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Uri Herrera announced the release of Nitrux 1.3.2, a new version of his desktop-oriented, Ubuntu-based distribution built around the latest KDE Plasma desktop and applications.
The monthly release cycle of Nitrux continues today with Nitrux 1.3.2, which comes exactly a month after Nitrux 1.3.1 to updated various core components and default apps to their latest versions.
Among these, there’s the Linux kernel 5.6.0-1021 from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa), KDE Plasma 5.19.4 desktop environment, KDE Frameworks 5.74.0, KDE Applications 20.11.70, Nvidia 450.66, LibreOffice 7.0.1, and Mozilla Firefox 80.
However, the biggest change in Nitrux 1.3.2 is under the hood, as the distro is no longer shipping with systemd as default init system. In its place, the OpenRC dependency-based init system is now used by default.
And, as you can imagine, this will affect existing users who have Nitrux installed on their personal computers as it’s not possible to replace the init system safely. Therefore, the Nitrux developers strongly recommend that you reinstall the OS.
“Users with existing installations will continue to receive updates. However, we want to emphasize that we strongly recommend that you reinstall the distribution due to this fundamental change in the operating system, after performing a backup with Kup,” said Uri Herrera.
However, you should keep in mind that this major change will affect some things. For example, programs that rely on systemd will not be installable, such as Snap apps.
Also new in this release is an optional Wayland session called “Plasma (Wayland),” which you can access from the login screen. The Nitrux developers plan to switch to Wayland in the future, so do give them your feedback if you test the Wayland session.
Other than that, Nitrux 1.3.2 ships with the NitroShare application that lets you share files on the same network, the tree command-line utility to help you recursively list the content of a directory in a tree-like format, an improved Calamares installer, and Docker for those who want to build AppImages.
You can download Nitrux 1.3.2 right now from the official website or using the direct link below. If you plan on reinstalling just to use OpenRC, do keep in mind to make a backup of your most important files.
Update 05/09/20: The Nitrux 1.3.2 ISO has been re-released with a rebuilt root file system to improve the compatibility of packages and to address an incorrect version number. The previous ISO has been released, please download the new ISO below.
Last updated 4 years ago
