Plop Linux History

My idea was to create a small and easy to use rescue Linux. However, over the years it became bigger and more powerful. Here is a short overview of important events.

2003 - First public release 1.0 / 1.x

After a few years of linux experience, I decided to make an own small linux distribution.

Boot: with a compiled linuxrc. I modified the linuxrc of Paul Hayter for my needs and how I thought in which way Plop Linux should boot.
Kernel: compiled by myself
Boot from: ISO, Floppy, chain load USB
Programs: programs collected and compiled by myself with Redhat Linux, some binaries taken from Redhat Linux
Size: about 40MB

2004 - Version 2.x releases

Only updates for the public version

Non public: With the help of the Linux from Scratch project I created my own minimal Linux that has GCC. From that point I was free from Linux Distributions and able to do my own stuff. Before, I used a small Redhat installation as base for years and compiled all I needed by myself. Now, with the small base Linux it was no problem to do all by myself and life without distributions.

Non public version to boot from the XBOX

2005 - Version 3.0

Programs from myself compiled Linux.
Boot process converted from the static binary to my scripts to boot the Live Plop Linux.
Changed to squashfs 3.0
Separate archive for booting from USB.

Non public version to boot from the XBOX

2005 - Version 3.2.1

Last public version with booting from floppy

2006 - Version 3.3

Size: 69MB

2009 - Version 3.7.18

opt.sqfs with Fluxbox and Gnome

2009 - 2012 - Version 4.x releases

Network boot.
Changed to squashfs 4.0.
Various software updates.

See the Change Log for more info's.

2012 - Version 4.2.0

Live Version with support for blind people (brltty, Orca) + preconfigured.
New developer release + separated Xorg and Gnome archives.
New network boot options: TFTP, FTP, HTTP

2013

Plop Linux rebuild from scratch with latest software releases.
Switched to systemd, but finally switched back to SysV.
Gnome replaced with Xfce

No public release.

2014

Plop Linux rebuild from scratch with latest software releases.

Only Plop Linux Test releases.

2015 - Version 4.3.0

Public release i486, x86_64, ARM.
Build and Release Tools released.

2019 - Version numbering changed

Last old version numbering is 4.3.9 in the year 2018. New numbering started 2019. It is a combination of 2 digit year and the release number of the year. Starting with 19.1.