A new testing version of this distro is out

Nov 12, 2014 15:27 GMT  ·  By

4MLinux Server Edition, a special distribution based on Busybox, Dropbear, OpenSSH, and PuTTY, has been upgraded to version 4MLinux 10.1 Beta and is now ready for testing.

The 4MLinux developer is managing the size of his distributions down to the last bit and he's doing the same with the server edition. In fact, 4MLinux distros are well known for the fact that they are very small, regardless of their purpose. The Server edition follows the same cardinal rule and weighs just 192 MB, which is almost ridiculous.

Also, it's worth pointing out that 4MLinux Server Edition comes with a desktop environment, which is rather unusual. Most of the Linux server distros don't have any kind of desktop and it's not really required. On the other hand, it's nice to see that a developer is going the extra mile to provide a friendly and easy to use interface for his users.

4MLinux Server Edition gets numerous updates for the main packages

If you are just a regular user, you might want to skip the Server Edition altogether. This is a dedicated operating system with a clear purpose. Sure enough, you could make it work like any other distribution by installing stuff form the repositories, but there are other 4MLinux distros that can do that.

"The servers controlled by the inetd daemon are now: FTP (vsftpd 3.0.2), HTTP/HTTPS (Busybox 1.22.1 with Stunnel 5.07), SSH/SFTP (OpenSSH 6.6p1), and telnet. The programming environment includes the Apache 2.4.10 build of PHP 5.6.2 (with cURL 7.38.0 support), Perl 5.20.1, and DBMS (SQLite 3.8.7.1, MariaDB 10.0.14 with Adminer 4.1.0). The main security components are 4MLinux Firewall 10.1 (based on iptables 1.4.21) and Clam AntiVirus 0.98.4."

"A proxy/anonymity software (Polipo 1.1.1 with TOR 0.2.5.10 and JAP/JonDo 00.19.001), a VNC server (via LibVNCServer 0.9.10 with EchoVNC 2.40a), and rsync 3.1.1 are also available," says the developer in the announcement. Users can also check out the online demo that has been made available.

Although this is a Live distribution that can be booted from a USB drive, it's also possible to install it. You have to keep in mind that this is a development version, which means that it's not yet ready for production.

More details about this Linux distribution can be found in the official announcement. You can download 4MLinux Server Edition 10.1 Beta right now from Softpedia. It runs very well in VirtualBox, if you want to give it a spin before deciding to install it.

4MLinux Server Edition 10.1 Beta (6 Images)

4MLinux Server Edition desktop
4MLinux Server Edition clean desktopMenus and options in 4MLinux Server Edition
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