KateOS was a

Linux distribution A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro—if distributed on its own—is oft ...

originally based on

Slackware Slackware is a Linux distribution created by Patrick Volkerding in 1993. Originally based on Softlanding Linux System (SLS), Slackware has been the basis for many other Linux distributions, most notably the first versions of SUSE Linux distr ...

. It was designed for intermediate users. Its

package management A package manager or package management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer in a consistent manner. A package manager deals wi ...

system used so called TGZex (.tgz) packages, which unlike Slackware packages support dependency tracking (optional), internationalized descriptions, and were designed for ease of update. There were two native tools for package management: ''PKG'' and ''Updateos''. The last version released was KateOS III (3.6), including as a

Live CD A live CD (also live DVD, live disc, or live operating system) is a complete booting, bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar storage device into a computer's memory, rather than lo ...

, in 2007.

History

The KateOS project was founded at the end of 2003 by Damian Rakowski. Kate Linux 1.0 Rabbit (series I) The first version of the system was published on 2004-10-09. The system was based on Slackware 9.0. Due to the problems with the main server which worked only infrequently, hardly anyone learned about the existence of Kate 1.0. After a move to another server, the project has begun to gradually acquire users. After some time, Kate 1.0.1 (a fix release including UpdatePack 1), and a Live version were published. Kate Linux 2.0 Zyklon (series II) Version 2.0 was published on 2005-04-09, and was no longer based on Slackware. It was a long-term edition, the base for further development. It was also the first edition using Linux 2.6. On 2005-05-06 the name of the project has been changed to KateOS. On 2005-05-22 version 2.0.1 was published, providing a tool for managing and remote updating the TGZex packages. The tool was called Updates, and was written by Piotr Korzuszek. On 2005-06-23 version 2.1 was published. Updates now could install packages remotely. On 12 August 2005, the first Live edition of series II was published. It had a more distinctive graphical design, used the

squashfs Squashfs is a compressed read-only file system for Linux. Squashfs compresses files, inodes and directories, and supports block sizes from 4 KiB up to 1 MiB for greater compression. Several compression algorithms are supported. Squashfs is ...

technology (2 GB of data packed on just one CD) and

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 cohe ...

. On 2005-10-13 the last version of Version II was published - 2.3. Updates gained new possibilities, and the system had a better hardware autodetection with the Discover tool. KateOS 3.0 Virgen (series III) On 12 April 2006 the first snapshot of KateOS 3.0 was published. On 2006-07-09 version 3.0.1 was published. The packaging system was completely rewritten resulting in th
PKG
an
Updates2
tools, and the libupdateos and libsmarttools libraries. The functionality of the TGZex packages was widened, this time to include dependency tracking and descriptions in many languages. The installation process was simplified to allow a full install in only 15 minutes. The system used

udev udev (userspace ) is a device manager for the Linux kernel. As the successor of devfsd and hotplug, udev primarily manages device nodes in the directory. At the same time, udev also handles all user space events raised when hardware devices ...

D-Bus D-Bus (short for "Desktop Bus") is a message-oriented middleware mechanism that allows communication between multiple Process (computing), processes running concurrently on the same machine. D-Bus was developed as part of the freedesktop.org pro ...

and

HAL HAL may refer to: Aviation * Halali Airport (IATA airport code: HAL) Halali, Oshikoto, Namibia * Hawaiian Airlines (ICAO airline code: HAL) * HAL Airport, Bengaluru, India * Hindustan Aeronautics Limited an Indian aerospace manufacturer of fight ...

to detect hardware and mount devices automatically. On 4 August 2006 the first Live'' edition of Version III was published. It was aimed to demonstrate the possibilities of KateOS 3.0, and to be used as a data rescue system. The CD contained 2GB of data, including the

Xfce Xfce or XFCE (pronounced as four individual letters, ) is a Free and open-source software, free and open-source desktop environment for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. Xfce aims to be fast and Lightweight software, lightweight whil ...

desktop environment and many office and multimedia applications. It detected and configured hardware automatically. On 7 October 2006 version 3.1 was published. It contained fixes, and the updated

GNOME A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...

desktop environment. It was the first edition of Gnome adjusted especially to the KateOS system. It also include
Update-notifier
a

daemon A demon is a malevolent supernatural being, evil spirit or fiend in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology and folklore. Demon, daemon or dæmon may also refer to: Entertainment Fictional entities * Daemon (G.I. Joe), a character ...

for which the system trace icon changed and blinked when new updates were discovered. It let the user choose packages to be updated and update them. It was based on the libupdateos library, and only supported the KateOS packages and repositories. On 21 December 2006 version 3.2 was published. Apart from fixes and updates, it included a new tool
KatePKG
KatePKG is a graphical package manager written in

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. ...

with the PHP-GTK library, making KateOS the first system to include this library in the default distribution. It was designed to allow users to easily install, update, and remove packages from the system. It supports any number of repositories, including local ones (located on the user's hard drive). On 17 September 2007 version 3.6 was released after eight months of development. This version brought several new and updated features to KateOS such as software driven suspend mode and the addition of several new programs such a
KateLAN
an
Realm
to help make configuring the system more user friendly. The

version of 3.6 was the first KateOS to provide an on disc installer calle
Install Agent
allowing the user to directly install to their hard disk after trying the system live.

Additional information

All new KateOS releases were planned to be supported for around two years. Users were encouraged to update via the updateos command to newer versions of the distribution, although major version updates (series updates), e.g. II--->III were not recommended. Damian Rakowski, the 'project initiator, leader, and 1st developer', stated that the project was named after a friend and because the name Kate is "simple, nice and everybody knows it."

References

External links

* {{linux-distro Slackware Discontinued Linux distributions Linux distributions