Zenwalk Linux
Zenwalk | |
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![]() Zenwalk Linux 7.0 |
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developer | Jean-Philippe Guillemin |
License (s) | GPL and other licenses |
Current version | 8.0 (July 2, 2016) |
ancestry |
GNU / Linux ↳ SLS ↳ Slackware ↳ Zenwalk |
Architecture (s) | x86 |
www.zenwalk.org |
Zenwalk Linux (formerly Minislack ) is a Linux distribution compiled in France , which is based on Slackware . Her focus is on slimness, usability and the use of the latest stable software. The distribution uses Xfce as the desktop environment by default . Zenwalk first became really well known in Germany when version 2.6 was available in July 2006 on the magazine CD of LinuxUser magazine .
Zenwalk is not to be confused with Zen Linux , a now discontinued Live CD Linux distribution based on Debian .
particularities
Zenwalk is very slim; the standard and live editions are only approx. 620 MB each, the core edition only 202 MB in size. For comparison: Slackware is sold on three CDs or a 3.6 GB DVD. The low memory requirement is achieved in that the scope of delivery only contains one program for each software category, but others can be installed from the Zenwalk repository at a later date . In previous releases, the memory-intensive OpenOffice.org - office suite omitted and instead AbiWord and Gnumeric included. Instead, Zenwalk Linux 6.0 includes a lightweight version of OpenOffice.org 3.0.
Newer Zenwalk versions rely exclusively on the GTK + toolkit version 2, other toolkits such as GTK + version 1 or Qt are not available in the standard installation. The Xfce desktop is supplemented by numerous Gnome programs as standard . GNOME and KDE can also be fully installed at a later date, from version 6.4 there is a separate variant with Openbox as the window manager. Zenwalk was one of the few distributions to use LILO as a boot loader , and with version 6.2 they switched to GRUB 2.
Software equipment
After installation, Zenwalk Linux 6.0 (Standard Edition) contains the following packages, among others:
- Word processor : OpenOffice.org Writer
- Spreadsheet : OpenOffice.org Calc
- Pdf - File viewer : Evince
- Image editing programs : GIMP
- Image viewer : gThumb
- Media: Goobox (CD player / ripper ), Brasero ( burning program ), Totem (video), Exaile (audio)
- Web browser : Iceweasel
- E-mail program : Icedove
- Instant messenger : Pidgin
- BitTorrent - Client : Transmission
- Others: Geany ( Integrated Development Environment ), Lshw (Hardware Information)
The latest official software packages are published in the snapshot directory. The packages are only moved to the current directory after the software has been sufficiently tested for program errors . The Zenwalk Standard Edition only includes packages from the current directory.
configuration
The product philosophy resembles that of Slackware in a tighter version; no graphic aids are used during the installation, commercial programs are not included on the media and the configuration may have to be adjusted manually without configuration programs. As is typical for Slackware, software packages are installed in tgz format.
netpkg
Zenwalk uses the package manager netpkg , which downloads program packages from repositories and - unlike Slackware's package manager - resolves software dependencies. The local installation of packages is carried out using installpkg as under Slackware, and from version 4.0 the package manager gslapt is supported.
wicd
The configuration of mobile network connections is carried out using the wicd tool written in Python .
