Solus Operating System

Solus Operating System, created by the Solus Project [1], is a GNU/Linux based Operating system which is currently in intermediate to late beta testing phase. The project is not to be confused with the former SolusOS project.

History

The Solus Project began in 2014 and aims at creating a user-friendly free and open-source software operating system for the desktop PC user. Solus Operating System is not bogged down with bloatware or too many pre-installed packages. To quote Solus Project′s own web page: "Solus is built specifically for a single vertical. We know you can download other desktop orientated projects. Truth is, every package, every tweak, configuration and optimization, is intended (and designed) solely for desktop usage. So if you’re thinking about running a Solus server, forget about it. Our repository consists of a tightly integrated set of packages, designed to deliver a singular, cohesive experience. We don’t need to patch or work around the work of others, we deliver one well designed unit to our end users."

Features

Solus Operating System is a minimalist operating system thus far. Importantly, Solus Operating System will boot properly via any type of USB drive on UEFI computers. UEFI is a replacement to the standard BIOS back end on modern motherboards. Please note you may need to enable "Legacy mode" within your UEFI settings for Solus Operating System to boot. This depends on your unique hardware. It is available for download as a daily ISO build or a more "stable" beta release on https://www.solus-project.com Solus Operating System features a unique Budgie graphical interface which is very responsive and fast.

The operating system features an .eopkg package format with a and the eopkg (formerly PiSi) package manager. Software is available from the included Software Center. Package support is growing daily, and users may submit ideas for packages they would like included.

Installation

The operating system itself once downloaded in .ISO format (a disk image format) can be either burned onto a CD or put on a USB thumbdrive or even a 2GB or larger SD card in a USB adapter. Methods of putting the .ISO image on the desired media properly can be found on the Solus Project page. Compared with Linux distributions such as Gentoo or Slackware Solus Operating System is easier to install for users not knowledgeable in compiling their entire operating system from source code or selecting every package which comprises the operating system. The installer is graphical in nature, and thus does not require exensive knowledge to install to the hard disk. Of importance as well is the fact that Solus Operating System can run initially as a live OS, meaning it runs directly from the boot media without the need of your personal computer hard disk. This is useful for initially trying the operating system before committing to installing it on your hard disk. The graphical installer can be accessed within the "Live" running OS in the lower left hand menu.

It should also be noted that a graphical hard disk partition manager and utility called gparted is used in the installation process. To install to hard disk, it is required you have a main partition of a reasonable size in the ext4 format. See gparted documentation or the Solus Project site for more information on this. Optionally, as well, the user may wish to create a swap partition which is a smaller parition formatted in the "linux-swap" file system within gparted. Note: for users with about 4GB of ram or more on their computer, swap is not necessary, but could help the speed of your system. Linux-swap partitions are somewhat analogous to the page file in Windows, or virtual memory based on a hard disk rather than Random Access Memory itself.

The installer will also ask you if you wish to install a bootloader called GRUB. If you say yes, you will be given the option to boot into Solus when starting your computer. Please read documentation on GRUB if you already have Microsoft Windows or another operating system installed on the disk, as you will want to retain your ability to log into the other operating system. If you are simply intending on using Solus Operating System it is proper to select yes to this option, as it helps the booting of the OS. Usually if you have one hard disk on your computer you will want it to be installed to /dev/sda0, however this may vary if you have a different configuration.