14 DAY TRIAL // Alpine Linux is a lightweight Linux distribution based on musl libc and Busybox that’s oriented towards security and less on the overall user experience. A new version has been released and is now ready for download.
We’ve all got used to Linux distributions having nice desktops and friendly interfaces, but that’s only attractive to a part of the community. There are still many users out there who don’t need all that fanciness to do their work on a Linux system. Alpine is a Linux distribution that’s only controlled from the terminal, if the user goes with the default implementation.
In fact, with very few exceptions, most of the stuff that’s done in a Linux distro can be achieved from the terminal and many apps are actually just offering GUI for those functions. Things are definitely changing, but some old-school distros will continue to exist for a long time.
Alpine Linux 3.3 is here
Alpine Linux is for users who know what they are doing, but if you’re interested to know how a Linux distribution actually works underneath all that glitter, then Alpine is a good start.
" Alpine Linux is built around musl libc and busybox. This makes it smaller and more resource efficient than traditional GNU/Linux distributions. A container requires no more than 8 MB and a minimal installation to disk requires around 130 MB of storage. Not only do you get a fully-fledged Linux environment but a large selection of packages from the repository," reads the official website.
According to the changelog, the Linux kernel has been upgraded to version 4.1, a new repository named community has been added, mariadb has been updated to version 10.1, isohybrid boot images are now provided, and xorg-server-1.18 is now implemented by default.
Even if the distribution doesn’t come by default with a desktop, the developers do provide the MATE 1.12 desktop environment and the LibreOffice 5.x branch of the famous office suite.
The complete changelog can be found on the official website. You can download Alpine Linux 3.3.0 right now from Softpedia. The developers of the OS have extensive documentation on their website, if you feel that the distro is too complicated to use.