Essora Eos 20261021 ships SonicDE, a KDE Plasma 6 fork with XLibre X server
The Devuan-based Essora Eos distribution released a new edition built around SonicDE, a community fork of KDE Plasma 6, paired with the XLibre X11 server and OpenRC.
Summary
Essora Eos 20261021 is a new edition of the Devuan-based desktop Linux distribution. It replaces the previous desktop stack with SonicDE, a community fork of KDE Plasma 6, and uses the XLibre X window server rather than Wayland. The release also swaps Dolphin for ROX-Filer2-Qt and includes custom applications such as Essora Browser, Essora Office, and Essora Control Center. The ISO is 1,773MB.
What sets SonicDE apart from Plasma 6
- SonicDE is described as a community-driven fork of KDE Plasma 6 with a commitment to X11
- XLibre replaces the traditional X.Org server as the X11 implementation
- OpenRC is used instead of systemd, consistent with Devuan's init system philosophy
- ROX-Filer2-Qt replaces Dolphin as the default file manager
- Custom applications include Firefox-based Essora Browser, Essora Office suite, and Essora Control Center
- Optional configurable drive-icon layer is available as a desktop feature
Why it matters
The release represents a rare new desktop environment fork of Plasma 6, and the adoption of XLibre signals growing community interest in maintaining X11 infrastructure outside of X.Org.
Original reference: distrowatch.com →