EasyOS Scarthgap-series version 6.5 released

EasyOS Scarthgap is the current flagship; however, the Daedalus-series is introduced as a companion, also announce today:

"EasyOS Daedalus-series version 6.5 released"
https://bkhome.org/news/202412/easyos-daedalus-series-version-65-released.html

They are both version 6.5, reflecting the same underlying infrastructure; however, built with different binary packages, and in that latter respect the Daedalus-series may have more issues. If you are new to EasyOS, it is recommended to choose Easy Scarthgap.

As it is intended that easy Scarthgap will be announced on Distrowatch, here is a brief announcement blurb:

EasyOS Scarthgap-series is an experimental Linux distribution. Heritage includes concepts from Puppy Linux, unique features include a custom container technology, and lockdown techniques. Version 6.0 was announced on Distrowatch in June 2024 and there has been a lot of "water under the bridge" since then. Easy Scarthgap is built with binary packages compiled in a fork of OpenEmbedded, and there have been many package version bumps. The infrastructure has continued to improve, especially support for containers; a lot of attention has been given to running Easy Daedalus distribution in a container. More details are in the release notes, here, and highlights showing how EasyOS differs from other Linux distributions here.

Read on about Easy Scarthgap, a snapshot...

...the wallpaper is a snapshot of a tiny train station in rural Western Australia. it was chosen as symbolic of EasyOS; a wild rural landscape, a tiny train station rarely frequented. This has a charm of its own, in contrast to a huge busy city train station and cultivated gardens -- the latter representing the mainstream Linux distributions.

The Scarthgap-series is built with packages compiled in a fork of OpenEmbedded, and optimised for EasyOS, but a small package repository; only about 1800 packages. However, more packages can be installed via Appi, the appimage manager, and Flapi, the flatpak manager. There is yet another avenue for adding packages to Scarthgap; another Linux distribution can be run in a container and within that container there is access to the entire package repository of that distribution.

Easy Scarthgap can run Easy Daedalus in a container, which means that you don't really need to run Easy Daedalus as a separate distribution. There is a downside to that though; running in a container has security restrictions, and some applications will not work; most will though. Some points:

• Read more about how to run Easy Daedalus in a container within Easy Scarthgap here
  
• Read how to quickly flip in and flip out of the container here
  
• Read about /files shared folder between containers here
  
• Sharing is also via the clipboard, copied in and out when flip
• Introduction to Easy Containers here
  

EasyOS is created with "woofQ", the build system. In fact, "Woof" is a build system also for Puppy Linux, currently "Woof-CE" being the official build system for the mainstream Puppy Linux. WoofQ forked off Woof2 about 2013. That's a bit of history, but the point is, Woof* can build a Puppy or Puppy-derivative or similar distribution, and does so by using binary packages from some other Linux distribition. Or, packages that have been compiled somehow -- in the case of Scarthgap, compiled in OpenEmbedded.

The big advantage of building from packages of another mainstream distribution is binary compatibility and access to the entire package repository of that distribution. This is what Easy Daedalus brings to the table. However, the Scarthgap packages are smaller and optimised to work in EasyOS.

Here are the release notes for Easy Scarthgap 6.5:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/scarthgap/2024/6.5/release-notes.htm

Download and install

Easy is shipped as a drive-image file, there is no ISO. Download from here:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/scarthgap/2024/6.5/

There is also a mirror in Europe, courtesy of the Netherlands Linux/Unix User Group (NLUUG):

https://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/easyos/amd64/releases/scarthgap/2024/6.5/

Also a mirror in Australia, courtesy of AARNET:

https://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/easyos/amd64/releases/scarthgap/2024/6.5/

If all that you know about are ISOs, and unfamiliar with how to install a drive-image file, it is pretty simple. You can write it to a USB-stick and boot that, or open up the img-file and install direct to internal drive. The easyos.org site has tutorials, including these:

"How to write EasyOS to a flash drive"
https://easyos.org/install/how-to-write-easyos-to-a-flash-drive.html

"How to install EasyOS on your hard drive"
https://easyos.org/install/how-to-install-easyos-on-your-hard-drive.html

There is an important conceptual difference between a drive-image and an ISO; when the drive-image file is written to a drive, for example a USB-stick, it is already installed. It is fully installed to the USB-stick, nothing more to do. You don't have to think about persistence; sessions are saved to the USB-stick.

Information and feedback

If you are new to EasyOS and wondering what it is all about, first up, it has to be clarified that Easy is not a mainsteam distribution; it is unique and experimental. Very different from any other Linux distribution. This page highlights the differences:

"How and why EasyOS is different"
https://easyos.org/about/how-and-why-easyos-is-different.html

Many ideas implemented in Easy are still a work-in-progress, so do bare that in mind; you might not get the maturity that you would expect in a mainstream distro.

We welcome feedback. Success stories, problems, let us know in this thread in the Puppy Forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=137024#p137024

Technical

If you are interested in how Easy works, read this:

"How Easy works"
https://easyos.org/tech/how-easy-works.html

The github projects:

https://github.com/bkauler/oe-qky-scarthgap

https://github.com/bkauler/woofq

Have fun!   

Tags: easy