The KaOS team has unveiled KaOS 2018.10. It is a stable snapshot of rolling GNU/Linux distribution offering a top class Plasma experience. This release features the Plasma Desktop 5.14, which was released a few days back. It also brings a redesigned icon and application theme and fresh wallpapers.

What is special in KaOS 2018.10?

In addition to usual package updates and Plasma Desktop 5.14, KaOS brings a handful of other changes. It includes Croeso - A redesigned Welcome to provide some quick configuration options on start, improved artwork, and other updates.

The main highlights in KaOS 2018.10 release are briefed below.

Plasma 5.14

KaOS 2018.10 brings Plasma 5.14, a major release of Plasma Desktop. It brings features like a new display configuration widget which is useful for presentations, the Audio Volume widget now has a built-in speaker test feature moved from Phonon settings, Plasma now warns on logout when other users are logged in, fixed non-centered task switchers on Wayland and the Kickoff application menu now switch tabs instantly on hover.

Introduces Croeso to configure the system on the first start

KaOS 2018.10 replaces PyQt based first run wizard with a tool named Croeso. It is written using QML and provides various options like changing mouse settings, custom wallpaper changer, system info ..etc.

Improved Artwork

The artwork in KaOS 2018.10 includes custom icon themes for light and dark themes. Midna and Midna Dark both create a complete unified look from boot-up all the way through logout. There was a complete redesign of the Midna theme for 2018.

No more Qt4

The KaOS has discontinued the support for Qt4 applications by this release. Officially, Qt4 development was discontinued 3 years. So far, KaOS continued support for Qt4. Now, finally, it is time to say bye with Qt4.

Updated packages

As a rolling snapshot, KaOS 2018.10 brings a set of updated packages. It includes Glibc 2.27 , GCC 7.3.1, Linux 4.18.12, Boost 1.68.0, Wayland 1.16.0, GStreamer 1.14.4, ICU 62.1, Systemd 239, Mesa 18.2.2, NetworkManager 1.14.0, Rust 1.29.1, Nano 3.1, Bison 3.1, Apache 2.4.35 and Qt 5.11.2

Updated tool chain

The toolchain has been updated with Glibc 2.27/GCC 7.3.1. It requires updates to Boost, ICU, x265, Protobuf, Net-SNMP, and Qt to rebuild most of the packages in repositories.

For further details on KaOS 2018.10, proceed to release announcement published on distributions website.