Elementary OS 8.1 arrives with Linux 6.14 kernel and smoother multitasking

If you have time to play with new operating systems over Christmas and the New Year, you might be interested to know that elementary OS 8.1 is now available. Despite its seemingly minor version number, this is actually a significant update with a focus on hardware support, accessibility, and refined multitasking.

The key change in this update is that Wayland is now the default window manager option and is available under the “Secure Session” selection. Wayland brings several benefits such as better privacy and hardware support. Luckily, you can revert back to the old X11 (“Classic Session”) if you have apps that are incompatible.

This distribution, ever since it was released years ago, has had a strong focus on looking and working well. A smaller new feature in this update now sees password dialogs dim the rest of the screen and prevent focus stealing, this ensures that your entering credentials into a legitimate system prompt.

Elementary OS 8.1 also brings with it the Linux 6.14 kernel and Mesa 25, which improves gaming performance, power consumption, and support for Intel Lunar Lake and M-series Apple Silicon (ARM64).

The AppCenter has received some notable updates in elementary OS 8.1. App pages now show ODRS ratings, controller support for games, and clear labels for in-app purchases. The search in AppCenter has also been improved to be faster and the results are shown in a two-column layout on larger screens. The system updates have also been moved to a System Settings to separate them from app updates.

Aside from these changes, there are lots of improvements to the screen reader and visual accessibility improvements such as improved high-contrast. The dark mode now also includes a snooze feature for timed schedules.

To try out this latest update, head to the elementary OS website. Before being given the download option, you have to choose a donation amount, this can be set to zero if you are not feeling charitable.

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Posted Wednesday 24 December 2025 at 4:02 am AEST (my time).

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