TaraEllaCS For Linux

TaraEllaCS (TaraElla Computer System) is an open source distribution of Linux engineered to demonstrate the use of computers in accordance with the TaraElla Computer Lifestyle principles. It uses KDE Plasma Workspaces and Applications as its default desktop environment.

The system is based on the openSUSE operating system and created with the SUSE Studio Linux image creation tool. It is distributed as a Live CD ISO image, which can be written on a DVD media using any CD/DVD burning tool.

A USB and disk image is also available for download if you want to deploy the live medium to a hard disk drive (HDD) or USB stick, as well as a bootable Preload ISO that contains the appliance disk image.

TaraEllaCS is also distributed as virtual images for the Oracle VirtualBox, VMWare and KVM (Kernel Virtual Module) virtualization systems. Only the 32-bit (i686) instruction set architecture is supported at this time.

The password for the root account is 'linux', and there's also a preconfigured 'taraella' user that uses the 'taraella' password for login. From the boot prompt, you will be able to run a memory test, start an existing operating system, or boot the live environment (with default settings or in failsafe mode).

As mentioned, the live session is powered by the KDE desktop environment. We have to admit that this is the strangest desktop that we’ve ever seen. It displays one of those ‘follow eyes” widget, an instructional text about the four links shown on the desktops, and a taskbar.

The taskbar can be used to interact with running apps, launch applications, switch between virtual workspaces, as well as to access the functions and programs from the system tray area.

Default applications include the GIMP image editor, Mozilla Firefox web browser, Audacity audio editor, LibreOffice Writer word processor, as well as some of the default KDE applications, including the Dolphin file manager.

Overall, TaraEllaCS is a lightweight distribution, in the sense that it includes a stripped-down version of the KDE desktop environment with only 4-5 important applications.