New aptosid Fork, siduction 11.1 Released

A few day ago a new distribution forked from aptosid announced their first stable release. On the last day of 2011, Ferdinand Thommes announced the release of siduction 11.1. siduction is based on Debian Unstable and ships in versions featuring KDE, LXDE, or Xfce.

siduction was born from the desire to continue a Debian unstable distribution in a more user / community-friendly way. According to Why We Fork aptosid, the aptosid project wasn't very accommodating to its users and were way too strict in censoring their forums. "A distribution should first of all live by involving it's users. After all the give & take is a basic principle of free (and open) software," Thommes wrote. He continues with a bit of a pledge saying, "We will not force our own preferences on our future users with kernel options, package selection and pre-configurations, like for example with aptosids K-menu defaults. Wherever it seems wise, the community shall co-decide. We will always prefer free software and drivers, but in no way prevent nonfree variants."

Actually, it appears this fork occurred last August. A few developmental releases were posted since and one review turned up upon search. The writer, sunfizz, said of siduction, "Overall, the siduction distribution looks very promising and I am certain that I will be using their distro for a long time to come. Right now, I can only hope for something like a siduction-core iso where it is only a wm (openbox or scrotwm), drivers, terminal applications, and the kernel."

The distribution itself appears to have turned out pretty well. The live image boots fast and ships with popular applications and lots of tools. The desktop customizations are conservative but attractive. Interestingly, it features a Web browser-based installer that can install siduction onto hard disk or USB key.

It appears one will have to resort to using APT at the commandline to at least install Synpatic. There's a handy manual right on the desktop that includes all one needs to know to get started using APT, among lots of other tips and information.

If you like to navigate through life a little closer to the bleeding edge than most, then perhaps the new siduction might be for you. Or as Thommes, aka devil, said, "We are siduction, your friendly aptosid fork 2011 :)"