A Little Side Project: Subdivision

Subdivision – Our new side project.

So, those of you who are long time users of Simplicity Linux will know that we used to have a Windows Refugee Edition.  That died off after comments that people didn’t understand what it was for, or who it was aimed at.  However.  After seeing a lot of friends of mine trying to make the jump to Linux only to be put off by one thing or another, deciding “It’s too hard!”, I have decided it is time to go back to making a Linux distro aimed at Windows users.

The thing is, in the Linux community, we are really guilty of bashing Windows, and expecting people to be able to “just use” things like Ubuntu or Mint or even more Windows user oriented distros like PCLinuxOS.  I made the jump from Windows to Puppy.  But I found Puppy hard.  The only thing that swayed me was I was adamant not to use Windows.

So here is what Subdivision is.  It’s the same base as Simplicity 12.7 will use.  It comes with a slightly skinned XFCE, Firefox, Skype, Flash, VLC, Clementine, Thunderbird, full Libre Office, Dropbox, Pidgin, Compiz, Wine, and Gimp.  But it also includes Avast! Anti Virus and an easy to configure firewall.  As Linux users, you may ask yourself “Why include an Anti Virus?  This is Linux!”  One answer.  Peace of mind.  My brother is a committed Windows user, but when I told him I was including a firewall and anti virus in Subdivision, his eyes lit up and he said “Wow, that’s going to be popular.”

I’m uploading Subdivision right now.  All I will suggest is that if you’re a Windows user, give it a go.  It will be faster and more secure than Windows, but not so unfamiliar that you can’t just play with it out of the box.