Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts

Unity Linux 2010 b2

Unity Linux is a new distribution approaching its first stable release. Last week, the project announced the second beta release the distribution based on Mandriva.

From the release notes:

Currently, Unity Linux offers both 32-bit and 64-bit LiveCDs. Nearly 7,700 packages are available after installation. In an effort to give distribution developers maximum flexibility, the core is kept small and usable, but not too basic. Unity Linux provides developers with the bare minimum– just enough to make use of remaster tools, the smart package manager, a 2.6.31.9 kernel, and rpm5.




You can dowload the beta release from mirrors listed here.

Slackware 13.0 Released!

Slackware is the oldest surviving Linux distribution. Now Patrick Volkerding has released version 13.0 of this distribution that aims to keep things simple.

The biggest news in the release announcement is the addition of the official 64-bit port. Of course, this should not be very exciting for the readers of Lightweight Linux as we are happy to continue using our 32-bit hardware. In addition to the KDE4.2.4, Slackware 13.0 provides the users with XFCE 4.6.1. And of course, you can always choose to install some of the lightweight window managers if you intend to use Slack with an old computer.

Crunchbang 9.04.1 Released

Crunchbang is an Ubuntu derivative distribution that defaults to lightweight alternatives of the pretty heavy GNOME desktop systems and GNOME applications provided by the default Ubuntu install. Crunchbang is not lightweight enough to be installed on very old computers, but it might be just what you need to be able to comfortably use your single core hardware from around ten years ago.

The latest release is 9.04.01, based on the latest stable Ubuntu release. Downloads availble here.

Absolute Linux 13.0 rc1

From the Absolute Linux home page:
Absolute is a x86 Linux distribution based upon Slackware. It concentrates on "desktop" use so that it is ready for internet, multimedia, document and general home use as much as possible. Absolute is lightweight -- meaning 2 things: that it can run on on older hardware and that the OS interface stays out of your way.
It is version-compatible with Slackware so you can use almost any package from the same version of Slack on Absolute. It is what I use all da y, every day, and I am very thankful for Linux and Slackware and I hope others find benefit from my work on Absolute.
About the new RC:
Pre-release that includes fixes for slapt-get and wicd, addition of a control panel, centralizing control and eliminating the sometimes-confusing utilities menus. Big updates to Midori and inkscape on repositories (under /CD2). New theme, new logon, QT4 up and running several new applications along with QT4-based K3B. Overall a more cohesive look and simpler navigation. Wanted a release candidate so that 13.0 will not necessitate updates -- also wanted to have feedback on whether Midori is functional enough to become the default browser. (It uses about 1/3 the memory of Firefox in my tests.)
Download the ISO image.

New releases: ZevenOS 1.9 and Puppy 4.2.1

ZevenOS has announced the release of ZevenOS 1.9 that is a beta release for version 2.0. The new release has been updated to Ubuntu Jaunty (9.04) which according to the release notes brings speed improvements and new hardware support. The release version is a not meant for production use, as it is recommned for developers and techgeeks. Newbies should rather install version 1.1

In addition, Puppy Linux 4.2.1 has been released. According to the release notes, this is a bug fix release with few changes in the applications.

New releases

In addition to the 9.04 release of the Ubuntu family, there are some recent and interesting lightweight distribution releases.

Easy Peasy 1.1 is a distribution for the wildly popular netbooks. Easy Peasy is based on Ubuntu which certainly is not known as the most lightweight distribution available. Even Easy Peasy defaults to software like OpenOffice.Org 3.0 and Firefox instead of lighter alternatives.

SliTaz 2.0 has been released, as well. SliTaz is a live system installable to a CD or a USB memory. It packs incredible amount of functionality in an image of 30 MB. See the SliTaz Handbook for more information.

Latest specialist distribution releases

During the last week or two, several rescue and specialist distributions have released new ISO images.

Clonezilla is a backup and recovery distribution. It currently supports ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs, jfs of GNU/Linux, FAT, NTFS of MS Windows, and HFS+ of Mac OS file systems. The latest release of the live cd bears the version number 1.2.1-53(download).

SystemRescueCD is a rescue cd based on Gentoo. The latest release is numbere 1.1.7 (downloads)

XPUD is a Taiwanese mini distribution that consists mainly of a web browser and multimedia functionalities. You can use xPUD, for example, for building an internet kiosk.

I have never tested xpUD myself, but it seems to boot very fast. See the video for a demonstration!



