We started work on the OneClick Installer . This will provide an easy way to install whole application bundles like a completely Gaming Pack for example.
There are several other ideas around that to make it an easy and quick Installer.
Current State: Alpha 0.1
OpenOffice Startuptime optimizing has made some significant progress as you can see here:
The warm startup of OpenOffice Writer takes about 0.019 seconds. Thats a significant time.
The cold startup of OpenOffice Writer takes about 6.376 seconds. Thats fast too I think.
The System is really really running smooth so that I decide to stop it at this stage and work on something else. The MAGI .
The MAGI is really nice little tool that helps you to manage your Computer and ressources. The new ‘Fix’ Tab introduced in Beta 3 is really handy if you have problems with nvidia driver and suspend. The current development Version of MAGI got a new feature that allows you to mount FAT 16 & 32 aswell as NTFS and B(e)FS and place a line in /etc/fstab to mount them on every start.
Bernd and the Zebuntu Team decided to go different ways. This has some consequences to Zebuntu.
The next Beta version will be shipped with a new icon and window theme.
The development of the BeOS Compatibility Layer and integration therefor is now freezed.
We will concentrate on debuging, bugfixing and creation of new application.
Here is a sneak peak at our new Theme:
For Beta 4 i started optimizing the system and configuration files, for faster startup times.
First of all the slowest package of the system OpenOffice :
UPDATE:
Machine: Pentium 4 3.06 Ghz 256MB RAM
Comparison of startup time between Abiword and OpenOffice Writer
leszek@leszek-laptop:~$ time abiword
real 0m14.262s
user 0m1.368s
sys 0m0.224s
leszek@leszek-laptop:~$ time oowriterreal 0m11.674s
user 0m0.028s
sys 0m0.072s
leszek@leszek-laptop:~$
Here are some Benchmarks on the same machine running with 128 MB of Ram
leszek@leszek-laptop:~$ time abiword
real 0m20.340s
user 0m1.584s
sys 0m0.560s
leszek@leszek-laptop:~$ time oowriterreal 0m47.713s
user 0m0.120s
sys 0m0.164s
leszek@leszek-laptop:~$
Final thoughts : If you have memory below 256 MB consider the use of Abiword as wordprocessing application.
128 MB of RAM is the minimum required to run Zebuntu . It takes a relatively long time to boot up. When its booted up you can work normally.
Recommned is 256 MB of RAM or more.
If you want to install Zebuntu you need at least 192 MB of RAM. Installationapplication won’t work on Systems with 128 MB of RAM. But you are able to install it manually.
Beta 3 is ready with plenty of Bugfixes and new apps.
Changes:
After the first day of testing out beta 2 here are some fixes that can even applied manually if you wish to.
First of all printing in Gimp is now fixed. Fix for Beta 2: install the package gimp-print
Second the default menu now has the entry “more apps…” where all installed apps are listed. Fix for Beta 2: Use the XFCE Application Finder in ‘Software -> System’ .
Third added a new Disk-Manager that will automatically detect new partitions and let you easily configure partitions that aren’t in the /etc/fstab . Fix for Beta 2: Download the ‘Feisty’ Package from here and install it with a doubleclick.
Fourth added a new Mouse-Cursor Theme looking similiar to the BeOS one.
Beta 2 is ready
After some weeks of coding I am proud to say that we have a beta 2 here.
Some changes in this release :
- added VirtualBox (menu entry still missing, run it via STRG+F2 and typing virtualbox)
- added “open as root” “burn with k3b” “create symlink” “play folder with amarok” “enqueue in amarok” “attach to mail” contextmenu entries in Thunar.
- added rar (to extract rar archives with pws)
- added xchat Zebuntu-Server Entry
- added zebuntu.com Link to Epiphany
- added Lightscripe GUI (lightscripe-support)
- fixed german language support (no need to download any packages for english or german)
- fixed default mail-application entry (needs tests especially for KDE Applications)
- fixed default browser-application entry
- fixed KDE App Startup Engine (KDE Apps should start a lot faster now)
- rearranged/redesigned panel
- added openxml support for OpenOffice
The Normal Zebuntu version takes about 850 MB and fits on a DVD.
I started some work to create an ultra small and fast Zebuntu mini version.
Zebuntu mini is so small that it fits not only on CD (mini-CD) it also fits on USB Stick (>106MB).
Therefor it also loads itself completely in RAM before finally booting up. (RAM needs to be at least 128 MB)
This makes the system ultra fast and very handy for old computers.
But with its clever and small tools (thanks Puppy Linux for those) it is also capable to be used as an recovery system. It has the ability to easily restore the GRUB Bootloader and together with Gparted it is also possible to easily backup(software included) existing data or reformat you drive. Changes to Zebuntu-mini can be saved on USB, HDD or even be burned on the same CD-R (Multisession) it booted from.
Zebuntu-Mini includes the following software (only an extract):
- Abiword (small and fast Word processing tool)
- Gnumeric (small and fast Spreadsheet tool)
- Gaim 2.0b5 (Multi-Instant-Messaging Tool with IRC support)
- Opera 9.25 (very fast and small browser including Mail Application and Bittorrent)
- Xine 0.99.5 (very fast and small Multimedia Player)
- Gimp 2.2 (the Photoshop “Killer App”)
- Gftp + SSh-Gui + LinNeighborhood + PureFTPd + TightVNC ( for easy network data transfer)
- HardInfo (gain all information about you hardware)
- IsoMaster + Pburn (Burn Audio/Data CDs/DVDs)
- MUT (easy Partition Mounter)
- XFCE 4.4.2 (fastest complete Desktop Environment for Linux)
Screenshots :
Something that is used in daily work must be powerfull.
I updatet some scripts in the Thunar filemanager to fulfill this claim.
new action scripts:
- “open as root”
- “burn with k3b”
- “create symlink”
- “play folder with amarok”
- “enqueue in amarok”
- “attach to mail”
Screenshot :
The work on Beta 1(32-Bit Version) has finally finished.
Here are some first screenshots
Changelog :
———————-
-added FileZilla
-added Giver
-updated default menu / added Preferences menu entries
-2 new Wallpapers
-updated kdebase
-updated transmission
-added TabSessionManager for Epiphany
-added DoubleClick-NewTab for Epiphany
-added getlibs
-updated base system
-added Preference Entry for Graphics Card + prefgraph Application
-fixed some bugs in MAGI
Note: To Install ATI/Nvidia 3D Driver please activate all Package Sources in Zebuntu -> Preferences -> Sources
The Beta 1 ISO Images will be uploaded to a download server soon and will be avaiable for public beta testing.