Calculate Linux 17.12.2 released with Gentoo 17.0 profile and Meltdown and Spectre patches

The Calculate Linux team has announced the release of Calculate Linux 17.12.2, latest stable release of Gentoo based GNU/Linux distribution optimized for rapid deployment in corporate environments. This release is built using Gentoo 17.0 profile and hence the whole packages were rebuild to be compatible with the parent.

Calculate Linux 17.12.2 availability

The Calculate Linux 17.12.2 is available in 8 different flavors. It includes desktop flavors CLD, CLDC, CLDM and CLDX featuring KDE, Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce desktop environments respectively. Also, there exist Calculate Directory Server (CDS), Calculate Linux Scratch (CLS), Calculate Scratch Server (CSS) and Calculate Container Scratch (CCS) which is optimized for deploying on cloud containers.

Main highlights of Calculate Linux 17.12.2

Calculate Linux 17.12.2 is rebased with Gentoo 17.0 profile. In order to be compatible with the parent, all packages in Calculate repository are build in new environment. In addition to the base change, following are main highlights of this release:

• We moved to the new Gentoo 17.0 profile. All binary packages were rebuilt, in the repo as well as on Live DVDs/USBs
• All currently available Meltdown and Spectre patches were included
• grub.d privileges are safe now
• Restore functionality supported for LXC containers file capabilities
• Network interfaces can be once again renamed and saved
• Password configuration fixed for editing Grub entries
• IO Scheduler option removed
• Network configuration inside containers fixed
• File attributes updated correctly by templates
• Kernel start fixed (warnings and errors OK)
• Possible to use a file as swap memory

Where can I download Calculate Linux 17.12.2?

Calculate Linux torrents can be downloaded from projects' official website or by  following the links given below.

• Calculate Linux Desktop 17.12.2 KDE:
  • x86_64 (2,1G) MD5, SHA1, Package list
  • i686 (1,9G) MD5, SHA1, Package list
• Calculate Linux Desktop 17.12.2 Cinnamon:
  • x86_64 (1,9G) MD5, SHA1, Package list
  • i686 (1,8G) MD5, SHA1, Package list
• Calculate Linux Desktop 17.12.2 MATE:
  • x86_64 (2,0G) MD5, SHA1, Package list
  • i686 (1,8G) MD5, SHA1, Package list
• Calculate Linux Desktop 17.12.2 Xfce:
  • x86_64 (1,8G) MD5, SHA1, Package list
  • i686 (1,7G) MD5, SHA1, Package list
• Calculate Directory Server 17.12.2:
  • x86_64 (814M) MD5, SHA1, Package list
  • i686 (764M) MD5, SHA1, Package list
• Calculate Linux Scratch 17.12.2:
  • x86_64 (947M) MD5, SHA1, Package list
  • i686 (827M) MD5, SHA1, Package list
• Calculate Scratch Server 17.12.2:
  • x86_64 (599M) MD5, SHA1, Package list
  • i686 (549M) MD5, SHA1, Package list

Alternatively, the installation images can be downloaded from mirror sites listed in Calculate Linux download page.

Celeberating 10th anniversary, Calculate Linux 17.6 released

Marking the 10th anniversary of project, Calculate Linux team has announced release of Calculate Linux 17.6, latest stable release of Gentoo based GNU/Linux distribution.

The Calculate Linux project was started on 2007. It was when Calculate decided to open source their custom GNU/Linux distribution. The first public version of Calculate Linux was 7.6 where version number stands for year and month of release. Now, the project has completed 10 years since it's first public release.

Courtesy : Calculate Linux

Some of the key highlights of Calculate Linux 17.6 includes installation in LXC/LXD containers, theme customization, more stability with automagic dependencies support, better security as editing the kernel params now requires a password and system update can be only performed by users authorized to do so. Other highlights are:

• Calculate gets a new flavour, "Calculate Linux Container", to be installed on a LXC/LXD virtual machine.
• No default password is provided on a newly installed system. Instead, a user password is prompted for at installation time.
• You can manage access priveleges via Calculate Console. For instance, a user may only have access to updates if the admin chooses so.
• Kernel configuration now can be protected by a password.
• The 'sudo' group was added for sudo authentication.
• Autopartition is the default partition scheme when installing from a Live USB.
• A bios_boot partition is not created automatically for UEFI installations.
• If the UEFI parameters have not changed, the UEFI boot record will not be overwritten.
• Building-only dependencies are not included in the distribution.

For more information and screenshots, see release announcement in Calculate LInux blog.

Calculate Linux 17 released

Mr Alexander Tratsevskiy of Calculate Linux has announced release of Calculate Linux 17, latest stable release of Gentoo based Russian GNU/Linux distribution targeting home users and small and medium enterprises.

Calculate Linux Desktop edition is available in 3 different flavors, featuring KDE, MATE or Cinnamon desktop environments. Calculate Linux Scratch is a minimal edition targeting people who are looking for an extremely configurable base system. Other variations includes Calculate Directory Server(CDS), Calculate Scratch Server(CSS) and Timeless.

