Excelixis – GNU/Linux Distro

Excelixis


What is it?

Excelixis is a derivative of Xubuntu (which is an official spin-off of Ubuntu based on  XFCE instead of GNOME), which comes with several development tools and environments (such as Eclipse, NetBeans, Lazarus, Apache web server, MySQL) pre-installed and some applications (screenlets, cairo-dock) to make it more appealing to the eye. To see more details about the bundled software please click here.

Requirements

In order to run the live-DVD you will need at least 512MB RAM (1+ GB recommended), a 32bit x86 processor and a DVD drive.
A high speed internet connection is highly recommended.

Where can I get it?

You can download the DVD ISO image via bittorrent (you will need a bittorrent client like utorrent, azureus, transmission or any other application you preffer).

Click here to download the torrent file.


After you have succesfully downloaded the iso image, open your disc-burning application (for example Nero, Brasero or K3b) and burn the image to a DVD disc.

Be carefull to burn the iso as an image and not simply place the iso image inside the DVD as a file. The installation process is identical to that of Ubuntu / Xubuntu so you can follow any guide describing the installation of any of these distros.

The iso md5 checksum is : 0c0a5379f21531fd167aaa2a8c717281

After you have successfully burned the DVD ,  place the disc in your PC’s DVD drive and reboot.

If you wish to install Excelixis on your hard-disk permanently, simply click on the “Install” icon on the desktop and follow the on-screen instructions.

What does the name mean?

The word Excelixis is the Greek word for evolution (”Εξέλιξις” -> “Εξέλιξη” in modern Greek).

What is its reason for existence?

With the arrival of Ubuntu 8.04 I decided to write a guide on how to install and configure several development environments such as Eclipse, NetBeans, MonoDevelop etc. Soon after I had finished the guide I stumbled upon Remastersys : a script to generate live CDs using any Ubuntu-based distro. I thought it would be nice to have a system ready to go with all the basic tools I need in a single disc.

If I experience problems, where can I find help?

Excelixis is in fact a slightly “modded” Xubuntu, so you can find help on the Ubuntu forums or any other related source.

Can I create something similar myself?

Of course! The procedure I followed is the following:

  • I downloaded the Xubuntu iso image from here
  • I installed Xubuntu on a VirtualBox virtual machine
  • I performed the desired changes (installed additional apps, changed the artwork etc.)
  • I installed remastersys from the Linux Mint Romeo repositories
  • I run remastersys and the iso-image was generated

Screenshots

Contact

You can send your comments and suggestions to:
excelixis dot linux at gmail dot com

Note: I disabled comments because the page kept becoming increasingly larger.

22 Responses

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  1. Kostas said, on September 22, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    This is new distribution of WorkBench or you ONLY chnage the name??????

  2. BillPet said, on September 22, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    This distro seems very cool and I’ll be trying it, but I have some questions. How many people are working on this project? Will there be an active community around this distro? Will releases keep up with the Xubuntu releases?

    Thanks,
    -BillPet

  3. cyberpython said, on September 22, 2008 at 8:21 pm

    @Kostas: Only the name has changed for now, but as soon as Ubuntu/Xubuntu 8.10 arrives there will be a totally new updated version.

    @BilliPet: Currently only one person is involved in the “development” (if you can call it like that) of Excelixis : me. Anyone is free to take it from there, remaster it, create a community add his own changes etc. As is written above, Excelixis is essentially Xubuntu (the changes are minor) so if I stop the development it should be fairly easy for anyone to continue from where I stopped (though it won’t be anytime soon – at least that’s how I see things for the time being).

  4. Eric said, on September 23, 2008 at 4:24 am

    As I am in software engineering I actually enjoy the name “Workbench” it was fitting to how the distro is laid out. Anyway this is going in the right direction and may just get me off Fedora.

