Kahel OS

Kahel OS is an open source and completely free distribution of Linux derived from the lightweight and powerful Arch Linux operating system and built around the controversial GNOME graphical desktop environment.

Supports only applications optimized for the i686 architecture

The OS is available for download as a 32-bit ISO image, which means that it supports only applications optimized for the i686 architecture. However, you will be able to use and install the system on computers that support both 32-bit and 64-bit instruction set architectures.

Here’s how to use the ISO image

The ISO image has approximately 3GB in size, which means that you must burn it onto a blank DVD disc using any CD/DVD burning software (Brasero, Xfburn, Nero) or write it on a USB thumb drive of 4GB or higher capacity with the UNetbootin or GNOME Disk Utility (Disks) applications.

The operating system can be easily installed

The operating system feature a live mode, allowing users to try it without installing it. From the boot menu, you can start the live system or install the distribution with or without Swap, run a memory test, view detailed hardware information, as well as to reboot or power off the computer.

GNOME comes with the GNOME Shell interface

As mentioned, the distro is built around the modern GNOME desktop environment, which uses the controversial GNOME Shell interface, as well as the old-school GNOME Fallback session. It can be easily used and tries to be as productive as possible.

Contains powerful, state-of-the-art applications

Among the pre-installed applications, we can mention the Chromium and Mozilla Firefox web browsers, LibreOffice office suite, Evolution email and calendar client, GIMP image editor, GnuCash personal finance manager, TweetDeck Twitter client, Miro audio and video player, Mozilla Thunderbird email and news client, as well as Bluefish HTML editor.

What is new in this release:

• Sharing and giving, that's the Spirit of Christmas.
• And so on this very day of "Gift-Giving", three months after our first installer release 09-09-2009, we give you the new KahelOS Linux (Desktop Edition) Installer Version: 12-25-2009 . Download KahelOS Linux Installer at http://www.kahelos.org/downloads.php
• KahelOS Linux now has Kernel 2.6.32, Xorg 7.5 and Gnome 2.28.2 by default.
• One may ask, what is new, is it worth-giving and worthy of sharing your experiences and thoughts about this new KahelOS Linux (Desktop Edition) Installer?
• We are glad to impart the new KahelOS Linux Installer developed to make it much more simple, easier and refreshing to use.
• How is this possible?
• The setup installation has been simplified. The user is no longer required to type /kahel/setup at the installer boot, instead the installer will automatically just appear upon bootup.
• KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) is automatically detected as it has been installed by default, which means faster boot process, faster X server load, seamless graphical 3D effects, faster graphics, and an improved animated boot sequence.
• Faster bootup the startup process has been tweaked enormously to speed up the boot process even on modest hardware configurations, also KMS helps the loading of GDM which makes the login screen appear faster. Still 'fastboot', is a feature long before enabled on Kahel OS.
• What makes it better and sweeter is that 'fastboot' now operates without any delay. Modules have been initially pre-seeded upon installation so the system would not waste time on auto-detecting kernel modules.
• Why is KahelOS Linux faster than before?
• We have introduced an innovative change to the way daemons are loaded on startup. The traditional approach is to load all the daemons one by one or concurrently at startup before the GDM GUI appears. This approach is much slower because the system is sharing more resources on other daemons instead of just loading the GUI.
• Now, KahelOS just loads the GDM GUI making the GUI instantly appear, then loads the rest of the daemons when a user has logged-in.
• In addtion, KahelOS Linux is now a 100% GNU distribution. We tacitly did not ship any non-free, licensed-encumbered and proprietary software (gstreamer-bad/ugly/ffmpeg plugins, adobe flash plugin), to maintain a pure open source distro and to promote open standards (theora/ogg). However, the user can easily be capable to install those packages if they need them.
• Some application choices have been incorporated with mainstream users in mind. This also resulted in the deletion of unecessary libraries and applications with recursive/duplicate functionalities .
• Firefox is the default web-browser
• Empathy is for IM and VoIP
• OpenOffice.org is the default Office Suite
• F-Spot for managing photos, and Beagle for managing MP3's and Videos
• Dejavu (off-spring of Bitsream) is among the default fonts in lieu of Bitsream Vera as Dejavu covers all the features Bitsream has.
• The familiar filesystems available todate on most distribution have been added, (i.e. XFS, JFS, VFAT) primarily because many are still hooked on using such filesystems. The next generation filesystems (NILFS2, BTRFS, EXT4), on the other hand, are still available as it is already handy even in the KahelOS installer version 09.09.2009.
• Some enhancements are named here for those looking for advance features and stability:
• KahelOS is the first distro to release with GCM and has been tested to be stable. Gnome-Color-Manager is by default installed, along with free and public domain ICC profiles like the compatible version of Adobe RGB (1998) http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/adobergb.html". GCM gives users the ability to change their ICC profile.
• Due to the unstability of GNOME PackageKit as of this date, we have replaced it with a more stable 'gtkpacman', which is similar to Synaptics Package Manager.
• While on other Linux Distributions 'Hibernate' incur complications (as they rely on hardware ACPI extensions which is not available on all computers), Hibernate and Suspend works perfectly with KahelOS Linux. The simple solution was to change the installation method which incidentally also resolves the kernel not to be choked when loading the filesystem module.
• Metacity Compositor has been placed in lieu of Compiz, due to the white screen bug we have encountered previously. Metacity Compositor does not require a recent video hardware, and will run on almost every user and still having a nice graphical effect without necessitating a new video card.
• In place of the braille fonts (ttf-ubraille) is the GNU FreeFonts which contains a braille writing system, the reason for removal of ttf-ubraille is because it is unusable for normal users without a braille printer and even if it's available nothing will be printed on the screen if someone use the fonts.
• KahelOS Linux goes International - KahelOS Linux now supports displaying all major languages available; all asian fonts have been added, as well as language translations by default. Moreover, SCIM (Smart Common Input Method) platform have been included to support inputs from all other languages.
• Better Desktop Search beagle have been replaced by tracker, a much faster and lighter desktop indexing application.
• Easy VPN via NetworkManager 3 VPN sub-systems have been added to NetworkManager.
• yaourt - a BSD's port-like source code package installation is by default on KahelOS Linux. This provides the users freedom to install their choice packages and applications that they can truly build for themselves.
• With the utility of Gnome 2.28, users will experience a faster and easier desktop they have not seen before and with the rolling release updates model, users can install the newest applications whenever they want it.
• Patience is a virtue, so please do wait for more to come.
• Installation Guide (in English) will follow within the next week
• 64 bit testing is ongoing and is underway
• KahelOS repository and mirror in early January 2010.