Phaeronix is a software based on Gentoo that comes in a CD, optimized for i686 and is equipped with GNOME. It also features Reiser4-enabled GRUB.
The kernel used by Phaeronix is based on the 2.6.15-arckck7 patchset, with a few additional fixes to address Acer laptop hangs and slow battery polling. The planned final release will likely be based on the new -beyond patchset.
The live CD features a genkernel-generated initramfs that has been modified with several hacks added to the Linuxrc. As a result, this initramfs is capable of booting from a wide range of media, from IDE to external firewire. The CD is made "pseudo-writable" thanks to SquashFS and UnionFS.
Hardware detection in Phaeronix is modular and can be enabled or disabled as needed. The available cheatcodes offer a variety of options for hardware customization. The default Xorg server is Modular Xorg-X11 7.0, with XGL included as an optional feature enabled at boot time. This is an experimental feature, so users should check compatibility before use.
The desktop environment in Phaeronix is a full GNOME 2.14, with no KDE or Qt/KDE apps included. The system comes with two available editors: Vim and Nano. Phaeronix is designed specifically to support Arabic, with patches and customizations to ensure compatibility. Users can easily switch to an Arabic keyboard layout by clicking the keyboard applet or pressing Alt+Shift.
The system offers an Arabic version of the W3M text-only browser, which supports Arabic script along with Bicon for proper bidi/shaping. Additionally, using the Arabic profile in GNOME Terminal will enable full bidi and shaping thanks to Arabeye's Bicon. Aspell and OpenOffice also come preloaded with Msameer's Arabic wordlist.
The supported locales in Phaeronix are Arabic, French, Italian, German, and Slovak. An official Gentoo installer is also included to assist with installing Gentoo if needed. While the system is designed to offer full Arabic support, not all elements have been translated or fully bug-fixed yet. Nonetheless, the foundation is in place to enable users to switch to an Arabic-language session with a right-to-left desktop.
Version 0.85 Beta: N/A