About Wolvix

Features

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Wolvix is a desktop oriented GNU/Linux distribution based on Slackware. It features the Xfce desktop environment and a comprehensive selection of development, graphics, multimedia, network and office applications. It's mainly targeted at home users and strives to provide a balance between everyday computing tasks, creativity, work and enjoyment.

Using Wolvix does not require more than basic computer skills, but installing and administering the system might require more knowledge than some of the other GNU/Linux distributions. Much like Slackware, Wolvix sometimes requires you to roll up your sleves and get your hands dirty. So if the thought of using the command line and reading documentation scares you, you might be better off using another distribution.

By default Wolvix only includes GTK+ applications, this is not because the developers hate Qt programs, it's mainly an aesthetic choice. The Qt widget looks out-of-place under Xfce, which use GTK+ and there are pleny of great GTK+ applications to choose from.

Wolvix does not strictly follow the 'one-application-per-task' mantra that some other distributions do. In Wolvix you will sometimes find that there are two, or perhaps even three applications that basically does the same thing. One reason for this is that some application fill each other out in functionality. Another reason is choice; we all have different preferences, my preferred text editor is not necessarily the one you prefer. There is of course a balance to this, the goal is not to create a bloated distribution, but some times one application is simply not enough.

Though Wolvix is fast and has a low memory footprint, it's not specifically developed for old computers, as it features modern software; which has modern hardware requirements. But it should perform well on systems which are not the latest and greatest. You should get acceptable performance from Wolvix and most of it's applications on a computer with a 700Mhz CPU and 256MB RAM.

Philosophy

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Wolvix is a non commercial project, created out of desire to have fun and learn more about GNU/Linux. It is, and should be a creative outlet for it's developers. Wolvix is a hobby project and should be treated as such, installing it on mission critical servers is generally not a good idea. If Wolvix breaks you get to keep all the pieces.

The look and feel of Wolvix should be unified, clean and plesant. The desktop should not be distracting or place uneccecary strain on the users eyes. The colors in both themes and backgrounds should not create too much contrast when viewed against a black terminal or a white text editor window.

Software should work out-of-the-box as much as possible and should be ready to use as it is. The user should be able to enjoy entertainment, be creative and productive with out too much tweaking and configuration.

People

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There are many people who has conributed to make Wolvix what it is, some directly and others more indirectly. First and foremost are all the developers who spend their time creating all the wonderful Free and Open Source Software used in Wolvix. Secondly all the Wolvix users who help test development relases and those who suggest changes, features, improvements, etc.

Developers:

Kenneth Granerud, aka Wolven: Wolvix founder and main developer. wolvix.org server administrator and web designer/coder.

Chris Gallienne, aka Oithona: Developer and maintainer of the Wolvix Control Panel. Pre alpha tester and co developer.

History

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The first prototype for Wolvix was created in 2004, and was based on Feather Linux. The original idea was to make a live Linux distribution which featured mostly games and a handful of useful applications. Though this idea changed, even before the first stable Wolvix release, games still play an important role in Wolvix. The prototype was very unstable and suffered many problems, so many problems infact, that the idea was scrapped out of frustration. A second attempt at creating Wolvix as done using Gentoo Linux, but this was no success either. None of the two distributions used as base was to blame for this failure, it was the lack of skills and knowledge of the creator which was the problem.

It was not until some time later in 2005, after the idea of creating Wolvix was abandoned, that a USB flash drive given to Wolven as a birthday present would bring life into the idea again. While searching for a suitable Linux distribution to run on the USB drive, Wolven stumbled upon SLAX. Seeing how easy it was to ceate and add your own software modules to SLAX, the desire to create a personal distribution was reborn. The first publicly released version (1.0) of Wolvix was announced and released in August 2005.

Some months later when Wolvix version 1.0.2 was completed it was submited to be listed at DistroWatch and was requested to be reviewed at TuxMachines. The review at TuxMachines was overwhelmingly positive and the Wolvix userbase grew drastically. What had been a project only know to a handful of people was now getting more widespread attention.

For the Wolvix 1.0.4 release there had been created three different editions; Desktop Edition, Media Edition and Games Edition. The Desktop Edition focused mainly on office and other general desktop applications. The Media Edition featured a lot of multimedia applications, not just for media playback, but also media production. The Games Edition featured mostly games (duh) and was created in the spirit of the original Wolvix idea.

It was after the 1.0.4 release that Oithona repsonded to a request to the Wolvix community about get help coding a hard drive installer. Not only did Oithona create a hard drive installer, he also developed the Wolvix Control Panel (WCP) which in addtion to a hard drive and USB flash drive installer, features a suite of tools to administer the Wolvix system. Oithona is still developing the WCP and has become increasingly involved in the Wolvix development on all fronts.

For the Wolvix 1.0.5 release the three editions, Desktop, Media and Games, was dropped due to the massive workload of maintaing the three editions required. Instead Wolvix Cub and Wolvix Hunter was born. Wolvix Cub is a smaller version of Wolvix which can be installed on 256MB flash drives as opposed to the earlier versions, which all required a 512MB drive. Wolvix Hunter use Cub as it's base, but includes more applications. Version 1.0.5 was the first release to include a graphical hard drive installer and the WCP. While it's always been possible to install Wolvix to a hard drive, it's been a process which required the use of the command line.

From version 1.0 through version 1.0.5 Wolvix had been a SLAX remaster. In the 1.1.0 release this legacy came to an end and Wolvix was based on the current stable version of Slackware (version 11.0 at the time) and the Linux-Live scripts. While this did not represent a very fundamental change, it allowed Wolvix to develop at it's own pace and on it's own premises. Wolvix 1.1.0 is still the current Wolvix version, and while it's slowly getting outdated; Wolvix 2.0.0 is being actively developed.