Summary
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KaOS stops shipping KDE Plasma by default, switching to Niri and Noctalia; Plasma can still be installed from the repos.
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2026.03 removes systemd-boot and mkinitcpio; KaOS now uses Limine and Dracut, but systemd remains available.
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Replaced phonon-mpv as VLC Phonon backend; SDDM can run Wayland 0.20, it will default to Wayland 0.21.
KaOS, a 12-year-old partner of KDE Plasma, rocked the Linux world last month Canceled the desktop environment in exchange for Niri and Noctalia. The development team noted problems with systemd and stated that “Plasma almost requires Systemd” to replace Plasma with Niri. Now, a team of developers has started to tear down the system from KaOS, and while it’s not quite finished yet, the team is making progress.
KaOS 2026.03 removes systemd-boot from the OS
It is the first step to get rid of it completely
in the year KaOS 2026.03 release notesteam explains what’s happening with this new version of the operating system. One of the biggest changes won’t even be visible to the average user, as the KaOS team is starting to remove system dependencies starting with systemd-boot:
With this ISO, KaOS started removing parts of systemd. Note that the systemd-boot loader is no longer used. Mkinitcpio (full system based) is also not used to create initramfs. ISO creation is now done using Dracut (and creation no longer uses any system).
KaOS now uses Limine as the default bootloader, along with other methods available through Calamares, although “Systemd-boot is no longer an option”. It’s worth noting that the OS still depends on systemd, so it’s not completely gone yet. However, changing systemd-boot was the easiest way to start separating the operating system from systemd.
Although KaOS enjoyed using KDE Plasma for more than a decade, the team has since switched to using Niri and Noctalia instead. If you’re using KaOS and still want to use KDE Plasma, you can install it manually via the operating system’s repositories. However, you will no longer find the KDE desktop environment used or installed by default either on the live USB or on the installed system.
Apart from that, KaOS 2026.03 introduces some nice new features. For example, the OS Phonon audio moves to the rear end; when using VLC before, the devs noted problems with the Qt6 port, so they default to phonon-mpv. Moreover, SDDM 0.20.0 now has the ability to work with Wayland, the developers say that Wayland will be version 0.21.0 by default.
