I stopped trying Linux distributions years ago, but I made an exception for RefreshOS, a Debian-based distro that promises a pure Debian experience without Snap or Flatpak.
Since Canonical decided to focus on the corporate market and IBM, together with Red Hat, formally or informally took over the direction of most of the Linux projects, it stopped being interesting. Except for some minor innovation from Endeavor or Linux Mint, all distributions offer more or less the same.
RefreshOS is no exception. But it does have some things to contribute.
RefreshOS is a Debian-based distro
Let's start by saying that it's not a community distribution. Their website identifies eGoTech™ as responsible. According to their X account, it's:
A budding software development company dedicated to creating user-centric digital products.
To be fair in a review, it must be based on what the project leaders propose, not what the article's author would like. So let's see what they propose on their website:
offers a combination of ease of use, speed and elegance. That focuses on Qt's stability, customization, and seamless integration, with features and improved performance to meet diverse user needs.
From an aesthetic point of view, RefreshOS 2.0 (Boundless Beagle) is one of the most polished distributions I've seen with the KDE Plasma desktop. This includes the boot manager background. Even installed on an external hard drive, it runs smoothly, so I imagine it must run like a dream on a solid-state drive.
Using Calamares as your installer is a good decision . It's undoubtedly the best installation assistant in the Linux ecosystem and makes installing multiple operating systems on different disks incredibly easy. However, when I restarted my computer, I discovered that it hadn't added the other operating systems to the boot manager.
Another issue they need to address (and it's surprising in a Debian-based distribution that usually runs smoothly) is the translations . Even though I selected the Mexican Spanish installation (the only option Calamares offers for Latin Americans), it installed in US English. When I tried to change the language in the settings, it only offered Spanish from Spain. And I couldn't change the currency format to the Argentine peso either.
I don't think using Avalon Menu as the application launcher was a good decision . Unlike Plasma's traditional menu, it doesn't group applications into categories, which can become confusing when you have many installed. Fortunately, this can be changed in a couple of clicks by right-clicking on the distribution's logo.
In terms of applications, the biggest surprise is that they didn't choose Brave as the featured browser, even though Firefox is there and you just have to type its name in the launcher to find it. Brave is a browser with excellent privacy protection and ad-blocking tools, and websites register it as if it were Google Chrome, so compatibility issues are unlikely. The other apps include the usual offerings, such as the LibreOffice office suite, the GIMP photo editor, and the VLC video player. Another departure from the norm is KMail instead of Thunderbird.
Beyond the details mentioned, RefreshOS 2.0 (Boundless Beagle) emerges as an ideal option for those who want the best of Debian without the worst. It's on its way to becoming an excellent alternative for those who want to get started with Linux and for installing it on family members who know nothing about computers and just want to use their own.
Even experienced users should give it a try. It's based on Debian, one of the most stable distributions with the widest selection of software, plus the KDE desktop and application ecosystem. By not spreading resources across different desktop environments, quality is guaranteed.
It's even possible to add support to Flatpak and Snap with a few simple commands.