Intel announces the final closure of Clear Linux OS

Last update: 22/07/2025

  • Clear Linux OS has been discontinued and will no longer receive updates or support.
  • Intel recommends that its users migrate to other actively maintained Linux distributions.
  • The Clear Linux development team will be contributing to open source projects and other popular distros.
  • The decision is a response to an internal reorganization at Intel and the niche nature of the distribution.
Close clear linux

The news has shocked the tech community: Intel has decided to close Clear Linux OS, its renowned Linux distribution focused on high performance and specific optimization for the company's own hardware. The announcement makes it clear that Clear Linux OS will no longer receive security updates, new features, or patches., putting an end to a project that has been a benchmark for developers and professional environments for more than a decade.

Clear Linux OS was characterized by taking full advantage of the capabilities of Intel processors, providing a Ultra-fast boot, outstanding energy efficiency, and a minimalist environment primarily aimed at servers, cloud computing, and advanced virtualization tasks. Although the distribution has gained a foothold among specialists, always operated in a minority niche of users, partly because its compatibility and technical advantages were strongly tied to Intel hardware, leaving those using other processors out of the game.

Exclusive content - Click Here  What requirements do I have to meet to be able to upgrade to Windows 11?

Official statements and reasons behind the closure

Better alternatives after the closure of Clear Linux

The closure was confirmed through a statement published by Intel on its official channels, where Arjan van de Ven, one of the project leaders, explained the decision: From now on, the operating system will not receive maintenance and its repository will be set to read-only. The manufacturer recommends that users migrate to other actively supported distributions as soon as possible to avoid security and stability risks.

The measure, which comes after more than ten years of development, seems to be motivated by a setting priorities within IntelThe company is going through internal changes and a reduction in resources allocated to own projects which, like Clear Linux, have not reached a significant user base.

In addition, the growing trend towards new areas such as Artificial intelligence and the preference for contributing to open source projects have influenced the decision.

The technical legacy of Clear Linux OS

Generic image of Clear Linux OS shutdown

One of the greatest contributions of Clear Linux OS was its stateless architecture, which effectively separated the operating system from user configuration, thus facilitating customization and administration. Its package manager, swupd, was designed to offer fast and stable updates. In addition, the distribution was a pioneer in implementing advanced compilation optimizations, including the use of AVX2 and AVX-512 instructions, which improved performance in demanding workloads, especially on Intel hardware.

Exclusive content - Click Here  How to reset Windows 10 from the command prompt

In its meticulous approach to performance, Clear Linux OS disabled most unnecessary graphical effects and opted for a minimalist system, which allowed for a really low energy consumption and exceptional boot times. This specialization also limited its adoption outside of professional applications and data centers.

What Clear Linux users should do now

Intel's recommendation is that current users migrate to other Linux distributions with support and updates, such as Fedora, Ubuntu, Alpine Linux or CachyOS. Although Clear Linux OS will remain as open source project, maintenance, should any community group wish to continue it, will depend solely on that independent group. Format Correctly installing the system and choosing a compatible distribution is essential. to continue ensuring the security and performance of your environment.

The closure of this distribution reveals the difficulty of maintaining highly specialized technological solutions that do not achieve a critical mass of users, even when they're backed by giants like Intel. The system repository will remain available read-only, but without new versions or security enhancements.

Exclusive content - Click Here  How to stabilize videos and eliminate flickering

Although Clear Linux disappears as an active operating system, your development team will not be disbandedIntel has assured that the engineers involved in the project will be reassigned to other open source developments and that many of the optimizations The new versions created for Clear Linux will be progressively integrated into popular distributions. Thus, the advances achieved in the areas of performance and resource management could benefit a larger user base in the Linux world, ensuring that part of the Clear Linux spirit lives on.

Linux-Kernel-6.14
Related article:
Linux Kernel 6.14: Key Gaming Enhancements and Optimized Performance