Trisquel 12.0 "Ecne" release announcement

We are proud to announce the release of Trisquel 12.0 Ecne! After extensive work and thorough testing, Ecne is ready for production use. This release builds on the foundation of Aramo with meaningful improvements across packaging, the kernel, security, and software availability.

Major milestones

• APT 3.0 and full deb822 repository format. Trisquel 12.0 ships with APT 3.0, enabling us to fully adopt the modern deb822 repository format across all installation paths. The netinstall (for text-based installation and advanced users), Ubiquity (for graphical installation from a live system), as well as Synaptic and other package-management tools have been updated to use the new repository formats.

• Improved kernel modularity, and system security. The kernel remains one of our biggest engineering challenges with every release. For Ecne, we focused on making our kernel changes more modular, substantially reducing breakage in the udeb components used during installation. Work on updating kernel-wedge is ongoing and we are well positioned to complete it. We revised many AppArmor rules for graphical environments, improving security coverage for everyday desktop use.

• New browser options. Both GNU IceCat and ungoogled-chromium are now available in Ecne, joining our continuously maintained Abrowser, giving users a range of fully free web browsing choices.

• Backports. Our backports repository continues to provide popular applications in their latest versions, including LibreOffice, yt-dlp, Inkscape, Nextcloud Desktop, Kdenlive, Tuba, 0 A.D., fastfetch, and more.

Ecne is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and will receive support until 2029. Users of Trisquel 11.x Aramo can upgrade directly using the update-manager or do-release-upgrade commands at a console terminal.

Editions

• Trisquel. MATE (v1.26.1) continues to be our default desktop environment. Simple, with great accessibility, and low hardware requirements (no 3D acceleration needed).
• Triskel. Our KDE (v5.27) edition is excellent for customizing the design and functionality in fine detail.
• Trisquel Mini. Running LXDE (v0.99.2), the Mini edition is a lightweight desktop perfect for netbooks, old computers and users with minimal resource usage needs.
• Trisquel Sugar or Trisquel On A Sugar Toast (TOAST): Based on the Sugar learning platform (v0.121), TOAST comes with dozens of educational activities for children.
• Network installer image: To deploy with a command-line install interface, it is ideal for servers and advanced users who want to explore custom designed environments.

Looking ahead

Work on the next release will start immediately, and initial groundwork for RISC-V architecture support has already begun; an exciting new challenge as the free hardware design ecosystem continues to grow.

Trisquel is a non-profit project; you can help sustain it by becoming a member, donating, or buying from our store. Thank you to all our donors, and to the contributors who made Ecne possible through code, patches, bug reports, translations, and advice. Special thanks to Luis "Ark74" Guzmán, prospero, icarolongo, Avron, knife, Simon Josefsson, Christopher Waid (ThinkPenguin), Denis "GNUtoo" Carikli, and the wonderful community that keeps the project alive and free.