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The Q4OS team has kicked off the development of the next major release of their Debian-based distribution, Q4OS 4.0, and announced the availability of the first pre-release version for public testing.
For a long time, Q4OS has tried to keep the spirit of the old-school KDE 3.5 desktop environment series alive by shipping with the awesome Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE) by default. But the current stable series, Q4OS 3.x “Centaurus”, also includes the more modern KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment alongside TDE to give users more options for tailoring their PCs to their needs.
Based on the upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 11 “Bullseye” operating system series, Q4OS 4.0 “Gemini” is now in development and uses the KDE Plasma 5.14.5 desktop environment by default. Therefore, it is using software packages from the Debian Testing repositories.
Q4OS 4.0 “Gemini” to be an LTS release supported for five years
Q4OS 4.0 is currently using the long-term supported Linux 5.4 kernel series and includes many KDE-oriented applications, as well as other popular apps like the LibreOffice office suite, Google Chrome web browser, Mozilla Thunderbird email and news client, VLC media player, Synaptic package manager, and Htop process viewer.
However, one of the major changes of this release is the fact that the live/installation media includes the complete desktop software bundle. But users will be able to install the distribution with a different software selection by choosing between the three software profiles in the graphical installer, Desktop, Basic, and Pure.
Just like the current stable series, Q4OS 4.0 “Gemini” will also be an LTS (Long-Term Support) version, supported for five years from the moment it hits the stable channel. The developers said that Q4OS 4.0 will be in development until Debian GNU/Linux 11 “Bullseye” sees the light of day, something that should happen sometime in mid-2021.
If you want to give Q4OS 4.0 a try, you can download the 64-bit ISO image right now from the official website. Keep in mind though that this is a pre-release version, not suitable for use in a production environment.
Last updated 4 years ago
