Aptosid

aptosid is a desktop-oriented operating system based on the "unstable" branch of Debian, which uses the codename Sid. It was known as Sidux until September 2010. The distribution consists of a Live CD (bootable CD-ROM) for the x86 architecture installable to a hard drive through a Graphical Installer. The goal of the distribution is to provide a stable, easy-to-use and [...]-edge free and open source operating system.

sidux was maintained by a team of developers including former Kanotix developer Stefan Lippers-Hollmann (slh). Initial administration was managed by The sidux Foundation, Inc. located in the United States. The Berlin, Germany based non-profit organization sidux e.V. was administering and supporting the project.

Due to disagreement between sidux e.V. and the sidux developers, all development of sidux was halted in summer 2010 until September 2010. The project was renamed as aptosid, announced on September 11, 2010. aptosid is a direct upgrade from sidux. The first time a user runs an apt-get dist-upgrade in sidux, they are asked if they want their repositories changed to the new aptosid site and the system will be seamlessly upgraded to aptosid.

Features

aptosid and sidux are based on Debian's most modern branch, sid. They include a manual and a collection of tools and scripts to make desktop administration easier.

One of aptosid's and sidux's more notable features, unlike most other Linux distributions, they utilize a true 'rolling-release-cycle', and thus continue to remain current. Users can update all of the system's packages via the command 'apt-get dist-upgrade'. Through this model, there should not, in theory, ever be a need to overwrite a aptosid or sidux system by installing an entirely new version. Other Linux distributions that use the rolling release model include Arch Linux and Gentoo.

Live media

Each release comes as a Live CD or Live DVD, booting to a graphical desktop without installation. On the Live CD a USB installer is provided to create a Live USB system, but the Live USB can be created easily from the Live CD ISO file.

Installer

The graphical installation can be started directly from live mode, without rebooting. aptosid and sidux can be installed to USB-connected hard disks and USB flash drives, as well as to internal hard disks.

Updates

Once aptosid or sidux is installed, it can be kept up-to-date with updates from the Debian Sid and aptosid repositories. Updates are typically run from command line using apt-get. Because post and pre install scripts in the Debian packages may restart your display manager during updates and cause conflicts with running userspace applications, it is recommended that users upgrade their system outside of X (i.e. while NOT running the 'GUI'). This is achieved by applying all updates at 'run-level 3'.

Warnings regarding upgrades are posted on the main website and in the Upgrade Warnings section of the forum.

Support

• The IRC channel #aptosid at irc.oftc.net, port 6667 gives fastest response.
• The forum is also a good place for questions and talks, however the reaction time is longer, but it is a good source for searches.

Multilingual

The default language of aptosid releases is English, however German, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Greek, English (GB), French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (BR and PT), Romanian, Russian and Spanish localisations (i18n support) are also provided within the DVD, selectable at boot prompt.

Packages

aptosid comes with a selection of programs, covering system rescue and web surfing. To mention a few: KDE / Xfce desktop, OpenOffice.org, iceweasel, amarok, digikam, gparted, gwenview, k3b, kaffeine, koffice, krita, krusader, sane, vdr, virtualbox, wireless-tools, xawtv, yakuake, ...

The complete package list is available for each release in the project download directory, named .manifest.

Releases

The releases were usually available in 4 CD versions, however since release 2007-04.5 a fully equipped DVD and two light CDs will be offered here. Since 2008-02 also an ~420 MB large Xfce variant is available. DVD Versions at the end of a year contain more programs and preinstalled languages.

Derivatives

Like many other Linux distributions, aptosid has spinoffs, mainly versions of different languages. Some to be named here:

• celtux - Irish, Irish/Gaeilge localization
• Deb-on-Air - French localization
• myrinix - Digital Home Edition
• lxde-sid-lite - resources saving graphical system, for use in netbooks, like eeepc

Name

The part sid of the distribution name is derived from Debian Sid (Named after the Sid Phillips character in Toy Story - who destructively experiments with his sister Hannah’s toys.) and the common use of -x for Unix derivatives. The part apto of the new name aptosid derives from the latin word apto from aptus which means to fit, to adapt, to adjust or make ready. Another interpretation comes from the greek phrase απ'το sid (ap'to sid) that means (coming) from sid. The names of the releases are taken from the Greek mythology.
When typed or written, sidux and aptosid are always presented in lower-case letters.

History

The sidux project appeared on 2006-11-24, with the goal of providing a hard disk installable Debian Sid-based Live CD distribution. The first sidux preview appeared on the 2007-01-24 with the finished release appearing on 2007-02-22, codenamed 2007-01 “Χάος"(chaos). In February 2007 sidux was awarded by DistroWatch with the donation of US$350.

The second sidux Live CD was released on the 2007-05-28, codenamed sidux-2007-02 "Τάρταρος"(tartaros). During the linuxtag 2007 (an open source fair in Berlin) a special linuxtag-edition was distributed at the shared booth of KDE e.V. and sidux. On the 2007-05-31 sidux e.V. (foundation) has been officially registered with the German authorities. On 2007-11-15 sidux e.V. was accepted as non-profit organization by German law, retroactively as of 2007-04-01.

Software

aptosid and sidux releases contain only free software as defined by the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG). To aid proof of compliance, a monolithic tarball containing the source for all packages used in the release is provided alongside the Live CD ISOs. Access to non-free software such as codecs, plugins and wlan firmware can be enabled by configuring contrib and non-free Debian repositories in /etc/apt/sources.list.d

In keeping with the evolutionary nature of the "unstable" Debian branch, aptosid and sidux releases do not provide an upgrade path from previous release versions. Rather, once they are installed, incremental updates are performed via regular "dist-upgrades". The idea of a "release" is instead to improve Live CD hardware support, performance, flexibility and reliability, built from the current debian unstable repository.

System recommendations

aptosid is officially supported for the i686 computer architecture and the amd64 computer architecture

sidux e.V.

For permanent support and financing - on April 1, 2007 the non-profit association "sidux e.V.", seated in Berlin, Germany, was founded. Its constitution and goals go beyond the aims of the support and spreading of sidux. The cooperation between sidux e.V. and the sidux developers ended in summer 2010 due to disagreement.

See also

• List of live CDs

External links

Articles

• Interview with Chris Hildebrandt, the sidux project, DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 245, 24 March 2008
• Kanotix seeks stability, sidux follows unstable, Posted December 6, 2006 by ris, Article on lwn.net

Reviews

• Sidux 2009-02 (KDE) By Jim Lynch (July 16, 2009) desktoplinuxreviews.com
• Sidux grows on you, By Susan Linton, Linux.com (Oct. 8, 2008)
• Sidux, a Great Alternative to Ubuntu, Part 2, LinuxPlanet.com part 2/2 (July 10, 2008)
• Sidux, a Great Alternative to Ubuntu, By Carla Schroder LinuxPlanet.com part 1/2 (July 3, 2008)
• Sidux: A live CD for Debian unstable, By Preston St. Pierre, Linux.com (Mar. 7,2008)
• Sidux 2007-03.1 "Gaia": A closer look, by eco2geek, tuxmachines.org (Aug. 23, 2007)

Other

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