The Artix Linux team has announced it is officially ending support for GNOME-based desktop environments, citing upstream changes that make it impossible to run them without systemd.
For those unfamiliar, Artix is a systemd-free, Arch-based distribution that offers users the rolling-release model and extensive software availability of Arch Linux, but with alternative init systems, including OpenRC, runit, dinit, and s6.
The distro comes ready with several desktop environments to choose from, including KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, Xfce, MATE, LXDE, and LXQt, plus a base version without any preconfigured desktop environment.
The decision follows the release of GNOME 49, where the fallback code in gnome-session that previously allowed non-systemd setups via elogind has been removed. With no alternative code path available, GNOME now requires systemd as a hard dependency.
“Since we don’t have the time or interest to write a new non-systemd codepath for gnome-session, this means that all support for GNOME-based desktops has to be dropped.”
As a result, gnome-session, gnome-shell, mutter, and gnome-settings-daemon will no longer be maintained in the Artix repositories. While older versions of these packages remain for now, maintainers warn they may not function correctly and will eventually be removed.
Standalone GNOME applications, however, are not affected and will continue to be packaged for users.
For more information, see the announcement in Artix’s forums.