  5. ram said, on September 24, 2008 at 2:50 am

    Hi
    I like the Idea and the distro.
    But the Name is complex to spell out…
    I would think a simple short name also
    helps to make a distro popular..

    Thanks

  6. cyberpython said, on September 24, 2008 at 11:12 am

    @ram : That’s why I had chosen the previous name, but I received a number of negative comments, stating that it was misleading (due to the similarity with that of other (very popular) software). So, the only way to keep everyone satisfied was to rename the distro – to be honest I did not think about the new name too much – I just liked the word “Excelixis” as it means “Evolution” in Greek.

  7. Suman Chakrabarty said, on September 24, 2008 at 3:27 pm

    Why there is no direct download link available? It’s not possible to use torrent network within our institute. :(

  8. Leandro said, on September 25, 2008 at 1:28 am

    Good Iddea , downloading now , but just 3 peers =[
    See ya

  9. vallum6 said, on September 25, 2008 at 8:30 am

    I like this distro very much, but I do not like the new name (it is really difficult to pronounce in English).

  10. BillPet said, on September 25, 2008 at 11:29 pm

    My download just finished after 2 days. I can’t wait to try it out tomorrow! I’ll also leave my peer up to try to make other downloads faster.

    -BillPet

  11. Proxy said, on September 26, 2008 at 4:37 pm

    ! Alas, there are only 2 peers on this torrent, it will take a good long time to get it. It seems like a solid development distro, Evolution sounds like a better distro name since its easier to understand. Or mabye Linx++? Either way, this was JUST the distro I needed since I am doing some heavy coding.

    Thanks

    Keep this distro alive!

  12. buddy said, on September 28, 2008 at 5:10 am

    Hi,
    I have downloaded workbench.iso (1.5GB, md5=2bebefc3d5f91f0c1e92ae7a3f35a7df), is this the same version as the current renamed distro?

    Thanks

  13. cyberpython said, on September 28, 2008 at 9:49 am

    See : http://excelixis.wordpress.com/2008/09/22/hello-world/

  14. PieterB said, on September 29, 2008 at 7:03 pm

    Very nice ubuntu customisation. Good work :-)

  15. BillPet said, on September 30, 2008 at 11:54 pm

    I made a video of my Excelixis Desktop if anyone is interested. The quality is poor, but you can see see Conpiz in action as well as Cairo-Dock.

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8352088842404351842&hl=en

    -Bill

  16. cyberpython said, on October 1, 2008 at 11:16 am

    @BillPet: Nice video!

  17. patch0 said, on October 4, 2008 at 5:56 pm

    The info here says requirements 32bit machine. I assume that a 64bit would be ok if its using xubuntu?

  18. cyberpython said, on October 4, 2008 at 6:09 pm

    Excelixis v1.0 is based on Xubuntu 8.04 32-bits x86. I guess it should also work on 64-bit systems but it will not take advantage of the 64-bit features of the system.

  19. patch0 said, on October 5, 2008 at 10:36 am

    In that case I won’t be using it :( shame was looking forward to it. Any chance of an AMD 64bit version of the distro? Emacs would be nice too… ;)

  20. Guilherme said, on October 8, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    How can I active the 3d graphics showed in the video?I installed and this feature doesnt work like in the video.

    Thx

    ————————————————–
    Obs:Tem algum brasileiro mechendo com esse linux aqui?

    Abraços

  21. cyberpython said, on October 8, 2008 at 2:38 pm

    Here is a guide to enable desktop effects in Xubuntu :

    http://xubuntublog.wordpress.com/2007/12/09/xubuntu-compiz-pretty-pretty-xubuntu/

  22. Excelixis Linux 1.0 said, on November 22, 2008 at 5:14 pm

    [...] Linux (per ora inserita solo nella “lista di attesa”): Excelixis Linux 1.0 (homepage: http://excelixis.wordpress.com/excelixis/). Precedentemente conosciuta come “Workbench Linux”, è basata su Xubuntu, usa come [...]


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