GNU Guix 1.5, the latest version of the transactional package manager and GNU system distribution, has been released after more than three years in development. It introduces support for KDE Plasma 6.5 and GNOME 46, along with the Linux-libre 6.17 kernel and numerous new features. The update emphasizes user freedom and modular system management.
Noé Lopez announced the release of GNU Guix 1.5 on January 23, 2026, marking a significant update for this advanced GNU system distribution and transactional package manager designed to respect user freedom. Developed over more than three years, this version shifts to an annual release cycle and brings substantial enhancements to both the package manager and the full Guix System operating system, which allows declarative, atomic management of kernels, services, and environments using code-based configurations. It operates independently on existing Linux distributions via tools like apt or dnf, while adhering to strict free-software principles with the Linux-libre kernel by default. Key updates include the integration of the GNU Linux-libre 6.17 kernel, support for KDE Plasma 6.5 through a new plasma-desktop-service-type with Wayland as default, and GNOME 46, where the gnome-desktop-service-type has been made more modular for customizing default applications. The release adds about 40 new system services, such as Forgejo Runner, RabbitMQ, iwd, and dhcpcd, and adopts GNU Shepherd 1.0 for service management, featuring timed services, kexec reboot support, and improved logging with system log rotation replacing older tools like Rottlog and syslogd. Privileged program handling has been refined, replacing setuid-programs with privileged-programs to better support Linux capabilities, and the nss-certs package is now part of base packages. Over the development period, Guix added 12,525 new packages and nearly 30,000 updates, with core components like GCC 15.2, LLVM 21.1, GNU Emacs 30.2, Icecat 140, and Librewolf 140. Command-line tools see improvements in dependency graphs, container support, and the guix pack utility now producing RPMs and AppImages for broader distribution. Security is bolstered by running the Guix daemon without root privileges on non-Guix systems. Ongoing work advances full-source bootstrapping, including Zig and Mono compilers. GNU Guix 1.5 is available as ISO installation images (no live ISOs), virtual machine images, and tarballs for installation on GNU/Linux distributions or from source. Existing users can update via the guix pull command. It also introduces official tarballs for 64-bit RISC-V and expands experimental GNU Hurd support on x86_64 with installer integration.
