KaOS 2018.06 release, Linux distributions

KaOS is a desktop Linux distribution, featuring the latest version of the KDE desktop environment and other popular software programs that use the Qt toolkit. It was originally based on Arch Linux, but since April 2013, developers started creating their own packages, which are now available from Kaos’s own depot. KaOS uses a roll publishing development model and is only for 64-bit computer systems.

KaOS has made the choice to use the Linux kernel as a base (though the Illumos kernel is under constant evaluation, and a future switch is a wish). After that choice, the best available package manager, most flexible way of package building, repository maintenance is pacman/makepkg for a rolling distro like KaOS. As for the Desktop Environment, there will never be a change, whether it is Linux or Illumos based, KDE Plasma will be the choice, Qt the Toolkit. With those choices in place, April 2013 package building for this independent distribution was started. KaOS is a build from scratch distribution, every package in every repository is build by and for KaOS. By July 2013 the initial goal of about 1500 packages was reached.

KaOS 2018.06 released.

Changelog:

•  redesign of the Midna theme for 2018
• 2500 new icons in use, rewritten sddm login theme and a KaOS community selected new wallpaper
• latest packages for the Plasma Desktop, this includes Frameworks 5.47.0, Plasma 5.13.1, KDE Applications 18.04.2. All built on Qt 5.11.1
• Most notable major updates to the base of the system are Glib2 2.56.1, Linux 4.16.14, Pacman 5.1.0, Wayland 1.15.0, GStreamer 1.14.1, Cfitsio 3.45.0, Openmpi 3.1.0, Mesa 18.1.2, NetworkManager 1.10.10, Rust 1.26.0, Protobuf 3.5.2, Intel-ucode 20180425, OpenJDK 8u161 and Ruby 2.5.1

• Calamares

  The used installer framework has moved to the 3.2 series. Highlights of the changes and additions:

  • The branding module has also seen an overhaul and the slideshow framework has been extended with some new classes which can be used.
  • The GeoIP service provided by FreeGeoIP.net is closing down and a different API is being offered, including a free (gratis) service tier. KaOS has moved to using ipapi.co
  • UI annoyances in the partitioning module were fixed; the mount-point selector is now more obvious when no mount-point has been chosen, and the mount-point and flags are preserved when (re)editing partitions.
  • The list of languages on the welcome page, where the user can select which language to use for the installer, now displays languages in their native representation, rather than the English name for each language.
  • The user shell is no longer hard-coded to /bin/bash but follows the default setting for useradd(8), e.g. those set in /etc/default/useradd.

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