Elive - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Elive is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian

Debian

Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...

for legacy and commodity hardware with Intel processors. Elive uses the Enlightenment

Enlightenment (window manager)

Enlightenment, also known simply as E, is a stacking window manager for the X Window System which can be used alone or in conjunction with a desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE...

X window manager

An X window manager is a window manager which runs on top of the X Window System, a windowing system mainly used on Unix-like systems.Unlike the Mac OS and Microsoft Windows platforms which have historically provided a vendor-controlled, fixed set of ways to control how windows and panes display...

instead of GNOME

GNOME

GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...

or KDE

KDE

KDE is an international free software community producing an integrated set of cross-platform applications designed to run on Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft Windows, Solaris and Mac OS X systems...

. Elive is a fully functional distribution with a Live CD

Live CD

A live CD, live DVD, or live disc is a CD or DVD containing a bootable computer operating system. Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive...

counterpart that allows the user to sample the distribution before installing it on the system.

Elive can be used like any Live CD

Live CD

or installed to the hard drive to access its full features. Elive utilizes UnionFS

UnionFS

UnionFS is a filesystem service for Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD which implements a union mount for other file systems. It allows files and directories of separate file systems, known as branches, to be transparently overlaid, forming a single coherent file system...

, which allows users to install software packages using Synaptic Package Manager

Synaptic Package Manager

Synaptic is a computer program which is a GTK+ graphical user interface front-end to the Advanced Packaging Tool for the Debian package management system. Synaptic is usually used on systems based on deb packages but can also be used on systems based on RPM packages...

and/or APT

Advanced Packaging Tool

The Advanced Packaging Tool, or APT, is a free user interface that works with core libraries to handle the installation and removal of software on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution and its variants...

, while the user's computer is running from the Live CD

Live CD

Features

Administration of Elive is centralized by its flagship application Elpanel, which was developed especially for Elive. Elpanel is an animated Administration applet that is written in Edje.

Elpanel is a virtual

Virtual

The term virtual is a concept applied in many fields with somewhat differing connotations, and also, differing denotations.The term has been defined in philosophy as "that which is not real" but may display the salient qualities of the real....

launchpad

Launchpad

A launch pad is the area and facilities where rockets or spacecraft take off.Launch pad may also refer to:-Computing:* Launchpad , website used for bug tracking and software development mainly used as part of the Ubuntu operating system...

to various other administration tools which are nested

Nested

Nested is the seventh studio album by Bronx-born singer, songwriter, and pianist Laura Nyro, released in 1978 by Columbia Records.Following on from her extensive tour to promote 1976's Smile, which resulted in the 1977 live album Season of Lights, Nyro retreated to her new home in Danbury,...

within Elpanel via labeled custom icons.

Elive utilizes the Iceweasel browser and the Icedove mail client with pre-configured GnuPG extensions

Filename extension

A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to indicate the encoding of its contents or usage....

to encrypt and digitally sign

Digital signature

A digital signature or digital signature scheme is a mathematical scheme for demonstrating the authenticity of a digital message or document. A valid digital signature gives a recipient reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender, and that it was not altered in transit...

emails. These tools allow the user to digitally sign

Digital signature

, encrypt and decrypt correspondence with minimal effort.

Elive has support for multimedia

Multimedia

Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...

codecs of various audio and video formats.

A short list of other pre-installed multimedia applications on Elive

XMMS
XMMS
The X Multimedia System is a free audio player for Unix-like systems.-History:XMMS was originally written as X11Amp by Peter and Mikael Alm in November 1997. The player was made to resemble Winamp, which was first released in May that year. As such, XMMS has supported Winamp 2 "classic" skins...
Mplayer
MPlayer
MPlayer is a free and open source media player. The program is available for all major operating systems, including Linux and other Unix-like systems, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Versions for OS/2, Syllable, AmigaOS and MorphOS are also available. The Windows version works, with some minor...
Oxine
Stream Tuner
ReSound
GtkPod
GIMP
GIMP
GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor. It is primarily employed as an image retouching and editing tool and is freely available in versions tailored for most popular operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, and Linux.In addition to detailed image retouching and...
Blender
Blender (software)
Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software product used for creating animated films, visual effects, interactive 3D applications or video games. The current release version is 2.60, and was released on October 19, 2011...

