The release of the Linux distribution Solus 4.8 has been published, which is not based on packages from other distributions and develops its own installer, package manager, and configuration tools. Previously, the Budgie desktop was part of the distribution, but it has now been separated into an independent project. The next branch, Solus 5, is set to be developed on AerynOS technologies. The project's code is distributed under the GPLv2 license, and the development uses C and Vala languages. Builds are provided with Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Xfce desktop environments. The size of the ISO images ranges from 2.6 to 2.9 GB (x86_64).
The package manager eopkg (a fork of PiSi from Pardus Linux) is used to manage packages, providing familiar tools for installing/removing packages, searching the repository, and managing repositories. Packages can be categorized into thematic components, which in turn create categories and subcategories. For example, Firefox is categorized under component network.web.browser, which belongs to the network applications category and the Web applications subcategory. More than 2000 packages are available for installation from the repository.
The distribution adheres to a hybrid development model, according to which significant releases are periodically issued, offering new technologies and substantial improvements, while in between the major releases, the distribution is developed using a rolling model for package updates.
For music playback in the editions with Budgie and GNOME desktop environments, the Decibel player is provided, while Celluloid is used for video playback. In the KDE edition, Elisa is available for music playback, and Haruna is used for video. The Xfce edition employs Parole as the media player for multimedia files.
Key Changes:
- The project to relocate all executable files and libraries from the root directories to the /usr partition has been completed. The /bin, /sbin, and /lib* directories are now unified with the corresponding directories within /usr and are formatted with symbolic links to them. This restructuring has eliminated confusion regarding file placement and brought the distribution in line with systemd's requirements, which ceased support for separate directory hierarchies starting with release 255. A new package repository named Polaris has been proposed, containing changes that allow for the removal of symbolic links in packages to comply with the new scheme for placing executable files and libraries.
- The proprietary Software Center, written in Python 2, has been replaced with the standard application managers GNOME Software and KDE Discover. This change has enabled support for managing packages in Flatpak format, which are installed from the Flathub directory.
- Packages supporting Python 2 have been removed. All utilities used in the distribution have been rewritten in Python 3.
- The Plymouth package-based splash screen is enabled by default at boot.
- All editions by default feature Firefox 145.0.1, LibreOffice 25.2.6, and Thunderbird 140.5.0.
- Support has been added for the girepository-2.0 library (GObject Introspection Repository), which provides access to typelib files and introspection data defining the C API.
- System components and user programs have been updated, for example, the Linux kernel 6.17.8 is offered (LTS kernel 6.12.58 packages and additional patches for AppArmor are available as options), systemd 257.10, and Mesa 25.2.6.
- In builds with GNOME and KDE, the X11 session is no longer provided by default, but those who need X11 can install the gnome-session-shell-x11 and plasma-x11 packages from the repository.
- The Budgie desktop build has been updated to Budgie 10.9.4, which synchronizes with changes in GNOME 49 and introduces support for the libpeas2 library, allowing plugins to be created in C, Python, and Vala using GObject. Support for Python-based Raven panel plugins has been discontinued (Python support for panel widgets is retained). The GTK theme Pocillo Dark is enabled by default.
- The GNOME desktop has been updated to GNOME 49.1. By default, the MoreWaita icon theme, the Decibel music player, the Papers PDF viewer, and the Ptyxis terminal emulator are offered.
- The KDE-based build has been updated to KDE Plasma 6.5.3, KDE Frameworks 6.19.0, and KDE Gear 25.08.3.
- A stable and fully supported version with the Xfce desktop environment has been announced, which was previously marked as experimental. Users are offered Xfce 4.20.
Source: opennet.ru
