Asturix

Asturix

Developer	Asturix Project
OS family	Linux-derivative
Working state	No longer actively developed
Source model	Open source
Initial release	Asturix 1 (February 25, 2009 (2009-02-25))
Latest release	4 / January 10, 2012 (2012-01-10)
Available in	Multi-lan
Package manager	dkpg
Kernel type	Monolithic (Linux)
Default user interface	Asturix On
Official website	asturix.com(former location)

Asturix OS was a customized version of Ubuntu, adapted for Asturian language users. It was initially designed as a regional distribution, but, eventually, it became a desktop distribution, aimed at end users. The development of Asturix has ended.

During its lifespan the Linux distribution gained some media attention and was reviewed by Linux Magazine^[1] and La Nueva España.^[2]

Asturix used a logo derived from the triskelion, symbol of Celtic culture, as other distributions like Trisquel also do.

History

Asturix 1 RC 2

Asturix 2 Business

Asturix 3

Asturix 3 showing the netbook launcher

The project started in 2008. It was initially called AsturLinux, but a Linux association from Asturix had that name, so the name had to be changed to Astur GNU/Linux due to trade mark infringement, and later to the current name, Asturix.^[3] In early 2009, Asturix had its own domain,^[3] and Asturix SO started to be developed. Until the third edition of Asturix, there were three versions: Business, Desktop and Lite. The 25th of February, Asturix 1 Desktop was released, and in the same day of March, the Business version was also released.^[4] The project was officially presented to the mass media in October, in Press Club Center of Oviedo.^[5] In November there was an Install Party of Asturix in PSOE’s local building, the People’s House.^[6] That Install Party was covered by a reporter from La Nueva España.^[7] Although the wide effect of Asturix 1, it was very similar to Ubuntu, and, consequently, if was also criticized for being an “unnecessary fork”.

That problem was slightly corrected in the second edition of Asturix, released in early 2010. It was presented in the Polytechnic School of Engineering of Gijón.^[8] It was covered by the regional public television, RTPA and La Nueva España.^[9] Two days later, a national radio broadcaster, Onda Cero, interview him about Asturix.^[10] In these days, he was also interviewed by the regional branch of Televisión Española.^[11] The second release of Asturix SO was introduced at the computer engineering school of the University of Oviedo.^[12] In April, DistroWatch accepts Asturix in the its list of distributions, and was also reviewed.^[13]

In the same month, April 2010, Asturix was finalist of the Innovation Prize of Campus Party Europa,^[14][15] an event which was covered by the regional branch of Cadena Ser.^[16] The repercussion of Asturix 2 went even further when many Spanish Linux specialty media was interested by Asturix: Linux +,^[17][18] Revista Linux^[19][20] and Todo Linux.^[21][22] Despite all this support, there were groups of people, mainly in Asturias, that said that Asturix 2 was only a “remastersys copy” of Ubuntu, and that it didn’t deserve all this promotion.^[23]

The third edition of Asturix was released in December 2010.^[4] Many things changed in this edition: there were only two version, instead of three: the main version (named SO) and the low resources version (called Lite). The main improvements were the addition of face recognition in the login, the use of web apps (with its own app Asturix Bridge) and Asturix’s own apps, and some SO modifications.^[24] When this edition was released, there was a big repercussion. As a result, DistroWatch made a brief review.^[25] A days later, in the 7 days ranking of DistroWatch, that shows the impact of one distribution in a short period of time, Asturix went to the 6 position.^[26] In this time, Asturix was presented in Madrid^[27] and Langreo (Asturias).^[28] In 2011, Asturix set up an official association,^[29] that was presented later (covered by La Nueva España).^[30][31] In July, due to its popularity in Spain, Asturix was invited to Campus Party Spain. Jon "maddog" Hall was interested about the project, and a month later he wrote about it in his monthly column of Linux Magazine.^[1] He even ceded to Asturix the last ten minutes of his lecture,^[32] in which Luis Ivan (Asturix creator) presented Asturix On, a web based desktop environment.

Luis Iván won the 2011 award for the best under-18 programmer at the HackFwd Hack Now contest.^[33] 20 minutos, a national newspaper, interviewed Luis Iván about this prize some days later.^[34] RTPA did the same.^[35] About a month later, Asturix is nominated to Campus Party Milenio innovation awards.^[36] In November 2011, Asturix organized its first event, Youth and Free Culture with Open Source Software,^[37] sponsored by CENATIC (a governmental organization)^[38] and which was covered by La Nueva España^[39] and endorsed by Creative Commons Spain.^[40]

In January 2012 the last version of Asturix was released. It featured Asturix On and maintained the Asturix's own apps that were in the previous edition.^[41] Due to the addition of Asturix On.^[42] DistroWatch made another review, and the editor, Jesse Smith, described it as "mixed bag".^[43] Again, the 6 position in "7 day list" in DW was achieved.^[42] It was announced by some blogs, including some English-speaking ones, like Hectic Geek;^[44][45] but most were Spanish blogs like Genbeta. After that, Asturix has also featured Televisión Española (two times in this period).^[46][47]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Asturix.

• Former location of official website
• Official website archives on Archive.org