Intel's Clear Linux To Divest From The Desktop, Focus On Server + Cloud Workloads

Intel's performance-optimized Clear Linux has made some inroads in the desktop space over the past two years with providing a nice desktop installer last year, enhancing their documentation, and making available more desktop packages. Clear Linux has offered some of the fastest performance even for desktop workloads like web browser performance and has worked out equally well on AMD hardware. But moving forward they are going to be shifting back to their roots on focusing on server and cloud workloads.

Longtime Intel Linux developer Auke Kok announced that they will be effectively divesting from the desktop moving forward.

Auke wrote, "things have changed for the Clear Linux OS team - we still want to attract developers but we are not as invested as we were in supporting a diverse and complex desktop environment, or even multiple desktop environments. It is with that in mind that we’ve decided to streamline our content offerings with a bias to cloud and server use cases."

Auke did follow up though that they plan to at least offer a vanilla GNOME desktop option moving forward, "We will continue to have GNOME, for instance, but it will be a more vanilla approach - we’re not going to sink in as much time as we did last year."

In recent months there does appear to have been some staffing changes on the Intel open-source/Linux side in line with other organizational changes at the company. At the end of last year is also when longtime Intel Open-Source Technology Center leader Imad Sousou left the company.

Details are light but the change of focus has been announced in the forums under Changes coming to Clear Linux’ direction.