Absolute is a x86 Linux distribution based upon Slackware. It concentrates on "desktop" use so that it is ready for internet, multimedia, document and general home use as much as possible. Absolute is lightweight -- meaning 2 things: that it can run on on older hardware and that the OS interface stays out of your way.

It is version-compatible with Slackware so you can use almost any package from the same version of Slack on Absolute. It is what I use all day, every day, and I am very thankful for Linux and Slackware and I hope others find benefit from my work on Absolute.
--Paul Sherman

News



  • Absolute 13.0.RC2 released

    Tuesday, 06/30/2009:

    Midori installed from main ISO, option to change to default in control panel. New KDE libs (in support of new K3B), a large number of interface tweaks, mostly to do with filetype handling. Seems pretty stable, looking for bug reports.



  • Absolute 13.0.RC1 released

    Wednesday, 06/23/2009:

    Pre-release that includes fixes for slapt-get and wicd, addition of a control panel, centralizing control and eliminating the sometimes-confusing utilities menus. Big updates to Midori and inkscape on repositories (under /CD2). New theme, new logon, QT4 up and running several new applications along with QT4-based K3B. Overall a more cohesive look and simpler navigation. Wanted a release candidate so that 13.0 will not necessitate updates -- also wanted to have feedback on whether Midori is functional enough to become the default browser. (It uses about 1/3 the memory of Firefox in my tests.)



  • Absolute 12.2.5 released

    Friday, 06/05/2009:

    New kernel, new package format, new python

    Every single package has been at least re-packed, majority modified/updated. Interface updated along with kernel, python, packaging system which is now txz-based and due to higher compression the main release contains much more than previously: OpenOffice and Java, as well as many other applications now fit on a single CD.
    Pcmanfm and rox have both been modified to seamlessly work with the TXZ package archives as well as the new "Add/Remove Programs" item in root menu. New volume control (now in system tray, sleeker.) New theme, more complete file type handling.



  • Absolute 12.2.4 released

    Tuesday, 04/21/2009:

    This release brings QT4/KDE4 libs

    Updates to K3B, smplayer based upon this. Plus a large number of additions and updates. Several programs moved to CD2 or /extra.



  • Absolute 12.2.3 released

    Monday, 03/23/2009: new (and slightly) improved.

    This release brings kernel-2.6.28.8, (seeing how Slackware updated their kernel the day after our last release. Bad luck, there.) Only a few other changes. New freetype and cairo working fine, when I first updated I must have ended up with a corrupt download or a bad burn on a disc -- because I had trouble at first but smooth sailing since.

    Updated GIMP (with all the extra scripts and brushes), updated netconfig to automatically restart inet1. Updated WordNet dictionary to version 3.0 (changing run script so no environmental variable needs to be set.) Added SciTE editor and Secret maryo Chronicals game to CD2.



  • Absolute 12.2.2 released

    Wednesday, 03/18/2009: Grab it from the downloads page.

    This release brings kernel-2.6.28.7, autoinstall defaults to ext4 filesystem. (Regular install allows for ext3 and reiserfs as well.) The kernel, for now, is the Slackware hugesmp, so it is Slackware "stock" Waiting feedback if users like this or would rather get specific cofiguration tweaked. The large number of changes along with imminent bump in Xorg led me to go with the flow for now in order to expidite and allow easier input from Slack-compatible repositories.

    In addition to the new kernel there was a very large number of application as well as library updates -- so installing via update/gslapt is not advised. Only real interface tweaks were making sure ROX-Filer did not run pinboard even when set not to (this saved us a bit of memory usage) and if you switch from netcofig or manual network setup to wicd usage the rc.inet1.conf automatically gets reset at boot -- so you won't get confused or have to tweak your configuration.



  • Absolute 12.2.1 released

    Thursday, 01/08/2009: Grab it from the downloads page.

    This release updates several major programs due to security issues. This includes Firefox, Thunderbird, Samba, Seamonkey and Pidgin. Pidgin also updated to correctly configure notification/alert sounds. Updates also enable auto-start of PTP cameras (like Canon), updated GIMP and GIMP-help (help on CD2 zip) and updated wicd (for wired and wireless connection management.) Plus a few others...



  • Absolute 12.2.0 released

    Sunday, 12/14/2008:

    Uploading to both repositories along with SourceForge caused quite a delay -- so I just ordered the "turbo" version of RoadRunner (my ISP) to try to speed things up, but I did this last year and it did not help much. They claim better upload speeds now, so we shall see...


  •   absolutelinux.org
    Tuesday, 12/09/2008: switched from being parked on personal homepage to this site.


  •   Repository obained
    Friday, 11/14/2008: Many, many thanks go out to Darren Austin of slackware.org.uk for providing us with the package repository. this has enable a sane release schedule as well as the ability to set up gslapt/slapt-get within the distribution to facilitate updating in a simple and reasonable fashion.


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