Kwheezy For Linux

Kwheezy is an open source and freely distributable Linux operating system built around the KDE desktop environment and based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. It comes with built-in support for multimedia codecs and a plethora of applications.

The system is available for download as two Live DVD ISO images, one for each of the supported hardware platforms (32-bit and 64-bit). It is suitable to be used directly from a bootable USB thumb drive, as well as from a DVD disc.

Recommended hardware components include a modern CPU (Intel Core 2 Duo or above/AMD K10 (Phenom) or above), 1GB or RAM for the 32-bit version and 2GB for RAM for the 64-bit one, 30GB of free disk space, a recent graphics card with at least 64MB and OpenGL 3.0 support, as well as a 16-bit audio, AC'97 or above sound card.

We find the boot prompt to be very minimalistic, allowing users only to run a memory test using the Memtest86+ software or boot the live environment in failsafe mode, in case the first option doesn’t recognize a certain hardware component, such as the graphics card.

The KDE desktop environment has been highly customized, comprised of a system monitoring widget, as well as a single, yet powerful taskbar that allows users to access the main menu, launch applications, switch between virtual desktops, and interact with running apps.

Default applications include the Rekonq and Mozilla Firefox web browser, Mozilla Thunderbird email client, Clementine music player, VLC Media Player, LibreOffice and Calligra office suites, GIMP image editor, and digiKam photo manager.

The Steam for Linux client, Audacity audio editor, Google Earth, Google Gadgets, Linphone, TeamViewer, Inkscape, WinFF, PlayOnLinux, and all the default KDE applications are also included in this Live DVD.

Summing up, Kwheezy is a well-crafted Debian-based operating system that supports numerous hardware components and runs very well on "mid-high end" machines. It is very stable, reliable and comes with a large collection of applications.