Zenwalk Core

Zenwalk is a Slackware-based open-source operating system designed to be simple and fast, providing one application for one task, and be as small as possible. This is the Core edition of Zenwalk and acts as a base system without a graphical desktop environment.

It’s bootable on both 32-bit and 64-bit hardware platforms

The Core edition of Zenwalk Linux is freely distributed on Softoware as a dual-arch ISO image that’s bootable on both 32-bit (i386) and 64-bit (amd64) hardware platforms. It fits perfectly on a CD disc or a USB thumb drive that

Features a minimal boot prompt

When booting the ISO image from the BIOS of a computer, the user can pass extra kernel parameters to the kernel at the boot prompt. In most cases this is not required and users should just press the Enter key to start the installation script.

The entire installation process is text-based

To install the operating system you must select a keyboard layout, partition your drive, set up the target partition and install software packages. An automatic installation method is also available and it is highly recommended to new Linux users. The entire installation process is text-based.

After installation, you must select your prefered system language, enter a password for the root (system administrator) account, as well as to set up users and passwords.

Create your customized Zenwalk distro with the Core edition

All in all, the Zenwalk Core Linux distribution will provide a perfect starting point for creating customized operating system based on the Zenwalk distro, which in turn is derived from Slackware.

Zenwalk features numerous other editions

We remind our readers that the Zenwalk project features numerous other editions, such as Zenwalk GNOME, Zenwalk Openbox or Zenwalk Live. The main edition of Zenwalk Linux is built around the Xfce graphical desktop environment.

What is new in this release:

• Zenwalk Core is a one of a kind complete 300MB base Zenwalk system designed to build high-performance / high-security non-GUI Linux servers, or to be used as the base of your own custom light-speed Desktop System. You'll be amazed how it can be installed in just 10 minutes using the auto-install setup option on a dedicated disk : then you're ready to query the Netpkg repository to install your desktop of choice, or any network servers like Apache, Postfix, ... in case you're a network administrator. Feel free to check our repository for availability of any application, you'll notice it's fairly complete (you can also use Slackware packages as Zenwalk 6.4 is Slackware compatible).
• Zenwalk Core 6.4 provides the 2.6.33.4 kernel with the new BFS scheduler, designed for the best interactivity on multi-core CPUs while taking the most of lower spec machines. You'll notice better responsiveness of many applications, better realtime performance (very low latency), and efficiency of niced commands (compilation tasks can really be niced in a way they don't disturb other tasks). Other changes since Zenwalk Core 6.2 are : more complete set of libraries, no pre-installed servers, just pure Zenwalk "Core" !

What is new in version 6.2:

• Like the plain 6.2, Zenwalk Core 6.2 is mostly new code (nearly all packages have been updated), and the base system has been slightly modified (EXT4, kernel 2.6.30.5). The switch to LZMA for package compression has reduced the overall size of the ISO image (170MB).
• Kernel 2.6.30.5
• LZMA compression for packages
• EXT4 as main filesystem
• Faster boot (tuned init scripts)
• bus auto-detection in the installer (will choose appropriate kernel depending on the architecture, sata, pata, scsi)
• latest dev tools ...