The latest release of KaOS 2025.05 has been published, featuring updates aimed at providing a fresh KDE desktop experience with QT applications. One of the notable design features is the placement of the vertical panel on the right side of the screen. The distribution, inspired by Arch Linux, maintains its own independent repository with over 1,500 packages and offers several graphic utilities. It defaults to using the XFS file system with assemblies available for x86_64 systems.
Key features of KaOS include:
- UEFI systems utilize Systemd-boot for loading
- ISOWRITER interface for writing ISO files to USB disks with verification
- Libreoffice included with VCL-plugins KF5 and QT5 for native KDE and QT integration
- Croeso system for system setup and application installation
- XFS file system with integrity check and separate BTREE index of free Inode
- Digital signature verification for loaded ISO files
- SDDM display manager with launch option in Wayland mode
- Installer (Calamares) with automatic disk section breakdown and FS selection
- Phonon-MPV backend in Phonon sound library for working with sound devices
In the new version, desktop components have been updated to QT 6.9, KDE Frameworks 6.14.0, KDE Plasma 6.3.5, and KDE Gear 25.04. QT5 libraries have been removed, though still available for installation from repositories, with applications such as Frescobaldi, Krita, Kamoso, and Calligraplan adapted for QT 6 and KDE Frameworks 6. Various packages have also been updated including Linux 6.14, Systemd 254.24, Mesa 25.1.1, and more.