Jun 2, 2011 15:40 GMT  ·  By

Legacy OS 2, a Puppy Linux base distro aimed at legacy hardware, as the name implies, has been released. The focus of this latest release was on usability and, of course, making sure that everything worked with older hardware even if it meant using older versions of the apps included.

"The focus was to look at all expects of Legacy OS and make improvements," John Biles, explained in the release announcement.

"It was decided to create a pleasant neutral look to tie all the include applications together. A desktop environment that was easy on the eye and usable every day," he added.

In the end, a theme was found that managed to work with both GTK and KDE apps as well as the IceWM window manager. This means that apps will look the same. An emphasis was also put on usability, more so than on looks.

This approach went down to the app level, the applications were chosen also on how well they integrated with the rest of the system, from a visual point of view. New icons were also created for Legacy OS 2.

New applications in Legacy OS 2:

· Asunder 1.6.2; · Gwenview 1.1.8; · K9copy 1.0.4; · Kadu 0.6.0; · Kalcul 0.1; · Kamix 0.6.6; · Kdocker 1.3; · Kid3 0.5; · Koverartist 0.3.2; · Ksquirrel 0.8.0; · Kuake 0.3; · Mandvd v2.2; · Mrxvt 0.5.1; · Multimedia converter 1.5; · Oregano 0.40.4; · Pconvert v2.15-1; · Qalculate v0.7.2; · Quacc v3.5; · Rekordmydesktop 0.3; · Screensaver mu-v0.2; · Tuxpaint 0.9.14; · Xvidcap 1.1.5; · You2pup 2.1.4.

Usability was also on the agenda, access to all of the necessary apps was optimized and notifications are used to relay information to the user.

"Applications like the ROX File Manager allow easy access to tasks by just right mouse clicking on a file," the announcement explained. "Any application [that] for one reason or another [was] not up to standard was removed. Unused system files were deleted," it added.

Legacy OS 2 is exclusively available for download here on Softpedia.