Drauger OS 7.8, codenamed Urgal, shipped as a stable release on June 28, 2026, and the headline is the base: Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, with kernel 7.0 landing day-one for NTSYNC support. The build also defaults to KDE Plasma 6.5 on Wayland, ships Firefox as a Flatpak, and swaps the C sudo for the Rust-built sudo-rs that Ubuntu itself now uses. The 4,589MB ISO is live on the project’s website.
Drauger OS has been an Ubuntu-based gaming distribution since its early releases, but 7.8 is its first stable build on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. The team behind it is small and unpaid, and the project’s About page is unusually blunt about what Drauger is and isn’t. That positioning matters because the gaming-distro headlines this year have gone to CachyOS and Bazzite, both of which sit well above Drauger in DistroWatch’s hits-per-day ranking.
An Ubuntu Bet in a Field of Arch and Fedora
Most of the well-known gaming Linux distributions are not built on Ubuntu, and the gap shows up in the DistroWatch hits-per-day ranking alongside the 7.8 release listing. On that ranking, CachyOS sits at 3,449 HPD, Ubuntu at 1,016, and Bazzite at 927. Drauger is not in the published top 47.
The project’s own About page calls that positioning out in plain language, stating that Drauger OS is NOT based on Arch, Fedora, or Solus, and that there are no plans to rebase Drauger OS to another distro for various reasons. Most importantly, the page notes, the majority of other distributions would require copious amounts of work to get to the point we are at now.
What Ubuntu LTS gives the project is the thing most gaming distros have to build themselves: long-term security support that keeps flowing even after a specific version drops off the developers’ supported list. What Drauger swaps on top of it includes a kernel compiled in-house, PulseAudio replaced with PipeWire, GNOME swapped for KDE Plasma, and a dark Qt theme by default. The result is a stack the team describes as built from the ground up with our primary focus on performance. The About page also notes that Ubuntu LTS updates keep flowing even when a specific Drauger version is no longer developer-supported.
I am proud to announce the stable release of Drauger OS 7.8, codename Urgal!
Wrote the lead developer of Drauger OS in the full 7.8 release announcement on the project’s subreddit. The same post is the source for every headline feature listed below. The developer ends that post with instructions on how to upgrade from 7.7.
What 7.8 Adds to the Stack
The release post lists four headline changes for 7.8 over 7.7. Each one is a single swap rather than a re-architecture, and each was already signposted in the beta cycle that started earlier in the year. Together they give the project its first stable build on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. The release notes walk through them in order.
- KDE Plasma 6.5, with better VRR and HDR support and Wayland as the default display server
- Firefox is now a Flatpak, replacing the previous package build
- sudo-rs, the Rust-based sudo, replaces the C sudo (with the original still in the repos)
- Linux kernel 7.0 ships out of the box, with day-one NTSYNC support
The kernel bump is the one the team is making the most noise about. The post says the jump to kernel 7.0 brings immediate support from day one of NTSYNC, and describes that as much improved performance over Drauger OS 7.7 at launch. The same release also pushes all installations to Wayland by default, on top of the upgrade to KDE Plasma 6.5, which the post says brings better VRR and HDR support. The Wayland default sits inside that Plasma upgrade. Kubuntu made the same call for its own new installs, on a different distribution timeline.
On the security side, Drauger has followed in Ubuntu’s footsteps by switching to sudo-rs. The command sudo remains, the release notes say, and is symlinked to sudo-rs. The same post warns that some features have not been implemented in sudo-rs, so users should check scripts that reference sudo, and adds that the traditional sudo package is still available in the repos for anyone who wants it back.
Edamame Gets Sharper, and So Does the App List
Edamame is Drauger’s installer, and it got the most attention in this release. The post lists four Edamame improvements that target the rough edges of installing an Ubuntu-based system on a fresh machine. The release notes walk through them one at a time.
The biggest one is network settings. Edamame’s Quick Install now supports copying network settings from the live system to the installed one with both NetworkManager and netplan, and the team says users shouldn’t need to re-setup WiFi after installation. The release also adds background optimizations to keep lower-end systems responsive while installing Drauger OS. The post drops the old “is it OK to run Edamame” desktop-icon prompt entirely.
The app churn around Edamame is small but pointed. The release swaps Elisa for Lollypop as the default music app, adds VLC and Flatseal, and removes Synaptic. VLC is the load-bearing add for a gaming image; Flatseal is the load-bearing add for anyone running Flatpaks.
