Lubuntu

Lubuntu ( ) is a lightweight Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, using the LXQt desktop environment in place of Ubuntu's GNOME desktop. Lubuntu was originally touted as being "lighter, less resource hungry and more energy-efficient", but now aims to be "a functional yet modular distribution focused on getting out of the way and letting users use their computer".
Lubuntu originally used the LXDE desktop, but moved to the LXQt desktop with the release of Lubuntu 18.10 in October 2018, due to the slow development of LXDE, losing support for GTK 2 as well as the more active and stable LXQt development without Gnome dependencies.
The name "Lubuntu" is a portmanteau of "LXQt" and "Ubuntu". The LXQt name derives from the merger of the LXDE and Razor-qt projects, while the word "Ubuntu" means "humanity towards others" in the Zulu and Xhosa languages.
Lubuntu received official recognition as a formal member of the Ubuntu family on 11 May 2011, commencing with Lubuntu 11.10, which was released on 13 October 2011.
History.
The LXDE desktop was first made available for Ubuntu in October 2008, with the release of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex. These early versions of Lubuntu, including 8.10, 9.04 and 9.10, were not available as separate ISO image downloads, and could only be installed on Ubuntu as separate "lubuntu-desktop" packages from the Ubuntu repositories. LXDE can also be retroactively installed in earlier Ubuntu versions.
In February 2009, Mark Shuttleworth invited the LXDE project to become a self-maintained project within the Ubuntu community, with the aim of leading to a dedicated new official Ubuntu derivative to be called "Lubuntu".
In March 2009, the Lubuntu project was started on Launchpad by Mario Behling, including an early project logo. The project also established an official Ubuntu wiki project page, that includes listings of applications, packages, and components.
In August 2009, the first test ISO was released as a Live CD, with no installation option.
Initial testing in September 2009 by Linux Magazine reviewer Christopher Smart showed that Lubuntu's RAM usage was about half of that of Xubuntu and Ubuntu on a normal installation and desktop use, and two-thirds less on live CD use.
In 2014, the project announced that the GTK+-based LXDE and Qt-based Razor-qt would be merging into the new Qt-based LXQt desktop and that Lubuntu would consequently be moving to LXQt. The transition was completed with the release of Lubuntu 18.10 in October 2018, the first regular release to employ the LXQt desktop.
Lenny became Lubuntu's mascot in 2014.
During the 2018 transition to becoming LXQt-based, the aim of Lubuntu was re-thought by the development team. It had previously been intended for users with older computers, typically ten years old or newer, but with the introduction of Windows Vista PCs, older computers gained faster processors and much more RAM, and by 2018, ten-year-old computers remained much more capable than had been the case five years earlier. As a result, the Lubuntu development team, under Simon Quigley, decided to change the focus to emphasize a well-documented distribution, based on LXQt "to give users a functional yet modular experience", that is lightweight by default and available in any language. The developers also decided to stop recommending minimum system requirements after the 18.04 LTS release.
Developer Simon Quigley announced in August 2018 that Lubuntu 20.10 will switch to the Wayland display server protocol by default.
In January 2019, the developers formed the "Lubuntu Council", a new body to formalize their previous organization, with its own written constitution.
Releases.
Lubuntu 10.04.
On 30 December 2009 the first Alpha 1 "Preview" version ISO for Lubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" was made available for testing, with Alpha 2 following on 24 January 2010. The first Beta was released on 20 March 2010 and the stable version of Lubuntu 10.04 was released on 2 May 2010, four days behind the main Ubuntu release date of 28 April 2010.
Lubuntu 10.04 was only released as a 32-bit ISO file, but users could install a 64-bit version through the 64-bit Mini ISO and then install the required packages.
Lubuntu 10.04 was not intended to be a long-term support (LTS) release, unlike Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, and was only going to be supported for 18 months. However, since the infrastructure of Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" (and thus Lubuntu 10.10) dropped support for i586 processors, including VIA C3, AMD K6, and AMD Geode/National Semiconductor CPUs, the release of Lubuntu 10.10 prompted the community to extend support until April 2013 for Lubuntu 10.04, as if it were a long term support version.
In reviewing Lubuntu 10.04 Alpha 1 in January 2010, Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu wrote, "Not having had many preconceptions regarding LXDE/Lubuntu i found myself presently surprised. It was pleasant to look at, pleasant to use and although I doubt I would switch from GNOME to LXDE, it can give excellent performance to those who would benefit from doing so." In writing about the final 10.10 release, on 10 October 2010 Sneddon termed it "A nimble and easy-to-use desktop".
Writing about Lubuntu 10.04 in May 2010 Damien Oh of "Make Tech Easier" said: "If you are looking for a lightweight alternative to install in your old PC or netbook, Lubuntu is a great choice. You won’t get any eye candy or special graphical effects, but what you get is fast speed at a low cost. It’s time to put your old PC back to work."
Also reviewing Lubuntu 10.04 in May 2010 Robin Catling of Full Circle magazine said: "The first thing that impresses on running Lubuntu on my modest Compaq Evo laptop (Pentium-M, 512 MB RAM) is the small memory footprint... It beats Karmic on Gnome, and Xubuntu on Xfce, by a mile. The Evo used to take 60 seconds-plus to boot to the desktop, LXDE takes exactly 30. Yet you're not restricted; gtk2 applications are well supported, and Synaptic hooks up to the Ubuntu repositories for package management (so you can pull down Open Office to replace the default Abi-Word without crippling the machine)." Catling did note of the file manager, "The PCManFM file manager needs a little more maturity to compete with Thunar, but it's a competent and robust
application that doesn't hog resources like Nautilus or Dolphin."
In June 2010 Jim Lynch reviewed Lubuntu 10.04, saying, "One thing you’ll notice about using the Lubuntu desktop is that it’s fast. Very, very fast. Even on an underpowered machine, Lubuntu should perform very well. It’s one of the best things about this distro; it leaves behind the bloated eye candy that can sometimes bog down GNOME and KDE... I didn’t run into any noticeable problems with Lubuntu. It was very fast and stable, and I didn’t see noticeable bugs or problems. I hate it when this happens since it’s so much more interesting for my readers when I run into one nasty problem or another. Hopefully the next version of Lubuntu will be chock full of horrendous problems and bugs. Just kidding."
In September 2010 lead developer Julien Lavergne announced that the Lubuntu project had not been granted official status as a derivative of Ubuntu as part of the Ubuntu 10.04 release cycle, but that work would continue on this goal for Ubuntu 10.10. Lavergne explained the reasons as "there is still a resource problem on Canonical /Ubuntu infrastructure, which was not resolved during this cycle. Also, they are writing a real process to integrate new member in the Ubuntu family, but it’s still not finished."
Lubuntu 10.10.
Lubuntu 10.10 was released on schedule on 10 October 2010, the same day as Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, but it was not built with the same underlying infrastructure as Ubuntu 10.10. Developer Julien Lavergne said about it, "Lubuntu is actually not part of the Ubuntu family, and not build with the current Ubuntu infrastructure. This release is considered as a "stable beta", a result that could be a final and stable release if we was included in the Ubuntu family." Version 10.10 introduced new artwork to the distribution, including new panel and menu backgrounds, a new Openbox theme, new Lubuntu menu logo, splash images and desktop wallpaper. Lubuntu 10.10 was not accepted as an official Ubuntu derivative at this release point due to "a lack of integration with the infrastructure Canonical and Ubuntu" but work is continuing towards that goal.
Lubuntu 10.10 was only released as a 32-bit ISO file, but users could install a 64-bit version through the 64-bit Mini ISO and then install the required packages.
Developer Julien Lavergne wrote that while 10.10 incorporated many changes over 10.04, not all of the changes were considered improvements. The improvements included a new theme designed by Rafael Laguna, the incorporation of "xpad" for note taking, "Ace-of-Penguins" games, "LXTask" the LXDE task manager in place of the Xfce application, replacing the "epdfview" PDF reader with Evince due to a memory leak problem and removing "pyneighborhood". The minuses included a last-minute rewrite of the installer to integrate it properly, which resulted in some installation instability and the raising of the minimum installation RAM from 180 MB to 256 MB. The other issue was the incorporation of the Ubuntu Update Manager which increased RAM usage by 10 MB. Lubuntu 10.04 had no indication of updates being available, so this was deemed necessary.
The minimum system requirements for Lubuntu 10.10 were described by Mario Behling as "comparable to Pentium II or Celeron systems with a 128 MB RAM configuration, which may yield a slow yet usable system with lubuntu." Chief developer Julien Lavergne stated that the minimum RAM to install Lubuntu 10.10 is 256 MB.
In reviewing Lubuntu 10.10 right after its release in October 2010, Jim Lynch of "Eye on Linux" said "Lubuntu’s biggest appeal for me is its speed; and it’s no disappointment in that area. Applications load and open quickly, and my overall experience with Lubuntu was quite positive. I detected no stability problems, Lubuntu 10.10 was quite solid and reliable the entire time I used it." Lynch did fault the choice of Synaptic as the package manager: "One of the strange things about Lubuntu is that it only offers Synaptic as its package manager. Xubuntu 10.10, on the other hand, offers the Ubuntu Software Center as well as Synaptic. I’m not sure why the Ubuntu Software Center is missing from Lubuntu; it would make a lot of sense to include it since it is a much easier and more attractive way to manage software. Synaptic gets the job done, but it’s less friendly to new users and can’t match the Ubuntu Software Center in terms of usability and comfort."
By mid-December 2010, Lubuntu had risen to 11th place on DistroWatch's six-month list of most popular Linux distributions out of 319 distributions, right behind Puppy Linux and well ahead of Xubuntu, which was in 36th place. In reviewing Linux distribution rankings for DistroWatch in early January 2011 for the year 2010 versus 2009, Ladislav Bodnár noted, "Looking through the tables, an interesting thing is the rise of distributions that use the lightweight, but full-featured LXDE desktop or the Openbox window manager. As an example, Lubuntu now comfortably beats Kubuntu in terms of page hits..."