And last but not least, PartedMagic 4.0 has been released. It now supports ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, jfs, linux-swap, ntfs, reiserfs, reiser4, and xfs.

VectorLinux 6.0 Light

VectorLinux is a distribution based on Slackware. The project has now released a new 6.0 Light version of the distribution. From the release notes:
Light is aimed at users with some Linux experience. It is biased towards technical simplicity and high performance. Based on VL6.0 Standard, the most resource hungry applications have been removed or replaced with lighter alternatives. Running services are kept to a minimum.

The requirements for the latest release are pretty low:
It is recommended that your system meets these requirements:
Pentium 200 or better compatible processor (i586 and up).
64 MB of memory - but 128 MB will greatly improve performance.
Hard disk space: 2 GB for an install with X-window system, Internet and multimedia applications. 3 GB for "everything". Absolute minimum is 1.1 GB.

Download the ISO.

Absolute Linux 12.2.2 Released

Absolute Linux is a distribution based on the venerable Slackware. It provides an easy to use desktop that has all the applications most people use in their everyday computing (Firefox, OpenOffice, Pidgin chat, GIMP image editor, WPClipart, Thunderbird mail, K3B CD/DVD burning, Frostwire P2P, Deluge BitTorrent).

From the release notes:
This release updates several major programs due to security issues. This includes Firefox, Thunderbird, Samba, Seamonkey and Pidgin. Pidgin also updated to correctly configure notification/alert sounds. Updates also enable auto-start of PTP cameras (like Canon), updated GIMP and GIMP-help (help on CD2 zip) and updated wicd (for wired and wireless connection management.) Plus a few others...

(Download Absolute Linux ISO images)

New releases

Tiny Core Linux 1.2 has been released. Tiny Core Linux is an extremely small (10 MB) and minimal desktop system that is based on Linux 2.6 kernel, Busybox, Tiny X, Fltk, and Jwm. The system runs entirely in RAM. It is not a complete desktop and only a limited selection of hardware is completely supported. The system provides only the essentials needed to boot into a minimal X desktop using wired internet access.

Zenwalk is a Slackware-based distribution. If you are not interested in configuring Slackware but want to have an easy to install and usable desktop system that does not demand a lot from the hardware you should consider installing Zenwalk. Zenwalk is designed to be lightweight, fast and rational desktop providing only one application for each task. At the same time, it is a complete desktop system with multimedia applications. The latest 6.0 version was released just a few days ago.


Vector Linux 6.0 Released



For a few months in the autumn, I used the previous release of Vector Linux as my main desktop in the town where I study. Now the project has released the new stable 6.0 Standard Edition release of the distribution:
The final release of VectorLinux 6.0 (code name 'Voyager') is now available. This release is a major milestone in the ten year history of Vectorlinux. With the unbridled enthusiasm of a community gone wild, we have forged our very own stable GUI installer and our repository now hosts over a thousand packages. VectorLinux is the fastest Linux desktop in it's class. We have exceeded our original goals of VectorLinux 6.0 and produced a beautiful, full featured stable desktop for a rocket fueled experience.

(From the release notes)

Vector Linux is available for download in several versions.

Arch 2009.02 Released

Arch is a very lightweight distribution for advanced users who are not afraid of the command line. The project has released a new ISO a few days ago. I quote from the release announcement:

2009.02 comes with the following features:
- Kernel 2.6.28
- Ext4 support. Installation can be done on a ext4 root partition.
- Rescue and maintenance capabilities for Ext4 root partitions
- Fallback ISOs with the ISOLINUX bootloader, for those that have
trouble booting Grub-based images
- Several bugfixes in the installer
- Brought the included documentation up-to-date
- Inclusion of AIF (Arch Linux Installation Framework), the next
generation installer, currently under development.


I have never used Arch myself but I according to what I've read it is a very good distribution to be installed an old computers. If you are new to Arch, start with the Beginners' Guide.

