Back from the Ashes: Solus 4.4 Has Been Unveiled

After the Linux community lived in a state of anxiety for quite a while about the future of one of the most prominent and famous distributions, the Solus team announced, in an atmosphere that I am sure is filled with joy, the release of Solus 4.4 with a very appropriate code name "Harmony" packed with dozens of improvements and updates. Let's dive into the exciting features of this highly anticipated release.

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Desktop Environment Enhancements

Solus boasts four editions, all of which got a lot of upgrades and improvements in Solus 4.4.

Budgie Edition

In the Budgie Edition, Solus 4.4 ships with the latest Budgie 10.7 desktop, featuring several bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements. The Budgie menu gains vital new features, including dual-GPU support, quick access to the XDG directory, and convenient settings buttons.
In a notable change, Nemo replaces Nautilus, offering a feature-rich and better customizable file manager.

Plasma Edition

The KDE edition of Solus 4.4 comes with Plasma 5.27.5, offering a more stable environment, extensive customizability options, improved gesture support, and enhanced system widgets. It also ships with the Wayland session enabled by default for a modern and optimized display experience.

GNOME Edition

For the GNOME edition, Solus 4.4 edition does not come with the latest version but adopts GNOME 43.5, offering updated system UI, settings app, and screenshot functionality. GNOME's apps, such as Calendar, Contacts, and Calls, also received significant updates and enhancements.
Additionally, the Solus team enabled the Dark Mode by default and changed the default shell theme to Adwaita.

MATE Edition

MATE enthusiasts can enjoy Solus 4.4 with the latest desktop MATE 1.27, which brings numerous fixes and translation updates. The MATE edition also embraces the Qogir-Dark GTK theme and adds the QXL video driver by default.
Regrettably, I must share some disappointing news with Solus MATE enthusiasts. The Solus team will discontinue the MATE edition in the next release, replacing it with an Xfce edition. The team attributes this change to compatibility issues with Solus' plans, which aim to deliver a more modern and enhanced user experience.

Core Updates & Hardware Support

Solus 4.4 also brings influential updates to core software and expands hardware compatibility.
The Linux Kernel has been upgraded to version 6.3.8, providing enhanced support for secure boot, current-gen GPUs, NVMe RAID configurations, and various sensors.
Besides, the Mesa graphics libraries have been updated to version 23.0.3, introducing 3D support for NVIDIA 30 series GPUs and optimizations for Intel Arc/DG2 graphics.

Download

Solus 4.4 "Harmony" is now available for download on the official website, allowing Linux users to relive the unique Solus experience.

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