The app swaps line up with the Flatpak shift across the 7.8 stack. Firefox is now a Flatpak replacing the previous package build. Flatseal ships alongside it as the dedicated permissions manager. Those two additions land alongside Lollypop and VLC as the new default app surface for Drauger OS 7.8.
| Change Type | App | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Replaced | Elisa → Lollypop | Default music app |
| Removed | Synaptic | Package manager |
| Added | VLC | Media player |
| Added | Flatseal | Flatpak permissions |
Who Drauger Is Built For
The Drauger OS team is small and unpaid. The homepage puts it bluntly: Drauger OS is developed by a small, passionate team who don’t get paid anything for their work. The same page steers newcomers elsewhere until they have some Linux experience under their belt.
The About page goes further. It states that Drauger OS is NOT for everyday use, and points out that it does not ship with audio or video editing software (Audacity, Kdenlive) or an office suite (LibreOffice). The team explicitly rules out rebasing to Arch, Fedora, or Solus, citing the work it would take to recreate their current stack on a different foundation. In place of those broad ambitions, the project’s About page lists four tenets: continuity through distributed leadership, ease of use, community growth, and multiple support channels. The same page describes continuity as a deliberate choice: the project is structured around a team concept and distributed leadership so it won’t stop if a key member discontinues work.
Where Drauger Sits in the Gaming Distro Field
Drauger OS is not where the gaming-distro conversation lives by traffic. On DistroWatch’s hits-per-day ranking visible alongside the 7.8 release entry, CachyOS sits at 3,449 HPD, Ubuntu at 1,016, and Bazzite at 927. Drauger is not in the published top 47. That is the same pattern the About page hints at when it describes the project as a niche gaming OS rather than a mass-market one.
That positioning is the bet in plain terms. The wager is that an Ubuntu LTS base, plus an in-house compiled kernel, plus aggressive desktop and audio swaps, can deliver gaming-class performance. The Ubuntu base brings the long-term support that other gaming distros build around from scratch.
Whether that bet pays off on raw frames per second is a question 7.8 invites but does not answer. The developers’ own claim is that kernel 7.0’s day-one NTSYNC support means much improved performance over Drauger OS 7.7 at launch, a relative claim rather than a head-to-head against CachyOS or Bazzite. Independent benchmarks for 7.8 are not in the release post, and they are not what the team is staking 7.8 on. The most direct test on the table is whether Drauger’s custom kernel can hold its own against CachyOS and Bazzite on raw performance. That comparison will land with whoever runs it, not in the announcement.
The team is not pretending the bet has been won. The release post ends with instructions on how to upgrade from 7.7, a note that 7.7 will continue to have support for the next few weeks, and the developer’s plain hope that users enjoy 7.8 as much as I did making it. The 7.8 ISO is on the project’s download page now.
- CachyOS: 3,449 HPD on DistroWatch, the highest-ranked entry
- Ubuntu: 1,016 HPD, the foundation Drauger rebases on
- Bazzite: 927 HPD
- SteamOS: listed as a separate entry on DistroWatch
- Drauger OS: outside the published top 47, maintained by a small unpaid team
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Drauger OS 7.8 built on?
Drauger OS 7.8 sits on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, the project’s first stable build on that release. On top of the Ubuntu base it adds kernel 7.0 compiled in-house, KDE Plasma 6.5 running on Wayland by default, PipeWire replacing PulseAudio, and a Rust-built sudo-rs in place of the C sudo.
Where can I download Drauger OS 7.8?
The 7.8 ISO is on the project’s download page at draugeros.org/download. DistroWatch’s listing for the release names the file as Drauger_OS-7.8-AMD64.iso at 4,589MB.
How do I upgrade from Drauger OS 7.7 to 7.8?
The developers recommend a clean install from the new ISO rather than an in-place upgrade. The supported upgrade path is to run sudo apt update, install the drauger-upgrade-script package, drop to a TTY with Ctrl+Alt+F4, log in, and run upgrade-drauger. The release post notes that Drauger OS 7.7 will continue to have support for the next few weeks.
Does Drauger OS 7.8 replace sudo?
Yes. Drauger has switched to sudo-rs, the Rust-built replacement for the C-based sudo that Ubuntu itself adopted. The release notes say the command sudo remains and is symlinked to sudo-rs, warn that some features have not been implemented in sudo-rs, and add that the traditional sudo package is still available in the repos.
Is Drauger OS suitable as a daily-driver OS?
The team’s own About page says no. It states that Drauger OS is NOT for everyday use, and points out that it does not ship with audio or video editing software (Audacity, Kdenlive) or an office suite (LibreOffice). The same page does note that Ubuntu LTS updates keep flowing even when a specific Drauger version is no longer developer-supported.
