The latest stable ISO of KaOS, version 2025.7, a rolling KDE-centric Linux distribution that relies on the XFS file system, has just been released, marking the fourth distribution release of the year.
Regarding visuals, the Midna theme has been completely overhauled, featuring a brand-new icon set, redesigned login and splash screens, an updated window decoration, and a modernized color scheme.
However, what is more important is that KaOS has effectively transitioned to a Qt6-only default installation. While Qt5 remains temporarily available in the repositories for those who need legacy applications, KDE Frameworks based on Qt5 are no longer supported.
Key applications, such as KTouch, Okteta, and KQtQuickCharts, have already been migrated to their upcoming Qt6-compatible versions. Full Qt5 deprecation is clearly on the horizon.
Powering the desktop experience is Plasma 6.4 (6.4.3), which introduces a host of quality-of-life upgrades. Users can now assign different tiling layouts to each virtual desktop, take advantage of new accessibility options in Wayland, and enjoy improved visuals during file transfers thanks to a new speed graph.
Spectacle now offers much better screen recording quality, particularly when using WebM or on displays with fractional scaling. There’s even early support for a Plasma-based replacement for the SDDM login manager, though it’s not enabled by default just yet.
On the application side, KaOS 2025.7 welcomes the long-absent Amarok back, now fully ported to Qt6 and KF6. Another new addition is plasma-keyboard, a virtual keyboard tailored for Plasma that integrates well with Calamares, the system installer. Speaking of which, Calamares now supports automatic partitioning with popular file systems like XFS, Ext4, Btrfs, and ZFS.
Under the hood, this release has seen a ton of updates, including:
- Linux kernel 6.15
- Plasma 6.4.3, KDE Gear 25.04.3, Frameworks 6.16 (all built on Qt 6.9.1)
- Mesa 25.1.6, OpenSSL 3.5.1, Systemd 254.27, ZFS 2.3.2
It’s also now using phonon-mpv as the default Phonon backend, replacing VLC due to its lack of a Qt6 port. The system continues its shift toward Wayland, with SDDM 0.20 introducing an option to run in Wayland mode using kwin_wayland.
Lastly, file system support also sees an upgrade, with XFS using CRC and finobt enabled by default. These improvements aim to boost performance and reliability, particularly in terms of metadata integrity and crash recovery.
The release announcement provides detailed information about all changes. The ISO image can be downloaded from the project’s Download page. Since KaOS is a rolling-release Linux distro, current users need only execute sudo pacman -Syu to upgrade to the latest version.
