dyne:bolic GNU/Linux is a

Live CD A live CD (also live DVD, live disc, or live operating system) is a complete bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar storage device into a computer's memory, rather than loading fro ...

/DVD distribution based on the

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...

. It is shaped by the needs of

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

s and creators to be a practical tool with a focus on

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

production, that delivers a large assortment of applications. It allows manipulation and

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

of both sound and video with tools to record, edit, encode, and stream. In addition to multimedia specific programs, dyne:bolic also provides word processors and common desktop computing tools. Termed " Rasta soft" by its author, it is based entirely on

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

, and as such is recommended and endorsed by the

GNU Project The GNU Project () is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and computing devices by collaborati ...

.GNU project website - free GNU/Linux distributions
/ref> dyne:bolic is created by volunteers and the author and maintainer Jaromil, who also included multimedia tools such as

MusE In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

, HasciiCam, and

FreeJ ''Freej'' ( ar, فريج; trademarked as ''FREEJ'') is an Emirati CGI television series for children. The English tagline for the show is ''The Fun Old Girls''. The show was produced by Mohammed Saeed Harib, who also directed the fifteen standal ...

in the distribution.

Live CD/DVD

dyne:bolic is intended to be used as Live CD/DVD. It does not require installation to a hard drive, and attempts to recognize most devices and peripherals (sound, video, TV, etc.) automatically. It is designed to work with older and slower computers, its kernel optimized for low latency and for performance, making the distribution suitable for audio and video production and turning PCs into full media stations. For that reason software included is sometimes not at the newest version available.

Modules

dyne:bolic can be extended by downloading extra modules such as development tools or common software like

OpenOffice.org OpenOffice.org (OOo), commonly known as OpenOffice, is a discontinued open-source office suite. Active successor projects include LibreOffice (the most actively developed), Apache OpenOffice, Collabora Online (enterprise ready LibreOffice) a ...

. These are

SquashFS Squashfs is a compressed read-only file system for Linux. Squashfs compresses files, inodes and directories, and supports block sizes from 4 KiB up to 1 MiB for greater compression. Several compression algorithms are supported. Squashfs is al ...

files placed in the directory of a ''dock'' (see below) or a burnt CD and are automatically integrated at boot.

System requirements

Basic system requirements for version 1.x and 2.x were relatively low. A PC with

Pentium Pentium is a brand used for a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel. The original Pentium processor from which the brand took its name was first released on March 22, 1993. After that, the Pentium II and Pe ...

AMD K5 The K5 is AMD's first x86 processor to be developed entirely in-house. Introduced in March 1996, its primary competition was Intel's Pentium microprocessor. The K5 was an ambitious design, closer to a Pentium Pro than a Pentium regarding techni ...

(i586) class CPU and 64 MB of RAM and an IDE CD-ROM drive is sufficient. Some versions of dyne:bolic 1.x were ported by co-developer ''Smilzo'' to be used on the

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

game console, multiple Xbox installations could be clustered. Console installation and clustering is currently not supported by version 2.x and up. Version 3.0, codenamed

MUNIR {{redirect, Monir, the village in Iran, Monir, Iran Muneer (also spelled Moneer, Monir, Mounir, or Muneyr, ar, منير, meaning ''illuminating'', ''lightsome'', ''bright'', ''luminous'') is a masculine Arabic given name, it may refer to: Given na ...

, has higher system requirements than former releases and is the first that comes as DVD image. A

Pentium II The Pentium II brand refers to Intel's sixth-generation microarchitecture (" P6") and x86-compatible microprocessors introduced on May 7, 1997. Containing 7.5 million transistors (27.4 million in the case of the mobile Dixon with 256 KB ...

AMD K6-2 The K6-2 is an x86 microprocessor introduced by AMD on May 28, 1998, and available in speeds ranging from 266 to 550 MHz. An enhancement of the original K6, the K6-2 introduced AMD's 3DNow! SIMD instruction set, featured a larger 64 KiB L ...

class processor, 256 MB RAM and an IDE/SATA DVD-ROM drive are recommended. Again, a harddisk is not needed. It was released on September 8, 2011.

Installation

The user copies the directory from CD/DVD to a suitably formatted partition or drive (this is called ''Docking''). This file system will be recognised and booted by the CD or DVD. There is an option to install a

GNU GRUB GNU GRUB (short for GNU GRand Unified Bootloader, commonly referred to as GRUB) is a boot loader package from the GNU Project. GRUB is the reference implementation of the Free Software Foundation's Multiboot Specification, which provides a use ...

bootloader or edit an existing one. Booting from

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

is supported, too. User settings can be saved on disc or

USB flash drive A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since firs ...

) in a writable image file containing and filesystem (described as ''Nesting''), which can also be encrypted for better privacy.

Release history

dyne:bolic 3.x

Version 3.0, currently dyne:bolic 3.0 Beta 4, uses Linux kernel 3.0.1 and is a DVD-ROM image of 1.65 GB.

GNOME A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

2 is used as desktop interface, Grub2 as the boot loader.

dyne:bolic 2.x

This version, the latest being 2.5.2, uses Linux kernel 2.6 and is a CD-ROM image. Xfce is used as the

desktop A desktop traditionally refers to: * The surface of a desk (often to distinguish office appliances that fit on a desk, such as photocopiers and printers, from larger equipment covering its own area on the floor) Desktop may refer to various compu ...

interface.

dyne:bolic 1.x

This version used Linux kernel 2.4 on a CD-ROM image, and brought ability to create "nests" and "docks" on hard disk or USB key. Features present in dyne:bolic 1.x, but dropped later on were: *

openMosix openMosix was a free cluster management system that provided single-system image (SSI) capabilities, e.g. automatic work distribution among nodes. It allowed program processes (not threads) to migrate to machines in the node's network that wou ...

- a clustering software * Ability to boot on

game console *

WindowMaker Window Maker is a free and open-source window manager for the X Window System, allowing graphical applications to be run on Unix-like operating-systems. It is designed to emulate NeXTSTEP's GUI as an OpenStep-compatible environment. Window Maker ...

- a fast and small

memory footprint Memory footprint refers to the amount of main memory that a program uses or references while running. The word footprint generally refers to the extent of physical dimensions that an object occupies, giving a sense of its size. In computing, the ...

X window manager An X window manager is a window manager that runs on top of the X Window System, a windowing system mainly used on Unix-like systems. Unlike MacOS Classic, macOS, and Microsoft Windows platforms (excepting Microsoft Windows explorer.exe shel ...

CIA World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...

- as a local copy

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dyne:Bolic Free audio software Operating system distributions bootable from read-only media Linux media creation distributions Free software only Linux distributions 2005 software Linux distributions without systemd Linux distributions