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Solus RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: Solus

Solus


Last Update: 2026-04-18 23:23 UTC


Solus is a Linux distribution built from scratch. It uses a forked version of the PiSi package manager, maintained as "eopkg" within Solus, and its flagship edition uses the Budgie desktop environment. Budgie was originally developed-in-house, but is now maintained as a separate project by the Buddies of Budgie team. Solus is available in GNOME, KDE Plasma and Xfce editions.

Popularity (hits per day): 12 months: 36 (312), 6 months: 38 (333), 3 months: 41 (319), 4 weeks: 29 (447), 1 week: 11 (1,087)

Average visitor rating: 7.7/10 from 249 review(s).


Solus Summary
Distribution Solus
Home Page https://getsol.us/
Mailing Lists --
User Forums https://discuss.getsol.us/
Alternative User Forums
Documentation https://help.getsol.us/
Screenshots DistroWatch Gallery
Screencasts
Download Mirrors https://getsol.us/download/DistroWatch Torrent Archive
Bug Tracker https://dev.getsol.us/maniphest/
Related Websites GitHub
Reviews 4.8: FOSS Force
4.7: DistroWatch
4.5: DistroWatch
4.4: DistroWatchMichlFranken (German)
4.x: DistroWatchDistroWatchLinuxzasve (Croatian) • DistroWatchOrdinatechnicDedoimedoAverage Linux UserCMS CriticHeise (German) • DedoimedoDistroWatch
3: OrdinatechnicDistroWatchCMS CriticLinux.comPro-Linux (German)
2017.x: DedoimedoDarkDuckDistroWatch
1.x: DedoimedoDistroWatchFreedom PenguinLWN
Where To Donate, Buy or Try Open Collective

Recent Related News and Releases
  Releases announcements with download links and checksums:
 • 2026-04-18: Distribution Release: Solus 4.9
 • 2025-11-29: Distribution Release: Solus 4.8
 • 2025-01-26: Distribution Release: Solus 4.7
 • 2024-10-15: Distribution Release: Solus 4.6
 • 2024-01-09: Distribution Release: Solus 4.5
 • 2023-07-08: Distribution Release: Solus 4.4
 • 2021-07-11: Distribution Release: Solus 4.3
 • 2021-02-03: Distribution Release: Solus 4.2
 • 2020-01-25: Distribution Release: Solus 4.1
 • 2019-03-18: Distribution Release: Solus 4.0
 • 2017-08-15: Distribution Release: Solus 3
 • 2017-04-18: Distribution Release: Solus 2017.04.18.0
 • More Solus releases...

  Headlines:
 • 2026-01-10 New release of Budgie switches from X11 to Wayland
 • 2025-10-11 Solus approaches a new epoch
 • 2024-07-15 Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap support
 • 2023-04-18 Solus team planning a come-back
 • 2023-02-13 Solus project status updates
 • 2021-09-14 Solus to replace GTK in Budgie desktop
 • 2019-10-03 Solus updates supported desktops
 • 2019-03-21 Budgie 10.5 shipped with Solus 4.0
 • 2019-01-15 Solus roadmap for 2019
 • 2018-11-02 Solus team regaining account access
 • More Solus headlines...

Table Notes and Explanations

(Please refer to the table below.)
  • Select view:
  • To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
  • Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
  • Colour scheme: green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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Feature 4.9 4.8 4.7 4.6 4.4 4.3 4.1 4.0 3.9999 3 2017.04.18.0 1.2.1 Feature
Release Date 2026-04-18 2025-11-29 2025-01-26 2024-10-15 2023-07-08 2021-07-11 2020-01-25 2019-03-17 2018-09-20 2017-08-15 2017-04-18 2016-10-19 Release Date
End Of Life                         End Of Life
Price (US$) Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Price (US$)
Image Size (MB) 3600-4200 3300-3900 3000-3300 2400-2900 2200-2600 1800-2100 1600-1900 1400-1500 1400-1500 1100-1200     Image Size (MB)
Free Download ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO Free Download
Installation Calamares Calamares Calamares Calamares Graphical Graphical Graphical Graphical Graphical Graphical Graphical Graphical Installation
Default Desktop Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma, Xfce Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma, MATE Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma, MATE Budgie, GNOME, KDE Plasma, MATE Budgie, GNOME, MATE Budgie, GNOME, MATE Budgie, GNOME, MATE Budgie, GNOME, MATE Budgie, MATE Default Desktop
Default Browser Firefox Firefox Firefox Firefox Firefox Firefox Firefox Firefox Firefox Firefox Firefox Firefox Default Browser
Package Format eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak, snap eopkg, flatpak, snap eopkg, flatpak, snap eopkg, flatpak, snap eopkg, flatpak, snap eopkg, flatpak, snap eopkg, flatpak eopkg Package Format
Package Management eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak eopkg, flatpak Package Management
Release Model Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Rolling Release Model
Office Suite LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice -- Office Suite
Processor Architecture x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 Processor Architecture
Init Software systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd Init Software
Journaled File Systems Btrfs, ext4, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, ReiserFS, XFS ext4 ext4 ext4 Btrfs, ext4, ReiserFS, XFS ext4, ReiserFS ext4, ReiserFS ext4, ReiserFS ext4, ReiserFS Journaled File Systems
Multilingual Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes         Multilingual
Full Package List 4.9 4.8 4.7 4.6 4.4 4.3 4.1 4.0 3.9999 3 2017.04.18.0 1.2.1 Full Package List
Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for Solus

