkey hints on the desktop), GTK theme, cursor, and font manager nwg-look, and the Autotiling script, which automatically arranges windows of open applications like dynamic tiling window managers.
The distribution includes both graphical applications such as Firefox, Qutebrowser, Audacious, Transmission, Libreoffice, Pluma, and MATE Calc, as well as console applications and utilities like the Musikcube music player, MPV video player, Swayimg image viewer, Zathura PDF viewer, Neovim text editor, Ranger file manager, and others.
Another feature of the distribution is the complete abandonment of the Snap package manager; all programs are provided as standard deb packages, including the Firefox web browser, for which the official PPA repository from the Mozilla Team is used. The installer of the distribution is based on the Calamares framework.
Key Changes:
- The package base has been updated to the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS release;
- Sway has been updated to version 1.9, providing full support for fractional scaling and improved rendering performance thanks to a new API in the wlroots library.
- Support for restoring the specified keyboard backlight level upon waking from sleep mode has been implemented. Brightnessctl is used to manage backlighting instead of light;
- By default, the idle_inhibitor screen locker is disabled due to some users' complaints, as the system would go to sleep after 10 minutes during installation on slow drives;
- A Qt6 version of the Kvantum theme engine has been added, allowing for a unified appearance of applications using the Qt6 library with the system theme;
- By default, the display of help for used hotkeys on the desktop is disabled. A button has been added to the Waybar panel to activate it;
- For the graphical interface for installing applications, GNOME Software is used instead of gnome-packagekit;
- The Sway Input Configurator utility has been updated to version 1.4.1, which provides a transition to Qt6, adds initial support for configuring graphic tablets, and implements support for new options from the libinput library available in Sway 1.9, such as Rotation Angle and Scroll Button Lock.
- Minor issues have been resolved.
Source: opennet.ru
