Sabayon Linux 7 KDE SC |
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| Company / developer | Fabio Erculiani and Team |
| OS family | GNU/Linux |
| Working state | Current |
| Source model | Mixed |
| Initial release | November 28, 2005 |
| Latest stable release | (Rolling release) 7.0 / October 10, 2011 |
| Update method | Entropy (Equo, Sulfur) / Emerge |
| Package manager | Entropy (Equo, Sulfur) / Portage |
| Supported platforms | IA-32, x86-64 |
| Kernel type | Monolithic kernel |
| Userland | GNU |
| Default user interface | many |
| License | Various; Mainly GNU GPL |
| Official website | www.sabayon.org |
Sabayon Linux or Sabayon (formerly RR4 Linux and RR64 Linux), is a Gentoo-based Linux distribution created by Fabio Erculiani and the Sabayon development team. Sabayon follows the "Out of the box" philosophy, aiming to give the user a wide number of applications ready to use and a self-configured operating system. It is named after an Italian dessert, zabaione which is made from eggs.[1] Sabayon's logo is an impression of a hen's foot.
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Sabayon is designed to give the computer user an easy-to-use workspace with a captivating look, good hardware detection and a large number of up-to-date software packages installed by default; with additional software available from a repository. It provides both x86 and AMD64 distributions. The SpinBase version comes without an X server graphical interface, providing a lighter and faster base system suitable for customization.
Sabayon has been released since version 4.1 in two different flavors featuring either the GNOME or KDE desktop environments, with the ultralight Fluxbox environment included as well. (In the previous versions all three environments were included in a DVD ISO image. In addition, a CoreCD edition without X was developed.)
Thanks to the development of a CD/DVD image creation meta-tool named Molecule, Sabayon became the first Linux distribution to have updated images daily, located in the DAILY directory [2]. These images are available to the Sabayon testers, but are released weekly to the public on the system mirrors containing stable releases. Official releases are simply DAILY versions which have received deeper testing. The adoption of Molecule led the team to change the naming system for releases [3].
Currently available versions are:
| Name | Desktop Environment | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| CoreCD | None | No longer developed |
| CoreCDX | Fluxbox | DAILY and stable |
| G | GNOME | DAILY and stable |
| K | KDE | DAILY and stable |
| LXDE | LXDE | DAILY and stable |
| XFCE | Xfce | DAILY and stable |
| SpinBase | None | DAILY and stable |
| SpinBase OpenVZ Templates | None | DAILY and stable |
Sabayon uses the same core components as the Gentoo Linux distribution, including OpenRC and baselayout2. All of the Gentoo configuration tools, such as etc-update and eselect are fully functional. Sabayon also includes additional tools for automatic configuration of various system components such as OpenGL. Sabayon provides proprietary video drivers for both nVidia and ATI hardware [4]. These are enabled if compatible hardware is found; otherwise, the default open-source drivers are used. Because of the automatic driver configuration, the Compositing window manager Compiz Fusion and KWin are used for the GNOME and KDE editions respectively. The discovery and configuration of network and wireless cards and webcams is similarly automatic. Most printers are detected automatically but require specific manual configuration through the CUPS interface.
Sabayon Linux relies on two package managers. Portage is inherited from Gentoo, while Entropy was developed for Sabayon. Portage downloads source-code and compiles it specifically for the target system, whereas Entropy manages binary files from servers. The binary tarball packages are precompiled using the Gentoo Linux unstable tree. Entropy clients then pull these tarballs and perform the various post- and pre-compilation calls of the Gentoo ebuild to set up a package correctly. This means the system is completely binary-compatible with a Gentoo system using the same build configuration. The adoption of two package managers allows expert users to access the full flexibility of the Gentoo system and others to easily and quickly manage software applications and updates. The Entropy software features the ability of allowing users to help generate relevant content by voting and by attaching images, files and web links to a package.
The number of applications installed by default is higher for DVD editions than for editions small enough to fit on a CD. Their selection is also tailored to the choice between GNOME and KDE. The XBMC environment can be run without loading the full desktop environment.
The following table summarizes the software included in KDE and GNOME versions:
| Type of Program | Gnome Version | KDE Version |
|---|---|---|
| BitTorrent Client | Transmission | - |
| E-mail Client | Evolution | KMail |
| IRC Client | XChat | Konversation |
| Compositing window manager | Mutter | KWin |
| Drop down terminal | Guake | Yakuake |
| Text editor | gedit | KWrite |
| Image processing | GIMP | - |
| Archive tool | File Roller | Ark |
| Photo manager | Shotwell | Gwenview |
| Browser | Chromium | Chromium |
| Burning program | Brasero | K3b |
| Media Center | Xbox Media Center | Xbox Media Center |
| Media player | Totem | VLC media player |
| Instant messaging | Empathy | Kopete |
| Network Manager | NM Applet | KNetworkManager |
| Music Player | Exaile | Amarok |
| Office suite | LibreOffice | LibreOffice |
| Virtual terminal | GNOME Terminal | Konsole |
| Portable Document Format viewer | Evince | Okular |
Considerable software is also available in the main repository.
