TOP Linux Express Edition

TOP Linux Express Edition is an open source distribution of Linux, a special edition of the TOP (Tacky Optimizing Puppy) Linux operating system that contains six times as much software packages than the main edition of said operating system.

It’s distributed as a dual-arch Live CD

The Express edition of the TOP Linux distro can be downloaded from Softoware as a dual-arch Live CD ISO image. This means that you can use it on both 32-bit and 64-bit computers. The ISO image has approximately 650MB in size and fits perfectly on a CD disc or a USB flash drive of 1GB or higher capacity.

Boot menu à la Puppy Linux

Being based on Puppy Linux, the distribution uses its Live CD boot menu, which will automatically start the live system in eight seconds from the moment the user boots the ISO image from the BIOS of a computer. It is possible to see a list of available boot options by pressing the F2 key.

First time setup

Before you can access the graphical interface, you are required to select a port for your mouse device, a keyboard layout and a display server, which depends on your graphics card (if you have an old video card choose VESA). In addition, when arrived at the desktop, you will be asked to enable desktop apps and to choose a screen resolution.

Uses the same lightweight desktop as TOP Linux

Just like the main TOP Linux edition, this flavor uses the lightweight IceWM window manager as its default and only desktop environment. It comprises of a taskbar, a dock (application launcher), which is hidden by default and placed on the top of the screen, as well as a desktop widget.

Comes with a bigger software collection

The main difference between the main edition of TOP Linux and the Express one is that the latter includes a bigger software collection. Both editions can be installed on a local disk drive.