AerynOS, an alpha-stage Linux distribution focused on atomic updates, has issued its February 2026 project update and a new ISO image. The release features enhancements to its MOSS package management system and the latest versions of major desktop environments. Installation remains terminal-based, requiring manual partitioning and a network connection.
AerynOS, a still-developing Linux distro emphasizing atomic updates rather than full immutability, published its February 2026 snapshot on March 1, 2026. The new Alpha ISO, named AerynOS 2026.02, includes Linux kernel 6.18 LTS and serves as a live GNOME environment primarily for delivering the project's Lichen installer. Users must connect to a network during installation to retrieve the latest package sets.
Key improvements center on MOSS, AerynOS's atomic update and package management system. Developers report that blitting speeds for atomic /usr transactions have increased substantially, allowing cold transactions on modern SSD and NVMe drives to handle about 65,000 files from a fresh install in roughly one second.
The ISO now offers two minimal installation options: the existing Headless Install for server deployments with wired networking, and a new Console-only path that incorporates WiFi components for wireless-dependent systems.
Desktop environments received updates as well. COSMIC reaches version 1.0.8, fixing issues like VLC freezing, file manager behavior, and applet handling. GNOME 49.4 addresses bugs in Quick Settings tab focus, default folder recreation, and monitor screen sharing frame rates. KDE Plasma 6.6.1 adds a first-run setup wizard, OCR support in Spectacle for extracting text from screenshots, and accessibility features such as a grayscale filter in color blindness settings. It is accompanied by KDE Frameworks 6.23 and KDE Gear 25.12.2. In Lichen, Plasma Login Manager is now the default, with SDDM as a fallback.
Core components also saw upgrades, including Mesa 26.0, Docker 29.2.1, QEMU 10.2.1, PipeWire 1.6, Firefox 148, Thunderbird 148, Wine 11.3, libinput 1.31, and dracut 110.
Boulder, the package build tool, now treats recipe version fields as strings with automatic quoting, caches upstream sources to avoid redundant downloads, and includes a --verify option to compare rebuilt manifests against repository ones.
The team has finalized the design for the next-generation MOSS repository format, imposing a temporary soft freeze on new package additions to focus on existing ones as tooling develops. The ISO is available for testing but not recommended for production use, with installation handled entirely via the terminal-based Lichen tool after manual partition creation.
