linuxBean

linuxBean is an open source, fast and lightweight operating system based on the world’s most popular free distribution of Linux, Ubuntu, and built around the LXDE desktop environment. It is specifically designed for Linux beginners and Japanese-speaking users.

Availability, supported architectures and system requirements

The distribution can be downloaded as a single CD-size ISO image that will support only 32-bit software packages, but will run on both x86 and x86_64 hardware platforms. Keep in mind though, that the default language is Japanese.

Please note that you will need more than 10GB free disk space, a at least an i686 (Pentium M, Celeron M or later) CPU and more than 384MB of RAM to permanently install this operating system on a computer.

Boot options

Among the boot options of the Live CD, we can mention the ability to start the live environment with default options, in safe graphics mode, without ACPI, with backlight enabled or with support for old hard disk drives, boot an existing operating system from the first disk, perform a system memory diagnostic check, and directly start the graphical installer.

Lightweight desktop environment for low-end machines

As mentioned, the distribution uses LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) as its default and only desktop environment, providing users with a traditional, low on resources and very fast graphical session that comprises of a bottom panel and a dock located on the left side of the screen.

Includes a powerful set of applications for everyday tasks

Default applications include the Opera web browser, FileZilla file transfer client, Transmission torrent downloader, Sylpheed email client, uGet download manager, Gnumeric spreadsheet editor, Comix comic book viewer, mtPaint digital painting software, EasyTAG audio file tagging utility, ISO Master CD image editor, Audacity audio editor, and Goggles music manager.

Bottom line

As the developer states on the official website, linuxBean is Linux beginner's trump card, designed to be as easy-to-use, fast and productive as possible. It always uses the latest upstream Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) technologies.

What is new in this release:

• It is a maintenance release that fixes Java and kernel issues with Pentium M / Celeron M processors, and you can now run jar files by double clicking on them. This release is based on the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) operating system.