KaOS is a built-from-scratch distribution with KDE Plasma as its desktop. There are no other variants to it, as it focuses on providing a good KDE Plasma experience.
With its latest release for 2024, it debuts with KDE Plasma 6.
Yes, it is true that KDE Plasma 6 has not yet released. However, KaOS decided to ship with KDE Plasma 6's release candidate v2.
KaOS 2024.01: What's New?
With the updated desktop, the look and feel has been refreshed along with a couple of technical refinements.
Let me highlight some key changes below.
First, the installer now gives you the ability to select any type of filesystem with automatic partitioning, which was limited to the manual mode.
To test KaOS, I went with the usual "ext4" filesystem, instead of what the selection says here.
While this was already present, I like the fact that you can select "Pipewire" or "PulseAudio" during the installation of KaOS.
The login screen features the new background, with the Wayland mode selected by default. You can change it for now. However, they do plan to ditch X11 in the near future.
Not to forget, the software stack for the distribution was updated with FFMPEG 6, Boost/ICU stack, Linux kernel 6.6.14, Systemd 254.9, and newer Python/MariaDB packages.
For the Plasma 6 desktop, you can expect all the latest available framework and packages built on Qt 6.6.1.
The installer is also Qt 6 based:
One more interesting addition: a GUI to let you view logs seamlessly with Kjournald. You no longer need to rely on/learn the journalctl commands. It is available with the default install.
Not just limited to the Midna theme update, the cube desktop effect for workspaces is here with Plasma 6 under “Window Management”. It is not enabled by default, you can choose to activate it manually.
You can get more technical details in the announcement post.
📥 Download KaOS 2024.01
Considering the distro features KDE Plasma 6 RC2, it may not be the best fit for every user.
However, if you wanted an independent Linux distribution with early access to the latest KDE Plasma desktop, KaOS should be a nice pick.
💬 What do you think about the latest KaOS update with Plasma 6? Share your thoughts below!
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