Porteus 4.0 releases, lightning fast and small Linux distro
Porteus is a lightning fast and small but powerful Linux operating system that can be installed on a USB flash device, CDROM, SD card or Hard Drive. Once installed on the storage media of your choice, it can be run on almost any PC, giving you the power and freedom of Linux anywhere you go. In essence, Porteus is a lightweight and portable implementation of the Slackware Linux Operating System that boots directly from your storage media without needing to modify or utilize your existing operating system (your computer doesn’t even need a hard drive!). To accomplish this, it makes use of the Linux Live Scripts, which have been heavily modified for much faster boot-up and shutdown times. Unlike a standard Linux installation, Porteus exists in a compressed state on your storage media, with no /root, /bin, /usr, etc. directory structure on the media itself. The familiar Linux file structure is created on the fly (i.e., ‘live’) in your computer’s RAM during the boot process, which only takes about 20-30 seconds to get from pressing the power button to full productivity on a relatively new computer. Porteus is modular in design, which means that extra software comes in the form of ‘modules’ which can be activated and injected into this live file system. Software does not need to be installed and uninstalled as you may expect with other operating systems which take numerous amounts of clicks and agreements; you simply double click on a module and it is activated and ready for use in a second or two. To remove this software, just double click again and it will be deactivated. It’s that simple!
Porteus started out as a community remix project to keep the Slax OS up to date. It has now come into its own as a fully-fledged Linux distribution. It is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions, making it the perfect “on the go” solution whether you’re running a netbook, an old pentium or a brand-new power system. We hope you enjoy using Porteus as much as we have enjoyed creating it!
Porteus 4.0 is released. This release fixes the Specter and Meltdown vulnerabilities.
- Kernel 4.16.3
- Core is based on Slackware current
- 7 desktop options to choose from!
- New configuration file at porteus/porteus-v4.0-x86_64.cfg which replaces the .sgn file and can hold cheatcodes. One per line.
- New update-browser feature to update or download your preferred browser (available in GUI)
- Support for EFI (using syslinux for both BIOS and EFI boots) Only one config file now exists for both methods: /mnt/sdXY/boot/syslinux/porteus.cfg
- New Porteus update feature built in to update the base modules
- Intel microcode available in boot folder (load with initrd=/boot/syslinux/intel-ucode.cpio,/boot/syslinux/initrd.xz in boot line)
- More…
