This Linux Distro Combines The Best Parts Of Windows And Macos - And It's Gorgeous

1 week ago

There are truthful galore Linux distributions connected nan market, and they scope from nan bid statement only each nan measurement to functioning useful of art. The mostly of distros autumn location successful nan middle, of course, and that's perfectly good because astir users for illustration a blend of aesthetics and functionality. That's why nan likes of Linux Mint, ZorinOS, elementaryOS, and Ubuntu are truthful popular.

But each erstwhile successful a while, a squad releases an update to its distribution that reminds you that Linux is tin of truthful overmuch more.

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Such is nan lawsuit pinch nan latest merchandise of BlueStar Linux: a distro that fundamentally takes KDE Plasma and twists it into a different benignant of desktop, 1 pinch a highly functional apical bar, a well-designed dock, desktop icons, and more. You're getting nan champion of each worlds:

A Linux-like apical bar
A MacOS dock
Windows-like desktop icons

You mightiness deliberation of BlueStar Linux arsenic nan chimera of operating systems.

I've covered BlueStar Linux before, and, for illustration galore Linux distributions, there's a caller merchandise available. The champion point astir nan caller merchandise is that small has changed connected nan aesthetics front. BlueStar is still nan gorgeous, Arch-based desktop distribution that we've each travel to cognize and love.

So, why fuss pinch different review? Because things change, and, successful nan lawsuit of BlueStar Linux, it's nan under-the-hood things that person evolved, and they really make a difference.

If I had 1 title astir nan erstwhile merchandise of BlueStar Linux, it would beryllium that nan capacity was conscionable okay. It was precisely what you would person expected from an eye-candy-heavy OS. It performed admirably, but if you've knowledgeable a genuinely high-performing operating system, you astir apt wouldn't beryllium impressed.

But then, type 2025.05.30 came on and showed that nan improvement squad could amended -- truthful overmuch truthful that it feels supercharged. My conjecture is that accrued capacity is owed to 2 things: nan latest merchandise of KDE Plasma, and Linux kernel 6.14.9.

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With kernel 6.14.9, you get uncached buffered I/O support and different features that thief amended performance. For much accusation astir really kernel 6.14 improves performance, check retired this article, which breaks down nan facts.

So, yeah, BlueStar Linux noticeably outperforms nan erstwhile iteration. In fact, had it not been for that capacity upgrade, I mightiness person thought doubly astir reviewing a distribution that I'd already reviewed a fewer short months ago. But past again, Linux evolves faster than different operating systems, truthful if you blink, you mightiness miss something. In this case: speed.

It's each astir nan user

If you want to eke retired nan astir velocity from your hardware, you'd usage a Linux distribution geared specifically for that very thing. But erstwhile you want a much robust desktop situation pinch each nan bells and whistles, velocity tin beryllium compromised.

That's 1 of nan reasons why BlueStar is truthful awesome -- it doesn't compromise. To that end, you get everything you need: each of nan productivity applications (LibreOffice, GIMP, Calibre, etc.), plentifulness of net devices (Firefox, FileZilla, BlueSky, Pidgin), and tons of different utilities.

The extremity consequence is simply a cleanable equilibrium of speed, beauty, and usability. The only point missing (out of nan box) is Flatpak, which you tin easy instal with:

sudo pacman -S flatpak

It's a uncommon juncture that you find an operating strategy that is truthful out-of-the-box fresh and beautiful, but that's what you get pinch BlueStar Linux.

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Sure, it's based connected Arch Linux, and galore would show you that immoderate operating strategy based connected Arch should beryllium avoided by nan mean user. But I judge BlueStar Linux proves that sentiment wrong. I would gladly spot this distribution successful beforehand of immoderate personification and say, "Have astatine it."

BlueStar Linux has impressed maine truthful overmuch complete nan years, but nan latest merchandise is thing special. If you're looking for a high-performing, beautiful desktop operating system, run, don't walk, to nan BlueStar Linux download page, drawback an ISO, pain nan ISO to a flash drive, footwear it up, and instal this superb distribution.