Manjaro Linux 25 "Zetar" brings new desktop versions

The Manjaro project has released the new version 25.0 of its Linux distribution. Manjaro 25.0 "Zetar" comes with a 6.12 kernel that provides up-to-date drivers. Alternatively, the LTS kernels 6.1 and 6.6 are available for older hardware. The three Manjaro variants come with different desktop interfaces: Xfce 4.20, KDE Plasma 6.3 and Gnome 48. All three start a graphical live system with the Calamares installation wizard.

The Gnome edition now has new features from Gnome 48 on board and can group notifications from an app. Gnome 48 uses triple buffering for smoother animations. Regardless of the graphics chip used, the desktop should run stutter-free even at high resolutions such as 4K. This has also been achieved through better parallelization in the Gnome Display Manager mother. The new Gnome version also supports HDR on corresponding screens.

Manjaro KDE Plasma 25 includes KDE Plasma 6.3, which brings visible improvements to fractional scaling, for example. When scaling the screen content to intermediate values of 125 or 150 percent, the individual elements should be better aligned with the actual pixels of the monitor and ensure greater sharpness. System monitoring has also been improved, generating less CPU load and providing more precise data on the CPU, GPU and battery. The touchpad can be switched off automatically when the mouse is in use.

The third edition of Manjaro 25 is based on the resource-saving desktop Xfce 4.20. Its file manager Thunar can now highlight files with user-defined colors for text and background and search recursively. Many Xfce settings dialogs have new options, including one that can ensure that windows do not cover the Xfce panel when they are maximized.

You can read more about the new Manjaro Linux 25.0 in the release notes.

Manjaro Immutable becomes Manjaro Summit

The Manjaro version previously known as Manjaro Immutable now bears the somewhat misleading name Manjaro Summit, which is more reminiscent of an event. After several months of testing, the project has released its "semi-immutable" distribution in a public alpha version.

This version receives atomic updates as complete images and provides the root file system with write protection, while parts of the system are selectively migrated. This should not only protect against malicious code, but also make it easier for users to revert to an earlier version in the event of problems.

(lmd)