Asmi 23.10 (Formerly Zinc)

Asmi 23.10 is now available.

Asmi is a remixed version of Ubuntu without Snaps and Flatpaks. It aims to provide a modern Xfce desktop with better defaults.

Asmi 23.10 Xfce desktop. Default wallpaper by Tobias Rademacher on Unsplash

Asmi 23.10 Gnome desktop.

What’s New

New Name

Asmi was previously known as Zinc. The name change was necessary since there is another Linux distribution named ZincLinux that came out earlier in 2020. It has become challenging to name a Linux distribution since most common names are already taken. If you have any suggestions for a new name please let me know in the comments.

Asmi is a name in Sanskrit and Hindi that means “I am” or “I exist”.

Components

• Based on Ubuntu 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur)
• Linux kernel 6.5
• Xfce 4.18 or Gnome 45 desktop
• Calamares 3.3.0 Installer

Light Themes

The welcome app now has an option to change themes. Selecting a light or dark theme will also change the color schemes and toolbar icons in GEdit, Geany, LibreOffice, and other applications.

Desktop Layouts

Changing the desktop layout will now retain the wallpaper that you have applied. Previously, changing the layout would reset the wallpaper to the default wallpaper that came with the distribution.

Enable Snap and Flatpak Support

The welcome app now has an option to enable/disable Snap and Flatpak support.

GNOME Desktop Spin

An ISO spin with the GNOME desktop is also available. This is a lightly edited version of the official Ubuntu desktop without snaps and with better defaults.

• Gnome Text Editor replaced with GEdit
• Improved fonts (Ubuntu 23.04 and later use thinner fonts that make text look worse).
• Added some useful extensions (Many extensions are still unsupported by Gnome 45)
• Cleaned up the application menu
• Calamares installer instead of Ubuntu’s new installer
• Gnome Software instead of Ubuntu’s new software center.
• Runs better in a VM with 1080p resolution. Guest support is enabled for both Virt-Manager and VirtualBox.

The GNOME version is a work in progress. The configuration will be improved for the Ubuntu 24.04 release.

New Packages

7zip

Asmi now includes the package 7zip instead of p7zip.

p7zip is an unofficial port of 7zip which is outdated and has not been updated since 2016, and is no longer included in the distribution.

7zip is the official version of 7zip for Linux from the 7zip developers. This package provides the command 7zz for managing 7zip archives. The 7z command has been symlinked to 7zz for compatibility.

pipx

Starting with Ubuntu 23.04, the pip package manager can be used only for installing Python packages in a virtual environment. It cannot be used to install packages globally or locally using the syntax pip install packagename . The rationale is explained in PEP-668.

pipx provides similar functionality for application packages. Use the command pipx install packagename to install a package for the current user. Once installed, the command provided by the package will be added to the user’s PATH and become available from the terminal.

batcat

The batcat command is a replacement for cat, that formats the output to make it more readable. You can use it in all situations where you would normally use cat.

Bandwhich

Bandwhich is a tool that shows the internet bandwidth used by different processes running on your system. Run sudo bandwhich in a terminal to view the bandwidth usage.

Kvantum Manager

Kvantum Manager is now used to manage themes for Qt4/5 & KDE apps instead of Qt5ct. The default Qt theme is set to Yaru.

Terminator Themes

The terminator-themes plugin was added which adds over 200 color themes to the terminal. The default theme is now based on the Monokai theme which uses brighter colors.

System Update Tool

There’s a new tool for updating your system. Run the following command to update Apt packages, Flatpaks, Snaps, Deb-get packages, and Gnome-shell extensions. Pass -y if you don’t want to be prompted for confirmation.

asmi

To update only Snaps and Flatpacks, for example, you can type the first letter as an argument:

asmi s f

To install a new apt package use the following syntax:

asmi i package-name

Features:

• Update everything on the system with one command
• No need to type sudo. It will prompt you for the password if needed.
• Uses eatmydata to suppress unnecessary disk synchronization calls. This can make installation of packages up to 3 times faster.
• Uses Nala if installed, or apt/aptitude/apt-get
• Auto-removes old and unused Snap and Flatpak packages to free up extra disk space
• Less typing for the lazy 😉

Other Changes

• Added support for opening AVIF image format in all apps
• Themes: Added new GTK themes from Linux Mint and Zorin OS
• Themes: Added the Adw-Gtk3 theme that mimics the Adw theme used by Gtk4 apps
• Synaptic: Show package description in the main window; Show Download Size and Installed Size columns.
• Login: Manual login and guest login is now disabled. You can enable them from the Login Settings if needed.

Download

This distribution is available as a free download. ISO files are linked below.

Please use Ventoy or Etcher to boot the ISO from a USB drive. Both BIOS and EFI boot are supported.

Note: This is a free Linux distribution that is provided without support or warranty. If you wish to report an issue or request a feature, please send an email to [email protected].

Extra ISO Spins

If you find this distribution useful, you can donate with the link below. This will give you access to some extra ISO spins. Download links will be sent by email.

The minimal ISOs include a minimal desktop without preinstalled apps. These ISOs are recommended for experienced users since applications need to be installed manually after installing the system.