Overview

Budgie is a modern, independent desktop environment focused on simplicity, minimalism, and elegance. Developed by the Buddies of Budgie organisation, Budgie uses GTK technology and features a unique sidebar (Raven) for notifications and widgets. It does not have a reference platform, encouraging each distribution to customise defaults for their audience. Budgie is the default desktop for Solus and ships as Ubuntu Budgie and Fedora Budgie Spin.

Key Features

• Raven Sidebar: An all-in-one notification centre and widget panel — access calendar, media controls, volume, system resources, and extensible widgets from a single sidebar.
• Built-in Layout Options: Choose between Traditional, Unity-like, or macOS-like panel layouts with a single click in Budgie Desktop Settings.
• Budgie Menu: Lightning-fast application launcher with category-based organisation, search-as-you-type, and compact/expanded view options.
• No Reference Platform Philosophy: Each distribution customises the defaults for their users, making Budgie adaptable across different communities while maintaining core identity.

Platforms

Linux, BSD (primarily Linux-focused)

Latest Stable Version

10.10.2 (March 7, 2026)

Licence

GPL-2.0

Website

buddiesofbudgie.org

Parent Organisation

Buddies of Budgie (community-driven, originally by Ikey Doherty / Solus Project)