Many Linux distributions opt for the Xfce graphical environment mostly for performance. Between them there was Ubuntu Studio, but, according to its leader, KDE is just as light and offers many improvements. There are others who think the same, and the last to go overboard have been the developers of EndeavourOS Galileo. Now, this distribution does not have a graphical environment by default, or not in the same way that others do.
Let no one get upset about this. Or not too much. Although it also has its own philosophy, EndeavorOS is the closest thing to Arch Linux if it had a graphical installer. And the installer offers two options, the one that works with connection (online) and the one that works without connection (offline). It is only in the second case that the option is no longer Xfce. If we choose in online mode we can continue choosing Xfce and other graphical environments, as before. And this change comes from the installer, so it only affects new installations.
EndeavorOS Galileo uploads to Linux 6.6
The order of the list when choosing desktops has changed: KDE now appears first followed by GNOME and then Xfce, which until now appeared first. As for the desktops, the rest remains the same: there are none marked by default, and you can choose not to install any if you wish or KDE, GNOME, Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE, Budgie, LXQt, LXDE and i3-wm.
Community editions Sway, Qtile, BSPWM, Openbox and Worm are dropped from the list. As happens in most cases in which options are eliminated, the reason is that there are no maintainers who can offer a guaranteed experience.
The reason for switching to KDE is to make things easier for developers and the use of the Calamares installer.
other developments
- Local hostname resolution will be enabled on new installations.
- Stronger LUKS2 encryption when choosing systemd-boot.
- The ability to install more than one desktop during installation has been removed. From what it seems, installing more than one could cause conflicts in the packages, and it seems a good idea to install one, make it consistent and, after installation and if the user assumes responsibility, install more.
- The package selection screen has been restructured. It is now clearer and easier to discover packages.
- EFI partition permissions have been tightened.
- Improved fstab.
- SElinux warnings have been removed.
- Dracut related packages have been added to Holdpkg.
- Improvements in the EndeavorOS app.
- Updated packages:
- squid 23.11.1.1-1.
- firefox 119.0.1-1.
- linux 6.6.1.arch1-1.
- table 1:23.2.1-2.
- xorg-server 21.1.9-1 (xorg).
- nvidia-dkms 545.29.02-2.
EndeavourOS Galileo arrived on November 20 after a delay caused by bugs that needed to be fixed. The new ISO, which we remember is for new installations, is available at their website.
More information in notes from this release.