Maui

Maui is an open source and freely distributed operating system based on the KDE flavor of the world's most popular free distribution of Linux, Kubuntu. It has been greatly enhanced with many tweaks to the desktop environment, as well as out-of-the-box support for multimedia codecs and browser plugins.

Distributed as a 64-bit Live DVD

The distribution is available for download as two Live DVD ISO images, supporting only the 64-bit (amd64) computer platforms, which must be burned onto a DVD disc or written on a USB flash drive of 2GB or higher capacity in order to boot it from the BIOS of a PC.

The Live DVD is being designed for user-friendliness, as it will start the live environment in ten seconds from the moment the user boots them. To access the boot loader, which allows the user to start the live session in compatibility mode, perform a memory test, boot from the local drive and check the integrity of the DVD, press any key during that timeout.

Kubuntu on steroids

At a first glance one would say that Maui uses a themed Windows 7 desktop, but the truth is that it's just a highly customized KDE environment, which uses a dark grey theme, a custom main menu and some of the best open source applications.

Among some of the preinstalled apps, we can mention the Mozilla Firefox web browser, GIMP image editor, Krita digital painting software, Clementine audio player, VLC Media Player, Kdenlive video editor, LibreOffice office suite, FileZilla file transfer client, Pidgin multi-protocol instant messenger, Qtransmission torrent downloader, Skype VoIP client, and Mozilla Thunderbird email & news client.

Bottom line

Summing up, Maui is a really cool distribution of Linux that provides users with a familiar graphical desktop interface, powerful applications, as well as plenty of customizations and useful utilities. We strongly recommend to use it if you like Ubuntu and KDE.

What is new in this release:

• This release comes with plenty new package updates and KDE Plasma 5.9.3.
• It also ships Frameworks 5.31, Qt 5.7.1 and LTS Linux Kernel 4.4.0~65.
• Firefox was updated to version 51 and Thunderbird to version 45.
• Calamares Installer:
• Calamares has been updated to its latest version 3.1.
• New Volume applet:
• Instead of the standard Volume applet, this release ships the Volume applet from "Zren" found also in the KDE Store:
• https://store.kde.org/p/1100894/
• Minimize All:
• This release restores the Minimize All functionality as a hot corner trigger (instead of the default "Show Desktop").
• Touching the lower right corner once with your mouse cursor minimizes all windows, while doing it right again brings them all up in the previous order.
• If you continue with something else after minimizing, they will STAY minimized and not move up and in your way again.
• Plymouth KCM:
• We now ship the Plymouth kcm in the system settings, which allows easy installation and switching of Plymouth startup themes.
• Updated Repositories:
• Started with the previous Maui release, we continued to update our repository S3 infrastructure.
• Our goal is to provide a very stable user experience with the option to have ongoing updates of KDE software.
• Therefore we are providing part-rolling releases of KDE Neon packages, allowing us to test new updates to Maui's base thouroughly, while allowing everyone to decide for themselves if or when they want to update to a newer available Plasma or KDE Frameworks 5 version.

What is new in version 2.1:

• This mainly focuses on fixing some reported Installer issues and comes with some newer package versions, otherwise is the same as Maui 2.

What is new in version 2:

• This is our second version of Maui which comes with plenty new features and fixes based on Plasma 5.8.2, KF 5.27 and Qt 5.7.0.
• We also provide the latest LTS Linux Kernel 4.4 together with an updated Ubuntu 16.04 LTS base system.
• Firefox was updated to version 49 and Thunderbird to version 45.
• New Repositories:
• Just like announced in the Updating Maui 1 -> Maui 2 Repos and Backports ( https://mauilinux.org/updating-maui-2-maui-backports/ ) we decided to move our repositories to a new infrastructure and cloned the Neon based repo so we have control over when to push new updates to the user and let the users themselves decide when they want to move to a new Plasma version or KDE Frameworks 5 version.
• That way we provide a very stable KDE Plasma user experience without losing the option to have the latest and greatest of KDE Plasma.
• Calamares Installer:
• In order to streamline the installation process we decided to switch to the distribution independent installer Calamares. This one installs automatically all language packs for the default applications shipped with Maui and the language you choose during installation. In order to use this feature please have network access configured in the live enviornment. This should also support more UEFI installations than with the prior version of Maui.
• Driver Manager is back:
• This release also comes with a few new features just like the driver manager allowing you to install proprietary drivers for graphicscards or wifi chips.
• We also added in a control module for configuring systemd services from the systemsettings.
• In order to provide a better integrated partitionmanager we replaced gparted with the KDE Partition Manager.
• For better translation support in the mintUpdate tool we also added mint-translations.
• We also fixed several issues regarding the KDE Telepathy Instant Messenging feature that should work out of the box now.
• The KDE Remote Desktop Client is back and shipping by default in this version.
• As the vector editing software karbon is not longer maintained we decided to switch to Inkscape instead which ships by default now.

