The free operating system is not Gekolinux derivative, but rather a structure (“spin”) of the Linux distribution OpenSUSE, which is particularly popular in Germany, and yet in many ways a better choice for beginners. GeckoLinux was able to make many friends with its obvious “out-of-the-box utility”.
OpenSUSE Made Easy
While Gekolinux “Static” distribution, which follows a traditional release cycle, is based on OpenSUSE Leap 15.2, Gekolinux “Rolling” is based on the latest spin of OpenSUSE Tumbleweed of the time. But unlike OpenSUSE, Gekolinux provides installation media with seven separate graphical desktops for both release models.
The rolling release of GeckoLinux also comes with the first fully redesigned desktop environment Gnome 40, which recently celebrated its premiere at Fedora Workstation 34, and the current KDE Plasma 5.21.5 with KDE Gear 21.04.
Official release notes The current release of distributions based on Linux 5.12.3 can be read relatively clearly, as is typical for rolling releases:
This set of Gekolinux rolling spins also includes a stack of new software directly from the OpenSUSE Tumbleweed repository.
The Linux kernel is currently at version 5.12.3, and all GeckoLinux versions have Firefox 88. Current desktop environment versions include the following:
- Gnome 40
- Cinnamon 4.8.6
- Plasma 5.21.5 / KF5 5.82 / KDE Apps 21.04
- Buggy Desktop 10.5.3
- LXQT 0.17
- Xfc 4.16
- Mate 1.24
- Pantheon (various component versions)
Gekolinux (“Rolling”) – Release Notes Release
OpenSUSE open for beginners
GeckoLinux wants to make the installation of an alternative desktop and related packages and applications as easy as possible for less experienced users and for this reason provides a separate installation medium for each desktop environment.
System images can be written on a USB stick with the appropriate device such as Ventoy or Rufus and tested as a live system.
If you prefer, distribution can be installed quickly and easily using a graphical installation routine on an SSD or hard drive.
GeckoLinux also comes with all the relevant multimedia codecs and makes it particularly easy to get started with Linux. For legal reasons, these are not included in OpenSUSE, even though they are available as a ready package through package management.
The manufacturers have more information and documentation on GeckoLinux Project page GitHub Developer Platform. Support community in Gekolinux-forum.
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