Ark Linux is an operating system (the basic software that makes your computer work) along with a collection of software -- it is a complete replacement for other operating systems such as Windows (but can coexist with other operating systems).
Ark Linux was developed primarily as a desktop system - easy enough for people without Linux (or computer) experience to install and learn, while still powerful enough for longtime Linux users.
Ark Linux comes on one CD - including everything the average Desktop user may need: the OS itself, an office suite, a web browser, a multi-protocol instant messenger program, video and music players, a peer-to-peer filesharing program, various games, and more.
Many other applications that are interesting for many users, but not the average Windows convert, are available in the project's large "apt" repository (apt is a package manager that allows, among other things, installing software over the Internet and keeping the system up to date), and through the Ark Linux add-on CDs, such as:
- Ark Extra Software is a collection of assorted additional software. This CD includes many games, several additional applications, and some tools that make more traditional Unix users feel at home.
- Ark Extra Languages extends the internationalization support of Ark Linux to 76 languages - In addition to the translations for most applications included in Ark Linux, Ark Extra Languages contains input systems for Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters and international spellcheckers.
- Ark Development Suite contains all tools a software developer will need.
Ark Linux currently comes in two variants - Ark Linux Home is an installation CD for the typical desktop user, and Ark Linux Live is a bootable CD that boots into an Ark Linux system without the need to install anything.
Booting up Ark Linux shows it was designed for desktop users, including those without experience - a default installation boots right into the desktop, as an unprivileged user who can launch graphical config tools as root without any hassle (traditional user management can be enabled for those who want/need it). Technically this is solved with a special PAM module, and a graphical frontend for configuring it. Since the feature is limited to graphical admin tools, it does not open doors for malware.
Ark Linux is quite fast, and usually includes the latest software available. Due to its optimizations, Ark Linux runs well even on old hardware - but it also has good support for recent hardware: Ark Linux 2006.1 is the first distribution that supports 3D acceleration even on ATI PCI Express cards using purely Free Software.
Ark Linux makes installing additional software easy - software that is available in the distribution's own repository can be installed through apt-get or its graphical frontend kynaptic, installing other software is as easy as clicking on an rpm file in the browser, and confirming to Ark's "rpmhandler" tool that you wish to install this.
Since rpmhandler is treated as a graphical config tool, there is no need to switch user accounts before installing new software - everything can be done in one place.
Most other system configuration is done through Ark's "Mission Control" panel, which has since been copied by various other distributions.
