TUXEDO Computers has just announced that its upcoming Debian-based TUXEDO OS has entered the final stage of its open beta. That brings the Linux distro right up to the point of being fully transitioned away from Ubuntu.

The new edition, known as TUXEDO OS “Continuous Debian,” replaces the distribution’s traditional Ubuntu foundation with Debian Testing. The change denotes a significant shift for TUXEDO OS, which is developed by German Linux hardware manufacturer TUXEDO Computers.

Open beta testing started in August, and since then the dev team has issued five beta ISOs. The company has reported a large number of bug reports as a result of the testing, as well as a lot of positive feedback from users who have been running the new system without any issues.

As for the software, the current beta runs KDE Plasma 6.7.4 on Wayland, alongside KDE Frameworks 6.30, Qt 6.11.2, and Linux kernel 7.2. Unlike Debian itself, which periodically promotes its Testing branch to Stable, TUXEDO OS will remain permanently based on Debian Testing.

TUXEDO Computers will also continue maintaining its own package repositories and providing updates for key components, including the kernel, graphics drivers, and KDE Plasma.

Throughout November, the development team is concentrating on handling outstanding bug reports and handling remaining issues before the first stable release. Users participating in the testing program are encouraged to report not previously identified bugs or unanticipated behavior as soon as possible.

However, bug fixing is not the only thing left to do. TUXEDO Computers also needs to establish and validate a suite of structured, automated QA test procedures. Those tests have to be run before they can actually set a release date.

As for when the stable Debian-based TUXEDO OS will be arriving, the developers have not given us a date at this point. They do, however, expect to be able to release it fairly soon once the final testing and QA are complete.

For additional information, see the announcement.

Those interested in testing the upcoming Debian-based TUXEDO OS before its stable release can download the latest beta ISO images from the preview download directory.