? fresh downloads of distros?

WetGeek

DirtyErnie Are they up to date?

I think it's important to point out that Solus is a "rolling release," and as such it doesn't much matter when the .ISO files were released. I routinely install versions of Solus 4.3 using Solus 4.2 .ISO files that are on my network.

The first thing anyone should do after installing nearly any distribution is to run an update to get the most recent versions of all the software. Updates for Solus (using eopkg) are so fast that it hardly matters how old the .ISO file was.

So, regardless of when the .ISO file was released, after a quick update you end up with the very latest version of every piece of software on your system -- usually as of the most recent Friday.

DirtyErnie

WetGeek Matters to me and others because it shows no new development. Just my opinion? July 21 was almost a year ago. But if you like it that is fine. Cheers!

zmaint

WetGeek

Exactly, and to this end I have a better experience using the even older previous Plasma ISO on systems with Nvidia cards.

I've even went a full year without any system updates (PC was in storage) and had zero issues in updating.

jppelt

WetGeek Only issue if you have new hardware that is not supported by the older kernel. I have Solus running great on my older machines but just get a blank screen when I try the ISO on my desktop with a new AMD GPU. It does matter if you want people to have the opportunity to experience the joy that is Solus.

murbert

WetGeek I think it's important to point out that Solus is a "rolling release," and as such it doesn't much matter when the .ISO files were released.

It matters if you have new hardware that requires a newer kernel than the solus 4.3 iso ships with

tomscharbach

DirtyErnie WetGeek Matters to me and others because it shows no new development. Just my opinion? July 21 was almost a year ago. But if you like it that is fine. Cheers!

You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but reality doesn't support your opinion.

Solus Budgie has undergone significant development since July on a continuing basis -- the change from Gnome 40 to Gnome 42, the upgrade to Budgie 10.6.1 and the kernel update from 5.13 to 5.17 are three examples.

Almost every Solus package has been updated, as well. I would invite you to look at Distrowatch, comparing the left-most package column with the 4.3 package column. You'll see that almost every package has been updated to a newer version. As @WetGeek noted, Solus is a rolling release and is, subject to careful testing of changes before implementing, always current.

But, as is often said, Linux is all about freedom, including the freedom to hold opinions that are, well, unsupported.

WetGeek

DirtyErnie Matters to me and others because it shows no new development.

Your reply is based on a false premise, that "it shows no new development." Actually, the very opposite is true. As Tom said, you are entitled to your opinion, no matter how wrong it is.

Staudey

DirtyErnie Matters to me and others because it shows no new development.

As the others have said iso releases are unrelated to development on Solus (since we are a rolling release distribution). I DO agree though that it's time for a new iso release, if only for hardware enablement and to spare people from downloading hundreds of updates after installation.

DirtyErnie

Staudey Dated is right. Cheers! I'll check it out again in a few months to see if there was any development on them.

WetGeek

DirtyErnie Dated is right.

The only thing wrong with our .ISO files is that they give uninformed individuals the wrong idea about Solus. Solus will release new .ISO files, but not a minute before they're fully updated with work that's now in progress, tested, and ready for consumption. Until then, there's absolutely nothing wrong wtih installing with the present files.

tomscharbach

Staudey I DO agree though that it's time for a new iso release, if only for hardware enablement and to spare people from downloading hundreds of updates after installation.

I'd like to see a 4.4 ISO reasonably soon, too, but Solus is not alone among rolling releases. Until openSUSE Tumbleweed updated its ISO yesterday, roughly 1,300 packages updated in March after installation from the old ISO. I assume that with the new ISO from yesterday, that has changed, but it won't be long before the package update list builds again.

As for @DirtyErnie, it is probably worth noting that he made the same complaint, and got the same answers, two weeks ago.

WetGeek

murbert It matters if you have new hardware that requires a newer kernel than the solus 4.3 iso ships with

That's a very valid point. It's a problem I haven't faced, so I didn't think of it. That's probably the #1 reason why Solus .ISOs should be updated more often than they are.

Perhaps a way could be found that would allow an on-line installation (as some other distros have) that would allow the newest software to be fetched at the time of installation, instead of requiring a GUI to be used from the start?

Then a new installation launcher could be updated much more repidly than updating and testing an entire set of software. And that much smaller part of the instaler could be released a lot more frequently.

WetGeek

WetGeek And that much smaller part of the instaler could be released a lot more frequently.

It would also eliminate a step in the installation process. Why install files from an .ISO and then need to immediately replace them with an update online? And it would ensure that every new Solus user would start with the safest, freshest software, with the newest security fixes right from the beginning.

tomscharbach

WetGeek Perhaps a way could be found that would allow an on-line installation (as some other distros have) that would allow the newest software to be fetched at the time of installation, instead of requiring a GUI to be used from the start?

I think that is a good idea, although maintaining a current and tested repo for this purpose might prove burdensome. Microsoft uses this model for fresh installations of Windows, downloading a small installer (10-20 MB) and downloading files needed for a current installation during the USB creation process. As I recall, openSUSE Tumbleweed (network installation) is similar -- small download to create the installation USB and 3-4,000 packages downloaded during installation. A possible downside is that downloading a large number of independent files without checksum could lead to problems, but that is a problem we face every week when downloading 50-100 update files.

tomscharbach

WetGeek Why install files from an .ISO and then need to immediately replace them with an update online?

The only distro that I have ever installed without immediate post-installation updates is Ubuntu Budgie 22.04 LTS, which I installed the day on which the ISO was released. Within a week, the updates started to come down, and I'm betting that when I install from the ISO on another computer next week, at least 100 files will update after installation.

It is definitely time for Solus to release a 4.4 ISO (my preference would be a new ISO every six months, say April and October each year to line up with static ISO releases) but it would be a matter of just a few weeks before several hundred files would update immediately after installation from an ISO, and the installation-update-complaint cycle would begin again.

The need for scheduled and relatively frequent ISO releases is driven by the need to keep the kernel and drivers up to date, as others have pointed out, and that is why it is time for a new ISO.

Edit/Update: In support of the suggestion that rolling release ISO's quickly become outdated, I note that this week's update consisted of 97 packages on a Solus Budgie out-of-the-box (no apps added except Steam, which updates independently of the distro, and Keepass, which did not update) installation.