EndeavourOS has recently announced the release of the EndeavourOS 25.11 “Mercury” distribution. This new release continues the development of the Antergos project and aims to provide users with the ability to install Arch Linux with a selected desktop environment. The installation image for this release is 3.4 GB (x86_64) and includes a variety of desktop options to choose from.
The distribution features a simple installer based on the Calamares toolkit, offering desktop options such as KDE (default), Mate, LXQt, Cinnamon, Xfce, GNOME, Budgie, as well as i3, BSPWM, and Sway tiled window managers. Additional support for Qtile and Openbox window managers, UKUI, LXDE, and Deepin desktops is currently in development. A new window manager called Worm is being developed by one of the project developers.
In the EndeavourOS 25.11 release, several updates and improvements have been made. The Linux kernel has been upgraded to version 6.17.8, and the Calamares installer has been updated to version 25.11.1.9. Graphics stack components such as Mesa 25.2.7, xorg-server 21.1.20, and Nvidia-utils 580.105.08 have also been updated.
- Improved support for systems with NVIDIA video cards by adding the nvidia-open package with open kernel modules for NVIDIA GPUs.
- Default disabling of the broadcom-wl driver for Broadcom wireless chips due to compatibility issues with other network devices.
- Replacement of the Maliit virtual keyboard with Qt Virtual Keyboard in the KDE Plasma-based environment.
- Removal of the Gnome-screenshot application from the GNOME-based environment.
- Replacement of the Obconf configurator with lxappearance-obconf-gtk3 in the LXDE-based environment.
- Replacement of the Xbacklight program with brightnessctl in the i3 window manager environment.
