Kiara 13 codenamed "Lucy"

To me, this release lopoks and feels a lot more polished than last week's hastily put-out "Leo". The artwork seems better coordinated. Other changes include: upgrading the Opera Browser from 10.10 to 10.60, Adding the Google Chrome browser for 5.0, cleaning out the Setup tools, and adding a "Back to menu" button for improved navigation. To make room, ZSH and Gimp-help have been removed.

BACK IN SLACK: Kiara 12! Nickname: Leo

Leo finally gets a new pair of shoes!

Blackbelt_jones (THAT'S ME!) is reasonably proud (but mostly relieved) to announce the long-overdo uploading of Version 12 of Kiara GNU Linux, a live CD based on Slax, lovingly handmade using software packages ported from Slackware 12.2, and featuring the classic KDE3.5 Desktop environment.

Although it is my policy to release a new Kiara CD immediately after each new release of the Mozilla Firefox Web Browser, a problem with my long-hated ISP, who shall remain anonymous (let's just call them "Shmerizon",) had taken me out of commission for a few months. It's good to be back.

As always, this release features fresh Desktop art from VLADSTUDIOS, the latest version of the Firefox (3.6.6) and Thunderbird (3.1), plus the one and only KIARA SETUP TOOLS, which use Konqueror's "Link to Application" feature to create a simple GUI to help everyday users approach some essential command-line administration tools.

Of course, the real Star of any Kiara release is Slax 12.2, the most fun and flexible live CD I know of, and also the most Slackware like.

The following packages have been added to Kiara as Slax (*.tlz) modules, and (to the best of my recollection) were ported from Slackware 12.2:

amarok-1.4.10-i486-3.lzm
kdeadmin-3.5.10-i486-4.lzm
at-3.1.10-i486-1.lzm
kdeartwork-3.5.10-i486-2.lzm
links-2.2-i486-1.lzm
vim-7.2.018-i486-1.lzm
attr-2.4.41_1-i486-1.lzm
kdebindings-3.5.10-i486-2.lzm
lynx-2.8.6rel.5-i486-1.lzm
w3m-0.5.2.lzm
bsd-games-2.13-i486-8.lzm
kdeedu-3.5.10-i486-2.lzm
man-pages-3.15-noarch-1.lzm
wicd-1.6.2.2-i686-3cca.lzm
kdegames-3.5.10-i486-2.lzm
mc-4.6.1_20070623p14-i486-2.lzm
dbus-python-0.83.0-i486-1.lzm
kdegraphics-3.5.10-i486-2.lzm
mplayer-1.0.lzm
wireless-tools-29-i486-4.lzm
elinks-0.11.lzm
kdemultimedia-3.5.10-i486-2.lzm
nano-2.0.9-i486-1.lzm
emacs-cvs-23.lzm
kdenetwork-3.5.10-i486-2.lzm
epic4-2.8-i486-1.lzm
kdepim-3.5.10-i486-4.lzm
perl-5.10.0-i486-1.lzm
xchat-2.8.6-i486-2.lzm
gimp-2.4.7-i486-1.lzm
kdesdk-3.5.10-i486-3.lzm
pygobject-2.15.4-i486-1.lzm
xclock-1.0.3-i486-1.lzm
gimp-help-2-0.8-noarch-1.lzm
kdetoys-3.5.10-i486-2.lzm
pygtk-2.12.1-i486-2.lzm
xfce-4.4.3-i486-1.lzm
gnuplot-4.2.3-i486-1.lzm
kdeutils-3.5.10-i486-2.lzm
python-2.5.2-i486-4.lzm
xgames-0.3-i486-1.lzm
gtk+-1.2.10-i486-4.lzm
kdevelop-3.5.3-i486-3.lzm
ruby-1.8.7_p72-i486-2.lzm
xine-lib-1.1.15-i686-1.lzm
gtk+2-2.12.12-i486-1.lzm
kdewebdev-3.5.10-i486-2.lzm
sane-1.0.19-i486-3.lzm
xine-ui-0.99.5-i686-1.lzm
gxine-0.5.903-i486-1.lzm
screen-4.0.3-i486-1.lzm
xli-1.17.0p21-i486-1McD.lzm
icewm-1-2-35.lzm
knemo-0.4.8-i486-2.lzm
sqlite-3.6.6.2-i486-1.lzm
xmms-1.2.11-i486-2.lzm
irssi-0.8.14-i486-1.lzm
krusader-1.90.0.lzm
sudo-1.6.8p12-i486-1.lzm
xscreensaver-5.07-i486-2.lzm
kdeaccessibility-3.5.10-i486-2.lzm
ktorrent-2.2.8-i486-1.lzm
tcl-8.5.5-i486-1.lzm
xv-3.10a-i486-5.lzm
kdeaddons-3.5.10-i486-2.lzm
tk-8.5.5-i486-1.lzm
twm-1.0.4-i486-1.lzm
yakuake.lzm


To the best of my recollection, these moodules were downloaded from Slax.org

codecs-essential-20071007.lzm
libdvdcss-1.2.10-i486-1mfb.lzm
libdvdread-4.1.3-i486-1pst.lzm
wpa_supplicant-0.5.10-i486-1.lzm
opera10.10.4609.flash.10.lzm
wlassistant-0-5-7.lzm
wine-1.1.22-i486-mt.lzm
kdm-fix-s6.lzm

If anyone cares: NEW RELEASE COMING SOON!

