What started as a Hobbie For its developer it is much more than that and it is establishing itself as a serious option for those who want something based on Ubuntu and not take relatively large leaps every six months. This afternoon announced the launch of Rhino Linux 2023.4, which will be the last update of this year and has arrived, after a longer development time than usual, about three months after the previous point-three.
I have to admit two things about its graphic environment: at first I thought "another?" and now, with the passing of the months, I no longer see it as bad. First they thought about using a normal Xfce, but later they decided to create their own called Unicort. Rhino Linux 2023.4 arrives with Unicorn #39, and among its new features stands out that there is optional auto-stacking of windows. After updating and restarting, a new applet will appear at the top right and from there we can manage this behavior.
Rhino 2023.4 now allows auto-stacking of windows
I think it doesn't hurt to explain what this thing is. self-stacking, at least for those who have never used a window manager. Typically, to the point that I haven't seen anything different, window managers open new windows full screen (maybe with border spacing that you can configure), and the next one will make the screen divide by two, the next by three and so on. This is automatic stacking, very different from what they offer now Plasma o GNOME with an extension.
Most outstanding news
But many of the changes will probably be less noticeable, and Rhino Linux 2023.4 includes new features such as:
- uLauncher now appears more rounded and the background color has been changed a bit.
- If Nala is installed,
rhino-pkg updateno longer automatically removes packages by default. - To remove unnecessary packages or broken dependencies, the command can now be used:
rhino-pkg cleanup
- Starting with Pacstall 4.3.0, packages use the Debian priority flag.
- About PINE64:
- Modem stability fixes have been pushed to both PinePhone and PinePhone Pro, as well as enabling GPS support.
- The PineTab2 now features an experimental, easier-to-use WiFi module.
- All PinePhones and PineTabs now offer flashlight support.
- All of these changes have been made directly from Oren Klopfer's Ubuntu Touch port.
- The “Your System” application now displays the version number in pill form, and can be copied to the clipboard by clicking.
- pacstall-qa is now introduced as a new default package. pacstall-qa is a tool developed by Pacstall as a tool to test PR pascripts locally.
- During the 2023.4 development cycle they announced the launch of The Unicorn Beyond XFCE initiative as a way to create official ports of Unicorn to other desktop environments.
- The kernels installed for this version are 6.6.7-generic for desktop, 6.7.0-rc5-okpine on Pine64 devices, and 6.5.0-raspi for Raspberry Pi.
- Error correction.
New ISOs and updates from the operating system
Rhino Linux is a distribution with a development model rolling release, and that means that everything they add appears as updates to existing installations. Furthermore, because some may rightly say that this also happens in other non-Rollings, in Rolling there are no big leaps between version and version. When they release something new, like today, what they actually do is offer new ISO images, and these are available on this link for desktop computers, from PINE64 and Raspberry Pi.
Users who are on an older version can receive all updates by opening a terminal and typing the following:
rpk update -y
Already in 2024, the project plans to improve sections such as the installer with Pacstall 5.0.0, and also change to Wayland, but for the latter there is still work to do. And the future has never been so close and so far at the same time.