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Trisquel 8.0 LTS Flidas

Trisquel 8.0, codename "Flidas" is finally here! This release will be supported with security updates until April 2021. The first thing to acknowledge is that this arrival has been severely delayed, to the point where the next upstream release (Ubuntu 18.04 LTS) will soon be published. The good news is that the development of Trisquel 9.0 will start right away, and it should come out closer to the usual release schedule of "6 months after upstream release".

But this is not to say that we shouldn't be excited about Trisquel 8.0, quite the contrary! It comes with many improvements over Trisquel 7.0, and its core components (kernel, graphics drivers, web browser and e-mail client) are fully up to date and will receive continuous upgrades during Flidas' lifetime.

Trisquel 8.0 has benefited from extensive testing, as many people have been using the development versions as their main operating system for some time. On top of that, the Free Software Foundation has been using it to run the Libreplanet conference since last year, and it has been powering all of its new server infrastructure as well!

What's new?

The biggest internal change to the default edition is the switch from GNOME to MATE 1.12. The main reason for this change was that GNOME dropped support for their legacy desktop, which retained the GNOME 2.x user experience and didn't require 3D composition -- a feature that in many computers would still need non-free software to run at full speed. MATE provides a perfect drop-in replacement, it is very light and stable and it retains all the user experience design that we are used to from previous Trisquel releases.

The next most important component is Abrowser 59 (based on Mozilla Firefox), which is not only fully-featured and quite faster than before, it has also been audited and tweaked to maximize the user's privacy without compromising on usability. Abrowser will not start any network connections on its own (most popular web browsers connect for extension updates, telemetry, geolocation and other data-collection as soon as you open them, even if you haven't even typed an address yet!) and it has a list of easy to set, privacy-enhancing settings that the user can opt-in depending on their needs. As a companion to it, and based on Mozilla Thunderbird, the IceDove mail client is also fully updated and set up for privacy.

Trisquel 8.0 also comes with the following preinstalled packages:

  • Linux-libre 4.4 by default, 4.13 available (and newer versions will be published as an optional rolling release)
  • Xorg 7.7 with optional rolling-release updates
  • LibreOffice 5.1.4
  • VLC 2.2.2

Trisquel-mini (the light edition based on LXDE) uses the Midori web browser, Sylpheed email client, Abiword text editor, and GNOME-Mplayer media player as its main preinstalled components. We also have the Trisquel TOAST edition, based on the Sugar learning environment v112, and complete with a selection of educational activities for k12 and beyond. And of course, available from our repositories and mirrors are over 25,000 more free software packages you can run, study, improve and share.

Support our effort

Trisquel is a non-profit project, you can contribute by becoming a member, donating or buying from our store.

Trisquel 12.0 "Ecne" release announcement

We are proud to announce the release of Trisquel 12.0 Ecne! After extensive work and thorough testing, Ecne is ready for production use. This release builds on the foundation of Aramo with meaningful improvements across packaging, the kernel, security, and software availability.

Major milestones

  • APT 3.0 and full deb822 repository format. Trisquel 12.0 ships with APT 3.0, enabling us to fully adopt the modern deb822 repository format across all installation paths. The netinstall (for text-based installation and advanced users), Ubiquity (for graphical installation from a live system), as well as Synaptic and other package-management tools have been updated to use the new repository formats.
  • Improved kernel modularity, and system security. The kernel remains one of our biggest engineering challenges with every release. For Ecne, we focused on making our kernel changes more modular, substantially reducing breakage in the udeb components used during installation. Work on updating kernel-wedge is ongoing and we are well positioned to complete it. We revised many AppArmor rules for graphical environments, improving security coverage for everyday desktop use.
  • New browser options. Both GNU IceCat and ungoogled-chromium are now available in Ecne, joining our continuously maintained Abrowser, giving users a range of fully free web browsing choices.
  • Backports. Our backports repository continues to provide popular applications in their latest versions, including LibreOffice, yt-dlp, Inkscape, Nextcloud Desktop, Kdenlive, Tuba, 0 A.D., fastfetch, and more.

Ecne is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and will receive support until 2029. Users of Trisquel 11.x Aramo can upgrade directly using the update-manager or do-release-upgrade commands at a console terminal.

Trisquel 11.0 "Aramo" release announcement

Our most ambitious release to date, Trisquel 11.0 Aramo is out! After extensive work and thorough testing, we are proud to declare Aramo to be production-ready. This release brings many improvements and covers more grounds both in terms of machines supported and in installation options. Here are some highlights of the main accomplishments included in this release:

Major achievements

  • New supported architectures. Following the addition of 32bit ARM support in Trisquel 10, we now introduce support for 64bit ARM and POWER architectures, to expand the options for hardware compatibility.
  • d-i/Netinstall (also called "debian-installer") is the text-mode installer for Trisquel, which allows for advanced and custom installations, often used for servers. After Ubuntu dropped support for this installation method, we stepped in to add any removed pieces and make it functional again, often from upstream Debian sources.
  • Browser packaging: as Ubuntu continues to shift towards snap packaging, we took on the task of continuing to package key components such as Abrowser (our improved Firefox derivative) as a standard .deb package. Abrowser continues to bring a fully free browser that balances privacy and usability.
  • Compatibility with AMD/ATI graphics cards. We made a specific effort to improve the support for these cards without requiring non-free firmware blobs. The result is a default configuration that should make most of these types of cards work at a basic level, without 2D/3D acceleration. Please report if you test it with one of those cards!

Aramo is based on Ubuntu 22.04LTS and will receive support until 2027. Users of Trisquel 10 Nabia can upgrade directly using the update-manager or do-release-upgrade commands at a console terminal.

Trisquel 10.0.1 LTS "Nabia" incremental update

Today we publish a new set of live and installation media for the 10.0 series, that applies all package upgrades and security fixes to date, and corrects bugs in the installer applications and package managers. If you are already using Trisquel 10 you can upgrade without reinstalling, simply by using your package manager or update application of choice, or by running these two commands on a terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt dist-upgrade

The new release iso images are available in the downloads page.