Kiwi is a free operating system based on Ubuntu Linux primarily targeted at users in Romania. The project comes on a single CD that can be used both as a live CD and for installing on the hard drive.

Why include proprietary software and non-open multimedia codecs?

We believe that while free data formats and free software are preferable to closed ones, compromises are acceptable when the alternative means even less freedom. We'd rather have our users run a combination of free operating system and proprietary codecs than only proprietary operating systems and software.

What is the relation to Ubuntu?

We plan on releasing versions keeping up with the latest Ubuntu. Features that are deemed appropriate for Ubuntu will be proposed for inclusion as we try to keep the differences contained to the packages that for various reasons are not included in Ubuntu.

Who develops Kiwi?

Most of the development work on Kiwi is supported by Startx SRL. Obviously the vast majority of what is on the CD is the work of the free software community of volunteers and paid developers who make Ubuntu, Debian, GNOME, Xorg, GNU/Linux and the rest of the free software ecosystem. The translations are the work of the Romanian and Hungarian free software localization teams and individual translators.

Here are some key features of "Kiwi Linux":

· Localization and spell-checkers for Romanian and Hungarian
· Better support for connecting to local ADSL providers (Romtelecom and RDS)
· NTFS write support via ntfs-3g on both the liveCD and on the installed system
· Adobe Flash 9 web-plugin
· Support for proprietary audio and video codecs
· Support for DVD playback using totem-xine (including encrypted DVDs)
· Miscellaneous apps (Inkscape for vector drawing, mc, vim)
· Customized artwork based on the original Ubuntu one
· Windows applications and language packs for languages not mentioned above were removed to make space

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· The supported languages on the CD are English, Hungarian and Romanian.
· GUI for pppoeconf and support for Speedtouch 330 USB ADSL modem firmware.
· A graphical tool for restoring GRUB boot menus lost after installing other OSes.
· Evolution removed, no mail client at all on the CD
· Flashplugin-nonfree and gstreamer codecs for restricted audio and video formats
· Encrypted DVD playback via libdvdcss2
· Compiz extra settings GUI
· p7zip, unrar