[...] What I forgot to mention is that metux created huge numbers of commits using AI without checking them, but I never published that until here.

When these 3 persons learned about my Xorg advices in our forum they kicked me out of the xlibre team and startd to make my - personal - life hell.
Source: forum.artixlinux.org/index.php…

It could be that I'm late, but if there are any other Artix users out there who wonder why a pacman -Syu asks whether you want to replace xlibre, here's the reason.

What would you do if you bought some capable hardware that you really like, but there’s no Linux distribution that runs well on it?

When Jason Perlow found himself in that predicament, he broke out some tools and built his own Linux distribution to fully support it. He’s calling the distro NCZ-OS, and it currently supports arm64 machines, with a specific focus on the CIX Sky1 platform, targeting Radxa Orion O6/O6N and Minisforum MS-R1 devices. Support for OrangePi systems is currently under validation.

He’s not stopping there. He’s now working on getting it to work on some older hardware that’s been stranded by Microsoft and Apple.

If Perlow’s name seems familiar, there’s a reason for that. For years his byline graced articles on sites such as CNN, Linux Magazine, ZDNet, and others. He’s also spent stints as an employee at the Linux Foundation, Microsoft, and IBM. Some of you might also know him for his foodie videos.

“I think the story here is interesting because I have heavily used AI pair-programming tools (Codex, Claude, OpenCode/Goose/Pi) to put this distro together, along with Yocto as the build system,” he told me in a conversation that took place via email. “This would have been basically impossible for a single person to do five years ago.”

Making Linux Safe for Arm CIX Sky1

In some ways the project harkens back to the 1990s, when coders were working to build GNU/Linux distributions that would work on whatever hardware they had laying around and needed to get it to work on.

“I bought a Sky1-based system,” Perlow said. “It was an attractive piece of hardware for $600 — 64GB RAM, 12 cores, GPU, and NPU. When it arrived, a lot of stuff wasn’t working out of the box. I decided to keep it and not return it, and see if I could get it to do as advertised. I now own two (Minisforum, Radxa) with a third on the way (OrangePi).”

NCZ-OS originally used an Ubuntu base, but now starts with the arm64 port of Debian testing (forky). It uses a customized Debian installer with a bit of built-in failsafe: the base system is installed directly from the image, doing away with issues, like maybe an iffy network connection or unreachable mirror.

“The goal is specific: make the SoC’s accelerators work under a current kernel and a fully Wayland desktop,” he said. “On new Arm silicon the accelerators are usually the last thing to work and often the thing that never does, with the GPU falling back to software and the NPU and video engine present only as device nodes nothing can drive. Closing that gap is the point of the project.”

There have been numerous workarounds necessary to get the OS working to his liking. That’s not surprising. According to Perlow, the CIX Sky1 is not only new technology, it was apparently initially designed for China’s domestic smartphone market, so architecturally it has more in common with a phone-class system-on-chip than a conventional PC. Although it’s supported by some other distros, the support is incomplete.

“NCZ-OS is not the only option and I would not want to suggest otherwise,” he said. “Armbian maintains a CIX board family, Radxa publish Debian and Fedora images for the Orion O6, Ubuntu has a concept image, and CIX publishes an SDK and is upstreaming core SoC support, which matters more in the long run than any downstream image. A community project, Sky1-Linux, assembled kernel and GPU packaging and drew genuine interest, though its repositories have had no activity since March 2026.

“What differs here is the scope of what is made to work on one image, and the practice of measuring each claim on hardware before making it,” he added.

Perlow isn’t stopping with NCZ-OS as a specialized Arm distro. He’s working on a specialized x86 version too.

“The x86 target is deliberate rather than opportunistic, and it is the one I care most about,” he said.

He’s attacking x86 on two fronts, starting with enabling full desktop support for older Macs that were built before Apple said goodbye to Intel and x86 in 2020.

“I have been a committed Mac user since leaving Microsoft in 2017, and none of the Linux desktops I’ve used since then has given me a compelling reason to switch,” he said. “I own an Intel Mac from 2020 which is largely abandonware, with the exception of the T2 kernel being developed [a Linux kernel with patches or drivers for T2-equipped Macs], but there is no distribution that really is tuned for it. They all kind of stop at the kernel and are the same Ubuntu or Arch or whatever distro experience everyone else gets.”

“That’s not a bad thing necessarily,” he added, “but I think you need a compelling reason for end users with older systems to switch to Linux more than ‘my abandoned hardware now works.’ That doesn’t pull millions of systems necessarily out of the e-waste pile.”

Mac branded x86 machines that were manufactured in the years leading up to Apple’s change to its own chip design are still capable today, Perlow pointed out, but they need a specific kernel patch series to make the keyboard, trackpad, audio, and networking work.

“That series exists and is maintained by the t2linux community,” Perlow said. “Carrying such a series on a current base is the same task this project already performs for Sky1, which is why it is a realistic target rather than a wish.”
A Wintel 10 Lifejacket Too…

There’s more in Perlow’s sights than specialized Arm and old Apples.