Lubuntu 11.04.
The project announced the development schedule in November 2010 and Lubuntu 11.04 was released on time on 28 April 2011.
Lubuntu 11.04 was only released as a 32-bit ISO file, but users could install a 64-bit version through the 64-bit Mini ISO and then install the required packages. An unofficial 64-bit ISO of 11.04 was also released by Kendall Weaver of Peppermint OS.
Improvements in Lubuntu 11.04 included replacing Aqualung with Audacious as the default music player, elimination of the hardware abstraction layer, introducing movable desktop icons, the Ubuntu font being used by default, improved menu translations and reorganized menus. The release also introduced a new default theme and artwork designed by Raphael Laguna, known as Ozone, which is partly based on Xubuntu’s default "Bluebird" theme.
Lubuntu 11.04 can be run with as little as 128 MB of RAM, but requires 256 MB of RAM to install using the graphical installer.
While Lubuntu 11.04 had not completed the process for official status as a member of the Ubuntu family, Mario Behling stated: "The next goals of the project are clear. Apart from constantly improving the distribution, the lubuntu project aims to become an official flavour of Ubuntu."
Mark Shuttleworth remarked to the Lubuntu developers upon the release of 11.04:
In reviewing Lubuntu 11.04 just after its release, Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu commented on its look: "Lubuntu’s 'traditional' interface will be of comfort to those agitated by the interface revolution heralded in GNOME 3 and Ubuntu Unity; it certainly won’t appeal to 'bling' fans! But that’s not to say attention hasn’t been paid to the appearance. The new default theme by Raphael Laguna and the use of the Ubuntu font helps to give the sometimes-basic-feeling OS a distinctly professional look." On the subject of official status Sneddon said, "Lubuntu has long sought official sanction from the Ubuntu Project family to be classed as an official 'derivative' of Ubuntu, earning a place alongside Kubuntu and Xubuntu. With such an accomplished release as Lubuntu 11.04 the hold out on acceptance remains disappointing if expected."
In a review on 12 May 2011 Jim Lynch of "Desktop Linux Reviews" faulted 11.04 for not using the Ubuntu Software Center, the lack of alternative wallpapers and the use of AbiWord in place of LibreOffice. He did praise Lubuntu, saying: "speed is one of the nice things about Lubuntu; even on a slow or older system it’s usually quite fast. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you cut out the unnecessary eye-candy and bloat."
Also on 12 May 2011, Koen Vervloesem writing in "Linux User & Developer" criticized the applications bundled with Lubuntu, saying "Some of the software choices are rather odd, however. For instance, Chromium is the default web browser, which is a sensible move for a distro aimed at low-end computers, but the developers also ship Firefox, so Lubuntu shows both web browsers in the Internet menu. Also, the default screenshot program is scrot, but this is a command-line program and it is not shown in the Accessories menu, so not everyone will find it. Another odd choice is that you install your applications with Synaptic: by default Lubuntu doesn’t have the Ubuntu Software Center, which has been the preferred software installation program in Ubuntu for a good few releases now. These are just minor inconveniences, though, since you get access to the full Ubuntu software repositories, meaning you can install your favourite applications in a blink of the eye."
One month after its release, Lubuntu 11.04 had risen to ninth place on the DistroWatch 30-day list of most popular distributions.
Lubuntu 11.10.
Lubuntu 11.10 was the first version of Lubuntu with official sanction as a member of the Ubuntu family. As part of this status change Lubuntu 11.10 used the latest Ubuntu infrastructure and the ISO files were hosted by Ubuntu. The release did not include many new features as work focused on integration with Ubuntu instead.
11.10 was released on 13 October 2011, the same day that Ubuntu 11.10 was released.
In September 2011 it was announced that work on a "Lubuntu Software Center" was progressing. The Ubuntu Software Center is too resource intensive for Lubuntu and so Lubuntu has been using the less user-friendly Synaptic package manager in recent releases. The development of a new lightweight application manager for Lubuntu is intended to rectify this problem, although users can, of course, install the Ubuntu Software Center using Synaptic.
Changes in Lubuntu 11.10 include that it was built with the Ubuntu official build system using the current packages by default, alternative install and 64-bit ISOs were provided, use of xfce4-power-manager, a new microblog client, pidgin-microblog and a new theme by Rafael Laguna.
Lubuntu 11.10 requires a minimum of 128 MB of RAM to run and 256 MB of RAM to install with the graphic installer. The recommended minimum RAM to run a live CD session is 384 MB.
The Lubuntu 11.10 ISO file contains a known issue that causes it to fail to load a live CD session on some hardware, instead loading to a command prompt. Users are required to enter codice_1 at the prompt to run the live CD session.
In a review of Lubuntu 11.10 on "PC Mech", writer Rich Menga described it as "simple, rock-solid, reliable, trustworthy". He added "Ubuntu at this point is suffering from major bloat on the interface side of things, and you can even say that about Xubuntu at this point – but not Lubuntu, as it gets back to what a great Linux distro should be."
By the end of October 2011 Lubuntu had risen to seventh place on the DistroWatch one month popularity list.
In a review in Linux User and Developer in November 2011, Russell Barnes praised Lubuntu 11.10 for its low system hardware requirements, for providing an alternative to GNOME and KDE, saying that its "aesthetic appeal and functionality is minimally compromised in its effort to be as sleek and light as possible". Barnes noted that Mark Shuttleworth may have been wise to offer full status to Lubuntu for this release given the "fuss and bluster surrounding Unity". Of the aesthetics he stated "the now trademark pale blue of the desktop is almost hypnotic. It’s incredibly clean, clear and logically laid out – a user experience a million miles away from that of Ubuntu 11.10’s Unity or GNOME Shell counterparts. In comparison there’s an almost cleansing nature about its simplicity." Barnes rated it as 4/5 and concluded "While it’s not as flexible or pretty as [GNOME 2], Lubuntu 11.10 has certainly got everything you need to keep your computer happy and your desktop clean and clutter-free"
Igor Ljubuncic in "Dedoimedo" said about Lubuntu 11.10, "Lubuntu is meant to offer a valid alternative to the heavier KDE and Unity flavors. It tries bravely and fails heroically. The only advantage is the somewhat reduced system resource usage, but it is more than triply negatively compensated by the drawbacks of the desktop environment as well as the incomplete integration. Then, there you have Samba-related crashes, no laptop hotkeys, jumbled system tray icons, low battery life. If you want to be really mean, you could add the lack of customization, an average software arsenal, and a dozen other smaller things that get in the way... All in all, Lubuntu could work for you, but it's not exciting or spectacular in any way and packages a handsome bag of problems that you can easily avoid by using the main release... I would not recommend this edition... Grade: 6/10."
Lubuntu 12.04.
Lubuntu 12.04 was released on 26 April 2012. Planning for this release took place at the Ubuntu Developer Summit held in early November 2011. Changes planned at that time for the release included the use of LightDM as the X display manager and of Blueman instead of gnome-bluetooth for managing bluetooth devices.
The Lubuntu Software Center was added with this release to provide a more user-friendly graphical interface for managing applications. Synaptic package manager is still installed by default and allows users to manage all packages in the system. GDebi allows the installation of downloaded .deb packages.
Lubuntu 12.04 was released with the Linux v3.2.14 Linux kernel and also introduced a large number of bug fixes, particularly in the LX panel and in the PCManFM file manager. The Ubuntu Backports repository was enabled by default, meaning backport packages were not installed by default, but once installed were automatically upgraded to newer versions.
Lubuntu 12.10.
Lubuntu 12.10 was released on 18 October 2012 and includes a new version of the session manager, with more customization and integration options. It also includes a new version of the PCMan File Manager, with external thumbnail support. This version has new artwork, including a new wallpaper, a new icon set entitled "Box" and adjusted GTK themes. The notification-daemon has been replaced by xfce4-notifyd on the default installation. Previous versions of Lubuntu did not have a GUI search function and so the Catfish search utility was added to the default installation.
This version of Lubuntu uses the Linux kernel 3.5.5, Python 3.2 and OpenJDK7 as the default Java implementation.
The installation requires a CPU with Physical Address Extensions (PAE), which indicates an Intel Pentium Pro and newer CPU, except most 400 MHz-bus versions of the Pentium M. In the case of PowerPCs, it was tested on a PowerPC G4 running at 867 MHz with 640 MB RAM and will also run on all Intel-based Apple Macs. There is also a version that supports the ARM architecture, but the developers currently only provide installation instructions for one ARM-based device (the Toshiba AC100 netbook).
This release of Lubuntu does not support UEFI Secure Boot, unlike Ubuntu 12.10, which would have allowed it to run on hardware designed for Windows 8. Lubuntu 12.10 could be run on UEFI secure boot hardware by turning off the secure boot feature.
Lubuntu 13.04.
Lubuntu 13.04 was released on 25 April 2013.
This version only incorporated some minor changes over Lubuntu 12.10, including a new version of the PCManFM file manager which incorporates a built-in search utility. Due to this particular file manager update, the Catfish search utility was no longer required and was deleted. Lubuntu 13.04 also introduced some artwork improvements, with new wallpaper offerings, new icons and a new installation slideshow.
The minimum system requirements for Lubuntu 13.04 are a Pentium II or Celeron CPU with PAE support, 128 MB of RAM and at least 2 GB of hard-drive space. This release also still supports PowerPC architecture, requiring a G4 867 MHz processor and 640 MB of RAM minimum.
Lubuntu 13.10.
Julien Lavergne announced in June 2013 that Lubuntu 13.10 would ship with Firefox as its default browser in place of Chromium. This release also used LightDM for screen locking and included zRam.
In reviewing the beta release in September 2013, Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu said: "Lubuntu has never looked as good as it does in this latest beta." He noted that the new "box" icon theme had been expanded, progress bar colours softened and window controls enlarged along with a sharpened "start button".
The final release incorporated only minor changes over 13.04. It included a new version of PCManFM that includes a file search function, which allowed the Catfish desktop search to be removed. There was also new artwork included and bug fixes for gnome-mplayer and the gpicview image viewer.
