The team behind the lightweight Debian-based Linux distro Sparky announced the release of version 7.8, the eighth update in the Sparky 7 “Orion Belt” series, based on and fully compatible with the stable Debian 12 branch.
Among the highlights, Sparky 7.8 updates its Linux kernel to version 6.1.140-LTS. Additionally, Sparky’s own repositories also offer newer alternative kernel versions, such as 6.15, 6.12 LTS, and 6.6 LTS, providing flexibility based on user preferences or hardware compatibility.
Popular desktop environments and window managers also receive a refresh, including KDE Plasma 5.27.5, LXQt 1.2, MATE 1.26, Xfce 4.18, and Openbox 3.6.1, providing users with a range of choices tailored to their workflow.
On the software front, the update includes productivity essentials such as LibreOffice 7.4.7 (with the option to grab version 25.2.3 from Debian backports), Firefox ESR 128.12, Thunderbird 128.12.0esr, and, notably, GIMP, which is now preinstalled in the live media.
Users experiencing lingering issues from the older libavutil57 library are advised to manually uninstall and then reinstall the updated version (v7:5.1.6).
ARM users should note that ARM images remain unchanged since version 7.7, but support continues uninterrupted.
For those already running Sparky 7, simply keeping the system updated through the usual channels will suffice; a complete reinstall is unnecessary. New ISO images are readily available from Sparky’s download section for anyone looking to perform a fresh installation.
The release announcement provides detailed information about all changes in Sparky 7.8.
Although Sparky is not my main OS, I keep it on my backup laptop and like Sparky Mate semi-rolling a lot. It is very lightweight and fast without giving anything up. About the only semi-rolling release I have used that over years has not broken a needed software with an update. It also has some great features like being able to write a persistence USB that leaves you take Sparky with you in your pocket.
It’s forum is not great though, so I wouldn’t recommend Sparky for newbies. Not many questions or answers on the forum.