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Linux Distribution: Absolute
Url: http://www.pcbypaul.com/absolute/
 
Absolute Linux is a light-weight modification of Slackware Linux. It includes several utilities that make configuration and maintenance easier and it has many common desktop and Internet applications installed and configured with tight integration of menu

About Absolute
Assembled to make installation and maintenance of Slackware easier.
Built for speed, stability, security, ease of use and development (if you are so inclined.)
I am as confident in it's stability as a stock Slackware box -- and that is saying something.

Absolute is NOT a Windows-wanna-be.
It does not try to do everything for you. All software updating/adding must be done as root user (administrator to Windows fans) as well as any configuration changes. Login is text-based, as is the installer. There are not handfulls of daemons running nor are the bloat of KDE or Gnome present.

To me it is Linux at its best -- completely configurable for those with the knowledge and inclination, but useable and productive "out of the box" for anyone, thanks to small, single-purpose applications and utilities to help get things done.

Absolute is Slackware-based -- The oldest surviving Linux distribution, renowned for its stability, security and speed. I have a server in my basement running version 7 or 8 (I forget) since I moved to my home in 2000. Maintenance has consisted of scraping the sawdust off the front grill a couple times. (The machine is close to my table saw.)

If Slackware's so great . . . then what motivated me to create a modified distribution? Well, to start off with it is what I use. All day, every day. My kids use it and, as a PC repair guy, I install it. I wanted:

1. ease of installation (to save my time),

2. lightweight enough to put on even very old machines,

3. and stable enough and easy enough to use so that I did not get support calls all the time.


Releases:
2008-10-13 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.1.08 has been released    View
OpenOffice upgraded to version 3.0.0 on CD2. Supports latest MS Office docx format. Rebuilt AbiWord-2.6.4, against updated enchant and libgnomeprint/libgnomecups. Also includes support via new plugins for MS Word and OpenOffice docs. Added libs for these accordingly.
2008-09-26 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.1.07 has been released    View
I am happy to announce the release of Absolute Linux 12.1.07. It is package-compatible with Slackware-current (NOT Slackware 12.1). A large number of changes include new kernel 2.6.24.7, GCC 4.2.4, XULRunner 1.9.0.1, Firefox 3.0.1 built on XULRunner, both more highly optimized over previous releases and some Firefox settings have been tweaked - on a test system it uses about 20% less memory. Please note two things: base-supported CPU is now a Pentium II and the kernel source package is now on the second CD.
2008-07-28 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.1.03 is available    View
Updated firefox to 3.0.1; Updated nasm, dnsmasq and e2fsprogs, as well as ati, nv and intel video drivers; Added video drivers for Mach64 and r128; Mesa updated to 7.0.3 (bugfix release); Removed HPLIP for the time being; Tweaked .desktop file for avidemux and ROX sendto handling; Corrected unneeded import of wx in absAddUser.py script (causing it not to run on default install without wxPython installed).
2008-07-28 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.1.05 has been released    View
Big change is with the installer, "Autoinstall" option that takes care of drive partitioning along with the Lilo setup, making install much easier for new-comers to Linux and/or text-based installation. The usual options for installation are also still available. Documentation (HTML instructions for the install) have been updated both online in the ZIP that contains the iso.
2008-07-09 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.1.02 has been released    View
Firefox updated to 3.0.

This necessitated installation of xulrunner-1.9, which can also subsequently be used to build firebird and other applications. Spent a couple days tweaking settings for performance and got mailto links to work, finally. (Set in mimetypes.rdf instead of prefs.js.)

Mplayerplug-in on FF3 is a wash -- had to go with gecko-mplayer. For this Orbit2 and gconf2 were installed with gnome-mplayer and gecko-mplayer. Not quite as fast, but it tested well.

Updated pcmanfm with much more robust handling of filetypes by default. Defaults.list now includes many more mime types.

Added isomaster for working with cd image files.
Added kfilereplace (was previously on CD2)
Added a few games (monsterz, lbreakout2, njam and bumprace)
Added font-bh-lucindatypewriter (100 and 75 dpi)
Added scripts and desktop files to convert flv and ogg video to avi

Added lshw, along with script (run_lshw) that outputs in HTML format and opens the results in Links2, and also deletes the temporary html file. The gtk version of lshw just was not working well enough...

