Distro watch
What’s behind the free software sofa?
PEROPESIS 1.8
A small-scale, minimalist (the download is just 156MB), command-line-based distribution based in Lithuania, Peropesis focuses on development tools and their dependencies. GNU and g++ compilers are now included in version 1.8, along with eight new programming tools. These include GNU Binitils, Compiler Collection and libraries for handling complex numbers and precision arithmetic. It’s a work in progress and aims to offer a small, efficient environment. The distro’s suitably minimalist website can be found at https://peropesis.org.
OPENBSD 7.2
Already going strong for 20 years, here’s the 53rd version of OpenBSD. It promotes itself as being security-focused, and boasts of only having two remote holes in the default installation. This latest update now gives us support for Ampere Altra and Apple M2 processors, and machines using the Snapdragon 8cx. There are also improvements in virtually all areas of the system, from kernel to the rendering manager and interface. You can learn more at www.openbsd.org.
ANTIX-22
A lightweight, easy-to-install Linux live CD distro based on Debian Stable, AntiX has been designed to run comfortably on ageing systems, with a recommended minimum of just 256MB RAM and 2.7GB of hard disk space, making even fairly old systems viable platforms. It’s designed to build fast-booting rescue discs or memory sticks. As usual, it’s completely systemd-free. This is a minor upgrade, with a fresh kernel and components. Go to https://antixlinux.com to find out more and grab it for yourself.
KAOS 2022.22
Focused on just one desktop, KDE Plasma, a single CPU platform, x86-64, and one toolkit, Qt, the resulting KaOS is a tightly-focused distro that aims to offer a modern desktop and good packaging, and goes for quality over quantity. New for this version is an improved installer, which includes a keyboardless option, should you need it. The slick-looking KaOS home can be found at https://kaosx.us.