The Artix Linux development team released Artix Linux 2026.11 today as the official ISO refresh for this Arch Linux-based, systemd-free distribution, which features multiple editions and init systems.
Coming six months after Artix Linux 2026.04, the Artix Linux 2026.11 official ISO release is powered by the Linux 7.2 kernel series, namely Linux kernel 7.2.14, and ships with the Wayland-only KDE Plasma 6.8 desktop environment for the Plasma edition, along with KDE Frameworks 6.31 and KDE Gear 26.08.2.
According to the devs, only the Plasma edition of Artix Linux has full Wayland support. Other editions are in various stages of implementing Wayland support, but it’s not yet ready for daily use. Therefore, even if you see a Wayland session on the login manager, it will probably not work well or at all.
The user services have matured, and Artix Linux 2026.11 is fully implementing them for both OpenRC and dinit init systems. The devs said that they can also be enabled for the runit and s6 init systems via userspawn, but, for the time being, this task is left to the end user.
Among other noteworthy changes, Artix Linux devs keep working on the Plasma Gaming and Xfce Gaming editions, which are currently being offered as beta versions, and they will remain in the weekly downloads section for further testing. Check out the release announcement for more details.
You can download Artix Linux 2026.11 right now from the official website as live ISO images with the aforementioned desktop environments and init systems for 64-bit machines. Of course, these new ISO images are here only for new deployments or those who want to reinstall their Artix Linux systems.
Since Artix Linux follows a rolling release model, existing users need only to update their installations by running the sudo pacman -Syu command in a terminal emulator or by using a graphical package manager on their favorite desktop environment, such as Plasma Discover or one of the many pacman GUIs.