Kongoni GNU/Linux

Kongoni GNU/Linux is an open source, community-derived operating system based on the highly acclaimed Slackware Linux distribution and powered only by free software approved by Free Software Foundation (FSF).

It contains software packages optimized for the i486 arch

The Kongoni Linux operating system is distributed as a single Live CD ISO image that contains software packages optimized for the 32-bit (i486) instruction set architecture. It has approximately 700MB in size and it will fit perfectly on a CD disc or a USB thumb drive of 1GB or higher capacity.

The live system runs in normal, compatibility or console modes

While the Live CD has been instructed to automatically start the live system in 10 seconds from the moment the user boots the ISO image from the BIOS of a PC, you can access the boot menu by pressing any key during the aforementioned timeout.

Among the default boot options, we can mention the ability to start the live system with default drivers, in compatibility mode or in console mode. In addition, you will be able to perform a system memory diagnostic test, as well as to boot an existing operating system from the local drive.

KDE Plasma is in charge of the graphical desktop interface

To our surprise, the default and only graphical desktop environment of Kongoni GNU/Linux is KDE Plasma, which looks amazingly attractive, comprised of a single taskbar located on the bottom edge of the screen, allowing the user to quickly navigate the main menu, between multiple virtual workspaces and running programs. Pre-installed applications can be easily launched from the main menu.

Contains mostly KDE-specific applications

Being built around KDE Plasma, the Kongoni operating system contains mostly KDE-specific applications, among which we can mention the Amarok music player and organizer, Choqok social networking client, K3b CD/DVD burning software, IceCat web browser, Kopete multi-protocol instant messenger and KTorrent BitTorrent client.

What is new in this release:

• Kernel 2.6.37.6-libre
• KDE 4.6.2
• PulseAudio 0.9.22
• NetworkManager 0.8.3.998
• ModemManager 0.4
• digiKam 1.9.0
• Chromium 10.0.648.204
• qTwitter 0.10.0
• K3B 2.0.2
• Amarok 2.4.0
• KTorrent 4.1.0
• Bluedevil 1.0.4
• Gnash 0.8.9
• LibreOffice 3.3.2 (in repository)
• OpenJDK 1.6.0_22 (in repository)
• Icecat 3.6.16 (in repository)
• Lightspark 0.4.6.1 (in repository)

What is new in version 1.12.3 Alpha 2:

• It took a while, but now second alpha of Kongoni GNU/Linux is here. I've been working a lot to make sure that the installer (KSI) works right, taking in consideration there were a lot of issues with it. The main issue was the fact that you couldn't install the system if there wasn't any swap partition setup before, which it wasn't really good and had to be fixed. Besides working on KSI, we also moved up with the kernel and now Kongoni runs on 2.6.34, named 2.6.34-desktop. Of course you will find the same things build in, like squashfs4 with lzma support, aufs2, btrfs, logfs, Nouveau and so on. We also remove BFS (Brain Fuck Scheduler) from the kernel, as I noticed that it doesn't help the system too much, plus it can crash in certain cases the system. Update gnash to the latest version (0.8.7) and added full flash support for konqueror using gnash, added smooth-tasks (thanks to PCLinuxOS), renamed config_xorg package to xorgconfig and now the automatic option in xorgconfig.sh will not use a configuration file letting X Server to setup the display.
• Since the last release also we have synchronized Kongoni with the stable version of Slackware 13.1.

What is new in version 1.12.2 Alpha:

• Kongoni is a desktop-focused GNU/Linux distribution with significant inspiration from the BSD UNIX systems. It is based on Slackware Linux 12.2 with the latest upstream patches and also features KDE 4.2.2 and the latest stable releases of most common desktop applications such, as OpenOffice.org. This release includes the first versions of several Kongoni-specific tools, including Ports Installation GUI (PIG), which provides a simple graphical tool for installing, managing and even creating software ports, and Kongoni Instant Setup System (KISS), which provides a simple and highly extensible interface for common configuration tasks.