After two years of development, Solus has released version 4.4 of its Linux distribution. Unlike other distributions, Solus has its own installer, package manager, and configurator. Previously, Solus developed the budgie desktop, but it is now its own independent project. For the next branch, Solus 5, the technology of the Serpentos distribution will be used. The project’s code is distributed under the GPLV2 license and is developed using the SI and VALA languages. Solus 4.4 offers builds with BUDGIE, GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Mate, with ISO images of 2.3 GB (x86_64) available for download here.
Solus uses the eopkg package manager, which is a fork of pisi from Pardus Linux. It provides familiar tools for installing, removing, and searching packages in the repository. Packages are categorized and organized into components and subcategories. For example, Firefox is part of the Network.web.Browser component, which falls under the network applications category and the applications for Web subcategory. More than 2000 packages are available for installation from the repository.
The development model of Solus follows a hybrid approach, where significant updates are released periodically to introduce new technologies and improvements. In between these significant releases, the distribution follows a rolling model of package updates.
The budgie desktop environment is based on the Gnome Shell shell. In the upcoming Budgie 11 branch, there are plans to separate the functionality desktop from the layer that provides visualization and output of information. The Budgie Window Manager (BWM), an expanded modification of Mutter, is used to control windows. The Budgie panel is designed to resemble classic desktop panels, with all elements being applets that can be configured and customized.
Some notable applets available in Budgie include the application menu, task switching system, open windows area, virtual desktop viewer, power control indicator, volume control applet, system status indicator, and clock. For music playback, Rhythmbox with the alternate toolbar extension is available for Budgie, Gnome, and Mate desktops. Video playback is supported by Celluloid in Budgie and Gnome, and VLC in Mate. In the KDE editor, ELISA is available for music playback and Haruna for video.
The main changes in Solus 4.4 include: