TileOS 1.1 “t-rex”, a distribution built on the DEBIAN package base and featuring a desktop using mosaic window managers, has released a corrective version that is now available. Developed by the same author behind Ubuntu Sway Remix, TileOS aims to provide users with a ready-to-use interface that caters to both Linux experienced users and beginners interested in trying out the environment of mosaic window managers without requiring extensive setup.
Unlike Ubuntu Sway Remix, TileOS offers more flexibility for customization and is free from potential copyright issues. Users can download the prepared assemblies for AMD64 architecture from here, with plans to introduce support for ARM64, including the Raspberry Pi board. The source code for TileOS components is available on Gitlab.
TileOS places emphasis on window managers utilizing the Wayland protocol, with official support for desktops like sway and river. Development is ongoing for new desktop environments such as swayfx (a fork of SWAY with added desktop effects) and qtile. The distribution is based on Debian Stable packages but incorporates enhancements and fresher software versions from the testing branch. It also includes various optimizations, system adjustments, and improvements like disk mounting without password prompts taken from Ubuntu.
In the latest release, the following updates are included:
- Base package synchronization with Debian 12.5;
- Linux kernel updated to version 6.6.33;
- Mesa open video drivers updated to version 23.3.5;
- Xwayland updated to version 23.2.2;
- Pipewire multimedia server updated to version 1.0.7;
- Addition of utilities like Wl-Mirror (video outputs), WSHOWOTKEYS (screen display on key press), and GPU-SCREEN-RECORDER (high-performance screen recording tool similar to NVIDIA Shadowplay) to the repository.