Hamara Sugam 2.0/Release Notes

Introduction

We are happy to bring you the release of Hamara Sugam 2.0, code named Namaste. This release brings up a plethora of changes to the operating system including a new Installer, a lot of UI enhancements on top of the MATE Desktop, inclusion of a software center to easily install apps and a lot of other changes. The previous beta release was based on Debian Stable/Stretch, with this particular release we decided to switch to Debian Testing/Buster instead. The major/minor things which were worked up on this release are as follows

Download Hamara Sugam 2.0

ISO's can be downloaded from the official website of Hamara Linux

Significant Changes

Move to Debian testing/buster as the base The previous beta release was based on Debian Stable. After some brainstorming with in the Hamara developers/Contributors team, we decided to switch to Debian Testing/Buster as the new base. This move enables us to bring in updated and newer packages to the users. So we all can enjoy packages which are always updated.

Using Calamares installer for installation of Hamara Sugam

Calamares is an easy to use installer providing the options suitable for newbies as well as for people who want to do fine grained configurations while installing the operating system on there machine. Introduced in our previous beta release as a replacement to Debian Installer, the Calamares installer is being used to Install Hamara Sugam. We have enhanced the Installer with custom configurations and UI enhancements. If you have tried installing a lot of distributions earlier, where the timezone was set by default to US. No more with us, the installer has the timezone set default to IST(Indian Standard Time) +5:30. So enjoy easy and fast installation times with the new Installer.

Changes to the theme of Hamara Sugam

We migrated to the Materia theme for the Hamara Sugam Desktop. Previously we were using Paper theme. We identified issues in GTK 2 environments when using Paper and found that Materia gave a more fluid and slick Material Design experience. Although our GTK theme has now shifted to Materia, we are still using Paper as our default icon theme. We thanks nana-4 for his efforts on Materia theme & Sam Hewitt for his efforts on Paper theme. Just to mention, our awesome Hamara Developer Sagar maintains materia-gtk-theme package both in Debian as well as Hamara repositories.

Generic Names for Applications

We decided that Applications should have a generic name, based on there purpose. With this opinion, we renamed a few applications. So MATE terminal becomes just Terminal or MATE color chooser becomes just Color chooser and like wise. All this naming has been done to make sure the application names should be generic wherever possible.

Update to Linux Kernel 4.16

We have upgraded to kernel 4.16 which is in sync with upstream Debian. We would also be pushing the updates to newer kernels with many point releases/updates to follow up shortly after the release.

Detailed changelog

Apart from notable changes listed above the detailed changelog is below for the worked tasks/issues.

Bugzilla query error

Unable to connect to tls://bugs.hamaralinux.org:443. Error: Connection timed out

Reporting bugs

Communicate with us on our Mailing Lists or other communication mediums. If you find any bus they should be reported on Hamara Bugzilla

Contribute in the development of Hamara linux

Get involved in creation of the Hamara Linux project and join hands in creating the operating system for the Indian Diaspora. More details here https://www.hamaralinux.org/contribute/