Ark Linux
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 Ark Linux installer |
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| Company / developer | Bernhard Rosenkraenzer et al. |
| OS family | Linux |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Open source |
| Latest stable release | 2008.1 / May 14, 2008 |
| Latest unstable release | Alpha / January 14, 2011 |
| Update method | APT |
| Package manager | RPM |
| Kernel type | Monolithic (modular) |
| License | Various |
| Official website | http://www.arklinux.org/ |
Ark Linux is a Linux distribution maintained by a group of volunteers and aims to be easy to install and use. Its default desktop environment is KDE.
Ark Linux is available both as an installable CD and as a Live CD, and is free software.
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[edit] Principles
The primary goals of Ark Linux are:
- Being easy to install and learn.[1]
- Including all tools and applications a typical desktop user will need.[2]
- Including only tools and applications a typical desktop user will need—avoid becoming "bloated".[3]
- Making installation of additional software as easy and fast as possible.[3]
- Being a technically sane development environment.[3]
- Remaining 100% free software - GPL where possible, otherwise other free and open source licences[4]
- Remain true to the Free Software Standards [4]
[edit] Content
The Ark Linux core system is made up of one CD that tries to provide what the typical new desktop user will need, such as an office suite, Internet access tools, instant messaging and filesharing clients.[5] Nothing else is included, for example server-centric applications and development tools are not part of the core system.
Many applications that are not included in the core system can be installed online using Advanced Packaging Tool, and are available on add-on CDs.
Additionally, a separate online repository of unsupported software (this includes software that's free to use, but not open source, such as Adobe Flash) is available.
[edit] Package management
Ark Linux uses APT-RPM, a version of the APT for the RPM, with Kynaptic (a KDE port of Synaptic) as the graphical frontend, to manage its packages.[6] Future releases of Ark will use ZYpp as a replacement,[7] making Ark the first third-party distribution to use the native package manager of openSUSE.
In addition to its releases, Ark Linux has 4 package trees:
- Dockyard: Tested packages belonging to the core system.
- Dockyard contrib: Tested packages that are not part of the core system, e.g. due to licensing restrictions
- Dockyard-devel: Development tree (core system). Normally usable, but may break at times. After testing, packages are moved from Dockyard-devel to Dockyard.
- Dockyard-devel contrib: Development tree (not part of core system).
A standard installation receives updates and extra packages from the Dockyard and Dockyard contrib trees.
For Ark Linux packagers, a number of small convenience tools are included, commonly known as the v* toolchain (even though not all the tools start with a v). They are designed to help generate patches and spec files for the RPM source packages.[8]
[edit] Release history
All releases are tested snapshots of the Dockyard tree (see Package Management above) - a default installation will update from the Dockyard and Dockyard contrib trees.
There is no need to reinstall when a new release is made—since the Dockyard tree gets updated, a user automatically gets the new release by running an apt-get dist-upgrade.
The first test release (1.0 alpha 1), basically a proof of concept that showed Linux could be installed in 3 mouse clicks, was made in August 2001.[citation needed]
Subsequent public releases include:
- 19 March 2005 - Ark Linux 2005.1
- 31 March 2005 - Ark Linux 2005.1-SR1
- 10 December 2005 - Ark Linux 2005.2
- 2 August 2006 - Ark Linux 2006.1, Ark Linux Live 2006.1
- 17 August 2007 - Ark Linux 2007.1, Ark Linux Live 2007.1
- 14 May 2008 - Ark Linux 2008.1—Last KDE 3.x based release
However, there is usually a Dockyard ISO available (see Package Management above), which sometimes will be updated further than the last release. For example, the Ark Linux 2007.1 release encountered some hardware support glitches, such as not detecting AHCI SATA controllers. A hot-fix ISO was released, which included this functionality, but the version number was not increased, as other known errors were yet to be fixed.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Ark Linux homepage". Ark Linux. http://www.arklinux.org/. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
- ^ "Ark Linux FAQ". Ark Linux. Archived from the original on 2007-11-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20071102134736/http://www.arklinux.org/content/en/FAQ:+What+is+this. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
- ^ a b c "Announcement of Ark Linux 2007.1". Softpedia. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ark-Linux-Ark-Linux-Live-2007-1-Released-63133.shtml. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
- ^ a b "ArkLinux.org". Ark Linux. http://www.arklinux.org/. Retrieved 2010-04-02.
- ^ "Ark Linux software map". Ark Linux. Archived from the original on 2008-02-12. http://web.archive.org/web/20080212031441/http://www.arklinux.org/content/en/Software+Map. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
- ^ "Ark Linux FAQ on packaging". Ark Linux. http://www.arklinux.org/content/en/FAQ:What+packaging+system+does+Ark+Linux+use,+and+why%3F. Retrieved 2008-03-20.[dead link]
- ^ Another look at Linux packaging systems
- ^ "Ark Linux Wiki page on packaging". Ark Linux. http://wiki.arklinux.org/Packaging. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
[edit] External links
- Ark Linux official website
- Ark Linux at DistroWatch (Note that DistroWatch shows all software included on any of the add-on CDs in addition to the software in the core OS; it doesn't show software included in the contrib repository though)
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