In reviewing Lubuntu 13.10, Jim Lynch said "Sometimes less can be much, much more when it comes to Linux distributions. Lubuntu 13.10 offers some of the advantages of Ubuntu but in a much more minimalist package."
Lubuntu 14.04 LTS.
Tentative plans were announced in April 2013 to make Lubuntu 14.04 a long term support release. In November 2013 it was confirmed that 14.04 would be the first Lubuntu LTS release with three years of support. This release also saw xscreensaver replaced by light-locker screen lock.
Released on 17 April 2014, Lubuntu 14.04 included just minor updates over version 13.10, along with a more featured file manager.
Download media for Lubuntu 14.04 is available in PC 32 bit, PC 64 bit, Mac Intel 64 bit and Mac PowerPC. For early Intel Macs with a 32 bit Core solo processor, a 32-bit PC image is available.
In reviewing Lubuntu 14.04 LTS Silviu Stahie of Softpedia noted, "because it uses a similar layout with the one found on the old and defunct Windows XP, this OS is considered to be a very good and appropriate replacement for Microsoft's operating system."
On 1 June 2014 Jim Lynch reviewed Lubuntu 14.04 LTS and concluded, "Lubuntu 14.04 LTS performed very well for me. It was fast and quite stable while I was using it. I had no problems running any applications and the system as a whole lived up to its reputation as a great choice for Ubuntu minimalists... The LXDE desktop environment is very different than Unity for Ubuntu or GNOME 3 in Ubuntu GNOME. It’s a traditional desktop which means it’s very quick and easy to learn how to use. And if you are someone that doesn’t like Unity or GNOME then LXDE in Lubuntu 14.04 LTS might be just what the doctor ordered. You’ll get all the benefits of Ubuntu, but without the discomfort of the Unity interface."
Lubuntu 14.10.
This release, on 23 October 2014, was originally intended to feature a version of LXDE based upon the Qt toolkit and called LXQt, but development of the latter was delayed and the feature was not implemented in time.
Lubuntu 14.10 incorporated general bug fixes in preparation for the implementation of LXQt, updated LXDE components and new artwork, including more icons and a theme update.
Silviu Stahie, writing for Softpedia, stated, "One of the main characteristics of Lubuntu is the fact that it's fast, even on older computers. Basically, Lubuntu is able to run on anything built in the last decade, and there are very few operating systems out there that can claim the same thing... Just like its Ubuntu base, Lubuntu 14.10 has seen very few important visual modifications, although many packages have been updated under the hood. The theme and the icons have been updated, but the developers are preparing to make the switch to LXQt, a project that is still in the works."
Igor Ljubuncic in "Dedoimedo" said about Lubuntu 14.10, "There's nothing functionally wrong with Lubuntu. It's not bad. It's simply not interesting. It's meat without flavor, it's a hybrid car, it's accounting lessons at the local evening school, it's morning news, it's a visit to Pompei while blindfolded. There's no excitement... I liked this desktop environment in the past, but it's stagnated. It hasn't evolved at all, and its competitors have left it far behind. And that reflects poorly on Lubuntu, which, despite a calm and stable record of spartan behavior, has left with me an absolute zero of emotional attachment toward it."
Lubuntu 15.04.
Released on 23 April 2015, Lubuntu 15.04 consisted primarily of bug fixes, as the project prepared for the planned switch to LXQt in Lubuntu 15.10. The Lubuntu "Box" theme was updated and merged into the "Ubuntu Light" theme to incorporate the most recent GTK+ features, including new header bars for Gnome native applications, plus improved artwork and icons.
The minimum system requirements for this release include: 512 MB of RAM, with 1 GB recommended, plus a Pentium 4 or Pentium M or AMD K8 processor. The release notes indicated about graphics cards: "Nvidia, AMD/ATI/Radeon and Intel work out of the box".
Marius Nestor of Softpedia noted, "...the Lubuntu 15.04 operating system comes now with updated artwork, which includes an updated theme, more beautiful icons, and an updated GTK+ infrastructure for better compatibility with Qt applications."
Lubuntu 15.10.
Released on 22 October 2015, Lubuntu 15.10 was originally planned to move to LXQt and its Qt libraries in place of the GTK+ libraries used by LXDE, but in June 2015 this was delayed to a future release. The release ended up as a minor bug fix and application version update.
Changes in this versions included new artwork, iBus replaced by Fcitx, allowing fonts for Chinese, Japanese and Korean to be included. lubuntu-extra-sessions is now optional instead of default.
The minimum system requirements for this release stated, "For advanced internet services like Google+, Youtube, Google Docs and Facebook, your computer needs about 1 GB RAM. For local programs like Libre Office and simple browsing habits, your computer needs about 512 MB RAM ... The minimum specification for CPU is Pentium 4 or Pentium M or AMD K8. Older processors are too slow and AMD K7 has problems with flash video ... Nvidia, AMD/ATI/Radeon and Intel work out of the box, or the system can be tweaked to work fairly easily.
Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu humorously noted, "Lubuntu 15.10 is another highly minor bug fix release."
Lubuntu 16.04 LTS.
Released on 21 April 2016, Lubuntu 16.04 is a Long Term Support (LTS) version, supported for three years until April 2019. It is the second Lubuntu LTS version, preceded by 14.04 in April 2014.
This release retains the LXDE desktop and did not make the transition to LXQt, to allow LXQt to be better tested in later non-LTS releases.
This release is too large a file to fit on a CD and requires a DVD or USB flash drive installation. Lubuntu 16.04 LTS is primarily a bug-fix release and includes few new features. It does have updated artwork, however. The system requirements include 512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended) and a Pentium 4, Pentium M, AMD K8 or newer CPU.
The first point release, 16.04.1, was released on 21 July 2016. The release of Lubuntu 16.04.2 was delayed a number of times, but it was eventually released on 17 February 2017. Lubuntu 16.04.3 was released on 3 August 2017. Lubuntu 16.04.4 was delayed from 15 February 2018 and was released on 1 March 2018. Lubuntu 16.04.5 was released on 2 August 2018.
On 8 March 2017 a new version of Firefox, 52.0, arrived through the update process. This version removed ALSA audio support from Firefox in favour of PulseAudio, something initially not mentioned in the Mozilla release notes. Since Lubuntu 16.04 LTS shipped with only ALSA audio, this broke the default Lubuntu audio system in the default Lubuntu browser. In response to a bug filed, Mozilla developers declined to fix the issue.
Lubuntu 16.10.
Lubuntu 16.10 was released on 13 October 2016. It uses LXDE and not LXQt. The implementation of LXQt was delayed from this release until 17.04.
The release also features just small bug fixes, updated LXDE components and updated artwork, particularly the wallpaper.
The developers' recommended system requirements for this release were, "for advanced internet services like Google+, YouTube, Google Drive, and Facebook, your computer needs at least 1 GB of RAM. For local programs like LibreOffice and simple browsing habits, your computer needs at least 512 MB of RAM. The minimum specification for CPU is Pentium 4 or Pentium M or AMD K8. Older processors are too slow and the AMD K7 has problems with Flash video."
Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu noted that there are very few new features in Lubuntu 16.10, but that it no longer uses the Lubuntu Software Centre, having switched to GNOME Software, as Ubuntu also has. Sneddon wrote, "Lubuntu 16.10 is largely the same as Lubuntu 16.04 LTS as work on switching to the LXQt desktop – expected next release – continues." In a July 2016 article, Sneddon singled out the new wallpaper design for Lubuntu 16.10, saying, "the jaggedy geometric layout of the new backdrop stands out as one of the more visually distinct to ship in recent years".
Marius Nestor of Softpedia wrote: "it appears that there are a lot of known issues for this release, so if you're using Lubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), we don't recommend upgrading to Lubuntu 16.10, or at least read about them before attempting an upgrade operation."
Lubuntu 17.04.
Lubuntu 17.04 was released on 13 April 2017. Like previous releases it uses LXDE and not LXQt, as the implementation of LXQt in Lubuntu was delayed once again, this time until 17.10.
This release incorporated Linux Kernel 4.10, updated LXDE components, general bug fixes and new artwork. The recommended system requirements included 1 GB of RAM (512 MB minimum) and a minimum of a Pentium 4, Pentium M or AMD K8 processor.
Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu said of this release, that it is "compromised mainly of bug fixes and core app and system updates rather than screenshot-able new features."
Lubuntu 17.10.
Lubuntu 17.10 was released on 19 October 2017.
This release was a general bug fix release as the project prepares for the implementation of LXQt. Also included were new versions of the LXDE components and new artwork. The minimum system requirements for this release remained 512 MB of RAM (with 1 GB recommended) and at least a Pentium 4, Pentium M or AMD K8 processor.
An alternate version entitled Lubuntu Next 17.10 was provided with the LXQt 0.11.1 desktop. "While this release is available to install... we do NOT recommend that people use it in production unless they are aware of the somewhat critical bugs associated (which are more than 10 at the point of writing this). It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to be in contact with us as well," wrote Lubuntu developer Simon Quigley.
Lubuntu 18.04 LTS.
Lubuntu 18.04 is a long term support version that was released on 26 April 2018. It was the last release of Lubuntu to use the LXDE desktop as 18.10 moved to using LXQt.
Like all past releases, 18.04 LTS used the LXDE desktop, although work continued to move towards deployment of the LXQt desktop, referred to as "Lubuntu Next".
This release included new artwork, including a new star field wallpaper.
System requirements for Lubuntu 18.04 LTS included a minimum of 1 GB of RAM, although 2 GB was recommended for better performance, plus a Pentium 4, Pentium M, or AMD K8 CPU or newer. The RAM requirements increased from Lubuntu 17.10.
Point releases include 18.04.1 on 26 July 2018 and 18.04.2 on 14 February 2019.
Lubuntu 18.10.
In a 14 May 2018 announcement the project developers confirmed that Lubuntu would transition to the LXQt desktop for Lubuntu 18.10. It was released on 18 October 2018 and included LXQt. This transition was planned for after the release of Lubuntu 18.04 LTS, to allow testing and development over three regular releases before the first long term support version, Lubuntu 20.04 LTS, is released with LXQt. The project also changed its logo in early April 2018, in anticipation of this move.
