{"id":8138,"date":"2026-09-01T10:12:49","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=8138"},"modified":"2026-09-01T10:12:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T17:12:49","slug":"vanilla-os-3-comes-in-hot-packing-arm64-support-after-a-long-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=8138","title":{"rendered":"Vanilla OS 3 Comes in Hot, Packing ARM64 Support After a Long Wait"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"a<\/figure>\n

My history with Vanilla OS goes back to 2022, when I covered its debut stable release<\/a>, just a month after I landed this gig at It’s FOSS (yapping about open source and Linux<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Since then, my focus has moved to other distros and governance-focused developments, though I did watch it swap its Ubuntu base<\/a> for a Debian Sid one and, from a distance, then go through an Orchid-themed<\/a> overhaul in 2024.<\/p>\n

I never got around to actually running it later on (or even reviewing it<\/em>), but that’s how things go, I guess.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t come across it before, Vanilla OS<\/a> is an immutable, atomic distro built around ABRoot<\/a>, with Apx<\/a> facilitating package installation inside containers instead of touching the base system directly.<\/p>\n

What’s new in Reunion?<\/h2>\n
\"fastfetch<\/figure>\n

Well, if you are someone who is running an ARM64-based setup<\/strong>, be it a single-board computer, laptop, or a fully-fledged workstation that boots UEFI, then you will be glad to know that Vanilla OS now has proper support for the ARM64<\/a> platform.<\/p>\n

Every package now builds for both ARM64 and x86_64, and the team isn’t treating ARM64 as the lesser platform; functionality-wise, it’s supposed to match the other one for one.<\/p>\n

And, with the exception of NVIDIA builds, most images of Vanilla OS are now bit-for-bit reproducible<\/strong>. That means you can rebuild an image yourself and check it matches what the project ships instead of just blindly trusting what their build infrastructure pumped out.<\/p>\n

The desktop-facing upgrades<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

Powering the release is Linux kernel 7.1.3<\/strong>, which is accompanied by GNOME 50<\/a>. While we have already talked a fair bit about this desktop environment release across other distro releases, here’s a refresher for you.<\/p>\n

GDM now runs Wayland only<\/strong>, following through on the X11 removal GNOME backed away earlier. Fractional scaling also graduates out of its experimental flag this time around.<\/p>\n

You get a bunch of new default apps too. Ptyxis<\/a> takes over from Black Box, and its container support is the reason why you should keep an eye out for it.<\/p>\n

Papers<\/a> steps in for Evince with a noticeably more modern PDF reading experience, and Resources<\/a> replaces GNOME System Monitor, giving you a clean look at what your apps and hardware are actually doing.<\/p>\n

Underneath, Apx and VSO<\/a> now share the same SDK<\/a>, so config handling, permissions, and logging finally work the same way across both tools instead of each doing its own thing.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/figure>\n

Another new addition is Vanilla Continuity<\/a>, a snapshot-based backup and restore tool that works alongside ABRoot. If configured properly, it can save your home directory, whatever Flatpaks you have installed, and ABRoot’s own metadata.<\/p>\n

Where those snapshots land is up to you. A local directory works by default, but you can also point Continuity at an external drive it encrypts with LUKS2, or send backups to a remote server over SFTP, FTP, or NFS.<\/p>\n

There’s also the push for community-built images<\/strong> through a Vanilla-Flavors<\/a> org on GitHub, which currently hosts the china-image<\/a> flavor, which caters to people living in mainland China.<\/p>\n

If you want to build and maintain your own flavor, the Vanilla OS devs are open to hearing from you<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Download Vanilla OS 3<\/h2>\n

Images for Vanilla OS 3 ‘Reunion’ are live on the official website<\/a> right now. Though keep in mind that the download page will make you pick an architecture, then a donation amount.<\/p>\n

You can enter “0” as the amount to get the free download link, or you could enter a donation amount greater than zero to directly support the project and then download the ISO.<\/p>\n

Vanilla OS 3<\/a><\/div>\n

At the time of writing, donations were not working via the PayPal integration the project has implemented.<\/p>\n

If you’re already on Vanilla OS 2 Orchid (v1.4.0), this release will arrive as a normal system upgrade. If it’s taking too much time, you can run this to get the release:<\/p>\n

abroot upgrade<\/code><\/pre>\n
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