KaOS 2022.06 Now Available with KDE Plasma 5.25

KaOS was first created in 2013 as a Linux distribution that focuses on the KDE Desktop Environment. The original goal was to create a highly polished KDE experience, which the developers achieved quite well. And with the latest release, that experience is made even better with the addition of KDE Plasma 5.25 and a number of other additions and enhancements.

As to what else has been added to KaOS, you'll see KDE Frameworks 5.95, KDE Gear 22.04.2, Calamares 3.3, LibreOffice as the default office suite (a change from Calligra), Linux kernel 5.17 (which adds improved support for GPUs), and a new package selection addition to the onboarding Welcome screen.

Of course, at the heart of KaOS 2022.06 is KDE Plasma 5.25, which adds a host of improvements, including improved gesture support, tints for window accent colors, a much-improved touch mode, 10-bit color for Kdenlive, many enhancements to Kate, and an enhanced Settings dialog.

For those that are curious, LibreOffice became the default office suite, since it is now available as a single Qt application.

To read more about the latest release, check out the KaOS news page (https://kaosx.us/news/2022/kaos06/) and download an ISO from https://kaosx.us/pages/download/.

Manjaro 21.3.0 Now Available

Manjaro is an Arch-based, rolling-release Linux distribution aimed at users who want the power and flexibility of Arch, without complications. The latest release, version 21.3.0, includes plenty of newness, in the form of the Calamares installer (which now supports LUKS partitions), Gnome 42 (which includes Libadwaita), KDE Plasma 5.24 (which includes the new Overview), Xfce 4.16 (which now supports fractional scaling), and Linux kernel 5.15 LTS.

The Gnome edition of Manjaro 21.3.0 includes both GTK 4 and Libadwaita, which offers improved performance, a modern UI style, and plenty of new user interface elements. The Plasma edition makes it possible to more easily move panels around and stick them to any edge you like. The Xfce edition received quite a number of updates, especially in the area of compositing and GLX.

Since Manjaro is a rolling edition, if you already have the OS installed, an update should bring you to the latest release. If you don't have Manjaro installed, you can download the latest ISO from the official Manjaro Download page (https://manjaro.org/download/), where you have the choice to download the full or a minimal version of the OS. You'll find downloads for x86_64 and ARM architecture as well as unofficial spins for the Budgie, Cinnamon, i3, Sway, Mate desktops, and even a Docker image.

SpiralLinux: a New Linux Distribution Focused on Simplicity

SpiralLinux (https://spirallinux.github.io/) is Debian-based Linux distribution with spins for Cinnamon, Xfce, Gnome, KDE Plasma, Mate, Budgie, LXQt, and Builder (which uses the IceWM window manager for experienced users to fully configure the system to meet their needs). Each of these spins (minus "Builder") offers a simplified Linux experience that uses the official Debian Stable package repositories.

SpiralLinux includes Flatpak support built-in as well as a GUI front end for managing Flatpak packages. The distribution uses the Btrfs filesystem which includes an optimal sub-partition with Zstd transparent compression and built-in support for automatic Snapper snapshots and even zRAM swap support.

According to the developer, "Great effort has been expended in polishing the SpiralLinux default configuration for all the major desktop environments using the packages and mechanisms that Debian itself provides," said the developer when asked "why another Debian-based distro."

SpiralLinux is based on Debian 11 ("Bullseye"), is powered by kernel 5.16, and ships with apps like Firefox, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Transmission, Pidgin, and the Synaptic Package Manager installed by default.

For more information about the latest release of SpiralLinux, make sure to visit the official release notes (https://github.com/SpiralLinux/SpiralLinux-project/releases).