Emmabuntüs, a Linux distribution (and social project) used in humanitarian and educational projects, particularly in Africa and Europe, and especially in regions with limited access to new hardware, announced the release of Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 5 version 1.05 as an update within the ongoing 5 series, based on Debian 12.13.
Before we start, it’s important to note that the accessibility features introduced in version 1.05 are optional and user-activated through a dedicated interface to preserve familiarity for long-time users.
New components include a redesigned accessibility configuration window with speech synthesis support, integration of additional synthesizers (MBROLA and Piper), the addition of LIOS (Linux Intelligent OCR Solution), enhanced Braille reader support, and tools like KDE-Connect and scripts for managing battery level information, Braille embosser installation, and adapting visuals for impaired users.
The update also includes general maintenance and component upgrades, such as assigning a default audio volume, a new Wine installation script, fixes to time zone and country selection, improved handling of proprietary firmware in the installation ISO, and refreshed translations.
As you can expect, many core packages, including Firefox (140.7.0esr), Thunderbird (140.7.0esr), deb-get, Ventoy, CTparental, and TurboPrint, also received version bumps.
How to Get It
Emmabuntüs DE 5 1.05 is available for download from the project’s official website. You can grab ISOs for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems, with your choice of Xfce or LXQt desktop environments.
Installation is straightforward—burn the ISO to a USB drive (Ventoy works great for this), boot from it, and follow the installer. If you’ve installed Ubuntu or any other Debian-based distro, you’ll be right at home.
For a complete list of changes, refer to the release announcement. EmmaDE5 1.05 is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, supporting the Xfce and LXQt desktop environments.
If you want the latest version, note that the current release is Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 6, released in mid-December, which is based on the stable Debian 13 “Trixie” series.
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