If you really want to run Arch Linux but can’t face or fathom the Arch Linux installation, what can you do? That’s where EndeavourOS comes in. It’s Arch-based distro but it isn’t Arch Linux.
EndeavourOS is a rolling release Linux distro, continuation of Antergos. The one which the developers stopped working on in May 2019, due to lack of time on the part of the volunteer developers. EndeavourOS uses the well-known Calamares installer and might be classified as a beginner friendly desktop variant of Arch Linux.
And now, only two weeks after the release of its latest stable release EndeavourOS Atlantis, all fans have reason to rejoice, because EndeavourOS Atlantis Neo brings some small but important improvements.
EndeavourOS Atlantis Neo Highlights
Let’s start with the most important improvement in our opinion. It’s related to Pacman package manager. In case of a bad or slow internet or mirror connection, now Pacman will not cease operations, resulting in a failed install.
Instead it will try up to six times whilst fetching packages. For sure, this will reduce ending up with a failed install quite significantly.
On the desktop side, there’s some improvements too. If you use the Budgie desktop, until now the user not being able to access the power menu after hibernation and suspend. Now that’s fixed. Moreover, Calamares installer now allows installs on systems with less than 2 GB of RAM.
Under the hood, encrypted installations with Btrfs now works choosing SWAP partition and hibernation. In addition, power-profiles-daemon in EndeavourOS Atlantis has replaced TLP for a better hardware compatibility, resulting in lean and minimal power savings by default. For GNOME and Plasma users, the power-profile-daemon will be integrated in the settings menu of the desktop environment.
Last but not least, we can’t fail to mention that the EndeavourOS devs have prepared a Christmas present for us in the form of 3 recently introduces desktop environments.
EndeavourOS Atlantis Neo is our first interim release in our new release model and because we’re in the holiday season, we have added a little Christmas surprise for you.
The EndeavourOS team
LXDE has been added as an option to the desktop environments option menu and will be installed with a basic vanilla setup. Openbox has been added too to EndeavourOS community editions with a basic and slightly themed setup. And finally, Qtile tiling window manager has been added also to give you a kickstart with the window manager.
Download
If you want a fresh EndeavourOS install, you can get your copy from the project’s download page and create a bootable USB flash drive.
If you are already running EndeavourOS, there is no need to reinstall. Just open the “UpdateInTerminal” app from the menu. You would get all the latest packages and updates.
