In today's world, Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre has become a topic of great relevance and interest to people of all ages and in different parts of the world. Since its emergence, Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre has generated constant debate and has aroused countless conflicting opinions. This phenomenon has captured the attention of society in general and has given rise to research, discussions and demonstrations around its different aspects. In this article, we will thoroughly explore the impact of Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre on today's society, analyzing its implications and providing a complete overview of this topic that leaves no one indifferent.
Developer | Hyperbola Founders[1] |
---|---|
OS family | Linux (Unix-like) |
Working state | Current |
Source model | Free software |
Initial release | April 15, 2017[2] |
Latest release | 0.4.4[3] / 5 January 2024 |
Repository | |
Update method | Long-term support |
Package manager | pacman |
Platforms | AMD64, i686 |
Kernel type | Monolithic (Linux-libre) |
Userland | GNU |
Default user interface | Bash |
License | Free software (GNU GPL and other licenses) |
Official website | www |
Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre is an independent Linux distribution for the i686 and x86-64 architectures using the package-manager from Arch Linux and some patchsets from the Debian development[4] though stopping using patchsets from Debian beyond the version Debian 12.[5] It includes the GNU operating system components and the Linux-libre kernel instead of the generic Linux kernel. Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre is listed by the Free Software Foundation as a completely free operating system, true to their Free System Distribution Guidelines.[6][7]
Hyperbola was born at the 17th annual Fórum Internacional Software Livre (Porto Alegre, Brazil).[2]
On 5 August 2017, support for systemd was dropped in favor of OpenRC as its default init system[8] to support the Init Freedom Campaign[9][10] begun by Devuan.
On 6 December 2018, Hyperbola was the first Brazilian distribution[11] recognized as a completely free project by GNU, making it part of the FSF list of free distributions.[12][13][14]
On 23 September 2019, Hyperbola announced its first release with the implementation of Xenocara as its default display server for the X Window System and LibreSSL as its default system cryptography library.[15]
In December 2019, Hyperbola announced that it would cease to be a Linux distribution, and that it would become a hard fork of OpenBSD with GPL-licensed code. The project cited objections to recent developments in the Linux kernel that they deemed to be an "unstable path", including inclusion of optional support for High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection, the kernel "being written without security in mind", GNU and "core" components with non-optional dependencies, and endorsement of the Rust programming language — due to objections to the Mozilla Foundation trademarks policy and "a centralized code repository that is more prone to cyber attack and generally requires internet access to use".[16]
Since the release of version 0.4 on 1 March 2022, Hyperbola rebased towards its own packages built from scratch and is no longer using any marked snapshot from Arch Linux.
The Hyperbola social contract incorporates aspects of the Parabola GNU/Linux-libre social contract and the "Init Freedom" movement of Devuan. It commits the project to following the principles of the free software movement and free culture (including only supporting community-driven projects), respecting the privacy of users, and respecting the principles of stability (rejecting software that is "broken by design") and a minimal system (including rejecting undue abstraction layers).[17]
Hyperbola requires all software to adhere to the GNU Free System Distribution Guidelines, prohibiting packages that are proprietary software, and contain binary blobs or obfuscated code.[18] Notwithstanding that a project is free and open source software, the Hyperbola project excludes packages that violate the social contract (and those that have dependencies on excluded packages), including those that:[19]
Under these guidelines, the Hyperbola project rejects packages such as D-Bus, PulseAudio, and systemd (bloat), package managers for programming languages (capable of downloading non-free dependencies), Vulkan (only useful for modern GPUs thus breaking backwards compatibility), Zstd (corporate project), and Mozilla Firefox (bloat, trademark policy, encourages use of non-free services; the project maintains a fork of Basilisk known as Iceweasel-UXP).[19][21]
Hyperbola aliases its stable releases using galaxy names as codenames[22] chosen from the list of nearest known galaxies of the Milky Way, in ascending order of distance.[23]
A stable version of Hyperbola gets released approximately every three years. Point releases will be available every few months. For each Hyperbola release, it will receive two years of extra security updates after its End Of Life (EOL). However, no further point releases will be made. Each Hyperbola release will receive five years of security support in total.[24]
Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre can be installed from scratch using the live images.[25] Prior to the version 0.4, migrating from an existing Arch-based system was supported.[26][27][28]