EndeavourOS has earned the reputation of being one of the best Arch Linux derivatives in recent years, and for a good reason.
Surely, one of the first things you’ll notice about EndeavourOS is that, despite its claim to be a terminal-focused distribution, it has excellent GUI tools that make handling an Arch Linux system simple for new users. Something that considerably contributed to the success of this distro.
Of course, being based on Arch, EndeavourOS is a rolling release Linux distro. As a result, you may find the most recent versions of practically every piece of software here.
About two months after the previous “Apollo” release, the new EndeavourOS “Artemis” is now available for download. So let’s see what’s new.
EndeavourOS “Artemis” Highlights
Strange as it may seem, this release’s most significant novelty is related to the ARM version of EndeavourOS. Aside from minor tweaks, this release contains no new features.
As you may have noticed, EndeavourOS’s names and visual identity are heavily influenced by the space concept. And the new Artemis release is no exception.
But first, let us explain to our reader what this is all about. Artemis is NASA’s project to send humans to the moon again. The program is a prelude to the next and ultimate goal, Mars.
In the same manner, EndeavourOS “Artemis” appears to be the cornerstone that brings this Arch-based Linux distribution closer to a stable and fully functional ARM release.
EndeavourOS “Artemis” ARM now includes an almost fully operational Calamares installer. But unfortunately, installation is still a two-step process. The first is the base installation, which utilizes an easy-to-use automatic script in the terminal, and the second is the Calamares installer, which installs the location, keyboard, desktop environment, username, and password.
To conclude the ARM release, we will state that the current version of EndeavourOS “Artemis” supports only the Odroid N2/N2+ and the Raspberry PI devices. So now, let’s get back to the main distribution release.
The Arttemis’ published ISO comes with an Xfce desktop environment. At the same time, it offers a total of seven different desktop environments that can be downloaded: Mate, LXQt, LXDE, Cinnamon, Plasma, GNOME, and Budgie, as well as tiling window managers i3-WM, BSPWM, Sway, Qtile, and Worm.
The offline installer installs EndeavourOS “Artemis” with a customized Xfce, but the online installer lets you pick and install a desktop environment as per your requirements.
Before starting the online installation, archlinux-keyring and endeavouros-keyring are updated to avoid keyring issues. In addition, pipewire-media-session has been replaced with WirePlumber. It’s a PipeWire session and policy manager with a modular design and Lua plugins that implement the actual management capabilities.
Under the hood, EndeavourOS “Artemis” ships with the latest Linux kernel 5.18.6. In addition, some core elements have also received updates, such as X.Org 21.1.3, DBus 1.14, Systemd 251.2, and Mesa 22.1.2. Of course, this is to be expected when talking about a Linux distro that follows the rolling release approach.
The last point to mention in this version is related to the Budgie desktop environment. Namely that Budgie’s Control Center has been added to the EndeavourOS repository for a more natural Budgie experience.
You can refer to the official announcement for detailed information about all changes.
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.
Of course, if you already have EndeavourOS installed, there is no need to reinstall it. Instead, open the “UpdateInTerminal” app from the menu, and you will get all the latest packages and updates, giving you the most recent Artemis version.
