Distro : KaOS 2017.01 is Available For Download, Bring KDE Plasma 5.8.5

Anke Boersma has announced the release of KaOS 2017.01, a new stable build of the project’s rolling-release, desktop-oriented Linux distribution featuring KDE Plasma 5.8.5

What is KaOS ?

KaOS is a desktop Linux distribution that features the latest version of the KDE desktop environment, the Calligra office suite, and other popular software applications that use the Qt toolkit. It was inspired by Arch Linux, but the developers build their own packages which are available from in-house repositories. KaOS employs a rolling-release development model and is built exclusively for 64-bit computer systems.



Base of the system

Most notable major updates to the base of the system are Boost 1.62.0, ICU 58.2, Ruby 2.4.0, Systemd 232, FFMPEG 3.2, Linux 4.8.15, Mesa 13.0.2, Hunspell 1.6.0, Gpgme 1.8.0, Gstreamer 1.10.2 and a move to Openjpeg 2 (2.1.2)


New is the use of a GUI warning on system updates that require user action. Adding such notices to a News item or having an install message included in (at time large) pacman output is too easily missed. A rolling distribution will have to make such changes over the lifetime of an install. Thus the need for a better way to communicate is now implemented, see an example for the upcoming OpenVPN update for all users.

KaOS repositories no longer provide Qt 4. It is a good three years ago that development for Qt 4 stopped, late 2015 all support including security fixes ended. Any application that has not made the transition to Qt 5 in all this time can no longer be supported in KaOS. Either they actually are no longer maintained or their development is ignoring the implications of building on a possible insecure toolkit.

The Linux kernel has all the needed ucode build-in for a fully automated Early Microcode update.

What This Release ?

All parts of the Midna artwork have been updated, most notably a new sddm theme that uses a layered QML model. This makes selecting between the default regular Plasma session or optional Wayland much clearer. There is also a new move to the right vertical panel as the default. As always with this rolling distribution, you will find the very latest packages for the Plasma desktop, this includes Frameworks 5.29.0, Plasma 5.8.5, KDE Applications 16.12.0 and not-yet-released ports of KDE Applications. All built on Qt 5.7.1. Linux 4.8.15 has a change as to how the kernel image is created. Instead of using an install file that only gets called on kernel updates, a new hook file is used.

Continue to the release announcement for more information and screenshots.

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