Why Sparky?
SparkyLinux is a GNU/Linux distribution based on the Debian GNU/Linux operating system.
Sparky is a fast, lightweight and fully customizable operating system which offers several versions for different use cases, such as:
* a fully featured standard desktop version with a lightweight desktop environment. It works out of the box on almost any hardware and delivers a curated selection of software for home users.
* the frugal MinimalGUI version with the Openbox window manager. It contains only the bare necessities and is intended for users who want full flexibility when creating their own desktop, using only the packages they desire.
* the even more frugal MinimalCLI version without a graphical desktop. For advanced users who want to create their own desktop from the ground up or don’t need a GUI.
* Three special versions:
– GameOver for computer gaming
– Multimedia for audio and video enthusiasts and/or web-developers
– Rescue, a system rescue toolbox (uses Openbox as a window manager)
Sparky supports about 20 desktop environments and window managers giving you freedom of choice, having in mind that your computer is made for working, having fun, entertainment, keeping in touch with friends, and many, many other things.
Sparky “stable flavor” is the best choice to change your existing, other operating system and try a GNU/Linux distribution without need of installation and changing your computer partition table.
Sparky “rolling (testing) flavor” is targeted to more advanced users, whose don’t afraid of a little less stable version of applications, and want to work with/on latest version of offered the software.
If you like Sparky, simply install it side to side or over your present OS.
Main features of Sparky
– Debian based
– stable or (semi-)rolling release
– lightweight, fast & simple
– your favorite desktops to choose
– special editions: GameOver, Multimedia & Rescue
– CLI Edition (no X) for building customized desktop
– most wireless and mobile network cards supported
– set of selected applications, multimedia codecs and plugins
– own repository with a large set of additional applications
– easy hard drive / USB installation
In general, Sparky is not targeted to Linux beginners, rather to users with some amount of Linux knowledge.
Anyway, the Linux beginners are welcome too – our forums is open for any question.
Is Sparky free?
Yes, Sparky was, is and always will be free of charge for end users.
Simply grab Sparky iso image, burn it to a blank CD/DVD disk or copy to a flash USB disk and use it to launch your computer.
Does Sparky need your support?
Yes, we don’t sell Sparky, so we don’t earn money.
Your support, tip, donation can keep Sparky alive.
Hi! Thanks for a great work! Before Sparky I used to use MX Linux in a Lenovo Ideapad 5 with a i7 processor. Unfortunatelly, I had an accident of which resulted in a crashed panel. I managed to get an Asus TP200s, which is a very low spec laptop, with a celeron processor, and only 4GB RAM and only 32GB storage and mmc type (not much).
I started testing many many distros, from one endpoint to another (I mean from “good” all in one solutions like LInux Mint and MX Linux to the very minimalistic like Puppy Linux, AntiX Linux, Artix, and so on), the good all in ones solutions were complete but too heavy and the minimalistic ones were light, but had the lack of UX I needed.
So, I found sparky to be the perfect balance between both worlds, it is not too heavy and not too minimalistic, and now I enjoy using my desktop with almost all the tools I used to have in my previous machine (obviously I cannot run the more heavier applications like games and the like, it is not Sparky’s fault but the hardware’s).
I would like to say you are doing a superb job working with the UEFI system of the different images. Perhaps you know, this Asus TP200s as an entrance machine, has a poorly implemented EFI solution in the NVRAM, so, when trying some distro with a very basic EFI implementation the system simply won’t boot. This is not the case with Sparky Linux.
So thank you thank you very much for an excellent job. Please keep up this very excellent and good work!
is there any chance to get sparkylinux-7.4-i686-minimalgui, please? Here it is possible to get other revisions but not that 7.4
What makes SparkyLinux 7.4 better than version 7.8 ? I’m not a fan of Kernel 6. SparkyLinux 7.4 already has it. For me, SparkyLinux 6.7 with Kernel 5.10 is the favorite.