The NixOS development team has released NixOS 25.05, a significant update that comes six months after version 24.11. This release introduces several new features and enhancements, including support for the Linux 6.12 LTS and 6.14 kernel series and the latest GNOME 48 desktop environment. Additionally, it offers initial support for System76’s COSMIC desktop, which is based on Rust.
To enable the COSMIC environment, users can configure their settings by enabling the greeter and desktop manager through specific commands in their NixOS setup. However, developers caution that while the support is considered stable, it remains experimental due to the recent addition.
NixOS 25.05 brings forward new capabilities such as the nixos-rebuild build-image command for creating platform-specific images from configurations and a complete rewrite of nixos-rebuild using Python. The nixos-option package has also been revamped to improve functionality.
Key updates in the release include core components such as OpenSSH 10.0p2, LLVM 19, and GCC 14. Enhancements to the virtualisation containers with “podman” now support rootless containers, and desktop environments have been updated to include Xfce 4.20, Cinnamon 6.4, and Pantheon 8. For a detailed overview of new services and features, users can refer to the official release announcement page.
NixOS 25.05 is available for download as a graphical ISO image that includes the GNOME and KDE Plasma desktops for Intel/AMD (x86_64) and ARM64 systems, alongside a Minimal ISO version. You can access the download here.