SparkyLinux 8.1 released with updated software and desktop environments

SparkyLinux 8.1 marks the first quarterly update of the “Seven Sisters” stable series, bringing an enhanced system built atop Debian 13 “Trixie”. This core alignment ensures that users benefit from ongoing compatibility, stability, and upstream improvements from the Debian project.

In this release, SparkyLinux adopts the Linux 6.12 Long Term Support (LTS) kernel as the standard, while also making Linux 6.17 and 6.6 LTS variants available through its repositories for those who need different kernel versions. Following these foundational changes, all system packages have been refreshed to their latest stable versions as of November 10, 2025, from both the Debian and Sparky repositories.

Building on these updates, users will find major software enhancements: the release features LibreOffice 25.2.3 for office productivity, KDE Plasma 6.3.6, LXQt 2.1.0, MATE 1.26.0, Xfce 4.20, and Openbox 3.6.1, giving a range of modern software and desktop environments. Web and communication needs are addressed with Firefox 140 Extended Support Release (ESR) as standard (with version 145 available in the repositories) and Thunderbird 140 ESR.