Parabola GNU/Linux-libre is an operating system for the

i686 The P6 microarchitecture is the sixth-generation Intel x86 microarchitecture, implemented by the Pentium Pro microprocessor that was introduced in November 1995. It is frequently referred to as i686. It was succeeded by the NetBurst microarch ...

, x86-64 and ARMv7 architectures. It is based on many of the packages from Arch Linux and Arch Linux ARM,Parabola GNU/Linux-libre supports ARMv7
/ref> but distinguishes from the former by offering only free software. It includes the GNU operating system components common to many Linux distributions and the Linux-libre kernel instead of the generic

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 ...

. Parabola is listed by the Free Software Foundation as a completely free operating system, true to their Free System Distribution Guidelines. Parabola uses a rolling release model like Arch, such that a regular system update is all that is needed to obtain the latest software. Development focuses on system simplicity, community involvement and use of the latest free software packages.

History

Parabola was originally proposed by members of the gNewSense IRC channel in 2009. Members of different Arch Linux communities, especially Spanish-speaking members, started the development and maintenance of the project software and documentation. On May 20, 2011, the Parabola distribution was recognized as a completely free project by GNU, making it part of the FSF list of free distributions. In February 2012 Dmitrij D. Czarkoff reviewed Parabola for

OSNews OSNews is a computing online newspaper. It originally focused on operating systems and their related technologies that launched in 1997, but is now aggregating consumer electronics news. The content is managed by a group of editors and the owner. ...

. Czarkoff reported that on his test computer a number of hardware problems surfaced, due to lack of free firmware. He said Czarkoff also criticized the lack of documentation available for Parabola. He concluded "The overall impression of the Parabola GNU/Linux user experience exactly matches the one of Arch: a system with easy and flexible installation and configuration process and good choice of free software packages. Though the lack of documentation spoils the user experience, the Arch Linux resources can be used to further configure and extend the distribution. If my hardware would allow, I would probably stick with Parabola." Parabola used to have a mips64el port to provide support for the Chinese Loongson processor used in the

Lemote Yeeloong Jiangsu Lemote Tech Co., Ltd or Lemote () is a computer company established as a joint venture between the Jiangsu Menglan Group and the China, Chinese Institute of Computing Technology, involved in computer hardware and computer software, softwar ...

laptop. It was discontinued due to a lack of resources and interest, and the final activity was seen in July 2014. Robert Rijkhoff reviewed Parabola GNU/Linux for

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in September 2017.

Differences from Arch and Arch ARM

240px, Parabola GNU/Linux-libre running the MATE desktop environment The project uses only 100% free software from the official Arch repositories for the

and x86-64 architectures and official Arch ARM repositories (except larmand ur for the ARMv7. It uses free replacements when possible, such as the Linux-libre kernel instead of the generic

. The filtering process removes around 700 software packages from the repositories that do not meet the requirements of the Free Software Definition for each architecture.

Social contract

Parabola has established a

social contract In moral and political philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships betw ...

. The ''Parabola Social Contract'' commits the project to the free software community (viewing itself as only competing against nonfree systems), free culture, democracy, and to follow Arch's philosophy. Under the covenant are included the

GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines 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 ...

Installation

There are two ways to install Parabola, either from scratch using installable ISO images, or by migrating from an existing Arch-based system. The latter process is almost as simple as switching to the Parabola repositories list.

TalkingParabola

TalkingParabola is a derivative install CD based on TalkingArch. It is a respin of the Parabola ISO modified to include speech and braille output for blind and visually impaired users. TalkingParabola retains all the features of the Parabola live image, but adds speech and braille packages to make it possible for blind and visually impaired users to install Parabola eyes-free.

Mascots

The Parabola community has created a number of cartoon characters for the project. The characters are a gnu and a cat named "Bola", who is conceived after Parabola's main characteristics: "elegant, minimalist and lightweight".

References

External links

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Parabola GNU/Linux-libre appears on news section on SOLAR website (Software Libre Argentina)
!-- Broken 2014-06-10 --> {{DEFAULTSORT:Parabola GNU Linux-libre 2009 software Arch-based Linux distributions Free software only Linux distributions Pacman-based Linux distributions Rolling Release Linux distributions Linux distributions