Granular Linux
 | |
 Granular 1.0 | |
| Developer | Team Granular |
|---|---|
| OS family | Unix-like |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Free software/open source |
| Kernel type | Monolithic kernel |
| License | Various |
| Official website | www.granularlinux.com |
Granular is a Linux distribution targeted at the common desktop users. Granular is based on PCLinuxOS and comes as an installable livecd. The CD version of Granular features two desktop environments - KDE and Enlightenment (E17).
History
Granular has its roots in India and is one of the few active Linux distros from India. The Granular Linux Project kicked off in October 2006, when its first demonstration was given to some college students. The first release that was made available for download later on 30th December 2006. In the beginning, a news website was launched on 5th December, under the domain http://www.granular-linux.com/main/. The first public release of Granular was the version 0.12 which was officially released and made available for download on 30th December 2006. Later, the main website was shifted to another server under a new domain name. The present website address is: http://www.granularlinux.com/
The main idea behind the birth of the project, was to redefine the application set included in PCLinuxOS to some extent and to introduce the idea of having more than one major desktop environment on a single LiveCD. The latter idea was implemented beginning from the the second version release of Granular - version 0.25.
After v0.25, came out v0.90, and finally v1.0. The versions 0.90 and 1.0 were preceded by corresponding development releases that were meant to give a preview of the upcoming release and to get user feedback in order to improve the final release. Granular 1.0 (code name Esto Vox) was the last of the "Esto" series; the first was 0.90 (Esto Vello).
In October 2007, a special DVD edition of Granular 0.90 was released with the name "FunWorks" (Granular FunWorks 2007), which featured the LG3D desktop environment along with three others and a host of many other software and games.[1]
Granular utilizes the PCLinuxOS repository and its own as well for software/package management. Granular's own repository was opened in March 2008, and since then, it has been a source of all Granular-specific RPM packages, some of which are not available in the PCLinuxOS repository.
Features
Granular comes as a LiveCD, which means you don't have to install it to try it. The standard CD version of Granular includes two desktop environments - KDE and E17. Like PCLinuxOS, Granular uses Synaptic Package Manager, a GUI frontend to APT, for package management (installing, updating, or removing packages). Granular comes with a Perl-based script mklivecd which makes it possible to remaster Granular or create a backup CD/DVD out of the installed system. Granular 1.0 comes with Wine installed that makes it possible to run Windows applications on Linux. It also included Granular StartPoint, which is a HTML-based and acts as a primer to the various major software included in Granular.
Some other few features are mentioned on the Granular Linux website.
References
- ^ "Granular FunWorks 2007 released". 07 October 2007.
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