This new version of our distribution mainly focuses on accessibility improvements, developed as part of our collaboration with our friends at A.S.I. YOVOTOGO and the 'Togolese Federation of Associations of Persons with Disabilities' (FETAPH). The goal is to soon equip specialized centers for people with visual impairments across Togo including the Saint Augustine Multipurpose Center in Lomé and the Maison du Handicap initiated by Mutualistes Sans Frontières. These advancements were made possible thanks to the work and valuable feedback of our blind and visually impaired volunteers: Stéphane, Philippe, Gloupy, and Qid. We warmly thank them for their tests, their experience, and their suggestions for improvement.
SparkyLinux 2025.12, codenamed “Tiamat,” is a new semi-rolling release based on Debian testing “Forky,” featuring updated packages as of December 14, 2025, the Linux 6.17.11 kernel (with additional kernels available in the repositories), and refreshed core components such as Firefox 140.5.0 ESR, Thunderbird 140.5.0 ESR, and GRUB 2.14. The release introduces new mirror servers in the UK and the US, recommends UEFI installations using the Calamares installer, and offers multiple desktop and minimal editions for amd64 systems, while existing Sparky rolling users can upgrade without reinstalling.
We are proud to announce our new stable release, version 2025.12, code-named 'Postwurfsendung'. Like the previous release, version 2025.08, live ISO images are available for 64-bit x86 (amd64) and 64-bit ARM (arm64) CPUs. For this release, a number of internal changes to our build-tool grml-live were implemented. If you remaster the Grml ISO image or build your own, please take a look at the grml-live changelog. Noteworthy changes are: grml-live - build system for creating Grml-based Linux live systems; new TOR class; incorporate previously separate package grml-desktop; Live-CD glue code was imported from grml-scripts; minimum host OS for running grml-live is now Debian 'Bookworm', minimum build target is also Debian 'Bookworm'; dropped old scripts - grepc, grepedit, iimage, logview, mailhops, notifyd, osd_server, qma, dirvish-setup, grml-iptstate, make_chroot_jail, grml-swapon....
Now that GNOME has moved to only supporting Wayland, and KDE in Kali has already used it by default for a few years (since Kali Linux 2023.1), we wanted to ensure that the transition and experience were seamless. The only thing that we felt was missing was support for VM guest tools, like clipboard sharing and window scaling, but things have been progressing, and now all the major VM software fully supports Wayland. We have tested Kali installations with Wayland as the guest OS in VirtualBox, VMware, and QEMU, configured the missing parts, and we are happy to announce that all of the VM guest additions that you expected in X11 before are now working in Wayland without trouble.
This release presents among other things the new Linux kernel 6.14.0-37 and due to the increasing number of bugs in gedit a new text editor (i. e. gnome-text-editor version 48.2-1). In addition, Starbuntu has improved its embedding in the EFI system by now offering its live medium bootable both in legacy mode as well as in EFI system. Starbuntu also now offers backup software based on the timeshift program.
If you're ambitious enough, or maybe just crazy enough, there eventually comes a time when you realize you've reached the limits of current potential, and must create something completely new if you're to go further. This year, System76 turned twenty. For twenty years we have shipped Linux computers. For seven years we've built the Pop!_OS Linux distribution. Three years ago it became clear we had reached the limit of our current potential and had to create something new. Today, we break through that limit with the release of Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS with the COSMIC Desktop Environment. Today is special not only in that it's the culmination of over three years of work, but even more so in that System76 has built a complete desktop environment for the open source community.
Tails 7.3.1 was released on December 11, 2025, replacing the planned 7.3 release to include a last-minute security fix in a bundled library. This update refreshes key components, including Tor Browser 15.0.3, the Tor client 0.4.8.21, and Thunderbird 140.5.0, and is available through automatic or manual upgrades as well as fresh installations and direct downloads.
As always, the new release contains numerous updates and smaller improvements. A selection: Synchronization of the 'locked' status of user accounts across Nubus, Active Directory and Samba 4 has been unified. This ensures that, for example, a lock set in Active Directory after too many failed login attempts also applies in Nubus. The App Center has been improved in its handling of filtering proxy servers and will therefore support even more environments in the future. Several security updates for Keycloak were included, most recently a short-notice update to Keycloak 26.4.4 addressing an issue affecting accounts with uppercase characters in their names. Default values for the size of the OpenLDAP database have been adjusted and incorporated into the monitoring checks in Nagios and Prometheus as well as UMC. The OX Connector now supports a new operating mode that stores occurring issues in an error log for later review.
Update to the new Debian release: Trixie (13). New Fastfetch configuration to get a better style. Yelena Store as default frontend for APT. Refreshed styles for new ISOs, new version new life. New kernel 6.12.58 with a new Zram configuration to get better performance using ZSTD algorithm. Sway with pywal preinstalled and a new design. New default browser, Vivaldi. CuerdTools updated and remaked. New NVIDIA drivers installer and a new automatized upgrade program to update from CuerdOS 1.2.1. New wallpapers and refreshed style. All published by CuerdOS Public License v1.0.
Oracle Linux 10.1 is now generally available for 64-bit Intel and AMD (x86_64) and 64-bit Arm (aarch64) platforms. This release includes the following kernel options: Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel 8.1 for the x86_64 and aarch64 platforms, Red Hat Compatible Kernel 6.12 for the x86_64 platform. Oracle Linux 10.1 delivers a strengthened cryptographic foundation built to support modern security requirements and emerging post-quantum cryptography (PQC) standards. OpenSSL introduces support for ML-KEM, ML-DSA, SLH-DSA, and the QUIC transport protocol, enabling more secure and efficient encrypted communication. NSS has been updated to include ML-DSA support, enhancing signature security for post-quantum readiness. GnuTLS adds certificate compression, expanded ML-DSA algorithm coverage, and improved PKCS#11 module handling. The release also enhances openCryptoki with broader PKCS#11 v3.0 mechanisms, SHA-3 and SHAKE capabilities, and expanded key-wrapping and secure key-handling features - delivering more robust capabilities for both hardware- and software-backed cryptographic operations.