Not only did Luke Short’s WinesapOS project make it to its’ sixth anniversary, but it also coincides with a new update! For those who aren’t aware, WinesapOS is an Arch-based Linux distribution designed specifically for gaming. For WinesapOS in particular, the strength of it resides in its’ portable nature – you can flash the distro to a USB stick, plug it into a computer, and use it without having to install anything. Per the GitHub README, another advantage it has is the “enhanced hardware support” for Intel Macs, x86-based handhelds, Framework, and a few other devices.

One of the most requested features has made it in the new 4.6.0 update: a graphical installer, as opposed to what Luke described to me as a “half-assed” semi-automatic installer that it had before. Now it’s using Calamares.

Another timely update is the ability to “triple your RAM” with zram and zstd compression during first-time setup, as opposed to using lz4 compression. There is a performance trade-off though; see the benchmarks between compression algorithms for more details. The patch notes mention this was to “help deal with the RAMpocalypse”.

Aside from that, we have the typical software updates, including the kernel itself; optimzed VRAM usage; VirtIO-GPU Venus support; out-of-the-box support for GameImage and CDEmu; and a few other tidbits here and there. WinesapOS is now also a founding member of the Open Gaming Collective!

See the full patch notes on GitHub. And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out the interview I had with Luke!