SalineOS is a lightweight and fast open source operating system built on the Debian GNU/Linux repositories and uses Xfce as the desktop environment.

Saline Linux is built on Debian and features Xfce for its desktop environment. According to the About page on Saline’s website, “Saline OS includes many things that most people using a Debian GNU/Linux based system would most likely want or need, but are not included or not setup on a default Debian install for various reasons. This includes sgfxi for installing proprietary graphics drivers, Debian repositories that include software that does not conform to Debian’s strict free software guidelines, WINE repositories, Remastersys backup utility, binary firmware for common wireless network cards, the Debian backports repository and a script to install potentially patent encumbered multimedia codecs with one command.”

I torrented the iso file of the live dvd and set about to install it under Virtual Box. It booted up quickly, and I began the installation process. The installer was pretty straight forward and not atypical of many other Linux distributions. I did have an opportunity to stretch myself during the installaAtion though. Never before have I allocated any space to swap, but Saline required me to for installation. It wasn’t tough, but I’d never done it before, even though Fedora, or Ubuntu, or whatever always asks me to. That extremely minor challenge surmounted, the installation proceeded quickly.

The user manual, which is available on the desktop of both the live dvd and the installed system contains a lot of good information such as included software and an installation walkthrough.

Included in the manual is a script to add restricted multimedia codecs. This is extremely useful for someone who wants to use Linux as a Windows or Mac replacement. The codecs installed for me without any difficulties, allowing me to fully enjoy a wide variety of media formats.

Finally, the manual contains several pages of useful POSIX commands

I was pleased to see that Chromium is included as the default browser. I find that when I want a fast light system, especially for a netbook with limited screen space, that Chromium is the right browser for the job.

Another software choice was Gedit, rather than Mousepad which is what I’m used to seeing with Xfce installations. I like Gedit, so I was happy to see it among the software.

I find Saline Linux to be a very pleasant distribution to use, and I could definitely see it as my primary OS of choice. It is built on the rock solid Debian foundation, but includes some nice theme-ing that you won’t get with Debian Xfce. I think as its usership and community grow, Saline Linux has the potential to be every bit as wonderful and vibrant as Linux Mint, which is currently my distro of choice. For now I’m going to continue running it as a virtual machine and see how it continues to progress.

One thing I really enjoyed just on a personal level is that the desktop background by default seems to be some sort of large aquarium. This is a nice change of pace from the abstract shapes, random colors, and logos included as the default background in many other distributions.

Updates (via Distrowatch):

Anthony Nordquist has announced the release of SalineOS 1.4, a Debian-based desktop distribution with Xfce, and SalineOS 1.0 "Personal Server" edition, a Debian-based distribution for home servers: "SalineOS Personal Server edition 1.0 is now available. The Personal Server edition is designed to make setting up small personal home servers as easy as possible. It features stripped-down Xfce 4.6.2 desktop environment, FireStarter firewall utility, GNOME NetworkManager, the new SalineOS installer, ClamAV pinned to Debian 'Squeeze' updates, scripts for aiding installation of certain server services, and full user manual in English, Spanish and German."

Read the brief release announcement and visit the product information page to find out more; the 1.4 announcement is here.

Download links: SalineOS-1.4-i386.iso (921MB, MD5, torrent), SalineOS-1.4-AMD64.iso (931MB, MD5, torrent), SalineOS-1.0-i386-PSE.iso (635MB, MD5, torrent), SalineOS-1.0-AMD64-PSE.iso (658MB, MD5, torrent).

Recent releases:

• 2011-05-11: Distribution Releases: SalineOS 1.4, 1.0 "Personal Server"
• 2011-03-20: Distribution Release: Saline OS 1.3
• 2011-01-20: Distribution Release: Saline OS 1.0

Download.

If you are unsure of which image to use, it is recommended to download the i386 image.

You will need a bittorrent client if you wish to download these images using the popular peer to peer network. You can get get a free client for all popular operating systems at http://www.deluge-torrent.org/

If your computer does not have an optical drive or you would perfer to install from a USB flash drive, please see this post for details and instructions. How to create a bootable USB flash drive of SalineOS.

The User manual for SalineOS has been updated since the release of 1.0. Click here to get the revised SalineOS user manual for an already installed system.

You can update the user manual from the live envoirnment and ensure it gets installed by remastersys-installer to your new system by inputting the following into your terminal and hitting enter:

cd $HOME/Desktop && rm ./UserManual.pdf && wget http://www.salineos.com/Downloads/UserManual.pdf && sudo cp -f $HOME/Desktop/UserManual.pdf /etc/skel/Desktop

Download the SalineOS DVD image for i386 machines.
Direct Download Bittorrent Checksum

Download the SalineOS DVD image for AMD64 machines.
Direct Download Bittorrent Checksum

If you would like to install SalineOS from a CD you can do so by using the shell image and then download the rest of the default applications after rebooting to the installed system. A script is included to accomplish this completely automatically.

You can update the shell user manual from the live envoirnment and ensure it gets installed by remastersys-installer to your new system by inputting the following into your terminal and hitting enter:

cd $HOME/Desktop && rm ./UserManual.pdf && wget http://www.salineos.com/Downloads/Shell/UserManual.pdf && sudo cp -f $HOME/Desktop/UserManual.pdf /etc/skel/Desktop

Download the SalineOS alternate CD installation image.
Direct Download Bittorrent Checksum

If you are running a version of Windows that is older than Windows 7 you will need special software to properly burn these ISO images. You can download this software free of charge at http://www.infrarecorder.org/
Note: In order to use the CD or DVD you burn you will have to set your computers bios to boot from your CD or DVD drive if it isn't already. Instructions for this are available at http://www.hiren.info/pages/bios-boot-cdrom

Screenshots.