openKylin 3.0 is out: Linux kernel 7.0, post-quantum cryptography and AI at the core of the system

The openKylin project, developed under the aegis of the OpenAtom Foundation, has announced the release of version 3.0 — a major update to its Linux distribution for desktop systems and servers. The developers call the release a step toward an “intelligent” operating system and accompany it with an impressive list of technical changes.

An updated foundation

The main innovation is the move to the Linux 7.0 kernel, and moreover straight from version 6.6, skipping the intermediate releases. The update touched more than 180 key components of the system: it now includes GCC 15, glibc 2.42, LLVM 22 and JDK 25. The base libraries and compilation tools have been brought into line with the current versions of the international upstream communities.

The distribution belongs to the Debian family and can work with the APT package manager, yet at the same time it has its own package format and application center. The proprietary UKUI desktop environment is available out of the box in both a Wayland session and X11. Builds have been prepared for three architectures: x86_64, AArch64 and the Chinese Loong64.

Betting on AI and security

One of the emphases of openKylin 3.0 has been the integration of artificial intelligence at the level of the entire system. The project speaks of creating an “open platform for intelligent agents” that permeate the whole software stack, and of multimodal ways of interacting — mid-air gestures, voice input and screen reading. As the authors envision it, the usage scenarios stretch from desktop systems to mobile devices and servers.

The work on cryptography deserves special attention. All three of NIST's post-quantum cryptography standards — ML-KEM, ML-DSA and SLH-DSA — are built into the system. Their invocation at the system level is provided by the open openHiTLS cryptographic suite, which makes openKylin one of the few distributions where protection against hypothetical quantum attacks is offered out of the box.

Where to get it

Images are available for download in two variants: a desktop build for x86_64 of about 7.7 GB and a version for arm64 of around 6.4 GB. The details are given in the official release announcement.

Source: DistroWatch