AerynOS 2025.08: A New Contender in the Linux Race?
The independent GNU/Linux distribution AerynOS has received a new update — version 2025.08. The system is being developed by Ikey Doherty, the former creator of Solus, and this marks its second release of the year, following AerynOS 2025.03, which debuted five months ago. The latest ISO image is available for download on the project’s official website.
Although the project remains in its alpha stage, it continues to receive steady improvements. The new build ships with GNOME 48.4 as the default desktop environment, though users may opt during installation for KDE Plasma 6.4 or System76’s Cosmic Alpha 7.
Key enhancements include support for virtual machines and modern hardware, the transition to a package set model, an improved installer, and a console-based installation option for advanced users. Repositories and ISO images are now distributed via a CDN, ensuring faster downloads.
By default, the scx_flash scheduler is employed. Developers have also fixed a PATH configuration issue that had previously caused problems with console logins. Authentication is now fully stateless, and sulogin has been enabled for diagnosing boot errors. More details are available in the project’s blog.
A more contentious decision is the choice of the Linux 6.15 kernel, which is already marked End of Life on kernel.org. However, users do benefit from a modern graphics stack with Mesa 25.2.
Other updated components include: Sway 1.11, LLVM 20.1.8, sudo-rs 0.2.8, uutils-coreutils 0.1.0, FFmpeg 7.1.1, fastfetch 2.51.1 (now featuring the AerynOS logo), Waydroid 1.5.4, OpenVPN 2.6.14, Protontricks 1.13.0, and Winetricks 20250102.
The developers stress that the project remains under active development. Upcoming priorities include automated package updates, streamlined rollback management, a new Rust-based disk handling system, fractional scaling out-of-the-box, and a redesigned installer supporting full-disk wipes with dynamic partitioning.
Despite its alpha status, AerynOS is gradually evolving into a fully-fledged distribution. For now, however, the team emphasizes that it should be used strictly for testing purposes rather than in production environments.
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