While many of us Solus users are preparing for the winter holidays, the team led by renowned developer Ikey Doherty is currently working hard on bringing what might just be the biggest Budgie desktop release so far.

We can all agree that the current Budgie desktop environment is pretty cool with its GNOME 2-like vibe, and you can even enjoy it on Ubuntu Budgie, Arch Linux, Debian GNU/Linux, SparkyLinux (Debian based), and Manjaro (Arch Linux based). You can also enjoy Budgie on RPM-based distros like OpenSuSE and Fedora, which currently lies on the Solus Project's OBS (Open Build Service) repositories.

Now, the bad news is that, due to the ongoing re-architecturing, starting with the release of the Budgie 11 desktop environment, Solus Project will no longer be able to maintain those repositories for openSUSE and Fedora operating systems as Budgie 11 will need to be integrated at the distribution level. Budgie 11 aims to be distro agnostic, so a dedicated maintainer is necessary.

"This will ensure that the Solus project is no longer maintaining external repositories for Budgie Desktop. As a desktop environment, it is vital that it is well tested, and well integrated, into other distributions," wrote Ikey Doherty. "This is distinctly untrue of the OBS repositories, as obviously the Solus team is focused on building Solus, and does not test Budgie on other distributions."

Solus Project calls for Budgie downstreams, distros and enthusiasts

Therefore, the developers of the Solus and Budgie projects are asking for downstreams, distributions and supporters to come forward and discuss a strategy to enable an integration of the upcoming Budgie 11 desktop environment into the openSUSE and Fedora GNU/Linux operating systems, as well as any other distro that is using the OBS repositories, such as GeckoLinux.

Budgie developer Ikey Doherty told us that he is more than happy to assist anyone willing to take this huge task on his or her hands, as the Budgie 11 desktop environment will be more complex to integrate properly at distribution level, and also because of its new modular architecture. As such, don't hesitate to contact Mr. Doherty through the official channels of the Solus Project or via his personal Google+ account.