Sparky is a Debian-based Linux distribution designed to be lightweight, fast, and user-friendly. It aims to provide a reliable, easy-to-use desktop environment while offering various software packages.
Almost two months after the previous 7.0 release, the dev team announced the general availability of the latest stable Sparky 7.1, the first refresh in the 7.x “Orion Belt” series based on Debian’s stable branch.
Sparky Linux 7.1 Highlights
Powered by Linux kernel 6.1 LTS, Sparky 7.1 comes fully rebased on the latest Debian 12 ‘Bookworm’ and Sparky stable repos as of September 12, 2023, so you get a lot of improvements. This brings all the benefits of that release, the biggest being the completely refreshed package base.
And while we’re still on the Linux kernels subject, let’s mention that 6.1 is a Long Term Supported (LTS) version. On top of that, Sparky’s repositories also offer the Linux kernel version 5.15 LTS for those who bet on stability and the most recent 6.5 release for those who need support for the latest hardware.
Firefox is the default browser, and in the new Sparky 7.1, it has been bumped to version 102.15.0esr. However, if you prefer to be on the bleeding edge, you can install the latest Firefox 117 from Sparky’s repos, as the package is named “firefox-sparky.”
Moreover, with the latest release, you can also find updated desktop environments and applications that include the following:
- LXQt 1.2.0
- KDE Plasma 5.27.5
- Xfce 4.18
- MATE 1.26
- Openbox 3.6.1
- Thunderbird 102.15.0
- VLC 3.0.18
- LibreOffice 7.4.7
For amd64 architecture, the distro is available in Xfce, LXQt, MATE, KDE Plasma, MinimalGUI (Openbox), and MinimalCLI (text mode) versions. However, if you are still using an i686-based system, you have MinimalGUI (Openbox) and MinimalCLI (text mode) versions available.
Please refer to the official announcement for detailed information about all changes in Sparky 7.1.
Remember that system reinstallation is unnecessary if you already use Sparky’s stable 7.0. You can upgrade to the latest 7.1 release via the System Upgrade tool or using the command shown below:
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgradeFor fresh installations, the ISO images are available for download from the project website.
Sparky is impressive and has come a long way from it’s start. It is the first (semi) rolling release I have used that has not broken itself. I only use the system updater and only update when asked to update, but every other rolling release I had used eventually had a problem that it broke itself.