In transitioning to LXQt this release uses LXQt 0.13.0, based upon Qt 5.11.1. Applications include LibreOffice 6.1.1 office suite, the VLC media player 3.0.4 player, Discover Software Center 5.13.5 and FeatherPad 0.9.0 text editor. KDE's Falkon 3.0.1 had been beta tested as the default web browser, but was found to lack stability and was replaced with Firefox 63.0.
The installer for 18.10 is the Calamares system installer, in place of the previous Ubiquity installer.
Starting with this release the developers no longer make recommendations for minimum system requirements.
In reviewing the beta version of 18.10 in May 2018, Marius Nestor of Softpedia wrote: "We took the first Lubuntu 18.10 daily build with LXQt for a test drive, and we have to say that we're impressed ... The layout is very simple, yet stylish with a sleek dark theme by default and a single panel at the bottom of the screen from where you can access everything you need ... we give it a five-star rating."
Writing after the official release on 20 October 2018, Marius Nestor of Softpedia noted: "After many trials and tribulations, and a lot of hard work, the Lubuntu team finally managed to ship a release with the LXQt desktop environment by default instead of LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment), which was used by default on all Lubuntu releases from the beginning of the project. We also believe LXQt is the future of the LXDE desktop environment, which uses old and soon deprecated technologies, so we welcome Lubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) with its shiny LXQt 0.13.0 desktop environment by default, built against the latest Qt 5.11.1 libraries and patched with upstream's improvements."
In reviewing Lubuntu 18.10, DistroWatch's Jesse Smith wrote: "I have mixed feelings about this release of Lubuntu. On the one hand most of the features worked well. The distribution was easy to install, I liked the theme, and the operating system is pretty easy to use. There were a few aspects I didn't like, usually programs or settings modules I felt were overly complex or confusing compared to their counterparts on other distributions. For the most part though, Lubuntu does a nice job of being a capable, relatively lightweight distribution ... On the whole, I think the transition from LXDE to LXQt has gone smoothly. There are a few choices I didn't like, and a few I did, but mostly the changes were minor. I think most people will be able to make the leap between the two desktops fairly easily. I think a few settings modules still need polish and I'd like to see Discover replaced with just about any other modern software manager, but otherwise this felt like a graceful (and mostly positive) move from 18.04 to 18.10 and from LXDE to LXQt."
A detailed review of Lubuntu 18.10, Mahmudin Asharin, writing in "Ubuntu Buzz", found only a few faults in the release, in particular the network manager. He concluded, "For most users, I recommend Lubuntu 18.04 LTS instead for the sake of usability and support duration. For first timer who installed/want to install 18.10 LXQt, go ahead and you will get beautiful user interface and very nice experience, but I recommend you to use Wicd instead of default network manager. For LXQt desktop pursuer, Lubuntu 18.10 is a great example of LXQt system. Try it first."
A review in Full Circle magazine noted, "Overall LXQt, as seen in Lubuntu 18.10, is ready for day-to-day use, while there is also still room for ongoing refinement. Introducing LXQt in Lubuntu 18.10 was a careful choice by the Lubuntu developers. Coming right after Lubuntu 18.04 LTS, the final LXDE release, it gives developers three "standard" releases to continue to polish LXQt before the first LTS release..."
Lubuntu 19.04.
This standard release was made on schedule on 18 April 2019.
This release marked the first Lubuntu version without 32-bit support. Lubuntu developer Simon Quigley wrote in December 2018:
This release featured LXQt 0.14.1, based upon Qt 5.12.2. It included working full-disk encryption, easier customization of the Calamares installer configurations by employing XDG configuration variables and Austrian keymapping. Minimum installation RAM was reduced to 500 MB. Other changes include Trash, Home, Computer, and Network icons added to the desktop, split view in PCManFM-Qt, exif data display in the image viewer, LXImage-Qt and touchpad settings fixed over 18.10.
In a review Softpedia writer Marius Nestor described the use of LXQt 0.14.1, employed in Lubuntu 19.04, as "a much-improved and richer LXQt experience".
A review in Full Circle magazine concluded, "Lubuntu 18.10 wasn’t ready for prime time, but 19.04 is. LXQt looks fresh and new, and everything works right from the installation; it even runs fine from a DVD live session. I didn’t find anything that needs fixing in 19.04. If not for the nine-month support period for this regular release, it could have been a long term support release, at least for the quality of the user experience and the lack of bugs."
A review in "FOSS Post" by M. Hanny Subbagh in September 2019, entitled "Lubuntu, A Once Great Distro, Is Falling Behind" concluded "Most of the criticism you have seen in this article is coming from the LXQt desktop environment. It’s understandable that any new piece of software will have bugs/issues in the first few years of its life cycle, but the LXQt desktop still needs a long round of polished updated to make it match the other desktops such as GNOME, Cinnamon, XFCE and MATE. Meanwhile, if you are interested in trying Lubuntu, we recommend that you stick to the 18.04LTS version, which comes with LXDE."
A review by Igor Ljubuncic in "Dedoimedo" concluded, "Lubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo feels ... raw. Unfinished. Half-baked. It has some perfectly decent functionality, like networking, media and phone support, but then it also comes with rudimentary package management, a jumbled arsenal of programs, a desktop that is too difficult to manage and tame, plus identity crisis ... I struggled with the overall purpose, though. As impressive as the speed and lightness are, they are only small improvements over what Plasma offers. But then, Plasma is much easier to customize and tweak, it offers a coherent, consistent experience, and it feels modern and relevant. With Lubuntu, I had no connection, and using the distro felt like a chore. I had to fight the weird defaults to try to create an efficient setup, and I wasn't able to do achieve that. So I always go back to the question of investment versus benefit. Lubuntu feels too pricey for what it gives .. With Lubuntu, there needs to be more order, more consistency in how it works. At the moment, it's just a collection of ideas mashed together. While perfectly functional, it's not really fun. 6/10 ..."
Lubuntu 19.10.
This standard release was the last one before the 20.04 LTS release and arrived on 17 October 2019.
This release brought new artwork, including new wallpaper. It uses LXQt 0.14.1, based upon Qt 5.12.4.
A review in the February 2020 issue of Full Circle magazine, concluded, "Lubuntu 19.10 builds well upon the success of 19.04. The developers seem to be fixing things at a good clip and polishing it up for the next key release, the first LXQt LTS version, due out on 23 April 2020. The 19.10 release is bug-free enough to have been an LTS release itself and this bodes really well for the expected quality of the upcoming LTS."
Lubuntu 20.04 LTS.
This release is the first Lubuntu long term support release that uses LXQt and was released on 23 April 2020. Lubuntu 20.04.1 LTS was released on 6 August 2020.
Lubuntu 20.04 LTS used LXQt 0.14.1, based upon Qt 5.12.8 LTS. This release did not introduce many changes. It included a new software update notifier application. Called "Update Notifier", it was developed by Hans Möller. The release included new wallpaper artwork as a result of a community contest held for the release.
In a 27 April 2020 review in "It's FOSS", Dimitrios Savvopoulos noted, "LXQt is not only for users with an older hardware but also for those who are seeking a simple and classic experience at their new machine." He added, "in daily use, Lubuntu 20.04 has proven to me completely trouble-free as every Ubuntu flavour in fact ... [the] Lubuntu team has successfully made the transition to a modern, still lightweight and minimal desktop environment. LXDE looks like [it has been] abandoned and it is a good thing to move away [from it] to an active project.
A 29 May 2020 review in Full Circle magazine concluded, "Lubuntu 20.04 LTS completes the two-year development cycle, consisting of three standard releases leading to this LTS release. Overall this represents the culmination of a development project that commenced in 2014 to create a new Qt-based desktop for Lubuntu: LXQt. The process has taken much longer than was forecast six years ago, but was worth the wait. This first LTS release is stable, smooth, elegant, and a real joy to use. This is the best Lubuntu release so far."
Lubuntu 20.10.
This standard release was made available on 22 October 2020. On 16 August 2018, the Lubuntu development team announced plans to port Openbox to Mir in time for Lubuntu 20.10 to allow Lubuntu to move away from the X display server to an implementation of Wayland instead.
This release used LXQt 0.15.0, based on Qt 5.14.2. Improvements include adding a tree view to show pending updates in the Lubuntu update notifier and an updated plymouth theme, with the default wallpaper an alternate one from the 20.04 wallpaper competition.
In a rundown on the Ubuntu flavors, "DeBugPoint" noted, "Lubuntu 20.10 based on Groovy Gorilla ... is perfect for low-end hardware and lightweight systems while being stable [due to being based upon] Ubuntu".
A review published on Christmas Day 2020 in Full Circle magazine concluded, "Lubuntu 20.10 introduces very little that is new over 20.04 LTS. I actually think this is a good sign, as 20.04 LTS is a superb operating system and doesn’t really need much improvement. If this development cycle leads to the next Lubuntu LTS version having just a few minor improvements over 20.04, then, personally, I will be very happy with the results. An updated version of FeatherPad would be nice by then, however."
Lubuntu 21.04.
Lubuntu 21.04 is a standard release, made on 22 April 2021.
This version introduced LXQt 0.16.0 based upon Qt 5.15.2. A new application, LXQt Archiver 0.3.0, based on Engrampa, was included. There was also a new version of the Lubuntu update notifier that includes a tree view with packages and versions for upgrade listed, plus new artwork.
Lubuntu 21.10.
Lubuntu 21.10 will be a standard release, scheduled for 14 October 2021.
Applications.
Lubuntu LXDE.
The LXDE versions of Lubuntu (18.04 LTS and earlier) included the following applications:
User applications:
From LXDE:
Up to and including 18.04 LTS, Lubuntu also had access to the Ubuntu software repositories through the Lubuntu Software Center, the Synaptic package manager and APT allowing the installation of any applications available to Ubuntu.
Lubuntu LXQt.
The LXQt versions of Lubuntu (18.10 and later) include the following applications:
Internet Applications
Office Applications
Graphics Applications
Accessories
Sound and Video
From 18.10, Lubuntu also has access to the Ubuntu software repositories through the Discover Software Center, the Synaptic package manager and APT allowing the installation of any applications available to Ubuntu.


