Solus 4.2 Released With Linux 5.10 Kernel, Other Updated Packages

[ermo]

Any news on the Budgie 11 front?

Nope.

[You-]

Best rolling distro out there, using it 2 years now. Stable and no issues as packages are tested in proper time compared to Manjaro.

I read somewhere they were artificially stopping most gnome ecosystem application updates because these applications had adopted libhandy and that one of the main developers didnt like that the name libhandy implied it was aimed at mobile use cases.

If that is still the case, I would call it a semi-rolling distro.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Interesting. I played with Solus when 4.0 came out, on suggestion of an acquaintance. I found it easy to install, easy on the eyes but difficult to tweak in the way I wanted - some of which will be lack of familiarity with how eopkg works. Tried 4.1 last week and couldn't get it to boot on a new system, so ended up going with Arch instead as that just installed and booted without issue.

[Teggs]

If I understand correctly, this is a Zen 3/RDNA 2 bootable installer. Not to downplay other software updates, but it is important to be able to install the OS on the latest hardware. RTX 3000 will not work at install because kernel support came after 5.10.

I read somewhere they were artificially stopping most gnome ecosystem application updates because these applications had adopted libhandy and that one of the main developers didnt like that the name libhandy implied it was aimed at mobile use cases.

If that is still the case, I would call it a semi-rolling distro.

Solus devs have always openly stated a vision for a desktop OS. Their actions are consistent, and they roll in that direction. When GTK components drop desktop features or add mobile dependencies, working around that is in line with the expectations they have created for their users.

[White Wolf]

I read somewhere they were artificially stopping most gnome ecosystem application updates because these applications had adopted libhandy and that one of the main developers didnt like that the name libhandy implied it was aimed at mobile use cases.

If that is still the case, I would call it a semi-rolling distro.

Yup, they are against all the mobile ping-pong. Budgie is developed in mind for PC with proper keys and mouse. I would say sure you can call it semi-rolling but thanks to that my system is stable. I was using Manjaro and it broke once after updates so I was looking for something nice looking from the box (dark theme is perfect as my eyes aren't young anymore ) and stable but with latest or almost latest updates for software/kernel . I'm really happy with Solus now.

[JacekJagosz]

Any news on the Budgie 11 front?

Budgie has come a long way but you can feel it hasn't yet the same maturity as the big DEs. I have high hopes for Budgie 11 though, but it's been a long time coming now.

When Ikey was still around he wanted to make Budgie 11 in QT. When he left, the rest of the team decided to stick with GTK. For many months now they said Budgie 11 will be written in GTK-4 and they were waiting for its release. In the meantime they did rewrite a few parts of Budgie that I think can be directly moved to B11, like Carbon Tray and Desktop View, which also fixed bigest problems wiht current Budgie.
We are still months away from its release, but I am more hopeful. For example main Budgie developer will soon hopefully move to full-time Open-Source development thanks to his patrons and creates desktop apps and hopefully will have more time to spend on Solus and Budgie.

[chocolate]

Solus devs have always openly stated a vision for a desktop OS. Their actions are consistent, and they roll in that direction. When GTK components drop desktop features or add mobile dependencies, working around that is in line with the expectations they have created for their users.

libhandy GTK apps are great on desktop since they adapt in a consistent manner when tiled, making them the ideal choice for a keyboard-centric workflow.

So essentially libhandy apps give the same flexibility of a scalable TUI or CLI, as typically used on a tiling WM, while avoiding problems such as text overflow; thus they make for better desktop apps than "traditional" desktop apps.