The dream of those who wanted a Rolling Release version of Ubuntu is now a reality. More or less. A few hours ago, it has become official the launch of Rhino Linux 2023.1, which is the first stable version of the operating system that started out as Ubuntu Rolling. They don't openly say how they came up with the name, and so one can't be 100% sure if they were inspired by it. rolling rhinoceros by Martin Wimpress.
It is clearer how it all started. AJ (httpllamaz?), the developer who came up with the idea, started working on Rolling Rhino Remix, and it seems to me a lot of coincidence so that there is nothing of the idea of Wimpress. At first he did it as a hobby without much control, but the community started using it. He realized that he could not continue on the path he had taken and in October 2022 he changed course.
Rhino Linux uses Unicorn Desktop
Rhino Linux always used Xfce, but not long ago they presented a variation that they baptized as Unicorn Desktop. The interface is very reminiscent of GNOME 3, with the top panel, a dock on the left, and virtual desktops coming out of the right. Its developers have added some of their own tools, such as the search bar.
The package manager they have opted for is pacstall, one similar to the Arch Linux AUR. The reason is that, being a Rolling Release distro, updates must be fast, and Pacstall supports this. But users more used to Ubuntu don't worry, because APT is still available. It is recommended, however, to use Pacstall as long as the package is in its repository.
To search for a package with Pacstall you have to type in the terminal and without the quotes «sudo pacstall -S package», and if there are matches install it with "sudo pacstall -I match», changing "package" to the name of the package to search for and "match" to the match we want to install.
In addition, it has the rhino-pkg package manager which combines APT, Pacstall, Flatpak and Snap. If we don't know where to find a package, we can write pkg package to see the options and their sources.
Install the operating system with Calamares
The operating system uses calamers for its installation, which I believe is the most used installer on Linux. Among other things, it allows you to easily install an operating system on a flash drive, something that is also possible with others, but not as easily and with less danger of breaking grub.
Users interested in downloading Rhino Linux 2023.1 can do so from the project download page, where there are images for traditional computers (x86_64), for PINE64 devices and for Raspberry Pi (ARM64).