14 DAY TRIAL // The SparkyLinux 5.8 "Nibiru" operating system was released and it's the first release of the new stable line to be based on the Debian GNU/Linux 10 "Buster" operating system series.
SparkyLinux 5.8 continues the SparkyLinux 5.x "Nibiru" series, a rolling release version of this Debian-based operating system that lets users install once and receive updates forever. However, SparkyLinux 5.8 being based on Debian GNU/Linux 10 "Buster," it is recommended for fresh installations too.
Powered by the Linux 4.19.37-5 kernel on 32-bit (i686) and 64-bit (amd64), as well as Linux kernel 4.19.57-v7+ on ARMhf, the SparkyLinux 5.8 "Nibiru" release is synced with the Debian GNU/Linux 10 "Buster" stable software repositories as of July 14th, 2019. It ships with Xfce, LXQt, Openbox, and CLI editions.
What's new in SparkyLinux 5.8
Highlights of the SparkyLinux 5.8 release include the latest Calamares 3.2.11 graphical installer, sparky-tube installed as default, NetworkManager in the CLI ARMhf image, obconf-qt in the LXQt edition, and nm-tray replacing network-manager-gnome in the LXQt edition.
The apt-daily.service has been disabled in this release, which also removes some old third-party repositories. Of course, SparkyLinux 5.8 also contains numerous other updated components from Debian GNU/Linux 10 "Buster," as well as other small fixes and improvements.
SparkyLinux 5.8 is available for download as LXQt, Xfce, MinimalGUI (Openbox), and MinimalCLI (text mode) editions. Existing SparkyLinux 5.x users don't need to reinstall, but they need to make sure their installations use Debian's ‘buster’ or ‘stable’ repositories, not the 'testing' ones. To update, simply run the following commands in a terminal emulator.
sudo apt update
sudo apt install sparky5-apt
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade