After a year of development, the release of the Regolith 2.0 desktop environment, developed by the developers of the Linux distribution of the same name, is available. Regolith is based on GNOME session management technologies and the i3 window manager. The developments of the project are distributed under the GPLv3 license. Packages for Ubuntu 20.04/22.04 and Debian 11 have been prepared for download.
The project is positioned as a modern desktop environment, developed for faster execution of typical actions by optimizing workflows and eliminating unnecessary clutter. The goal is to provide a functional yet minimalist interface that can be customized and extended based on the user's preferences. Regolith may be of interest to beginners who are accustomed to traditional windowing systems but want to try framing (tiling) window layout techniques.
In the new release:
- In addition to Ubuntu, builds for Debian 11 have been implemented.
- Proposed own implementation of the application launch menu and the interface for switching between windows, which replaced the previously proposed Rofi Launcher interface.
- For configuration, instead of gnome-control-center, its own configurator regolith-control-center is offered.
- The configuration file for the i3 window manager is divided into several separate components, allowing for more flexible configuration management.
- Updated style settings. Using the regolith-look command, you can install alternative files with style settings.
- Replaced hotkey viewer.
- It is possible to use for window management both the usual i3wm window manager and the i3-gaps project, which develops an extended fork of i3wm.
- Added fonts from the Nerd Fonts project.
- Added utility to manage notifications.
- Added regolith-diagnostic utility to collect diagnostic information
Main features of Regolith:
- Support for hotkeys as in the i3wm window manager for managing window tiling.
- Using i3wm or i3-gaps, an extended fork of i3wm, to manage windows.
- The panel is built using i3bar, and i3xrocks based on i3blocks is used to run automation scripts.
- Session management is based on the session manager from gnome-flashback and gdm3.
- Components for system management, interface settings, drive auto-mounting, wireless network connection management are transferred from GNOME Flashback.
- In addition to frame layout, traditional windowing methods are also allowed.
- Application launcher and interface for switching between Ilia windows. The list of applications can be viewed at any time using the keyboard shortcut super + space.
- Rofication is used to display notifications.
- The regolith-look utility is used to manage skins and install individual resources related to appearance.
Source: opennet.ru