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Solus RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: Solus

Solus

Last Update: 2019-04-11 06:22 UTC

Solus is a Linux distribution built from scratch. It uses a forked version of the PiSi package manager, maintained as "eopkg" within Solus, and a custom desktop environment called "Budgie", developed in-house. The Budgie desktop, which can be set to emulate the look and feel of the GNOME 2 desktop, is tightly integrated with the GNOME stack. The distribution is available for 64-bit computers only.

Popularity (hits per day): 12 months: 8 (973), 6 months: 7 (1,139), 3 months: 7 (1,158), 4 weeks: 7 (1,175), 1 week: 6 (1,107)

Average visitor rating: 8.58/10 from 446 review(s).


Solus Summary
Distribution Solus
Home Page https://getsol.us/
Mailing Lists --
User Forums https://discuss.getsol.us/
Alternative User Forums
Documentation https://getsol.us/help-center/home/
Screenshots DistroWatch Gallery
Screencasts
Download Mirrors https://getsol.us/download/ •
Bug Tracker https://dev.getsol.us/maniphest/
Related Websites  
Reviews 4.x: Average Linux User • CMS Critic • Heise (German) • Dedoimedo • DistroWatch
3: Ordinatechnic • DistroWatch • CMS Critic • Linux.com • Pro-Linux (German)
2017.x: Dedoimedo • DarkDuck • DistroWatch
1.x: Dedoimedo • DistroWatch • Freedom Penguin • LWN • HecticGeek • Everyday Linux User
Where To Buy

Recent Related News and Releases
  Releases, download links and checksums:
 • 2019-03-18: Distribution Release: Solus 4.0
 • 2017-08-15: Distribution Release: Solus 3
 • 2017-04-18: Distribution Release: Solus 2017.04.18.0
 • 2017-01-02: Distribution Release: Solus 2017.01.01.0
 • 2016-10-19: Distribution Release: Solus 1.2.1
 • 2016-09-07: Distribution Release: Solus 1.2.0.5
 • 2016-06-20: Distribution Release: Solus 1.2
 • 2016-03-02: Distribution Release: Solus 1.1
 • 2015-12-27: Distribution Release: Solus 1.0
 • 2015-10-30: Development Release: Solus 1.0 RC1
 • 2015-05-17: Development Release: Solus 1.0 Beta 2
 • 2015-03-16: Development Release: Evolve OS Beta 1.1
 • More Solus releases...

  Headlines:
 •2019-03-21 Budgie 10.5 shipped with Solus 4.0
 •2019-01-15 Solus roadmap for 2019
 •2018-11-02 Solus team regaining account access
 •2018-10-27 Solus founder out of contact
 •2018-09-21 Solus updates install media
 •2018-06-27 Solus polishes desktop tools
 •2018-05-23 Budgie returns to Solus
 •2018-03-09 Solus redesigns Software Centre
 •2018-02-15 Solus to offer optional Wayland session
 •2017-11-01 Wayland and snapd coming to Solus 4
 • More Solus headlines...