Average rating
7.7
from 249 review(s)
Please specify which version of the distribtion you are reviewing.
Please select a rating in the range of 1-10.
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Past reviews - sort by:

Version: 4.9
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-04-21
Country: United Kingdom
Votes: 4


After 6 months of Mint and a whole lot of distrohopping (including Ubuntu, Debian, MX, Fedora, Cachy, Manjaro, Mageia, OpenMandriva, SUSE, Pika, Nobara and less well known distros like Blend, Siduction, Rhino and several others) I'm settled on Solus as my favourite,

KDE feels snappy and everything worked ootb (proprietary NVIDIA was a post-install step, but super easy thought the GUI).

They've really cracked the release schedule- it's rolling (so no anxieties about big updates) and close to the edge, but packages are held back long enough to make for a very reliable system, and released at a sensible pace (mostly bundled into one weekly update).
'
Maybe what I appreciate most is that it's genuinely an independent and community distro, with no corporate associations, but that it has enough people behind it for it not to fall into the category of hobby distro where you might worry about maintenance.

The only negatives stem from the fact that it's not one of the big distros- so the repos aren't as big and you won't find as big an online community around it. But this actually hasn't proven to be a problem- even on the subreddit I've got questions answered pretty quickly (their own forum is more active and the devs are on there quite a bit). And when I was missing a package I needed, I just requested it and within a few days someone had stepped up to volunteer to maintain it.

One feature I really like is Solseek, which is a TUI package manager (you can use Discovery/GNOME Software Manager if you prefer). It convinced me TUIs are the future- more powerful than the GUI but much easier than doing everything in the terminal.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 4.9
Rating: 9
Date: 2026-04-20
Country: Japan
Votes: 1


日本からの投稿です。
solus4.9XFCEバージョンをインストールしました。
これが独立系なのかと驚くほどの完成度を感じました。初めてインストールしましたが、インストールは簡単で問題なくインストールすることができました。テスト用のPCは古いceleron / 4GB-RAM / 32GB-SSD を使いました。いろいろなアプリをインストールしたあとでのインストールイメージは14GBくらいで小さめの容量です。
動作はとても軽快で、古いceleronCPUでも問題なく使うことができました。chromeなどのブラウザでも5枚程度のタブなら4GBRAMでも問題なく動作しますので、4GBでも普通に使うことができると思います。メモリの価格が上昇しているので、32GB-SSDという少ないストレージで運用できることは嬉しいものです。
XFCEバージョンを選択したので、設定などはDebian等と同じで迷うことはありません。スクリーンの設定なども同じなので、電源管理に困ることもありません。
追加できるアプリケーションも豊富に用意されています。KDEplasma等と同じDiscoverソフトウェアパッケージインストーラが用意されていて、chrome / MS-edge などもGUIメニューからインストールができました。パッケージ管理がオリジナルなので、コマンドを覚える必要がありますが、コマンドシステムが従来のLinuxと似ているので、違和感はありません。
ローカル言語は別にインストールする必要がありますので、Discoverインストーラを使ってインストールしました。私は日本語なので、fcitx5-mozcを選択しました。ただfcitx5-configtoolだけがコマンドでインストールする必要があったので、注意が必要です。それ以外は問題なく、日本語が利用できるようになりました。日本語キーボードも問題なく使えています。
独立系のLinuxなので、難しいイメージを持っていましたが、開発元のコンセプト通りでとても使いやすいOSだと感じました。今後長く使ってみないとわからないこともあると思いますから、しばらく使ってみようと思います。
開発元には高い技術を持っているメンバーも多いようですから、今後の進化を楽しみにしています。



Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 4.8
Rating: 10
Date: 2026-04-08
Country: Austria
Votes: 9


Why I Love Solus

* I’ve never seen a distro using systemd for PID 1 boot this fast
* KDE feels incredibly responsive
* No bloatware
* Independent distribution
* Developed by a small team of Linux enthusiasts
* Stable rolling release model
* Updates arrive every Friday (with changes posted on the Solus Mastodon forum)
* Far fewer updates compared to Arch-based distros or openSUSE Tumbleweed
* I haven’t had a single issue in a year
* Supportive and friendly community

Just try it out yourself :)




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