The Nitrux team has announced the release of Nitrux 5.0 for this immutable, systemd-free Debian-based Linux distro, betting on AppImage-based software delivery.
The big news: the new version marks a major shift in the distribution’s identity, as the distro abandons the KDE Plasma desktop entirely and transitions to Hyprland, a dynamic Wayland compositor renowned for its fluid tiling experience, configurability, and visually pleasing aesthetics.
With that said, the new desktop environment comes finely tuned for Wayland out of the box. Hyprland is complemented by Waybar, the Crystal Dock, and Sway Notification Center. Essential utilities like Wofi, Wlogout, and Clipvault enhance usability, while nwg-look and nwg-displays make Wayland configuration more approachable.
With OpenRC 0.63 as its init system, the release also replaces legacy SysV scripts with native OpenRC implementations. On top of that, Nitrux 5.0 also ships with an extensive set of updates:
- Linux Liquorix kernel 6.17 (CachyOS-patched kernel available for NVIDIA systems)
- PipeWire 1.4.8 and WirePlumber 0.5.11 for modern audio/video handling
- Flatpak 1.16.1 for sandboxed app deployment
- Qt 6.8.2 and KDE Frameworks 6.13 for updated Qt-based apps
- Podman 5.6.1 and Docker 26.1.5 for containerized workloads
- fwupd 2.0.16, CoreCtrl 1.5.1, and updated Intel/AMD microcode
- AppArmor 4.1.0, with enhanced PAM rules for brute-force protection and password security
Beyond Hyprland, this major release adds a series of new tools:
- NX AppHub CLI and Daemon – a lightweight system for building and managing Nitrux applications.
- Ananicy-cpp – a rewritten performance manager in C++ that optimizes process priorities.
- Gamescope, Grimshot, and Hyprscreend – tools enhancing gaming, screenshots, and display responsiveness.
- NVIDIA Open GPU Kernel Module – open-source NVIDIA drivers supporting Turing and newer GPUs.
At the same time, Nitrux 5.0 removes numerous legacy and unused components, including KDE Plasma, SDDM, Waydroid, Kvantum Manager, Fcitx, and virtualization-focused drivers such as Hyper-V and QXL.
For those eager to try out, the distro is offered in two ISO variants:
- CachyOS-patched kernel (NVOpen) – optimized for NVIDIA hardware
- Liquorix kernel (Mesa) – recommended for AMD and Intel systems
Both ISOs are available for download from SourceForge. Given the massive architectural changes, the Nitrux team recommends performing a fresh installation using the latest ISO image rather than attempting an in-place upgrade. There’s no direct update path from Nitrux 3.9 to 5.0, due to the scope of system changes.
However, starting with version 5.0, update archives will be available through the Nitrux Update Tool System, simplifying future updates, rollbacks, and system maintenance.
For more information, refer to the official announcement.
Image credits: Nitrux Linux