IBM SCAMP


Bus mouse

A bus mouse is a variety of PC computer mouse which is attached to the computer using a specialized interface (originally, the Microsoft InPort interface developed for Microsoft's original mouse product).
In the late 1980s, mice were not integrated with IBM-compatible personal computers, and the specialized bus interface (implemented via an ISA add-in card) was one of two popular ways to connect a mouse. (Serial interfaces, common on engineering workstations, were the other method.) When the IBM PS/2 was introduced, it included a motherboard mouse interface which was integrated with the keyboard controller (still called the PS/2 mouse interface long after the PS/2 brand was withdrawn); this fairly quickly drove the bus mouse design out of the marketplace.
The bus mouse lived on in the NEC PC-98 family of personal computers in Japan.


List of PS one Classics (Japan)


GNewSense

gNewSense is a Linux distribution that was active from 2006 to 2016. It was based on Debian, and developed with sponsorship from the Free Software Foundation. Its goal was user-friendliness, but with all proprietary (e.g. binary blobs) and non-free software removed. The Free Software Foundation considered gNewSense to be composed entirely of free software.
gNewSense took a relatively strict stance against proprietary software. For example, any documentation that gave instructions on installing proprietary software was excluded.
gNewSense's last release was made in 2016 and it has not had a supported version since 2018. DistroWatch classifies gNewSense as "dormant".
History.
The project was launched by Brian Brazil and Paul O'Malley in 2006. gNewSense was originally based on Ubuntu. With the 1.0 release, the Free Software Foundation provided assistance to gNewSense.
With no releases in two years, on 8 August 2011, DistroWatch classified gNewSense as "dormant". By September 2012 DistroWatch had changed the status to "active" again, and on 6 August 2013, the first version directly based on Debian, gNewSense 3 "Parkes", was released.
There have been several indications that it many be restarted, including a website announcement in 2019, but the project has remained inactive, with no releases since 2016. DistroWatch returned it to "dormant" status again in 2019.
, the home page of the project's website displays a blank page with an meme labelling the Free Software Foundation a cult. After a short time, the website then redirects to the home page of the PureOS website.
Technical aspects.
By default gNewSense uses GNOME. The graphical user interface can be customized with the user's choice of X display manager, window managers, and other desktop environments available to install through its hosted repositories.
The Ubiquity installer allows installing to the hard disk from within the Live CD environment without the need for restarting the computer prior to installation.
Besides standard system tools and other small applications, gNewSense comes installed with the following software: the LibreOffice productivity suite, the GNOME Web internet browser, the Empathy instant messenger, and the GIMP for editing photos and other raster graphics. Common software development tools including the GCC are installed by default.
Installation.
The Live CD can be used to run the operating system and to install onto disk. CD images are available for download.
Versions.
gNewSense has made four major releases:
In 2016, gNewSense announced that the next version of gNewSense would be 5.0.
Comparison with other distributions.
Non-free software repositories are not provided by the gNewSense project, and most non-free documentation and artwork have been removed. While it was based on Ubuntu, the "Universe" package repository was enabled by default. In order to avoid trademark problems that stem from the modification of Mozilla Firefox, gNewSense 1.1 rebranded it as "BurningDog". BurningDog likewise does not offer to install non-free plugins for various web media, such as Adobe Flash. gNewSense 2.0 abandoned BurningDog and adopted the Epiphany web browser (later renamed simply "Web"), a component of GNOME, as its default browser application, and came with recommendations and instructions to optionally compile and run GNU IceCat. gNewSense 3.0 retains Web as the default browser, but also comes with a modified version of Debian's Iceweasel that does not offer to access proprietary add-ons.
Debian is another Linux distribution known for strict licensing requirements and adherence to free software principles. While both Debian and gNewSense rigorously exclude non-free software and binary blobs from their official releases, Debian maintains and hosts unofficial repositories of non-free software and firmware binaries, and Debian free software sometimes depends upon or suggests the optional installation of proprietary software, under the theory that users' own informed discretion about the use of such software should be paramount, as expressed in Clause 5 of the Debian Social Contract (though Debian's democratic project management has seen this stance become a source of recurrent controversy). gNewSense, by contrast, does not provide any packages which depend on or suggest the use of non-free software, firmware, extensions, or plugins, nor does the gNewSense Project provide convenience-access to proprietary software for any reason, seeing this as an abrogation of the commitment to the development of free software solutions. Similar to Debian, gNewSense policies do not allow including documentation that are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License with invariant sections. This includes many manuals and documentation released by the GNU Project themselves.
While gNewSense was initially forked from Ubuntu (itself originally a fork of Debian) as a result of founding developer Paul O'Malley's prior work with Ubuntu, as of gNewSense 3.0 the distribution has tracked Debian as the base for its software distribution. In part this has been because the Debian Project does carefully disaggregate the free software in its official distribution from the proprietary software it provides courtesy access to. Indeed, many of the packages, including Debian-particular packages (such as Iceweasel and Icedove) ported to gNewSense are simply modified in such a way that they no longer provide such courtesy access to non-free software options.
Limitations.
Since gNewSense's repositories contain only free software, support for hardware which requires firmware and for which no free firmware exists (such as some wireless network cards) is not available.
By 1 May 2008, 3D graphics and application support had also been removed because of licensing issues with Mesa 3D. After January 13, 2009, those issues had been resolved and 3D support became standard starting with the 2.2 release.
Reception.
In reviewing gNewSense 3.0 in August 2013, Jesse Smith of DistroWatch noted that many of the applications provided, including OpenOffice.org 3, Debian's de-blobbed 2.6.32 Linux kernel (based on Linux-libre "tools"), Iceweasel 3.5 and GNOME 2.30 were quite out of date. Smith concluded this review with the following words:
Generally speaking, I was happy with gNewSense 3.0. Being based on Debian, the distribution can be counted on to provide both stability and amazing performance. The distribution is lean, fast and uncluttered. The flip side to this is gNewSense's system installer and default package management tools are geared more toward experienced users and will probably provide a steep learning curve to novice Linux users. Not much is automated and there is a minimum of hand holding. The main feature of gNewSense, the lack of proprietary software, is also a double-edged blade. On the one hand, it means the entire operating system can be audited, modified and redistributed. This is great from the perspective of software freedom. The fact that the distribution can play most multimedia formats and handled Flash content fairly well is a testament of the power of free and open source software. The one problem I ran into with gNewSense's software policy was with regards to my wireless network card. Most distributions ship with the non-free Intel firmware, but gNewSense doesn't include it and this means the distribution isn't a good fit with my laptop. It is, on the other hand , a great match with my desktop system.
Richard Stallman, founder and former president of the Free Software Foundation, said he used gNewSense in January 2010 and he was still using it in April 2014. Since then Stallman has switched to Trisquel.
Serdar Yegulalp reviewed gNewSense for InfoWorld. He is said:
In the post on Network World of gNewSense 3.1 in February 2014, Bryan Lunduke reviewed this Linux distribution with following words:


Atari Anthology

Atari - 80 Classic Games in One!, also called Atari: The 80 Classic Games, is a video game collection of 1980 video games previously published by Atari, Inc. and Atari Corporation, reproducing Atari's games from its arcade and Atari 2600 game console platforms. Many games permit one to play each title at varying speeds, with time limits, or with a shifting color palette.
Extra contents include original arcade artwork and scans of the instruction manuals for the Atari 2600 games, video interviews with Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, Windows desktop themes, DirectX 9 runtime, Adobe Reader 5.1 English version.
Support for Stelladaptor 2600 to USB interface, and 24-bit color wallpapers for "Asteroids", "Centipede", "Missile Command", "Pong", "Super Breakout", and "Tempest" themes are available as patches.
Marketing.
As part of Atari's 40th anniversary, free download of "Atari: 80 Classic Games in One!" was also available in the following General Mills boxed cereal products: Cinnamon Toast Crunch (17 oz.), Lucky Charms (16 oz.), Honey Nut Cheerios (17 oz.), Cheerios (18 oz.) and Cocoa Puffs (16.5 oz.).
A free "Atari: 80 Classic Games in One!" CD could also be found inside General Mills boxed cereals in Canada.
Atari Anthology includes the following changes:
Atari Classics Evolved.
This compilation, published for PlayStation Portable in 2007, includes 11 arcade classics from "Atari Anthology" (such as "Asteroids" and "Super Breakout") and also 50 Atari 2600 titles (that are unlockable). Also, every arcade title has an "evolved" version with new graphics and sounds. To unlock the 2600 games, the player must win all awards in all arcade titles.


Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage

Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage (CULV) is a computing platform developed by Intel. It was estimated in January 2009 that this market could reach 10 million CULV laptops shipped during that year. Competing platforms are the VIA Nano, AMD Yukon, AMD Nile notebook platform, and graphic chips from the Nvidia GeForce line within the "Nvidia Ion platform". Some of the lowest-power-consumption processors for the ultra thin CULV category are only a few watts more than the Intel Atom, which is rated at no more than 2.5 W. Because of their low power and heat output, CULV enables very thin computer systems, and long battery life in notebook computers, such as those designed to Intel's Ultrabook specifications.
While the first processors in this category were single core (such as the SU3500), newer CULV processors are dual core (e.g., the SU9600). They are all based on the Intel Core 2 architecture, but the ultra-low voltage versions have a thermal rating of 5.5 W – more than the Intel Atom, but a fraction of the dual-core mainstream Intel mobile chips rated at 25 and 35 watts – and they come in a small 22 mm chip package.
The newest CULV processors come from the Core i5 and Core i7 product lines, and are based on a 14 nm process.


Am386

The Am386 CPU is a 100%-compatible clone of the Intel 80386 design released by AMD in March 1991. It sold millions of units, positioning AMD as a legitimate competitor to Intel, rather than being merely a second source for "x86" CPUs (then termed "8086-family").
History and design.
While the AM386 CPU was essentially ready to be released prior to 1991, Intel kept it tied up in court. AMD had previously been a second-source manufacturer of Intel's Intel 8086, Intel 80186 and Intel 80286 designs, and AMD's interpretation of the contract, made up in 1982, was that it covered all derivatives of them. Intel, however, claimed that the contract only covered the 80286 and prior processors and forbade AMD the right to manufacture 80386 CPUs in 1987. After a few years in the courtrooms, AMD finally won the case and the right to sell their Am386 in March 1991. This also paved the way for competition in the 80386-compatible 32-bit CPU market and so lowered the cost of owning a PC.
While Intel's 386 CPUs had topped out at 33 MHz in 1989, AMD introduced 40 MHz versions of both its 386DX and 386SX out of the gate, extending the lifespan of the architecture. In the following two years the AMD 386DX-40 saw popularity with small manufacturers of PC clones and with budget-minded computer enthusiasts because it offered near-80486 performance at a much lower price than an actual 486. Generally the 386DX-40 performs nearly on par with a 25 MHz 486 due to the 486 needing fewer clock cycles per instruction, thanks to its tighter pipelining (more overlapping of internal processing) in combination with an on-chip CPU cache. However, its 32-bit 40 MHz data bus gave the 386DX-40 comparatively good memory and I/O performance.
AM386 SX.
In 1991 AMD also introduced advanced versions of the 386SX processor -again not as a second source production of the Intel chip, but as a reverse engineered pin compatible version. In fact, it was AMD's first entry in the x86 market other than as a second source for Intel. AMD 386SX processors were available at faster clock speeds at the time they were introduced and still cheaper than the Intel 386SX. Produced in 0.8 μm technology and using a static core, their clock speed could be dropped down to 0 MHz, consuming just some mWatts. Power consumption was up to 35% lower than with Intel's design and even lower than the 386SL's, making the AMD 386SX the ideal chip for both desktop and mobile computers. The SXL versions featured advanced power management functions and used even less power.
80387 coprocessor.
Floating point performance of the Am386 could be boosted with the addition of a 80387DX or 80387SX coprocessor, although performance would still not approach that of the on-chip FPU of the 486DX. This made the Am386DX a suboptimal choice for scientific applications and CAD using floating point intensive calculations. However, both were niche markets in the early 1990s and the chip sold well, first as a mid-range contender, and then as a budget chip. Although motherboards using the older 386 CPUs often had limited memory expansion possibilities and therefore struggled under Windows 95's memory requirements, boards using the Am386 were sold well into the mid-1990s; at the end as budget motherboards for those who were only interested in running MS-DOS or Windows 3.1x applications.
The Am386 and its low-power successors were also popular choices for embedded systems, for a much longer period than their life span as PC processors.


