The latest version of the Linux distribution Solus, known as Solus 4.9, has been released. Unlike other distributions, Solus develops its own installer, package manager, and configurator. Previously, the Budgie desktop was part of the distribution, but it is now a separate project. The upcoming branch, Solus 5, will utilize technologies from the AerynOS distribution. Development code for the project is distributed under the GPLv2 license, with C and Vala as the main programming languages. Builds are available with Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Xfce desktops, ranging in size from 2.6 to 2.9 GB for x86_64 machines.
The distribution uses the package manager eopkg, a fork of PiSi from Pardus Linux. The manager offers tools for package installation, removal, repository searches, and management. Packages are organized into thematic components, forming categories and subcategories. For example, Firefox falls under the network.web.browser component within the Network Applications category and Web Applications subcategory. Users have access to over 2,000 packages in the repository.
Solus follows a hybrid development model, which involves releasing major updates with new technologies and improvements. In between major releases, the distribution is continuously updated using a rolling model for package updates.
Various media players are included in the different desktop editions. Decibel and Celluloid are available for music and video playback in the Budgie and GNOME editions respectively. Elisa and Haruna are the players in the KDE edition, while Parole is used for multimedia files in the Xfce edition.
Key changes in Solus 4.9 include systemd using a directory with presets to manage default services, changing the privileged operations group from sudo to wheel, and updating the Calamares installer to version 3.4.2. This release now supports hybrid bootloader installations, creating boot partitions for systemd-boot and GRUB2 simultaneously. The default size of the EFI boot partition has been increased to 2 GB to accommodate larger kernel modules, firmware modules, and NVIDIA packages. Additionally, updated versions of packages such as the Linux kernel 6.18.21, GRUB 2.14, Mesa 26.0.4, Firefox 149.0.2, LibreOffice 25.8.6.2, and Thunderbird 149.0.2 are included.