LinuxConsole is a

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which i ...

-based

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

independently developed by Yann Le Doaré. The distro is built from scratch by developers from France, and has support for multiple languages. It is not based on any other

Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading on ...

and primarily focuses on being

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight b ...

and easily accessible. LinuxConsole can function as a

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

and

Live USB A live USB is a portable USB-attached external data storage device containing a full operating system that can be booted from. The term is reminiscent of USB flash drives but may encompass an external hard disk drive or solid-state drive, tho ...

. It can also be installed as a complete modern operating system.

History

The earliest known verifiable release is documented as version 0.4 in 2004 on

Distrowatch DistroWatch is a website which provides news, distribution pages hit rankings, and other general information about various Linux distributions as well as other free software/open source Unix-like operating systems. It now contains information on ...

, and was based on Mandrake Linux. Version 0.4 expanded upon the previous release by adding many applications, and tools making it useful for more than just games and multimedia. The list of added software included programs used for working with documents, playing music as well as other server utilities,

firewall Firewall may refer to: * Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts * Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building, designed to limit the spre ...

security, and printer/scanner tools. The first release confirmed to be independently developed was version 1.0.2007 released in 2007. It added full capability to work with partitions using the

NTFS New Technology File System (NTFS) is a proprietary journaling file system developed by Microsoft. Starting with Windows NT 3.1, it is the default file system of the Windows NT family. It superseded File Allocation Table (FAT) as the preferred f ...

file structure via

Gparted GParted (acronym of GNOME Partition Editor) is a GTK front-end to GNU Parted and an official GNOME partition-editing application (alongside Disks). GParted is used for creating, deleting, resizing, moving, checking, and copying disk partiti ...

. This release was thoroughly tested on several old computers using only 16MB of RAM. LinuxConsole running the LXDE desktop

Release 1.0.2009 came out in 2009 with four distinctive versions. The first was a 200MB ISO image made for old computers with little free space, and came with a lightweight desktop and

file manager A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to manage files and folders. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files include creating, opening (e.g. viewing, playing, editing or print ...

. The next was a CD image with a mid-sized desktop that added more features and games. The

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

version was complete with all the features included. Lastly, there was something available called the "Jukebox", where users could custom build their own ISO and transfer the image to USB with support for

UNetbootin UNetbootin (Universal Netboot Installer) is a List of tools to create Live USB systems, 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 s ...

. This release was available via BitTorrent. The next major release was version 2.0 in 2013 with a fast boot, support for both new, and old

video card A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer mo ...

s, Live CD and

support, and the ability to dual-boot with

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

. The release came with some games including OpenTTD, Tux Paint,

BZFlag ''BZFlag'' (an abbreviation for Battle Zone capture the Flag) is a free and open-source, multiplayer online, tank game. Development Inspired by Battlezone, ''BZFlag'' was first written in C by Chris Schoeneman in 1992, as a part of his studi ...

, Neverball, Frozen Bubble,

fooBillard ''FooBillard'' is a free and open-source, OpenGL-based sports simulation video game. Gameplay and features ''FooBillard'' supports several kinds of billiard games: carom billiards ( three-cushion billiards), snooker, and pool billiard (po ...

, Freecraft, SuperTuxKart, and Teeworlds to name a few. This release included support for Deb packages as well. Although this release is

deprecated In several fields, especially computing, deprecation is the discouragement of use of some terminology, feature, design, or practice, typically because it has been superseded or is no longer considered efficient or safe, without completely removing ...

, it can still be downloaded via the mirror links on the developer website. The release of version 2.3 in 2014 saw the advancement of the lightweight opkg package manager. It offered a gui to install and run stable source packages in different categories including games, office, system, and education. The goal of this version was to run on old computers, and turn them into gaming consoles. It could work on systems with as little as 256MB of RAM, and had both PAE, and non-PAE versions available. It included support for multiple languages. This release is deprecated as well. The information page on the developer website still exists, but the download links are no longer active. However, version 2.3 is still available via the mirror site. Version 2.4 was released in 2015, has a tool for installing third-party software, and it comes with the LXDE lightweight desktop. It is compatible with

Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of De ...

packages, and it can run apt-get.

The LinuxConsole 2.5 release added support for

UEFI UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is a set of specifications written by the UEFI Forum. They define the architecture of the platform firmware used for booting and its interface for interaction with the operating system. Examples ...

, and the 32bit version was the last one to support non- PAE hardware. LinuxConsole 2018 was released in December, 2017 with the updated ability to manage

bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limit ...

devices, as well as the ease of configuring

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...

networks.

LinuxConsole 2019 supports installing an extensible set of software via modules, and some Windows software or games with the

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are ...

virtual

emulator In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peri ...

. Additional software or games can be installed using the opkg and

APT Apt. is an abbreviation for apartment. Apt may also refer to: Places * Apt Cathedral, a former cathedral, and national monument of France, in the town of Apt in Provence * Apt, Vaucluse, a commune of the Vaucluse département of France * A ...

package managers. LinuxConsole 2022 has been released in 2022.

System requirements

*32bit or 64bit PC with i586 x86 or

x86-64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging ...

architecture. *PAE compliant

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, an ...

. (Version 2.5 may be used for non-PAE CPU.) *500MB RAM (Listed RAM usages are based on version 2.4 requirements.) **128MB for basic usage on the non-PAE versions. **500MB for normal browser usage. **1GB recommended for graphics intensive programs such as SuperTuxKart *Can be installed to hard disk via Live CD, Live USB, Windows install, or net install.

References

External links

LinuxConsole HomepageLinuxConsole
on

DistroWatch DistroWatch is a website which provides news, distribution pages hit rankings, and other general information about various Linux distributions as well as other free software/open source Unix-like operating systems. It now contains information on ...

{{Linux distributions Light-weight Linux distributions Live Linux distributions X86-64 Linux distributions Linux distributions Linux

History

System requirements

See also

References

External links