elementary OS 5.1 set to rework how each release is built by devs and installed by users

The upcoming 5.1 version update for Ubuntu-based elementary OS aims to completely rework how the operating system is built and installed, which means development has taken longer than most of the development team's "iterative" .X releases.

In a blog post explaining the trials that the elementary OS development has had to overcome for 5.1, elementary, Inc co-founder Cassidy James Blaede stated that the majority of version 5.1 will be "focused around five key areas":

A brand new Greeter and Onboarding experience
Flatpak support with Sideload and AppCenter
Major updates around accessibility and System Settings
Iterative improvements across several apps
The latest hardware enablement and support

All of these changes and additions are meant to simplify both the process of getting elementary OS installed as well as more accessible to use. The development team has been working on them for the past year. Beneath these five key areas, 5.1 also implements a brand new ISO building process that is easier to reproduce with more detailed and abundant documentation.

In addition to updates introduced in 5.1, the elementary OS development team is using various automated processes (such as custom-made GitHub Actions) in order to help reduce the amount of work surrounding the deployment of each new update to the operating system while still maintaining the quality of previous releases. These are all available as open source tools for third party developers to use as well.

elementary OS version 5.1 does not yet have a release date, though the development team has published an article on the OS's GitHub wiki in order to describe the new and improved version update release process.

Further coverage:
elementary Blog