14 DAY TRIAL // AryaLinux has received its first release in 2017, and it looks like it's a good one. AryaLinux is both a builder for those who want to create their own GNU/Linux distribution from scratch, and a computer operating system.
AryaLinux 2017 is the first major release of the project for the new year, bringing some of the best tools and GNU/Linux technologies that are currently available on the market. Yes, that means you can now enjoy the latest Linux 4.9 kernel, the LibreOffice 5.2.3 office suite, and much more.
It's also the first release of AryaLinux to ship with the latest development version of the MATE desktop environment, MATE 1.17, which was upgraded from MATE 1.15 used in the last AryaLinux build. Apart from that, there's another edition of the OS with the more popular Xfce desktop.
Simple Screen Recorder makes a comeback, 32-bit ISOs dropped
The most important change in AryaLinux 2017 is the fact that there's no more support for 32-bit platforms. The ISO images of the GNU/Linux distribution are only available in 64-bit flavors, and so will be future releases of the OS. The builder also no longer allows you to build 32-bit operating systems using freely available source code.
But cheer up because the new AryaLinux version comes bundled with lots of other goodies that we bet you'll love, such as build scripts for building fully-featured GNOME and KDE Plasma desktop environments from source code, as well as a separate builder image that can be used to create your own distro from scratch.
"The builder script simplifies the process of build further. Only one script needs to be run and the whole system would be built without any intervention," explained the developers in the release announcement. "Advanced build options like configuring the kernel can be specified while building."
The Simple Screen Recorder Linux program for recording apps and games makes a comeback in AryaLinux 2017, with its new Qt 5 user interface, Parole Media Player (for the Xfce flavor) and Exaile (for the MATE edition) are now the default audio players, and many other core components were bumped to their latest versions.
Another interesting change is that you'll now be able to update packages through the Alps package manager, which now features a new command to list installed packages and all the available ones. You can also build packages from sources or a source URL using Alps, and its "updatescripts" can now fetch the latest build scripts from GitHub.
AryaLinux 2017 is available for download today from its official website, where it's distributed for free as 64-bit Xfce and MATE flavors. There, you'll also find the new AryaLinux 2017 Builder image, and, of course, all the information you need to get started with building your own GNU/Linux operating system from scratch.