"I think it's fine so long as it's clear that your project is your own and not affiliated with the original. Have fun!" — Dustin (original Antergos founder)
- The Antergos name and logo
- The Calamares installer — mature, upstream-supported, online mode (BYODE script for bare-system offline installs)
- The spirit of an Arch Linux live environment that just works
- Community-driven development — contributions welcome
- Artix Linux base with Dinit (switchable via changing-init.md) instead of Arch/systemd
- Calamares as the primary installer — online (netinstall with multiple DEs) + BYODE offline script
- KDE Plasma as the default desktop environment (GNOME removed — systemd dependency)
- buildiso (artools) for ISO builds
- Modern CI — all packages auto-built and deployed to gh-pages
- Antergos branding throughout — about dialog, installer theme, default branding fallback
- Antergos Layan theme — Kvantum, SDDM, GRUB theme, plasma plasmoids, Konsole, Yakuake skin
❌ 1:1 replica of the original ISO — ❌ Cnchi (retired — too unstable to maintain) — ❌ Unmaintainable packages — ❌ Outdated design choices — ❌ The old GTK3 Cnchi — ❌ systemd — ❌ Anything that belongs in a different era
If you came looking for a museum piece, you're in the wrong place. This is forward, not backward.
Look, we get it. The original Antergos ran on systemd. You loved it. We loved it. But systemd stopped being "just an init system" somewhere around the time it started collecting birth dates and locking revert PRs. We're not saying systemd is evil — we're saying it's a monolith that keeps growing and we'd rather not tag along for the ride.
Artix gave us Dinit, OpenRC, Runit, and S6. We tried to be clever and support all four. The installer kept picking elogind-dinit over elogind-openrc because pacman sorts alphabetically and nobody has time to write a resolver that accounts for init preferences. OpenRC also doesn't enable services correctly on installed systems. So it's Dinit now. You want something else? There's a changing-init.md in the ISO repo that walks you through it.
Could we go back to Arch? Yes. The old systemd profile is still in the before-systemd-change branch. It would take a weekend. We won't. If that bothers you, fork it. We mean that genuinely.
To the users who miss systemd: we're not bringing it back even if we wanted to. Go use a different distro if you need to. Sorry not sorry.
| Repo | Description |
|---|---|
| antergos-iso | Live ISO build — Artix Linux, KDE Plasma, Calamares, Dinit |
| antergos-packages | Custom package repository with CI |
| cnchi-next | Graphical installer for Arch Linux — GTK4 fork (unmaintained, kept for reference) |
| antergos-welcome | Welcome screen for Antergos NeXT live ISO |
| Package | Type |
|---|---|
calamares |
Universal installer (upstream, packaged as-is) |
calamares-branding-antergos-next |
Calamares theme |
antergos-next-keyring |
GPG keyring |
antergos-next-mirrorlist |
Mirror config |
antergos-next-desktop-settings |
GTK/Plasma theme defaults |
antergos-plasma-theme |
Plasma desktop theme (dark), look-and-feel, splash screen |
antergos-sddm-theme |
SDDM login theme with built-in background |
antergos-wallpapers |
Desktop wallpapers |
yay |
AUR helper |
downgrade |
Package downgrade tool |
antergos-layan-theme |
Layan theme suite (Kvantum, SDDM, plasmoids, Konsole, Yakuake) |
antergos-grub-theme |
GRUB theme (Layan, 75 distro icons, Antergos wallpaper) |
📜 Fun fact — the name saga
This project launched as Antergos NeXT — a direct nod to the original. After a takedown request from a former dev (who was not Dustin), it was temporarily renamed to Pulsar Linux to avoid legal headache. But when Dustin Falgout — one of the three original Antergos founders — heard about it, he gave his explicit blessing to use the Antergos name:
"I think it's fine so long as it's clear that your project is your own and not affiliated with the original. Have fun!"
So we switched back. Pulsar Linux continues as a separate project under its own identity.
⚠️ To any press reading this: If you see an article claiming Antergos NeXT is abandoned, it's outdated. During the brief rename to Pulsar Linux (before Dustin's blessing came through), some outlets assumed the project died. It didn't. Name changed back, installer got upgraded, development is active. Check the commit history.
🔧 Technical details
- Base: Artix Linux with Dinit (default) / OpenRC / Runit / S6
- ISO build:
buildiso(artools) with custom pacman config and package overlay - Installer: Calamares (Qt6, C++, online netinstall with multiple DEs, Dinit only)
- Desktop: KDE Plasma (default)
- Init: Dinit (switch to OpenRC/Runit/S6 via changing-init.md)
- Boot: GRUB (BIOS + UEFI)
- Packaging: All custom packages built via GitHub Actions, hosted on gh-pages
- Repo layout: Flat URL (
https://antergos-next.github.io/antergos-packages/) — no arch subdirectory - Signing: Packages currently unsigned (no secret key in CI) — keyring package exists for future use
- Easter egg: CHANNEL 666 — type 666 three times for a special experience
- Maintainer: Solo (Michał), recovering from ankle injury — updates may be slow
This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the original Antergos project or its developers. It is an independent effort built upon the legacy of Antergos, not a sanctioned continuation.
Maintained solo by Michał. Updates may be slow — be patient, or better yet, contribute.
If you came here thinking this is a direct revival of the original Antergos, you were mistaken lol. Antergos NeXT is a modernization project — what comes back does so on our terms, not as a museum replica. Not everything returns, and that's intentional.