dwmX For Linux

dwmX is an open source Linux distribution based on the well known Debian GNU/Linux operating system and built around the lightweight dwm window manager.

The system is based on Debian 7.2 'Wheezy' and it tries to bring all the latest Debian updates in new ISO releases. It is distributed as a single Live CD image that can be used on both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.

The boot menu of the Live CD provides users with the ability to copy the entire live environment to RAM (system memory) ejecting the media, boot the live system with default settings, text-mode, no modeset, no probe, boot the currently installed operating system, test the RAM for errors, boot an existing Linux distro that features UnionFS.

Unfortunately, users will be dropped to a shell prompt after booting the live media. Use the live/live or root/root username and password combination to login and execute the startx command to start the graphical environment. As expected from a distribution based on dwm (dynamic window manager), the desktop is very clean, but you need to learn how to use it. It features dwm-reloaded, fbpanel, rcconf, redshift, and mygtkmenu.

Default applications include the Thunar file manager, Links web browser, GNOME MPlayer media player, Xfburn CD/DVD burning app, Geany IDE, GIMP image editor, FileZilla FTP client, BleachBit system cleaner, GParted disk partition editor, and Synaptic Package Manager for installing, updating or removing packages. The latest development version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser is also included, as well as many other small tools and command-line utilities. The ISO image uses under 100MB of RAM on boot.

Its developer calls it a ‘distrolette’. Most probably because of the minimalistic desktop experience this distro provides, but also because of the fact that it’s an operating system for the hacker in you.