The Linux ecosystem is a genuinely innovative space, where we have countless distributions. We have the popular ones like Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch Linux, and their derivatives.
On the other hand, we have independent options like NixOS, Gentoo Linux, and Slackware.
A few months ago, we took a look at the pre-alpha release of a new independent distro called Serpent OS that performed quite well for an early build. It is a distro that focuses on being modern, minimal, and developer-friendly with its unique tooling.
As 2024 comes to an end, its developers have introduced an alpha release with a recent announcement that offers many notable refinements.
Let's dive in. 😃
Serpent OS Alpha: What to Expect?
Serpent OS Alpha running a pre-release version of COSMIC.
Powered by Linux kernel 6.12.6, Serpent OS Alpha comes loaded with many updated packages like Firefox 133.0.3, LLVM 18.1.8, GNOME 47.2, and COSMIC 1.0.0_alpha4.
Similarly, key components of the distro were replaced with Rust-based alternatives such as uutils coreutils, Sudo-rs, ntpd-rs, and curl being built with Rustls support. Users can now easily download Steam from the Serpent OS repository, too.
The alpha release also debuts some new hardware support, with patches being included for ASUS and Microsoft Surface devices and the arrival of NVIDIA drivers (open GPU kernel modules) in the repositories.
In the tooling department, lichen installer now features a revamped UI with the ability to pick XFS, ext4, or F2FS as the root filesystem. The moss package manager receives major updates, such as the /usr directory being replaced during system upgrades to ensure a more reliable upgrade process.
And, finally, the blsforme boot management tool now supports drop-in command-line snippets for kernel parameters, allowing easy boot entry changes by the user.
The developers mention that they are very eager to grow Serpent OS's community and contributor base as they enter an important phase in development. Following this, they want to focus on improving/creating documentation and continue their work on improving tooling.
📥 Get Serpent OS Alpha
You can take Serpent OS Alpha for a run on a virtual machine by downloading either the GNOME Edition or the COSMIC Edition from the official website. Just ensure that you have enabled EFI and 3D acceleration before proceeding.
If you run into any issues or just want to provide feedback, then you can visit the project's GitHub repo.
Sreenath
