Frugalware

Infobox OS
name = Frugalware Linux

website = [http://frugalware.org/ www.frugalware.org]
family = Linux
source_model = Open source
working_state = Current
latest_release_version = 0.9
latest_release_date = September 9, 2008
kernel_type = Monolithic kernel
license = Various
supported_platforms = i686, x86-64
package_manager = Pacman

Frugalware Linux is a general-purpose Linux distribution, designed for intermediate users, who are familiar with command-line operations. It is based on Slackware, but uses a different package management system, Pacman.cite web| title=Interview with Frugalware Linux Developer, VMiklos | publisher=Open Addict | url=http://www.openaddict.com/interview_with_frugalware_linux_developer_vmiklos.html | accessdate =2008-02-27 | format=HTML | archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070714171605/http://www.openaddict.com/interview_with_frugalware_linux_developer_vmiklos.html | archivedate =2007-07-14 ]

Aims

Frugalware's developers attempt to make Frugalware as simple as possible while establishing a priority based on comfortable use. Their goal is to ship consistently fresh and stable software, as close to the original source as possible.

History

Frugalware was founded by Miklós Vajna. He considered Slackware's package manager "pkgtools" too slow, and wanted to rewrite it in C. He was told that it would never be accepted by Slackware, so Vajna started to think about founding a separate Linux distribution. He replaced Slackware's original package manager, init scripts and build system. As a result, Frugalware was born.cite web| title=Interview with Miklós Vajna, Frugalware Linux | publisher=DistroWatch | url=http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20060522#interview | accessdate =2008-03-26 | format=HTML]

Package management

Since version 0.6 Frugalware has used Pacman-G2 package manager.cite web| title=Frugalware 0.6 (Terminus) Changelog| publisher=Frugalware Project | url=http://ftp.frugalware.org/pub/archive/frugalware-0.6/ChangeLog.txt | format=TXT | accessdate =2008-02-27] It is a fork of a CVS version of the complete rewrite of Pacman by Aurelien Foret, which was not officially released at the time.cite web| title=Pacman-G2| work=Frugalware 0.7 (Sayshell) Documentation | publisher=Frugalware Project | url=http://frugalware.org/docs/stable/pacman-g2.html | format=HTML | accessdate =2008-02-27] Previously Frugalware used a modified version of the older, monolithic Pacman by Judd Vinet.

Frugalware's packages' extension is .fpm.cite web| title=Creating new packages| work=Frugalware 0.7 (Sayshell) Documentation | publisher=Frugalware Project | url=http://frugalware.org/docs/stable/makepkg.html | format=HTML | accessdate =2008-02-27] The packages are tar archives that are compressed using bzip2,cite web| title=About Frugalware| work=Frugalware 0.6 (Terminus) Documentation | publisher=Frugalware Project | url=http://frugalware.org/docs/stable/about.html | format=HTML | accessdate =2008-02-27] not gzip like the packages used by Pacman of Arch Linux.cite web| title=Interview with Judd Vinet | publisher=DistroWatch | url=http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=interview-arch | accessdate =2008-02-27 | author=Ladislav Bodnar | year =2003 | format=HTML] Bzip2 archives have smaller file size but longer unpacking-time compared to gzip archives.

Repoman is a tool to compile source packages and automatically create and install closed-source packages. With Repoman, the user can also download all packages' buildscript and recompile them with specific build options. The build options can be changed by editing a configuration file. The first Frugalware release that had Repoman was Frugalware 0.3pre1.cite web| title=Frugalware 0.3pre1-i686 released | accessdate =2008-02-27 | publisher=Frugalware Project | url=http://frugalware.org/news/22 | format=HTML]

Branches

Frugalware has a -current and a -stable branch. The -current branch is updated daily, and the -stable branch gets updated every 6 months.

Architectures

Frugalware currently supports x86 and x86-64 microprocessor architectures. The x86 packages are optimized for i686 processors, and the 0.3pre1 was the first release that also had an x86_64 port.

Releases

* 0.1 (Genesis) – November 2, 2004
* 0.2 (Aurora) – April 28, 2005
* 0.3 (Trantor) – October 13, 2005 (for x86 port) [cite web| title=Frugalware 0.3-i686 released | publisher=Frugalware Project | url=http://frugalware.org/news/28 | format=HTML | accessdate =2008-02-27] and October 19, 2005 (for x86_64 port) [cite web| title=Frugalware 0.3-x86_64 released | publisher=Frugalware Project | url=http://frugalware.org/news/29 | format=HTML | accessdate =2008-02-27]

* 0.4 (Wanda) – March 30, 2006
* 0.5 (Siwenna) – September 14, 2006
* 0.6 (Terminus) – March 22, 2007
* 0.7 (Sayshell) – October 13, 2007
* 0.8 (Kalgan) – March 11, 2008
* 0.9 (Solaria) – September 9, 2008

All the Frugalware releases except "Genesis" have been named after planets in science fiction books by Isaac Asimov.cite web| title=Frugalware Roadmap| publisher=Frugalware Project | url=http://frugalware.org/roadmap | format=HTML | accessdate =2008-03-24]

Live USB

A Live USB of Frugalware can be created manually or with UNetbootin [ [http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/] ] .

References

External links

* [http://frugalware.org/ Frugalware Linux website]
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