Distro Friday: GALPon MiniNo

by
in linux on (#3QC)
story imageI got the idea when writing up that article about Distrowatch: they cover so many distros and so many of them are so obscure; I decided to check some of them out. Conveniently - as though they're tempting me - there's a "Random Distribution" button on the front page of Distrowatch, which makes it easy. Every Friday I propose a roll of the dice, and a quick look at some distro you've probably never heard of. I'll try to give equal coverage to the BSDs too.

If this is annoying or not interesting to you, quick! Flame me to a cinder in the comments. Otherwise, enjoy what will hopefully be a weekly feature that will lead to interesting commentary and comparison. I'll be skipping the big guys (RedHat, openSUSE, Ubuntu, etc.) since the purpose is to give some exposure to the obscure/niche stuff. These aren't reviews since I don't have time to install and try each one.

Today's distro is GALPon MiniNo, which gets my vote for the "least memorable name for a distro, ever." But it can be explained: GALPon is the Linux User's Group of Pontevedra, Spain, in the region of Galicia. And they're actively working to get Linux in schools, especially where equipment is old or low-powered and often recycled. No surprise then that GALPon MiniNo emphasizes low system requirements: it installs on machines with 128M of RAM and 4GB hard drives, and uses IceWM or Openbox, RoxFiler, and the like to stay light. It also supports Galician and Catalan - regional languages of Spain - out of the box. Looks like it will install nicely on a netbook or liveCD.

I'm a big fan of lightweight distros to counter the otherwise endless bloat of the big guns. I might have to try this one out and give Puppy a run for its money. Read more (in Spanish) at their homepage, their help and documentation (also Spanish/Galician), or their Google group forum.
Reply 6 comments

Sounds interesting (Score: 3, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-07-11 14:28 (#2F3)

The idea is interesting, though I'm not sure how can it fare in the long run. Seeing as I could just click `random distribution` on Distrowatch as you've done. Due to that, I'd suggest you add some information about those random distribution that isn't available quickly. What kind? I am not sure, but something to add value.

What I would suggest to avoid, are *buntu variants that just change the theme or the WM/DE. So maybe focus more on niece distributions that do try to fulfil a some role (Even random should be filtered, just like you'd filter RedHat in case it shows up).

An interesting piece of information would be, whenever the distribution created it's on package manager or is it simply using one from it's forefather and how far did it derive.

Re: Sounds interesting (Score: 1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-07-11 19:02 (#2F8)

Introducing Gruvbuntu! It's Ubuntu but with a pleasant green theme and multimedia codecs.

wow dude - we really needed those two "innovations" to be packaged as a separate distro!

yeah, AC is totally right.

Re: Sounds interesting (Score: 1)

by koen@pipedot.org on 2014-07-13 14:22 (#2G2)

I agree: please review interesting distros in stead of randrom distros.

Great idea! (Score: 1)

by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2014-07-11 16:17 (#2F6)

I love it.

Interesting (Score: 1)

by computermachine@pipedot.org on 2014-07-11 18:03 (#2F7)

Keep it up.

Nice idea (Score: 3, Interesting)

by codemachine@pipedot.org on 2014-07-11 21:48 (#2F9)

What'd be really fun is if you had a chance to find out a bit more about these distros. For the smaller distros, that might mean a short interview with the creator. Some tidbit that isn't available right on distrowatch.

Of course, that is more work. I'd understand if the format remained the same, and the legwork of digging into the distro is left up to the reader. I know we need the content, and this sort of thing most certainly fits in well with the site.