“I also have several Windows 10 laptops that are perfectly good but also abandonware — right now they are servers, I don’t like the Linux desktops that exist today. I want to develop a fully modernized distribution that is open source but also delivers an end user experience that doesn’t compromise and ‘just works.'”

“The Steve Jobs approach,” he added. “That’s a very lofty thing for one person to try to do. I’m no Google — but I’m arrogant and motivated…”

He’s talking, of course, about Windows 10 machines with modern specs that couldn’t make Microsoft’s cut for the upgrade path to Windows 11. Official support for Windows 10 from Redmond ended last October, although in some cases extended support remains available through October 2027.

NCZ-OS’s desktop environment is Singularity, which is not a Windows clone by any stretch, but offers a conventional layout that won’t confuse Windows (or Mac) users. It’s from Italy-based Mirko Brombin, whose tech resume checks multiple boxes, including UI/UX designer, open-source developer, and Linux project founder. He’s probably best known as the creator of the popular Wine front end, Bottles, and the Debian-based Linux distribution Vanilla OS.

For the x86 version, Perlow said he intends to use the same Debian Forky base, installer, and Singularity Wayland desktop, paired with a Yocto-built Linux 7.2 kernel.

“The initial targets include T2-equipped Intel Macs from 2017-2023 and capable Windows 10 systems that cannot officially move to Windows 11,” he said. “The goal is the same on both Arm and x86: support as much hardware acceleration as possible and deliver a modern, cohesive experience rather than merely making abandoned hardware boot Linux. I expect the x86 work to be easier, although hardware has a habit of punishing statements like that.”

Release information and downloads are available on GitHub.

Two new apps are coming to Linux Mint later this year: a new calendar and eBook reader.

Plus, the Ubuntu-based Linux distribution has redesigned its (overlooked) document hub, Library, to make it easier to find and manage documents scattered across you device from one place.

Both new apps join the XApp Project, Linux Mint’s collection of home-grown, cross-desktop GTK apps (which now has a new website wearing the popular Claude design aesthetic).

Clockenstien is Mint’s new Calendar app

Clockenstein is Linux Mint’s new calendar app but, lest anyone scream in horror at the terrible name, the user-facing label is just Calendar. It replaces GNOME Calendar in Linux Mint’s default software lineup (about time – it was an older, pre GTK4/libadwaita build).

Now a calendar is a calendar. It needs to let you see and browse dates, add events, create calendars for different tasks – things that Linux Mint’s clockenstein can do from the off.

But integration with online services is important since most of us move between devices during the day. So calendars can be entirely offline and kept local, or sync to/from online providers like Google Calendar or through CalDAV via cloud services like Nextcloud.

Clem says the goal was make sure it was always obvious when remote calendars aren’t working and in-sync, so users can tell if something is up. Failing silently isn’t helpful if there’s an important event you assume you’ll get a reminder about, but never do.

“Down in the laboratory, there’s a little more going on”, says Lefebvre.

A background daemon is used to keep remote calendars in sync and check for any upcoming events that have reminders enabled. If there’s an issue, events stay visible but become read-only – you can’t edit or add – until connect is back online.

Reminders are handled via a notification agent. They get shown on the desktop at the appropriate time so you can action or snooze or be reminded later. Backend interfaces allow other desktop environments to interact or replace the notification agent.

Book Reader ePub viewer

The new Book Reader (xepub) app is designed (surprise) for opening ePub files. It looks to offer a clean reading experience, that Linux Mint’s Clement Lefebvre says is ‘similar’ to a Kindle or a Kobo. It also keeps track of where you are in a book so when you re-open it, you can resume reading.

Features wise, it will offer what you’d expect: chapter and page navigation, full-text search and bookmarks, as well as adjustable page zoom and font options. An annotations feature lets you highlight selections of text, with a colour, and add notes.

Finally, an internal look-up system lets you select a word and ferry it to a search engine (wikipedia, dictionary, etc) to find out more about it.
Library gets a dust off
Linux Mint's Library app showing document filtersThingy – a personal document hub

Linux Mint has also redesigned its Library document manager, which you may know by the package name thingy.

Documents are now grouped by file type, rather than the app that opens them. So, for instance, you can see just your PDF files in one view, rather than finding them scattered amongst all files the the default document viewer XReader handles.

Common file types are listed in the Library sidebar, but you choose what’s shown and in one order. And, more usefully, you can create your own custom groups that contain a mix of different file types, and even specify them from specific folders.

When can I get the new apps?

Linux Mint’s new Book Reader and Calendar apps will make their official debut in Linux Mint 23, expected to arrive towards the end of the year. That release will also ship with the new and improved Library app too.

Plus, other changes the team has revealed and teased to date (and, no doubt, a few still to come).

If you don’t want to wait, the source code is up on GitHub (each linked in their respective paragraphs above). You can check them out (pun klaxon) to test, and file any issues you find or glaring feature requests you may have.

Exciting stuff!