NeOS Files

Polish release: a clean, professional image from the boot menu to the installed desktop. Every user-visible surface was walked and checked against what the image actually ships; the plan is reports/v2026.10.03/00-polish-plan.md, the outcome and before/after renders are in reports/v2026.10.03/02-review-report.md and reports/v2026.10.03/screenshots/.

Fixed

• The installer slideshow never left its first slide. showSlide() mutated a QML var array in place, which does not notify bindings, so "Welcome to NeOS" stayed up for the whole install. It now assigns a new array; tests/verify_ui_render.sh renders every slide and fails if their content does not differ.
• The welcome app's feature cards rendered empty and its buttons overflowed the window (the card's QFrame style cascaded onto its labels; three 220 px buttons did not fit 860 px). Layout rebuilt; focus starts on the primary action.
• Every user's app menu showed 16 dead launchers (Basecamp, HEY, X, WhatsApp, Docker, Zoom, …): their commands (neos-launch-webapp, xdg-terminal-exec, foot, imv, mpv, dua) were never shipped. Removed with their 39 icons; tests/verify_desktop_entries.sh requires every .desktop command to resolve.
• KDE's About page showed a generic logo: os-release named LOGO=neos-logo, but no such icon existed. The logo now ships as a full neos-logo icon set (PNG sizes plus a scalable SVG).
• Unreadable buttons: white text on the #38bdf8 accent is 2.1:1 (WCAG AA needs 4.5:1). It was used on the installer's Next button, current step, selected tab and menu item, the welcome app's primary button and the login button. All now use the dark onAccent text (9:1).

Changed

• Boot splash: the NeOS logo with three pulsing accent dots and a clean disk-unlock prompt replaces the cartoon-cat loader (maintainer's decision). The cat frames and their generator are removed.
• One brand palette: accent #38bdf8, hover #7dd3fc, pressed #0ea5e9, onAccent #0A0E1A (tools/palette.json). Three files had defined three different hover/pressed pairs, and the old #1F6FD6 lingered as tints. The installer, slideshow, login screen, welcome app, KDE colour scheme and os-release now agree, and verify_palette_consistency.sh rejects retired shades and white-on-accent text.
• One logo, the website's: the image now uses the NeOS website's mark (a hexagon around a dot, from uthsarad/NeOSweb), kept as tools/brand/neos-logo.svg and rendered to every size by tools/gen-logo.py --all. It replaces the generated "N" badge and the old blue/white swirl.
• Brand images regenerated: new installer welcome banner (the old one was AI swirl clip-art still carrying an image generator's watermark); BIOS boot-menu background on the night-sky theme (it was a Gothic cathedral); the login theme preview is a real headless render (tools/render-sddm-preview.py). The README screenshots are real renders of the current image.
• No emoji in shipped UI: slideshow and welcome-app icons are monochrome glyphs in the accent colour, and the login avatar is a drawn silhouette.
• Boot menus: the default entry reads "Start NeOS" and accessibility reads "NeOS (Screen Reader)" in both menus. GRUB gains UEFI Firmware Settings, Reboot and Power Off.
• Cleaner new home directories: /etc/skel keeps only NeOS's own autostart/ksplash settings and the Bluetooth A2DP rule. Gone: configs for 15 applications that are not installed, Omarchy branding and hook samples, GNOME Nautilus extensions, and a personal git/tmux setup that changed git's behaviour (pull.rebase, rerere.autoupdate).
• Leaner installs: 39 rescue-ISO or dormant-installer packages are removed (archinstall, gum, clonezilla, drbl, irssi, lynx, mc, wvdial, refind, memtest86+, …). The installed-system developer block shrinks from ~25 toolchains to base-devel, python-pip, nodejs and npm; the HANDBOOK lists one-line installs for the rest (maintainer's decision).

Removed

• Dormant Omarchy runtime (maintainer's decision): usr/share/neos/neos/, the archinstall-based installer (usr/share/neos-iso/, neos-iso-install, neos-install-dashboard, neos-cidata-load, neos-iso-cleanup-disk, neos-install-diagnose-media), neos-debug*, neos-upload-log and profile/packages_omarchy.x86_64. They could not run on NeOS and were copied onto every install. Restore steps are in docs/architecture/OMARCHY_INTEGRATION.md.
• Installer log upload: Calamares sent the full installer log (hostname, user name, disk layout) to a public pastebin over plain HTTP. The log stays local; TROUBLESHOOTING says where it is.
• The "send anonymous usage data" checkbox in the welcome app: nothing ever collected or sent data.

Tests and tooling

• New: verify_desktop_entries.sh, verify_package_hygiene.sh, and verify_ui_render.sh (headless renders of the login theme, slideshow and welcome app; CI installs python-pyqt6 + qt6-declarative).
• verify_palette_consistency.sh and verify_boot_gui.sh are extended. verify_installer_secrets.sh is retired along with the installer it covered.
• New generators: tools/gen-brand-images.py, tools/render-sddm-preview.py, tools/render-installer-slides.py. tools/gen-logo.py --all renders every logo copy from tools/brand/neos-logo.svg.
• Version bumped to 2026.10.03.

💿 Downloads

• Direct Download (ISO): neos-Bonito-Beta-testing-x86_64.iso (downloads.sourceforge.net)
• BitTorrent: neos-Bonito-Beta-testing-x86_64.iso.torrent (attached to this release assets below and mirrored on SourceForge)
• Release Directory: SourceForge Files