Clear Linux Is Dead. I’m Not Over It. (But Here’s How We Move On.)

Intel pulled the plug on Clear Linux on July 18, 2025. Effective immediately means exactly that: no patches, no updates, GitHub archived read-only. If you’re still running it on anything with an IP address, you’re running naked. Migrate. Now. (Clear Linux OS Forum)

I don’t write obituaries for distros. But Clear wasn’t “just another distro.” It was the only mainstream, vendor-funded proof that disciplined, holistic optimization can make Linux materially faster in the real world. And then Intel axed it overnight. (Phoronix)

What happened (dates matter)

July 18, 2025 — Intel’s team posted the shutdown notice: support ended immediately, repos to read-only, users told to migrate ASAP. (Clear Linux OS Forum)

July 21–22, 2025 — Trade press and trackers confirm the EOL window; forum staff announce the forum itself will go dark. (BleepingComputer)

No slow roll. No CVE window. Switch off the lights and lock the door.

Why Clear Linux mattered (and why it punched above its weight)

Clear took a systems approach to performance:

Aggressive toolchain flags (PGO/LTO), and ISA-aware builds as a norm, not a novelty. (Clear Linux Project)

Bundles + swupd, not dependency spaghetti: atomic, file-level versioning; verified updates; a built-in repair loop (verify --fix). (Clear Linux Project)

Stateless by design: defaults parked under /usr/share/defaults, user overrides in /etc, so you could nuke config and recover a bootable base in minutes. (Clear Linux Project)

mixer to build vendor-grade images like an actual release engineer. (Clear Linux Project)

And the speed wasn’t a vibe; it was measurable. In Phoronix’s “final” Intel box run, Clear’s geomean was +48% vs Ubuntu 25.04 out-of-the-box, and still +16% after giving Ubuntu the performance governor. That’s massive. (Phoronix)

Why it died (my read, receipts attached)

Intel didn’t publish a juicy autopsy. But the context is obvious:

The official note says resources are gone; support ends now. That’s corporate triage, not a community drift. (Clear Linux OS Forum)

In 2025, Intel downsized open-source teams and lost maintainers across key driver areas. When the oxygen leaves, side programs suffocate first. (Tom's Hardware)

Meanwhile, the rest of the ecosystem started absorbing parts of Clear’s playbook:

Fedora has been moving toward optimized executables and x86-64 level variants via glibc-hwcaps and related change proposals. (Phoronix)

CachyOS ships x86-64-v3/v4 repos and kernels out of the box—closest thing to a community “performance-first” distro right now. (CachyOS)

Immutable/atomic models (rpm-ostree, transactional-update) are mainstream via Fedora Silverblue/Atomic and openSUSE MicroOS/Aeon. (Fedora Docs)

Translation: the ideas survive.

If you’re still on Clear Linux, here’s the grown-up playbook

Don’t get pwned because you’re sentimental.

Acknowledge the risk. “No updates” isn’t a philosophical stance; it’s an attack surface. The project told you to migrate ASAP. (Clear Linux OS Forum)

Inventory & back up.

What’s on the box? swupd bundle-list

What state must you keep? Back up /home, /etc, /var (app data). Clear’s own docs recommend this split. (Nix)

Quarantine. Pull public exposure, drop it behind a WAF/VPN, or take it offline until you cut over.

Plan a fresh install on the target OS. Do not attempt an “in-place conversion.”

Have a rollback path. If you must touch the old node, remember swupd verify --fix exists—but it can’t resurrect a dead repo. (It was great while it lasted.) (Clear Linux OS Forum)

Where to go next (by use-case)

Option A — You want max perf with rolling freshness

CachyOS (Arch-based): enable x86-64-v3/v4 repos, optimized kernels; you’ll get the AVX/AVX-512 goodies where hardware allows. It’s the spiritual successor to Clear’s “always go faster” ethos. (CachyOS)

Option B — You want boring, mainstream, but catching up on perf

Fedora Workstation/Server: tracking work on optimized binaries and microarch levels; sane defaults, modern toolchain, strong upstreaming. (Phoronix)

Ubuntu/Debian: if your priority is ecosystem gravity and LTS. You’ll leave some perf on the table vs Clear (obviously), but tuning is possible.

