T2/Linux Brings a Flagship KDE Plasma Linux Desktop to RISC-V and ARM64 (t2linux.com) 25
T2 SDE "is not just a regular Linux distribution," explains its repository on GitHub. "It is a flexible Open Source System Development Environment or Distribution Build Kit. Others might even name it Meta Distribution. T2 allows the creation of custom distributions with state of the art technology, up-to-date packages and integrated support for cross compilation."
And now after "a decade of deep focus on embedded and server systems," T2 SDE Linux "is back to the Desktop," according to its web site, calling the new "T2 Desktop" flavour "ready for everyday home and office use!" Built on the latest KDE Plasma, systemd, and Wayland, the new T2 Desktop flavour delivers a modern, clean, and performant experience while retaining the project's trademark portability and reproducible cross-compilation across architectures.
T2 Desktop targets x86_64, arm64, and riscv64, delivering "a fully polished, streamlined out-of-the-box experience," according to project lead René Rebe (also long-time Slashdot reader ReneR): I>[T2 Desktop] delivered a full KDE Plasma desktop on RISC-V, reproducibly cross-compiled from source using T2 SDE Linux. The desktop spans more than 600 packages — from toolchain to Qt and KDE and targets a next-generation RVA23 RISC-V flagship desktop, including full multimedia support and AMD RDNA GPU acceleration under Wayland.
As a parallel milestone, the same fully reproducible desktop stack is now also landing on Qualcomm X1 ARM64 platforms, highlighting T2 SDE's architecture-independent approach and positioning both RISC-V and ARM64 as serious, first-class Linux desktop contenders.
And now after "a decade of deep focus on embedded and server systems," T2 SDE Linux "is back to the Desktop," according to its web site, calling the new "T2 Desktop" flavour "ready for everyday home and office use!" Built on the latest KDE Plasma, systemd, and Wayland, the new T2 Desktop flavour delivers a modern, clean, and performant experience while retaining the project's trademark portability and reproducible cross-compilation across architectures.
T2 Desktop targets x86_64, arm64, and riscv64, delivering "a fully polished, streamlined out-of-the-box experience," according to project lead René Rebe (also long-time Slashdot reader ReneR): I>[T2 Desktop] delivered a full KDE Plasma desktop on RISC-V, reproducibly cross-compiled from source using T2 SDE Linux. The desktop spans more than 600 packages — from toolchain to Qt and KDE and targets a next-generation RVA23 RISC-V flagship desktop, including full multimedia support and AMD RDNA GPU acceleration under Wayland.
As a parallel milestone, the same fully reproducible desktop stack is now also landing on Qualcomm X1 ARM64 platforms, highlighting T2 SDE's architecture-independent approach and positioning both RISC-V and ARM64 as serious, first-class Linux desktop contenders.
I feel like T2 needs an introduction (Score:3)
This article and the website assumes the reader knows what T2 is. I didn't and I'm still not sure I do.
Re:I feel like T2 needs an introduction (Score:4, Funny)
This article and the website assumes the reader knows what T2 is. I didn't and I'm still not sure I do.
It's in between a T3 which is 45mbps and a T1 which is 1.5mbps.
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Should we use arithmetic or geometric mean now?
Re: I feel like T2 needs an introduction (Score:2)
Nah, every GenX nerd can attest, T2 was the liquid-metal shape-shifting robot Skynet sent back from the future to kill Sarah & John Connor.
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No. The liquid metal shape-shifting robot was the T1000. The movie's title was sometimes shortened to T2. T2 wasn't the name nor model number of the robot.
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Have you considered clicking the "About" menu item which is prominently displayed at the top of the page on the left hand side? It links to here: https://t2linux.com/about.html [t2linux.com]
However, it seems like you want to be spoon-fed, so here you go.
T2 SDE Linux Project
T2 SDE (System Development Environment) is a highly customizable and portable build system for creating complete Linux distributions from source. It serves as a robust toolkit for building everything from embedded platforms to full desktop systems, offering unmatched flexibility and control.
Project Origins: From ROCK Linux to T2
The T2 project traces its roots back to the pioneering ROCK Linux distribution, originally developed in the late 1990s by Claire Wolf. ROCK Linux was an ambitious source-based distribution designed to be clean, modular, and flexible. As the community and technical needs evolved, the core ideas and technologies of ROCK Linux were carried forward into a modern, more advanced system—T2 SDE.
Since its fork in 2004, T2 has expanded support for cross-compilation to dozens of CPU architectures, evolved its build system, and continued the legacy of a fully open, configurable Linux distribution framework.
Key Features
Source-Based Build System: Every component is built from source, ensuring transparency, auditability, and control
Cross-Compilation Support: Seamlessly build binaries for over 20 architectures, including x86, ARM, RISC-V, PowerPC, MIPS, and more
Highly Modular: Over 5000 package recipes available, each independently maintained and configurable
Customizable Targets: Build anything from minimal embedded firmware to full-featured desktop and server environments
OtherOS Home-brew: Supports building packages on other OS, including macOS and BSD using one unified package repository
Long-Term Upkeep: Active development with regular updates, security patches, and modern upstream software integration
Use Cases
Embedded Linux systems and firmware
Custom desktop or server distributions
Hardened, auditable OS builds for secure deployments
Academic and research environments
Operating system experimentation and prototyping
Why Choose T2?
Unlike binary distributions where much is hidden behind precompiled packages, T2 gives you total control over every piece of software on your system. Its clean and extensible design makes it ideal for developers who want to:
Understand how their system works from the ground up
Strip down Linux for minimal or embedded use
Harden or customize builds for specialized environments
Contribute to a transparent and powerful open-source ecosystem
What is T2 (Score:3)
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Holy shit! A Slashdot editor and he's editing TFA!
Hell has frozen over. The end of times is upon us. What's next? Cat s and dogs living together? Mass hysteria?
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RISC-V and ARM are likely for embedded systems, and many of them run Linux. You do have generic distributions like Ubuntu for them, but more often than not you just want a customized distribution where it has just the stuff you want for your device.
The main problem is that the main meta distributions in service, like OpenEmbedded, don't really take package lev
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So, it's Gentoo (Score:2)
But with a lot of fancy marketing words attached to it?
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SystemD and Wayland, and they're proud of that? (Score:1)
Count me out. I want no system D, Xlibre, and probably no Rust. So I'm a dinosaur, we'll see who gets that last laugh.
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Exactly. (Score:3)
As a fellow dinosaur, I laud thee.
However, I'm even more restrictive because I want a distribution without with stuff written in C or C++, using musl, not glibc. It may seem heretical but I also wish Perl would die. The only script language I'm want to have on my system is POSIX shell script. I don't even want AWK, despite it being POSIX. I also want to see Linux stop using GCC extensions and use standard C11.
To the people that are now throwing things at their monitor in outrage: it is not heresy and I will
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(Replying to my own post to clarify something)
Aaarrgh! Never should post late at night. What I meant was
I want no systemd, I do want Xlibre (when I can get it, till then stick with xorg, but no wayland) and probably I don't want Rust, though I'm still waiting and seeing on that one.