Mr. Joshua Strobl has announced the release of Solus 4.4 with the code name Harmony. Solus 4.4 release brings updates to its desktop ecosystems and other enhancements.

Solus 4.4 featued image

MATE to leave, Xfce to Join.

In the official release announcement, the Solus team has updated on their plan to deprecate the Solus MATE edition. The decision is considering the lack of compatibility and support of the MATE desktop with future technologies such as Wayland and Pipewire. Solus 4.4 will be the last Solus release to ship a MATE edition.

Going forward, the Solus project will ship an Xfce flavor for users who prefer a lightweight, modern and traditional looking desktop environment. Xfce is more focused to enable compatiblilty with upcoming technological enhancements such as Wayland and Pipewire.

What’s new in Solus 4.4?

Following section briefly explains the key highlights in Solus 4.4 release.

General

  • Linux kernel 6.3.8 which enables support for broader range of hardware.
  • Firefox 114.0.1
  • LibreOffice 7.5.3.2
  • Thunderbird 102.12.0

Budgie

  • The Solus 4.4 Budgie edition features Budgie Desktop 10.2.7 which comes with GNOME 43 stacks.
  • Nemo replaces nautilus as default file manager
  • Numerous bug fixes and enhancements.

GNOME

  • GNOME 43.5
  • Enables dark mode by default.
  • Adwaita is the default theme.

MATE

  • MATE 1.27.1
  • Changed the default GTK theme to Qogir-Dark.

Plasma

  • Plasma Desktop 5.27.5, KDE Frameworks 5.106.0, KDE Gear 23.04.2, and, the KDE branch for QT 5.15.9, which brings many new features

For further information on Solus 4.4, read the official release announcement on projects website.

Download Solus 4.4

The different Solus flavors - Budgie Edition, Plasma Edition, GNOME Edition and MATE edition are available for download from the Solus website.

Download Solus 4.4