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.

Editions

• Trisquel. We keep MATE (version 1.26 on this release) as the default desktop environment due to its great accessibility support, simple user interface and no dependency on 3D acceleration.
• Triskel. Our KDE (v5.92) based edition now as mature as our MATE release is excellent for customizing the design and functionality in fine detail.
• Trisquel Mini. Running LXDE (v0.99.2), the Mini edition is a lightweight desktop perfect for netbooks, old computers and users with minimal resource usage needs.
• Trisquel Sugar or Trisquel On A Sugar Toast (TOAST): Based on the Sugar learning platform (v0.119), TOAST comes with dozens of educational activities for children.
• Network installer image: To deploy with a command-line install interface, it is ideal for servers and advanced users who want to explore custom designed environments. GNOME users will be happy to find that Trisquel GNOME environment has been added to the tasksel step on the d-i installer.

In addition, this release had put some additional work on Budgie and Kylin alternative desktop environments for users that would like them to test them out, help us with some feedback.

Upcoming changes

During Aramo's lifespan we'll continue to improve installation support for ARM and POWERPC whose base rootfs are available at our cdimage archive.

With the continuous support form our community and contributors we will keep providing one of the best fully free operating systems, and tackle the big technical challenges ahead. Trisquel is a non-profit project, you can help sustain it by becoming a member, donating or buying from our store.

We can't finish this great release without thanking for all the donors that keep the project going, and to the hackers Amin Bandali, bill-auger, David L, David Philipe Gil, Denis "GNUtoo" Carikli, "dragestil", Francis Meetze, Jason Self, Joshua Aspinall , Keno Goertz, "knife", "Lappi", Legimet, Mason Hock, Pablo Correa, "Parodper", Simon Josefsson, and many others for all the code, patches, bug reports, translations, and advice. Special thanks to Luis "Ark74" Guzmán, for his very prolific contributions, and to the wonderful community that keeps the project going.