DELWATCH file last modification time


IBM 486SLC


Cross Channel (visual novel)

Cross Channel, stylized as CROSS†CHANNEL, is a visual novel video game developed by Flying Shine. It was originally released in 2003 for Microsoft Windows, and has later been released for consoles with various added content. An English localization was released in 2018 for Microsoft Windows.
Synopsis.
Plot.
Gunjo Gakuen ("Deep Blue School") is a facility designed to gather and isolate those students with a high adaptation coefficient (indicating that the student is less likely to be able to adapt to society), determined from an adaptation exam mandated by the government.
After a failed summer vacation with other members of the school's broadcasting club, Taichi Kurosu and some of the other club members return to the city, only to find that all living creatures within it except for the club members have completely vanished. In order to confirm the status of the outside world, Taichi decides to gather other club members to help Misato Miyasumi, the president of the broadcasting club, set up a broadcasting antenna to contact any possible survivors. However, Taichi soon discovers that the world is actually repeating the same week and thus all their actions are reset, with no loss or gain, no matter what actions are taken. Seeking himself and the restoration of broken bonds, Taichi must discover meaning to exist in this strange and lonely but, for Taichi, comforting world.
Release.
The game was originally released for Microsoft Windows on September 26, 2003, and was ported to the PlayStation 2 with the subtitle "To All People" on March 18, 2004. A PlayStation Portable port of "To All People" version was released on February 25, 2010, and an Xbox 360 port with added content, with the subtitle "In Memory of All People", was released on April 14, 2011. Another version, "For All People" was released on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita on June 26, 2014, and "Cross Channel: Final Complete" was released for Microsoft Windows on September 26, 2014. A Microsoft Windows version of "For All People" was released in English on March 27, 2018 by MoeNovel.
Reception.
"Famitsu" gave the PlayStation 3 version of the game a review score of 30/40, whilst the PS Vita version was given a score of 28/40.
Related media.
 is an online spin off game featuring characters from "Cross Channel". The objective of the game is to click, hold and release the mouse button to determine the angle and velocity of Nanaka crashing her bicycle into Taichi, sending him flying across the screen. The score is determined by the distance of his flight. Certain characters he crashes into will greatly affect his velocity. On May 16, 2014, "Nanaca Crash!!" was relaunched as a part of Cross Channel with updated graphics and sound. The Flash version was updated and the game was made available on Android and iOS for the first time.


Burnout Dominator

Burnout Dominator is a racing video game developed by EA UK and published by Electronic Arts for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. It retains the core gameplay of the series, as players race at top speeds through dozens of World Tour events testing "reckless skill-based" driving techniques.
This is the only "Burnout" game that was not developed by Criterion Games, and the first "Burnout" game in the series since "" to not feature the "Crash Mode". At the time "Dominator" was being developed, Criterion was busy working on "Burnout Paradise" and was waiting to re-introduce the mode in a new form for the latter title. However, Criterion Games are listed as "the makers of this game" in the game manual and credited as developer on the official Electronic Arts site. This was also the final Burnout game to be released on both the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable.
Gameplay.
The main focus in "Burnout Dominator" is the return of "Burnouts". Burnouts are the result of draining a complete boost meter without stopping. The boost meter in "Burnout Dominator" is primarily orange flames prior to a full boost meter, at which point in time the flames turn blue (known as "Supercharge Boost"). Driving dangerously while using supercharge boost will light up the arrows on the boost meter, and when they are all lit, one can obtain a Burnout once the current supercharge boost has drained. The process can be continually repeated allowing the player to get a Burnout Chain. Prior to "Burnout Dominator", Burnouts were last seen in "".
Features removed from the previous game, "Burnout Revenge", include Traffic Checking (the ability to ram into smaller vehicles heading in the same direction as the player's vehicle), Traffic Attack Mode, Crash Mode (a puzzle-orientated mode, in which one's vehicle is driven into an intersection full of traffic with the aim to cause the largest amount of damage possible), and online multiplayer support. Also, unlike all of the Criterion developed "Burnout" games, the PlayStation 2 version of "Burnout Dominator" does not support USB steering wheels such as the Logitech Driving Force or Logitech Driving Force Pro.
The main single player mode known as the World Tour is split into 7 different series, based on the different classes of car that are in the game. The series are Classic, Factory, Tuned, Hot Rod, Super, Race Specials and Dominator. The vehicle lineup is mostly new with some cars from previous two "Burnout" titles peppered into the game (such as the Custom Coupe Ultimate, Euro Circuit Racer and Works M-Type). The events and new challenges in the World Tour include:
The other single player mode in "Burnout Dominator" is known as "Record Breaker", and this mode allows one to set high scores for Race, Road Rage, Time Attack and Maniac Mode, without being restricted to specific event/location/series combinations that exist in the World Tour mode. Co-existing with the Record Breaker mode, the PlayStation Portable version of the game allows uploading of high scores via the Burnout HQ option, which can be viewed in the EA Nation section of the "Burnout Dominator" website.
Reception.
"Burnout Dominator" received "favorable" reviews on both platforms according to video game review aggregator Metacritic.


Adaptive Domain Environment for Operating Systems

Adeos (Adaptive Domain Environment for Operating Systems) is a nanokernel hardware abstraction layer (HAL), or hypervisor, that operates between computer hardware and the operating system (OS) that runs on it. It is distinct from other nanokernels in that it is not only a low level layer for an outer kernel. Instead, it is intended to run several kernels together, which makes it similar to full virtualization technologies. It is free and open-source software released under a GNU General Public License (GPL).
Adeos provides a flexible environment for sharing hardware resources among multiple operating systems, or among multiple instances of one OS, thereby enabling multiple prioritized domains to exist simultaneously on the same hardware.
Adeos has been successfully inserted beneath the Linux kernel, opening a range of possibilities, such as symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) clustering, more efficient virtualization, patchless kernel debugging, and real-time computing (RT) systems for Linux.
Unusually among HALs, Adeos can be loaded as a Linux loadable kernel module to allow another OS to run along with it. Adeos was developed in the context of real-time application interface (RTAI) to modularize it and separate the HAL from the real-time kernel.
Prior work.
Two categories of methods exist to enable multiple operating systems to run on the same system. The first is simulation-based and provides a virtual environment for which to run additional operating systems. The second suggests the use of a nanokernel layer to enable hardware sharing.
In the simulation category, there are tools such as Xen, VMware, Plex86, VirtualPC and SimOS. There is also Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) which is more similar to Adeos , but is not RT and requires specific virtualization hardware support. These methods are used for users who desire to run applications foreign to their base OS, they provide no control over the base OS to the user. Simulation was never meant to be used in a production environment. In the nanokernel category there are tools such as SPACE, cache kernel and Exokernel. All of these suggest building miniature hardware management facilities which can thereafter be used to build production operating systems . The problem of this approach is that it does not address the issue of extant operating systems and their user base.
Adeos addresses the requirements of both categories of application by providing a simple layer that is inserted under an unmodified running OS and thereafter provides the required primitives and mechanisms to allow multiple OSes to share the same hardware environment. Adeos does not attempt to impose any restrictions on the hardware’s use, by the different OSes, more than is necessary for Adeos’ own operation. Instead, such restriction is to be imposed by the system administrator or the system programmer. This exposes the system to mismanagement, but the idea behind Adeos is to give back control to system administrators and programmers.
Architecture.
Adeos implements a queue of signals. Each time that a peripheral sends a signal, the different operating systems that are running in the machine are awakened, in turn, and must decide if they will accept (handle), ignore, discard, or terminate the signal. Signals not handled (or discarded) by an OS are passed to the next OS in the chain. Signals that are terminated are not propagated to latter stages.
As Adeos has to ensure equal and trusted access to the hardware, it takes control of some hardware commands issued by the different OSes; but, it also must not intrude too much on the different OSes’ normal behavior. Each OS is encompassed in a domain over which it has total control. This domain may include a private address space and software abstractions such as process, virtual memory, file-systems, etc. Adeos does not attempt to impose any policy of use of the hardware except as needed for its operation. The task of determining policy is left to the system architect.
Adeos interrupt pipe.
Adeos uses an interrupt pipe to propagate interrupts through the different domains running on the hardware. As some domains may prefer to be the first to receive hardware interrupts, Adeos provides a mechanism for domains to have access to priority interrupt dispatching. In effect, Adeos places the requesting domain's interrupt handler and accompanying tables, which may be called as an interrupt mechanism in SPACE terminology, at the first stages of the interrupt pipeline. Domains can control whether they accept, ignore, discard or terminate interrupts. Each of these has a different effect and is controlled differently.
Accepting interrupts is the normal state of a domain's interrupt mechanism. When Adeos encounters a domain that is accepting interrupts it summons its interrupt handler after having set the required CPU environment and stack content for the interrupt handler to operate correctly. The OS then may decide to operate any number of operations including task scheduling. Once the OS is done, the pipeline proceeds as planned by propagating interrupts down the pipeline.
When an OS in a domain does not want to be interrupted, for any reason, it asks Adeos to stall the stage its domain occupies in the interrupt pipeline. By doing so, interrupts go no further in the pipeline and are stalled at the stage occupied by the domain. When the OS is done wanting to be uninterrupted, it asks Adeos to install the pipeline and thereafter all the interrupts that were stalled at the corresponding stage follow their route to the other stages of the pipeline.
When a domain is discarding interrupts, the interrupt passes over the stage occupied by the domain and continues onto the other stages. When a domain terminates interrupts then the interrupts that are terminated by it are not propagated to latter stages. Interrupt discarding and termination is only possible when the OS in a domain recognizes Adeos.
Since some OSes do not recognize Adeos, it is possible to create a domain which only serves as a handler for that OS. Hence, in the interrupt pipeline, this stage always precedes the handled domain's stage and may take actions for that domain with Adeos in order to provide the handled domain's OS with the illusion of normal system operation.
Once Adeos is done traversing the pipeline it checks if all domains are dormant. If that is the case, it then calls on its idle task. This task remains active until the occurrence of the next interrupt. If all the domains aren't dormant it restores the processor to the state it had prior the interrupt entering the pipeline and execution continues where it had left. Since Adeos is very much hardware dependent, many details are specific to one of its particular implementations.
Applicability.
General-purpose operating system resource sharing.
General-purpose operating system resource sharing is one of the main objectives of Adeos, to provide an environment which enables multiple general purpose OSes to share the same hardware.
Operating system development.
Developing OSes is usually a complicated process which sometimes requires extra hardware such as in-circuit emulators to probe the hardware on which an OS is running. Using Adeos, OS development is eased since any undesired behavior may be controlled by an appropriate domain handler. It can also provide a default domain handler for OS development under which developers may have controlled direct access to the hardware they are meant to control. As Adeos is itself a kernel-module, such development domain handlers may be developed independently from Adeos.
Patchless kernel debuggers and probers.
Adeos provides for a way for kernel debuggers and probers to take control of Linux without modifying Linux. As with other Adeos domains, these facilities would load as normal kernel modules and would thereafter request a ring-zero domain from Adeos. Once that is done, they may request priority interrupt dispatching in the interrupt pipeline. Hence, before Linux gets to handle any interrupts, they will be able to intercept those interrupts and carry out the requested debugging tasks. This can also be extended to performance profilers and other such development tools.


