Window Maker Live 13.2 is stubbornly keeping 32-bit PCs alive on Debian 13 "Trixie," shipping a new release that boots on i686 hardware.
Window Maker Live is a Debian-based desktop distro built around the classic Window Maker X11 window manager. As the "Live" in its name suggests, it's designed as a live-bootable image that's ready to use, with a rich variety of pre-installed software, carefully chosen and themed to fit in with Window Maker's NeXTstep-style look. Like many other Debian-based distros, this new version is based on this year's Debian 13 release, but with a difference: while Debian 13 no longer ships an x86-32 version, the new Window Maker Live 13.2 release does offer a release for 32-bit computers. In fact, it's the default.
We last looked at Window Maker Live in 2023. That release was based around Debian 12.2 and Window Maker 0.96, both released earlier that year. We were interested in that release of Window Maker Live because in addition to a whole compilation of conventional X11 Linux apps, it also offered a separate selection of GNUstep applications which replicated NeXTstep's distinctive look and feel, with menus stacked vertically at the top left of the screen, any of which could be torn off to create an instant toolbar.
There hasn't been a new release of Window Maker since then - you can tell it's a slow-moving project from the fact that it's been in development since 1997 and hasn't gotten to version 1.0 yet. Hurrah for zero-based versioning. But there has been a new major release of Debian - Debian 13 "Trixie," which took the drastic step of dropping a separate 32-bit kernel for x86-32 machines. It can still run 32-bit apps, but to install Debian 13, you must have a 64-bit computer. As a result, most Debian-based distros, such as Peppermint OS and Linux Mint Debian Edition, have also stopped offering 32-bit editions.
Enter WMLive 13.2. Not only does it still have a 32-bit edition, but that edition is the only ISO file on the downloads page. There are 64-bit editions, but the project requests a donation to get the password to unpack the encrypted 64-bit archives. The donations page explains:
The distro has been around since at least 2013. As the presence of a custom kernel suggests, it's more than just a Debian remix. The maintainer says:
In the same thread, they also explained the request for donations:
As has been long established, and more than once, outside of the big enterprise vendors, it's hard to make a living developing FOSS.
This is a slightly different approach: develop a bespoke version for low-end kit, and request donations for the version aimed at more current hardware. It's a novel fund-raising tactic and we wish the project luck with it.
This vulture is very fond of the almost austere aesthetic of Window Maker and GNUstep. WMLive delivers this in the live environment, and if you put it on a USB key, it offers persistence: it can store files and settings from one boot to the next. Or, from a separate option on the boot menu, you can install it like any other distro. As far as we know, it's currently the only 32-bit x86 flavor of Debian 13.
As we said last time, there's substantial duplication and overlap between the apps it contains, but even so, WMLive offers an elegant and capable setup. It's only a 3.5 GB download, takes up 8.4 GB of disk space, and uses an almost trifling 270 MB of RAM. It's not just some tech demo, but a complete and powerful OS - and it's just over half the size of the latest full Ubuntu. There's a lot to like here. ®
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