Krystalin^™ is a full featured state-of-the-art Linux^®-based Operating System crafted to run well from an inexpensive USB 2.0 Drive (e.g. Flash Memories, Thumb-Drives, Pen-Drives, etc.,.) on widespread computer hardware with little effort or expertise. Krystalin is distributed preinstalled on USB Flash Drives and similar devices, as Krystalin-USB. Krystalin runs on almost any PC-compatible computer with a USB 2.0 port, 256MB of RAM (512MB or more recommended.) Krystalin will even give a second life to a computer degraded by spyware, viruses or bloat by completely bypassing all software on a machine's disk—a fresh start with up-to-date high-performance broad-capability software with the security of Linux and Open Source. It will even work on machines with broken disk drives. Krystalin includes a wide range of preloaded software, so you're ready to go.

Krystalin is based on Ubuntu^® 8.10 Intrepid Ibex (itself derived from Debian^® Etch) with selected vendor updates applied (and with additions and modifications compared to the usb-creator generated usb image which would be obtained directly from Ubuntu to run better from a USB drive in particular.)  After evaluating several different Linux distributions, we decided that basing Krystal on the growingly popular Ubuntu would best serve new users in our first release.

Krystal aims at improved functionality on a wider range of hardware running from a USB flash drive, ready-to-use with little effort or instruction, with preinstalled software that everyone from pre-kindergarten to computer scientists will use and appreciate every day. Krystal aims at being ready-to-go for a wide range of uses and users, and useful on-the-go.

Krystal was developed in the hope that it will be a great platform that introduces more people to the power and freedom of Open Source Software and Linux, not just to do more with less but to enable new capabilities, like being able to seamlessly and effortlessly change computers, yet be using your own programs and have your own files, whether or not you're connected to the Internet—once you've made yourself at home with Krystal, there's no more fumbling your way around new machines.

In our tests, Krystal boots from a wider range of machines and has power-management options that work and work better on a wider range of machines, including without disrupting other functions such as wireless communications.

Most of what the user will interact with, except as described on this page or the Krystal links, will either be identical to Ubuntu 8.10 or the respective installed applications, so user help, documentation and online discussion forums devoted to those topics will be directly applicable resources with established, large and vigorous communities.

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Legal Information:

Krystalin as a collective work is copyright Hard Times Survival Corporation, © 2008. 
Programs or content distributed on a physical volume together with Krystalin are subject to other copyrights or licenses.

All included software, documentation and content remains copyright of the respective authors, developers or publishers, is provided AS-IS WITHOUT ANY WARANTY and is Licensed according to the respective accompanying licenses. Generally these are or are consistent with the GNU Public License Version 2 or 3 (although there are some exceptions and licenses should be checked on a case-by-case basis, most of these permit copying and redistribution, with or without modifications.)

Note that reference to Ubuntu, Canonical, Ltd., Debian, and Linux are for indication of derivation and to give credit, and do not reflect any particular endorsement of Krystalin, Krystalin-USB or any other product featured on this website.

Trademark Information:
Linux is a Registered Trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Debian is a Registered Trademark of Software in the Public Interest, Inc.
Ubuntu is a Registered Trademark of Canonical, Ltd.

Krystalin and Krystalin-USB are Trademarks of Hard Times Survival Corporation.
Hard Times Survival and Hard Times Survival Gear are Trademarks of Hard Times Survival Corporation.

Any and all other Trademarks, Registered Trademarks or Copyrights remain property of their respective owners.

Copyright © 2008 Hard Times Survival Corporation.  All rights reserved.