What is new in version 1:

• Linux Kernel 4.4.0~36
• Plasma 5.7.3 on Qt5.7.0
• Frameworks 5.24
• KDE Applications 16.04.3
• Firefox 48.0
• Thunderbird 38.6.0
• LibreOffice 5
• Virtualbox 5
• VLC 2.2.2
• Gmusicbrowser 1.1.15
• Kamoso 3.2

What is new in version 17:

• Linux Kernel 4.2.0~18
• Plasma 5.4.3
• Frameworks 5.15
• KDE Applications 15.08.2
• LibreOffice 5
• Virtualbox 5
• Kontact 5
• Firefox 42.0
• Thunderbird 38.3
• Gmusicbrowser 1.15.2
• VLC 2.2.1

What is new in version 14.2 LTS:

• This is the second point-release based on KDE4 SC and comes with the latest updates and fixes. This includes security patches like the Kernel upgrade to 3.13.0-62, as well as software version updates like Firefox 40.0.3 and Thunderbird 31.6.0 including the Plasma Integration patches. Netrunner 14.2 also includes a new default window decoration Carbon.

What is new in version 16:

• Kernel 3.19.0~16
• Plasma 5.3
• KDE Applications 15.04
• Firefox 37.0
• Thunderbird 31.6
• LibreOffice 4.4
• VLC Media Player 2.2
• Gmusicbrowser 1.1.14
• Audacious 3.5
• Krita & Karbon 2.8.5
• Gimp 2.8.10
• Pidgin 2.10.9
• vokoscreen 2.1

What is new in version 15:

• Kernel 3.16.0~40
• KDE Plasma 5.2
• KDE Frameworks 5.7
• Qt5.4
• Firefox 35.0.1
• Thunderbird 31.4.0
• VLC 2.2.0
• LibreOffice 4.4
• Krita & Karbon 2.8.5
• Gimp 2.8.10
• Pidgin 2.10.9

What is new in version 14.1:

• Kernel 3.13.0~43
• KDE SC 4.14.2
• Firefox 35.0
• Thunderbird 31.4
• VLC 2.1.4
• LibreOffice 4.2.7
• Krita & Karbon 2.8.5
• Clementine 1.2
• Gimp 2.8.10
• Pidgin 2.10.9
• vokoscreen 2.0.0

What is new in version 14:

• LTS Long Term Support
• Firefox Instant start (on machines with >2GB RAM)
• KDE Dreamdesktop for animated backgrounds
• Baloo superseding Nepomuk
• Single-Click activated default
• New default Theme
• Veromix Audio-Applet
• and the latest available updates of packages* in the repos, e.g.
• KDE 4.13.1, Firefox 30, VLC 2.1.4, Skype 4.3, Muon Discover 2.2 and many more...

What is new in version 14 RC1:

• kernel 3.13-24
• kde 4.13
• telepathy 0.8.1
• skype 4.2.0.11
• firefox 29
• thunderbird 24.5
• Libre Office 4.2.3
• vlc 2.1.2
• and more...

What is new in version 13.06 SE:

• Firefox with pre-configured Tor, FoxyProxy, HTTPs Everywhere and NoScript
• (surf anonymously, surf onion links, circumvent censorship)
• Thunderbird with Enigmail
• Vidalia as Tor configuration tool
• Pidgin with OTR support for encrypted text chats
• Jitsi for encrypted audio & video conversations
• Kgpg for encrypting files and folders
• KDE SC 4.10.5
• Firefox 22
• Removed Skype
• Removed kfilebox
• Removed KDE-Telepathy
• Removed Konversation
• Removed WebApps
• New default Wallpaper

What is new in version 13.06:

• Improved KWin performance, so default enabled fx work on most low end machines
• Kate Minimap scrollbar
• Automatic KWallet Active
• Hot-Corner in lower right
• Simplified System Settings
• Removed Wine (due to less relevance)
• Alsa instead of Pulseaudio for best compatibility and performance (intel hda)
• Firefox with Mozilla App-Store
• Steam Installer-Link
• Mint Software Sources and Hardware Manager
• Usual KDE goodies, Homerun 1.0, Tomahawk 0.7, etc.

