ZevenOS Goodbye Edition For Linux

ZevenOS is a free and open-source operating system with a focus on providing users with a low on resources and easy-to-use distribution of Linux that features a BeOS-like graphical interface and support for old hardware components. It is derived from the world’s most popular free OS, Ubuntu.

This Ubuntu-based distro is available for download as a single, dual-arch Live CD ISO image that has been designed from the ground up to be used as-is directly from the bootable medium (CD or USB) or installed on both 32-bit and 64-bit computers.

The boot prompt is identical in functionality with the one from the Ubuntu Linux distribution, which means that it will automatically start the live system in approximately seven seconds from the moment the user boot the ISO image from the BIOS of a PC using either a CD disc or a USB thumb drive.

Then, the user will be asked to choose between the live mode or the installation mode. Please note that if you press any key on your keyboard during the 7-second timeout, you will be able to change the language for the live system and access all the boot options, such as the ability to run a memory test or boot from the local drive.

We hate to ruin the surprise, but the default desktop environment of ZevenOS is Xfce, which has been highly customized to look and act like a genuine BeOS interface.

It features no panels or docks, but only a system tray area that also acts as a task manager on the upper right side of the screen and a multifunctional right-click context menu from where the user can also navigate the main menu and launch applications.

As expected, the distro includes only lightweight applications. Among some of the most important ones, we can mention Geany IDE, Shotwell image viewer and organizer, GIMP image editor, Claws Mail email client, Mozilla Firefox web browser, Pidgin multi-protocol instant messenger and DeaDBeeF audio player.

The Liferea news reader, GNOME MPlayer video player, Transmission torrent downloader, AbiWord word processor, Gnumeric spreadsheet editor, Thunar file manager, Inkscape vector graphics editor, XChat IRC client, Brasero CD/DVD burning software, Audacity audio editor and Synaptic Package Manager are also installed.

Summing up, we strongly recommend to use the ZevenOS Linux distribution on a low-end machine or a computer with old or semi-old hardware components.