VSIDO - A Debian-Sid Tracking Distribution with Fluxbox

There are a lot of distributions, spins, customizations and modifications of distributions out there. Not all of them are listed on Distrowatch, such as MiyoLinux I just wrote about a week ago. I once started a series about light weight distributions using window managers such as Openbox and IceWM or lighter desktop environments. Vsido which is utilising Fluxbox certainly fits the bill so let's see.

Things To Do after Installing Absolute Linux - Part 2

It's been a couple of days and a few more things became apparent that need doing when setting up Absolute Linux for the first time in areas with different time and date conventions than apply in the United States. Here's part two of 'Things To Do after Installing Absolute Linux' (continued from Part 1).
In particular you might want your date to be shown in the format that you're used to at home, but IceWM uses the US format by default and setting your timezone in the abs-panel doesn't fix this.

Things To Do after Installing Absolute Linux - Part 1

Absolute Linux is currently my favorite Slackware implementation short of my own, its use of the IceWM window manager helps keep it light and extremely responsive and the testing snapshots mean we're quite close to upstream instead of running an outdated 14.2. However, some things need fixing and sprucing up. The developer has been very responsive to the bugs found in my recent review, but I noticed later that the keyboard did not adjust to my chosen country layout although the Absolute Control Panel provides a tool for that in the system language settings.

Absolute Linux: Testing Snapshot/15.0 Based on Slackware Current

I have reviewed Absolute Linux here already twice before. AL 13.1 fared better in my testing than the initial 14.0 release, but it's been some time and things may have changed a bit. Absolute has always been an interesting Slackware modification for me, time to give it another chance. This time I am installing Absolute from the current tree, because a) the previous version is so old by now and b) the underlying Slackware current has undergone a major recompilation in the mass rebuild of 19th April 2018. There is no ISO available to install Absolute current from so I downloaded the file tree to another partition and pointed the Slackware installer copied earlier to a USB thumb drive to it.

Q4OS: Debian Stable with the Trinity Desktop Environment

Q4OS is like Exe GNU/Linux a distribution using the Trinity desktop and based on Debian Stable. In fact I could have picked Exe as well for review but Q4OS just had a new release and it looks cleaner from the start. It was simply the novelty factor that pulled me towards it and it's got a few nice touches of its own as we shall see. Version 0.5.20 was just released on 11/11/2014 and is available both for the mainstream 32 (i386) and 64-bit architectures. The images are a modest 314MB and 337MB respectively which makes for a speedy download and will definitely fit on your CD or even older USB sticks.

LXpup – More Than Just Puppy Linux With LXDE

In case it wasn’t evident from the name, LXpup is a custom distribution spin made from Puppy Linux with the LXDE user interface. I should say by default, because the developer also distributes modules of several other popular desktop environments, but more about that later. Just remember that the user can substantially change the look and functionality of the desktop, so even if LXDE is not your thing this spin might still be for you. Read the full story over at Muktware.com.

A New Appreciation for Puppy

It's been around five months since my first contact with and review of Puppy in its latest Slacko incarnation 5.3. Since then it has worked quite nicely and I found myself booting more and more often into it although I've got several nice systems installed. Shortly after my review maintenance release 5.3.1 came out and this week it was time for an upgrade.

antiX M11 in Review - Sadly Not So Great

As most readers will already know antiX is a light weight distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux and SimplyMEPIS, or just Mepis if you prefer, which is itself based on Debian. antiX sports a custom IceWM as default window manager and environment with tools from the ROX desktop. It is supposed to mainly be used on older machines and as a consequence there is no x86_64 edition, only two 32-bit optimized for i486 and i686 processor instructions.

Semplice Linux, An Exercise in Simplicity

Semplice Linux is a very young project that has only recently made its debut on Distrowatch with Release Candidate 1 for their upcoming 2.0 code-named 'Emily' getting listed. This means there must be a support structure in place, a website, bug tracker, documentation and user forum. The distribution originates from Italy and is based on Debian unstable, using only the Openbox window manager, a handful of applications and a blank background. It will not surprise you then that semplice means simple.

