SparkyLinux E20

SparkyLinux E19 is an open source, fast and simple Linux distribution built around the modern and lightweight Enlightenment E19 desktop environment and using the stable and reliable Debian GNU/Linux as its base.

Offers a rolling-release model

The SparkyLinux project follows a rolling-release model based on the stable Debian branch, has five different desktop environments, supports most wireless and wired network cards, includes support for English and Polish languages, and it is easily installable on disk drives or USB sticks. In addition, the operating system includes Lite (JWM), Xfce, LXDE, MATE, Razor-Qt, CLI, Trinity, Ultra, and GameOver editions, which can all be downloaded from Softoware.

Distributed as 64-bit and 32-bit Live DVDs

SparkyLinux E17 is distributed as Live DVD ISO images, one for each of the supported hardware platforms (32-bit and 64-bit), designed to be installed on a local disk drive.

Boot options

The boot medium supports the English, French, German, Polish, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, and Swedish languages.

It can also be used to boot the live environment in text mode, failsafe mode, run a memory test, or boot from the first hard disk drive. As mentioned before, this edition comes with the Enlightenment window manager, which provides users with an eye-candy and accessible desktop experience.

Default applications

Default applications include the Iceweasel web browser (fork of Mozilla Firefox), Icedove email client (for of Mozilla Thunderbird), Liferea feed reader, gFTP FTP client, Pidgin instant messenger, TeamViewer remote desktop client, Transmission torrent downloader, uGet download manager, and XChat IRC client.

Additionally, the Hotot Twitter client, the official Dropbox client, GIMP image editor, Audacity sound editor, Avidemux video editor, DeVeDe DVD-Video creator, Exaile music player, GNOME MPlayer video player, Radio Tray, VLC Media Player, RecordMyDesktop, OGMRip video encoder, PlayOnLinux, and the entire LibreOffice office suite are also included.

Bottom line

All in all, SparkyLinux E17 is a superb Linux distribution. It is fast, stable, reliable, modern, and comes with a very good collection of open source applications. We recommend using it as your only operating system, on either high-end or low-end computers.

What is new in this release:

• full system upgrade from Debian testing repository as of December 15, 2015
• Linux kernel 4.2.0 (4.2.6)
• Enlightenment 0.20.0 (0.20.1 is available in our repos)
• KDE Plasma 5.4.3
• LXDE 0.99.0-2
• LXQt 0.10.0-2
• MATE 1.10.2
• Openbox 3.6.1-2
• Xfce 4.12.2
• Iceweasel 38.2.1esr
• Icedove 38.4
• LibreOffice 5.0.4 rc1
• Wine 1.8 rc3
• removed KDE/KWin based packages, the system uses Openbox window manager only and applications based on Qt and GTK libs (LXQt edition)
• a small issue which did not let loading the default Sparky wallpaper has been fixed (KDE 64 bit edition)
• the live-installer supports auto login via SDDM in the target system (KDE edition)
• due to removing a dependency from Debian testing repository for ‘mintstick' tool, it has been replaced by Sparky USB Live Creator, which is a GUI front-end to ‘dd', and another (new) tool Sparky USB Formatter
• ‘boot-repair' tool has been removed from iso images, but it is still available in the Sparky repository and on the iso images of the Sparky Rescue Edition
• ‘xfce4-mixer plugin' has been replaced by ‘pulseaudio-plugin' (Xfce edition)
• general cleaning and removing obsolete packages
• localizationing Sparky tools
• TOR Messenger - a multi messenger (IM), which uses the TOR network as default, is available in Sparky repository now
• removed all old Sparky wallpapers from the live iso images, and the default wallpapers has been slightly modified, depends of a Sparky edition
• added small application called "Sparky First Run"
• added ‘menulibre' package (Xfce edition)
• added new tool ‘obmenu-generator', which can generate a static or dynamic pipe menu and ‘xfdashboard' tool (Openbox edition)

What is new in version 3.4:

• Linux kernel 3.14
• All packages upgraded from Debian testing repositories as of 2014/05/31
• Enlightenment has been updated up to version E18 (0.18.2/0.18.5), see how to manually upgrade E17 to E18: http://sparkylinux.org/how-to-upgrade-sparky-e17-to-e18/
• Support for installation on machines with EFI
• systemd is the default init system now, see how to change sysvinit to systemd:
• http://sparkylinux.org/sparky-systemd/
• Sparky e18 is shipped with Sparky-Dark theme made by Agust with a wallpaper based on Sakasa artwork, the theme can be downloaded from sourceforge:
• http://sourceforge.net/projects/sparkylinux/files/files/themes/A-18-Dark-Sparky.edj/download
• The repository list has been split:
• The main one features Debian repository only inside the file /etc/apt/sources.list
• All additional repositories have been moved to the directory /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
• see: http://sparkylinux.org/sparky-repository/
• Sparky Center - our system control center for LXDE desktop has been rebuilt, added tabs for every option and upgraded up to version 0.2.1
• Sparky APTus - our tool for updating, installing and removing packages has been updated up to version 0.2.0; it offers new functions now:
• Removing Non-Free and Restricted packages which are pre-installed in the system
• Installation of missing language packages
• Every option is placed in a separated tab
• Sparky-Tray - our small app which is loaded to the system's panel tray and gives quick access to APTus, Synaptic, repository list editor and root terminal has been updated up to version 0.1.2. It lets you edit all repo lists due to changes occurred in the repository list
• Sparky-Backup-Apps - our applications backup tool has been updated up version 0.1.4
• Sparky-Backup-System - our system backup tool has been updated up to version 0.1.7 - due to moving Sparky to systemd
• A few apps have been removed: aptoncd, avidemux, audacity, devede, ogmrip, soundconverter; still available to install in the repository
• Added a new package: hardinfo
• New application in our repository: skype
• Teamviewer has been updated up to version 9

What is new in version 3.2:

• Linux kernel 3.11-2 (3.11.10-1)
• All packages have been upgraded from Debian testing repositories as of 2013/12/15
• Enlightenment 0.17.3-2
• PCManFM 1.1.2-1 (e17 desktop)
• Added support for installation 32 bit applications on 64 bit systems
• Added 32 bit wine package for 64 bit system
• Added package curl - it's a missing depends for PlayOnLinux
• e17 desktop - added packages: sparky-locales, sparky-passwdchange, sparky-timedateset, sparky-users, sparky-xdf
• sparky-aptus has been updated up to version 0.1.6 - added new option ‘Fix Broken DPKG' - it lets you fix not (or wrong) installed/upgraded packages with ‘dpkg' tool.

What is new in version 3.1:

• Linux kernel 3.10-3 (3.10.11-1)
• All packages have been updated from Debian testing repositories as of 2013/10/05
• SparkyBackup-System one more bug fixed (thanks to The Black Pig) - updated up to 0.1.5
• e17 desktop is available as a separated iso image now and it has been updated up to 0.17.3 version from Debian unstable Sid repository
• Added Teamviewer client, Sparky APTus, Minitube, Gnote, Osmo, Radiotray and Xfburn.