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EasyOS Excalibur-series version 7.4 released

June 15, 2026 — BarryK

Firstly, an announcement blurb; split into a generic statement and a version-7.4-specific statement.

Generic statement, extracted from the 7.0 release announcement:

Compared with prior releases of EasyOS, the Excalibur-series is a "whole new ball game". All prior EasyOSs were built with woofQ; Easy Excalibur is built with woofQ2, that is a redesign of woofQ based on Debian's APT underpinning all package management. Easy has PKGget, a package manager GUI, that is able to install all kinds of packages, such as .deb, .txz, .rpm and .pet; that chameleon-like ability is retained, but now PKGget is a wrapper on top of APT. So now PKGget and APT talk to each other, and even if utilities such as 'apt' and 'apt-get' are used in a terminal, it will automatically sync in PKGget.

Easy Excalibur is built with Devuan Excalibur packages, equivalent to Debian 13 Trixie, but without systemd. Instead, EasyOS uses the simple busybox init, enhanced with pup_event service management.

EasyOS has inbuilt containers support, known as "Easy Containers" and this is taken to the next level. In particular, there is now a pre-created container named "devx" that has everything for a compiler/development environment. Like all Easy Containers, "devx" runs just by clicking a desktop icon, and the user can flip between any of them with single clicks.

Easy Excalibur is big, the download is around 1GB; and it takes EasyOS's habit of "including the kitchen sink" to the next level. Not just the Chromium browser, also the SeaMonkey browser suite is included, builtin. And of course all the usual guys, such as SMPlayer, Inkscape, Gimp, SolveSpace, LibreOffice, HomeBank, YRadio, Osmo, NoteCase and Audacious. As well, lots of utility and support apps, such as GParted, Blueman, NetworkManager, gFTP, YouTubeDL, and dozens that are found only in the Puppy-family or exclusively in EasyOS.

Announcement specific to 7.4 and releases leading up to 7.4:

Version 7.4 is a "milestone" release, consolidating EasyOS as supporting "legacy" software architectures, including Xlibre xorg server and gtk2-ng.

We are committing to ongoing support, updating and enhancing, of gtk2-based applications; including ROX-Filer, that has undergone many fixes and improvements, such as memory-leak fix, back-forward history buttons, and video thumbnails.

We adhere to the Unix philosophy of "do one thing and do it well", which is why we do not use systemd; instead EasyOS uses busybox init, with pup_event service management. We also look to simplify wherever possible, which is why EasyOS does not have policykit, pam or avahi. Version 7.4 continues refining the underlying "plumbing", with numerous behind-the-scenes fixes and enhancements.

We continue to refine and improve the inbuilt package collection, as usual including the "kitchen sink". For example, we have replaced the Celluloid media player, which has been troublesome, with SMPlayer and VIDplay (a chromium-based video player). Other refinements include replacing StreamTuner2 Internet radio player with YRadio.

Having the "kitchen sink" builtin means that we want to have applications builtin to satisfy 99% of users. One niche area is a simple database application; this gap is now filled by Symphytum.

Lots of utility applications have been fixed and improved, including EasyCast screen recorder, DropboxGUI dropbox.com file manager, improved optical drive handling and fixes for pBurn CD/DVD burner app. The list goes on.

The Linux kernel is now at 6.12.92, and finally, Sound Open Firmware (SOF) is enabled. We had so much trouble with it in the past, and stayed with the legacy sound drivers. However, very modern computers may require SOF and we are pleased to get it working.

Various printing enhancements, including drivers for all of the Phomemo thermal printers.

The online release notes document all changes since 7.0:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.3/release-notes.htm

For newcomers to EasyOS, recommend a quick read of this page, that itemizes how and why EasyOS is different from any other Linux operating system:

https://easyos.org/about/how-and-why-easyos-is-different.html

Also for newcomers, we have started a YouTube series on EasyOS. The first video is here:

"EasyOS Part1: Introduction"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEYtxwwv644

If you would like to browse though recent posts on the development blog, here are posts since version 7.3.9:

Posts since version 7.3.8:

Download

EasyOS ships as a drive-image file, not as an ISO. Download from here, courtesy of ibiblio.org:

http://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.4/

A mirror in the USA, courtesy of Linux User Group at UMBC (thanks to amerrym1, see forum):

https://mirror.lug.umbc.edu/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.4/

Fast mirror in Europe courtesy of NLUUG:

https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.4/

Australia, courtesy of aarnet:

https://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.4/

Documentation

If you know about ISO files, not drive-image files, they are quite easy to install. Either write to a USB-stick (flash drive) and boot that, or open it up and copy the files into an internal drive. There are tutorials that explain these choices, such as this one to install to an internal drive:

https://easyos.org/install/easy-frugal-installation.html

Or, to a USB-stick (or any complete drive):

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

...recommend use a good quality USB-stick, such as Sandisk Ultra or Sandisk Extreme, at least 16GB. Even better, an external SSD.

Easy since 7.0 has had basically the same muted bluish theme, with nature-scenes wallpaper. Was getting a bit bored with it, so dreamed up something totally different for 7.3+. You might find this a bit less restful on the eyes than muted-blue:

img1

High-resolution, 1680x1050 pixels, is here.

The wallpaper was created by Australian Aboriginal artist Sarah Levett, see here.

Might end up going back to a more muted theme, especially as will be taking lots of photos soon in the Australian countryside, that will be likely wallpapers. But for now, this orange-brown-red theme is OK.

Feedback welcome at the forum. Any issues encountered, there are guys keen to help:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=172251#p172251

Have fun!    

Tags: easy