Tin Hat

Tin Hat is an open source Linux kernel-based operating system derived from the Gentoo Linux distribution. The OS is built around the GNOME desktop environment and uses GNOME-specific applications.

Distributed as Live DVDs for mainstream architectures

The Tin Hat operating system is available for download as two Live DVD ISO image of approximately 1GB in size each, supporting the 32-bit (i386) and 64-bit (x86_64) hardware platforms.

Please note that once downloaded, you’ll have to burn the respective ISO image for your computer’s architecture onto a DVD disc or write it to a USB flash drive of 1GB or higher capacity.

Offers the ability to run the system from RAM

The boot options are pretty standard, designed to allow the user to start the live system in a shortest time as possible from the moment he or she boots the OS from the BIOS of a computer, using a USB thumb drive or a DVD disc.

Classic graphical desktop environment powered by GNOME

When booting the live environment, it will automatically copy itself to RAM (system memory) loading the graphical desktop environment pretty fast. As mentioned, Tin Hat is built around GNOME, the classic version of it, which uses a two-panel layout.

As usual, you will be able to browser and launch applications using the main menu implemented in the top panel, and interact with running programs using the panel located on the bottom edge of the screen.

Many popular applications are provided by default

There are many popular open source applications pre-installed on Tin Hat. Among some of the most important ones, we can mention the Mozilla Firefox web browser, Evolution email and calendar client, Gnumeric spreadsheet editor, Totem video player and LibreOffice office suite.

Bottom line

In conclusion, Tin Hat is a pretty cool Gentoo derivative, considering the fact that the later is so hard to install that it will take a couple of days to get it up and running properly.

What is new in this release:

• The hardened toolchain and kernel were updated to:
• gcc-4.6.3
• glibc-2.15-r3
• binutils-2.22-r1
• hardened-sources-3.7.5-r1 = vanilla-3.7.5 + genpatches-3.7-7 + grsecurity-2.9.1-3.7.5-201301311811
• Over 400 packages were upgraded.

What is new in version 20121015:

• gcc-4.5.4
• glibc-2.15-r2
• binutils-2.22-r1
• hardened-sources-3.2.30-r3 =vanilla-3.2.30 + genpatches-3.2-16 + grsecurity-2.9.1-3.2.30-201210071704
• Approximately 240 packages were updated.

What is new in version 20120625:

• gcc-4.5.3-r2
• glibc-2.14.1-r1
• binutils-2.22-r1
• hardened-sources-3.2.0 = vanilla 3.2.20 + genpatches-3.2-15 + grsecurity-2.9.1-3.2.20-201206171957

What is new in version 20111107:

• gcc-4.5.3-r1
• glibc-2.12.2
• binutils-2.21.1-r1
• hardened-sources-3.0.4-r5 = vanilla 3.0.4 + genpatches-3.0-7 + grsecurity-2.2.2-3.0.4-201110080819

What is new in version 20110613:

• The hardened kernel was updated to 2.6.38 branch for greater stability. The hardened toolchain was updated:
• gcc-4.4.5
• glibc-2.12.2
• binutils-2.20.1-r1 (unchanged)
• hardened-sources-2.6.38-r6 = vanilla 2.6.38.7 + genpatches-2.6.38-7 + grsecurity-2.2.2-2.6.38.7-201105222331
• Approximately 380 packages were updated and 20 were removed. The following links shows a full list of the upgraded packages: amd64 and i686.

What is new in version 20101219:

• This is a maintenance release addressing a few small bugs.
• The toolchain was kept steady with just a minor bump in glibc to 2.11.2.
• The kernel was updated to 2.6.32.27 plus grsecurity patches.
• About 120 packages were bumped to sync with Gentoo upstream.

What is new in version 20100901:

• The hardened toolchain was kept steady with only a minor bump to glibc.
• The kernel was updated to Gentoo's hardened-sources-2.6.34-r2 based on vanilla 2.6.34.4.
• Over 260 packages were upgraded, including Gnome 2.30.2 and Firefox 3.6.8.

What is new in version 20100601:

• The hardened toolchain and kernel were updated:
• gcc-4.4.4-r2
• glibc-2.11.1
• binutils-2.20.1-r1
• hardened-sources-2.6.32-r7 = 2.6.32.13 + grsec-2.1.14-2.6.32.13-201005151340
• Approximately 250 packages also updated, the most important of which were gnome-2.28.2 and firefox-3.6.3.

What is new in version 20091003:

• This release switches the toolchain to Gentoo's hardened-dev overlay, which includes all of the hardening features of the previous release implemented at the compiler specs level rather than in the make.conf file and other manual hacks.
• The current toolchain is comprised of binutils-2.18-r3, glibc-2.9_p20081201-r4, and gcc-4.4.1-r2.
• No changes were made to the kernel, which is held at 2.6.28-hardened-r9.
• Approximately 125 packages were updated to sync upstream with Gentoo.
• Important updates include bash, coreutils, python, readline, gtk+, epiphany, and firefox.