An available corrective release of the distribution TileOS 1.2 “T-rex” is now live, built on the DEBIAN package base and offering a desktop using mosaic window managers. TileOS aims to provide a user-friendly interface without the need for additional tuning, catering to both Linux experienced users and beginners looking to explore the environment of mosaic window managers without spending excessive time on setup. The distribution can be downloaded from the official site for AMD64 architecture, with plans to support ARM64 in the future, particularly on Raspberry Pi devices. Source code for TileOS components is available on GitLab.
Unlike Ubuntu Sway Remix, TileOS offers more flexibility for customization and avoids potential copyright issues. While Ubuntu Sway Remix incorporates registered Canonical trademarks, there has been no official response regarding its inclusion in the official Ubuntu family. TileOS prioritizes window managers utilizing the Wayland protocol, with official support for desktops like Sway and River. Additionally, the distribution includes enhancements and fresh software versions from the testing branch of Debian Stable, along with optimizations like disk and memory management adjustments.
In this latest release:
- The package base is synced with Debian 12.7;
- The Linux kernel is updated to version 6.6.57 (LTS);
- The Mesa package is updated to version 24.4.2;
- The Pipewire multimedia server is updated to version 1.2.5;
- The sound sessions manager WirePlumber is updated to version 0.5.6;
- An experimental edition is introduced, featuring the mosaic window manager Qtile, customized in Python. The Qtile Edition supports Wayland sessions in TileOS, with plans to add X11 support as an alternative option later.