The team behind the lightweight Debian-based Linux distro Sparky announced the release of version 7.8, the eighth update in the Sparky 7 “Orion Belt” series, based on and fully compatible with the stable Debian 12 branch.
Among the highlights, Sparky 7.8 updates its Linux kernel to version 6.1.140-LTS. Additionally, Sparky’s own repositories also offer alternative kernel versions like the bleeding edge 6.15, 6.12 LTS, and 6.6 LTS, providing flexibility based on user preferences or hardware compatibility.
Popular desktop environments and window managers receive a refresh as well, including KDE Plasma 5.27.5, LXQt 1.2.0, MATE 1.26, Xfce 4.18, and Openbox 3.6.1, giving users plenty of choices tailored to their workflow.
The update also includes productivity essentials such as LibreOffice 7.4.7 (with the option to grab version 25.2.3 from Debian backports), Firefox ESR 128.12, Thunderbird 128.12.0esr, and, notably, GIMP, which is now preinstalled in the live media.
Users experiencing lingering issues from the older libavutil57 library are advised to manually uninstall and then reinstall the updated version (v7:5.1.6).
ARM users should note that ARM images remain unchanged since version 7.7, but support continues uninterrupted.
For those already running Sparky 7, simply keeping the system up to date will suffice; a complete reinstall is unnecessary. However, new ISO images are readily available from Sparky’s download section for anyone looking to perform a fresh installation.
The release announcement provides detailed information about all changes in Sparky 7.8.
