Dairy Linux

Dairy Linux is a freely distributed and open source operating system based on the widely used and highly appreciated openSUSE Linux distribution and built around the KDE Plasma Workspaces and Application desktop environment.

Availability, boot options and supported architectures

The operating system described here is available for download as a single Live CD ISO image tagged only for the i686 (32-bit) instruction set architecture, but also supported on the 64-bit hardware platform. It's a hybrid ISO image, which means that it can be written on both CD discs or USB thumb drives.

Thanks to its familiar boot prompt, users will be able to easily and quickly start the live environment with default settings or in failsafe mode, boot an existing operating system from the first disk dirve, as well as to run a memory (RAM) diagnostic test.

In addition, the user can add additional options to each of the aforementioned boot entries, change the video mode and screen resolution, select a different language for the live environment (default is English US), as well as to add extra kernel parameters.

State-of-the-art KDE desktop environment with a minimal set of apps

Before you can use the graphical session, it is a must to select a language, choose a keyboard layout and set up the timzone and hardware clock. Once arrived at the login prompt, the user can simply login using the username dairy (without any password).

The KDE desktop environment look modern, untouched and familiar, providing user with a single taskbar located on the bottom edge of the screen, from where they can access the main menu, launch applications, cycle between virtual workspaces, and interact with running programs.

Default applications include the Mozilla Firefox web browser, LibreOffice Writer word processor, KWrite text editor, Dolphin file manager, and various other KDE specific utilities.

Bottom line

Overall, Dairy Linux is a decent distribution of Linux that aims to provide user with a minimal set of applications on top of a modern KDE desktop environment, while showcasing the latest openSUSE technologies.