history
version | date |
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0.1 | May 21, 2004 |
0.2 | August 23, 2004 |
0.3 | February 17, 2005 |
0.4 | March 26, 2005 |
1.0 | April 24, 2005 |
1.0.1 | May 3, 2005 |
1.1 | June 10, 2005 |
1.2 | August 12, 2005 |
1.3 | October 15, 2005 |
2.0.1 | 4th December 2005 |
2.2 | February 16, 2006 |
2.4 | April 4, 2006 |
2.6 | May 23, 2006 |
2.8 | July 21, 2006 |
3.0 | September 8, 2006 |
4.0 | November 20, 2006 |
4.2 | January 6, 2007 |
4.4 | February 22, 2007 |
4.4.1 | February 24, 2007 |
4.6 | June 1, 2007 |
4.6.1 | June 6, 2007 |
4.8 | October 7, 2007 |
5.0 | January 18, 2008 |
5.2 | June 7, 2008 |
6.0 | March 7, 2009 |
6.2 | September 6, 2009 |
6.4 | May 27, 2010 |
7.0 | March 25, 2011 |
7.2 | October 12, 2012 |
7.4 | February 13, 2014 |
The Linux distribution was initiated under the name Minislack in May 2004 by Jean-Philippe Guillemin and changed to Zenwalk with version 1.2, which appeared in August 2005. With version 3.0, Zenwalk delivers its own automounter for the first time. This reports the insertion of optical media (CDs, DVDs) to the udev daemon , which is already in use from version 2.4 , which then automatically mounts the devices. The central configuration tool Zenpanel found its way into the distribution in version 4.2. The in-house package manager netpkg, contained from version 1.1, got a graphical user interface in version 4.0 and was fundamentally revised in version 5.2. Furthermore, the Firefox and Thunderbird programs have been replaced in version 4.8 for licensing reasons by the Iceweasel and Icedove packages maintained by the Debian project. Version 5.0 saw a further improvement in WiFi support by replacing the WiFi radar with wicd . From version 6.2 onwards, ext3 was changed to ext4 as the standard file system.
Other versions
Zenwalk 7.2, based on Linux kernel 3.4.8 and compatible with Slackware 14.0, has been available for download in five different editions since October 12, 2012: Standard Edition, Core Edition, Live Edition, Gnome Edition, Openbox Edition.
Core Edition
The Core Edition was created through a fork from the Standard Edition and is being further developed in parallel. It includes a Zenwalk system without a graphical user interface . It is intended for users who want to create their own desktop or server system or who only have a very small amount of memory on their hard disk.
Live Edition
The Live-CD Edition of Zenwalk (formerly Zenlive ) is based on the current Standard Edition and was created in July 2006. The Zenwalk Live-CD can be installed on the hard drive from version 5.0 using the Zen Installer . The Zenwalk Live CD differs from other Live CDs in that it contains all the necessary program libraries and applications that are necessary to create and compile software yourself , as well as Live Clone , a program with which a variant adapted to your own needs of the system and can be mastered as an ISO file .
Zen server
The server version (current version: 0.5; released on June 14, 2007) is a derivative of Zenwalk with an optimized kernel . Its development has been stopped.
ZenEdu
ZenEdu is a live CD based on Zenwalk snapshot that contains both educational software and computer games .
Distributions based on Zenwalk
- Zencafe ( Memento of October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), a distribution for Internet cafés
Web links
- Documentation (several languages, but not German)
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Zenwalk Support (forum, announcements, bugs )
- Zenwalk Support in German
- JA Watson: Zenwalk Linux 7.0. In: zdnet.com. March 28, 2011, accessed August 25, 2012 .
- Susan Linton: Spotlight on Linux: Zenwalk Linux 6.4 "Live" 0. In: linuxjournal.com. September 8, 2010, accessed August 25, 2012 .
- Sebastian Grüner: Zenwalk 7.0 with XFCE 4.8. In: golem.de. March 28, 2011, accessed on August 25, 2012 (German).
Individual evidence
- ↑ LinuxUser: In the footsteps of Buddha
- ↑ Zen Linux at distrowatch.com (English)
- ↑ Zenwalk Linux at distrowatch.com (English)
- ↑ Snapshot Changelog ( Memento of the original from January 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ wicd at sourceforge.net (English)
- ↑ Release History ( Memento of the original from February 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ Zenwalk 4.8 Release Notes ( Memento of the original from October 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ Zenwalk Live 5.0 Released. (No longer available online.) In: Zenwalk. March 31, 2008, archived from the original on February 16, 2009 ; accessed on February 17, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ LinuxUser via Live Clone
- ↑ Homepage of the censor ( Memento of the original from February 28, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)