Updated to xorg-server-1.4.2

No longer need to patch and recompile xorg-server for use with icewm(there had been keyboard errors, previously.)

updated to gnutls-2.2.5, security related

wxPython, wxGTK and pAgenda moved to CD2 (I had re-written the utilities that used wx to use pyGTK)

Fox (toolkit) and fluxbox moved to CD2

Also added/updated the following for support in mplayer: (recompiled mlayer from subversion code 07/03/2008):

amrnb-7.0.0.1-i686-1as.tgz amrwb-7.0.0.2-i686-1as.tgz jack-audio-connection-kit-0.109.2-i486-2sl.tgz live555-2008.04.09-i686-1as.tgz speex-1.2beta3-i486-1dav.tgz twolame-0.3.12-i486-1as.tgz
2008-06-04 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.1.01 has been released    View
Changelog
  • wicd updated (wicd-1.4.2-i486-2AL) includes changes to daemon.py and networking.py to accommodate Slackware networking scripts without altering them. Now works despite presence of other networking interfaces. ALSO added a patch to gui.py, to not allow empty entry of network name in wired interface setup -- this led to crash of daemon upon restart.
  • 5ball gets a new high-contrast theme, (requested by a visually-impaired user.)
  • absServices.py updated (utility to set startup programs/daemons) changed from wxGTK to pyGTK + code cleanup
  • flv2avi re-introduced. Added desktop file and dialog if ffmpeg is not installed (which it requires.)
  • mkinitrd-1.3.2-i486-3 (updated by Slackware) Initialize RAID earlier so that the combination of RAID+LUKS+LVM works.
  • kdelibs updated to 3.5.9 with Absolute modifications
  • K3B updated to 1.0.5, include plugin support for ffmpeg use (if the multimedia installer is used.)
  • Multimedia installer updated Fixed ffmpeg not installing properly. uses latest ffmpeg (r13628) installs ffmpeg as a shared lib for use with other apps\
  • Couple performance tweaks
    • 1.) to look out for if running a server: boot drive on install is set with "noatime" flag.(This speeds up the average machine quite a bit, especially if using an older drive.)
    • 2.) /etc/sysctrl.conf now includes "vm.swappiness=20", which can lead better system responsiveness, and very helpful in getting enabling laptops to sleep.
2008-05-24 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.1 has been released    View
Absolute Linux 12.1 final released. Last tweaks before release involved file-finding utility (ff.py) for which I improved the graphical user interface (colors, font usage). Because I also updated to latest PCMan File Manager (4.1.1), which I believe was a code clean-up, performance improved and I further customized it to include the file finder utility mentioned above in the Tools menu. Absolute Linux CD2, additional software and documentation: recompiled libsndfile and Audacity for CD2; latest libsndfile does not work with latest flac. Also read that Audacity will be worked on in Google Summer of Code for additional sound formats, which would be nice - but I updated Audacity for CD2, anyway.
2008-04-11 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.1 RC1 has been released    View
BASED UPON SLACKWARE CURRENT Since Xorg and ICEWM do not play well wit Ctrl+Alt+backspace, I have temporarily made Ctrl+Alt+Esc force-close X for us.
2008-02-02 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.1 Beta 2 is available    View
Change log Based Upon Slackware Current Too many individual packages to list -- this is another new kernel (2.6.23.12) which I compiled with tickless (for laptop lower-power, for battery life extension) Also switched preemption model to low-latency desktop (from more server-centric setting -- should have done that a while ago...) plus the usual extra includes instead of modules for user-needed stuff like MMC (SD) cards, USB MASS STORAGE, NTFS, etc.
2007-11-02 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.1.0 Beta 1 is available    View
This is a beta release because it is based on Slackware current. The base system, utilities and integration are actually superior to anything in the 12.x series so far, but it is possible that there can be package incompatibilities between Slackware 12.0 releases and Absolute 12.1.x.
2007-09-05 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.0.4 has been released    View