Option C — You loved Clear’s stateless/clean-base vibe

Fedora Silverblue / “Atomic” desktops (rpm-ostree, atomic updates & rollbacks). (Fedora Docs)

openSUSE MicroOS / Aeon (transactional-update, Btrfs snapshots). (openSUSE MicroOS)

NixOS (declarative, reproducible systems; atomic rollbacks; flakes if you want pinned inputs). (NixOS)

Rebuilding the “Clear feel” on your new distro

You won’t get a byte-for-byte clone, but you can keep most of the wins:

ISA-aware binaries:

CachyOS: switch to x86-64-v3/v4 repos; test your actual workloads (DBs, encoders, inference), not just synthetic benches. (CachyOS)

Fedora: track the optimized executables effort and hwcaps usage expanding beyond shared libs. (Phoronix)

Atomic base + easy rollback:

rpm-ostree (Silverblue/Atomic) or transactional-update (MicroOS/Aeon) gets you Clear-like “fix it by rebasing/rolling back” behavior. (CoreOS)

Treat software as “bundles”:

Replace Clear’s bundles with role-based package groups or image layers. If you ran your own derivative with mixer, that muscle memory ports straight to image-based workflows. (Clear Linux Project)

Security hygiene, same as always:

Distributions differ, but principles don’t: minimal base, sane PAM, full-disk encryption, verified update pipelines. Clear’s own security notes still make a good checklist. (Clear Linux Project)

Migration worksheet (use this, not your feelings)

Step 0 — Freeze change. No new services on Clear.
Step 1 — Export state. Databases, queues, caches; copy app configs from /etc and data from /var and /home. Clear’s stateless model makes that boundary clean. (Clear Linux Project)
Step 2 — Map bundles → packages. Your source of truth: swupd bundle-list. For each bundle, map to the target OS’s groups (DNF groups, pacman lists, NixOS modules). (Clear Linux Project)
Step 3 — Rebuild perf-critical pieces. If perf matters, use v3/v4 repos (CachyOS) or microarch-aware packages (Fedora change), and then prove it on your workload. (CachyOS)
Step 4 — Automate the base.

Fedora/Atomic: kickstarts + rpm-ostree image pipelines. (CoreOS)

MicroOS/Aeon: transactional-update + snapshots. (openSUSE MicroOS)

NixOS: a single declarative config, optionally flakes to pin inputs. (NixOS)
Step 5 — Cut over, keep the old box cold for a week, then retire it.

Postmortem: What we lost vs. what we keep

Lost: a living, vendor-funded reference implementation that proved Linux can be drastically faster with the right defaults—every day, not just in benchmarks. (Phoronix)

Kept: the blueprint. We know:

PGO/LTO at scale matters. (Clear Linux Project)

Atomic delivery and stateless config reduce drift and repair time. (Fedora Docs)

Bundle-level thinking beats package-level bikeshedding for ops. (Clear Linux Project)

The market is already absorbing Clear’s DNA: Fedora’s optimized executables, CachyOS’s v3/v4 repos, and the rising tide of image-based systems. (Phoronix)

The take (no sugar-coating)

Intel killed the best performance-first Linux distro we had. That’s the headline. But it didn’t kill the pattern. Ship fast binaries. Stay stateless. Automate the base. Then benchmark your actual workload and keep receipts.

If you crave Clear’s speed, go CachyOS (v3/v4) and measure. If you crave its clean-room feel, go Silverblue/Atomic or MicroOS, or go full NixOS and make your system a Git repo with rollbacks on tap. And if you just want to stop bleeding: pick Fedora or an LTS, run the playbook above, and get back to work. (CachyOS)

Receipts / further reading

Official EOL post (Intel team): “All good things come to an end — shutting down Clear Linux.” (Clear Linux OS Forum)

Press: Phoronix, LWN, BleepingComputer, OMG! Linux. (Phoronix)

Final benchmarks: +48% geomean vs Ubuntu 25.04 (out-of-the-box); +16% even after governor fix. (Phoronix)

Forum shutdown note: community forum end-of-month. (Clear Linux OS Forum)

swupd/bundles/stateless: official docs & manpages. (Clear Linux Project)

mixer docs: how Clear built releases (great reference for image pipelines). (Clear Linux Project)

CachyOS optimized repos: x86-64-v3/v4 details; kernel variants. (CachyOS)

Atomic/immutable: rpm-ostree (Silverblue/Atomic), MicroOS/Aeon (transactional-update). (CoreOS)

NixOS reproducible configs: manual + flakes. (NixOS)

Bottom line: Clear Linux is dead. Don’t run an unpatched tombstone on the open internet. Take the lessons, migrate with intent, and rebuild something faster—because the blueprint didn’t die with the brand.

Personal Take: Developing a Custom OS has always been a dream of mine if you have legitimate development expertise and do not run a Software Engineering Larp group online and would like to attempt a serious project similar to clear built on the back of Nix OS send me an email to [email protected] or call me at 305-909-8647