Zen Linux
About
Zen Linux is an independent Linux distribution. It isn’t based on another one: its packages are built from their upstream sources with its own recipes, tools and build service.
The idea
A system that stays out of your way. Software as its authors made it, built cleanly and kept close to upstream; a rolling release that waits in testing before it reaches you; and tools that tell you what they’re going to do before they do it.
Where it comes from
Zen Linux takes from three distributions, each for something different:
- Arch Linux
- The recipes, which are PKGBUILDs, the format of the package repositories, and the rolling release.
- Alpine Linux
- How zenpac works: short commands, and a world, the list of what you asked for, from which everything else on the system follows.
- Slackware
- The spirit: close to upstream, patches only where they’re needed, a system without magic that you can understand and fix by hand, built from scratch and steered by one person.
Who makes it
Zen Linux is made by Patrik Obrist. It’s developed in the open on GitLab.