Wow. I’ve started getting emails/etc.. from people interested in the distro, mainly with the single question: WHERE IS IT? Just like that, the caps, bold – everything.

So here is a bit of a status update. HaX took a much needed vacation after I made him package GNOME – alone. His hair should start growing back pretty soon, and the doctors tell me the stroke did no permanent damage. While he was off, I did a foolish thing, and mangled just about all of base. Like I said before, it’s basically a completely new distro.

Some of my personal goals for this distro have changed. For one, I still want the end-user usability that would put Mandrake to shame – but unlike Mandrake, I would like to remain true to the sources that made Linux – and Unix – what they are in the first place. Some Linux distributions seem to forget about the advanced end user’s expectations. Others provide administration utilties that carelessly write over hand edited configuration files. This has greatly changed my entire approach at packaging the base system, and that is what a lot of the “base” redo reflected. That said, there is no reason why such a base, developed correctly, can not be used to build something easy to use for the end user.

Currently, beta testing is open to advanced linux users only, advanced linux users being defined as people that don’t mind hand editing config files when things go wrong. As everything is still in development things WILL go wrong.

HaX is currently working on packaging a new X, and I am putting the finishing touches on base – and trying to get the REAL installer (Beta users currently use a make-shift temporary one) ready for Prime Time. 🙂