EasyOS Kirkstone-series version 5.7 released

February 04, 2024 — BarryK

It has been 7 months since the last announcement on Distrowatch; that was version 5.4. A huge amount of "water under the bridge" since then, and we are now at version 5.7. Certainly, overdue for another Distrowatch announcement.

The release notes from 5.4 to 5.7 can be found here:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/kirkstone/2024/5.7/release-notes.htm

Picking through those, some highlights can be listed here. First, however, a general announcement blurb:

EasyOS is an experimental Linux distribution, that explores several concepts that are unique. EasyOS is standalone, that is, not based on any other distribution, and the Kirkstone-series is built with packages compiled from source in a fork of OpenEmbedded/Yocto. There is a page that itemizes how and why Easy is different from other distributions, here, but very briefly; container-friendly, runs fast in RAM, drive isolation, each app may be set to run as its own user, distributed as a drive-image file only (no ISO), frugal install, snapshot and rollback/forward, four packages managers, pup_event service manager, JWM-ROX desktop, folder encryption, hardware profiling. Also, not unique, but important; support for old computers.

EasyOS since version 5.4 was announced on Distrowatch, has undergone a myriad of changes; lots of little fixes and improvements, new applications and architectural features. Here are some highlights, in no particular order:

New applications KeePassXC, Symphytum, Flowblade, p7zip
More translations, in particular Turkish and Russian
Improved support for VMs, with AQEMU and QtEmu
Sudo replaced with "sudo-sh"
Login and Security Manager overhauled
Change folder hierachy to usr-merge, including /usr/sbin
PKGget support to install Void .xbps packages
Many system-level fixes, including network and samba
Many app versions bumped, including Chromium, Htop, Limine, Global-IP-TV-Panel
NVIDIA driver SFSs
Install latest Chrome, Vivaldi and Firefox in menu
Kernel now 5.15.148
Sync'ed with OpenEmbedded/Yocto release 4.0.14

...this has only picked out a few highlights; please read the release notes for a more complete list, with links to blog posts. You might also find it interesting to read the announcement for version 5.4, for comparison:

https://bkhome.org/news/202306/easyos-kirkstone-series-version-54-released.html

Newcomers, download the drive-image file from here, courtesy of ibiblio:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/kirkstone/2024/5.7/

A fast mirror in Europe, courtesy of NLUUG:

https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/easyos/amd64/releases/kirkstone/2024/

Those already running EasyOS only need to click on the "update" icon on the desktop to update to 5.7.

If all that you know is ISOs and don't know how to write a drive-image file to a USB flash drive, read this:

https://easyos.org/install/how-to-write-easyos-to-a-flash-drive.html

You can also open up the drive-image file and install directly to an internal drive. There are various tutorials about this at easyos.org. Install in what we call "frugal mode" is extemely easy, especially if you already have a boot manager installed, such as GRUB, ReFInd, or Limine.

Feedback is welcome at the Puppy Linux Forum, in the EasyOS section:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewforum.php?f=63

If you browse recent posts on my blog, and in the forum, you will see a lot about a "next generation" EasyOS, that is for now codenamed "easyVoid", with a new build system named "woofV". Easy is already experimental; woofV is going to to be "experimental on steroids". It is slow going though, and cannot say when there will be an actual release.

Another parallel strain likely to emerge in 2024 will be the "Scarthgap-series", that will, maybe, supercede the Kirkstone-series. Just mentioning these projects; cannot say definitely yet what will finally materialise.

Note that despite these new projects, it is planned to keep the Kirkstone-series going, as OpenEmbedded/Yocto will be supporting it for the next couple of years. It is hoped that there will be a seamless update from Kirkstone to Scarthgap via the desktop "update" button.

Tags: easy