Many times, when we publish an article talking about an operating system we say that said system is based on another system, as Ubuntu is based on Debian and, for example, Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu. The most common today is that every new operating system is based on others, but that is not what the developers of the main system of this post thought, an operating system developed from scratch whose KaOS 2019.07 It is now available.
KaOS was born in December 2013, so it is not yet five years old. It was originally called KdeOS, but it changed its name to KaOS so as not to confuse users. Its developers intend to create a modern operating system focused on Plasma, Qt and 64bits, as well as include the best applications and tools. The July 2019 version of this operating system arrives with KDE Applications 19.04.2.
KaOS: familiar, but different
When we start KaOS, something worth doing in GNOME Boxes first (because it looks great without installing anything extra) catches your eye… everything. To begin with, and this may have to do with the fact that they intend to launch a totally different operating system, the Plasma 'bottom' panel / bar is on the right. How many operating systems have you seen that have it there? In this bar, which is the first thing you see and what attracts the most attention, we see many more icons than we see in Kubuntu or KDE Neon, for example. For starters, it is configured with the "icons only" task manager option and the application launcher in the "applications menu". I mention all this because, as a Kubuntu user, it "shocks" me.
For everything else, KaOS uses its own theme for Plasma but, once we get used to it, the apps will work the same because they are KDE applications, such as Dolphin, Konsole or Spectacle. Ah, also mention that you use the KDE Dolphin web browser. And one more thing: KaOS use pacman as a package management system.
What's New in KaOS 2019.07
- Plasma 19.04.2, available from June 25.
- KDE Applications 19.04.2.
- KDE Frameworks 5.59.
- Qt 5.13.
- LibreOffice 6.2. Until now I used Calligra.
- Linux 5.1.15.
- X.Org Server 1.20.5.
- Glib2 2.60.4.
- Network Manager 1.18.1.
- GStreamer 1.16.0.
- iptable 1.8.3.
- GNU nano 4.3.
- Krb5 1.17.
- Project 6.6.6.
- Popper 0.78.0.
- Squid 3.2.9.
- The welcome module displays language sections defined by location.
- The partition module offers additional checks to validate the partition layers.
For those interested, you can now download KaOS 2019.07 from this link.
