NB: This is one of the few distros containing only free software and a blob-free kernel. This will create problems with some hardware and also means that certain software (e.g. Wine) cannot supplied.

The CD is not a live disk, only an installer, and it contains instructions in /arch/connochaetos.txt that should be read. Installation was simple and fast and it rebooted into an attractive Icewm desktop. Software included XXXterm browser, Sylpheed mail, xchat, Abiword, Gnumeric, Mplayer-libre, and even some games. It all worked, although XXXterm threw up quite a few warnings when run from the command line. ConnochaetOS is intended to run in 64MB with a Pentium I. I was able to run the web browser or the word processor in less than 64MB, although the total usage including buffers and cache was over 130, so a small computer would presumably need swap. AntiX would need less because it provides smaller programs (Dillo browser and Ted word processor). Media codecs were installed and all worked. The website has an explanation of pacman (the software installer) and a list of the contents of the rather small repository. One problem was that the services manager didn’t seem to work: cups and iptables were not started despite selecting them and /etc/rc.conf had to be edited.

This is a reasonable distro for a small computer, although more suited to 128 than 64MB, and it will appeal to those who believe strongly in open source. Personally, I prefer AntiX or Vector Light. Incidentally, it is named for our old friend Connochaetes gnu: pronounce konoKEYtos.