An unexpected installation of the TWiS (This Week in Solus) weekly newsletter was published just a few minutes ago by renowned Solus developer Joshua Strobl, informing users about an important milestone for the independent Linux OS.

In case you haven't already heard, Solus devs are currently working hard on bringing as many desktop environments as possible to the main software repositories of the distribution, making the operating system more attractive to those who want to switch from other OSes, such as Ubuntu, OpenSuSE, or Arch Linux.

According to some users, the problem with Solus was that it only came with the Budgie desktop environment, which provides a nice, clean and user-friendly interface to Linux newcomers, but hardcore users wanted to be able to install their own desktops, such as Xfce, KDE, GNOME, MATE, Enlightenment, and many others.

Last week, we reported on the availability of the i3 tiling window manager as the first desktop interface for power users in Solus' repos, and today we're happy to announce here on this space that you can install the MATE desktop environment on your Solus installation, right now, by running the "sudo eopkg it -c desktop.mate" command in a terminal window, if you're using the unstable repository.

"Our MATE desktop is almost completely packaged barring some minor items, and the default configuration is closing on completion, by way of mate-desktop-branding. The remaining items include setting the default panel layout and selecting a keyboard-driven menu applet, as well as fleshing out the selection of software in the default MATE ISO," says Joshua Strobl.

Solus MATE Edition to be released as part of Solus 1.2.1

However, the even more groundbreaking news announced today by the Solus developers is that there will soon be a Solus MATE Edition available for download. Wow! That has never happened before, but you know what they say, there's a first time for everything. The upcoming Solus MATE Edition should be out soon, as part of the Solus 1.2.1 updated ISO images.

That being said, we're happy to see that Solus is doing so good these days, and we can't wait to see which popular desktop environment will land next on its repositories. In the meantime, please make sure that your Solus installation is always up to date with the latest software versions and security patches, and don't hesitate to check the newsletter's page for some more cool Solus-related stuff and videos.