Updated CrunchBang Statler Images, More Like ArchBang

Corenominal has announced the release of an updated build of CrunchBang Linux 10 "Statler", with some significant changes since the last release. CrunchBang is a lightweight Debian-based distribution featuring the Openbox window manager. The Xfce edition has been discontinued to focus on the Openbox edition. The Gnome Display Manager (GDM) has been removed in favor of the SLiM login manager, as inclusion of the in Debian repositories upcoming move to GDM 3 was deemed undesirable.

Puppy 5.3 "Slacko" - Slackware With Added Woof

On 17/10/2011 a new version, or edition if you prefer, of Puppy Linux was released, this time based on Slackware, and it is appropriately named Puppy "Slacko", because we all know that Slackware users are lazy, right?

I haven't used Puppy before, in part because I felt no need considering the many distributions out there and in part because some things like its Ubuntu roots did

Linux light - SliTaz GNU/Linux and SliTaz-Aircrack-ng

Once upon a time there was DSL (Damn Small Linux) which provided a full workable system in a 50 MB image. I used to have it on a small partition for repair and rescue tasks on my desktops. It was never or at least very rarely needed as I recall, but I liked the pre-set radio stations in XMMS and the backgrounds and conky config in DSL, so I ended up running it more and more over Zenwalk 2.6, which at the time was using a very half-baked early XFCE 4.4, if only to listen to internet radio on a geeky minimalistic looking box.

Linux light - PCLinuxOS 2010.7 Openbox

Why go lean when you can go leaner? Ok, there are smaller, leaner distributions out there like Tiny Core or these two if you prefer a system that's in many ways similar, but PCLinuxOS Openbox is pretty good while still providing a full set of applications for the consumer desktop, incl. flash, multimedia codecs, wireless. More on that later. I thought of that line while deciding whether to go for the Openbox or the Lxde version. I've had a look at both, but Lxde (short for the light weight desktop environment) is always the same set of apps and the panel strikes me as not quite as elegant. I like the flexibility of modularity and in this case dropped for the Openbox version with the Tint2 panel. 

Linux light - Absolute Linux 13.1

Light weight Slackware derivatives Part 2 - Absolute Linux

Welcome to Part 2 of my loose series of reviews on light distros based on good old Slackware. After the first roundup in DWW #343 several readers expressed disappointment that Absolute Linux was not included and requested a review. So here we are. At the time it was all about comparing Xfce4 based distros. While we are waiting for both Wolvix and Vector Linux for a stable new release which I will eventually cover to conclude this series (both were more than a year old by the end of February 2010) I am going to take a look at the exciting blend that Absolute Linux is offering in its present incarnation, version 13.1.2. Go here for a more up to date review of 15.0 pre-release.

Linux light - SalixOS 13.1 "LXDE"

After looking at SalixOS 13.0 in my comparison of light weight Slackware derivatives for the desktop I thought I should give 13.1 a full standalone review. This also, I'll admit from the start, because I'm very fond of it. Yes, I'm biased.
There's nothing better for me out there apart from Slackware proper, and SalixOS is the unaltered Slackware with a little custom art and a few helpful tools, like easy localization, setting the clock, for adding users, and truly one-click adding of multimedia codecs.

First look at Unity Linux 2010.1 - Mini Review

Unity Linux had their first release on 09/07/2010 after around 1.5 years of development. The project was created in 2009 by former developers from the PClinuxOS (hereafter abbreviated PCLOS) community. [Some contentious and unneccessary stuff snipped ...] One of them was KDulcimer who at the time had his own project TinyMe based on PCLOS, which according to the website started in 2006. His distribution would in the future be based on Unity Linux. So much for how the two are intertwined.