Akita Linux is a free, tiny (90mb), lightweight, user friendly and feature-packed Linux operating system which can be installed to and booted from CD/DVD, USB or hard drive.
Based on Puppy Linux 4.2, but now with a Wary 512 'core', using the same GCC, Glibc, GTK, ffmpeg, codecs, SDL, etc as 'Wary Linux 5.1.2'.
Akita Linux aims to be fairly lightweight, yet easy to use, quick to setup.. and pretty. Akita comes with loads of programs installed by default, just no browser or office suite. There are easy installer GUIs for larger programs like office, browser, flash, gimp, etc.
It is ideal for carrying around on USB - small, yet feature packed! The 'core' system (aka toolchain) has been updated to match Wary 512, so Akita Linux is compatible with Wary 512 (and 2.14X), and uses the wary5 repo by default.
In Akita Linux, loads of apps and scripts have been updated, as well as new, added apps and features. Many programs now available in English, French, Spanish, German and Russian.
There is no office suite, no CUPS, no gutenprint, no sane, no flash and no web browser installed by default!
- Why use the Wary 512 toolchain? Why have Wary5 compatibility?
Wary5 is Barry Ks latest project, he calls it "the successor to Puppy 4", for many reasons. Wary5 is a long term support project, with a long shelf life, and a good future. Barry says "Wary5 is the standard compiling OS for Puppy 5", meaning any programs compiled on Wary 512 (and now 214X-Top8 and Akita Linux) should work in all other recent Puppies.
Wary5 and Puppy 4.2 are both built from T2 source packages, a nice match. Wary5 has a fairly large repository, with lots of great apps, very little bloat. Wary5 is more or less the most lightweight Puppy 5 available, avoiding large ubuntu deps.
Wary 512 aims to work (mostly) the same PCs as Puppy 4, to be as lightweight as possible, with excellent hardware support and multimedia capabilities - which I like.
- Why call it "Akita" Linux?
For me, Puppy Linux 4.2 is like a loyal, old friend and the Akita is a famously loyal dog from Japan, renowned for their intelligence and for sticking with their owners long-term, through thick and thin.
Akita Linux is primarily compatible with Wary 512, which is a long term support release, and will be with us for a while, so Akita Linux should be well future-proofed, with good longevity.
Akita contains loads of programs installed as standard and helper programs for adding more, so it's ideal for portable USB drives and should help you wherever you go - just like the dog.
- What else should I know?
Up to date: Bash-4.2, Busybox-1.18.4-unicode, bashbox, VLC-1.1.5, mtpaint 3.34.67, geany-0.20, latest Pmusic, PupControl, PupApps, etc
Boots straight to X desktop, has a browser installer, a Flash installer, a simple Quickpet rip off, on-the-fly SFS loading, easy setup of running startup programs, enable either the ROX desktop or an enhanced "JWM only" desktop.
I also added a bit of shinobars excellent work in 'LupQ' and 'Wary511q' - more localisation of puppy desktop and apps. Akita should be easier to use 'out of the box', more right click options, easier to customise, more and better GUIs, etc.
The PetGet Package Manager (PPM) supports the 'wary5' repo, which is also the default repo, and works nicely. The PPM GUI has also been given a make over and should look much nicer, with a nice, scalable window.
More save file options; 'pfix=usbsave' disables real-time savefile writing when in PUPMODE=12. Akita linux features PupSaveConfig-1.9.9, and asks to save at shutdown, it never auto saves by default, we're using snapmergepuppy-19.
Many useful CLI apps installed by default: elinks (also has bittorrent), mc (has ftp, mcedit, etc), transmissioncli, moc, antiword, pdftotext, pdftoabw, pdftohtml, xls2csv, ppt2txt, pman (w/ elinks), teapot, clinet, many added busybox applets, and many more!
Many apps replaced with lightest versions - httpd=>monkey, SAMBA=>Samba-TNG, tcl=>jimtcl, java=>jam, ruby=>tinyrb, etc...
- What's the catch?
This k2.6.25.16 does not like ext4, dual CPU, the latest netbooks and 3G modems or newer (after 2008) hardware in general.
Yes, Atheros and Broadcom wireless (wifi, wlan) devices are still trouble, same as Puppy4, but it should be a (tiny) bit better. Wifi and video settings are likely to need a bit of tweaking on most laptops and netbooks, if you get it to boot! (Use the 'intel' Xorg driver, for correct display on many netbooks and Eee PCs)
You will find other problems, that I have not.
This is a puplet, and I set it up how I like it! ;)
- Thanks very much, take some credit:
For your great work & ideas: 01micko, big_bass, don570, goingnuts, iguleder, jemimah, jpeps, L18L, pemasu, plinej, seaside, shinobar, stu90, synth, tazoc, technosaurus, tempestuous, trio, ttuuxxx, zigbert, others
For translation, help and script updates: autogestion (es), rhadon (de), rodin.s (ru), wuwei (de), vezuve (fr), others
