The KaOS team announced the release of KaOS 2022.06, which comes with many important changes. It is built on Glibc 2.35, GCC 11.3.0, and Binutils 2.38-based Toolchain. The updates in Core included DBus 1.14.0, Systemd 250.7, Nettle 3.8 and the kernel moved to 5.17.15. The team also made some changes in Midna, the Plasma theme used in the Linux distro.
What’s new?
The new version is coming with Calamares 3.3 branch which offers better KPMCore integration, LUKS support, and a new option allowing users to install an encrypted system with an unencrypted boot partition. It also includes some GUI improvements that have been implemented.
Another important change is KDE Plasma 5.25 which enhances the user experience while navigating between windows and workspaces. Its overview allows users to see all open windows and virtual desktops while allowing them to use gestures on touchpads and touchscreens. It can also apply the dominant color of the background picture to all components using the accent color. For all the KDE parts, the latest Frameworks (5.95.0), Plasma (5.25.1), and KDE Gear (22.04.2) are included, all built on Qt 5.15.5.
The default wireless daemon for KaOS, Wpa-Suplicant, is now changed with IWD, after two years of testing. KaOS is also testing the transition to PEP17, the new standard for building python packages, with different new Python build tools, such as Python-flit & Python-build.
Croeso, Welsh for “welcome”, is also included in the release. Croeso, created by KaOS, is designed to help configure a new install. It runs after new installations and offers to adjust some 15 commonly used settings, including a custom Wallpaper selector, distribution info, and the option to select packages to install from six different groups.