The release of the Ubuntu Sway Remix 26.04 LTS distribution is now available, providing a pre-configured and ready-to-use desktop based on the Sway tiling window manager. This distribution is an unofficial edition of Ubuntu 26.04, created with consideration for both experienced GNU/Linux users and newcomers wishing to try a tiling window manager environment without the need for lengthy configuration. Builds are prepared for amd64, arm64 architectures and Raspberry Pi computers.
The environment of the distribution is built on Sway—a compositor using the Wayland protocol, fully compatible with the i3 tiling window manager, as well as the Waybar panel, Thunar file manager, and utilities from the NWG-Shell project, such as the Azote desktop wallpaper manager, the full-screen nwg-drawer application menu, and the nwg-wrapper utility for displaying script output on the screen (used for showing keyboard shortcut hints on the desktop), the nwg-look GTK theme, cursor, and font configuration manager, and the Autotiling script that automatically arranges open application windows 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:
- Sway has been updated to version 1.11.
- For systems with NVIDIA graphics chips, the Vulkan-based rendering engine is enabled by default.
- A number of utilities from the Xfce graphical environment are utilized: Thunar is used instead of the PCmanFM file manager, lximage-qt is replaced with Ristretto for image viewing, and Engrampa is substituted with Xarchiver.
- Custom scripts for displaying notifications about changes in volume and screen brightness have been replaced with the SwayOSD utility.
- The music player Audacious and the email client Thunderbird have been removed from the distribution.
- An installation image has been created for the arm64 architecture, which can be used on UEFI-compatible boards with ARM processors like Ampere, as well as on virtual machines Mac computers with Apple Silicon processors.
- A number of improvements have been made to the image for single-board computers such as Raspberry Pi.
Source: opennet.ru