Table Notes and Explanations

(Please refer to the table below.)
  • Select view: Major packages only (52) All tracked packages (226)
  • To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
  • Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
  • Colour scheme: green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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Feature 4.0 3.9999 3 2017.04.18.0 1.2.1
Release Date 2019-03-17 2018-09-20 2017-08-15 2017-04-18 2016-10-19
End Of Life          
Price (US$) Free Free Free Free Free
Image Size (MB) 1400-1500 1400-1500 1100-1200    
Free Download ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO
Installation Graphical Graphical Graphical Graphical Graphical
Default Desktop Budgie, GNOME, MATE Budgie, GNOME, MATE Budgie, GNOME, MATE Budgie, GNOME, MATE Budgie, MATE
Package Management Flatpak, eopkg (pisi fork), Snap Flatpak, eopkg (pisi fork), Snap Flatpak, eopkg (pisi fork), Snap Flatpak, eopkg (pisi fork) eopkg (pisi fork)
Release Model Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling
Office Suite LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice --
Processor Architecture x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64
Init Software systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd
Journaled File Systems          
Multilingual Yes        
Asian Language Support Yes        
Full Package List 4.0 3.9999 3 2017.04.18.0 1.2.1
Package 4.0 3.9999 3 2017.04.18.0 1.2.1
abiword (3.0.2) -- -- -- -- --
alsa-lib (1.1.9) 1.1.5 1.1.5 1.1.4.1 1.1.3 1.1.1
ati-driver (18.30) -- -- -- -- --
bash (5.0) 4.4 4.4 4.3 4.3 4.3
bind (9.15.2) -- -- -- -- --
chromium (76.0.3809.100) -- -- -- -- --
cups (2.2.12) 2.2.8 2.2.8 2.2.3 2.2.3 2.1.0
dhcp (4.4.1) 4.4.1 4.4.1 4.3.2 4.3.2 4.3.2
e2fsprogs (1.45.3) 1.44.6 1.44.4 1.43.4 1.43.4 1.42.13
firefox (68.0.2) 65.0.1 62.0 55.0.1 52.0.2 49.0.1
freetype (2.10.1) 2.8 2.8 2.8 2.7 2.6.1
gcc (9.2.0) -- -- -- -- --
gimp (2.10.12) -- -- -- -- --
glibc (2.30) 2.29 2.27 2.25 2.25 2.24
gnome-shell (3.32.2) 3.28.3 3.28.3 3.24.3 3.24.1 --
gnucash (3.6) -- -- -- -- --
gnumeric (1.12.45) -- -- -- -- --
grub (2.04) 2.02 2.02 2.02beta2 2.02beta2 2.00beta2
gtk (3.24.10) 3.22.30 3.22.30 3.22.18 3.22.12 3.18.9
httpd (2.4.41) -- -- -- -- --
inkscape (0.92.4) -- -- -- -- --
k3b (19.08.0) -- -- -- -- --
kmod (26) 25 25 24 17 17
krita (4.2.5) -- -- -- 3.1.0 --
libreoffice (6.3.0) 6.2.1 6.1.0 5.4.0 5.3.2 --
linux (5.2.9) 4.20.16 4.18.5 4.12.7 4.9.22 4.8.2
Package 4.0 3.9999 3 2017.04.18.0 1.2.1
lxpanel (0.10.0) -- -- -- -- --
mariadb (10.4.7) -- -- -- -- --
mate-desktop (1.22.1) 1.20.4 1.20.3 1.18.0 1.18.0 --
mesa (19.1.4) 19.0.0 18.1.6 17.1.6 17.0.4 12.1.0
mysql (8.0.17) -- -- -- -- --
nautilus (3.32.3) 3.26.4 3.26.4 3.24.2 3.24.0 3.20.3
NVIDIA (430.40) 418.43 390.87 384.59 375.39 370.28
openbox (3.6.1) -- -- -- -- --
openjdk (12.0.1) -- -- -- -- --
openssh (8.0p1) 7.7p1 7.7p1 7.5p1 7.5p1 7.3p1
openssl (1.1.1c) 1.0.2r 1.0.2p 1.0.2l 1.0.2k 1.0.2j
perl (5.30.0) 5.28.1 5.26.2 5.24.1 5.24.1 5.22.1
php (7.3.8) -- -- -- -- --
plasma-desktop (5.16.4) -- -- -- -- --
postfix (3.4.6) -- -- -- -- --
postgresql (11.5) -- 10.5 -- -- --
Python (3.7.4) 2.7.16 2.7.15 2.7.13 2.7.13 2.7.12
qt (5.13.0) 5.12.1 5.11.1 5.9.1 5.6.2 5.6.1
samba (4.10.6) 4.8.8 4.7.9 4.6.6 4.3.13 4.3.11
systemd (242) 239 239 218 218 218
thunderbird (60.8.0) 60.5.2 60.0 52.2.1 52.0.1 45.4.0
vim (8.1) -- -- -- -- --
vlc (3.0.7.1) 3.0.6 3.0.3 2.2.6 2.2.4 2.2.4
xfdesktop (4.14.1) -- -- -- -- --
xorg-server (1.20.5) 1.20.3 1.19.6 1.18.4 1.18.4 1.18.4

Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for Solus

Average rating
8.6
from 446 review(s)


What are your thoughts on Solus?
Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system.
Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review.

Version:

Rating:    out of 10

Comments (maximum 2,040 characters):



Past reviews - sort by:

Version: 4.0
Rating: 1
Date: 2019-08-15
Votes: 8


 This distro looks promising at first....but after a while it's a complete letdown.
Let me explain why:
- package manager could be a lot better (dependency issues),
- curated rolling release (good and a bad thing - developers are in charge of what they deem worthy to have in the repositories),
- slow development!,
- no current way to help with the financing,
- not so useful forums and bad developer support,
- a lot of issues with UEFI systems,
- black screens after bigger updates,
- problems with OpenVPN,
- documentation is lacking,
- frequent freezes during updates,
- software store is simply bad (only one update/download at the same time?)...

The good side of this distro is that it blow some fresh air in the Linux distro world... and I really hope it will correct all of the above.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 4.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2019-08-15
Votes: 1


 Easy to add Broadcom drivers. Updates are simple either by GUI or CLI. Haven't found any must have apps that are not available. (Would like WhatsDesk and maybe a user friendly Youtube app, but the website and my phone work for those.) Has brought ew life to my Mac!


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 4.0
Rating: 3
Date: 2019-08-14
Votes: 0


 Solus seems to be promising, but has many issues with UEFI.

New EPS needs to be created if you install it alongside Windows, so that doesn't mess up with Windows update.
Solus doesn't uses systemd-boot for UEFI installs, which has icompatibility ssues with many devices.

Documentation doesn't seems to good, it needs to be updated.

While system update, it gets kind of frozen.

It doesn't have a lot of big repository of software, but they seem to provide proprietary softwares like Chrome as "Third-Party" softwares.


Was this review helpful? Yes No

See all 446 reader reviews of Solus...

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