Draft:Kurumin Linux
| Distribution of Linux | |
 | |
 | |
| Architecture | x86 |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 2003 |
| Latest version | |
Kurumin Linux was a Brazilian Linux distribution based on KNOPPIX, released in 2003 by Carlos Morimoto, using components from Kanotix and Debian [1]. Its logo is a stylized Tux penguin with a feather headdress and a bow and arrow, harking back to the indigenous culture of the Tupi-Guarani tribes.[2] The "K" letter is for its KDE GUI.
The Kurumin system was focused on ease of use, allowing packages to be installed using the "Magic Icons" program, which is a kind of panel with pre-selected useful programs ready for installation with a single click. In addition, the system had a very simplified installer, allowing people unfamiliar with Linux to install it without much knowledge of file systems.
"Kurumin" is a stylized word for the term "curumim", which means "boy" in the Tupi-Guarani indigenous language.
Kurumin Linux was distributed in Live-CD format, and could be started in a full graphical environment on machines with only 256MB of RAM. A parallel version focused on games, Kurumin Games, was a reduced version of the original Kurumin, but with several pre-installed games and emulators[3].
It is considered the "classic" Kurumin Linux, referring to versions 1.0 to 7.0, because, shortly after its official discontinuation, the Kurumin-NG project came into existence, which was based on Kubuntu and maintained by the community, no longer by the original maintainer. However, it did not achieve the success of the classic Kurumin series, since at the time, (K)Ubuntu was already a very popular system and practically eliminated Kurumin's target audience.
Gallery[edit source]
Note: The distribution is a Brazilian system, and therefore, the English language is only available when interacting in the terminal. All components of the graphical interface (including the grub boot screen) are only available in Brazilian Portuguese.
Kurumin 7:
Kurumin 7 boot screen
Kurumin 7 KDE splash screen
Kurumin 7 Demo
Kurumin 7 Demo 2
Kurumin-NG (Kurumin 8):
Kurumin-NG boot screen
Kurumin-NG splash screen
Kurumin-NG desktop
Kurumin-NG demo
Popularity[edit source]
The system was quite popular in the Brazilian community, since it already incorporated very useful resources to facilitate its initialization (live-CD), low hardware requirements (minimum 256MB of RAM) and excellent performance on low-clock single-core processors. The fact that the system could be fully initialized and fully usable from the CD, without the need for installation on a hard drive, as most disks at the time, made the system very popular, including as a diagnostic tool for technicians and computer enthusiasts.
The default graphical interface for Kurumin is KDE, chosen for its similarity to the Windows interface, making users feel more comfortable using the system.
Discontinuation[edit source]
The classic Kurumin (1.0 - 7.0) was discontinued in January 2008, due to the low number of users, many of whom migrated to Debian and Ubuntu when those OSs popularity began to gain prominence in Brazilian territory.
Kurumin-NG, a community-created project, had a short lifespan, launched in 2008 and ending its development in 2009, also attributed to the low popularity of the system, which competed with systems with a larger user base, such as Ubuntu and Debian. [4]