A rolling release for Debian
Distro Walk – SparkyLinux
© Photo by Dawid Zawila on Unsplash
From its considered basics to its flavor varieties, SparkyLinux is an interesting Debian-based OS.
To judge from the Distrowatch listings, Debian is the source of almost two-thirds of Linux's active distributions. Among such giant Debian derivatives as Ubuntu and Linux Mint, SparkyLinux [1] is easily overlooked. However, SparkyLinux is well worth examining (Figure 1). While hardly revolutionary, SparkyLinux does a thoughtful job of delivering the basics that users need, such as embedded help in the installer (Figure 2) and a variety of flavors for different preferences, while providing a minimum list of default applications. Especially noteworthy is its redefinition of Debian's testing repository as a rolling release, making it a useful alternative to Debian's time-honored general releases. Here, Pawel "pavroo" Pijanowski, SparkyLinux's founder and lead developer, talks about the project's priorities and organization.
Linux Magazine (LM): How did SparkyLinux begin? Was there a problem you wanted to solve? A feature to add? A defining moment?
Pawel "pavroo" Pijanowski (Pawel): Debian is an excellent operating system based on the Linux kernel. I've been using it for many years, both in stable and testing versions, and for a while I used the unstable Sid branch – it's never let me down, but it requires some patience and familiarity with its operation.
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