For the past few months, I've been unable to use Kiara with my internet connection, because my ISP treats Linux users like Crap, and I haven't had a windows system to set up my router. So that's fixed, and right now I'm helping my friend get her home ready for her brother to come home from the nursing home where he's live for the past few months. As soon as I get a chance, I'll upload a new Kiara, which will probably just be the same Kiara with the latest version of Firefox and Thunderbird, some new art... you know the drill!

Kiara

Kiara 10, remastered for 2010

I had noticed some corruption in some files, so I started over and created a new Kiara image, using a freshly downloaded Slax ISO image and pristine modules from an earlier edition. As usual, I spent most of my time selecting the Desktop theme, and this one, based on vladstudio's Winter Forest wallpaper, is pretty stunning.

Kiara 09 "Festive" edition

Download

Even though I have been a bit of a Scrooge sometimes, I just couldn't see releasing a dark gray Kiara Desktop in the week before Christmas, without a festive alternative. So here's something a little more in tune with the spirit of the holiday season. The background, the splash screen, and and the boot menu are the only things about this disk that are different from the previous disk.

As always, the artwork comes from Vladstudio source of some of the best Desktop art around. Vlad has created a whole series of beautiful designs that evoke Christmas without resorting to visual cliches. We think of Christmas as Red, Gold, and Green... but for Vlad, the color of Christmas is blue. His designs are fresh and original, yet somehow they evoke traditional feelings.

I deliberately chose "Where Snowflakes Are Born", which evokes Christmas without literally referring to it. In other words, it won't be obsolete a month from now, and if you don't celebrate Christmas, it won't necessarily be inappropriate. (Of course, you can change the wallpaper. Either temporarily if you run Kiara as a live CD, or semi-permanantly if you run Kiara as a live root (mounting a hard drive partition as Home) or as a hard drive install.

Kiara has been downloaded 104 times that are confirmed, and almost certainly more (there was an earlier download site that I just abandoned.) Besides the US, Kiara has been downloaded in Germany, Spain, and India. To those who have downloaded it, and to all those whose work went into it, including Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Patrick Volkerding, Tomáš Matějíček, Vlad Gerasimov, and the much-maligned KDE Team, my thanks. To you and to all the world, best wishes for a happy holiday season and a safe, prosperous, and healthy new year.

Kiara 09, stripped down, a new version of Firefox, that's about it.

Hey, it's Christmas, and I am, as the kids used to say back when I was a kid, "in a bad place". It sort of a holiday tradition with me. As I move from early middle age to middle middle age, I need to lose 20 pounds lest I become diabetic, and I need to clean up my apartment lest I become homeless.

I also need to work on the Kiara documentation. I had a hard time learning Linux, and I'd like to see what I can do to make it easier for others. The Linux community is run by programmers, and that makes it awesome, but programmers seem to divide users into two camps:"programmers" and "idiots". There's a whole world of possibility between click click click clicking for hours and hours and debating python vs. perl. It's my ambition to create a place for educating users to be empowered. And Kiara is is something I can build that

To summarize, Kiara has three missions other than, you know, being a Linux distro:

1. To preserve the classic KDE 3 desktop

2. To provide a showcase for demonstrating a more advanced version of Fluxbox than the usual default, with the help of Konqueror.

3. As an opportunity to help the Linux Newbie become the Linux power user.

For the time being, as I concentrate on pulling my life out of the crapper (it's a metaphor), and work on Kiara documentation, it looks like Kiara releases are going to follow releases of Firefox, and so, a couple of days after the release of Firefox 3.5.6, here is Kiara 09. It's stripped down, it's got Firefox 3.5.6 instead of Firefox 3.5.5. Other than that, it's not much different.

I've been laying low, and I'm going to continue to lay low. Sometime, in early 2010, With the help of God and St. Ignutius, I intend to start working on overhauling this site to accomodate these three objectives. In the meantime I'll keep up with basic software updates. Kiara is a customized version of Slax, and you can find a lot of the information you need at Slax. org, and if I can help anyone who is using Kiara (about 100 downloads so far, and only 5 or 6 of them are me) I can be reached through Twitter (@GNULinuxMadman) or by email (kiaragnulinux@gmail.com).

By the way, I might as well let you in on the joke. Kiara 09 is listed as a "Unstable release Well, I think they're all going to be unstable, unless this whole operation chages significantly. At no point am i going to say: Sure go ahead and ruyn your business on my homemade CD.

The desktop is really really gray. That's to show you how much I've been getting into the Christmas spirit. Actually, I love this art, from vladstudio.