The latest version of KaOS can be downloaded from Softpedia

Jun 12, 2014 14:36 GMT  ·  By

KaOS 2014.06, a Linux distribution built from scratch that uses KDE as the default desktop environment, is now available for download and comes with a huge number of changes.

KaOS is a very interesting operating system because the developers are choosing their own path. This is one of the few Linux distributions out there that are not based on another OS and everything is built from scratch.

“At the base of the system some of the updates this ISO has, linux 3.14.6 with the futex bug fix included, gcc 4.8.3, llvm 3.4.1, Qt5 5.3.0, openssl 1.0.1.h, mesa 10.2.1, bash 4.3.018, poppler 0.26.1. Systemd 213 was part of the updates tested but did not make the cut, 212 is the version of systemd on this ISO. With this ISO, KaOS makes the switch to present XFS as the default filesystem, a good explanation for the reasons behind this switch can be found in this XFS presentation.”

“The latest KDE 4.13.2 version is available on this ISO, the second in a series of monthly stabilization updates to the 4.13 series. It includes 40 recorded bugfixes, includes improvements to Personal Information Management suite Kontact, Umbrello UML Modeller, the Desktop search functionality, web browser Konqueror and the file manager Dolphin,” reads the official announcement.

The developers have made hundreds of other changes and improvements. For example, FFMpeg 2 (2.2.3) has been integrated, all the dependencies for GStreamer 0.10 have been removed (only GStreamer 1.x is included), Clementine has been replaced with Amarok (old GStreamer dependency), a few hundred new icons have been added to the flattr-icons set, Calligra has been updated to version 2.8.3, LibreOffice has been updated to version 4.2.4, Google Chrome 37 has been integrated, and Firefox 30.0 has been added as well.

Also, a full set of Input Method packages (fcitx) have been added to the repositories, the NVIDIA 337.25 driver has been added, Mesa has been updated to version 10.2.1, openSSL 1.0.1.h has been included by default, and XFS is now the default file system.

It looks like the developers of KaOS have worked very hard to integrate only the latest packages in their distro and it shows in the final product.

The number of packages that received new updates and various improvements is in the hundreds, but the normal update process should take care of everything.

Check the official announcement for more details about this release. You can download KaOS 2014.06 right now from Softpedia.