Uri Herrera announced the release of Nitrux 3.2.1 today. This serves as the initial ISO snapshot in 2024 for the Debian-based, systemd-free, and immutable GNU/Linux distribution that is centered around the KDE Plasma desktop environment.
Under the hood, this update is powered by a Liquorix-incorporated Linux 6.6.9 LTS kernel and comes with the most recent KDE Plasma 5.27.10 LTS desktop environment, which is supplemented by the KDE Frameworks 5.114 and KDE Gear 23.08.4 software suites. All of these components are constructed against the enduring Qt 5.15 LTS application framework.
In addition to the typical driver and software upgrades included in each new Nitrux snapshot, the current iteration also presents an upgraded Calamares graphical installer offering a checkbox for disabling the default password strength validation feature and an updated slideshow feature.
In Nitrux 3.2.1, the KDE Plasma-based NX Desktop environment is further enhanced with several changes such as a cover switch effect for the window switcher, a new flag option to restart the KWin X11 session, more efficient logging to save disk space, an appended help section, updated themes and better fractional scaling.
There are new additions to this release, including components like the minimalist phodav WebDAV server, the Plasma Gamemode extension, upstream rng-tools random number generator daemon, the SPICE agent for Linux that enables remote access to virtual machines, the automatic password generator pwgen, and a PAM module that checks password strength.
This 3.2.1 release of Nitrux also introduces the KDE Wacom tablet KCModule. This feature offers a GUI for the Wacom Linux Drivers, allowing the handling of different button or pen layouts per profile. Other inclusions in the new release are system fonts (including Switzer and CamingoCode) and a newly designed default wallpaper.
Also noteworthy is the introduction of the Polonium tiling window manager in this release, specifically for the KDE Plasma desktop environment. For those who wish to blur their desktop wallpaper, the Active Blur plugin for KDE Plasma has been added. Plasma Drawer has also been introduced– a full-screen customizable launcher complete with application directories.
For increased network security, Nitrux 3.2.1 enables the MAC address randomization mode for networks in NetworkManager by default and the IPv6 Privacy Extensions standard (RFC 4941) in NetworkManager and Linux kernel by default.
Nitrux 3.2.1 is available for download right now from the official website or by clicking on the direct download link below. Remember that this first Nitrux ISO snapshot in 2024 is here only for new deployments and existing users should upgrade their installations using the Nitrux Upgrade utility.