Even though it’s still in development—without an official stable release and currently in beta—Chimera Linux has already caught the attention of open-source enthusiasts. And for good reason! This written-from-scratch distribution has all the makings to carve out its own unique niche in the Linux ecosystem.
Why? Because while it’s still Linux at its core, Chimera Linux embraces many features from the (Free)BSD world. More specifically, the distro incorporates FreeBSD’s tools and libraries to provide a unique, lightweight, and modular experience.
There is no systemd here (Dinit instead), and it avoids (by design) the traditional GNU toolchain. In other words, much to the dismay of purists who insist on precise terminology, GNU/Linux, there’s no GNU here—just Linux. Plus plenty of other differences, too, but that’s a topic for another time (more on that here).
Right now, the big news is that the developers behind Chimera Linux (great name, by the way) have released new installation ISO images packed with some exciting updates.
More importantly, they now incorporate a fresh version of apk-tools (Chimera uses the APK package manager). This is important because the latest toolset supports additional features such as variable expansion, allowing most of its files to migrate smoothly into the system-wide “/usr” location.
Thanks to these changes, users can more easily adjust their mirror preferences without needing to tinker excessively with repository definitions. Moreover, the repository configurations themselves have been upgraded to use the v3-style index naming while still ensuring backward compatibility.
Another major highlight of this release is the adoption of Linux kernel 6.13, which brings expanded hardware support and various under-the-hood performance improvements.
Additionally, both the GNOME and Plasma live images come bundled with the latest versions of their respective desktop environments. Yes, that’s right. Chimera Linux brings the just-released Plasma 6.3 to its user base, becoming the second distro (after Arch) to do so.
In addition, 32-bit PowerPC images are now officially recognized as a standard release architecture and have been included in the new batch. The project has also hinted at forthcoming support for LoongArch64, which may well become part of the Chimera Linux family in subsequent releases.
Lastly, something very important—given the extensive changes to both the package manager and the system layout, older images may present complications and are no longer recommended. Instead, Chimera’s devs urge everyone to adopt the new images as the foundation for all new installations.
Speaking of installation, Chimera Linux takes a similar approach to Arch—there’s no GUI here; it’s all about the good old command line. This might not be your cup of tea if you’re used to modern point-and-click installers, but it will be right up their alley for more advanced users—especially fans of Arch and Void.
See the announcement for more information on all changes in the new Chimera’s ISO images.
