SpiralLinux may be a new name to the Linux ecosystem, but the developer behind it is not. The distribution is the work of the guy responsible for GeckoLinux, one of the few openSUSE derivatives for the last seven years.
But what is SpiralLinux? It is a distribution based on Debian’s stable branch, using only official Debian package repositories, focusing on simplicity and out-of-the-box usability in all major desktop environments.
After releasing SpiralLinux 11.220925 a year ago, its users now have a reason to rejoice as its new release is here.
What’s New in SpiralLinux 12.231001
The big news is that SpiralLinux 12.231001 comes fully rebased on the latest Debian 12, so you get a lot of improvements. This brings all the benefits of that release, the biggest being the completely refreshed package base.
The significant difference, however, is that unlike the “Bookworm” release, which comes with Linux kernel 6.1 LTS, here you get Linux kernel 6.4 added from Debian Backports, bringing various improvements and more extensive hardware compatibility.
Speaking of kernels, it is worth noting that SpiralLinux includes both the Debian Stable kernel and the newer Backports kernel. The stock one is recommended; however, if your hardware is too new, try the Backports one.
Moreover, compared to the previous release, the desktop environments in SpiralLinux 12.231001 have also received an update, with different spins of the distribution offering you:
- KDE Plasma 5.27
- GNOME 43.6
- Xfce 4.18
- Cinnamon 5.6.8
- MATE 1.26
- Budgie 10.7.1
- LXQt 1.2.0
However, this does not exhaust the novelties. What makes the new release very impressive is the added out-of-the-box low-latency PipeWire configuration for JACK-compatible live audio applications, which makes the distro an excellent choice for professional live audio production.
Furthermore, the libinput library is now used by default for mouse and touchpad control instead of synaptics, with significant improvements to the logic of disabling laptop trackpads when typing.
The Snapper configuration, a Linux filesystem snapshot management tool, has been adjusted from its defaults not to utilize more than 40% of the available disk space for automatic Btrfs snapshots.
At the same time, SpiralLinux 12.231001 comprises updated applications that enhance user experience and productivity. Here is a list of the more important ones in the default installation.
- Firefox 115.3.0esr Web Browser
- Thunderbird 102.15.1 Mail Client
- LibreOffice 7.4.7 Office Suite
- Transmission 3.0 BitTorrent Client
- VLC 3.0.18 Media Player
- Clementine 1.4 rc2 Music Player
Last but not least, attention was paid to the aesthetic side of things, as special priority was given to font legibility, contrast, and rendering, as well as overriding modern trends in all three toolkits (GTK3, GTK4, and Qt ) that are detrimental to usability.
You can refer to the release announcement for detailed information about all changes in SpiralLinux 12.231001. The installation ISO images with the various desktop environments are available for download here.
Since the distribution uses the stable Debian repositories, if you are using SpiralLinux 11.x to upgrade to the latest 12.231001 version, follow the standard steps described in our article on the subject “Upgrading to Debian 12 from Debian 11: A Step-by-Step Guide.”
