Barry Kauler, founder of the Puppy Linux project, has published an experimental EasyOS 5.0 distribution that combines Puppy Linux technologies with containerized isolation to run system components. The distribution kit is managed through a set of graphical configurators developed by the project. The size of the boot image is 825 MB.
In the new release, the versions of the applications have been updated. Almost all packages are rebuilt from source using the metadata of the OpenEmbedded 4.0 project. Support for "langpack" language packs and assemblies specific to certain languages ββhas been dropped. The translations associated with the selected language have been placed in separate downloadable files. The choice of interface language is now made after the first boot. Rewritten the MoManager application used to translate user items into different languages.
Distribution features:
- Each application, as well as the desktop itself, can be run in separate containers, which are isolated using Easy Containers' own mechanism.
- Running as root by default with resetting privileges on launch of each application, since EasyOS is positioned as a single user Live system.
- The distribution is installed in a separate subdirectory and can coexist with other data on the drive (the system is installed in /releases/easy-5.0, user data is stored in the /home directory, and additional application containers are placed in the /containers directory).
- Encryption of individual subdirectories (for example, /home) is supported.
- It is possible to install meta-packages in SFS format, which are mountable images with Squashfs, combining several regular packages and essentially resembling the appimages, snaps and flatpak formats.
- The system is updated in atomic mode (the new version is copied to another directory and the active directory with the system is switched) and supports rollback of changes in case of problems after the update.
- There is a run from RAM mode in which the system is copied into memory at boot and runs without accessing disks.
- To build the distribution, the WoofQ toolkit and package sources from the OpenEmbedded project are used.
- The desktop is based on the JWM window manager and the ROX file manager.
- The basic package includes applications such as Firefox, LibreOffice, Scribus, Inkscape, GIMP, mtPaint, Dia, Gpicview, Geany text editor, Fagaros password manager, HomeBank personal finance management system, DidiWiki personal wiki, Osmo organizer, Planner project manager, system Notecase, Pidgin, Audacious music player, Celluloid, VLC and MPV media players, LiVES video editor, OBS Studio streaming system.
- For easy file sharing and printer sharing, a native EasyShare application is offered.
Source: opennet.ru