Minimalist

Minimalist is an open source and free operating system based on the world’s most popular free distribution of Linux, Ubuntu, and built around the GNOME Classic desktop environment. The main emphasis is on promoting a basic Ubuntu environment that can be easily extended with extra applications and sophisticated graphical desktop environments.

Distributed as a minimal Live CD for 64-bit platforms

The OS is available for download from its official website or via Softoware as a Live CD ISO image of approximately 300MB in size, which has been engineered to run only on 64-bit hardware platforms. The user must burn the ISO image onto a blank CD or write it on a USB thumb drive of 512MB or higher capacity in order to boot it from the BIOS of a PC.

Boot options

The boot menu is identical with the one on the original Ubuntu DVD, allowing the user to try the operating system without installing anything, start the graphical installer directly, check the disk for defects (only if using a CD media), test the memory for errors and boot from the first disk drive.

Minimal desktop environment powered by GNOME Classic

As mentioned, the default and only graphical session of this Ubuntu-based OS is GNOME Classic, which uses a two-panel layout and a system monitoring widget located on the right side of the screen.

Very minimal set of applications

Being designed as starting point for users who want to create their own Ubuntu-based operating system, Minimalist comes with a very minimal set of applications. To be more precise, it only includes the GNOME Terminal terminal emulator, Gedit text editor and Synaptic Package Manager.

Bottom line

Summing up, Minimalist lives up to its name and provides users with a minimal operating system based on Ubuntu, which includes the GNOME 2 desktop environment and it’s designed to be used as a starting point for creating your own Ubuntu-based distribution of Linux.