The aerynOS team has announced its November 2026 ISO refresh, version 2026.11. One of the main additions is Budgie 10.10.4, developed in collaboration with Budgie project lead Joshua Strobl. With this addition, users can now choose between four desktop environments during installation: Budgie, COSMIC, GNOME, and KDE Plasma.
The distribution’s repositories also provide around a dozen Wayland compositors for users who prefer building their own desktop environments.
The existing desktop options have received updates as well. KDE Plasma has been upgraded to version 6.8.2, GNOME to 51.1, and COSMIC Desktop to 1.11, which also includes COSMIC Viewer. GNOME 51 serves as the live environment for the new ISO.
Another major change is the introduction of the experimental lichen-installer, available alongside the existing lichen installer. The new tool offers a more interactive terminal-based installation experience and removes the need to prepare disk partitions manually.
It supports automatic drive formatting, Btrfs root partitions with a separate @home subvolume, and Wi-Fi and keyboard configuration during installation. Additionally, users can supply their own system-model.kdl file to define which packages to install.
Both installers remain available in the 2026.11 ISO, with the existing one accessible through sudo lichen and the experimental version launched using lichen-tui.
However, the new installer is still under development and does not support disk encryption or dual-boot configurations. Developers plan to keep improving it, aiming to make it the default installation option in a future ISO.
The release also introduces substantial changes to Moss, aerynOS’s package manager. Its command-line interface has been reorganized to better reflect the distribution’s declarative system model, changing how users manage packages and repositories.
For example, package operations now use commands under moss package, while repository management is handled through moss repo. The sudo moss sync -u command updates cached repository information and synchronizes the installed system according to its defined system model.
To simplify frequent operations, aliases like moss pad for adding packages and moss prm for removing them are available. Developers have also improved error handling and help output, while a new moss tree command shows the available command hierarchy.
Importantly, these changes are not backward-compatible with the previous CLI structure, so existing users must adjust their commands. Some functionality remains unfinished, including planned improvements to package searching and shell completion.
On the system side, the November ISO includes Linux kernel 7.2.14, while Linux 6.18.60 LTS is also available in the repositories. Other updated components include Mesa 26.2.6, Hyprland 0.57, PipeWire 1.6.11, Firefox 159, Thunderbird 159, QEMU 11.1.3, and Wine 11.21.
Another addition is fwupd, enabling firmware updates through the Linux Vendor Firmware Service on supported hardware.
Finally, developers have removed the terminal-only and headless installation options from the new ISO, citing disproportionate support requests linked to these expert-oriented configurations. They may return in a future release.
For more information, see the official announcement.
As a reminder, aerynOS remains under active development and is not yet considered ready for daily use. The November ISO primarily targets early adopters and testers interested in evaluating the distribution’s desktop options and evolving installation and package management tools.
