Sabayon Linux

Sabayon Linux or SabayonLinux, (formerly known as RR4 Linux/RR64 Linux), is a Gentoo-based operating system created by Fabio Erculiani, and produced in Trentino, Italy. In April 2008 the NLnet Foundation announced it will offer funding to SabayonLinux.^[1]^[2] On June 12, 2008, SabayonLinux announced that it partnered with NetCraft Communications.^[3]^[4]

Core

Sabayon Linux uses Gentoo's Portage system for package management, and all updates and base characteristics are in synchrony with Gentoo's portage tree and other mechanisms. So, users can follow guides and articles written for Gentoo users. But "world updates" are discouraged for beginners or those new to Gentoo, as the structure is a little different and requires a slightly different method of execution. A guide has been written by a Sabayon Linux developer on how to do global updates and recompilation of all packages.

Both Sabayon and Gentoo allow users to install the base system using binary packages, but Sabayon also includes a binary package manager, and is in general more flexible towards the use of pre-compiled packages than Gentoo is. Sabayon supports the x86 and x86-64 platforms.

An infant project, "Entropy", is to take a different approach to managing packages. For example, a binary package installer utility, "binmerge", would eliminate the need to compile applications already compiled for Sabayon's pool of binary packages. Binmerge sits atop Portage's native "emerge" utility, and the command "binmerge application-x" instead of "emerge application-x" would fetch that package from Sabayon's repository. Binmerge appears to leverage several Portage features such as the "BINHOST" feature and a number of emerge options like "--getpkg" and "--usepkgonly". The major feature is that it will also be aware of dependencies, both direct and indirect, so complete removal of packages will no longer be a complex process for a Gentoo system. Binmerge shipped with the 3.3 miniEdition.

Install

Like many other popular Linux distributions, Sabayon Linux is distributed as a Live Distro with options to install to the hard disk. The Anaconda installer is currently used for the installation, although the Gentoo Linux Installer was used in the past. The installation process is designed to be much simpler than a typical Gentoo install, which requires more extensive knowledge of the operating system.

Reviews of the installation process are mixed. Some users report a simple half-hour installation ^[5], while others report a processor intensive 1 hour+ installation^[6]. This is largely dependent on factors such as hardware capabilities and how many of the numerous optional applications are selected during the installation process.

Features

A feature named "Entropy" incorporates the binary package manager through GUI program called "Spritz" or a console program called "equo" into the distribution. Many binaries have already been made available and the command "equo" for commandline interpretation of Entropy is in beta stage, but should become stable in 2008.http://www.sabayonlinux.org/sabayon/press/entropy_manifesto.pdf Currently AIGLX, XGL, and Compiz are on the installation discs and can be enabled from the Isolinux boot prompt. For those wanting a quicker install or a CD instead of a DVD, there is the miniEdition.

miniEdition

The miniEditions are single-CD and Live CD releases of the distribution (hence being less than 700 MB in compressed size, as opposed to the 2-4 GB DVDs). A "miniEd" is normally introduced a week or two after a DVD release, although it is not always true for every version (they are available for major ones, certainly). Recently though, the team has announced that testing will be open in the future, so this time frame may differ. As they are released later than their DVD counterparts, they are likely to include bug fixes and minor improvements.

With 3.3(b) some users of this edition have complained that the type of applications included are inferior, and it indeed is closer to a base installation with very minimal software.

These CDs do not come with all the features present in the DVDs either. They only provide KDE and Fluxbox as X session types.

Releases

Versions may go through one or more beta versions (Loops) before the final release. Version 3.4 started the practice of releasing lettered "Revision" versions.

In addition to the Standard and miniEditions, the project has also released a Business Edition 1.0^[7] and Professional Edition 1.1^[8] built on stable x86/x86-64, unlike the Standard and miniEditions, which are built on testing ~x86/~x86-64. However, the future of these editions is uncertain, as there is currently no one developing them^[9].

Release history

Version	Release date			Notes
Version	Standard	miniEdition	Pod	Notes
3.0	2006-09-14^[10]	2006-09-26^[11]
3.1	2006-10-10^[12]	2006-10-09^[13]
3.2	2006-11-27^[14]	2006-12-11^[15]
3.3	2007-03-16^[16]	2007-03-25^[17]
3.4	2007-07-24^[18]	2007-09-23^[19]	Has had revision E and revision F releases.
3.5	2008-07-01^[20]	2008-07-11^[21]	First version with a Sabayon Pod release.

Sabayon Linux

Contents

Core

Install

Features

miniEdition

Releases

Release history

See also

References

External links