For anyone under the age of 25, you probably won’t even know who Commodore are or what an Amiga 600 was (never mind the Commodore 64). Well, Commodore are back and they have brought with them their very own version of Linux – Commodore OS Vision. Here is how Commodore OS Vision is described on their website:
[quote]Commodore OS Vision is our customized GNU/Linux distribution for Commodore enthusiasts that is designed to unleash your creative potential and help you enjoy your computing experience to the fullest. Commodore computers were well known for their unique operating environments, so we seek to do the same, by providing a distinctive, attractive, advanced and fun operating system experience. Various themes are included, inspired by the Commodore 64 and various versions of the Commodore Amiga Workbench user environments, but with a modern spin, which includes many slick graphical effects which showcase the capabilities of our new Commodore machines. [/quote]
Now, I can’t profess to actually trying this OS out for two main reasons really – 1) it’s bloody ugly and 2) it’s massive! At over 16GB when fully installed (across two ISO images) it’s just far too big for my liking. However, I have read some other reviews on Commodore OS Vision and it’s basically Linux Mint on horse steroids (they haven’t actually changed the Mint boot splash apparently). It’s an over version of Mint at that, version 11 and kernel version 2.x.
The UI is heavily customised, even applications like LibreOffice are themed in that lovely shade of blue. But the two ISO’s do include alot of nostalgia in the form of Amiga and Commodore applications. This is enough in itself for some to give it a go – something I may do at some point.
Here are a few screen shots of the ‘beautiful’ UI I’ve been talking about:
Not the prettiest in my opinion – and my favourite colour is blue as well!
If this article inspires you to download and try Commodore OS Vision then there is a download button below. If you do, please come back and leave a comment as it would be great to hear what your experiences of Commodore OS Vision are.
