Serpent OS is the original Linux distribution started by Ikey Doherty of Solus Linux fame and has been pursuing its own package management system and new innovations in the Linux distribution landscape. While there has been recent success and new development builds coming out, feature development on Serpent OS is expected to slowdown now due to a lack of project funding.
Serpent OS reached alpha state toward the end of 2024 while it had been in the works for several years. Since mid-2022, Ikey Doherty has been working on Solus Linux full-time after a stint as a Mozilla Thunderbird developer. Since his Solus Linux days, Ikey was also working for Intel on Clear Linux among other jobs.
While Serpent OS has been making good progress with its alpha builds and working on features around offline rollbacks and writing more software in Rust, unfortunately, it’s hit the all too common open-source challenge: funding hasn’t kept up with this work.
The Serpent OS project announced on X yesterday that there will be a “delay in development” due to lack of funding:
Ikey then further elaborated on LinkedIn over the lack of funding for the project with “zero funds” and now looking for work elsewhere unless receiving new funding/sponsorship for Serpent OS:
An unfortunate and all too frequent occurrence in the open-source world. Hopefully some solution will come about so that work can resume at full-speed on these low-level Linux distributions enhancements.
