PixieLive

PixieLive is an open source distribution of Linux based on the powerful and geek-friendly Gentoo operating system. It uses the GNOME desktop environment, as well as the Enlightenment and Openbox window managers. It is suitable for netbooks equipped with the GMA500 chipset.

Distributed as a dual-arch Live DVD

The PixieLive operating system is distributed as a dual-arch Live DVD ISO image that should work well on both 32-bit (i386) and 64-bit (x86_64) netbook computers. You must write the ISO image to a USB flash drive of 4GB or higher capacity in order to boot it from the BIOS of a PC.

Includes three powerful desktop environments

The distribution comes with three powerful desktop environments/window managers, such as GNOME Classic, Enlightenment and Openbox. The user will be able to select his or her favorite desktop environment from the login screen.

Includes a plethora of open source applications

It includes Wicd network manager, LibreOffice office suite, GIMP image editor, Inkscape vector graphics editor, Mozilla Firefox web browser, MPlayer video player, Skype VoIP client, Pidgin IM client, as well as Deluge torrent downloader.

In addition, the Filezilla file transfer client, Midnight Commander two-pane file manager, GParted partition editor, Darktable RAW image editor, Geeqie image viewer, Gtkam digital image downloader, Freemind mind-mapping software and Calibre e-book library management software are also included.

Furthermore, the distro also comes with the Claws Mail email client, Liferea news reader, Opera web browser, Audacity audio editor, Cheese webcam viewer, as well as various network analysis tools.

Bottom line

In conclusion, PixieLive is a persistent Live DVD that can be booted from USB or SD/MMC flash drives and used on netbook computers. Please note that the root (system administrator) account uses the “toor” password (without quotes), and the password for the “pixielive” username is “pixielive” (without quotes, of course).

What is new in this release:

• Copy.com replaced Drobox (15 GB of free online storage, +5 GB if you register using this Link)
• As usual Pixielive supports GMA500 (a.k.a Poulsbo) graphic cards with both EMGD 1.18 binary drivers and the free modesetting (gma500_gfx)
• nVidia Optimus supported out of the box
• Claws-mail (lightweight email client which saves automatically on you pendrive)
• Multi-User live system
• Settings saved in several different ways (if the boot device is writable):
• some directories in the $HOME are linked in the PixieLive4 directory on your pendrive (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Templates, Videos)
• on demand save settings (for normal settings, as usual in PixieLive)
• live changes, for data and settings which change frequently (email thunderbird and claws-mail, copy.com replacing dropbox, it syncs on your..., sticky notes, calibre, torrents, calendar osmo, wifi networks)
• encrypted settings (for sensitive data browsers, email, copy.com settings,...)
• encrypted storage (~/Private directory encrypted, so you can safely save your sensitive documents on you pendrive)