Devuan 2.0 Reaches Beta, Debian Without Systemd & Now Based On Stretch

It's been a while since last having anything to report on Devuan, the Debian derivative focused on "init freedom" by shipping the Debian packages without any dependence on systemd. But just in time for Valentine's Day, Devuan 2.0 Beta is now available.

Devuan 1.0 was released last year and based on the Debian Jessie package set while the Devuan 2.0 development is tracking Debian Stretch. Thus with the switch to Devuan 2.0 comes a lot of upstream package updates while this distribution remains committed to shipping without systemd and still providing a GNU/Linux desktop experience.

Besides the package updates, Devuan 2.0 adds support for installing OpenRC using the expert install path. Eudev has also replaced systemd's udev on Devuan. Also present is elogind as an alternative to ConsoleKit. Xfce is the default desktop of Devuan 2.0 but there is also KDE / Cinnamon / LXDE / LXQt / MATE options.

For those wanting to give Devuan 2.0 "Ascii" Beta a whirl, you can find it via Devuan mirrors.