Chakra (officially Chakra GNU/Linux) was a Linux distribution originally based on Arch Linux and focused on
KDE software
KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-known products include the ...
, intending to provide a KDE/
Qt minimizing use of other
widget toolkit
A widget toolkit, widget library, GUI toolkit, or UX library is a library or a collection of libraries containing a set of graphical control elements (called ''widgets'') used to construct the graphical user interface (GUI) of programs.
Most widge ...
s where possible. It was well received by critics during its existence.
History
In June 2006 a group of
Arch Linux
Arch Linux () is an independently developed, x86-64 general-purpose Linux distribution that strives to provide the latest stable versions of most software by following a rolling-release model. The default installation is a minimal base system, ...
users initiated the KDEmod packaging project to improve and simplify a standard KDE installation with Arch Linux. In December 2008 the group released their first custom made ISO with a preconfigured Arch + KDEmod + Tribe. After several releases lead developer Jan Mette suggested to split from Arch to allow for a much closer integration with KDE software.
On August 30, 2010, the first independent version, called ''Chakra 0.2'', was released. This ended the development on KDEmod and the project was renamed to "The Chakra Project".
On December 27, 2021, the lead developer of Chakra announced the discontinuation of the project including accounts and services, citing a lack of project activity since November 2019.
On 11 April 2022, the board of Software in the Public Interest, Inc. (SPI), who owned the trademark of Chakra, voted unanimously on the removal of Chakra as an associated project of the SPI, based on the request from Chakra.
Features
Chakra included both free and proprietary software, though the latter had the ability to be disabled during installation. It was only available for the x86_64 architecture, with support for i686 having been dropped in August 2012.
It is based on KDE Software Compilation.
Chakra did not schedule releases for specific dates but used a "Half-
Rolling release
Rolling release, also known as rolling update or continuous delivery, is a concept in software development of frequently delivering updates to applications. This is in contrast to a ''standard'' or '' point release'' development model which uses s ...
" system. This meant that the core packages of Chakra (graphics, audio, etc.) were frozen and only updated to fix
security vulnerabilities
Vulnerabilities are flaws in a computer system that weaken the overall security of the device/system. Vulnerabilities can be weaknesses in either the hardware itself, or the software that runs on the hardware. Vulnerabilities can be exploited by ...
. The aforementioned packages were updated after the latest versions were thoroughly tested before being moved to the stable repositories (about every six months). This allowed Chakra to ensure stability for the rest of the software included. Other applications such as web browsers, office suites, etc. were updated following the rolling release model and were generally available immediately after their release.
Installation
The Chakra website supplied
ISO image
An optical disc image (or ISO image, from the ISO 9660 file system used with CD-ROM media) is a disk image that contains everything that would be written to an optical disc, disk sector by disc sector, including the optical disc file system. ...
s that could be run from
CD, DVD or
USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...
. Two ISO image versions were provided; a full edition providing more applications, and a minimal edition providing less applications. The graphical Chakra installation program was called "
Calamares
Squid is eaten in many cuisines; in English, the culinary name calamari is often used for squid dishes.''Oxford English Dictionary'', 3rd edition, 2002''s.v.''/ref> There are many ways to prepare and cook squid. Fried squid is common in the Me ...
".
Package management
Repositories
The following repositories were known to exist during Chakra's existence:
* ''core'', which contains all the packages needed to set up a base system.
* ''desktop'', which contains KDE Software Compilation packages and Chakra tools.
* ''gtk'', which contains various well-known GTK applications.
* ''lib32'', a centralized repository for x86_64 users to more readily support 32-bit applications in a 64-bit environment.
A ''testing'' repository also existed that contained versions of packages that were deemed not stable, but ready for testing by users.
There were also ''unstable'' repositories that included applications still considered to be unstable. These repositories also included packages built directly from the
upstream source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the w ...
, and were not ready for the ''testing'' or stable repositories. There were two repositories that fulfilled this, the repositories being:
* ''unstable'', which contains development versions of general packages.
* ''kde-unstable'', which contains development versions of KDE Software Compilation packages.
Chakra Community Repository (CCR)
In addition to the official repositories, users could install packages from the Chakra Community Repository (CCR). Like the
Arch User Repository
Arch Linux () is an independently developed, x86-64 general-purpose Linux distribution that strives to provide the latest stable versions of most software by following a rolling-release model. The default installation is a minimal base system, ...
(AUR) which inspired it, the CCR provides user-made PKGINFOs and PKGBUILD scripts for software which is not included in the official repositories. CCR packages simplify building from source by explicitly listing and checking for dependencies and configuring the install to match the Chakra architecture. The CCR helper programs can further streamline the downloading and building process.
A CCR package with many votes and which conforms to the Chakra software policy may be transferred to the official repositories.
Reception
Jesse Smith reviewed Chakra GNU/Linux 0.3.1 for DistroWatch Weekly:
LinuxBSDos.com wrote a review about Chakra Linux in 2011. It stated:
Dedoimedo reviewed Chakra 2011.09. Dedoimedo wrote:
LWN.net
LWN.net is a computing webzine with an emphasis on free software and software for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It consists of a weekly issue, separate stories which are published most days, and threaded discussion attached to ...
wrote a post on Chakra Linux. Said post stated:
Everyday Linux User reviewed Chakra 2015.11. Said review included the following statement:
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chakra
Arch-based Linux distributions
KDE
Operating system distributions bootable from read-only media
Pacman-based Linux distributions
X86-64 Linux distributions
Linux distributions
Rolling Release Linux distributions