Credit : Calculate Linux Blog

Timeless is a new member from Calculate family of GNU/Linux distribution mainly targeting server computers. It can be considered as a testing platform of the project and is mainly meant for people who are eagerly looking for updates in Calculate Linux utilities. Once these utilities becomes stable, it will be merged with Calculate Directory Server.

Main changes in Calculate Linux 17 can be summarized as follows:

• Some server configuration features were rewritten. Timeless is in fact a testing CL version, designed for those eager to try the development version of Calculate Utilities. Note that Timeless will be finally merged with Calculate Directory Server.
• Updated GUI look and feel and ships a new icon theme.
• One session for cl-console and cl-console-gui, so that you could switch between them freely
• User access to command-line tools via cl-console
• System startup can be configured without pulseaudio
• Updated Calculate utilities : Numerous revisions in templates: new functions added, support provided for "or" expressions, service launching, package linking, package version downgrade, ldif format, and more.
• Beta versions of the brand new Calculate Linux Desktop Cinnamon and Calculate Linux Desktop LXQt are available in "nightly" stages.
• Up to 5000 binary packages are available in the Calculate repository.
• On desktop versions, Firefox will be from now on the default Internet browser.
• MATE was updated to v1.16 and switched to the GTK3+ engine.
• The latest kernel is always available as a binary.
• Special characters such as currency symbols (₽, ₴, etc.) can be entered by pressing the Compose key or right Alt.
• Multiple processing of ini.env via different paths, with user configurations partly moved.
• Proprietary ati-drivers is not supported anymore.
• CL can be installed on NVMe devices.
• Centralized access to the su command is provided for domain users.
• Account encryption problem was fixed.

You may also checkout official release announcement in Calculate Linux blog.

Calculate Linux 15.17 released with KDE 5

The Calculate Linux team has unveiled Calculate Linux 15.17, latest stable release of Gentoo based GNU/Linux distribution from Russia. As per tradition of this distribution, Calculate Linux 15.17 is coming in 5 varieties. The Calculate Linux Desktop ships with KDE, MATE or Xfce Desktop environments. Other varieties are Calculate Linux Scratch, Calculate Linux Directory Server, Calculate Scratch Server and Calculate Media Center.

Calculate Linux 15.17 comes with several changes, both in distribution level and also in support level. Following are some of the highlights of this release.

• Calculate Linux Desktop was updated to KDE 5.
• Testing and stable updates now coming separately and labelled as such.
• Multiple instances, built with different USE flags, are available in a special repository (binpkg-multi-instance).
• The main Git mirror migrated to Github.
• Faster XZ compression on multi-core processors.
• The XZ algorithm will be used from now on for initramfs, the kernel and its modules.
• File moving and renaming issues fixed for OverlayFS.
• Defaulting to Python 3.4.
• More efficient mirror selection for updates.
• Mirrors were rearranged.

For more information and download links, see official release announcement published in Calculate Linux website.

Calculate Linux 15.12 Released

The Calculate Linux team announced release of Calculate Linux 15.12, latest stable release of Gentoo based GNU/Linux distribution. As usual, this release of Calculate Linux is also applicable for it's different flavors, including Calculate Linux Desktop(MATE/KDE or XFCE), Calculate Directory Server, Calculate Media Center, Calculate Linux Scratch and also Calculate Scratch Server.

According to official release announcement, following are some notable changes in this release.

• Chromium was replaced with the QupZilla web browser on desktop CL versions.
• A Calculate Linux ISO image can be booted from a Live HDD volume. To do so, select the Live HDD formatting line that was added to the Grub menu. Current system settings will be default for graphics, locales and the timezone.
• The open source AMDGPU driver is now supported.
• Autopartition settings were modified.
• We attended to our users’ feedback to bring back a reserved partition for a default system update when autopartitioning.
• Eudev updated up to v3.1.5, that provides restored former udev code. The latter renames network devices if they are named similarly to the kernel.
• The updated Calculate repository includes over 2900 binary packages, both for KDE 4 and KDE 5.

 See more information in official release announcement.

Calculate Linux 15 Released

Calculate Linux developers announced release of Calculate Linux 15, latest stable release of Gentoo based GNU/Linux distribution offering two varieties of operating systems targeting home users and small, medium enterprise users.

Calculate Linux 15 is available as Calculate Linux Desktop, Calculate Directory Server, Calculate Media Server, Calculate Linux Scratch and Calculate Scratch Server.

According to release announcement, following are major highlights of this release.

1. A New Method for Packages Update

• Better reliability
  Each mirror stores version history, thus allowing either to update from any existing mirror or to create a local mirror.
• Updates are faster
  The update tool selects the fastest mirror.Update configuration defaults to parallel fetching and installation. Revdep-rebuild will not be called by cl-update unless enabled explicitly.
• A higher level of testing
  All binaries are tested on the testing mirror before being committed to the master.
• Less traffic consumption
  Portage will not be synchronized if no updates are available.

2. Common binary repos

• Distribution profiles were unified. You are free to choose between three brand new flavours, each with USE flags adapted to different needs. Over 2500 popular packages come as binaries.

For more highlights and information, see complete release announcement here.