Meet TeLOS Linux, a Sleek New Debian-Based Distro with a Modern Approach on the Linux Desktop

TeLOS Linux

Linux distro hoppers rejoice, there’s a new Debian-based distribution in town called TeLOS, which wants to offer you a different, modern approach on the Linux desktop on top of the latest GNU/Linux technologies.

Meet TeLOS, a GNU/Linux distribution based on the Debian Testing software repositories and built on top of the modern KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment. In ancient Greek, TeLOS was a term used by philosopher Aristotle to refer to the full potential/objective of a person or thing, similar to the notion of an ‘end goal’ or ‘ambition’.

So you can think of TeLOS Linux as an ambitious project that aims to provide the GNU/Linux community with a different and modern approach on the Linux desktop by offering you a fully customized KDE Plasma desktop environment that feels “alive” thanks to the animated wallpaper and comes with a minimal and careful selection of pre-installed apps from both the KDE and GNOME stacks.

The different and modern approach I’m talking about here refers to the fact that TeLOS Linux isn’t using the traditional desktop layout of KDE Plasma, but the futuristic, touchscreen-ready layout seen in the GNOME desktop environment with full-screen application launcher and browser experience.

In fact, the web browser is the first thing you’ll see when you power on your brand-new TeLOS Linux installation.

TeLOS Linux

The developers of TeLOS Linux are trying to build a modern and user-friendly Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution that’s fully-featured, lightweight, easily customizable, and designed to offer you some of the most recent GNU/Linux technologies and Open Source software, but without being bloated.

Apart from the fact that it’s touchscreen-ready, TeLOS is also HTPC-ready and comes pre-installed with the very popular and widely used Kodi open-source media center and home theater software, which, when active, becomes your default graphical environment if you want to watch TV shows and movies or listen to music. The latest Kodi 19 “Matrix” release is included in the distro.

TeLOS Linux

However, TeLOS Linux also comes with a couple of proprietary, closed-source apps like the Google Chrome web browser and TeamViewer remote desktop software. Other interesting apps included by default are Video Downloader, a free and easy to use interface to the popular youtube-dl utility for downloading YouTube videos, the Calligra office suite, and VLC media player.

As mentioned before, TeLOS wants to offer you a modern Linux desktop with apps from both worlds (KDE and GNOME). Pre-installed GNOME software include the Cheese webcam viewer, Disks disk utility, Evolution email client, Onboard on-screen keyboard, Clocks clock app, and Sound Recorder sound recording app.

Pre-installed KDE apps include Dolphin file manager, Konsole terminal emulator, Gwenview image viewer, Okular document viewer, Ark archive manger, KTorrent torrent downloader, K3b CD/DVD burning software, Kazam screencast software, KWrite text editor, Skanlite image scanning app, and KDE Connect for pairing your Android devices.

If you want more apps, you can use KDE Plasma’s Discover package manger with Flatpak support.

According to its developers, TeLOS is suitable for old and new (64-bit/amd64/x86_64) hardware, as well as for both Linux newcomers and experienced users. It features out-of-the-box support for VPNs and network file sharing, as well as Google Drive integration.

If you want to take TeLOS for a test drive on your personal computer, you can download the latest release right now from its SourceForge page. The distro can be used directly from the live USB media or installed on your personal computer using the built-in Calamares installer.

The current release comes with the Linux 5.10 LTS kernel and KDE Plasma 5.20.5 desktop environment.

Last updated 3 years ago

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