The new version of Regolith 2.0 has already been released

After a year of development the release of the new version was announced desktop environment Regolith 2.0, developed by the developers of the Linux distribution of the same name.

Regolith is based on GNOME session management technologies and the i3 window manager.

The project is positioned as a modern desktop environment, developed for faster execution of typical actions by streamlining workflows and eliminating unnecessary clutter. The goal is to provide a functional yet minimalist interface that can be customized and extended based on user preferences. Regolith may be of interest to beginners who are used to traditional window systems but want to try framing (tiling) window design techniques.

Of the main features of Regolith:

  • Support for hotkeys like in i3wm window manager to manage window tiling.
  • Using i3wm or i3-gaps, an extended fork of i3wm, to manage windows.
  • The panel is built using i3bar, and i3xrocks based on i3blocks is used to run automation scripts.
  • Session management is based on the gnome-flashback and gdm3 session manager.
  • Components for system administration, interface configuration, automatic drive mounting, and wireless network connection management have been moved from GNOME Flashback.
  • In addition to frame design, traditional window methods are also allowed.
  • Ilia application launcher and window switching interface. The list of applications can be viewed at any time using the keyboard shortcut super + space.
  • Notification is used to display notifications.
  • The regolith-look utility is used to manage skins and install individual look-related resources.

Main novelties of Regolith 2.0

In this new version it is highlighted that in addition to Ubuntu, now builds have been implemented that provide support for Debian 11. In addition to that, it is also mentioned that the proposed implementation of the application's start menu and the interface for switching between windows, which replaced the previously proposed Rofi Launcher interface.

Another change that we can find in this new version is for configuration, instead of gnome-control-center, it offers a custom configurator regolith-control-center.

Also, we can find that config file for i3 window manager is split into several separate components, allowing for more flexible configuration management.

On the other hand, updated style settings have been made and that, using the regolith-look command, you can install alternative files with style settings.

Of the other changes that stand out from this new version:

  • Replaced hotkey viewer.
  • It is possible to use both the usual window manager i3wm and the i3-gaps project, which develops an extended fork of i3wm, for window management.
  • Added fonts from the Nerd Fonts project.
  • Added utility to manage notifications.
  • Added regolith-diagnostic utility to collect diagnostic information.
  • Alty Super can now be easily traded with an Xresources override.
  • Alternate languages ​​can be selected from the desktop runner.
  • regolith-control-center prevents some popups from hiding and blocking the UI

Finally if you want to know more about it of this new version of the environment, you can check the details In the following link.

Download and installation

For those who are interested in being able to install this environment, they should know that packages for Ubuntu 20.04/22.04 and Debian 11 have been prepared for download.

for our case we are going to open a terminal in the system with the key combination Ctrl + Alt + T or with Ctrl + T and we will type the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kgilmer/regolith-stable -y

After that we are going to install the desktop on the system with:

sudo apt install regolith-desktop

At the end of the installation, you will only have to close the session of your system and start a new one but this time choosing the Regolith session.

It is worth mentioning that the developments of the project are distributed under the GPLv3 license.


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