In an unexpected move, the systemd-free Nitrux Linux distro has announced discontinuing its NX Desktop and Plasma support, charting a new path focused on simplicity and minimalism and shifting toward a more streamlined, Wayland-centric approach.
Initially, the development team had explored reimplementing NX Desktop on Plasma 6 via an AppImage bundle. However, ongoing challenges—ranging from stretched developer resources to limited community contributions—have effectively stalled the progress of Maui Shell, the original replacement for NX Desktop.
The big news: Nitrux has chosen to adopt a streamlined desktop environment, opting for Hyprland along with utilities like Waybar and Wlogout. This is actually pretty exciting because it makes Nitrux the first distribution to rely on Hyprland as the default desktop experience for its users.
In light of this, as of June 10, 2025, NX Desktop components have officially ceased maintenance, and their corresponding repositories are archived on GitHub.
Hyprland, praised for its lightweight and efficient performance on Wayland, becomes the new default environment, marking a clear departure from the previous KDE-based ecosystem.
But surprises are not stopping here. The kernel underpinning Nitrux is also undergoing a significant change. The team is shifting from the Liquorix kernel to Cachy due to Cachy’s support for Pressure Stall Information, which is crucial for Waydroid functionality.
Moreover, Nitrux’s display management infrastructure sees a similar evolution. SDDM, previously tied to Plasma-specific UI elements, will be replaced by greetd, a minimal and flexible login manager daemon, combined with QtGreet. This switch supports the team’s continued reliance on Qt and QML, complementing the broader architectural shift toward a Wayland-only environment.
Regarding application distribution, the Nitrux team will prioritize their custom-built NX AppHub and AppBox methods, gradually phasing out AppImages dependent on the older FUSE 2 runtime. The transition aims to consolidate application management around a system expressly tailored for Nitrux, enhancing overall compatibility and performance.
Lastly, future goals include transitioning from SquashFS to DwarFS for ISO creation, driven by the superior performance observed in Nitrux’s own AppBox tool. Additionally, expanding support to ARM64 architectures is on the wishlist, acknowledging growing interest and necessity in single-board computing platforms.
For more information, see the announcement.
