Hello everyone,
After quite a long delay — this release was originally supposed to be out in July, and somehow we're now almost in September — I'm happy to finally announce that Liya Linux v2026.08.29, codenamed “Gauri”, has been successfully released.
This release took longer than expected, but it also gave us some time to make a few important changes to how Liya Linux is structured and maintained.
What's changed?
1. New naming system
Liya Linux is moving to a date-based versioning system.
From now on, each release will use the date it was released as its version number. This should make it much easier to tell when a particular release was made and keep the release naming straightforward.
2. Removal of AI-generated content
AI-generated content and tools have been removed from the default Liya Linux experience.
While AI can be useful in some situations, a number of users found the previous implementation difficult to use, and it also didn't really fit with the general philosophy and preferences of the Linux community. Because of that, we've decided to move away from it rather than keep something around simply for the sake of having it.
3. Modularisation of tweaks and configurations
The way Liya's tweaks and configuration files are handled has been changed.
Previously, many of these tweaks were statically built into the system. They are now handled through pacman, which means they can be updated independently instead of requiring changes to the entire system.
The same approach is being used for configuration files as well. This should make future updates easier to maintain and allow individual components to be changed without rebuilding everything.
A big thanks to CachyOS for their tweaks and the work that helped inspire some of these changes.
4. XLibre instead of X11
Liya Linux now uses XLibre instead of the traditional X11/X.Org stack.
XLibre is currently being actively maintained and receiving bug fixes from a small group of developers, while the traditional X.Org X11 server has effectively entered maintenance mode with very limited development. Since Wayland support on Cinnamon is currently not a viable option, this decision was taken.
For Liya, this gives us a more actively maintained X11-compatible option to build on.
5. Minor Cinnamon improvements
There have also been a few smaller changes to the Cinnamon desktop to improve the overall experience.
These include things such as adjusting the clock position, removing sysd-manager and LXTask, and adding Mission Center as the system monitor.
None of these changes are particularly huge on their own, but together they should make the default desktop feel a little cleaner and more useful.
Download
You can download Liya Linux v2026.08.29 “Gauri” here:
https://liyalinux.sdhsm128.workers.dev/
Bugs
So far, we haven't found any known bugs in this release.
If you do run into something, please report it in the Bugs section so we can look into it.
Thanks to everyone who waited through the delay and continued supporting Liya Linux. Hopefully the next release won't take quite this long. 🙂
Notice
We'd also like to welcome a new developer to the Liya Linux team, Lorenzo Maione (@Lorenzo)!
Lorenzo has designed the new Liya Linux logo, which we're introducing with this release. We'd love to hear what you think of it, so feel free to leave a comment and let us know how you like the new look.
Thanks for your attention, and as always, thanks for supporting Liya Linux!
