Published release of Nitrux 5.0.0 distribution, built on the Debian package base and supplied with an initialization system OpenRC. The full boot image is 3.3 GB in size. The developments of the project are distributed under free licenses.
Previously, the project developed its own desktop NX Desktop, implemented in the form of an add-on over KDE Plasma, but now the distribution has switched to delivering a new user environment built on the basis composite server Hyprland, panels Waybar and Crystal Dock, application menu Wofi and the shutdown menu in the Wlogout system. To launch games, a composite server Gamescope, developed by Valve, is proposed. Sway Notification Center is used to display notifications, and SwayOSD is used to display on-screen indicators.
The Hyprland composite server uses Wayland and provides capabilities for creating visually attractive interfaces: gradients in window framing, background blur, animation effects and shadows. Plugins can be connected to expand functionality, and socket-based IPC is provided for external operation control. Configuration is carried out through a configuration file, changes in which are picked up on the fly without restarting. The functions also include: dynamically created virtual desktops; modes of arrangement of elements on the screen; global processing of hotkeys; gesture control on the touchpad/touch screen.
Other changes in the Nitrux 5.0 release:
- To install additional programs, the NX AppHub toolkit and the AppBox format are used, which are presented as more preferable than the previously used AppImage format. In addition to AppBox, Flatpak and Distrobox are supported for installing programs.
- The root partition in the distribution is now mounted in read-only mode, and changes are applied using the NX Overlayroot toolkit (a fork of Overlayroot).
- Instead of the SDDM display manager, the login manager greetd and the login screen QtGreet.
- In addition to the package with the Linux kernel 6.17.7, supplied with patches Liquorix, a kernel version from the CachyOS project is proposed. Added support for the “sched_ext” (SCX) mechanism, which allows you to use eBPF to create CPU schedulers.