Pardon the rapid-fire release, but the kernel source was misconfigured and the kernel size was too large for older PCs. Also, the source code for ROX was altered for nice interface additions, NTFS read-write was implemented, and K3b now works for user accounts without any extra configuration." Some other interesting items from the changelog: "Updated IceWM, added background color change menu item to 'Settings'; added mime-type to ROX to handle .mp4 audio files (m4a and friends) with Audacious, if not encrypted they will play; updated AbScreen; added nvidia-settings to main menu.
2007-08-25 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.0.3 is available    View
Updated slapt-get 0.9.12, gslapt 0.3.18, GnuPG 1.4.7 (which can co-exist with the installed GnuPG 2.x); kernel source header versions corrected, compiles NVIDIA driver OK; adjusted mime handlers in ROX for WMA and WAV files and added conversion scripts in SENDTO menu - wav2mp3, wma2mp3 and flv2avi; fixed error in DevTray where data DVDs were not auto-mounting; fixed modules install to properly match custom kernel; updated to Firefox 2.0.0.6, also updated Xpdf, mkinitr, and the ati, nv and vesa X modules; developer documentation for Qt and xdialog moved to CD2 to make space; Frostwire package added; AbScreen updated to 2.2.
2007-08-09 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.0.1 has been released    View
Kernel recompiled to support i586 CPUs (Pentium-1 and K6-2); K3b 1.0.3 updated for bug fixes, including one device error that could prevent application start-up; Firefox 2.0.0.5 and separate Absolute custom Firefox start-up scripts; Java, JRE version 6 update 2; Sylpheed 2.4.4; Lame and FFmpeg libraries recompiled; UFRaw plugin for GIMP now included by default; NVIDIA xconfig utility now included; Mail notification setup now restarts IceWM to take effect immediately; XFS file system now an additional formatting option upon install; RAR files have a handler under ROX now; GIMP 2.2.17 updated to include font path of data extras.
2007-07-17 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.0 is available    View
This is Slackware 12.0 modification. Features kernel 2.6.21.5 (smp) and implements auto-mounting capabilities for devices and media. Updates to Hal and DevTray installation since last release. 586 is NOT supported for now, so don't try to load on a Pentium I or a k6-2 processor. Devices are not actually mounted automatically -- their icons appear in a panel BELOW the taskbar. When you want to look, click the arrow on the right of the taskbar, that bar will slide off to the right, and the devices listed by DevTray appear on the lower panel.
2007-06-25 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 12.0 RC1 is available    View
This is Slackware Linux 12.0 RC1 modification. Features kernel 2.6.21.5 (SMP) and implements auto-mounting capabilities for devices and media. Has a recompiled kernel that accommodates i586 CPUs, so that installation will work on Pentium Classic and K2s (as well as the newer processors, including the dual-cores). Since 11.1 Beta4: DeviceHandler updated to DevTray for auto-mounting; mounted devices are shown beneath slide-away taskbar only by default; many fixes, tweaks and updates; as always, compatible with same version of Slackware
2007-05-23 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 11.1 Beta 3 is available    View
11.1b3 has been released. Many changes, most small, but some of real importance. Kernel masquerades as 'hugesmp', but it is a recompiled 'genericsmp' with several file systems built in (ReiserFS, ext3, NTFS, VFAT, ISO9660, UDF and USB mass storage). This kernel configuration was chosen to lighten things up, but still make swapping devices as simple as possible. No patches were made to the kernel. Several bug fixes and loads of recompiling; SQLite, pysqlite, K3b and many, many more. Some scripts were updated, including the alsaconf sound setup utility....
2007-05-05 00:00:00.0 Absolute Linux 11.1 Beta 2 is available now    View
Beta 2 of the 11.1 series has been uploaded. Features auto-mounting, which can be turned off for resource-limited machines. Latest test install used 40MB RAM on idle with HAL, dbus and DeviceHandler running the auto-mounting scheme. 26 MB on idle without. AbiWord 2.5.1, GIMP 2.2.14, Firefox 2.0.0.3, ROX-Filer 2.6, K3B 1.0. Libraries and toolchain up to date with Slackware current changelog of April 30th. Please test.
 
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