SbK Mate-Compiz 23.0.0

I am happy to announce the release of SbK Mate-Compiz 23.0.0.


The SpinsbyKilz.com watermark is not present in the installed OS.

A few minor tweaks to the theme but nothing major. Its looking very nice and I love the faded dock.

Both iso’s in this release include:

  1. The 6.1.31 LTS kernel.
  2. Compiz 9 with the rotating cube for virtual desktops, faded windows in the background, wobbly windows, and other effects.
  3. The New KoraSpin-Green3 icon theme with light and dark versions of the control icons. It is part of the KoraSpin-23.0.0 package.
  4. The new SpinThemeDarkGreen12 matching Gtk and Kvantum themes in one package.
  5. The new Usplash-23.0.0 desktop wallpapers. One of them is the background for the grub, desktop, and login screen backgrounds.
  6. A basic Conky with matching color theme.
  7. The iso’s are up to date as of 6/6/2023
  8. An optional Firefox theme, SbK Dark Green12 that matches the color scheme is available at https://spins.tuxfamily.org/ffthemes.html just click on the image in Firefox to install it.

Both iso’s also contain the standard SbK features.

  1. The latest LTS kernel.
  2. A Manjaro stable install that is also AUR compatible. In the full iso there are also a lot of packages used to build packages installed.
  3. It is multiarch by default to make running wine games and other 32bit software you may run easier.
  4. The Spins by Kilz signed repository is enabled for SbK project packages.
  5. A signed iso. For information on checking signed iso’s visit https://spins.tuxfamily.org/check.html
  6. Bloatware has been removed (HP printer software and others).
  7. Flat packs and snaps are not installed. The back ends are also not installed but can be installed by the user.
  8. All SbK iso’s contain Manjaro Architect script in case you want to do a custom install. To get any SbK packages like themes, icons, and other goodies you will have to add the SbK http://spins.tuxfamily.org/repo.html after install.
  9. Timeshift autosnap installed. It takes a snapshot before upgrading so any bad upgrades can be easily reversed.
  10. A basic Conky with a color scheme to match the other themes.

A full and very minimal iso can be found here.

As always comments, questions and suggestions are always welcome.

Jim

1 Like

The compiz settings manager may not show in the live session. An updated package has been uploaded that fixes the issue. If you want to test it in the live media open a terminal and type sudo pacman -Syu and let the update go through. If you install the OS to your computer you will have to update again to fix it in the install. If you reboot the live media you will have to update again as the update in the live system only fixes the OS running in ram not the files that are on the install media, its not persistent.

Hey Jim, thanks for your work! The link to download the iso is dead (503), maybe you can take a look.

As i am new here: Is this exactly usable as a normal arch system, or are there any quirks regarding to the sdk spin? Is it stable or are there bad bugs because of the ageing compiz? I need the zoom feature, want to use it for work, steam gaming and also screen recording. This is also why i maybe switch - on ubuntu ffmpeg is hopelessly out of date…

SbK spins are completely usable as a 100% compatible Manjaro system. They are built with Manjaro packages for the base system. There are some SbK packages, but there are no system quirks because of them. This install is stable. Compiz may not be updated as much as it once was, but that happens with older projects that are pretty much complete, they go into a maintenance mode.

Sadly OSDN has been down for over a month. But this post was posted about 6 months ago. This is an old image and you are likely better off installing the newest SbK Mate-compiz release if you really want this one its up on Sourceforge where I moved downloads after OSDN mesed up.

Thanks for your fast reply Jim! To be honest i am quiet scared of arch. I am pretty happy with ubuntu and (for me) a very low maintenance system, this can turn around 100%.

I want, or even must, stay at a compiz driven desktop - at the same time i need modern infrastructure to (maybe ?) switch to a av1 recording/editing tool chain. Arch base give me that, at the same time to implement a root zfs system alone is scary.

I will try it, and see where it will take me.

Just stick to the stable branch of Manjaro, all SbK spins use it, and you will be fine. A big update or occasionally two a month will keep you up to date with no need to install a new version of the OS ever. You might want to read the best practices page I wrote to avoid issues.

Thank you