Technalign releases new community based distribution, Pioneer Linux

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Aug. 20, 2007

Technalign, developers of both the community and commercial Pioneer Linux operating systems, recently announced the release of Pioneer Explorer 1.0 and the Programs folder.

In the past, Technalign built its Linux distributions from Ubuntu, Debian and MEPIS codebases. While this new distribution still shows its Ubuntu/Debian roots, it's now going in its own direction.

According to CEO, Dianne Ursini, for the last "five years, we have been attempting to work with other Linux companies and producers to deliver a solution for consumers as well as business. In those five years we've found major disconnects between those companies and what customers were asking for. We had no choice but to address this major disconnect, apply it to a new direction."

Part of this change will be that Technalign will be supporting its desktop distribution for a five year lifecycle with additional support for commercial applications. This new release, Pioneer Explorer, however, is a community project. Just as Novell uses openSUSE as the basis for its commercial SUSE Linux distributions and Red Hat uses Fedora as the foundation for RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), Technalign will use Pioneer as the basis for its commercial Basic and Renegade distributions.

In a statement, Ursini said "The new Pioneer Explorer release provides community users with an excellent system that works with most systems out of the box. Pioneer Explorer is the base for all Pioneer products including the Basic and Renegade systems."

Pioneer Explorer includes a rebuilt x.org file and an up-to-date version of Firefox coupled with additional changes. Pioneer Explorer 1.0 is available for download immediately and includes the final additions to the Programs folder including virtualization tools.

According to the company, Pioneer Explorer 1.0 also includes a pleasant experience with additional hardware support including unprecedented wireless and WinModem support out of the box. Pioneer Explorer now has KDE 4.0 beta in the repositories and those wanting to test may do so. Unlike earlier versions of the Pioneer Linux desktop family, Explorer also supports GNOME.

Pioneer Explorer includes a "Programs folder" that allows for individuals to open a simple folder, install what they want when they want it easily. The Programs folder will continue to be expanded, but it currently includes those applications most requested by users. The Programs folder includes virtual machine and Innotek virtualization tools, and CrossOver Office Standard and Professional for users, who want to run Windows applications on Linux.

Pioneer Explorer will provide a weekly build for those wanting to download the latest version. New releases, such as Pioneer Explorer 1.1 and continuing will be based on changes warranting a new release. The project schedules are listed on tapioneer.com.

Technalign is requesting that community members provide feedback on the distribution's forums, as well as reporting any bugs on Technalign's bug tracking system. A project tracking tool is expected to go online in the next 20 days for all community projects including the new Pioneer installer.

—Steven J. Vaughan Nichols

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