FAQ: Frecuently Asked Questions


What is DNALinux?

DNALinux is a Virtual Machine with a Linux distribution with bioinformatics software pre-installed.

What kind of Bioinformatics software is installed?

DNA and protein sequence manipulation software is included. Like EMBOSS, Primer3, ClustalW, T-Coffe and others. (See complete list of Bioinformatics software)

How much does it costs?

DNALinux is free to download and use. It's based on the GNU Public Licence (GPL). Please note that not all software contained in DNALinux is GPL. Some of the (like ClustalW and Phylip) is free only for non-commercial uses. So check the licence of each software if you plan to use it in a commercial way.

Why another Linux distribution?

We believe that this distro fills an empty niche. Specialized biotech software usually is released as source code only and it's not packaged for easy installation on "mainstream" Linux. Most scientific software is "author software" and it is not easy to install (that is particulary true for Biotech people). As we told before, all the software is pre-installed in the virtual machine. Install VMWare virtual machine on your current Operating System.

I know how to compile and install any program, do I still need DNALinux?

Chances are you don't need DNALinux. If you know about compilation and installation issues under Linux/Unix, you may use your favorite distro and then install the programs over there. The convenience of DNALinux is that you have the software pre-installed.

In which Linux distribution DNALinux is based?

DNALinux Virtual Desktop Python for Bioinformatics edition is based on Xubuntu 8.04. There are old (and unsupported) versions of DNALinux that are based in SLAX, which is a small live version of Slackware.

Xubuntu 8.04 sounds since last Xubuntu version is 9.04, why are you using it?

Xubuntu 8.04 is the last stable "long term support" (LTS) edition released by Canonical. LTS editions has a livespan of 5 years.

Root password?

Root password is not enabled. You are logged as the sb user (with password dnalinux). To execute a command as root, use sudo command, when prompted for a password, use dnalinux.

I want to be informed when a new version is available, is there a mailing list?

Yes. You can subscribe in this page: DNALinux news mailing list or the newsfeed.

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