Platypux was a French Linux distribution of the

Slackware Slackware is a Linux distribution created by Patrick Volkerding in 1993. Originally based on Softlanding Linux System, Slackware has been the basis for many other Linux distributions, most notably the first versions of SUSE Linux distributio ...

family, developed by Pierre-Aimé and Jacques-Olivier.

History

Despite Platypux being a Slackware derivative, it was built using the source code provided by the

Linux From Scratch ''Linux From Scratch'' (LFS) is a type of a Linux installation and the name of a book written by Gerard Beekmans, and as of May 2021, mainly maintained by Bruce Dubbs. The book gives readers instructions on how to build a Linux system from sou ...

project (LFS) that enables the developers to learn the internal workings of a Linux-based system, in order to build a custom Linux distro, so it can naturally fit on its intended audience and purposes. Platypux V8.0 is only supported by

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was intr ...

(32bits) platforms, both desktop and laptops, it is available for install from a live-DVD. Its

kernel Kernel may refer to: Computing * Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems * Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution * Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming * Kernel method, in machine learn ...

supports PAE in order to enable full access to

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * ...

memory over the 4

GiB The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

limit.

Origin of the name

Platypux has been developed using the source code from the Linux From Scratch project, but also counts on source code for BLFS (Beyond Linux From Scratch) and ALFS (Automated Linux From Scratch) Linux distros. The Linux kernel alongside the several preinstalled packages comprehend the Linux distribution. Platypux is a

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

platypus The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or mono ...

and

tux Black tie is a semi-formal wear, semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for clothing, attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically ...

, the Linux mascot. A platypus is an exotic animal which despite being a mammal shares oviparity with amphibians an others, making it an exotic Linux distro with parts from "penguins", a GNU and other third party components.

Preinstalled software packages

Some of the preinstalled packages for Platypux V8.0 are: * Xfce Window Manager. * GIMP image editor (with XSane support) *

Inkscape Inkscape is a free and open-source vector graphics editor used to create vector images, primarily in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. Other formats can be imported and exported. Inkscape can render primitive vector shapes (e.g. rec ...

Scalable Vector Graphics Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for defining two-dimensional graphics, having support for interactivity and animation. The SVG specification is an open standard developed by the World Wide Web Consortium sinc ...

editor. * SRWare Iron

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...

. * Pidgin instant messaging. * The

LibreOffice LibreOffice () is a free and open-source office productivity software suite, a project of The Document Foundation (TDF). It was forked in 2010 from OpenOffice.org, an open-sourced version of the earlier StarOffice. The LibreOffice suite co ...

suite.

Versions

The release history of Platypux is as follows: * Version 1.0 released on December 29, 2008. First version, Slackware based. * V2.0 released on February 20, 2009. Support added for

USB flash drive 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 bro ...

and other removable drives, support for the

Wacom () is a Japanese company headquartered in Kazo, Saitama, Japan, that specializes in manufacturing graphics tablets and related products. Headquarters locations The main headquarters are located in Kazo, Saitama, Japan. Its office in the USA ...

tablet and other upgrades. * V3.0 released on April 19, 2009. Featured Conky and Wifi-radar * V4.0 released on September 2, 2009. From this version on, WiFi setup is saved on each PC. Java MPlayer 1.0 is introduced. * V5.0 released on June 13, 2010. System compiled from the LFS and BLFS source code. * V6.0 released on January 1, 2011. LibreOffice added. Libraries and utilities were updated. Linux 2.6.36 kernel sources are available in the live DVD. Save configuration was improved. WICD is used for network configuration. A package manager was added for building and downloading lzm. * V7.0 released on May 29, 2011. NFS was corrected, the

gFTP gFTP is a free and open-source multithreaded File Transfer Protocol client program. It is most used on Unix-like systems such as Linux, macOS, and Sony PlayStation 3. It includes both a graphical user interface (GUI), which utilizes the GTK+ ...

client and wireless device firmware was added. Linux kernel 2.6.37.6 added with

AUFS aufs (short for advanced multi-layered unification filesystem) implements a union mount for Linux file systems. The name originally stood for AnotherUnionFS until version 2. Developed by Junjiro Okajima in 2006, aufs is a complete rewrite of t ...

and LZMA support. Thunderbird was introduced. * V8.0 released on November 9, 2011. Several

applets In computing, an applet is any small application (computing), application that performs one specific task that runs within the scope of a dedicated widget engine or a larger program (computing), program, often as a plug-in (computing), plug-in. T ...

added (sound, keyboard, batteries, and others), NVIDIA graphics card support with privative drivers (can be activated thanks to nvidia-xconfig). Added XZM compression for AUFS. XFCE window manager replaces Openbox. * V9.0 is to be announced, it is under development.

References

External links