NebiOS X arrives with the most mature and stable form of NebiDE Wayland to date.
This release not only introduces refined interface elements but also brings deep, structural improvements aimed at reducing complexity and improving overall performance compared to previous builds.
With NebiOS X, the X11-based NebiDE Legacy era has officially come to an end.
That environment was only available in NebiOS 2 and 3; from now on, the Wayland-based modern NebiDE is the default, forming the foundation for all future releases.
These notes do not focus on the massive differences between 3.0 and X (those are detailed on the promotional page linked in the headerbar), but rather on the changes between the RC4 candidate and this final RTM build.
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🧭 NebiDE Wayland Utility Panel
In RC4, the “Bookmarks” section would still appear on some systems even when no directories were actually bookmarked.
In 10.0, this has been corrected — if no bookmarks exist, both the group and its icon are now hidden.
This change eliminates the confusion between the file manager shortcut icon (favorited app launcher) and the bookmarks group within the Utility Panel.
The panel now shows the group only when user-defined directories exist, resulting in a cleaner and more logical layout.
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⚙️ OOBE (First-Setup Experience)
The OOBE module received two key adjustments in this release:
1. Virtual Machine Detection
OOBE can now detect whether the system is running inside a virtual machine (such as VirtualBox, VMware, or QEMU).
If so, the user is shown a notice: “For a better experience, please install on bare-metal (real hardware).”
NebiOS currently does not accept requests for virtual machine optimization or driver support — and likely never will.
The focus remains firmly on modern real hardware. (Legacy systems like Core 2 Duo are no longer supported; that support ended with NebiOS 2 in 2022. NebiOS is not meant to compete with Mint-like lightweight distros.)
2. Temporary Removal of the Language Selection Screen
The language step in RC4 sometimes corrupted UTF-8 locale variables, causing issues such as launcher categories failing to open.
This screen has been temporarily removed.
If language-related issues persist after the update, open your `~/.profile` file, remove the `LANG` and `LANGUAGE` export lines at the bottom, and restart your session.
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🧩 Mesa (Open-Source Drivers)
The mesarc repository used in RC4 caused instability and crashes on certain Nouveau setups.
In 10.0, it has been completely replaced with kisak-mesa stable.
This change reduces major rendering issues on systems using the Nouveau driver.
> Note:
> Nouveau should only be used during installation or OOBE setup.
> For better performance and reliability, NVIDIA’s proprietary drivers are strongly recommended.
> These drivers have been directly tested by the NebiOS developer and proved far more stable than the open-source alternative.
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💻 NebiDE Wayland Shell
The NebiDE Wayland Shell now performs basic hardware detection and adjusts rendering behavior accordingly.
This leads to smoother performance and better latency consistency in virtualized environments:
* In virtual machines, render time is automatically capped at 8 ms for optimal stability and latency.
* On real hardware, render time is unlimited (`-1`) or automatically detected.
Additionally, to reduce crashes and freezes under Nouveau, blur effects are now disabled by default.
You can re-enable them manually, but if stability issues reappear, it’s recommended to report them through the Discord community.
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⚠️ Known Issues and Workarounds
1. NVIDIA Desktop Systems — Sleep/Suspend Problem
This is a known limitation of NVIDIA’s proprietary driver power-management implementation.
A permanent fix is planned, but for now you can apply the following workaround:
```bash
sudo systemctl enable nvidia-suspend.service
sudo systemctl enable nvidia-hibernate.service
sudo systemctl enable nvidia-resume.service
sudo reboot
```
These services ensure the GPU resumes properly when waking from sleep or hibernate.
2. OOBE Language Screen Removal
This temporary change resolves most UTF-8 related issues seen in RC4.
The language screen will be reintroduced later, once the new localization system is complete.
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🔧 Post-Update Changes
For users upgrading from RC4 to 10.0, several key components were updated or rebuilt, including:
* Mesa (migration to kisak-mesa stable)
* nebide > shell (hardware detection, render limits, blur handling, auto-hide for empty bookmark groups)
* nebide > firstSetupUtil (VM detection + language screen removal)
A reboot is recommended after installation — mandatory if Mesa or kernel modules have changed.
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🌙 Closing Notes
NebiOS X 10.0 focuses not on adding more features, but on achieving balance and refinement.
This release stabilizes NebiDE Wayland, improves driver behavior, and simplifies OOBE to deliver a consistent, predictable experience.
With this final build, NebiOS X reaches full stability — the platform is ready for its next phase, just as outlined in previous development blog posts.
This is the true birth of NebiOS X.
With regards, Sarp M.