About

Makulu ( Pronounced: Ma-Coo-Loo ) is a African Zulu word for “Figure of Authority”. Like Big Chief, Big Momma, Big Daddy… It ties in Nicely with the Hippo Logo which is one of the largest and most dangerous African animals. The name and Logo reflects who we are, we are Exotic and we like pushing boundaries, often doing the unexpected. I can’t tell you how much enjoyment We get when we see reviewers often puzzled over why we sometimes make the design decisions we do.

Makulu Develops Linux distributions and Tools with unconventional and outside of the box thinking. We have no public Timeline, no public Road Map and we don’t use the regular “Alpha, Beta and Final” build numbering system. This does not mean we don’t have any plans, of course we have plans and goals, we just believe flexibility is key to good development and thus don’t want to commit anything to a specific date. 2018 is the Year Makulu is really re inventing itself and a Lot of changes will be noticed, some already visible some still on the way, I will explain this in more details later on.

Our Team is small but dedicated to producing excellence above all else. We firmly believe that Linux should not only be stable, but should also reflect the times in terms of ease of use and beauty, Thus you will find that Makulu Distro builds are always stunning out of the box and also feature packed. When approaching a new build to develop we often ask the questions “How can we make this stand out from the rest ? what can we put in here that users will really appreciate ? how can we modernize this to compete with everything else out there ?” We also like to put any build through extensive testing periods which is why you will almost never find bug reports in our forums, by the time we release anything to public there really is almost no major bugs.

Makulu does not use terms like “Alpha, Beta or Final”. We firmly believe that every build is a development build because every Os is constantly evolving and anything we release to public is stable enough to run as a daily driver, but that does not mean its a final build. We have used unusual numbering systems for our builds in the past, but as of March 2018 we will switch to a Date numbering system for public builds, where releases will be numbered as “Name-Of-Build–Year-Month”. This makes it easy for users to see how up to date the build is, if there is more than one release of a specific build in a single month we will add “day” after month. Users are also welcome to try out our Development Builds ( which can be found here ). These builds are considered Highly unstable and the numbering system on these do not use the date system, but often just runs on a build number where the higher the number the newer the build.

We don’t like making road maps and announcing releases far ahead because it puts pressure and expectations on us that we feel put limitations on the project. We do like to tease with videos and screenshots from time to time, but usually we announce a release really close to when it is ready for public use. But as stated above, you can try out our Development builds ( Which can be found here ) Which will give you an indication what is being worked on. In a nutshell, I do think this gives us a little bit of an edge where we can really shock and surprise some with a really good build that no one saw coming.

Unlike many other Distro developers out there, We don’t simply download a Ubuntu, mint or Debian iso and slap some themes on and out comes a release. We have our own Base that we spent nearly 2 years developing, this is the Base that we use to make our Distro’s, it uses mainly Makulu Repo’s coupled with Debian Repo’s to provide a good solid and stable Core for us to build on. You will often find that we make for example a Cinnamon build that runs faster and more stable than Mint’s on Release, this is where you see the advantage of us using our own base and why we chose to spend so much time developing our own Base.

Makulu also develops a Constructor Tool that makes building a Distro easy for users that do wish to Respin Makulu or other Distro’s. In Fact the There is a Whole MASSIVE Evolution coming to the Constructor Tool in 2018, but more on that at a later date. However this is something to watch this year…

Makulu uses Donations for funding, like most small projects we heavily rely on our user base to help fund the project. And often the Evolution of progress is limited by lack of funding, this is a problem that is expected and can’t be avoided, therefore it is also always important as a user to do your part, if you have a few bucks lying around, send it our way, it makes a big difference that much i can promise you. Often projects are criticized for implementing payment systems, but really how do you expect them to pay the bills and keep good developers without funding ? Nothing is free and the world has become a greedy and expensive place, thus far we have been lucky where we can still offer everything free of charge, but if users don’t do their part this may change in the future. To Donate is Really easy, should you wish to donate, just Click Here and follow the prompts.

I will close with this Statement. Makulu doesn’t play by the rules, we don’t like doing things the same way everyone else does, we don’t like limitations or hearing the words it cant be done, However we aren’t stubborn in terms of changing either, we do listen to feedback and pay attention when we hear users unhappy with something we have done. We do realize that there are MANY good projects out there and we are only one on the map in this vast world of Linux, We want to thank all the groups that do really good work and add their talents to the magic that is Linux.

We hope your time with Makulu is an enjoyable one, and please remember that should you need assistance, guidance or want to provide feedback, you can do so Via the Forums or even pop into our live Chat room. We always like hearing from users.