After five months of development, the Solus 4.3 Linux distribution is released, which is not based on packages from other distributions and develops its own Budgie desktop, installer, package manager and configurator. The project development code is distributed under the GPLv2 license, C and Vala languages ββare used for development. Additionally, builds with GNOME, KDE Plasma and MATE desktops are provided. The size of iso images is 1.8-2 GB (x86_64).
To manage packages, the eopkg package manager (a fork of PiSi from Pardus Linux) is used, which provides the usual tools for installing / removing packages, searching the repository and managing repositories. Packages can be divided into thematic components, which in turn form categories and subcategories. For example, Firefox is classified under the network.web.browser component, which is in the network applications category and the Web applications subcategory. More than 2000 packages are offered for installation from the repository.
The distribution follows a hybrid development model, whereby major releases are periodically released that offer new technologies and major improvements, and in between major releases, the distribution evolves using a rolling package update model.
The Budgie desktop is based on GNOME technologies, but uses its own implementations of the GNOME Shell, panel, applets, and notification system. Budgie uses the Budgie Window Manager (BWM) to manage windows, which is an extension of the core Mutter plugin. Budgie is based on a panel that is similar in organization to the classic desktop panels. All panel elements are applets, which allows you to flexibly customize the composition, change the layout and replace the implementations of the main panel elements to your liking.
Available applets include the classic application menu, task switcher, open window list area, virtual desktop view, power management indicator, volume control applet, system status indicator, and clock. For music playback on the Budgie, GNOME and MATE desktop editions, the Rhythmbox player is provided with an Alternate Toolbar extension that offers a compact panel interface implemented using client-side window decoration (CSD). For video playback, Budgie and GNOME editions come with GNOME MPV, and MATE comes with VLC. In the KDE edition, Elisa is available for music playback, and SMPlayer for video.
Main improvements:
- Updated Linux kernel to release 5.13 to include VIRTIO SND, CONFIG_NETFILTER_XT_TARGET_CHECKSUM to improve lxd and X86_SGX_KVM support for creating SGX enclaves in KVM guests. To improve the performance of the JACK sound server, the RT_GROUP_SCHED setting has been disabled. New drivers have been added, including support for Dell X86, Intel Elkhart Lake, Jasper Lake, Tiger Lake ASoC platforms, Sony PS5 controllers, SemiTek keyboards, and Microsoft Surface devices.
- Graphics stack moved to Mesa 21.1.3. Added support for AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, 6800, 6800 XT and 6900 XT graphics cards. The RADV driver for AMD graphics cards adds support for Resizable BAR technology, which is provided in PCI Express interfaces and allows you to speed up data exchange between the CPU and GPU. Improved support for Cyberpunk 2077, DOTA 2, DIRT 5, Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Path of Exile.
- Updated versions of programs and system components, including bluez 5.60, ffmpeg 4.4, gstreamer 1.18.4, dav1d 0.9.0, Pulseaudio 14.2, Firefox 89.0.2, LibreOffice 7.1.4.2, Thunderbird 78.11.0.
- The Budgie desktop has been updated to release 10.5.3, an overview of the innovations in which is offered in a separate news item.
- The GNOME desktop has been updated to release 40.0. Changed the GTK theme from Plata-noir to Materia-dark, which is similar in design but adapted for GNOME Shell 40 and GTK4. Add-ons are involved: Impatience to disable unnecessary animation and Tray-Icons-Reloaded to implement the system tray.
- The MATE desktop environment comes with version 1.24, which has backported fixes.
- The KDE Plasma based build has been updated to Plasma Desktop 5.22.2, KDE Frameworks 5.83, KDE Applications 21.04.2 and Qt 5.15.2 releases with backported patches. Of the distribution-specific changes, a new light theme, SolusLight, is noted, which resembles Breeze Light, but matches the style of the SolusDark theme. Improved support for blur and adaptive transparency in the SolusDark theme. Instead of Ksysguard, Plasma-Systemmonitor is enabled by default. The konversation IRC client is by default transferred to the Libera.chat server with TLS encryption enabled.
Source: opennet.ru