EasyOS Scarthgap-series 6.5

EasyOS was created in 2017, derived from Quirky Linux, which in turn was derived from Puppy Linux in 2013. Easy is built in woofQ, which takes as input binary packages from any distribution, and uses them on top of the unique EasyOS infrastructure.

Throughout 2020, the official release for x86_64 PCs was the Buster-series, built with Debian 10.x Buster DEBs.

EasyOS has also been built with packages compiled from source, using a fork of OpenEmbedded (OE). Currently, the Scarthgap release of OE has been used, to compile binary packages for x86_64.

Earlier releases of EasyOS compiled in OE are the Kirkstone-series, Dunfell-series and Pyro-series. They have also been compiled for aarch64 and EasyOS runs on the Raspberry Pi4.

The last release of the x86_64 Dunfell-series was January 10, 2023, version 4.5.5. The announcement and release notes are here:

https://bkhome.org/news/202301/easyos-dunfell-series-version-455-released.html

The latest (maintenance) release of the Kirkstone-series was on August 14, 2024, version 5.8.4, announcement here:

https://bkhome.org/news/202408/easyos-kirkstone-series-version-584.html

The Kirkstone-series is likely to receive maintenance updates until the end of 2024.

The version number is for EasyOS itself, independent of the target hardware; that is, the infrastructure, support-glue, system scripts and system management and configuration applications.

The latest version is becoming mature, though Easy is an experimental distribution and some parts are under development and are still considered as beta-quality. However, you will find this distro to be a very pleasant surprise, or so we hope.

6.0 release notes

This is the start of a new series, packages compiled in OpenEmbedded Scarthgap release, major version updates since the Kirkstone-series.

The kernel is 6.6.32. Source, patches and build scripts here:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/source/kernel/6.6.x/

The online repository for "oe-qky-scarthgap" based on OE:

https://github.com/bkauler/oe-qky-scarthgap

The online repository for woofQ, the build system for EasyOS:

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq

6.0.2 release notes

Bug fixes...

6.0.4 release notes

Bug fixes, also some significant changes...

6.1 release notes

Some fixes, new yff, Chromium and kernel version bumps...

6.1.1 release notes

Various improvements...

6.2 release notes

A complete recompile in OpenEmbedded, bumping many package versions.

6.3 release notes

Now with ibus input method builtin and Chinese rendering and input support. Greatly improved icon-free-desktop support.

6.3.1 release notes

Various little fixes, Chromium bumped:

In 6.3, ibus-pinyin and dependencies was builtin to provide Chinese input method. These are no longer builtin; instead, if a Chinese zh_* locale is chosen, there is a popup requesting to install either ibus-pinyin or ibus-libpinyin.

6.4 release notes

A complete recompile in OE, support for Zig:

6.4.2 release notes

Lots of new applications:

6.4.4 release notes

Small improvements:

6.4.5 release notes

Major progress running Easy Daedalus in a container in Easy Scarthgap:

You will need to run SFSget to install 'daedalus_6.4.5_amd64.sfs' in Scarthgap.

6.5 release notes

Milestone release, alongside Easy Daedalus 6.5. Various fixes:


About EasyOS

Why would you choose EasyOS instead of some other Linux distribution?

For a quick overview of how EasyOS is different from other Linux distributions, read this:

https://easyos.org/about/how-and-why-easyos-is-different.html

You will notice that the download is quite small, yet contains just about every application you would ever need, such as Firefox|Chromium browser, LibreOffice, Gimp, Dia, Inkscape, Planner, Grisbi, Osmo, NoteCase, Celluloid and Audacious. There are powerful system managers, such as NetworkManager, EasyContainers, EasyVersionControl and BluePup.

BluePup for example, is a bluetooth manager, unique to EasyOS. Another unique tool is 'easydd', a GUI or CLI tool for writing a drive-image file to SD-card or USB-stick.

Links

Website: https://easyos.org/

News: https://bkhome.org/news

Forum: https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewforum.php?f=63

We are very grateful to Ibiblio for hosting EasyOS, right from the start:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/scarthgap/

EasyOS has a mirror of ibiblio.org in Europe, thanks to NLUUG, here:

https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/easyos/

Also a mirror in Australia, thanks to AARNET, here:

https://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/easyos/

Legal statement:  https://easyos.org/about/legal-disclaimers-miscellania.html