Trisquel

Trisquel

Trisquel 5.0 desktop
Company / developer	Trisquel community and Sognus, S.L.U.
OS family	Unix-like
Working state	Current
Source model	Free and open source software
Latest stable release	5.0 / September 17, 2011 (2011-09-17)
Update method	APT
Package manager	dpkg
Supported platforms	x86, AMD64
Kernel type	Monolithic
Default user interface	GNOME
License	Free software licences, mainly GPL
Official website	trisquel.info

Trisquel GNU/Linux is a Linux distribution using a free version of the Linux kernel as distributed by the Linux-libre project. The main goals of the project are the production of a fully free software (free as in free speech) system that must be easy to use, complete, and with good language support.

Trisquel's name comes from the Celtic symbol triskelion, or triskele in English, consisting of three interlocked spirals. The project's logo depicts a triskelion made of the union of three Debian swirls as a sign of recognition to the project on which it is based.^{[citation needed]}

The project began in 2004 with the sponsorship of the University of Vigo, and officially presented in April 2005 with Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU Project, as a special guest. It was originally developed as a Debian-based distribution, but the repositories were changed to Ubuntu with the 2.0 release, in the summer of 2008. The project hosts its own repositories which are derivatives of Ubuntu's main and universe components, but with all proprietary software removed. The differences include the removal of all non-free packages, the substitution of the original Linux kernel with the blob-free version linux-libre, and the addition of several packages.^{[citation needed]}

By December 11, 2008, Trisquel GNU/Linux was included by the Free Software Foundation in its list of free Linux distributions. According to DistroWatch, Trisquel was ranked 78th overall in page view popularity in the previous six months.

Differences from Ubuntu

The main difference is the strict filter that Trisquel applies to what software packages should be distributed, endorsing the Free Software Foundation four freedoms rule to exclude non-free software. This commitment leads to the removal of firmware blobs and other pieces of software, as well as to the fact that no support is given to non-free software within the project's forums and documentation.^{[citation needed]}

From a practical point of view, the most noticeable changes are the focused set of pre-installed software, the non-standard desktop configuration using only one deskbar instead of GNOME defaults, and the original artwork, designed to be clean and elegant. Also, since version 3.5, XFS is the default file system for the home directory, and Ext4 the default for the rest of the system, to maximize performance.^{[citation needed]}

Versions

There are six different versions of the system so far:

• 2.x Robur, Long Term Support
• 3.x Dwyn, Short Term Support
• 3.5.x Awen, STS
• 4.x Taranis LTS
• 4.5.x Slaine STS - based on Ubuntu 10.10
• 5.x Dagda STS - based on Ubuntu 11.04

All versions include this common software:

• Linux-libre kernel, 2.6.24 in Robur, 2.6.28 in Dwyn, 2.6.31 in Awen, 2.6.32 in Taranis, 2.6.35 in Slaine, and 2.6.38 in Dagda.
• GNOME desktop environment, 2.22 in Robur, 2.26 in Dwyn, 2.28 in Awen, 2.30 in Taranis, 2.32 in Slaine, and 2.32 in Dagda.
• A version of the Mozilla Firefox that never suggests non-free add-ons, and includes no trademarked art or names.

LTS editions

There are three main editions of the Long Term Support edition available for download. The one called simply Trisquel is intended for home and personal use. There is Trisquel Edu, for classrooms and schools, and Trisquel Pro, for small businesses. All of them are available in 32 and 64 bit iso images, all of them recordable on a standard CD-R except for the Pro Editions, which due to their size must be recorded on a DVD-R.^{[citation needed]}

Trisquel

The main edition of the distribution is designed for home use, including networking, multimedia, design and office productivity software, as well as some games. It includes a media center application with the ability to play DVDs and most video and audio formats out of the box.^{[citation needed]}

Trisquel Edu

Trisquel LTSP classroom server, managed via iTALC.

On September 21, 2008, the first release candidate of this educational tool was made public. It was based upon the project's previous experiences in educational software (due to its origins as a university sponsored project, early versions of Trisquel included a large amount of scientific, engineering and teaching tools), and includes several school oriented technologies, such as the LTSP environment and the iTALC classroom management system. It has also support for low-cost digital whiteboards, using an LCD projector and a Nintendo Wii Remote, with customized free software that allows for the replacement of costly hardware solutions.^{[citation needed]}

Trisquel Pro

Trisquel Pro is a small business oriented operating system. It includes a pack of enterprise management software, including Abanq, OpenbravoPOS, and GNUCash among others. It is mainly intended for the Spanish market, as some of the accounting software included is designed to match the Spanish tax regulations, but most of the applications included can be used worldwide. The application collection is completed with several all-purpose tools including a graphical firewall, antivirus for the scanning of Windows partitions and Wine applications- and an automated backup system. It was officially released at the international multimedia and communications show SIMO on November 2007.

Other editions

Trisquel 4.1-Sugar

Trisquel 4.1-sugar is the trisquel 4.1 version of sugar-desktop with sugar sweets 0.88.1. It runs on Ubuntu 10.10 with the Sugar desktop environment. Sugar is Collaborative Educational Software as used on the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) Laptop. Developed by Sugar Labs Volunteers and Supporters.^{[citation needed]}

Trisquel Mini

Trisquel Mini is an alternative to the mainline Trisquel, designed to run well on netbooks and aging hardware. It uses a low-resource environment like LXDE and lightweight GTK+ and X11 alternatives to more commonly used GNOME and Qt/KDE applications.

Trisquel Gamer

Trisquel Gamer is an independent edition maintained by David Zaragoza. It is filled with games and booted from a LiveDVD or USB drive. Although numerous similar distributions exist, Trisquel Gamer is unique among these because it shares Trisquel's firm policy of including only 100% free software in the distribution.^{[citation needed]}

Installation

Trisquel is installable to hard disk from a graphical installer selected on boot or from within the live CD environment.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of Linux distributions endorsed by the Free Software Foundation

External links

• Official website
• Trisquel at DistroWatch