Load (computing)

 In UNIX computing, the system load is a measure of the amount of computational work that a computer system performs. The load average represents the average system load over a period of time. It conventionally appears in the form of three numbers which represent the system load during the last one-, five-, and fifteen-minute periods.
Unix-style load calculation.
All Unix and Unix-like systems generate a dimensionless metric of three "load average" numbers in the kernel. Users can easily query the current result from a Unix shell by running the codice_1 command:
$ uptime
 14:34:03 up 10:43, 4 users, load average: 0.06, 0.11, 0.09
The codice_2 and codice_3 commands show the same three load average numbers, as do a range of graphical user interface utilities. In Linux, they can also be accessed by reading the codice_4 file.
An idle computer has a load number of 0 (the idle process isn't counted). Each process using or waiting for CPU (the "ready queue" or run queue) increments the load number by 1. Each process that terminates decrements it by 1. Most UNIX systems count only processes in the "running" (on CPU) or "runnable" (waiting for CPU) states. However, Linux also includes processes in uninterruptible sleep states (usually waiting for disk activity), which can lead to markedly different results if many processes remain blocked in I/O due to a busy or stalled I/O system. This, for example, includes processes blocking due to an NFS server failure or too slow media (e.g., USB 1.x storage devices). Such circumstances can result in an elevated load average which does not reflect an actual increase in CPU use (but still gives an idea of how long users have to wait).
Systems calculate the load "average" as the exponentially damped/weighted moving average of the load "number". The three values of load average refer to the past one, five, and fifteen minutes of system operation.
Mathematically speaking, all three values always average all the system load since the system started up. They all decay exponentially, but they decay at different "speeds": they decay exponentially by "e" after 1, 5, and 15 minutes respectively. Hence, the 1-minute load average consists of 63% (more precisely: 1 - 1/"e") of the load from the last minute and 37% (1/"e") of the average load since start up, excluding the last minute. For the 5- and 15-minute load averages, the same 63%/37% ratio is computed over 5 minutes and 15 minutes respectively. Therefore, it is not technically accurate that the 1-minute load average only includes the last 60 seconds of activity, as it includes 37% of the activity from the past, but it is correct to state that it includes "mostly" the last minute.
Interpretation.
For single-CPU systems that are CPU bound, one can think of load average as a measure of system utilization during the respective time period. For systems with multiple CPUs, one must divide the load by the number of processors in order to get a comparable measure.
For example, one can interpret a load average of "1.73 0.60 7.98" on a single-CPU system as:
This means that this system (CPU, disk, memory, etc.) could have handled all of the work scheduled for the last minute if it were 1.73 times as fast.
In a system with four CPUs, a load average of 3.73 would indicate that there were, on average, 3.73 processes ready to run, and each one could be scheduled into a CPU.
On modern UNIX systems, the treatment of threading with respect to load averages varies. Some systems treat threads as processes for the purposes of load average calculation: each thread waiting to run will add 1 to the load. However, other systems, especially systems implementing so-called , use different strategies such as counting the process exactly once for the purpose of load (regardless of the number of threads), or counting only threads currently exposed by the user-thread scheduler to the kernel, which may depend on the level of concurrency set on the process. Linux appears to count each thread separately as adding 1 to the load.
CPU load vs CPU utilization.
The comparative study of different load indices carried out by Ferrari et al. reported that CPU load information based upon the CPU queue length does much better in load balancing compared to CPU utilization. The reason CPU queue length did better is probably because when a host is heavily loaded, its CPU utilization is likely to be close to 100% and it is unable to reflect the exact load level of the utilization. In contrast, CPU queue lengths can directly reflect the amount of load on a CPU. As an example, two systems, one with 3 and the other with 6 processes in the queue, are both very likely to have utilizations close to 100% although they obviously differ.
Reckoning CPU load.
On Linux systems, the load-average is not calculated on each clock tick, but driven by a variable value that is based on the HZ frequency setting and tested on each clock tick. This setting defines the kernel clock tick rate in Hertz (times per second), and it defaults to 100 for 10ms ticks. Kernel activities use this number of ticks to time themselves. Specifically, the timer.c::calc_load() function, which calculates the load average, runs every ticks, or about every five seconds:
unsigned long avenrun[3];
static inline void calc_load(unsigned long ticks)
 unsigned long active_tasks; /* fixed-point */
 static int count = LOAD_FREQ;
 count -= ticks;
 if (count < 0) {
 count += LOAD_FREQ;
 active_tasks = count_active_tasks();
 CALC_LOAD(avenrun[0], EXP_1, active_tasks);
 CALC_LOAD(avenrun[1], EXP_5, active_tasks);
 CALC_LOAD(avenrun[2], EXP_15, active_tasks);
The avenrun array contains 1-minute, 5-minute and 15-minute average. The macro and its associated values are defined in sched.h:
 load *= exp; \
 load += n*(FIXED_1-exp); \
 load »= FSHIFT;
The "sampled" calculation of load averages is a somewhat common behavior; FreeBSD, too, only refreshes the value every five seconds. The interval is usually taken to not be exact so that they do not collect processes that are scheduled to fire at a certain moment.
A post on the Linux mailing list considers its tick insufficient to avoid Moire artifacts from such collection, and suggests an interval of 4.61 seconds instead. This change is common among Android system kernels, although the exact expression used assumes an HZ of 100.
Other system performance commands.
Other commands for assessing system performance include:


List of Nintendo 64 ROM file formats

Here is a list of all the different Nintendo 64 ROM Formats.
Other playable formats.
Some emulators can play ROMs that are within a compressed .7z or .zip file.


Cellius

 was a Japanese video game developer and publisher headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. It was founded in 2007 as a venture between Sony and Bandai Namco Holdings. The aim of the company is to "help take share from Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co." Sony hopes that the company will make up for the losses it made during quarter two of its financial year. 'Father of the PlayStation' Ken Kutaragi was announced as CEO. Bandai Namco Holdings held 51% of the company, and Sony held 49%. The company planned to use Sony's Cell microprocessor, the heart of the PlayStation 3, for PlayStation 3 games and games for mobile phones and personal computers. Its only video game project was a "Ridge Racer" game for the PlayStation Vita.


List of AMD Athlon XP microprocessors

The Athlon XP microprocessor from AMD is a seventh-generation 32-bit CPU targeted at the consumer market.


