Solus Linux 4.0
solus has always been quite an exciting distro. The keen-eyed among you will have noticed that the latest release, Solus 4.0 ‘Fortitude’, hit the net back in March. And now it’s here – well, over on the front of the mag, or wherever you’ve put the disc.
Most notably, it’s not based on Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora or anything for that matter – it’s totally independent. It has its own desktop environment, Budgie – available on other distros and featuring in the official Ubuntu Budgie flavour – that not only is fabulous, but is fast and becoming even more so. We’re particularly fond of its Raven sidebar, which can configure pretty much anything you like.
The current version, Budgie 10.5, has a new and improved applications menu and a new GTK theme called Plata (Noir), the successor to the popular Adapta-nokto theme. It’s also back to being officially a Solus project now, albeit one that’s easily ported to other distros, rather than an independent effort subject to other distros messing with it.
Our Technical Editor is famously fond of caffeine, so he’s simply overjoyed at Budgie’s new ‘Caffeine Mode’ which, although it doesn’t supply a USB intravenous drip of the good stuff, does disable screen locking or dimming. Perfect for when you’re staring fixedly at a chunk of recalcitrant code, or staring down a stack trace, or pontificating over the layout of the next exciting Linux Format cover.
Solus introduced the cross-distro Linux
Steam Integration tool in 2017. This optionally circumvents (parts of) Steam’s aged runtime, and works around other quirks to make for a more fun gaming experience. So if gaming’s your thing, Solus has you covered.
It’s a shame that Solus had a bit of a rough ride over the last few months. Work on Budgie 11 has now resumed, and no longer will it be a Qt-based affair as had been previously indicated – rather, it will embrace GTK4. Solus will soon get its own next-generation package manager named Sol, and all in all the future is looking very bright for this distro.