Calculate Linux MATE

Calculate Linux MATE is a free computer operating system licensed under an open-source license, based on the famous Gentoo Linux distribution and built around the traditional and lightweight MATE desktop environment.

The MATE edition of Calculate Linux has been designed from the ground up to provide users with an alternative desktop environment to the existing Xfce and KDE flavors of the project. MATE is an open-source project forked from the GNOME 2 desktop interface.

Distributed as 32-bit and 64-bit Live DVDs

Calculate Linux MATE is currently distributed as two Live DVD hybrid-ISO images, one for each of the supported hardware architectures, 32-bit and 64-bit. Users can write the ISO images on either USB flash drives of 2GB or higher capacity, or DVD discs.

Both Live DVDs feature the same boot menu, allowing the user to run the live session with default settings, in RAM, or without a graphical interface. Additionally, it lets you access the Calculate Linux LiveDVD Builder utility, and the Memtest86+ memory diagnostic tool.

MATE has a traditional layout with a dock

When booting the live session from the bootable medium (USB or DVD), the MATE desktop environment will load directly, without having to enter any credentials. The MATE's layout is traditional, consisting of a top panel and a bottom dock (hidden by default).

While the dock lets you quickly access some of the most used apps, the top panel includes all the essential applets, such as the Applications Menu, system tray area, calendar, clock, system menu, workspace switcher, application launcher, and task manager.

Some of the most important apps are present

Default applications include the Chromium web browser, Claws Mail email client, Deluge torrent downloader, FileZilla FTP client, HexChat IRC client, Pidgin multi-protocol instant messenger, Remmina remote desktop client, Skype VoIP client, and the entire LibreOffice office suite.

Additionally, you can also find programs like the Clementine audio editor, SMPlayer video player, YouTube Browser for SMPlayer, XSane scanner tool, GIMP image editor, Parcellite clipboard manager, and gtk-recordMyDesktop screen capture utility. The distro is currently powered by Linux kernel 3.18 LTS.

What is new in this release:

• We moved to the new Gentoo 17.0 profile. All binary packages were rebuilt, in the repo as well as on Live DVDs/USBs
• All currently available Meltdown and Spectre patches were included
• grub.d privileges are safe now
• Restore functionality supported for LXC containers file capabilities
• Network interfaces can be once again renamed and saved
• Password configuration fixed for editing Grub entries
• IO Scheduler option removed
• Network configuration inside containers fixed
• File attributes updated correctly by templates
• Kernel start fixed (warnings and errors OK)
• Possible to use a file as swap memory

What is new in version :

• Installation:
• SoftRaid support added.
• Fixed autopartitioning problems.
• Third-party overlays supported.
• Performance:
• The Calculate Utilities server does not run on the background. Instead, it is launched by D-Bus.
• The MuQSS patch was included to the kernel configuration for better application task scheduling.
• The UKSM patch was included in the kernel configuration for less memory load.
• PAE binary kernel supported for 32-bit systems.
• All server kernel settings optimized.
• Miscellaneous:
• GCC completely updated to v6.4 and the kernel updated to v 4.14.
• In CLDC, CLDM and CLDX Pidgin was replaced by Gajim. The "httpupload, "image" and "url image preview" come included.
• The LXC/LXD container version was renamed to Calculate Container Scratch (CCS).
• 11 493 binary packages are available.
• Software:
• MATE 1.18, LibreOffice 5.4.2.2, Firefox 57.0.1, Claws Mail 3.15.1, Gimp 2.8.22, Clementine 1.3.1

What is new in version 17.6:

• Calculate Linux Desktop was updated to KDE 5.
• Testing and stable updates now coming separately and labelled as such.
• Multiple instances, built with different USE flags, are available in a special repository (binpkg-multi-instance).
• The main Git mirror migrated to Github.
• Faster XZ compression on multi-core processors.
• The XZ algorithm will be used from now on for initramfs, the kernel and its modules.
• File moving and renaming issues fixed for OverlayFS.
• Defaulting to Python 3.4.
• More efficient mirror selection for updates.
• Mirrors were rearranged.

What is new in version 17:

• Calculate Linux Desktop was updated to KDE 5.
• Testing and stable updates now coming separately and labelled as such.
• Multiple instances, built with different USE flags, are available in a special repository (binpkg-multi-instance).
• The main Git mirror migrated to Github.
• Faster XZ compression on multi-core processors.
• The XZ algorithm will be used from now on for initramfs, the kernel and its modules.
• File moving and renaming issues fixed for OverlayFS.
• Defaulting to Python 3.4.
• More efficient mirror selection for updates.
• Mirrors were rearranged.

What is new in version 15.17:

• General:
• Chromium was replaced with the QupZilla web browser on desktop CL versions.
• A Calculate Linux ISO image can be booted from a Live HDD volume. To do so, select the Live HDD formatting line that was added to the Grub menu. Current system settings will be default for graphics, locales and the timezone.
• The open source AMDGPU driver is now supported.
• Autopartition settings were modified.
• We attended to our users' feedback to bring back a reserved partition for a default system update when autopartitioning.
• Eudev updated up to v3.1.5, that provides restored former udev code. The latter renames network devices if they are named similarly to the kernel.
• The updated Calculate repository includes over 2900 binary packages, both for KDE 4 and KDE 5.
• Working with Live USB:
• Flash installation is possible without formatting the FAT partition, so that the main system could be updated directly on the bootable USB volume.
• The cl-install-flash command was added, that handles installation on USB media.
• Once your USB drive has booted, you will have writing rights on the root directory.
• Optimization:
• Bzip2 and gzip archives are opened much, much faster, especially on multi-core architectures, as lbzip2 and pigz implementations are now used by default. As a result, applications are also emerged faster.
• The preload daemon on SSD and Raid systems that use 'noop' scheduler is not activated out-of-box.
• Useless locales will be removed during installation.
• Per-package systemd settings were removed.
• Proprietory drivers are installed in less time at bootup, as there is no need to reach the network.
• Portage update was optimized. Checksum verification is now optional and launches quickly.
• We developed a better algorithm for mirror selection.
• Git repository will be checked for availability whenever Portage is updated.
• A new option, "--one-depth" was introduced for cl-update, cl-builder-update and cl-builder-image tools, to be used to spare the space that is usually taken up by the local copy of Portage.
• Locales:
• We added support for more European languages and keyword layouts.
• The Live USB mode offers a friendlier language experience: instead of selecting your language and then your keyword, you simply pick up a locale.
• A Ukrainian version is now available for package descriptions and the interface of Calculate Utilities.

What is new in version 15:

• A New Method for Packages Update:
• Better reliability:
• Each mirror stores version history, thus allowing either to update from any existing mirror or to create a local mirror.
• Updates are faster:
• The update tool selects the fastest mirror.
• Update configuration defaults to parallel fetching and installation.
• Revdep-rebuild will not be called by cl-update unless enabled explicitly.
• A higher level of testing:
• All binaries are tested on the testing mirror before being committed to the master.
• Less traffic consumption:
• Portage will not be synchronized if no updates are available.
• Common binary repos:
• Distribution profiles were unified. You are free to choose between three brand new flavours, each with USE flags adapted to different needs. Over 2500 popular packages come as binaries.
• New Calculate Utilities 3.4:
• System build tools were completely rewritten:
• Calculate Console comes with a GUI mode.
• Overlayfs support was added for fast deployment.
• A list of binary mirrors can from now on be used for update.
• Binaries are fetched under a new algorithm.
• Multiboot Flash creation is supported.
• Both stable and testing kernels are provided.
• Dutch support was added.