DISTRO_NAME

Overview

Introduction

DISTRO_NAME is a free software, minimalistic, lightweight, portable and flexible GNU/Linux distribution originally forked from Puppy Linux. It offers with a unique experience that combines many popular, keyboard-driven applications with minimalistic looks and versatility.

DISTRO_NAME's mascot is Frank the horse.

The ideology that makes it what it is consists of five philosophies:

1. The Arch Way: openness, freedom and simplicity, but also flexibility.
2. The Suck Less Philosophy: elegance and efficiency.
3. The Unix Philosophy: separate, high quality components that accomplish a specific purpose and form a complete software product, through good integration.
4. Any issue counts as a bug.
5. Modifying source code to achieve a certain goal is a good thing; if it is useful for other software projects, it should be made available upstream.

It is aimed at:

1. Advanced users.
2. Command-line freaks.
3. Hackers.
4. Puppy Linux users, especially Barebones fans.
5. SLAX and Damn Small Linux refugees.

DISTRO_NAME is built using an automated, well-tested system which receives the developer's choice of included components and outputs the final result: a complete, functional operating system. It is extremely easy to use and quite flexible, which means DISTRO_NAME is more than just a distribution: it is a generic framework for the creation of this unique kind of distributions. This means DISTRO_NAME is extremely customizable; for instance, users who don't like the included music player have an easy, fail-safe way to create an unofficial flavor of the distribution, which includes an alternative.

DISTRO_NAME is parallel to Puppy Linux in terms of features and has a certain degree of compatibility with it. Despite of this, the main difference between the two is the implementation and the design guidelines that make DISTRO_NAME what it is:

1. Simplicity - simple design.
2. Generic code - DISTRO_NAME's does not rely on specific drivers or applications, except those needed to successfully boot and achieve a working graphical environment.
3. Good quality of code - each and every of DISTRO_NAME's core scripts is short, well-documented and has an accurate list of its dependencies.
4. Efficiency - DISTRO_NAME puts a strong emphasize over extremely low consumption of resources; no unneeded processes are running on a clean DISTRO_NAME system.
5. Portability - DISTRO_NAME's infrastructure does not rely on exotic shell features or rarely used packages. Moreover, all its applications are built and managed using an automated system that is able to rebuild them for other architectures in a single click.

Key Features

DISTRO_NAME is aimed at curious and adventurous users with willingness to learn and share, since they benefit the most from free software. DISTRO_NAME includes special features for this specific fans crowd:

1. Geek-friendliness.
2. Great support keyboard controls.
3. Unobtrusive and clean graphical environment.
4. Focus on functional, yet small applications; however, full-featured, larger applications are always preferred over small, crippled ones.

Included Applications

• Desktop:
  1. cwm, OpenBSD's default window manager, ported to GNU/Linux using libbsd.
  2. wbar, a lightweight, imlib2-based application launcher.
  3. Conky, a system monitor.
  4. stalonetray, a lightweight system tray.
  5. hsetroot, a imlib2-based desktop background setting tool.
  6. slock, a simple screen locking application.
  7. xcowsay, a configurable speaking cow.
  8. A collection of wallpapers from Subtle Patterns.
  9. The Terminus monospace font.
  10. The Clarity icon theme.
• Internet and network:
  1. NetSurf, a graphical web browser.
  2. Links, a text-based web browser.
  3. Mutt, an e-mail client.
  4. CenterIM, a multi-protocol instant messenger.
  5. rTorrent, a fast BitTorrent client.
  6. LFTP, a FTP client.
  7. Irssi, an IRC client.
  8. Snownews, a RSS news reader.
  9. Surfraw, a search engine frontend.
  10. aria2, the ultimate multi-protocol download tool.
  11. Dropbear, a small SSH server and client.
  12. Fetchmail, a multi-protocol mail fetching tool.
  13. msmtp, a SMTP client.
  14. bwm-ng, a network bandwidth monitor.
• Documents and editing:
  1. less, a text viewer.
  2. GNU nano, a simple text editor.
  3. Vim, an advanced text editor suitable for programming.
  4. Zathura, a PDF viewer.
  5. Aspell, an interactive spell checker.
  6. shed, a simple hex editor with an interface similar to that of GNU nano.
  7. Groff, a text formatting tool.
• Multimedia:
  1. mplayer2, an enhanced fork of the MPlayer media player.
  2. SimpleBurn, a simple CD/DVD burning and ripping application.
  3. cmus, the ultimate music player.
  4. libav, a complete conversion, recording and streaming solution forked from FFmpeg.
  5. Volume Icon, an audio volume tray icon.
• Graphics:
  1. sxiv, an imlib2-based image viewer similar.
  2. imlib2_grab (a screenshot capture tool) and imlib2_convert (an image conversion tool); both ship with the imlib2 library.
  3. fbshot, a console screenshot capturing utility.
• Utilities:
  1. rxvt-unicode, a terminal emulator.
  2. Vifm, a file manager with vi-like key bindings.
  3. ncdu, a disk usage analyzer.
  4. gRun, an application launcher.
  5. Calc, a multi-precision calculator.
  6. Parcellite, a clipboard manager.
  7. XBindKeys, a key bindings tool.
  8. GNU Screen, a terminal multiplexer.
  9. dvtm, a console tiling window manager.
  10. dtach, a tool that allows one to run applications independently, as possible with GNU Screen detaching feature.
  11. tty-clock, a digital clock.
  12. NumLockX, a tool for controlling the NumLock key.
• Personal utilities:
  1. Calcurse, a calendar and scheduling application.
  2. TuDu, a TODO list manager.
  3. Xpad, an sticky notes application.
  4. Abook, an address book.
  5. hnb, a hierarchical notebook useful for storing any kind of data.
• Games:
  1. UnNetHack, a roguelike game forked from NetHack.
  2. Angband, another dungeon exploration game.
  3. vitetris, a Tetris clone.
  4. Greed, a strategy game.
  5. bs, a Battleships clone.
  6. Moon-buggy, an arcade game.
• Documentation:
  1. man, a manual page viewer.
  2. man-pages, a collection of kernel and C library API documentation; a must-have for low-level programming.
• System:
  1. htop, an interactive process viewer.
  2. DASH, a fast and small shell.
  3. powerapplet_tray, a battery charge monitor for the system tray.