Analysis In an overcrowded field full of distributions, there are still many empty gaps. The Register would like to point in the direction of a few.

Absolute Linux has reached the end – where to next?

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2025-01-14 14:00:15

Analysis In an overcrowded field full of distributions, there are still many empty gaps. The Register would like to point in the direction of a few.

On December 15th 2024, developer Paul Sherman announced the end of the Absolute Linux project. This year, its website has already gone, but the Internet Archive's final snapshot says:

Age, expense, but mostly LACK OF TIME leave me no choice but to give it up. I won't bore you with the crybaby details, but I gotta make ends meet. If someone wants to take the distro over, I would be happy to freely pass it on. I enjoyed tinkering all those years!

The project had been going since 2007, as the oldest snapshot's copyright message shows. Its project page on Sourceforge is still there, complete with downloads, if you want to give it a try. Absolute Linux was a cut-down lightweight remix of the venerable Slackware Linux, which at 25 years old (or 0x20, in old money) is the oldest surviving distro. As we said in that story, Slackware itself is anything but lightweight – it nearly filled our 16GB test root partition. That would seem to leave room for a lightweight remix, and we like the sound of some of its choices – the nearly as venerable IceWM and a Reg FOSS desk favourite, the ROX Filer.

We're always sad to see a project close down – although if any fans of Absolute Linux read this, it may be worth contacting Mr Sherman and offering to take it over. If that sounds over your pay grade but you want a lighter-weight Slackware, then SLAX is still around, as are Salix OS and Zenwalk.