Debian 5.0 Released

After 22 months of development, the Debian Project has released the new stable release of the distribution. See the release announcement for more information.

antiX M8 released

AntiX 8 'Intifada' was released yesterday. I quote from the project home page:

On behalf of the antiX-team I am proud to announce that antiX MEPIS 8 'Intifada' - a fast and light complete desktop and livecd based on SimplyMEPIS and Debian Testing, with a little bit of sidux,- is now available in full and base editions. This release defaults to a fully customised icewm desktop (fluxbox is also installed) In addition to the SimplyMEPIS 8.0 foundation with its 2.6.27-15 kernel and Assistants, antiX has an improved antiX-Control Centre, new scripts for screenshots, and phonebook. There are improved and extended themes and artwork for icewm and fluxbox. Localisation is much improved in this version. As well as including usual applications such as iceweasel(3.0.6), pigin(2.4), abiword(2.6.4), gnumeric(1.8-3), rox-filer(2.8) and claws-mail(3.5), antiX-M8 also includes the sidux meta-installer, an updated ceni and wicd for wired/wireless connections, UMTSmon - a simple connect program for users using 3g usb modems, firehol firewall, gnomebaker replaces brasero, urxvt replaces wterm. antiX-M8 has X.org 7.3, auto-login with latest SLiM, smxi, inxi, svmi scripts from h2, and Dillo 2. New apps include: zim (wiki), Gjots (notes), Grsync, parted and luckyBackup.

AntiX is designed to work on computers with as little as 64 MB RAM and Pentium II or equivalent AMD processors, but not K5/K6 processors. 128 MB RAM is recommended minimum.


I have used antiX 8 on one of my desktops (Pentium 1 GHz, 256 Mb RAM)for several weeks and I have been completely happy with it. See my comments on the test release in an earlier blog article
"AntiX 8 test release reviewed". I warmly recommend to install this distro on any old computer that has at least 128 MB RAM.

CrunchEee 8.10 Release Candidate 1


CrunchBang is only number 99 in the Distrowatch ranking but it has lot of dedicated users. CrunchBang is based on Ubuntu but it is designed to be more lightweight which of course can be seen in the default applications used by the distro. Ubuntu's GNOME has been replaced by much lighter and simpler Openbox. Desktop applications use GTK+. In addition, CrunchBang provides all the necessary multimedia codecs out of the box.

Even if CrunchBang has not been designed to be used on old computers, many users have reported it to be lightweight enough for older boxes. It certainly is worth a try if you want to have all the multimedia applications easily installed in an Ubuntu-like system running on reasonably recent hardware. But remember that the project does not guarantee anything at all:
CrunchBang Linux is not recommended for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. CrunchBang Linux could possibly make your computer go CRUNCH! BANG!

There is also a brand new CrunchEee edition which is certainly interesting if you are one of the happy owners of a new Eee PC. It is not yet finished but it is already available as a release candidate version. Another version of the distro is the CrunchBang Lite edition. The download links for the standard CrunchBang can be found here.

New GeexBox beta

GeexBoX is a nice system that can be used for turning an old computer into a media center. The project has just released a new beta of the coming stable release 1.2. The system boots from CD so it is easy to try it on any old Pentium class II computer with at least 400 MHz CPU and 64 MB RAM.



The ISO image has grown to huge 19 Mb download, but you should be able to download it in some 30 seconds with a decent broadband connection.



Downloads available for 32 bit and 64 bit architectures and even PowerPC from here.

If you have succeeded in turning an old computer into a usable media center, please share your experience in the comment box!

Tiny Core Linux is a new ultralight distro

Tiny Core Linux is a new ultralight Linux distribution that packs everything one needs for browsing the web in 10 Mb. From the web page of the distro:
Tiny Core Linux is a very small (10 MB) minimal Linux Desktop. It is based on Linux 2.6 kernel, Busybox, Tiny X, Fltk, and Jwm. The core runs entirely in ram and boots very quickly.

It is not a complete desktop nor is all hardware completely supported. It represents only the core needed to boot into a very minimal X desktop typically with wired internet access.
The distro has a discussion forum and an own small wiki.

New edition 6.4 of Linux From Scratch

The project Linux From Scratch has released a new version of the book that helps you to build your own Linux using only sources. From the release notes:

The Linux From Scratch community is pleased to announce the release of LFS Version 6.4. This release includes numerous changes to LFS-6.3 (including update to Linux-2.6.27.4, GCC-4.3.2, Glibc-2.8) and security fixes. It also includes a large amount of editorial work on the explanatory material throughout the book, improving both the clarity and accuracy of the text.
You can read the book online or download the current stable version here.

TinyMe 2008.1 Beta Release

TinyMe is a lightweight remaster of PCLinuxOS. The project has just released a beta version of the forthcoming stable release 2008.1. Now you have a great chance to help building a lightweight Linux distribution that is extremely well suited for old computers. See the release announcement for more information.

Puppy Linux 4.1 Released

Puppy Linux 4.1 is released. See the release notes that end with information about projects new organization after Barry Kauler's "retirement".