A Live USB

Live USB

A live USB is a USB flash drive or a USB external hard disk drive containing a full operating system that can be booted. Live USBs are closely related to live CDs, but sometimes have the ability to persistently save settings and permanently install software packages back onto the USB device...

of Elive can be created manually or with UNetbootin

UNetbootin

UNetbootin is a cross-platform utility that can create live USB systems and can load a variety of system utilities or install various Linux distributions and other operating systems without a CD.- USB Install :...

Past distribution issues

Elive developers asked for a payment (via PayPal) of $15 or more to download the live CD. Alternatively, users could apply for free one-use "invitation codes" by writing long essays promoting Elive and posting about it on various commercial websites. The Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 License does not seem to prohibit exact re-distribution. Currently (2010), Elive is now freely available to download, but not free to install. Any user can download and run the Elive system as a liveCD for free, but in order to install the OS one needs to donate or go through the processes mentioned earlier.

Ozos, OpenGEU

OpenGEU

OpenGEU is a free computer operating system based upon the popular GNU/Linux distribution, Ubuntu, which in turn is based on Debian Linux.OpenGEU's aim is to successfully combine the power and ease of use of GNOME desktop environment with the lightweight, and graphical eye candy features of the...

, Moon OS

Moon OS

moonOS is a fully functional Linux distribution, which uses the Gnome window manager.The Enlightenment project is still under active development.. The file system in moonOS is different from other Linux distors. It is easy and clutter-free compared to the usual Linux file system...

, and the recently released Bodhi Linux

Bodhi Linux

Bodhi Linux is a small Linux distribution using the Enlightenment window manager and based upon Ubuntu. Its philosophy is to provide a base system with a minimal desktop, file browser, web browser, terminal emulator and leave the exact choice of applications to the user...

all use the E17 desktop environment like Elive, but unlike Elive are free to download and install. They use a very simple installation process very similar to Ubuntu and Linux Mint.

History and development process

The second to last release (0.6) let the user choose between Enlightenment

Enlightenment (window manager)

Enlightenment, also known simply as E, is a stacking window manager for the X Window System which can be used alone or in conjunction with a desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE...

0.16 (stable) or 0.17 (development release). Thus, it is a good way for the user to have a look at the latest version of this uncommon graphical environment.

Preceding the 0.5 release, Elive was built on the Morphix distribution, but the new one uses the Dsslive framework

Application framework

In computer programming, an application framework consists of a software framework used by software developers to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific development environment ....

Releases

0.1: The initial Beta release with the name Elive, which was Tezcatlipotix prior to the name Elive. This was based on Knoppix
Knoppix
Knoppix, or KNOPPIX , is an operating system based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD / DVD or a USB key , one of the first of its kind for any operating system. Knoppix was developed by Linux consultant Klaus Knopper. When starting a program, it is loaded from the removable medium...

as well, but considered unstable yet working
0.2: Several bugs fixed after reports and user experiences, yet ELive was still considered a development and working version
0.3: The first stable version and the base was switched from Knoppix
Knoppix
Knoppix, or KNOPPIX , is an operating system based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD / DVD or a USB key , one of the first of its kind for any operating system. Knoppix was developed by Linux consultant Klaus Knopper. When starting a program, it is loaded from the removable medium...

to Morphix
0.4: Code named 'Serenity'; here Elive switched from Morphix to DSS (Debian Script Set)
0.4.2: The second release of 'Serenity', with major revisions and ATI driver revisions
0.5: Heralded release of Elive Revolution
0.6: Second release of Elive Revolution named Revolution+
1.0: Release of The Luxurious Elive Gem
1.9-25: Release of Elive with Compiz (ecomorph)
2.0: Release of the Stable version Elive Topaz

System requirements

The "minimum hardware requirements" for running Elive are:

100 MHz CPU
64 MB of RAM
At least 3 GB of disk space (for full installation and no swap space)
VGA graphics card capable of 640x480 resolution
CD-ROM drive Or USB-boot capable BIOS.

The "recommended hardware requirements" are:

300 MHz
128 Mb of RAM
At least 3.5 GB of disk space (for full installation and swap space)
VGA graphics card capable of 800x600 resolution
CD-ROM drive or USB-boot capable BIOS.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.