Developer | Hyperbola Founders [1] |
---|---|
OS family | Linux (Unix-like) |
Working state | Current |
Source model | Free software |
Initial release | April 15, 2017 [2] |
Latest release | 0.4.4 [3] / 5 January 2024 |
Repository | |
Update method | Long-term support |
Package manager | pacman |
Platforms | AMD64, i686 |
Kernel type | Monolithic (Linux-libre) |
Userland | GNU |
Default user interface | Bash |
License | Free software (GNU GPL and other licenses) |
Official website | www |
Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre is an independent Linux distribution for the i686 and x86-64 architectures using the package-manager from Arch Linux and some patchsets from the Debian development [4] though stopping using patchsets from Debian beyond the version Debian 12. [5] It includes the GNU operating system components and the Linux-libre kernel instead of the generic Linux kernel. Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre is listed by the Free Software Foundation as a completely free operating system, true to their Free System Distribution Guidelines. [6] [7]
Hyperbola was born at the 17th annual Fórum Internacional Software Livre (Porto Alegre, Brazil). [2]
On 5 August 2017, support for systemd was dropped in favor of OpenRC as its default init system [8] to support the Init Freedom Campaign [9] [10] begun by Devuan.
On 6 December 2018, Hyperbola was the first Brazilian distribution [11] recognized as a completely free project by GNU, making it part of the FSF list of free distributions. [12] [13] [14]
On 23 September 2019, Hyperbola announced its first release with the implementation of Xenocara as its default display server for the X Window System and LibreSSL as its default system cryptography library. [15]
In December 2019, Hyperbola announced that it would cease to be a Linux distribution, and that it would become a hard fork of OpenBSD with GPL-licensed code. The project cited objections to recent developments in the Linux kernel that they deemed to be an "unstable path", including inclusion of optional support for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, the kernel "being written without security in mind", GNU and "core" components with non-optional dependencies, and endorsement of the Rust programming language — due to objections to the Mozilla Foundation trademarks policy and "a centralized code repository that is more prone to cyber attack and generally requires internet access to use". [16]
Since the release of version 0.4 on 1 March 2022, Hyperbola rebased towards its own packages built from scratch and is no longer using any marked snapshot from Arch Linux.
The Hyperbola social contract incorporates aspects of the Parabola GNU/Linux-libre social contract and the "Init Freedom" movement of Devuan. It commits the project to following the principles of the free software movement and free culture (including only supporting community-driven projects), respecting the privacy of users, and respecting the principles of stability (rejecting software that is "broken by design") and a minimal system (including rejecting undue abstraction layers). [17]
Hyperbola requires all software to adhere to the GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines, prohibiting packages that are proprietary software, and contain binary blobs or obfuscated code. [18] Notwithstanding that a project is free and open source software, the Hyperbola project excludes packages that violate the social contract (and those that have dependencies on excluded packages), including those that: [19]
Under these guidelines, the Hyperbola project rejects packages such as D-Bus, PulseAudio, and systemd (bloat), package managers for programming languages (capable of downloading non-free dependencies), Vulkan (only useful for modern GPUs thus breaking backwards compatibility), Zstd (corporate project), and Mozilla Firefox (bloat, trademark policy, encourages use of non-free services; the project maintains a fork of Basilisk known as Iceweasel-UXP). [19] [21]
Hyperbola aliases its stable releases using galaxy names as codenames [22] chosen from the list of nearest known galaxies of the Milky Way, in ascending order of distance. [23]
A stable version of Hyperbola gets released approximately every three years. Point releases will be available every few months. For each Hyperbola release, it will receive two years of extra security updates after its End Of Life (EOL). However, no further point releases will be made. Each Hyperbola release will receive five years of security support in total. [24]
Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre can be installed from scratch using the live images. [25] Prior to the version 0.4, migrating from an existing Arch-based system was supported. [26] [27] [28]
Debian, also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is the basis for many other distributions, such as Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Tails, Proxmox, Kali Linux, Pardus, TrueNAS SCALE, and Astra Linux.
A Linux distribution is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro, if distributed on its own, is often obtained via a website intended specifically for the purpose. Distros have been designed for a wide variety of systems ranging from personal computers to servers and from embedded devices to supercomputers.
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Technical variations of Linux distributions include support for different hardware devices and systems or software package configurations. Organizational differences may be motivated by historical reasons. Other criteria include security, including how quickly security upgrades are available; ease of package management; and number of packages available.
In Unix-based computer operating systems, init is the first process started during booting of the operating system. Init is a daemon process that continues running until the system is shut down. It is the direct or indirect ancestor of all other processes and automatically adopts all orphaned processes. Init is started by the kernel during the booting process; a kernel panic will occur if the kernel is unable to start it, or it should die for any reason. Init is typically assigned process identifier 1.
Ian Jackson is a longtime free software author and Debian developer. Jackson wrote dpkg, SAUCE, userv and debbugs. He used to maintain the Linux FAQ. He runs chiark.greenend.org.uk, a Linux system which is home to PuTTY among other things.
gNewSense was a Linux distribution, active from 2006 to 2016. It was based on Debian, and developed with sponsorship from the Free Software Foundation. Its goal was user-friendliness, but with all proprietary and non-free software removed. The Free Software Foundation considered gNewSense to be composed entirely of free software.
GNU variants are operating systems based upon the GNU operating system. According to the GNU project and others, these also include most operating systems using the Linux kernel and a few others using BSD-based kernels.
GNU IceCat, formerly known as GNU IceWeasel, is a completely free version of the Mozilla Firefox web browser distributed by the GNU Project. It is compatible with Linux, Windows, Android and macOS.
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According to the Free Software Foundation Latin America, Linux-libre is a modified version of the Linux kernel that contains no binary blobs, obfuscated code, or code released under proprietary licenses. In the Linux kernel, those types of code are mostly used for proprietary firmware images. While generally redistributable, they do not give the user the freedom to audit, modify, or, consequently, redistribute their modified versions. The GNU Project keeps Linux-libre in synchronization with the mainline Linux kernel.
runit is an init and service management scheme for Unix-like operating systems that initializes, supervises, and ends processes throughout the operating system. Runit is a reimplementation of the daemontools process supervision toolkit that runs on many Linux-based operating systems, as well as BSD, and Solaris operating systems. Runit features parallelization of the start up of system services, which can speed up the boot time of the operating system.
systemd is a software suite that provides an array of system components for Linux operating systems. The main aim is to unify service configuration and behavior across Linux distributions. Its primary component is a "system and service manager" — an init system used to bootstrap user space and manage user processes. It also provides replacements for various daemons and utilities, including device management, login management, network connection management, and event logging. The name systemd adheres to the Unix convention of naming daemons by appending the letter d. It also plays on the term "System D", which refers to a person's ability to adapt quickly and improvise to solve problems.
Parabola GNU/Linux-libre is a free and open-source Linux distribution based on Arch Linux and Arch Linux ARM for the x86-64, i686, and ARMv7 architectures. It is distinguished from other Arch-based distributions by offering only free software. It includes the GNU operating system components common to many Linux distributions and the Linux-libre kernel instead of the generic Linux kernel. Parabola is listed by the Free Software Foundation as a completely free operating system, true to their Free System Distribution Guidelines.
OpenRC is a dependency-based init system for Unix-like computer operating systems. It was created by Roy Marples, a NetBSD developer who was also active in the Gentoo project. It became more broadly adopted as an init system outside of Gentoo following the decision by some Linux distributions not to adopt systemd.
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