Bangai-O

Bangai-O is a multidirectional shooter developed by Treasure and released in 1999 on the Nintendo 64 in Japan. It was ported to the Dreamcast worldwide shortly after with some gameplay changes and updated graphics and audio. The game places the player in control of a weaponized mech that can hover across large stages and fire at enemies all around them. The player must reach the end of each stage and defeat the boss, while avoiding hazards scattered across the map such as enemy mechs and gun turrets.
The initial ideas for "Bangai-O" came from Treasure programmer Mitsuru Yaida who wanted to challenge himself by programming an extreme number of bullets on the screen at once. Journalists agree that Yaida was most likely inspired by the 1984 Japanese computer game "Hover Attack". The team developed the game with a focus on creating enjoyable gameplay, and opted for simple graphical effects to preserve the game's speed. "Bangai-O" was released on the Nintendo 64 and was limited to a run of 10,000 copies because of publisher Entertainment Software Publishing's belief it had niche appeal. The team replaced most of the graphics and audio, changed some gameplay elements, and re-released it on the Dreamcast three months later, a version later released internationally.
"Bangai-O" received positive reviews from game journalists. Many critics compared it to shoot 'em ups and action games of the past, praising its retro gameplay and aesthetics. They also commended the level design for keeping the game interesting throughout. Some reviews, especially those for the Dreamcast version, were more critical of the graphics and believed the game's value was primarily in its nostalgic gameplay. The game received two sequels: "Bangai-O Spirits" (2008) for the Nintendo DS and "Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury" (2011) for the Xbox 360.
Gameplay.
"Bangai-O" is a 2D side-scrolling multidirectional shooter. The player controls a weaponized mech that is piloted by the two main characters, Riki and his sister Mami. The story follows Riki and Mami in their efforts to stop criminals from smuggling fruit contraband to finance their evil deeds. The player can fly freely around each of the game's 44 stages, and must find and destroy the boss in each stage to advance. The mech can shoot in eight directions, and the type of ammo is dependent on which character is piloting. The two pilots can be interchanged instantaneously, Riki fires homing missiles and Mami shoots reflecting projectiles which bounce off walls. The stages are populated with destroyable buildings and obstacles, as well as some walls that are opened by switches. There are also hazards such as gun turrets and enemy mechs which fire projectiles at the player. The player has a health meter but no brief invulnerability period after being hit, so can die instantly if hit with a barrage of fire. Destroyed enemies and objects yield fruit which replenishes a meter that is used to power the "scatter bomb" attack. This attack can be charged to release up to 100 shots scattered in all directions at once. Hitting all 100 shots on enemies will open a small portal to a shop where the player can get upgrades such as improved shot damage.
The Dreamcast version of "Bangai-O", released after the initial Nintendo 64 version, features significant differences in gameplay which results in a more streamlined experience. In the Dreamcast version, the bullets are stronger, and destroying objects and enemies refills the bomb attack meter instead of fruit which now only add to the player's score. The bomb attack also can no longer be charged to a specific number of missiles, but is dependent on the player's proximity to enemy projectiles. In the Dreamcast version, up to 400 missiles can be shot at once in comparison to 100 on the Nintendo 64. Also, the shop is removed. Instead, the game includes power-ups that can be found among environment wreckage. There are also other minor differences such as scoring differences and more structure and enemy types.
Development.
The idea for "Bangai-O" came from Treasure employee Mitsuru Yaida (commonly known by the pseudonym "Yaiman"). He remembered playing an older shooting game that amazed him with the sheer number of bullets that could be rendered on the screen at once. Even though Yaiman and other staff behind the game have not identified the game, industry analysts agree that the game is almost certainly "Hover Attack" (1984) for Japanese computers. Yaiman began thinking about the programming challenges involved in detecting when the bullets collide with other objects, and started work on a prototype. He later received permission from company president Masato Maegawa to pull in other staff and work towards producing a full game. Yaiman served as the main programmer and "General Manager". About ten people worked on "Bangai-O".
Treasure developed the game with a focus on creating addictive and fast gameplay, with less focus on graphics. They opted for large and fast 2D graphical effects and anime artwork to preserve their style. One of the artists on the team, Koichi Kimura, had just finished working on "Guardian Heroes" (1996), another 2D game. With more powerful development hardware available, he wanted to challenge himself the possibilities and limits of 2D graphics. The story is based on typical Japanese Yakuza revenge plays.
Release.
Treasure announced "Bangai-O" for the Nintendo 64 in June 1999. It was released on September 3 the same year. Because of the game's niche appeal, the publisher Entertainment Software Publishing (ESP) only shipped 10,000 copies.
The Dreamcast version was first released in Japan on December 9, 1999. This version had improved graphics and audio over the Nintendo 64 original. Many of the sprites were reworked, background animations were added, and the game now featured CD-quality music. By February 2000, publishers were researching the possibility of localizing the Dreamcast version for Western audiences. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in May that year, "IGN" reported that a company had begun localizing the game, and had given it English menus and renamed it "Bangai-O" from its obscure Japanese title, "Bakuretsu Muteki Bangaioh". In December, industry newcomer Conspiracy Entertainment announced they were localizing "Bangai-O" along with another Dreamcast game, (2000). The Dreamcast version was planned for release on February 27, 2001, but was eventually released on March 21.
Reception.
"Bangai-O" received positive reviews for its initial Nintendo 64 release. Critics enjoyed the manic and unique gameplay that they believed was characteristic of Treasure's video games. Most compared it to older shoot 'em ups and action games. "GameFan" called it a mix between the free-floating gameplay of "Sub Terrania" (1994) and the rotating shooting action of "Omega Boost" (1999). They appreciated it as one of the few shooters on the Nintendo 64, and compared its aesthetic missile shooting style to "Macross". Peter Barthalow ("IGN") wrote that the game was "in typical Treasure fashion...an addictive and original hodgepodge of genres and game mechanics that defy easy explanation". Journalists commended the variety in the game's design that kept it feeling fresh throughout. Anoop Gantayat ("IGN)" wrote that the level design made good use of each character's shooting mode. Barthalow and Martin Kitts ("N64 Magazine") both praised the level design for forcing the player to change their tactics level to level. Barthalow called the building elements for the levels "versatile", and went on to say some levels were puzzles, others had racing aspects, and others were "insane blastfests". Gantayat argued that "Bangai-O" is "a game that you either love, or just don't understand yet".
"Bangai-O" was praised for its retro gameplay and aesthetics. Kitts and the staff at "GameFan" wrote that it looked and played like a Super NES game and pointed out how some effects were reminiscent of the 16-bit system's Mode 7 rotation effects. "GameFan" explained further that it looked like a Super NES game with less slowdown, a higher resolution, and more color. Rick Mears ("GameFan") wrote that it felt like "" (1982) with its unique control style, and called it an "old school 2D treat". Although the game was not in 3D like most other games at the time, critics felt the 2D graphics were satisfactory enough. Gantayat pointed out the scatter bomb attack that fills the screen with bullets "a momentous occasion...one of the main parts of the "Bangai-O" experience". Mears praised the game for not slowing down when rendering scenes like this.
Reviews for the Dreamcast version carried the same sentiments as the Nintendo 64 version in regards to the frantic and unique gameplay. Gantayat ("IGN") and staff at "GameFan" preferred this new version because of the updated graphics, new CD-quality soundtrack, and more streamlined gameplay. With this release, journalists were more critical of the graphics and audio, commenting more heavily on the game's appeal primarily as a nostalgic shooter. The staff at "Computer and Video Games" wrote that it was a fun in a nostalgic way, but will not hold a player's attention for very long. A critic at "GameSpy" wrote that the graphics were bland and lacked polish, and the focus was on the gameplay. They argued that "Bangai-O" is a game designed for "hardcore" gamers and commented: "Are games coming out today missing something from the glory days of twitch gameplay...Or am I just too jaded by the 3-D graphics, complex mission objectives, and controls of most modern games". In a brief but critical review, "Dreamcast Magazine" (UK) argued that it was a nearly direct port of the Nintendo 64 version, and called it "unimaginative".
Sequels.
"Bangai-O" received two sequels. The first, "Bangai-O Spirits", was released for the Nintendo DS in 2008, and the second, "Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury," was released exclusively on the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade in 2011. The games feature most of the same core gameplay ideas as the first game, but evolve on them with more weapons and gameplay elements. Both games included level editors, and the latter features multiplayer modes.


Comparison of mobile operating systems

This is a comparison of mobile operating systems. Only the latest versions are shown in the table below, even though older versions may still be marketed.


AMD Turion

AMD Turion is the brand name AMD applies to its x86-64 low-power consumption ("mobile") processors codenamed "K8L". The Turion 64 and Turion 64 X2/Ultra processors compete with Intel's mobile processors, initially the "Pentium M" and the Intel Core and Intel Core 2 processors.
Features.
Turion 64.
Earliest Turion 64 processors are plugged into AMD's Socket 754. They are equipped with 512 or 1024 KiB of L2 cache, a 64-bit single channel on-die DDR-400 memory controller, and an 800 MHz HyperTransport bus. Battery saving features, like "PowerNow!", are central to the marketing and usefulness of these CPUs. The newer "Richmond" models are designed for AMD's Socket S1 and have a double-channel DDR2 controller.
Turion 64 X2.
Turion 64 X2 is AMD's 64-bit dual-core mobile CPU, intended to compete with Intel's Core and Core 2 CPUs. The Turion 64 X2 was launched on May 17, 2006, after several delays. These processors use Socket S1 and feature DDR2 memory. They also include AMD Virtualization Technology and more power-saving features.
The earlier 90 nm devices were codenamed Taylor and Trinidad, while the newer 65 nm cores have codename Tyler.
Turion X2 Ultra.
Turion X2 Ultra (codenamed "Griffin") is the first processor family from AMD solely for the mobile platform, based on the Athlon 64 (K8 Revision G) architecture with some specific architectural enhancements similar to current Phenom processors aimed at lower power consumption and longer battery life. The Turion Ultra processor was released as part of the "Puma" mobile platform in June 2008.
The Turion X2 Ultra is a dual-core processor fabricated on 65 nm technology using 300 mm SOI wafers. It supports DDR2-800 SO-DIMMs and features a DRAM prefetcher to improve performance and a mobile-enhanced northbridge (memory controller, HyperTransport controller, and crossbar switch). Each processor core comes with 1 MiB L2 cache for a total of 2 MiB L2 cache for the entire processor. This is double the L2 cache found on the Turion 64 X2 processor. Clock rates range from 2.0 GHz to 2.4 GHz, and thermal design power (TDP) range from 32 watts to 35 watts.
The Turion X2 Ultra processor, unlike earlier Turions, implements three voltage planes: one for the northbridge and one for each core. This, along with multiple phase-locked loops (PLL), allows one core to alter its voltage and operating frequency independently of the other core, and independently of the northbridge. Indeed, in a matter of microseconds, the processor can switch to one of 8 frequency levels and one of 5 voltage levels. By adjusting frequency and voltage during use, the processor can adapt to different workloads and help reduce power consumption. It can operate as low as 250 MHz to conserve power during light use.
Additionally, the processor features deep sleep state C3, deeper sleep state C4 (AltVID), and HyperTransport 3.0 up to 2.6 GHz, or up to 41.6 GB/s bandwidth per link at 16-bit link width and dynamic scaling of HT link width down to 0-bit ("disconnected") in both directions from and to the chipset for four different usage scenarios. It also implements multiple on-die thermal sensors through integrated SMBUS (SB-TSI) interface (replaces and eliminates the thermal monitor circuit chip through SMBUS in its predecessors) with additional MEMHOT signal sent from embedded controller to the processor, and reduces memory temperature.
The Turion X2 Ultra processor uses the same socket S1 as its predecessor, Turion 64 X2, but the pinout is different. It is designed to work with the RS780M chipset.
Given the above enhancements on the architecture, the cores were minimally modified and are based on the K8 instead of the K10 microarchitecture. AMD Fellow Maurice Steinman has said the cores are almost transistor-for-transistor identical to those found in the 65 nm Turion 64 X2 processors .
Turion II Ultra.
Turion II Ultra (codenamed "Caspian") is the mobile version of the K10.5 architecture produced using 45 nm fabrication process, also known by its desktop variant "Regor". It is a dual core processor, and features clock speeds of 2.5 GHz, 2 MB total L2 cache (1 MB per core), HyperTransport at 3.6 GT/s, and a 128 bit FPU. It maintains a TDP of 35W from its predecessor Turion X2 Ultra (codenamed "Griffin").
Turion II.
Turion II is identical to Turion II Ultra, except that the Turion II features only 1 MB of L2 cache (512 KB per core), and lower clock speeds ranging from 2.2 GHz to 2.6 GHz.
Model naming methodology.
The model naming scheme does not make it obvious how to compare one Turion with another, or even an Athlon 64. The model name is two letters, a dash, and a two digit number (for example, ML-34). The two letters together designate a processor class, while the number represents a performance rating (PR). The first letter is M for mono (single) core processors and T for twin (dual) core Turion 64 X2 processors. The later in the alphabet that the second letter appears, the more the model has been designed for mobility (frugal power consumption). Take for instance, an MT-30 and an ML-34. Since the T in the MT-30 is later in the alphabet than the L in ML-34, the MT-30 consumes less power than the ML-34. But since 34 is greater than 30, the ML-34 is faster than the MT-30.
The release of the Turion II Ultra and Turion II lineups have simplified name methodology; all newly released Turions have the letter "M" followed by a number designating relative performance. The higher the number, the higher the clock speed. For example, the Turion II M500 has a clock speed of 2.2 GHz while the Turion II M520 has a clock speed of 2.3 GHz.
Cores.
Richmond (90 nm SOI).
The models support the same features available in Lancaster, plus AMD-V.