Simon is a Computer Science BSc graduate who has been writing about technology since 2014, and using Windows machines since 3.1. After working for an indie game studio and acting as the family's go-to technician for all computer issues, he found his passion for writing and decided to use his skill set to write about all things tech.
Since beginning his writing career, he has written for many different publications such as WorldStart, Listverse, and MakeTechEasier. However, after finding his home at MakeUseOf in February 2019, he would eventually move on to its sister site, XDA, to bring the latest and greatest in Windows, Linux, and DIY electronics.
Summary
- GNOME OS was only available as nightly builds, which limited its appeal to non-developers.
- GNOME OS Preview bridges nightly and stable, offering newer features with improved daily reliability.
- Stable GNOME OS is planned but needs work on systemd-homed, TPM, ARM support, and a feature-rich installer.
I really love bleeding-edge Linux distros. Sure, they may not be the most stable distros of the bunch, but I love getting the newest features first. Regardless, I totally understand why people would shy away from something like GNOME OS, which, until now, only had a nightly build. Now, the GNOME Foundation has announced GNOME OS Preview, which takes a comfy middle ground between receiving the newest features and having a stable system.
GNOME OS Preview brings the newest in GNOME to those who dislike nightly builds
Hopefully, a more stable GNOME OS version will arrive soon
As described by Adrian Vovk on his blog, this new version of GNOME OS aims to be more suited to regular use. While I'm sure anyone who loves nightly build distros would be comfortable with the current offering, Vovk was worried that it wasn't suited for the rest of us:
"Even though GNOME OS has been usable on real hardware for a few years now, its appeal was limited. We’ve only had the Nightly edition, which is constantly rebuilt to ship the latest git commit of every GNOME component (and a few others, like systemd and Flatpak). This form of GNOME OS is extremely useful, since GNOME developers and designers can daily-drive it to test the latest changes. However, it’s not something we’d recommend to non-developers."
The obvious solution is to release GNOME OS Stable, but as Vovk mentions, there are still a few issues he wants ironed out before it's ready for the red carpet. For instance, he'd prefer that the OS had proper integration for systemd-homed, better integration with TPM, better support for Arm hardware, and a feature-rich installer, to name a few.
As such, to patch that gap between a nightly build and a stable one, Vovk announced GNOME OS Preview. While it's not as stable as it could be, Vovk is confident that this version will be "reliable enough for daily use by non-developer enthusiasts," which gives something regular people can actually use until GNOME OS Stable is released. Honestly, I'm a little tempted to try it myself, and I'm a KDE fanboy.
If you'd like to give it a spin, pop over to the GNOME download page, scroll down a little, and click the button underneath the "Preview" label.