What is new in version 12.12.1:

• KDE updated to 4.9.4 from Kubuntu backports
• Firefox updated to 18
• VLC updated to 2.0.5
• Tomahawk new version 0.6
• Wine updated to 1.5.22
• samba-mounter updated 0.3.1
• webaccounts updated 0.3
• Veromixer installed
• Runners-ID upgraded from 1 to 5 GB free cloud space
• and many more fixed isues and improvements.
• The version is based on Kubuntu 12.10 and has the following features:
• GNU/Linux OS kernel-3.5
• KDE 4.9.4
• Firefox 18 (+KDE integration)
• Thunderbird 17.0.1
• VLC 2.0.5
• Tomahawk 0.6
• LibreOffice 3.6.2
• Skype 4.1
• Gimp 2.8
• Krita
• Gwenview
• Kdenlive
• Telepathy Messenger
• Samba Mounter (easy NAS setup)
• Webaccounts (social accounts integration)
• Runners-ID (free and libre cloud storage + music streaming)
• Muon Discover
• Virtualbox
• WINE
• and many more

What is new in version 4.2.1:

• KDE 4.8.4
• Firefox 14 (+KDE integration)
• Gimp 2.8
• Skype 4.0
• Kdenlive 0.9
• Samba Mounter (easy NAS setup)
• Webaccounts (social accounts integration)
• Runners-ID (free and libre cloud storage + music streaming)
• Muon Discover
• and many more

What is new in version 4.2:

• KDE 4.8.3
• Firefox-KDE integration
• Gimp 2.8
• Skype 4.0
• Samba Mounter for easy NAS setup
• Webaccounts for integrating your social accounts
• Runners-ID for free and libre cloud storage and music streaming
• Muon Discover
• and more

What is new in version 4.1:

• switched to Hybrid ISO
• Kernel 3.0.0.15
• KDE 4.7.4 (latest stable)
• Muon 1.2.95
• kde-gtk-config module for easy gtk2+gtk3 configuration under KDE
• several bugfixes, including system freezes during automatic update

What is new in version 3.2:

• Newly installed:
• added Libre Office (Office Suite) 3.3.2 to replace OO.org
• added Clementine (Music Player)
• added Deluge (Torrent-Client)
• added Dropbox (incl. Kfilebox for Dolphin)
• added Skype (VoIP)
• added (gnome) network-manager to replace knetworkmanager
• Updated from 3.1->3.2:
• KDE (Desktop) 4.6.2
• Firefox (Browser) 5.0
• Flash/Plugin 10.3.181.26
• Thunderbird (Email Client incl. Lightning Calendar) 3.1.10
• VLC (Media Player) 1.1.10
• Wine (Windows Environment Layer) 1.3.22
• Pidgin (Messenger Client) 2.7.11
• Gimp (Graphic Program) 2.6.11
• Firefox Add-Ons:
• Adblock Plus https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/adblock-plus/
• Status-4-ever https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/status-4-evar/
• Download Statusbar https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/download-statusbar/
• Fireftp https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/fireftp/
• Add-to-searchbar https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/add-to-search-bar/
• Tabbrowser Preferences https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabbrowser-preferences/
• Video Downloadhelper https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/video-downloadhelper/

What is new in version 3:

• We updated to the latest KDE 4.6.1, FF4, integrated dolphin as the default file manager and switched wine to experimental 1.3.12.

What is new in version 3 RC:

• Linux kernel-2.6.32-22
• Firefox 3.6.13 with plugins
• (Java 1.6, Flash 10.1)
• VLC 1.2 media player (including codecs)
• WINE 1.3.12 (Microsoft Windows Emulation)
• audacious (winamp-compatible music player)
• OpenOffice 3.2
• Thunderbird
• GIMP (paint program)
• Pidgin
• Vuze (filesharing)

What is new in version 2.0:

• Features: switched from GNOME to KDE; aims to be Ubuntu, GNOME and GTK+ compatible; includes GNOME applications like Nautilus and Synaptic; includes Firefox 3.6.3, installed web browser plugins (Java, Flash), VLC 1.1 (media player with codecs), OpenOffice.org software suite 3.2, Thunderbird (email client), WINE 1.42, GIMP (paint program), Audacious (Winamp-like music player), Pidgin, Vuze (file-sharing program). All on top of a fine-tuned and easily customizable KDE 4.4 desktop environment.

What is new in version 2.0 RC:

• 3 months in the making and things are looking good for N2-Blacklight!
• In light of the imminent release within the next days, we have begun updating our website.
• So while we still offer the 1.1 ISO for download, the content on this site will gradually be updated to give you a preview of the things to come.
• All I can say is that we have done quite a big step from 1.1 to 2.0:
• We hope that you be as much surprised what a GNU/Linux system of today can be as we were when we were making it... stay tuned!

What is new in version 1.1:

• To fix an issue with the repositories in 1.0, we have updated our ISO to 1.1.