Berry Linux (based on Red Hat) is a bootable CD Linux with automatic hardware detection and support for many graphics ajods, sound cards, SCSI and USB

Yuichiro Nakada has announced the release of Berry Linux 1.0.0.

The project, which started in November 2002 with version 0.01 (based on Red Hat Linux 8.0) and continued with regular incremental updates, has now produced exactly 100 releases.

Version 1.00 is based on Fedora 11, but includes updated Linux kernel 2.6.32.1 (with SMP, ndev/udev, bootsplash and Aufs support), KDE 4.3.2, Rasp-UI 0.14 window manager, up-to-date versions of MPlayer and xine, the latest Mozilla Firefox, (version 3.5.6, with Flash plugin updated to version 10.0.32) in English and Japanese, and WINE 1.1.32.

The MadWiFi kernel modules have been removed from the live CD.

See the complete changelog for further details. Berry Linux is a user-friendly live and installation CD designed primarily for Japanese-speaking users, but support for English is also available as an option in the boot menu.

Download (MD5) the landmark release from here: berry-1.00.iso (573MB).

Recent releases:

• 2010-03-17: Distribution Release: Berry Linux 1.01
• 2009-12-25: Distribution Release: Berry Linux 1.00
• 2009-09-22: Distribution Release: Berry Linux 0.98
• 2008-12-30: Distribution Release: Berry Linux 0.94
• 2007-12-07: Distribution Release: Berry Linux 0.87
• 2007-07-10: Distribution Release: Berry Linux 0.82

Berry Linux is a bootable CD Linux with automatic hardware detection and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. Berry Linux can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD or as a rescue system.

It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk, although this option is also available (it needs 1.2GB of hard disk space). Berry Linux is based on Red Hat Linux and Knoppix.

Berry includes read/write NTFS support, and AIGLX and Beryl are bundled for 3D desktop effects. Berry also uses bootsplash, giving it a graphical startup.

The full version (v0.98) includes and runs on Linux Kernel 2.6.30.6 It has the ALSA sound system, ACPI support, and SELinux. Berry Linux features automatic hardware detection, with support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI, USB devices and many other peripherals. Network devices are automatically configured with DHCP.

The full version of Berry Linux uses KDE (Version 4.2) while Berry Linux Mini uses the Fluxbox window manager. The full version is about 570MB, while the mini version is about 140MB. To test Berry Linux it is not necessary to install the distribution to a hard disc, as the operating system runs entirely from CD-ROM.

It is, however, possible to install Berry Linux to a hard disk, which requires 1.7 gigabytes of free space. Supporting Japanese, Berry includes Whiz, a sharp Kana-Kanji conversion system. It also comes with OpenOffice.org version 2.2, a Microsoft Office compatible office suite, as well as TextMaker/PlanMaker as Berry's office software. The GIMP, version 2.6.4, is bundled for graphics software.

Berry includes the media players Audacious, MPlayer, Xine, and Kaffeine. DVD and DivX codecs are installed by default.

Update:
Yuichiro Nakada has announced the release of Berry Linux 1.01, a Fedora-based Japanese distribution and live CD (with support for English) for the desktop, featuring the KDE 4 desktop environment. This is the project's first release based on Fedora 12. From the changelog: "Berry Linux 1.01 released. Based on Fedora 12; Linux kernel 2.6.32.9 SMP + ndev/udev + bootsplash, glibc 2.11.1, GCC 4.4.3, BusyBox 1.15.3; KDE 4.4.0 (Fedora 12 stable); AIGLX/X.Org 1.7.5; SLiM login manager 1.3.1; SRWare Iron 4.0.275.2 (based on Google Chrome); Mozilla Firefox 3.6 (Japanese and English); Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0.3 (Japanese and English); Samba 3.4.7; WINE 1.1.38; LXTerminal 0.1.6; removed Sylpheed 2.5.0 (Japanese and English); removed rxvt-unicode 9.06." Read the complete changelog for additional information. Download (MD5): berry-1.01.iso (602MB).

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