PrismLinux Reborn 1.0 Is Here

After more than two months without a release, PrismLinux Reborn 1.0 is finally here. This release represents a major round of redesign, migration, optimization, and ecosystem cleanup across the distribution.

Community milestones

During this development cycle, PrismLinux entered DistroWatch’s top 100 distributions and moved as high as the 76–80 range. Thank you to everyone who followed the project, tested releases, reported problems, and helped PrismLinux grow.

We also experienced the first DDoS attack against our server. It was unexpected, but the team identified and mitigated the problem quickly. The experience helped us strengthen the project’s infrastructure for the future.

What changed in the distribution

A redesigned native installer

The installer has been comprehensively redesigned and polished as part of its migration away from web technologies to a native implementation.

New and improved installer features include:

• Keyboard language selection during installation
• Optional Chaotic-AUR support
• Boot manager selection between GRUB, systemd-boot, and rEFInd
• GRUB as the default boot manager
• Firmware-aware choices — systems without systemd-boot or rEFInd support, including legacy BIOS installations, will only offer GRUB
• Flatpak enabled by default for every supported desktop environment

Smarter driver installation

Driver handling has been optimized. The installer now detects the system and installs the drivers and related packages appropriate for that hardware.

This produces a lighter installation with fewer unnecessary packages and less wasted disk space.

Improved Btrfs support

The installer now provides broader Btrfs support and more reliable automatic installation for both Btrfs and ext4 filesystems.

Four focused desktop options

For now, PrismLinux will focus on four supported desktop environments and compositors:

• KDE Plasma
• GNOME
• Cinnamon
• niri

Our team currently consists of five people, which makes it difficult to maintain a larger desktop matrix at the quality level we expect. Focusing on these four options lets us provide better testing, integration, and long-term support. We are also considering opening contributor recruitment soon.

Performance, stability, and system services

This release includes several patches for audio, system services, and general stability.

Notable changes include:

• A first-boot service that evaluates repository servers and selects faster mirrors
• A PCI latency service that also improves audio-latency handling
• Additional service and audio patches for a more consistent system experience

Updated terminal commands

Several tools that are most useful from the command line have been rewritten or updated:

• prism-update
• prism-clean
• prism-topmem
• prism-rate-mirrors

Desktop changes

KDE Plasma

KDE Plasma now supports the new PrismLinux Dark theme. Parts of the same visual language are also used in the installer.

Firmware and hardware support

The following firmware packages have been added:

• asus-n551jm-firmware
• asus-x509da-firmware

These packages include microphone fixes for affected Realtek hardware.

Initial keychron-udev support has also been added. It improves support for Keychron keyboards and enables compatible devices to expose settings to the Keychron configuration application.

Removed components

To reduce maintenance load and simplify the installed system, this release removes:

• Hyprland support
• Sway support
• COSMIC support
• Unnecessary packages from the KDE Plasma, GNOME, and Cinnamon installations

Infrastructure and package ecosystem

The infrastructure behind PrismLinux package delivery has also been improved:

• A more reliable package build system
• Additional safeguards to stabilize package downloads
• A more efficient package delivery process for faster and more consistent downloads

Additional ecosystem updates

• xLibre has been updated to the latest available versions
• fish-autopair, sourced from Chaotic-AUR, has been added to the PrismLinux repositories
• Maple Mono has returned to the PrismLinux repositories
• Helium Browser has been added to the PrismLinux repositories
• Virtual-machine installations intentionally disable Plymouth when booting the installed operating system
• A new Plymouth boot animation has been added
• The website has been redesigned, alongside broader polishing across the PrismLinux ecosystem

Download PrismLinux Reborn 1.0

Get the new release from the PrismLinux downloads page.

If you encounter a problem or want to help improve the project:

• Join our Discord server
• Read the documentation
• Report issues through our GitLab

---

Thank you for supporting PrismLinux and helping the project reach this milestone.