The developers behind the KaOS project are happy to carry out the announcement of the new update version of KaOS 2019.04, launch with which tThey are also celebrating their sixth anniversary from the creation of this Linux distribution.
KaOS is a distribution that was created by Anke "Demm" Boersma, who initially worked on Chrakra Linux. KaOS unlike other distros was developed from ceror. According to its developers, its goal to be more differentiated. These include a limited selection of applications or exclusive support for 64-bit architecture.
A bit about KaOS
KaOS is characterized by being an independent Linux distribution which includes the latest version of the KDE Plasma desktop environment and other popular software programs that use the Qt toolkit.
It was originally based on Arch LinuxBut since April 2013, developers started creating their own packages, which are now available from KaOS's own warehouse.
The packaging is managed by the team itself, only for the stable versions, and controlled by the Pacman installer. KaOS uses a Rolling Relase publishing development model and it is only available for 64-bit systems.
As always, this distribution continues to be updated every two months and an update release is no exception this month.
What's new in KaOS 2019.04?
In this new release of KaOS 2019.04 as part of the commemoration of its sixth anniversary developers they have completely updated the song "Midna" changes include a custom icon theme for light and dark themes.
Both Midna and Midna Dark give a unified look from start to close.
Of the novelties that stand out in this update is that system components have been updated to the latest versions, of them the desktop environment along with all its packages to the new version of KDE applications 19.04.
The basis of the system that was built with Qt 5.12.3 is upgraded to Plasma Desktop versions, which include Frameworks 5.57.0, Plasma 5.14.4 and KDE Applications 19.04 in which the developers included an extensive rewrite of Kdenlive improving its overall architecture.
Dolphin features smarter tab placement and KMail includes support for language tools (grammar checker).
Another application that was updated was LibreOffice which came with its version 6.2.0 and which also happened to replace the Calligra suite as the default Office application for KaOS.
Another important point to highlight in this new version is the elimination of python2 from the KaOS repositories, which is being phased out and replaced by Python 3 and that the developers expect this process to be completed by the end of the year.
Finally we can also highlight the option to verify the authenticity of downloaded KaOS ISOs through the verification GPG signature. You can check the details of this In the following link.
De the other notable updates to the system foundation are: GCC 8.3.0, Glibc 2.29, Linux 5.0.8, Systemd 242, MariaDB 10.3.14, LLVM 7.1.0, Mesa 19.0.3, NetworkManager 1.18.0, Rust 1.34. 0, Nano 4.2, GStreamer 1.16.0 and Qt 5.12.3.
To know more details about this new launch you can consult the following link.
Download KaOS 2019.04
Finally, if you don't have KaOS installed on your computer yet and you want to download and install this Linux distribution focused on the KDE desktop environment on your computer or you want to test it under a virtual machine.
You just have to go to the official website of the distribution and in its download section you can get the system image. The link is this.
You can save the downloaded image to a USB device with the help of the Etcher application.
Si you are already a KaOS user, you must have received these updates in the last few days. But if you don't know if you already have them installed, just open a terminal and run the following commands in it:
sudo pacman -Syuu
Finally, you must accept the updates if they exist and I recommend restarting your computer.