GCC 6.2.0 and Linux kernel 4.8.12 have landed in the repos

Dec 4, 2016 23:40 GMT  ·  By

The developers of the Debian-based SparkyLinux distribution announced this past weekend the release and immediate availability for download of the SparkyLinux 4.5 operating system.

SparkyLinux 4.5 comes more than three months after the SparkyLinux 4.4 "Tyche" release and promises to offer users fully updated installation mediums for its KDE, Xfce, LXDE, LXQt, and MATE flavors, which have been synced with the upstream Debian GNU/Linux repositories as of November 29, 2016. The SparkyLinux 4.5 ISO images are powered by Linux kernel 4.8.7.

"As before, Sparky 'Home' editions provide fully featured operating system based on Debian 'testing' with desktops of your choice: LXDE, LXQt, KDE, MATE, and Xfce," reads the announcement. "Sparky MinimalGUI and MinimalCLI lets you install the base system with a minimal set of applications and your favorite desktop, via the Sparky Advanced Installer."

Here's what's new in SparkyLinux 4.5

Prominent new features of SparkyLinux 4.5 include support for the CDE (Common Desktop Environment) and DDE (Deepin Desktop Environment) desktop environments, which users will be able to install via the MinimalGUI and MinimalCLI editions by using the APTus tool, as well as Midori as default web browser in MinimalGUI edition.

Midori replaces Netsurf which didn't work well with the HTTPS protocol, which is now being used for all SparkyLinux pages, including the blog, wiki, and forum. Another interesting change implemented in the SparkyLinux 4.5 release is support for exFAT filesystems, but it doesn't mention if there's a read/write implementation.

As expected, many of the pre-installed packages have been updated to their latest versions, and SparkyLinux 4.5 ships with the Mozilla Firefox 45.5.0 ESR web browser, Icedove 45.4.0 email and news client, LibreOffice 5.2.3 RC1 office suite, GCC 6.2.0 and 5.4.1, systemd 2.3.2, GNU C Library 2.24, as well as Python 2.7.12.

After installing SparkyLinux 4.5, users will be able to install the latest Linux 4.8.12 kernel, Mozilla Firefox 50.0.2, and Mozilla Thunderbird 45.5.1 apps from the repositories. Last but not least, the Pantheon desktop environment has been removed from the configuration. You can now download the SparkyLinux 4.5 Live ISO images from our website.