The Chimera Linux project has just passed an important milestone with the official entry into the beta phase. This distribution stands out for a bold technological choice: instead of using the usual GNU tools for the user space, it relies on components from FreeBSD, while retaining a Linux kernel.
ANDalso lacking systemd, Chimera Linux wants to be rolling release and highlights a philosophy close to KISS (“Keep It Simple, Stupid”), simplicity being at the heart of its design.
What is Chimera Linux?
Chimera Linux defines itself as a distribution non-GNUtherefore combining a Linux kernel with the user environment of FreeBSDand building the whole with LLVM rather than with GCC. This approach offers an original angle on the distribution landscape, placing Chimera somewhere between a traditional Linux system and a BSD environment. The objective is to offer a lighter, more modular solution that is close to the principles Unix-likewhile taking advantage of the Linux ecosystem and drivers. Initially, Chimera is being developed for a wide range of architectures, including x86_64, ppc64le, arch64, riscv64 et ppc64which reflects the project’s desire to be multi-platform.
Chimera Linux in beta: what’s changing
After a year and a half of development, the entry into beta corresponds to the stabilization of many key components.
What’s new ?
Chimera recently updated apk-tools (a package manager popularized by Alpine Linux), moving to a Release Candidate version adapted to the needs of the distribution. This milestone marks Chimera Linux’s official move into extensive testing, with the goal of refining the user experience, improving documentation, and gathering more community feedback.
The philosophy “systemd-free” remains one of the specificities of the project: Chimera manages the services and the startup of the system using alternative tools, while getting closer to the simplicity and responsiveness dear to the BSD community.
Upcoming projects
The 2025 Chimera Linux calendar provides for several major developments:
-- Complete logging overhaul (system logging) in order to optimize the collection and processing of logs.
- Network mount management and support for mount units to allow finer control of remote resources.
- Improved cgroups support and continuing to remove elogind, while moving towards lighter weight mechanisms.
- Support for timers service-based, providing increased flexibility for task automation.
- Migration vers dbus-broker replacing the traditional D-Bus daemon, in order to offer a more modern and modular system and session bus.
On the infrastructure side, the team intends to automate more compilation tasks and plans to deploy a more efficient build hardware for RISC-V, architecture still handicapped by a limited hardware base.
Comment tester Chimera Linux
To discover Chimera Linux and participate in beta testing, simply go to the page downloads from the official website. Images are provided for x86_64, ppc64le, arch64 et riscv64.
The installation is documented in the section docswhich details the boot steps and basic configurations.
Curious developers and users are strongly encouraged to provide feedback on any issues encountered and contribute.
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