The SparkyLinux team announced the release and general availability of SparkyLinux 8.2 as the latest stable version of this Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution.
Based on and fully compatible with the Debian 13 “Trixie” repositories, SparkyLinux 8.2 ships with Linux kernel 6.12.69 LTS, along with support for Linux 6.19.1 and 6.6.125 LTS kernels, which users can install from the SparkyLinux repositories if they need support for some hardware that’s not supported by the default kernel.
Various components and default apps have been updated in this release, which includes the Mozilla Firefox 140.7.0 ESR web browser, while the latest Firefox 147.0.4 release can be installed from the SparkyLinux repos, Mozilla Thunderbird 140.7.1 ESR email client, and LibreOffice 25.2.3 office suite.
SparkyLinux 8.2 comes in several flavors with the KDE Plasma 6.3.6, Xfce 4.20, LXQt 2.1.0, and MATE 1.26.0 desktop environments, as well as the Openbox 3.6.1 window manager for the MinimalGUI edition, and the MinimalCLI edition that doesn’t offer a graphical environment.
This release also fixes a small bug in the Openbox (MinimalGUI) edition that prevented users from launching a terminal emulator from a package manager. The MinimalGUI and MinimalCLI editions can also be installed on AArch64 (ARM64) systems, while the rest of the SparkyLinux editions only support 64-bit BIOS/UEFI systems.
Check out the release announcement page for more details about the changes included in SparkyLinux 8.2, which you can download right now from the official website as live ISO images. Existing SparkyLinux 8 users need only to update their installations to enjoy the new updates, without needing to reinstall.
SparkyLinux 8 (codename Seven Sisters) was released in August 2025 as one of the first GNU/Linux distributions based on the latest and greatest Debian 13 “Trixie” operating system series. It is powered by the long-term supported Linux 6.12 LTS kernel series, which will receive support until December 2026.
Source: https://9to5linux.com/sparkylinux-8-2-released-with-support-for-linux-kernel-6-19-updated-packages