Microsoft Windows executables are automatically run in Wine.
Other applications include Adobe Reader, Clementine, aMSN, Celestia, Mozilla Firefox, Eclipse, Google Earth, Inkscape, Kdenlive, Mozilla Sunbird, Mozilla Thunderbird, Nero Burning ROM, Opera, Picasa, Skype, VirtualBox, Vuze, Wireshark.
Games (open-source and proprietary) include Doom 3, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Nexuiz, Quake, Quake 2, Quake 3, Quake 4, Sauerbraten, The Battle for Wesnoth, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Warsow and Warzone 2100.
Although the distribution is a LiveDVD (for XFCE, LXDE, CoreCDX and SpinBase, a LiveCD), it can be installed on a hard disk once the system is fully booted. Sabayon Linux uses the Anaconda installer. In previous releases, the Gentoo Linux Installer was used. Installation is designed to be simpler than is typical for Gentoo, which requires more extensive knowledge of the operating system (particularly for the compilation of the Linux kernel). Installation takes up to 30 minutes depending on the speed of the DVD drive. Those without a DVD drive can install the GNOME and KDE versions through a USB drive, which can be created with Unetbootin. A program plays music during the boot process.
| Version | Release Date | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 3.0RC1b miniEdition | 1 July 2006[5] | |
| 3.0RC2 | 16 August 2006[6] | Distribution name switch from RR4 to Sabayon |
| miniEdition 3.0 RC2 | 24 August 2006[7] | |
| 3.0 | 14 September 2006[8] | |
| miniEdition 3.0 | 26 September 2006[9] | |
| miniEdition 3.05 | 4 October 2006[10] | |
| 3.1 | 10 October 2006[11] | |
| miniEdition 3.1 | 9 October 2006[12] | |
| 3.2 | 27 November 2006[13] | |
| 3.2 miniEdition | 11 December 2006[14] | |
| 3.25 | 2 January 2007[15] | |
| 3.26 | 8 January 2007[16] | |
| 3.3 | 16 March 2007[17] | |
| 3.3 miniEdition | 25 March 2007[18] | |
| 3.4 Loop 1 | 13 April 2007[19] | |
| 3.4 Loop 2 | 18 May 2007[20] | |
| 3.4 Loop 3 | 26 June 2007[21] | |
| 1.0 "Business Edition" RE | 15 July 2007[3] | |
| 3.4 | 24 July 2007[22] | |
| 3.4 Revision E | 6 August 2007[23] | |
| 3.4 miniEdition | 23 September 2007[24] | |
| 3.4 Revision F | 7 September 2007[25] | |
| 1.1 Professional Edition | 23 October 2007[26] | |
| 3.5 Loop 1 | 24 December 2007[27] | First release including Entropy |
| 3.5 Loop 2 | 17 March 2008[28] | |
| 3.5 Loop 3 | 15 May 2008[29] | |
| 3.5 | 1 July 2008[30] | First stable release including entropy |
| Pod 3.5 | 11 July 2008[31] | |
| 3.5.1 | 9 November 2008[32] | |
| 4 Revision 1 | 25 December 2008[33] | |
| 4 LiteMCE | 4 January 2009[34] | |
| 4.1 GNOME | 13 April 2009[35] | KDE and GNOME versions split off. ISO size changes from 4.7GB to 1.5-2GB. |
| 4.1 KDE | 29 April 2009[36] | |
| 4.2 GNOME | 30 June 2009[37] | |
| 4.2 KDE | 6 July 2009[38] | |
| CoreCD 4.2 | 25 July 2009[39] | |
| 5.0 GNOME/KDE | 2 October 2009[40] | |
| 5.1 GNOME/KDE | 12 December 2009[41] | |
| CoreCD 5.1 | 20 December 2009[42] | |
| 5.1 x86 GAMING EDITION | 25 December 2009[43] | Special Christmas versions containing only games |
| 5.2 GNOME/KDE | 26 March 2010[44] | |
| 5.3 GNOME/KDE | 5 June 2010[45] | |
| 5.3 SpinBase | 18 June 2010[46] | Replaces the CoreCD |
| 5.3 CoreCDX | 18 June 2010[46] | CoreCD with X and Fluxbox |
| 5.3 LXDE/XFCE | 19 July 2010[47] | First stable version featuring LXDE/XFCE |
| 5.3 SpinBase/OpenVZ Templates | 19 July 2010[47] | First stable version featuring ready to use OpenVZ templates |
| 5.4 GNOME/KDE | 30 September 2010[48] | |
| 5.5 GNOME/KDE | 27 January 2011[49] | |
| 6 GNOME/KDE | 23 June 2011[50] | |
| 7 GNOME/KDE/XFCE | 11 October 2011 |
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