News & Updates

Sharing and giving, that's the Spirit of Christmas.

And so on this very day of “Gift-Giving”, three months after our first installer release 09-09-2009, we give you the new KahelOS Linux (Desktop Edition) Installer Version: 12-25-2009 . Download KahelOS Linux Installer at http://www.kahelos.org/downloads.php

KahelOS Linux now has Kernel 2.6.32, Xorg 7.5 and Gnome 2.28.2 by default.

One may ask, what is new, is it worth-giving and worthy of  sharing your experiences and thoughts about this new KahelOS Linux (Desktop Edition) Installer?

We are glad to impart the new KahelOS Linux Installer developed to make it much more simple, easier and refreshing to use.

How is this possible?
    -The setup installation has been simplified. The user is no longer required to type /kahel/setup at the installer boot, instead the installer will automatically just appear upon bootup.

    -KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) is automatically detected as it has been installed by default, which means faster boot process, faster X server load, seamless graphical 3D effects, faster graphics, and an improved animated boot sequence.

    -Faster bootup - the startup process has been tweaked enormously to speed up the boot process even on modest hardware configurations, also KMS helps the loading of GDM which makes the login screen appear faster. Still 'fastboot', is a feature long before enabled on Kahel OS.

    What makes it better and sweeter is that 'fastboot' now operates without any delay. Modules have been initially pre-seeded upon installation so the system would not waste time on auto-detecting kernel modules.

    Why is KahelOS Linux faster than before?
    We have introduced an innovative change to the way daemons are loaded on startup. The traditional approach is to load all the daemons one by one or concurrently at startup before the GDM GUI appears. This approach is much slower because the system is sharing more resources on other daemons instead of just loading the GUI.
    Now, KahelOS just loads the GDM GUI making the GUI instantly appear, then loads the rest of the daemons when a user has logged-in.

In addtion, KahelOS Linux is now a 100% GNU distribution.  We tacitly did not ship any non-free, licensed-encumbered and proprietary software (gstreamer-bad/ugly/ffmpeg plugins, adobe flash plugin), to maintain a pure open source distro and to promote open standards (theora/ogg).  However, the user can easily be capable to install those packages if they need them.

Some application choices have been incorporated with mainstream users in mind. This also resulted in the deletion of unecessary libraries and applications with recursive/duplicate functionalities .
    -Firefox is the default web-browser
    -Empathy is for IM and VoIP
    -OpenOffice.org is the default Office Suite
    -F-Spot for managing photos, and Beagle for managing MP3's and Videos
    -Dejavu (off-spring of Bitsream) is among the default fonts in lieu of Bitsream Vera as Dejavu covers all the features Bitsream has.

    -The familiar filesystems available todate on most distribution have been added, (i.e. XFS, JFS, VFAT) primarily because many are still hooked on using such  filesystems. The next generation filesystems (NILFS2, BTRFS, EXT4), on the other hand, are still available as it is already handy even in the KahelOS installer  version 09.09.2009.

Some enhancements are named here for those looking for advance features and stability:
    -KahelOS is the first distro to release with GCM and has been tested to be stable. Gnome-Color-Manager is by default installed, along with free and public domain ICC profiles like the compatible version of Adobe RGB (1998) http://www.adobe.com/digitalimag/adobergb.html". GCM gives users the ability to change their ICC profile.

    -Due to the unstability of GNOME PackageKit as of this date, we have replaced it with a more stable 'gtkpacman', which is similar to Synaptics Package Manager.
 
    -While on other Linux Distributions 'Hibernate' incur complications (as they rely on hardware ACPI extensions which is not available on all computers), Hibernate and Suspend works perfectly with KahelOS Linux.  The simple solution was to change the installation method which incidentally also resolves the kernel not to be choked  when loading the filesystem module.

    -Metacity Compositor has been placed in lieu of Compiz, due to the white screen bug we have encountered previously. Metacity Compositor does not require a recent video hardware, and will run on almost every user and still having a nice graphical effect without necessitating a new video card.

    -In place of the braille fonts (ttf-ubraille) is the GNU FreeFonts which contains a braille writing system, the reason for removal of ttf-ubraille is because it is unusable for normal users without a braille printer and even if it's available nothing will be printed on the screen if someone use the fonts.

    -KahelOS Linux goes International – KahelOS Linux now supports displaying all major languages available; all asian fonts have been added, as well as language translations by default.  Moreover, SCIM (Smart Common Input Method) platform have been included to support inputs from all other languages.

    -Better Desktop Search - beagle have been replaced by tracker, a much faster and lighter desktop indexing application.

    -Easy VPN via NetworkManager - 3 VPN sub-systems have been added to NetworkManager.

    -yaourt – a BSD's port-like source code package installation is by default on KahelOS Linux. This provides the users freedom to install their choice packages and applications that they can truly build for themselves.
 
    -With the utility of Gnome 2.28, users will experience a faster and easier desktop they have not seen before and with the rolling release updates model, users can install the newest applications whenever they want it.

Patience is a virtue, so please do wait for more to come.
    -Installation Guide (in English) will follow within the next week
    -64 bit testing is ongoing and is underway
    -KahelOS repository and mirror in early January 2010.

For anyone who is interested to join and contribute please email us at developers-at-kahelos-dot-org.